Dusk

“Morning, Dusk!”

Ugh he groaned, faceplanting on the table. Earth Ponies got up so early. Had they seriously never heard of sleep?

An Earth Pony walked up to Dusk and shook him on the back. His golden mane was thick and perfectly straight on his head. He was wearing a simple, white shirt with thick, dark blue pants.

“I’ve been getting’ up this early since I was even younger than you.”

Dusk moaned again. “Frumentum, the sun’s not even fully up yet. Why should we be?”

Frumentum chuckled and lifted Dusk’s head off the table.

“Come on. Even Oryza’s awake, let’s head into the fields.”

Reluctantly, Dusk followed Frumentum outside.

As he exited his house, Dusk looked around. The small, wooden homes of the Earth Pony village were spaced out every fifty feet or so along the main road. He and Frumentum ambled at a leisurely pace up the road.

As they came near the large fields of the village, the ponies working stopped to look at them.

Dusk knew this look well, and it was certainly not common to receive it. It was the You’re-a-Unicorn-and-you-shouldn’t-be-here look he would get whenever he went outside his adoptive family’s house. No big deal.

“Come on,” Frumentum gestured to Dusk. “Oryza, mom, and dad are near the back.”

They walked through the soft, golden rows of wheat that flooded the field.

“Hey, everypony!” Frumentum yelled as they neared the backs of the field.

The three ponies looked up from their work.

“Well, look who finally got out of bed,” the older mare said.

Dusk rolled his eyes and grumbled.

“You Earth Ponies get up at a ridiculous time.”

The older stallion chuckled.

“You’ve been here for a year, now. Early to bed, early to rise makes a stallion healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

Dusk smiled faintly. “Just hand me a scythe and we’ll get going.”

“Actually, we’re almost done. Why don’t you and Oryza take the day off?”

A small filly with a pale white coat walked up to Dusk and smiled at him.

Dusk smiled wider. “Sure. Wouldn’t hurt to spend some time with my little sister.” He rubbed the top of her already-messy mane jokingly. They turned away and walked through the grain back to the road.

“Dusk?” Oryza asked.

“Mhm?”

She pointed at his head and squinted her eyes. “What’s that coming out of your forehead?”

Dusk grinned and silently laughed. “It’s my horn.”

Feeling her own head, she looked disappointed. “Why don’t I have one?”

Dusk looked at his horn gleefully. “I’m a Unicorn, and you’re an Earth Pony. All Unicorns have horns, and Earth Ponies don’t.”

“How do you become a Unicorn?”

“You don’t become a Unicorn, silly. You’re born one. I was a Unicorn when I was born, and you were an Earth Pony when you were born. Just like Frumentum, mom, dad, and everyone else in the town.”

“Oh…really?” the excitement seemed to drain from her voice.

“Hey, don’t feel bad,” he pat her on the back. “Maybe one day, you can travel the world and see plenty of Unicorns.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Dusk reassured her.

She poked her hoof at the ground nervously.

“Dusk, can we…?”

He smiled. “The river?”

She nodded her head quickly, answering the question.

“Okay, fine.” He smiled, and they walked away from the town.

***

Dusk stared fondly at the serene, slow-moving river that flowed through the forest backing up to the village.

He looked at his reflection in the clear blue water. He thought back to the day he discovered it.

It had been a few weeks after Dusk was adopted by the Earth Ponies. Since the village was centered around fields of crops, most of the villagers were working during the day. Dusk, being new, was allowed to wander the village in an attempt to familiarize himself with his new surroundings.

One day, he decided to go walk in the forest. The trees here were so huge, and there were so many of them! He had never saw so many trees in one place! Surely there had to be something interesting in there.

Sure enough, there was. A calm river flowed gently through the forest. Dusk knew exactly what this meant. He could go swimming!

Dusk started to remove the layers of clothing he was wearing. That was another thing about Earth Ponies. They wore so many layers of clothes all the time, and they worked in the hot sun all day long…Certainly somepony at some point had to step back and realize the holes in this logic.

