Chapter 66. Dreaming of Irony
A quick touch of my hoof to my earring tells me where Moon Shadow is, my house. I take to the air and in minutes I’m landing at the front door. Before I open the door, I look at the face of the house, perhaps I should build a landing platform for pegasi, my bedroom is upstairs, it would be nice. I smile as I open the door, heading inside. I get to the kitchen and head downstairs to the basement. Mindy’s office is before me before too long. I push through the door into the office, my ears picking up voices.
I get close to the entrance to the server room. I stop for a moment and listen.
I hear Mindy’s voice, “Nothing on your satellite views Cipher, the algorithm seems to be fine, it sees ponies just fine, and can determine cutie marks and coloration fairly well. What is the resolution of the cameras?”
Cipher’s voice pipes up, “These are the newest satellites, we are down to sub centimeter resolution, you put a matchbook on a set of train tracks, we can read the logo on it.”
Another voice chimes in, “That’s scary.” Ahh, there is Moon Shadow.
Cipher giggles, “Not really, there are definite limits to the capabilities of satellite surveillance, you can’t see inside a structure, you are limited by the viewing angle, in fact, street cams all over the world give better pictures. And we are tapped into them.”
Mindy chirps, “Cipher has connections to every DoD computer here, and she’s granted access to our server network for the purposes of searching for Irony.”
Cipher giggles, “Well, some of the higher ups don’t know exactly how much access you guys have here. But we are going to get your family member back, so I’m helping.”
I hear the sounds of them moving around, and, “Ack Mindy, I don’t need a hug right now.”
Mindy giggles, “That’s silly, Cipher, everypony needs a hug.”
Moon Shadow’s voice comes through, “I always love a Mindy hug.”
Again, the magenta unicorn giggles, “And if Dustie would stop listening at the door and actually come in, I’ll give her a hug too.”
I sigh, can’t sneak up on her. I push through the door and head into the server room. Several high end workstations are set up, The three unicorns are working. And a table has been set up, with a map of the world set there. And something that I never expected to see, in addition to the world map, a large globe is set there.
I look around, “I don’t want to know how you knew I was there, Mindy.”
She giggles, “Of course you don’t.” She pops over and hugs me tightly, then pops back to her station.
Cipher gives me a wave, “There isn’t a Starbucks very close to here, I’d have to head all the way to Billings to get coffee from them.”
I am able to giggle, “Try City Brew, they rock. Though Mindy persuaded me to get an actual espresso machine in the kitchen.”
The tangerine unicorn giggles and disappears. I look over at Moon Shadow, she’s sitting, looking at the work station in front of her, she seems to be frustrated. The keyboard and the mouse are enveloped in her magical aura. I move closer, and sit down and watch, her eyes are intently focused on the screen.
With a soft pop, Cipher appears, blowing on an overlarge coffee cup. “You were out of milk, so I grabbed some, and some half and half. Here.”
Another coffee cup floats over, I sit on my haunches and take a sip, and smile, “Seriously, Cipher, a caramel pecan white chocolate latte? How did you know?”
She giggles, “Mindy told me, gotta know the coffee habits of everypony.”
I look over at Mindy who is whistling softly, and two computers are being operated by her at once. I look over at Cipher as she starts working once again. Her horn alighting, and two more virtual screens pop up, words and code slide along all the screens.
Fascinated, I move over to Cipher, “That’s amazing, I can read fairly quickly, but that is way too fast for me, for just one screen, how are you managing three at this speed?”
Cipher’s eyes remain flicking between the three screens, “Well, two of them are created by my magic, so my magic is helping to process the information on those screens. And the main one is mostly output. So I usually focus the most on it.”
I take a sip of the excellent coffee, and look over at Mindy and Moon Shadow, in less than five minutes, Cipher had produced four excellent cups of coffee, and popped back down here. Twilight Velvet has told me about a lot of the teaching that she has done with her first class. Called the Unicorn Club, those three unicorns in addition to Velvet, have helped teach the ponies that were military members how to take care of themselves, and how to make their lives easier with their magic. I look down at Cipher’s flank, “Usually, I can understand, to an extent, what a pony’s cutie mark means, but looking at yours, I don’t even begin to have a clue.”
