Author's Notes:

Welp, this train is never going to stop, and school is almost out. By that I mean, a good portion of next week is senior finals, and a few of them are going to kick my ass some kind of way. I already don't have to worry about two of them, but I still got six others to work on. So...yeah.

-Till Next Time

High Moon Ch. 23:

Time Heals No Scars

Already above the salty skies of Baltimare, Dusk slowed his flight to land on a cloud to rest for a bit. His breath was short and ragged, like he flew a marathon, but still had the same smile he normally would after using the rail-launch technique. Ever since he learned the skill of building up his lightning-magic within a cloud, and mixing it with a little wind-magic, Dusk was able to be anywhere half the time any could imagine. In fact, the next best thing he could do was turning himself into actual lightning, but that was even more taxing on his body than shooting himself out of a cloud.

However, using the rail-launch did allow him to make it to Baltimare from Ponyville in the short fifty minutes was heavily taxing on his body, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to take another one for another two or so days.

Not that he had to use it quite often, considering that Ponyville was a small town, but still he could feel the strain of pushing his wings near past their limits in the base of them. Still he had two jobs to do in the sea-port town and one of them had a timer on them.

Dusk stood from the soft cloud and started to look for anything that could lead him to the docks where Arctic was hopefully at. In his search, he found several fast-food joints, fruit stands, a blacksmith shop, and even a comic-book store. However, he couldn’t locate the docks.

That’s when he remembered back to what Obsidian said about where Rainbow Dash should be at. “Seawind Avenue, wonder where that is?” When he finally looked up from the street, Dusk found the spot where the town met the sea, and knew that the docks had to been over in that direction.

He opened his wings to take flight towards the sea, taking it slow so he could give the appendages the rest they needed, and took time to breath in the familiar scent of salty air. Though, he couldn’t shake the odd feeling that he had forgotten something rather important, but he pushed it aside as he flew towards the docks. Baltimare skies was a welcomed change of pace as each breeze served to remind him of home.

Thinking of being out on the ocean with his brothers and father, sharing stories, passing on their own knowledge to each other, telling jokes, and the occasional prank or two. All of these and so much more made up Dusk’s old life back in the republics, he was still sad to say goodbye to most of it, but he had his own life to carve into the world; we all do.

No one could hope to live underneath someone else’s shadow, it’ll kill them. The thought of having someone to be constantly compared to while you’re trying to achieve your own goals would drive any to the brink of insanity.

That’s why he and his siblings all left home when they could, to find their own place in the world, but never forgetting where they came from. Dusk knew that he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, ever forget his family back home. Anytime any of them needed his help, he’ll hop on the first boat back to the republics to do so, and he knew they would do the same thing.

No matter how many fights, arguments, or even running away they were put through, all of them came through no matter what. Sure, there were moments where Dusk wanted to rip apart Siege, or even Volt over something stupid, but in the end he got over it.

Time mead all wounds, the big, and small. No matter how deep they go, time heals all wounds, but will always leaves a scar of reminder. A scar that acts as a constant reminder of broken trust, abandonment, lost, fear, and much more weighing factors that causes us to question the things we do in our lives. Causes us to doubt our own way of living and forces us to face things we don’t want to deal with.

However, Dusk didn’t have to worry much about this. Anything Dusk started, he finished to the very end. During this, he have left many scars, and caused wounds that seemed to never be fixed again.

For example, in the fight with the rugby team, Dusk had caused more damaged than just to the players, but he’ll never be able to help mend this. Friends, family, fellow citizens, they all placed their trust in that team to play with honor and dignity, but all that was shattered when he fought all of them and indirectly gave Sketchy enough time to send multiple copies of her evidence to every newspaper in Nebula.

Once news got out, it had spread like wild-fire. Couches were fired, teachers were placed on trial for their jobs, and even the school board itself was held in question. Soon, the whole school started to blame Dusk, Jinx, Sketchy, and Arctic the worse, for the accusing eyes of the republics falling on them.

Dusk was able to scare off most agitators just by shooting them a threatening glare, Sketchy used her smarts to shield Jinx from their harmful words, but Arctic was caught in the crossfire. In the time of a short few weeks, Arctic had quickly became suicidal as a result, and had to be stopped from killing herself at home. However, her parents failed to take the right steps to insure her safety, and did their best to keep it ‘within the family’ type matter.

This didn’t work very much as Jinx was able to point out the change in Arctic’s mood to the others. They did their best to keep Arctic in high spirits, hanging out with her whenever they could, taking her out to parties, and even tagging along with her mother to a beach resort during the summer.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t able to undo the damage from the bullying she had to deal with at school, and one day she tried to end her life during school one time by jumping off the top of the three-story building. Luckily, Dusk was outside skipping class with a few other diamond dogs, and saw Arctic trying to end her life. He knew that he wasn’t fast enough to catch her before she fell, that’s when he learned the rail-launch technique, not by thinking too much about doing it, but by willing his magic to aid him in saving his friend’s life.

Right before she hit the ground, Dusk was able to catch her, and protected her with his wings. Once he was able to open his eyes again, he found himself in the hospital with his entire family sitting around him. His mother had informed him that Arctic was being treated for minor injuries she suffered to her right wing and was also being placed on suicide watch by her family.

It wasn’t until graduation before she was taken off suicide watch but everyone still felt as though she shouldn’t live by herself. This was the reason Dusk and his mares were so quick to let her stay at their house in Ponyville with them, one to be with their friend again, and two to keep an eye on her as well.

And the start of this new responsibility, was on the right foot as Dusk found the ship that Arctic’s letter said she would be arriving on, but more importantly the mare herself. Dusk had to think for a moment before he recognized the small white pegasus mare. It seemed ever in these two years apart, Arctic was able to keep her small slender frame, and from the looks had let her mane grow out a little.

Dusk landed on the dock right behind the mare and had to hold back a chuckle at the perfect chance to get her back for her goodbye present that had him picking silly-sting out of his fur for days.

Sticking his pointer finger up near his face, and charging it with a small dose of electricity, Dusk slowly aimed it towards the mare’s wing-base. “Ahh!” The ever so familiar shout from his old friend called out over the sounds of ponies coming off of the ship, causing everypony to look towards Arctic while she hovered in the air above a chuckling Dusk.

She was going to turn around and give the unknown prankster a piece of her mind but stopped when she recognized the dark fur coloration of Dusk along with the large set of dragon wings on his back.

“Dusk?” Arctic landed back on the ground looking straight into Dusk’s purple eyes, something about them seemed different than she once remembered, but their was no doubt that he was in fact the halfbreed she knew. Arctic beamed as her arms wrapped around the halfbreed’s torso and nuzzled into his white shirt. “Dusk, I’ve missed you!”

Dusk chuckled at the mare’s excitement as he had missed her as well. “I missed you too Arctic,” he started, wrapping his arms around her waist so not to damage her wings. Soon, to Arctic’s slight displeasure, Dusk ended the embrace, and rubbed the top of Arctic’s head. “So how was college?”

“Fun, I met a lot of great friends, but boring,” Arctic replied, no longer feeling nervous about standing on the docks with the large halfbreed standing by her side. “Where’s Sketchy and Jinx, they’re not here with you?” Dusk shook his head and pointed a thumb towards his wings with a sly smirk.

“Nah, I took the lightning express here,” he answer with a sense of too much pride in his voice but still managed to get Arctic to giggle. During the laughing, Dusk had finally remembered what he was forgetting when he had got to Baltimare. “Actually, we’ll have to fly back to Ponyville...I forgot my wallet.”

“Great,” Arctic sighed, hoping to have some time to catch up with the halfbreed without having to do any strenuous flying. “Well, we can go when my stuff gets unloaded.” Dusk directed his attention towards the crew of earth-ponies and a few griffons unloading several of the passengers’ baggage, and by the pace they were working, it’ll be some time before they would be done. “So, what have you been up to these two years?”

Dusk turned back to Arctic, knowing that it’ll be a lot for her to take in, but she was a good friend and she deserved to know what happened to him during the last two months. “Artie,” he started with a slight smile, “don’t I got a story for you…”

While Dusk went over everything involving what happen to him while he and his mares were in Ponyville, Wolf and his pack all enjoyed a quick dip in the pools of water at the falls. As usual, Wolf and Spike were trapped at the edges of the bottom pool, not really making much conversation as sitting there without any clothes on was slightly awkward for the both of them.

However, unlike the males, the females above them were freely sitting close to each other, and even going as far as to help wash each other. Soon Lily and Blaze became friends with Isis after seeing that she did had a gentle playful side to her underneath the rather distant personality she seemed to always carry in her voice.

This left Quill to be wrapped in Frost’s leathery bat-like wings at the top pool to enjoy the tranquil peace as the mares and sphinx’s playing below them was muted by the rushing water. The task of actually washing themselves were forgotten as Frost’s gentle hands danced across Quill’s body while they simply soak in the red-orange light from the setting sun after the long day of learning and teaching along with the bearing discovery of Rainbow’s true whereabouts.

Quill still felt somewhat guilty about Rainbow being abandoned by the elements, however, she would remind herself that it was their choice to wallow in their own despair while Rainbow was away. They honestly couldn’t expect Rainbow Dash to come to their rescue after they fell apart on their own accord.

Through really, this wasn’t her problem to deal with any more, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt off her shoulders. She didn’t know why though. Quill couldn’t care less about the other elements, but when it came to Rainbow, it was a completely different story.

Frost felt the conflicting feelings coming from Quill, she had for a while now, and now that they were alone, she knew Quill would be more open with her feelings. “Quill sweetie,” she started, pulling her closer with her wings, and bringing her head down to Quill’s ear. “You know that you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“I know,” Quill started in a sigh, knowing that Frost was able to sense the guilt coming from her ever since they learned the truth about Rainbow Dash. “Frost, what would you do if a friend of yours had something that they were hiding, and you were the only one that knew about it, what would you do?”

Frost paused for a moment, she knew this had to do with Rainbow, but didn’t have any ideas what to tell Quill. “Well, that depends...how big of a secret are we talking about?” Quill was silence for a moment, allowing the rushing sound of the falls to take over again, and continued to fight herself about the situation. Frost frowned at the waves of regret and dejection coming from Quill as she knew her dragoness wasn’t the type to mood about things. “Quill if you care about this Rainbow Dash then don’t you think that you’ll do more good going to her?”

Another long pause came, this time, Frost didn’t feel the weighing emotions coming from Quill, but still didn’t like the hesitate one taking its place. Frost spun Quill around and sealed her lips within a kiss before she could question herself any further.

At first, Quill tried to fight the warm loving kiss as it betrayed the thoughts in her head, but she soon closed her eyes giving in to her lover. Quill’s hands instinctively moved down to Frost’s hips to pull her closer to her while Frost toyed with the soft spines of Quill’s ear-frills.

Frost snaked her tongue into Quill’s mouth and for a moment took control of the kiss before breaking away. Quill stared into Frost’s icy-blue eyes as she stared back into her bright purple. “Quill, I can’t sit-” Frost’s words were cut off by Quill wrapping her hands around her neck and pulling her back into a much more heated kiss, of which Quill took full control of.

Frost tried to move her lover off her before her instincts could take over but Quill was unrelenting with the kiss. Her tongue was already out of her mouth and around Frost before she could even think about it.

Suddenly, Frost was hit with a violent wave of heat coming from Quill, and moving straight towards her marehood. Her eyes started to roll back from the flush of emotions coming from Quill before they slowly fluttered close to better enjoy the new rush.

Quill’s hands moved back into the water to reach Frost’s round flanks and give them a squeeze. Quill enjoyed the feeling of Frost’s moans in the kiss as she continued to squeeze the perfectly round flanks, even moving to her tail to give it a quick tug.

For a moment, Quill took the time to better examine the rather impressive appendage right above Frost’s round flanks. The fur on it was much denser than the fur on the rest of her body, almost more dragon-like. Slightly wide at the base, trailing inward to a point where fill-like spines were at the end, and curving to a point.

The tail was interesting to Quill, everything about Frost was interesting about her, and she was going to protect her. Frost again tried fighting against the immense wave of emotions coming from Quill but each time her tongue would pull on her’s, or when her claws would dig into her flanks, she would lose control of herself again.

Quill took two large handfuls of the round flanks and spread them apart, making Frost sequel in joy. Taking the loud moans as a good sign, Quill started to massage them, and brought a new heat to Frost. However, to the disapproval of the changeling, Quill ended the passionate kiss, and moved her hands away from her flanks to wrap her wings around her back.

Quill rested her head on Frost’s right shoulder while she took a moment to regain her mind from her instincts. “Q-Quill what was that,” Frost asked with a slight heavy breath from the breathtaking kiss. Quill didn’t answer right away as she too was still trying to pull herself together. “Love, is everything alright?”

“Frost,” Quill started in a slight sigh as she removed herself from Frost’s warm body to look her in the eyes. “Thank you.” Frost tilted her head in mild confusion at the unanticipated change in Quill’s emotions but kept quiet to let her speak. “You just reminded me that I can’t help everyone. Rainbow maybe my friend, I would do anything to help her out, but I got my own life to live. You, Spike, the others, and High Moon, I got way too much to deal with first before I can help them.” Frost smiled at Quill sense of devotion towards her and the others. There was no doubt that it had to been hard for her to choose her new life over her old. “I can’t save everyone, and I’m not going to. I got you guys to worry about first.”

The two moved in for another kiss, this time, neither looked for dominance, and just enjoy the other’s love before they parted again. Quill started to move her hands over Frost’s body, she didn’t know how or why, but she loved every part of the changeling. Even if she barely knew her, what she did know was enough for her.

Again, the two lovers were forced to break apart, but neither one broke the stare into each other’s eyes. “Frost, I promise I’ll protect you,” Quill spoke feeling a fire being lighted in her chest and growing with every second she looked into the changeling’s eyes. “I’ll keep you safe and I’ll never let you go.”

Frost blinked back a tear from Quill’s words of devotion, she didn’t need her changeling ability to tell that all of her words were spoken with love, and to hear someone say them to her was truly a dream come true. “Well, I hope you don’t expect me to sit back and let you do everything for me.”

Quill shook her head with a slight chuckle. “No, I couldn’t could I?” Both lovers started to giggle from the small joke Frost told. Soon, the giggles came to an end, but the fire in their chests had only just begin. Quill again pulled Frost in for another tender kiss, running her hands over her sides to memorize every curve on her body. Frost returned the favor by moving her hands to the base of Quill’s wings to massage the tight flight muscle underneath her scales.

This time it was Quill who was moaning into the kiss as the sensation of having the tight flight muscles eased out by the one she loved. In move to return the loving treatment, Quill moved her hands down to Frost’s dragon-like scorpion tail to get a light tug, and to take a handful of her plentiful flanks.

Their bodies pressed against each other and Frost’s larger chest overtook Quill’s near non-existent chest. Sounds of the water falling behind them soon became deaf to their ears along with any outside noise. For right now, all they wanted to hear was the other’s breath, and feel the other’s touch.

Quill managed to again snake her fork-tongue back into Frost’s mouth, taking her tongue in hers, and moving about her mouth. Quill started to toy with the changeling’s tongue, briefly pulling out of the kiss to drag her tongue out with her’s, and diving right back in.

Frost giggled in the kiss at Quill’s playful and aggressive nature as she rather enjoyed the dragoness taking charge. Quill was a powerful dragoness, even for the age she was, she still had more magic dwelling within her than any scorpio that Frost came by.

To much of their disfavor, the need of air forced the two to break away from the kiss, but remain closely together. Quill looked up to Frost’s beautiful icy-blue eyes as they shined with the fading light of the sun, which highlighted her features, and caused every single drip of water on her to shimmer in a reflective red light.

Quill never felt this way with anyone she have known, not with the crusaders, any other pony, or even Rarity. Only three short, yet powerful words could ever begin to faithfully express the way she feels about her. “I love you, Frost.”

The soft whisper was all Frost needed to hear from her younger lover before she again pulled her into a quick kiss. Once they parted again, Frost trailed her tongue over Quill’s cheek, and over to her ear. “I love you too, Quill.”

The two lovers remained close to each other, enjoying the loving warmth from their bodies as they discovered a love that was sure to last. Unfortunately, for Spike, he had yet to do the same as his twin.

Down in the bottom pool, Spike looked up towards the falling water, wishing that he could use his magic to surf up towards the orange skies to soar high above the ground, but with the ghost heart attacking him; he couldn’t. So he abandoned that thought and turned his head down to the water. That when he looked towards Wolf, who hadn’t removed his head away from the dirt path leading back into High Moon. Spike had secretly admired the dog’s ability to rally others together to get things done.

It didn’t stop there, he was strong, brave, knew how to make something from nothing, and always had a leveled head. He was everything Spike strived to be; a shining knight. Wolf didn’t need the armor, the fame, or the comic sized muscles. All he needed was his mare. All he had to do was care and protect her and that was enough for him. If anyone wanted to live in High Moon, he’ll let them as long as they help out with a few things, and return a few favors.

That alone made him much more of a knight than Spike, and over the two months, have broken his ideals of what a knight was really supposed to be. Once he thought of them to be someone who was brave, who had honor, admittedly a cape and deck of armor.

His whole life, Spike thought that he’ll needed all of these before he could win over Rarity’s heart, but of course he was wrong. For Wolf, it was Blaze’s love that turned him into a knight; into something he wanted to be. Something that from the look of things, he’ll never be.

“Hey Wolf,” he started, breaking the still silence that became the few moments where he and Wolf would sit near each other, but still faintly got the dog’s attention.

Wolf waited for Spike to continue with whatever he had to say, which took much longer than he liked, and turned around to the drake. “What is it Spike?”

There was another silent pause before Spike continued onwards. “You and Blaze have been together for a long time right?” Wolf raised an eyebrow towards the slightly off-wall question as Spike had never shown any interest in the manner but still nodded his head. “How you do it?” Wolf was going to question the drake when he started to correct himself. “I mean, how you manage to say with her for all these years? Most stallions can’t even keep a mare for a week before they start looking for another. So how you did it?”

Of all of the things he could have asked… Wolf chuckled to himself before turning his back to the drake. “Because I love her,” Wolf answered after a short moment, gaining all of Spike’s attention. “Spike, I wouldn’t be constantly risking my life for a hunk of land if it wasn’t for her. I have no other reason to fight but for her.”

“O-oh, right...that makes sense.” Through the corner of his eyes, Wolf saw the slight dejection on Spike’s face, and had a feeling of why it was their.

“Why you fight Spike,” Wolf asked after a short moment of thought, he knew the drake’s answer would be something along the lines of becoming strong, but he--no--Spike needed to learn why he fights.

“Well...I fight to protect everyone important to me,” Spike started, using the same words Wolf guessed he would, but kept this to himself so Spike would keep going. “I want to become stronger so I can help everyone. I don’t want to sit back any more and let others do things for me.”

“Humph, yes I see,” Wolf thoughtlessly started, impressed with Spike’s sense of duty, but unimpressed by the typical-ness of his answer. Suddenly, Wolf whipped his head towards Spike, and locked eyes with him. “But what about you?”

For a moment, Spike couldn’t answer Wolf’s question, not because he couldn’t think of an answer, but from the sharp glare from his dull-green eyes. He couldn’t explain it, the look in Wolf’s eyes made Spike feel like a black-hole was growing in his chest forcing him to cave in with fear, but at the same time prevent him from doing so.

“I’m still waiting Spike,” Wolf said, already having turned back around, and breaking Spike out of his stupor.

“Huh…I-I fight for-”

Wolf again whipped his head back around to peer into Spike’s hesitant eyes again. “I already know this Spike, we all do, but what do you want to make of yourself?” Spike slowly closed his mouth as he truly couldn’t think of an answer.

Before High Moon, all Spike could think about was wooing Rarity, and living by her side. Now that’s no longer possible. So he just made protecting everyone his new goal, however, even this wasn’t achievable. Everyone in High Moon was far be on capable of taking care of themselves, the elements had each other, and now Ponyville had Dusk to be able to look after it.

So what was their for him? Spike wasn’t satisfied with just strength alone, he needed a reason to have that power, but what good if it was just for himself? What’s power without meaning? Where is the need, where’s the need of him…

Slowly, the soul-crushing realization started to hit Spike in the chest. Without meaning in his life, the need of protecting those close to him, why was he here? “I-I don’t know,” Spike finally said after giving into the sudden revelation. “I’m...I’m not needed…” Wolf soften his expression after seeing Spike’s turn dark. “Everyone can look out for themselves, they don’t need me.”

“Then find something worth fighting for,” Wolf started, turning away from Spike, and looking back towards the path. “Ever since I was a young cub, I thought that I would find some land to call my own, and a furious pack to claim. Back then all I cared about was finding a hound to give birth to my cubs and rule like a king.” Wolf started to chuckle at the hollow goal he had for himself when he was younger, always finding it funny that one mare was able to get him to change him so easily. “Every young cub thinks of this, and from our point of view, this is normal.”

Spike looked up from the shimmering water to Wolf, who was looking straight up at the sky with a look that only comes from knowing what it means to fight for someone else. “However, now that’s so much different, and all it took was one mare.” Wolf turned his head back to Spike, looking straight into the lost gaze in his eyes. “Spike, just cause everyone can watch out from themselves doesn’t mean that they don’t need, or want you. Through, this isn’t enough, and you know that. You can’t help everyone Spike, you have to pick and choose your battles, and find someone worth fighting for.”

The drake stared at the back of Wolf’s head, slowly processing what he told him, and soon finding a new sense of meaning in his life. “Yeah, yeah!” Spike stood from the lake with a roaring fire burning in his chest, a feeling that he’d never felt before. “You’re right Wolf, I got to start living for myself, and find something that I got to live for!”

“That’s great and all Spike,” Wolf started, refusing to turn his head around to the awkward sight behind him. “But could you...you know sit back down? We’re still not wearing any clothes right now, just so you know.”

In his excitement, Spike failed to hear Wolf’s warning, and continued to plan out his new way of living. “I got nothing to lose right?” Besides you dignity. “So what’s the harm in trying? This is great, hey Wolf you think that-”

“Woo Spike!” The drake’s body froze at the mocking sound of Blaze’s voice and dared to look up to the cliff to see her standing close to the edge wearing a few pieces of cloth to cover her large breasts and marehood. “Looks like Wolf got you beat in size, more ways than one.” Spike’s entire face started to become bright red before he ducked himself back into the water in complete embarrassment. “Oh woohoo, Wolfie…” Wolf turned around to the top of the cliff to see his love flashing her marehood a little with a slutty look. “I know what’s for dinner.”

Wolf turned back around and started to get out of the pool to get dress. “What the hell gotten into her,” he whispered to himself as he grabbed his pants from a tree limb and put them on. “Spike, if I was you, I’ll get dressed as soon as I can. You know, before the girls can make their way down.” Suddenly, the drake shot out of the water, and dashed over to the bushes where his cloths were sitting at.

Wolf started to shake his head while he leaned against a tree to wait for the others to make it down the hill. Eight years with dealing with Blaze’s over excitement for things, Lily’s flat attitude after nightfall, and two months with the twins. Yeah, and Wolf was the king of it all.

“Weirdest fucking pack ever...but I love’em.”

Walking down the street in Baltimare, Dusk carried some of Arctic’s stuff from what she brought while the mare herself walked by his side with a rolling suitcase behind her. After leaving the docks, Dusk told Arctic that he had one more thing to do before they could head back to Ponyville, and started to inform her about everything that has happened. Arctic had quietly listen to every word Dusk had to say regarding the twins, the mysterious unicorn, and him becoming an element.

She couldn’t believe that one of her closest friends had became an element, on top of that, made his own band of elements, and was now on a job for the solar crown. Arctic knew something was different about Dusk but becoming an element wasn’t it. Back in school, Dusk was always distant to others around him, and was completely cold to any that got too close to him.

The fact that she was able to become friends with the dog in the short two weeks before the fight with the rugby team was a miracle on it’s own. Now he was going around helping others that he barely knew, even teaching other dragons about their magic.

Arctic knew if Dusk had ever gotten past his cold view on the world, he would easily see the world around him in a different light, and it showed in the way he was talking to her. “So now I got to talk to a Rainbow Dash about her working something out with the other elements,” Dusk finished his long story with handing the note to Arctic. While she started to read the letter, Dusk continued with the last part. “Celestia was worried that she’ll flip or something like that. I don’t know why though, if she the element of loyalty then she’ll understand right?”

“I don’t know Dusk,” Arctic started, handing the note back to Dusk so he could put it back into his back pocket. “I mean from the sound of things, she was counting on them to kept themselves together while she was away, and from what you told me, they didn’t.”

Dusk nodded his head in argument as Arctic was right. He may not know the elements enough to be able to tell what really was going on but from the way everyone was handling the situation, it sounded like the elements royal messed up big time. But the question was, how would Rainbow react to her friends being late, and having send someone she never met before.

“So how you going to do it?” Dusk looked over toward Arctic with a blank stare that told her he didn’t have any plan. “Great, so do you even know where she is?”

Dusk opened his mouth to speak when a slightly high-pitched voice broke out. “Ohhh, Rainbow Dash...could you help with this dear.” The two friends looked down the street to see a very tall off-white pegasus mare wearing a rather tight blue dress. That’s when they saw another pegasus mare with a rainbow mane wearing gym shorts and white T-shirt.

“I’m guessing that’s her,” Dusk said, pointing towards Rainbow as she went over to the other mare to see what she wanted, and starting to make his way over to her. “Come on Artie, the sooner we get this done the better.” Dusk and Arctic quickly made their way through the crowded street towards the two mares.

“No way Mia,” Rainbow started at the other mare, who looked like a supermodel, and somewhat similar to Celestia. “I’m not flying to the store just so you could-”

“Excuse me.” Rainbow stopped at the deep sound of a male voice walking towards her. She and Mia turned toward Dusk and Arctic, her eyes quickly skipped over the smaller mare to look over Dusk. For a moment, Rainbow though she was seeing things when she saw the pair of dragon wings sitting on his back, but guess that he had to been what been called a ‘halfbreed.’ “Are you Rainbow Dash?”

“The one and only,” Rainbow started with pride in her voice that matched Quill’s. “What can I do for you?” Dusk reached into his back pocket and pulled out the note Rainbow handwritten. She quickly recognized her handwriting and looked towards the halfbreed with a questioning gaze. “How did you get this?”

Arctic flinched behind Dusk from Rainbow sudden accusing tone and Dusk had to take a slight breath to keep from shouting back. “Ms. Dash, please don’t yell,” he started, knowing Arctic have problems when others raise their voice around her. Rainbow was going to question him again when she realized the real reason he was asking her not to yell. “I know you have a lot of questions, so I’ll give you the short story. My name is Dusk Flare and I am another element but I’m not with the elements of harmony. This note was delivered by Quill Dragul to Celestia and the elements in Ponyville and I offered to come speak with you about it.”

Rainbow blinked back with a confused look while Mia knew what he was talking about as Celestia had already filled her in one hour before. “Quill huh, I figured that she would wind up finding it. So what’s the deal, why aren’t Twilight and the others here, and when did the twins move back to Ponyville?”

Dusk shook his head, again surprising Rainbow. “The twins hadn’t move back to Ponyville, in fact, they're doing just fine, but they came to hang out with me for a few hours. Is there anywhere we could sit down and talk? I think it’ll be better if you got caught up with everything.”

“Sure, come on, I’ll take you to my cousin’s house.” Dusk started to follow Rainbow and Mia to Rainbow’s cousin’s house with Arctic holding close behind. Both Dusk and Rainbow had questions, and by the looks of things, it’ll be awhile before any of them are fully answered.