• Published 12th Feb 2020
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A Dusk's New Dawn - ThatWritingDragon



A scarred Stallion and a happy world, when you mix them together? you get this story!

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Short Interlude: Awaken


Short Interlude: Awaken


Dusk woke up in a familiar place. With a fading dream in his mind and a slight tingling in his brow.

At least, it was familiar to his groggy and tired mind. The moment he focused, he realized that something was clearly wrong. As he opened his eyes to the view of a crystal wall, he knew that something happened.

Where am I?

He didn't know exactly, but the magic saturating his surroundings was familiar. Friendly even, in addition to a type of magic he hadn't seen for well…

Forever! At least, not since...

Dusk clicked his tongue and attempted to move but the familiar effects of magic exhaustion made themselves obvious with how sluggish and tired he suddenly felt. He rubbed his forehead and tried to calculate just how much magic he had wasted during his outburst. His eyes widened when he felt a band wrapped around his horn, he quickly tapped around it and let out a sigh of relief.

Okay... They didn't slice it off, that was good. It would've been absolute Tartarus to wait for it to heal once more. In fact, it seemed to have grown from its old stump, given how he could feel the horn poking out of his rat’s nest of a mane. Now, to remove the band.

Despite no longer using his horn in the conventional sense, it didn’t mean that it was any less restrictive, and if there was one thing Dusk hated, it was being restricted.

After tapping it for several moments and finding the sealing sequence, he rose a brow at how... mundane it was.

Apparently it could only be removed by the creature who had secured the seal on him, not that it was a problem. It could be overwritten easily enough. It also had a recycler, which served to take in any magic he attempted to channel through it and charge the seal, making it stronger.

In addition, it also periodically sent a quiet ripple to the creature who had keyed the ring to their magic, silently alerting them if he tried to 'tamper' with it. Icing on the cake, there was a locator as well.

All in all, it was a rather standard magic-inhibiting ring… and very boringly simple. Dusk liked it simple. The more simple something was, the less time he had to waste in completely disassembling it.

Should he tamper with it though? He'd been given a comfy bed and was surrounded with a pleasant magic surrounding him, one he hadn't had the privilege of feeling in a long while.

It was…

Nice.

It was like meeting a good friend that you hadn't seen in years. He just knew that the familiar magic wouldn't let anything harm him.

He hadn't felt this... placated in a while and the relaxed alicorn wanted to know why. Thinking about it a bit more, it was rather concerning that he was like this. He panned his gaze across his surroundings and after some time spent lazily searching for it, he found it.

Dusk brought the seal he had discovered closer and his brow rose. Compared to the band around his horn, this one was like comparing a boulder to a pebble. It was good quality, for sure but compared to his work? Maybe somewhere in the middle.

The seal battery would need to be fed at least every three hours to fully work, and… Is that... dream magic? The purple alicorn's interest grew exponentially as he focused more intently on the seal. He knew that dream magic could help in placating and relaxing creatures. To actually see it in motion was fascinating as best he could tell, you either stopped panicking or you started dying.

He winced and lightly rubbed his crest with a hoof. He’d learnt that last little bit the hard way. His eyes trailed to the top of the door, a clock that showcased that it was somewhere around noon, which showed him that a day has passed.

"Hoo!"

Dusk immediately perked up and turned to the source.

He couldn't help but let out a little "Oomphff-" as the little brown missile dive bombed him in the stomach. With a quick movement of his hoof, the seals affecting him immediately dissipated. In an instant, everything came back to him all at once and he flinched at the mental damage he’d just dealt himself. He could already feel a headache coming on and with the concerned hoot of the featherbag it was obvious that it wasn’t fading anytime soon.

"Yes yes..." he continued to rub the birds head as an attempt to lessen its noise, but it seemed to have failed, "I'm alright-"

"Hoo!"

"Hoo, yourself. I said I'm alright and you know that I've faced worse than this."

The bird let out a low trill, clearly annoyed, though Dusk couldn’t bring himself to admonish it, so he instead simply rolled his eyes at the foalishness.

