The Hidden Adventure

-TWO YEARS LATER-

“Your highness, am I correct to say that today you are letting a filly try to hatch the dragon egg for her entrance examination, again?” Dusk said as he walked next to Princess Celestia, dressed in his gold armor.

“Yes, yes I am,” Princess Celestia causally replied to her young protector as walked up the stairs to her observation balcony.

“I think that you should make the entrance examination easier,” The colt stated, “Or else she would end up like the other thirty applicants, rejected.”

“But if I made it any easier, then there wouldn’t be much point in calling the school ‘Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns’ now would there?” The princess pointed out as she reached the top of the stairs.

“Point taken,” Dusk admitted.

“And it’s not like that it’s impossible,” The princess said, “Look at Ashley.” She pointed to the sleeping female dragon on Dusk’s back, her white scales glinting in the midday sun. He had hatched her six months earlier when Princess Celestia seized the two dragon eggs from an egg poacher on her weekly flight around Equestria. Dusk lightly brushed her red top scales and chuckled to himself.

“I think I see her now, do you want to have a look?” Princess Celestia said looking through her telescope from her balcony. “Sure,” Dusk said as he got on the princess’ back so that he could see. Princess Celestia turned so that her student could look through the telescope. Dusk peered in and saw two adult unicorns, a blue stallion with a dark blue mane and a white mare with a white and purple mane, presumably the parents of the filly that was taking the entrance examination. Then he saw the filly and his heart skipped a beat. The filly had lilac fur and had a dark blue mane with a streak of pink and purple running through it. Her face was a cute mix of worry, anticipation and joy. Dusk fell in love with her at first sight.

Princess Celestia noticed his change in heart rate. “In love are we now?” She teased him.

“Huh? Wha-Oof!” Dusk said as he fell off her back in surprise from the sudden question. Then quickly recovering, he protested, “N-No! I-I’m n-not in l-love with h-her!” His cheeks turned a bright pink. Princess Celestia giggled at the colt’s awkward reaction to his feelings. “I’m just kidding,” she said as she turned to descend the stairs, “I’m going to take a walk around the castle.”

“Which room is she taking her exam in?” Dusk blurted out, then covered his mouth when he realized what he had just said.

“Hmmm?” Princess Celestia said, turning to look at the blushing colt, “I think that it is room six in the left wing of the castle. Have fun now!” She quickly climbed down the staircase. At the bottom, she looked up and called out to Dusk, “For your sake, I hope she passes the examinations! You look so cute when you blush!” Before Dusk could retort, the princess had already left the stairwell.
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“Room six… room six… roo-Ahah! There it is!” Dusk said to himself as he approached room six in the left wing. He peeked into the room to see what was going on. He saw the lilac unicorn filly trying everything she could to hatch the egg, but to no avail, he sighed and sadly shook his head. He had seen this before and it never resulted in the egg hatching. “To hatch the egg, you need to provide the egg with energy via a magic blast,” He thought to himself, “and the blast must be a supportive blast, not a destructive one.”

Just as he was about to leave, he heard a loud explosion and turned to see, outside the window, a rainbow colored shockwave cut across the sky and the lilac filly’s horn started glowing bright purple, then suddenly shooting forth a bolt of magic that hatched the egg. “Holy Celestia! She actually did it!” He thought to himself in surprise. But before he could think about anything else, the lilac filly was surrounded by a magical field, then she began shooting random magic blasts all over the room, causing the examiners to levitate, turning her parents into plants and super-growing the newly hatched dragon.

“Oh horseapples, she can’t control her magic!” Dusk thought to himself and then his horn glowed red in order to set up a barrier to prevent collateral damage. A bolt of magic was shot toward him and he did not want any part of it. He quickly retaliated by shooting a bolt of magic of his own to counter it, the bolts of magic exploded in mid-air. Then he managed to set up a magic barrier around the room. However the bolts were not weak and took their toll on his ability to upkeep the barrier, he buckled slightly, grimacing as his magic reserves were depleted quickly. Just as he was about to black out, he saw Princess Celestia stride past him and enter the room. Dusk then knew that the situation would be handled easily by the princess, so he dropped the barrier.

