"Wait, let me get this straight, she thought that she would get sent back to magic kindergarten?" Dusk exclaimed, the morning was filled with many other shocking tales about the going-ons of Ponyville before his arrival.
"Yes, she feared that having a late letter meant immediate failure and that she would be sent back, that day was certainly a wild one." The two couldn't help but laugh at such antics, unfortunately their laughter wasn't appreciated.
"Am I interrupting something?" Twilight's voice silenced the laughter, causing the culprits to jump a little in their seats.
Dusk cleared his throat, "Of course not Twilight, how can we help you?" His words were his only defense against her glare.
"Well, Fluttershy can start by not telling those stories to ponies who don't need to know," Fluttershy simply looked away, blushing lightly. "And I need to talk to you in private about a matter of importance." Her words sounded serious, removing what was left of the pleasantness of the conversation.
"Okay Twilight," Dusk turned back to the table. "Sorry Fluttershy, it looks like our breakfast will have to be cut short, would you want to go out for some dinner tonight?"
"Sorry not tonight, I have to talk to Rarity and I have prior arrangements with a friend tonight." Her reply raised a question in Dusk's mind, who is this friend and why doesn't she want to know who they are...? No, stop, I can't dwell on those kinds of thoughts, if she wants to tell me she will.
"I understand, I will see you tomorrow then?" His words held some sadness, he really did like to spend time with her and was disappointed about their breakfast being cut short.
"Of course," she gave him a peck on the cheek before she took flight toward the Carousel Boutique.
"So, what do you want to talk about? Your words seemed quite serious," he saw that the expression on her face showed the seriousness of the situation.
"I did some research into what you did."
"You did what?" The shock in his voice was all too apparent, to hear that she had done such a thing without consulting him first was hurtful.
"I know about your lightning conjuring ability. The Princess confirmed it."
"Wha- I- Excellent. So now you know, what now?"
"I want to run a few tests, see exactly how this electricity builds up and how your body reacts when it's removed, to better understand your ability."
"So, you want me to be a test subject?"
"To be perfectly honest yes, but I want to make sure that no pony, including yourself could be injured, Celestia agreed with me in the sense we need to find out how much control you really have."
"Why did you ask me right now, it really couldn't have waited?"
"No, I did some research and I came to a frightening realization," her words fell hard upon Dusk's heart.
"Which was?" He forced himself to ask.
"Every time you release that much energy, the short term affects don't appear to be serious but the long term affects could be quite severe."
"H-how severe are we talking about here?" His voice started to crack from the fear that her answer would be that bad.
"Severe enough to shorten your lifespan by several years if not more," the words shattered his hope that it would be an over reaction on her part.
"Okay, what do you need me to do?"
"Come back to the library and do everything I say, hopefully my theory is wrong." The two walked in silence the severity of the situation called for nothing else, Twilight opened the door to see Spike dusting one of the bookshelves. "Spike, we're heading down to the lab, under no circumstances can we have any distractions before we have completed some tests."
"Yes, Twilight," he gestured with his feather duster in the form of a salute.
She and Dusk traversed the dimly lit stair way down to a room filled with various pieces of equipment and chalkboards. She approached a table with a strange, copper-colored helmet, it had several sensors and a protrusion for a unicorn's horn. "Here, put this on please."
Dusk did as requested, he felt a little foolish for wearing such an ugly thing but his life seemed to weigh a little more on his mind. "Should I just not say anything until you're done?" The numerous questions brewing in his mind were dying to be asked but he felt that it would be smarter not to.
"Yes, I need to stay focused to make sure everything goes correctly," she answered running around the room checking several machines giving line graphs of data. "Okay, can you give me a small amount of electricity?"
Dusk nodded, his horn hidden by the helmet released a small amount of energy that showed with small activity form the machines surrounding the room. "Alright, all the machines are synced up and working properly, now give me a full discharge, like you did the first night you were here."
Again Dusk did as requested, only this time, he could feel the strain it put on his body and the equipment, the helmet began to glow molten red where it was in contact with his horn and the machines began to show a lot more activity. Twilight ran around checking each machine individually, after looking at all three she raised a hoof. "Okay, that's good, you can stop now."
With a sigh of relief, Dusk ceased and panted heavily, he regretted doing that but he took solace in the fact that he didn't have to lose consciousness for such short a duration. The helmet obtained a magenta glow before being removed from his head, the first test of many, no doubt, he thought.
