"Hello? Anypony out there?" My voice echoes to infinity as I trot around. I can feel the now familiar weight of my wing blades. I pick a direction at random and start trotting, everything is black. I can't see anything, but if I lift a hoof I can see it clear as day.
After some minutes trotting, I see a form in the distance, in moments it resolves itself into a very familiar shape.
"Oh, Rainbow Dash. I got a text from you early last night, you guys found the portal. I thought you were in Equestria."
"I was, but now I'm here."
I shake my head in confusion, "How is that possible?"
"He's Discord. How else?"
I shake my head again. I finally notice the look on her face.
"Uhhh, Dash. Something else wrong?"
Her wings spring up, rage on her face, "Well, of course. Dust. I trusted you. You were my wing pony. You held back. You needed to keep up with me."
What? "I don't know what you mean…"
"Fuck that, Lightning Dust, you stayed with Soarin and the others as I ended up attacking Discord on my own. I lost because of you. You could have helped me stop him."
"Dash. That was a long time ago…"
She pushes her snout in my face, "We were Wonderbolts," she shouts, "We stay together. I needed my wing pony, my second in command, the only pony that could keep up with me, to stay with me. Face it Dust. You betrayed me, by not being there with me."
"But the outcome would have been the same."
"Are you sure of that? Are you willing to bet your life on that? We could have fixed this." Her wing flashes forward, I catch a glint of metal as she lashes out, in instinct I put out a wing to catch hers, metal rings on metal as her wing blades smash against mine. She lashes out again, and again. I deflect them. In her rage she continues to attack me. Sparks fly as blade meets blade. In desperation I sweep out a kick, tumbling her onto her side, allowing me a moment to get back and take to the air. I pick a direction at random and streak away. Her voice follows me, pure rage, screaming "Betrayer" I sob into the blackness as she finally fades away from behind me.
***
Finally after what seems like forever, I see another form. I cautiously approach, and I see her magenta coat with her white mane. In moments Soarin comes forward as well. I have two of my friends here.
"Oh, Thank Celestia, I'm so glad to see you two."
"Why?" Mindy retorts. I've never heard such anger in her voice.
"What do we mean to you, big sis?" Soarin asks, venomously.
That brings me to a stop. "We need to stop Discord."
"Why should we do that?" Soarin asks, "You, the great Lightning Dust, you don't need us. We are your background ponies. We don't matter to you. We find the ponies, and you and your precious Irony go off and save them. While we stay at the farm, and don't do anything else." He spits on the ground in front of me.
"You left us behind Dust. We don't mean anything to you. You betrayed us." Mindy adds in.
I shake my head, "No. That's not how it is."
Mindy stalks forward, "That's exactly how it is. Dust. You leave us to rot, while you go off and have adventures. We don't mean anything to you."
I sit heavily on my haunches. Tears once again starting to form.
"What if Discord had attacked the farm? Or the US Military? Or rioters afraid of ponies in their midst? What would you do?" She scoffs, "Oh yeah, you would do nothing, because you are off saving other ponies. What about us? What if we need you, Dust?"
I shake my head, tears flying, "No, the farm is a place of safety. We've got former royal guards, of all three tribes, there. You are protected. I made sure of that."
"But the best protection is you, isn't it Dust?" Soarin asks softly, driving a spike into my heart.
I look up, their forms are wavy because of my tears. I see Mindy's horn start to glow, I have only an instant, I take off as fast as I can. I have to get away.
***
What seems like hours of flying later, I'm back on the featureless ground. I keep trotting, I haven't seen anypony. What is going on here? Oh no, more forms coalesce out of the darkness. Three of them, this time.
"Helen!" I smile and trot happily up to her. I know the look on that beautiful face. It pushes me to a halt. My ears fall flat as I see my children. Both of them have insurmountable anger plain on their faces.
"You left, Mike. You became that pony, and you left us. You left me." Helen says.
"I haven't left you, honey."
"Don't call me that, you bitch."
I recoil. No, not her too. She continues, "I would call you a son of a bitch, but you even gave up your manhood. You are one of them, one of those freaks."
I can't believe I'm hearing this, "Helen."
My son comes forward, "Dad, you abandoned us. Stuck us down in Texas."
My daughter unfolds her arms from her chest, "Daddy, you love the ponies more than us."
"No, sweetie." I try to say.
Helen interrupts, "Yes, you do. You don't want us anymore. We are trash to you. You left your family for the ponies. You left your humanity. You aren't Mike anymore. My Mike is dead."
"That's not…"
"True? I can't believe I'm hearing this from you, Mike. No. I shouldn't call you by your old name. You aren't human in body, or in soul anymore. You are Lightning Dust. Beloved protector of the ponies." She stalks slowly towards me, causing me to back away, my tail tucked between my legs, and my ears splayed back, "You willingly gave up what was you. You were a man, a good man. Now you are just a pony whore."
I shake my head, "What?"
"How many times have you been with that other whore? That Irony? Don't tell me you wouldn't have fallen into bed with Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh in an instant."
"How could you know that?" I ask in wonder.
"So, you don't deny it? As if I would believe a denial." She scoffs. She turns her back to me, "You betrayed me. You betrayed our children. You are dead to me." My children move to be closer to their mother, and they turn their backs to me as well.
"Helen!" I wail.
No response from her, she takes the children and they walk away, slowly fading into the black mist. Leaving me sobbing.
