Author's Note

I will give this: a warning that some might feel uncomfortable with the scenes in this chapter. There is a reason why I did add the violence tag, and this chapter makes that a necessity. I am almost prepared to add that odd warning "Dead Dove..." but perhaps it really isn't necessary.
Read onward with caution, or skip it if you feel too uncomfortable... Much of the subject matter will be talked about in a later chapter.

IX

Later, Dusk relaxed on the bench. His belly full, and finding himself without distractions, he soon fell into a semi-dreamlike trance, his mind wandering back years before…

When Dusk had turned fourteen, he had become somewhat reclusive, his attentions mostly upon the books that he could lay hoofs on, studying the magic spells contained within the covers of such books. Mostly, however, the books served to distract him from his mother’s promiscuous acts with stallions that she would bring home.

Dusk was not too fond of her having sex with them so openly.

His mother soon took things in hoof, introducing Dusk to the pleasures of vine, hoping that Dusk would turn to finding the pursuit of the drug a way to get him more active. When she discovered that he preferred to spend his daytime simply tripping on the drug listlessly, she did something else, one that would change his life.

Not too many days later, Dusk had returned home to find his mother with another mare, one hardly older than Dusk himself. His mother introduced the pegasus mare to Dusk, and he and the pegasus mare, whose name was Summer Breeze, soon became friends. Summer stayed with Dusk and his mother, usually sleeping with his mother in her room at night initially. Yet, she soon got closer to Dusk, and not too much longer, moved into Dusk’s bedroom and slept with him, introducing him to a new pleasure: sex.

Dusk was one not to fully explore anything new, and he took to his developing fondness with Summer quickly. He began to enjoy her every chance he got, often mounting her several times each day. He more or less came out of his asocial shell for a time, and both he and the mare were usually either high on vine, or out on some date within the limits of the Downs. Summer never seemed to find Dusk silly or unbearable, despite the fact that she was older than Dusk by a year. Instead, she became both a lover and an older sibling to him.

Dusk couldn’t be any happier.

He still attempted to bury his nose in books, yet Summer’s natural charms distracted him from the books. She was too much fun not to spend all day with her. And the days turned into months as Dusk began to develop something new: love for the yellow mare and her stringy blue mane with silvery streaks in it. And each day brought the pleasures of sex with her to Dusk.

However, there came a time that Summer disappeared suddenly for several days, leaving Dusk alone during that time. Dusk became agitated, and began taking the drug more and more. He also sought Summer everywhere he could, even enlisting his close friend Rainbow Blitz to help find where Summer had strayed to.

During Dusk’s affair with the older pegasus mare, Blitz had felt left out, being shut away from his lavender-coated unicorn pal. Both Blitz and Dusk had grown up together, being friends since both had been young colts. But the pegasus mare had taken Dusk away from Blitz, and while he could feel some delight that his studious unicorn companion was getting laid regularly, it still left Blitz without Dusk’s usual nerdish attitude by his side.

Blitz had become jealous of his friend’s fascination with the mare. And thus, Blitz was loathe to search for the mare, even if his friend was quite agitated over it.

In the following days, Dusk and Blitz became closer than ever before. They returned to doing things together as before, but this time there was some other feelings behind the companionship. There was a sense of togetherness neither had expected. And the two young stallion studs were soon the talk of the Downs, drawing both into a web that they never expected, once Big Daddy took interest in the pair of teenaged colts.

Blitz and Dusk became inseparable. Soon, not only were they best friends. They became lovers, with Blitz sleeping with Dusk…

While his mother had sought to learn where his sexual orientation was, instead she had driven Dusk towards the opposite from which she desired.

* * *

By the end of the second day, Dusk felt prepared to finish this. He had spent enough time to fully open his old buried memories and display them for all to see. Though for the life of him, he still could not figure out why it was so important to the old white nag. He understood the risk involved, even if she did not.

Stupid royal pain in the rump, he snorted to himself. They always think that they can just push ponies around like some giant game of chess.

Putting away the few things he had used to help focus on himself in preparation for this, he sat on his haunches to await on the Dreamwalker princess.

After a time, Luna appeared with a bright and calming smile on her face.

