Chapter 17

Flash woke the next morning feeling restless. He'd lain awake for a long while, thinking about his friends back home. His thoughts even invaded his dreams when he finally did fall asleep. He relived his parting over and over again, feeling like a coward afresh every time.

That's because I am a coward. I still can't bring myself to call them and let them know that I'm safe. Not that it would matter, I suppose, since my phone is dead, he told himself, trying to move his mind away from the feeling of abject terror that overwhelmed him every time he tried to consider facing Sherry, Kaitlyn, and Irony after what he'd said.

He finally drug himself out of bed and made his way down toward the kitchen. Yumm! Smells like eggs! he sniffed the air as he approached, letting the pleasant aroma waft over his senses. In the kitchen, he found Soarin cooking at the stove, using his wings almost as he would have hands.

"Dude, that's impressive! I never would have thought our wings were so dexterous," Flash uttered in amazement at Soarin's mad skills.

"Oh, hey Flash. Yeah, it's pretty amazing what we can actually do with these things," Soarin replied, shirring the eggs in the pan.

Flash watched Soarin for a moment then commented, "You know, it's cool and all that you can do that, but can we even eat eggs? I know ponies are herbivores, and Irony wasn't able to eat meat once she changed..."

Soarin chuckled, "Well, I suppose that's true of earthbound ponies, but we pegasi are a little different. Dust and I have found that we can handle meat without any problems so far. My theory is that we evolved to be able to fly over the ocean, so we can process meat. Not exactly a lot of plants in the middle of the ocean, you know?"

Flash nodded, "I guess that makes sense. Hey, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Want to try pouring some orange juice for everypony?"

"Sure," Flash replied. Then turned his attention to figuring out how to actually do that. He soon found that his wings were easier to control than he would have expected. He was able to grip a glass with each wing, by curling the tips around it. He set the glasses on the table, then opened the refrigerator to get out the pitcher of juice. He almost dropped it twice trying to get to the table while holding it with his wings. Hmmm...just a little too heavy for that, he thought, then decided to try using his hooves to pour. Amazingly, he only spilled a little bit while filling the glasses.

"Not bad," Soarin commented, bringing the pan of eggs over to start serving out portions onto plates that had already been set out on the table.

At about that time, Lightning Dust trotted in, "Morning Soarin, morning Flash."

Soarin slid a plate of eggs in front of Dust as he and Flash said their good mornings in reply. All three pegasi dug into their plates, making short work of their breakfasts.

"You guys want to take a morning flight before I head off to work?" Dust asked.

Flash and Soarin both responded enthusiastically to the idea.

As they headed out the door to begin their flight, Dust turned to Flash and Soarin and said, "I have an idea."

Both of the other pegasi looked at Dust expectantly as she continued, "Today we need to focus on two things. I'll check out one of them while I'm at work, but for the other part, I want you guys to search the internet for any indication of ponies, anywhere. The closer, the better, but we need to let them all know that there is a safe haven for them here."

Both Flash and Soarin nodded in agreement,

then Flash got a troubled expression on his face, "But, Dust, if we find more than a couple of ponies, where are we going to put them? You live in town, and yeah, you have five bedrooms, but you don't have room for a lot of extra guests."

Dust smiled, "Which leads me to my part of today's chore: my job will be to buy land, enough land for a lot of ponies. Preferably with a farmhouse and maybe some outbuildings. We'll need to build housing, probably some kind of barracks."

"That much land will be expensive," Flash stated, bluntly.

"Yeah, it'll take some outlay of cash up front, but in the end I think we'll be able to create a stable, self-sustaining community," Dust replied.

"How so?" Soarin asked.

"Basically, we'll do the same kinds of things that ponies did in Equestria. Earth ponies that have the aptitude will help with farming, pegasi will handle the weather, and unicorns will help with everything else," Dust shared, grinning.

"That sounds like a good plan, but what about defense?" Soarin asked.

Dust snorted, "We won't have a lot to worry about, I think. We might patrol our borders, just for peace of mind and to let us know when we have visitors, but it's not like we're planning to set up an independent nation here. I don't want us to be caught unawares, but I'm hoping to make us indispensable to the surrounding community, by contracting out our abilities to the farmers in the area."

The other two just stared at Dust with deer in the headlights looks on their faces, which made her smirk.

"Think about it guys, as a farmer, how would you like to know exactly when it's going to rain, and how much will fall. How excited would you be to have the option to request more rain over specific crops, or to have dry conditions when you are harvesting?" she said, as a grin split her muzzle from ear to ear.

"Fucking genius!" was all Soarin could say. Flash simply stood there speechless, his mouth hanging open.

Dust shrugged her wings at the male pegasi, "It's no less than we did back home." Then she trotted out the door.

Soon the other pegasi regained their composure and followed her outside. They performed some warm-up exercises before they took to the sky. They flew a few circuits around the town, then as six o'clock neared, Dust peeled away, headed toward her office. Flash and Soarin continued flying. By some form of unspoken agreement, they headed out of town to a more isolated area.

Once they were well away from the local populace, they lit upon a low-hanging cloud. Soarin looked at Flash and asked, "So... you want to see if we can really control the weather?"

Flash laughed, "I thought you'd never ask!" Then he bucked the cloud, which shot a bolt of lightning down toward the ground below.

"Whoa! How did you do that so easily? Did you remember how?" Soarin questioned.

"Nope, but I've seen Rainbow Dash do it in the show often enough that I figured it out," Flash replied gleefully.

"You're a brony? Funny, I never would have taken you for one..."

"Irony and I were both bronies, before this all happened anyway. I guess now you could say we're ponies instead of bronies!"

Soarin just shook his head at the silly pun, "Sheesh. That was terrible. Come on, just show me how you did that."

They spent the next hour bucking the clouds, learning how to consistently produce lightning, and how to make them rain when they wanted, instead. It came naturally to them both. After they had those simple tasks mastered, Flash said to Soarin, "Hey, I've been wanting to try something..."

"What's that?"

"Just watch, I want to see if I can do it," Flash replied, facing the edge of a cloud. Then, instead of bucking the cloud with his hind legs, he rammed his front hooves into the vapor as hard as he could, bringing them together just as he connected with the cloud. There was a clap of thunder, but no flash of lightning.

Flash turned to Soarin, and Soarin could see the electricity arcing between Flash's hooves as he exulted, "I did it! I fucking did it!"

Without warning, the electricity exploded out from Flash's hooves, only narrowly missing Soarin as it passed by, raising his mane to stand on end.

"Watch it!" Soarin yelled.

"Oops... sorry Soarin!" Flash apologized in chagrin.

"What the hell was that?!" Soarin cried.

Flash was grinning to beat the band, "That, my friend, is my special talent! I can control lightning! Hot damn!"

"Yeah, well, next time control it somewhere not so near my damn head! It's gonna take me forever to make my mane lie down flat, now," Soarin complained.

Not long after that, they turned toward home to get a start on searching for ponies. They spent the next several hours searching the wonderful World Wide Web. They slowly gathered some small bits of information, but nothing concrete.

In the early afternoon, Soarin received a phone call from Lightning Dust. He left shortly after, saying she'd requested his help with a performance. Flash nodded, and stayed behind to continue the search. He hadn't made much headway when Soarin returned, about an hour later.

Once Soarin was back in the driver's seat of the search, he started putting the bits and pieces together, and came up with a surprising find: two possible ponies in Cody, Wyoming, really not all that far away. Soarin constructed an e-mail that gave a detailed description of the change, hoping to convince them that they were for real, not a hoax. He sent it off, along with directions for how to get in contact with Lightning Dust.

"Now all we can do is wait and see if they respond..." he said as he turned back to the computer.

A short while later, Dust stumbled in with a dazed look on her face. Soarin leapt out of his chair, "Dust, what's wrong?" he asked.

Dust didn't answer, instead she made her way to a cupboard and nosed it open. She snaked her head inside and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels. Silently, she set it down and worked the cap off, then took the neck in her mouth and tilted her head back, pouring a large slug of the whiskey down her throat before setting it down again.

Soarin and Flash watched the spectacle in shock. Finally Flash was able to speak, "Hard day at work?"

Dust gave a mirthless laugh, "You could say that, I guess."

"What happened?" Soarin asked again.

"There was... an incident," Dust sighed.

"What kind of incident? Was somebody hurt?" came from Flash.

"Yeah, you could say that," Dust broke down in tears. She grabbed hold of the whiskey bottle again and took another long pull.

"One of the guys who quit, Victor was his name, was turning into a pony," she continued finally. The male pegasi listened without saying a word, knowing that the rest of the news couldn't be good. "He killed himself today. Just hung himself. He wouldn't let me help him!"

Dust screamed out her anger and sadness, curled into a ball, clutching the alcohol to her like it was her last lifeline to sanity. Tears streamed down her muzzle, dripping onto the floor in a flood. Flash and Soarin knelt next to her, wrapping their wings around her in comfort. Nothing else was said for a time as all three pegasi wept at the loss of a pony.

Dust's wife, Helen, found them piled together like that an hour later when she arrived home with their kids in tow. Seeing that there was definitely something wrong, she hustled them off to their rooms with orders to do their homework and get ready for bed, having already fed them dinner.

Once they were seen to, she knelt next to the ponies and asked what was wrong. Soarin explained to her about Victor, then Helen stood and retrieved four glasses and another bottle of liquor. She set them on the table and poured out four glasses, then motioned for the three pegasi to join her.

Once they were all seated at the table, she lifted her glass in a salute, "To a fallen pony comrade."

The others lifted their tumblers with their wings, echoing her sentiments, and they all drank. She refilled their cups and it was Soarin's turn, "To ponies everywhere!"

Again their glasses were filled, Flash gave the toast this time, "To family and friends!"

Dust's turn came, she lifted her head, fire in her eyes, "To revenge!"

After that, they drank solemnly until, hours later, all four of them stumbled off to their respective beds. Without exception, they soon passed out from their indulgence and slept the restless sleep of insobriety.

* * *

Flash woke with a pounding headache, Oh sweet Celestia that hurts!

He stumbled into the bathroom, looked in the toilet, and promptly lost the entire contents of his stomach. Oh buck, that's nasty, he thought, rinsing his mouth at the sink before drinking as much water as he could hold from the tap. He flushed the offal down the toilet and exited the bathroom, where he saw Soarin practically fall through his bedroom door on his own way to be sick. Flash was quick to make way, knowing exactly what the other pegasus was going through.

We all drank too much last night, he realized, though he noticed that Dust, Helen and the kids were all gone already. Flash shook his head, That mare must have the constitution of a... well, of a horse!

He waited for Soarin to come out of the restroom, then they made their way outside, neither of them having the stomach for breakfast. They slowly limbered up before they began their morning flight.

Due to their respective hangovers, they kept the flight short, just enough to get their blood pumping. Then it was back to searching for ponies on the web. Helen, who seemed to be weathering her own hangover rather well, checked on them from time to time.

After a couple of hours, Helen came in again and told the two pegasi that Dust had called, requesting they meet her at the office of Lightning Electric, Dust's electrical contracting company. A short drive later and they were meeting up with Dust, who made introductions to two new ponies.

One was an earth pony, who's fur was the almost-purple color of a Bing cherry, a jet black mane, and a box of cherries cutie mark. Dust introduced her as Louis, mentioning in an aside that they didn't know her pony name yet.

The other pony was a unicorn. She had a very familiar cutie mark. It looked like Pinkie Pie's three balloons, but Flash noticed that they were different colors than Pinkie's, purple, pink and red, instead of yellow and blue. She had a magenta coat of fur, and her mane was poufy just like Pinkie's, but it was pure white. Dust introduced her as Mindy, noting that she remembered Mindy from Equestria, and that Mindy was indeed her pony name.

Flash immediately noticed two things he deemed important: one, that Mindy's personality definitely seemed to be quite a bit like Pinkie Pie was portrayed in the show; two, and, more importantly, that Soarin had the hots for her.

Oh, I am going to give him sooo much shit! Serves him right for treating me like a raw recruit the other day! Flash chuckled quietly to himself.

Once the introductions were over, Dust said, "I actually asked you to join me for more than just introductions to our new friends here. I was able to buy a farm for us to base our operations from, and I wanted everypony to see it with me."

This announcement brought an enthusiastic shout from Flash and Soarin. Soon they were all loaded into one of the work trucks and making their way out to the new property. Mindy talked non-stop to the ponies the entire drive out. Flash elbowed Soarin at one point, smirking at his friend because he was listening so intently to Mindy that he didn't notice that Flash had called his name twice. Soarin blushed at Flash's grin, realizing he'd been caught red-hoofed, staring.

"Well, we're here!" Helen exclaimed, and all five ponies stared out the windows at the massive farm with looks of pure amazement on their faces.

They all poured out of the truck and split up to see different aspects of the property. Mindy and Louis headed off in one direction, while Helen and Lightning Dust walked toward the house to inspect it. Flash and Soarin raced each other toward the out-buildings.

When they arrived at the barn, Flash grinned at Soarin and said, "So. How about that unicorn?" eliciting another blush from the blue pegasus.

Flash fell to the ground, chortling at how red his friend had become. It took him a few minutes before he could regain his composure while Soarin glared at him. When he could finally breathe again, Flash said, "Oh, dude, you've got it bad, don't you?"

Soarin grumbled, flushing brighter in response. Then he sat down, rubbed his hoof through his mane in embarrassment and replied, "She's beautiful!"

"Well, she's no Trixie, but she is kinda cute," Flash said, smiling at his friend.

"She's way beyond cute. She's the most beautiful mare I've ever seen!" Soarin sighed.

"That's not saying a lot dude, you've seen a whopping three mares now. And one of them is your sister, or at least was," Flash laughed.

"You know what I mean!"

"Yeah, I guess I do. I feel the same way about Sherry," Flash ruffled his wings as he thought of his girlfriend. "So... you gonna ask her out?"

"What? No! I mean, she just got here! And she just turned into a pony... and she used to be a guy! Won't she think it's weird?" Soarin rambled.

Flash laughed at the other pegasus, "Dude, you just turned into a pony yourself. And you used to be a girl! It's not weird. You should totally ask her out!"

"What if she says no?"

"What if she says yes? If you don't ask, then she can't say yes!"

"Of course I'll go out with you, silly Billy!" came a female voice from behind the two pegasi. They both jumped as if they'd been shot and spun in place to see the unicorn in question bounding toward them.

"Were you listening to us?" Flash asked the magenta unicorn as Soarin tried to hide in his shadow.

"Listening to what? I just got here!" Mindy replied as she bounced in place.

"Never mind. So, are you saying you like Soarin here?"

"Sure I do! After all, he's pretty scrumptious looking!" Mindy added a little spin to her bounce, which made Flash a bit dizzy just watching her.

"Will you go for a walk with me this evening?" Soarin managed to croak out after Flash nudged him. Hard.

Mindy bounced forward and booped him on the nose, "Okie Dokey Loki! Pick you up at eight!" and she flitted off, as she hummed to herself.

"Well my friend, that is one interesting mare you've got your heart set on," Flash chuckled. Soarin just stared after the departing unicorn, his head in the clouds.

* * *

"So, how'd it go?" Flash nudged Soarin later that evening, after Soarin finally returned from his date with Mindy.

Soarin flushed a bright red underneath his light blue coat, which gave him a purple cast to his features. "It didn't go so well," he finally replied after a few moments.

"What happened?!"

"Erm... welllll... Everything was going fine until I decided to show off," Soarin covered his eyes with his hooves, lying flat on the ground.

"Dude, you didn't!"

"Oh yeah, I did. I wanted to impress her so badly. I took off and did a few stunts, which would have been fine, I suppose. But of course, I just had to push my luck," he groaned.

"So... you bombed it?" Flash asked, resting a hoof on his friend's shoulder in commiseration.

"Oh, I wish I had just bombed it. I wish I had just messed up the stunt. Nope. I wanted to show her how fast I could pull out of a dive."

"Well, you're not injured, so it couldn't have been all that bad."

"Oh, physically I'm fine. I shouldn't be, though. Fortunately, or unfortunately, really, the massive mound of manure broke my fall."

"No!"

"Oh yes. It was the most epic fail I've suffered in two lifetimes! Right in front of the mare of my dreams, too. I'm never going to live this down," Soarin lamented.

"Maybe it's not all that bad..."

"Oh, it gets better. She was rolling on the ground, laughing her ass off! And she didn't stop laughing until after she'd helped me get cleaned up. I'm so humiliated!" Soarin wailed.

"It'll be okay. You just watch and see," Flash reassured him.

* * *

The next morning Soarin woke Flash up before anyone but Dust was up. Dust had already left for work, but the others were all still asleep.

"Wanna go for a morning flight?" the blue pegasus asked.

"You know I do! But, don't you want to wait to see anypony else before we go?" Flash replied.

"Nah, let's just head out," Soarin said, rubbing the back of his head with a hoof bashfully. Flash just shrugged at his friends reticence, and then they took to the sky.

They spent the morning practicing their control of the clouds and weather. Their motions started out clumsy: dissipating clouds when they tried to make it rain, blasting the ground with lightning when they tried to gather some smaller clouds into a bigger one, scattering clouds when they tried to dissipate them.

After a couple of hours, they were able to get the motions down, and could, reliably: start or stop a rainstorm, create a cloudbank, and dissipate clouds without causing any accidental electrical discharges. Once they had that all figured out, they started competing to see who could hit a target the most, with lightning. It was a pretty even tie, at least until Lightning Flash lived up to his cutie mark, gathering bolts between his front hooves and directing them with incredible accuracy.

"Damn, that could come in handy," Soarin commented after the fifth boulder Flash destroyed.

"You'd think so, but it failed me when we needed it most," Flash sighed, flapping his wings to take him away from the cloud he'd been using to create his bolts.

Soarin followed, "It's not your fault, Flash. Discord defeated everypony that he came up against, including the Princesses, and all six Elements of Harmony! We didn't stand much of a chance."

"I know, I know, but it still bothers me. Every day, I think about it, and it makes me angry and sad every time I do," Flash bemoaned.

Before Soarin could respond, his phone chirped, signaling that he'd gotten a text. He glanced briefly at the offending device, "Dust just texted me, she's asking us to join her at the house to watch that Equestria Girls movie. She thinks it might provide some information."

"No thanks, I've already seen it," Flash tried to beg off.

"Hey, you may have seen it, but we still might be able to learn something. And you, being a brony, might be able to shed some light on things. You know a lot more about the show, and the fandom, than either Dust or I. Please?" Soarin reminded him.

"Okay, I'll come watch it with you guys," Flash relented.

* * *

Watching the movie hadn't gained them much.

They'd arrived just after it started, and joined the other three ponies without a word. Soarin sat down next to Flash, seemingly as far away from the other ponies as he could get.

Or is it just as far away from Mindy as he can get? Flash realized. He glanced at Soarin, then over at the magenta pony. She was looking their way, a curious look on her face. Soarin, you're an idiot. She's crazy for you. Of course, maybe she's just crazy... Flash chuckled to himself.

After the movie was over, Dust insisted that the portal existed, that the story was true. Mindy and the other pony, who had also been bronies before all this went down, insisted it was just a money grab by Hasbro. Flash thought that maybe the true answer was somewhere in the middle.

Dust immediately went to research the school, but found nothing useful on the internet. After that, she returned to work, leaving them to watch the second movie without her.

Flash pulled Soarin aside, "Dude, what are you doing? You can't just ignore Mindy; you're going to hurt her feelings! Just because you humiliated yourself doesn't mean that she's lost interest. Maybe it'll just be a funny story you tell your grandkids someday. Get over there and ask her out again!"

"But--"

"No buts! You're still interested in her, right? Then get over there and ask her out!" Flash admonished his friend, nudging him toward his prospective paramour.

Soarin stumbled a few steps, then face-planted in front of Mindy.

"Hi Soarin! How come you haven't asked me out again? Do you not like me or something? Or are you just weirded out that we're both different genders than we used to be? Or are you just humiliated about your awesome stunt yesterday?" Mindy shot out, not once pausing for breath.

"Err... the last one," Soarin managed to whisper.

"Oh you silly stallion you're so cute and you made me laugh and that makes me happy! In case you couldn'ttellIlovelaughing!" her words ran closer and closer together.

"Would you..."

"Liketogooutwithyouagain? OfcourseIwould! Tomorrow? Can't tomorrow, going to be busy rescuing somepony! Nightaftertomorrowatseven!" Mindy finally stopped for a second to breathe.

"What--?" Soarin started to ask, but got a hoof over his mouth from Mindy's friend, who turned out to be Cherry Punch.

"Don't ask. It isn't wise to question her. Even when we were human she did that sometimes. Just trust that what she says is true," Cherry Punch whispered into Soarin's ear.

"Okayyy... day after tomorrow at seven, then?" he asked Mindy, she nodded vigorously, then bounced away, Cherry following in her wake.

"That was interesting, to say the least," Flash chuckled, as he looked at Soarin's gobsmacked face.

* * *

"Flash!" he heard his name reverberate throughout the house as Dust slammed through the door.

"Something wrong?" he asked Dust, when he found her running through the house. She was shaking, and Flash could see there were unshed tears in her eyes.

"You could say that. And these problems were wearing Federal badges!" she replied.

"Well Fuck!" Flash stated succinctly, as his eyes widened in shock.

"Yeah, my sentiments exactly. I'm going to e-mail my dad to see if he can help. You were a Marine, right? Do you still know anyone still in the service, someone who can help us get the FBI off our asses?" she asked.

Flash shook his head, "I don't think so, though I suppose Irony might. She was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, after all. It's possible she could have some pull."

"Call her."

"I can't!"

"Call her!"

"You don't understand! I can't. I didn't leave on good terms. I said things I shouldn't have."

Dust shoved her muzzle right up in his face and shouted, "Everything that we are trying to do could be destroyed by this! We have to have help, now! We can't wait!"

Then she shrank in on herself, her voice dropping to almost a whisper, "Please, Flash. I need you to try."

Flash's head dropped in shame, his ears flat against his head, "Okay. I know how important this is. I'll do it."

He walked up to his room and returned a few moments later with his phone. He connected it to the charger, "It's been dead since you guys came to get me. I don't have any idea what's been happening the last few days."

He powered the phone on, looked at Dust sadly, then used a stylus to dial.

"Hello, Irony? It's Flash..."