My Little Old Republic: The Ord Mantell Deception

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 1
Chapter 8
Author's Notes

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Fort Garnik, Avilatin’s Rest Cantina entrance

It had been several hours since Dash last saw Pinkie Pie. When asking around had turned up no results, Dash had stalked the listless Fort in search of the smuggler, the Ord Mantell sun bearing down on her the whole time. After checking several shady areas of the fort and both sides of the refugee camp, she decided to try the local cantina. When she arrived, she noticed it was devoid of activity, which was odd, considering how late in the day it was.The bartender looked up at the sergeant quizzically from behind the counter.

“Hey, trooper. We're closed right now.”

“Sorry,” Dash replied impatiently, shaking her shoulders in an attempt to get comfortable in the incomplete armor set. “I'm looking for somepony.”

“Well, their ain't no pony here, so beat it.”

“Hey! Watch your tone around me. I'm a Wonderbolt!”

The bartender made an unpleasant face at Dash before bending down to grab some plates. When he rose up again, he pointed a hoof toward the stairs. “She's up there.”

Dash tilted her head. “Who?”

“The smuggler y'er looking for. She said somethin' about a Wonderbolt comin' to meet her.”

Rainbow paused for a moment in confusion. Was he talking about Pinkie? How would she have known Dash was coming? She slowly walked over to the stairs and ascended them, where at the top she found a long black table sitting in the center of a dimly lit room. A large holovid screen projected the latest sports match from Coruscant for anypony to watch. Drinks had been placed in front of every chair, and plates of food had been prepared as well.

Sitting at the far end of the table was Pinkie Pie. When Dash came up the stairs, she turned her attention from the sports game to the trooper. “Hiya!” she said happily.

“What is this?” Dash asked in disbelief.

“A meeting room, silly! I had the bartender prepare you some dinner.”

“How did you know I was coming?”

“I didn't.” Pinkie didn't stop smiling, causing Dash to stir uncomfortably. “But I knew you were going to come find me, so I waited in the place I figured you'd look first.”

“I-...but-...you-...”

“So, let's talk business.” The smuggler pulled a chair out from under the table and tapped the seat. Dash hesitated at first, but eventually resigned herself to the humiliation and sat down.

“Here's the deal, Pinkie, if that's even your real name. I hire you to...travel with me, and when I don't need you anymore, I never want to see you again. Understand?”

“That's all I wanted anyway!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Now, I want half of your earnings for the duration of my services-”

“HALF? What, seriously?”

“Half is reasonable, isn't it?”

“No!”

“I'll throw in a suit of armor,” Pinkie offered loftily.

Dash stopped.

“And a new rifle. I'm sure the one you have is getting a little worn out, right?”

“Wait,” Rainbow interjected, “I thought you didn't have any money!”

Pinkie pointed a hoof to the corner of the room. Hanging on a metal stand was a complete set of armor, fully decorated with the Republic colors and a hulking blaster slung over the shoulder. “My business often leaves me with several...high value payouts,” she said suspiciously.

“You didn't steal that, I hope.”

“Of course not, silly. That'd be dishonest.”

“Coming from a smuggler, that isn't very comforting.”

“Are you interested, or not?”

Rainbow put a hoof to her chin in thought. She needed that armor, regardless of whether it came attached with a shady smuggler or not, but half of her commission was a lot of money. “And I can break this agreement at any time?”

“Of course! I won't force myself on you.”

Dash wasn't convinced. She wasn't a charity case, after all, and surely Pinkie could see the same angle she saw. “I don't get paid until the end of the month. You'll have to wait for payment.”

“No I won't. You'll pay me up front.”

“Oh, so don't trust me, then?”

“I like having insurance, in case you decide to ditch me five minutes from now.”

“Alright...fine. I probably won't need you after tomorrow, though.”

“We'll see,” said Pinkie smugly. “I might just have enough money by then, anyway. Who knows?”

Dash silently shook her head and forked over a credit chip, the pride she had held onto so dearly shot to pieces in the face of the cold, hard reality of life. After examining it, Pinkie determined how much it was worth and bit down on it affectionately before stuffing it into her pocket. “Try on your new armor, Sergeant. I'm sure it'll fit you really well.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

After a few minutes of fumbling with the armor, and reinstalling Twilight's camera, Dash finally managed to pull it all on. The standard Republic designs weren't as vibrant or fearsome as the Wonderbolt colors, but that didn't matter as much when it served such a useful purpose. “Did you get a helmet with this thing, Pinkie?” asked Rainbow once she had finished.

“Nope,” said Pinkie plainly. “They didn't give me one.”

“Who's 'they'?”

“My previous employers, silly. I mean, duh! The ones who gave me that suit.”

“Who gives a smuggler a suit of trooper armor as payment for a job?”

“The ponies responsible for the suit's previous owner.”

Dash instantly extended her front leg and looked over at the shoulder. Sure enough, to her horror, a Republic trooper's operating number was embedded into the plate. “Pinkie, did this belong to somepony else?!”

“Sure! That's why it was free.”

“Whose was it?!”

“Some poor trooper who defected to the Separatists. I got hired by a Republic spy to track down a turncoat, and as payment, he let me keep the armor. Sadly, I wanted credits, and I was going to sell that back to your good friend Lieutenant Sparkle for a meager profit.” Pinkie put a hoof to her chin and stared thoughtfully at Rainbow. “But you know, that color suits you.”

“Not as much as that blue Wonderbolt suit would have,” Dash muttered unhappily.

“Ready to go?” Pinkie asked cheerfully.

“Go? Go where?”

“To Talloran, silly! We have a spy to track down!”

“How do you know about my mission?”

“I was right outside the door, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Dash took her new rifle in her hoof and loaded it. “I'll lead.”

“That's the plan, Sergeant,” said Pinkie merrily.

Rainbow shook her head in disbelief as she descended the cantina stairs. She had gone back on her word that she didn't need this smuggler's help. Having to associate herself with somepony as annoying and shifty as Pinkie Pie caused Dash to seethe with frustration. On top of that, she had also just been coerced, basically, into forking over half of her month’s commission.

As Rainbow stepped out into the warm sunlight, still fuming over the idea of working with Pinkie, a sudden force from behind her knocked her down to the unforgiving cement. Blaster fire erupted from somewhere nearby. Dash got back to her hooves and looked back to see a few shady figures inside the cantina firing at her. Pinkie Pie was lying next to the outside door, clutching her hat with one hoof and moaning painfully. Unsure of whether the smuggler was wounded or not, and not caring enough to check, Dash merely leveled her gun with the enemies and started firing.

They instantly dove for cover inside. Rainbow rushed up to the doorway and was met with returning fire, to which she quickly ducked away to avoid. She opened the grenade launcher attachment under the barrel of her gun and spun into the doorway, firing a round right into a tabletop. It shattered into splinters of wood, sending a gunpony behind it flying into the adjacent wall and leaving the other two confused and temporarily motionless. Dash stepped inside once more and leveled the cantina with blaster fire, putting smoking wounds into the two remaining combatants.

Pinkie Pie was still moaning quietly when the fighting ceased. Dash leaned down to check on her, putting a hoof against her jugular instinctively.

“I'm okay, Sergeant” the smuggler replied groggily. “...I'm not hit.”

“Then why are you on the ground?” Dash replied.

“I hit my head against the stone steps when I pushed you out of the way. I'm just...dazed.”

“What happened?”

“They were waiting downstairs for us, I think.”

Rainbow looked through the door and noticed one of the assailants was the bartender. He was holding a simple hold-out blaster in his lifeless hoof. It finally dawned on Rainbow just how widespread the Separatist influence was, where any citizen could be a combat ready rebel. “This wasn't an accident,” she said bitterly.

“I think somepony wants you dead, Sergeant,” Pinkie replied drowsily.

“The Republic shouldn’t stand for this. Can you stand?”

“I'll be okay, don't worry.” The smuggler blinked a couple times and got to her hooves without any trouble. “See?”

“Umm...thanks for saving my life again,” Dash conceded. There was no denying this time that she was alive due to the actions of Pinkie Pie, even if she could deny the previous two instances. “I owe you one.”

“That's three, actually,” Pinkie pointed out.

“Those don't count. I was just being stupid those times.”

“What's different this time around?”

“Ha ha, funny.” Dash took a few steps forward and reloaded her rifle. “Can you walk?”

“I told you already, I'm fine. Let's go to Talloran!” Pinkie bounced past Rainbow while the trooper was busy shoving another grenade into the launcher. Together they walked down the rocky canyon path leading to Talloran Village from Fort Garnik. At the front gate, Dash looked ahead and saw several patrols of ponies, wielding military grade weapons and sporting matching tan uniforms. Parts of the town were burning, with billows of black smoke pouring from some of the smaller houses near the gate, but civilians wandered the town despite the brutal occupation and the fire hazard.

“What's going on here?!” exclaimed Dash. “Why are there Seps running around?”

“Silly, the Separatists ransacked this village not too long ago! Don't you pay attention to the headlines? I mean, this happened waaaaay back.” Pinkie made an arching motion with her hoof.

“I'm new to Ord Mantell, alright?” Rainbow replied acidly. “No need to rub my ignorance in my face.”

Pinkie Pie merely blinked in confusion as a rebuttal. She had not meant to be offensive, yet the sergeant had been very clearly showing signs of loathing toward her. In her mind, her actions had not warranted such hostility from Dash. “I’m under the impression you don’t like me very much,” she noted to her companion.

“Why would I like you at all? You stalked me for nearly an entire day and forced me into signing you on as my babysitter for half my pay! I think I have a right to be upset with you!”

“I didn't make you do anything. You hired me willingly.”

“The armor was the only reason I did that. Half my pay for a new set like this a really good deal. You, on the other hand, I plan to ditch as soon as we get back to the fort.”

“Whatever you say, Sergeant,” Pinkie replied simply.

Dash, livid, walked through the gate of Talloran and lobbed a grenade into the midst of the patrol. The ponies hit by the blast were sent in all directions, dead or otherwise incapacitated. As if by some magical force, additional Separatists were summoned from out of hiding, and within seconds the courtyard was enveloped in blaster fire. Dash was nearly caught in the middle, but was pulled behind a barricade by Pinkie Pie at the last second. She shook her head rapidly in an attempt to clear her thoughts.

“What just happened?” she asked.

“You rattled the beehive, so to speak,” replied Pinkie, firing off two quick shots from behind cover. She felled a pony in civilian clothes that had been firing on their position. “You almost got shot again.”

Dash took her new rifle and hoisted it over the barricade, firing off a spray of shots in a general area. The majority of them missed, but a few met their marks and dropped two Seps. Once they were down, she jumped out from behind cover and dashed over to a nearby house, rolling right through the front door. Two very surprised gunponies turned to face the crouching trooper, who launched another grenade round into one of them, killing them both in the explosion.

From the house, Dash had a clear view of the courtyard. Two ponies were moving closer to Pinkie, so she took aim and let loose another volley. One fell over on the other, alerting the smuggler to their presence, and she quickly dispatched the remaining assailant. Four more ponies continued the assault from afar, and Rainbow couldn't see them from behind their cover. She did notice, however, a series of back alleys that ran throughout the entire courtyard. The entrance to one such alleyway began just behind the house she was in.

Beating her wings to change directions, Dash whipped through the door and around the corner of the building just as two shots blazed past her and discharged harmlessly into the concrete wall. She ran as fast as her four legs could carry her until she reached another alley leading to an enemy fortification. With one movement, the trooper lifted herself onto her hind legs, pulled her rifle out from behind her back, and fired three quick shots into one of the ponies taking cover there. Three more instantly turned to face her, and Dash rolled back behind the wall of the building. Fire poured down the alley in near continuous bursts for a few seconds, but then suddenly ceased all at once.

Dash slowly peered the corner to see Pinkie on the rooftop of the adjacent house. She was smiling pleasantly at the Sergeant, holding two smoking pistols in her hooves. “Good job, Dashie!” she said happily. “We totally took 'em by surprise.”

“You mean I took 'em by surprise,” Rainbow said coldly. “I had the situation under control, thank you.”

“But I had them distracted over there,” said Pinkie, pointing a hoof to the town gate. “Oh, by the way, that's four you owe me now.”

Rainbow was about to fire off a rude remark when she tapped something with her hoof. It was a dead pony, sprawled out unpleasantly on the side of the alleyway. When she inspected the body a little closer, she noticed a patch of cloth was peeling off of his shirt. The trooper removed the patch to reveal a Republic insignia.

“Is this...Bellis?” Dash said in disgust.

“Must be,” said Pinkie Pie from above. “He's got a Republic badge.”

Dash opened her comlink and dialed base. Twilight answered the call. “Yes, that is Bellis.”

“How do you know?” said Rainbow, surprised.

“I can see him through your armor cam.”

“So, what does this mean?” asked Pinkie, who was clearly eavesdropping from on high.

“It means Sergeant Dash spent too much time arguing with you and got one of our best spies killed,” came Twilight's reply. “Good work, Sergeant.”

“Me? I didn't get this guy killed! He's obviously been dead for at least a day.”

Twilight seemed to ignore Dash. “Well, protocol would dictate that you recover his intel. It’s probably back in his house in the village. Go see if he filed his reports like he should have.”

Dash shut her comlink and looked up at Pinkie contemptuously.

“Sergeant, why are you staring at me like that?” asked the smuggler. “You know it's not polite to stare at other ponies.”

“You know where Bellis' house is, don't you?” Dash asked angrily.

“Yup! I can see it from here-”

“Then why are you just sitting there? Do what I paid you to do and follow me!” Then the trooper marched away, gun across her back, without another word. Rainbow had no real reason to be angry at Pinkie – she was more upset at Twilight for blaming this death on Dash, when it clearly wasn't her fault – but she was an easy target for her anger because the smuggler never retaliated poorly. The one exception from earlier that day had not been scary enough to warrant fearing Pinkie.

The courtyard of the town was deathly silent. Bellis' house was the only one with lights on in the top window, not far from where the two ponies were. Dash galloped up to the front door and knocked rapidly, and when no response came, she pushed it open. A flight of stairs led to a lit bedroom just inside the doorway.

“Pinkie, you wait here,” Dash said sternly as she entered the house. “I don't need you screwing this up for me.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie replied, leaning nonchalantly against the outer wall next to the door.

Rainbow grumbled all the way up the stairs until she noticed that somepony was home. A mare, young in years but still older than the sergeant, turned and faced her with a stern expression.

“Excuse me?!” the mare exclaimed, standing up from behind the desk she had been sitting at. “What are you doing in my house?!”

“Ma'am,” Dash began, “I have something to tell you...”

“...Is this about Bellis? He isn't here. Come back some other time, after he gets back.”

Dash cleared her throat. She knew this wasn't going to be easy, but she had a mission to do. “Ma'am, I need your husband's reports and his field box. It's of...vital importance to the Republic that I get-”

“Oh, no. I'm not just handing you his box! He told me no Republic people would come for it unless he was...” Then her eyes widened in shock. “No...”

“Ma'am, I really need that box-”

“Is he...dead? What have you done to him? My husband is dead, isn’t he?!”

Dash cringed. This woman was upset, and rightfully so, but she was lashing out at the sergeant when it wasn't her fault. “There wasn't anything I could do, ma'am! I only just arrived on Ord Mantell today, and...I'm very sorry...”

“You should be more than sorry! Bellis was a wonderful stallion, so kind and caring...and now you and your stupid Republic have gone and killed him! What am I supposed to do now?!” Then she began wailing like a banshee, her head buried in her foreleg.

“...Please, ma'am, the longer we wait, the more innocent people suffer. We need that box.”

“Why should I give it to you?” the mare screamed through tears. “You and your Republic got my husband killed! You killed him!”

“He died a hero!” Dash argued. She hated being talked over. “You should be proud that he gave his life serving the Republic!”

“You’re wrong! He was no hero, he was just another pony trying to make a meager living for his family on some backwater planet! He didn’t care about your cause at all!”

“His information could save lives! Good, innocent ponies!”

“Oh, don't feed me that garbage...”

The mare walked across the room, her head held low, crying tears through her spasms of uncontrolled, irregular sobbing. Dash started to realize exactly what had happened. She'd lost her husband; the stallion she'd pledged to love and cherish until they died. The Republic had not wanted Bellis to die, but the sergeant knew the mare was not going to be compensated by anypony else about this. The worst part was, this mare was not the only one who'd lost a loved one in this conflict, nor would she be the last, and Sergeant Rainbow Dash of the Wonderbolts was powerless to stop it.

Dash's thoughts were rudely interrupted when a large red box slammed into her unhelmeted head. She turned to glare at the assailant, but softened her gaze when it was only the newly widowed mare.

“You want his field box?” she screamed at the trooper. “Fine. Take it! Take it and get out!”

As the mare started to move away, Dash lightly gripped her shoulder. She turned to see the trooper shedding a tear. “Ma'am, there is no greater a death than the one he had. If I could have, I would've gladly died in his place.”

“Just go,” said the mare bitterly. She shook free of Rainbow's grip and moved back to her desk, where she dropped her face into her hooves and wept. “Oh, Bellis...”

Dash picked up the field box with all the care in the world and slowly walked out of the house, listening to the mare upstairs crying for no other reason than that she felt indirectly responsible for this. Pinkie Pie was waiting right where she'd been before, only grimacing rather than smiling as usual.

“Nasty bit of work up there,” said the smuggler evenly. “You did the right thing, and you did try to reason with her.”

“I'm not in the mood, Pinkie Pie,” Dash retorted, unable to retain any anger. “I hate doing Casualty Notification. I'm not a very supportive pony, if you haven't noticed.”

“It's not that you aren't supportive, Dashie, it's just that you don't have any past experience with death. If you understood what she was going through, you probably could've been a bigger help.”

Dash looked back at Pinkie with a confused frown. “And you? You have past experience with death?”

“Of course, silly!” Pinkie giggled. “When you're in my line of work, you get used to ponies dying for no good reason. It's only sad when they die for a noble cause, like your friend Bellis.”

“I didn't know Bellis. I've been on Ord Mantell less than a day, and I've already seen enough to make me sick of it. First chance I get, I'm going back to Coruscant.”

“Let's find a place to bunk for the night,” Pinkie suggested. “You look kinda sleepy weepy.”

Dash merely nodded lazily as a response. As Pinkie bounced past her toward Fort Garnik, the bedraggled and disheartened trooper followed in silence up the hill. The death of a loved one was something she'd never experience firsthand, and the Sergeant simply thought that, if she had that experience, she could've comforted the mare in Talloran better. Dash walked the distance between the town and the fort with nothing but her heavy heart and a bouncing smuggler to keep her company.

When they arrived in Fort Garnik, Dash shuffled into the command center while Pinkie deviated to the cantina to arrange for sleeping quarters. Twilight and Fuse were waiting for her next to the communications console against the back wall.

“Oh, Sergeant, hey!” said Fuse in a friendly manner. “For the record, we’re really sorry about what happened in Talloran. We know it wasn’t your fault-”

“I don't wanna talk about,” Dash interrupted coldly.

“I know that wasn't easy, Rainbow,” said Twilight, her face betraying a hint of concern, “but we really needed that fieldbox. You have it with you, don't you?”

“Yeah.” The sergeant pulled the fieldbox out of her saddlepack and frowned. “I can't get over the widow. She was so...sad.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Sergeant,” Twilight said remorsefully, “we've arranged for Bellis' wife to be compensated. His information will save countless innocent ponies, and he died to help us get it. They deserve better, but it's all we can do.”

“It's more than she will expect,” Dash whispered.

“...Are you alright, sergeant?”

“I will be, after I get some sleep.”

“There's no time for that. Every second we waste is another second longer the Separatists have to arm that bomb. Lieutenant Fuse has a critical mission for you, and I have to decode Bellis' data, so we can't go to sleep yet.”

“Oh, uh, right, yes,” stuttered Fuse as Twilight started to walk away. Dash put a hoof out to stop her, but was too late to catch her attention. “Dash, if you could, we need you to go hit on a new lead tonight. We’ve got one that might lead us closer to the answer to our little...well, big, problem.”

“I'm not in the mood to go chasing after more spies today, Fuse,” said Dash unhappily. She stretched her hooves in the air and yawned. “Besides, it's late. Can't I go to sleep yet?”

“Uh, well, this isn't so much a lead as it is...a bomb threat.”

Suddenly Rainbow was very awake. “The ZR-57?”

Fuse shrugged as best a pony could. “Well, see, this refugee came in and said something about bombs being placed by Seps. We didn’t have time to ask for details 'cause he was thrown out of the fort before we could get him. All we know is that the pony’s name was Mirru.”

“The grunts out front typically throw the refugees out,” explained Twilight from the other side of the room before Rainbow could respond. “They come in and try to trade us typically falsified information for a sum of credits.”

“Anyway,” Fuse interjected, “we looked into it, and Mirru is staying over in the refugee camp. See if you can find him there.”

“...Like, right now?” Dash responded slowly, eyes still slightly red and baggy. “It's long after dinner time, and I'm hungry. And sleepy.”

“Do this for us, and you can go to bed,” Twilight called. “I'll go with you, if it makes you feel better.”

“Naw, it's cool. Pinkie Pie can come with me; she probably already booked a room, anyway.”

“You sure you don't want the help?”

“No offense, Twilight,” Dash started as she walked out of the command center, “but you don't seem to be much of a ' field work’' type. You stay here and...feed me intel, or something.”

Then the Pegasus galloped out, leaving a very irritated Twilight with a slightly worried Fuse.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Fort Garnik, Republic Command Post entrance

Rainbow sauntered out of the command post and gazed longingly in the direction of the cantina. Pinkie Pie bounced toward her as if right on cue, her stowed blaster pistols jiggling inside their holsters on her leather belt.

“Hi, sleepyhead!” she giggled. “Ready for bed?”

“Can't sleep yet, Pinkie,” Dash replied with a yawn. “We have more work to do.”

“Whaaaaat? Of all the not-cool, unfun, super-lame things they could do, they give you more work?”

“Yep. Got a bomb threat or something to deal with.”

“Okie dokie lokie! Where to, Sergeant?”

“Gotta find a refugee named Mirru.” Dash peered down the roads of Fort Garnik, overshadowed by the buildings in the setting of Ord Mantell’s lustrious sun, in search of the mysterious refugee she was looking for. “Problem is, he may not be awake, or anywhere near here. He's supposed to be at the refugee camp, but it's late, and he’s probably asleep.”

“Oh, Mirru? I know Mirru! He's over that way!” Pinkie pointed a hoof in the direction of the speeder port, where one lone pony stood apart from the crowd. He fumed angrily in the refugee camp center, pacing anxiously in a circle.

“But-...How did you know that?”

“I know everypony, silly! C'mon, I'll introduce ya'!”

Pinkie bounced away, and Dash trotted after her in confusion. They came to a halt in front of some crude tents, erected in a desolate lot near the edge of the fort. One pony stood on a rocky outcropping overlooking the trail that led from the fort to nearby Oradam Village The pony Rainbow assumed was Mirru took notice of the Sergeant and stepped back.