She giggles without taking her eyes off the screen, “That is classified, Dust.”
I sigh and walk back over to Moon Shadow. As I sit on my haunches the gray unicorn growls and her horn gets brighter. I watch her rear back a hoof. My shout is lost in the sound of the computer being crunched in her magic. She hops off the chair, both Mindy and Cipher are staring at her, dumbfounded, “Moon?” Mindy asks.
“This isn’t helping anything, Cipher, Mindy. All this is doing is filling time. We need to find Irony!”
I look at the other two unicorns, Mindy’s mane is flat, her eyes sorrowful, “We are trying the best way we know how, Moon.”
Moon Shadow jumps at the table, grabbing the world map and crumpling it into a ball and throwing it across the room, then she slams her hooves on the globe, spinning it rapidly. Then she storms from the room. I smile gently at Mindy and Cipher as I follow Moon. “I’ll help her, thank you for telling me, Mindy.”
Mindy offers a small smile as she walks over to the destroyed work station, parts of it starting to go back into place as her orange aura envelopes the broken device. I head through the office, and find Moon Shadow walking slowly towards the stairs, “Leave me alone.” She moans as she heads up.
I’m not taking any of that, as I push through the door into the kitchen, I jump into the air, picking up the unicorn around the barrel, my wings propelling us up stairs and I slam into our bedroom. I unceremoniously drop Moon Shadow onto the bed, and land on it myself, then I move to be face to face with her, using my hooves to force her to face me, “Moon Shadow, you barely eat, you don’t sleep, you just get the occasional nap when you can, and you waste the restful sleep your body needs in searching the dream world for Irony. You’ve destroyed three computers, one of which was beyond Mindy and Cipher’s best efforts to repair. You are irritable, and grouchy, and you haven’t made love to your family in a couple of weeks.”
Tears come to her eyes, “I’m searching for Irony.”
I shake my head, “You are tearing yourself apart is what you are doing. You are so exhausted right now, you can barely stand up, I saw you stagger as you walked up the stairs, love. You have been burning the candle at both ends, and to top it off, you’ve been burning the middle as well. What will we do if we find Irony? That copy of Twilight Sparkle is insanely powerful, and right now, I doubt you could light a candle after that little temper tantrum. You need sleep, you need rest, and you need to get your mind off of the single purpose that is destroying you right now.”
“But…”
“Cipher and Mindy are searching, and they are far better qualified to do so. Your strength is the dream, and magic, not computers. I don’t doubt that they were glad you tried to help, but let them do their jobs. We will find her, just keep faith. You can do your part too, keep searching the dream, but you need to keep your strength up, your power needs to be ready, so we can deal with the clone. Hell, I’m trying not to run myself ragged either, I’ve been training up the guards, I’ve been training with humans, I’ve been trying to get us to the point where we can win when we have to fight. Just please, Moon Shadow, rest, sleep, relax.”
She looks at me thoughtful, “Irony needs us, I get glimpses, she’s in pain, the clone is using her magic to cause Irony pain, she’s in constant agony. You told me about her eye, well, it’s infected, and life is hell for her right now. She needs us to find her, love.”
I move around and hold her, putting my wings and forelegs around her, using my head and neck to force her head down, “Moon, if you don’t sleep, I will find the most powerful horse tranquilizer I can find and inject you, now get some rest.”
She grumbles for a long time, then finally her body starts to relax. I listen to her breathing even out, and though I can’t tell whether she’s going to the dream realm, she is falling asleep, at least some rest is better than none. I close my eyes as I use her as a pillow and she uses me as a comforter. Her soft, steady breathing quickly lulls me to sleep.
***
There are few things more in this world that I love other than flight. All of them are ponies. I’m in the air, morning exercise is important as a Wonderbolt. We have to keep in top shape, we have to keep our bodies, and our minds strong. Though not only Wonderbolts believe in keeping to an exercise regimen, hundreds of pegasi are in the air as well, wheeling through the sky. I think I’ve loosened everything up. Time to head home.
As I’m heading to my home, I see something. A lone figure, walking towards the house, on two hooves. The figure is almost at the gate.
