My Little Tactics

Chapter Twenty Six: Mysterious Mare Don’t Well.

A yip of pain and thud followed the sound of sizzling wood as Dustan stood over the last body. “That takes care of that.” He muttered to himself as he looked at the burning bodies of the Timberwolves. Looking over his shoulder he could see the road to the Castle in the distance and frowned. For the past two weeks more and more reports had been coming in of their warding herbs no longer working, which wasn’t true. Extensive tests by Zecora and Eden showed they were still effective, but that the incursions from the various creatures of the Everfree kept coming.

‘Something is driving them here.’ The Squire remembered Merlene telling him. Her experience in various hunting parties for prey animals for her old Lord coming into play here. ‘They wouldn’t move from their territory to an unpleasant one unless something was moving them forcibly.’

So it was that the guards were sent on more and more patrols in their territory to observe things. Dustan’s mood since Heart and Hooves day was down to say the least. He could tell the others knew something was up, and though he tried if he was honest with himself Dustan would say even he wouldn’t buy his own act. As such many of the residents around were either treating him with a tender hand or giving him space, the latter of which he didn’t mind at all but disliked the former as it kept reminding him of what he was sore about. Then there were some like Pinkie; she kept leaving him cupcakes nearly every day when she couldn’t visit personally for any long period of time and when she could always made sure to give him a hug. The human just assumed she was sensitive to his mood as the party planning pony she was.

The musing of what caused the Timberwolves to invade and his own trip down memory lane cost him though as the rustling of the bushes went unnoticed for too long allowing one of the wooden canines to leap out open jaws at him. Acting instinctively Dustan brought up his arm to defend himself only to have the creature latch on with its thorny teeth into his arm. While he could feel the fangs so very deep in his arm drawing blood he was silently glad it was starting to warm up so he was wearing a short sleeved shirt today, meaning no tears and bloodstains.

“You know.” Dustan spoke through gritted teeth to the wolf. “It was smart of you to do this, attack when I let my guard down, latch on to my sword arm. I am not sure if you knew to do this through planning, instinct or just dumb luck. There is just one small problem with your plan.” He told the wolf who tried to jerk him off his feet now only to find it couldn’t. “One, your level and stats are too low to really bother me anymore.” Next Dustan held up his free hand bringing it around to the head of the wolf. “And two, I have a free arm that is just as deadly. Fire.”

Dustan caught sight of the Timberwolf’s eyes turning to pinpricks the moment as it saw as the fire in his hand starting to glow before it erupted over the head and body of the canine. The pressure and weight on his arm vanished as the creature was reduced to splinters of burning wood. Plucking the fangs still stuck in his arm out and casting a quick Cure to heal his wounds Dustan looked towards the dead creatures now. There had been another reason for him coming out here besides checking on things and getting away from the residents of the castle trying to sympathize with something they didn’t know or couldn’t know about.

The crystals that appeared above the dead bodies were the reason. “Ok time for testing.” Taking one of the crystals he tried to store it in his bag only to find that when he brought it to the opening of his bag one of two things happened. When he tried to shove the crystal in, it utterly refused to budge past the opening. If he had to hazard a guess as to why it was likely something about the dimensional pocket that was his bag causing some weird interference with it. The second thing was that when Dustan tried to let go of the crystal and drop it into the bag, or a cloth to carry it for that matter, it shattered and vanished as if used the moment he let go. “Ok so then, its either use, or not, got it. Can’t store them later for any kind of emergency full heals. Damn that would have been useful.”

There was also the fact he wanted to see if any of his new students could see the crystals themselves without having to witness him murderlizing something to do so. He doubted the Crusaders would ever forgive him at that, Zecora could handle it and even Summer but not them. Sadly they were not the only ones to join the ranks as Fading Dawn the Deer Pony had joined them as well as had Mystic Quandary, the latter of whom was damn near ecstatic when he did so. At this point there were two sections of ponies, the Squires and Chemists. Among the Squire types, those that when they found out were the ways to such classes like Monk and Knight, were Fading Dawn, Summer Breeze, and Scootaloo. For the ones found in Chemist group, and thus the way to unlock magic classes like White and Black Mage, were Zecora, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Mystic.