“Oh no. Not this again,” he moaned. “What, you people didn't have enough fun beating me up at the fort? You gotta come beat me up here, too? You're nothing but thugs in uniforms, and your bosses are going to hear about this – your boss' bosses, all the way on Coruscant.”

Dash had no idea what the pony was talking about. She bobbed her head sleepily toward Pinkie and grimaced. “Say what now? I've never seen you before in my life, dude.”

“Mirru, this is Sergeant Rainbow Dash, from Wonderbolt Squad,” Pinkie Pie said enthusiastically. “You can trust her, just like you trust me!”

“Yeah, what she said,” Dash replied with a yawn. “I just wanna know about this bomb thing you mentioned earlier.”

“Oh, so now you want my information?” Mirru retorted. His expression rose from anger to uncertainty, but his mood remained hostile. “I don’t feel like talking to you. I got beat up really bad today by your friends at the command center, so they can go find their own bombs for all I care.”

“Mirru!” Pinkie Pie interjected hurriedly, “we're not your enemies! We want to help the innocent ponies who live here in the fort and make them safe-y wafe-y.”

“And what about me, huh?” countered Mirru with an unfriendly hoof gesture. “Things ain't that easy out here for me. I need some assurance that this will be, shall we say, ‘mutually beneficial’. How much does the Republic value this information, huh?”

Dash's face went from groggy and bored to unbelievably savage. She lunged forward a half step and lifted Mirru off the ground with her hoof, dangling him over the nearby cliff. The fall did not seem horribly far, but it was far enough to spark fear. “Look, pal, I haven't had a wonderful day, myself, and I'm not in the mood to negotiate a price with you. I can't stand your type! You don't even care about others, you just want money!”

She tossed him to the side like a ball of trash. Then she threw a chip worth about ten credits toward him, letting it fall just short of where he sat. “Here. Take it. Give me what I want so I can get as far away from you as I can.”

Mirru, staring wide eyed up at the Sergeant, pointed a hoof toward the darkened road leading to Oradam Village. “T-that way. Just down the road. Please, I’m sorry, don’t beat me again!”

“Fine,” spat Rainbow. She took two steps forward and leaped from the short cliff, spreading her wings to slow her decent. Her armor creaked as her hooves landed firmly on the dirt road below. Pinkie bounced down next to her within a second, not landing as gracefully due to her lack of wings, and together they trotted down the road toward what appeared to be a small canyon. It stood just high enough to keep trooper transports from finding another route, and just wide enough to prevent them from coming through two at a time.

Perfect place to ambush a convoy, Dash mused. Blasted darkness. Can’t see a thing.

“Dashie?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Did you mean what you said back there?”

“Every word!” seethed Rainbow. “I can't stand information peddlers like him! Anypony who puts their own selfish desires before the safety of others should never be trusted.”

“Isn't that what I did?”

Dash’s face dropped into a stern grimace. “...In a way.”

“So, do you...” Pinkie sniffled loudly and rubbed her nose. “Do you not like me, Sergeant?”

Dash turned around and looked back at Pinkie for a moment. She stared into the smuggler's sad, pleading eyes for a moment before she turned away with a huff. “I thought you knew that.”

The smuggler did not reply. Her head drooped low and her eyes shut in sadness. “Yeah, I guess I do...”

“Look, we’ll talk about this later,” Dash said quietly. “Just follow me and keep quiet. We-”

A blaster bolt narrowly missed Dash, streaking over her head and away down the street behind her. Instantly the trooper rolled away into cover, finding a flat spot behind a rock to duck behind. Pinkie also dove to cover, landing in a crouch behind a fallen tree before firing three rapid shots from her pistol. Dash was about to call out to Pinkie when a few more shots blew past her with too little clearance for comfort, forcing the trooper to duck again.

Three Separatist ponies crouched behind a slab of metal debris twenty meters ahead of her, firing on them both from behind cover. Dash lit a thermal detonator and peered over the rock she'd taken cover behind. Their cover was just in front of a blown out space vessel, an unmarked transport of unknown origin. Judging by the state of the wreck and from the disrupted earth around it, Dash knew it was a freshly downed ship, no older than a week or two. The ship’s boarding ramp had come undone, and the it was lying on its side so that the inner sections could be hidden inside. These Seperatists had more than likely been scavenging for parts.

Dash hurled the grenade over the rock with all her strength, aiming for the area beside the enemy’s cover. An explosion rocked the slab of metal backwards, revealing two of the soldiers to be dead, their armor pierced clean through by shrapnel. The third bled profusely from his wounds, even missing flesh in multiple places, but he managed to survive the blast. The pony retreated into the bowels of the downed spacecraft, limping with every step. Pinkie, who had since been pinned behind her cover, rolled forward and primed her own grenade.

“Get out of there!” she shouted. Charging forward, Pinkie raced into the open and chucked the grenade into the torn opening of the hull. After a few seconds, a violent explosion rocked the craft to the side a bit, blowing an entire section of the hull away. Dash watched in shock as the slab of metal that had once been the boarding ramp tilted forward and crashed loudly to the ground, revealing two sections of Separatist attire strewn violently inside the hollow shell of the ship and a horrible amount of blood dripping from the nearby walls.

“Pinkie, what was that for?” Dash asked. “We could have captured the wounded one alive!”

“I wasn't gonna let him desecrate this holy ground,” Pinkie replied sadly. Her eyes betrayed an inner pain that Dash couldn’t identify. “This was my ship, the one that I arrived on Ord Mantell in. It's the reason I'm still here, Dashie.”

“What, your ship?”

Pinkie opened her mouth to reply, but stopped short for a moment before she said anything. “...I, uh...yeah. My ship.”

Dash looked at her disapprovingly. “Pinkie, what's bugging you?”

“What do you care, Sergeant?” she moaned, flicking her tattered hat back. Behind it were two sad, bulging eyes that blinked back painful tears. “You don't even like me. I just don't feel like explaining anything to somepony who isn't my friend.”

“Friend?” Rainbow repeated slowly, clenching her hooves together so tight that they started to pale. “You're a smuggler! I thought you smuggler types only deal in business relationships. Since when do you care about me, anyway?”

“Sergeant, please hear me out, okie dokie?”

Dash blinked at her, but remained silent.

“I'm not ruthless,” Pinkie continued, “or uncaring. I want friends and I care about ponies, just like you do; just like I said to Mirru. Who those ponies are is a short list, because of my work, yes, but they're still my friends!”

“Name one, then!”

“...I thought you might be one...but I guess I was wrong.”

Dash couldn't figure out why she was feeling so angry at Pinkie. She'd been forced to hire the mare and interact with her all day, but even though they may have not seen eye to eye, they definitely weren't mortal enemies. “I, uh...what would make us friends? In a day, you’d managed to coerce me into hiring you AND you stalked me all the way around Ord Mantell and back! You just want money to buy a new ship. That’s the only reason you’re still here, or so I thought.”

“I told you, Dashie-”

“Stop calling me that!”

“...I told you, Sergeant, you hired me on your own! I didn’t force you to do anything. You could have just gone without me.”

“I would’ve been creamed!”

“Exactly.” Pinkie took two backwards steps away from the ship and turned to face Rainbow. “Yes, I need money, but that’s not the only reason I chose to work for you. When I met you, I thought you were really nice, up until you stormed away. I wanted to get to know that side of you, and that’s why I followed you. But I won’t force you to be my friend; if you want our relationship to stay ‘purely business’, then okie dokie lokie. I’ll be super duper quiet and let you work.”

Dash’s heart sank. She may not have treated Pinkie fairly, but she’d never considered her feelings about it. The whole time, Rainbow had assumed the smuggler was just along for the ride. “But, Pinkie, I-”

“No, Sergeant, it’s alright. I understand. You’re tired, I’m annoying, and we both just need some sleep. Let’s get this done and hit the hay, alrighty?”

Pinkie started to trot away, further up the road, when Dash suddenly groaned. “Pinkie, I’m sorry!”

The smuggler stopped, but didn’t turn around.

“I am. I’ve been treating you like dirt all day. You didn’t make a good impression, but I shouldn’t treat you unfairly based on a bad business deal. We’re friends...” Dash clenched her teeth at the word, but didn’t stop talking. “...and I should treat you like one.”

“...You mean it?”

Dash looked away, shaking her head in disbelief. She was out of her mind. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Just stop crying, okay?”

Suddenly Pinkie turned to face Rainbow, her smile glowing like the luminescent moon in the growing dusk. “Yay! I’m so happy you changed your mind, Sergeant-”

“Please,” said Dash, putting a hoof in the air to silence her, “don’t be so formal. We’re friends.”

“Dashie?”

“Yeah, alright, I’ll let you call me that every now and then.” Dash finally returned the smile, but when Pinkie did not reply, she dropped it into a curious frown. “What?”

“I’m sorry I coerced you into hiring me. I thought you needed the help more than you realized.”

“I did, though. I can see that now. Thank you for caring about me, Pinkie Pie.”

The smuggler bounced up to Dash, grinning ear to ear, and put a hoof around the trooper’s shoulder playfully. “Of course, silly! What are friends for?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Enough of this mushy stuff.” Rainbow turned her head to scout further down the road for more Seps, but her gaze got caught on the twisted wreckage of the downed vessel. “Oh, you told me there’s a story behind this mess. What was that?”

“Oh, right!” Pinkie perked up and rotated to stare at the ship with Dash. “This was my ship. Me and my partner were smuggling weapons down to the surface, and the Republic lackeys at the fort took us down with their AA guns. Apparently the transponder was on a long list of wanted criminals and no-good delinquents.”

“No offense, Pinkie, but I find it hard to believe you’re all that bad of a pony.”

“I’m a criminal! Really! Just ask my partner!”

“Where is this ‘partner’ of yours? I haven’t seen you with anypony else.”

Pinkie’s smile faded. “I, uh...well, I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to find him, but the poor stallion just sorta disappeared. We crawled from the wreckage of the ship and were instantly apprehended by the Seps. They took our shipment of weapons and locked us in a fort near Mannett Point. My partner showed me how to escape, but he had to stay behind to cover me.”

“Wow.” Dash sighed, shaking her head. “I...I had no idea. Were you close?”

“Oh yeah! We still are! I don’t believe he’s dead yet. Anyway, I managed to get to Fort Garnik and I’ve been trying to find employment with the Republic for some credits. I don’t like the Seps; they’re big meanie-heads who stole my shipment and ponynapped my friend. Otherwise I wouldn’t care who I worked for. But the Republic doesn’t like me, either, so it’s been rough.”

“We should go look for him, then. We can file a missing pony report at the fort, try to get a lead on...what did you say his name was?”

“I didn’t,” Pinkie sang. “Oh, don’t worry, Rainbow Dash, he’s okay. I don’t know where he is, but when he helped me escape from the Sep base, we both knew he was staying behind. I hated to leave him, but a girl’s gotta work, and that’s the business of being a smuggler.”

“So...he sacrificed himself for you, and you won’t even try to rescue him?” Dash held back an unkind insult in an attempt to draw out Pinkie’s reasoning on the issue. She didn’t want to accuse the smuggler of not caring, but it almost sounded like she didn’t.

“...Well, we’re partners, Dash. He was a smuggler, too. Don’t get me wrong, I care about him, but he’s probably already escaped on his own by now; very capable sort of pony. And he specifically told me not to worry about him, so I’m not going to. I hope I can see him again, but I’ll ‘soldier on’ without him.”

Then Pinkie burst into mirthful laughter at her pun. Dash grinned also, more at Pinkie’s reaction and less at the actual joke, and trotted up the road. It was finally dark out, the sun shining its last burst of light as it slowly crawled below the horizon. The bombs were not far from the downed spacecraft, and they lit up in the dark with large flashing red lights. They were strategically hidden behind rocky outcroppings and under fauna, and would have been virtually invisible during the daytime, but the darkness made them easy enough to locate.

Out of the six bombs placed along the road, none of them were guarded. As Dash walked cautiously back to the Fort in the dark, with Pinkie at her side, she considered just how lucky they had been that the Separatists had not set guard patrols in the night. The journey back was much less interesting then the journey there had been, but once the fort lights came into view, neither pony cared even slightly how much fun they’d had; they were just relieved to be back.

Dash walked up to the command center for what felt like the umpteenth time that day and busted through the front door. Twilight was standing in front of the large monitor at the back of the room, facing away from the Sergeant. When she got a closer look, Rainbow noticed that a picture of Twilight’s back was on the screen; as the unicorn turned around to look at her, she realized she was looking at a video feed coming from her suit’s camera.

“Welcome back, Sergeant,” Twilight said curtly. “You got the bombs disarmed, even if you did waste a lot of what could have been vital time crying about missing smugglers and making friends.”

“Oh, lighten up, Twilight,” Dash replied with an indifferent shrug. “Bombs are gone, and nopony’s gonna die now.”

“Well, with the day you’ve had, I’d say you’ve earned a good night’s sleep. Rest well, Sergeant, because tomorrow’s going to be much worse than today was.”

“I’ll be ready.” She yawned sleepily, stretching her hooves into the air. “But yeah, sleep first.”

Twilight simply shook her head and turned back to the monitor in silence. Rather put off, Rainbow turned to leave the command center when a young pegasus filly jumped in front of her path. She had orange hair and a purple mane, barely old enough to be a Private by the looks of her, and was just a little too eager to see Dash.

“Hey, you’re a Wonderbolt, aren’t you?” asked the filly.

“I, uh, yeah I am,” Dash replied slowly.

“I’m Private Scootaloo. I’m an officer in training, sir.” Then the filly, Scootaloo, saluted Dash, who returned the motion much more groggily. “I was wondering -- you seem less uptight than those other soldiers in your squad, and I’ve got a problem I need to talk to somepony about.”

“Alright, kid, shoot, but I’m tired, so make it quick.”

“Will do. Listen, I’m under the command of a totally corrupt officer: Lieutenant Virk. He’s scamming everypony in his command, and nopony’s doing anything to stop him. He forces us to kick up to him to get safe postings. Credits, weapons, stuff we pilfer from the Seps...everything! And when you don’t play along, he puts you on the most dangerous patrols on Ord Mantell. He’s gotten really good ponies killed.”

“That’s real bad, kid, and I’m sorry, but what can I do about it tonight?”

“I don’t know,” Scootaloo admitted, “but you’re in Wonderbolt squad. You’re older, and more experienced. Maybe you can talk to somepony important, and see what you could do?”

Twilight, at that moment, appeared beside Dash and saluted the Private. “I’ve heard enough. You’re under the command of Lieutenant Virk? Are you certain about his involvement in illegal activity?”

“Oh, for sure, Lieutenant,” replied Scootaloo anxiously.

“Well, I heard everything from Dash’s camera, and what you’ve said matches our records of this pony’s assignments. I’ll file a formal report tomorrow morning, Private, but neither I nor Dash can do anything about it tonight. Go get some rest, and we’ll work this out later. Dismissed.”

The Private, slightly dissatisfied but grateful for the help, nodded quickly and trotted away toward the sleeping quarters down the elevator. Twilight turned to Dash with a knowing glance. “She’s not made any complaints yet, but that wasn’t the first report I’ve heard on this Virk character. It’s going to be a while before I can get anything convicting.”

“If it’s as bad as she says,” Dash pointed out, “then time will only get more good soldiers killed.”

“I can’t speed up this process, Sergeant. Not without hard evidence. A few casualties on dangerous patrols is not enough to say he’s sentencing ponies to death.”

“This whole planet is mad...” Rainbow turned to leave and was stopped by a firm hoof on the shoulder. “What?”

“Just get some sleep,” Twilight reminded her. “And, I know we didn’t get off on the right hoof today, so I hope we can put that past us.”

“Sorry I sorta told you off this evening,” Dash replied.

“Well, you’re more right than you think. I’m definitely not a ‘combat’ type.”

Dash just nodded sleepily and stalked out of the Command center. Immediately she turned to the right and followed the road up to Avilatin’s Rest Cantina, where Pinkie Pie waited impatiently for her new friend to arrive. Together they ascended the stairs to the second floor where Pinkie’s reserved room was.

“Oh, oh, oh, Dashie!” Pinkie blurted suddenly. “We should totally have a slumber party!”

“A slumber party?” Dash repeated sleepily as she fell face first into her pillow. She mumbled something incoherently into the pillowcase, which muffled her speech.

“I mean a party where we sleep. That’s what a slumber party is, silly.”

Rainbow didn’t reply, and instead rolled onto her back and began pulling her armor off. Each piece was drenched in sweat from the day’s activities, and in a few places scorch marks and battle scores had already tainted the otherwise undamaged new suit. Dash thought of them as accents, something to be proud of rather than hated, and counted them in her head as she peeled off the individual plates. Down to her undersuit at last, she threw the last kneeguard onto the floor adjacent to her bed and grabbed the covers, pulling them over her body.

Pinkie, who was sitting upright on her bed pulling her boots off, looked over at Dash excitedly. “So, Dashie, can we talk about something before you go to sleep?”

But the Sergeant had already nodded off and was snoring peacefully, much to Pinkie’s dismay. Without another word, the smuggler finished undressing and likewise slipped into her bed covers, drifting into dreamland for the night, where she had a strange vision of her former companion locked away in a jail cell. He was bruised and beaten, being tortured by Separatist ponies. The disturbing images caused Pinkie to toss and turn uncomfortably all through the night.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Avilatin’s Rest Cantina, Ord Mantell

“Pinkie Pie?”

The smuggler awoke with a start to the sound of a familiar voice yelling in her ear and to a rather rough shaking. Her eyes fluttered open to reveal Rainbow Dash, who was standing rather awkwardly beside her bed and looking down with a worried expression.

“Oh, hi Dashie!” Pinkie said enthusiastically, her eyes half open. “What’s up?”

“Pinkie, you were moaning in your sleep,” Dash said quietly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with a hoof. “What happened?”

The smuggler’s ears dropped slightly. “I had a nightmare, don’t worry about it too much.”

Rainbow shook her head and trotted over to the window. The sun was still rising, casting its bright light across the barren, jagged landscape around the fort. Ponies were already scurrying about in the streets below the cantina, unaware of the dazed soldier looking over them. Dash rested her chin against her crossed hooves and sighed.

“It’s a beautiful day,” she thought aloud.

“Yeah, it is,” Pinkie replied from across the room.

“You sure you’re okay?” Dash asked from the window, still staring into the sunrise absentmindedly.

“Yessirrie, Bob!” Pinkie bounced up to her friend and smiled at her. “You ready to go bomb hunting, Dashie?”

“In all honesty, I’d like to go back to sleep. Find a nice cloud up there and leave my armor here in the room.”

“I’d say I’ve had days like that, but I’m not a Pegasus.”

Rainbow chuckled lightly. “Yeah, well, we got work to do. Ponies to save, bombs to find, Seps to kill.” Her head slowly bobbed down further into her forelegs, leaving just a tuft of rainbow colored mane sticking up between her cerulean ears.

Pinkie put a hoof on Dash’s back and rubbed it tenderly. “Aww, cheer up, Dashie. Maybe we can get this mystery solved today and get a nice nap in afterwards!”

“Thanks, Pinkie,” came her muffled reply, “and I’m still sorry about yesterday.”

“Don’t sweat it, Sergeant. We’re friends now, and friends help each other. Which means...” The smuggler put her hooves on Dash’s shoulders and pulled back. “I need to help you by pulling you off this window.”

The trooper groaned as her body was slowly pulled away from its resting position. She slowly lost her balance and fell lazily to the floor behind her, eyes closed in feigned sleep. Pinkie giggled at her friend’s antics before attempting to pull Dash to her hooves, but found the task to be a little harder than she at first thought.

“C’mon, Dashie,” Pinkie laughed. “Let’s get a move on!”

“Five more minutes, mommy,” Dash whimpered lazily, her head bobbing from one side to the other.

“No. Mommy says, it’s time to go!” Then, with a mighty heave, Pinkie pulled Rainbow into a sitting position. The Sergeant blinked up at her drowsily and smiled. Smiling back, the smuggler reached to her friend’s bedside and gathered up the armor plates left unceremoniously in a pile from the night before, handing them to Dash. “Get your armor on, Dashie.”

“Yes ma’am,” Rainbow replied quietly, her eyes half closed. She fumbled with the pieces in her grogginess, but eventually she started to wake up. After she’d fastened her left shin guard, a thought occurred to her. “Oh, Pinkie, you never told me what your nightmare was about.”

“Huh?” Pinkie’s ears fell further than they had the first time, as though she had resigned herself to a death sentence. “No, I didn’t.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Dash offered as she started to adjust her right guard.

“No.” The smuggler stood up and paced to the window, looking out into the street for a brief moment. Rainbow could see pain and sorrow in Pinkie’s eyes, something that had not been present a few moments ago.

“Pinkie, I need you to be on top of your game today,” Dash prodded, poking Pinkie gently with a hoof. “Tell me what’s bothering you so we can do our best with no distractions.”

The earth pony’s eyes drifted slowly up at her friend’s, lingering for a moment before she responded. “I had a nightmare about my friend. The one who got captured by the Seps?”

“Oh, him again? If you want some help finding him after this mess is over-”

“No, Dashie,” Pinkie said quickly, silencing her friend. Rainbow’s words cut at her soul in a way she couldn’t explain, and everything inside her wanted to take the trooper up on her offer. If her friend had died that day, for her, the most undeserving pony of such a sacrifice as his, then she couldn’t face the truth. Her frown resonated a moment longer before the smile she typically wore crept across her face. “It was just a dream. He’s probably okay. Like I said yesterday, he told me not to worry about him, and I intend to follow his wishes. Are you almost done suiting up yet?”

=====

Dash trotted up through the Command Center door and peered around the corner into the briefing room. Twilight was in front of her large computer monitor, anxiously pouring over a report. When the Rainbow stepped into the room, the Lieutenant’s eyes drifted around to meet her own.

“Hello, Sergeant,” Twilight said warmly, smiling happily. “Quick, come look at this.”

She motioned Dash forward with a hoof excitedly. The pegasus cantered over to the computer and looked at the screen, but found herself unable to decipher any of the information. Layer upon layer of data was crammed onto the monitor, with bright flashing lights and constantly moving streams of words and numbers distracting her from reading.

“This monitor’s more clogged than the sink back at the cantina,” Dash said lazily. “Just tell me what it says, and save me a visit to the eye doctor.”

“It says we’ve got a solid lead on our bomb, Sergeant!” Twilight replied quickly. “Bellis had indeed filed all of his information in his fieldbox, and in his final report he mentioned a shipment out to the island. Apparently, they’d received a few shipments that day, but one in particular was much larger than usual, and they had a very large escort guarding it. We believe it’s our ZR-57.”

“Fantastic,” Rainbow said evenly. “Where do I go?”

