Flying With the Dusty Bolts

by Pony Bones

Momento Mori

Dawn came, after the exhaustion and tsunamis of emotion from yesterday Mirage felt ready to take on the world. The sunlight slapped him in the face making him groan and pull his cloud cover over his head in a feeble attempt at irresponsibility. But he couldn’t bring himself to sleep in, discipline was in his bones and right now his bones felt like they had been pounded with tenderizers. The life of a Dusty Bolt it was hard but Mirage wouldn’t want it any other way, stretching the immovable soreness in his muscles he sighed.

How much more of this could he endure? Before long he’d wind up like Crazy Wing and he couldn’t do that to Applejack or his team. Thinking about Applejack made his stiffness bearable and he sat up on the edge of his bed with a longing sigh and a distant look.

What was he going to do now that he was engaged anyways? He was by no means second guessing himself, he had never been so sure that he had made the right decision, but his responsibility was with his team and her responsibility was with her family and her orchard. He would leave his team without a second thought if she asked him, but he couldn’t do that to Tumble Weed not now that the team was one pony shorter, he would have to find two replacements if he wanted to live his days happily on Sweet Apple Acres without downright abandoning the Dusty Bolts.

Applejack would wait he knew, she had waited while he got his life together before he proposed to her but now he had to seriously think about being a Pegasus she could depend on. He would cross that bridge when he came to it, just like when he proposed to her, things would sort themselves out, he just hoped it wouldn’t take too long.

In the meantime he would have to let his team know about the plans for the upcoming funeral; it was scheduled to be held two days after his Dusty Bolts returned from their sabbatical. Should he let them know right away? No, the last thing any of them wanted to see on their day off was their boss telling them about the upcoming schedule.

Well he had to get up but what was he going to do? He was off, it wouldn’t be too irresponsible of him to fly back to Sweet Apple Acres and be with his fiancé.

His mind was made up Silver Lining could take care of things while he was gone, if he remembered correctly it was her weather watch day today, and if not she could always look to Tumble Weed for help. Mirage owed it to himself this small favor, in the loss of his team mate he had to keep his head clear and no one set him straight like Applejack, not even Silver Lining. He would have to tell Tumble Weed before he left, just as a heads up.

Right now his team needed their space, Mirage realized it when he saw Sand Blast snap, Sand Blast was rock solid as a flier and when it came to level headedness, no pony was as cool hooved as Sand Blast. The stress was just too much and it could have gone very bad for his Dusty Bolts.

Mirage had an apple salad for breakfast, trotting out onto his porch the Appaloosan sun glaring in his eyes and the temperature already well above 90. It was going to be a beautiful if not sweltering day; Mirage stretched out and loosened up then as he looked out over the canyon lands of Appaloosa he saw Filly the Kid flying in the distance, so he took a seat and watched.

She was doing her favorite drills, touch and go’s. Starting by touching the ground with all four hooves, then as quickly as possible launching herself to around 7,000 ft. and diving straight down then repeating the whole process, it was a very demanding drill and Mirage was surprised to see Kid keep at it for half an hour before collapsing on a mesa.

He was proud to have such a skilled and passionate young Pegasus on his team; if she kept up her hard work she might even be as good as Rainbow Dash one day. She was the hardest worker on the team and threw herself at every job holding nothing back, he knew her trash talk was her reaction to her fears, but since she had lost her parents he viewed it as his responsibility to teach her how to be a good Pegasus.

Who was he kidding, the Dusty Bolts were the worst possible place to learn something like that; she’d turn out alright though he could see it. Whatever colt married her would be lucky to have a mare with her head on her shoulders. Mirage wondered if this was what being a father felt like, he’d think about that later, right now he just wanted to spend time with Applejack.

Without further thought he hurled himself off his cloud plantation porch and banked hard leveling off, feeling the blood rush to his head turning his sight red, then using the momentum from his dive and an extra push from his wings he shot up 500 ft. The blood that had just been pressing against his skull drained and his vision went from red to white as the skin on his face pressed to the sides giving him a comical grimace from the force of his ascent.

Throwing a couple rolls in for good measure he saw the ground spin violently below him in his peripheral, he climbed until he stalled then closed his wings plummeting head down eyes closed he counted, 1…2…3…4…5. Snapping his wings open he pulled up just in time to do a super speed strut with his own twist, he called it the Luna walk, Rainbow Dash had never seen this move before, strutting backwards while still moving forwards. Using a mesa as a ramp he hurdled back up to 1,000 ft.

Turning over on his back putting his fore hooves behind his head while crossing his rear hooves he flew backwards soaking in the glorious morning, nothing could beat the freedom of a Pegasus flying, nothing. When he pushed the limits of his flying it seemed as though he could leave his problems behind by sheer speed and skill, it was the same rush he got from being with Applejack, and he felt like he could truly be a better pony around her.

As he came up to Tumble Weed’s cloud cabin he hoped he could catch him before he passed out after being relieved by Silver Lining for the weather watch. All the shades were closed as he landed on the porch; there was a shout and the breaking of glass from inside as he walked up to the door.

Fearing the worst he pounded on the door and shouted, “Tumble Weed, you alright in there?” there was a pause, then the sound of staggering hoof steps, the door unlocked and flung inwards as Tumble Weed nearly fell out carrying a bottle of rainbow rum in his hoof.

Squinting in the glaring sunlight he swayed on his hooves struggling to recognize who had knocked on his door, “Ohhhh, bossssss it’s you.” Tumble Weed said with an embarrassed grin.

Mirage was dumbstruck he knew Tumble Weed was a drinker, but binging so soon after a tragedy like this was a recipe for disaster, “Shouldn’t you be getting your rest from last night?”

Tumble Weed looked down in shame, “Yeeeeaaaahhhh.” He slurred almost collapsing then mechanically bringing the bottle to his mouth.

Mirage held out his hoof and stopped him. “Get rid of that.” Mirage said throwing the bottle over his shoulder off the porch; Tumble Weed reached for it but didn’t complain.

Mirage held Tumble Weed up by his shoulder and took him up to his bed. “What are you doing Tumble Weed?”

Tumble Weed couldn’t look him in the eye, “I, uuuuuhhhh, Iiii don’t knowwww boss.”

Mirage’s instinct was screaming at him, “You weren’t thinking of killing yourself were you?”

As if on cue Mirage opened the door to Tumble Weed’s bedroom and came face to face with a noose hanging from the rafters, taking a deep breath and staying calm he put Tumble Weed in his bed, “There you go, you just need some rest.” Once Tumble Weed was comfortable Mirage took down the noose and cut it to pieces with a straight edge razor from the bathroom, then thinking about it he threw the razor out the window too. “Just go to sleep, that’s an order.”

Tumble Weed put his head down and closed his eyes, “Okayyyy bosssss.”

Mirage turned to leave, but before he stepped out the door, “WAIT BOSSS! Donnn’t leave, Iiiii diddddn’t waaaant youuuuuu to see thhhhissss.”

Mirage looked at him sternly, “You’re right I didn’t want to see this, honestly I expected better of you. Did you think that no pony on our team cared about you!? DID YOU THINK NO PONY WOULD MISS YOU!?”

Tumble Weed sobbed brokenly in the way only a drunk can completely shattered, “No I knnnnnew boooooss, Iiii jussssst…” he rolled over the side of the bed slamming to the floor and vomiting on Mirage’s hooves. Mirage once again turned his head and took a deep breath gathering his clarity, almost ignoring the puke he picked up Tumble Weed and embraced him.

His head reeled from the smell, but he shut it out as best he could, feeling the warm bile dribble down his back he shuddered and put Tumble Weed back in bed. Tumble Weed looked at him through teary and blurred eyes, “I’mmmm sorrrrry about thattttt boss.”

Mirage brushed himself off, “Don’t worry about it, it happens, do you feel better?”

“Nawww, Iiii feeeel horrrribbbble.” Tumble Weed said turning unnaturally pale, Mirage frantically looked around for something anything, dumping out a vase of flowers from Silver Lining he held it to Tumble Weed’s gaping maw, “Heeeeaaaaavvvvvveeeee.”

Giving a reproving smirk asked, “I bet you’re not going to do this again are you?”

Tumble Weed wiped his hoof across his mouth, “No boss.”

Mirage was about to leave again when Tumble Weed once again stopped him, “Heyyyy boooss, thannnnnk youuuu, yourrrrre a sssssswellll pegass, Pegasus.”

Finally Tumble Weed laid back and closed his eyes, without turning around Mirage answered him, “Sleep well Tumble Weed.”

Walking out onto the porch Mirage felt like he was about to explode and he did, with a primal scream from the core of his being and flailing like a pony possessed he bucked away from Tumble Weed’s house in a fit of pure rage. He needed to break something right now; he needed to feel it crushed beneath his hooves, his sight turned red again but it wasn’t from gravitational force this time.

He dove for Back Breaker Canyon, diving under arches, shooting through crevasses, and threading the needles of the harrowing canyon. He found himself flying through a cactus plowing it down as if it wasn’t there; he never felt the pain either, spitting the barbs from his lips as he gritted his teeth and flew faster he tasted blood and it only added to his fury.

Hurtling down an uncharted cave he careened past a group of roosting bats driving them to a frenzy from the force of his backdraft, but beyond the bats he felt a larger presence further in and charged toward it, he didn’t care who or what it was he was going to ruin it’s day.

Before he had time to think he felt he was in a large subterranean chamber black as pitch except for a pair of eyes that burned hatred at him. Fine with Mirage, he would put out that fire, he dove towards the body behind the eyes, almost before he could react a pillar of flame blazed in his direction and Mirage felt his feathers singe in the heat as he swerved out of harm’s way.

Then Mirage shifted from blind rage to cold, calculating, sadistic wrath. He smiled wickedly into the darkness, “It’s a dragon, I know a unicorn in Ponyville who would kill for some dragon heartstrings. Celestia forgive me for what I am about to do.”

Comments

[Pony Bones]

Author's Note, Cliff hanger my bronies! This chapter has been the easiest to write so far, kind of disturbing. Oh well at least the story is progressing. I wanted to post this, we got a bad storm coming through where I am right now. Let me know what you think,as far as story content and improvement to grammar, and I'll get back to you when it's not raining anvils outside.

[Flutterstrucked]

Hmmmmm, I liked this chap, but I could tell tht you finished this quite easily, now though, he's about to kill a drgon due to rage felt from the core of his very being, I feel so much Sympathy for the Dragon, and it also makes me think what could hapen if Flutters was there? I'm relly just mad at how late I am to continuing thisstory though........