"Oh shut up, as I just said, I went through far worse before you ever found me- Yeawoch!" The bird had decided to nip his hoof to which the injured alicorn retaliated with a boop to the overgrown chicken's beak.

Dusk glared half-heartedly and simply patted the bird on the head a bit harder than normal. He knew that the owl was simply concerned and he accepted that. He however didn’t accept that the avian apparently couldn't fathom him being able to take care of himself.

He wasn't that reckless.

As he continued to fight with the bird, he felt a magical presence thone in on him and he frowned.

He wasn't stupid, he knew that he was probably being monitored. But how was the real question. Maybe if he acted normal enough then they would let him leave, though with his recent outburst...

Dusk grimaced at that thought. Maybe it would've been good to have left that calming seal alone, but he didn't feel like reactivating it in his current state. Before he could sink into his thoughts the bird smacked him in the back of the head. The stallion couldn’t help but snort.

"You sure are troublesome aren't ya?" The alicorn yawned and laid back on the comfy pillow, having made his decision. No evil kidnapper would have such comfy beds for their prisoners.

It looked like he was staying.

He stared up to the ceiling as he silently began to think. Dusk knew that he was still acting a bit different than normal, but he'd just chalked it up to the seal that he recently deactivated. If the change persisted until he woke up the next day...

He grimaced, and just like that, he was out like a light, not realizing that he had accidentally curled around the bird who puffed his feathers a bit and looked rather proud of himself.


"Sister."

Celestia turned, her eyes leaving the image of a sleeping stallion for her little sister. Said sister didn't look pleased, as evidenced by her small frown and the light crease of her brow.

"Yes, Luna?" The princess of the Sun answered, her eyes flicking back to the stallion on screen before quickly shifting to her sister once more, netting her a sigh.

Luna sat next to her sister and slowly leaned into the white mare’s embrace, the princess of the night immediately looking tired as she exhaled softly.

"Who would treat a stallion like this? Why would they do that to him?" She softly questioned as she continued to snuggle closer to her sister's warmth.

Celestia’s response was only to wrap a wing around her little sister, a sorrowful look on her usually serene face as she nuzzled her comfortingly.

"I do not know," Was the simple reply, her rose-colored eyes seeming to turn into steel as she continued. "But we will get to the bottom of this. No creature is allowed to hurt my little ponies and escape retribution." Celestia chuckled softly as she carefully tapped horns with her little sister. "Even if he's not so little everywhere else."

Almost immediately Luna's expression went blank as her mind registered what her older sister just said. She groaned and attempted to pull away in embarrassment but found herself unable to because of the white wing wrapped around her. She sighed and just settled for pushing the much larger alicorn away with a disgusted look on her face.

"Tia, no!" Luna admonished, an annoyed look on her face as she struggled to get away from her captor.

"Tia, yes!" said Celestia with a grin as she hugged her sister closer to her. "Admit it! You're just as interested as I am!"

"Absolutely not! That's indecent, sister! This is a stallion we're talking about! Have some dignity!"

All Celestia did was laugh at the statement which seemed to infuriate the shorter alicorn, leading the Princess of the Sun to get a face full of her sister’s hoof, leading to even more laughter.

"Stop it!"

The efforts of the lunar princess were all for nought as they began to fight once more, but throughout the battle there was something else in the elder sister's eye. A calculating glint that wasn't seen by anyone else in the room. Thoughts had begun to whirl, plans began to form and it all centred around that new alicorn stallion.

'This is going to be so much fun!' Celestia's eyes flickered to the sleeping stallion on the magical screen and her grin widened. ' I wonder just what kind of pony you are Mr. Dusk Shine. Show me how you are worthy and prove yourself.'

Unknown to anyone, in another room, magic began to work. The mystical energy began its process and with it, sealed a destiny. The destiny of a certain slumbering alicorn. Now it was time to wait.

Wait for their time to awaken once more.

Author's Note:

Bonding! Yaaayyy- so yes, short interlude before we go to the second arc.

Wonder what's Tia's planning.