Chapter 1 - Dusk Fire

"Buck this shit," Dusk Fire said, "If I wanted to do another five years of bucking school, I would have said so."

Dusk Fire walked through the Manehattan High entrance gates, noticing several mares staring at him. He was a tall, well-built stallion with a deep blue coat, like the night sky. His mane, fitting his last name, was a firey red with yellow highlights. Try as he may, he couldn't brush it straight, so it stuck out at crazy angles, making it look like his head was on fire. He had a rather sharp horn, honed from years of offensive magic training that his mother disapproved of. But these features weren't what caught the mares' eyes. Dusk Fire's best feature was his eyes, a deep ruby red that burned in dim light. His eyes could probably melt the heart of any mare, if he tried real hard, but that's not what he used them for.

All around him, Dusk could see posh ponies wearing expensive accessories, glittery saddle bags, and many mares had makeup on. He could see no reason for it; even the colts looked glamorous. All Dusk needed was his trusty white saddle bag, the same one he had since grade five. He couldn't afford a new one, but he felt like he didn't need one. it did the job, and that's all he asked of it.

His parents had a small, yet stable, income, and he lived in rather squalid conditions. His father earned enough to put food on the table, but it took many years of saving to enrol Dusk in the local high school. He was grateful to his parents for this, their generosity rubbing off on him. Dusk never had a taste for the luxuries of life, preferring simple clothing when he went to formal occasions, and simple food when he ate. It was not in Dusk's nature to be envious. Instead of feeling jealous when he saw rich ponies walk by, he felt anger. Anger at the fact that they could bitch and whine about their little problems, when his father could barely put food on the table.

"What are you looking at?" Dusk heard one of the mares say.

"Him. He looks cute. Like, coltish cute." the mare's friend replied,.

Dusk assumed they were talking about him. His looks had attracted the attention of a few, yet not many, mares in the last years of primary school; all of them shallow, popular mares, however. A few stallions, but not many, had said they would kill to have looks as 'good' as his, however all Dusk would have killed for was a little privacy from the prying eyes of a few shallow mares.

"I hope to god this isn't going to be like year 7....," Dusk muttered to himself.

He walked up the path to the school doors where the headmaster was standing.

"Dusk Fire, I presume?" the headmaster inquired.

"Yes, sir," Dusk said, shaking the headmaster's hoof.

"Welcome to Manehattan High School. I am the headmaster, and I will be watching your every move. Do not make me angry, Dusk Fire, or you will be in serious trouble," the headmaster stated.

"Do you say this to every new pony who walks through these doors, sir?" Dusk replied, coolly.

"Yes, I guess I do," the headmaster replied.

Dusk gave him a small smile and continued on his way. Walking down the halls, Dusk extracted his school guide from his saddle bag.

"Hmmm. Locker 3 - F," Dusk mumbled, looking at the guide.

He looked around before spying a large red 'F' on the corner of one of the halls. Dusk headed down the hall, noticing the numbers on the lockers decreased from the start of the hall. He came to the end of the passage and found his locker. Removing the small key from his saddle bag, Dusk opened his locker and started placing books into it. He looked at his guide, noting his first class, and packed the according books into his saddle bag. Another mare walked past him, her eyes staring at his body as she giggled bashfully. He slammed his locker door, frightening her. She quickly trotted on as Dusk locked his locker and dropped the key into his saddle bag.

Dusk opened the door to his next class and walked inside. The room was teeming with chatter and gossip, multiple voices trying to out-compete each other. Luckily no one noticed Dusk as he closed the door and took a seat at the back of the class. He took his books from his saddle bag and placed them on his desk, along with a pen. A ball of paper hit him on the side of the head. He looked up and saw a pink mare smiling at him from the other side of the room. He gave her a fake smile and picked up the piece of paper, unscrunching it.

'Hey, my name is Petal. You look pretty nice, maybe we could have lunch sometime? Talk to me after class ;)'

He rolled his eyes and stuffed the paper into his saddle bag as the teacher walked into the classroom.

