Dust on the Wind

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 55. A Weasel in a Mouse Trap

I land at a nice home pretty close to mine, one of the more expensive houses actually, I think this house is bigger than mine. I have to smile, Dylan has been living with Gold Dust pretty much full time for the last several months, with his 19th birthday on the way, he's able to make his own decisions. He does seem happy, though getting a call from him a few minutes ago was a surprise. I stand on the door step for a long time, I'm guessing Gold has taken my suggestion to heart, I knew that many companies would pay through the nose for her special talents. She might have more in the bank than I do. I finally knock on the door, and then wait, but after a minute or so, the door opens, revealing a dark purple pegasus with a long blonde mane, I smile.

"Hi Dust." The stallion says.

My wings spring out, that voice is so familiar, "Do I know you?"

The pony chuckles, "I would hope you do, but I look a lot different than you saw me a couple of weeks ago."

My rear hits the ground, and my wings go from spread in alarm to drooping on the ground. "Dylan?" I whisper.

He nods.

"But how?"

He smiles, "Who else?"

I stand up again, I fight to fold my wings, they don't want to listen to me, "Sunset Shimmer?"

He nods.

I'm going to kill her, she didn't even tell me, though what I say is, "Well, this is a surprise."

He nods, "Gold Dust wants foals, so does Strawberry Sunrise. So, I asked Sunset, since she's a herd mom and all."

Never let it be said that I don't support my children, I place a hoof on his withers, "And what do you want, son?"

He giggles, I look into his eyes, the boy seems to be pretty happy, "I love it. I almost wish this were permanent."

"Liking the wings?"

He blushes and smiles, "Strawberry has been showing me a bit about how to fly, and it's amazing. Though I don't think I'll ever be as fast as you are, Dust."

I giggle, then change the subject as he backs up to allow me into the house, "Looks like you are doing pretty well."

He smiles, "Every time I say I should get a job, to support my family, both of them almost bowl me over, saying it's their job."

I know how stubborn my son is, "But you got a job, didn't you?"

He grins, "Yeah, web development, I was almost as good as Aunt Maddie when it comes to computers, so I'm making money on that. Add in what Goldie makes, she is printing money finding the best places to drill for oil. And Strawberry makes pretty good with the weather bureau, so we are doing really well."

I chuckle, "I would hope so, says I raised you right. Now, son, if you need anything, I'm but a phone call away."

A chime interrupts, "Speaking of…" I flick my ear and my bluetooth chimes, "This is Dust."

"Dustie, we need you to get home, there are some developments that we need to take care of." Mindy's voice says in my ear."

I sigh, a mare's work is never done, "Love you, Son. And name one of the foals after me, will ya?"

He chuckles, "As if I have any say in that."

I laugh as I head outside and take to my wings, just a few moments and I'm landing in front of the house, Irony tosses a duffel at me, "Spectrum."

I growl and start to put on my armor and my wingblades as more of the family comes outside. Mindy hops over, chattering excitedly, "We've gotten a good twitch in Panama. They are moving drugs through there, and I know there is some computers to raid, I've tickled their firewalls a few times, and got a strong response, the system is protecting something."

"Panama, that's a bit of a flight."

Irony smiles as I hear something behind me, two bat ponies have landed with a chariot, "We are flying in style, love."

I giggle, "Yeah, you are. I'll fly next to you."

Then I yelp as I'm picked up bodily by the large earth pony, she tucks me under an arm as she walks to the chariot, "Dust, I want you fresh, you are riding this time, and it's final."

I huff as I cross my forelegs, "And me the lead mare."

***

We land about a mile away from the building that Mindy was talking about. I follow my family, now my team, towards the building. Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth have joined us this time, so we have myself, Irony, Mindy, Sunset Shimmer, and the two other pegasi. Moon Shadow had decided on kid duty this time, helping Helen with the foals. I love how those two are such good friends.

I take point, Irony behind me in her armor, and the other two pegasi circle around the building. I've tried to get Sunset Shimmer and Mindy to wear armor, but they always insist their magic is more than sufficient. Though I can't see either unicorn right now, they are using Trixie's attention bending spell. We gather at the main door of the building, though I notice traffic around this building seems to be nonexistent. Irony steps forward and places a hand on the door, and with a tight nod from me, she opens it. She darts in quickly, and a low whistle tells me to follow her in.

This place is entirely normal, a small warehouse, with boxes everywhere, in clear aisles, Irony stalks down an aisle with us in tow, but after a bit, Mindy pops forward. She leads us upstairs to a large office.

"Oh, nononono, that's not possible." She says with a moan.

I look around, it looks like an entirely normal office, "What?"

She taps the huge monitor of a computer, "These are CRT monitors, the computers here are at least fifteen years old. They are not the ones that I found."

I shrug my wings, "Perhaps you got the address wrong." I get a withering glare from the party unicorn for my crack. I chuckle as I trot around, then something catches my attention, "That's too big for a building like this. There's no manufacturing going on here."

Mindy, "Huh?"

I point at the electrical service, through the windows, I can see thick wires coming into the building, and the panel is huge, not the hundred or two hundred amps a large open building would need, but about two thousand amps. I look at Mindy, "There is more here than what meets the eye." I trot over to the large switchgear, "Hmm, these are relatively recent," I point at the large electrical conduits heading down into the concrete, "they cored the concrete out rather than having them in when the slab was poured." My eyes narrow, then I look at Sunset, "Is there a basement here?"

The world falls on us as over a hundred humans rush from concealed stairways, all of them armed, and we are quickly surrounded. I look at no less than a hundred rifles pointed at me. All of the humans are dressed in camouflage outfits, black masks over each face. Except for one, though it's not the face I want to see, the head of Spectrum. The man is much darker, with black hair and dark brown eyes, he chuckles.

"Surrender now, or be killed." The man says with a smirk.

I look at Irony, she's snarling, holding her mace tightly, then I glance in the direction of the unicorns, they seem to have vanished. I hear a whisper in my ear, I know Mindy's whisper anywhere. "Dustie, say the word when you are ready." Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker are ready as well, their wingblades at the ready. I unfurl my wings, bringing my blades to a ready stance.

The human smirks, "As you can see, there is no escape, Lightning Dust. You will end up in our custody.

I allow a smile, "I don't think so."

He stomps a foot, "You are outnumbered, out gunned, and you pegasi know that if you take off, you won't be able to save your earth bound comrades."

I grin, "Ahh, but you are wrong. I have but one word for you."

The human frowns, "What?"

My grin widens, too bad the only pony in on this joke is Mindy, "Weasel."

With the word, one of Mindy's favorite prank spells, pop goes the weasel, goes off. Every human is jerked off their feet by a spell that acts like a spring under their feet, the shouts of humans fill the air as we scatter. I hear Mindy laughing as I dart forward, shoulder checking one human, and bouncing off of him to slam into another, using my inertia to knock them down. I don't want to kill, and I won't, unless I really have to.

I glance over, watching Mindy, she's turned off her misdirection spell, keeping the humans on their toes, she hops in front of one, who levels his gun at her, and she teleports away just as he fires, hitting one of his comrades. Short controlled bursts of gunfire fill the room, and the ponies are easily evading, with more of them than there are of us, guns actually can be a disadvantage.

Sunset's voice floats over to me, "Dust, get over here." Her location pops into my head and I hop straight up, then land in the middle of the fight, though Sunset is sitting there at her ease.

I look around, "Uhhh, Sunset, is this the best time for this?" I say nervously as a human lands on his back on the shield around us both.

She giggles, "They can't see or hear us Dust, this shield looks like a large crate, but you have to see something I found." Her magic lifts two bodies off the floor, obvious bullet wounds in both of the humans. Her magic strips off the masks, identical faces to the human that was talking to us earlier are revealed.

She prods them with a hoof, "They aren't human, Dust. They are magical constructs."

My jaw drops, "Are you sure?"

She nods, "they are all identical, and I can feel the magic inside them, they were made, I'd say these are just a few hours old."

I grin, "Thank you, love."

I power straight up, and hover near the roof, I shout in my loudest voice, "Gloves off ponies, wipe the floor with them."

The fighting gets really intense as ponies decide to stop playing nice. I flash forward, my wing blades cutting into the constructs, they seem pretty human, but they die easier than humans would. In minutes we are all panting, bodies strewn about.

Irony chuckles as she hangs her mace on her belt, "Thanks for the warning."

Mindy laughs, "It's a double trouble special, we did it to half the royal guards during a parade. Should have seen them! We had to hide out for three days for that one."

I giggle, I do remember that one, boy, my herd was mad at me once I got back. They suspected us, but nopony could prove it. I look over at Sunset, "let's find that basement."

It only takes a moment to find the concealed stairs, and shortly we are in a large basement, with a server farm, and plenty of modern computers. As well as the reason this place exists, nearly a thousand pounds of pure cocaine. Sunset crinkles her nose as her horn flashes and the wrapped and sealed packages of nose candy pop out of existence, "Vile stuff." I hear her murmur as Mindy hops among the computers.

"Oh, Dustie, this is exactly what I needed to find." Mindy shouts as she hops from computer to computer, her orange glow around half a dozen keyboards at the same time, "It will take me weeks to go over all of this. Watch the exits as I pump all this stuff for information." She floats her small satchel off of her back and several thumb drives float into various computers. She giggles, "Oh, this is even better than I imagined! This looks like they are running pretty much the entire black market here for South and Central America. When this goes down, their communications and money laundering is going to be completely cut off until they can get things reestablished." She continues to flit from computer to computer, checking the file transfer status on the various drives.

I trot through the space, noticing the industrial air conditioners to keep the servers cool, and all the other bits to keep the computers happy.

Sunset comes up to me, looking at Irony as she has returned to her four legged form, and sits comfortably, watching Mindy as she flits from station to station.

"Something wrong, Dust, love?"

I nuzzle the flame maned unicorn, "Yeah."

"What?"

"This, this is wrong. Spectrum is anti-pony, how in the hell did they have magical constructs here to trap us?"

I get a loving nuzzle from the unicorn, "I don't know, Dust. But I'm glad nopony got hurt."

I sigh, I'm glad for the exact same thing.

It ends up taking a few hours, but Mindy ends up setting a connection between her server farm in New Beginnings and this place in Panama, and quite a lot of data is apparently transferred. We end up on a neighboring rooftop, our chariot waiting as Mindy and Sunset work together. They both grunt as they exert, and in moments the building folds in on itself, the large building ending up so much rubble.

We quickly board our chariot and head home.

***

During the flight home, my mind continues to churn, why in the hell did Spectrum do this kind of setup? If they had wanted to trap us, they could have used a more ideal space, something to limit the pegasi, to limit the earth ponies, and perhaps find some way to blunt the effectiveness of the unicorns. This entire setup seemed almost amateurish. Spectrum is not run by an amateur, he is a cold, calculating professional, not some amateur.

I watch the low clouds as the bat ponies keep us moving at a steady rate. I would prefer to fly, but Irony is right, being fresh at the start of the mission is helpful, though I don't think I'll admit that to the massive earth pony sitting next to me.

I huff and think some more, it just doesn't make sense, the constructs were really recently made, and they were simply clones of one another, they didn't have even the full human strength, or toughness. In fact, they were laughably easy to finish off. With no pony casualties, ponies aren't perfect, I would expect at least one to have gotten hit on their armor, but all the pony armor was pristine when we were done with them.

I gesture over to Cloud Kicker, who decided to fly near us rather than join us on the chariot, "Hey, did they get any bullets to hit you?"

She nods, "I felt the impacts."

I think for a moment, "But those were M-16's in three round burst mode, I heard them shooting, and even with the new enchantments, you should have some mark on your armor from the hit."

She points to her chest, right smack dab in the middle of her peytral, her hoof showing completely unblemished leather, "I felt it get hit right there, but… nothing."

Hmmm, more and more amateurish, and naïve as well, not knowing the abilities of the guns the constructs were carrying. I look over at Sunset, "Were their guns also constructs?"

She nods, looking confused, "Why?"

I shake my head, "I'm not certain."

***

I wake up at Irony's urging, peeking over the side of the chariot, there is my house. I'm so glad to see home after this adventure. Apparently somepony has made a phone call, my family is coming outside. I hop off the chariot, hugging and kissing my family members, but when I get to the brown unicorn, I notice a look, and as close as I am to him, I can tell there is something about his scent. At that moment everything just clicks, the raid, the constructs, the amateurish attempts on our lives, this wasn't Spectrum. My wing blades take Dr. Ray in the chest, vivid red blood gushes from the wounds as I stare into his eyes, "It was you!"

Comments

[harts fire]

W T F DR Ray ? changeling a spy I am at a total loss here.

as to Dillon I can see him being happy a pony permanently but how can that happen? and will he want to?

now this is one huge cliff hanger exultant work Sparky Brony.

Harts Fire

[Sparky Brony]

5671183 Vivid red blood... not a changeling.

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Attacking right off the bat without trying for an explanation? I mean he is part of the herd, seems to me to be jumping the gun.

[harts fire]

5671217
you are correct O master of the story.
I need to think about this a bit after I sleep not feeling to good right now I am thinking a cold is setting in, with all this rotten weather 11 below zero last night and the coal fire went out on us hear at home.

[Ardent Dusk]

5671217 Oh HOLY SHIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAT WHY YOU DO DIS CLIFF HANGAR! YOu bastrad!

[Jirodyne]

5671360 It might not be the Doc.

I can tell there is something about his scent.

They would have noticed any new scents instantly, and noticed this new one as soon as they came back. So something happened to him.

[Alkarasu]

Good to see your ponies abandoning their primal bloodlust, at least sometime.
So the good doctor is not good and likely not even a doctor... interesting. I hope he's not dead enough to be unable to talk.

[VoxelTron]

All aboard the "you'd-better-be-quick-at-explaining-this-before-parts-of-your-body-are-missing" train!
But seriously? Jumping the gun (or wing blades, in the case) a bit here Dust? It could have easily have been anyone in that area recently, oh.. who am I kiding? I just want to see a scenario when the Doctor is not the bad guy... just once...
Great work on yet another chapter!

[Sparky Brony]

5675017
5672969
5671514
5671477
5671417

I could be mean and spoil the next chapter, buuuuuuuut, I'll be nice and not do it. Let's just say I have a specific plan for upcoming chapters, and a specific theme. I think you'll like it.

[Ardent Dusk]

5675592 Gooooooodddd!!!! but be fast because this is a MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJJJJJJJJJJOOOor cliff hangar

[Jirodyne]

5675592 5675624
oi61.tinypic.com/20qfivk.jpg

[Sparky Brony]

5675624 I'm editing the next chapter of Kitsey's story, but I've already started the new chapter, Phenrys and I did discuss it, there is a plan, and no worries, there is a plan, and it will be awesome, I think.

[Ardent Dusk]

5675746 best. meme. ever.

[exsnaggerwes]

He nods, "Gold Dust wants foals, so does Strawberry Sunrise. So, I asked Sunset, since she's a herd mom and all."

I can interpret this pretty cruelly. If he's been turned pony temporarily for the purpose of making foals, and he was indeed inside the house and not in the sky, then there's a good chance he was recently carrying out said duties. Now that he's more of an adult, I can take away the spoilers XD
*high five Dylan!*

"These are CRT monitors, the computers here are at least fifteen years old. They are not the ones that I found."

Incidentally, my 5 year old computer has a CRT display. This is mostly out of convenience because they use the standard VGA connector that comes stock with standard computers, and we have 3 CRT monitors lying around the house collecting dust. They're basically decorative shelves at this point, but I can still use them with my newest machines if I don't feel like buying a newer monitor. Even older computers can be pretty useful as well. That 5-year-old computer with the incredibly old display is a Minecraft server that I keep underneath my TV stand lol.