Soon the princess diffused the situation and asked the filly if she would be her personal protégé at the castle, which she accepted, of course. As Princess Celestia left the room with a bouncing filly carrying a sleeping dragon on her back following her, the filly noticed an exhausted armored unicorn slumped on the wall.

“Who is he?” the filly asked in a polite and angelic (to Dusk) voice.

“Oh, he’s my personal guard, two years your senior and the pony who prevented your outburst from doing more damage than it did,” Princess Celestia said. “Hi I’m Twilight Sparkle,” The filly introduced herself, “What’s your name?”

“I’m… Dusk Flamer…” The exhausted colt said slowly.

“Thanks for containing my outburst of magic Dusk,” Twilight said happily, turning to follow Princess Celestia down the hallway, leaving Dusk tired and blushing.

After the incident with Twilight Sparkle, Dusk Flamer went to the royal garden to relax. Then Dusk heard a soft, cute ‘Unyaf’ behind him. He turned and saw the baby dragon on his back waking. She slowly yawned then stretched a bit then opened her big red eyes, got off of Dusk and looked at him, “Unyaf?” she mumbled.

“Yeah, I had a tiring day,” Dusk replied.

“Unyaf.”

“Hmmm?” Dusk said looking back at the baby dragon, “I haven’t told you everything yet?”

“Unyaf.”

“Okay so I found an attractive filly so what? It’s not a big deal. ”

“Unyaf.”

“It’s a big deal you say,”

“Unyaf.”

“Okay, I’m sorry for not telling you,” Dusk said, stoking the baby dragon’s back, causing her to growl in delight.

Suddenly, out of a tree behind him, a white and blue blur burst out and landed in front of Dusk. “You found a filly you like?” The blur asked quickly.

“Yes I did Storm,” Dusk said calmly to white pegasus before him.

“Yo… That’s so cool man!” Storm said jumping up and down, “So, what’s she like, is she pretty? Smart? Cool? What?”

“Why don’t you find out?” Dusk replied casually.

“But that’s not fun!” Storm protested but he knew that Dusk was not going to tell him so easily. So he gave it up as a lost cause and decided to go to the mess hall for dinner.

During dinner, Dusk kept glancing at Twilight, hoping that she glance back at him. She did once and winked at him, causing his heart to skip a beat.

After dinner, Dusk went back to his room, tucked Ashley into bed, then lay down to sleep. Except he could not sleep, he was thinking of Twilight the whole time he was lying on his bed. “Does she like me? Did I make a good enough impression on her? Do we have the same common interests?” All of these thoughts were running through his head when he was on his bed and he did not until an hour later.
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The next day, Dusk got up early in the morning, before Celestia raised her sun, to practice. He decided to practice levitation magic on various objects in his room. After an hour or so, a while before Celestia’s sun was rose slowly over the horizon; Dusk left his room to go to a special spot that he knew was the best spot in the castle to view the sunrise: the observation balcony.

At the foot of the observation tower, Dusk saw Twilight Sparkle arguing with the two gold clad unicorn guards in front of the door to the tower. “But this tower is perfect for viewing the sunrise,” Twilight began to explain, “It has the right height and position fo-”

“I’m sorry ma’am but you lack the authority to enter this facility,” One of the guards said firmly.

“What’s the matter here?” Dusk said approaching the ponies.

“Lieutenant Dusk,” The guards said saluting him, one of them pointed at Twilight and said, “This unidentified filly seeks permission to enter the observation tower with insufficient authority.”

“What do you mean insufficient authority?” Dusk asked them with a puzzled look on his muzzle, “She’s the princess’s new personal protégé.”

“S-She is?” One of them asked fearfully.