***
I lay there sobbing for a long time. Finally a heavily accented voice speaks. "You betrayed all of us." I look up. The pony from Belarus is there. He stands there, three bright splotches of blood on his chest. "You failed to save me." The pink earth pony from the lab comes forward, "You gave up too easily. You betrayed me."
Gold Dust comes forward, "You think you saved me? I was happy before you came to disrupt my life." She shouts at me.
I can't take any more of this. I look around, hundreds of ponies from my farm in Montana are here. All around me, I hear a dull roar of all they are trying to say to me. But the one word that stands out is… "Betrayer." I cover my ears with my hooves, but the words keep pounding into my skull. I can't hear anything else.
With a wail I shoot straight up, flying as hard as I've ever flown. This whole thing is destroying my soul. I pick a direction and streak that way. I have no idea where I'm going. I start to feel a burning in my wings. I need to land. All this has exhausted me. I finally flutter to the ground. I lay there, tears flowing freely.
"Dust." I hear a soft voice.
I look around, a pony is there. It's Irony. No, not her too, anypony but her. I look at her face. No rage, no anger, no hatred. My ears relax and finally stand up. Is this nightmare over? I get unsteadily to my hooves and canter over to her.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you, Irony."
She cocks her head to the side, "Why?"
That causes me to stumble. "What?"
"Why are you happy to see me? I'm just another conquest in your life, aren't I?"
I shake my head, "No, you are too important to me, Irony. You and Moon Shadow."
She shifts and stands on two hooves, towering over me, "You can't say it, can you, Dust?"
"Huh?"
"You can't say that one word. You said it to your human wife. But you can't say it to me, or to Moon, can you?"
"I'm not certain what you are talking about Irony."
She smirks, "I love you, Lightning Dust."
My ears fall, I've never been good at saying that word. Even as a human I had problems saying that word, Helen was able to bring it out of me, but it took her a long time, "Irony, you know how I feel about you."
"No, I don't. You were ready to fall into bed with Rainbow Dash. You wanted her, you kissed her."
I nodded slowly, "Yes, I did, but…"
She interrupts me, "No buts Lightning Dust. You betrayed me, you betrayed us. We never made any specific promises to each other. But you know how we felt about you. You said we were important to you, you said you wanted us in your life, but you couldn't say it. That one word. It's such a simple word, only four letters. But it scares you. It terrifies you. You've always run away when it comes to that word. How many ponies hearts have you broken by not saying that word?"
I open my mouth, but no words emerge.
Irony's ears fall, "I thought that. You don't love me. I was a hook up, I was a conquest. Nothing more."
She turns and starts to walk away. I reach out a hoof to her as she fades into the distance.
I whisper softly, "I love you Irony."
***
"No, you don't. You don't love anypony but yourself." I hear another familiar voice spit at me. I whirl around, Moon Shadow is standing there. I crumple to the ground. I can't take any more of this. This is going to kill me. I hear a masculine chuckle low in the distance. Moon Shadow comes forward and lowers her head to where she's looking into my eyes. "I hoped you would get over that selfishness. You could have carried the Element of Loyalty. But here you are, betraying those who love you. You wanted Rainbow Dash."
I'm able to struggle to my hooves. I must be strong. I don't know why, but I must be strong, I take a deep breath, "I wanted Rainbow Dash, I need you, I need Irony. I told you, I wasn't a one mare kind of gal."
She shakes her head, "It doesn't matter, you shared something special with us, at least it was special until you decided to pass it around. What you have has no value now. You don't even have love to give. Maybe you should go to that human woman." She starts to trot around me. Something about her flank bothers me. "You told her you loved her, as a human, and as a pony. Does your love belong to her?"
I look down, I finally steel myself, "I do love her. We shared fifteen years together. But part of that relationship ended when I turned back into the pony I was before."
"So, does she hold your heart? So you simply pass your body around?"
I think for a moment, "She has my heart, so do you, so does Irony."
"So, your heart has no value? You can spread it around like that?"
I shake my head as she passes in front of me again, "No, it has more value, Moon Shadow. The more you love, the more you can love. I discovered that with my children. Loving them didn't detract from my love for my wife. I found that I loved her more, because of them. And because of loving her, and loving Irony and you, I found I can love you all just as intensely as I do her."
"And Rainbow Dash?"
My ears fall flat, "I don't know. I think I could."
She whirls around and faces me, "You can give your love that easily?" She scoffs.
Finally what has been bothering me finally snaps into focus, "What is wrong with your cutie mark Moon?"
She blows her mane off to the side, "You are trying to distract from the issue."
I shake my head, "No, I'm not. I've gotten a really good view of your cutie mark before. The star was on the top of the crescent before. Now it's on the bottom."
"No, it isn't." She turns and the purple star is now in the correct place.
I remember what I saw before, time to test the theory, "It was green, not purple."
"Can't you see, Dust? My cutie mark is correct, it's never changed since I got it." I glance at her flank again, the star has changed into a vivid green.
I smile, "This is a dream, this isn't real."
Moon Shadow's body morphs and transforms, standing on two mismatched legs. The draconequus snarls at me, "You may have broken my illusions, but you aren't the only one suffering. Your friends will not survive this."
"I thought you hated killing, Discord."
He waves a paw dismissively, "One must be alive to endure chaos. Death is so final." His face turns to me, and an evil smile grows on his face, "But some exceptions can be made."