//-------------------------------------------------------// A Dust Filled World -by Trexly- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// A New World //-------------------------------------------------------// A New World "Alright, I Have the Human Souls now. Time to focus my magic into making a rift." Sans Muttered to himself. "I hope there wont be human's there, but here's to hoping" Sans said Jokingly. The Short Skeleton focused his magic and the souls to make the rift. It looked like a purple blueish rectangle. Looking through the portal he can see a highly dense forest with a huge broken castle. Intrigued he walked through the portal which closed behind him. "So this is the surface?" "Wasn’t expecting it to be so... colourful" Sans looked at the grass and sky. His gaze looked towards the castle. Standing big and tall, it made him feel so small. He looked behind him, seeing a town in the distance. Deciding to go check out the local town, Sans trudged through the forest. He heard shuffling in the bushes behind him. Whipping around, he saw nothing. It didn’t help that there were no lights shining in the dense forest. Not even the sunlight got through. With a grunt, Sans wiped the dust off his sleeves and continued his march. After walking for 15 minutes he saw the town up ahead. Sans, hearing a growl, turned around. Before him stood a large wood-like dog, which he decided to kill for EXP. "I know I'm made of bones, but I didn't expect a pup like you to try to fight me." sans grinned. The beast ran towards Sans, but then stopped. Looking down, it saw its right paw had been torn off. Looking up, it didn't see the creature that did it. "Hey Doggy!" The beast turned around to see the creature holding it's missing limb. "Missing something?" Sans grinned sadistically. Now frustrated, the now disabled beast tried its luck on a lucky hit. With a powerful leap, it pounced on the creature that tore its paw off, only to stop in confusion. The creature was right there, just looking down at it. The bone-y being before the poor wooden mutt just stared down at him. Like an angry god, staring down at a lowly bug with a malicious grin across his face. "Well it was nice playing with you, but I got to see the town." Sans's grin faded. With sans now bored, he killed the wooden creature by ripping it's head off. "Now where were we, Ah the town!" Sans walked towards the town. On the way there he saw a cottage. His curiosity piqued, he snuck towards the home. Sans heard singing within, so, he went towards one of the windows and peaked inside. What he saw in the cottage was a lemon coloured horse. Her, what he thought was her hair, was a bubble gum pink mane. Sans thought she was just a regular horse, until he saw wings. He was even more curious, and a bit confused. He had never truly seen a horse before, but he did read on the creatures when he was in his room. Though, he never read about them having wings. "Here you go Mr fox." Fluttershy Cheerly said. A bunny tugged on her tail. Confused, Fluttershy looked down at the small white bunny. "What's wrong angel?" Fluttershy, with caring but worriedly eyes, looked at her little bunny friend. The bunny pointed at the window. Fluttershy was confused, agreed, looking at the window where the skeleton was. "The window? What's wrong with the wind- win- window.. AHH!" Fluttershy screamed as loud as she could. Fluttershy ran out the door and into ponyville. She ran like a bat out of Tartarus towards Golden Oak Library, where one of her best friends resided. She knocked on the door of the oak library frantically, desperately trying to get inside as fast as possible. Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic, opened the door. "Oh? Fluttershy? What are you doing here and why are you scared? Is something the matter?" Twilight worried for her friend asked. Twilight looked down at her terrified friend. Deciding to let the shy pegasus into her house, Fluttershy and Twilight walked to the living room with Twilight going into her kitchen to prepare some tea. "So, What's wrong" Twilight asked her friend. Fluttershy still looked terrified. "W- Well I saw a creature i’ve never seen before. It was staring at me through the window. I got scared and ran here, because I thought since you know a lot of things, you might tell me what it is?" Fluttershy looked from her hooves to her worried friend. Twilight pondered that. Fluttershy is an animal expert, so why did she come to her? "Alright Fluttershy, tell me what the creature looked like." Twilight said. "Well, it had a hood on, and from what I saw, its eye's were white. I saw a bit of its face too. It looked fully white" Fluttershy responded. Twilight looked through her books trying to find what Fluttershy described. After 30 minutes of looking around, Twilight was left confused. Going off of what her friend told her, she could not find any description matching the one of the creature Fluttershy encountered. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy. I didn't find anything referencing the creature you described. Are you sure you didn't see a pony, or one of your animals?" Twilight asked with a questioning look. "I'm Sure! I saw it! You have to believe me, Twilight!” Fluttershy begged. "Look, I'm sure you just hallucinated the creature. Just, try to get some res-" Twilight got cut off as they heard a scream outside. Twilight and Fluttershy looked outside, only to see the creature Fluttershy described. Twilight quickly told Fluttershy to get the rest of there friends. "Hey, YOU!" Twilight Shouted at the strange creature. Twilight galloped towards the potential threat. Twilight, the student of Princess Celestia, had never, in her 26 years of living on Equus, seen a creature like this. Fluttershy's description on the creature was accurate. The creature looked tall. So tall, in fact, its height could very well rival Celestia. "W- What are you doing here Monster!?" Twilight shouted with a stutter. "Hm? Me? I'm just passing by this here town." Sans said while looking at the small lavender unicorn. "Likely story!" a voice shouted from behind the unicorn. Sans looked behind her and saw 5 ponies rushing towards them. A winged blue one with a rainbow mane and tail charged them with a bloodthirsty gaze. He saw an orange pony with blonde mane and tail next to her, who had a rope in her mouth. Next to her, was the yellow one he saw earlier, with a pink pony beside her. Now, this one was weird. She had a big grin on her face and was jumping up and down happily, ans if she was running on nothing but caffeine and sugar. And lastly, there was a white pony with a curly purple mane and tail. She held a scared, but disgusted look on her face. "Who and what are ya?" The Orange one called out. "My Name's not important. But, you can call me murder. And as for what I am, I am a monster" Sans calmly replied. The 5 ponies gasped in shock hearing what the creature's name was. Rainbow Dash looked to her friends and back at the creature. Without a word or hesitation, the blue blur shot forward and tried kicking the monster. As soon as she got 4 feet from the creature, she was stopped in place. Confused, she looked at her friends. It was then, that she looked at her hooves. They were dark blue. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME YOU, YOU FREAK?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, trying to get out of her capture’s grasp. "Now, see, it's not nice to try and hurt people that you just met." Sans grinned to the blue pony as he prepared to attack, as she tried to attack him back, in an attempt to counter him. Sans, deciding quickly, threw the blue pony at a nearby building. "Girls, try to capture him!" The lavender pony commanded. All the pony's scattered like insects. All of them, except the blue one, the one that sans had thrown into the nearby building. The orange pony, lasso at the ready, threw it towards him. Sans dodged effortlessly, leaving an annoyed Applejack, upset that she had narrowly missing her intended target. Sans, deciding it was for the best, decided to flee, teleporting away. "Darn it! That little varmint got away!" The orange pony exclaimed, annoyed that the creature got away. Sans teleported to the forest, noting that this world is hostile, and that he should steer clear of that, or any village. Looking around he saw three sets of eyes staring him down through the pitch black abyss of the forest as though he were a mere chew toy. "I killed one of you mutts. So, why do you choose to fight?" Sans said, with a disappointed look on his face. Without a moment's notice, the three wood-like dog's charged at him. Two went off to his sides, while the leader ran towards him head. Sans decided to play with them for a bit, toying with the three wooden dogs as he dodged their attacks with ease. That is, until he got bored and in one move, burned one of them into ash. As its ashes fluttered down like ash from a volcano, or blackened snow, Sans ran towards the other beast. With his magic, he froze the poor mutt and in one fell swoop, the skeleton shot a bone out of the ground, impaling the wooden mutt, killing it instantly. "Look at that. The sun is setting. I need to find some where to stay." Sans stated to the last of the wooden dogs. The dog didn't listen, deciding to go for Sans's neck. Sans just stared at it as it tried in vain to attack him. Sans, in one go, let loose a bone from the ground, striking the dog. It was the same move that claimed the life of Sans’s dear brother. "Alright, I warned you." Sans muttered to himself. In an instant dog fell lifelessly to the ground. Sans could hear a thud and splinter of wood behind him as he trudged along, heading back the way he came from. 30 minutes later, he made it to the run down old castle that he first saw. "Well, I guess I have to stay here for a while. It was a mistake going to that town. Perhaps they were scared of a creature they just met?" Sans thought, while walking towards the castle. ================================================================================================== In Ponyville. "Don't worry about that thing right now! We need to help Rainbow dash!" Twilight shouted to her friends as she rushed towards the still downed Rainbow Dash. “What kind of attack was that? Telekinesis?” Twilight asked herself. She knew she’d have to think on that later though. Rarity looked towards twilight. "Darling, are you sure you've never seen that THING, before?" Rarity asked, displeasure and disgust written on her face from her brief encounter with the skeleton. Twilight, pondered that question. She had never seen a creature like that, not even in her books. She would have to ask the Princesses if she could use the Canterlot library. Maybe then she could find something that even remotely resembled the creature. "I've never seen it before, Sorry Rari-" Twilight said before getting cut off by the hyperactive pink pony. "WOWWIE, did you see that twilight?! That creature made rainbow fly, without Rainbow using her wings! She was all, “whoosh”! And I was all, “Woah”! Think he could make me fly too? Can he? Can he?" Pinkie exclaimed, excitement clear in her voice. Twilight was the element of magic. She knew of all the creatures who could use magic, as well as the many different types of magic there were. But, she has never, in all her years, seen or heard of the type of magic that creature used. It didn't even need a horn to use its magic. She will definitely have to look into on how creatures without horns could cast spells. "Hey, Rainbow Dash!, Hellooo rainbow to Equus?" Pinkie said, while standing next to Rainbow Dash, quickly and lightly, tapping her cheek. Rainbow, hurt and bruised, looked up at the pink mare. She felt like she was about to explode from the pain. But, seeing the smile on Pinkie’s face could make even the most sick or injured pony happy. With a small, pained smile, Rainbow took Pinkie’s hoof and stood up. Pinkie stayed with Rainbow, helping her stand, as it was clear Rainbow was in too much pain to stand let alone walk on her own. "Pinkie! Is Rainbow Dash ok?! Any bad injuries?" Twilight asked as she ran up to the two mares. "Dashie’s okay. In some pain, but okay!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Could you help and get my equipment from my house? It’s up stairs below my bed.” Twilight asked Pinkie. "Okie doki loki!" Pinkie Said cheerfully, before bolting towards Twilight's house. In a matter of seconds, Pinkie returned back to twilight, first aid kit in mouth. Twilight was a little shocked at her speed, but decided not to question it. Nopony really questions it. Just Pinkie being Pinkie. Pinkie gave Twilight the first aid kit as Twilight quickly begun to patch Rainbow Dash up. "Why don't we take Rainbow to the hospital?" Applejack asked. "Because the hospital is closed. That creature, whatever it was, stirred up such big panic, even the Hospital barred its doors!" Twilight responded. After patching up Rainbow, all of the six mares quickly rushed her into Golden Oaks so Rainbow could rest, discuss today’s events regarding that creature, and Twilight could contact Princess Celestia. Author's Note This is my first story! I'm proud of it //-------------------------------------------------------// The Creature of the everfree? //-------------------------------------------------------// The Creature of the everfree? 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. ==================================================================================================== 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. //-------------------------------------------------------// Crusaders //-------------------------------------------------------// Author's Note https://camo.fimfiction.net/luTPREbOhSXHb3lvsEkw1EV6I13QmOpYG8T5GL9GXek?