“Yes she is so you’d better scoot or you might get some royal punishment,” Dusk said gravely. The guards parted in a blink of the eye and apologized profusely to Twilight. “Hurry Twilight, we don’t want to miss this sunrise now do we?” Dusk asked.

“Yeah… we need to hurry...” Twilight said softly, in awe of Dusk’s influence, despite being only a young colt.

When they reached the observation balcony, Twilight Sparkle ran to the railing, and said to no one in particular, “So, ten seconds from now, the sun will be rising and from this angle, the rising of the sun will be at the optimum viewing range,” Dusk thought this was odd of her, but ignored it. Soon, on the horizon, Celestia’s sun began to rise, bathing the previously dark sky in a warm glow of orange and yellow.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Twilight said, her breath taken away by the sheer beauty of the sight.

“Oh it gets better,” Dusk said. Twilight turned and looked at him quizzically, “How?” She asked, “It is not in my calculations that this view could be improved.”

“Just wait and see,” Dusk said, grinning. Suddenly, as the sun left the horizon, there was a bright flash and in the distance, a beautiful ray of rainbow colored light shot skyward. Twilight was taken aback by this awesome display of colors her eyes opened as wide as possible and her jaw dropped. Dusk looked at Twilight to catch her reaction and chuckled softly when he saw it. “Now this is truly amazing,” He said calmly as the ray slowly dissipated back into orange and yellow.

“B-But h-how?” Twilight stammered.

“It’s simple,” Dusk began to explain, “From at angle of forty-five point five degrees, the light fragments out like a prism on the surface of the lake.” He pointed to a lake in the distance on the horizon.

“Thanks,” Twilight said as they turned to descend the staircase, “For helping me to get into this tower.”

“It’s nothing really,” Dusk said, “All I did was notify them of your true authority in the castle.”

“I know but that was really sweet of you to help me,” Twilight said, making Dusk blush. “You wanna hang out?”

“Sure!” Dusk replied happily and almost instantly, surprising himself and twilight with his sudden perkiness.

“Okay, how about same time same place tomorrow? ” Twilight suggested.

“Sounds fine to me,” Dusk agreed.

“It’s a date then!” She said, then suddenly leaned toward Dusk, pecked him on the cheek and ran off giggling. Dusk stood frozen in position just gently touching his cheek as if it were made of glass.

“So, what do you think of my sister?” said a voice behind Dusk, who quickly spun around to see his senior, Shining Armor, grinning. “S-Sir!” Dusk said, “I didn’t know that Twilight Sparkle was your sister!”

“Well now you know,” Shining Armor said, then leaning in really close, his face less than an inch away from Dusk’s he said dangerously soft, “I’ll allow you to date her because I know you’re a good guy but break her heart and it’ll be a dark day when I find out, are we clear?”

Dusk gulped, and, despite quaking in his boots, said, “Sir yes sir.”

“Good to know,” Shining Armor said, withdrawing and putting on a kind smile, then patting the young colt on the back, “Now hurry go get Ashley so that we can go get some grub.”

Dusk sighed in relief and walked back to his room, making a very big mental note never to piss off Shining Armor, ever.
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-One Month Later-

Dusk dashed to princess’s room as he was called on important business. Ashley, clinging onto his back for dear life, asked in a frightened voice, “Unyaf?”

“No I don’t know what it is either,” Dusk said as he strafed past a janitor pony and his mop, “All I know is that I was called for something dire.” When he reached the throne room, he flung the doors open with his magic and bowed before Princess Celestia. “Your highness, please forgive my tardiness,” Dusk apologized. “Rise Lieutenant Dusk,” Princess Celestia said, “You’re only two minutes late.”

Dusk looked up and saw Shining Armor looking regretful and sad. “What’s the problem?” Dusk asked, brushing a stray strand of red mane from his face.