“Irony!” I scream as I flash down, landing behind her. She’s still walking. I don’t know if she heard me. I call out again as she slams through the gate. I trot behind her, what the hell is going on?
“Irony!” A female voice screams ahead of me, and Dr. Ray hops off the porch. Moon Shadow is standing behind Ray. Ray is almost dancing as she bounces towards Irony, a huge smile on her face.
“Irony, I can’t believe you got…urk.” Her happy chirping is cut off abruptly as Irony’s hand closes around her throat. Irony shifts her hold to grab Ray’s body as well, a quick twist with a loud snap, Ray’s neck is broken. Irony drops the broken body and looks hard at Moon Shadow, who wilts in response, “It’s because of you!” Irony screams, her voice causing Moon Shadow’s ears to fold back, “Because they care about you more than me. Nopony here wants me. They want you.” She kicks the prone body, “Especially Lightning Dust!”
I stop for a second, looking at Ray’s body, something is wrong here. I look at Irony, she’s actually quite a bit taller than the last time I saw her, nearly ten feet tall.
“You tricked me before we changed, you tricked me into sleeping with you. Then you ran away! You broke me, Moon Shadow, I killed for you, many times, in Equestria, and here in this world. And now when I was taken away, you have my herd loving you more than me.”
“No, Irony, It’s not true!” wails Moon Shadow.
Irony’s mace is in her hand, she swings it at Moon Shadow, missing her face by inches as she flinches and presses herself against the door, Irony roars, “It is true, you manipulated me from minute one, you influenced Dust to end up in bed with me. You suggested I talk to Helen, and you talked to her, and we made love. Where you came as we were done and made me think that I was doing something wrong. And why did you do it? So you could influence our lives, you controlled everything! You and Helen made our herd, and once I was taken, you forgot me!” She punctuates the last with a swing of the mace, slamming into the porch right in front of Moon Shadow.
I shake my head, this has to be a dream! I flash forward, slamming into Moon Shadow and crashing through the door. Irony roars at us, I hold her head in my forehooves, forcing her to look at me, “Moon Shadow, this is a dream, stop it.”
She looks at me uncomprehendingly, “But, Irony!” She wails.
I bring her into a hug, holding her tightly, “This isn’t Irony, this is a product of your fear. Irony would never act like that!”
She trembles in my grasp, and after a long moment, everything goes dark. I open my eyes, unaware that I had closed them. Moon Shadow disappears from my grasp, appearing a few feet away, her tears still flowing.
“I’m sorry you had to see that Dust. I let myself drift off into an actual dream.”
I move over to her, leaning next to her, and draping my wing over her, “Moon, do you really feel that way?”
She looks hollowed out for a moment, then she smiles, “Latent fears, not really real. But I feel that way, at times. The longer Irony is gone, the more I fear that.”
“Oh Moon.” I moan as I hug her tighter, “You know we don’t feel that way. We love you, and we love Irony. With all of our hearts. We will find Irony.”
She sobs, then her face smooths over as she gets a handle on herself, her tears disappearing, her breath stronger and more even. She finally smiles, “Thank you Dust.”
Who could resist smiling at that beautiful face? I smile back, “You are welcome, though I don’t know how I got into the dream.”
She giggles, “It’s my fault, I usually have to keep control as I fall asleep, lest others be brought in the dream with me. I didn’t keep that control this time.” She hangs her head, “I’m sorry Dust.”
“Ahhh.”
Moon Shadow paces back and forth, “As I was falling asleep, I was planning on getting some restful sleep for a little while, then I was going to search the dream once again. But since you are here, we can search together.
I feel my wings droop, the dream? “Moon Shadow, I don’t know if I can do that.”
Her smile gets much bigger, “Dust, do you trust me?”
I shake my head so hard my ears flop, “Of course, Moon Shadow, without question.” I look around, “But…”
She fades from in front of me, appearing right next to me, “There is no need for fear, Lightning Dust.”
I shake my head again, “I’m not scared.”
She fades again with a giggle, “Oh, Dust… Never change.”
Everything disappears and in moments, stars come out. Thousands, millions of them, all around. I’m standing on nothingness, I spread my wings in alarm.
“Oh, Dust, no need to worry, in this realm, I am master. I will not let anything happen to you.”
