Opportunity of a Lifetime

Chapter 20: Dusk’s Rage

Dusk begins to stress out, knowing that Fluttershy is in danger. He knows that he had to find her before anything bad happens to her, because Dusk’s 6th sense is always right. Every time his sense went off, and he didn’t do anything about it, then something bad would happen. Either immediately, or eventually, but it is usually both.

He needs to leave the house, but before that, he had to talk to Angel quickly.

“Angel, I need to go out for a bit, so I need you to put all of the vegetable that we didn’t use back in the cupboard. If you do that, then you can have all of the carrot that I chopped up.” When Dusk finishes, Angel hops towards the various foods and packs them up.

Dusk, satisfied that Angel won’t be following him, ran out of the house, and towards the Sweet Apple Acres. He notices that Celestia’s sun is just about to fall below the horizon, and that Luna’s moon is slowly rising in the sky.

He frantically knocks at the door of the farmhouse, praying that Fluttershy is still safe inside. When Applejack opens the door, Dusk quickly asks, “Is Fluttershy there?”

“Ah’m sorry Dusk, but she left to go to Ponyville about 20 minutes ago.”

“Celestia damn it, thanks for telling me Applejack!” He yells. He runs toward the direction of the town, as fast as he could go. He is running faster than usual, because of his ‘Level 2 Anger’.

“Ah think that stallion has finally gone mad.” Applejack says to herself.

As Dusk runs towards the town, he starts to wonder where he should look. He thinks for a little bit.

‘Where would Shy be right now. All of the shops are closed now, and nopony is outside right now. Just a small group of stallions that I can see. Everypony would be inside now because-’

Dusk then gets an idea where Fluttershy could be. [cue music]

‘Of course, she would be at one of her friend houses. But why would she want to stay at a friend’s if she told me that she was back home soon. Well, I guess the first stop is at the Carousel Boutique.' He runs towards Rarity’s home and frantically knocks on the door.

Rarity answers the door and begins to speak. “I’m sorry sir but the Carousel Boutique is clos- Dusk? Well hello-”

“Is Fluttershy inside?” He hastily asks.

“No, why would-” Rarity stops her sentence when she sees Dusk running away from her house.

‘Oh no, where could she be? Maybe she’s at Twilight’s place’

By the time Dusk arrives at the door of the library, the sun had disappeared with the moon taking its place. It is quite dark now. He quickly knocks on the door, and Twilight eventually answers.

“Oh hey Dusk, talk about deja vu-”

“Is Fluttershy inside your house?”

“No, why would she be?”

Dusk doesn’t answer the question, as he has run away from her house, like he had done with Rarity. He thinks of where else she could of gone.

‘So I’ve already checked Applejack’s, Rarity’s and Twilight’s house, but there is still Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. I can’t really check at Rainbow’s house, because I would need to fly, so the last place is the Sugarcube Corner...’

He runs towards the bakery, and starts to feel fatigued. It seems that the small adrenaline rush has finally worn off, and he is now feeling the effects from running everywhere. He walks up to the door, and gives a weak knock. The door opens almost a second later, but Dusk isn’t shocked by the sudden opening. He is too stressed out to care. The pink pony who opened the door starts speaking.

“Oh, hiya Dusky, are you here to try out my new super special-”

Dusk puts his hoof in front of her, to silence her and starts talking, “Is Fluttershy inside with you?”

“Of course not Dusky...” Dusk turns around to leave.

“...but she came here before so she could buy some cupcakes and then go home, and even though the shop was closed when she came here, I let her in anyway and gave her the cupcakes for free. *GASP* Don’t tell Mr or Mrs Cake that I did that, or that might come out of my pay, Pinkie Pie promise?”

Dusk left the store saying, “Thanks for the info Pinkie.”

As Dusk walks on the street, Pinkie approaches him. “You didn’t Pinkie Pie promise.”

“I don’t have the time.”

“I won’t let you go until you Pinkie Pie promise.

Anger levels rising... “Just let me go Pinkie,” His voice begins to get louder. “It is really important.”

“Still need to promise.” Bugs Pinkie.

Dusk lets out a frustrated yell, and begins to rub his temples.

‘She not going to let me go, is she. Well, I need to remember what Shy told me about the Pinkie Pie promise.’

“Cross my heart and hope to fly... uhm... stick a cupcake in my eye.” He doesn’t bother doing the motions.

“OK good Dusky, see ya later.”

“Finally.”

“Maybe I don’t need to worry about Fluttershy, she could of just gone home by now, and maybe the 6th sense was wrong. Yeah, that’s probably it.” Dusk says to nopony in particular.

As he gets onto the path towards her house, he hears a loud, earpiecing scream from the lake... a loud , earpiercing scream, which Dusk recognises as Fluttershy.

