Dust on the Wind

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 34. The Incredibly Dense Mind of Lightning Dust

Moon Shadow squints at the rising sun. She has never been a morning person, or pony. Always preferring the night. But she was up before anypony else this morning. Her magic has Dust's lead. The light brown mare placidly follows the lead as she brings her into the main yard. Just the thought of trying to do this in the dark stable makes her sad. She decided if this was to be her last day, she would be in the sun for it. The screen door slams, and a quick look confirms that Irony is trotting over to her.

"You aren't going to wait for anypony else?"

Moon Shadow shakes her head, "Nopony else is qualified to do this. This is a dream, this is my domain. I have to dive into her mind. And it's very tricky, using magic that I don't fully understand. But I have to try. If I take the time to fully understand the magic that Luna taught me last night, Dust will be gone. She is so weak." She looks at the pony in question, "She is fighting so hard, but she's hanging from a cliff, and if she's not offered a hoof very soon, she will fall, and we will lose her. I know the risks. And while she doesn't know the risk, I know that she would approve of what I'm doing."

"Are you sure, love?" Irony asks, her ears splayed back.

"Oh, I'm sure I would get griped out, saying I shouldn't risk myself to save a pony. That my life is too important to risk on a gamble. And she would be right, and I would do it anyway."

Irony chuckles, "Yeah, you would. In some ways, you are just as stubborn as she is. I wonder why I love you both so much."

Moon Shadow chuckles, "Yeah, no idea."

Irony hears the soft pop of teleportation. She turns and her mouth drops open, "Hannah!"

The ten year old girl giggles, "Miss Mindy's been teaching me. I'm getting pretty good at it too."

Moon Shadow frowns, "That is very advanced magic for such a young filly. You should be finishing up your work on levitation."

The girl rolls her eyes, "Oh Miss Moon. I finished that work two weeks ago. I've worked on transmogrification. And a few other advanced spells. Took me an hour to learn to say that right." She giggles, "What are you and Miss Irony doing?"

Moon Shadow sighs, "I'm going to use dream magic to dive into Lightning Dust's mind. I need to find her, and try to bring her back. Somehow."

Hannah blinks, and her eyes glow for several seconds, her hair whips around in an unseen wind and she levitates a few inches off the ground. Moon Shadow and Irony both back away from the girl. She blinks again, and her eyes have turned color. They are purple now. She shakes her head quickly, "Don't do it, Moon. You will die."

Moon Shadow looks at Irony then back at the ten year old girl, "I know that is a danger of this. But I must. It's the only way. Otherwise we will certainly lose Dust."

Hannah shakes her head, "No, my magic told me. If you go in alone, you will die. To have your only chance of success, you must have one with you."

Irony steps forward, "I'll go."

Hannah looks at Irony, her eyes flash for a moment, and she feels a cold chill all down her body, "No, Miss Irony. Your magic would disrupt everything, and she would slip away before you even enter her mind. You need magic like Miss Moon Shadow has."

"Dream magic?"

She shakes her head, "Dream magic is the key, but only one needs dream magic."

Moon looks to the house, "I'll go get Mindy."

Again the little girl shakes her head, "No, Mindy is pregnant, and that would disrupt everything the way that Miss Irony's magic will. You need to take me."

Irony looks sharply at Hannah, "There are two reasons for a no. One is you are only ten years old, you've had your magic for a matter of months. And the second is, Dust will murder us, slowly and painfully, if we allowed harm to come to you."

Hannah giggles and looks at the light brown pony, "Oh, I don't think he's in any position to say anything about it. But you don't have a choice, nopony has the power, except Moon, Mindy, and me. Moon is already going, Mindy can't with her foals. That leaves me. There is no other choice."

Irony opens her mouth to speak, "Irony, Hannah has a good point. We need to listen to her." Moon Shadow says.

Irony turns and gapes at her love, "Are you serious?"

Moon Shadow nods slowly, "Her magic is very powerful, I could name maybe half a dozen unicorns on the farm that can best her when it comes to magic, but that's it. And she has a powerful motivation. She loves Dust as much as we do. Dust is her daddy, and she knows that Dust would do anything for her, and she would do the same for Dust." She turns and looks at the little girl, "Hannah, we will have to link our magic for me to bring you. Since you aren't a dreamer. And keep your thoughts close, because inside the dream, your thoughts can become your enemy."

The young girl nods her head, "I'm ready Miss Moon."

Moon Shadow lights her horn and brings it close to Dust, she sees the little girl envelop herself in her aura. She brings her hand close. They both touch Dust at the same time. Moon Shadow feels herself pulled hard. And she ends up in darkness. Hannah sprawled next to her.

"You okay, honey?"

The girl is standing without going through the space between. Her hand is in front of her face, then back down at her side, "Are we here?"

Moon Shadow nods, "Yes. We are."

They walk in silence for a while. Though Moon Shadow's ears keep twitching. What she is hearing scares her. She glances up at the human girl walking with her, Hannah's head keeps swiveling around, she hears the screams as well.

"What is all of that, Miss Moon?"

"Just call me Moon for right now, Hannah. We are certainly equals in this."

She gets a bright smile in return. The girl takes a moment to gather her mid back length hair into a ponytail. "I need my hair out of my face," She gripes.

A particularly loud scream grabs Moon Shadow's attention, she gestures that way, "Dust is in pain, she's reliving what she's been going through. You may not want to come further."

The girl sighs, "Moon, whatever happened to Dust, I need to help her."

Moon Shadow sits on her haunches, how do you explain the violence that happened to Dust to one so young? "Dust was…violated. This very evil man used his body to control her, to punish her, and just to hurt her. It is something that happens from time to time even in the real world." Her ears fall, and she lowers her head, "Dust was raped."

Silence from the girl, then, "I've heard of it."

Moon Shadow looks up at Hannah, "This very evil man did it for months to Dust, and hurt her very badly, he broke quite a few of her bones. And right now, she's reliving what happened to her. We need to help her dispel the nightmares that are destroying her right now. Just remember, while what is here can be dangerous to us, they are not real." She flinches as a particularly loud scream, and then a whole string of cussing comes from the distance, "But they are real to Dust, and they are pushing her to the edge, and if she falls over that cliff, she's dead to us. That pony is all she will ever be."

Hannah nods, her now purple eyes huge, "I understand Moon Shadow."

Moon Shadow growls under her breath, "I shouldn't have brought you here."

Hannah cups Moon Shadows muzzle and looks deep into her eyes, "I need to be here. I will be strong for Daddy, I will be strong for Dust."

She pulls the girl into a hug, "You are an amazing young lady. I don't think I should refer to you as a little girl anymore. You are too special, Hannah."

She feels the young lady giggle in her grasp, "Now, let's save Dust."

They move forward, and like stepping through a door, they are in a dimly lit room, little more than a stable, with straw on the floor, and wooden construction. They see Dust, hobbles on all four hooves, and a metal collar around her neck. Dust gasps, she watched Irony kill that man. Then she smiles, well, Irony got some small revenge on him with that underhand swing of the mace.

"Come on, you asshole, is that all you've got?" Dust's featherless wings are spread aggressively. She watches the human who's holding a baseball bat, "I've gotten worse beatings against changelings, you are nothing." The bat whistles through the air and contacts the ground as Dust dances away as best she can while restrained. "Swing and a miss." She lashes out with both forehooves, landing on the baseball bat, snapping it in half. But gets a punch to the side of the head for her trouble. She moves away, clearly dazed, "Were you trying to hit… me? Because I don't think you could kill a mosquito with that hit. Come on, let me out of these hobbles, and I'll show you how to fight."

The scene fades away in front of the human and the pony. Moon Shadow looks at Hannah, a grim smile, "Dust doesn't know when to quit." And gets a nod in return. They step forward together.

They are in a different shed, Dust is no longer wearing the hobbles, she watches in horror as the man pulls away from Dust, and zips up his pants. Dust tries to kick, but the man is too fast for her. The collar keeps her from moving very much. The man smiles as Dust lays her head down, too tired to say anything. He kicks her savagely in the head, blood spraying from the torn skin. Dust just sighs, though Moon Shadow can hear her mumble, "You fuck, I was better in the sack than you would ever be." She sighs again, and a ripple of gray slides down her body, her wings are smaller, her turquoise fur has lost some color, and her muzzle lengthens, her entire skull subtly reshaping. Becoming more earth equine rather than equestrian. Moon Shadow looks up at Hannah, seeing tears there mirrored by her own.

The scene fades. But before they step forward again, Moon Shadow addresses Hannah, "This is going to be hard, Dust is reliving her captivity, if it gets to be too much for you, hold on to my mane, and just close your eyes."

A slim hand grasps her mane, "Moon, I can handle what I'm seeing, but what I'm hearing hurts worse."

"I know honey, I know," They step forward, Dust is reliving her losing her feathers. Another step, she's lost her wings and most of her coloring, another step, she's bright and vivid turquoise, and she's snarling as she fights against her restraints. Moon Shadow realizes that the time frame is being all jumbled up. But she presses on. Tears flowing.

Finally with another step, there's a human standing there. He's over six feet tall, powerfully muscled, but with a little extra around the middle. He's wearing a black cowboy hat, he has a neatly trimmed goatee, his brown, curly hair, is pulled back in a pony tail that flows down his back.

"Daddy!" Hannah squeals as she runs forward. He gets down on one knee as she runs to him, and she crashes into him in a huge hug. Moon Shadow smiles as she trots forward.

"Mike?" She says in a quavering voice.

He looks up, and a dark look passes across his face, "You don't belong here, pony." He squeezes his daughter tighter, then brings her to where he can see her face, "I've missed you, kiddo. What happened to your eyes?"

She giggles, "Moon Shadow and the other unicorns have been teaching me magic."

That same dark look passes over his face, unnoticed by his daughter, it's replaced with a smile, "But you don't have magic."

"Oh, yes. I do now. And it's all your fault!"

He smiles and tickles her ear, "How could I give you magic?"

"Because you were a pony, then you came to Earth because of Discord, and you had me, then turned back into a pony."

He shakes his head, "I don't understand."

Moon Shadow steps forward, "It's true. Though with the ponies here, magic is showing up in humans that have never even met us. We just had two more magic users show up that had never seen ponies before."

His eyes turn cold as he looks at Moon Shadow, his voice changes, and he shouts at her, "No one has asked what you think pony. Now get the fuck out of here." He raises his hand, and to Moon Shadows surprise, lightning arcs between his fingers, and a bolt strikes out at her, she wills the strike to miss, and it does, narrowly. Using her magic here might be dangerous for her, and for Dust, but her abilities in the Dream are all she can rely on.

"Daddy, no!" Hannah screams as she grabs Mike's hand. He pushes her away and stands up.

"If you are with the pony, you need to go, Hannah."

Tears stream down her face, "Daddy, please."

He raises a hand at his daughter, electricity crackles between his fingers, and before anything else happens, his features change, he gets shorter, he loses a hundred pounds, and gains nearly twenty years in age. And to top it off, half his teeth are missing. Moon Shadow recognizes that man. It's the man that was raping Dust. He hisses at them both, Moon Shadow having willed herself in front of the terrified girl.

"This pony whore is mine, you can't have her!" He hisses and then disappears.

Moon Shadow hears a sob behind her, she whirls around, "Daddy would have hurt you, he would have hurt me."

Moon rears up on her hind hooves and envelopes the girl in a hug, "Oh, no. That wasn't him, that wasn't Mike. It was a part of Dusts mind trying to defend itself from our intrusion. It wasn't really her, it wasn't really him. It was a reaction from how much pain she's in."

She gives Hannah a few minutes to calm herself, then wills the young lady's tears away, "We are getting close. You must be strong."

They move forward, finding other versions of Mike, other humans in Dust's life. Moon Shadow has to work very hard to suppress her tears when she hears Helen scream at her that the ponies are what have destroyed her husband. But finally they see one more stable. This isn't the nasty creations from earlier, everything is clean, she can smell the clean hay, she steps inside, and it's far bigger inside than it looked from the outside. She hears sobbing. Hannah and Moon search through the stable.

"Moon, over here." Hannah calls, and Moon wills herself to Hannah's side. She's picking up a filly pegasus. No cutie mark, but the same turquoise, and the same golden eyes. The pegasus nuzzles Hannah. Then opens her eyes.

"What are you?" The young filly asks. Moon judges her to be maybe three or four years old.

"I'm a human, I'm your daughter."

Chiming laughter, "You silly, I'm not a mommy, mommy is my mommy."

Lightning crashes outside, lighting up the stable, causing the pegasus to spread her wings and jump in surprise. Hannah barely is able to keep a hold of the small pony.

"It's scary out there."

Moon Shadow nods, "I know it is, Lightning Dust. But we need you to come with me."

The filly pegasus squirms in Hannah's grip, then disappears, reappearing on the ground, sobbing, "I don't want to go with you. A mean man did bad things to me. He hurt me."

Moon gathers the pegasus up again, despite her protesting, she can feel the strength of the pony. Not nearly what it should be. Lightning flashes and thunder booms again, the pegasus screams, and she can feel more strength wither away. The pony gets smaller in her grip.

"Dust, you really need to come with me."

"I'm too scared. I can't go. I will die."

"You are the strongest and bravest pony I know. Irony misses you, so does Mindy, and the rest of your friends, and your family."

"Irony?" Moon Shadow almost drops Dust as the pony gains some strength, "Irony is there?"

"Oh yes, honey."

"Will she protect me?"

"With all of her heart Dust."

Once again the pony disappears, then reappears next to the door of the stable. She's grown, she looks like a young teen, she reaches out and lightning flashes again, but instead of a boom of thunder, they hear cackling laughter. Dust scampers away from the door and loses ten years of age, "No, I can't go out there, I will die. He will kill me, after he hurts me again."

Moon's heart aches for Dust, "I promise you, he is dead. Irony killed him." This perks the filly's interest up.

"The bad man is dead?"

Moon nods, another chuckle frightens the small filly, she shrinks away, "I still hear him."

"Those are just dreams."

The filly gives her a sour look, "Dreams are scary."

Moon Shadow sighs, "I know they are, it's my job to help with those dreams, help make them less scary."

Hannah pipes up, "Please Dust, we all need you. We can't lose you, if you stay here, you will die."

The filly shakes her head, "Hannah, what happened to you?"

Hannah moves forward and sits on the ground in front of Dust, "My magic came out. You know how I would make light bulbs break when I got mad when I was younger? Well, I've got the same kind of magic as a unicorn. Moon Shadow here has been teaching me, along with Mindy."

"Mindy. She's okay?"

Moon laughs, "Mindy is better than okay. She helped get you."

"Double Trouble?"

Another laugh, "Double Trouble wouldn't be Double Trouble without Lightning Dust."

The now teenage looking filly bites her lower lip, looking at both Hannah and Moon, "So, I'll be okay? If I stay with you?"

They both nod, then the most violent lightning strikes again, this time, visions whirl around, visions of Dust's abuse, her pain. The filly screams and runs away. Moon wills the filly back into her grasp. She cradles the infant. "Hush, Dust. You will be fine."

Slowly as Moon Shadow cradles the crying infant, the lightning ceases, and white light spills into the stable. She looks at the now silent Dust, Dust looks around, she's back to around seven years of age in appearance, "What is that?"

Moon Shadow cocks her head to listen. She can hear singing. Then she realizes what's going on. "That is your friends, that is your family. They are helping you now, guiding your way. Please come with us, I promise you will be okay."

