//------------------------------// // Chapter 69. ...Or Does It? // Story: Dust on the Wind // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// “C’mon, breathe damn you.” I moan. Chest compressions, I’ve got my hooves on her chest, pushing hard. I felt ribs crack with the first compression, something that’s not usually mentioned in CPR classes. As a DOT regulated company, all of my employees have to be CPR certified. I’m thanking Celestia for this right now. “Somepony, please help me!” I shout as loud as I can. I had left my phone on its charger, I’m alone in the forge right now. And I’ve got a nearly dead pony to deal with. I move over and tilt her head back, and put my lips to hers, a fetlock over her nose and I breathe into her mouth, a second breath, and I’m back at her chest, I count to myself as I do the chest compressions. “Somepony in here? Oh dear Celestia!” I hear, I don’t look up, I don’t recognize the voice. Then comes the sound of hooves galloping away, I hope they are going to get help. I finish the round of thirty chest compressions and give two breaths. I’ve got sweat pouring down my face now. Nopony told me how physically exhausting it is to do CPR on a real person, be they pony or human. “What’s going on? Oh, Lightning Dust!” I hear, again, I don’t look up, I’ve got to keep doing this. I finish another round of thirty and I see a golden set of forelegs in my peripheral vision as I do two more rescue breaths, I move back over and start pushing on the chest again. “Dust, back away.” It’s Sunset Shimmer, I know her voice. I ignore her and keep my tempo, “Sunset, please help me.” I moan. I’m enveloped in her magic and dragged away. At the same time, the prone form is also enveloped in magic. I collapse to the ground, every muscle is like water now. Sunset’s voice is strained, “I’m keeping up her heart rate, though I don’t have enough medical knowledge to get her heart to beat on its own, I’m doing it for her. The hospital has been called, some EMT pegasi are on the way, along with an ambulance. You need to rest, love.” My chest is heaving, but it’s not just the exhaustion, “I came in, to check on her, and she was sitting, she had that rope,” I point to the charred rope hanging from the hook on the wall. “She had just leaned forward, cutting off her airflow. She was moving when I got in here.” I look at Sunset, with tears adding to the drops onto the dirt floor of the forge, “Please, tell me she’s going to be okay.” Sunset moves over to me, leaning against me, her horn shining bright as two pegasi crash through the door, I can hear the wail of a siren as the ambulance is getting close. In minutes, two unicorns and an earth pony come in as well. The prone body is loaded onto a stretcher and put into the ambulance. Its siren sounds off as it moves away from the forge, for the four minute trip to the hospital. I bury my head in Sunset’s side, “Oh, Irony, why?” *** Sunset teleports us to the hospital. I’m barely able to stand, I’m so exhausted. She guides me to a family waiting room and then trots off. Leaving me to my own devices. I think I’m in a fog, I find myself staring off into space. Before long, a pair of arms pick me up. I look up, and Alan’s face is there. He’s got tears in his eyes as he holds me. I reflexively latch onto him, my wings hold him as I sob. “Dust, what happened?” Helen asks me. I look around, the entire herd is here. I’m shuddering. I nod to Alan, who puts me down back in my chair. I sit, and not knowing exactly what to do with my wings, I finally fold them at my sides, I look around, and sigh, “I remember I didn’t see Irony for a while, and for the last few days, she’s been hiding out in her forge. But this time, I didn’t hear any hammering. I was curious, so I walked into the forge.” Tears start to flow again, “I saw her sitting there, she had just put the rope over a hangar on the wall. She wrapped it around her neck, and leaned forward.” Moon Shadow gasps, though she doesn’t continue, I look around at everyone, “I threw a bolt to cut the rope loose, she was gasping. I was trying to wake her up when her breathing stopped, and I felt for a pulse, her heart stopped.” I sob, then I sniffle and continue, “I did CPR, it was the only thing I could do, while I called for help. Why didn’t I have my phone with me? Why couldn’t I get ahold of anypony?” I can’t do anything else, I nearly fall over as sobs wrack my body, Alan catches me. He sits down and cradles me to his chest, letting me wail. After time immeasurable, I finally fall asleep. *** I’m woken to the sound of hoofsteps, I pop my head up as everyone else also looks at the new entrants to the room. Dr. Ray is standing there, along with another of the doctors at this hospital. Ray smiles wanly at me as I hop over everypony and end up standing in front of her. “So?” Ray sighs, “Irony is still among the living. Though I had to sedate her, who performed CPR?” I raise a hoof, she smiles at me, “You saved her life, Dust. And I’m pretty certain you got to her in time, I can’t