Blood and Shadows

by The GnPSB

Chapters

Wounded in Action (EDITED)
One Bad Day (EDITED)
Welcome to BLACK
Into the Rabbit Hole
A Rough Start
Turnabout
Mended Wounds
Endgame
Operation Zero (EDITED)
Epilogue: Aftermath

Wounded in Action (EDITED)

Operation: Wounded in Action

Location: 91st Pegasus Division Base Camp

Date and Time: September 23, 2037. 10:02 hours. Ten Year Anniversary of the Equestrian Takeover.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Transfer to new compound and retrieve new orders

I woke with my hair tangled and my pillow on the floor. I reached over the edge of the bed, looking for it, until I hit something else, my footlocker. I leaned over the edge and looked down to find it opened, but I didn't open it, somebody else did. I looked around for the pillow, until I found it. It was across the room. How that happened, I'll never know. I got up, careful not to wake Soarin, and retrieved it. Only on my way back, did I realize why my footlocker was open. Soarin had taken something out of it, and was holding it in his arms as he slept. It was a picture, of me, him, and Delta. We were all in uniform, standing out in the courtyard, smiling. I guess when I leave, if I can't come back, that'll be Soarin's one souvenir of me.

I slid on my clothes, and closed the footlocker after packing some of my more precious belongings in it. A couple medals and some other memories that I wasn't going to start thinking about. I looked at Soarin, just now realizing that he had been crying. The fur around his eyes was matted and wet. Either I was a really good love maker, or Soarin loved me more than I knew. I kneeled down beside the bed, and looked Soarin in his closed eyes. I nudged him with my elbow, "C'mon sleepy head, time to wake up."

Soarin stirred a bit, and mumbled, "No mom...don't wanna go to school..."

I giggled at that. In a soft tone, I said, "Soarin, honey. You have to wake up to say good bye to your captain."

Soarin rolled over, still holding the picture, mumbling, "Five more minutes..."

I giggled again. Then, I rolled him back over, grabbing him on both shoulders, and started humming the Reveille. That got him up fast.

He shot out of bed, dropping the picture and nearly knocking me over, and stood up to salute. He yelled, "Lieutenant Soarin reporting for duty!"

I lost it at that, and just sprawled out onto the floor, laughing. After he snapped out of it, he realized how idiotic he looked, and started laughing too. After I finished my laughing fit, I went to pick up the picture. It had cracked where he dropped it, the crack running through the middle of the picture, right in between me and him. I frowned, he instantly clammed up and sat down on the bed.

"What's wrong?" Soarin asked

I set the picture down on the bed and sat beside him, "I...I think this might be the last time we're gonna see each other...They're shipping me out to who knows where."

"No," Soarin said, "Don't talk like that, I'm sure we'll see each other again!"

"I dunno Soarin, " I replied, "The General wasn't even allowed to tell me where I was headed. Said it was some undercover mumbo-jumbo."

Soarin seemed to ponder that for a moment, then he reached past me to pick up the picture, "Can I keep this then?"

I smiled at that, "It's yours."

He returned the smile, "Thanks cap'n." He held out his arms for a hug, which I gladly gave him. A kiss, and I was walking for the door, a small bag of my belongings in tow.

I was just about to walk out of the barracks when Soarin called out, "Hey, Dash!"

I turned around to see him saluting to me, I returned the salute.

He shed a single tear, "It's been an honor serving with you."

I held mine back, "Same. See ya later, Foxy."

He grinned, "See ya, Foxy."

I walked out of the barracks. Captains had to be strong in front of their squad mates. Other than that, I could cry all I wanted...

I sucked it up best I could as I approached Delta. He was playing basketball with the other Wonderbolts. Funny, wings were never involved. Ever since the Wonderbolts became the special operations military force, flying wasn't a priority. In a game where shooting a ball into a raised hoop, wings seemed like an advantage. I guess that's why fliers weren't typically playing.

It was fun to watch Delta play. It was almost as if watching a dance. I didn't know much about Delta, he never shared his name, or much about his interests. He was very secluded, especially for how laid back he was around me and Soarin. Even if he always was straight to the point, I'd hoped that one day I'd finally get to know his real name. Maybe today would be that day.