"This, this is wrong. Spectrum is anti-pony, how in the hell did they have magical constructs here to trap us?"

And where are the actual workers?

I hop off the chariot, hugging and kissing my family members, but when I get to the brown unicorn, I notice a look, and as close as I am to him, I can tell there is something about his scent. At that moment everything just clicks, the raid, the constructs, the amateurish attempts on our lives, this wasn't Spectrum. My wing blades take Dr. Ray in the chest, vivid red blood gushes from the wounds as I stare into his eyes, "It was you!"

Whoa. You pulled that off perfectly! I liked this part specifically:

At that moment everything just clicks, the raid, the constructs, the amateurish attempts on our lives, this wasn't Spectrum.

*Spoiler alert*
That takes all the suspicion off of the leader of whatever faction they took out and places it on a close family member. It makes it look a lot less like Ray is one of them and more like Ray really was behind it. Also, I misunderstood the scent thing earlier. It doesn't have to be a familiar scent that tips her off, but instead an unfamiliar one because she knows Ray's real scent. XD

[exsnaggerwes]

5671217 yes, this was a fantastic detail as well.

[Sparky Brony]

5675624 well, you will be glad to hear that the next chapter is nearing completion, and should be posted during the weekend, if I can get things to work.

[Phenrys]

5676231
My kids got me into Minecraft. I can't believe how much fun it is. I play it on PS4. I wish they'd make it so I could play with computer players too.

[exsnaggerwes]

5676470 nice! I wish that too. Maybe if Notch gives Steam a license for it (very doubtful that will happen), it will be compatible. I'm still waiting for the day they'll all be compatible too. I went for the computer one because it had the most features at the time, I didn't have a fancy console, and all my friends had the computer version too.

[Phenrys]

5676485
I'm a console gamer to the core. Very few computer games interest me. I like being able to sit back and relax, plus I don't really like computers much anymore.

[exsnaggerwes]

5676532 There's nothing wrong with preferring systems that work out of the box, are fairly cost-competitive, optimized for the task that they were so purposefully made, and never slow down

I'm more of a nintendo fan myself, and that's pretty difficult to get on a computer most of the time, but I still like the computers for all the other things they do.

Why don't you like computers anymore?

[Phenrys]

5676543
Mostly I don't like them because they so often don't work like they should. Not to mention how expensive they are, and how often they have to be upgraded or replaced.

Not to mention that I got my degree in computer networking, so I know a little bit about them.

[harts fire]

5675592
you should know bye now I trust you explicably when it comes to totally destroying my mind and soul with this story.

so with that being said, I chaligon you to tare the readers minds and harts down and burn the remains so we can rise back up like a phoenix bigger and better.

Harts Fire

[Ardent Dusk]

5676427 gooooooddddd

[Phenrys]

5675746
Love that, by the way.

[Sparky Brony]

5671360 I don't really think so, Dust, in her view, was doing so to protect her family from what she felt was an imminent threat, seeing as the ambush failed. She wasn't taking the chance that by the ambush failing, her family, including noncombatants could be in dire danger. And she reacted in the way she felt was right. You'll have to wait for the next chapter to see if anypony else put the information together the same way she did.

And the new chapter is complete, and waiting on final approval before I post, and it should be today.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Uh oh!

[hyreia]

My assumption immediately after reading this- but before Dr. Ray got wrecked- is that the data itself was tainted somehow. Worms, trojans, etc. They packed it with just SO much data that Mindy oculdn't possible sort through it all. It wouldn't even matter how much of it's real as long as on quick inspection it all looked genuine. Something gets uploaded to Mindy's server to bring her down so that the ponies aren't a threat for a long while.

They grab an old base, renovate it and fill it with their bait and staffed it with knock off changelings so no one dies and they don't waste an active distribution center. - Sunset found a shit ton of cocaine though... but she didn't exactly test the stuff I suppose?

Regardless, based off the end of this chapter that doesn't seem to be the direction you were going.