//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: The Dusk of the Dawn // by Dusk775 //------------------------------// A week had passed since my admittance into the hospital. My back legs and left foreleg had healed, and the casts had been removed from them. My ribs had healed as well, but they were still bandaged due to the severe bruising they still had. My wings were still in heavy casts, and would be the last thing to get uncovered due to their sensitivity and purpose. Dusk had been by my side the whole week, only leaving to get food for herself, and while out, was able to pick up stories and rumors about Ponyville. Many of these were of the heroic actions of the Elements of Harmony, six ponies that had become one with the Elements, and defeated 'Nightmare Moon'. The same Elements that had sealed her away a millennium before by Celestia. As I sat in silence, pondering the thoughts that came into my head, the door opened. In trotted Nurse Redheart, cheery as ever, with a cart that had a dish on top of it, presumably holding my breakfast. "Guess who's getting his wing casts off today?" She sung. I looked around to flatter her. "Well, there aren't any other ponies with wing injuries in here, so would that be me?" I asked in light sarcasm. "Indeed!" She said. "You are due in the low-priority operating room in five minutes!" One of the nurse-ponies that had guarded the door for the last week rolled in a stretcher. "Even, better," Nurse Redheart started again as I transferred over to the stretcher, "as long as things check out, you'll be out today!" "Is that so," I said, caught slightly off-guard by the news. The hospital had become my home, and leaving it broke my heart slightly. I looked over to Dusk, who was fast asleep on the same bed she had been sleeping in for the week. "Don't worry, Celest. If she wakes up, I'll tell her where you are. This shouldn't take too long if the cast cooperates." She said as I was rolled out of the room, her trotting alongside the stretcher. "By the way, I was wondering if you could do me a favor before I leave." I said. She raised an eyebrow at this. "What do you need?" I took a deep breath, and spoke. "Do you think that you could possibly ask someone to come see me?" I asked. "Someone in Ponyville?" She returned. "Yes, someone who arrives just a week ago." "You wouldn't happen to mean that one mare, Twilight Sparkle, would you?" "Yes, that would be her." Her facial expression turned blank for a few moments as she pondered this request as we went down the hallway. "You wouldn't be trying to use the 'injured pony' card to try to make a move on her, would you?" She asked, a devious look on her face. I blushed, and was speechless, any attempts at words coming out as a stammering mess. "I'm just messing around with you!" She joked, punching me on the shoulder. "I will try my best." My blush receded at the words. "Thank you, Nurse." "Your welcome, Celest." We rolled along until we reached a room marked L-1 OR. "Hey Nurse, was the stretcher escort really needed? I can walk, you know." "Oh, the stretcher wasn't for the trip to the room. You'll thank me later..." Her words faded as we entered the room. Wait, what could- A large stallion, his face covered by a mask and face-shield, straightened me onto my side. "Well Celest, let's get this over with." He said. I heard the sound of a circular blade spin up behind me. What the b- "Damn, that hurt!" I said to myself. The procedure of getting the heavy casting off had been a feeling of having my wings getting caught in a salad mixer. Although still sore, my mind was happy that they were out of their caskets. As if from instinct, I stretched them, the good feeling from the stretch beating the increased soreness it had generated. I sat in my bed, stretched out in a way that the blanket covered my wings. A knock came from the door. The Nurse never knocked. "Come in," I said. The door opened, and Nurse Redheart entered. "You were in luck. I caught her before she left the library." She said, escorting Twilight in. "I'll leave you two alone." She said with a slight tone of suggestiveness in her tone, leaving the air awkward as she stepped out and closed the door behind her. The room sat silent for a while, neither me or her knowing what to say. Twilight finally broke the silence. "Well, this is a coincidence." She said. "Yes, quite." I responded. The silence had returned as Twilight looked at my chest. Although the bruises had mostly healed up, a slight purple still showed through my white coat. "What happened?" She finally asked. What do I tell her? I asked myself rhetorically. The truth, Dusk answered. She had sneaked into my mind while I had been over-thinking my sore wings. "The night Nightmare Moon had returned, I got into a little fight." Little? "With who?" Twilight asked. "Well....with Nightmare Moon herself." I said. If that hadn't been a large catalyst for questions, I didn't know what was. She stood there for a few moments, her jaw hanging on it's hinges. It was a while before her brain started processing again. "H-how are you still alive?" She asked, resisting the urge to let her jaw down. Didn't she already know? I asked myself. No she did not. I had been wearing a cloak that night, which covered my wings from sight. Well, now or never. I sat up in my bed, letting the blanket uncover my wings. She was speechless again, letting her jaw fall farther than I thought was possible. Her eyes moved slowly upwards... Before I could think to yell for her, Dusk had taken form and caught her before she hit the floor. It was my turn to drop my jaw. Had the shock been enough to do that? What would she think of me know? Would she think of me as a monster, a noble, an outcast? "Dawn, help me get her into that bed over there." She motioned her head to the bed opposite to hers. My body went into auto-pilot as I hoisted her onto Dusk's back. Moments later, she was laying on the bed Dusk had gestured to. Right then, Nurse Redheart came in with a cheery smile that turned immediately to horror as she laid eyes on Twilight in the bed. "What in Celestia's name happened?!" She exclaimed. "She passed out." I responded. "Well, what the hell made her do that?" My wings tightened to my sides to the point where they were almost flush. Nurse Redheart noticed this, and let out a heavy sigh. She then turned to Twilight to check her vitals. I sat on the opposite side of the bed. This was going to be a long day. It had been at least a good hour, and Twilight hadn't moved much. At this point, Nurse Redheart had hooked her up to the instruments next to the bed and had her on an IV. "She's not in a coma, is she?" I said with a worried expression. "No, her breathing is still normal, and her pulse is still normal." The Nurse responded. At that moment, Twilight's blank expression tightened. Her head was facing towards the side of the bed I was sitting on. I felt nervous as her eyes opened. How would she react to the first thing her seeing be me? Her expression started blank as her eyes focused on my face. Her eyes then looked down to my side, where my wings were still cringing against my body, not wanting to be seen. I tried to keep her from freaking out by speaking. "Listen, I-" I started, but Twilight interrupted me. "I'm sorry. I reacted pretty extremely, and I'm sorry for worrying you through that." Why was she apologizing? I'm the one who surprised her to the point of fainting! "No, you don't need to apologize." I responded to defend my original apology. Nurse Redheart turned to speak. "If I knew this was going to happen, I would've forewarned you, but I was bound by a promise. It would not have been my place to tell." She said. "It's fine, Nurse. You kept your promise. Plus, I probably would have reacted the same way if you told me." Twilight comforted. The nurse nodded. "I'll leave you ponies alone." She said as she stepped out of the door. The door shut. Another moment of silence sat in the air. We both just sat there, just staring into each other's eyes. Her pupils were wide from the lack of light they had gotten from being shut the past hour. Some invisible sign made us both turn away from embarrassment at the same time. I felt heat in my face, and looking out of the corner of my eye, she was blushing as well. "I-i'm guessing that you probably have some questions for me." I said, trying to change the topic before things got more awkward. She followed along. "Some, but not many," she responded. Meanwhile, my mind was having an internal argument. One side argued that if I told her too much, I would scare her away. The other side argued that I should tell the truth, and be honest. I pick and chose points, but eventually sided with the side that wanted to tell the truth. A good relationship never survived on a foundation of lies. I didn't notice that she was intently waiting for some kind of response from me. The lights in the ceiling reflected in her pupils, almost making it look as if there were starts to the dark abyss. "Well, ask away." I said. "So why Celest?" She asked. Although she had only been asking me questions for around fifteen minutes, it had felt like a lifetime as she asked, waited for an answer as I thought, and received. "Well, Dawn is a royal name, and I really didn't want royal treatment. I felt it was wrong to put me up onto a pedestal, so I started using the name Celest. As long as I didn't show my cutie mark, I was treated like any other pony in the town, and I appreciated it." As I answered, my mind wandered again to the eyes. Where mares' eyes always this large? My mind searched for a comparison to prove the theory right or wrong, but the only comparison my mind came up with was the pink mare that Dusk had put a spell on through me. This only further proved the point, the mare's irises being so large that if they got bigger, I would not have been able to see the whites. As her eyes started to move back towards me, I diverted mine from her face and looked away, trying to suppress the heat wanting to spill over onto my face and give me away. "Do you have any siblings?" She asked. "Yes," I heard from next to me. Twilight's face turned from a light smile to absolute fear. Was Dusk trying to make her faint again? "L-l-lu-" She stammered before Dusk cut her off. "Why does everypony always jump to that conclusion?" She asked herself. "Well, you do carry many of the visual traits she carries," I answered, getting a scold from Dusk for answering the rhetorical question. "Anyway, yes. I'm his sister, Dusk." She answered. Twilight, slightly calmed by the fact that it was not the pony who had tried to kill her a mere week ago, nodded. "Nice to meet you. Sorry for the overreaction. I seem to be doing that a lot today." She answered. "So you're his sister?" "Well..." We said in unison. I nudged Dusk, feeling that she would be the better one to explain. She nudged me back. "Well," I started, "The last few months before Luna was banished to the moon, she went, for lack of a better term, mad. Within those months, she did a lot of research behind Celestia's back on dark magic." I paused, thinking of what to say next. Twilight looked very interested. "She specifically looked into the area of pony immortality, hoping that there was a way that she could surpass her sister. She had done the research and learned the necessary spells. She then set on finding a guinea pig to test the magic out on." I let her assume the rest as my voice broke on the last word. Her face was one of utter horror. Under her skin, she could probably not believe what had been done to me. After regaining myself, I continued. "During her spell, something she probably didn't intend happened. Part of my soul, and possibly part of her's, had split off from us and bonded together, creating Dusk." I looked over to Dusk. "I consider her a sister because she's been there for me, and is a part of me." Dusk smiled at the comment. All of us then turned at someone shouting down the hall that my room sat at the end of. "You can't go in there, Princess!" I heard Nurse Redheart's familiar voice say. This only meant one thing. No. Not this way. The door opened. "Twilight, I was wondering why you were late to the cafe for lunch, so I asked around, and they said you had come here to-" She froze as she saw me. Her eyes shot to my face, then my wings, and finally, my cutie mark. Tears began to flow down her cheeks.