“Mannett Point, of course. That’s where the island is. Wraith has gone ahead of you to secure a base of operations, so you can find her transponder when you get closer to the objective.”

Dash’s eyes lit up. “Say, since we’re talking about it, Pinkie’s got a friend who got captured by Seps. Do you know if they torture prisoners out on Mannett Point?”

“I wouldn’t know, Sergeant,” Twilight replied thoughtfully. “Our intel is very limited out on the Point, especially since the takeover a couple weeks ago. We lost all our communication with the civilians when the Seps overran the island. If you’re gonna go looking for missing pirates, though, do it on your own time. This bomb is top priority, remember.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Dash said hurriedly. “Innocent lives and all that.”

“You’re dismissed then. The island is just south of the fort.”

The trooper nodded and stalked out of the briefing room. Pinkie Pie was leaning against the door of the Command Center, absentmindedly looking into the clouds.

“Ready to go?” Rainbow asked with a smile.

“Yepperoonie,” the smuggler chirped brightly, snapping to attention. “Lead the way, Dashie.”

“Well, we’re going for a long walk. Can we talk about this mysterious friend of yours?”

“Sure!” Pinkie jumped forward and landed on her front hooves. They walked down the ramp together and started toward the back gate of the fort. “What do you wanna know about him?”

“If he means so much to you,” Dash began, “why not try to find him?”

“I’d rather not,” Pinkie admitted quickly. Her ears dropped again and her demeanor dropped from eager to reserved. “He’s probably not on Ord Mantell anymore, anyway-”

“Don’t you want to know for sure?” Rainbow interjected.

“No! No, I don’t!”

“Why not?”

“Because...” Pinkie’s cheeks started to turn slightly red. She turned her face away in shame as they cantered out of the fort. “...because I loved him, okay?”

“Okay?” Dash screwed up her face in confusion. “No, that’s not okay! If you loved him, then you should go look for him!”

“I can’t, Dashie!” the smuggler squealed. “I don’t want to know. If he’s dead, that is. I couldn’t bear it. He’d been so kind to me, even to the end, and he told me not to worry about him. He knew better than I did that the job comes first.” A single tear emitted from Pinkie’s eyes. “And I can’t get too close to those I love. My line of work doesn’t favor the distracted.”

“Ever considered a new line of work?” Dash grunted disconcertedly.

“The profits outweigh the costs, Dashie. It’s quite a lucrative employment.”

“And yet you’re down a ship and out a good friend.”

Pinkie’s eyes lowered in defeat. “Look, it’s not that I don’t care about him, but I can’t be with him. If he’s alive, then he’ll go his own way. If he’s dead...I’d rather not know. Can you leave it at that, Dashie? It comforts me to think he might be off doing his own thing, alive and healthy.”

The Sergeant shook her head slowly, her eyes closed in disbelief. “Your logic is really flawed, Pinkie Pie, but if you really can’t focus with him on your mind, then I guess we’re done talking about him.”

“Thank you, Sergeant.” Pinkie’s ears slowly lifted up again, and a smile crept across her face. “So, where are we headed, anyway?”

“Weren’t you listening in on the conversation earlier?” Dash asked expectantly. When Pinkie Pie shrugged back at her, she sighed. “We’re going to Mannett Point.”

The smuggler let out a whimper that startled Rainbow slightly. “Wuh? Why?”

“Umm, because that’s where we’re going?” Dash pointed a hoof down the road, and Pinkie turned to see what she was pointing at. Just over a rocky cliff was a large island, stacked many meters high with duracrete buildings and swarming with armed ponies in rugged tan uniforms. Among them, several large combat droids patrolled the streets and the beaches below. “We’re meeting Wraith somewhere on the Point. What’s wrong, Pinkie Pie?”

“Well, I...Remember how I said the Seps had locked me and my partner up on Mannett Point?”

“Yeah?”

Pinkie shifted uncomfortably, looking down at the ground as she spoke. “My escape was far from clean. We had to do some really unfun things. It’s a lot of bad memories.”

Rainbow Dash looked behind her and saw a flat rock laying beside the road. She sat down on it and patted the surface next to her. “Come here, Pinkie Pie. Sit. Tell me everything.”

“Why do you want to know so badly?” Pinkie asked, looking partially afraid. “It doesn’t concern you at all.”

“Because like I said earlier, I want you to be focused on helping me,” Dash said with a smile. “We’re going to save many lives by finding this bomb, and if you’re distracted by this issue, it’s going to be that much harder. And besides, we’re friends, right?.”

At first the smuggler just stared at her friend, frowning slightly, her ears flat against the brim of her signature hat. But after a moment of silence, she stalked over to the boulder and took a seat beside Dash. “Right...friends. Okie dokie.” She sighed, closed her eyes, and put a hoof against her chin.

=====

Streaking lines of blue and white zipped past the cockpit of the cherry red Defender Corvette as it made its way to Ord Mantell. A yellow earth pony tapped his hoof against the console impatiently, grinding his teeth together out of boredom. These longer trips bored him to no end, usually because Pinkie Pie would clam up around him and need to leave the room. She was always so funny around him. He pretended not to notice when she blushed in his presence, especially when he did something kind for her, because he secretly entertained the fantasy that she liked him.

Unexpectedly, the door of the cockpit slid open and Pinkie Pie bounced into the room. Lemon looked up at her and smiled, sliding his hoof back across his tousled mustard mane.

“Evening, Captain,” he said sweetly.

“Oh, Lemony, not so formal!” Pinkie chirped as she the pilot’s chair. “Why aren’t you in this chair?”

“It’s your chair,” Lemon Drop replied. He motioned a hoof toward the door. “Are you hungry, Pinkie?”

“I could eat. Why?”

The stallion stood up from the copilots chair, his long brown coat falling to the floor along with his front legs, and he cantered out of the cockpit. Pinkie Pie realized what he was doing after he had vanished around the corner and put a hoof up in vain to stop him. Then she brought it to her chin and sighed, leaning against the console beside her. A few moments later, Lemon Drop returned with two plates on a tray, each one carefully arranged with a sandwich and slice of fruit.

“Aww, Lemon,” Pinkie sighed as she took the plate from the tray, blushing. “You didn’t need to do that. I could’ve gotten my own food.”

“Nonsense,” Lemon replied, reclaiming his seat across the console from Pinkie. “You hired me to work for you.”

“Yes, but not to wait on me hand and hoof, silly!”

“Well, when it ceases being enjoyable, I’ll stop.” The stallion tapped his hoof against the console, and the machine projected the ship’s onboard navigation chart between them. He traced the route of their ship and determined they were only a minute away from Ord Mantell. “We’re gonna land soon, Pink. What’re we gonna do?”

“Party, of course,” she said aloofly, staring vaguely into the hyperspace tunnel. “Because it’ll be our one hundredth time getting past customs with illegal weapons. We can celebrate being such good smugglers!”

“And what if we get stopped?” Lemon asked with a frown.

“We won’t,” Pinkie reassured, finally tilting her head toward him.

“But this isn’t our old ship, Pink. We had to ‘jack this beauty when we were escaping the law on Quesh. I never had the time to run a background check on this hull, and I barely had the time to change the transponder code to our old one.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine.” She dismissed his concerns with the wave of her hoof. “It’s a Defender, after all. Probably belonged to some uptight Jedi Master or something.”

“Well, it’ll make a great smuggler’s vessel when we get it outfitted,” Lemon conceded. “If it did belong to a Jedi Master, he didn’t leave much on board.”

“Aaaaaactually,” Pinkie started, “I did find some Jedi gear in a secret compartment under the crew quarters. I sold it on the black market before we left Coruscant yesterday.”

Lemon Drop grimaced at Pinkie Pie, who merely shrugged in response. While it was completely on her prerogative to sell whatever contraband she found on the ship they’d stolen, he liked being informed on these things. Jedi artifacts fascinated the young stallion to no end, and sometimes Pinkie undervalued specific treasures in her hurry to make a profit. Lemon served as not only another gun, but also as an appraiser. “And what did you find?”

“Oh, just a set of robes, a lightsaber, maybe a couple little pyramid doohickeys-”

“Holocrons, Pinkie Pie,” Lemon corrected, his voice suddenly rather serious, “and how much did those go for?”

“Oh, a lot!” Pinkie replied through a pleased grin. “I can’t remember, but I got a few thousand for the pair.”

Lemon’s hoof was already sliding down his face. “Pinkie, holocrons are worth hundreds of thousands. You got ripped off, bigtime!”

“But they were empty, Lemony! I dragged all the files off of them and stored them here on the ship’s computers.”

Lemon rapidly moved his hooves across the console and opened all the recent files from the ships onboard computer. Sure enough, two large files entitled ‘glowy triangle thingy’ and ‘slightly more glowy triangle thingy’ sat unaltered in the document file labeled ‘Pinkie’s random junk.’ The stallion chuckled despite the serious face he’d tried so hard to maintain. “Even still, you could’ve gotten at least fifty for them both.”

“Ah well,” Pinkie said quickly. “We all make mistakes. You’re guilty of it, too.”

“Okay, I’ll admit, that mission to Kashyyyk could’ve gone better,” Lemon said apologetically, putting his hoof behind his head with a nervous smile.

“You told that wookie to jump off the tallest Wroshyr tree in the forest, Lemon.”

“I was having a bad day!”

An alarm sounded as the ship started to lurch out of hyperspace. The planet of Ord Mantell rushed into view and grew bigger and bigger with every passing millisecond. For a moment, it appeared that the ship would collide with the heavenly mass, but just when the entire cockpit viewing screen was filled with Ord Mantell, it ceased growing.

Pinkie Pie tapped a button on her personal console, and a female voice emitted from her communicator. “This is Ord Mantell flight control. Please state your identity and business.”

Immediately Lemon Drop began tapping his hooves frantically against the keypad, bringing up several files stored on the ship’s computer in visual holograms. Pinkie looked up at the images displayed between them and winked at her partner. “This is Captain Pikey Pin of the Corellian Defender ‘Saving Grace,’” she narrated. “I’m here escorting Jedi Master...Oh, geez, I always pronounce his name wrong...Ah-too-nah?”

“Master Atuna?” the voice on the speakers repeated. “What brings him to Ord Mantell?”

“Republic negotiations, of course,” Pinkie said matter-of-factly, donning a perfect uptight pilot’s demeanor. “And every second you keep us held up is another second we could be on the surface, trying to restore peace and saving lives.”

“Oh, of course,” the mare on the station quickly corrected. “But you must understand, procedure and everything. Now, Captain, regarding your transponder code-”

“I’m not a very patient woman, Fleet Control,” Pinkie snapped in false irritation. “Master Atuna had to change his transponder recently, and we need not explain to you why.”

“Oh,” came the dismayed reply. “Very well. You’re cleared for landing at docking bay four, Saving Grace. Please enjoy your stay.”

“We’ll try,” the smuggler said evenly before cutting the call. She looked up at Lemon with a huge grin. “It gets easier every time!”

“You’re a very convincing Republic pilot,” Lemon teased.

“Aww, thanks!” she replied with a grin. “And thank you for being so timely with that info, Lemony!”

Lemon smirked, knowing his sarcasm had once again gone over her head.

=====

On the nearby orbital station, a very flustered mare sat behind a console, tapping buttons and making calls to the surface below. A Jedi Master was coming to Ord Mantell to rid it of the Separatists, and preparations needed to be made for his arrival. She was about to patch through to the Republic command center when a sudden error message appeared on her console, alerting her that the transponder of the ship she’d just cleared matched Republic records for a known smuggling vessel. A quick search for the “Saving Grace” turned up a report of a ship hijacking on Quesh not even three days prior.

Immediately she canceled all of her procedures and sent a transmission to the embassy on the planet below. Another mare’s voice answered.

“Commander Spitfire here. What’s the situation?”

“Ma’am,” the mare on the station began, “we just cleared a Corellian Defender to docking bay four, but we just received word that said vessel was stolen from a Jedi Master on the other side of the galaxy three days prior. This Jedi is still on Quesh, but the mare on board the ship claimed to be escorting him to the surface.”

“So we have the smuggler from the Quesh incident on our hooves, eh?” Spitfire’s voice said warily. “We’ll handle this, Flight Control. Thank you for the heads up.”

“We’ll leave it to you, then, Commander. Over and out.”

=====

“Eat your sandwich,” Lemon reminded Pinkie as the ship descended into the atmosphere. The turbulence caused its occupants to jiggle slightly in their seats. “We won’t get another opportunity to eat until we take off again.”

“So how long do we have?” Pinkie asked, picking up the sandwich shakily.

“Until the Republic notices we didn’t land at docking bay four? About ten minutes, absolute max. But we’ll be gone in three.” Despite the majority of his focus being directed on his approach, Lemon barely noticed Pinkie chowing down hungrily on her sandwich out of the corner of his eye. She was devouring it with a ferocity he hadn’t seen before. “I thought you said you weren’t too hungry.”

“I wasn’t!” she exclaimed between bites. “But this is delicious!”

“It’s fresh. I bought some good produce while we were at market yesterday.”

“Thankies, Lemony. I haven’t had a sandwich this good since-”

A siren exploded inside the cockpit, deafening both smugglers as the ship shuddered relentlessly in its descent. Lemon’s eyes snapped to the the console, then up at Pinkie.

“We’re being traced,” he declared. “Signatures read Republic AA guns on the surface.”

“What?!” Pinkie exploded. “They just cleared us! Why would they-”

The Corvette rocked violently to the left, causing Pinkie to throw her plate. Her sandwich landed against the wall and broke apart. A single tear emitted from the smuggler’s eye as another jolt sent a second group of alarms blaring, this time warning the ship’s occupants of a hull breach.

“Pinkie, we’re going down!” Lemon screamed. “Tighten your webbing!”

Snapping back to the situation, Pinkie nodded quickly and reached to her belts, tightening each one individually. Just as the last buckle was fastened into the chair, the nose of the ship skimmed a low mountain and lurched backward. In a sickening frontflip, the Defender lost almost all forward momentum and started a nosedive toward the surface. It slowly turned onto its back and crashed violently into the valley below, devastating the hull. Pieces of the vessel, including the boarding ramp and parts of the engine compartment, had come completely undone.

A few minutes of silence ensued after the crash. Patrols of Separatists nearby rushed to the landing site to investigate, where they heard a mysterious banging noise coming from the ship. The emergency hatch on the top of the Defender shook and rattled until it finally came unhinged and a pink mare fell out of the hole with a loud scream. Just behind her, a wounded yellow stallion jumped to her side and nearly collapsed in pain. Both of them were bleeding in places, and neither of them were armed.

The Separatists observers, realizing there were survivors, moved in with rifles at the ready. They quickly surrounded the two smugglers, who put their hooves up weakly in surrender.

“Please, don’t shoot,” Lemon said weakly. “We’re unaffiliated.”

A bulky stallion in rugged tan combat armor lowered his rifle slowly and laughed menacingly. “Unaffiliated, ya’ say? Scour the wreck, boys!”

Immediately a detachment of the soldiers moved to the smoldering wreck and began crawling into the insides. Lemon and Pinkie watched in horror as they yelled shouts of both surprise and happiness and crawled away from the wreck with their shipment of Republic-grade weapons. The large pony still watching them shook his head with a tragic expression.

“A Republic ship carrying weapons. So much for...” He lifted his rifle back up and pointed it at Pinkie Pie. “...unaffiliated.”

“But we are!” she protested fearlessly. “Honest! We’re just-”

A single shot emitted from the stallion’s rifle, grazing Pinkie’s mane dangerously close to her ear. She squealed in surprise and fear, burying herself in Lemon’s shoulder.

“Shut up!” said the stallion loudly. “Boys, tie ‘em up and drag ‘em back to base. The Republic will want to ransom for their ‘unaffiliated’ weapon delivery -- and their pilots.”

Pinkie was suddenly ripped away from Lemon and dragged back onto her hind end. Just before her eyes were wrapped behind a blindfold, they met her friend’s for a brief moment. His eyes were light, calm, eerily so. It gave her a slight comfort as she went blind, just before a sharp pain in her neck forced her out of consciousness.

=====

When she awoke, Pinkie Pie sat straight up and gasped loudly. Just ahead of her was a wall of durasteel bars, perfectly aligned to deny escape. Lemon sat quietly beside her, holding her hoof in his, and when she turned to look at him, the smile on his face brought tears to her eyes.

“Lemon!” she cried as she again buried her face into him. This time, with her head resting on his chest, Lemon wrapped his other foreleg around her back and soothed it gently. “I’m so scared, Lemony. What’s going to happen to us?”

“When they fail to get a ransom from the Republic,” Lemon answered solemnly, “we’ll be executed. Publicly.”

The mare wailed aloud into his chest, causing him to flinch momentarily. “I don’t wanna die, Lemony! I’m too young, and rich, and beautiful!”

“Yes, I know.”

For a moment, she continued to cry on his chest. When his words registered, however, she lifted her head and stared pleadingly into his eyes. “W-wha?”

“You are too young to die.” His eyes drifted up to the jail wall. “And too beautiful. I have an idea to get you out of here, Pinkie Pie, but you’re going to need to follow my instructions very carefully. Do you understand?”

She put a hoof against his cheek and brought his face around to meet her gaze. “You...you think I’m beautiful?”

“Can we focus for a minute here?” he implored.

“Right, sorry. What were you thinking?”

His hoof slid off her back and down to his hoof, where he reached inside his large leather boots and removed a switchblade handle. It flipped open to reveal an undamaged knife. “Thankfully they didn’t strip us, otherwise we’d be in a tighter spot than I’d like to be in. I’m entrusting you with this knife. You can use it to overpower a guard and take his weapon. Then you need to get somewhere safe, assume a false identity, and get off Ord Mantell however you possibly can.”

“Lemony,” she said behind a sniffle, “what about you?”

“Forget about me. I need to stay here to get you out. Once they realize we’ve escaped, they’re going to lock down this level, and one of us will need to stay behind and activate the override. It’ll give the other a small window of escape before the Seps lock us down again. This is the only way, Pinkie Pie, trust me.”

His eyes were sorrowful, but somehow retained a glow that gave Pinkie some courage. She didn’t want to leave him, not after all they’d been through. “But, Lemon-”

“Pinkie, there’s no time for ‘buts’.” He slowly took the knife and pressed it against his throat. Before she could scream, he lifted it up and away, making a clean cut on his neck. Blood began to trickle slowly down from the incision, but he was still alive and breathing; it looked almost like a suicide attempt. “This is yours now. Call a guard, tell him I killed myself. Then, when he steps inside to investigate, overpower him and escape.”

“Lemon, you can’t!” Pinkie cried. “You’ve done so much for me. I can’t let you sacrifice yourself to save me like this!”

“Don’t worry,” he reassured, pressing his lips against her forehead. “You’re off to bigger and better things. Get away from Ord Mantell. Leave me.”

“Aww, t-that’s not fair...” she choked. “You’re m-making this impossible...”

“Goodbye, Pinkie...Remember me fondly, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Her hoof ran up his back in over his head. She yanked him to her eye level and pushed her lips against his for a brief moment, tears falling down her cheek in sorrow. “Shh,” Pinkie breathed shakily. “Y-you’re dead. Dead p-ponies don’t talk...”

Chapter 5

Chapter5

Mannett Point Separatist Base, Ord Mantell, Two Weeks Ago

“Aaaaagh!”

The shrill cry bounced off the metal walls of the underground Separatist fortress, echoing down to the lone guard stationed at the door leading to the makeshift prison cells. Turning on his hoof, the pony sentry rushed into the cell room and peered into the locked cage containing the only prisoners in the base. Two pilots, a mare and a stallion, just as he’d left them—except the stallion was lying on the ground and the mare was crying over his body. A small stream of smeared blood snaked across the concrete floor leading to the yellow pony’s neck, where blood was visibly flowing from a carefully made incision.

Without thinking, the guard opened the cell door and stepped inside. The moment his hoof hit the floor, Pinkie lunged forward with her switchblade and thrust it into the pony’s back. She repeated this action a few times before her victim finally fell to the previously stainless steel floor in a pool of slowly escaping blood. Once the guard was on the ground, Pinkie jammed the knife into his head as hard as she could. Tears began to trickle down her face as she slumped backwards, away from the body.

Lemon stood up, brushed his chin with a sweat-drenched sleeve, and cantered out of their cell. “Okay, you’ll have about two or so minutes before they realize the override is in effect. When the alarm shuts off, that’s your cue to punch the elevator button. When it takes you to the top floor, you’ll be home free.”

When no response came, he turned around and saw Pinkie Pie, still kneeling beside the dead Separatist guard, her eyes spilling tears onto the floor. “Lemony, will I ever see you again?” she implored.

“I hope so,” Lemon said with a sad smile. “Just promise me you’ll do as I say. Don’t come back for me, and I’ll make my way to you when I can.”

“Cross my heart, hope to-”

“We’re strained for time, Pinkie.”

She blinked at Lemon and slowly stood up from where she knelt, picking up the blaster rifle the dead guard had dropped. As she walked up to the stallion, rifle at her side, her ears started to droop in sadness. “I... Lemon?”

“Please, Pinkie,” he insisted, tugging gently on her coat sleeve. “It’s now, or we both die.”

All Pinkie could do was muster a weak nod and put a hoof up to his shoulder. Lemon led her through the door and into the hallway beyond. It split into two directions, with the elevator to the surface on one end and a series of doorways down the other. One lead to freedom, the other was a dead end, and Lemon knew which way he had to go.

“That elevator door is locked,” he explained, “so give me a minute to unlock it and jump in the moment it’s open. No hesitation.”

“What if there’s time for you to get here?” Pinkie asked pleadingly.

“Then I’ll run for it. But if things go wrong, please go without me.” As if on cue, a loud siren blared through the base, and red lights began to flash around the hallway. Pinkie Pie jumped in surprise, while Lemon turned toward the dead end hallway. “Get ready, Pinkie! This will be a very split-second escape.”

“Lemon, wait!” She held up a hoof to stop him, but he was already galloping away. When the stallion rounded a corner and disappeared, a tear rolled down her cheek as she, too, turned and went her own direction. It pained her heart that her smuggling companion, and her best friend, was sacrificing himself for her, but she wasn’t going to disobey his wishes. Pinkie trudged toward the elevator door, and just as she arrived, it swung open for her. As quickly as she could, she jumped inside, hit the button that read “top floor”, and poked her muzzle through the door. “Lemon! C’mon!”

Further down the hallway, Lemon emerged briefly from the room he’d turned into. He didn’t look at Pinkie; in fact, he looked back toward the room he’d come from, his face betraying an expression of pain and fear. Then, from the doorway, a large Separatist pony emerged with a rifle held at eye level with Lemon, who put his hooves on top of his head in surrender. Pinkie’s eyes widened in horror.