She sets down the now young teen Lightning Dust. Though the pony is trembling, she moves towards the doors to the stable with Moon Shadow and Hannah. They open the door.

Moon Shadow's eyes open and she pulls her horn away from Dust, she looks at her love, the turquoise pegasus opens her eyes slowly. Her eyes focus on Moon Shadow, she takes a step forward and kisses Moon, with all the passion she can muster. The kiss goes on, while the music around her fades away, behind her closed eyelids, she sees the white magic fade slowly. Dust finally breaks the kiss, "Thank you. Love."

***1st Person Lightning Dust***

I look in to Moon Shadow's eyes, I know some of what they did to bring me back. I look over at Irony, and step forward to show her how much she means to me, and my legs decide not to work. I'm heading for a face plant, but Irony is faster, she shifts and picks me up, cradling my hind legs and rear, and she hugs me with her other arm. I nuzzle her, then kiss her. "My Irony." I breathe when I come up for air. I blink my eyes, taking in the setting sun. I see the ponies, and the humans all around. "What happened here?"

"Magic happened, Dust. Magic."

Comments

[exsnaggerwes]

5053493 I'm sorry, don't take it the wrong way, but I don't want Mindy finding out we're talking about her behind her back. *she can probably see these comments right now.

5054293 Hey look, he totally uploaded in time!

5055464

[harts fire]

sparky brony you are forgiven for making us what.

[Sparky Brony]

5055757 so, what did you think of the chapter?

5055771 so... Whatcha think?

[Phenrys]

5055757
Of course she can see your comments! So, you'd better be careful! Mindy is a nice pony... until you piss her off. Then all bets are off.

[Sparky Brony]

5056026 I would peg Mindy at chaotic good. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, she didn't kill an infant discord and yet she regrets that now after finding out about soarin

[Phenrys]

5056034
Chaotic Good: I'm going to do the right thing, even if I have to kill a bunch of people to do it!

[exsnaggerwes]

5055855
It's great what you did here. The story is finally resolving itself, and leaving a scar on the characters. I'm used to seeing the end of a tragic story on the resolution of the initial tragedy, i.e. the one that happened throughout the story, or was known to happen throughout the story. (Which would have meant the end was Soarin's funeral)
But you kept on going and decided to clean up the whole concept leaving few strings untied. It's even better that we're not left with a blunt [THE END] right here, and will get more to the story. So the bigger part of the story is going to be resolved soon, and I'm selfishly hoping for more inner conflict between Dust's home (Equestria) and her family on Earth. Even though I know that her family could probably just go with her without leaving much behind, there are many more things to be explored.
I particularly like the regression you used as a way to represent what was left of Dust, and I'm glad that there was a safer route to solving the conflict, but that's where I make my only criticism for this chapter:
The dialogue needs a bit of work. I don't know if you've read Sappy HiE, but I struggle with my dialogue all the time, otherwise I would probably be able to offer some suggestions about it.
Overall: still utterly psyched for what's coming now

[exsnaggerwes]

One more thing: I saw what you did with the chapter title.

5053127
Mood Wings and Those Blue Wings by Tchernobog

[Phenrys]

5056129
Buckle your seatbelt, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. This story ain't anywhere near done yet, methinks.

[Sparky Brony]

5056151 yes, I did. With a huge hat tip to chengar qordath, I felt that a title that was homage to his wonderful little short story was appropriate.

5056342 You are right, there is a lot more of this story to be written, and I'm pretty deep into the aftermath of dusts imprisonment, but I need to throttle back this story and give some other stories the love they deserve. And a certain other author I know needs to catch up a bit. I've already told you I plan on helping where possible. But I think a new purpose is going to get some updates, and some little stories stuck in the back of my head might be brought out and examined for freshness. But dust is not done, Remember, spectrum is not done for.

[Phenrys]

5056151
I have now added both of those to my read later list.