The Darkness

Dusk awoke to the beam of light shining gently down upon him from the sky above, the feel of the hard stone floor making him groan in displeasure. His back, his side, and his legs all strained against him as he tried to get up from his sleeping position. “Geez…I recount most of that last statement I thought before I fell asleep…” He said groggily. He looked down to see Thorn rest gently within his arm, the little dragoness’s breath was lower than before, which wasn’t good. Not one bit.

The stallion slowly stood up and stretched his hooves before gently lifting the dragoness onto his back. “Don’t worry sis…” He said softly. “Butterscotch’s place isn’t too far from here. I’ll get help for you as soon as we get out of this blasted forest.” He took wavering step forward, testing his leg strength before pushing himself in quick trot. The Stallion took in the scenery of the building as he navigated it, a nagging feeling slipping into the back of his mind. He couldn’t help but notice that quite a bit of the place seemed different somehow. He just couldn’t place his hoof on it as to why he was thinking that. He gave it one more look before shaking his head lightly.

“Focus Dusk! You need to get help for Thorn, and then you need to get to the Prince.”

He began a fast, awkward trot towards the entrance of the building, legs painfully screaming in protest for him to rest. He did not waver however. He needed to help his friends. He needed to do what he came here to do. Rest can wait until after all of that is done.

He pushed past the opened gates of the Castle he slept in and made his way towards the rickety bridge, crossing it carefully. Memories of nostalgia began to enter his mind just as he crossed, his eyes slightly glazing over. The night he and his friends met, forming a bond of brotherhood like no other. Sure they were nerve wrecking at times, with Rainbow Blitz always taking the time to pick on him, Elusive constantly trying to change his style, Berry endless partying, Butterscotch’s fears, and Applejack’s easily always figuring out when he lied. Still they were his friends. His best friends. And none of them deserved what had happened to them.

Dusk fought back the tears as he trotting began to become more and more frantic, the stallion soon finding himself crashing through the forest non-stop. He needed to see them again. He had to make sure they were ok. He didn’t care he they wouldn’t understand. Seeing them all, Butterscotch, Elusive, Rainbow Blitz, Berry Bubble, Applejack…He needed to know that they were ok. He needed to be with his friends one more time.

He could feel the dragoness slipping from his back and corrected her position with what little magic he was able to use. The constant stream of defensives and attack spells he cast was an enormous strain to his magic. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to master anything but simple magic here and there. He didn’t care about that though. He was happy. He was happy for the first time sense he discovered the darkness and it began to engulf his world. Destroying all within its wake.

Hot anger began to build up in his soul at all the lives lost. Mom and dad. Gleaming Shield and Crescendo.

“Solaris…”

Everypony he knew died because of how ill prepared they were. How ill prepared he was. He needed to fix this. He needed to make sure none of it ever happens.

A sudden roar sounded to his left, and his eyes widened considerably. He knew that roar. He knew it all too well from the first time he heard the sound oh so many months ago. In fact it was the very first day he had met his friends, and back then, he had a pegasus that was naturally attuned to nature. Now, he was by himself, with a dragoness that was unconscious and riding upon his back. Oh! And let’s not forget that his magic has not fully recovered.

“Why me…” He quietly squeaked before turning around just in time to see the monster he had not want to see. A creature with the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and a pair of dragon-like wings came bounding out of the foliage, a scowl playing across its maw. It stopped just a few feet away from Dusk, the unicorn’s eye twitching in irritation and fear. But mostly fear.

“You…ah…” His eyes darted left and right, escape plan after escape plan running through his mind. “You wouldn’t happen to be my ride out of the forest…would you?” The sound of the monster’s roar told him very much so that its answer was indeed no. With all the formal grace as one could with one in his position, he retreated fast and hard, a bounding pile of fur giving chase.

“BUCKMEBUCKMEBUCKMEBUCKMEBUCKME!!” The unicorn belted down the wooden path, doing his best to run as fast as he could, but also as not to knock off the little dragoness laying across his back. He would have thought about ways to counter the beast if he hadn’t had been using most of his concentration on holding Thorn within his magic. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way! I can’t die here! I…I still have to save everypony!”

In his revelry he failed to notice the sizable rock jutting from somewhere upon the ground, though to be fair, he doubted anypony would have seen it outright unless they were actually looking for it. Still he felt himself trip and fall face first into the ground, dragging his face along the dirt path quite a few impressive meters. With face in dirt, his upper body had bent at an odd angle, launching thorn out of her seat, and causing the dragoness to bounce along the ground a ways away from the stallion till she came to a rolling stop.

The stallion flopped to his belly, his legs spread away from him as he tried to recover what little consciousness he had left. His eyes widened considerably as he noticed Thorn a ways away from him. He tried to pull himself to his hooves be felt something crashing onto his back, the paw of the manticore forcefully pushing him back into a laying position. The stallion released a silent scream as he felt more then a few cracking sensations ripple pain throughout his body. He slumped to the ground, his vision fading in and out of consciousness as he stared at the still form of his longtime friend.