“Art thou prepar’d for our shar’d dreams, young Dusk?” she asked, stepping into the cavern.

He put out the cigarette he had been smoking, then sighed. “As much as I can, Princess,” he replied with a shrug. “I have done one other thing to help you walk through my memories easier, so you don’t go astray. I will manifest as an avatar to lead you though. Will this be acceptable?”

She nodded. “Thy aid will be most welcome, Dusk,” she said, then lay upon the empty bench. “You only need relax, young colt. We will meet in thy mind anon.”

Dusk made himself comfortable on his bench, allowing his mind free rein as he relaxed his muscles. He could not tell how he drifted off into slumber, yet he nonetheless did, even if she was nearby. Still, he did ignore the fact that this version of his goddess Selene was laying on the other bench, within his reach. Instead, he concentrated on getting this silliness over with and putting this at an end so he could move onward with his life here in this crazy version of his world…

Luna soon found herself in Dusk’s mind and dreamscape, which, like so many others, was covered in fog. Although she wanted to start on this, she waited for a time, which soon proved to be best, as an odd thing soon appeared: a disk with a face, the disk in lavender color. A pair of large eyes peered at her from the face, and a toothy grin. But what truly made it odd was that it stood upright on two spaghetti-like legs which ended with what could only be described as some kind of hoof-shoe, Two other limbs were on either side, the limbs not meant to stand upon, but rather to manipulate things. These limbs ended with what appeared to be a kind of white shoe? No, sock? Glove?

“Hiya, Princess!” the thing merrily said. “Glad ta see you made it here. Shall we go?”

“What are you?” Luna asked then, her ears twisting backward.

The disk paused and looked up at her, only to suddenly float up to her eye level. “I’m me, Dreamwalker. Don’t you like my avatar?”

“Nay, young Dusk,” she replied quickly. “’Tis strange, but somewhat curious. Leadest onward, colt.”

She followed the disk creature for a few steps, yet he paused at a point and turned to peer up at her. “I think that this should start off,” he explained. “My most recent memory that I buried here.”

Once he stopped speaking, the ground fog rolled back revealing a curious scene. It was obviously evening, and she stood in what appeared to be a central square that was dominated by a fabulous fountain. She only briefly noted a pair of ponies sitting by the fountain, yet Luna took the time to examine the fountain itself. A gloriously remarkable sculpture it was: a trio of ponies facing outward, each rearing up as if in defense, their forelegs curled as if ready to strike out. Each of the ponies, one each of all three tribes, was incredibly detailed so precisely, they seemed alive. Luna could almost hear the pony sculptures, so exact was the features on each. However, no water sprang from each pony’s mouth, and the basin where water once collected was stained and discolored. Even more shocking to her was that all three ponies had been desecrated and vandalized with numerous obscene graffiti marks, some too horrendous to her very mind. In particular, the pegasus figure bore a phrase that truly made her blush furiously with embarrassment, enough for her to look away in disgust.

She looked down at the two ponies sitting close to the fountain, and what she was made her feel compassion then. It was alicorn Dusk, and he was holding onto another pony that was motionless, and perhaps deceased. Dusk was rocking back and forth, crying and murmuring to his expired companion. This other was light in color and a pegasus, and a sudden flash of lightning revealed the deceased pony as cyan in color with a tail of rainbow colors.

Luna glanced to disk Dusk with a raised eyebrow. “He wasn’t supposed to be in the way,” disk Dusk explained grimly. “But, you know, Blitz was always so impulsive. I never meant to kill him.”

The fog returned again, shrouding that scene. “Come, Dreamwalker,” disk Dusk said brightly. “Shall we move on? We must hurry before, you know.”

Still affected by that what she had just witnessed, Luna silently followed the jauntily skipping disk figure several paces in the thick ground fog until it paused again, and didn’t bother to look back to Luna, but the fog lifted again to reveal a dark street once again at night. Two ponies were seen nearby, and it became quickly clear that they were not friends. One was a teenaged Dusk, before he became alicorn, and he was using his front legs and hoofs to beat at the other whom Luna could not see. Dusk was yelling obscenities at the other, but then pulled back as the one he had been mistreating fell on the sidewalk before him at his hind legs, one Luna was certain she should know, but couldn’t recall the name of. She watched as Dusk turned to walk away, but then planted a kick at the fallen one’s muzzle, then disappeared into the night.

