The Hidden Adventure

by viscolorus

Chapter 10: Friends

-TWO WEEKS LATER-

The days flew by. Cliff hung out with Oracle in the day and with Dusk, Storm and Ashley at night. Storm escaped the boredom by sleeping through most of it, if not stuffing his face at other times. Dusk entertained himself by reading books, borrowed through Cliff/Oracle. His favorite one was a series called ‘Daring Do’ in which he particularly loved the protagonist’s way of finding means of escape and yet still manages to foil the plans of the antagonist. It just so happened that Ashley enjoyed the story too, so Dusk read to her multiple times. Tonight, Dusk, Storm and Cliff were in the ward and Cliff was relaying what happened between him and Oracle today.

“And so that’s how we ended up eating dinner together.” Cliff said, finishing his recount.

“This Oracle sounds like a really nice pony!” Ashley said, rolling around on Dusk’s lap.

“She is,” Cliff said flatly.

“I would like to meet her actually,” Dusk thought out loud.

“Me too!” Storm chimed in.

“Er… well, when are you guys discharged?” Cliff asked.

“Tomorrow!” Ashley cried out. She was so excited about their release that she was jumping up and down on Dusk’s bed.

“Okay, calm down,” Dusk said, smiling slightly.

“So can we meet her?” Storm asked, “Me and Dusk are still off-duty until tomorrow.”

“I… Suppose so,” Cliff replied, “Meet me at Oak Hill at one O’clock.”

“Cool,” Storm said, lying back down on his bed, “Anyways, you should go back to your bunk Cliff, look at the time.”

Cliff turned to look at the wall clock above Dusk’s bed. He saw that it was ten O’clock, the curfew for all ponies not in the Lunar Guard.

“You’re right, I’d better get going,” Cliff agreed, getting up and leaving the room, “Bye.”

Dusk, Cliff and Ashley bid farewell to Cliff and lay down in their beds, falling asleep soon after.
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The next afternoon, Dusk and Storm made their way to Oak Hill. Ashley was perched on Dusk’s back as she always would be, Storm’s right hoof was till in a cast but his wings had made a complete recovery. Dusk’s hind legs were both covered in magic casts that could help him walk, provided they were fueled with magic energy. As they approached their destination, they saw two ponies under the oak tree. One of the ponies waved to them.

“That must be Cliff,” Storm said, waving back, a wide grin plastered on his face. They soon met up with Cliff and the other pony.
“Hi, I’m Oracle,” The other pony said, her short green mane flowing in the breeze, “Nice to meet you!”

“I’m Dusk,” Dusk introduced, then pointing to the red and white dragon on his back said, “And this is Ashley.”

Ashley waved politely.

“And I’m Storm!” Storm said proudly, then leaning in closer to Oracle said, “Saaaaay… You’re much prettier that Cliff described you to be.”
Oracle blushed a bright red and averted her gaze to the ground. Cliff moved close to Storm.

“H-Hey!” He whispered, “What are you trying to do?”

“My, my,” Storm said, smiling slyly, “Isn’t somepony a little protective of his marefriend?”

“M-M-Marefriend?!” Cliff and Oracle cried out together. Now they were both blushing like crazy. Ashley snickered at the sight while Dusk rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, where do you guys want to eat lunch?” Dusk asked.

“Umm… I know this place down the street from here,” Oracle said, the red disappearing from her face, “It’s not too fancy and has a nice atmosphere.”

“Great!” Storm exclaimed, flying off the ground, “What are we waiting for?”

“So how did you meet?” Ashley asked, her eyes glued to the two ponies in front of him. They had come to the diner Oracle was talking about and were seated, waiting for their food to arrive. The diner’s layout was in a circular fashion, with a large circle in the center that served as a counter and a bar. Behind it was the kitchen and in front and around its sides were smaller circles of cushion chairs surrounding circular tables.

“Well… We met by bumping into each other,” Cliff said.

“Literally,” Oracle added, winking at the earth pony.

“Umm… yeah so I helped her pick up the stuff she dropped when we bumped and… that’s all there is to it,” Cliff finished, taking a sip of his water.

“And that, fillies and gentlecolts, is how the romance of the century started,” Storm said, snickering. This statement caused both Cliff and Oracle to sport an interesting shade of red on their face.

Dusk simply stared blankly at Oracle, there was something about her that felt off but he couldn’t put his hoof on it. For now he just ignored it and resumed listening to the conversation the others were having. Soon the waiter arrived, placing their food in front of them. Dusk tipped him and thanked him for his services.

“So how did the three of you meet?” Oracle asked, trying to stay away from the topic of romance.

“Well, I met Dusk In a rather similar fashion to you guys, by crashing into each other,” Storm said, “Then Dusk met Cliff through Princess Celestia. Or kind of.”

“I see,” Oracle said, slightly tickled by the thought that Dusk and Storm could have made the romance of the century, according to Storm. “I am actually curious as to how you and Ashley met,” Oracle said, looking at Dusk.

“Well, Okay,” Dusk began.
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“Dusk! Where are you?” Princess Celestia called out, her voice echoing through the royal hallways.

