Return to Society

by Silent Sir 224

The Aftermath

Dusk awoke to the sound of a heartbeat monitor, he had to force his eyes open creating a sharp pain in his head. The room was blurry for a moment, he could see his arm hooked up to an IV, he turned to see a figure standing next to him. His vision cleared up enough to recognize them, "R-Rarity?"

"Dusk! You're awake thank Celestia!" She ran to the door, "girls, he's awake someone find Fluttershy!"

"Fluttershy? Where is she?" He tried to sit up but he felt a debilitating pain in his chest.

"Whoa, stay down, now I have three things to tell you... but I can only tell you if you are absolutely calm okay?"

Dusk nodded, he heard his heartbeat monitor give a steady beep. "Okay first your condition, your heart took a lot of damage. For any normal pony they would have to get a transplant and pray that the body doesn't reject it. But since most aren't personal students of Celestia, the group decided to see if she can't use her magic to heal your heart of it's damage."

Dusk laid there, freaking out a little bit as his heartbeat monitor began to increase in speed until he managed to get it under control. Rarity waited for the monitor to stabilize before continuing, "that was the easiest thing, next thing is... Fluttershy knows about what you are planning."

Dusk couldn't think, he could only feel his pulse increase quite rapidly as he forced the words from his lips, "h-how?!"

"Relax, we don't want you putting too much strain on your heart, calm down and I will continue," she explained. Dusk nodded and in a few minutes his pulse stabilized, "okay, I told her while you were fighting off the changlings."

Unlike the first two times, he was numb, his body showed no response, "let me explain, she had just accused you of cheating on her, with me. I couldn't just sit there and let her say that, we began to shout at each other and I just shouted it in her face... I'm sorry."

She thought... I was cheating on her? I don't know what to think, I guess I have to be angry at myself more than her. She couldn't have known what was going on, and had to assume. "What about the third thing?"

Rarity took a deep breathe, "Fluttershy... went to find your parents... and bring them here." WHAT? His pulse sky rocketed, a blaring noise came from the heart monitor, a nurse rushed in and saw what was happening.

She gave him a shot from a hypodermic needle, before he passed out he heard her say "don't worry, it's just a sedati..."

*****

Fluttershy ran down Everfree drive, 8065, 8069 ah 8073! She ran up to the house with the address, it was a simple brick house. Everything looked older, except for one window that looked a little newer than the rest of the house. She pounded on the door as hard as she could, please, please be the right address!

An older unicorn stallion answered the door, he had a white coat and a black mane and tail, similar to Dusk's, "can I help you Miss?"

"Are you Dusk's father?" She asked.

"Uh, yes, but why does that concern you? He hasn't seen me in a number of years. I doubt he would even want to after how I treated him."

"Dusk's in the hospital in the city right now, you need to come see him right away!" Fluttershy answered.

"Niccolo, who's at the door?" An older unicorn mare walked up to the door, she had a light blue coat and a grey mane and tail.

"A mare that says that she knows Dusk and that he's in the hospital right now, Maria, she wants us to come see him," Niccolo answered.

"Really, how do you know Dusk?" Maria asked.

"I've been... romantically involved with him for the past few months, now can we please hurry?" Fluttershy was getting frantic.

"Hey Fluttershy! Dusk just woke up, did you find his parents yet?!" Rainbow Dash shouted from the sky.

Fluttershy nodded, "he just woke up, he really needs to see you both!"

The couple looked at each other and came to a decision, "yes, let's hurry."

The three ran as fast as they could, "are you sure he even wants to see us? If you've been with him as long as you say you have then you already know what happened and how we couldn't even see him without going into a fit of hysteria," Niccolo asked.

"He lived in the Everfree forest ever since that night, minus the past three months, he did everything in his power to learn how to control the lightning." Fluttershy explained, "he did that just to try to see you again."

The two were dumbfounded, and decided to keep silent for the rest of the trip. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flew through the doors of the waiting room and shouted, "how is he?!"

"He had to be put under, he started to go into an arrhythmia, his heart was beating too quickly," Twilight explained.

"Why!? What caused it!?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's my fault," Rarity admitted. "I told him what was happening, if he didn't get some warning, he might have gone into shock from seeing his parents standing in front of him. At least now, he will be able to handle a visit with more stability. Did you find his parents?"

The couple ran through the door panting, "how is he?" they asked.

"He's been put under, he will wake up in time, for now we should just wait," Twilight re-explained.

"You all know Dusk?" Niccolo asked.

The five nodded, "are you all friends with our son?" Maria asked.

"Yes, we've all known him for a few months, he's been living in Ponyville for that time," Twilight stated.

"We haven't seen or heard from him in a number of years, I'm just glad he's still alive and has so many good friends around him. What has he been doing," Niccolo turned to Fluttershy, "Fluttershy was it?" She nodded, "well you said he's been in the Everfree Forest for all these years, what has he been doing in such a place? And what has he been doing in Ponyville?"

"You might want to sit down, it's kind of a long story..." Twilight said.

*****

Oh, so sick of this feeling! The sound of the heartbeat was all Dusk could hear, he forced his eyes open again to see a blurry figure standing next to him. After a moment of refocusing his eyes he recognized the figure, "F-Fluttershy?"

"Dusk? Oh thank goodness you're alright!" She kissed him on the cheek.

He did his best to smile, "D-did you find them?"

"Yeah, I found them, there downstairs right now, I can go get them now if you want."

Dusk nodded weakly, I'm ready now.

Fluttershy slipped through the door and was gone for a moment, she came back up and so did two others. "He's too weak to talk much, but he's awake," she directed.

The two walked in the doorway, they saw their son and almost cried on the spot, "hey mom, dad, it's been a while."

"Indeed it has son, we could never be sorry enough for what we did to you." His father fought the tears.

"Dad, stop, just stop. You don't need to say anything about that, it's my fault. End of story."

"No, Dusk it's no one's fault," his mother corrected. "How could any of us have known what was going to happen? You two need to stop pointing blame at yourselves."

Dusk did his best to laugh, which just sounded like a raspy cough, "isn't usually the opposite with normal families? Always blaming each other?"

"Yeah, but no one claimed we were ever a normal family," Niccolo smiled. "Now, we've been talking to your friends downstairs, they told us that you've been living in the Everfree forest for a couple years. Is that correct?" Dusk nodded, "why would you go off and live there of all places?"

"It's the only place I could go where I wouldn't put any one in danger."

"So, you control it now?" Maria asked, Dusk gave a confirming nod. "Okay, now how did you end up in the ICU? If you're in control, how did you get in such bad shape?"

"Changling attack... felt the only way to get everyone to safety was to hold them off. Those things put up a good fight."

"So, you're the hero of Canterlot?" His mother asked, "the one we heard distracted those bugs long enough for the Captain to put up his shield and save the city?"

"Yeah, but I didn't do that much, Fluttershy and our friends did a lot more than I did."

"No, you did more than any of us, you did more than Shining Armor!" Fluttershy stated. "You were prepared to lay down your life for all of us and you almost died. By the way... stop doing that, it's really starting to scare me."

"Hey, one of those trips was because of Dash, you can't blame me for that one!"

"I guess not," she pondered. "But I don't want to see you on another hospital bed, okay?"

"I will try."

"Son, we're going to head back downstairs and let you rest," Dusk's father announced. "We'll come back tomorrow morning, promise." He paused, "and make sure you take good care of this one, she's got our approval."

"Okay, see you later."

The two left the room and closed the door behind them, it was just Dusk and Fluttershy. "So, Rarity told you?"

"Y-yeah, I was such a foal! I seriously thought you were cheating on me..."

"I was the foal, trying to hide it from you like I did. What else could you have assumed?"

"Will you ever just let me take the blame for something for once?" She teased.

"Not a chance," he smiled.

"The answer is yes, by the way."

"Answer? Answer to what?" He gave her a puzzled look.

"To your proposal of course!"

"R-really?" The heartbeat monitor started to beep more rapidly and scared the feathers off Fluttershy.

"Easy Dusk, easy," she stroked his mane, and the heartbeat monitor began to slow back down. "Yes, really, I would love to have you as a husband," she kissed him on the forehead. "But first, you need to get better, then we'll start planning the wedding." Best... day... ever!

The door swung open revealing Celestia, with a slightly scorched horn, "oh, I'm not interrupting am I?"

Fluttershy just fell backward, fully flushed, "oh no, no, no Princess, nothing going on here!"

"Good to see you can take a hit mentor," Dusk smiled.

"Good to see you can take a couple hundred," she analyzed his injuries, "although your a little worse for wear."

"So, when are you going to perform the operation?" Fluttershy asked.

"Patience, I know you want him to get better and get out of here, I do too, but you need to be patient. Right now Dusk's condition is stable enough, some others are in less than stable condition, we need to help them first before worrying about Dusk."