Once all but the thin, white pants that he wore under the rest of his clothes were off, he backed up a few feet from the river.

Giving himself a running start, Dusk jumped into the river. The frigid, icy water clung to his body and sent a shock through his whole body. As he poked his head out of the water, his teeth were chattering rapidly.

And he loved it.

Swimming quickly became the activity Dusk spent nearly all of his free time doing. It reminded him of The Bog, where everypony could swim. They’d have competitions all the time.

Dusk was the second-best young swimmer in the whole town. The only other pony who could swim better than him was Massasoit, who would already be lounging peacefully on the beach and watching everypony else swim by the time Dusk reached the halfway point. Naturally, being her boyfriend, Dusk would never hear the end of it.

A month or so after he discovered the river, he was swimming in it one day. He suddenly heard screaming from the banks of the river and looked over. Oryza was screaming at Dusk, and tears were forming in her eyes.

“Dusk!” she yelled. “Hold on! I’m getting help!”

“For what?” he yelled back.

Oryza looked at him confusedly. “But…huh? You aren’t drowning?”

Dusk swam quickly back to the shores and hugged her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You…you can swim?” she asked.

Dusk looked at her strangely. “Can’t you?”

Oryza shook her head. “No. Nopony here can.”

Dusk smiled. “Come on, take a few of those layers off. I’ll teach you.”

Her face beamed. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he replied, turning back to the river.

“Ready!” she yelled after a few minutes.

Dusk turned around and immediately covered his eyes with his hoof. “Oryza?”

“Yes?” she asked.

He smiled. “I meant wear your undergown, not take everything off.”

Blushing heavily, Oryza grabbed the white gown she wore under the rest of her clothes and put it on.

Dusk walked into the shallow banks of the river, and Oryza followed him.

Dusk jumped into the water like he had done all those months ago, and although he stayed closer to the banks for Oryza, the water still reached to his upper chest.

“Come on, Oryza. Try swimming to me.”

“You sure?” she asked. “I’ve never swam that far out by myself by myself.”

“You’ll be fine,” Dusk reassured her. “I know you can do it.”

Oryza squeezed her eyes tightly and jumped in the cold water. Thrashing wildly, she swam to Dusk, who grabbed her, causing her to stop.

“Getting better,” he told her.

She smiled back at him. “Really?”

“Of course.”

“Do you think I’ll ever be able to beat you?”

Dusk smiled. “Keep at it, and maybe someday you can.”

Oryza and Dusk swam back to the banks and sat down, dangling their hooves in the river.

They sat in silence for a few minutes until Dusk finally spoke up.

“Oryza?” he asked, putting his left foreleg around her shoulder.

“Yes?”

He pulled her closer and smiled. “You’re a great sister.”

“Really?” she asked excitedly.

Dusk nodded. “Yeah. I used to have a sister before I moved here, but she was a lot older than me. We didn’t have any parents, so she took care of me. I had a brother, too, but he was even older than her and was working most of the time. I never really had a sibling relationship until I moved here with you.”

Oryza smiled widely as a few tears formed in her eyes. “Really?” she asked.

“Yeah. You’re probably one of the best sisters somepony could ask for.”

She hugged her brother, and they sat in silence.

***

Squinting his eyes in concentration at the pieces of paper in front of him, Dusk slowly spoke out loud.

“The…three…tribes of…ponies…” he was struggling to read every word.

As he heard footsteps walking to his room, Dusk immediately dropped the book he had been trying to read.

The door opened, and Frumentum walked in.

“Hey, uhh…” he moved his head closer to the ground, trying to look around. Dusk moved to try and block his vision.

“Yes?” Dusk replied innocently.

Frumentum grinned, realizing something was going on. “What’cha hiding?”

Quickly extending his back hoof, Dusk shoved the closed book under his bed.

“Nothing?” That sounded like the right answer.

Frumentum pushed his brother aside and looked under the bed. When he came out, he was holding the book in his mouth.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“It’s…” Dusk rubbed his neck in nervousness. “It’s a book.”

“A book? What for?”

“I’ve been trying to learn how to read.”

Frumentum smiled. “Sounds nice. What made you want to be able to read?”

“Well…I’m a Unicorn. I heard that most of the Unicorns can read and write, so I decided I’d try and learn how to, as well.”

“That’s a great goal. Maybe one day, you’ll be the smartest pony of all the tribes. Ponies will know your name far and wide.”

Dusk’s eyes grew large with fascination. “Really?” he yelled. “You think I could?”

He pat Dusk on the shoulder. “Definitely.”

Frumentum tossed the book back to Dusk, who caught it in his mouth.

“Dinner’s soon.”

Dusk smiled, and when Frumentum exited the room, he opened up the book and started reading again.

***

What runs but has no legs, has a mouth but can’t speak, and has a bed but never sleeps?

Dusk tapped his head in confusion. Runs…mouth…bed…

A river!

Quickly flipping to the back of 101 Riddles for Foals, Dusk checked his answer. He was right!

He turned back to his previous page and looked at the book. That had been #101. Smiling widely, he closed the book and set it in a small stack on the side. That was the third book he read that week he finished.

Oryza pushed the slightly cracked door open and looked in. She was wearing a towel wrapped around her chest. Her hair was wet and piled in a soaking mass on top of her head.

“Dusk, tub’s ready for you now.”

Standing up and stretching his back, Dusk grabbed a towel off the floor and walked out to the back of the house. He looked up at the sky.

The night sky was bejeweled with thousands of tiny little stars.

Massasoit, Mommy, and Daddy are up there somewhere. he thought. Somehow, knowing this gave him some comfort. They were all safe there, leading their lives of eternal paradise.

Dusk placed his towel on the ground beside the small, metal washtub filled with water, still lukewarm from being heated not long ago.

Dusk started getting ready. When he took off the last layer of clothing he was wearing, he looked back at his not-so-blank flank. Wait…”Not-so-blank”?

Blinking twice, Dusk tried to realize what he was seeing. Indeed, there was a small image of a book on his flank. His Cutie Mark.

Smiling wider than he ever thought, Dusk sprinted back into the house, yelling wildely. Frumentum and their father were standing over a basin, cleaning cheap, porcelain dishes. Their mother was sitting in a chair, knitting a wool hat.

“Mom! Dad! Frumentum! I got my Cutie Mark!” he yelled ecstatically.

The ponies all put down what was preoccupying them and walked over to Dusk.

“Wow, Dusk!” their mother exclaimed. “That looks really nice!”

Their father piped up next. “Wow, really sweet Cutie Mark!”

Frumentum smiled. “How’s it feel to have your Cutie Mark?”

Dusk smiled widely. “Great! I guess this really does mean I’m good at reading and writing!”

Frumentum smiled and pat his adoptive brother on the flank. “It's really nice that you got a new mark on your body, but I think it's time to go wash some of the others off.”

Oh, right. I'm still covered in dried mud.

"Yeah...I guess you're right."

Dusk ran back out of the house to the washtub and immersed himself.

Relaxing himself and washing off days of dirt and sweat from working, Dusk started to ponder his situation.

Nice adoptive parents, good friends with my siblings, taught myself to be literate, and just got my Cutie Mark…I’d say my life is pretty good.

***

“Come on, Dusk, it’s getting dark! We should go!” Oryza was yelling at Dusk, who was swimming in the river.

“Come on, Oryza, we still have a little time to keep swimming! Come back in!”

Oryza smiled. “Can hardly get that pony to do anything,” she said softly to herself.

Dusk groaned. “Fine, fine!” He swam to the banks of the river and jumped out. As he started drying his mane, voices could be heard further into the forest, on the path to the village.

A filly, about Dusk’s age, was surrounded by two colts of similar age.

“Hey, Dusk, what’re you doing?” she taunted.

