Flying With the Dusty Bolts

by Pony Bones

The Ugly Truth

The Dusty Bolts had the attention span of a hyperactive colt on a sugar rush, as soon as they had drooled over the new pegasi horn they had already lost interest.

Sand Blast and Tumble Weed split like a zipper, “Hey boss, this pegasi horn is nice but I want to talk to that Apple Bumpkin mare before she leaves.” Tumble Weed said cantering in place.

Silver Lining rolled her eyes back mockingly and mumbled out of the side of her mouth, “Stalker.”

Tumble Weed didn’t deny it he just chuckled with the biggest smile he’d had since the fateful sand storm drive.

“Don’t trip over your tongue while it’s hanging out your mouth Rico Stallion that would be awkward.” Sand Blast stated dryly adding to the hilarity.

“Hey, you’re treating me like a colt that still wets his clouds at night, sure this is the first mare I’ve fallen for, but how hard could it be?”

Mirage could hardly contain himself, nickering he said, “Go get her Tumble Weed.” Tumble Weed bolted so fast he left a silhouette of dust behind.

Mirage shook his head, “My Dusty Bolts aren’t going to disband from disabilities, you all are going to get married.”

Silver Lining tossed her hair and said, “Its cause we’re all damn sexy.”

“Yesir.” Sand Blast said pounding his chest, “Think I’m gonna’ follow Tumble Weed’s lead and go see Fluttershy.”

“Do your thing big dog.” Mirage could barely say before Sand Blast bugged out, looking over at Silver Lining he said, “How about you Silver you got somepony special?”

Silver smirked back demurely, “You could say that.”

What kind of answer was that? Mirage didn’t get it; Silver could have her pick of any stallion in Appaloosa or anywhere else for that matter. Part of his eulogy he was going to let her know how Crazy Wing was head over hooves in love with her but he didn’t have the heart to tell her. He wondered if she knew, she was a hard pony to read, her poker winnings spoke for that. She could be so much more than a Dusty Bolt; really she could walk out anytime she wanted.

Maybe she read ponies better than him because she said, “Don’t worry about me Mirage I have my eyes on somepony I’m just waiting for him to make the first move, find out if he actually wants me or not.”

Then the light bulb came on in Mirage’s head Brayburn it had to be, the Apple family was going to be overrun by Dusty Bolts, then again they could use a couple pegasi to help tend their orchards. “Alright, don’t give him too much time.”

Silver Lining giggled like a filly and said, “I’m on it boss, this ain’t my first rodeo, in fact I’m going to go see him right now.”

Mirage had to know, “Just out of curiosity who is it?”

Silver Lining looked over her shoulder as she flew off, “Brayburn.”

Mirage clenched his eyes and smiled giving his epic hoof pump, “Yesssssssssss.” His intuition was still dead on, no time to dwell on it though he had to catch Applejack before she left.

He was about to take off when, “Hey boss!”

Mirage almost face planted as he braked hard with his front hooves, muttering darkly to himself he turned back and asked, “Yeah Sand Blast, what’s up?”

Sand Blast flew in with Fluttershy, Mirage knew it Sand Blast was a smooth operator, he didn’t have to show him. “Fluttershy’s looking for a dragon friend out in the canyons, I figured since you know the canyons best you could show us where we might be able to find him.”

Mirage’s heart stopped and he felt the blood drain from his face, coughing to keep his voice from breaking he pried his tongue from the roof of his mouth, “You don’t say, a dragon huh?”

Fluttershy smiled and in a musical voice barely above a whisper she replied, “Oh yes, if it’s not too difficult for you I’d really like to see him, I haven’t talked to him since I woke him and had him move his lair from Ponyville Peak.”

Mirage felt his heart sink lower, buck, buck, buck, buck, buck, buck, buck! Not only was Fluttershy stronger than she looked just like Sand Blast had said, he was single hoofedly responsible for the cold blooded murder of one of her friends. Mirage’s world came to a standstill, He couldn’t tell Fluttershy the truth but he also couldn’t keep it from her.

Sand Blast came over and steadied Mirage, “You ok boss? You look like death warmed over.”

For his first time since flight school Mirage studdered, “F-ff-fffflutt-tt-tttershy I think I m-m-mm-mmmay have k-k-kk-k-k-killed your d-dd-d-d-d-d-dragon friend.”

Fluttershy held her smile but it had lost some of its radiance, “What do you mean? Nopony can kill a dragon on their own.”

Sand Blast looked nervously at Mirage, Sand Blast of all ponies knew what Mirage was capable of. Quietly he pulled Mirage aside and asked, “Hey boss did you actually kill the dragon?”

Mirage answered in a frantic whisper, “I killed a dragon, I’m not sure if it was the one Fluttershy is looking for, I’ll have to show her the body to find out for sure. I mean how many other dragons can be around here? Dragons are isolated creatures.”

Sand Blast looked from Mirage to Fluttershy, “Well the only way to find out is if you take us there, unless you know of anywhere else a dragon might live.”

Now Fluttershy looked worried as well, “I don’t understand, it’s impossible, one pony can’t kill a dragon by themselves.”

Mirage felt like a prisoner being led to execution as he led the lovers to see his hoofwork. To tell the truth he would rather face the guillotine, or the noose, or even be burned at the steak by Chief Thunderhooves than have to face Fluttershy and Sand Blast after killing one of Fluttershy’s friends, now he knew how Tumble Weed felt when faced with the guilt of losing Crazy Wing, funny how the very thing that had made him homicidal now made him suicidal.

Even in the cool air Mirage was sweating oats, Fluttershy was mumbling nervously to herself and Sand Blast as he usually did in these situations kept to himself. Mirage came to the entry chute for Back Breaker Canyon and waited for the other two to come closer, “Stay right behind me through here, it gets small real quick.”

Flying slowly through Back Breaker Canyon was like playing darts with feathers, but Fluttershy was struggling just to stay in the air behind them, eventually Sand Blast had to carry her which turned out to be harder than he thought, he had to shield her with his body to keep her from scraping on the canyon walls as they flew.

It seemed like forever but eventually they came to the place where Mirage had found the cave, first they saw it, buzzards, crows, and flies circling in swarms and a green haze that spilled out of the cave to the canyon below.

Then the smell hit them like a wall, Sand Blast was the first to, “Rrrrrrrraaaaaaaallllllllllph”

Mirage held his breath and gave Fluttershy his bandana, his eyes watered, “Awwww, uuuuhhhhh, cough cough, This, cough, this is the place. Cough cough cough, It’s that cave down there.” With a determined look in her eyes Fluttershy flitted down to the cave and without a pause went in.

Mirage was getting light headed, “Cough cough, Hey Sand Blast, I’m going in after her.”

Sand Blast gave him a worried look from behind his bandana, “You crazy boss? You don’t stand a chance down there, you’ll run out of air before she does.”

“Cough cough HACK, If it means I die saving her so be it, cough, I won’t be able to forgive myself if she dies as a result of me killing her friend.”

But Mirage never had to go after Fluttershy she came tearing out of the cave faster than he thought she was capable of moving. She flung herself into Sand Blast’s cannons crying and choking through the vomit in Mirage’s bandana. They flew above the fumes of the rotting dragon corpse.

Fluttershy lowered the bandana with tear filled eyes and a trembling hoof, then in a voice that Mirage could barely hear, but loud enough to shatter his heart she said, “That was the dragon… How can you call yourself a pony? You are less of a pony than a dirt dumb Minotaur, and I will never forgive you for what you did.” Fluttershy flew off and Sand Blast followed to comfort her.

Mirage just sat on the ledge of Break Back Canyon and stared at the circling birds then he wept like a foal. He thought he had left this behind him, how could he have known the Dragon meant something to somepony? What a flimsy excuse for his justification, Fluttershy was right; he was less than a pony. Mirage was about to dive straight into the cave and embrace his fate when an image of Applejack flashed through his head, she hadn’t been here to witness this, but she had still accepted him for who he was after he had admitted his crime to her.

Mirage was alive and breathing and ponies depended on him, even if he was less than a pony he had to continue living and continue looking out for those that meant something to him.

“BUCK!” he shouted at the crows sending them scattering before they resumed circling. Smashing his hoof down sending a large chunk of the ledge tumbling down into the river below, splitting his hoof and making it bleed. He held it with his other hoof to numb the pain, he was still alive, a dead pony walking, he heard wing beats behind him and he whirled to see who or what it was.

Spitfire pulled up in surprise, “Oh I’m sorry is this a bad time?”

Mirage wiped the tears from his eyes and hid his hoof under his wing, “No no, it’s fine, what can I do for you?”

Spitfire skeptically eyed the trail of blood dripping down Mirage’s flank, “Well we came out here to pay our respects to Crazy Wing, from all we hear he was one Tartarus of a pegasi.”

Mirage just stared at Spitfire, Filly the Kid was right what did she know? What did Crazy Wing mean to her? Sitting pretty in Canterlot hobnobbing with dignitaries and rich ponies, “That’s not why you came to see me.” He said as civilly as he could,

“I can see you’re a pegasi who cuts to the chase, fair enough, Princess Celestia wanted us to tell you after hearing about the death she will be sending a surgeon to Appaloosa, primarily for the Dusty Bolts but also for any other townsponies.”

Mirage could hardly hold back his cynicism, “That’s mighty generous of her.”

Spitfire continued oblivious to the sarcasm in his voice, “She also sent us out to do some joint training with you all.”

Mirage knocked the dust out of his ear to make sure he had heard correctly, “Beg pardon?”

“We’ll be training with the Dusty Bolts, you know seeing how ya’ll do things out here in the countreh.”

Mirage wasn’t sure which made him more nauseous Spitfire’s butchering of an accent or the stench of the corpse below him, “Fine with me you can train to your heart’s content.” Right now it didn’t matter to him, it would do the Wonderbolts some good to get their hooves dirty with his team, see how real pegasi worked and if they went back to Canterlot with a bitter taste in their mouth it wouldn’t make a difference to his Dusty Bolts; his Dusties were in Appaloosa to stay.

Spitfire looked genuinely excited to train with the Dusty Bolts, “Great, who do you have on weather watch right now?”

“Filly the Kid.” Mirage answered flatly.

Spitfire looked surprised, “You trust a filly with weather watch?”

Mirage laughed mentally, yes he trusted a filly with weather watch, any pegasi could stand weather watch it wasn’t Luna science and Kid was more than a filly she was a young mare. “We do what we have to.” He replied,

Spitfire shrugged and asked, “Well I think I’ll pair one of my wing mates with her, is that alright?”

Anything to get you out of my face, Mirage thought, “Alright, sounds good.”

“Great!” Spitfire smiled and flew off,

Mirage chuckled bitterly to himself, “Joint training huh? Stand by for some turbulence Wonderbolts, cause it’s coming, out here in Appaloosa it always comes.” He looked down at his bleeding hoof and sighed, road apples, he’d have to get Fluttershy to look at it. Maybe he could find some sort of closure with her.

Comments

[Pony Bones]

Author's note, this was a painful chapter to write, hopefully it is less painful to read. This is my life lesson to you, never give up on life, and always face up to your mistakes, and to Flutterstrucked I know you saw this one coming, thank you for your continued support.

[Flutterstrucked]

Yea, and whew, you pulled it off splendidly, I believe in that lesson too, and this story had put out a great example of it, can't wait for the next chapters, also I wonder if the Wonderbolts have anything that would impress the dusties, bcuz from how Silver pulled off that Rainboom, they may be lagging behind if they didn't step their game up since Rainbow saved em.