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com%2Ff%2F31dc3bd2-9d52-4f5f-8d40-7dfe13e49088%2Fdimr6wi-e75cffd8-83cf-4377-992c-bbc323fa569e.png%2Fv1%2Ffill%2Fw_352%2Ch_574%2Cq_80%2Cstrp%2Fdustsans_by_trexly_dimr6wi-fullview.jpg%3Ftoken%3DeyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NTc0IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMzFkYzNiZDItOWQ1Mi00ZjVmLThkNDAtN2RmZTEzZTQ5MDg4XC9kaW1yNndpLWU3NWNmZmQ4LTgzY2YtNDM3Ny05OTJjLWJiYzMyM2ZhNTY5ZS5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MzUyIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.Y6yoCLEmeqesVHtjXENGBssEpnWejHmdMVLu-fRDzD4 This is dust's Look ( Ik it looks bad it was a quick drawing ) Crusaders After getting adopted by Dust, Scootaloo returned to her school. She walked into her class seeing her teacher, Cheerilee, in a frenzied panic. She hadn’t noticed Scootaloo was missing and had been searching all over. After she couldn’t find her, she returned to the school to ask if any of the students knew where Scootaloo’s parents were. She was unaware of Scootaloo’s history. Not even Scootaloo’s friends knew about her past. Miss cheerilee, still in a panic, shot her head up towards the door. She saw Scootaloo enter the school house. Scootaloo was about to say something, only to get blindsided by a near bone breaking hug. Cheerilee was worried sick about scootaloo. She often saw the young fillies and colts she taught as her own children, though she’d never really say it aloud. So noticing Scootaloo was missing, it was like finding out her daughter was missing. Poor Scootaloo was caught in the tight hug, frantically tried to get out of it as Cheerilee squeezed her. ==================================================================================================== During the time Scootaloo was missing. Cheerilee booked it to the Golden Oak Library. She frantically knocked on the door, almost breaking it down. It wasn’t until she heard hoofsteps rushing up to the door did she stop. She sat in place, hooves beating the ground as she ran in place. "Hello?" Applejack, opening the door asked. Cheerilee, still in her panicked state, tried to utter out a sentence. But because of her frenzy, she could only stumble out a single word. "H- Help!" Cheerilee practically shouted. Applejack, seeing her panic got her to go inside. After barely managing to calm down, Applejack called out, letting the others know they had company. Applejack walked over to the kitchen, grabbing some apples from the fridge. Applejack knew twilight had apples. Afterall, Applejack was the one that placed them there. She wasn’t gonna let her friend eat those gross strawberries on her watch. She walked back with to apples and gave one to the still panicking mare. "Alright, now, what's wrong? Yah look like yah just saw a darn manticore." Applejack asked, worried about the teacher. "W- Well, I- I was teaching my class about the Everfree, and-" Cheerilee was abruptly cutoff by Rainbow Dash. "THE EVERFREE?! DONT YOU KNOW THE MONSTER IS IN THERE?!" Rainbow dash shouted at Cheerilee. The shout startled Cheerilee, unintentionally sending her back into a panic. "Look, Rainbow, she didn't know. She was on the other side of town. The creature was only on this side of town, so she wouldn’t have know it was here." Applejack said matter-of-factly, gazing at the cyan pony. Rainbow went silent, she knew that. It just slipped her mind. Her anger and fear got the better of her, especially since she knew Scootaloo was a part of Cheerilee’s class. She didn’t want Scootaloo to get hurt. "So, what did ya see?" Applejack asked, some worry in her voice as well. Cheerilee was still in a panicked state. She was hyperventilating badly. Futtershy went up to her, and began to help Cheerilee calm down, using one of the techniques she used to calm her animal friends. Soon enough, Cheerilee calmed down a bit, giving Fluttershy a thankful smile. Cheerilee looked up. Spike and the others were coming. Spike and Rarity had made some tea and Pinkie…. Pinkie somehow pulled out a giant tray full of cupcakes and plopped it down on the table. Cheerilee was going to ask about it, but decided against it. As they ate, Cheerilee began to explain what she saw. "Well, I think I saw the monster. It was tall. I didn't see much, but I did see a scarf around it's neck. And those eye's. One of it's pupil's, wore a red hue, while the other eye wore red, cyan and black." Cheerilee shuddered remembering the sight of those eyes. Her description of the monster was slightly different from the monster the girls saw. Well, except for Applejack. She was the only one to see those same eyes, just before it teleported away. Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, and Fluttershy were confused. The creature they saw had a scarf, yes. But the eyes? The ones they saw didn’t look like the ones Cheerilee described. "Wait, Red and blue eyes? We saw white eyes.” Rarity said as she looked from her friends to the Teacher. Cheerilee, looked puzzled. She swore she saw red and blue eye's digging into her soul. "White eye's? I didn't see that" Cheerilee told the group. “Ah did.” Said Applejack. “Just before the fella vanished. Ah saw the same eyes. It was, terrifyin’.” Applejack said with a shudder. The girls all racked their brains, trying to remember if they noticed the creatures eyes change color some how. As they did so, Cheerilee cleared her throat, catching their attention. She finally spoke up and told them the reason she was here. Scootaloo was missing. "Wait? Did you say Scootaloo was missing!?" Rainbow dash said worriedly. She was scootaloo's adoptive sister. She was to protect Scootaloo from harm, so knowing she was missing sent Rainbow into a state of panic. Rainbow had adopted scootaloo as her sister. It was a gift for her birthday. She saw potential in Scootaloo, even if she never felt the same. Rainbow dash always gave her flying lessons. Even though it didn't work, Scootaloo kept going. With Rainbow’s encouragement and Scootaloo’s determination, Scootaloo was going to fly. No matter what. "I'M GOING TO THE EVERFREE!" Rainbow dash shouted. “Dash, what do yah expect to do when yer still injured?” Applejack asked. “What I can! I have to go find Scootaloo!” Rainbow stated. Applejack, lasso at the ready, lassoed Rainbow to stop her. “Let go, A.J.!” Rainbow shouted. “Yah ain’t goin’ nowhere! Not with them injuries.” Applejack bluntly stated. “Applejack, she needs help! Let me go!” Rainbow shouted. “Dash, if you go into the Everfree, you’ll get even more banged up than yah are now! Or worse!” Applejack argued. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same for Applebloom!” Rainbow shouted. “Don’t yah go bringing mah sister into this!” Applejack shouted. The constant shouting and arguing caused Twilight to wake up. And she was having such a nice dream. Twilight brushed her bed head of a mane and walked downstairs to see, Rainbow and Applejack arguing. Twilight loudly cleared her throat, which stopped the argument and cause them to look her way. Twilight looked at Cheerilee, confused why she was here. "Miss Cheerilee? What are you doing here?" Twilight walked up to Cheerilee. "She went into the everfree, and she saw the monster too. Scootaloo is missing, probably in the Everfree and Rainbow Dash is trying to go into the Everfree to save Scootaloo and fight the creature" Applejack told twilight while trying to hold Rainbow dash way from the door. "Rainbow Dash, come here." Twilight asked. Rainbow Dash reluctantly nodded her head and walked over to twilight, confused on what the unicorn was about to do. It took some time, but with her magic, Twilight healed some of Rainbow’s worse injuries. She couldn’t heal them all, so she’d still be in some pain, especially if she pushed herself to hard. "There you go, that should do the trick!" Twilight said, glad to have healed Rainbow’s worse injuries. "Can we go already." Asked Rainbow, desperate to get going. All the ponies nodded and smiled, making their way to the Everfree, ready to save Scootaloo and standoff against the creature. ==================================================================================================== Back in the present. The mane 6 were walking through the Everfree, unaware Scootaloo was now at the School with Cheerilee. They were readying themselves to fight, capture, and question the creature. The everfree was silent, not even the birds were chirping. This had the six on edge. "It's quiet. Too quiet. Hey, Twi. Are yah sure we’re going the right way?" Applejack asked twilight. Twilight turned to applejack and pointed a hoof at the mud. Confused, Applejack looked to the mud and saw footprints she had never seen before. "Well, guess that answers mah question." Applejack said with a slight chuckle. "I swear, if I see that creature, and he did something to Scootaloo, I’ll hurt him big time. For his sake, he better not have done something to her.” Rainbow Dash said, a fire burning deep in her soul. She was worried sick about her little sister. Applejack was still upset about her argument with Rainbow, but she couldn’t deny that she’d feel the same as Rainbow was now. She knew what that monster could do if it got to the filly. Would it really hurt a filly? Would it really kill a poor, innocent filly? It made Applejack sick just thinking about it. She could only pray it didn’t do anything to Scootaloo and they could bring her home safe and sound. ==================================================================================================== In The School. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle went to there friend. Scootaloo managed to escape Cheerilee’s bear hug and was sitting happily in her seat. They were confused as to why Scootaloo was sitting there, wings buzzing, and a large dopey grin across her muzzle. Last time this happened was when Rainbow Dash adopted her on her birthday. "What's got ya so happy?" Apple Bloom asked with a smile on her face. Scootaloo looked up and happily stated something her two friends were ecstatic to hear. "Somepony Adopted me! I have a dad!" Scootaloo said with the grin still present on her face. Everypony in the class stopped and looked at scootaloo, mouths agape and cheering happily at the news. That is, until two voices called out. "Wow, the blank flank has a father now. Didn’t think you were an orphan. That’s a shame.” Said Silver Spoon. “Guess your real parents didn’t want you. Bet this new dad of yours is just as pathetic as you are." Stated Diamond Tiara. Both of the bullies just laughed, reveling in their taunting of Scootaloo. Scootaloo could only hang her head, remembering how her real parents treated her. She was about to retort when she heard something. Looking down Scootaloo, her friends, the other students, and her bullies all saw a bone carving something into the wood. It said "I See you". The two bullies froze in fear. Silver Spoon fainted as Diamond Tiara took of running. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat there, frozen. They had never seen anything like this before. They looked to Scootaloo. They were shocked to see scootaloo just smiling. Scootaloo knew who the bone belonged to and was greatful that he stepped in to defend Scootaloo. "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle. We’re going to the Everfree!" Scootaloo said with a happy tone. Both fillies were shocked. They never wondered into the Everfree without an adult. That is, whenever they aren’t finding some way to get their Cutie Marks. So hearing Scootaloo suggest going there, and with a happy smile on her face? It worried and even unnerved them slightly. Scootaloo looked at them. They knew that look all to well. It told them That Scootaloo was determined to go into the Everfree. For what reason, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle didn’t know. Either way, they trusted her and followed her into the Everfree Forest. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were deep in the Everfree, following there friend. They were terrified. The last time they were here, Cheerile was terrified, urging them to get back to the school. "So, what are we doing here?" Sweetie Belle asked, a scared look on her face. "We’re going to see my dad. He told me he was staying here, and where to find him. I want to introduce you guys." Scootaloo said with a grin on her face. Both filly's were as confused as ever. They decided to ask their friend why her new dad was staying in the Everfree and what he was like as they made their way into a clearing. "So who is your dad? and why is he in the everfre-" Sweetie Belle started, before seeing something sleeping at the entrance of the broken castle. Both filly's froze in fear, the rumor's of the everfree were true. There really was a Monster of the Everfree. And it was sitting right in front of them. They were about to run away until they heard something that made them stop in their tracks. "DAD, your still here!" Scootaloo galloped over to her dad. Dust woke up to a filly hugging him. He looked to down to see his new adopted daughter hugging him tight, clinging to him as though if she let go, he’d vanish. He just smiled and hugged her back, until looked up. There he saw two other filly's. He was confused on why Scootaloo brought the other two to him. "Uh, Scootaloo?" Dust asked. Scootaloo looked up at her father. "Yea?" Scootaloo responed. Dust pointed to the two other filly's and asked. "Who are they?" Dust skeptical. Scootaloo was confused until she remembered her friends. She waved them over with an excited look in her eyes. They hesitated but complied to there friends wishes. With every step they shrunk, clearly terrified of the being before them that their friend called Dad. After what felt like forever, they were finally at least an arms length away from the creature. "Dad, meet my friends. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo said, introducing her friends and her father. Apple Bloom looked towards the creature, then back to her friend. "H- H -Hello." Apple bloom said shrinking even lower. Sans waved at the filly with a friendly smile. This managed to calm the scared fillys. While they were still uneasy, there were a lot less scared than before. After introductions, they all started to talk to each other. They asked if Dust if he was the one that summoned that bone in the playground. Dust nodded. This got Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle excited. Dust asked if they wanted to see his magic, to which they eagerly said yes to. Dust decided to use blue soul on them, making them float. "Weee, Haha" All the filly's exclamed. Dust continued using his magic on them, until he heard 6 voices he remembered well. He teleported the fillies in the castle. Peeking out of a window and he was right, he saw the six mares from yesterday. He grit his teeth, anger in his eyes as he prepared himself for an incoming fight. //-------------------------------------------------------// Battle of wits //-------------------------------------------------------// Battle of wits Dust looked out the window to see the ponies that attacked him in the town. Closing his eyes, he told the filly's to stay put while he dealt with the older mares. He was about to teleport to the entrance until he felt a tug on his shorts. Looking down, he saw Apple Bloom staring up at him with her puppy dog eyes. "What is it?" Dust asked the filly. "Please, don't hurt mah sis." Apple Bloom pleaded with him. Dust was confused. Sister? What did she mean by, sister? He looked outside. He saw all the mares and, a baby dragon? He looked back to the filly and asked with confusion. "What do you mean. Sister?" Dust asked with a bit of confusion. "Her. There's mah big sis." Said Apple Bloom said, pointing a hoof towards Applejack. "And there's my big sister!" Said Sweetie Belle, a joyful smile plastered on her face. Dust, now knowing not to hurt the white and orange adult mares nodded. He asked about Twilight. They explained to him that she was a friend. Same with the Pinkie, who was waving him. Dust was alarmed. He was sure he was hidden well enough and yet she knew he was there somehow. The fillies saw Pinkie waving and told him she was just being Pinkie. Then, Scootaloo told Dust that Rainbow Dash was her big sister. Dust was confused. Dust remembered Scootaloo telling him she had no real family she cared for. He asked Scootaloo how this, Rainbow Dash, was her sister. She responded by telling him she was Scootaloo's adoptive sister. Dust smiled at that, though he did remember that one. Especially what he did to her last time they met. "Alright, you three stay here. I will try to talk them. Hopefully we don’t end up fighting. Although, if they attack me, I will defend my self." Dust said in a serious tone. His tone scared the fillies. Before they could protest, Dust teleported in front of the castle. This made all the mares jump. Other than Pinkie who was already jumping and frantically waving like a madmare. Just then, he heard the purple one, he now knew was called Twilight, shout as she begun to attack. Dust just remained calm. He put his hands up and said. "Look, I come in pea-" Dust didn't even get to finish his sentence, before feeling a sharp pain on his chest. Looking down he could see the blue pony from before, grinning at him. Before he could attack the pink one somehow pulled out a cannon from her mane that was twice as big as she was. The cannon exploded as confetti scattered everywhere. Dust groaned as he readied an attack. Before he could do anything, a lasso tied around him, getting tighter. "Looks like we caught the feller." Said Applejack smugly. Before anypony could react, Rainbow Dash bucked him in the head so hard, his skull chipped. Dust was used to the pain of being murdered, while this did hurt, it was nothing compared to what that human did, So Dust didn't respond to the pain. "What the?” Rainbow Dash said, shocked that the creature didn't even wince or even bat an eye. Dust sat there with a bored look on his face. He looked up at the mares, their faces stunned with fear. He stood up and ripped the rope in two. Applejack looked at him in shock. She didn’t think he could just break his way out of her rope. With a slightly annoyed huff, she hung her head, upset that she’d have to get new rope. "Look, I'm trying to be peaceful here. So can everybody calm down?" Dust asked. He didn’t really expect a civil response from them, but still. That got Twilight's attention. She looked to her friends, then back at the creature. "How do you expect us to believe you?" Twilight asked skeptically, ready to attack again if need be. Dust looked annoyed at this. "Three reasons. One, I let myself get hit so you can calm down. Two, I could easily kill all of you in under 5 seconds. And three, I promised two fillies and my daughter that I wouldn't hurt you.” Dust said, clearly annoyed. All the ponies looked shocked. What did he mean by two fillies? And a daughter!? This thing had a daughter? "Wait, you foulnap two fillies? And what exactly do you mean by daughter?" Rainbow asked. Her wings flared slightly as she readied herself to attack. If fillies were here, Scootaloo had to be here. Though she did wonder who the other was. She even briefly wondered, if this thing had a daughter, was it just a strong and creepy as her dear old dad? Before Dust could reply, the three fillies he was talking about appeared, galloping up to Dust. "Are ya ok Mr. Dust?" Apple Bloom asked with worry in her tone. Rainbow saw the three and her anger boiled over. Not only did this thing foalnap Scootaloo, but he foalnapped Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Letting her anger take control, she rushed Dust with all the speed she could muster. Pulling her hoof back, she readied herself to punch Sans and knock him out. Unfortunately for her, Dust was faster. Ducking under her punch, her threw his one. His fist contracted with Rainbow’s cheek, and with incredible force, punched Rainbow into the ground. Debris blew all over the place as the girls, Spike, and the Crusaders looked at Rainbow in a mix of awe and fear. Rainbow laid on the ground. A huge bruise was left on her cheek as blood began to ooze down her chin. It was obvious the blow had broken Rainbow’s jaw. Dust looked at them all and spoke up. "Don't worry, I got healing magic. I can mend her jaw back." Dust said with a groan, as if he was upset that the mare tried to attack, forcing him to injure and now heal her. Dust poured some magic into Rainbow, fixing her jaw with a loud crack as it popped back into place and all damage began to heal. All the mares, fillies, and Spike were shocked at this. Dust looked down at his daughter, a sad smile on his face. "I'm sorry for attacking her, Scootaloo sweetie. She attacked me first and I had to defend myself." Dust told the worried filly. Applejack stepped up, with confused look on her face. "What do ya mean "Sweetie"? Applejack asked, inching closer, ready to attack if she found out Dust was doing, “things”, to Scootaloo. Dust looked towards applejack with confusion. He looked back at his daughter as the filly told the group that Dust had adopted her, making him her dad. "Wait, doesn't that technically mean that Rainbow Dash is your daughter too, in some way?" Twilight asked while looking to Rainbow Dash, who was experimentally chomping the air as she tested out her fixed jaw. Rainbow heard this, snorted and started to laugh like a madmare. "Him? My Dad?" Rainbow couldn't stop laughing. The idea of that monster being her father? It was ridiculous. Twilight looked serious. She walked up to Dust and raised a hoof. After a small bout of confusion, Dust understood what she was doing, and shook her hoof. Twilight sheepishly apologised for what they did as she glared at her. After some thinking, Twilight realized something. "Hey, Rainbow. Didn’t your parents die in some accident in Cloudsdale some year ago?" Asked Twilight. Rainbow’s laughter abruptly stopped. She didn’t want to remember that, and having Twiight bring it up brought up some anger in her. Rainbow's parents had died in a horrifying accident at the Weather Factory some years ago. She was just a filly, barely going into her teen years. The tragedy left her deeply scarred. That day, her parents wanted to take her somewhere on a trip. But the factory summoned them to work as they needed the help. Rainbow fought to get them to stay home, to go on the trip, but the went in anyway. She often wondered, what would’ve happened if she pressed harder for them to not go in? Would they still be alive? She often times, even now, blames herself for their deaths, believing she could’ve stopped them. As she grew up, she had developed a tomboyish, brash attitude. This attitude was just a mask. A to hide her pain, to keep it hidden from others. The great Rainbow Dash never cried after all. Rainbow dash looked to Dust and then to Scootaloo. With her eye twitching, she stomped towards Dust. "I will NEVER, be your daughter. And I sure as Tartarus won't be family with somepony who calls himself, “Murder”!" Rainbow dash shouted at Dust. Rainbow dash flew off somewhere, Applejack looked towards Twilight and the others, and sighed. "Look, big fella. Give us a few days to clear this whole thing up." applejack told Dust. Applejack started to walk away before turning around. "Also, why don’t yah stay at Twi's place? I'm sure you will get to know each other better. And she’ll be able to help yah learn more about Pony culture." Applejack said with a small smile as she began walking back to Sweet Apple Acres, applebloom galloping beside her. She looked back and waved at Scootaloo and Dust with a smile. "See y'all tomorrow!" Apple Bloom shouted. Rarity sighed and perked up. She had just remembered she was in the muddy, dirty Everfree. She desperately needed to clean herself. "Sweetie Belle, we are leaving this instant! I simply must remove this dirt from my coat!" Rarity told Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and galloped ahead of Rarity. Before Rarity left, she turned to Dust and spoke to him in a low voice. "I won’t have you go anywhere near my dear little sister, you ghastly beast." Rarity said with disgust. Dust watched the unicorn mare trot away, catching up to Sweetie Belle. He sighed and rolled his eyes, until the pink mare, he now knew as Pinkie Pie, appeared before him, holding a cake with, " Welcome to Ponyville " written on it. Dust took it with his magic, which fascinated Twilight. She had never seen a creature use magic like a unicorn, but without a horn. She decided to ask him later. If he was going to come to Golden Oak, she could ask him there and take notes. Spike, Twilight, Scootaloo and Dust all walked back to the town. Like expected, all the town's folk ran and hid away in their homes, Twilight, seeing this, looked up at Sans. He didn't look like he was saddened or upset. He just looked bored. Eventually they made it to Golden Oaks. Twilight decided to be a good host and prepared tea to go along with the cake Pinkie had given Dust before she bolted. Seemingly planning something. "Hey, Mur- I mean Dust" Twilight stumbled before catching her self. "Who and what are you? I've never seen a creature like you before?" Twilight asked. Her desire to learn about him consumed her. Dust looked at Twilight, his eyes digging into her soul. Twilight shuddered and decided to maybe try again later. After finishing their tea and about half the cake, Twilight told Spike to go upstairs and get the spare bed. She was unsure of letting Dust stay in her home, but the look Scootaloo gave her made her unease subside a bit. Twilight, Scootaloo and Dust all talked. After Twilight tried asking Dust some questions, she was glad that he had responded finally. Twilight eventually asked if Scootaloo was adopted by Dust. Scootaloo eagerly nodded. She tried to ask Dust why he adopted her, but Dust did say. "Alright, we should get some sleep." Twilight told both of them. Twilight was unsure of where Scootaloo was going to sleep. She turned to Scootaloo and spoke up. "Scootaloo? where are you going to sleep?" Twilight asked. Scootaloo told twilight she was going to sleep with Dust. She wanted to be beside her new father. Twilight was skeptical but agreed. She walked upstairs, but not before turning off the lights. "Good night you two. Enjoy your stay here." Twilight said before going to bed. "Goodnight, Kiddo." Sans said, closing his eyes. "Goodnight, daddy" Scootaloo said with a smile as she snuggled up against Dust. It was nice finally having a dad that cared for her. //-------------------------------------------------------// Prey //-------------------------------------------------------// Prey It was the next morning. Dust groggily opened his eyes. He felt something heavy on his chest. Looking down he saw Scootaloo. She was still sleeping peacefully, so he decided to gently place her onto the bed. He went into the kitchen, tiptoeing to make sure he wouldn’t awaken anyone. Upon making it to the kitchen, he saw the fridge, and with a delighted sigh he trudged over to it and flung it open. There, he saw a little red bottle. It had been so long since he last had this. Ketchup! He picked it up and took a long swig. Only to stop midway and gag before rushing to the sink to stop the burn. "AH, What the fuck did I drink?" Dust softly shouted. Looking down, he saw that what he drank wasn’t ketchup, but hot sauce. After taking the taste out of his mouth, he looked over to Scootaloo, to see if she woken up. To his surprise, she was still fast asleep. Dust smiled and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He heard footsteps coming from the stairs. Dust looked to them and saw the small drake groggily dragging himself down the stairs. In a tired and confused tone, Spike spoke out. "H- Hello? Is anypony there?" Spike asked as he took cautious steps. Dust, confused, and slightly amused by the small drake’s tired sounding voice, answered. "Hey there kiddo. Who are yah?" Dust asked. Spike turned towards dust. His eyes shot fully open, then he ran back upstairs to frantically wake up Twilight. A few seconds later, Twilight ran downstairs and pointed her already charged horn towards the “intruder”. Twilight was about to shoot, until she realised it was dust. She looked towards Spike. "Spike, why did you wake me up exactly?" Twilight said trying to calm her racing heart. Spike looked confused, he pointed at Dust. "The Monster, he is right there!" Spike pointed his claw towards Dust. Twilight looked to Dust and then to Spike. Then she began to question something. She was sure Spike had seen Dust before. "Spike, weren’t you there when we fought Dust?" Twilight questioned. Spike shook his head. He was asleep when they went out and fought Dust. So, Twilight decided to properly introduce Dust to her number one assistant.Then, Scootaloo woke up, having been scared awake from the sudden noise. She looked to the source of the noise, seeing it was just Spike and Twilight as she calmed down. Then she looked at the pony that they were talking to. It was Dust, who was still sweating. Scootaloo, excited to see her father, ran and jumped onto his shoulders. "Uh, Scootaloo? Do you know him?" Spike asked with a questioning look. "Oh yea, he is my new father!" Scootaloo squealed before nuzzling his hood. Spike's jaw dropped at this. The monster that fought and injured Rainbow, was claiming to be scootaloo's father? Spike couldn’t understand how a 6ft tall and very creepy guy was Scootaloo’s father. He looked to twilight for clarification. "Look Spike this is Dust. I know he is creepy, but he is a new member of our home until he has enough bits to afford a place." Twilight explained. Spike was unsure of things, but he trusted Twilight’s judgment. So, reluctantly, he didn't question her any longer. Though, he did wonder why Dust was as tall as Princess Luna. After breakfast, Twilight, Scootaloo, Spike, and Dust went to the market. "So, Twilight, what are we looking for?" Dust asked. "Well, we’re going to need some more food to support another mouth to feed. But before that, we need to get Ponyville to warm up to you." Twilight awkwardly said as she glanced around. Dust looked around. Everypony was frozen. All the filly's hid behind their parents, all the stallions and mares either shied away or hid quickly in their homes. Dust was slightly annoyed, but he didn't care about what others thought about him. If they didn’t like him, then so be it. No skin off his teeth. Just then, he saw two ponies walking up to him. One was an adult. And beside her, was the filly that bullied his daughter. "YOU!" Spoiled rich shouted. Dust looked around and then pointed at himself. "Me?" Dust said. "Yes you! Why are you here, monster?! You’re not welcome here!" Spoiled rich shouted at the tall skeleton. The ponies around the market watched Spoiled rich. While many didn’t like her much, her confidence in speaking to the monster helped them gain confidence of their own. It got to the point they started to riot. They all started to walk towards Dust with an aggressive look. Multiple ponies started to shout at Dust. Dust just looked towards Twilight with a serious look. "Twilight, what do we do?" Dust asked Twilight, trying not to fling everypony towards Canterlot. Before twilight could respond, Spoiled rich bucked Dust in the stomach. Dust grunted at the kick, not because it hurt, but because it startled him a bit, making him take 4 quick steps back. "Fuck it. If you want to fight, then, we will fight!" Dust said as he began to summon his signature Gaster Blasters. "STOP!" Twilight shouted, trying to stop any conflict that was about to happen. Dust paused briefly. He reluctantly canceled his Gaster Blasters and gently pushed Twilight aside as he started walking towards Spoiled Rich. Grabbing her by the hair, he forced her to look at him. “Listen here, your daughter has been a pain in mine’s and her friends sides for ages, from what I hear. I see now where she gets it from. Her pathetic, miserable, old mother.” Dust said. Then, with all of his might he reeled back, and with as much force as he could muster, threw Spoiled Rich straight into the Everfree. Then he looked towards the small filly and grabbed her by the tail. "Now, you’re the bitch that’s been bullying my daughter and her friends? I'm sick of people like you. I had to deal with the bullies my brother had, and they didn't make it back home. So, I strongly recommend that you scram. Or you will end up like your mother." Dust stared at the filly, venom in his eyes. As Dust talked to the filly, who was now flailing and crying, he dropped diamond Tiara and kicked her away. Twilight was shocked. She did not expect Dust to kick a filly. She didn’t even expect him to throw Spoiled Rich like he did, towards the Everfree. Scootaloo was terrified but at the same time, amazed. Spike hid behind Twilight in fear. "Dust, why!?" Twilight shouted as she ran to Diamond Tiara. Putting Diamond Tiara on her back, she ran towards the hospital with Spike. Scootaloo did worry for Diamond Tiara, but she also chuckled. She felt that Diamond Tiara had fully deserved it after all the mocking and teasing. After Dust calmed down, he looked around as the ponies of Ponyville were running away from dust. "Hey Dad!" Scootaloo said. "What’s up kiddo?" Dust said. "Can I show you the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse?" Scootaloo squealed. "Sure, why not." Dust agreed. Scootaloo led Dust towards the Clubhouse. As they walked, Scootaloo decided to ask a question. She was wondering if she could learn the moves Dust used. Dust paused at this, thinking of an answer. "I will teach you when you're ready." Dust smiled. "Alright Daddy." Scootaloo smiled at Dust. Scootaloo pointed towards the club house. Dust nodded and he teleported inside with her. Then, two screams sounded out. He turned around and saw the two fillies that he knew. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. "Jeez, why didn't yah warn us?!" Applebloom asked as she tried to steady her heart. "Hey there, girls!" Scootaloo exclaimed. All three fillies hugged. They all looked towards Dust. He was sitting on his legs, as the clubhouse was small and unable to allow him to stand up straight. Applebloom walked up to dust and she climbed onto his leg's "So, what are ya two here? I know about Scootaloo, but why are yah here?" Applebloom asked. "My dad was in a fight, about 10 minutes ago! He kicked Diamond Tiara, and threw her mom into the Everfree." Scootaloo explained. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle just blinked "I don't know if we should be scared, shocked, or happy." Sweetie Belle said with a deadpanned face. “Ah say we should be happy. After everything Diamond Tiara put us through, ah say it’s deserved.” Applebloom said. Dust was about to ask more about the Diamond Tiara filly, only to get cut off by a shout coming outside. Dust looked outside the window. He saw dozens of ponies with weapons. "Girls, stay here." Dust said. Before they can say otherwise Dust teleported outside and confronted the ponies. As he stood before the ponies, he observed them. He saw 6 pegasi, 3 earth ponies and 3 unicorns. "Stop there, Monster! We are monster hunters! And you’re going down by our hooves!” The leader exclaimed. All of the ponies readied themselves to attack. One of the pegasi rushed down to stab Dust. He swiftly dodged. After which, he shot a bone the Pegasus, killing the mare instantly. The others stood there in shock, horror, and anger. They had never been beaten before and the sure as buck weren’t going to be beaten now. The unicorns using their magic, tossed boulders and dust up to block Dust’s vision. With their magic ablaze with righteous fury, the fired large bursts of magical beams towards Dust. Dust, of course, did manage to dodge most of them. Unfortunately, some did hit their intended target. Dust was hit in the arm, chest, leg, head. He merely grunted and growled. Not from pain, no, but from anger. These ponies, these monster hunters, were ill more than bugs that begged to be squashed. He looked through the dust and smirked. Using his own magic and the blue soul, he took one of the unicorns and dragged them towards him without the others noticing. The unicorns kept firing till they began to grow a bit tired. After the dust settled, they were shocked to see a sight that chilled them to the bone and served to fuel their anger. The unicorn Dust brought to him, was held up by his magic, acting as a meat shield. The unicorn was riddled with holes and blood. Clearly, they wouldn’t be seeing the light of day again. Then, Dust tossed the unicorns corpse to the ponies, blocking their view this time. After the unicorn fell and the ponies looked to Dust, he was already on top of them. It was too late for them to run. The fight only lasted about three minutes, but to the monster hunters it was an eternity. After those three minutes had ended, all of them were dead. Blood coated the dirt as their bodies lay limp on the floor. Dust stood above them, not even panting. Not even tired. Just staring at them. He sighed and tried to clean off as much blood from him as he could, but it was clear some of it would be staying. He rolled his eyes and looked to the Clubhouse. He teleported back to the cmc, they all gasped. Dust was covered in blood head to toe. "Alright, hold onto me. I will teleport you girls to Twilight’s." Dust said. "wait a gosh darn minute. D- Did you kill them ponies?" Applebloom shook in fear. Dust without a second thought, grabbed the fillies and teleported them to Twilight's house. They were all about to vomit including scootaloo. Twilight jumped at the teleportation, not expecting somepony to just, pop up. With the exception of Pinkie, who seems to pop up anywhere and everywhere. She looked to see who it was and saw Dust. And the blood he was covered in. "What the buck happend!?!" Twilight shouted with a shocked and fearful expression. "Monster hunters. They came to the cmc clubhouse for me." Dust explained to twilight. Twilight was shocked at the news of the monster hunters. She wondered why monster hunters tried to attack dust. She would have to write a letter to Princess Celestia. "Why are you covered in blood?" Twilight was scared to ask but had to ask anyway. "H- He killed them ponies." Applebloom stated as she hid behind Scootaloo. "WHAT!" Twilight, and spike, shouted. Dust explained that it was self defence and monster hunters rushed at him first. So, he had to kill them. Despite Twilight’s overwhelming sense of how wrong it felt, she had to agree that it was self defense. Ponies attack Dust first and he fought back out of self defense. She could accept that, despite not wanting to. However, the stunt he pulled with Spoiled and her daughter, Diamond Tiara? That was different. Yes, Spoiled kicked him, so he was right to attack back. But Diamond Tiara? That wasn’t self defense at all. "Look, I know it was self defence, but it was not ok. But that stunt that you pulled with Diamond Tiara? Her mother, okay. But Diamond Tiara didn’t do anything." Twilight said. "Look, the thing I did with the filly was wrong. I’ll admit that. She just, made me mad." Dust said with a frown on his face. Before he could continue explaining, a loud bang rang out behind him from the door. Twilight went to open it and saw a stallion standing before her. None-other than Filthy Rich himself. //-------------------------------------------------------// The Royal Guard //-------------------------------------------------------// The Royal Guard Twilight opened the door only to see Filthy Rich. "Miss Sparkle." Filthy Rich said with a natural look on his face. "Actually, you can just call me Twi-" Twilight didn't get to finish before getting shoved aside. Twilight looked annoyed. A random pony knocks on her door, then interrupts her? She looked outside to the sight of about two dozen of royal guards. She guessed this was about Dust and the incident with Spoiled rich. She walked to the couch and sat down. As she did so, she was startled by the sound of Dust teleporting in Spike and the cmc. A quick listen told her they were upstairs. Dust knew something would happen if Filthy Rich saw him and wanted to get the four of them out of harm's way and try to stay hidden himself. "So, Mr. Rich, why are you here?" Twilight asked while taking a sip of her tea. Filthy rich glanced outside with a stern expression. Twilight looked where he was looking. The group of Royal Guards. "Well, we are looking for the monster residing here in Ponyville. Some of the towns folk reported a monster near and even in the town. We have also got another report recently. Mere Minutes ago from one of the Guard’s Scouts. That the monster killed 12 pony hunters, brutally. Immediately, that monster must be taken into custody and brought before the princesses. We have also heard that you have been with the monster. Do you have anything to say, Miss Sparkle?" Filthy rich Said with an authority tone. His tone made it seem as though he was the leader of guard and not just a simple businesspony. Twilight looked upstairs then outside, sweat dripping down her forehead. She wiped her forehead with her hoof. "Well, Dus- ,I mean, the monster and I have been spotted but I have nothing to do with him." Twilight explained, nearly slipping up. Filthy Rich had an amused expression plastered on his face. He saw her near slip up. Even her quick glance upstairs. "Well then Miss sparkle, you wouldn't mind if a few guards and I explored the upper level of your home, would you?" Filthy Rich’s face was that of a smug colt who just got his friend in trouble for something the colt himself did. Twilight knew she couldn’t get out of this. Reluctantly, she nodded. Filthy Rich called out to 5 guards. 4 Pegasi and 1 unicorn. They began to walk upstairs until Twilight, in a desperate attempt to stop them despite knowing she couldn’t really stop them, teleported upstairs in front of them. "Hey! Move aside, Miss Sparkle!" The unicorn exclaimed. Filthy rich shouted at them to detain her and the other ponies that were in the house. Spike, hearing that Twilight was getting detained, ran up and tried to scratch the unicorn. His claws barely missed the guard's eye. One of the Pegasi dove and kicked the baby dragon away, sending Spike colliding into Scootaloo. "Ow! What did you do that for?" Spike grumbled in pain from the kick. "Yea! Leave us alone you big jerks!" Scootaloo and Applebloom shouted at the pegasus guard, who just laughed at the dragon and the two fillies. The last 2 guards walked up to Scootaloo, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Spike, ready to detain them as well. This is, until one of the guards started to glow with an ethereal blue aura. Then, in a split second, the Pegasus was thrown out the window. Dust, with his iconic red and cyan eyes, emerged from his hiding spot and started to laugh. It was so unsettling, it even made Scootaloo shiver. "IT'S THE MONSTER GET HIM" Filthy Rich shouted at the guards. The unicorn charged at the monster, whipped around and bucked him in the gut. This actually hurt Dust. He stumbled back in pain. He looked at the guard that bucked him and chuckled to himself. Dust looked at the other ponies in the room. Going by their attire, he assumed that they were Royal Guards. Trained to fight and protect. This explains why the attack hurt. A brief wave of nostalgia washed over Dust. Undyne. Papyrus’s ambition to become a member of the Royal Guard under King Asgore. It made him smile until he donned a more serious expression. "Heh. Congrats. You're the first person to actually damage me in any way. You want some hay?" Dust Taunted the guard. At the insult the unicorn growled. He rushed at Dust intending to kill. He grabbed his sword with his magic and started to slash at dust. Dust seeing the sword only reminded him of the human. The countless Genocides they caused. That he had to suffer through till his mind broke. The reason he became what he is. It pissed him off. Dust grabbed the sword mid air and punched the guard in the side, forcing air out the guard’s lungs. Twilight, Spike, and the cmc all watched from a distance as Dust fought. "Wow Twilight. I didn’t know he knew how to fight!" Spike exclaimed to Twilight. "Yea. Fighting with the guard isn’t necessarily easy. But, I think this is the beginning. Spike I want you and the cmc to get our friends. Bring them here." Twilight commanded Spike. Hearing the command that Twilight gave, they all nodded as Twilight teleported them to Sweet Apple Acres to get Applejack. After sending them away, Twilight, seeing Dust fighting, decided to help. After getting teleported, Spike and the cmc looked around for Applejack. Apple Bloom, being more familiar with things, looked at the trees and followed the appleless trees like a guide to where Applejack would be. She told them to follow her, and after running through the apple trees, they could see applejack bucking her last tree. "Well, that’s the last of ‘em." Applejack said as she wiped her brow. Applejack turned around to head back to the barn, only to stop as she saw Spike, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom running toward her. "Woah there, you four! Spike, Scootaloo, Sweetie belle and Apple Bloom, what happened? Y’all look more worried than a rabbit in the Everfree." Applejack said, making her way over to the barn. While they walked, they explained what was currently happening at Twilight's house. When asked why the Royal Guard was there, they reluctantly told her that Dust had killed the 12 pony hunters. Applejack was disgusted by that. She knew little about Dust, having barely spent time with him. But she knew he was a good fella deep down. She wanted to try and help him kill his habit of killing ponies. Else he gets banished or killed by the princesses. Other than that, she wanted to help him, despite everything in her telling her not too. Moreover, she wanted to help Twilight. Nopony was hurting her family on her watch. "Well, if we’re gonna help them, we better hightail it out Sweet Apple Acres and go get the others!" Applejack exclaimed, running towards Rarity’s. Spike told Scootaloo to get Pinkie, Apple Bloom to get Fluttershy, and Sweetie Belle to somehow get Rainbow Dash. After gathering everypony, they all rushed to Twilight's house. They heard a loud banging and the sight of some of the guards getting snuffed out. All of them were shocked, but had to help their friends. "Twi, we're here! Where are ya?" Applejack shouted in the crowd of ponies. "Over here!" Twilight shouted back. All of them rushed to Twilight who all but clung on to Dust. The sight made pinkie giggle, leaving the others confused. Rainbow dash was about to say something until she saw a hoof barrel towards Twilight. Jumping in, she took the hit, getting knocked to the ground. "RAINBOW!" The rest of the mane 6 shouted in unison. Twilight ran to her injured friend. Rainbow with a bruise on her cheek, blood dripping from her mouth, looked up to see an armored pegasus. She was clearly a guard. But she had a badge on her helmet that Rainbow didn't recognize. Looking to her friends, they didn’t know what the badge meant. Except for Twilight of course. "That's the commander." Twilight whispered under her hoof. Before Twilight could warn Rainbow, a hoof connected to Twilight’s muzzle, sending her back into the wall with a mighty thud. Applejack had enough and grabbed her lasso from Pinkie's mane. Rarity, while not much of a fighter, used her magic to conjure up gem-like spears. Fluttershy hid behind the walls of the kitchen in fear. Rainbow dash, now furious, rushed the commander and tried her best to strike the armored Pegasus. Only to get hit again. Kicked in the cheek and sent to the ground. Pinkie appeared behind the commanding pegasus and shot her Party Cannon, filled with rock candy. She got a direct shot, knocking the commander back a few feet. The commander looked around and found Fluttershy’s tail poking out from behind the wall. With a viscous smirk, the commander rushed over and snatched Fluttershy by the tail. Using Fluttershy as a club, she swung Fluttershy into Pinkie and sent them barreling into the wall. She then looked at Twilight and charged again, intending to bash her skull in and finish what she started. She was 2 hoofs away from getting to Twilight. But then got stopped by a lasso. “Yer turn!” Applejack said behind her rope. With a yank, Applejack dragged the commander back. Swinging around like a top, Applejack jumped and slammed into the ground, slamming the commander into the ground with incredible force. The Commander got up and charged Applejack. She didn’t get far till Rarity jumped in. With her gem-like spears, Rarity slashed, stabbed and twirled them. Rarity was able to get some hits in, till she was bucked in the chest by the commander. “You did well. But you have some improvements to make.” The commander said. Pulling back her wings, the commander charged magic of her own. And with a mighty slap, sent a powerful gust of wind Rarity’s way. Rarity was thrown back into Applejack, sending the two into the ground. The commander looked over to Twilight and walked up to her, only to be grabbed by the tail. Looking back, she was greeted by the smile of Dust. "So, you must be the commander of this group?" Dust said through gritted teeth, ready to explode after seeing the one sided massacre. "I am, monster. Now, release my tail." The pegasus commander said. "What's your name?" Dust asked. "What's it to you?” The commander said. Then she rolled her eyes. “ Well. since you're gonna die, I see no harm in telling you. Name's Aris Scimitar, the co commander of the solar guard. A-." Before Aris could continue, she got punched in the gut, then in the muzzle, dazeing her. Then, in a blue aura, she was thrown at a building. "Wowie! You're super duper uber strong!" Pinkie exclaimed while bouncing. With blinding speed, Aris Shot out of the building ready to deliver a devastating blow to Dust. However, she was not afforded the luxury of feeling her hooves connected with Dust. Instead, she was greeted by nothing but air. She looked to the side, only to get hit in the muzzle again. She covered her muzzle with one of her hooves. "I gotta hoof it to you, you hit hard. Not bad, monster. I’m actually getting excited!" Aris said. "Heh! Not so bad yourself." Dust smiled getting ready to attack. In a blink of an eye dust appeared over Aris, a bone in hand. Swinging down, he intended to strike her, only for Aris to dodge it. Spinning on her front hooves, she wheeled around and bucked Dust’s side. He let out a groan and teleported above her. With both hands grasped together, he swung down and nailed Ari’s right in the head. Aris was dazed but shook it off. Extending her wings revealed sharp wing blades. Aris, with speed rivaling Rainbow dash, rushed Dust. She managed to get a few slashes in before Dust grabbed her wing and slammed her to the ground, breaking a few wing bones. Dust kicked her away and charged a Gaster Blaster and fired it at Aris. The blast kicked up dust. Dust believed he had killed her, only to see she was still standing. Aris had used her own Pegasus magic and used her wings to create a wind-like barrier around herself. Dust gritted his teeth and looked to the girls. "Girls! Get Out Of Here!" Dust commanded. Twilight wanted to protest but she knew they couldn't do anything. Twilight told the girls to leave Golden Oak Library. They nodded and ran. multiple guards tried to stop them only to get brought down by a storm of bones, pinning them to the ground. Dust was trying to protect them while they escaped. Dust looked back where Aris was, She was gone. "Think Fast!" Aris shouted. Dust dodged her attack. He grabbed her hoof and slammed her onto the ground, She could do nothing but shout in pain. She extended her wings again and slashed Dust’s face. She managed to get back only to bump in Dust who had teleported behind her. He kicked her side and sent her to the wall. She screamed in pain. She rushed Dust and head-butted him in the stomach and whipped around, punching Dust in the chin. Then as she tried to fly away to get distance between them, he grabbed her back hoofs and snapped them in half. The scream of pain and the snapping of bones echoed in Ponyville. He Flung her into the air and wielding a bone like a baseball bat, swung at her. Another loud crack sounded as a few of Aris’s ribs were broken. She was launched back into the wall with a sickening slam as she slumped down against the wall. All the guard's looked to their commander in shock. "Guards! Fall Back!" Aris shouted, blood trickling down her chin and onto the floor. They didn't have to think twice. All of them ran away to Canterlot. Bodies of their fallen allies in tow. The two unicorns that helped Aris, were carrying Aris on their back. Dust, not caring about them, ran in the direction the others ran to. Towards Sugarcube Corner. Twilight, hearing footsteps, looked back to see dust. She smiled and ran to Dust. The other ponies nursed their wounds as they watched in confusion, wondering why twilight was running away. Looking further ahead, they saw Dust making his way over. Twilight jumped and hugged Dust. Dust doing the same. The other 5 ponies walked to the two. Smirks Plastered all over their faces. "Well Twi, seems yer a bit too happy to see him?" Applejack said, trying to stifle a chuckle. Twilight realised what she was doing and quickly let go. Her face was as red as a Big Mac’s. "I-I Its not what it looks like! It’s not like I-.” before Twilight could continue, she got interrupted by Rainbow Dash. "Awww! you love him, don't you Twilight?" Rainbow dash and pinkie teasingly asked with large smiles on their muzzles. Dust looked at Pinkie and Rainbow with his red and cyan eyes. This made them shut up. Dust walked up to Rainbow dash, an inquisitive look on his face as he bent down and whispered in her ear. “Is it ok If I train you and Scootaloo?" Dust asked. "What? Train? I don't need training!" Rainbow said with an upset look. "You got fucked up twice. By me and that Aris chick. Are you sure you don’t want to be trained by me?" Dust smirked. Rainbow dash was confused, and a little worried about being trained by Dust, but she sighed and nodded. "Fine. When does the training begin?" Rainbow dash asked. "Tommorow morning. I’ll bring Scootaloo." Dust said. Rainbow Dash agreed to the date and flew back to her house to prepare. The rest of the ponies went back to their respective homes to rest and heal. Spike, Twilight, and Dust went back to Golden Oak Library. Dust and Twilight didn't talk for the entire walk. Both of them just blushed under the awkward silence and the memory of what Twilight had just done. Twilight opened the door only to see Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom eating junk food on the couch. the cmc turned around to see the blushing pony and skeleton. "Wait a gosh darn minute. How can skeletons blush? They don't have any blood? And why are y'all blushing?" Apple Bloom questioned. “Well, he is bleeding, so maybe skeletons do have blood?” Sweetie Belle argued. Dust groaned and looked to Scootaloo. "Scootaloo, I'll be training you tomorrow morning make sure to be prepared." Dust said to Scootaloo. Twilight was shocked. When was this idea brought about? and Scootaloo? She doesn't have a horn. Although, Ari’s was a Pegasus and seems to wield some kind of Pegasus magic she didn’t know about. But Dust was no Pegasus. How exactly was he going to train her? "Wait, Dust, how do you plan on teaching scootaloo magic or whatever you're going to teach her? And also, when did you decide to start teaching a filly how to fight?" Twilight questioned Dust. "I decided to train her for the next time something happens and she needs to defend herself. Because there will come a day when she needs to protect herself." Dust said as he looked at the still blushing mare. "Anyway it's getting late, You girls should go back to your sisters." Dust said to the 2 fillies. "Aw! Can’t we do a sleepover?" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle pleaded. Dust told the two they would need permission from their sisters. They asked if Dust could ask. He agreed and teleported to Rarity. The teleportation scared rarity so much that she dropped her stuff. Only to catch it with her magic. Then Dust went to Applejack. She was startled too, but not as much as Rarity. He eventually teleported back and said they both agreed. They cheered and began to plan things out. As they began to have their fun, something clicked with Dust. “Hey. Where were you two this whole time during the fight?” Dust asked. “Under the covers in Twilight’s bed.” Apple Bloom proclaimed. Dust just stared at them before nodding. “Alrighty then. You three try not to stay up too late.” Dust said as he walked upstairs. The crusaders all gave each other a high hoof and began to have their sleepover together. Until about four hours later when they fell asleep on the floor under the cover of their pillow fort. //-------------------------------------------------------// Training //-------------------------------------------------------// Training Dust was out in a field behind Sweet Apple Acres. Hopefully, Applejack won’t mind if he used it. He was carrying logs with his magic until he heard a familiar voice. It was Applejack. She was confused on why Dust was carrying logs behind her farm. She walked up to him with a smile. "Howdy there Dust! What'cha doin?" Applejack asked with one eyebrow raised. Dust looked over, a smile on his face. Applejack froze for a second. The fight with him and that smile still haunts her. She shook it off and waited for his answer. "Well, I promised Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo that I would train them. So I'm working on some equipment they can use to train." Dust explained. Applejack was confused. Why would a filly need training? "Wait a gosh darn minute. Now, why would you train a filly?" Applejack with a stern and questioning expression. Applejack was concerned. What exactly would a filly need training for? Dust explained himself and his reasons for wanting to train Scootaloo. Unfortunately, Applejack had to agree. If there was another incident like the royal guards, they would need to know how to protect themselves. She asked if she could help. Dust was happy to accept her aid. After about an hour and a half, they were both done. They both looked over their work. Dust was proud to see what they had accomplished. He then quickly patted Applejack on the head like you would a dog. She blushed and grew slightly uncomfortable. She had never been pet like that before. It was nice, but strange at the same time. She batted his hand off her head. "Hm? Oh sorry. I'm used to patting my brother when he did something good, like getting a good present on a test. Or when he learned to make spaghetti." Dust sheepishly said rubbing his head. "Oh! Well, it's alright. That reminds me. I wanted to ask you something." Applejack said, taking her hat off her head. "What happened to your brother? You brought him up before, and that got me curious. So, where is he?" Applejack questioned. Dust was quiet. He knew he would have to tell them the truth. His history. But not now. None of them were ready to learn the truth. Or rather, he was not yet ready to properly relive his past. The countless hours or pain. "You don't need to know that information." Dust said. Applejack knew something was wrong. She could see it in his eyes. The pain of loss in his eyes. She knew that look and feeling all too well. She didn't respond. She knew he would open up on his own terms at some point. Best not to push it. Dust looked at Applejack. "I will tell you, but not now." Dust said. She simply nodded her head. Then she perked up, remembering something else. "Also, what’s with that word you use? ‘Fuck’ was it?" Applejack asked Dust. Dust giggled to himself. "Well, I heard you ponies say ‘Buck’, so it's pretty much that. I guess to put it simply, Buck is Fuck, and Fuck is Buck." Dust explained, still giggling to himself about to burst out laughing. "You're trying to play a joke on me ain’t yah?" Applejack looked annoyed. "No, no. It’s simple. Just replace the B with an F. It gives more of a commanding tone, you should try it." Dust said with a light elbow to Applejack’s shoulder. Applejack looked deep into Dust’s eyes, squinting. Then, she just laughed. "Well then Dust, you never fail to surprise me. Thank Celestia you're not with Pinkie and Rainbow. They love to play pranks.” Applejack said in between her laughter. She eventually calmed down. "But anyway, where is Rainbow? Shouldn't she be here by now?" Applejack asked?. Dust also looked around. He didn't see her. "Well, I should visit her to see if she is awake after getting Scootaloo." Dust asked. Applejack was about to question how dust was planning to get to Cloudsdale without wings. But then stopped when she saw his giant floating Skeleton head thing appear before her. She only saw him use it once and didn’t know much about it. "U-Uh D-Dust, what is t-that thing?" Applejack said while shaking. Dust looked at Applejack and grabbed her hoof, pulling her into the Gaster Blaster as he jumped onto it. He planned to ride it to Twilight’s house. Dust explained what the Gaster Blaster was and its destructive power. She began to wonder what else Dust could do. They soared through the air and eventually arrived at Golden Oak. Walking in, Dust found a sleeping CMC in their pillow fort. "Hey Scootaloo. psst! Scootaloo!" Dust whispered trying not to wake up the other fillies. Scootaloo woke up. She asked why he was waking her up. When she heard he was gonna train her, she was up and rushing to get out to go train. She ran outside with her saddle bag and got onto the Gaster Blaster. Then they went to Cloudsdale. The Cloudsdale citizens were shaken. Whispers of the Monster with the filly and the mare rang out, but went ignored. They looked around for a while until they finally made it to Rainbow Dash’s home. Dust knocked on Rainbow’s window. She was in a deep sleep. After knocking for 5 minutes, she finally woke up. Dust was annoyed that she forgot their training, but let it go. Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash are his children though, not officially yet. He is still a father to them. They got to the training ground, Applejack decided to go back to farming. "Alright, Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash. I will teach you how to wield Monster Magic. So any questions?" Dust explained. Scootaloo raised a hoof. She asked if ponies can use bone magic, like he used. "Ah good question sweetheart, anyone can use bone magic. You just need to learn how to use it." Dust Happily explained to the filly. He explained how the general magic works. "It's simple. First, you have to grow aware. Aware of your soul. Once you do that, dig deep into your soul, like you're diving into an ocean of water. After that, find the center of your soul. There, you will feel a pulse of power. Then, slowly draw it out. Once you get the hang of that. You’ll be able to use Monster Magic properly. For instance the bones I use. Even my signature, Gaster Blaster." Dust Explained. As he summoned a Gaster Blaster. “Firing it is easy. Just imagine a bow and arrow. Build up power and release it.” Dust fired the Gaster Blaster into the air and out of the atmosphere. Rainbow dash and Scootaloo were amazed by the display. They had never seen his Gaster Blaster up close. Watching it materialize and fire before them. It was amazing. Though, Rainbow Dash didn’t want to fully admit she was amazed. Scootaloo did her best to follow Dust’s instructions. When she found the essence of her soul and dipped into it, it felt like she was floating. It was trippy and a bit of a struggle. It took her over half an hour to find the power at the center of her soul, but she did. She tried to conjure a Gaster Blaster, but nothing happened. After a near hour of trying, she managed to conjure one up, though it was distorted. Imperfect. It vanished in the blink of an eye as she collapsed, tired and feeling drained. Dust on the other hand, was ecstatic. She did it. He picked her up and hugged her close. “You did a good job, Scootaloo!” Dust exclaimed. "Thanks, Dad. But, I couldn’t fire it. It didn’t even look like yours." Scootaloo said, disappointed at her attempt. Dust was shocked, getting it on the first try is hard. Dust suggled scootaloo. He was proud, she may not have fired it, it may not have been perfect, but she did it in a first try. He put her down and explained on how she could improve. Then he looked at Rainbow Dash. He asked her to do the same thing. She Tried the same thing but failed, she tried three more times but still failed. She looked towards Scootaloo and asked how she did it on the first try. Scootaloo explained how she did it and after some attempts Rainbow got it right. However, instead of a Gaster Blaster, she summoned bones. Although, instead of the usual white, the bones were blue. Dust expected this. Since they weren’t monsters, the Monster Magic they wielded was a bit different, thus the color would alter. Seems the color reflected their fur color. After all, Scootaloo’s Gaster Blaster was orange. Next, Dust explained how to wield blue soul magic. It was more complex, but he was sure they could do it. Especially Scootaloo. He explained how to grab onto Souls and thus fling others around. Rainbow was looking at dust with an angry expression. He was confused as to why she was looking at him like that. That is until he remembered when he threw her at a building. Dust looked back at Scootaloo. She seemed to be a bit more of a prodigy than Rainbow. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped at this. She was learning everything so fast. After hours of learning, Rainbow went to Sugarcube Corner for a treat. While dust kept training scootaloo, he taught her the Bone attacks. They trained for 4 hours. Scootaloo still couldn't get the blaster down, so she decided to use the bones as wings. She could always learn the blaster's later. Dust scooped up Scootaloo and put her on his shoulders. They walked to Sugarcube Corner. "So Scootaloo, how do you feel about your first day of training?" Dust asked. "Super Duper! I learned how to use the same magic you use! And blue magic! But I'm still not sure how to use your blasters." Scootaloo exclaimed. Dust, smiled. He saw Sugarcube Corner. He saw the pink mare with a giant cake. Then he looked to where she was bringing the giant cake. He saw Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity. He teleported into the building, scaring everyone there. Other then pinkie. "AHH! It's the monster from the Everfree Forest!" Two ponies behind him screamed. It was Ms. Cake and Mr. Cake. They were about to run off, until Pinkie explained that dust was harmless. They were unsure, but pinkie reassured them. Pinkie pushed dust over to a chair. Twilight looked at Scootaloo. She was bruised. Twilight rushed over grabbing Scootaloo in her magic and seeing if she was ok. "Oh my goodness! Are you ok, Scootaloo? Are you hurt?" Twilight Said worried about the filly. "Heh I'm alright Twilight! Rainbow, my dad, and I trained." Scootaloo exclaimed as she shot a bone at Dust. Dust caught the bone with his Hand and shattered it. he told Scootaloo to throw a bone at him to show them her power. Rarity scolded scootaloo about shooting a bone at dust, but was also impressed. Twilight was shook, the first pegasus to use actual magic. "Oh my Celestia! Dust you know what this means?" Twilight squealed. "This is the first sign of a pegasus using magic that isn’t Equestrian in nature! Scootaloo is the first pegasus in the history of Equus!" Twilight Exclaimed. Dust looked shocked. He had never considered that. He looked over at scootaloo. He smiled and scruffled her hair. "Well then, what should we do now?" Dust asked the group. "A Welcome to Ponyville party!" Pinkie came out of Dust's hood. Dust jumped, utterly confused as to how she got there. Applejack wondered if Dust ever took down his hood. Dust looked at Applejack. He could tell she was wondering about his hood. "The only pony I'm willing to show my full face to, is Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash." Dust said while pointing to them both. Applejack sighed. "Alright, Sugarcube." Applejack said while taking a sip of apple cider. "Uh, darling? What are you drinking?" Rarity asked with a curious expression on her face. He looked at Rarity. He was confused as he looked at his bottle of ketchup. He looked back at the ponies, all of them curious or confused. Pinkie looked behind Dust. "Yea I was wondering that too!" Pinkie asked as she climbed on Dust's head. "Well, it's ketchup. Have you not seen ketchup before?" Dust asked. All the ponies nodded. They have heard of ketchup. Hell, they had ketchup at the Hay Burger place. "We’ve heard of it Darling. We just never thought to drink it like that.” Rarity said. After eating, they went to their respective homes. Scootaloo was about to fly back home with her bone wings but Dust stopped her. He told her to teleport. Scootaloo was confused. Dust never taught her teleportation. He told her how she can do it. Then, Twilight jumped in. "That magic is close to unicorn teleportation. It's the same concept! Could I see Scootaloo's new powers?" Twilight asked. Dust agreed and told scootaloo to show her the abilities. After showing Twilight everything, they went back home with Scootaloo’s teleportation. Dust went to bed, Scootaloo getting on his chest. "Hey, Dad?" Scootaloo said. Dust looked down. "What is it sweetheart?" Dust replied. "Back at Sugarcube Corner. You said you would only show you're face to me and rainbow dash?" Scootaloo said with a curious expression. "So, you want to see my face? Sure kiddo. Just for you" Dust said. Dust took his hood off. Scootaloo was in utter shock and was about to tear up. His face had a giant scar across his eye. a bit of his other eye was chipped. He looked like he had been in Tartarus. "Don't worry yourself kiddo. I'm fine, I promise." Dust reassured scootaloo. "Well if you say so." Scootaloo said, a glum look on her face. They both slept, but Dust woke up to a noise at his window. It was a dark blue unicorn pegasus hybrid. She looked in curiosity. He was about to say something when she flew off. He closed his eyes. //-------------------------------------------------------// The Griffon Bully //-------------------------------------------------------// The Griffon Bully Fluttershy was walking into town to get some food for her and her animals. She walked up to a stand. Behind the stand was Applejack, selling her famous apples. Fluttershy smiled. "Hello there, Applejack!" Fluttershy said while smiling. Applejack turned around to see her friend Fluttershy. "Heya there, Flutters!" Applejack said, grabbing a basket full of apples. "I'm assuming you're here for my delicious apples?" Applejack asked while picking up an apple and biting into it. Fluttershy asked how much the basket of apples were. Applejack said they were 6 bits. Fluttershy gave Applejack the bits and took the basket of apples. She then walked to other stands, gathering ingredients for the animals. She then walked up to Sugarcube Corner. She opened the door and walked to the counter. "Hi there Fluttershy! What can I do for you?" Pinkie asked while waving at the shy pegasus. "I'm looking for some cupcakes for me." Fluttershy smiled while putting the basket down. "Alrighty! Here you go!" Pinkie made the cupcakes in mere seconds, giving them to the yellow mare. Fluttershy was confused as to how she could make cupcakes that fast, but decided to thank the mare anyway. As she walked outside, she stopped as a cloud of dust blew up into the air. After the dust dissipated, she saw a griffon. The griffon looked to the pegasus who was sheepishly cowering under the Griffon’s gaze. Gilda turned to the Pegasus and walked up to her. She picked her up by the tail and looked at her. Her smile was unsettling. She knew that griffons ate meat. It wasn’t uncommon for Griffons to eat Ponies. So having a griffon holding her up by the tail? Safe to say, she was terrified. "Aw, what do we have here? A small pegasus. I wonder how you would taste.” Gilda slowly muttered. Fluttershy let out a fearful ‘eep’. Gilda just bellowed a gruff, unnerving cackle before speaking again. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning to eat you... Not yet at least." Gilda threatened the pegasus. Fluttershy started to cry, terrified from what Gilda said. Gilda saw this and smiled. "Aw. Is the poor mare crying? What a pathetic little mare." Gilda started to laugh. As she laughed, something caught her eye. Gilda looked into fluttershy's mane. She saw a mouse that seemed to be worried about fluttershy. Gilda picked the mouse out of fluttershy's mane and popped it into her beak. Fluttershy screamed, now starting to frantically squirm out of Gilda's claws to save the mouse, only for Gilda to snap her beak shut. Blood seeped out of Gilda’s beaks as she swallowed the mouse down. Fluttershy let out a terrified and shrill scream as she cried at the death of her mouse friend. Gilda smirked. She was about to bite into Fluttershy, until a fist connected into Gilda. Gilda got knocked to the floor, a crack on her beak and blood leaked from her nose. Fluttershy was about to hit the ground, when she got held up in magic. Fluttershy opened her eyes. She saw Gilda holding her cheek. Fluttershy looked over and saw Dust. His red and cyan eyes shined beneath his hood. Fluttershy was briefly scared but calmed down when she saw Dust smile at her. Dust looked back at Gilda she already stood up. He put fluttershy down and told her to run. "So little parrot, trying to hurt Fluttershy?" Dust Taunted Gilda. "Who the buck are you, you bag of bones?" Gilda Said, Still holding her cheek. "Buck, he hits hard. I have to be careful!" Gilda thought, studying her target. She rushed forward trying to slice the skeleton with her talons, only to fail and get punched the second time. She ignored the pain and rushed again. She grabbed rocks and used her wings to kick up dust, to block Dust’s view. After she was sure he couldn’t see, she chucked the rocks to where she thought he stood. Dust summoned a giant shield of bones to block every rock thrown at him. Then, he shot out of the dust standing atop his signature Gaster blaster. It was big, as big as a small house. He smirked and snapped. The blaster fired. A blue beam of magical energy burst out into the sky, petering out before it left the atmosphere. Gilda did her best to dodge it, but unluckily, she wasn’t fast enough. The blast taking her arm. "AAAHHHHHH!! What the buck did you do to me!?" Gilda screamed while holding her missing arm. Dust started cackling. "You know what's funny? The fact that you didn't even last 10 seconds. You're pathetic. All bark and no bite. And I won't allow you to hurt anypony!" Dust gritted his teeth in anger. He was about to finish the job, until a kick connected to the back of his head. knocking him onto the floor. Rainbow stood on top of him. Twilight also heard a commotion and saw the blast. She ran into the middle of town to see Dust standing off against Gilda, Fluttershy weeping in the dirt, and Rainbow Dash standing on top of Dust, staring at him with hate in her eyes. "YOU! I knew not to trust you!" Rainbow dash looked down at the murderer that hurt fluttershy and gilda. Dust was confused. He looked up but got his skull pushed into the ground. Then a lasso tied him to a poll. Rainbow Dash rushed to Gilda to see if she was ok. "GILDA! Are you ok?! what happened?!" Rainbow Dash asked, trying to patch her up. "I'm not alright! That monster hurt me and Fluttershy and he blew my arm off!" Gilda Said while trying to hide a smirk at Dust. Twilight was aghast. Dust really hurt Gilda and tried to hurt Fluttershy? She felt betrayed. Dust tried to walk up to Fluttershy, but Twilight held him in her magic. "You really hurt Gilda? And you made Fluttershy cry? Why? I thought we were getting to know each other! I thought we were friends!" Twilight bellowed out. "What the fuck is going on?!" Dust asked the mares. Rainbow Dash walked up to Dust and bucked him in the stomach. And decided to add insult to injury, used Dust’s bone attack to attack him. "You know what you did.” Rainbow paused a bit before adding. “To think I was actually going consider letting you be my dad." Rainbow dash said as she walked to Gilda. "I Didn't do anything!" Dust squirmed. Pinkie looked to Gilda then to dust, smiling. She had seen everything, and wanted to jump in to defend Dust, only for Applejack, who had arrived shortly after Twilight with Rarity, jumped in. "Now why’d you go n’ blow off Gilda’s arm like that?! She ain’t done nothin’! Here I was starting to like yah." Applejack said. "Actually, Dust sav-" Fluttershy was about to correct Applejack, stand up for Dust like Pinkie was, but got cut off "I thought you changed!" Rarity Said. Dust looked at fluttershy and looked confused. She hid behind her mane. He looked over to Gilda. She had the widest grin she could muster, glad to see all of these ponies turn on him. Glad Dash was too stupid to really pick up on what was going on. Glad that she would walk away from this Scot-Free as he got run out of town by all these ponies. Except, she wouldn’t have the luxury of walking away free. Before she knew it, Dust was gone. She jerked a bit. Feeling a dull pain that slowly ramped up in intensity, she looked down. And there, right before her, was her heart. Dust had teleported behind her and forced his hand through her back and out her chest, clinging to her heart. Her ripped his hand free from her and crushed the heart. Gilda looked on in horror for a brief few seconds, before collapsing to the floor, dead. "You know, I saved Fluttershy. This abomination killed Fluttershy's mouse and was about to bite into her, until I stopped the little Parrot." Dust said as he used a Gaster Blaster to pick up Gilda and toss her corpse into the Everfree Forest. Rarity fainted, Rainbow Dash stared at him skeptically. Applejack walked up to Dust, a stern look on her face and looked behind her. "He's telling the truth y'all, I'm glad you saved Fluttershy big fella, but kill her like that? Yah gotta work on that." Applejack scolded, but with an underlying smile. Pinkie laughed, getting everyones attention. "Haha! That bitch deserved it!" Pinkie exclaimed, still laughing. Everypony was confused, other then Dust. He erupted into a brutal fit of laughter. "Uh, Pinkie pie?, what is a ‘Bitch’?" Rarity asked. "Don't worry Rarity! You wouldn't get it. It’s a human thing!" Pinkie Smiled. Dust stopped laughing. The mention of a human. It brought memories bubbling to the surface. His smile faded a bit. He blinked, and there they were. The human. Chara, Frisk, whatever you wanna call them, they were there. A giant smirk on their face, A mix of blood and hate oozing from their eyes, a knife held at Twilight’s throat. Dust let out a shrill roar and charged. He ran towards the human, trying to stop them from killing her. He was too late. Chara dragged the knife and slit her throat. A distorted crazed laughter, a laugh that would come to haunt Dust for as long as he lived, rang out like tolling bells in his ears. He roared again and summoned an army of bones behind him. Viscously sending each one forward, the human dodged effortlessly. The smile still present as if they were mocking him. Dust picked up a bone and wielding it like a sword, he charged only to vanish. Appearing behind them, he stabbed them right in the head and fired a Gaster Blaster point blank into their back. The human still stood. Disfigured. Bloody. Still smiling. Dust was about to attack again when a hoof stopped him. He looked down and saw a pink hoof. He blinked and everything was gone. He looked again and saw Pinkie. She had a bone in her left foreleg, a field of bones behind her and a small crater where the Gaster Blaster fired. Pinkie used her Pinkie Sense to dodge the attacks, but did get scratched and cut up. She also couldn’t avoid the bone that now lay lodged in her leg. Dust began hyperventilating. He didn’t mean to hurt Pinkie. She didn’t deserve it. The world around him began to warp and sway as Dust grew nauseous. Echoing laughter sounded in his head. He clutched his head, desperately trying to make it stop. It became to much for Dust to handle, and he fell unconscious in the dirt. Dust woke up some time later. He was in a hospital bed. Twilight rested beside him, sleeping. He gently nudged her awake. "Twilight... What happened?" Dust said slowly. "After pinkie said Hu- I mean the H word, you froze. And then you attacked her. She could’ve died but managed to dodge your attacks, but got caught in her foreleg by one of those bones. You were about to kill her until she held out her hoof and stopped you. I don’t know what’s going on, but I need an explanation. And now!" Twilight explained. "I thought I was fighting the human." Dust said while holding his heads in his arms. Twilight was confused. She had no idea what a human was, nor why he though he was fighting one. "I saw it kill you. I jumped in and started attacking to defend you." Dust explained his outburst. Twilight understood and blushed. He was willing to murder a thing called a human to save her? "You wanted to save me?" Twilight asked, hiding her mane. "Of Course! You're Important to me!" Dust said. The pony and the skeleton went quiet. They both looked away. Twilight saw her friends coming towards the room. All of them have angry expressions. Except Fluttershy. She seemed more worried than anything. Twilight stopped them. She knew why they were upset and wanted to tell them what was up, leading them away to let Dust relax. They understood, and accepted the explanation. They all went to get hay burgers. Dust left the Hospital shortly after them and went outside. He took out a cigarette and started to smoke it. All the ponies that walked around him walked away because of the smell. He looked around. He knew something was watching him but he didn't know what. He glanced around when his eyes spotted something. A tall unicorn. Almost as tall as him. The unicorn walked up. He saw that her coat was a deep blue and her mane and tail seemed to flow in the nonexistent wind. What really took him off guard, was that the unicorn spread her wings. So was this a hybrid of some kind? She smiled at him. Dust saw her and teleported behind her, holding a bone to her side. "Who are you?” Dust asked with an aggressive look. She looked at the skeleton. She was shocked. No pony or creature ever dared to threaten her in her lifetime. "What dost thou think thou art doing!?" Luna Exclamed. "Answer my question! Why are you following me? And talk normally would you!" Dust Asked. Luna sighed. "I have been following you since yesterday. Ponies were complaining about you, so my sister asked me to watch over you." Luna explained to Dust. Dust still held the sharp bone towards luna. "Do you know who I am?" Luna asked dust. "No? Should I?" Dust replyed. "I am the Lunar Princess. I am the Goddess of the Moon!" Luna Told the naive skeleton. "This Pony Is a God!?" Dust thought to himself. He took the bone away and kneeled. He apologised and stood back up. He took something out of his pocket. Luna questioned the skeleton about the box he was holding. "Hm? This? It's a cigarette packet. See? This is a cigarette. You ignite the tip and you suck it. Then you blow the smoke out." Dust explained. "May I try it?" Luna asked. Dust nodded and gave one to the Princess. She did what Dust said. "So what now?" Luna asked after igniting the tip. "Now put it in your mouth, suck and blow..... Don't take it out of context!" Dust said. Luna chucked at the dirty joke. She tried the cigarette and froze. Dust looked at the lunar princess, scared if she didn't like it. "'Tis wonderful indeed!" Luna Exclaimed. "Normal, please?" Dust asked. "Sorry. I'm still used to the old tongue." Luna responded. Dust, smiled. He heard from twilight that luna returned, so he guessed that she is getting used to the modern language. "could I have some of those cig-ar-ates?" Luna asked while trying to pronounced the word. "sure, princess." Dust agreed, giving the lunar princess a few. "well princess-" "Please, just call me luna." luna said. "Ok, well luna I have to go. The girls are most likely getting worried." Dust said. Luna, nodded and teleported somewhere. Dust teleported outside as he kept smoking the cigarette. The girls went outside, all of them looking at Dust with a confused look. Applejack walked up to Dust, then scrunched her muzzle with the foul smell. "What is that smell!" Applejack asked, waving a hoof and blocking her nose. "Don't worry about it. It’s a skeleton thing" Dust said while throwing the cigarette onto the ground and stomping the flames out. "Can we visit Pinkie?" Dust asked Twilight. She smiled, nodding. They were going to the ponyville hospital. After the visit, The other ponies went back home. Dust and Twilight walked to there house. They opened the door, they saw everything floating. Looking in the middle of the room, to see scootaloo using blue magic. Dust walked up to Scootaloo and picked her up. Scootaloo jumped at the sudden movement, she looked up to see her father. She smiled but then scrunched her muzzle to the smell of his breath. "Ew. Didn’t you brush your teeth!?" Scootaloo asked while holding her muzzle. "Scootaloo, skeletons don't need to brush there teeth." Dust said. Twilight looked over to Spike, who was sitting down, and walked up to him with a smile. They packed up and went to sleep. After everypony went to sleep, dust went outside. He saw three figures on top of one of the houses. He pretended to ignore them. All he saw was flurry ears. They had Yellow eyes and fanged teeth. He raised an eyebrow then shrugged. He decided if they attacked him, they would be good for him to beat down and get some EXP. //-------------------------------------------------------// Gaining L.O.V.E //-------------------------------------------------------// Gaining L.O.V.E The Ponyville residents have been looking outside the window of their homes, all scared, confused or angry. Dust didn't notice, so he didn't pay them any mind. "I wonder. What's the fastest way to gain xp? Those wooden wolf things gave some. But It would take a while. Ponies on the other hand. They give alot of xp, but scootaloo wouldn't forgive me if I hurt an innocent pony." Dust thought of the idea of killing, getting stronger. If that guard captain comes back, she will most likely come back stronger. Dust stopped thinking after he felt a tug on the bottom of his shorts, he looked down to see a bruised and beaten half to death pony. She looked desperate. He saw fear in her eyes but that didn't stop her from trying to get help. "Hey, hey, are you ok? What happened?" Dust asked, worried about the mare. "T-They Killed m-my brother and my parents are still there. Please help me s-sir." The mare asked, fear evident in her voice. Dust, worried about the mare, picked her up and placed her on his sholders. "Alright, where are we going?" Dust asked. "Over there!" The mare said, her voice getting weaker by the second. Dust started running, following the direction she pointed, to the direction of the camp. Dust soon saw the camp. He looked to his shoulder to see the mare. She was shivering not from the cold, but from the fear. He sighed, he grabbed her and put her on the ground. "Alright, stay close to me." Dust said. She understood and started to walk beside him. Dust had to slow down his pace as she was limping. They saw two guards holding spears. She was worried about what they were going to do, but stopped as both of the guards dropped dead. She froze in fear and shock. She stared at the now dead guards and looked over to Dust. He looked down at the mare with his cyan red eyes. His eyes terrified her. "Alright, if you can tell me exactly where your parents are, I can teleport there." Dust said with a smug expression on his face. "W-Wait you can do t-that?" Curiosity was etched across her bruised face. He nodded. After learning where they were, Dust grabbed her and teleported away to the location. He appeared in a room behind a guard. The noise of the teleportation caught the guards attention, making him wheel around. "Hey! Who are you?!" The guard shouted, pointing his spear at Dust. Dust looked around the room. He counted 10 guards. "Perfect, Now this is good xp." Dust smiled while looking at the smallest guard. Dust teleported behind the small guard, grabbing his head, and slamming it into the ground. "CHARGE!" The leader shouted. One of the guards charged at Dust, their spear hitting Dust. But, as Dust was a skeleton, it didn't do anything. Dust turned around and decided to try out a move he hasn't used since Snowdin. He Gripped the guard's face and crushed her skull. Then he grabbed the limp body, throwing it at two of the guards who were rushing him. He grabbed the last guard in his blue magic and crushed him in his magic, gore splattering all over the room. Dust walked to the last two guards trapped under the corpse of the guard he threw at them, summoned a Gaster Blaster, and blasted them, killing them instantly. He turned and walked into a small room. What greeted him was a group of ponies, chained to the wall. Bloody and beaten. "What the fuck did they do to them. There are more than 7 mares and 2 stallions. Alright time to get them out." Dust gritted his teeth. "W-What, again? Please not aga-" One of the mares said before freezing. She looked up at Dust with glazed over eyes. Her eyes focused on him. Dust’s glowing eyes stared back at her. The poor mare began to scream, lowly at first, but quickly ramping up in volume to a blood curdling scream. "WHAT ARE YOU!? SOMEPONY HELP" The mare shouted. "Shhh, I'm here to help you! Now be quiet before more guards come!" Dust shushed the mare. She was confused, wondering what this scary creature was. But, she looked to the doorway, vaguely seeing some bodies of the guards. She began to smile. For the first time in ages. She was happy. Finally, she was going to be set free. After all of the ponies were set free, they all thanked Dust for saving them. "Alright, let's get out of here." Dust said, waving a hand to the door. "Come out and put your hooves on your head!" One of the guards outside shouted. Dust sensed over 50 guards, all of them experts at fighting. He was sure he would get overwhelmed if he fought all of them. "Alright. Step back." Dust said pointing at the corner of the room. Dust focused his magic into a Gaster Blaster. He charged a large amount of power in it and fired his blaster. His blaster completely evaporated an entire mountain and all the ponies in his path. He looked at his L.O.V.E. He was shocked. He expected to level up once or twice, only to find out that he leveled up 4 times? "What the? Well, I'm not complaining." Dust shrugged. Looking at his L.V, he had gone up. From 21, to now 25. All of the ponies in the room were shocked. Not by the fact that the skeleton could use magic without a horn, but the blaster. The one that destroyed the mountain in a single shot. "Alright, let's get out of here." Dust said, waving his hand towards the entrance. After all the ponies walked out, they did their best, trying not to look at the charred remains of the ponies that once hurt them. The pony that brought Dust to the camp ran towards the two ponies. The ponies behind Dust were carrying another pony, a stallion. They gently set him down. It was the brother of the pony that Dust found. However, the stallion was motionless. It was then Dust realized the stallion was dead. He had been cut open. And recently, from the looks of it. Dust walked up to the corpse and focused most of his magic. He started to become dizzy as he used his healing magic. This magic was very taxing for him. By the time the stallion's wounds were healed and his heart began beating again, Dust collapsed. Completely drained of his magic. At canterlot castle, there stood a tall, white alicorn. "Guh, I wonder where Luna is." Celestia Sighed. Celestia heard a loud pop behind her. She turned around and she saw her sister, Luna. "Hello, dear sister!" Luna Smiled. "Hello there luna. Where have you be-" Celestia said before stopping short, desperately waving her wing to get rid of the foul smoke that wafted her way. "What is that smell!? Is that coming from you Luna?" Celestia asked, tearing up from the smoke. Luna looked down at her cigar and looked back at her sister. Luna shrugged. "Don't you worry sister, it's just a cigar thing I got from the skeleton. And I love it!" Luna squealed, taking another puff. Celestia was shocked, and more or less curious. A Skeleton and a cigar? Celestia decided to ask Luna when she stopped. She could not stand the stench of that foul cigar thing, and fervently hoped her sister would never obtain more of those things. "Alright Luna, how about you go to sleep? I have to do something." Celestia said while pushing Luna out the door. Celestia grabbed parchment, a quill, and ink, and started writing. She had received reports from many about a skeleton creature who had recently appeared in Ponyville. Not only that, but she had received letters about it killing her ponies. And now, it was influencing her sister? She would not let this stand. She quickly wrote out letters to her guard, and a letter to her student, Twilight. She knew the Elements would be needed. To be rid of this creature for good. Back in Golden oak library. Twilight was sitting on the couch, reading the letter Celestia sent her. "Dear Twilight, I'm afraid to tell you there is a new threat In Ponyville. A skeleton has been seen within your home, and I have received numerous reports about it and the danger it presents. The deaths of a Griffon by the name of Gilda, members of my own Solar Guard and a group of self proclaimed Monster Hunters. It has even influenced my dear sister with this infernal cigar thing. Please, my dear student. Remain on guard. For if this creature attacks again, you must use the Elements of Harmony to be rid of it for good. And should something happen to you, I shall take care of it myself. Celestia." Twilight was terrified. Celestia found out about Dust. She also thought about luna. She remembered Dust telling her about the same thing Celestia described. "Speaking of dust, where is he? Hey, Spike! Do you know where Dust is!?" Twilight shouted upstairs. Spike, tired from having been woken up from his nap, walked downstairs. "W-What? Dust? No, Twilight, I haven't seen him. I thought he was sleeping with you?" Spike said, letting loose a big yawn. Twilight blushed and threw a book at Spike, pushing him back into his room. Twilight was about to look for Dust, until a knock on the door came. She opened the door to see Dust passed out and multiple ponies behind him. "Oh my celestia! What happened to Dust? And what happened to you ponies?" Twilight asked, quickly waving all of the ponies in. After settling in, giving the ponies food and water, the pony that asked Dust to help started to speak. "My family and I were trapped in some camp for years, until I managed to escape. That’s when I found Mr. Dust. He helped us escape!" The injured pony said. "Oh my! I'm so sorry! Well, what is your name?" Twilight asked. The pony in question smiled. "Amber Rose!" Amber squealed, finally getting to talk to a nice pony. Twilight nodded, taking a sip of her tea. She pointed at Dust, and asked about him. "Well, he saved us from the mean group of guards that foalnapped us. He also blew up a mountain." Amber said. Twilight finally got an answer to the random earthquake. "Wait! Did you say he blew up a mountain!?" Twilight questioned after spitting out her tea. Amber nodded and looked at Dust. He was sleeping on the floor. Twilight wanted an explanation on how Dust managed to blow up a mountain. After the explanation, Twilight was wide eyed. The direction he shot his blaster in was close to the town. Twilight was glad Dust missed the town, but would still have to chew him out about it later. However, Twilight had a more pressing matter to attend to and decided to write back to celestia about the incident. "Alright, I will send you all to the homeless shelter next to the hospital, then I will ask Celestia if she could give some bits for homes." Twilight said while writing the letter. Amber was shocked and tried to stop twilight as she didn't want the princesses to waste their time on them. But twilight ignored Amber and kept writing. After writing about the camp and the ponies, Twilight led all the ponies to the hospital to get all of them checked out. "So, is there something between you and Dust?" Amber asked, looking over to Twilight who was blushing furiously. Twilight looked forward and pointed at the hospital. "T-There! That is the Ponyville Hospital!” Twilight exclaimed, ignoring Amber's question. Amber started to chuckle. After settling in the hospital, Twilight went to the local restaurant. She ordered her usual. She looked at her food thinking to herself. "No, I don't like, as in like-like Dust. He is just a friend. Why does every pony think I have a crush on him. He is a skeleton and I'm a pony!" Twilight thought while eating her hayburger. She grumpily looked up and nearly choked when she saw Princess Luna sitting right in front of her. "Princess luna!? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, scarfing down the last chunk of her food. "Well, I would like to hear about the camp incident." Luna asked twilight. Twilight sighed, and took a sip of her drink and looked up at luna. Twilight explained about dust and the camp of ponies, she also explained why the chunk of the mountain was missing. Luna was shocked on the power that dust showed, Luna asked twilight for something. For more cigars, Twilight nodded. For Celestia's sake Twilight forbid luna from getting cigars from dust. "Why not! Thy needs the amazing cigar!" Luna Exclaimed using her Royal Canterlot Voice. "It's for you're own good princess!" Twilight shouted, blocking her ears from the booming voice. Luna went quiet, she looked at Twilight and smiled. "Ok then, We will see you soon Twilight sparkle." Luna smiled teleporting back to canterlot castle. Twilight sighed, and started to walk back to golden oak. Before getting to the door she got stopped by a hoof. She looked behind her, seeing Solar and Lunar guards. The Solar guards looked more angry than their counterparts. "Oh my Celestia, not again." Twilight sighed.