Chapter 64: Normal

Several days have passed in the town of Ponyville as the residents of the town continued to live our their daily lives. One of these residents was Dusk, who is walking through the middle of the town, with the intention of returning back to Fluttershy’s cottage. He wore a simple black scarf that he had bought from Rarity, so he could keep a little bit warmer in the snowy environment. Apparently, stallions wearing scarves was in fashion. He was sceptical of this apparent fact, but he trusted her enough to believe her word. Also, he is now slightly more wary of the cold since he was afraid of getting hypothermia again, it wasn’t a pleasant experience for him...

He is slightly dirtier than the rest of the town, with his coat stained with dirt and a little bit of sweat after a hard day of work. Rarity had wanted to have him get washed up inside her Boutique, but he had refused, saying that he didn’t feel comfortable with doing so. He could always wash himself up at Shy's home anyway.

He is quite happy that it isn't blowing a chilling wind outside, or else it would have been unbearable for him to be out here. It actually feels quite pleasant for him, with the cold of the snow lightly brushing on his body with only the slightest of natural breezes to assist in the subtle movement of the snow particles. It is a truly beautiful day.

Dusk looks up at the whiteish grey sky, and he could see multiple wings high up in the clouds. Rainbow had told him the other day that she needed to get some assistance from the Cloudsdale weather team to help with the snow production for the next few days. As he looks up at the sky, he wistfully talks up to the pegasi in the sky, "It is only a matter of time before I'll be back up there. Just you wait..."

He primes his wings, as if he is planning to take flight, but he felt a dull pain in his right wing. He sighs in defeat as he folds his wings back into its most comfortable position. As he looks back at ground level, he could see three fillies having a snowball fight. The yellow one he vaguely remembers as Applebloom, and the white unicorn he could easily recognise as Sweetie Belle. But the orange coated pegasi filly is unknown to him. She has a similar mane style to Rainbow Dash's, with the speedy sort of look about it. (If you count out the fact that it isn't multi coloured) He could see that she appears to have no cutie mark, and so he presumes that she is the final member of the infamous ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’. They seem to be enjoying themselves.

As he walks past them, he heard Applebloom dejectedly say, “Ah thought snow fightin’ would be our special talent for sure.”

He could barely make out a second filly’s voice. “Oh well, looks like we need to try para-gliding next...”

Dusk stops moving as he hears the last part, and he turns his head around to estrangedly stare at the three. He silently mouths the word "What?" as he watches them run off to their next 'activity'.

(Yes, I know estrangedly isn't technically a word)

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Dusk is in high spirits as he walks towards Fluttershy’s cottage, and he knew why. For some unknown reason, he always seems to feel happier when it is raining or snowing outside. Even with the worries of hypothermia bearing in his mind, there is still a bit of a spring in his step. Although the scarf he wore provided some warmth, it would be useless if the wind increased.

He was surprised by the lack of animals which were outside of the cottage. Although it was lightly snowing, he would of thought that there would still be a large amount of the creatures doing whatever animals do. There were only a few species of birds and a couple of rabbits frolicking around in the snow. He assumes that vast majority of the absent animals were inside the cottage with Fluttershy.

When he opens the door and steps inside, he is surprised when he could only see Fluttershy and Angel in the home. He could see that she is wearing two pairs of green socks on her hooves, and for some unknown reason, it makes her seem a loot more adorable than she usually is. She is reading another one of her novels, which seems to be a lot less adult than the last novel he happened to stumble upon.

She lowers her book as she speaks, “Hello Dusk, how was it at the farm?”

“It was pretty hard work, with the snow and all. It doesn’t make it easy to applebuck, that’s for sure.” He says exasperatedly. “It was probably one of the hardest work days I’ve had in a while.”

She seems concerned, “Oh, well that’s not good, I hope that it’s easier for you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me too.” He says with doubt, since it is scheduled to snow for the next few days.

This sort of thing almost became routine for the two now. Neither of them minded too much, since the past weeks have been quite eventful, and it caused an immense amount of stress for both of them. Their lives were reverting back into normalcy again, and they wanted it like this. They were able to go on a third date a day ago, and there weren't any surprises in store for them, no horrific incident which made things abysmal, it was just a normal romantic date, and both of them had a good time. The pace of their relationship has slowed, but they didn't care in the slightest.

Now back to the two's conversation, Fluttershy begins to tell Dusk about her plans with one of her friends. "So Dusk, in about fifteen minutes, I'll be going to be watching Rainbow’s training with Pinkie Pie. Do you mind if I could go?” She asks.

“I don’t care, it’s your decision.” Dusk nonchalantly says. “I shouldn’t control what you can, and cannot do.”

"Oh, good, I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't inconvenience you in some way." There is a slight pause, as if she expected him to say something. Receiving no answer, she continues to speak. "I'll be gone for a about an hour and a half, but you can come with me if you want."

Hearing this, he starts to consider if he should go or not. Although aerial stunts isn't really his thing, he is kind of curious as to what the rainbow maned pegasus could do. She did do the impossible a few days ago... "Hmm, I might go,  but... I don't know, I'll decide in a second." There is a nagging feeling that he should be doing something else instead, but he didn’t know what it was.

But then he realizes what he was trying to remember, he wanted to visit Zephyr in the hospital. He had been meaning to do so for a while, but he couldn't remember to do so. He tells Fluttershy of his decision, "I don't think that I'll go with you, I have few things to do."

She looks at him curiously, "Really? What are you going to do?" Asks Fluttershy.

"I'm going to visit Zephyr to check up on him, and then I might see if I could get a check up on my right wing. I just need to make sure that my recovery is going alright." Finishes Dusk, after explaining most of his future plans for the day.

"Well I hope that it goes alright then Dusk. When are you going to go?"

"Right now actually, while I can still be bothered moving." He could see a look of slight annoyance on Fluttershy. (And yet she could make it seem so cute) "Eh heh, I may have worded that badly, but I'll still need to leave early though. visiting hours will be stopped soon."

'At least I think they are.'

"Oh, okay then. Goodbye Dusk." She stands to give Dusk a hug, which he promptly returns. They closely held eachother for several seconds, with Dusk lovingly nuzzling her. After a few more seconds, Dusk and Fluttershy let go with smiles on their muzzles. Just as Dusk was about to leave the house, Fluttershy leaves a final comment.

"I like your scarf. It looks good on you." Comments Fluttershy, eliciting a satisfied grin from Dusk.

'Maybe Rarity's advice wasn't so bad after all.'

Not being one to leave it at that, Dusk says a compliment of his own, "Thanks for that, I like your socks as well, they look really cute on you."

"Thank you Dusk." She says with a bright smile. She seems to like his compliment as much as Dusk liked his. Leaving it at that, Dusk steps out of the house giving a wave good bye to Fluttershy. He turns around as he starts to make the walk to the hospital...

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It took him twenty minutes for him to walk to the hospital that he is so familiar with. The snow had stopped falling, but the thick, grey cloud still covers the town. There is still a light cover of snow on the ground, and it is still cold outside, but it wasn’t uncomfortably so. As he approaches the front of the hospital, he could see somepony pushing an injured, fuchsia out of the building with a wheelchair. Her left hindleg is in a leg cast, which prevented any movement of her leg.

He walks past her, and steps into the main area of the hospital. This room has a colour palette of white, white, and more white as he looks at the finely sterilized, and clean area. The doctor that sort of looked like Caramel is standing behind the main desk of the waiting area, but he is stopped by a familiar face. “Oh no, he’s back. Okay Dusk, what have you done this time?” Sarcastically asks Nurse Redheart.

"Getting a bit unprofessional, don't you think?" He questions in a challenging tone. "And no, nothing has been recently injured, which is actually quite a change from the norm."

The nurse chuckles at this, "At least it gave us more to do. Anyway, what is your reason for being here?"

"Well I came here so I could visit my friend, whom is still being treated here. Do you know when this hospital's visiting hours are?" He wished that he was smart enough to find out the visiting hours the last time he was here.

She didn’t even need to think of an answer, “They are from 8am until 10pm every day. We are a lot more lenient with the visiting times compared to other towns, since Ponyville has considerably less injuries than any other town in Equestria. So because of this, we can keep track of any problems that come up quicker than with any other town, meaning we can afford to let other ponies visit family and friends for longer.”

“...the more you know.” Dusk manages to say after hearing this surprising fact. “Well, I think I’ll be going now.” He says as he turns to the hospital rooms.

“Alright then, looks like it’s back to work then...” The nurse says, as she walks away from the hospital regular. They both give a quick wave, before they both leave each other to their own devices.

Dusk starts to walk through the ground floor hospital rooms, looking for a specific room in general. He believes that the room number was somewhere in the 120s, but he wasn’t actually sure which room belonged to his friend. He is passing room 114 on his left side, and he notices how few of the rooms were actually occupied by ponies. He had only seen about four of the rooms actually occupied. With that in mind, he continues to look up at the white numbered signs which hung from the ceiling.

120... 122... 124... 126..?

He approaches Room 126, and he could see that the room in question was occupied by somepony. Who it is he did not know though, since the curtain of the window was closed. There is no possible way to identify the inhabitant of the room, but Dusk decides to knock anyway. (Mainly because there were no more occupied areas which was in the 120-129 section) He knocks on the door, and asks if anypony is in there. As he finishes his sentence, he gets a response in the form of a question.

“Dusk, is that you?” The stallion asks with a familiar medium pitched voice. It is definitely Zephyr’s voice, and it seems that his friend recognises Dusk’s as well.

“Yeah, it’s me Zeph. Do you mind if I could step in the room? I just wanna see how you are doing.” Says the dark blue stallion.

“You can come in if you want.” Invites the crippled pegasus, who seems happier that he was visiting again. Dusk opens the door to the hospital room and steps inside.

He could see his tan friend laying on the white hospital bed, with a Daring Do book on the nearby bedside table. Zephyr had to shift his body around on the bed, so he could look at Dusk. What surprises the grounded pegasus, is that Zeph seems to be in a lot less pain then he originally assumed that he would be in. While there was still the grimace of pain, it shows Dusk that he felt a lot better than he was when he was first injured.

That, or he had just been given painkillers.

But he looks a lot better than he was the last time he was here. He could tell that Zephyr would make a good recovery.

Zephyr then interrupts Dusk’s thought when he see something on his neck. “Nice scarf.” He says with a mocking tone.

“How did I know you were going to say that?” Asks Dusk in the response to the mockery.

“You don’t usually see stallions wearing scarves.” Notes the crippled stallion.

“Good point Zephyr...” Next Chapter: Chapter 65: Flight Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes