//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12. To Russia, With Love? 
// Story: Dust on the Wind 
// by Sparky Brony 
//------------------------------//

I sit comfortably in one of the bedrooms of the farmhouse that has been converted into Soarin's office. I take the office chair and gesture to agent Walker to sit down.

"So, you wanted to interview me. Go ahead and start."

He straightens his tie and pulls out a clip board and a small video recorder on a mini tripod to be placed on the desk. He points the camera at me and turns it on, taking a moment to say the date and time, and his name.

"So, you say your name is Lightning Dust."

I nod.

"And how did you come about that name?"

"I was given it at birth."

"When was that?"

I give him the equestrian date as best as I can figure it out.

"Huh?"

"That was the date I was born. I was born in Baltimare, Equestria."

"I mean how old are you now?"

"I don't know, I no longer have that old human body, but I've been in your world for thirty-five years. So I'm not really certain how to answer your question."

He looks at his clipboard and sighs. I grin internally, though I'm doing my damndest to keep a poker face.

"Fine, moving on, what are your plans?"

"I plan on finding any pony I can in your world, and bring them here. They need protection from your world."

"Why?"

"Because I am a Wonderbolt."

He sits there, waiting for more of an answer, when none is forthcoming. "Would you care to elucidate?"

"Wonderbolts are more than the performance team you see in the show. You have seen all the episodes of the show?"

He nods.

"As you know, Rainbow Dash asked me to come back to the academy after she became Captain of the Wonderbolts.  I trained and became a member of the performance team out of Canterlot. And when Discord attacked, I was among the first responders to the battle. I took over for the team lead when Rainbow Dash was hit by his spell."

"What spell? You know magic isn't real."

I wave a hoof, I'll get into that little tidbit in a few minutes. "The curse that is now dispelling around all the ponies that are popping up all over this world."

"How sure are you of that?"

"One hundred percent."

He looks down his clipboard, apparently I've invalidated many of his questions, after a moment, he seems to make a decision. "You say you were a human before this change."

I nod.

"And how did you become a pony?"

I sigh, I know he's got a list of questions, but this is getting ridiculous. "I was cursed by Discord thirty five years ago. That curse has lifted, so I'm back to what I was before."

"What were you exposed to that caused this change?"

"Magic."

He shakes his head. "Magic is not real."

I smile. "You haven't seen an office desk turned into thousands of butterflies by a unicorn."

His eyes bug out and I allow a smile. If this is the price I must pay to protect ponies. I will pay that price. But I'm making them pay the price with me.

"You were informed that we will be requiring demonstrations of unicorn magic."

I nod.

"What can we expect?"

"I don't know. Most spell casting is learned. And the ponies really haven't gained their memories back, the best is only bits and pieces. Some unicorns can do more than others. And their magic is usually related to their cutie marks."

"Those designs on your flanks?"

I nod.

"May I ask what yours means?"

"It's an indication of what my talent is, what makes me the pegasus I am."

"That is a non-responsive answer, Miss Dust."

"Oh, what it specifically means? It's a lightning bolt with stars. In general, stars means magical abilities, and for pegasi, a lightning bolt means good with weather, for me specifically, it means that I can use magic to control power, electricity, and plasma, and time."

"Time?"

"In my battle with Discord, I was able to use time displacement lightning bolts against him."

He looks confused. I smile inwardly again and remain silent.

"And that means?"

Now I smile for real, "I threw lightning bolts that when they impacted parts of his body, they phased out of time. By his reaction, they were quite painful."

"And how did that not kill him?"

I give him a dirty look. "Because he is the spirit of chaos, do you think a simple lightning bolt, no matter how magically charged, can do him fatal damage?"

"What happened in that battle?"

I think about it for a second. "I will show you what happened in that battle." I pull my stylus out and send a quick text. In a matter of minutes Mindy opens the door and joins us.