“I’m coming!” Dusk yelled, running towards the source of the voice. When he met the sun princess, she showed him a brown sack. “Princess Celestia, what is in the bag?” Dusk asked ignorantly.

“Dragon eggs,” Princess Celestia explained, showing him the contents, “I confiscated this bag from a dragon poacher earlier.”
“A dragon poacher?” Dusk said. He had read about dragons before and was puzzled as to how a pony could be capable of poaching the powerful beasts.

“A dragon egg poacher to be exact,” Princess Celestia clarified, “You may not know this but many rich ponies out there are willing to satisfy their hunger with odd delacies. Dragon eggs happen to be one of them.”

“That’s horrible!” Dusk cried out, his face etched with disgust, “Can’t you do anything about it?”

“I know of it, but I am unable to act,” Princess Celestia said, sighing, “I may have control over Equestria but even the greatest of empires have their hidden side, the underground organizations.” She shook her head of these thought of helplessness then said, “Dusk, I have an important task for you,”

“What is it your majesty?” Dusk asked.

“I need you to hatch one of these eggs,”

“What?” Dusk cried out, falling back from the shock.

“I know it may seem like a tall order, but I have faith in you,” Princess Celestia said confidently, smiling at the very pony she hoof-picked from the Equestrian royal army.

“A-Alright, if you say so,” Dusk replied, nervous shuffling his hooves.

“Go ahead then, pick one,” Princess Celestia said. In the bag there were two eggs, one of them was purple with darker spots while the other was white with grey spots.

“I’ll pick… the… white one…” Dusk said slowly, hesitating as to whether he made the right choice.

“Alright then,” Princess Celestia said, levitating the egg out of the bag and placing on the ground in front of Dusk.

“Umm… your majesty?” Dusk asked, “How am I supposed to hatch this?”

“By giving it energy,” Princess Celestia explained, “If you supply the egg with enough energy, it will hatch.”

The sun princess turned and strode down the hallway while Dusk held the egg with his magic and brought it back to his room. When he reached his room, Dusk placed the egg in the center of the room, making sure to treat the egg with the utmost care. He then positioned himself in front of the egg and lowered his horn to the egg. His horn glowed red and shot forth a blast of magic, sending the egg skidding across the floor.

“Oops,” Dusk thought to himself, “Guess it was too powerful?”

Luckily for Dusk, a dragon egg’s shell is relatively tough and resistant to magic, so even after two hours of trying, the only significant difference was that the egg was a charcoal color. Dusk was getting worn down, he was panting hard and his legs were beginning to buckle. Although he had not expended a lot of magic energy, the amount of energy it took to suppress his magic was taking its toll on him. He raced his mind for possible ways to hatch the egg as he only had enough strength left for one shot.

“Why? Why can’t I hatch it?” He spat out, frustrated and exhausted, “What did Princess Celestia say that I forgot?”

Then it hit him, he did not have to blast the egg with magic, he had to supply it. He lowered his horn and let his magic go, the only restraint being that it was unable to harm anything substantially. The egg began absorbing the magic energy flowing out of Dusk’s horn and sure enough, the egg hatched.

Dusk collapsed on the floor, mentally and magically drained from the ordeal. The baby dragon crawled up to his face, her red scales shimmering in the light of the sunset entering through his window. Dusk raised a hoof and stroked her top scales gingerly. For something hard like scales, they were actually pretty soft.

“I think I’ll call you…” Dusk said, pausing to think, “Ashley…”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“That’s so cool!” Storm exclaimed.

“I told you the story before,” Dusk said, raising an eyebrow at the white Pegasus.

“I know,” Storm replied, “But it’s so cool every time I hear it.”

Dusk face-hoofed while Oracle giggled at the explanation. Ashley just sat there chewing her hay fries.

“So does this mean that only unicorns can hatch dragon eggs?” Cliff asked.

“I suppose so,” Dusk replied, still rationalizing the question in his head, “I mean, it’s not like they were meant to be hatched by ponies in the first place.”

“By the way,” Oracle asked, “How did you guys get your cutie marks?”

“Well I got mine at the same time Dusk did and Storm got his during the war,” Cliff answered, still thinking about the answer he had just given, “Right?”

“That’s right!” Storm confirmed, leaning back into his chair.

“Do you guys know what you cutie marks represent?” Oracle asked.

“Umm…” Storm began, “Mine is speed, Cliff’s is strength but I don’t know what Dusk represents.” He turned to Dusk. “Do you know?” He asked.

“Not really,” Dusk replied, taking a bite out of his clover and lettuce sandwich, “But I’m not really too bothered by it.”

The group soon finished eating and paid the bill. They left the diner and set off into Canterlot to explore for the rest of the day. The days flew by afterwards, with Dusk occupied with his royal duties, storm with his deliveries and Cliff with his guard and Oracle with her library shifts. Soon it was time for the grand galloping gala…

Comments

[viscolorus]

Thanks Raychan for the cover art!

[SageBrony07]

Great cover art. Though I wish I knew more about Oracle. I know the Gala seems like the place for Twilight and Dusk to meet, but I predict they will barely miss each other though Twilight will start to remember Dusk a little.