"That was a good test but I need more data to confirm my theories, can you come over here?" She gestured over to the end of the room opposite of the stairs, Dusk walked in front of her and was attached with several wired patches on his horn, heart and each of his legs. Each wire was protruding from a metallic box.
"Now, this time the process will be reversed, I will give you an electrical charge and see exactly how your body reacts." He nodded in understanding, with the pull of a lever Dusk began to feel the power filling his body and creating sharp pain across his entire body. The most intense pain seemed to be building around his chest, after a few minutes of this Dusk couldn't take anymore and collapsed, convulsing violently.
"Dusk? Dusk!" Twilight shouted as she turned the machine off, "Are you okay? Say something, anything, please!"
After a few agonizing moments, Dusk could finally bring words from his mouth as his convulsions slowly weakened, "S-something... please... tell me that got something we can use to stop that from happening again..."
Twilight looked at the readings on her machine, but before she could speak footsteps came from the staircase, "Spike I said no distractions, and- oh no! what in the name of Celestia are you doing down here?!" She turned to see it wasn't her assistant that was the one standing there, but one of the last ponies that would be there.
"W-what did you do to him?!?" Her words were a combination of fear and anger as she rushed down the stairs beside Dusk.
"F-Fluttershy?" Dusk's body fought every breathe he took in and every word he tried to speak.
"Shh, please don't talk, your body looks like it's taken a lot," her voice switch from concern to anger as she turned to Twilight, "What. Did. You. Do?"
I've never seen her like this, she's gotten upset before but definitely not like this, she's starting to worry me, Dusk thought, his body dissipating the excess energy at an agonizingly slow pace.
"I was running some tests... to figure out how his abilities and see if they were life threatening to himself, I needed to see how the energy builds up inside his body." Twilight pointed at Dusk, "The energy was too much to contain and he lost control of it, now it's running wild and we can only wait until it wears out on it's own."
"Did he tell you about his ability?"
"No, I did some research. It was all over the papers when it happened."
"So, not only did you nearly kill him, but you also invaded his privacy again!"
"I-"
"How long ago did you plan on doing this?" Fluttershy's anger gave to sadness.
"...About three days ago, after Dusk left for Canterlot," Twilight's voice began to falter from Fluttershy's emotional outburst.
"Who knew about this!? Rarity told me what you were planning, that's why I came, but who else knew what you were doing?"
"No pony knew until I told Rarity last night, even Dusk didn't know until I came at breakfast," her words carried sincerity.
"You didn't think to tell me!? How could you just hide this from me!? Did you think that it was something that wasn't worth telling me!? That it didn't affect me at all!?" Her words acted as daggers when they fell on Twilight's ears.
"Of course it affects you! That's why I didn't tell you, I didn't want you to start to panic in case I was wrong!" Twilight was fighting the urge to shout back, and she was quickly succumbing to it.
"If Dusk's life is in danger, I don't care if it's even just a possibility, I want to know before you turn him into a lab rat not after!" She began to calm down getting her pent up anger out with that last shout, "I'm taking Dusk home and making sure he recovers. Goodbye Twilight."
Twilight simply stood in shock, Fluttershy simply ignored her managing to lift Dusk, who was still shivering from the overdose of energy, onto her back and began walking up the stairs. With a final reserve of energy, Dusk managed to speak, causing Fluttershy to stop halfway up the staircase, "T-Twilight... wha- what does that machine say?"
Twilight broke from her trance and walked over to the machine. "It's just as I feared," she sighed, "all of that energy did damage to your heart. Every time your body takes in a lot of energy and releases it, your heart takes more and more damage... I'm sorry."
The room fell silent, after a few moments, Fluttershy continued to carry Dusk back up the stairs and out of the library. Spike watched in shock before disappearing out of his field of vision. He was, no doubt, going downstairs to find out what had just happened. So what happens now? How long do I have? How will Fluttershy handle the fact that I don't have that long to live? Dusk's thoughts were racing through his mind as they walked through town.
Those thoughts were interrupted when a blue blur appeared above him before lowering behind him. "What happened to him?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Fluttershy kept walking, "Twilight did this to him, as if he were just some sort of lab rat." She stopped and faced her, "Did you know she was going to do something like this?"
Dash just floated there for a moment before being able to respond, "I had a feeling she might... but I never thought she would without her friends there to help."