What more were the great strides that were being made as well from both groups. Seems having someone around to teach you the abilities helped accrue more Job Points then training on one’s own would do. Each of his students having already learned something that pertained to their interest though for some that left points over that they were waiting to spend and for others it drained all they had considering the cost. Fading Dawn had learned Move +1 stating as a scout that speed could really help and it showed, though she was learning to control herself when using it. Summer Breeze wanting to become a stronger guard in general learned Focus and was trying to put it to good use though finding it very hard to actually execute. Scootaloo was more of the mix bag one in that she had more points to spend for being a Squire longer but didn’t focus on the various high cost stuffs and instead got Throw Stone, Rush, Counter Tackle, and Defend. Since all his Squires had learned Salve when they became one, this meant that Scootaloo now had access to Knight and Archer.

For the Chemist group, the big notable achievements mostly went to Zecora. It was thanks to her new found knowledge in the class that she actually was able to develop the Potion and Antidote, the actual item not just the skills. It was also thanks to her knowledge as a Shaman that she was actually blowing through the skills at an amazing pace which lead Dustan to think that pony affinities might still work with such things. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle likewise were making quick progress, though the former more than the later thanks to her visits to the potion maker. Zecora even stated that she and Apple Bloom had access to the White and Black Mage classes now but they had no clue how to actually use the skills. Well she said it via a rhyme but that about summed it up. This caused Sweetie Belle to be a tad jealous as she was a unicorn and wanted to learn magic so bad, but instead of pouting on it forever, lasting only a week, she redoubled her efforts in the potion making arts. This left Mystic, whom while not completely outclassed, was struggling a tiny bit only because he was more in tune with magical formulas and not chemistry itself so had to learn a whole new science.

Honestly thinking about his students was likely the best part of the last couple of weeks as they were the single thing that seemed to always bring him out of his funk. ‘That’s right, today is another teaching day. It’s why I wanted to come out here for the crystals.’ Sighing and using one of the crystals left over to refill both his Hp and Mp Dustan mused something else. ‘Well I know I am over the twenty kill quota for sure for Dark Knight. I just got to master Knight and Black Mage as well as get Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja, and Geomancer to level eight.’ He gave a grin as he thought of that. ‘That just means I need to get Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja then bring them and Geomancer to level eight and master Black Mage.’

It was true, had had mastered Knight only a few short days ago when he was able to go to the classroom in his dreams and properly put the rest of his points in. That nice star emblazoned on the pedestal that the Knight armor stood on was just lovely to him. Dustan was also spending all his time now on the Thief Job Class to work it up. His goal was to spend his entire time as Thief until it raised it to at least level five that way he wouldn’t really need to spend anymore on it since that was what Ninja required. Sadly though, he still had not managed to actually activate Summoner even though he had points to spend in it and couldn’t spend them as well.

“Merlene, you there?” He called out to the air only for a flap or two later to find the Griffon dropping in which told him that she was likely out of earshot of anything he might have said out loud.

Standing at attention she looked at all the glowing embers of wood that were the Timberwolves. “Do you require assistance my Lord?”

“No.” The Thief said simply. “I just wanted to update you on my patrol and show you that I can take care of myself. No need to follow me on my patrol like this.”

The instant she smiled was the instant that Dustan knew she had a response already prepared for him that would shut him up. “My Lord, with all due respect, you yourself along with Tremor and Steel, said that no patrol should go out alone, that there should at least be one other if not two others with them.”

‘Yep, she got me.’ Sighing and shrugging at the response he was given he merely looked up to her knowing he had lost this one. “Fine. There shouldn’t be too much left to patrol then we are heading back. Got to go teach and check to see if anyone else has made progress on the Salve test.”

“I will scout ahead my Lord.” She said simply as she took off into the air.

Calling out to the air he asked her something. “Mark this place on the map so that Dawn can come back here and see if she can track where the wolves came from.” She did so as he caught sight of her hovering as she pulled out a map and a charcoal pencil as that was easier to use in the air then a quill and ink well, which honestly was a good idea, though makes him miss a good ol’ ink pen.

The rest of the patrol went off in a rather uneventful fashion as the black stone walls of Castle Luminary came into view. In the past two weeks they had made great progress with the building. It was finished in fact; it was just a matter of some small details plus furnishing the new rooms. He had already assigned the rooms or tried to at least giving those he trusted rooms first and tried to ignore his own room for as long as he could. That wasn’t happening and his was to be the biggest and final room built, of which he tried to argue that he didn’t need such a big room but none of his friends were having it and given his mood lately he wasn’t in the mindset to argue with them.

“Welcome back Lord Warner.” The guards at the gate said with a salute to which he nodded in response. “Zecora said she would be in the main hall for studies with the rest of her group for when you returned.”

“Thank you for letting me know.” Dustan said before looking over to Merlene. “Head to the scouts and give them the position we marked, I am going to go wash then head to teach.” Merlene did as she was told with no fanfare or salutes, of which he was glad for. It had taken so long but she was loosening up to his informal attitude about many things. Heading to grab a change of clothes Dustan quickly washed up before heading to the main hall.

“Greetings Teacher.” Zecora spoke up with a smile. “I hope your return wasn’t delayed by a creature.”

Chuckling as her rhyming seemed to always have a soothing effect on his mind he looked to her and smiled back. “A pack of Timberwolves. I had Merlene mark it on the map and she should have given it to the scouts by now for them to see if they can track where they came from. Hopefully that will give us some answers as to why they are pushing up into our territory.”

The zebra gave a nod and it seems that their conversation brought together all of his students and signaled the start of the session. While they may have been divided up into two groups Dustan insisted on some lessons being purely one or the other to give the other group some experience in the other side to make them a tad more well rounded preaching on how it was good to be a specialist but having some other skills to round out your repertoire never hurt either. Today was a Squire day and as such was teaching them various things, how with practice all of the Squire’s abilities were near instantaneous except for Salve which took time to prep the materials to make, technically Throw Stone as well as one needed to grab a stone but still the point was made.

He tried to give them all a good point on how much mana to use in each movement, as though the amount of mana needed for each skill was so negligible that it wouldn’t use up a point in the grand scheme of things; it was still something that was needed. Which is why when they went outside to the straw dummies for arrow practice and he threw a stone they were all surprised by the stone sinking into the dummy somewhat.

“No matter what class you ultimately decide to be, or even if you decide to be flexible and choose many classes, Mana management is more than just making sure you don’t use it all up through a fight, but how much or how little you are using when doing so. Sometimes it will be the small moves that will make or break a fight.” Holding up a single finger on his hand he ticked it back and forth as he continued. “Now when I say fight I mean that in a general sense. You could be fighting with making a potion but because you used up all your mana you can’t make anymore and you have customers coming soon. You could be a Squire and because you can’t use Focus you can’t move that cart that you were pulling anymore.” Looking down to a pocket watch he got from the local time keeper himself Time Turner, he chuckled. “Sadly this ends today’s lesson everyone.” The Crusaders let out a long ‘aww’ before looking to pack up their gear. “Girls I will be walking you three home today since my patrol did find something in our territory.”

“Oh good, I hope we can get back quickly, I have a club meeting to go to!” The tiny winged pegasus of the Crusaders said with excitement.

He wanted to ask her what club but- “What club meetin’ do you mean?” -seems he was beaten to it by Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo right away pulled out a rainbow colored wig that was shaped into a very familiar style. “Why the Rainbow Dash Fan Club of course. She has been saving a lot of ponies lately and has been getting a ton of press for it and there have been plenty of ponies wanting to join it.”

‘MARE-DO-WELL!’ Dustan instantly thought to himself as he heard that. It was the only time really he could remember such a club gathering and with the fact it seems Dash had been saving people lately it meant that it should be this episode. ‘Though I thought the club meeting happened at the start…huh well as long as the Episode stays on track…’ Honestly this was one episode he particularly didn’t like as it kinda made the girls seem very cruel in his eyes. All of it could have been solved if they really just sat down and talked about it, or even did the heroics themselves without a costume and as a result seemed to really hurt the speedster. ‘Maybe I should sit down and have a talk with the girls once I spot the ‘mysterious’ mare.’

The walk back to Ponyville was not quite by any stretch of the imagination as Scootaloo was pretty much going on and on about her hero. While that was happening, a stray thought came to Dustan in the form of him questioning the Bard and Dancer’s Fly ability. He wondered how well it worked in practice as it was really only a hover for the most part in the game but cost so much that he honestly rather use any other movement ability in the game then it. In the end he was curious as if it would allow true flight or that hover; if the later it would be nice to tell Scootaloo about it just in case she never could fly.

‘Better find out myself before I tell her just in case I am wrong and so I don’t get her hopes up.’ The Thief mused to himself as he looked over the three. ‘If I told them about it they would work none stop just for the goal to get to Dancer since they are fillies and won’t care about anything else. Yeah, best to keep this to myself for now.’

“Kupo.” That word got Dustan’s attention right away as he looked up and around.

“What was that?” He called out and looked all around.

Scootaloo looked at him and simply told him. “I said I can’t wait to show Rainbow Dash all that I am learning from you, you know?”

“Oh ok, sorry was kinda lost in my thoughts there. Didn’t meant to ignore the question” Dustan mentally sighed to himself. ‘Damn, I thought I heard the word Kupo not ‘you know’. Kinda makes me wish Boko was here, her Kweh’s would sound nice right now since it wasn’t what I thought it was.’

Dustan was so lost in his thoughts that he never heard the bushes rustle slightly and a red dangling object peeking out from said bush.

The white creature watched the three ponies walk down the road with the tall biped and wiped off the sweat from its brow. He had almost caught him while he was watching. So far he seemed nice just like the White Chocobo and the Coeurl had told him, but he seemed like something was weighing down on him. For now he should continue watching just in case he saw something off about this human. Quickly moving from bush to bush, his vestigial wings flapping and his red pom pom bouncing around on his stalk, he followed the group.

Here Dustan stood in the back of the club house for the official Rainbow Dash Fan Club, though really it was the Crusader Club House temporarily changed to house the club, sitting in the back resting against the wall to make sure he wasn’t interfering with anything. That and Scootaloo practically begged him to stay saying that if he showed up it would show that even adults thought Dash was great. Dustan honestly thought all of the mares were great, though back in his life on Earth RD had been one of his favorite ponies from the show and he often thought she symbolized her element really well compared to the others. Comparing facets of their lives that he could see to the real deals though had filled them all out in ways he had not expected and was glad to see honestly.

True, while Twilight could be manic and hungry for knowledge like in the show or easily prone to panic, she also shown to be a thoughtful and caring mare not only to her close friends but many around Ponyville. Fluttershy had been a love hate relationship from the show for him, loving how adorable she was but frustrated from the over the top actions of her fear from the show. In actuality she was just more of a home mare, happily comfortable at home being a caretaker and it was only when she was brought out of her element that her easily spooked nature showed. He had watched a bunch of her animals get into a fight once before, Harry and Henrietta both Bears of different species, and while that made him hesitate she got right up in there and ended it without her Stare.

“I call this meeting of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club to order.” Scootaloo called out though Dustan was honestly not paying attention as he was too busy comparing the mares from the show to the ones he knew.

Applejack was still Stubborn to a fault for sure just like in the show, but unlike the show she was willing to change and take criticism a bit more. What was more while she was all about apples like her name sake she didn’t actually like all apples. She hated sour apples in fact preferring sweet tastes herself which Dustan found out when she happily gave him some sour apples to counter all the sweet tastes in magical horse land. Rarity was a sticking point in the original show, his least favorite in the show if he had to be honest. She seemed like the one least like her element considering all the greedy selfish actions she had taken throughout the show. Here he found that those moments were just like her name in that they were rarities. He had compared her prices to other shops even outside Ponyville with lesser quality clothing and found them to be around the same price if not higher, meaning often times she was getting undercut by others. She then proceeded to tell him a story of her cutting her quality of cloth down to save money only for not only herself to be dissatisfied with her work, but finding that she gained business that way. When she realized she was unhappy because of that change she went back to the way she did things claiming she rather be happy then rich if that is what it took.

“I object!” Snips a small off blue colt with an orange mane spoke up. “I think-”

Sadly Dustan was still in his mind at this point as he came down to the last two of the Mane Six. Pinkie Pie was in his top ponies for sure though he always thought of her as too manic for himself in that she was a living sugar rush for sure. However it seemed like there was that Pinkie, and the Pinkie around her friends. Pinkie was still a hyper overactive mare for sure but around her friends it seemed that she was a lot calmer. Did that mean that the overactive Pinkie was an act, something for first impressions, or was it her party persona? Dustan didn’t know and honestly it didn’t matter. Now came down to the last of the six: Rainbow Dash. This iteration of Dash was becoming vastly different. She was still that cocky egotistical mare from the show…or at least she was at first. More and more he has been finding her to become more tempered like in the later seasons or maybe even more and from many of the conversations he had with her it seemed he was the catalyst for that. The Discord deal where she wasn’t brainwashed was a good example, her loyalty waned for just a moment in the show to allow Discord to do his thing. Whereas for Fluttershy she represented her element so much he couldn’t find room in her heart to change her so had to do it forcibly. Now the Element of Loyalty herself had that same conviction which she didn’t have in the show. Luckily it had not messed up anything in the long run and seemed to be good for her.

“How about super-extreme-awesomazing?” That brought him out of his inner thoughts hearing Dash’s voice and couldn’t help but chuckle at her hidden help for the club.

After a round of agreement Scootaloo stood up and looked to her fellow club members. “All in favorite of declaring Rainbow Dash super-ultra-extra-uhh-whatever you said pony in all of Ponyville say aye?” All the ponies called out an aye without hesitation.

Not able to help himself because of the youngster’s enthusiasm, even he called out a moment later. “Aye.” He waited for a moment, listening hard for the giggles that came with the declarations but it seems it wasn’t meant to be as the noise of the children drowned it out.

“Pinkie Pie, if I could have a moment?” The proper voice called out to the pronking pink party pony.

Turning around the fluffy maned mare saw it was none other than one half of the most famed musical couple in Ponyville. “Octavia!” Rushing over she smiled at the gray mare. “What’s going on?”

“I wish I knew.” Octavia obviously meant that to be more said to herself even if Pinkie still heard it before the pony looked back to her. “Vinyl hasn’t been herself since the concert at the castle two weeks ago, I was wondering if you could talk to her. You seem to have quite the knack for cheering ponies up and I haven’t been able to do so yet so I was hoping-”

“That I could turn her frown upside down?” Pinkie smiled, zipped away for a moment and was back with a saddlebags worth of supplies for what she would need. “I got it, show me the way.”

When they got to the half and half house Octavia right away steered them towards the white and blue side of the house and knocked on the door. “Vinyl, I am not sure what to do for you to get you out of…out of this funk you are in. I have tried so many things but it doesn’t seem to help so I brought in an expert.” Hearing no response the classical pony nodded to Pinkie and let her in. “I still have some errands to run so I will be back later, sorry I can’t stay.”

“Okie Doki Loki!” With that Pinkie went into the darkened room. No lights, curtains were closed, Vinyl was on her bed not wearing her glasses or headphones and her bloodshot red eyes were now looking at her. “Hey there. Pinkie the party pony is here to help.” The mute pony simply shook her head and pointed to the door. “No can do, I won’t let such a big sad mood such as this stay in Ponyville so you might as well get used to me being here.”

Rolling her eyes the electric blue maned pony reached over to grab her headphones. “~So, what, you going to hang around me till I smile? Not going to happen.~”

The base of Pinkie’s tail twitched as did her knee which was followed by a pinching sensation at the base of her neck right below the start of her mane. ‘Oh…my supplies won’t help me here.’ Setting down her saddle bags she did pull out a couple of cupcakes and hoof them over to Vinyl. “Ok, I won’t try to cheer you up, however I will listen to you if you wish to talk.”

The DJ just stared at the cupcake for a moment before she sighed. “~My power went haywire during the concert. That has only happened a couple of times before. When that happens it’s like…the music of Harmony is bursting right through me to get to somepony as if it couldn’t do so properly before. When that happens I get…flashes, images of what is connected to their Heartsong. It has never been like this though.~”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie thought this was a good thing, she was getting her to talk and it seemed like whatever it was happened at that concert for sure.

“~I~” There was a pause. “~I saw everything. The music of Harmony surged through me so much that it connected me to everything that happened to Dustan when he was singing. It was…it was horrible.~”

‘Oh…’ Right away Pinkie could feel like she knew part of what was going on. “That is why he was crying; I saw him crying on stage. I guess he really misses somepony from home.”

Pinkie’s statement didn’t get the reaction she thought it would. In fact it didn’t even come close to the expected reaction that she thought would be evoked. Instead Vinyl stood up, her face as red as her eyes as her horn surged and things started to fly around the room, clearly not directly controlled by the unicorn as her magic surged wildly.

“~That is the thing!~” More and more the objects flew around more vigorously. “~He misses who she WAS. Dustan lost her long before he left his…home. She was a monster who shouldn’t be missed.~” Slowly Vinyl’s magic calmed down as she looked down to her hooves. “~I saw everything those two ever went through, every bit. It was nice to start with then became…distorted. What is more, that song he sung. It was both about his love for who she started out as and her loss. The latter part was of him remembering their time together fondly and is more, do you know what Suteki Da Ne even means?~”

This whole time Pinkie was silent, not because she wanted to be but because she couldn’t think of anything to add till now. “It sounds foreign but I think I heard some colts once saying something in a similar language saying they wish they could speak it.”

“~Its Neighponese, the language of Neighpon.~” The objects that were in the magical grasp slowly levitated back down to their rightful places as Vinyl stood up. “~It means ‘Isn’t it wonderful’.~”

Trembling hooves slowly rose to her mouth as Pinkie started to piece things together. “Oh Celestia. It was wonderful when she was at the start, but then it meant that it was wonderful in memory only now.”

“~That’s right.~” Vinyl said as she opened both doors to her room the front one before she started to head outside.

“Vinyl, where are you heading?” Pinkie called out as she came outside.

Looking back as the DJ finally levitated her glasses to her head. “~I am going to talk to him. I have some questions that need some answers.~”

As she left Pinkie heard her name being called by her friends and shaking off the funk she was feeling herself she put on a smile for them. “Heya girls, what’s going on?”

Twilight was the one who spoke first. “It’s about Rainbow Dash.”

Honestly it was a bit hard to stand and be on the sidelines while he watched the punctured balloon fall to the ground but he held sure. ‘This is part of the episode, Rainbow Dash is busy signing autographs at the moment and should take too long to rescue it while Mare-Do-Well comes in and saves the day.’ He gritted his teeth, he really wanted to change things but honestly for this kind of thing he had no tricks to stop a falling balloon like this.

However it didn’t matter as surprise after surprise happened, Dash wasn’t late, instead zipping quickly to under the balloon to try to slow it, however the momentum was too much, leading Mare-Do-Well to save the pony and lightening the load. This caused a feeling in Dustan’s gut to start growing as already things were off. Moving closer to listen to the aftermath he could hear Dash talking.

“-you came along. I don’t think I would have stopped the hot air balloon in time so I am pretty glad you rescued the passenger.” A pretty modest sounding RD told the purple costumed pony whom seemed to hesitated before slowly nodding her head and running off. The mare dubbed her the name she had in the show as Dustan decided to keep watch.

Dustan followed them around the whole day, watching one event after the other play out unlike the show. Rainbow Dash was cooperating with Mare-Do-Well every step of the way and thanking her for the help. Dash never stayed for any interviews longer then it took to say ‘Glad I could help’ before she rushed off again.

Having had enough of this Dustan went to go find Twilight, and surprise surprise, actually found her in an alleyway by mistake. “Ouch, why did they have to place the trashcan there?”

Turning into the alleyway he found Twilight in the middle of demasking and sighed. “You know, I would think considering all your magic, you would make sure to set up some kind of barrier, illusion, something so people wouldn’t stumble upon you like this.”

He apparently surprised her as she eep’ed and quickly tried to push her mask back on, only to get it half way on where her muzzle still was sticking out. “I have no clue what you are talking about citizen and I am not who you think I am and are you buying any of this?”

“Nope.” Crossing his arms he watched the magical mare magic off the mask and the rest of the costume.

“Didn’t think so.” With a pop the costume returned to wherever she hid it before she looked at him directly. “Honestly, the plan isn’t going like it’s supposed to so honestly this was the last appearance of Mare-Do-Well.”

“You sure Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack won’t pop up as her then, or you just talking about yourself?” He watched as Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times before he smiled. “I am not stupid by any stretch of the imagination Twilight. A mare that has wings, a horn, super strength, can predict the future. Unless a new Alicorn is in town we can scrap that idea so it has to be multiple people as this costume crime fighter. That means you would have to find someone with those traits for each time she appears. Super strength, Applejack, surprising amount of flying ability, well its not Dash so someone connected to AJ which leaves Flutters. Prediction, Pinkie, and finally an absurd amount of magical mastery, IE you; so my question is this, why?”

For a moment Purple Smart said nothing as she sighed and looked down. “Didn’t realize it was that obvious but when you put it like that yeah it kind of is. However we didn’t do this for ourselves, we did it for Rainbow Dash. The first few times she saved somepony afterwards her ego started to grow and grow. It was starting to become unbearable before the girls and I hatched a plan to help teach her some modesty.”

Hearing that Dustan had to say something to the mare. “So, yeah I agree that Dash’s ego can get…inflated, but was this really the best way? Why not pull her aside and just tell her how she was acting, that would have been way better than this. One wrong move, one wrong statement and you could have lost your friend instead. She is the element of loyalty; do you think she would have taken this breach of such lightly?”

Sitting on her plot she sighed and rubbed her head. “I know I know, but we had to do something, or at least we thought we did. Today as we started rescuing ponies we realized that something already sent Dash’s ego into check and we are not even sure what. She thanked Mare-Do-Well; she expressed gratitude whereas before in the plan she should have been chomping at the bit for lack of attention on her deeds. I am not saying that is a bad thing but, it means something drastic happened to her, which might be good or bad.”

“That is why you talk to your friends if you can.” Sighing he reached over and patted her on the shoulder. “Look, why don’t you and I go talk to Dash together and get the word straight from the pony’s mouth ok?”

Nodding the unicorn smiled and gave him a hug. “Thanks…you know you can do the same too, if you ever need to talk.”

Dustan knew exactly what she meant but he didn’t want to talk. “Twilight, there are some things in some people’s lives that aren’t for sharing unless you have experienced something similar. I doubt any of you girls or anyone around here has experienced what I have so best to leave that Trauma in the past.”

“I mean, that love song was kind sad but heartwarming as well. I am sure losing your special somepony must hurt but there are plenty of ponies around who have lost the ones they love.” Twilight was trying to be upbeat and comforting he knew, but at the same time that same tone just irritated him at the same time.

“Twilight, just shut up about the subject…please.” The thief felt a bit bad about his tone after he said it but at the same time the human didn’t want to go down memory lane.

Eventually Twilight had met up with the other girls and they had all decided to join in for the explanation of one pegasus on what happened. “So you girls are Mare-Do-Well? Awesome, you were all pretty cool out there.”

That feeling in his gut that had been growing through the day spiked at that point as it was obvious Twilight was right. Something had tempered her attitude in a big way. The question now was what.

“Rainbow Dash, honestly we did this to start getting your ego in check since it was starting to get a bit big, but-” Twilight started only for Applejack to finish.

“Honestly you were gettin’ to be a big jerk with how you were actin’.” As the honest but blunt mare said that there was a tiny bit of a wince on the pegasus’ face.

Nodding and rubbing the back of her head she chuckled. “Yeah I can see that. Sorry about that everypony. That is why when I thought about something it made me calm down a bit.”

Dustan was determined to let the lesson play out with his presence in the background as Pinkie was the next to speak up. “Oh, so what did you think of to calm you down? Was it cupcakes, those always calm me down.”

Shaking her head she then pointed a hoof at Dustan. “It was him.”

‘Yep, there it is, that is what my gut was telling me, that this episode is screwed up somehow cause of me.’ Finally figuring out what his gut had been telling him, he had to know. “What did I do?”

The others were curious as well but Dash just seemed mystified. “Dude, what are you talking about? You have done so many heroic things, way more then I have lately, but you never once stood around to boast or ask for anything as a reward. Instead you were just happy to have helped. When I heard you in the Squirt’s little club meeting I remembered that. The last time I let my ego and feelings get ahead of me, I kinda said some really horrible things to you remember.”

The scar on his jaw and cheek was enough of a reminder for sure but he nodded. “I thought we left that in the past Dash?”

“We did.” She said before looking up and sighing. “Doesn’t mean I can’t still learn from it right?”

“So what you are sayin’ is-” Applejack started before chuckling. “-that you wanna be more like Dustan.”

While that got everyone chuckling, it did get a certain speedster to start pouting and cross her forelegs, Dustan shook his head. “Which is kinda a bad thing for sure, and my body boasts the scars to prove it.” Looking at Dash with a genuine smile he told her his honest truth. “Don’t be like me. Instead be a better you. Each of you are great in your own ways, you all have flaws of course but that is what makes each of you who you are. When you make a mistake, aim to never make it again, if you fall down, get back up and try again in a different way. Never take what you have for granted. Do all that and you will be fine.” Looking up into the sky he sighed. “I should get back to the castle, with the final floor being finished, I have no doubt Sturdy is looking to send me both plans and the finalization paperwork.” Giving a wave to the group the Thief left them alone.

The trip to the castle wasn’t a long one by any stretch of the imagination as he used it as a chance to get a good jog in. Dustan had been slightly neglecting his training cause of his moodiness and today ended up being a pretty good day when he thought about it. He hated this episode so seeing it turn out rather well without the girls having to beat Dash’s ego into the ground felt good. He wasn’t looking forward to the paperwork though that was for sure.

Opening up his door he saw the pony sized stack sitting in his chair. “~Dustan, we need to talk.~” Oh wait it actually was a pony

Seeing it was the musical pony herself Dustan smiled and nodded. “Sure, though I have to admit you surprised me being here.”

Though the human tried to play it off as light hearted as he could the mare never smiled. “~I need to tell you what happens when my power goes haywire like it did during the show.~”

To be fair he had been thinking on it since then and knew it was cause of her, but honestly he couldn’t be mad at her. “Its fine Vinyl, I forgive you for the mishap. As long as there is no harm its fine.”

“~That is the thing Dustan, there was harm, to both of us.~” Ok that definitely had his attention. “~I have had this happen a couple of times before in which case I caught glimpses of what the pony’s Heartsong was about. For one who was singing to his lover I caught images of them holding hooves, one image of them in bed, and one image of him and her as he saw them in the future. That was it.~” Taking a sip from a glass nearby she had she continued. “~For another that was more intense, I saw actual images from their past, how they lamented about a lost love, then found each other. I saw quite a bit.~” Looking to him now, her red eyes were intense. “~For you though…I saw it all.~”

Right away Dustan could feel his gaze harden as he spoke a few words. “You are a unicorn with a sound affinity so you should be able to sound proof this room right?” She nodded before he motioned her to do so and her horn lit up giving the room a glow. “Ok then, what is it you saw and what is it you wish to talk about.”

The musical mare for her part took a deep breath before looking at him in the eyes. “Everything. You, Sarah, how she treated you, your life….your world.”

Author's Notes: