A Dust Filled World

In the morning, Twilight Sparkle groggily woke up early, before every pony else. She walked down stairs to the kitchen to make some coffee while she studied the creature they encountered yesterday. She walked with her coffee upstairs quietly, every step creaking under her hooves, causing her to wince as she was still not fully awake just yet. Once twilight got upstairs, she grabbed a book, quill, and ink as she started to take down notes of what this " Murder " was and even small sketches of what she remembered he looked like.

5 hours had passed.

Spike, he was Twilight’s younger adoptive brother and number on assistant. The little drake groggily woke up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, only to be greeted by the sounds of frantic scribbling and mumbling. He rouse in a tired funk. He had slept in the day before, so his sleeping cycle was all out of whack. He walked over to Twilight to wish her Good Morning and see what she was up to, only to be startled. Twilight’s eyes had turned bloodshot red, accompanied by deep, dark bags under her eyes. He tugged on her tail to get her attention. It didn't work. So, he tried to call out her name. Again, no luck. Then, he decided to climb onto the table and tap one of the inkwells. Surpisingly, this was what finally caught her attention.

"Twilight, Are you alright?" Spike eyed his sister with a worried, yet confused glare.

"Oh, Yea I'm fine. Don’t worry, I've felt worse." Twilight chuckled at that remark.

Spike didn't look impressed, he knew Twilight could stay up for quite a long while, just studying. But this? He was worried for her. She has been with him, ever since he was a baby. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't want to push her into a deeper rabbit hole.

"So, what did I miss?" Twilight asked curiously, with a smile on her face, as if trying to pretend she was fine. She was failing.

"Um, nothing really. Oh! Did you find any tasty gem recipes for me to try!" Spike squealed, excited to make some new gem based treats with Pinkie Pie

“No. Sorry Spike, but I’ve been too busy. Especially regarding what happened last night.”Twilight shuddered at the memory of last night, but fought off the brief unease and fear she felt. She had to be confident and brave in front of him, but still, she was horrified. Like a filly's first day in Magic Kindergarten.

"Let's go wake up the girl's." Twilight told spike as she trudged downstairs, a tired expression plastered all over her face.

Spike looked unsure, he wondered what it was that had Twilight push herself like this, to the point she looked sleep deprived. He knew twilight was a book-aholic, but he had never seen Twilight that shaken or tired before.

"No, Twilight." Spike stated, worry clear in his eyes.

"What do you mean, no? I have to figure out what that, thing, was and tell the Princesses!" Twilight declared.

"What? Look, I can do that for you Twilight. You need rest." Spike told Twilight with a worried but serious tone.

"I ha-" Twilight was cut off. Spike was dragging his sister back into bed.

Spike promptly put twilight in bed. And after making sure she went to sleep, despite her protest, he went downstairs to wake up the rest of the mane 6. Spike trudge downstairs, making sure not to alarm any of them. As soon as spike saw them, he was shocked. He saw Rainbow, bandages all over her body. Looking towards Rarity, he rushed to her, making sure his crush wasn't hurt. Thankfully, she was alright. After checking, he made sure the other ponies were ok. He went over to Fluttershy, deciding to wake her up first.

"Fluttershy, wake up. Help me wake up the others" Spike shook the pegasus.

Fluttershy cracked open her eyes and looked towards spike with a gentle smiled. Spike couldn’t help but smile back at her. They began to wake the other ponies in the room one by one. After all of them had woken up and had breakfast, courtesy of Spike, Spike decided to ask them something that plagued his mind ever since he woke up.

"So, do you guy's know what happened yesterday? And what happened to Rainbow Dash?" Spike asked, a curious tone in his voice.

All of the ponies went silent, looking to each other. After some internal debating, they decided to tell the small dragon. He did deserve to know, after all. Applejack decided to answer his question, but before she could, she looked towards Rainbow. She was wincing from the injuries she had sustained yesterday.

"Well Spike, what we saw yesterday, well, it wasn’t anything we've ever seen before. Darn thang stood about the same height as Princess Celestia, if not taller. Darn fella was a giant." Applejack said with an uneasy look, clearly still perturbed by what she saw.

"But don’t worry about anything Spike. We’ll protect you and bring that thing down in ten seconds flat!" Rainbow dash said with a giant grin. Only to falter and clutch her side with an audible groan.

Applejack just rolled her eyes, wondering how Rainbow planned to beat the creature with all her injuries.

"Wait, Applejack. Did you just say the creature was the same height as princess celestia!?" Rainbow turned to Applejack with a shocked expression. The whole ordeal went by relatively quickly, so she couldn’t quite tell it was that tall. And judging by the other’s shocked looks, they didn’t notice either

All the ponies, including spike, turned to Applejack for answers. They had never known any creature to stand taller than Princess Celestia. Applejack herself was a tall mare. Slightly taller than the average pony. Not to mention, working on the apple farm, you have to work with calculating the height of the trees and how best to catch the apples without bruising or damaging them. So, safe to say, Applejack knew a thing or two when it came to height. She saw how tall the creature was. It was astonishing to see such a tall creature. She even remembered those terrifying glowing eyes staring at her before it teleported away. It made her skin crawl.

"Didn't y'all see how tall it was?" Applejack asked, astonished that her friends didn't see the towering stature of that beast.

"N- No." Said Fluttershy, quivering behind her mane.

"I did see something." Rarity flatly said. All the ponies in the room looked towards Rarity with a questioning look.

Applejack was annoyed. Rarity was withholding information. Information they could use to stop that monster. Applejack was about to respond, but a hoof shot up faster than she can blink.

"Wait, does any pony here It's Name?" Rainbow asked.

Rarity shuddered at that. Even remembering what it called itself made her tremble in fear. Same for Fluttershy. the poor mare was behind Pinkie, trembling so much, it looked like she had just came inside from the cold winter air.

"Yea, and I don't like it one bit." Applejack shook with a stone faced expression. But anyone who knew Applejack could see it. Behind her stone faced mask, hide the expression of a disgusted, fearful mare.

Spike had no idea what they were talking about. A tall monster appears yesterday, seemed to cause trouble and injured Rainbow Dash? And all while he was asleep? A chill shot up his spine at the thought.

"Will it come back?" Spike asked, fear building up in him. He was terrified that the creature would return to hurt them.

"Who knows. But, thinking about it, a creature that nopony has ever seen before? We don’t know what it can do, plus it might cause trouble again. I say, we track it down and capture it!" Rainbow said in tone that oozed bravado and cockiness.

Spike, unsure about it all, decided he should send a letter to Princess Celestia. Quietly, he walked upstairs where he kept all his paper and quill. He chuckled as something struck him. He was still small. So the creaky old wood didn’t quite creak under him. It was because of this, he was able to sneak and steal cookies whenever he was supposed to be asleep and Twilight was either busy with something or asleep and so didn’t notice. The nice memory was something he needed. It helped drive away his fear, if only for a bit.

Eventually, he came back down to the girls with the parchment, quill, and ink. He and the girls all wrote down what happened yesterday and asked to come to Canterlot for help and to do what research they could on the creature.

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Meanwhile.

Dust woke up early. Ever since the multiple resets, he developed a habit of up early to get ahead of the human. Dust put on his jacket and hesitated before putting on the scarf. He couldn’t help but think of his brother every time he saw it. Putting it on, he made his way out of the castle. He decided to go for a walk around the silent forest. May as well explore if he was gonna be staying here for the foreseeable future.

"It's quiet, to quiet." Dust stopped to look around. It was early in the morning. Some of the animals should be awake and active. But it seemed none were. Just then, he heard something in the distance. Focusing his hearing, he’d heard what sounded like footsteps. Sans let out a low grow and grit his teeth.

"So, there are human's here.." Dust was pissed off. The trauma and rage he felt from the last human he killed gave him bad memory’s. So the thought of encountering another pissed him off to no end.

He whipped around to see it. The child that caused him so much grief and pain, the reason he had to kill everyone. He would not and will not endure that feeling again. Determined to end the human once and for all, he shouted to lure them out.

"YOU! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! HOW DARE YOU COME BACK! SHOW YOURSELF! NOW!" Dust shouted at the human, ready to attack it the second it came out into the open.

