Manehattan Wire

Pain. Dull, throbbing pain was all that Radiant Star was feeling when she first began to regain consciousness. Star was still groggy when she opened her eyes and was saw Violet nodded off in the next to her bed. On the bed to her left laid Lilith, still unconscious after her bout with electricity.

“Vi…” Star groaned, trying to push herself up in bed.. “What the hell happened?”

“Well, you got zapped by my supposedly dead predecessor.” said Dusk as he entered the room. “You probably died while he was at it, because last I checked you weren’t blue.”

Star looked at her hands, noting the blue color.

“Huh?” Violet woke up, looking around the room.

“Easy Vi…” Star looked at Dusk. “It’s all real, isn’t it?”

Dusk nodded. “I was trying to tell you just that… But last I checked you pin me to my desk.”

“You threw me and Lilith through a wall.”

“You threw me through one and then tried to beat the snot out of me, so I’ll call it even.”

“How is that even?”

“Wasteland math.” Dusk just smirked.

“You just pulled that out of your ass.” stated Violet.

“Damn straight! Now, how’d ya do it?”

“Chameleon spell.” Said Star. “After I beat Spark and Twilight,I found a spell in Fort Knowledge that let me change my colors at will.”

“Care to explain that Spark and Twilight tidbit?” asked Dusk.

“On second thought, it’s a long story. But what’s scarier; a run-of-the-mill alicorn, or the Ministry Mare herself spraying death from a minigun?” asked Star

Dusk stopped to think for a moment. “I’ve got no damn idea. Either seems scary enough, but judging by the look on your face, I’m coming across as a bit uneducated, aren’t I?”.

“More like an ass, but that really isn’t anything new.” said a voice from the doorway.

Dusk turned around and was faced with Meteor, arm in a sling and a lip that was stitched back together.

“And who did I get that from?”

“Probably your father, who in turn picked up his attitude from me…” Meteor cocked his eyebrows and smirked. “I see what you did there….”

“If by getting you to admit I picked my attitude and temper from you gramps, then you’re spot on!” Dusk started clapping. “Someone give this stallion a medal!”

“Dusk, let’s get serious for a moment.”

“How about no?”

“And why not?”

Dusk just stared at his grandfather. “Really? You left me in charge, so I’ll be giving the orders like I have been.”

“Really? You call getting forty percent of your force killed giving orders?”

“I call it an occupational hazard.” Dusk turned and looked at Star. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be back shortly.”

Dusk ran up to Meteor and grabbed him by his collar before teleporting away, leaving a confused Radiant Star and Violet in his wake.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dusk teleported him and Meteor to the roof of the factory, quickly pinning him against one of the rooftop ventilators.

“Dusk, can you just let me go already?”

“How about fuck you?” Dusk spat as he backhanded Meteor. “I watched you die. I watched that damn changeling skewer you and break your neck. I watched when the changelings set fire to nearly everyone I’ve ever held dear. And then you show up out of the fucking blue and expect me to just say ‘Hey, gramps is back! Everything’s all peachy now!’.”

“That would be-”

SMACK

“Shut the fuck up!” Dusk threw Meteor to the ground with his boot on his chest. “You abandoned me. You abandoned Strike and Comet, and then you come back? You really are something else you heartless fucking bastard.”

“Dusk, listen to yourself. How is any of this rational?” questioned Meteor.

“Rational?” Dusk started laughing at the mere thought. “Rationality died when you came back from the fucking grave old man.”

“So, what do you plan to do then? End me? I thought that my mere existence would be proof that anything you could pull wouldn’t work.” Meteor developed a scowl, something that Dusk hadn’t seen in a long time. “I’d recommend that you choose your next move carefully boy”.

Dusk took his boot off Meteor’s chest and turned to leave. “Just get the fuck out of my face.” With that, Dusk teleported away, leaving his grandfather to sit and think.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dusk appeared in his office seething. He walked over to the cabinet next to his new window into the factory, and pulled out a set of leather barding. The set itself had been reinforced with steel plate and a pauldron for better protection. He then pulled out his pipbuck and a stetson that he had picked up on one of his previous missions. Once he had his attire one, he went into the cabinet and pulled out a quiver and a longbow. Swinging the Quiver onto his back, he went for the door.

“Dusk, what the hell are you doing?”

Dusk turned around to find Blueblood standing by the hole in his wall with a rather perplext look on his face. “I’m going for a walk.”

With that, Dusk teleported away. The scene of a semi-destroyed office was replaced with the sight of a city composed of marble spires and populated by aristocrats; Canterlot. Dusk looked around and found he had teleported himself outside the wall of the main palace. Pulling out one of the arrows from his quiver, he checked to make sure it was one of his trick arrows. Confirming his suspicion, he attached a tether from a box on the arrow to a loop on his barding. Loading the arrow, he aimed for a point high up along the wall, and let the arrow fly up and over, trailing a line behind it.

Tugging the line taught, Dusk did a quick double take to ensure that no one would see him and proceeded to scale the wall. Once on the top, he found himself faced with the royal garden with a present population of zero. Seizing the opportunity, he dropped down from the top of the wall and ran for the door into the palace. Once through the door, he took a hard right and made a beeline for a nearby door. Slipping into the room, he found his objective; the file room. Checking the cabinets, he went for the Ms and pulled the drawer. Digging through the cabinet, Dusk couldn’t find the file he sought.

“Looking for something?” asked a feminine voice.

Turning around, Dusk was faced with Princess Celestia with a file in her hand.

“If that’s my grandfather’s file, then yes.” Dusk approached the princess and reached for the file, only for the diarch to hold it away. “Celestia, now is not the time to fuck with me.”

“Dusk, you broke into my palace, and you’re telling me not to get in your way?” The princess started laughing at the audacity of the present situation.

“Just give me the file.”

“Why?”

“The autopsy report.”

“What? We never did an autopsy.”

“Bullshit, I saw your guards cart off bodies from the Badlands, and I know that they had autopsies done up. One of those bodies was supposed to be my 'dear' grandfather.”

“You’re having closure issues, aren’t you?” inquired the princess.

“And you wouldn’t?” questioned Dusk. “What if your previously dead relative showed up out of the blue? What would you do?”

“Like you, I would be questioning my own self-worth.”

“And what makes you think I’m questioning my self worth?”

“You came for the file, didn’t you?” inquired the princess. “You’re obviously questioning your convictions and reasoning for maintaining your lifestyle, so you need some sort of closure to help make sense of it all.”

Dusk just shook his head. “That’s not it. I know I’m headed for the grave, but I’m just taking a shortcut. And then good-ole’ granddad shows up after he was buried because, oh I don’t know, he was dead? Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“Exactly! For a dead man, Gramps sure knows how to make himself known.”

“Even though the body we recovered wasn’t Equestrian.”

“Yes! That’s what- Wait, what now?”

“The body that we recovered and initially identified as your grandfather wasn’t Equestrian. It was a changeling that was midway through it’s transformation at the time of it’s death. Externally, he appeared to be your grandfather, but internally he was still arranged like a Changeling.” Celestia held out the file for Dusk. “If you don’t believe me, then see for yourself.”

Dusk took the file from the princess, and quickly read it over. And over, and over. This cycle went on for nearly five minutes, as tears began to stream down his face, leaving blotches on the report beneath him.

“Dusk…” asked the Diarch “Are you alright?”

His answer was simple. With a light from his horn, he disintegrated the report that was clearly the cause of his distress and fell to his knees.

Celestia knelt down with him, clearly concerned.

“Why?” questioned Dusk. “For years I thought I was alone, no family left. And now this? Why is it I’m twenty-one flavors of fucked up?”

“I don’t know Dusk. The world tends to do as it pleases, leaving us to pick up the pieces.” answered Celestia.

“We’re stuck with the mess, eh?” sniffled Dusk. “Story of my life right there.”

Celestia said nothing, only drawing Dusk into her embrace.

______________________________________________________________________________

Dusk awoke to find himself in a bed. A bed that was far more comfortable than what he was accustomed to. As he tried to sit up, he ended up flopping back, seemingly caught by a flytrap.

“Ugh!” he groaned, this time rolling sideways before he landed on the floor in a heap of limbs and sheets. “What the fuckkkkk!”