detect any brain damage. Though she had four cracked ribs, which are mending now. You did good, Dust.” “When can I see her?” Ray looks at her colleague, then at me, “She’s very fragile right now, I don’t want more than two visitors at any one time. But she should be waking up any time now.” I get her room number and flash down the hall, I barely stop to get the door open, and I’m finally at the foot of the hospital bed. Irony is there, a hospital gown on her large form, she’s reclined in the bed. She seems to be breathing easily. I sigh, happy to hear her slow breaths. It’s only been a couple of weeks since I was last at the foot of her bed. I spread my wings and lift up into the air. I then slowly let my weight ease onto the bed. This time, she stays asleep. I fold me wings to my sides and curl up at the foot of the bed, looking at Irony. I’m going to be here when she wakes. *** It takes a couple of hours, I note the sun as it descends down towards the horizon, and being July, it finally sets after ten at night. Irony shifts in her sleep, jolting me from a light doze. “Irony.” I whisper. I hear another pony moving, I look over, Moon Shadow comes forward as well. After a few minutes, Irony’s eye opens, she looks around, then her eye focuses on me, and she wilts. “Well, Irony. Mind explaining yourself?” She looks down, taking part of the bed sheet in between her fingers and rolling it, though she remains mute. I stand up, “You scared the ever loving fuck out of me, Irony. I do know it’s been hard recovering from what the clone did to you, but you wanted to leave me? You wanted to leave the family?” She looks down, “It’s not like that.” She whispers. “Not fucking like that? Are you kidding me?” Her ears fold back at my shout, “You’ve been gone for so fucking long. We’ve lost friends trying to get you back. Ponies have died, Irony, to retrieve you. And even if they knew in advance that they would die, they would have gone anyway. Why? Because we needed our Irony back. Anypony going through what you were going through needed to be gotten away from that situation.” “Dust…” Irony begins, only to be rolled over by me. “All of us have cried over your loss, all of us have felt the hole in our hearts, missing one we love. And we finally get you back, and everypony is happier than I have ever seen them. And now you want to fucking leave us?” Apparently my words have been having an effect, she leans forward and shouts, “I’m not the mare that was taken!” She shouts back, tears in her eyes, “I’m a freak, I’m damaged. That Irony is dead.” I slam into her, my forehooves around her neck, along with my wings, “No, Irony. You are the same pony, damaged, broken, but you are still the Irony that we love.” I guide her head onto my shoulder, I can feel her convulsing as she starts sobbing. I continue, “I don’t care Irony, nopony cares about that. We are glad to have you back. Yes, she hurt you, but we love you. And will always love you.” “I can’t shift forms anymore!” She wails. I squeeze her in the hug, letting her know how I feel, her arms finally come around as she holds me tightly, “I’ve lost an eye, I hurt all the time, I’m scarred from what she did to me. I barely sleep.” She looks over at Moon Shadow, who was standing there in shock, “You have helped me… some… in the dream. I don’t fear sleep nearly as much as I did when you got me back.” She looks down, “But I still have some pretty bad nightmares.” I let go of her, and move back a bit, “I don’t care, nor does anypony in the herd care, that you can’t shift forms anymore. Did the clone do something to cause that?” She nods, “She set me up, she got me to shift forms, and then she used her magic, she forced me to stay in this form for way too long, and it broke something inside me. And I couldn’t change anymore, she couldn’t even change me. She was absolutely sadistic, my loves.” She stops and shudders, after a long time of her staring, and remembering, she looks at me, “The only ponies that truly accept this form are my herd, it’s you. Everypony else looks at me as though I’m some kind of monster. When I could shift, it wasn’t a problem, but now I can’t. And I can see it in their eyes. I cause fear just by walking around. It hurts me, Dust.” I nuzzle Irony, “Oh Love.” I murmur, “what everypony else thinks is irrelevant. You have us.” My ears fall, and I don’t have to try too hard to do the puppy dog eyes at her, I’m leaking tears myself, “Please, don’t leave us.” She looks at me a long time and finally pulls me into a hug. *** After hours of talking to Irony, Sunset and Mindy take over with spending time with her. Moon Shadow and I end up back in my office. I settle into my chair, and look seriously at Moon Shadow. “Henry.” I say. She nods. “So, he is a natural healer, one of the rarest unicorns in existence. To my memory, there are two that are known, ever.” She nods again, “I did some research, a while back, when I was helping another human that went through the gate.” I look at her, “And you didn’t tell me?” She smiles, “Dust, I have access to people’s dreams, when they are most vulnerable, I must maintain confidentiality. Or would you like me talk about the time when you…” “Okay, I get the point.” I say, overriding her. Getting an impish smile from the gray unicorn. I lean back in my chair, “I think we need him, as a unicorn, to help Irony. And there are others he would be able to help.” She looks thoughtful, “But Dust, imagine this scenario, some rich businessman, let’s just say someone with the reach and power as the former head of Spectrum. He’s dying, but he finds out that there is a single unicorn in this world, just one, with the ability to heal him.” She hops off her chair and starts pacing, “If someone has that kind of power, wouldn’t they use it to extend their life? Wouldn’t they go to any extreme for the services of that unicorn?” I think about it for a moment, “And most healers would simply heal him, they would have to.” She nods, “But what if that person decides that no one else should have access to the healing abilities of that unicorn.” I frown, “That would mean confining him, keeping him away from others.” She nods, “There was a reason the royal sisters kept tabs on the two known unicorn natural healers. So they don’t become pawns in somepony else’s games. We aren’t the royal sisters, and humans would not necessarily respect our decisions.” I sigh, “And he would become something for the humans to fight over.” I growl and rub my forehead, “But Henry, he is doing what his cutie mark is telling him, but as a unicorn, he would be able to be so much more effective at it.” She sighs, “Dust, in the end, it must be his decision. The most we can do is offer that to him.” I groan, “Yeah, and he’ll have to wait until the portal opens again to go through, then he’ll have to come back, enveloped in Equestrian magic, to remain a pony when he comes back. Does Irony have that long?” She blushes, “Not necessarily, Dust.” I frown, “What do you mean, Moon Shadow?” “Well, Mayor Mare requested a full Equestrian library here in New Beginnings, and the books were brought through with the last opening of the portal. While all the books are in Equestrian, I’ve been reading from the restricted section, book that both Twilight Velvet and Sunset Shimmer requested. And among those are some of Starswirl the Bearded’s notes about the multiple mirrors he’s made.” I look at her, my jaw dropping, she continues, “He found there was potential for those that live here, to go through the mirror, and if they are touched by magic of our home, by Equestrian magic, they might be able to turn into ponies. We would use the magic of the cutie mark, the magic that they touched, to affect more than their skin, but their entire bodies. It would be similar to how we transformed back into ponies, but in three days’ time, Henry could be the pony he was in Equestria, permanently.” I shake my head, “Really?” She nods, “Well, he could go through the portal and come back and be human again. But he can change here.” I sigh, “And all we have to do is persuade Mr. Pink and Fluffy to become a unicorn again.” She nods with a smile. I sigh and look at the office phone, “I guess I’ll give him a call.” She smiles, “No need love, he’s likely asleep. Let’s talk to him in the dream.” She hops off the chair and heads out, swishing her tail as she leaves the room. I smile and follow her. *** Once again, we are in infinity, the stars of dreams all around us. One in particular is in front of both Moon Shadow and myself, “Is this Henry?” She nods and puts a hoof on the dream, then pulls back, a blush on her face, “Perhaps we should wait a bit.” I frown, and reach a hoof towards the dream, only to have it smacked away by Moon, I look at her, her blush widens, “He’s male, and he suffers from the same thoughts that all males do.” I grin and reach for the dream again, this time I find myself twenty feet away from it, Moon Shadow looking at me sternly, “Dust, private lives are private, you haven’t been trained, you have no notion of what privacy of the dream is.” I roll my eyes, “Well, is he thinking of someone we know?” She ducks her head and nods, her blush now covering her entire face and stretching down her neck. The dream pulsates for a moment, and Moon touches it again, this time, she smiles, “I think it would be safe to enter his dreams now, Dust.” I furrow my brow, “Enter his dreams? Can’t you bring him out?” She cocks her head to the side, thinking, then she brightens, “Good idea, Dust.” With a scooping motion, pulls him from the dream, and at the same time, all around us flashes white, and we are outside, in New Beginnings. Henry is looking around, he finally gets fully around, noticing the two ponies before him. He looks confused, “Moon Shadow, Lightning Dust. What’s going on?” She smiles, “Henry, first of all, I need to let you know this is a dream.” He looks around again, “Are you sure?” She disappears from in front of him, and appears behind him, without her horn lighting, “Yes, Henry.” I step forward, “Henry, we brought you