Dusk sighed. “Citrum, don’t you have better things to do than just going around harassing ponies with your dimwitted boyfriends?”

This irked her almost as much as Dusk wanted it to. “At least I have friends!”

“You mean the ones who you spend time with just to make yourself look smarter?”

Citrum’s face was burning with hate. “So, you can read a book and you think you’re suddenly the smartest pony in the village? You’re just a stupid Unicorn!”

Oryza stepped between the arguing foals to separate them. “Stop it, both of you!”

Citrum glared at Oryza. “Why are you defending him? You’re no better than he is!”

Shoving Oryza out of the way, he stomped up to Citrum. He was now face-to-face with her. “Don’t involve her in this!”

“Pomum! Arancium!” she yelled to the two colts standing beside her. “Let’s show them how Earth Ponies do things.” Her eyes narrowed and filled with malicious intent.

The two colts laughed and walked with Citrum up to Dusk. She lifted her front right hoof and smacked Dusk straight across his muzzle, and he fell back onto the grass.

Thick, metallic-tasting liquid filled his mouth. Spitting it out onto the ground, he looked down. It was blood that was filling his mouth.

“Ready for more?” Citrum asked, leaning in close.

Dusk angrily spat a sickly mix of blood and saliva into her face. “Whenever you are.”

Citrum’s face grew angrier with each punch on Dusk’s face. Even though he was going through intense pain, Dusk did nothing to fight back.

She sighed at the lack of reaction she was getting out of him. Where's the fun in beating somepony up if they don't fight back or beg for mercy?

Oryza finally walked up and grabbed Citrum by the soulders, trying to pull her back.

“Leave him alone!” she screamed, tears falling down from her face.

Pomum and Arancium walked up and pulled Oryza back.

“Take care of her,” Citrum ordered. The colts threw Oryza onto the ground and started hitting her.

“Oryza!” Dusk yelled.

“Shut up!” Citrum yelled.

Dusk struggled to get up, but it was futile. Citrum was sitting on him, and he couldn’t move. A thought crossed his mind, but it wouldn’t work. Or would it…? It was worth a try.

Dusk closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles. His mind cleared, and there was…nothing. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Only one way to find out.

Dusk imagined a pushing feeling. A powerful pushing sensation. More powerful than anything he could ever imagine.

It worked. Dusk felt power surge through his horn and smack Citrum square in the chest. She was knocked backwards and into Pomum.

“Freak Unicorn!” she screamed as she stood up.

“We should go, Citrum,” Arancium nervously said.

“Don’t think that this is over,” Citrum hissed at him. She ran back up the path into the village, and the two colts quickly followed her.

Dusk ran over to Oryza, who was bruised, bleeding, and crying.

“Oryza?” he shook her, horrified. “Are you okay?”

She sat up and grasped her head. “I hurt…So much…”

Pulling her in close for a hug, Dusk felt scared that this would be another replay of Massasoit. “It’s okay, Oryza. I’m here for you.”

He slowly moved toward the river. “Let’s get ourselves cleaned up.”

Pouring the cool, clean water over his face was calming. When all the blood was gone from his face, he dipped his hoof back into the water and started pouring water over Oryza’s head.

“D-Dusk?” she asked, sniffling.

“Hm?” Dusk was too busy wiping blood and tears off her face.

“Why did they beat us up?” New tears were replacing the ones Dusk was wiping away.

Simply shaking his head, Dusk kept trying to wipe off Oryza’s face. “A lot of ponies aren’t exactly really nice to other kinds of ponies. They were no different; they attacked me for being a Unicorn, and you because you stood up for me.”

“But, why…why would they do that?”

Dusk sighed and pulled Oryza into a hug. “Because they’re bad ponies that hate everypony that isn’t exactly like them.”

Oryza leaned in close and started sobbing harder. They just sat in the soft grass, comforting each other.

***

Dusk stared down at the saddlebags Ken had given him so many years ago. As opposed to the nearly-empty bags he left with the last time he needed them, the bags were filled with various clothes and a few books. Of course, his scarf from Pequot and drawing from Massasoit were in there, too.

Breathing deeply, Dusk closed his eyes and prepared himself mentally for what was coming next.

It’s okay, he convinced himself. Everything’s going to work out fine.

Adrenaline rushed through Dusk’s body, causing him to shake profusely. He levitated the bags onto his back and slowly walked into the main room.

Frumentum and Oryza were sitting on the ground, locked in a cutthroat game of checkers. Oryza was red, and she was holding a slight lead over her brother. Their mother was knitting a sweater, with their father holding the yarn for her.

“Everypony, can I…speak with you?”

Everypony looked up from their activities worriedly.

“Dusk, what’s wrong?” Oryza inquired.

“Is everything okay?” Frumentum asked.

Dusk had to remind himself to breathe so he wouldn’t start hyperventilating. He could feel his heart rate accelerating to a racing pace.

“I’m leaving,” he solemnly said.

The room grew silent, except for the clink of sewing needles falling on the floor.

“Dusk, but…why?” their mother cried out.

“I can’t stay here!” he yelled. “I’m a Unicorn, I just don’t fit in here.”

Frumentum walked foreword. “Dusk, you can’t leave! We-”

Holding up his hoof, Dusk cut Frumentum off. “I just can’t stay here. And it’s not just for me, it’s for all of you. A year or so ago, I was attacked for being a Unicorn. Oryza got involved in it, and she got beat up too.”

The other ponies stared at her. “Is this true?” their father asked. Oryza slowly nodded her head in shame.

“If I stay here, it’s just going to get worse. It’s going to evolve from just simple fights to theft, vandalism, or even worse. It’s better for all of us if we go.”

As Frumentum put his arm on Dusk’s shoulder, small tears filled up. “Are you sure you want to do this? You know we love you and never want you to leave.”

Dusk smiled and put his own hoof on Frumentum’s shoulder. “Frumentum, you were a great brother to me. I’ll never forget you.”

Next, Dusk walked to his parents. “Comaros, Vaccinia, you two have been amazing parents. You took me from a poor little village and gave me a real home and a real family.”

Vaccinia started choking up. “Dusk, please don’t go.”

“Like I said, I’ve already decided,” he responded, shaking his head. “You were the first mother I really had.”

She started weeping, her tears messing up her inky blue coat.

Finally, Dusk walked to Oryza, who was already sobbing.

“Oryza, you have been a great sister to me.” Now even Dusk started tearing up. “Nopony I ever meet will ever be as special as you.”

“Dusk…” she was crying heavily now.

He smiled. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I’m going to go to the Unicorn tribe and make my own life there.”

“Just remember,” Comaros said. “If things don’t work out for you, we’re always open to taking you back.”

“Daddy, no!” Oryza screamed, tears flooding her face. “You can’t let him go!”

Disregarding his daughter’s statement, Comaros walked up to Dusk and smiled at him. “If you think this is what you need to do, I’m behind you.”

Vaccnia walked up and hugged Dusk. “As much as I hate to say it, I support you in this decision, as well.”

“So do I,” Frumentum piped up.

“Well?” Dusk asked, looking at Oryza, who was the only one left standing off to the side. “What do you think?”

Lost in thought, Oryza looked away and at the floor. “Promise you’ll be safe?”

“I promise,” Dusk laughed.

Breathing a sigh of submission, she walked up to Dusk and hugged him. “I support you.”

The whole family stood in the room for a few minutes. Nopony spoke a word. Eventually, Dusk walked out of the hug and toward the door.

“Well, I…guess this is goodbye, everypony.”

The Earth Ponies smiled. “Goodbye!” they all yelled at the same time.

Dusk smiled faintly. “These past few years have been great. I’ll never forget them.”

Hearing the door shut behind him, Dusk looked around at the early morning sky. It was a vast expanse of light blue, with not a single cloud to be found.

Today was either the start of a great life or a horrible one. The only way to find out was to start walking.