He runs as fast as he can towards the nearby lake, and is shocked at what he sees...

Point of View: Fluttershy

“Come on baby, me and my friends just want a bit of fun.” Says the largest stallion.

Fluttershy is too scared to respond. She is near the edge of the lake, and she is surrounded by four unknown stallions. There are two pegasi and two earth ponies, who had approached her while she was walking back home with the cupcakes. All four stallions each held a knife in their holsters.

“Um... no thank you. I... I just w-want to go back home... if you d-don’t mind that is...” She responds timidly.

“Oh, but we do mind, we wouldn’t like you to leave so soon without getting a nice buck from me and my friends.” Says the leader of the group. They slowly get closer to the frightened mare.

“Oh... um... you can’t. C-Can you just l-let me go home... please.” Fluttershy begins to cry

“No can do toots, let get her boys.” Says their leader. They are almost an forearms length away.

Fluttershy tries to fly away, but her wings won’t budge, she is too scared to move. One of the stallions viciously grab her, and then they all hear a loud yell, from nearby. Fluttershy and the stallions look at the enraged Dusk. The iris’s of his eyes were glowing red, and there was a very unsettling aura emanating from him.

Point of View: Dusk

‘So, increased heart beat, slowed time and urge to kill. Level 4 Anger, I haven’t felt like this in a long time.’

“YOU WILL NOT TOUCH FLUTTERSHY! I WILL BUCKING KILL YOU!” Yells Dusk.

He begins to charge at the group of stallions with uncontrolled rage, knowing that they are armed with knives. The smallest earth pony of the group takes out his knife and prepares to attack. Dusk is still charging at the first stallion, who starts swinging his knife at Dusk’s head. Time slows down for Dusk, as he sees that the weapon is about 10 centimetres away from his face, so he puts his head low enough to completely avoid the knife and makes contact with the stallion. He staggers backwards and drops his knife, and as he tries to pick it up, he get bucked in the face with a sickening crack and falls onto the ground unconscious.

The leader of the group sends the two pegasi to deal with Dusk, who both get out their weapons and fly into the air. They dive onto Dusk, cutting him with their knives at each successful pass. Dusk curses himself for not being able to fly, but counts himself lucky that he can’t feel the pain. On the fifth pass, the smaller pegasus flies too low, and Dusk stands on his hindlegs and punches him in the face, knocking him onto the ground. As he tries to fly, Dusk grabs his wing, and snaps it, and he howls in pain.

Dusk simply says “That howl is annoying.” when he bucks the second stallion into unconsciousness.

The large pegasus lands on the ground, obviously getting impatient of his former strategy. He stands on his hing legs, (with assistance from his wings) and gets into a fighting stance. Dusk charges at the stallion, but gets knocked over, when he gets punched in the face. He get back up and charges again, with similar results. He starts to feel a small pain from his small wounds, but ignores them. He charges for a third time, but as the large stallion readies himself for a third punch, Dusk sidesteps, and knocks him over with the massive cast on his wing, which is quite hard. Dusk bucks the stallion in the face, but he winds Dusk by hitting him in the gut. The stallion grabs the knife from the ground, and readies himself for the kill, when Dusk quickly kicked his hind leg, distracting the stallion, and he bucked the surprised stallion in the face, finally knocking him out.

The leader is the only conscious gang member, and he has his knife in his mouth. Dusk charges at the stallion, but is stopped when the earth pony sidesteps and forces his knife into Dusk’s side. Dusk yells in pain, as the knife sticks into his body. It stops Dusk’s adrenaline filled frenzy, as he now feels the immense pain of his knife wounds and bruises. He falls onto the ground, succumbing to the pain. His vision is slowly becoming darker, his breath is ragged and he was in immense pain.

‘I’m sorry Fluttershy...’

The leader walks away and approaches Fluttershy, who could just yell “DUSK!” before crying even harder than before.

‘...can’t die now, must save her.’

Dusk slowly forces himself up, with is head throbbing, his breath weak and he was staggering on the ground. The last stallion pushes Fluttershy on the ground, while Dusk picks up a dropped knife. He hobbles towards the stallion with the knife.

Dusk uses the last of his energy to stand on his hindlegs, with the knife held in his two forehooves. He yells at the stallion, who turns around with his eyes dilating. Dusk forces the knife into his back, and they both fall on the ground.

Fluttershy runs over to Dusk and gives him a big hug, while crying on his shoulder. The semi conscious Dusk feels the tears fall down his back, and says to her.

“I need *ragged breath* you to take me to *ragged breath* the hospital.” [stop music]

Edit: I really love the choice in music for this chapter.