//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21. Soarin 
// Story: Dust on the Wind 
// by Sparky Brony 
//------------------------------//

***Soarin 3rd person***

Soarin looks around, it's the farm, in Montana. He shakes his head hard, how did I get here? He thinks. Then he notices what's going on, the farmhouse is destroyed, fire rages inside it. But most of the structure has collapsed. He moves towards it, but the heat drives him back.

"What happened?" He muses as he trots around the house and then he gets to see the barracks Dust built. They are nothing but gaping holes. Debris is everywhere. He stops in shock, the bodies. The ponies, the ones he left behind at the farm, they are everywhere. He moves up to a ruined body. A unicorn filly, she's nearly ripped in half, a look of shock on her face. He turns and empties his stomach. It feels like every meal he had ever eaten was coming up.

After a few moments, he stands up and moves away from the obscenity.  He shakes his head then moves to the main barn, which is, miraculously, still standing. He picks his way among the bodies, wanting to vomit again. Bullet wounds evident in the bodies, in the yard, what looks like hand grenade holes pocket the entire area. The beautiful garden, which was rapidly growing under Earth pony care, was a trampled mess. Bodies were torn apart as though a huge monster had torn through the farm. 

He finally makes it to the barn, he closes the door to close out the horror outside, then he turns around. With a gasp, he sees why the barn was spared. Over a hundred ponies. All hung from the rafters. Most hung by the neck, but quite a few are hung by the hind legs, their insides opened with a knife, leaving their entrails on the ground. The stench hits him and he retches again.

"Who did this?" He howls to the bodies, he gathers a huge breath, "Who did this to you?"

To his amazement, one of the ponies that was hung by the neck, her eyes glazed in death, swings slowly to face him, "You did this, Soarin."

His ears fall, his tail tucks between his legs, and he backs rapidly away from the body that spoke, he trips and is face to face with another body, it shifts its head to face him, "You, who prided yourself on being generous with your time, with your abilities, who wanted to save all the ponies, you were selfish. You went on an adventure with Lightning Dust. You abandoned us."

"No, I didn't abandon you, Dust and I left the guard here. They were to protect you."

Another corpse speaks up, "But they weren't enough, were they?"

Soarin shakes his head hard, this can't be real, can it? "But who?"

"Who else? The army did the work, but you set it up. They betrayed us, because you abandoned us." Yet another dead pony growls at him.

No! "That's not possible, we were promised that we would be safe here?"

Another pony that was hung by the neck, he knew this pony, from his old memories in Cloudsdale, spoke up, "Soarin, always the one to give what he had to help, no matter how little, no matter how much, decided to be selfish."

"This isn't my fault."

Another pony, "Of course it is your fault, you took responsibility for us, when we had nowhere to go, you found us online, you gave of yourself to find us, you used every skill you had to help us. And it all was for naught. When we needed you the most, you weren't here for us. You were off having an adventure."

He shakes his head again, "What do I do?"

A menacing voice whispers in his ear, "You can die. You selfish bastard."

With a scream he runs to the door of the barn, throwing it open. He makes it some distance, to a small clear space, where he collapses to the ground, sobbing. He looks back, embers from the house fire have blown onto the roof of the barn, which is starting to catch, in minutes, the roof is fully engulfed. As the barn slowly burns he hears screams from the dead ponies inside. He puts his hooves over his ears, but that doesn't silence the pained screams. He turns to the burning barn, tears streaming down his face, "I'm so sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough." He hears a small voice. The first filly that he saw is looking at him.

"I know."

"There is only one way to atone, you must join us. Join us in death."

He backs away from the body. "No, I can't do that. Other ponies depend on me."

Another body, a pegasus colt with a bullet hole in the head, rears his ruined head up and stares at him with one eye, "We depended on you. You failed us. You will fail them."

Soarin couldn't take any more, he takes to the air. In moments he sees the churned ground indicating the invaders. He streaks to the south. But in moments he realizes that direction takes him to. "No!" He shouts as he doubles his speed. In moments he's over Mike's home town. He sees a dozen tanks in the streets, along with dozens of other vehicles. The people there are fighting back, but hunting rifles and pistols don't stand a chance against soldiers and their equipment. The pop of gunfire and the occasional boom of a tank round firing assault his ears. He lands at the outskirt of town. He sees a downed soldier, a gaping hole in his neck. The dead soldier's head turns to look at him, "We did this. Because you abandoned your duty. You abandoned the ponies." The head turns back and the body is still.

Soarin screams again, with every bit of power a pegasus can muster. "This can't be!"

His scream attracts the attention of the soldiers, who start shooting at him. Thinking fast he flashes to the side to avoid the spray of bullets. He takes shelter behind a car. He can hear the metallic clink of the bullets hitting the sheet metal. He covers his ears from the racket. But his eyes spy something. A young girl, maybe ten or twelve, she's huddling across the street. But as we watches, she stands up and tries to run away. 

With a snarl, he launches forward, trying to get to her, trying to save at least one life in this carnage. Before he is halfway there, he feels the impact of the bullets, his wings stop working and he tumbles to the ground. But he's not done, he keeps trying to crawl with only his forehooves. 

After a moment, a booted pair of feet enter his vision, he looks up, he sees the soldier aim at the fleeing girl.

"NO!" He screams as he hits the man's knee, knocking his aim off. The girl finally makes it into a building. Soarin sighs as he turns back to the soldier. He sees the face, it's the face of Corddis. The rifle is dropped and the soldier's pistol is drawn.

"Fucking pony." Corddis face says in some other voice as he pulls the trigger.

Soarin sees the bright flash, then no more.