Dust, more pissed than before, activated his magic. Dozens of Gaster Blasters, Bones, even flames engulfed his hands. He rushed forward, intending to kill the child, end them in one go. He shot forth bone after bone at the human. They didn't move. The bones only phased right through them. Dust saw it smiling and pointing at him. In a rage, Dust shot off the Gaster Blaster. The blasts, like the bones, only phased through the child. The explosions were so huge, they could be heard and seen all the way from Ponyville. The human still stood there, knife in hand, a large grin on their face. The human then threw it at him. Dust dodged it effortlessly. But when he looked back to the human, they were gone. Dust blinked and his eyes widened. The human was right in front of him. A knife held at his throat. With a chuckle, the Human slashed, slicing Dust's neck. Blood shot everywhere as Dust's soul crack and shattered into pieces. Just then, everything went black and Dust's eyes shot open. Inspecting himself, he saw that he was okay. That still didn’t stop him from breathing heavily in a cold sweat. The Human wasn’t there. It was just his imagination.

"Keep it together, keep it together. It wasn't real. I can’t really be going crazy. Right?" Sans kept asked himself before wiping off his sweat and continuing his walk. Not just to explore now, but to calm down and clear his mind.

After eventually calming down, he walked about 10 minutes along a path. Then, he heard voices nearby. He decided to hide and watch in the distance. He saw a group of foals with one elder mare walking along the path.

"Hm, these must be the kids from that town. Should’ve figured they’d have some kind of school.” Dust said to himself.

"Alright class! What can you tell me about this part of the forest?" miss Cheerilee asked her students.

"Oh, I can see poison joke!" One of the fillies told the teacher. Getting an approving smile from the teacher.

“Good job, Twist. Can anypony else tell me something about this path?” Cheerilee asked.

"Somepony’s watching us!" Exclaimed a filly named scootaloo.

All the filly's looked at her as if she were crazy. Or stupid. Miss Cheerilee walked up to Scootaloo and asked what she was talking about. The young filly pointed a hoof at a nearby tree which sat surrounded by a bunch of bushes. Cheerilee’s eyes followed Scootaloo’s hoof to where she was pointing. Feeling a little skeptical, but curious all the same, she decided to go investigate.

"Let me go see." Miss cheerliee said as she walked over. She didn’t truly expect to see anything. Until she saw something that made her nearly faint from fear.

She could see a tall figure looking down at them with white glowing eyes. Its left eye was cyan with a red outline, glowing a purple shade, while its right eye was purely red. She had never seen a creature as terrifying as this in her life. All she could do was run away, urging the class to run ahead of her, to run back out of the Everfree Forest, where it would be safe.

"We need to go class! We will be learning about something else!" Miss Cheerliee galloped away with all of the students ahead of her. However, in her rush to get away, she had forgotten one filly. That filly was Scootaloo. She was always trying to be brave so she could be just like Rainbow dash. She figured Rainbow wouldn’t run like the others. She’d stand off against the foe. So, Scootaloo walked towards the figure. But, right before she could say something, it ran away.
Scootaloo, determined to see it, ran after the creature. She ran after it for a bit before they ran into a clearing, allowing Scootaloo to see the full form of the creature.

"Hello?" Scootaloo cautiously asked the hooded figure.

The creature turned around. It was very tall, and with the hood casting and shadow over its face, it gave off an eerie feeling. Then, it started to speak.

"What are you doing here, Kiddo?"

Scootaloo was shocked. It could speak? She had a lot of questions she wanted answered, but decided to only ask a few.

"What's your name?" Scootaloo asked the creature curiously.

Dust was about to respond with “Murder.” But, he stopped. Thinking back to the first time he said his name, the ponies attacked him. So, he decided he should use his old name, to not scare the pony.

"Name's Sans, Sans the skeleton. But you can call me Dust, What's your name?" Dust said with a small smile on his face.

"My name’s Scootaloo! Nice to meet you Mr. Dust." Scootaloo said, happy to now know the creatures name.

After they exchanged names, Dust asked Scootaloo why she was here and not with her class.