The fog again covered the scene, and disk Dusk moved onward without comment. They trod on several paces, only to pass another scene that the fog revealed, one which the disk did not pause at, but kept moving, What Luna caught was a younger Dusk sitting on the ground with a stallion leaning against a wall over Dusk, making a motion very clear to her. The stallion was using Dusk—

She turned away in disgust. That an adult would do such to a colt was beyond belief.

Luna snorted, bothered by these dark memories, yet she kept her counsel to herself. These were his memories, and it became clear to her why he had locked these away. Such ugliness was beyond her perception of how ponies can be so cruel. Yet that first scene she had seen was curious. What was his motivation for pushing that particular memory amongst all of these other memories? It was clear that he held some importance to that other pegasus.

They moved onward for several paces until the fog again lifted. Here, Luna’s ears suddenly went erect. She had heard something. The scene before them was an abandoned warehouse, and her hearing had picked up a cry from within. Again, the scene appeared to be deserted, but the cry had come from somewhere. And disk Dusk was curiously silent. Indeed, her escort had suddenly disappeared.

There was a chill in the air here, and like the other scenes, this one also was at night. The warehouse looked empty, and had seen some damage taken over the years of disuse. Then, she heard a cry again which sounded as if from within. The cry was unmistakably from pain, and she trotted forward, quickly moving past the outside of the warehouse and through its dilapidated walls. What she saw then gave her pause.

The floor of the warehouse was empty, yet there were ponies within. One stood apart, ignoring the group further away. This lone pony was the same one that Dusk had abused in that earlier scene she witnessed, a mare, she now understands. A gray mare, not unlike that of Twilight Sparkle’s mother.

Luna turned away from that one, as she didn’t seem at any risk, nor was she crying, but seemed disinterested. Luna looked to the others, noting that they were a tight group of stallions in the far corner, and several of the stallions even appeared to be clad in noble’s clothing. Approaching them slowly, she again heard a plea and an anguished cry from within the knot of ponies. Edging close, she then observed something that truly made her stomach turn, chilling her to her very core and bones: a young Dusk, hardly older than four or five, being so brutally used by these stallions—

Luna turned away quickly and began to run out from the warehouse and back into the night. All she could think about was how Dusk was still sane after experiencing all of these tragedies and ugly sexual abuse. It did now fit that he seemed so sarcastic in the way he views others.

As again the fog shrouded everything once more, Luna paused and searched for her odd companion, wondering if she should move onward. Her ears twisted about, seeking anything where it might have gone. And, just as she was about to start off in the direction where she thought they had come, the small disk thing appeared, visibly shaken and appearing to be in some distress.

“We must go now, Dreamwalker!” he told her in adamant terms. “Run!”

He was obviously agitated, and the face on the little disk creature dad seem as if in pain. Even as she began to move onward in the direction the disk pointed, she noted that the creature was beginning to distend, as if trying vainly to hold back something that was attempting to burst through. Her pace quickened, yet before she had gone more than a few steps, disk Dusk cried out desperately, as if in pain:

“You must go, NOW! Run! You cannot help me!”

She saw that by this point, it was no longer a disk, but had become horribly misshapen into something else, something beyond any comprehension. Spikes had appeared, along with tentacles waving about from what had been Dusk’s avatar. He was becoming a vision of something nightmarish, so horrible to her that she was suddenly frozen by the thing that it was becoming.

Even frozen, somewhere in her mind knew what to do: she didn’t bother to run. Instead, she immediately pulled out from Dusk’s mind and back into reality. Turning to peer at Dusk opposite from her, Luna realized that he was indeed fighting off something that he had contained within himself. The pony that he was now twisted and writhed on the bench, his wings extended and flopped about uselessly. He turned upon his backside, legs kicking frenetically as his form was altering into what she had briefly espied in his mind.

Chilled by the sudden transforming thing she was seeing. Luna teleported herself from the cavern.

“SISTER! I NEED YOU HERE!”

She glanced back and was now fully afraid of what she saw…