I sigh, “I trust you, Moon Shadow.” I bring my wings to my side.
She appears next to me, “Thank you, love.” She points her hoof around, “Do you know what these are?”
I look again, “Um, stars?”
She smiles, “These are dreams, Dust. Dreams of everypony, and every human in this world. From all over the world.”
I furrow my brow, “Humans too?”
She nods, “If they dream, they are here. The twinkling is dreams disappearing and reappearing as people go through their sleep cycles. Some are here for only a few minutes, or sometime closer to an hour. Can you tell the difference between the humans and the ponies?”
I look around, then shake my head, “No.”
“That because we are all the same,” she points to my head, “In here.”
“Can you tell the difference?”
She sighs, “To an extent, I can tell by looking at a dream who it is, my friends, my herd, I can find their dreams because I know them. But just any random dream? No, I can’t.” She gestures, “This one,” the dream floats to us, “Is our friend, Sparkler. Would you like to see what she’s dreaming about?”
I shake my head, “Are we going to look for Irony?”
She smiles, “We are, if her dream comes into this realm, I will know.”
I shrug, and she gestures, and all the dreams whirl around us, another dream comes towards us, though this one is roiling and dark, Moon Shadow touches the dream, “Touch it, Dust.”
I touch it dutifully, and my mind expands into the dream, a small pink pony is running, Discord howling in laughter as she runs away.
Moon Shadow speaks softly, “Poor Diamond Tiara, she has some horrible dreams, even during a nap during the day.”
I look at Moon, “Can we help her?”
She nods, “Of course we will help her, this is my job in the dream, Dust. I help those who have nightmares. Push harder into the dream, and we will enter together.”
We push and we are in the air, I spread my wings and catch the air, Moon floats serenely next to me, she calls out loudly, “Diamond Tiara, it’s time to end this nightmare.”
The evil shadow of Discord is dispelled, and the grass turns bright green, the sky clearing up and turning blue. We float to a landing before Diamond, who is sitting there, blinking at us both, “Momma Moon? Momma Dust?”
I nod, and smile at the small earth pony, who instantly turns to her real age, and size in front of me, “Yes, Diamond, Moon Shadow saw that you were having a nightmare.”
She looks around, “Wow, thank you!” She runs to me and gives me a hug, then jumps at Moon Shadow, getting one from her as well.
Moon Shadow ruffles her mane, “You are very welcome, young mare. Now off with you.”
Diamond and the entire dream fades as we are drawn from her dream and end up back in the void with all the dreams.
I lose track of time as Moon Shadow goes from dream to dream, calming fears, introducing herself to mystified humans in their dreams. Finally, back in the void once again, she looks at me, “I think I’ve helped a few, and Irony hasn’t shown up, let’s start our date.”
I look at her in confusion, she disappears and comes up next to me, purring in my ear, “Mindy said something about a date, right?”
I feel a tightness in my wings and look back, yes, I’m popping a pinion, I look over at Moon Shadow, “Oh, I would love a date, tomorrow?”
She giggles, “This is my realm, Dust. We can have our date right now.” She kisses me, and my wings tighten further, “We are in the dream, love. We can do anything we want.”
I think for a moment, and over to my side, the world brightens, our herd is on the bed, writhing in pleasure. I smile and look at Moon.
She sighs, with a large smile on her face, “Oh, Dust, is sex all you think about?” With a wave of a hoof the scene fades, she trots off.
I giggle, “What else is there to think about that is worthwhile, love?”
I follow her, and soon we are in my home, but it isn’t. I look around, “This looks like…”
“Home?” She giggles again, she is truly in her element here, “No, this is a construct I’ve made. It’s like a dream within a dream.”
I look around, “It feels so real.”
“Well, of course it does, I chose something that I know well, down to every tiny detail. So, what do you want to do?”
I open my mouth, only to have a hoof placed over it, “We get plenty of sex in the real world, let us be a little more imaginative.”
I push her hoof down, “I wasn’t going to say that, I was thinking I would let you decide, love. This is your realm, so how about you decide.”
She smiles, “I have an idea.” In moments I find I’m a lot taller than I was. I look down, I have hands again. I turn, there aren’t any mirrors in the living room, but one appears.