“I’m sending some of the royal guard to join the war on Hoof Kong,” Princess Celestia said gravely, “The situation has gone from bad to worse and they desperately need back up. And since I cannot send Shining Armor he captain, you the lieutenant of the royal guard, I hope you understand the need for you to serve Equestria.”

“I understand fully,” Dusk said, fighting back the one part of his mind that wanted to spend time with Twilight rather than enter a war. He had been seeing her every morning since she joined Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns and they had gotten to know each other well.

“Please go to your room, don your armor and pack your necessary supplies. The war is expected to last five more years at most. I will personally look after Ashley myself.” Princess Celestia said, her body language made it extremely evident that she did not want to send the young colt into war.

“No thank you, your highness, I will bring Ashley with me. But I will leave her at the camp site.” Dusk said firmly.

“Fine, do as you wish,” Princess Celestia said, she knew that look on Dusk’s face and knew that he was not going to take no for an answer.

Suddenly, a white and blue blur shot into the room. “Please your majesty! Allow me to join in the war alongside Dusk!” Storm said as he bowed respectfully before the princess.

“I’m sorry I can’t do that Storm,” she replied, “You’re still young and have no obligation to enter the war.”

“Yes I do,” The white pegasus said adamantly, his yellow eyes blazed with determination to enlist in the war, “My best friend’s life is threatened and I want to help.”

“You’re making this very difficult,” Shining Armor said, his voice strained a little, “You’re still young with your whole life in front of you.”

“And I laid that life down for the princess when I started working here,” Storm retorted.

“He’s got a point your highness,” Dusk said, “I also personally think that he would be a great help to transport equipment from one bunker to another due to his great speed and dexterity.” Shining Armor was about to say something but Princess Celestia held up a hoof, she knew that they were not going to win this argument with the two young colts. “Fine, I will allow you to enlist in the war,” She said giving in to their requests, “Quickly go pack your things, we leave in tomorrow.”

As the two colts left the room, Princess Celestia bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood. Shining Armor noticed this. “It’s not your fault your highness,” Shining Armor said, “We couldn’t prevent their enlistment.” Princess Celestia nodded her head sadly and said, “I know, but… I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive myself lest anything happen to them.”

“Don’t worry your majesty,” Shining Armor reassured her, “I’m pretty sure Dusk and Storm can handle themselves just fine. If anything I worry for Twilight.” Shining Armor looked out to the back right tower known as Ivory Tower, then said, “She was telling me everything about her morning ‘dates’ with Dusk.”
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“I’m sorry I’m late!” Dusk cried out as he approached the observation balcony.

“It’s okay, I haven’t been waiting long,” Twilight said, “So why did you call me out here?” Dusk trotted up to her and joined by the railing.

“Twilight,” Dusk said dejectedly.

“Hmmm? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked her voice full of genuine concern. “I… I’m going to partake in the war on Hoof Kong,” Dusk replied, looking out into the distance, his dark red mane flowing in the dusk wind.

“B-But why?” Twilight asked, clearly upset by the news. “Their short-handed and Princess Celestia sent some of her royal guard to help in the war, me included.” Dusk explained, then turning to Twilight, said, “I’m sorry and I’ll understand if you hate me and nev-“

“I’ll wait,” Twilight answered, her long dark blue mane billowing out behind her. She turned to Dusk and said, “I’ll wait for five years if I have to before you come back.” Then before Dusk could say anything, she moved closer to him and looking into his red eyes, said, “Because you’re the first colt I have had feelings for,” Celestia’s sun then hit the horizon in the distance causing the phenomenal display they saw one week earlier. “I promise I will come back as soon as possible,” Dusk said, embracing her warmly.

Little did any of Dusk know, the war was going to be dragged on to last ten more years. In order to avoid thinking about Dusk during his absence, Twilight buried herself in her studies, inadvertently leaving Twilight’s memory of Dusk as nothing more than a dream, a fable, fictional. Her prince charming, always in her dreams, never to come true…