Fluttershy looked down with disappointment, "Don't worry Fluttershy, I will be out of here soon enough, so what about the wedding?" He asked Celestia.

"Which one?" She replied, with a grin on her face.

"I guess... both," Dusk couldn't stop smiling about Fluttershy's answer.

"Well, Cadence and Shining decided to postpone their wedding until the damage to the city is repaired and you get out if the hospital. Your wedding, we will start organizing right away."

"Who's going to tell the others?"

"I will, it should be at least one of us." Fluttershy volunteered, she walked out the door and closed it behind her.

"So, what do you think they'll say?"

"I'm sure that your friends will all be very excited for you."

"What about my parents? 'Oh hey, this is the first time I've seen you in a couple years and by the way here's your wedding invitation.'" He imitated the scenario.

"I don't know, I'm sure they'll be happy for you though, how could they not be? At least they are invited."

Fluttershy walked back into the room, her face was completely flushed red. "Uh, Princess Luna is here..."

"Fluttershy, are you okay? Did something happen downstairs?... What did my parents say?"

"Uh, they didn't say anything, they were kinda... speechless. Some pony else did."

"Was it my sister?" Celestia asked.

"Uh... yeah, you know what she might've said," his mentor nodded. What are they talking about?

"Can I ask what exactly you're talking about?"

"Oh, nonono, you can't know okay, at least... not right now!"

"Okay, I hear you. Probably a mare thing, I get it." I know that this is not just a mare thing, but pushing will do no good for either of us.

"I'm going to go see my sister and fill her in on the situation," Celestia left again.

"You said my parents are speechless?"

"They were when I was downstairs."

Dusk tried laughing again, and again, it sounded like a raspy cough. "That sure sounds like them, they never could handle surprises well."

"What do you mean?"

"Here's an example, when I was a young colt, I tried to surprise my parents with breakfast in bed. Long story short, they freaked out and there were two trays of food on the floor and two very unhappy parents."

"Oh, my..."

"It's funny, anytime I thought about that story I would feel like crying. Now, it's just another funny story of my youth. It feels good to be able laugh about that stuff." He started to tear up a little.

"Dusk, you okay?" She started to stroke his mane again.

"I'm good, I'm just so happy, after all these years... I did it."

"You sure did, Dusk, you sure did," they kissed for a moment. "Now you have one more thing to do."

"What's that?"

"Get better, come home and live a good, long life with me."

"I think I might be able to handle that..."

The door slid open, Twilight walked in the doorway, "Fluttershy, it's getting late, Dusk's parents are staying downstairs, the girls and I heading back to our rooms, you coming?"

"Of course not! I'm staying here, I won't leave Dusk here all night. Remember the last time two times I let him go off by himself?"

"I figured that would be your answer, we'll be back in the morning, good night you two."

The two waved and Twilight left, closing the door again. "Where are you going to sleep?" Dusk asked.

"On the floor I guess, I'll be fine, worry about yourself for once," she smiled. Yeah, neither of those things are going to happen. Dusk prepared himself for the sharp pain he was about to be in, one... two... three! He used all of his strength to force his body a few feet to the side of the bed with his IV drip. Leaving more than enough room for her, despite his body's strong protests. "Dusk what are you doing?! You shouldn't be moving at all!"

"How else would we both fit on the bed?" He grinned.

She glared at him, "that's no reason to put that much stress on your body right now!"

"I will not let you sleep on the floor." He stated simply.

"And if I still sleep on the floor?"

"Then this pain would have been for nothing, I already did it so you can take this spot, or leave it."

Fluttershy gave a defeated sigh, "admit it, you're doing everything in your power to spoil me, aren't you?"

"That's the goal!"

"Well, you're doing a good job," she turned off the light and climbed in the bed next to him. The bed was spacious enough for both to have adequate room. But, Fluttershy still cuddled up against Dusk regardless. Dusk couldn't do much more than rap his free arm around her and pull her close.

"I have to try to compete with the Element of Kindness, don't I?"

"No you don't... but that doesn't change how much I love you."

"I love you too, Fluttershy."

"I know Dusk, now get some sleep, your body needs it more than mine," she advised.

"Okay, I just wish I could just turn off this annoying monitor, it's going to drive me crazy if I have to try sleeping next to it."

"I think I could help that," she cleared her throat.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head,

Hush now quiet now it's time to go to bed.

Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head,

Hush now quiet now it's time to go to bed..."