“You remember how you looked before your change.”
I feel tears start to form, I turn and look at her, “My old body.” I step forward in wonder. Touching my face with my hand, feeling my goatee. I reach behind my neck and grab my ponytail, bringing it over my shoulder. I look at her in shock.
“What you imagine becomes real in the dream, Dust.”
I look at the form in the mirror, there are times I really miss this. Miss being able to hold my family in my arms, to trace a finger along Helen’s face. I close my eyes, squeezing them tightly, “I’m not Mike any more. Please, Moon Shadow.”
She frowns, “I thought you would like being in your old body, perhaps this.”
I feel myself shrink a bit, and I look at myself in the mirror. I’ve got mid back length blonde hair, I step forward once again to look at myself in the mirror, blue eyes stare back, and a heavily freckled face, to the point where I’m surprised my hair isn’t bright red. I’m athletically slim, I step forward, I’m wearing blue jean short shorts and a tank top. I pull the tank top out, “I’m guessing this is how I would look if I came back through the mirror.”
She nods, and her form shimmers, and a young woman is standing there, long raven black hair, bright blue eyes, and porcelain skin. Dressed in a long flowing nearly translucent dress, “And this is how I would look.”
I pull my shirt forward, “Well, I was right, training bra sized tits.”
She giggles, and my breasts swell, “Would you prefer them bigger, love?”
I giggle as they become enormous. I think hard for a moment, in the dream, what you imagine becomes real, I imagine her back in her pony form, and for a moment, it feels as though I’m pushing against a hard brick wall, and with a flash, she’s back, an astonished look on her face, “Wow, Dust. Very good.”
I’m back to being a pony, I smile at her, “I like how I am, Moon, and I love how you are.” I look around, “Can we sit and eat something here?”
She nods, “Not really nutritious in the dream, but we can eat whatever we wish here.”
I smile, “I want to have a candle lit dinner, with just you, Moon Shadow.”
She smiles, “I believe that can be arranged, love.”
The world swirls around us, and we are sitting at an elegant table, a candle in the middle. Plates appear, hers has a bowl of red beans and rice, mine has fried chicken. I smile at her, “Now this is a meal.”
“Oh, yummy!” Can I join?”
Both Moon Shadow and I look at Mindy, who appeared out of nowhere. She pops over to Moon Shadow, grabbing her out of the chair and kissing her. The kiss goes on, and both Mindy’s and Moon Shadow’s horns spark a bit, I clear my throat. Mindy lets Moon go, and sits down, a big smile on her face.
Moon puts a hoof to her chest, and breathes deeply, “Mindy, not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”
Mindy giggles, “Because you are wonderful, Moon Shadow. We believe we’ve found where Irony is being kept.”
My wings drop, so does my jaw, “Huh?”
Her hoof pushes my jaw closed then she’s next to Moon Shadow again, “And it was Moon Shadow who gave us the inspiration.” She turns and looks at the gray unicorn, “When you spun the globe, I came up on Canada when it stopped. Cipher was looking at it for a long time, then she did her magic with the computer. She tasked a satellite to check some of the northern reaches. And she found a structure that wasn’t in any records. Infared shows that it’s occupied. And it’s far too big to be one of the fishing villages that is the norm there.”
I hop up, “Let’s get going.”
Mindy puts a hoof on my chest, “The last time we went alone, we didn’t get Irony. Cipher is arranging things, along with the LT and Fleetfoot, Velvet’s Ranger team will be going, along with two SEAL teams, and some other support. We’ll have Canadian hovercraft ferry the teams from the ship to the facility.”
“Canadian hovercraft?” I ask, tilting my head to the side.
“Along with armored vehicles, Canada isn’t too keen on US Military on their soil without an escort. So we are getting that escort. I’ve called the Reagan, and while it’s too long a steam for them to get here, the ponies from the ship are already on their way here, so are the teams from Texas and Florida. In all, over a hundred ponies, and quite a few humans, are going to go get Irony.”
Moon Shadow looks at our meal, then at me, “Sorry to cut our date short, love.”
I move over to her, rubbing my body against hers, and purr in her ear, “Moon, I hope we can have another date here soon, with Irony.”