here for a purpose.” His tone changes, on his guard, “what?” “We need you, Henry.” He stammers a bit, his face breaking out in a blush, perhaps we could have worded our request a bit better, I smile at Moon Shadow, and then at Henry, “No, Henry, not like that. But as a healer.” He breathes a relieved sigh, I don’t know whether to smile, or be offended, he starts, “While I have ended up being fairly well versed in pony anatomy, I would think Dr. Ray, or many of the doctors at your hospital would be better qualified.” Moon Shadow shakes her head, “None of them can do what you can do, Henry, but not like this.” Before me, his form changes, he’s a pink unicorn again, with fluffy chest fur. This is the first time I’ve seen him like this, I cover my mouth to hide my smile. Looking down at his pink forelegs, he visibly pales, "I thought you said dream, not nightmare..." He looks between his forelegs, down his belly then sighs, "Okay, at least it’s not a total nightmare." I cock my head to the side, “and what’s so wrong with your coloring?” He blushes, “It’s pink.” “So.” His blush intensifies, “I’m a pink…stallion.” I chuckle, “Not a bad looking pink stallion, I would say. But what is wrong with pink?” He scuffs his hoof on the ground, “It’s not…” He looks at his hooves for a long time, “A very masculine color.” Moon Shadow giggles, “Henry, what color are doctor’s scrubs at many hospitals?” He sighs, “pink…” he says after a long time. Moon Shadow smiles, and the world around us changes, we are in a busy hospital, people running around, though they don’t notice us, “Henry, what color are the doctors, and a lot of the nurses wearing?” He looks at his foreleg, “Pink.” Moon Shadow moves over to him, hugging him, “I think the mirror knew your aptitude, it knew what you were best at, and that is healing. So you got the colors of healing in our world. And while some with juvenile tastes will tease you about that, those who value your abilities will not.” I snicker, and get a glare from Moon Shadow, “Right, Lightning Dust?” I gulp, and stammer a bit, finally, “Sure, Henry. Only immature people will make fun of your color scheme.” After a few moments, the hospital fades from around us, and we are back in New Beginnings. I move over to Henry, putting a wing over him, Henry, you are needed. We need you to be Star Crossed again. You can help many with what you can do. Your cutie mark, your abilities, they are rare. And I’m talking extremely rare. In modern Equestrian history, I know of two, only two natural healers. And you would make the third. Even the Royal Pony sisters sought out natural healers like you.” He looks thoughtful, but I can tell he’s not convinced yet. Time to try a different tact, I nod to Moon Shadow. A piece of paper appears in front of him, he reflexively reaches out and grabs it, his horn lighting as he uses the touch telekinesis trick to hold it. I watch him read it slowly, “I remember her.” Moon Shadow comes forward, “Henry, you cured Leukemia, one of the most horrible cancers in human history, and you did it in seconds. Human doctors have to use fairly unreliable techniques, and often fail. Pony doctors can’t do much more than that. Unicorn magic, even well trained unicorn doctors, have not been able to cure many of these diseases.” He looks at Moon, then at me, “And why are you asking me? Do you have a family member with cancer?” I shake my head no, “It’s Irony. While her physical injuries have been healed, she’s still in pain, she’s still hurting. And much of that hurting is psychological. She has a horrible case of PTSD, and she had some kind of hemorrhage, she can’t shift forms anymore. She is beyond what Dr. Ray, or any pony doctor can do. Moon Shadow has been doing what she can to help, but she says it’s beyond her.” He looks at Moon, who nods sadly. I look down, “Not very long ago, she tried to end her life, it was pure dumb luck that I was able to be at the right place at the right time to save her. But she did say that she heard Moon Shadow and Sunset talking, saying that they didn’t know what else to do. We are at the end of our rope, Henry, we need you.” He looks at both of us, emotions warring on his face, his ears flicking like crazy. “But I would have to go through the portal to become like this, and I would end up human again on coming back. So we would both have to go through the portal. I don’t know how long it would take, mental problems are the hardest to heal, even with magic. That means we would be gone for at least two and a half years.” I step forward, “Not really, Henry. You can be turned, permanently into a pony. Sunset Shimmer, along with Moon Shadow, can use the equestrian magic within you, within your cutie mark, to turn you. And you would be the form that your soul deserves.” He looks at me, his eyes wide, “Seriously?” We both nod. He sighs, “Okay, if it will help a pony in pain, I will help where I can.” Both of us now smile, I rush forward and tackle him, a full body hug, with wings, I kiss him on the cheek, “Thank you Henry, you