"Mother, do you really have to go?"
At this point in time Dusk was trying to convince his mother, Clover, Not to go report her findings of magic with Starswirl to the Royal sisters, so she could stay with him and his sister, Dawn, on their simultaneous birthdays.
"Yes, little one, you know how important these reports are," Came the stern reply of Clover, as she continued , however, her tone softened, " Do not worry Dusk I'll be back in time for your birthday, and your Uncle Starswirl will come as well."
Starswirl was not actually Dusk's uncle, of course, he was just close enough to their family he might as well be in it.
Dusk's expression brightened at the mention of Starswirl, "Really?" He asked hopefully.
She nodded, " Of course, he wouldn't miss it for the world," She said," I must go now, keep watch on your sister for me, ok?"
Dusk smiled and uttered a "Yes Ma'am" , as his mother quickly trotted for the door.
As soon as Clover left the building, Dusk's face fell.
He sighed as he made his way to his sisters room where she was still sound asleep.
Why does this happen every year? He thought to himself.It's like the princesses are trying to mess up my birthdays.
As he was lost in thought, he didn't realize he was close to his sister's room until he ran muzzle first into it.
"Ow." He exclaimed as he rubbed his muzzle with a hoof.
The commotion he caused must have woken his sister, as she had opened the door and was currently looking down at her brother.
"Are you all right?" she asked, though her tone made he sound preoccupied, as if she were looking for something, or for that matter somepony.
Probably mother. Dusk thought to himself.
" Yes, Dawn, I'm fine" Came the swift reply of Dusk, though he felt as if he had fractured his muzzle.
As his sister left her room she looked around, confused.
" Where's mother?"She asked , but the look on her face told Dusk she already knew the answer to that.
"She's off to the Princesses castle to give her report." Dusk replied and , as he had expected, her face fell as his had moments ago.
She frowned and kicked her hoof on the wooden floor of the house.
"Why does this always happen?" She asked her voice wavering, Dawn was almost as mature as Dusk , which admittedly was quite mature for an eight-year-old, but that didn't stop her from throwing a small tantrum every now and then and this looked to be one of those times.
Dusk, not wanting to have to handle a screaming Dawn, quickly tried to change the subject.
"So, what do you want to d-?" he began, but was interrupted by a swift knocking on the houses door.
Instantly all signs of Dawn breaking out into a tantrum halted and she began to speak with hope shining through her voice,"Could that be mother?"
Not waiting for an answer she began to make way to the door, but was stopped by Dusk who held a hoof out to stop her.
Listening intently he waited for the next flurry of knocks, and ten seconds later the same three knocks came.
His mother wouldn't even bother knocking, as she had a key to the house, and Starswirl would have at least waited twenty seconds to knock again.
He didn't know this pony.
To be fair, Dusk didn't know very many ponies as no one visited his house, as it was practically in the middle of nowhere, and there weren't exactly very many fillies and colts to meet in the middle of nowhere.
The knocking came again, but this time it was louder than before.
"That's it," Dawn began," I'm going to see who that is."
Before Dusk could stop her, Dawn pushed her way passed his hoof and galloped to the door. From that point on everything seemed to go in slow motion.
When Dawn was about three yards away for the door, it exploded inwards sending splinters and debris everywhere.
A reasonably large piece of wood shot out and sent a rather old vase crashing to the floor. A pony with a rainbow mane brushed backwards and a black coat shot inward from the doorway followed by two other ponies with the same mane and coat color.
The first one that entered was a bit larger than the other two and had a rather large scar from the base of his muzzle that continued down passed his mouth and ended at his chin. He didn't seem phased at all from running straight through the door and took in his surroundings. As he did he seemed to notice Dusk and Dawn, who had backed up behind Dusk through all the commotion, for the first time. He smiled and looked to the other two ponies that followed him in.
"Get 'im." He simply stated.
Before Dusk could blink the two ponies were on them, holding them in place with their extremely powerful wings.
As soon as the two rainbow maned Pegasus ponies had Dawn and Dusk in their grasp the third one began to walk up to them
"Well, lookie what we have here," He began his voice full of sadistic joy,"two ponies of the fabled Sparkle clan, I was okay with just ransacking the place, but you two, oh-ho, you two would cause quite the impact if you were to, say, up and dissapear out of nowhere wouldn't you."
Both Dusk and Dawn were so scared they didn't have the ability to move, much less talk.
The biggest Pegasus looked down on both of them eyes shifting from one to the other, and the smile that played on his lips began to grow larger. That put an uneasy feeling in Dusk's stomach.
Why is this happening to me? he practically thought that question so loud in his mind that he wouldn't be surprised if the other ponies around him heard it.
"But," he began joy even more evident in his tone,"we only need one of you to start that, and we wouldn't want extra luggage, now would we?"
He looked over to the Pegasus holding Dawn and his voice became serious." Hand her over."
The Pegasus quickly obeyed and tossed Dawn over to him and she landed with a small "Oof."
The Pegasus smiled and picked her up with his wings, except this time he was holding her around the neck.
He looked to Dusk who's eyes were being forced open by the Pegasuses wings who had just held Dawn.
"Any last words to your dearest sister?" he asked feigning sadness. As soon as he realized what the Pegasus was doing horror set it even more than it already had.
"No?" he asked, he shrugged,"fine with me." As he said this his wings visibly tightened around Dawn's neck turning her dark purple fur around his wings a violent shade of red.
As this happened she uttered one phrase that unknown to anypony in the room, including her, would save her life and change her brother's.
"Brother, please, help me."
As soon as that phrase was spoken all the horror, the fear, and the sadness pent up inside Dusk all changed to anger. Anger for the ponies responsible for this, anger to his mother for not leaving him with any protection, and anger for the princesses for not noticing what was happening just outside their castle grounds.
Suddenly the wings around him loosened and Dawn's captor's sadistic smile turned into a scared smile, and for a moment Dusk was confused, but then he saw his reflection in a mirror just beyond the biggest Pegasus. His reflection was horrifying.
His usual flat, dark, and teal blue mane was now billowing black as if it were a shadow. His coat, usually dark blue, was now jet black. His eyes, oh his eyes were the worst part ,usually royal blue, they were now blood red with shrunken pupils that were now catlike.
Seeing his reflection caused a flashback of a story his mother used to tell him when it was time to go to sleep.
Flashback
Long ago before the reign of the two pony sisters the-. Clover was interrupted as Dusk, five years old at the time, asked his first question of many.
"There was a time before the royal pony sisters?" he asked.
His mother nodded, "Yes little one, and it was a horrible time indeed, for chaos roamed the land freely. Now will you let me continue without any more interruptions?" Dusk nodded and she continued.
As I was saying, long ago before the rule of the two pony sisters, there was another ruler. His name was Discord.
Discord was the spirit of chaos and caused it wherever he went. Nopony was brave enough or strong enough to stand up to him, so he ruled on. Until two clans of different races of ponies decided enough was enoug-. She was interrupted yet again as Dusk asked another question. "Who where the clans?" he asked.
"I'm getting to that." she said.
Anyway, they decided enough was enough, so they stood up and fought him. Their clans were the Sparkles and the Thunderwings. Their battle lasted for many days and all seemed lost for the two clans. Discord was just too strong. That was until the two pony sisters came into the battle.
The two royal pony sisters came from out of nowhere, nopony knew who they were or why they were helping them but they did know that they were a special breed of pony. The only two that ever existed infact. So it came as surprise to all when the two sisters harnessed the power of a special artifact, now known as the Elements of Harmony, turned Discord to stone.
Dusk cheered.
But all was not well before the transformation into stone was complete, Discord cast three curses on the two Clans of ponies that stood up to them. One curse turned the Pegasuses mane and tail colors to rainbow even on the stallions! Another curse made them bitter to all the other races, especially the Sparkle family. The last curse was sent upon the Sparkle family. Nopony knew what he did to them, that is until one of them got very angry. As soon as one of the ponies of the clan got angry his mane and tail tuned to water but stayed on his head, his tail did the same thing. His eyes and coat turned blue and his magic powers increased tenfold.
Dusk gasped, "Why did it do that?" Asked dusk.
"Because," She began," the curse that Discord put on them made them, when extremely angry, morph into their favorite element, he probably did this because he thought he could turn them against the two pony sisters, but he didn't have enough time to do cast that curse.
End Flashback
Dusk smiled at his reflection, but then suddenly his eyes, once red, began to glow a brilliant white and his horn began to glow blue, as it would when he was casting a spell.
Suddenly the largest Pegasus screamed to the other two, "His horn! Hit his horn! But it was too late.
Dusk had already lost control of his magic powers, and when that happens to anypony who was even moderately good at casting spells even Celestia wouldn't know what could happen.
The first one to be effected was the one holding Dawn. First it was as simple as his fur turning pink. Then his grip on Dawn softened until he let go entirely Next he flew across the room straight into the mirror which shattered on impact. Finally Dusk cast a sleep spell on him which wouldn't allow him to wake up for a matter of days.
The next to go was the one who held Dawn in the first place. He was first turned into a Chihuahua with rainbow fur. Then he was turned into a potted plant. Finally the potted plant suddenly got rainbow petals.
Finally the one who was holding Dusk got his turn. Only two things happened to him. The first thing that happened was the comedic side of Dusk talking. Quills flew out of draws and dipped themselves in ink before flying over to the last Pegasus standing and drawing a mustache and glasses. Then the same sleep spell that was cast on Dawn's captor was cast on him and he soon slipped into a deep sleep.
Finally Dusk's eyes stopped glowing and he fell to the floor in a heap, gasping for air. He was now back to normal, and all his shadow aspects were gone. Before he passed out Dusk noticed a bright flash near his flank.
Little did he know that a full moon with a royal blue six pronged star in the middle had appeared on his blank flank.