She puts her head under mine, and I can feel our connection, our love, emanate from her, “I hope so, Love.”
A click of a camera and I look over at Mindy, who has a camera pointed at us, she smiles, “Perfect.”
Moon Shadow laughs, “You know this is a dream, Mindy.”
She giggles, “Of course I do. But I wanted the pic, you two are so cute.”
I sigh, Moon Shadow laughs as we all fade from the dream.
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ok a new lead on Irony lets hope this one is golden.
we have some real pc power chugging here I am really hoping there is some real cooling behind all that.
and having that much fire power going after irony that is going to be epic.
love the chapter.
Harts Fire
Moon should be named the Master Globe Turner. And Cipher - Globe Staremaster.
Hmm... looks like Dust's team have enough pull to invade a second-world country now.
5924614 considering that Canadian military will be there too, I wouldn't say that. A joint exercise would be more accurate I would think.
5924767 Sure, they can call on their own forces (that'll be enough to overthrow the government and disperse the army of a banana republic or two without much effort), then they get the help of US military (at least, from the Navy), and next they get Canadians too.
Yup, a joint exercise to overtake a country with an actual military.
5924780 I'm not going to be able to convince you that they aren't nearly as powerful as you say... Am I?
5924832
You've spent 288266 words in 66 chapters to convince me that way, you'll need some serious effort to undermine that. You'll probably need a separate long story explaining how a team that managed to casually contain an equivalent of a thermonuclear bomb (exploding thermonuclear bomb) for several minutes, and then drop it onto a high orbit, could be considered a hair less powerful than I say.
Just think about the chapter you just wrote. What happens there? They've got the lead. I won't go in how they managed to do that (Cipher could be really good in globe-staring, after all those northern territories only half as big as US and much of it isn't covered with the forest), just think what happens next. One call of Dust's team is enough to mobilize the elite forces of every pony colony on the continent, every pony in US military, several elite units of non-ponies from US navy and several from Canadian armed forces. All of that fun - for a highly dangerous rescue mission with highly probable casualties to save a single civilian - whose importance is limited mostly to Dust and her herd. Dust herself is on "opening doors with a kick" terms with US president (you can't deny it, she did literally that).
So... you were saying?
5924910 Okay, sunset was holding a shield, with mindy's help, and she was overloaded, as stated by the nosebleed at the end. Sunset would be heavily tasked to create said light spell, just so you know. Moon shadow could open a gateway, and yes, I'm pulling heavily from the wheel of time for that. For cipher, it was inspiration that brought that about.
For the ponies mobilizing, it's their nature, they aren't rugged individualist, they are collective thinkers. One pony is in trouble, it's not just their herd that will help. Mindy simply had to call and ask, the teams... Which were trained by the Montana ponies, we're quite willing to help. And on to the humans, Dust is on speaking terms with the former president... This is mid 2025, almost to the second reopening of the portal, so the president that dust popped in on is no longer president. So, for the human participation, that is Cipher's doing, calling in favors from special operations command. And backs on both sides will be scratched. Remember, Antwi is out there, and the humans want her taken care of just as badly as the ponies do.
Now, onto the weaknesses that I am quite cognizant of.... Nearly everything requires conscious direction. You catch a unicorn not prepared, they will die, just like the battle mage that took three to the chest earlier in the story. They can prepare for a sudden attack, but to be completely prepared would be counter productive, because they would have to be on a war footing all the bleeding time. Not feasible, or within the personalities of the ponies. And a unicorn that can do the strongest of such takes, let's say take out an aircraft carrier are few and far between, sunset, Antwi, blue Lagoon are the only ones mentioned in this story with that power.
And I must point out, before Hannah saved Dust's bacon, she was spent, she was done, she was in the process of surrendering when Hannah came on the scene. And as to Hannah, she was taking on an exhausted and injured Antwi, while she was fresh. If Antwi was fresher, I don't think Hannah would have gotten out uninjured.
And as to Mindy, she's just random, but she knows that Antwi would wipe the floor with her.
5924614
ok Canada has never been a 2nd world country. its always been 1st world.
next, US Forces often run ex's in canada's arctic, sometimes without permission *grumbles* US actually for the longest time had bases all through the north of canada called ALERT/Dew Line. Which were jointly operated.