"Well, she did, without telling any one of us, even Dusk didn't know until this morning, we were sitting and sharing stories and laughing before she came up and took him, and now look at him." The three began moving again, before Fluttershy's legs nearly gave out from the added weight.
"You need a break, I can carry him until we get to where ever you're going," Dash offered. "Which is where exactly?"
"We're going to my cottage, I have to make sure he recovers from this, and I don't want any more help than what Twilight gave him."
Dusk felt himself being lifted up onto somebody else and began moving forward again. Rainbow Dash gave a retort, "This is not up for debate, he can't hold himself up and if you fall carrying him you both could get hurt."
Fluttershy was about to protest, but decided not to. "You're right, I can't carry him without help, thank you."
"Don't mention it, just promise me one thing," she thought for a moment. "Okay maybe two things."
"What would those be?" Fluttershy inquired, Dusk was awake enough to want to know himself.
"First, if he doesn't get better by tomorrow morning, we take him to the hospital," Dash requested.
"Yes of course, what is the other thing?"
"When you two get married, promise me that I will be one of your bridesmaids," a wide grin grew on her face, causing Fluttershy to grow red. Dusk did the same, I just hope I can live that long, he thought with a heavy heart.
"O-okay, you and our friends will be my bridesmaids," she corrected herself, "all four of you."
"Four?" Dash counted for a moment, "that leaves one of us out... you're not counting Twilight are you?"
"After what she did to Dusk, and then hiding her plan from all of us, I should say I most definitely am not counting her as one of our friends!" That outburst caused Dusk's heart to sink further, I can't seem to go a few days without endangering some friendship anymore, can I?
"At this point Fluttershy, I can't say I blame you for feeling that way, I can't imagine how I would feel if she treated the stallion of my dreams like a test subject." Dash did her best to relate to her situation and help rationalize it.
The trio reached the cottage, Fluttershy opened the door and let Dash in before herself. "Can you put him on the couch? It is probably the best place to let him rest right now."
Dusk could feel himself sliding of Dash and landing on the soft couch, with some effort he managed to whisper "thank you" into her ear.
"Hey easy now, you been through a lot, your welcome but try to conserve your energy," she gave him a pat on the head and turned to Fluttershy. "One stallion delivery complete," she joked. "I'm going to head back home now but I will be back tomorrow morning in case we need to get him to the hospital."
"Okay, I can't thank you enough Rainbow," she gave her a friendly hug before letting her head out.
"Hey, you don't need to thank someone for being as awesome as I am." She flew out the door and immediately escaped their sight.
Fluttershy turned and walked up to Dusk on the couch, who was still shivering, though not as violently as before, "try to rest I will get you some soup and help you come out of this." She sighed, "I still can't believe Twilight did this to you Dusk, I'm so sorry." She kissed him on the forehead before walking into the kitchen.
His thoughts crept up on him again, so, I risked her friendship with Rarity, practically destroyed her friendship with Twilight, and will probably break her heart when my heart fails. I am just a terrible being, maybe I'm not meant to be back, maybe the world just wants me gone... No, no stop that right now! All of that doesn't matter, so long as one pony in this Celestia forsaken world wants me here, that's reason enough to stick around as long as I can!
Dusk finally began to feel control return to him as Fluttershy slaved over a hot stove, not very much but enough control to stop trembling. A knock came from the door, she didn't seem to notice it in the kitchen and Dusk decided to try to use his magic on the door. He managed to pull the handle and swing the door open to see a tall pony with a dark blue and black coat and flowing blue mane standing there, he managed to shout weakly, "Fluttershy you have a visitor," at the cost of any energy he had left,
She exited the kitchen and gave a small squeal when she saw who it was. "My sincerest apologies Luna, I forgot it you were coming over for a visit."
"L-Luna, P-Princess Luna?" Dusk stammered at a barely audible volume.
"It is quite alright Fluttershy, one does get caught up in routine every now and again, but who is the pony occupying thy couch there?" Her voice carried a regal tone, but was friendly all the same, Dusk heard about Princess Luna while she was Nightmare Moon from his mentor but never believed he would actually have the opportunity to meet her.
"Oh, this is Dusk, the stallion that I told you about," she explained. "He might not be as talkative as usual though, his body took quite a lot today."
"It would appear that way, just what happened to turn such strong willed pony so physically drained?" Luna inquired.
"It... it was..." Dusk tried his best to speak, but the words simply refused to come out.
"It was Twilight," Fluttershy finished. "She tried to do some tests on him, didn't tell anyone what she was doing and then nearly killed him."
"Surely you jest, Twilight Sparkle? My sister's personal student nearly killed this stallion, Dusk?" It was clear she was in disbelief, the pony responsible for freeing her from her imprisonment had decided to do something so rash and dangerous to the life of another.
"I'm afraid so Luna, I carried him out of her library myself, he was in much worse condition at that point but he still looks pretty bad." Fluttershy explained, Luna was taken aback by this and approached Dusk, before placing her hoof on his head.
Immediately, she received a good shock and pulled away, Dusk could feel that he was a little better, better enough to be able to talk a little more. "Sorry Princess... I absorbed a little too much energy... my body can't simply remove it all at once, I have to let it slowly dissipate."
"It is not a concern of mine, you just focus on improving your condition," she turned back to Fluttershy. "Should we postpone my visit to another time?"
"I suppose that would be best, I really do enjoy when you visit though," she admitted.
"No... you don't have to..." Dusk began to sit up a little, until a sharp pain in his chest forced him to lay back down again.
"The young mare is correct, you sir need to rest right now, we will schedule for another day," Luna proclaimed. "Until next time Fluttershy," with that, she unfurled her wings flew off into the horizon.
"I'm... sorry Fluttershy," Dusk apologized.
"That's okay you're not the one responsible, you have nothing to be sorry about," she smiled at him. "Oh you're soup, I hope it didn't get burned!" She ran back into the kitchen to tend to their dinner.
Not the one responsible, she must be referring to Twilight, I need to try to mend the bridge between them. His pondering was interrupted when Fluttershy returned with a piping hot bowl of vegetable soup.
"I hope you like it," she took a spoonful and cooled it as she fed it to him. Dusk gave her a satisfied smile before receiving more, after the bowl was emptied he could feel some of his strength coming back.
"Thank you, it was really delicious," he realized he had finally regained his ability to talk normally and used it. "I feel really bad about everything that had to happen today. I know you feel Twilight is at fault, and I won't lie, she did make a bad judgement call not telling you or anyone else about it. But we all make those mistakes, I'm not saying you need to forgive her or anything, I just want you to make an effort to put your trust back in her... promise me you will make an effort."
She pondered for a moment, "I will try, I won't promise that we will be friends again, but I will make an honest effort." She gave him a peck on the cheek, "Now you need to sleep, you still haven't recovered entirely and I want to see you make a full recovery as quickly as possible."
"Me too, I love you Fluttershy, goodnight."
"I love you too, sweet dreams."
With that, the fatigue that had gathered through that day took it's toll and dragged him into a deep sleep.
Where am I? Wait, is that me? I'm laying on the couch but I'm seeing myself from above, what is going on? Oh there's Fluttershy, she must have just woken up. "Dusk wake up it's morning! Dusk! Dusk? Oh no, Dusk please wake up!" Why can't I move? "Dusk, don't you dare die on me!" Oh Celestia, that's what I feared, I'm dead aren't I? I left Fluttershy and I can't go back!
There's Rainbow Dash at the door, "Fluttershy what's going on?"
"He's not breathing! I don't know what to do! What do I do?!? I need help!"
"Fluttershy, there's nothing to be done, I'm sorry but he's gone, if he's not breathing then he didn't make it through the night, I'm sorry."
"No... NO, he can't be gone! After everything that's happened, he can't just be gone like this!"
This cannot be happening! There is no way I'm just gone, I can't just slip away like that, I can't!
"Shh, Fluttershy, we can't change anything, we can only keep his memory alive."
"This is all Twilight's fault... he's dead because of her!"
No... no she can't think that, no! I can't die and take one of her friendships with me!
"We don't know that, come on we need to let everyone else know what happened, we will need to get him a proper burial too."
NO! No, no, no this is not the way it should be!
"So this is your worst nightmare is it?"
Princess Luna?
"Yes it is I, in my curiosity I decided to visit you tonight in your dream, which appears to be more of a nightmare."
But what does this mean? My death, is it really going to happen this soon?
"I cannot say I'm afraid, you must live your life as if it is that short, until you know otherwise, if you don't each day is then a waste."
I understand.
"Then with that I return you to reality, I have many others who require my assistance this night."
Thank you Luna.
Dusk awoke sitting up and immediately feeling a sharp pain in his chest, panting heavily, live everyday as if it's my last, it's all I can do. He slowly lowered himself, and tried to get back to sleep.