“Lemon!” she screamed as the elevator door swung shut and began its ascent. Then, beyond the clanking and churning of the decrepit lift rising up to the top floor, all went silent. No gun fire, no screams of pain. Pinkie slid to the floor in grief; even if Lemon was alive, he had just sacrificed himself for her. All she could do now was hope, pray, and escape. Despite her best efforts to see the bright side, like the fact that she was alive and equipped with a weapon, Pinkie could find no happiness in her current situation.

Anger and frustration began to spawn from her sorrow, fueled by her thoughts of futility and despair. If she couldn’t save Lemony, she would punish every Separatist that stood between her and freedom. It was what Lemon had wanted, after all; her escape was his final wish. Her teeth clenched and her heart racing, Pinkie stood back up to her hind legs and leveled her gun with the elevator door.

The tiny room jerked to a halt and Pinkie’s knees gave out and she collapsed to the floor, dropping her rifle and sending her hat across the elevator. When the door didn’t open, she immediately turned to the ceiling and noticed an escape hatch leading into the shaft. After retrieving her hat and gun, she jumped into the air and grabbed hold of the hatch, causing it to fall inward and release a retractable ladder into the confines of the elevator.

Climbing to the top, Pinkie poked her head up and looked around. The door leading to the top floor was just beside the elevator, a flaring red light circling above. It was apparent that the elevator had been intentionally stopped, so Pinkie crawled up through the escape hole and dragged herself toward the sealed door. A panel of buttons, switches and levers was mounted into the wall nearby, serving as an emergency button for when the elevator was broken. A moment of fiddling with the controls in the flashing red light and eerie creaking of the elevator shaft later, and the door swept open.

Two surprised Separatists turned to face Pinkie just as the door opened, but she was much quicker on the draw. She raised her rifle and loosed two bolts into one’s chest before rushing forward and beating the other over the head with the stock. As he collapsed to the floor in pain, she shot two bolts into his body, and the pony went limp.

She rushed down the hallway ahead of her and rounded the first corner. Just ahead was an unguarded archway leading outside, the cool breeze rushing into the building from beyond. Pinkie raced through the archway and away from the building, disappearing into the night under cover of darkness, illuminated only by the bright moon and stars reflecting off the sea surrounding Mannett Point. She had escaped; she had done as Lemon had asked.

=====

“And after that,” Pinkie concluded, “the alarms at the base were all, like, ‘Boooooooooop! Boooooooooop!’ But I was running really really fast, and they never caught me. I went to the Republic to try and get help. They didn’t even listen to me. I’m glad I left before they I.D.ed me, or I might’ve been arrested.”

Dash shook her head in bewilderment. “You stole a ship from a Jedi Master?”

“Yup! It was a real gem of a story, if you’d like to hear it.”

“Later. So this ‘Lemon’ character. You knew him for how long?”

“We’ve been partners for a little over a year,” Pinkie said thoughtfully. She looked up at the sky and put a hoof to her chin. “I met him on Coruscant. He was a petty thief when he bumped into me, but I took him in and fed him. Turned out, he was incredibly talented at smuggling.”

“Yeah. Look, it’s taking everything in me not to file an arrest warrant right now, if you know what I mean.” Dash stood up and brushed her chin, wiping away a dab of saliva that had formed in the corner of her mouth. “Pinkie, do you have any interest at all in locating this dude?”

“Sergeant, it’s... Well, yes. I at least want to believe he’s alright, and find him if he’s alive. But if he’s dead, I want to honor his sacrifice by escaping, like he asked me to. I still haven’t gotten off Ord Mantell yet, remember? That silly stallion made me promise not to go after him, and...”

“Well,” Dash cut in after her friend trailed off, “you don’t have to. I can.”

Pinkie glanced over at Dash and smiled. “You’d do that for lil’ ol’ me?”

“Yes, I would. You’re a friend, and I owe you more than just an apology for how I treated you yesterday. I know how you feel about this ‘stallion,’ but you shouldn’t let your respect for his wishes deter you from rescuing him if he needs help. Now, we’re going to raid that facility over there,” Dash pointed her hoof toward the island, where the Sep compound stood at the other end, “and that was where you last saw him. I can take a quick look around for him.”

“Dashie, that would be... thank you.” Pinkie walked forward and gave her friend a warm hug. Dash, who had not expected the sudden gesture, merely grunted in discomfort. “I do have one request though.”

“Let go of me and tell me, then.”

“Just... if he met his end there, bring something of him back.” She released Dash from the embrace and turned toward the island ahead. “A hat, a boot, a tooth. Something. Anything. I want to give him a burial of some kind. He deserved that and more for all he did for me.”

“Sure, Pinkie,” Dash replied, trotting toward the hill down to the shore, “but remember why we’re here. Deadly bomb first, dead criminals second.”

“Okie dokie lokie, Sergeant.”

The trooper nodded and took two steps toward the island. Fifteen feet below her, a jagged cliff led to a sandy beach where a sandbar connected the mainland to Mannett Point. Using her wings, Dash lept from the cliff and glided to the ground below, slowing her descent enough that her armor dragging her down was almost negated. Her hooves sank into the moist sand beside the ocean and cushioned her fall comfortably, letting her trot into the water a bit to release her remaining momentum.

Pinkie Pie, however, remained at the top of the cliff, her lack of wings prohibiting her from jumping such a long distance safely. “Sergeant, how do I get down?” she called.

Dash put her hooves up in an embracing gesture. “Jump! I’ll catch you!”

“That’s a reeeeeeeally long fall, Sergeant—”

“Just do it!”

Pinkie didn’t hesitate, immediately leaping from the cliffside toward Rainbow. As she fell, Dash braced her rear legs and centered her gravity, and when Pinkie collapsed into her, she expertly crouched into a backwards roll, letting her friend’s momentum travel down her body and absorb into the sand. They both collapsed into the shallow water nearby, temporarily disoriented but otherwise unharmed.

“Good catch,” Pinkie noted happily.

“Yeah, I learned that at boot camp,” Dash replied, the water seeping into her armor from the neck. She pushed Pinkie aside and stood up, letting her head droop down to allow the water to flow out. Trickles of salty ocean dripped down her white armor and back down into the sea. “We used it to get people down from the climbing walls. No harnesses or wings for those exercises.”

“I mean, I knew you were special forces, Dashie, but did you go through the same basic training the grunts at the base camp went through?”

“Oh yeah,” Dash said nonchalantly, waving a hoof in dismissal as she proceeded toward the island. The path was barely visible under the crystal clear water, a few inches deep along the natural sandbar during the low tide. “You get picked for SpecOps work when you display ‘exemplary service’ or some junk like that. You’re not born into it or anything, and we weren’t treated better, either.”

“Was boot camp bad?” Pinkie asked innocently, following behind the trooper.

“Ever been to hell?”

“No.”

“Well, it’s on Coruscant.”

Pinkie bounced up next to the Sergeant, splashing water in a small wave as she landed. “It couldn’t have been that bad, could it?”

“We were malnourished, always sleepy, worked from dawn to dusk with no breaks, and had to deal with some of the meanest ponies in the universe as drill instructors.”

“Oooh... Wow. That’s rough.”

“Yeah. You ever done five hundred pushups?”

“I can barely do five!” the smuggler answered behind a laugh.

“Don’t go to boot camp, then,” Dash stated simply. The conversation carried them within a few yards of the rocky cliff leading up to the island. Natural stairs seemed to form in the jagged slope, formed by the rapid tide that ceaselessly rose and fell through the channel. As she started to climb, the towering buildings ahead rose and rose until she finally hefted her legs over the final ridge and she stood below them. A flickering neon sign written in the sharp, block-like letters of Basic read “General Hospital”, and shingles were starting to peel from the roof of the facility.

Large craters dotted the suburbs of the stony island, the cement roads cracked in many places and entire walls blown away from their foundations. Separatist patrols lurked around the center of the small town, usually flanked by one or two massive security droids. Dash slinked from the alley she’d found herself in and retreated back to the cliffside she’d ascended, where Pinkie Pie was just tumbling over the ridge.

“They’ve got tons of guards trotting around,” Dash told her hurriedly. She looked back down the alley to check her six. “They didn’t see me, but there’s no way we’ll get through there unnoticed.”

“Where are we going, Sergeant?” Pinkie asked as she shook her boots out, sending droplets of water onto the concrete. “You never did mention why we were here.”

“We’re meeting Wraith somewhere,” Rainbow replied, peering around the corner to see if she’d been spotted. “I need to track her signal with my communicator, but I need to make sure we’re still undetected.”

“Right. Because being shot is bad. You might die!”

Dash rolled her eyes at Pinkie and plucked her all-purpose communicator from her belt, gingerly tapping the receiver button to turn the machine on. Instantly, it lit up with a small arrow pointing into the hospital building beside her, displaying a small figure that read ‘twelve meters away’. She turned to stare into the stone wall, as though she’d expected there to be a doorway, and grunted when there wasn’t one.

“She’s in there,” Dash commented. “But I don’t know where the door—”

The sound of a metal lock clicking open brought Rainbow’s attention to Pinkie Pie, who was pushing open a hinged door to the hospital basement. Dash hadn’t noticed the entryway behind the large pile of trash cans beside it, but Pinkie had seen it as they climbed over the clifftop. As it creaked open, she shoved a switchblade handle into her boot and walked inside. “Found it!” she called from within.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Dash said quickly, galloping toward the opening. “Good work.”

The basement room was dank and poorly lit, but a pony whose mane looked exactly like Pinkie Pie’s met Dash at the door. She looked up at the Sergeant and smiled really wide.

“Hiya, Sergeant!” said the pony happily.

Dash stopped at the door, looking down at the pony addressing her. It was clearly not Pinkie Pie, but the likeness was uncanny. “Wraith?”

“Yepperoony!” replied Wraith in a sing-songy voice. “But my friends call me Surprise! Come on down, Dashie, let me brief you on the op.”

As Surprise walked away, Dash stared after her in confusion, rooted to the ground. One Pinkie Pie was already a handful; she didn’t know I she could stand a second one on top of it. Slowly, Rainbow placed a hoof on the first rotten wood step leading down into the basement. They creaked under her weight unceremoniously, but held her up despite their condition. “Right, so, uh are you related to Pinkie Pie?”

“Who’s Pinkie Pie?” asked Surprise, fluttering her white wings in confusion.

“I am!” Pinkie exclaimed, popping her head out of a wooden barrel in the corner that wreaked of chocolate. “I found the hospital’s chocolate milk supply!”

“Oh, is that what that is?” Surprise said rapidly, her eyes wide in jealousy. “Do want.”

“Umm, Lieutenant Wraith?” Dash interjected. “About my mission—”

“Oh, right right right. Lemme brief you quickly.” Surprise pointed to the table next to her, where a single glowlight illuminated a large map. “Those are the schematics for the building just across the street. As you can see, there’s a really big storage room in the back of the facility, and we have reason to believe our bomb is there. So you just need to go in and find it. Easy peasy, right Sergeant?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” replied Rainbow warily. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Umm, let’s see. You might want to bring a gun. It’s guarded.”

Dash grimaced. “No, seriously?”

“Oh yes,” Surprise confirmed with a nod. “But not very heavily. So you know, a lot of the Seps have been funneling away from the island and heading to their base on the other side of the island. I think they’re moving the bomb today, Dashie, so the pressure's on. Other than that, just have fun!”

“Right. Fun. So, how do we get inside? There’s a swarm of Seps between us and that building.”

Surprise grinned and put a hoof to the console on her armored foreleg. A violent earthquake rocked the ground as a thunderous explosion decimated a nearby building—Dash recognized the sound as a specific explosive she’d been taught to identify and disarm in SpecOps training. “That will have them preoccupied,” replied Surprise happily. “You’ve got your window. Better hop to it.”

“Are you coming with us, Lieutenant Wraith?” Dash asked quickly as she reached for her rifle.

“Oh, Dashie, not so formal! Call me Surprise! And, uh, I’ll join you later. Gotta stay here and...” Her gaze drifted to the vat of milk that Pinkie had shoved her face into again. “...take care of a few things. Clean up and stuff.”

Dash rolled her eyes again and turned on her hoof toward the door. Pinkie raced after her as she departed, dripping sticky liquid from her clothes and smacking her lips. Both ponies could hear the sound of furious slurping behind them as they left the cellar and emerged outside again. Just as Wraith—Surprise, Dash corrected herself—had said, every Separatist in the vicinity of the target building was flocking toward the far end of the island, away from Dash and Pinkie.

“Hurry, Pinkie,” she said urgently, taking a step into the cement courtyard between her and the building. “We need to get inside before those Seps see us.”

Pinkie Pie didn’t reply, which surprised Dash enough to make her turn around. She was standing in the alleyway next to the hospital, staring at the large building across the street, eyes wide in curiosity and awe. Dash recognized it as the building where the ZR-57 was supposedly being held, but Pinkie only saw a potential grave for a loved one.

“Is this... the same building you broke out of?” Dash asked.

Pinkie Pie nodded slowly, mouth slightly agape.

“You going to be alright?”

Another nod. Rainbow started toward the building and raised her rifle, preparing to break in with as much force as necessary. She tapped her hoof against the control panel and, surprisingly, the door swung open on its own. Cautiously, she peered around the corner and saw nopony standing guard inside. A flashing yellow light above an elevator door at the far end of the room was the only sign of movement within.

Pinkie Pie slowly sneaked into the room, passing Dash at the door, and looked around slowly. “I have a bad feeling about this, Sergeant.”

“Yeah,” Dash replied, checking her six before locking the door behind her. “I know what you mean. Nothin’ doin’ but going ahead, though, right?”

When no immediate reply came, Dash looked back to Pinkie, who was standing next to the elevator at the end of the room. The door before her slid open and, after selecting the button that read “bottom floor”, the two friends descended into the bowels of the repurposed Separatist base.

As the small chamber lurched aggressively downward, Pinkie’s eyes fluttered shut momentarily. “Oooh,” she murmured.

“What?” Dash said, looking at her friend with concern.

“It’s just... Lemon. He might be down here still.”

“If he’s here, Pinkie, we’ll find him.”

Pinkie smiled weakly at Rainbow, who returned the gesture just as half-heartedly. Secretly, she wished this ordeal with the mysterious stallion her friend referred to as Lemon Drop to be over. It was causing Pinkie more concern than she realized, to the point where it was tangibly noticeable. Her hushed tone, her morbid expression, even her tense stance; Pinkie Pie was obviously troubled. If this was going to be an issue, Dash prayed it wouldn’t affect her when it mattered most.

The elevator lurched to a halt and the door creaked open. The proceeding hallway was barren of life, but across the right wall was a long stroke a dried blood, smeared in a perfect arc as though it had been brushed on by a painter. Pinkie Pie whimpered softly but followed behind Dash as the pair exited the elevator, the latter with gun raised and eyes peeled. To the right was a door leading to a room full of metal cages, probably for keeping and torturing prisoners.

Dash pivoted into a door leading left and instantly raised her rifle, only to drop it again in surprise and awe. Just beyond the room beyond was a glass window overlooking a massive indoor hangar, with swarms of Separatists scurrying around below. Pinkie pushed her face against the window and inhaled slowly.

“Dashie, look!” she exclaimed, pointing her hoof at the glass. “It’s your bomb!”

Dash took a few steps forward and peered further down into the hangar. Sure enough, four ponies dressed in tan uniforms were pushing a frighteningly large bomb encased in metal onto a carrier shuttle, no doubt to ship it somewhere else on the planet to be outfitted and deployed. Along with the bomb, several ponies in shackles were being driven onto the shuttle, each one devoid of clothes and ragged with sickness and hunger.

One of those ponies was a yellow earth pony stallion with tousled mustard hair.

“Lemon!” Pinkie shrieked. Two guards below heard the scream and looked up at the window. When they saw Dash and Pinkie, faces pressed innocently against the glass, they raised their rifles and fired on the control room above them. Thinking quickly, Dash wrapped her hooves around Pinkie and pulled back with all of her strength, just quick enough to save her from a shot that merely singed her hat. The fedora flew backwards off the mare’s head and landed on the faded steel plating just in front of the doorway, and just as it landed, a loud siren blared across the room, the hangar, and throughout Mannett Point. Red lights also began swirling overhead along with the sound of frantic scurrying below.

“What the hay, Pinkie Pie?” Dash barked. “You just blew our cover!”

“I did?” she replied innocently.

“Now we need to find a way down there.” Dash stood up and brushed her armor off with her hooves before peering around the frame of the exit. Further down the hall was another set of doors, the last of which appeared to be a stairwell. The trooper immediately bolted toward the stairs, only to be abruptly stopped by the sound of the elevator at the far end of the hallway opening. She turned around to see a massive stallion in rugged tan combat armor slowly lift his head and make eye contact with her.

“Republic soldiers, huh?” he said loudly, his bellow echoing off the lonely steel walls. “We cornered your friend outside, the white pegasus covered in chocolate milk, and now I’ve got you.”

“I’m not goin’ down without a fight, bucko,” Dash countered, raising her own rifle.

“I’ve had enough—”

Both fighters suddenly stopped bickering at the sight of a pink earth pony slowly walking out of the command booth halfway between them. She turned on the spot toward the stallion and flipped her hat into the air with her teeth, catching it on the top of her head.

“Oooh, ho ho ho!” The Separatist fighter shouldered his rifle and put a hoof against the wall nonchalantly. “Hello again, lass. Didn’t think I’d forget you, did I?”

“Where’s Lemony?” Pinkie asked, narrowing her eyes.

“The stallion? On the ship going to our base. He’s gonna be slaughtered like an animal, so I hope you said your goodbyes.”

“Pinkie, c’mon!” Dash called out, stepping into the stairwell beyond Pinkie. The stallion at the end of the hallway started to walk forward, but she didn’t move. “We need to stop that bomb!”

“Go ahead, Dashie,” Pinkie replied coolly. “I’ve got this.”

Dash tilted her head curiously, then nodded and bolted down the stairs. Blaster fire erupted behind her a moment later, drowned out by her armored hooves hitting the metal stairs as she almost literally flew down them. She came to a door and kicked it open, landing inside the hangar just under the command booth window. Shards of broken glass littered the floor before her, and several surprised Separatists turned to look as she busted in.

Bolts of hot red energy shot past Dash as she tucked and rolled toward the nearest cover, a massive loading crate made of durasteel plating. She pushed her hoof into her fanny pack and pulled out a sticky bomb, priming it and hurling it over the box. It exploded violently behind her and rocked the container she was hiding behind, sending two gunponies flying into the wall beside her with a sickening thud.

The distinct sound of thrusters kicking off caught Dash’s attention again, and she turned from behind her cover to see the transport shuttle starting to take off.

“Aww, shoot!” She lifted her rifle and fired a few shots at the ship, which were absorbed by the flickering rear shields. One shot broke through and connected with the port engine, sending sparks and smoke across the hangar bay and stunning several charging Separatist guards. The ship, however, still trundled away from the hangar and out into the open sky, turning toward the sea with a trail of black smog following behind it.

Her attention shifted to the remaining few guards that were still shaking their heads and trying to stamp out the small fires that had ignited on their manes and tails. Not wanting to take any more lives than necessary, Dash galloped back toward the stairs and ascended them as fast as she could. Pinkie Pie was not at the top, nor was the large Separatist gunpony who had blocked the elevator before. Figuring one of them was at the top, she hit the button that read ‘top floor’, and nearly fell as the sudden lurch of the elevator going up shook the floor.

When the door opened again, it was not Pinkie Pie who met Rainbow Dash at the door, but Surprise. “Hey, Dashie!” she said happily.

“Lieutenant!” Dash quickly replied, looking around the room beyond frantically. “Where’s Pinkie Pie? Did she come by here?”

“Refresh my memory,” Surprise said quizzically. “Who’s Pinkie Pie?”

“The pink earth pony who showed you the chocolate milk.”

“Oh, her! No, I didn’t see her come up.”

Dash marched out of the elevator, nearly bowling over Surprise, and looked outside. Several dead Separatists lay strewn across the courtyard outside, and an equal number of reprogrammed assault droids were likewise smoldering and sparking sporadically where they laid. “What happened? I thought you got captured.”

“Noooooo, that’s silly! You can’t catch me,” Surprise sang. “These big meanies came over here because you guys triggered an alarm. I tried to warn them, they were gonna die if they got too close, but... yeah. How was your mission?”

“The bomb got away,” Dash admitted, hanging her head. “Being transported in some old shuttle. I managed to blow a fuse in one of the engines, but it still got away.”

“You mean that smoking hulk of dirt that flew by?” Surprise replied. “I got a heading on that sucker as it was leaving. Wouldn’t have seen it but for the smoke. Nice work, Dashie.”

“But I failed! They got away!”

Dash’s comlink buzzed suddenly as Twilight’s voice interjected. “Yes, that’s true, but the rest of Wonderbolt Squad is already en route to intercept them at the Sep’s main base of operations. Lieutenant Wraith, you are to escort the Sergeant back to base, then rendezvous with the others at the Volcano camp.”

“Aye aye, Twi,” Surprise said happily, saluting the disembodied voice.

“At ease, Lieutenant,” came the disembodied reply.

“Twilight, what about me?” Dash suddenly asked.

“You’re not going, Sergeant,” said Twilight slowly. “Commander Spitfire specifically ordered you to stay behind on this one.”

“What?! Why?”

“She didn’t say. But she did give you a direct order.”

Dash clicked her communicator off in a huff, snorting loudly in anger. Surprise put a hoof on her back and smiled. “Hey, cheer up, Dashie. You get to go on a break, huh? Should be fun.”

“I’d rather be in the thick, with you guys,” Dash replied glumly.

“Trust me, not on this one, you don’t.” Surprise started in the direction of the fort, only to stop a few steps later and turn back around to face Dash. “You comin’?”

“What about Pinkie Pie? I should probably go try to find her.”

“If she’s anything like me, she’ll turn up later,” Surprise replied. “C’mon, Dashie, let’s go already! I have orders, and one of them is to escort you back to Fort Garnik!”

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Fort Garnik, Republic Command Post entrance

Dash waved goodbye to Surprise as her speeder zipped away from the fort, leaving her alone on the busy streets of Fort Garnik. To her immediate left was the Command Post, probably the last place on Ord Mantell Dash wanted to be, but she marched up the concrete ramp and through the doors anyway. Twilight Sparkle was waiting for her inside, sitting in an armchair reading a book. She looked up only when Rainbow approached her.

“Oh, Sergeant. Welcome back. Take a seat with me, relax.” The unicorn set the book down across her legs to hold her page and brushed her bangs away from her eyes before motioning to a chair beside her. “Sorry about your smuggler friend.”

“Pinkie?” Dash clarified, bewildered.

“No, Dash, I meant Lieutenant Wraith,” replied Twilight with a grimace.

“Oh.” She sat down next to the Lieutenant and sighed. “I’m sure she’s okay. I kinda wanna go back and try to find her though.”

“Later, perhaps. Right now we have orders to wait here at the fort, and I don’t intend to deviate from that order. So rest would do you well, too, Sergeant. Sit with me. I’ve got a book that might interest you.”