will not regret it.” “So, what do I do?” Moon Shadow grins, “Just come to New Beginnings, we will handle the rest.” He mumbles to himself as he fades from the dream. *** True to his word, the next afternoon, Henry knocks on my door. I answer, “Henry, I’m glad you came.” He nods, though he has a bit of a look of a man heading to the gallows, “I told my superiors what’s going on. And I’ve taken leave. Once I’m acclimated to being a pony, the decision will be made then on how we are going to proceed. But for now, I’ve got a few weeks of leave, so we can work on Irony.” I look back into the house, Irony was sleeping somewhat peacefully when I went downstairs, “C’mon in, I’ll get Moon Shadow and Sunset Shimmer.” In less than twenty minutes, we are in the basement entertainment room. Henry is looking around, “How much was all of this?” I cock my head to the side, “What do you mean?” He points to the TV, “That’s an absolute monster, and it’s 4k resolution, right?” I nod, “You have stadium seating, but with the most comfortable seats I’ve ever seen, and you have all this stuff here, did it cost a lot?” I shrug my wings, “I don’t remember how much was spent on this room, the kids told me what they wanted, so I got it. They liked having sleepovers down here, playing video games, doing all that sorts of stuff, I’m rarely down here.” He looks at me in confusion for a long time, “Just how rich are you?” I sigh, “Henry, I haven’t cared one bit about how much I have in the bank since I was supporting a family of four on ten bucks an hour. I have plenty of money, because the companies I own have been successful. But for an exact accounting, I’d have to check my records.” He whistles, “This room probably cost more than my yearly salary.” I chuckle, I know what the Army pays, “Well, not anymore, as a healer, if you want to work at the hospital, you’ll likely be paid pretty well.” He looks at me for a long time, then over at Sunset and Moon Shadow, “What do I do?” Sunset blushes, “I’m going to need you to strip.” He takes a step back, “What?” “We need access to your cutie mark, we must pull from it’s magic, to awaken the spark within you. To bring out your Equestrian magic, and start the transformation. Moon Shadow is well versed in dream magic, which is what is required, but she doesn’t have the necessary power, that’s what I’m here for. But you don’t have to strip all the way, though it would be easier. But we must have your cutie mark visible.” He looks at me, then at the two unicorns, I smirk, “Want me to turn around?” He shakes his head, and starts to unbuckle his belt, he hitches down the side of his pants, exposing the cutie mark. Moon Shadow’s horn lights, and then Sunset’s lights too, but the glow looks like it encompasses both of them. Moon Shadow comes forward slowly, tendrils of magic waft from the cutie mark, and when her horn touches it, she gasps, along with Sunset. For a long time they are frozen, the magic dancing around the room, and then it all rushes into Henry, who sits down heavily. Sunset and Moon Shadow stagger, but stay standing, Moon Shadow sounds like she’s run twenty miles at a gallop, “It’s done.” Henry sat still for several moments not moving. Slowly he started moving his his lips in a bare whisper, "Five score divided by four..." Shaking his head vigorously as if clearing out the last of the cobwebs he looked down at his hand. "Really?" She nods, “Oh yeah, in a few hours, your hair will change color, and become more of a mane, and over the course of three days, you will be back to a unicorn. He looks at Moon Shadow, "Sounds like what Velvet and Blaze went through when they changed." She nods. He smiles wanly, “Thank you. I hope I can help Irony.” I nod, “I hope so too.” As we are heading upstairs, I thump him with a wing, "I heard what you said, five score divided by four." He looks down, ""Your mind weak , your outlook bleak." He sighs, "In my case my roadblock was color wasn't it?" That gets a frown from me, how much effect did Discord have here in this world?" *** Henry has almost fully turned into his pony self after nearly three days, I'm in my office, talking to Irony. “Dustie, we have a mission.” Comes Mindy voice, and in seconds, the party unicorn appears in front of my desk with the sound of a party horn. I look at Irony, then at Mindy, “Mindy, we haven’t been able to reform our team, and Sparkler’s busy, and with the loss of Winter Storm, we don’t really have any prepared teams.” Mindy frowns, “Well, Cloud Kicker called, they need help in Malaysia, you need to get going, and help her.” I growl, “I’ll talk to Trixie and Flash, maybe they can help.” “I’ll go.” Irony says. I shake my head, “Irony, you aren’t ready, you have to rest.” She growls and slams a fist on the desk, “Dust, since I’ve been back, all I’ve done is rest, I need to do something, love. I need to feel useful again.” Her ears fall, and her eye waters, “Please?” I look at Mindy and back at Irony, then my ears fall back, and I slowly nod. “I’m guessing we will need our armor.”