//------------------------------// // 8 // Story: The Dawn's Horizon // by T3mp3st //------------------------------// Dawnstar opened the door to the Golden Oaks Library, and took in a deep breath as his freezing body welcomed the warmth of the fire that Spike had made. He fell down onto the couch and let his wings unfurl themselves out and stretch. The only sound that he noticed in the tree house was the soft sound of a shower. He let out a deep, relaxed sigh as he thought back to his days work of working at Sweet Apple Acres; mainly helping Big Mac with preparing the farm and fields for the next season's batch of apples. This consisted of pulling large boulders and old tree stumps out of the ground in the northern fields. Dawnstar's legs gave a painful throb of acknowledgement at the thought. However, he let a small smile form as he thought about all of the extra work he helped the Apple's with, not to mention the fact that they insisted that he take a small payment of bits for his help; despite his best efforts to politely decline. Never underestimate an Apple, let alone four of them. Dawn heard the shower shut off. Figuring that it was Rose, since Twilight and Spike were supposed to be over at Rarity's getting her Hearths and Hooves dress up and ready. An interesting thought came to his mind, and he hopped off the couch making his way to the bathroom. After lightly knocking, but getting no response, he slowly opened the door to reveal the beautiful mare that stole his heart. It took but two seconds for him to realize that the mare drying herself off in front of him was actually Twilight Sparkle, who in turn stared at him with a deep shade of red forming on her cheeks. Before he could issue out an apology, Twilight let out a loud scream and shooting a bright light at Dawnstar's eyes. This immediately caused a small chain of events. Dawnstar let out a small yell as he covered his eyes, "Oh, Celestia, why? Why in the eyes? Goddess above its like walking in on Granny Smith naked. Wait a minute, she's always naked. Dear Celestia that makes it worse!" Twilight stared in surprise as she watched Dawn try to get his vision back. "Sorry Dawnstar, I thought you were somepony else." She said with a sheepish grin as her blush became nothing more than a slight shade of pink. Dawnstar shot a dagger like stare at Twilight, "How many Alicorn princes do you know? Not to mention, the door was locked! And more importantly, where did Rose go?" As the last words escaped his lips, he looked up and down the hall searching for any trace of the off white mare. Twilight finished drying her mane before answering the question. "She's out in the fields checking up on her roses, since the weather team decided to schedule a rainstorm later on this week." Dawnstar blinked a few times as he pondered her words. She trotted be him and continued on, "She should be back before dinner. Bathrooms yours if you need it, Sweaty." After playfully slapping the purple mare behind her head with a wing, Dawnstar walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. After a few minutes taking a hot shower, Dawnstar made his way towards his and Rose's bedroom, hopping that she was home. He felt a small thing of disappointment as he walked into the empty room. He could definitely tell that Rose had been in a cleaning mood before she left. The room was spotless, and neatly organized. The bed was made and her personal touch of rose petals strewn all over the bed made Dawnstar smile as he climbed onto the bed. The sweet scent of the roses caused him to enter a state of relaxation that he always felt around her. After climbing on the bed, Dawnstar quickly took put the ring that he was planning on giving Rose later that week during the Hearts and Hooves Day Dance. A smile pasted itself on his muzzle as thoughts of spending the rest of this lifetime with her. Sleep slowly took the stallion in its grip and whisked him away to dream of endless evenings cuddling with Roseluck, unaware that she joined him on the bed half an hour later. The next day, Roseluck found herself humming a happy little tune to herself as she tended to her flower shop. With Hearts and Hooves Day only three days away, her rose sales were literally skyrocketing. Of course, it didn't help to have an entire field dedicated to her roses for growing. She was especially happy today due to the fact that she had figured out a way to make her roses last longer on the shelves and in ponies homes, thanks to a book she checked from the library. Her thoughts were temporarily interrupted when she heard the bell ring at her shops entrance. She turned and welcomed the two mares that had entered with a warm smile. "Good afternoon, Lyra and Bon-Bon. How may I help you?" Bon-Bon was already busy browsing through Roseluck's roses, leaving Lyra to speak to the florist. The mint green unicorn gave Rose a smile that told her something was up. "He's here. Moneybags is here in Ponyville and he's looking for you, Rose." Roseluck tried to swallow the knot that swelled up in her throat after hearing the name of somepony she thought she had rid herself of. Lyra saw the fear in Rose's eyes and tried to comfort her as best as she could. "Hey, don't worry about it. Bonny and I are here to be sure that nothing happens to you. Bonny will run to get the Prince in case he shows up here, while I stay behind and stall long enough from him to get here. I promised you and my sister that he wouldn't take you back, and I plan to keep it." The sound of the door bell interrupted Lyra as a large unicorn stallion followed by two equally sized earth ponies. The unicorn was a dark brown in color, his charcoal black mane sleeked back to show his stature. The bit bag cutie mark on his flank confirmed Rose's fear as she stared wide eyed at the very stallion that had imprisoned her for half of her adolescent life as a slave. Moneybags started chuckling to himself as he watched Rose visibly start shaking, not noticing that Bon-Bon had snuck out of the door and was sprinting towards the Golden Oaks Library. "Good afternoon, my dear Roseluck, it has been such a long time since I last saw you." The stallion's suave voice gave Lyra a sick feeling in her stomach, knowing full well from her sister that the gentle colt appearance was just a mask. She slowly made her way between Moneybags and Roseluck and readied herself. The response she got from him was something she didn't expect. "Oh my, seems like we have a heroine amongst us. I must say Madame Lyra, your sister definitely knows how to get information out and about efficiently. It's a shame that I'll have to get rid of her when I return with Rose. Such a shame, really, she really was a sweet mare." Lyra felt anger surge through her body when he mentioned her sister. Before she was able to act out she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head and shortly fell to the ground unconscious. Rose gasped as se went down to help her fallen friend, but was suddenly pulled away by her mane by Moneybags' magic. "You really gave me quite the scare there, Rose. If it weren't for Lord Blueblood tipping me off to your location, I never would have found you. And now that I finally have you back..." Rose felt his tongue work its way up her neck and stop at her cheek. This won him a slap to the face, which only made him laugh as he returned the gesture; Rose fell to the ground in a daze as she placed a hoof where he smacked her, taking note of the blood that was coming from her nose. Before she could do anything else, her legs were bound and a blindfold and gag where forced on her. Moneybags let out a deep predator like moan as he stared down at his prized slave. "My don't you look pretty. I'm going to have fun with retraining you." With a nod to his henchmen, they picked her up and in a bright flash of light teleported out of town.