"QUIET, EVERYPONY!" the teacher shouted. "My name is Professor Brunswick, and I will be your English teacher for this year," Professor Brunswick explained, writing his name on the board. "Today we will learn about poetic devices and their use in the written and spoken language,"

Dusk opened his book and clicked his pen as the professor wrote on the board. Dusk quickly scribbled the notes, predicting what the professor was going to write. Dusk knew all about poetic devices, he aced English all through primary, as had many of the students in the classes he had sat in. He sat back and listened as Brunswick rambled on about alliteration and metaphors, some ponies in the class, knowing what the teacher was talking about, yawned, others couldn't stay awake. Dusk slowly drifted off to sleep...

"You told me you were gonna give me your lunch money, twerp," a voice said.

"I - I don't h - have any m - money though," another, younger voice replied.

"Well maybe you shoulda thought about that before showing your face!" the other voice exclaimed.

"Get off me!" the younger voice squealed.

Dusk awoke with a start, kicking his table. Brunswick stopped talking about poetic devices and stared at Dusk quizzically.

"Everything all right, Mr Fire?" he inquired.

"Yes, sir," Dusk replied, "I just got something caught on my hoof."

"Well perhaps you should be writing, instead of worrying about your hooves, Mr Fire," Brunswick scolded.

Dusk nodded and hastily copied what was on the board. He didn't need to, of course, and neither did anypony else in this class. Their year seven books were full of the same stuff, Dusk just wanted to stay out of trouble on his first day. First impressions count, his mother always told him. The notes on the board were written in cursive, a script Dusk always had trouble with. He read what he could and then copied down what he understood. His actual understanding of this topic was better than the description the professor had on the board, but Dusk didn't care. He just wanted to look like he was working.

The professor continued to ramble on about metaphors and such, as Dusk rested his cheek on his hoof. The lesson simply wasn't going fast enough. The clock on the wall said it was only 9:24. There was no way it had only been 24 minutes. That mare, Petal was going to see him after class, too. Dusk just wanted the lesson to end. Not so he could see Petal, but so he could get out of this stifling room.

The professor rambled on and on and on. The repetitive nature of his speech boring every pony in the room. A yawn was heard from the back, another pony at the front let out a snore. Dusk was no better, his concentration wavering, his eyes slowly closed. He quickly opened them again, not wanting to fall asleep again. Dusk sat up and looked at the clock. 9:47.

"Shit, I fell asleep again," Dusk thought to himself.

Looking at the board, Dusk could see no changes. Brunswick was obviously so enthralled in his own speech that he didn't notice half the class had fallen asleep. There was still 23 minutes until the end of the lesson, Dusk didn't know how much more of this he could take. He lightly banged his hoof on the table and looked out the window. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky was an almost mystical blue, the clouds like puffs of smoke. It was so much more alluring than Brunswick's lecture on poetic devices.

The bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson. Ponies around him started to pack up as the professor wrote homework requirements on the board. Dusk awoke from his day dream, copied the notes into his school diary, and placed his books into his saddle bag. He stood up and walked out the door, passing Petal on his way. She put a hoof in his way, stopping him.

"Where are you going?" she asked. "I thought you were gonna meet me here after class."

"Oh, sorry, I forgot about that," Dusk lied. "The lesson was so interesting and all." He gave a weak smile.

"You're funny!" Petal stated, giggling.

"So what was it that you wanted again?" Dusk inquired.

"You," Petal answered, cheekily.

Dusk's face went a shade redder. Even though many mares had shown an interest in him, it still caught him off guard. Dusk cleared his throat.

"Uhm, what did you want to do then?" he inquired.

"Dunno, maybe we could have lunch or something? I know this cute little cafe down on 2nd street," Petal replied.

"I guess I'll meet you there on Saturday. Does 12:00 PM sound good to you?" Dusk asked.

"It's a date," Petal replied, with a cheeky smile.

"What did I get myself into this time?" Dusk thought to himself as he walked on. "I don't even know this girl, and I'm going to have lunch with her. God, sometimes I can be too polite."

He fished his schedule out of his bag and gave it a once-over. His next class was magic. Anticipating the exciting world of spells and potions, Dusk hastened his step.