"You said you want to see a demonstration of unicorn magic. I am going to remember what happened in the battle with Discord, and Mindy is going to project that memory. It's not mind reading," I say as I watch him shift in his chair. "She is simply portraying what is in the surface of my mind." I nod to the party unicorn.

Her horn lights and she slowly brings it to my forehead. As she touches a beam shoots out and creates a screen effect. I relive what was my dreams for several nights.

Several minutes later Mindy pulls away, sweating. I give her a hug and thank her for her help. Then I turn to the agent. "That is what happened."

He adjusts the camera back to point at me and mumbles, "I hope the camera captured that."

"So, you got your demonstration of unicorn magic."

"You know as well as I do that isn't enough. And you showed me you did magic as well, I need a demonstration of that as well, especially those time displacement bolts."

I shake my head. "I have not yet regained that ability. What I do remember is it was very difficult."

"Fine, Miss Dust. But I was promised access. I need to see your abilities, I need to see what kind of threat you ponies present to this nation."

Are we really going to get on that bandwagon? I slam down a hoof on the desk, causing him to jump. "We don't represent any threat to humans, in fact, more humans present a threat to ponies than the other way around. I would think the majority of these ponies showing up simply want to go back to Equestria, yet we have no idea on how to do so. Everypony else wants to simply live their life."

"What about ponies in other nations, nations that are hostile to the US?"

"I would imagine that ponies there have the same goal. If you want help retrieving ponies in other nations so they can be eventually sent home, I would have no problem helping with that."

He leans forward. "You would help abduct ponies from other nations?"

I cock my head to the side. "Certainly, they belong with their own kind, and I imagine most of them want to go home if we find a way to do that."

"What about those that decide they want to stay here?"

I lean back, a big smile on my face. "Well, I imagine we can help humanity with our abilities."

Confusion on his face, I continue. "I've talked with some of the ponies, earth ponies have a special connection to the earth. They can help grow food, they are also the best craftsponies you will find. The pegasi can control the weather. Soarin is already starting to do that all by his lonesome, I've been too busy. And once we help the other ponies here understand their heritage, they will find themselves driven to do what their cutie mark represents. I was planning on contracting our services to local farmers in the beginning. And if we end up with enough ponies, we'll expand on that."

"And the unicorns?"

"The unicorns can perform magic, and the vast majority of them have zero abilities that have anything that would be useful to any military. But would be useful in society. Trust me, having unicorns around can be handy."

"I can imagine. But I would like to see your abilities, Miss Dust."

I nod.

***

With a bright flash and a rumble of thunder, I've destroyed a soda can. Superheating the drink within and causing it to explode with my magic. I've destroyed several at this point. And a good half dozen cameras have captured the action. I nod over to Mindy, the only other magic user who has been able to practice. I trot over to the assembled ponies and gather them towards the barn.  I shooed away any curious humans as I close the barn. It's finally above freezing, and the snow is going to be going away soon, but I'm glad for the heater in the barn.

"Hello you all. Welcome to the farm. I am Lightning Dust. I just want to let you know, you are safe here."

One of the ponies raises a hoof. "Mindy told us that we were ponies before. I want to go back to my old life."

"You did, before you were a human, you were a pony. You simply reverted to what you were before."

This causes an uproar. Several ponies start talking at once.

"Some kind of mutagen."

"This is magic from someone who wants to destabilize the US."

"We can't have magic, magic isn't real."

"This  could be some company testing some weird drug on us without our knowledge, and it caused this."

"I watched her fly, I've got wings too, does that mean I can fly?"

I finally hover up and hold my forehooves out for silence, they eventually reluctantly fall silent. "I know this may come at a shock to you. But your human lives are over. In talking to the ponies that I have been able to talk to, each one has a different way of handling that conflict. I had to talk with my old self. I had to understand that her goals and my goals are the same. Before I became the pony you see in front of you, I was a successful electrician. I had scrimped and saved and borrowed, and ended up buying an electrical contractor's business after I tested and gained my masters license. I had to understand that specific life is over. The human, Michael Shaw, no longer exists, and in fact, never was. I was Lightning Dust then, as I am now. But the time I spent on this world did affect me. I am not the Lightning Dust that fought Discord, and I'm certainly not the pony you saw in Wonderbolts Academy anymore."

I hover higher and raise my voice a bit. "I was given a second chance by Rainbow Dash, then I got to witness her defeat by Discord. And I fought him myself. After he took some of the Wonderbolts, he took a lot of ponies and banished us. He banished the mane six, he banished the Wonderbolts and some prominent magic users."

I look around at the assembled ponies. "Discord always has a plan, and for some reason, he felt that you ponies would be a disruption to his plans for Equestria. That is why he sought each and every one of you out. I have no clue what the total population of Equestria was, but I sincerely doubt he took more than ten percent. Yet that ten percent could be tens or hundreds of thousands or millions of ponies. You should take heart in that fact. Discord feared you, feared what you can do, and so he banished you. I hope we find a way home, because I would love to see the look on Discord's face when all these ponies that he banished come back, ready to kick his flank."

They cheer. I let my wings lower me to the floor and I finally trot around among the new ponies, introducing myself, the three pegasi all ask if I can help them fly. And the five unicorns are going to get magic training from Mindy. And of course, the earth ponies are going to have to learn their own abilities. I wish I could help them with that.

***

I wish they had gotten a stand up MRI machine, being stuck in this damned tube is insanely claustrophobic. I have to endure this machine for over an hour. There are times I wish I wasn't so accommodating of the humans. I listen to the rhythmic thumping of the machine. I have to suppress the urge to shift my wings, I was told remain still for the scan. As a pegasus, they are intensely interested in how my wings connect to the rest of me. And also the muscle connections for those wings. The two doctors and the veterinarian they brought with them poked and prodded me. I only authorized them to take blood and tissue samples from myself and any pony that they ask, but there are strict rules on any type of coercion. And so far, they've been keeping their side of the bargain. A full day of interviews by the feds, and testing, and everything else they want to do is wearing on me.

Finally the machine stops thumping and the table slides out, allowing me to exit. I look at the technicians.

"Are we done?"

I get a nod and a wave, so I exit the semi trailer. I look around, sundown is approaching, and it seems the humans are packing up to head to the hotel. I trot into the house and head to Soarin's office.

"Hey bro."

"I've found more ponies."

Wow, no pleasantries. "Really? How far away, can they drive here?"

His ears fall,. "No, in fact, it was blind stupid luck that I found them. They are being held, by humans, in what I can best describe as a pony brothel."

My heart drops. "Really?"

"Yes, a pegasus and an earth pony, both mares. The pegasus was able to get to a computer, and called out for help. I was able to intercept the email at the server. It was sent to Equestria Daily."

"Oh, that pony website. Maybe we can get in contact with them and be a clearinghouse for information."

"I doubt that, we aren't widely known about, thanks to our friends outside, and information is being suppressed, that's why I've had to install email traps in a few dozen servers to be able to intercept mail with certain key words. It's been tedious, but electronic communication is my specialty." He smiles at me.

"Give me the address and I'll get Irony."

***

"Do we really have to drive the whole way there?" I can hear myself whining, I hate whining.

Irony turns and looks at me, she's in her bipedal form as we head to the car. "Yes, Dust, in case you didn't know, I'm an earth pony, I can't fly." She points to Trixie. "And neither can she."

I let my ears fall. "Okay," I say as I follow them. "Shotgun!"

***

Eight hours overnight in the car, and as much as I like Irony's monster, I don't like being inside it for too long. Though I found that Trixie is an excellent pony to talk to. We chatted like two teen girls for most of the trip, to where I hopped into the back seat with her while Irony drove. Irony is not much for girl chat, I've found out. But I kept dropping jokes at her expense and we both laughed at her blushing.

Finally the big city of Denver heaved into view. Our goal is a little suburb of the town called Arvada. Finally as the sun is rising, we pull onto the street. I look at the hill the street is on in front of us. I look back at Irony.

"A house? How are we going to do that?"

Irony reaches into the trunk, she pulls on her armor and grabs her mace. She walks two legged up the hill, heading for the house on the cul-de-sac. She heaves her great mace on her shoulder as I trot next to her. "We are going to ask, politely." I see the massive weapon of war on her shoulder, I grin. Head splitting time.

Trixie and I stand in the yard, under cover of her little distraction spell as Irony walks to the front door and knocks. After a minute, the door opens and a human opens the door, he's about six foot tall, maybe two hundred pounds, but he's not very well built. Before he is able to get a word out, Irony grabs him by the neck and pulls him out of the door, slamming him against the brick wall next to the door.

She pushes her armored muzzle in the humans face. "I know you have ponies here. Where are they?"

I smell the sharp tang of urine, and his pants grow a wet spot, I smirk as I pass them and head into the building. It's one of those damned split level ranch houses. I wave to Trixie to head up stairs, I head down, Irony will wait for a call to assist.

I get down the stairs and silently trot down the hallway, I find a bedroom, then a second one, and a bathroom, nothing here. I turn and head the other way. Then my ears pick up a sound, a rhythmic creaking, oh no, that sounds like bed springs. I slam through the door into the big family room downstairs. Two cages are there, and two mattresses, one pony is lying down in the cage. The other…

"You get off that pony!" I scream as I launch forward at the human violating the pony. My hooves slam into his shoulders and knock him to the floor. I land on top of him, making sure a rear hoof gets a good slam on the humans member. He howls in pain. I look around. The pony has crouches down, she has tears in her eyes.

"Don't you fucking do that!" I scream at the human. He tries to cover his head with his arms, which leaves other body parts uncovered, I take advantage of that fact, which causes him to put his hands down to protect his genitals, which allows me to get a good swipe at the head. I alternate hitting him a few times until I feel a hoof on my shoulder. Trixie is there, a sad look in her eyes.
"Dust, he's had enough." I look back at the bloodied human. He's simply laying there groaning. I see Irony in the doorway. The other human is pinned against the wall by Irony's massive hand. She throws the human next to the rapist.

"Irony, bust the cage open." With a mighty swing, the cage is opened, and now both ponies are free. I'm assaulted by the pegasus that was getting violated. She was dusky brown, with a cloud with snowflakes as her cutie mark, her blonde mane and blue eyes made her quite striking.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" she says as she hugs me.

I hug her back, she desperately needs ponies around her apparently. I take a second look at her. "How old are you?"

"I just turned twenty-five."

I shake my head. "No, as a pony?"

She looks down. "I think I was maybe eighteen when Discord took me."

I whirl around and kick the rapist in the knee, shattering it, his cries fill the air. "You fuck, you were raping a teenager!"

The other human pipes up, "I paid good money for her."

I look at the rapist, "and you paid this scum to have her?"

His tears flow down his face as he nods slowly, he's trembling in fear and pain. I have not a lick of sympathy for him. I turn to the pimp. "Where did you buy her and her friend?"

He cringes, but remains silent.

"Irony."

Irony steps forward and slams her mace down, just missing his feet, he jumps and wails, "I can't tell you, they are some bad dudes."

I get right in his face, he can smell my breath as I huff in his face, "And you think I'll leave you in any better condition?"
He looks at the massive mace and at me, Irony is tapping her hand with the mace, she's handling it like it weighs no more than a baseball bat. He pales visibly.

I bump my snout into his nose. "You had better tell me, my friend here will make a crater of any body part that I point to." He yelps again.

"I can't tell you miss. They'll kill me."

"Then your head will be the target then." I shift a hoof to point.

"You would kill me? You ponies are supposed to be all sweetness and light, you wouldn't kill."

I feel my wings spread in anger. "I spent thirty five years as a human, I have no problem with your death," I say over the butterflies jumping around in my stomach over the idea of killing. I really hope it doesn't come to killing. I look over at the other human. “Perhaps I should show you I'm serious by taking care of your client here."

Both of them tremble and try to get away. Irony moves over and lifts her mace. She starts to bring it forward.

"Wait, wait, I'll tell you what I know," the pimp says.

I smile at him. "Good idea."

He babbles about a trip to Seattle and that he had just gotten them four days ago. I feel my eyes go wide at his words. Seattle. The explosion on Saturday morning, in Seattle. Could they be related?

He continues to babble, but I think I've got enough information. I stop him with a glare. "We were never here, and if I find of any pony that ends up in this hell hole again, I will be back, and it will be worse, much worse. Trixie, if you please."

She steps forward. "With pleasure." Her horn lights up, and everything metal in the room, the cages, the cuffs, simply disappear. We head out the door and up the stairs outside to the light of day. I look around, a few humans are outside, apparently they heard some of the commotion. I ignore them as we head down to the car, in a matter of minutes, we are on our way home, with two new ponies in tow.

***

Just as we are about to cross the Colorado/Wyoming border, my phone chimes.

"This is Lightning Dust," I say as I flick the Bluetooth.

"Dust, it's Soarin."  I can tell by the tone of his voice, something is up.

"Go ahead."

"The feds have gone ape-shit since they found you weren't here. I told them the bare details of your mission, and they said they need you here now."

I look at Irony, and back at the three ponies that are getting schooled from Trixie during the trip.

"No can do, there are only two pegasi here, and one can't fly. We have over four hundred miles to drive."

I hear Soarin shout in protest and the sound of the phone being struggled over. Then there is a new voice on the line. "Dust, this is Agent Walker. How far away are you from the farm?"

"If any harm comes to any pony, especially Soarin, you will answer to me, agent."

I can hear him moving around, and Soarin objecting in the background. "Soarin is fine, but we need you. And that team you have to get ponies. CIA intelligence has sent us a flash message, we have to get you to Minsk as soon as possible."

I furrow my brow, thinking of countries. "Minsk is in Belarus. Why do you need us there?" I see Irony jerk in surprise at my words.

"We need a pony that has surfaced to be retrieved."

I sigh. "It will be about six or seven hours, I can't fly ahead of my team. I'm the only pegasus capable of flight right now."
He sighs back. "Let me work on that. Are there any ponies here that you would need for this trip?"

I think for a moment. "If you would ask Mindy if she would like to go, that would be great. Now put Soarin back on."

Silence…then… "Alright Dust, I'm back. That agent just hustled out of the office. So, you are going to do the feds bidding huh?"

"If it helps a pony in need, yes."

"Fine, well, we need to figure out how to get you guys to an airfield to get going."

We chat for a few minutes then agent Walker comes back on the line. "How long to Cheyenne?"

"We can be there in under an hour, agent."

"We are arranging transportation for you from there. Head to the airport there. I just had Mindy take off in a helicopter."

"Since when did you have a chopper at my farm?"

"We brought it in this morning, some VIP's are going to be touring the farm in a day or two, the advance team brought a helicopter, and I had to persuade them to be able to use it. But Mindy will be there shortly after you arrive, and they will be able to bring the ponies you rescued back to the farm."

"What do I owe you for this?"

I can hear him smile. "Dust, you are doing this mission for us, we will have two operators from CIA meeting you in Minsk before your operation."

"You are bringing us pretty far into the fold pretty quickly. I don't think there is even enough time to fill out the clearance paperwork."

He chuckles. "When Uncle Sam needs something, the rules can be bent. You, and your entire team will be sworn to secrecy for \this. But as of right now, you are a trusted asset, per Presidential orders."

That produces a chill down my spine, if the President is involved, there is more going on here than I thought.

I flick the call off and look to Irony. "I think we are officially in over our heads."

"Doing a mission only three days after them getting set up, yes, I think we are."

"Any idea how to unfuck ourselves?"

She shakes her head. "When Uncle Sam wants you, there's not much you can do to stop him. So, we going to Cheyenne?"

"How'd you guess?"