Dusk took a moment to get himself untangled, and noticed someone had removed his pauldron and barding, leaving him with an undershirt. Then he remembered where he went; Canterlot Castle. Looking around the room, he confirmed his suspicion that he was in one of the many guest rooms. Getting to his feet, he saw that his barding and pauldron had been laid out on a desk on the opposite side of the bed. Walking over, he quickly put them back on, making sure the straps were tightened up.

“Now, where the hell are my arrows?” he muttered as he looked around the room again.

It was that moment that the door to the room opened, two solar guards walking into the room. One held his quiver and bow, tossing them to an impatient Dusk.

“So, who should I pay for the room?” asked Dusk.

The guards both remained stoic.

“Really?”

“We’re under orders to escort you to Princess Celestia’s study.” stated one of the guards.

“Ok…”

Dusk quietly followed the guards down the hall to a large mahogoney door. Another set of guards swung them open, and Dusk walked in. Once the doors were shut behind him, he looked around the room. The walls were lined with bookshelves, all of which either held countless tomes, or some sort of magical artifact.

“I take it you slept well?” asked Celestia as she walked into the room behind Dusk.

“Ya… How did I end up in that bed?”

“After you nodded off, I brought you there.”

“So, last night…”

Celestia nodded. “You had something of a breakdown…”

“And was there a reason someone took my gear off?” questioned Dusk.

“Well… Once I put you on the bed, you started writing in pain. Once I got your armor off, I saw your scars. I had Luna come, and she confirmed my suspicion that you were having a nightmare.” explained Celestia.

“And how, pray tell, did you manage to snap me out of it?”

“We couldn’t. Luna and I entered your dream… But that wasn’t a dream, was it?”

“No.” stated Dusk. “That was a memory, and a bad memory at that.”

“That was in the Badlands, wasn’t it?” questioned the princess.

“Does it even need to be said?” quipped Dusk. “You saw what happened to me. You saw the people I lived with get slaughtered all for what? An extra decade to hopefully prepare for a changeling invasion? Oh wait, that already happened and you already got your ass handed to you!”

“And what do my failures have to do with anything?”

“Because you wasted the time that we bought you damnit!” yelled Dusk. “Forty-seven lives lost, and they were all wasted at the end of the day.”

“You’re not mad at me, are you?”

“Try self-hate. Take a guess at who heard there would be a Changeling attack?”

“You’re the one…”

Dusk nodded “I’m the one who found out about the attack. Everything I had was solid, but it was a trap. I don’t know how, but the Queen caught wind of our strike mission and sent her elite guard to take us on. And you saw how that all went…”

“Dusk, none of that is on you.” Celestia whispered. She reached out and took Dusk in a hug. “You couldn’t have expected any of-”

“That’s not the issue.” said Dusk as he pushed the princess away. “I watched everyone I knew and loved get slaughtered and butchered, and what happened to me? I ended up abandoning them. But here’s the kicker! I apparently wasn’t the first one to do it, because somehow my grandfather got replaced by the changeling that must have tipped off the queen. Fan-fucking-tastic!”

“Dusk, while I may sound cold, there is no point in arguing with existing certainties. Life will move on, and you need to move with it.”

“And assuming I don’t?”

“Then you’ll be left behind.”

“That’s really helpful…”

Celestia just stared back at Dusk.

“You’re right, you know?” asked Dusk.

“I’ve only been around long enough to have learned the lesson myself Dusk.” stated Celestia.

Dusk stopped to think for a moment, and a smile came across his face. “Doesn't that make you a milf then?”

For a brief moment, Celestia only deadpanned before her expression gave way to a fit of giggles.

“I’ll take that as a no then?”

“I’ll just assume that you’re feeling better then?”

“A bit.” answered Dusk “But that still doesn't solve my present issue.”

“Dusk, inevitably the reemergence of Meteor might prove helpful. You still needed to deal with the portal and those soldiers, and he has years of military experience that you simply don’t have. You don’t have to do anything else but work with him.” said Celestia.

“Fine, but I hope you have an idea on where to start, because I sure as hell don’t.” stated Dusk.

Author's Note

Remedial editing 4/25/15