He arrived at the lesson a few minutes early and, looking around, saw he was one of the only colts in the class. There were two other colts standing outside the door, talking to each other. Both were equally lanky, and one of them had an unnatural amount of freckles. The mares, on the other hand, were fairly good looking, but from the way they held themselves, he knew they were no different than any other mare he had seen so far. Dusk knew this lesson was going to be horrible, as a few of the mares looked at him. Dusk's good mood disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and his smile fell from his face.

The door to classroom opened and a rather short pony beckoned the students inside.

"Welcome, welcome," the small unicorn said. "Please, take a seat. There will be no need to write this lesson, you just have to listen."

Dusk sighed in relief. He had so many books filled with notes on the subject, he was beginning to think he should just bring those to school.

"Alright, class. My name is Professor Short. I will be your magic teacher for this year," the professor said.

"Will we be performing any spells today, sir?" one of the students asked.

"Yes. Today we will learn how to move objects," Short answered.

Dusk smiled. He spent so much time on magic in his early years that he had mastered levitation spells when he was a young colt.

"Now, concentrate on the item in front of you, and imagine it floating into the air," Short explained.

Around Dusk, the small class struggled with this simple spell. A few of the mares managed to levitate their books, but neither of the colts could even lift a pencil. Dusk gave a devilish smile as a ruby glow appeared around his horn. Another ruby aurora materialized around Dusk's desk as it rose into the air. He smiled as he heard the floating books drop from the air as the other students gawked at his advanced feat. He slowly let the desk come back down.

"What is your name?" Short inquired.

"Dusk Fire, sir," Dusk replied.

"How is it that you can levitate objects of that size?" Short asked. "Manehattan primary had no magical classes."

"I practiced in my spare time, sir," Dusk replied, with a smirk. "It's really not that hard to read books on magic."

"Not only is he cute, but he is good with magic," one of the mares whispered.

Dusk's pride suddenly disappeared, and he struggled to hold onto his smile. These damn mares were driving him crazy, he'd hoped that they wouldn't get to him so badly, but it seems he was mistaken.

"Well, Mr. Fire," Short said. "Maybe you should show us more of your magical abilities."

"I'd rather not, sir," Dusk replied.

"Oh come one, Mr. Fire. Surely it isn't that bad," Short replied.

Dusk's smile dropped. "I said no, sir," Dusk growled through gritted teeth.

"Okay then, Mr. Fire. We shall continue the lesson as planned," Short said, gulping nervously.

Dusk leaned back in his chair as the class' attention slowly shifted from him to the teacher. Dusk decided he would just sit this one out. He had mastered levitation spells ages ago, and he had no intention of being told how to cast them. He also did not want to draw any more attention to himself from the mares in the class. Levitating that desk had been a mistake. Dusk closed his eyes and returned to his dream.

"Get off me!" the younger voice squealed.

The source of squeals was revealed to be a dark red pegasus. A large earth pony had lifted him off the ground and was in the process of punching him. The vision suddenly turned ruby red as flames seemed to materialize around the edge of it. An older, deeper, voice screamed in anger.

A bright flash washed out the vision and there was a loud bang.

As the vision cleared, scorch marks could be seen on the walls around the two ponies.

The vision suddenly progressed forward and seemed to zoom in on the red pegasus.

Dark blue hooves reached out from the vision and picked up the pegasus.

Dusk awoke with a start.

Had that been him, attacking that earth pony? The vision seemed awfully familiar, as did the dark red pegasus. But it seemed like it was such an long time ago, as if it was almost another life.

Dusk looked around the room to see everyone staring at him. He looked down and noticed he had kicked his desk over when he had woken up.

"Is everything alright, Mr Fire?" Short inquired.

"Y- yes, sir. Everything is fine. I just..." Dusk trailed off. It suddenly dawned on him that he was remembering a pivotal point in his life. His visions were of the day he got his cutie mark.

"Mr Fire?" Short asked again.

"Huh? Oh, I just dozed off, sir. I had an... odd... dream," Dusk answered.

"Perhaps you should try to stay awake, Mr Fire," Short said.

"Yes, sir," Dusk answered.

