Chapter 49: Trauma

“NO! Get away from me!”

“Wait Dusk, what’s wrong?”

“I s-said get away!”

Rarity could see the immense fear in his eyes, as he frantically shuffles further away from her. His aggressiveness is obviously put on, as his voice wavered, and he is hyperventilating again. Her eyes widen, as she realizes why he is so scared of her.

‘Oh no, please don’t tell me that I did this to Dusk, I wouldn’t do that to him. But why else would he cower from me?’

She turns to Twilight, who is looking at Rarity with anger. She asks, “Why is Dusk cowering from me?”

“You don’t know?!”

“I swear, I don’t know what happened to him. All I remember is Dusk yelling at me while I was in the boutique.”

“Really?” She sounds skeptical, “You don’t remember bounding him to the ground, and forcing needles into him?”

This hurt to hear, “Oh my word, did I… did I really do this to him?” She is shocked that she did something so cruel to him.

“Of course you did! Fluttershy and I saw it with our own eyes! What were you thinking?!”

“I don’t know Twilight, I just don’t know.” She begins to stress out, “Oh my gosh, what else did I do to him?”

I dunno Rarity, why don’t you ask… him…”

They have both look at the direction where Dusk is, or was. He has seemingly vanished.

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Perspective: Dusk

‘She’s trying to find me, I can tell. Oh Celestia, I hope that she doesn’t find me.’

He had run away from the group, as soon as he regained movement of his legs. He has silently ran to the outskirts of town, while trying to get away from Rarity. He is overly paranoid, as he constantly checks behind him, just in case she followed him, and he has been sticking to the shadows of the town, to make sure she would not find him. He knows that his dark colour scheme would help him with this task, as well as the grayness of the rain.

The sewing needles were causing him a lot of pain as he ran. Every step he takes, pains him…

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Perspective: Rarity

Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, had all split up, to try and find Dusk. The yellow Pegasus has taken to the air, and is looking for him, from above, while Twilight has decided to look around near the centre of town. The alabaster unicorn has decided to search near the houses in the area.

She complained at first, as she didn’t want to get herself too wet in the rain, but after a little bit of persuasion from Twilight, she agreed to help. She felt bad for doing what she did to him, and she intended to try and make it up to him.

She is quite upset that her mane has been ruined by the rain, but she knows it’s for a greater cause.

‘I suppose it could be worse, I could be walking through a dirt path. Argh, curse it, my beautiful hooves are getting grubby. How can Applejack put up with this? This is disgust-‘

Her train of thought stops, when she thinks she sees something move in the shadows of the houses. She instinctively asks, “Dusk? Is that you?” No response, and no more movement. She walks in the direction that she saw… whatever she saw go.

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Perspective: Dusk

‘Why can’t she just leave me alone? *sniff* I’m so scared, so vulnerable…’

He had barely made it out of the area, without being seen by Rarity. The more he ran away, the more the sharp pain of the dreaded needles would hurt. Before he could try to remove them himself, he had to make sure that she wasn’t following him. He hates to admit it, but he is crying again, not only from the pain, but also from the trauma, and fear in his mind. The stress of the feared mare looking for him, has him on the verge of breakdown.

As he moves, he notices that he is about 100 metres until he reaches the outside of town. He could see the river in the distance, and an area with a lot of trees. He knows that this would probably be the best spot to hide. This helps him calm down a little bit. He runs to the next spot…

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Perspective: Fluttershy

She has been looking for Dusk from high above the town for about fifteen minutes now. Despite her vantage point, she hadn’t been able to locate him, since he had been staying in the shadows for most of the time.

She has seen Rarity quite a few times (mainly because of her white coat) near the housing area, and she has seen Twilight in the empty marketplace a few times.