“Nah, I’m not into reading. Not whatever you’re reading, anyway.”

Twilight shrugged and picked her book back up, scanning the pages at a lightning pace. It seemed peculiar to Dash that her commanding officer was reading an actual paper tome rather than a holobook or listening to an audio file. In fact, a lot of the things around Ord Mantell seemed to be rather old fashioned, like the metal jail cells back in the Separatist base at Mannett Point, or the paper blueprints Surprise had shown her under the hospital.

“Twilight, why is everything here so... old?” Dash asked finally after an awkward moment of silence.

“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, glancing up at the Sergeant warily.

“Your book, for example. It’s paper. Why not a holobook?”

“We use what we have access to, Sergeant. The Republic doesn’t give us diddly-squat for funding out here, so whatever old books are lying around is all we have.”

Dash stood for a moment, mouth agape, staring blankly at her CO. “...Seriously? Twilight, does the Republic even care about Ord Mantell?”

“Enough to station troops,” came the stoic response. “Not enough to station them comfortably.”

“Do you, like, care, at all?”

“Of course I do,” Twilight said, glaring intently into her book. “The Republic shouldn’t just leave Ord Mantell to fend for itself, and the troops we have here deserve far better. But I don’t have the administrative power to do anything it about, so I sit here and follow orders, like a good little soldier. Like you, Sergeant.”

“You feel strongly about this, huh?” Dash asked sympathetically.

“Well, it’s hard not to, with all the unnecessary suffering and pain the troops out here have to deal with because the Republic can’t afford to send a few measly doctors or holobooks. But you do what you can and soldier on, right, Sergeant?”

Dash was about to agree when a squeal from somewhere beyond the room drew both soldiers’ attentions away from the conversation. Another one followed closely after, causing both ponies to stand up and move toward the sound. In the hallway stood a burly Republic officer holding a young Pegasus filly in one hoof and reeling his other back for a punch. On either side of him were two soldiers still in uniform, holding their guns at their sides.

The young filly Dash instantly recognized as Private Scootaloo, the concerned young soldier that had approached her last night.

“And this must be Lieutenant Virk,” Rainbow thought aloud, crossing her hooves across her chest menacingly.

Virk’s head cocked toward Dash and a smile broke out across his face. He dropped Scootaloo and turned toward the Sergeant. “Well well well. A Wonderbolt. Yeah, I’m Lieutenant Virk. I see you’ve heard of me, but then again, we wouldn’t be chattin’ with the Private here if you hadn’t, huh?”

“Lieutenant Virk,” Twilight chirped, “I’m placing you under arrest for murder, assault of a Republic soldier, and dissension of ranks.”

“Oh yeah, Twilight?” Virk sneered. “You and what army?”

The two ponies escorting him raised their rifles toward Twilight, who put her hooves slowly on top of her head. Dash, however, instinctively grabbed her own gun and likewise leveled it with Virk, who also put his hooves up.

“I ain’t scared of you, Virk,” Dash said defiantly. “This ends here.”

“You tell ‘em, Sergeant!” squealed Scootaloo from where she lay on the floor.

Virk’s henchponies trained their rifles on Dash, who, realizing she was outgunned, hesitated from shooting. In the moment of hesitation, Virk himself shot his foreleg down to his holster and whipped out a pistol, aiming it at the Sergeant. “I don’t think you get it, punk. This little island is my kingdom, and you ain’t gonna mess that up for me, ya’ hear?”

Dash rapidly looked from the henchponies to Virk and back again several times before she sighed and dropped her rifle on the floor next to her.

“Much better.” Virk took a step toward Dash and pushed the barrel of his rifle against her neck. “Now, I’d hate to let such a pretty face go to waste, yeah? How’s about you and me go to the back room. I’ve got a few extra credits lying around. We can buy some drinks, have a little party, just you and me. What do ya’ say?”

“Kiss my flank,” Rainbow whispered. Then she spat in the stallion’s left eye, causing him to take a step backwards and scream in surprise. Twilight instantly rolled forward and picked up Dash’s rifle, spinning in a crouch to look at the very confused underlings that watched the scene unfold in dumbfounded silence. She pressed the trigger twice and released two bursts of fire, downing both ponies in a matter of seconds.

Rainbow Dash followed up her surprise spit attack by ramming her hoof into Lieutenant Virk’s chest, causing him to double over in pain. Then she brought her hind leg up and crushed his chin on her knee while his face was low to the ground. In a fit of pain, Virk stumbled backwards onto the floor and screamed for a few seconds before Twilight brought the butt of Dash’s rifle down on his forehead, knocking him unconscious temporarily.

A bruised Private Scootaloo stood up shakily and smiled a toothy grin. “Thanks for the help, Sergeant. Lieutenant. I really appreciate it.”

“No pony in this base should ever get away with that level of corruption,” Twilight responded with a resolute smile. “We just do what we can-”

“-and soldier on,” Dash finished, winking at Twilight. “Well done, Lieutenant. I didn’t know you had moves like that up your sleeve.”

“I may have told you before that I’m not much of a ‘combat’ type, but I certainly didn’t get to where I am today on good looks and intellect.” Twilight bent down and flipped the unconscious Lieutenant Virk onto his stomach before slapping electrocuffs around his hooves. “And, please, not so formal. We’re on break, remember?”

“Yeah, I forgot.” Rainbow looked over at Scootaloo and returned the admiring smile she saw on the little filly’s face. “You gonna be alright, kid?”

“Yes, sir, Sergeant Rainbow Dash, sir! I feel good.”

“At ease, Private. Go clean yourself up and alert somepony that there’s been a fight upstairs.”

“Sir, yes sir!” As Scootaloo started to walk away, she looked back briefly and smiled another toothy smile before disappearing around the corner. Twilight stalked up to Rainbow Dash and put a hoof around her back.

“Feels good, doesn’t it, Dash?” she teased.

“What?”

“Having a fan. Somepony who looks up to you for your heroics and your accomplishments.”

“Oh, that.” Dash’s mouth slowly crested into a full smile. “I have a fan?”

“The Private certainly took a shine to you,” Twilight replied.

“It does feel good. Who knew that doing the right thing could feel so rewarding, huh?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and let go of Dash. Together they walked into the briefing room, where a few medics were busy preparing a stretcher. At the far end of the room was a large console with a blinking red light in the center. Rainbow wandered over to it and stared at it vacantly for a few seconds before turning to see what Twilight was doing. The Lieutenant did not appear to notice the light. Beside the console was a decrepit old headphone unit, which Dash did not hesitate to pick up in her curiosity.

“Hello?” she sang into the phone mockingly.

Twilight wheeled around to look at Dash at the sound of her voice.

“Hello? Who is this?” came a voice on the other end of the phone. Dash jumped in surprise. “Where’s Lieutenant Sparkle?”

“Oh, uh, she’s right here.” Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Rainbow held the phone out to Twilight with an apologetic frown on her face. “For you, Twilight.”

Twilight snatched the headset from Dash quickly and held it up to her ear. “This is Twilight. Uh-huh. Wait, slow down and repeat that... WHAT? Then send everypony else in after them... What do you MEAN there’s nopony else? What about our garrison at the volcano camp? Find somepony and get them in there!” Then she slammed the headphones down on the receiver and sighed. “The Wonderbolts are out of comm range. We’ve lost contact.”

“What?!” Dash yelled. “What happened to them?”

“Unknown. Last signals were promising, but then everything went dark. They might have found the bomb and walked into a dead zone.”

“Oh my gosh, we need to help them!” Rainbow started toward the door, but stopped halfway and turned back to Twilight. “Or are you going to stop me?”

“Why would I stop you?” Twilight responded, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“Aren’t you going to spout some nonsensical reg about how I’m disobeying a direct order? Or about how it’s too dangerous to go alone?”

“Both statements are true, so it seems fitting that I go along with you.”

Rainbow Dash blinked back at Twilight, who took the silence as a hint and reached down under the console for something. After a moment, she popped back up holding a massive autocannon in both hooves. The gun was nearly as tall as Twilight was, and looked strong enough to punch a hole in the command post wall. Dash’s jaw dropped.

“I want one of those!” Dash cried, reaching her hooves toward the autocannon with a dab of saliva running down her tongue.

“Perhaps with a little money and some training,” Twilight reassured her. “The Republic takes care of her Commandos when it comes to things like equipment requisitions.”

“Wait, you’re a Republic commando?”

“Sure am.” The unicorn tapped her earpiece and a small probe leapt from the storage unit on her autocannon. It immediately floated over her head and showered her in a mist of kolto. “Lieutenant Grade 1 Twilight Sparkle of Wonderbolt squad, and Republic Commando first class, medical support and advance reconnaissance specialization.”

Dash’s mouth twisted into an impressed smile as she basked in Twilight’s awesomeness.

=====

The speeder bike zipped out of Fort Garnik and sped across the rugged mesa of Avilatan Island. Rainbow Dash, hugging Twilight as she drove the speeder, took the time of transition to look around the island as they drove past it. Sharp gorges and long stone plains seemed to be what Ord Mantell was made of, despite having such a colorful and vivid blue sky and sea all around the tiny slice of land the Republic had planted the fort on. Even the buildings of the fast disappearing Fort Garnik looked like rusted heaps of metal and stone to Dash, blending into the dreary landscape as she drove away from them.

Just beyond the village was a monstrous volcano, large enough to be seen from all around the island, but only truly frightening when within proximity of the base. It was spewing smoke into the sky at a higher rate than what Dash considered safe, and every so often a trickle of molten lava flowed from the summit toward the white beach below. The sharp contrast of the tranquil blue ocean against the fiery, ashen pinnacle caused her throat to tighten.

And Twilight was driving right toward it.

“Uh, Twi?” Dash yelled from the back seat as the speeder continued on towards to volcano. “We should probably avoid that.”

“The Sep base is inside the volcano, Sergeant,” Twilight replied equally loudly. “We set up an encampment not far from the entrance.”

“But it’s an active volcano! That can’t be safe!”

“No one ever said the Seps weren’t crazy. What better place to set up a secret base than in a volcano, the last place anypony would ever go looking for them in.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Obviously it’s not a secret anymore.”

“We sure didn’t know about it until today,” Twilight said. “Your tracking device led us here, Sergeant.”

At first, Dash felt proud to have performed such a heroic and wonderful act. When her chest stopped puffing out, her heart sank. “I would never have gotten here without Pinkie Pie.”

“We’ll look for your Smuggler friend later, Sergeant,” Twilight barked. “Focus on the mission right now. I need you on top of your game. If the Wonderbolts couldn’t tackle this alone, then we won’t have an easy time of this ourselves.”

A cocky smile crept onto Dash’s mouth. “I haven’t met a Sep who could kill me yet.”

Twilight smiled as well, reaching her hoof up to her ear and lowering her mouthpiece that hung there. “This is Lieutenant Sparkle calling Volcano Base. Requesting clearance to hot-drop.”

“Copy that, Lieutenant,” came a voice from over the microphone. “You're cleared to drop. Glad to see you outside in the fresh air for once, Lieutenant.”

Dash heard an annoyed snort from Twilight before she cut the call off. Twisting her other hoof back, Twilight pushed the speeder bike a little faster and zipped around a tall rock spire at the base of the volcano. A hidden path spiraling upwards into the mountainside became visible for the first time, carved into the rock by centuries of lava flow. The bike sped up the path for what felt like an eternity to Dash until a small clearing came into view, where an earth pony in Republic armor was waving a hoof.

Twilight whipped the bike to the side and came to an abrupt halt, leaping from the driver’s seat before it had stopped moving. A very unprepared and startled Rainbow Dash could do little more than grasp her friend’s waist and hold on tightly. Both ponies fell to the ground in an ungraceful manner, eliciting a few chuckles from the nearby soldiers watching the scene unfold before them.

“You need to work on your dismount,” Twilight said as she stood up, brushing Dash off of her.

“You need to not jump off of moving vehicles!” she fired back.

The unicorn rolled her eyes and looked at the armored earth pony that had flagged them down. “What’s the situation, Corporal?”

“Entrance is just up this hill,” rattled off the soldier quickly with a haphazard salute. “Alarms have been blaring all morning, ever since that shuttle arrived. The tracking beacon is still active inside the volcano, ma’am.”

“Still active?” Twilight repeated, putting a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Either they’re dumber than we give them credit for, or they want us to follow them inside. How many guards outside?”

“None, ma’am.”

“It’s a trap!” Dash interjected suddenly. “Nopony would forget to station guards, not even these stupid Seps.”

“Unless they need everypony inside to haul supplies,” Twilight countered. “Or, more likely, one really big bomb. But you’re more than likely right, Sergeant. Something’s amiss, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

“And rescue our squad,” Dash added.

“Of course.” Twilight pulled her autocannon off her shoulder and pulled back on the release lever. A large cylinder popped off the front of it and landed on the ashen stone below her, but was quickly replaced by a new one from her backpack. “Lock and load, boys. We’re moving.”

Dash nodded and slung her own rifle up to her shoulder, pointing it ahead of her. Twilight gave a motion of her hoof, signaling for Rainbow to take point, and the remaining three soldiers filed into a line behind her as she started moving. The path bent around the corner of the volcano, obstructing the large metal archway that proceeded from view. Just under the arch was a large metal blast door, left deliberately ajar.

As carefully as she could, Dash crept up to the metal door and pressed her back against it, peering inside with her nose and her rifle. Jets of fire and molten lava arched and bubbled from underneath a series of heat-shielded causeways that zigzagged to the other side of the mountain from the inside. Near the top of the stairs was another entrance leading deeper into the compound. Dash took two steps inside and gave the all-clear to the four soldiers behind her.

The ascent was painstaking and slow, with wary glances and cautious corner-creeping after every step. Not a single pony could be found as the five brave Republic soldiers climbed the metal stairs. A jet of magma arched into the railing beside Twilight as she was walking, impacting on the heat shield and ricocheting back down to the lava pool below.

“Hey, Twilight?” called Dash from the front of the line. “Isn’t it odd that the Seps use all this outdated equipment around the island, but they have heat shields here?”

Twilight froze for a second, then nodded slowly. “It is.” She instantly bent over and inspected the purring shield generator underneath her bridge. Printed across the top of it was a bright white Imperial insignia, slightly faded but still clearly visible. “How very peculiar...”

Dash stepped up the last stair on the causeway and marched across a solid stone platform to the door that led further into the volcano. Ahead was a bright light that seemed to lead outside again. “Lieutenant, there’s light ahead!”

The three troopers that had accompanied them up the volcano quickly formed up behind Dash, pointing their guns down the hallway towards the light. Twilight caught up after a moment, having taken a moment to inspect the Imperial insignia further. As a squad, the five troopers moved toward the light of the cavern with weapons raised and eyes ahead. Dash, still at point, stepped into the light and jerked forward as her plated hoof hit metal. She looked around and couldn’t believe her eyes.

As far as she could see was ocean, ocean and more ocean. Looking straight down, it appeared that she was standing on air. Boxes and objects nailed under tarps levitated on either side of her, as though they cared that there was nothing underneath them. Confused, Dash took a step forward and sent a wave of ripples out from the spot where her hoof landed, flickering an invisible shield to life and revealing metal plating below it.

Twilight pushed past the three frightened and hesitant soldiers and joined Dash on the invisible platform.

“Stealth technology,” Twilight said, as though answering an unspoken question. She held her autocannon up and fired into one of the floating tarps, which sent sparks into the air and eventually burst into flames. A large metal landing pad flickered to existence underneath Dash. “Easy to tell what it is after you’re already standing on it. You took a risk stepping into the light like that without looking ahead.”

“I’m a pegasus,” Dash replied with a shrug. “I’d’ve been fine.”

“Not with all that armor, you wouldn’t have.” Twilight looked back toward the mountain and tilted back to peer toward the summit. “I’ll bet this volcano is covered in landing pads just like this. Undetectable from orbital scans. How did the Seps get this tech way out here on Ord Mantell, though?”

Dash sauntered toward the flaming tarp and peeled it back carefully with her hoof. On the smoldering machine was another white Imperial insignia painted onto the metal. “Imps, Lieutenant. See?”

“Imperials?” Twilight said sharply. “This close to the Core? If that’s the case, the Republic is in way more trouble than we previously thought.”

At that moment, rappel ropes dropped onto the landing pad from somewhere above. The distinct sound of descender carabiners rubbing against metal filled the air as soldiers began pouring onto the deck from an invisible platform higher up the mountain. A moment later, the three soldiers still standing in the hallway rolled for cover as ponies in tan uniforms swarmed into cavern behind them. Blaster fire erupted across the pad as they took potshots at Twilight and Dash.

Twilight reacted first, tapping her earpiece and whispering a voice command into it. Her armor began glowing, and soon after a bubble of energy lifted off of her body, encircling her completely in a shield. Shots rebounded upwards as they connected with Twilight’s reactive shield as she began to return fire with her revolving autocannon, putting her line of fire straight down the hallway. Separatists began dropping in quick succession as she mowed them down.

“Sergeant, above me!” she cried without looking around, too focused on make eye contact.

Dash looked up and saw ponies rappelling down the ropes above. She raised her rifle and started firing at them as she scurried toward the nearest cover, a durasteel crate large enough to hide behind. One pony coming down the rope took a bolt to the chest and slid down the rope, slamming into two more with his dead weight, causing all three to crash into the platform with a sickening snap. They didn’t move to get up.

Realigning her sights from behind cover, Dash fired two quick shots with as much precision as she could muster, popping two more ponies high up the rappel cables, causing them to fall on their comrades below them. With every Sep that fell, however, it seemed that two more would take their place. Rainbow Dash kept firing anyway, but she couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed.

One of the Republic soldiers had taken shelter behind a crate like Dash had, and was also firing up into the rappel lines. A rope dropped in front of his face, causing him to lose his focus momentarily to identify the object. Within two seconds, a hulking Separatist with an autocannon of his own landed in front of him and kicked him hard in the chest, sending him screaming down to the ocean several hundred meters below.

Dash took notice of the pony and instantly recognized him as the stallion that Pinkie had encountered earlier at the Mannett Point base. He had a long scar across his eye that had not been present before, but when he turned toward the Sergeant and smiled grimly at her, that detail seemed less relevant. Instantly, Dash reached to her belt and primed a thermal detonator, hurling it toward him with all her strength.

In response, the stallion lifted his rifle up and caught the semtex against the body of his gun. Then he threw the rifle to the side, where it came to rest beside of the remaining two Republic soldiers. A violent explosion rocked one off the side of the pad and put the other into the wall, bleeding and full of shrapnel. Weaponless, the stallion pulled a dagger out of his belt and charged toward Rainbow Dash.

Instinctively she took a step back and nearly tumbled backwards. A quick glance behind her instantly alerted Dash to the fact that she was teetering on the edge of the deck. Without any good options remaining, she braced her hind legs and pretended to ready herself to receive the charge fully. She watched as the stallion dropped to all fours and charged recklessly toward her, waiting until he was too close to stop. Then she fell backwards off the deck and spread her wings out, lifting her weight up with much difficulty.

Surprised, the stallion tried to correct his course, but careened off the side after her regardless of his efforts. He plunged down to the ocean below as Dash struggled to maintain her flight. Her armor was not designed to be flown in, and as Twilight had said, it was not a doable task for any period of time. Her wings ached after only a few seconds of flight, and her strength began to fade after a few more. Just as they were about to give out, Dash felt something hard tackle into her and pull her down toward the ocean below.

Thinking it was a Separatist trying to bring her down, she struggled and squirmed to get free. But a sudden sensation of sickening pull and tug snapped her to, and she realized it wasn’t a Sep holding onto her, but Twilight. The unicorn cast her teleportation spell and materialized both herself and Rainbow back onto the landing pad above. When they looked around, they were surrounded by Separatists, all holding their guns level with them.

“Freeze, Republic scum!” one of them cried. “Put your weapons on the ground and your hooves on your head, now!”

Dash’s hope started to fade and her body began to tense. She started to comply when the sudden sound of engines revving drew her attention toward the horizon. A Republic troop carrier, with passenger bay door wide open, suddenly settled just beside the landing pad, and a dozen heavily armored ponies with rifles, one of whom Dash recognized as Private Scootaloo, lept from within and opened fire. The crowd of Seps scrambled, fearing the cavalry was arriving. Some fired on the transport while others scurried back inside the volcano for safety. A few took shots at Twilight and Dash. While the Sergeant was distracted by the rescue craft, the lieutenant was well aware of the incoming fire. Her reactive shield was still recharging, but a field of energy enveloped her and Dash all the same, this one powered by her glowing horn. Magic, rerouted through her suit’s reactive shield system, allowed her to project a barrier at a moment’s notice.

This second shield, however, was still as reactive as the first. Within seconds, the barrier of magic began to shatter and weaken under the suppressing fire. Even with the aid of the Republic troopers at her side, Twilight’s power was not great enough to withstand point blank fire. Noticing this, Dash stood up, put her shoulder against Twilight, and fired her gun into the crowd of Separatists ahead of her. The shield collapsed and the fire poured around her, but she didn’t relent her counterattack.

The troopers that formed up around Dash began to take hits, and one by one they collapsed in pain or fled to cover. Resolute and determined, she pushed Twilight to the side and stood her ground alone, picking off the few brave, or possibly insane, Seps that stayed to defend the platform. A bolt connected with Dash’s shoulder pushing her back a half-step, but she regained it a moment later. Two more hit her square in the chest, scoring her armor with searing heat, but she merely took another step forward and kept firing.

Twilight, seeing her friend fighting alone, raised her own cannon and began pouring fire into the crowd. It quickly dispersed, many Seps fleeing back into the base or dropping dead in transit. Using her headpiece, she summoned her medical probe and commanded it to administer first aid to the wounded Republic soldiers. Dash took a few steps to the right and stood between the enemy force and Twilight, feeling a sense of courage and empowerment overwhelming her.

A wayward shot dropped a healthy Republic soldier standing next to Dash, who twisted her neck to see what had happened. The next second, two shots impacted on her chestpiece, and a burning pain sent her to the floor. A shot ricocheted past her hoof, reminding her she was still exposed, and she rolled to the right behind a crate. Wounded and grounded, Dash yelled out in pain and clutched her chest with a fumbling hoof, trying to locate any bleeding. Just when she thought no one had heard her, the sound of another, more distinct blaster filled the air with several rapid shots, and an explosion rocked the cliffside behind the crate Dash had taken cover beside.

Shots bounced in all directions as Seps began either dropping dead or fleeing. A resounding cheer issued through the crowd of troopers as one final pony lept from the hovering Republic transport. A mare, wearing brown leather vestment and wielding two ornate hold-out blasters in either of her front hooves, looked up at Dash from under her rugged, wide-brimmed hat with a smile that spread from ear to ear.

“Dashie!” Pinkie cried.

“Pinkie...” The infectious smile spread to Dash’s face, despite the pain she was in. “You came back.”

“Oh, silly! Of course I came back! You hired me to protect you, and I still haven’t gotten paid. Hey, Lieutenant! This pony needs medical attention, ay-sap!”

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Outer Landing Pad, Mount Avilatan

Kolto oozed from the syringe as Twilight administered first aid to a wounded Rainbow Dash, who was propped against a durasteel crate in pain. She tried her best not to look down, afraid that the sight of blood combined with the vertigo would make her lose her lunch. Despite being a medic, Twilight was partially hemophobic on account of the nasty things she learned about blood in her reading. It was very dangerous if handled incorrectly, and Dash had a small river of it pouring from the blaster wound on her chest.

However, despite the pain and the loss of bodily fluid, Dash was coherent enough to speak. “Are you almost done, Lieutenant?” she asked with a grimace.

“Yes, Sergeant,” Twilight replied, squeezing the syringe again. More kolto swam into her friend’s system, rapidly closing the wound and stopping the bleeding. “Your armor is damaged, but you’re going to be okay in a few minutes.”

“Awesome.” Dash’s head bobbed to the side, and she glared at Pinkie Pie lazily. “So, where’ve you been, Pinkie?”

“Me?” she said in her squeaky, upbeat voice. “I was trying to find you, silly! After we got separated at the base on Mannett Point, I went back to Fort Garnik and asked for you there. The troops said something about missing special forces ponies, and we eventually traced you guys here. I rallied the troops and arrived in time to save the day!”

“Good timing,” Dash murmured with a smile. “So, what happened at the Point?”

“That meanie-pants Separatist pony tried to hurt me, that’s what happened!” Pinkie threw her hooves in the air, exasperated. “He was like, ‘I’m gonna kill you, Republic scum,’ and I was all, ‘I’m not with the Republic!’, and he didn’t believe me, so I shot him in the shoulder, and after he dropped his gun, he charged me and grabbed my pistol, so I took my knife and cut his across the eye. He fled up the elevator after that, but when I got to the top, he was gone.”

“I saw him a few minutes ago,” Dash said. “He fell into the ocean.”

“HAH! Serves him right. Big meanie. He took Lemony away from me.” Suddenly, Pinkie’s eyes widened, and she gasped quickly. “Lemon Drop! We need to find my bestest friend in the whole wide universe! What if they’re torturing him, or what if they... they...”

“Pinkie, I thought you weren’t concerned for the well being of Lemon.”

“That was before I knew he was alive. But now I know he is, and we need to save him!”

“I hate to be that pony,” Twilight interjected, “but me and the Sergeant have a much more pressing issue to attend to at the moment. Missing commandos and a stolen bomb take priority over kidnapped criminals, Mrs. Smuggler.”

Pinkie stared evenly at Twilight, who was concentrating on Dash’s treatment. “But he could die in the time it will take to find him! We can’t wait!”

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have a choice. Countless more lives will be lost if this bomb isn’t retrieved, and we need the rest of our time to locate and disarm it.”

“But what about Lemon?”

“If he dies before we find him, then there’s nothing I can do. But this takes priority.”

Dash looked up at Twilight, who was glaring back at her. Then she looked to Pinkie Pie, and met her longing, tragic gaze with a look of pity and remorse. She owed her friend her life, but she owed the people of Ord Mantell, and consequently the Republic, as well. The conflict in her heart pained her greater than the blaster wound in her chest, like a knife being slowly dragged across her body. She wanted desperately to help Pinkie, but the bomb was a serious problem that, if left unchecked, would kill tens of thousands.

Deciding to trust her gut, Dash put a hoof against the metal floor under her and braced herself. “Pinkie, if we go after this bomb, will you come with us?”

“Yeah! I’m contracted to help you, Dashie. But—”

“Lieutenant,” Dash interrupted, turning her attention to Twilight, “don’t we swear under our service oath to protect the people of the Republic?”

“Of course, Sergeant, but this bomb—”

“—is only one of our priorities. We have three: find Lemon, save the Wonderbolts, and disarm that ZR-57. The Separatists won’t launch the bomb yet, and the team is tough, but this Lemon dude has been in captivity for a couple weeks now. Shouldn’t we save him first, and then get his help with tracking down the bomb?”

“What?” Twilight retorted. “Okay, firstly, this is not a debate. This bomb takes priority even over finding the missing team, and especially a captured criminal. Second, I’m in charge of this Op, and you are to follow my orders, not give them to me.”

“But—”

Right then, Twilight retracted her syringe and slapped a cooler pack against the wound. As Dash gasped in pain, the pack glued itself to her armor and formed a sealed foam capsule against her armor. Twilight stood up and raised her autocannon. “Men, we’re moving out. Rally to me and prepare to march.”

Pinkie Pie rushed to Dash’s side, putting a hoof around her neck and lifting up on her body. Together, they managed to get Dash to her hooves, at which point she picked up her rifle and smiled at Pinkie. “Thanks.”

“Sure thing, Dashie.”

“Listen... I’m sorry about Lemon. I promise, we’ll save him.”

“The Lieutenant has good intentions,” Pinkie conceded. “That bomb is very important, I know. But I’m still worried...”

Dash nodded slowly and trotted after Twilight, the wound on her chest almost completely healed, only causing her a small pinch of discomfort when she walked. As the volcano closed around her once again, she felt somewhat scared, and very uncertain. “I have a bad feeling about all this...”

“You took the words right out of my mouth, Sergeant,” Pinkie replied from behind her. “You could say it was... straight from the horse’s mouth!”

She burst into a fit of giggles, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but laugh herself. The troopers that marched in front of her also giggled. Twilight, however, groaned audibly from the front of the line, thinking the joke to be painfully bad. Everypony instantly hushed up, and the silence that ensued frightened even Twilight. Instantly she frowned, knowing she had destroyed a perfectly good moment of happiness at a time when happiness was hard to come by.

“Sorry,” she finally said, almost in a whisper. “I guess I’ve lost my sense of humor.”

“How can you lose something you never had, Lieutenant?” Dash called from the back of the line. The troopers roared with laughter as they marched, Pinkie included. Even Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at the joke, which she had admittedly set herself up for.

“Alright, alright, let’s cut the chatter for now. We’ll joke later, when this bomb is neutralized.”

“And after we find the Wonderbolts,” Dash reminded.

“And save Lemony!” chirped Pinkie.

Twilight rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Right, that too.” She hefted her autocannon up and pushed her back against a corner, peering around it cautiously to check for resistance. The room beyond was a massive, lava-shaped chamber, round at the top and lined from wall to wall with computer monitors and weapon racks. Separatists scurried across the room, grabbing guns and setting up barricades in anticipation of the incoming Republic forces. Twilight cursed under her breath; the alarms were already raised, and they were going to have to fight through the volcano to find the bomb.

She felt a tug on her leg plate and turned to see Private Scootaloo staring up at her. “What?”

“Lieutenant? What’re they carrying?” The filly pointed to a group of four Separatists coming into the chamber from the other side, each holding the corner of a massive torpedo shell. Flanked on either side by security personnel with flashing lights, they yelled into the crowd and halted all traffic to allow the safe transport of their cargo.

“It’s out ticket through the chamber, Private,” Twilight said with a smirk. “Form up, everypony. On my signal. One... Two...”

She pivoted, throwing her body around the corner and taking aim with her blaster cannon.

“Three.”

A volley of mortar rounds shot across the room, arcing over the bewildered and distracted crowd of Separatists and landing squarely at the feet of the ponies carrying the missile. The combination of the explosions and the warhead being dropped onto a stone floor caused a premature detonation that shook the entire canyon. Stalactites and loose sections of molten stone fell onto the unsuspecting enemy from all over the room.

Following the explosion, the soldiers of the Republic swarmed into the chamber and began leveling it with blaster fire, taking cover as they ran in. Scootaloo, the first inside, dove behind a nearby rock outcropping and took a rear position. Four soldiers formed a line closer to the action, dropping an entire squad of Seps before they even realized they were under attack. After they had secured a line, Rainbow Dash joined beside them. She chucked a thermal detonator into the dispersing crowd and took cover herself.

Pinkie Pie waited behind Twilight, who took a moment to analyze the battlefield to better give direction to her troops. Noticing Pinkie’s lack of action, she turned to her and frowned. “What’re you waiting for? Aren’t you going to run?”

“Yep,” replied Pinkie with a grin. “Just watch.”

As if on cue, Twilight turned back to the chamber and saw several gunponies exiting a side hallway, reinforcing the off-guard soldiers already inside. Both ponies took that as a signal to join, and they raced to flank the new front. Pinkie dove over a duracreet barricade and loosed two bolts from her pistols into an unsuspecting Sep, then hid behind a fallen rock as returning fire sprayed around her. Twilight moved beside her and activated a reactive shield, pouring fire into the enemy line in a sweeping spread. Using Twilight as her distraction, Pinkie raced out of cover and around the enemy, disappearing into the hallway from which they’d entered.

Rainbow Dash saw Twilight from her own front and shouted to her. “Pinkie’s breaking for it! Help her!”

Twilight focused her sight on Pinkie and advanced on the enemies in front of her. Half of them had died within seconds of her unleashing fire, but the rest had since taken defensive positions and fought back. As the reactive shield flickered, Twilight pulled the release lever on her cannon and ejected an empty explosive round, which in turn reloaded a new one. She fired it into a barricade and sent a soot cloud into the air, then, using her magic, she teleported onto the other side of it.

With their backs turned to her and zero visibility in the soot, the Seps had no hope to defend against Twilight. Blaster fire ripped through their leather combat armor and ruptured their organs, and within seconds, all of them were dead.

Turning back to where Pinkie had run, Twilight saw her retreating from the hallway, firing desperately at some unseen entity. Suddenly, Pinkie rolled back toward Twilight just as a jet of pure flame erupted from the hallway. A pony in black armor, standing on his rear legs and hoisting a large vacuum-shaped device strapped to a hose, lumbered around the corner and stopped into the soot-laden chamber.

“Imp Flamethrower!” Twilight cried. “Take cover!”

“Gee, thanks, Lieutenant Obvious,” sang Pinkie Pie as she rolled behind another barricade. A dark glow flickered to life inside the machine, followed by an explosion of flame that jetted straight toward Twilight. It was as though a Phoenix had broken through her reactive shield and tackled her in the gut. The flames licked past what remained of her shield and danced across her exposed body, most of the attack absorbed by her armor, but some singed her hair and cut into her skin like a knife.

Pinkie leapt to her hooves and charged forward, galloping on all fours with as much speed as she could muster. Taken aback, the Imperial cut the flame and brought the weapon about face, just in time to be tackled to the ground. From seemingly nowhere, Pinkie pulled a knife out and slashed a hole in the hose that connected the weapon to its power source. Liquid leaked onto the rocky floor, unbeknownst to the Imperial, who managed to grab Pinkie’s hoof and keep her from stabbing his face.

As the two ponies grappled on the ground, Twilight opened her eyes and looked down at her body. Her armor was hot, melting in some places, and her mane was singed just above the brow. Pain coursed through her body like a raging river as blood and water surged to cool the heated areas of her skin, parts of which were exposed, red, and devoid of purple hair. Able to stand, though, she determined she was fit to fight still, and picked up her cannon. It was then that she noticed the Imperial was starting to overpower Pinkie Pie, and also when the leak of flammable liquid was drawn to her attention.

“Pinkie Pie,” she croaked, painfully raising her cannon to her waiting hoof. “Move.”

Pinkie looked over at Twilight, then back to her quarry, and rolled to the right just as the Imperial’s hooves flailed in a desperate attack that would surely have shaken her from him. As he stood up, Twilight lit her plasma cell and fired two incendiary rounds into his armor, one connecting with his fuel tank, the other with the hose. Fire erupted all around him as his combustible weapon backfired and exploded into a roaring fireball that consumed him whole. After that, Twilight’s weapon dropped to the ground, and she got down on all fours, shaking from the pain.

At the sound of Twilight hitting the ground, Pinkie tilted her head and noticed the injuries for the first time. She rushed to her side and knelt down next to her. “Are you okay, Twilight? I mean, sorry, dumb question, of course you’re not alright—”

“I’ll be fine,” Twilight spat. She cough aloud and shut her eyes. “Everything hurts, but I’ve got kolto and burn cream. What possessed you to run through that hallway, anyway?”

“It’s Lemony!” Pinkie cried, frantically looking toward the door. “He’s down there. I can feel it.”

A medical probe dispatched from Twilight’s pack and scanned its owner, preparing to administer first aid. She sat down and held her hooves against her face, trying to soothe the pain. “Go, then. You smuggler types are all the same, putting your own ambitions before the safety and well being of others. Just leave if that’s all you care about.”

“Now way, Jose! You’re hurt, so I’m going to wait until somepony comes to help you.”

“No, really, Pinkie—”

A shot whizzed past both ponies and forced Twilight to snap back to attention. The fight behind them was still raging on, the Seps having finally gotten their act together and formed a measly defensive position as Rainbow Dash and the remaining troopers pushed forward. The enemy defense was crumbling fast, but the danger still existed, and the Republic forces were haphazardly positioned despite their effectiveness.

“My men...” Twilight croaked. “I can’t lead them like this.”

“Put Dashie in command, Lieutenant,” Pinkie suggested. “She won’t fail you. Besides, you need an evac, since you’re hurt and all.”

“I’m...I’m fine. I already said tha—” She screamed loudly as a needle was injected from her probe into a patch of exposed, burnt skin. Pain registered through her whole body, every limb violently shaking as it fought to heal itself with the aid of the kolto injection. Pinkie looked on in concern, not sure what kind of assistance she could be, until she finally looked over to Scootaloo, who was still positioned near the entrance. Using her hoof, she waved at the Private and got her attention.

Scootaloo saw Pinkie waving at her and was aware that Twilight was injured, but hesitated to leave her hiding spot. Blaster fire rippled through the cavern in such a way that it seemed to blanket her path. She looked to Rainbow Dash, the brave Sergeant who had saved her from Lieutenant Virk, and saw that she was on the front line, putting shots into Separatists as though they weren’t firing back at her. Then, Scootaloo decided that if Rainbow Dash could brave the fire, so could she, so she leapt over her rock and galloped to Pinkie’s side.

“Private, you need to escort the Lieutenant out of here!” Pinkie cried. “She’s been burned. It’s not safe here.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Scootaloo said quickly. She looked at Twilight, who was still doubled over in a seizure. “Do you need help walking, sir?”

“Y-yes, P-private,” Twilight said. She put her hoof out shakily and wrapped it around Scootaloo’s neck, and despite the height difference, they managed to stand up together. Once they were on their way back toward the landing pad, blaster fire still occasionally hitting nearby rocks and walls as they went, Twilight barely opened her eyes long enough to look at Pinkie. “T-tell Rainbow s-she’s in c-command now.”

Pinkie blinked at Twilight, then frowned, giving her a half-hearted salute. “Yes, sir.”

At that moment, all blaster fire ceased, and an eerie silence fell over the cavern. It was broken by a cheer, uproarious and frightening, that rose from the Republic soldiers standing on rocks and dead Separatists as they raised their guns and cried out in victory. In the time it had taken Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle to eliminate the flame trooper and get themselves out of the fight, Rainbow Dash had led the troopers further against the Separatist line and broken it completely. Pinkie looked over at Dash remorsefully, who returned the gaze in a quizzical manner.

“Pinkie!” she called out. The cry reverberated off the top of the cavern, creating an echo. “What happened? Where’s Twilight going?”

“She’s been burned,” Pinkie said plainly. “Imperial flame trooper.”

“Imperial— What? Imps? Here?” The cheer ended prematurely at the word. Every soldier’s gaze and attention was now fixed on Twilight, who was being escorted by a young Scootaloo back toward the landing pad from which they’d come. None of them had ever witnessed an Imperial attack this deep in the Core Worlds. “So Twilight was right. They’re getting help from the Imps.”

“Yup. And...” Pinkie hesitated. “I... I think Lemon is down this way. By the way, Twilight said you’re in charge now, Dashie.”

Dash blinked back at her. “...Me? I’m in charge?”

“You’re in command, Sergeant.” Pinkie saluted her from the other side of the cavern. All of the remaining troopers surrounding Dash saluted as well.

“Well... I...” Dash looked down Pinkie’s hallway, then back toward where the Seps had retreated. One way led to Pinkie’s friend, the other led to the bomb, and possibly the Wonderbolts. It was her decision how to proceed now, and she was at a loss for words. “I... don’t know what to do. Men, who of you is highest ranking?”

“That’d be me,” one stallion piped up with a salute. “Corporal Flash Bang, sir.”

“Look, I’m new to commanding, so this is how I want this to go. You take these men and go deeper into the base. Radio me if you require assistance. I’m going with the smuggler to locate some fugitives. Understood?”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Alright then.” Rainbow Dash nodded to Flash Bang. “Move out!”

The troopers all gave a mighty “HOO-rah” and marched in order through the doorway deeper into the volcano. Dash trotted up to Pinkie Pie, who looked back at her with tears in her eyes.

“Rainbow Dash, you—”

“I never leave my friends hangin’,” Dash interrupted. “I can take the heat for being a bad soldier after I’m done being a good friend.”

Pinkie Pie nodded. “Well, let’s hurry then. Maybe we can find Lemon and catch up to your troops before anything happens!”

Together they galloped down the second hallway and rounded the corner. Narrow paths lined with metal plates and eerie blue lights made up the vast majority of the journey as they raced down the path as fast as they could. Corner after corner, nothing changed, and the path seemed to go on forever, until finally a dead end halted their progress. Pinkie Pie, desperate, put her hooves against the rock wall and pushed with all her might.

“Give it up, Pinkie,” Dash said. “It’s a dead end. Let’s go back and regroup with the men.”

“No!” Pinkie insisted. “He’s here! I know it!”

“It’s solid rock, Pinkie! How are you going to move it?”

=====

Just beyond the rock was a room, very similar to the one Dash and Pinkie had been in. It was a cavern, shaped by centuries of lava flow and lined with metal beams, grates and light fixtures. An orange glow coming off the electric jail cells convinced Lemon Drop he was in hell, or if he wasn’t, this was the entrance. He was also convinced he would die here, like the other pony he’d been crammed into the cell with had.

Said pony’s corpse was lying limp on the ground, severed in half, with the front end outside the cage. After she’d dehydrated, the poor mare had fallen into the energy wall, and two hours later had been burned completely through. Lemon closed his eyes, knowing all too well what that horrific sight looked like, since several other ponies in the other cages nearby had suffered a similar fate. On the brink of dehydration himself, he feared he would meet just as gruesome a fate not long from now. Within hours, perhaps.

A door opened behind him and an Imperial taskmaster paced through the door. He could tell he was Imperial because the only thing more iconic than his black armor was his thick Imperial accent. “Lemon Drop, my friend. Still kicking, I see.”

“Nah, dude, I gave that up a while ago.” Lemon raised his back hoof to reveal a nasty burn. “Can’t kick an energy field.”

“Indeed not. All of the other captives are either dead or incoherent, yet you persist.” The stallion stepped up to Lemon’s cage and eyeballed him from under his helmet. “Why?”

“I have a reason, constable.”

“Oh?”

“I plan to see my good friend Pinkie Pie again.” Lemon lowered his head slightly. “I owe her an apology for all the suffering and pain I’ve put her through.”

“How tragic.” Lemon’s cage shut off and a hoof grabbed his throat. He closed his eyes and reached out to grab the Imperial, but grasped only air. “Because your good friend Pinkie Pie just killed one of my best commandos, and I’ve been ordered to execute the remaining prisoners while we evacuate. You understand, safety precaution and all that. Don’t want to have too many...”

Amid his choking and flailing, Lemon could feel the barrel of a blaster press into his skin.

“...Witnesses.”

The guard chuckled to himself in his sick, twisted Imperial way just as an explosion rocked the wall opposite him and sent shards of molten slag flying through the air. He let go of Lemon as a boulder from above slammed down on him and squashed him underneath. Bewildered, Lemon looked toward the source of the explosion to see Pinkie Pie with a Republic officer, tears in her eyes, tail vibrating slightly, and a detonator in her mouth.

“Lemon!” she cried, dropping the used detonator. She raced up to him and embraced him awkwardly, lifting him off the ground and choking him again. “OhmygoshLemonIthoughtI’dneverseeyouagain-”

“Pinkieyou’rechokingme,” he gagged.

“Oh, sorry.” She giggled and set him back down. “It’s good to see you again, lovey dovey!”

“I...” Lemon blinked twice and looked back at her with a blank stare, his mouth agape and one eyebrow cocked. “What?”

She mirrored his gesture perfectly. “What what?”

“You called me... lovey dovey? Since when am I like that to you?”

“Umm... Since you got captured, and... I had some time to think about you.” She gently rubbed her muzzle against his chin, then buried her face in his shoulder. “Lemon, you were so good to me. I never understood until after you were gone just how much I need you.”

“I, err, Pinkie... It’s not that I don’t, you know, love you, or anything, but this is really sudden, and... somewhat unwanted.”

Pinkie twisted her head in his shoulder to look at his face. He stared back at her, his gaze gentle and his smile warm. More tears welled up in her eyes. “W-what?”

“Listen, Pinkie.” He wrapped his hoof around her head and drew her closer. “I love you, I really do, but I don’t want us to be involved. Not now, at least. You say I was good to you. The reason is because you were good to me first. You picked me up off the streets of Coruscant, you fed me, you clothed me, and you gave me a purpose. I was nopony until you came along. I’ve devoted myself to you because I owe you everything.”

“No!” Pinkie screamed. “No, I won’t hear it! You don’t owe me a thing, Lemony! I did what I did because I needed help, and I got the best thing that ever happened to me for it!”

She sobbed uncontrollably onto his sweat-soaked leather vest as he looked desperately to Rainbow Dash, who merely shrugged and stared back. Pinkie kept talking, but her words were incoherent and jumbled. The basic message still managed to come through, though: You’re my friend, you’re my friend. Finally, Pinkie got a hold of herself and dropped her voice to a whisper, one that Dash could barely hear.

“I love you, Lemony. You don’t owe me. You’re my friend, my partner. Please... don’t leave me.”

Lemon rubbed his cheek against the top of her head affectionately. “Okay, Pinkie. I promise, I won’t leave you. Whatever debt I thought I owed you is now absolved. Just, please... stop crying. It’s killing me.” He felt himself constricted by a death grip of a Pinkie hug, and for the third time in five minutes, Lemon Drop found himself unable to breathe properly.

Chapter 1

Ord Mantell, Republic Landing Pad

The transport touched slowly down onto the cracked stone landing platform and lowered the boarding ramp. Three ponies in uniform trotted off the ship and into the Ord Mantell sunlight, guns on their backs and adventure in their eyes. One in particular was wearing a full civilian vest with tan athletic pants, a common practice for off-duty Republic troopers. She strode with an assurance that turned the heads of the nearby privates, an air of superiority surrounding her as she made her way toward the walker.