The island they are hitting actually has an old Joint Weather station that was only closed a few years ago.
5925348
All of those a good points, but unfortunately, either completely irrelevant to mine, or, as in Hannan case, further reinforcing it.
Yes, Sunset needed help to contain the spell, and that took great effort... yet the presence of strain and effort is no indication that she's not that powerful. Her capability to contain thermonuclear blast is. It's not the strain required that makes someone powerful, it's the ability to do something others simply too weak to do.
Now, for mobilizing ponies - yes, it may be in their nature, but I highly doubt that they'll assemble every combat-capable hoof they have just at anyone's request. There may be many reasons why Dust have this pull, but those reasons are the part of how she got this power, not of the fact she possess it now. The reasons, though, do play their part - Dust wasn't on "barging in uninvited" terms with that president too, right until she knocked his door open. So, she's got the power to do that again, given sufficient motivation.
Taking out aircraft carrier is in Dust's power, by the way. With what she have there, she could probably do it on her own.
Weaknesses, unless they are of the crippling kind, don't make powerful person any less powerful, they just limit the area that power could be used - and even that could be negated by planning around the weak spots (what you need in that case is to be aware of those spots, but Dust's team is quite aware and ready to cover each other's blind spots).
Now, to Dust's being spent and Hannah. That's the best part and there's the reason I've mostly avoided bringing up Hannah before. Dust's resilience is borderline godlike in many cases. Remember the original FS story? AJ there nearly blanked after an afternoon in a stable - perfectly safe environment, no pressure or anything. Dust spent months in conditions specifically tailored to break her. She was badly damaged, yes, but normally she shouldn't be able to survive a week. It takes this much for her to be really spent, and don't look at me, you wrote that yourself.
Hannah... that girl gives me the creeps with how immensely powerful she is. You've went and placed a power comparable to alicorn's into a small girl. She's inexperienced with it yet, and that's obviously the only reason she had any trouble with Antitwi. At this point she's basically Deus Ex Machina of this story, and that's while she's relatively weak compared to her own future self.
As to Mindy... I don't question Pinkie, why would I question Mindy?
5927051
They are not invading Canada... or do they?
I just point out that they've got enough power to invade one of the smaller countries out there.
5927150
Who can't invade smaller countries?
A few years ago England accidentally invaded Spain. They Apologized after, however so all was good.
Iraq was able to invade kuwait. If the could do it i'm pretty sure France could... and we all know about the french, first sign of fireworks and they change sides.
5927303 I'm pretty sure I can't. You do remember that Dust technically hold no official title, rank or power?
5927150 I must point out one thing, Dust would not be able to take out an aircraft carrier by herself. Even with time lightning. And I can point out in the story... Dusts best efforts with it only flash a limb out of existence when it comes to Discord, and he deflected more of her magic than what affected him. . The largest thing that could be affected by the magic would be a medium sized road vehicle, I'll admit she could do damage, but causing enough damage to sink one, not going to happen.
I propose we table this discussion, it's obvious that both us us are unswayed by the others arguments...
And I hope you understand my points with future chapters. But I have to say, thank you for reading the story, and continuing to comment.
5927666
As you wish. Though we just got to the interesting parts of analyzing details, I understand why you may want to not go any deeper.
5928477 why thank you... I intended it to be an end to a story arc, and getting to the meat if the story. What the ponies do on earth after the portal.
5928674
Hehe, that's one of the fun things i do in my story... Something that may be mentioned in 1 chapter in my story, turns out to be key point in dusts.
Or some item might show up in one part of the story, ends up being a key thing later on... then finding out how it got there in the first place later on. its fun doing that... you never know which... drop... will be used.
5929428
So you and Sparky just made it a big Chekhov's Gun Bazaar.
5946019 well just look at grandfathers pipe...
5946500
That's Chekhov's MLRS.
5947253 Of course sometimes its fun to give an item personality... and follow its journey as well, though time, space and thought... till it arrives at a key point where it needed to be.
5947253 Hey, whats Continuity?
5949020
Don't know anyone with such a name.
i wanna dream lover so i dont have to dream alone
Do I make a Dr Seuss joke or a DBZ joke h?