"Nearest airport big enough," she says as she floors the pedal of the 442. The monster leaps forward.

***

We pull into the airport and a man in a suit flags us down at the entrance. We pull over to talk to him.

He flashes a badge. "Head to the private terminal, you won't be flying commercial," he says in a gruff voice.

After a few minutes of driving, we park near the private terminal, I try to ignore the incredulous looks of the humans as I trot into the terminal. Another agent meets us and shortly I hear the roar of a helicopter. It lands and a magenta pony hops out and bounces over to us.

"Mindy!" I chirp happily as I go over to her for a hug. She hugs me back hard.

"Oh, Dust, I had the most fun. I got to fly in a helicopter."

I smile at her., "I'm glad you had fun. But this is going to be a serious mission."

She bounces. "I know, so I brought our secret mission gear." She reaches behind her and brings out a big duffel bag. The agent jumps in surprise as she pulls it out. His mouth opening and closing in shock. I open the bag, I see a couple of sets of clothing tailored for ponies. Even one set that has holes in the sides for a pegasus' wings. I can always count on Mindy. I smile at her.
"I'm not going to ask where you got that from, Mindy."

"But…"

I put a wingtip on her lips. "I'm not asking Mindy." I turn to the agent in the terminal. "Where is our plane?"

The agent looks blankly at the large duffel bag for several seconds, then he shakes his head. "Oh, your plane, it's fueling. Should be ready soon."

In less than an hour we are wheels up and heading east. And my terror starts. I was never claustrophobic as a human, but now I'm having to trust in wings that aren't mine, flown by a pilot I don't know. If Irony driving bothered me, this really gets me unsettled. I'll admit, flying in nearly brand new Gulfstream G650ER is a pretty nice way to fly. The military crew on board has been nothing but nice, but travelling 5,600 miles at nearly the speed of sound, I'm going to be stuck in this tube for about nine hours. Though the ER means extended range, and we'll make the entire trip in a single hop. I trot up and down the aisle in the cabin.

"Dust, sit down," Irony whispers to me. She hasn't shown the humans her ability yet. And if possible, we won't show them that.

"I can't. What if the pilot can't handle landing?"

Irony smiles. "I think the pilot has been checked out."

One of the flight attendants comes up, wearing a US Air Force flight suit. He smiles politely and asks, "Would you like something to eat?"

Eat? How can a pegasus eat at a time like this?

Irony smirks at me. "I think my friend would like the Chicken Kiev, I heard you offer that to the pilot, am I right?"

The young airman gulps. "But aren't you guys herbivores?"

Irony smiles. "But she is a pegasus, she likes meat, but it has to be chicken, or venison, or pork, or some animal that was non sentient in Equestria."

"Certainly, and for you… miss?"

Irony waves a hoof. "I'll take a salad, or maybe a vegetable plate." She looks at me significantly. "Unfortunately, my dietary requirements have shifted with this change."

I sigh and finally stop my pacing. "I hope this pilot knows what he's doing."

Irony chuckles, looking over at a sleeping Mindy. "If you remember when we boarded, our pilot does know what she's doing." She then leans forward and gives me a kiss. I feel my wings extend and tighten. Then my legs go limp.

"Okay, I'll settle down."

I get a smirk from Irony as I finally hop into a chair. In a matter of minutes, I'm tearing into some excellent chicken.

***

I'm awoken from a doze by the wheels touching down with a faint scream of the tires. I feel the uneven pavement bouncing the plane around as the front wheel touches down. I jerk up and look around, all the ponies are awakening. Nine hours of flight can take it out of you.

Finally the engines wind down, and the door of the airplane opens. I suppress the urge to just rush outside. It's the dark of night right now, though there is some sign of the sun on the eastern horizon. I follow the humans to a line of several big black SUV's. Soon we are screaming down the street, and the SUV that we are in takes a turn that the others don't. I look at the driver.

"We are going to a safe house, the rest are heading to the embassy."

I really don’t like this spy shit.