Sergeant Rainbow Dash was on top of the world today. She was finally going to meet her new team, the galaxy-famous Wonderbolt squad. They were the finest fighting unit in the Republic army, a special forces team that knew no rival. Graduating at the top of the class, she had been accepted to join them as their newest member. The best part was that everypony knew about it, and she couldn't help but revel in their admiring glances as she cantered past them.

The sky was a striking crystalline blue, nearly cloudless, contrasted by the overshadowed mountains along the horizon. It was the rare times of the year on Ord Mantell when one of its two moons was visible all throughout the daytime. Ahead of her was the Lieutenant who had been given the honor of picking her up. He smiled at her and led her into a large metal walker; between the wonderful weather and the soldier's escort, Dash knew it was going to be a good day. Once the walker was on its way, however, the Sergeant suddenly became very aware of just how much metal surrounded her. The walls, the floor, the roof, and even the seats of the walker were flat, uninteresting duraplating.

“Ah, there's nothing in this galaxy like riding a one hundred ton walker right into the middle of a combat zone, huh, kid?” said the Lieutenant cheerfully, a hoof draped lazily over the metal armrest beside him. “This ain't no Coruscant, but ya' don't need flashy lights and endless cities to dazzle me. All it takes is some ferocious rebels and something to fix.”

"I'd prefer to be out there fighting, honestly,” Dash replied, twitching anxiously in her seat. It was hard and uncomfortable.

“I don't think the chair likes you much. Give it time, you'll adjust. Name's Lieutenant Soarin', but everypony in the Wonderbolts calls me Gearbox. Let me properly welcome you to the Wonderbolts, Rainbow. We're close, and I know you're gonna like 'em.” The lieutenant paused for a moment before continuing. “Listen, when I said this isn't Coruscant, I meant it. This place is crawling with Separatists, hellbent on taking over Ord Mantell. We're all that stands between them and the innocent ponies that live in the towns. To make matters worse, they went and hijacked one of our biggest bombs, and we have no idea where it is.”

Rainbow brushed him off with a gesture of her hoof. “No problem. I can find this thing in ten seconds flat, just watch!”

Gearbox looked over at the other troops. “It's not that easy, or else we would've found it by now. These Seps are clever, stealthy, and deadly. You need to keep your wits about you. But we're safe in here, so for now, let's just sit back and-”

He was cut off by an abrupt shuddering and a loud explosion from behind them. The walker shook its passengers out of their seats onto the metal floor, and fire erupted from the side wall thereafter. Frantic shouts and cries of “We've been hit by an AP missile!” were drowned out by the blaring alarm that sounded following the explosion. The walker came to a sudden halt when a second explosion emanated from outside, closer to the cockpit. Gearbox got up off the ground and pulled himself up to the door comm.

“Driver! Hey, driver!” When no response came, he turned to Rainbow. “...Well, shoot. We're grounded, and the Seps somehow have anti-armor missiles! How did they get those?”

Rainbow, who had been thrown to the metal floor in the explosion, stood up and dusted off her pants. “Who cares? We need to go after 'em, sir!”

“I'm no fighter, Dash. But, hey, you are! Think you can handle a few Seps on your own?”

“Oh yeah, totally!”

“Alright. I know you're not dressed for battle, but we're counting on you to destroy the missile caches that are undoubtedly in the village below. Go down there, reinforce the troops already fighting, and destroy any Sep missiles. Got it?”

“I got it!”

"Good luck, Sergeant!" Gearbox lowered the hatch, and Rainbow leaped from the transport. Ahead of her, several fellow Republic troops from another battalion were hunkered down in a dugout, firing blindly into a smokey, overrun, desolate town. Enemy fire returned from somewhere beyond the smoke, but Rainbow wasn't about to let poor visibility stop her from killing Seps. She charged headlong into the thick, gun in hoof, using her wings to clear away the fog as she ran. When she had broken through the patch and could see again, she immediately regretted it.

Two Separatist gunpony and their much bigger officer turned their heads toward her and opened fire on her. One shot grazed her rainbow colored tail as she dove behind a cement barricade, trying desperately to get into cover. More troops ahead of her were starting to close in as well, firing onto the cover in an attempt to hit her behind it. For the first time since she had enlisted, she was frightened for her life. All the confidence she had previously held to for comfort was gone. It was just her and her gun.

She put a hoof up to her helmet and tried to radio Soarin', but heard nothing but static, so she yanked it off and tossed it away. The Seps were jamming Republic radio signals, and judging by the pitch of the static, the signal jammers were not far away. First, however, she needed to get away from these goons, and if she didn't act fast, she was toast. Her uniform vest was not blasterproof.

Rainbow slung her gun over the barricade and loosed two shots into the torso of one of the Sep gunmen. He fell instantly and drew the attention of the officer. She took aim again and fired a grenade round near his feet, sending the other lackey flying into a rock wall. The officer, stunned but uninjured, fired a volley at her position, forcing her to retreat behind cover again. By now, more enemies were lining up on the walls across the street from her position, and it would be mere moments before they could see her clearly.

Hope faded from her life for the briefest instant, when suddenly, from behind the smoke, two rounds fired off past her. Troops were coming to her aid! The soldiers across the street fell to the ground, leaving the officer the only standing enemy in the square. Rainbow, seizing the opportunity, rolled into the street and fired another grenade round. The shot rang true, impacting the large pony in the chest and exploding on contact. His body fell to the stone street with a resounding thud.

Rainbow Dash turned to thank her troops for their aid, only to find one mare striding up to her with a pair of pistols. She wore a large brown hat and a long dark coat to hide the various toys strapped to her vest. Her pink hair was the only sign of color on her. Where were the troops? Had she just been saved by this lone pony?

“Thanks for the help, ma'am,” Rainbow said, ashamed of herself.

“No problem!” replied the mare happily. “Always a pleasure to be of service!”

“May I ask your name, ma'am? And your station?”

“Oh, I'm not a trooper!” she replied. “I'm Pinkie Pie, the best smuggler around. I'm looking to get a job working as a spy for the Republic, but so far, I haven't had any luck. I even threw a birthday party for the Colonel last month, and he still refused! Some nonsense about a criminal record or something...”

“I see,” replied Rainbow cautiously. “And, uh, who do you work for, in that case?”

“Nobody, silly! I just need money.”

“For what?”

“A ship. Duh.” Pinkie seemed very open about talking to a trooper about her illegal activity. “My first one got shot down by some Republic A-A guns; apparently the ship I’d ‘re-purposed’ had a history with smuggling, too. So, I need to get off this rock and fly me some less-than-legal supplies to some less-than-trustworthy suppliers.”

“I should have you arrested!” Rainbow said instinctively, aiming her rifle at the smuggler.

“For what? What'd I do? All I did was save a trooper from certain death.”

Rainbow Dash didn't want to admit it, but this shady character had just saved her life, and while she may have admitted to a crime she had committed elsewhere, that was not grounds enough for an arrest. Her bravado shot, Dash lowered her rifle. “Alright, maybe I don't want to turn you in.”

“But you do wanna hire me, right?” Pinkie said with a wink and a smile.

“Why in blazes would I do that?”

“Because you're with the Wonderbolts! You make a fortune compared to other Republic jobs, and judging by the way you fight, I think you could stand to hire a backup gun, wouldn't you say?”

“No way!” Rainbow stormed away from the mare and deeper into the town. She had just insulted her on a personal level, and Pinkie Pie had expected her to hire her. “The nerve!” she thought aloud.

The caches of rockets were easy enough to locate, and as Gearbox had said, getting to them had not been a cakewalk. But the few guards in the square had been all that remained of the defenses; at every turn was a freshly killed patrol of troops lying nearby. Various radar jammers stationed around the town were likewise surrounded by recently eliminated guards, all of which Rainbow destroyed without a second thought. When she emerged from the village square, the cheers of her soldiers rang out through the air. It occurred to Rainbow that there was no sign of Pinkie Pie, but she didn’t dwell on it for long.

The return trip to the walker was met with adoring shouts and hoofshakes from the other troops as she walked past them. Some had been fortified near the town, while others had been setting up camp outside the walker. Others still were couriers from nearby Fort Garnik, coming to check on the delayed transport. Gearbox was the only one who didn't meet Rainbow with a hero's welcome.

"Bugger! This whole wreck is totally scrapped..." He yanked a cord out of the inner mechanisms of the walker, cursing loudly in front of the Sergeant. "Dash, we ain't gettin' to the fort in this thing."

Rainbow grunted. “So, what're we supposed to do now, Lieutenant?”

“I'll call up to the fort and let them know you're comin'. You need to get walking, because there's not a speeder or a transport going by for another while. I'll stay here and salvage what I can from this monster. Just remember what I said about this not being Coruscant -- these Seps are wily, and they hide really well."

“Don't worry, Lieutenant, I'll be fine.”

“Regardless, stay sharp out there.” He yanked another cord out of the flaming hull and buried himself in work, turning his attention away from the sergeant. Rainbow, sure that the conversation was over, turned to head up the hill behind her. The path leading up to the fort was much wider than the one leading down to the town; much more suited for a walker than a lone trooper. Rocky outcrops and scattered bushes made for many potential ambush spots. Once again, however, the rookie Wonderbolt charged forward, uncaring of the consequences.

This time, she anticipated an attack. Two enemy Seps ducked out from behind a rock face, and instantly Rainbow rolled into cover before they could open fire. She quickly let out a few volleys from behind cover, hitting one pony square in the chest with a couple shots. When he dropped, his friend took notice and turned tail to retreat, thinking himself outmatched against the Sergeant. Dash, however, rolled back into the road and flapped her wings, sending her careening into the gunpony. Then, using the butt of her rifle, she stunned the Separatist with a quick blow and followed it up with a brutally close shot to the temple.

Thinking she had been very skilled, the sergeant stood up and started to advance forward, when suddenly a large security droid and its escort of guards jumped into her path. They opened fire on Dash's position and she instantly ducked back behind her cover, once again cornered. She took the lone thermal detonator on her belt and armed in, praying in her one hope. As quickly as she could, Rainbow stood up and hurled the grenade at her foes. It stuck to the droid's outer plating and detonated with a resounding explosion that made her smile. The blast knocked down the nearby guards and opened a large, gaping hole in the smoldering droid. This time, before coming out from behind cover, Dash made sure to check for enemy reinforcements. When none showed up, she galloped up the hill toward the fort, which was now visible at the top.

Halfway up from the bottom, where the downed walker lay, was a rather large patrol of Seps coming toward the village. Instantly, Rainbow reloaded her gun and prepared for an attack. Two rifle jockeys and their commander took notice of her and opened fire. Unknown to Dash, however, there was a fourth enemy, a sniper, lying in wait nearby. This particular foe was hiding in the bushes to the immediate right of the patrol, waiting for a clear shot. The trooper and his three visible foes tussled for a few minutes, dodging fire and taking cover, while the sniper contentedly waited for his opportunity.

“Hi there!” said a giddy voice from far too close. The sniper looked over to see a pink mare holding a pistol to his head. He instantly reacted by bolting out of the bush in the opposite direction, only to get shot by one of Rainbow's stray rounds. All four of the active fighters stopped and looked at what was going on nearby just long enough for Pinkie Pie to emerge from the bush and put two quick rounds into the gunmen. The commander, suddenly very aware of the new danger, immediately opened fire on the smuggler, who rolled out of combat and behind a nearby sheet of thick metal.

Dash charged up the hill and rammed her rifle butt into the flank of the Sep. His hind legs collapsed and he fell to the ground in pain. Just before she could finish him, however, the commander brought his rear leg around and kicked Dash behind the knees, causing her to fall backwards and her gun to discharge harmlessly into the distance. Then the pony leaped up and pinned her to the ground, bringing his hoof up for a punch. He landed one solid blow across Dash's face before a shot rang out and a smoldering hole appeared in the back of his head. Pinkie Pie emerged from cover, holding a shiny credit chip in her hoof, which she flicked into the air and shot with her pistol.

“You and I make a good team, Sergeant,” she said smugly. Dash pushed the body aside and sat up, rubbing her throbbing eye with her hoof.

“I'm not paying you to babysit me!” Dash exclaimed with a gruff bark. “So quit following me!”

“So this is the thanks I get for saving your life, huh? Typical soldier; always wanting the glory, can't stand to have your pride hurt, even if it costs you your life. Maybe that's why the Republic has no troops...”

“First of all, have you seen what I'm wearing?” Dash shouted. “I'm not exactly combat ready in this. And second, who do you think you are, accusing the Republic of being weak? We have plenty of troops!”

“Oh, so am I wrong?” Pinkie whispered, suddenly very serious. Up until now, her voice had been shrill and excited, but it suddenly morphed into something very deep and almost menacing. “Isn't the Republic short on personnel, or was that just another rumor?”

“The Republic has the best military in the galaxy! We're strong and loyal, no matter how many of us there are!”

“And you're the best, aren't you? So capable, so brilliant and so qualified to do your job."

Rainbow eyeballed the mare suspiciously, but grinned regardless. “Well, yeah, I am the newest Wonderbolt, after all. Top of my class, if you didn't know.”

“Oh, I do know, Sergeant Dash.” Pinkie took two steps forward, where she was almost eye level with Dash despite the uphill slope. “I know all about it, big time. I know about how you aced every combat simulation they ran you through, and how you passed every written and oral exam. About how you are at the peak of your physical and mental health. And yet...you still need my help.”

“...” Dash was stunned silent. She wanted to argue, but how could she? Was the smuggler right? She couldn't be; it was inconceivable to Rainbow that a Republic trooper, especially one as talented and decorated as she was, could need the help of some two-credit pistol jockey.

“How many times have I saved your life today, trooper? Twice, now?”

“I was fine the second time,” argued Dash.

Pinkie merely pointed a hoof to the dead sniper in response.

“...Okay, you don't know I wasn't aware of him. In fact, I had him right-”

“You didn't know.”

“So what? What's with you, dude?” Dash spluttered. “Why are you stalking me?”

“You need someone to watch your back, and I need money. I'm merely stating that you and I should come to a mutually beneficial agreement.” Pinkie holstered her pistol and raised her trademark smile, every hint of seriousness completely wiped from her expression. “Now, I'll be at the fort if you need me. Have a super fantabulous extra-special wonderific day!”

The smuggler bounced up the hill, and Dash stared in contempt after her. This is going to be an interesting assignment if every lousy gunslinger on this rock is just like her, she muttered to herself.

Rainbow pouted the rest of the way up. Pinkie had long since disappeared into the crowd of civilians starting to form around the camp. The fort was much bigger than Dash had anticipated, which surprised her considering the sheer number of Seps running around just down the hill. Perhaps the Republic was understaffed. This prospect held true when the thin line of defenders Rainbow passed on her way into the fort were either asleep, sickly or on edge.

Even still, the scene within the fort itself was much more lively. Modestly dressed refugees and off-duty guards bustled to and fro on the busy streets between the spaceport and the markets. The nearby speeder dock was seeing a lot of business; fast transportation was always in demand. Just behind that was a plethora of merchants and vendors, all offering quality merchandise for reasonable prices, or so they claimed. Even the neon signs and multicolored advertisements were not enough to convince Dash the business here was any more honest than it was back home on Coruscant.

One pony in full armor was teaching some recruits how to toggle the fully automatic function of their standard rifles. “Cherries,” she said to herself. Her mind went back to the day at the barracks when she had been given her promotion to Sergeant, and how all the lowly privates in the platoon had been in attendance for the ceremony. All of her old classmates, too. They were green with jealousy, and they didn't hide it very well. It put Rainbow on cloud nine to see herself the envy of her class. It had seemed so long ago, when in reality these new recruits in Fort Garnik reminded Rainbow that she not had been a sergeant up until last month.

She didn't care, though. She was a Wonderbolt.

The command center was just ahead of her, a dull stone building with sparse outer decoration; little more than a meek little Republic standard outside the door and a mailbox jutting into the street. Sergeant Dash wasted no time in getting to the front entrance, briskly walking straight up the tar black ramp and through the polished granite archway. Standing just inside it was Pinkie Pie, who was listening intently to the conversation going on inside. When Dash tried to walk past her, the smuggler made no attempt to stop her, and didn't even turn to look at her.

“You're a stalker,” Rainbow said in passing.

“No I'm not; I'm a smuggler!” responded the earth pony cheerfully.

Rainbow moved past her and made her way into the briefing room. There, in all their glory, was the rest of the Wonderbolt squad. The commander was having a meeting with three other soldiers in matching uniforms when Dash walked in.

“...So, if we focus our efforts on AmSector, I'm sure we can-” Then, noticing Rainbow Dash, she stopped mid-sentence and turned to her. “Oh, hey, Sergeant! Good to see you made it alright. Soarin' said you'd be arriving ahead of him -- nice work getting rid of those Sep missiles, by the way.”

Rainbow saluted her. “Thank you, sir. It's an honor to serve the people of Ord Mantell.”

“At ease, Rainbow. We're friends here, no need for formalities at the moment. I'm commander Spitfire, and the other members you see here are Wraith, Fuse, and Needles. And of course the missing Soarin', who is probably on his lunch break instead of working, as usual.” The commander turned to the other members. “Everypony, this is Rainbow Dash. She's our new forward assault specialist, the pony I was telling you all about?”

“Hey everypony.” Dash looked as though she was going to explode with anticipation. “So, I heard there's a missing bomb that we need to find."

Commander Spitfire looked to the large screen on the wall that displayed a wide variety of information. “You're right, the Seps made off with one of our biggest bombs. The explosion could destroy this whole island, and everypony on it. We've managed to keep it quiet, but the time for action is fast approaching, and we need your help, Dash."

“Good! Let's get going!” urged Rainbow. “I can find this thing, no problem!”

“It's not that easy. Finding this bomb is the hard part, so believe me when I say we haven't been just waiting around for you to show up. This has been the focus of our time here since the day it went missing.”

“The ZR-57, it's...” Fuse started to make a point, but stuttered on the words. “...Well, the Seps can't have it. Too much firepower. Like the Commander said, this whole island and everypony in the vicinity would just..." He made a large waving gesture with a hoof, imitating an explosion.

“As I was saying,” continued Spitfire, “we only have one or two good leads to follow, and the one I need you to hit right away is a Republic spy named Bellis who lives in Talloran Village. He said he made a huge discovery in his last report, but there's been radio silence over there since it got run over. We need you to go find out what he knows.”

“But, what if this guy's lead is a complete waste of time?” asked Rainbow, tapping a hoof impatiently.

“Then we have one less lead that requires our attention,” replied Needles, who waved a hoof sarcastically in the air.

“So while you're away, we have our very own Lieutenant Twilight Sparke of Ord Mantell Infantry Command to be your eye in the sky. Come down here and introduce yourself, Twilight.”

A purple unicorn emerged from behind a console just beyond the commander. She cantered up to Rainbow Dash and extended a hoof. “Pleasure's all mine, Sergeant.”

Commander Spitfire cut the greeting short. “Now, both of you need to prep for this op while me and the rest of the squad go after another lead. I'll see the Sergeant off, but let's not waste any time.”

“Alright then,” said Twilight while adjusting her headpiece, “I'll watch you from here using a camera on your gear. Basically, just go to Talloran village, locate Bellis, and find out what he knows without blowing anything up, alright?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” replied Dash lazily.

“Good luck in Talloran, sergeant,” saluted Spitfire in a farewell, starting for the door with the other three members of Wonderbolt squad. “Dismissed.”

“Thanks, guys." Dash started to move with them toward the door. "I'll be back with your bomb in no time-”

“Oh, wait, Sergeant!” Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder and yanked her back. “I forgot a couple things. Firstly, speak to the requisitions officer outside the fort. He'll have a combat suit for you. And one piece of advice: the road over to Talloran, and the surrounding area in general, is very hostile. I recommend you find another soldier or somepony you trust to travel with you, in case you get in too deep. Just until I'm sure you can handle yourself on the field.”

Rainbow blinked at the lieutenant. “Seriously?!”

“That's just my recommendation. You don't need to act on it if you really-”

“No, I mean, you got me a suit?! That's awesome!”

Twilight smiled in disbelief. “You're very eager to get into battle, aren't you? Remember what I said about the unfriendly environment out here. A shiny new suit won't save you if you're dead.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow said absentmindedly, turning away to find her new battle armor. Twilight threw a disdainful look in her direction, but turned back to her console without another word. Dash exited the building and spotted Pinkie right where she had left her. This time, however, she was looking at the sergeant with a smug grin.

“Why are you still here?”

“I couldn't help overhearing that you need someone to travel with,” Pinkie replied, smiling smugly at the Seargent.

“For the last time, no!” Dash yelled in annoyance. “I'm going to go get a suit of armor, and when I have it, I won't need to worry about getting shot. So, in short, I don't need you anymore, not that I ever needed you to begin with.”

“Well, that's not very nice.” Pinkie's face remained cheerful despite the very saddened tone clearly audible in her voice. “You could at least try not to hurt my feelings.”

“You've been stalking me all day, and you're worried about your feelings?”

“I'm just looking to make some money, and you could stand to have somepony nearby when you're in a pinch. So far I've proven my point twice, and I have a feeling you'll come around.”

Dash trotted up to Pinkie and put a hoof on her nose. “I'll say this one more time: Stop. Following. Me. Get lost, go home, whatever. Just forget about me! I never needed you before, and I definitely don't need you now.” Then she stormed away, livid. Pinkie Pie shrugged and vanished into the crowd as Dash made her way to the merchant quarter. Still infuriated at the smuggler's blatant audacity, she didn't even notice that the requisitions officer had been a couple blocks back, and after a few embarrassing minutes of backpedaling she corrected that mistake.

There, on a full body rack, was a chest harness that resembled the Wonderbolt armor perfectly. Upon further inspection, however, it occurred to Rainbow that this was all there was. There was no helmet, no leggings, and no pants. It was just the torso plating.

“Officer,” Dash said evenly, trying to push her frustration aside, “where is the rest of this suit?”

“Are you Sergeant Rainbow Dash, from Wonderbolt squad? Sorry, I didn't get a requisition for a full suit. I only got the harness in.”

Rainbow's eye twitched in annoyance. “What? Seriously?! Who orders an incomplete suit of armor?”

“To be honest, ma'am, the suit was ordered in full. The other individual pieces were either requisitioned to other troops or sold off for a profit. Your commander didn't reserve the rest of the suit.”

Dash took that as a personal insult. How dare Spitfire not attend to the basic needs of a Wonderbolt? Not only would she be running around with a front-heavy harness that would end up slowing her down, but she wouldn't be protected from blaster fire anywhere but her chest and neck. On top of that, it would look simply ridiculous to run around with only half a suit on. The tan labor pants she was wearing were not going to look good against a blue and yellow breastplate.

Then something horrible occurred to Rainbow, something much worse than bad fashion and incomplete armor sets: she was going to need to find Pinkie Pie again. She couldn't go out onto the field alone with only half a suit, and the pink mare, as random and creepy as she was, remained the only pony on this rock that would follow Dash into battle without question. Her face fell as she sulked away from the armor rack and began her search for Pinkie.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Inside Mount Avilatan

Rainbow Dash trotted back into the cell room to find Pinkie Pie and Lemon Drop still embracing where she’d left them ten minutes before. She shook her head and sighed. “Are you two done yet?”

“What?” Pinkie’s head popped up from behind Lemon’s shoulder. “Do we need to be somewhere?”

“Uh, yeah, we need to regroup with my men, find the Wonderbolts and defuse that bomb. Remember? The one you promised me you’d help me find?”

Lemon looked down at Pinkie solemnly. “You really do need to let go of me now, Pinkie.”

“But—”

Then he gave her a stern glare that caused her to drop her voice to a murmur, then go completely silent, her head lowered slightly. Rainbow blinked, unable to comprehend something stopping Pinkie Pie like that. She huffed in surprise. “Right, well, umm, let’s get moving.”

“Oh, for sure!” said Pinkie as she leapt to her hooves and started toward the door. “C’mon, Lemon! We need to get you to safety so we can find a huge bomb.”

“You mean that ZR-57 they’re getting ready to transport off-world?” Lemon replied aloofly, shakily standing up on his own. “It’s in the main hangar down the hall from here, I think. That’s where it was when I got here, at least.”

“Wait,” Dash said, shaking her head. “How do you know what their plans are?”

“That Imperial jailer you guys blew up told me.”

“Imps? Imperials are taking the bomb? No wonder they’re here on Ord Mantell!” Dash’s eyes widened. “Imagine what they could do with a bomb that size.”

“They could race a kamikaze shuttle into the Senate Tower on Coruscant,” Lemon offered as he trotted past Dash. “Or hit a military base on a contested world.”

“Gee, thanks.” Dash followed Lemon out of the room, and together they entered into another large chamber, similar to the one Twilight had been injured in. This one was devoid of life, save for Pinkie, who stared at a large computer monitor that was split into multiple screens. On one, the ZR-57 was clearly visible inside a large hangar, where dozens of workers busily performed preflight checks and prepared the bomb for departure. Another showed several Republic soldier corpses in a large stone chamber. Dash’s jaw nearly hit the floor.

“My men!” she screamed.

Pinkie looked at her with a pained frown and misty eyes. “Dashie, I—”

“Those were the best soldiers in the galaxy!” Dash shouted at the screen. “Who killed them?!”

“Probably the real best soldiers in the galaxy,” Lemon mused.

Dash wheeled on him and leveled her gun on his forehead, eliciting a shriek from Pinkie. “What did you say?”

“Grunts are nowhere as good as commandos, Sergeant,” he replied calmly, pointing back at the screen. Dash turned slowly back to see, much to her horror, Spitfire, walking toward the shuttle where the ZR-57 was being loaded. She was chatting with an Imperial overseer as though they were the best of friends. “That’s the mastermind behind this whole scheme, right there.”

“But... but Spitfire is a Wonderbolt!” Dash said, aghast. “None of this makes any sense. We need to get in there!”

“I know the way,” Lemon said. “Follow me.”

“Oooooh no, mister mister.” Pinkie grabbed Lemon’s ear as he started to walk away, yanking him backwards. “You’re hurt. We’re taking you back to Twilight so she can have you examined.”

“No way!” he protested. “I’m not gonna sit by and let you get hurt when I can—”

Pinkie gave him a look that caused him to drop his voice to a murmur, then fall completely silent. He nodded solemnly and whispered in her ear before turning around and going back toward the landing pad. Confused, Dash looked to Pinkie with a blank expression. “What just happened?”

“I told him to go back,” Pinkie replied cheerfully. “And he told me the way to the hangar.”

“But you just stared at him. You didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah? So?”

Dash blinked again. “Wow. I can see you two are close. You should totally tell me the story behind you two when we get out of here.”

Pinkie inhaled, a smile creeping onto her face. “Oh, totally! I can’t wait to tell you. It’s a gem.”

“Yeah, well, this comes first. C’mon, let’s go find Spitfire.”

“Okie dokie lokie, Sergeant!” Pinkie gave Dash a salute and followed after her, and together they marched deeper into the volcano. The next room over contained the riddled corpses of Dash’s squadmates, each one shot and unceremoniously left lying on the rocks they’d used for cover. Beyond them, the room narrowed once more, then opened into a massive hangar bay. Despite having seen everything through the cameras not even a minute ago, Rainbow Dash still couldn’t believe her eyes.

There, in the center of the hangar, was Spitfire, in full Wonderbolt armor. Surrounding her was a mixture of Imperial soldiers and the remaining Wonderbolts. Lieutenant Soarin saw Dash and Pinkie before the rest.

“Oh, hey! Well, if it isn’t the Sergeant!” At his remark, all four of the other Wonderbolts turned to look at Rainbow Dash, their faces a mixture of delight and anxiety. “Glad you didn’t get shot on the way in, at least. Did those rebels give you trouble?”

“What the hay is going on here?!” Dash screamed at the top of her lungs, her cheeks red with fury. “I come all the way out here to save you guys, and here you are, all chummy with Imperials! Explain yourselves!”

Pinkie Pie put a hoof gently on Dash’s shoulder as Spitfire broke from the group and sighed, peering at them with sorrowful eyes. “I guess this is more than you were ready to see. Look, Rainbow Dash, let’s be brutally honest with each other. The Republic has all but abandoned Ord Mantell. These rebels got a hold of our best bomb, and they send us to get it. What they don’t send is proper equipment and gear, good food or clean water, or even decent living conditions. No holovids or galactic network streaming for our downtime. Nothing.

“We may be the best of the best, but we’re nothing without good equipment. So we decided to defect. If the Republic can’t even help its finest, how can it save the people it’s sworn to protect all across the galaxy? It can’t, is the answer, so ending this so-called ‘war’ is the only way to finally ensure peace and safety to the galaxy. The Imps made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

“So you’re behind everything!” Dash said. “You brought the Imperials here, you supplied the Seps with Imp tech, and you killed and kidnapped all those people? You even had them try to kill me and the others!”

“The ends justify the means, Rainbow Dash,” Spitfire replied, unphased. “If you had survived, which you obviously did, we were gonna try to recruit you to our true cause. Otherwise, you would just be another number on our list of reasons to hate the Republic.”

“It’s just like an Imperial to kill innocents, but you? A Republic soldier? How could you?”

“Don’t play innocent, Sergeant. The Republic is just as guilty of innocent casualties and horrendous decisions as the Empire. Why do you think this ZR-57 is even on Ord Mantell?” Spitfire motioned to the large bomb being hoisted into the air by a large crane. “The senate voted to drop the bomb on the island and wipe out the insurgents. If we hadn’t coordinated the Separatists and brought in Imperial support, every stallion, mare and foal on Avilatan Island would have been vaporized.”

“And some of the nearby settlements around the coast, too!” Surprise added from the back.

“Look, all we want is to end the war,” said Soarin. “And if you share our sentiments, you’ll come with us. What do ya’ say, Sergeant?”

Dash wrenched her shoulder from Pinkie’s grip, which caused every Imperial in the vicinity to raise their rifles toward her. She looked around at them and gritted her teeth. “This isn’t peace. This is betrayal! All you’ve accomplished is getting more innocent ponies killed.”

“Rainbow Dash, open your eyes!” Spitfire pleaded. “Even poor Twilight could see it. The situation on Ord Mantell is dismal at best, and the Republic isn’t doing anything to help it. Surely you’ve noticed all the good technology around here has been Imperial, not Republic. They have the drive to end this war where the Republic does not.”

The last argument struck a cord with Dash, causing her to bite her tongue for a moment. Even in the short time she’d be on Ord Mantell, she had noticed a serious deficiency in funding for the loyalists, and even for the troops. Not wanting to think bad of the Republic she served, however, she offered her counterargument. “This has nothing to do with drive, it’s about resources. And the Republic has put a lot of resources into your squad, so this seems like a pretty bad way of thanking them.”

“You wanna talk resources?” Spitfire replied confidently. “At least the Imperials are given the proper equipment to do their job, but the Republic left us high and dry. Do you remember that spy, Bellis? And his wife? The Republic got a request from Lieutenant Sparkle for financial aid, and she was denied because Bellis was our recruit, not a contracted agent. Things like that happen all the time here on Ord Mantell. We know the Republic can help, because we’ve seen them do it. What makes this planet any less worthy of aid than, say, Coruscant?”

Rainbow Dash looked away, two tears dripping down from her closed eyes. Spitfire took a step backwards and turned sideways, as though she was preparing to leave. “Please, Sergeant, come to your senses. We don’t want to kill any more good soldiers today.”

“I’ll bet you didn’t give my squad this choice,” Dash muttered acidly.

“Their deaths were unfortunate. Yours would be, too.”

“Hey, Commander,” Soarin interjected. “Our flight’s leaving, nowish.”

“Very well.” Spitfire raised her hoof and waved it around in a circle. At her signal, every Imperial guard lowered their rifles and filed toward a nearby shuttle, where the crane was lowering the ZR-57 into its berth. “This is your last chance, Sergeant. Come with us, and help us truly make a difference, or stay here and die for a Republic that doesn’t care about you.”

“Burn in hell, Spitfire.”

Dash wheeled around to see who had said that just as a shot blew past her head and connected with Spitfire’s. She froze for a second, then toppled limpy to her side and laid still. All four of the other Wonderbolts reached for their weapons as Dash was yanked backwards by Pinkie Pie, who dove to cover. They crouched behind a nearby durasteel crate as blaster fire erupted behind them.

“Pinkie,” Dash muttered, “that was... a very odd thing for you to do.”

“They took my Lemony,” she replied cheerfully. “and the Republic saved him. I know who I’m rooting for.”

“I thought I helped you save Lemon.”

Pinkie merely winked at Rainbow Dash before she stood up and galloped away, drawing some fire as she dove again to cover. Using her as a distraction, Dash peered around her crate and loosed two shots at her former squadmates. One of the shots pierced Soarin’s armor, causing him to stumble and limp away. Surprise, Needles and Fuse all took notice of this and reacted by focusing on Dash, forcing her behind her box again.

A bead of sweat dripped down her cheek. She slid into a crouch, holding her gun to her chest. Blaster fire echoed off the back of the crate as thoughts stormed through her mind. Even if they were traitors, Dash didn’t want to fight her former squadmates. But as fire blew past her and explosions erupted nearby, she knew she didn’t have a choice. Slowly, she scooted toward the center of the crate and pushed away from it, spreading her wings. With one mighty flap, she leapt onto the top of the crate and took aim, firing a grenade round at the hooves of Fuse.

The surprised stallion flew backwards and landed against the side of the shuttle behind him, dead. Surprise took notice of Dash’s tactic and galloped forward to engage while Needles began to back away, looking for Soarin. When he turned around, Pinkie Pie was holding a pistol level with his forehead, and he had enough time to blink before she discharged a round through it.

Surprise used her wings to leap onto the crate and glared at Dash with a devilish smile. “It’s a shame. You were a super fighter.”

Dash replied by firing her gun at Surprise, who ducked the shot and bounced forward. She pinned Rainbow Dash down, both combatants dropping their rifles in the tussle. Surprise reeled back a punch and slammed it across Dash’s face. A second punch dazed her for a moment before she finally brought her hooves up to her face. When she did, however, she felt a punch connect with her gut and she curled upward to cradle herself, nailing Surprise in the jaw with the top of her head. Both Pegasi fell backwards, yelling in pain.

Dash recovered first and reached for her belt, grabbing what she thought was her knife. In her dizziness, she pulled and primed a semtex. Eyes wide, she shook her hoof and, to her horror, found it was stuck to her coat. It was in that second that Surprise slowly sat back up, and Rainbow Dash saw her chance. She spread her wings and ran forward, slapping Surprise across the face as she leaped over her head.

Airborn, Dash pushed herself forward with her wings and slid into the metal floor. An explosion echoed across the hangar, and when she rolled onto her back, she saw the top of the crate blown apart, bent and contorted from the detonator.

A loud roar drew Dash’s attention away from what she thought had been an awesome stunt to see an injured Soarin in the cockpit of the shuttle. The crane holding the bomb was not even detached yet, but the vessel rose from the ground and began flying away regardless. Pulling on the metal cables, the ship dragged the crane onto its side and snapped itself free, escaping through the hangar door and flying away into the sky.

Rainbow Dash, alone in the evacuated hangar, dropped to her knees and stared into the sky, mouth agape in horror. “No...”

=====

Pinkie Pie crawled on her belly across the metal floor toward the sole escape pod on the other side of the hallway. Imperials crowded the back room while a wounded Lieutenant Soarin sat in the pilot’s chair. Reaching into her pack, she pulled out a time bomb and placed it over the door of the escape pod, setting the timer for twenty seconds.

Nineteen.

Eighteen.

“Whoops!” she whispered. She hadn’t meant to start the timer yet. Quickly, Pinkie pulled out two flashbang grenades, armed them, and threw them, one into the back room and the other into the cockpit further up. After that, she wheeled around and opened the escape pod door just as two small detonations echoed through the ship. The muffled cries of the Imperials could still be heard from inside the pod.

Fifteen.

Fourteen.

Thirteen.

She jammed her hoof against the release button and felt the whole ship lurch as the ancient escape pod ejected from the bay. Through the viewport, Pinkie could see the shuttle lurching back downwards, as though the pilot was not seeing properly. She giggled to herself at the thought.

“Serves them right,” she said to herself. “Meanie-heads.”

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Pleased, she turned around to look at the course of the escape pod. Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest as she saw the looming Mount Avilatan just ahead of her. The shuttle had not yet broken the atmosphere when she’d ejected, which meant her fall was much shorter than she had anticipated it would be. With little reaction time to steer the pod, her first instinct was to jump into the pilot’s chair and strap on the crash webbing and watch. Watch, helplessly, as the pod careened toward the rocky cliffs ahead.

Three.

Two.

One.

=====

Tears of anger streamed down Rainbow Dash’s face. The bomb had gotten away, along with a ship full of Imperial commandos and Soarin, who had been the only member of the Wonderbolts to survive. “I didn’t come this far to fail! No!” she cried.

Above, the sky turned a sickly blackish green and a large, noxious cloud appeared. Moments later, the sound of an earth-shaking explosion nearly blew Dash’s eardrums out. She looked up to see what had happened, only to have her attention drawn to an escape pod falling rapidly toward the mountain. It collided with a spire and ricocheted back toward the island, spinning several times as it continued to fall.

Rainbow Dash stood up and galloped toward the edge of the hangar door to get another glimpse of the escape pod. It had come to rest of the beach at the foot of the mountain, the escape hatch stuck upside down in the sand. Smoke rose from the hull, superheated from its rapid entry mid-atmosphere.

Shedding her armor as fast as she could, Dash spread her wings and took to the sky. It was the first time since she’d arrived on Ord Mantell that she’d flown, and the wind in her mane exhilarated her in a refreshing way despite everything that had happened that day. She slowly glided down to the beach nearly a half a mile down and landed in a trot on the sand meters from the escape pod.

She walked up to it and kicked it with a hoof. When no noise emanated from it, Dash began digging at the sand, pulling it toward herself and shoving it away. After a few minutes, the escape pod began to tilt backwards, and using her own strength, she flew up to the top and finished pushing it over. A high pitched scream elicited from within as it slammed into the sand.

“Pinkie Pie?” Dash said, surprised.

“Let me out! Let me out!” came the frantic reply.

Dash looked down at the door of the pod and twisted the hatch release. Even before the door was opened fully, Pinkie bolted from within and leaped into a nearby bush, where she wretched any food she’d eaten that day.

“Dizzy, Pinkie?”

She came out of the bush with a green face that sported a victorious smile. “I’m alive. That’s what matters.” One wobbly step sent her giggling into the sand, where she proceeded to lay on her back and stare into the sky. “We did it, Sergeant... We saved Ord Mantell.”

Rainbow Dash smiled, then laid down next to Pinkie Pie and likewise turned toward the open blue sky. The twin moons stared back at them from orbit like giant white eyes, unblinking and unmoving. They stared up at them until a Republic transport came to investigate the crash site and carried them back to Fort Garnik.

=====

The newly instated Commander of Fort Garnik, a resolute stallion with many years of experience behind him, raised his hoof level with Twilight’s face and pointed it at her accusingly. “This is all your fault, Lieutenant!”

“My fault?” Twilight echoed, aghast. “How can this be my fault?”

“You should have been aware of the motives of your fellow squadmates,” replied the Commander. “Surely you could have seen their schemes coming, considering how much time you spent with them.”

“I didn’t spend any time with them!”

“It’s true, Commander,” Rainbow Dash interjected. She hated seeing Twilight berated for something clearly not her fault. “Neither of us were aware of anything unusual.”

“Well, somepony has to take the fall for this, and it’s going to be one of you two!” The Commander put his hoof up to his chin and closed his eyes. Twilight looked pleadingly up at Dash, who shrugged back at her. “But that’s not my decision to make. You both will be transferred to Coruscant, where you will report to General Garza for reassignment. I need to step outside. It’s too hot in here.”

“Take your time,” Rainbow Dash muttered, eliciting a chuckle from Twilight. Her attitude had greatly improved in the short time after the raid on the volcano base. After Twilight had gotten back to the fort, she’d reported an Imperial presence on Ord Mantell. More Republic reinforcements had arrived shortly after and wiped the place clean of enemy resistance. Now, both ponies were alone after a rather harsh debriefing session. “I don’t like the new commander.”

“Not really our problem anymore,” Twilight replied offhandedly. “We’re being transferred.”

“Lieutenant? Commander Spitfire wasn’t completely wrong. In some ways, the Republic doesn’t give the right kind of support when it needs to. Ord Mantell is in the situation it’s in because we can’t afford to maintain it, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Using her horn, Twilight pulled a datapad from a nearby crate of confiscated Separatist crate. “We’ve been getting what we needed the whole time. Spitfire just saw it fit to distribute some of our supplies to the Separatists and the Imperials.”

Dash nearly tripped in her haste to grab the datapad. Sure enough, printed right on the front was a holo receipt detailing a massive order of fresh food, weapons and supplies, all of which had ‘Fort Garnik, Ord Mantell’ as its destination and listed as ‘delivered to Wonderbolts.’ “Go figure. She said the situation on Ord Mantell was the Republic’s fault, but it was hers all along.”

“Yes. If the locals never got fed, and all the soldiers got hungry, everyone would eventually defect to the Empire, and the Republic would lose Ord Mantell. She had us all fooled, even you, right to the very end.”

Pinkie Pie and Lemon Drop trotted into the room just as Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were exiting. They stood at attention before the soldiers with sarcastic grins on their face.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie,” Dash said with a smile. “Lemon Drop. Good to finally meet you for real.”

“The pleasure’s all mine, Sergeant,” Lemon replied. “You kept an eye on Pinkie while I was gone.”

“Well, more like she kept an eye on me.”

“Regardless, you have my sincerest thanks.”

Dash looked to Pinkie. “So, what now?”

“We go to Coruscant, silly!” she said with a giggle. “I’m under contract with you!”

“Well, about that...” Slowly, Rainbow Dash put a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder, halfway to a hug. “You’ve been a good friend, and a decent traveling companion. But you don’t need to stay any longer. I told you I’d let you go at some point, so... yeah. Go ahead and go.”

“Now wait just a minute,” Pinkie replied. “What if I don’t wanna go?”

Dash blinked.

“We talked it over, me and Pinkie,” Lemon clarified, “and we want to stay under contract with you. The profits we will make from this agreement aren’t as needlessly excessive as our previous employments, but this idea of a legal trade seems appealing in wartime. Plus, Pinkie’s taken a shine to you, Sergeant.”

“You helped me find the one thing I cared about more than money when no pony else would,” said Pinkie, a tear rolling down her cheek and a smile on her face. She nuzzled Dash affectionately. “I can’t thank you enough, Dashie!”

“Aww, shucks, Pinkie. You’re my friend. Of course I helped you.”

They smiled at one another for a brief moment before Pinkie’s lips tightened and her eyes shot open fully. “Oh! Did I mention we stole a ship from the Separatists?”

“You did?” Twilight said nervously. “We were supposed to have detained and impounded any Sep vessels.”

“You missed one,” Lemon said with a chuckle of his own.

“Yeah, and it’s almost as nice as the Defender we ripped off that Jedi back on Quesh!” Pinkie giggled. “So we can give you a ride to Coruscant!”

“Thank you,” Rainbow Dash said quickly, putting a hoof up to silence Twilight, who had taken a step forward to engage Pinkie about the ship. “We’ll accept. I’m glad you got your ship replaced.”

“Me too! Soooooo, are you ready to go?”

“Almost. I have one last thing I want to take care of before I say goodbye to Ord Mantell.”

=====

Talloran Village

The doorbell on an unassuming house rang twice before a young mare with tear stained eyes answered the door. “What do you want?” she screamed.

“Ma’am?” Rainbow Dash said slowly, holding her hooves together nervously. “It’s me again.”

“Oh, you,” the mare muttered. She spat on the ground in front of Dash. “What do you want?”

“I understand the Republic has not been kind to you these last couple days. I’m here to make sure you aren’t forgotten.”

“Forget it. The Republic already denied me a claim for compensation.”

“I don’t follow every order I get.” Rainbow Dash reached down to the ground where a small pot lay. Inside was a mash of credit chips. “We took a collection from the nearby villages. This is for your husband’s service to the Republic.”

At first, the mare glared at the pot. But her face slowly melted as she took it from Dash and counted the amount. “There’s over ten thousand credits in here...”

“It’s all yours,” Dash whispered. “Bellis... was a good stallion. I regret not meeting him, but he saved the life of every pony on Avilatan Island. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, for the sacrifices you both made to keep us all safe.”

The mare looked up to see Dash trotting away, but made no motion to stop her. All she could do was weep and smile into the small pot of credits until a stock brown freighter shot into the sky from the Fort, flew over her house, and disappeared into the evening stars.

Author's Notes

All rights to The Old Republic go to Bioware.
Hasbro owns MLP: FiM and the characters.
DerpiiHooves made the title picture. Absolutely amazing artist. Link to his dA:[Link]
Fanart/Sketches:
Source: DerpiiHooves
Source: DerpiiHooves
Source: DerpiiHooves
Source: DerpiiHooves

I will put any/all fan content related to this piece here in the Author's Notes for The Ord Mantell Deception. If you want to ask me questions or send me anything, email me at jedimasteratuna@yahoo.com

Massive props to the reviewers at the Training Grounds on Ponychan, of which I am a member, especially to Dublio, my personal ~~slave~~reviewer. They review fics with the absolute best quality reviewing skills. If you need a fic glossed over for errors, or want a professional review, check them out here: How To Guide to submitting

~AidanMaxwell