He reached out a hoof the dragoness, his hoof shaking in the air as he did so. “D-Damn it…Ah…Thorn…” He gasped as he scraped his hoof along the ground in a vain attempt to crawl away. “I…I sorry…I’m…I sorry everypony…” He had to chuckle darkly to himself, despite the pain in doing so. Why had he not seen this coming anyway?

If…If he truly went back to the past then…then none of this would have happened. He would have saw himself a long time ago. ‘His’ future self would have warned him about this. ‘His’ future self never got the chance to though, because ‘His’ future self must have ended up here, in this very same position. He sighed as he closed his eyes.

“And I fail…again…” He said softly. He was surprisingly calm about accepting death. Maybe…Maybe he could be with everypony else then. He sighed. “…Yeah…I…I’m just so…”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

His eyes widened as he picked up a voice from somewhere close by.

“How dare you! You get off of that pony this instant! What if you mother saw you hurting others!?” There was a light mummer before he felt himself very much so relived of any and all pressure from his back. “In fact,” The voice, and now that he had enough recollection in his senses he could tell it was female, continued. “In fact, I am going to your mother about this! Now you just march on home until I get there mister!” Dusk heard a light whimper, and he had supposed it was the beast, it certainly wasn’t that very much so commanding voice he had heard before.

The heavy steps of the manticore making its way into the deep jungle caused the stallion to relax a great deal; which was a bad ideal by the way due to the amount of pain he suddenly felt wreck his body. He tried to move but felt one of his muscles do what he wanted them to do. It also caused him even more pain then before. The feeling of something landing beside him caused him to close his eyes tight.

“Oh my…your…I mean…you fur…and…” He could hear her said, the sound of disbelieving in her tone. He couldn’t help but groan inwardly and outwardly. The sudden felling of the mare rubbing his back caused the stallion to open his eyes a little. The sight of a yellow body just to the side of him making him a little relived somewhat. For what reason he didn’t know. “Oh my! Oh no! Your hurt! Um…” She gently touched Dusk’s face. “Oh my I…I don’t…”

The stallion’s eyes focused what he perceived as up, his gaze landing on the dragoness not but a few feet away. “Thorn…Help…” He gasped. “Forget…me…” He closed his eyes as his vision began to blur, the bright colors of her fur right now too much of a headache.

He could hear her voice as he believed that she now noticed the little dragoness not too far away. “W-What?! But…That’s…” She paused as she heard something crashing through the forest and the sound of a light thud landing a ways away from them. “Rainbow!” Dusk heard her cry out in both panic and relief. “I need your help!!. His mind reared for a second after she finished speaking.

“Wait…Rainbow…?” he said softly before finding himself deep in the depths of the darkness of his mind.

~

Dusk opened his eyes to the smell of sweet vanilla, a smell, he thought, was very much so quite pleasant. The feeling of his body’s sensing coming through him and causing him a dulling pain killed his good mood though. He sat up as best he could, his eyes slowly coming into focus in the dim light of the room the scented candle produced. The old time furnishings caused him a great deal of relief. He didn’t know why though. He felt he had seem them once before. Of course him finding himself in a room and in a bed, and his body heavily bandaged as well caused him to believe two things.

One; He was alive. You can’t feel pain if you’re dead…or…so he believed anyway.

Two; he was out of the forest, which was a plus in his book.

Though it did raise some questions. And the first and foremost caused the stallion to wiggle and pulling himself the nice warm bed, despite him being in more than as he did so.

“Thorn! Thorn!” he said before slipping from the bed, his body hitting the floor like a sack of potatoes. A sack of potatoes that instantly cried out in agony and pain no less. In pain that he was, he barely noticed the sudden hoof steps and the door that was nearby slam open. The sound of a gasp was barely noticed as he was in too much pain to care.

“Oh my goodness!” He heard a voice call out, this one being just a female as the yellow one. He couldn’t see her though due to the pain making him close his eyes tight. It was then that he felt something he was use to feeling, at least when others did it to him. Magic enveloped him completely, his body slowly lifting up and gently being placed back onto the bed that he had currently woken up on. He felt covers gently cover him back up before the magic left his being completely.

“Don’t move.” He heard the voice say, her tone a bit more edger then when she was worried about me. The sound of hoofsteps aproching caused Dusk to open his eyes to the world, the pain slowly calming to an annoying throb. It was then that he got a good look at the only other pony in the room.

He could tell she was of lavender fur, even in the orange glow of the candle. Her mane, a darker purple then her fur with a pink streak running down the middle of it. Two pools of violets were staring back into his own, with both interest and slight fear. Of coarse it was of mutual feeling he shared due to something that he realized as soon as he stared at the mare. A feeling that burned into the pit of his stomach.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle…” She said in a indifferent tone, contradicting the face of worry she wore. “And I want to know who you and more importantly, why the buck do you look like me…”