Dusk levitated his desk back into place and looked at it, mulling over what he had just witnessed. He knew for a fact that his visions were about his cutie mark. It happened back in grade 3, in Manehattan primary.

"Well maybe you should stop being so good at it, then," a red pegasus remarked.

"Shut up, Jet," Dusk replied.

" It's not my fault you're so good at magic. Most of the other ponies here don't even know what the word means," Jet said.

"Well, i'd appreciate it if you didn't tell other ponies about it. They're already afraid of me," Dusk stated.

"Alright, Dusk. I'm sorry," Jet replied, looking legitimately apologetic.

"It's alright. I'm gonna go buy something for the cafeteria. You want anything?" Dusk offered.

"A chocolate biscuit would be nice," Jet replied.

Dusk nodded and headed off to the cafeteria.

The line was rather short when Dusk got there, and it only took him a few seconds to pick up some biscuits and a bottle of strawberry milk. He paid the cash-lady his week's allowance, and walked back to where he left Jet.

"You told me you were gonna give me your lunch money, twerp," a voice said.

"I - I don't h - have any m - money though," another, younger voice replied.

"Well maybe you shoulda thought about that before showing your face!" the other voice exclaimed.

"Get off me!" the younger voice squealed.

Dusk recognised the younger voice to be Jet's.

He turned the corner to find a huge earth pony punching Jet in the face, stomach, and chest. Blood had started to flow from Jet's nose and he was in great pain.

His vision blurred, and the biscuits and milk dropped to the ground as his levitation spell failed.

Flames appeared around the edge of his vision as he let out a almighty roar.

A bright white flash engulfed the trio, accompanied by a loud bang.

As Dusk's vision cleared, he noticed scorch marks on the walls around him. The large earth pony was lying in a corner, beaten and scarred, his coat singed. Jet lay off to Dusk's left, and he ran towards him. Dusk lifted him up with his hooves and placed him over his back and ran as fast as he could to the nurse's office.

Dusk had never used magic like that before. He had never even felt rage like that before. The adrenaline excited him, but at the same time, it scared him. His heart beat at a hundred beats per second as he ran Jet to the school nurse.

He ran through the doors of the nurse's office, and laid Jet on one of the beds.

"What is the meaning of this, young man?" the nurse inquired, angrily.

"Myfriendwasjustbeatenupbyabull-" Dusk began, before being cut off.

"Slow down, one word at a time," the nurse said.

Dusk took three deep breaths and said, "My friend was just beaten up by a bully. I used my magic to stop him, but I don't know if my friend was hurt more. Please, you have to help him!" Dusk said, on the verge of tears.

The nurse nodded her understanding and began to look over Jet's wounds as Dusk began to cry.

Dusk cried for Jet, but he also cried for himself. He had promised his parents he wouldn't explode like this, and this time, he had hurt his only friend. Dusk didn't know what Jet would say. He'd probably hate him for it. Dusk tried to help, he tried to protect his friend, but all he ended up doing was hurting him more.

"Luckily, your friend here is going to be okay. It looks like he would have suffered a great deal more if you hadn't intervened. I think you loyalty just saved his life," the nurse explained.

At that moment, A bright flash appeared on Dusk's flank. A small flame in front of two swords appeared on his flank, creating a coat of arms. Dusk had finally gotten his cutie mark.

"What does it mean?" Dusk asked.

"That looks like a mark of loyalty," the nurse explained. "You have this mark because you saved your friend's life. Without you, that bully would have nearly beaten him to death."

Dusk cried once more as the nurse put a hoof on his shoulder. He had just saved his friend's life.

Because Jet was a pegasus, he had porous bones. They were easy to break, so what the bully thought was a rough-up, was really a pummeling for Jet. He had to go the hospital because of the injuries. The bully had broken most of Jet's ribs, and had shattered his jaw and collar bone. Jet had to eat from a tube for six weeks. All because this earth pony wanted Jet's lunch money.

A tear dropped from Dusk's cheek as he remembered his friend. Jet was the only pony that had ever been there for him. And he had moved away halfway through year seven.

