Silver Lining hummed to herself feeling the desert breeze in her hair taking in the panorama from her look out on Phoenix Nest Mesa, not a cloud in the sky or a dust devil on the horizon, it was a beautiful day. Even a tortoise sat down beside her to share the view, “Always good to have company.” Silver Lining half spoke half laughed, the tortoise looked up at her and smiled, “I wish I had some lettuce for you little guy, you must be really thirsty in this heat.” The tortoise just looked back to the horizon smiling, “I know, I’ll get you an apple from town, just wait right here.”
Humming even louder Silver Lining descended the mesa to the dusty streets of Appaloosa then something caught her eye, it was a black Pegasus that was dripping in some form of liquid and carrying what looked like wet ropes in his mouth. She looked closer, she recognized that flying but it couldn’t be, her heart skipped a beat and she rushed over to see none other than Mirage charred and dripping in blood, not his, what she thought were ropes at a closer look were some sort of meat. Fear almost choked the voice from her, but she managed to whisper, “Mirage what happened?”
Mirage stared a thousand yards through her and answered simply, “I killed a dragon, and I’m taking these heartstrings to Lyra.”
Silver Lining’s mouth dropped in horror, “Mirage, do you understand what you are saying to me right now?” He continued to stare through her, she had to get through to him, “What would Applejack think?”
His eyes cleared up and he looked at her as if he had woken up and couldn’t figure out where he was, “That reminds me, I wanted to go see Applejack today I was looking for you to let you know. Tumble Weed is inebriated so you’ll have to get Sand Blast if you need any help.”
Silver Lining’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Mirage, “You’re not going to Ponyville like that!”
Mirage looked down at himself as if he just noticed he was covered in dragon fluids, shrugging his wings he said, “Well I was going to clean up before I left.”
Silver Lining put her face in her hoof, “You aren’t hearing what I’m saying, you aren’t going to Ponyville in your frame of mind.”
Mirage looked back at her hurt, “Silver look at me, I’m the same Mirage you’ve always known; I just want to spend some time with Applejack to clear my head.”
Silver Lining studied Mirage skeptically, “I don’t know if I can trust you or not Mirage, will you make a deal to prove that you’re still sane and not completely off your rocker?”
“Of course.” he said smiling with the same smile that always gave her confidence everything would be alright, except now it looked more like a dragon’s smile, cunning and deceptive. No, it was probably just the blood he was covered in, he had to be the same Mirage she knew, what would the Dusty Bolts do without him? “At least wait until tomorrow before going to see Applejack.” Mirage’s face fell in honest disappointment, not anger, which was a good sign, “I was really looking forward to seeing her today.” He lamented, “But if you say I should wait then I will.”
Mirage turned to fly home, then turned back and asked, “Do you think I should give these to Lyra? I worked really hard to get them; it’d be a shame if they went to waste.”
Silver Lining felt her stomach turn as she struggled to hold down her breakfast and answered, “Do what you think is right, Mirage. That’s the only thing you can do now.”
Silver saw a light go on in Mirage’s head, “Yeah, I needed to tan these anyways.” He said turning and flying for home, Silver shuddered as Mirage flew away, unable to look away from the gruesome sight, “You really got in deep this time didn’t you boss?”
Mirage was torn inside Silver Lining had acted like she didn’t even know him. Not only that, it hurt him that Tumble Weed didn’t trust him enough to share his problems, maybe he hadn’t tried hard enough as the Dusty Bolts Captain. Was he too incompetent for command? Was he insane? He hoped not, then again slaying dragons for heartstrings wasn’t something your average Pegasus did daily.
So was he insane? Until it was legally certified he would presume not, after all he’d been through only Celestia could judge him. Looking back to his time before the Dusty Bolts he could hardly believe the change that had taken place, if any pony were referring to those standards then yes he was completely unrecognizable from what he had been. Killing a dragon changed that how? Should he feel remorse? Dragons were menaces, terrorizing ponies on their whim; if anything he had done Appaloosa a favor with his preemptive killing.
Still the better part of him, the part that he was sure Applejack had put there told him what he had done was wrong, and that he could not take it back. Why else would he feel the need to justify his actions? What have I done?
When he got home he washed the heartstrings and put them in a pot of oil to cure before stretching and drying them in the sun. What he had done may have been wrong but it would be even worse if he wasted his work by second guessing himself.
Stepping into the shower he turned the water on and sat down watching the blood swirl down the drain sizzling as the water came in contact with it. Bucking dragons, he wondered if what the stories said were true, that you could never truly wash the blood from guilty hooves, it sounded like an old mare’s tale to him. Yet the fact that he was thinking about it gave it credibility, he began scrubbing frantically, then he realized what he was doing, “Keep it together Mirage, remember your promise to Silver Lining and your responsibility to Applejack.”
He probably was insane, just a little bit, this made him chuckle to himself, how could a pony be a little bit insane? They were either insane or not, Mirage should see a counselor or a psychiatrist. There were things he could never admit to his Dusty Bolts and he had to tell them to some pony, and he sure as Tartarus didn’t want to put that burden on Applejack.
Mirage started crying softly, he didn’t know why; it had been such a beautiful morning, “Buck it all, Mr. Trench was right. Crazy Wing why did you have to leave us?” Then he really broke down, for the first time since Crazy Wing had died, away from his team, in the solitude of his home, Mirage allowed himself to be a pony. It had been a bad week hadn’t it? But it could only get better from here.
Silver Lining had brought the apple back for the tortoise badly shaken, she tried to stay calm and continue enjoying the morning but she couldn’t she began pacing the mesa’s edge. Mirage had been under a lot of stress lately and he had held it down better than she had, but pretending he was above feelings was just stupid, he probably just had a lapse of judgment.
Maybe she had depended on him too much; he just always seemed to have it together. But Mirage was right for wanting to see Applejack to clear his head, maybe he should have gone anyways, it would be no good if they lost their Captain on account of Mirage doing something he would regret.
She hated seeing the team like this, not just Mirage but the rest of them too, being a Dusty Bolt was hard enough without the self-destruction they were falling into after losing Crazy Wing. But she couldn’t hate them for it, she should do something, something to remind the team that life still went on and that you could still enjoy it even in the face of tragedy.
She hadn’t realized it but she had been flying as she thought, in fact she couldn’t remember the last time she had been this far up. It was absolutely frigid, but at least the wind wasn’t blowing, ice crystals began forming on her wings, sticking to her hair, and lashes as her breath came out in droplets that immediately froze. There was a lot of moisture up here but you wouldn’t be able to tell from below, it meant there would be rain coming soon.
Then it hit her, there was moisture up here but you couldn’t see it from below, so it had to be made visible for ponies to understand, just like the Dusty Bolts were loved and appreciated for all they did for Appaloosa, they just had to be shown. They didn’t call her Silver Lining for nothing, she got to work immediately making measurements and doing the math in her head, she had to get this just right. Rounding up the ice crystals in a ring she placed it directly between the sun and Appaloosa, lovely, now she had to fly down and check her work.
Flying down 100 ft and turning around she took out her Rainbow Bans sunglasses to see if her work had the effect that she wanted it to. There in front of her was the brightest most beautiful sun dog she had seen casting a perfect rainbow halo down on Appaloosa.
This called for a celebratory fly over; grabbing some more ice crystals she tied them around her neck like a cape. Out here they didn’t have a rainbow factory so the Dusty Bolts had to make their rainbows the old fashioned way; it gave her a sense of pride knowing she was using the same method her ancestors used.
“Awwww Yeeaaah.” Silver said lowering her sunglasses again, “I’m good.” Her get up would probably look ridiculous to the rest of the Dusty Bolts but she didn’t care they needed a bit of goofiness to brighten their day. She shut her wings and started falling earthward faster and faster as the grin on her face became bigger and bigger. Looking behind her the ice crystals were doing their job beautifully, she had a long rainbow trail, now she just had to get more speed.
Rainbow Dash had proven sonic rainbooms were possible, and she wasn’t some super Pegasus, she was just like the rest of them. Silver had to fall faster she started pumping her wings to speed her descent, a cone of air formed in front of her, she was so close, if only she could break through to the other side! Then she hit turbulence unlike any she had ever experienced before, it was as if the sky was telling her that her body was too frail to fly so fast. Not one to back down from a challenge she braced herself against the stubborn air, she came closer and closer to the tip of the cone. Then all of a sudden crack PWWWWHHHHHHOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!
She broke through and her speed increased fivefold, using her hooves as well as her wings she angled herself for a pass over the town hall and Mane Street. “HI HO SILVER AWAY!” She whooped as the ground rushed up to meet her at a blistering pace, buzzing the town hall clock tower and shooting down Mane Street ponies faces flew past in a shocked blur.
It took less than half a second for her to fly through town, climbing as she left to dump her momentum she rolled like a maniac, and then spun a 180 straining her wings against her backwards momentum until she stalled. Then tilting one wing back and one wing forward she fell in a flat spin that made her head swim, leveling her wings and pulling out of the spin she flipped upside down for another pass down Mane Street.
Looking back she saw the expanding shockwave of her sonic rainboom and the rainbow trail still shining in the sun mixed with the dust trail left by her wing wash leaving the town ponies coughing and sputtering pulling up their bandanas and handkerchiefs, shaking their hooves at her but visibly smiling behind their masks.
Oh it never got old, the game between pegasi and earth ponies. She recalled the last time she had attended the Appaloosan Anniversary Dance, she had been so tired from her weather watch the night before that she fell asleep and Brayburn had stuffed apple slices into her goggles and put them over her eyes before waking her to ask for a dance. She giggled as she remembered the prank, apples in goggles, that was as original as they came.
Flying back down to Appaloosa after the rush of her sonic rainboom felt almost painfully slow, but flying down Mane Street with her rainbow cape and sunglasses so ponies could see who had just broken the sonic barrier was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. “Hey every one, that was me, no big deal you know, just pulling off a sonic rainboom. Don’t know if you saw it or not ‘cause it’s right there.” It would have been even better if she could have said it with a straight face, but how could she? It felt like her smile would split her face in half, as the townsponies threw their hats down and kicked dust at her in playful aggravation.
“I know, I know,” She said blowing kisses to them, “try to contain yourselves gentlecolts.” Landing on the Clock Tower she put her fore hooves together and shook them over her head in triumph. “Thank you, thank you all!”
Meanwhile the rest of the Dusty Bolts gathered around to see what the commotion was about. “Silver, what’s all this?” Mirage asked looking much better than he had this morning and more like himself.
“It’s a little something I put together for you all.” She said pointing up to her sun dog and disappearing sonic rainboom, “You did all that for us?” Tumble Weed asked smelling as hung over as he looked, “Sure did, I wanted to remind you all how much you mean to me.”
Tumble Weed looked as if he was in pain but he smiled with the rest of the Dusty Bolts, “Wow thanks Silver,” Kid said eyes wide with amazement, “how hard was it to break through the sonic barrier?”
Silver Lining couldn’t help but smile at the look on Kid’s face “It was hard but this was something I wanted to do for you Dusties.” The moment couldn’t be more perfect and she engraved the picture to her memory, they sat there on the roof of town hall admiring the sun dog.
Even the earth ponies and unicorns who knew little of pegasus activities stopped from their work and gazed up at the masterpiece in the sky.
After a little while Sand Blast looked over at Silver Lining and said flatly, “Silver, you look ridiculous in those sunglasses and cape.” She started giggling, slowly at first, then the rest of the team joined in, until they were all rolling in side splitting laughter, not knowing why exactly other than it was just good to laugh again.
“He he he, no he he no lie though he he he he, you do look pretty ridiculous.” Kid said hyperventilating, “Hold up, I think she just said you look ridiculous.” Tumble Weed said joining in,
“I LOOK RIDICULOUS!” Silver Lining shouted throwing her hoof in the air, then the rest of the team joined her pumping their hooves in unison. “RIDICULOUS, RIDICULOUS, RIDICULOUS, RIDICULOUS!” They shouted just for the Tartarus of it, then picking up Silver Lining on their shoulders they flew down Mane Street shouting like foals, townsponies just laughed and shook their heads, “pegasi.”
Once the Dusty Bolts had worn themselves out on their shenanigans they once again broke for their homes, all thanking Silver profusely for her sun dog.
Mirage stayed a little longer though, “Silver, can I talk to you?” Silver knew what was coming, it was something she had tried to avoid but she knew she had to find closure, “About what happened this morning?”
“Yes, Silver I’m sorry you had to see that and I realize now that it was a horrible decision, I won’t even trouble you asking for forgiveness, what’s done is done. But can we leave it behind us?” Mirage implored humbly,
“You mean like denying it happened?”
“Yes.”
She looked straight into Mirage’s eyes, what was going on in his head? Should she be worried for her safety? Thinking carefully she answered, “Mirage I don’t think either of us will be able to forget what happened this morning, but I will take this secret to the grave if that’s what you mean.”
She offered her hoof to seal the agreement, “That’s all I could ask for.” Mirage said relieved shaking her hoof, then Silver pulled Mirage close and looking him straight in the eyes she said, “If you ever do anything like that again, I promise I will kill you.”
Mirage stared at her in shock, “Take it easy Silver, if it makes you feel better I promise not to do anything that reckless again.”
Silver had only meant the threat to make him think twice about pulling a stunt like that again and to see if he was serious about his promise, but she was a pony of her word. She hoped it would never come to that, it seemed as though Mirage read her thoughts, “You shouldn’t put a burden like that on yourself.” He said in a concerned tone, “But don’t worry I won’t break my promise. Deal?”
“Deal.” Silver said shaking hooves again. Why had she said that, that wasn’t like her at all, maybe she was just as crazy as Mirage. If that was true how much longer could she last as a Dusty Bolt? How much longer could any of them last?
