Death City

Back again with another update. Right now, I want to apologies to Dieter N. because of my fatal mistake on redesigning the character Blur in this story. Apparently, I didn’t write him the correct way so I will leave him out of the next few chapters or I will even make him begin to appear less and less until I get to the certain point where I am able to change his characteristics completely. I know that sounds complex, but just go along with it. Right now, we are at one of my favorite parts of the story, the part where everypony finally find Dusk. Let’s see what happens.

Chapter 19 – Memories of a Tragic Youth

“Dusk!” Fluttershy had yelled, charging towards the black Pegasus. Apparently, Dusk had heard this and lifted his head which was previously aimed towards the ground.

“Shadow?” Dusk asked himself, looking towards the yellow mare who was galloping towards him. Before he even got the chance to even rub his eyes and to confirm that what he was seeing was actually real, Fluttershy had tackled him into a large hug. She had squeezed herself through the wide metal bars and had pushed him into the metallic wall of the cell, standing up on her back two hooves and using her front two hooves to tightly wrap Dusk in her hoofs. Being separated from her true love for so long, Fluttershy couldn’t help herself from embracing him. Suddenly enjoying this, Dusk had soon wrapped his hoofs around Fluttershy as well, confirming that he had also deeply missed her too. Taking it to the next level, Fluttershy began leaning her head into Dusks chest, resting it on him. Because of this, Dusk began stroking Fluttershys soft, luscious pink mane with his one free hoof. He had missed the feel of the soft, silkiness of her hair. All the rest of the group could do was look at the two in adornment. A couple of awws from the mares had echoed through the hallway.

The two ponies had embraced each other for a full minute. Soon, Fluttershy had pulled away and had gotten back on all four of her hooves. The same thing with Dusk. A deep shade of red had made its way onto Fluttershys yellow cheek, which was able to stand out across her entire face. As the two had become separated, all Dusk could do was look into Fluttershys eyes. He had missed that specific feature of her from being separated from her for such a long period of time. Fluttershy began doing the exact same thing. There was a moment of silence as everypony began preventing themselves from ruining the moment. Even Pinkie had a hard time keeping quiet sometimes, but knew it was an important moment to them. This was until Snake had ruined it for the entire group.

“Umm, guys?” He had grabbed the attention of everypony, even Fluttershy and Dusk. “We kinda have to go now, unless you wanna get detected.” Snake said, pointing a hoof to where he assumed the exit was.

“SNAKE!” Twilight had yelled. “What have you done?! You just think whatever you want to say, that you can just say it!” Twilights tone began to get louder and louder as she became more worked up over Snake. “Now because of you, you not only ruined the moment for them,” Twilight screamed, pointing a hoof towards Fluttershy and Dusk. “But also for everypony else in this room!” Twilights rage began getting the best of her as she began constantly yelling at Snake. This was until Blur had chipped in, defending Snake.

“Uh, actually Twilight.” Blur spoke up. “We really do have to go now. Guards usually check each and every of the cells between half hour intervals.”

“Oh, heh.” A very embarrassed Twilight had responded. She had hung her head low and began trotting backwards in to the group of starring eyes.

“Ok then.” Blur began speaking to the group of ponies in front of him, taking charge for the first time. “There’s a room approximately a mile down this hallway to the left.” Blur instructed, pointing his front hoof to the hallway to the left. “The room contains new prototypes of shuttle launchers, or to you Equestrains as space pods. But don’t worry. The launchers have been tested a variety of times and are in every way possible considered safe.” A large amount of breath exhales coming from the group had emanated around the somewhat stony room. From this, Blur had begun trotting down the hall he had mentioned would take them to the shuttle launchers room. This was until Blur had realized nopony was following. Right before leaving the room into the long hallway, he had turned his head to find himself starring at countless blank faces behind him. Everypony had been holding the same facial expression, none. “I think you didn’t hear me clearly enough.” Blur had said while clearing his own throat. “ONWARD!” He had yelled. The result of this was everypony galloping behind him as he led the group. At the back of the group was none other than Fluttershy and Dusk as they began trotting at a slow steady pace. The two began to catch up on how life had been for them without the other. Fluttershy was the first of the two to speak.

“So, Dusk.” She began to spoke, her loving and caring voice ringing in Dusks ears. “How come when you were able to escape when I was gone, you never did such a thing? Was it because you didn’t want to see me anymore.” A saddened Fluttershy had added to her previous statement, hiding a fraction of her face behind her mane. Dusk was quick to the point and had responded to Fluttershys question before things had gotten worse.

“No, no!” Dusk shouted, refusing Fluttershys guess about him. “I like you just, wait, MORE than anything ever. You truly mean the world to me and I couldn’t even think of one possible way to live without you.” Dusk by now had used his front hoof to brush out the pink hair hanging down from Fluttershys face. Looking underneath, he could see that Fluttershy had been smiling underneath.

“But that still doesn’t answer my question.” Fluttershy spoke again, this time lifting her head once more till it was angled at the same height as Dusk. “Why didn’t you escape? How come you sacrificed your own life and soul just for me to be safe? How come you didn’t later on escape at all, even though you knew how to get out of here?” Fluttershy began asking questions out of thin air like she was some sort of robot whose priority was to ask questions constantly. This caused Dusk to think back to the past, to the day in which he had lost Fluttershy forever, or that’s what he thought.

Flashback:

Location: Ark

Time: 4:20p.m.

Wait For Me - Rise Against (open link in new tab)

Launching into the room like a bullet, Dusk had thrown himself, along with Fluttershy, into the shuttle launcher room. What was supposed to be an area containing tons of space pods had been completely empty. All the escape pods were missing. All, but one.

Do you see the world in different colors?

Do you see the world in black and gray?

Alone in your thoughts, how many others,

have stood where you stand, where you stand today?

I've stood where you stand

But all, can you...

Wait for me now?

Take off this crown

To break all these vows

Don't you know?

Wait for me now

Airs running out

Wait for me, wait for me

Wait for me, wait for me now

In the center of the room had contained what looked like a cylinder tube. Dusk knew from there that it was a space pod. The only problem was there was only one left. The space pods were only designed to carry no more than one pony inside of them. They had been somewhat thin and it would be impossible for two ponies to fit inside one of them, no matter what the size of the two ponies were. Realizing that only one would make it out alive, Dusk had turned to Fluttershy and began starring into her eyes once more. Fluttershy was just a filly at the time and Dusk was no older too. It soon hit Fluttershy what Dusk was about to do as she also had looked around the room, seeing only one escape pod was available. Fluttershy began begging for Dusk not to do on what he was planning, but it was already too late.

The promise of safe return undelivered

The ocean is wider than I first guessed

When roads disappeared, I followed the rivers

But somehow got in over my head

So a deep breath I’m taking

Wait for me now

Take off this crown

To break all these vows

Don't you know?

Wait for me now

Airs running out

Wait for me, wait for me

Wait for me, wait for me now

Dusk had pushed her into the last escape pod and had shut the door quickly, before Fluttershy had any chance of escaping. The door was only made for being opened from the outside or when the pod had reached the ground from the inside. Fluttershy had to stand up on her two back hooves in order for her to be able to fit nicely into the pod. She pressed her front hooves against the glass as she began looking at Dusk with what seemed to be tearful eyes. Dusk had soon done the same. Getting up on his hind hooves and placing his front two hooves directly in front of Fluttershys hooves, he began looking at her the same way too.  The only thing separating the two was the glass of the pod. Suddenly, Dusk had learned his head inward so it layer onto the glass. Fluttershy had done the same exact thing. All of a sudden, the loud sound of galloping was heard between the two. As both ponies turned their heads towards the source of the sounds, they found none other than more guard ponies charging towards them. Dusk knew that he had to act quickly or Fluttershy would also be doomed along with him.

A lost dream of what could have been

A house on fire, a tangled web

The key turns to find the locks have changed

In time to hear the back door slam

A sound that to this day I can't forget

The colors drained to black and gray

Charging towards the activation switch at the edge of the room with all the glass overlooking the deeps of space, Dusk began feeling an intense pain in his lower left leg. Apparently, the incision of where the bullet had hit him before had begun acting up again, causing pain into his leg. Ignoring it, he had made it to the control panel with the switch that was able to get Fluttershy off the Ark. The switch that was able to change Fluttershys life forever.

Wait for me now

Take off this crown

To break all these vows

Don't you know?

Wait for me now

The airs running out

Wait for me, wait for me

Looking back at Fluttershy for the last time, Dusk had looked eyes with her, a tear shedding from his eye and falling down his cheek. Right as the guards were about to tackle Dusk to the ground, he had pulled the trigger, releasing Fluttershy from the Ark forever. The escape pod had fell out of the Ark as Dusk had fell to the ground. The guards had soon captured him and had gotten up, restraining his hoofs with their tight grip. Closing his eyes and accepting his future fate, Dusk had said one last thing to Fluttershy in the distance.

“Sayonara, Shadow” His words rang as he was soon taken away out of the shuttle launcher room by the guards of the Ark. Sadness had consumed his entire body as he knew that he would be alone for the rest of his life. Or, that was what he thought.

Wait for me, wait for me now

Present:

As the thought of Dusks last experience with Fluttershy on the Ark as little ponies flowed through his mind, he had soon snapped out of his daydream as Blur had spoken up again.

“We’re here.” He announced calmly to the group. The rest of the group had stood in place as they all inspected the launcher room. It had hit Dusk that he had been daydreaming about his past the entire time.

Stepping up to the front of the group, Dusk had gotten a glimpse of the room for himself. To his surprise, it had appeared the same exact way as how it appeared to him in his daydream. On one side of the room was full of glass, which was the only thing separating the inside of the Ark with the never-ending deeps of space. On the other side were all the space pods. To his recall, last time Dusk had been in this place, all the space pods had been taken and were all empty. The only difference of the room was that the space pod in the middle had been taken out for some particular reason.  But Dusk didn’t care one bit. There were still enough space pods for everypony to use to escape the Ark.

Turning back to the group, Dusk had said a few final words before the group was able to leave. “Alright, let’s do this!” With that, everypony had charged to a different space pod and had closed the screen door shield in front of them. As Dusk put himself into a space pod, a very vital question had rung through his mind.

“Who was going to stay behind and launch all the space pods themselves?”

Finished with chapter 19. This chapter took me a while to write, not to mention how much it hurt to write. Still looking for new OC’s and songs to put into this story. The flashback scene was only a prototype of my later story “Shadow Origins”, a lovingly desperate tail of how Shadow was created and had lost everything that she so deired. Also, the song used in this chapter was Wait For Me by Rise Against. That’s right, I’m not finished using their songs yet. Not much to say rather than review sooooo, review! :D