When he heard about Jet being transferred to Las Pegasus, Dusk felt betrayed. They had spent so much time together, had shared every moment together, Dusk had even saved his life. And now Jet had to move away? It made going to high school so much harder for him. It had been almost ten months since Dusk had last seen him. Jet hadn't written a single letter to him, either. It may have been ten months, but it felt like an eternity.

Dusk spent the rest of the lesson in sorrow. All he wanted to do was be back with Jet. He felt ashamed that he had forgotten about him so quickly, too. He hung his head in disgrace as another tear splashed onto his desk. He thought about all the memories he had made with Jet. He had been suspended for six weeks because of his outburst, and he spent every day of those six weeks beside Jet's hospital bed.

The bell rang, signalling the end of class.

"No homework for you today, students," Short said.

There was a unanimous sigh of relief from the other students as they filed out of the class.

Dusk walked out last, his heart still fixed on the only friend he had ever had, when he bumped into a huge white earth pony.

"Watch it, newbie!" the white pony retorted.

His friend turned around, and seeing Dusk's depressed nature, decided to mess with him.

"Are you crying? Shit, look, Beam, he's bucking crying!" the second pony exclaimed.

"Stop crying, you baby!" Beam chimed in.

Dusk looked up, glared at them, and said, "Why don't you two buck off and leave me alone."

"Oooooo!" Beam said. "Look, Shots, the big pony wants us to buck off."

"Why don't we show him what happens to ponies who give us lip?" Shots replied.

By this time, there was a rather large congregation of ponies watching the scene unfold.

A murmur rose from the crowd.

"Those are the school bullies," one pony whispered.

"He's gonna die!" another pony exclaimed.

Beam and Shots slowly moved in on Dusk, cracking their necks and preparing to beat him up.

Dusk's horn glowed a ruby red as he braced himself.

Beam shot forward and took a swing at Dusk, his hoof connecting with Dusk's jaw. Dusk reeled and retaliated with a burst of fire magic, burning the coat on Beam's chest.

"AH!" Beam screamed.

Shots came in from the side and Dusk only just escaped another right hook. Beam ran in after Shots and took two swings at Dusk, both narrowly missing Dusk's head. Dusk shot off another bolt of fire, slamming into Beam's already wounded chest. Shots came in once more and tackled Dusk to the ground. He began to punch Dusk in the face over and over again, and was reeling for a knockout when Dusk suddenly teleported on top of Shots.

"Shit, I can't believe that worked," Dusk murmured.

Dusk spun around as Beam's hoof connected with Dusk's muzzle, causing a spray of blood to fly. Dusk took a step back, braced himself and released a beam of fire magic that pinned Beam to the wall, burning into his flesh. His screams of pain almost pleased Dusk, and he lost focus on his surroundings. Shots took another swing at Dusk, knocking him flat. Beam slumped against the wall, unconscious.

"YOU MOTHERBUCKING SON OF A BITCH!" Shots screamed as he lay into Dusk.

Dusk's vision began to blur as hoof after hoof slammed into his face and body. He conjured up the last of his energy and released a powerful offensive spell that blasted Shots off of him and into the wall opposite Beam. Shots' coat was smoking, and Dusk once again fired a beam of fire magic into his attacker's chest, pinning him to the wall. Shots screamed in agony as the flames engulfed his wounds, eating into his flesh. Dusk relented, ceasing the fire beam as Shots lost consciousness.

Dusk leaned against the wall as his stomach evacuated his breakfast. He was sore all over from the bully's beatings. He looked up and saw everypony looking at him with stunned expressions on their faces. Apparently no one had ever beaten these two. His vision slowly darkened as he saw the headmaster push through the crowd. His voice seemed distant as Dusk slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

Author's Note

This is the first chapter of my new fic, so if it isn't up to scratch, or you want to point out some errors, please do so. I'd love some constructive criticism. But please don't be insulting, I want CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, not insults.

Please note:
Some of the ideas for this fiction came from other fics I read. E.g. the cutie mark is based on Cerulean's mark from "Tears in the Snow". I give full credit to him for this idea, for without his fic, I doubt I would have come up with a mark at all.