"Well, after the entire town heard about you, we started calling you, The Monster of the Everfree. And when I saw you, I had to meet you. I wanted to figure out for myself if you were a monster. But, you don’t seem to be a monster at all." Scootaloo explained to sans.

after 4 hours of talking, Scootaloo asked if Sans had any family.

Dust, froze at this question. He was unsure as to how he should even answer that question. Memories of his brother, Papyrus, flooded his mind. His rambling about puzzles, his aspirations to become a member of the Royal Guard, his pestering Dust to pick up his socks. Dust's heart ached. He felt as though tears would start falling. But, stopping the tears and deciding to be upfront, he looked towards scootaloo, and spoke.

"I had a brother. His name was Papyrus. But, he’s gone. Long gone." Dust said with a grim tone.

Scootaloo shrunk at that. She didn’t mean to bring up any old wounds from Dust's past. She was sad to hear that Dust's brother was gone.

"Hey, kid." Sans said, getting Scootaloo’s attention.

“Yeah?” Scootaloo asked.

"What about you? Got any family?" Dust asked the filly.

Scootaloo looked down. She didn’t know how to respond. But she decided to explain everything going on with her parents. After all, she trusted him.

Scootaloo explained that her parents were abusive. She explained how they would always beat her and torment her. She explained that it was because of them, her wings were so small and why she couldn’t fly. An injury she suffered from her parents left her wings damaged. She was lucky they weren’t taken off, but still. Having wings but unable to use them? It hurt her deeply. It would hurt any Pegasus, really. She then explained how her parents were monster hunters and how they abandoned her. Leaving her to fend for herself almost 2 years ago.

Dust sat in silence. Anger and rage had begun to build up within him at the story. Hearing what they did to their own flesh and blood. It sickened him.

"Didn't anyone try to adopt you?" Dust asked with a questioning look.

Scootaloo shook her head.

"No. Nopony wanted to adopt a pegasus that cant fly." Scootaloo said while looking at her wings.

Dust seeing this, decided to do something that could change everything for Scootaloo and himself.

Scootaloo reminded him a lot of his brother Papyrus. They both had a sense of wonder that was just endearing. After the human killed his brother, he lost the only family he ever had. So, in a decision that would change both their lives, he decided to adopt Scootaloo.

"Hey, Scootaloo." Dust said to scootaloo.

Scootaloo looked up at Dust with a questioning look on her face.

"What is it Mr. Dust?" Scootaloo responded.

"How about I Adopt you?" Dust said with a smile.

"W-What?" Scootaloo said with a shocked face plastered on her face.

"Why not, you remind me of my younger brother. And I've always wanted a kid, to be honest kid I need support here. I have been alone for along time now, and the best option to be with someone I care about is to take care of you."

Dust explained with a smile on his face.

Scootaloo was speechless. She didn't know what to say. The creature she just met today, wanted to adopt her? Scootaloo, with tear's in her eyes, jumped on Sans, franticly saying yes, over and over again. Sans looked down at the filly with a smile. He was filled with a new sense of responsibility. Until he briefly froze. He didn’t really know how to take care of a kid. But, he figured he could do what Toriel would always do, remembering her stories of her son, Asriel, and what all she would do.

"Scootaloo, you're school is going to be worried sick about you." Said Dust with a worried expression.

Scootaloo agreed with her new dad. She stood up, ready to bolt. But, she froze. She was confused on where to go and didn't know where the way out was. She sheepishly looked up at her new adoptive father, who just chuckled.

"I don't know the way out." Scootaloo blushed.

"Don't worry I can use a shortcut to get there." Dust said with a grin. Scootaloo was confused, but when she went to ask him where the exit was, they were suddenly at her school. Scootaloo was about to throw up from the new sensation, but swallowed the sick. Unfortunately, that made her throw up. After getting all that out and cleaning up in a nearby lake, she trudged up to Dust.

"Go Scootaloo. Finish your class, and at the end of the day, come to the forest. I will find you and I can show you where I live" Sans whispered in Scootaloo's ear.

Scootaloo nodded, with the biggest grin she had ever had in her life.

Dust teleported back to the everfree to take a nap.