The rain is still pouring down, and so all of the town’s residents were staying in their individual houses, completely oblivious to the commotion outside. The noise from the rain also blocked most of the yelling from the other resident’s ears. (If you exclude the DRS of course)

She knew that she couldn’t keep airborne for too long, since the rain will force her to ground soon. She gave the area one last check, to see if she could find him, but to no avail. She controls her descent, and lands in the area where Twilight is checking. Her friend is too pre-occupied with her task, to notice the landing.

“Um... Twilight?”

This gains her attention, as she turns around, and greets the pegasus, “Oh hello Fluttershy. Did you find Dusk around town anywhere?” She asks.

“No, I didn’t… sorry.”

“Well we can’t give up now, could you try to get back up into the air, and look around this area for him?”

“Sorry... Twilight, but I can’t... my wings are too wet, and I can’t fly until they’re more dry. Sorry...”

“You need to stop apologizing Fluttershy.” She says sternly.

“...” She opens her mouth to apologize again, but decides against it.

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Well um... I’ll go home now... I don’t really want to slow you down.”

“Fluttershy, trust me, you do not slow me down, you are a much bigger help than you think Shy. We appreciate all of the help that you do for us. Don’t forget that."

“...Thank you Twilight.”

“It’s no problem. So did you know where we should look?”

“No...”

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Perspective: Dusk

Relief...

Dusk felt relief when he entered the small forest around the nearby river. The ground is mainly mud now because of the rain, but he didn’t care. He knows for a fact, that his pursuer wouldn’t step in the mud, no matter what.

He feels safe.

He looks at his right forehoof, with worry, as he knows about what is about to happen. He grabs the most exposed needle, which was lodged into him, and yanks it out, causing an unspeakable amount of pain. He yells out from the sharp pain, before examining the sewing needle which he had pulled out.

About three thirds of the needle is stained in his blood, coating the needle in a crimson red colour. Even when a raindrop falls on the needle, the blood doesn’t wash off, it seems to be a part of the needle. This creeps him out slightly, but he ignores it, and begins to pull out the second needle stuck in him...

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Perspective: Rarity

She has been looking around the area where she thought that Dusk was, for a few minutes, but with no luck. It’s like he just disappeared. She begins to walk back to her Boutique when...

“AGHH...”

She heard a faint yell coming from near the outside of town. She immediately recognises the voice as Dusk’s, but she ignores it, blaming her imagination for the sound. She knows that she hasn’t been herself today, so she decided that listen to her mind would be a bad idea. A second yell cancels out her theory, as she begins to run towards the outskirts of town.

As she she passes the edge of town, she notices the amount of mud that is on the ground. The long grassy field is a mud trap for the unprepared, and it can cause a pony quite a lot of mess to cross. She doesn’t want this.

‘I don’t want to put my lavish hooves in this filthy mud! This goes against all of my codes of...’

She hears a third yell from inside the small forest in the area. ‘But then again, I suppose I could alway go to the spa later, I guess this is much more important anyway.’

She steps into the mud, and then recoils back in fear, and horror. She could see her right fore-hoof, caked in the horrible, brown mud. She lift the violated hoof into the air, and looks at it with a mixture of disgust, and fear. She remembers her about her task, and hesitantly steps in the the muddy field.

‘It’s just like a mud bath at the spa, it’s just like a mud bath, it’s just like...’

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Perspective: Dusk

“GAH! BUCK!”

Dusk had pulled out the final needle out of his fore-hoof, much to his pained relief. Said hoof was stinging like hay, since he had removed the bloody needles from him body, but he knows that this is for the best. If the wound ended up scabbing around the needle...

He chose not to think about it, as his looks back to his flank. He cringes when he sees the amount of wounds had hit him there, as stresses when he realises that he can’t reach any of those needles. He silently swears to himself. He decides to just sit there for a little bit, until he believes that she had stopped looking for him. As soon as he felt safe, he would then run to the hospital, where he would get proper treatment for his wounds.

“Dusk? Are you there- AH! There you are, I’ve been looking for you.”

‘It’s not fair, it’s just not fair!’ Next Chapter: Chapter 50: Needlework Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 54 Minutes