The sun reflected all of the beads of sweat running along his brown fur and black mane. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was an Elite. Those monsters took everything, I can't even begin to compare Delta to one of them. He was normal, he played basketball and went on missions. He did his job, I just can't say I knew him that well to say he was a good guy.

"Corporal!" I called out.

Delta turned to face me, only to get smacked in the head with the basket ball as it was passed to him. All the guys started laughing as he fell down. An entire war and all it took to down this guy was a basketball to the back of the head, why didn't I think of that?

I walked over and helped him up, "I have some bad news, Delta."

"What? The intel was shit?" Delta asked.

"No no, nothing like that. I'm getting promoted."

Delta cocked his head, "How is that bad news? That sounds great!"

"...out of this base..." I added.

"Oh...that sucks...I kinda liked you too! Who's taking your place?"

Okay, not the exact reaction I expected, "No idea. I should probably add, I might not be coming back. Ever."

"Well, captain, all you can really do is just go with the flow. That's just the way protocol is." Stoic as ever.

"I was wondering if I could finally get your name? So I could properly wish you my farewells?" I asked.

"Sorry, captain. You know the rules." He wagged his finger with a smile.

That broke my heart. I thought we were closer than that, "Yeah," I replied lamely, "rules...are rules..."

He held out his hand, "It was an honor serving with you captian."

I grabbed it, "You too."

He pulled me into a hug. Delta, the guy who never opened up to anybody, pulled his captain into a hug. In front of the entire base.

He simply whispered, "I'm gonna miss you, cap'." Then released the hug.

I looked around to see we had many onlookers. Even the guys had stopped their game to stare. My cheeks began to burn.

Delta saluted, I could see tears welling in his eyes. He simply said, "If you ever need me, Semper Fidelis..."

I returned the salute, forming tears of my own, "Stay safe, soldier."

I turned and walked away, feeling all the eyes on the back of my head. I didn't look back.

But I thought back...

"Captain, callsign Alpha," Carrot Cake started the speech he did every time somebody got promoted, "It is my honor, to promote you to a ranking far above even my own. I know not what will happen to you, that is classified. I wish you luck on your future missions, and may you forever serve a greater purpose. I know, that one day, you will play a big role in taking back our rightful home. May your path lead you into evil, so you may smite it. Because as always, the only good Elite..."

This was a classified promotion. Where there were normally hundreds of Wonderbolts in attendance, it was only me and Carrot. I finished the line, sobbing with each word, "...i-is a d-dead one..."

"I know this is hard Dash. That's the whole reason it's a rule to not be on a first name basis. Forming bonds can be painful when you have to sever them." The general said.

I sucked it up as much as possible. Still semi-whimpering, I replied, "I'll be fine, but there's one thing I gotta know, how did you manage to clear out the barracks like that all night?"

The general let out a big smile, "Being second in command to Luna has it's perks. Plus, she seemed very fond of you for some reason."

I held out a hand, "Thanks, Carrot. It's been an honor serving."

He shook it, "Same to you, Dash. Now, get out of here before I start crying."

I chuckled at that, and walked off to the armored truck they came to get me in. No windows, I wouldn't even be able to wave goodbye as we drove off.

A soldier helped me into the back, and shut the doors. There was a small cushion laid out on the floor like a cot. I laid down, and got comfortable, looking at the ceiling in the dark as the truck started. I began to think back about the first missions I had with Soarin and Delta. How we would hang back behind the frontlines, goofing off and taking pot shots at encamped positions. I remember when Delta stubbed his toe, and cussed loudly, giving away our position to a few enemy troops nearby.

Then I remembered back when I was in the New Equestrian military. All the missions I had were always from private contractors, and normally very boring. Then I thought way back.

Back 10 years ago. When I was separated from my closest friends. Where this all began.

The takeover of Equestria...

One Bad Day (EDITED)

Operation: One Bad Day

Location: Ponyville

Date and Time: September 23, 2027. 13:25 hours. Day of the Equestrian Takeover.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Meet friends at the park for a picnic.

It was a normal, sunny day. The Equestrian army had just set up a military base in Ponyville, and we had just finished lending a hand. Me and my friends, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike, all planned on having a picnic. We picked a spot on top of a nearby hill, overlooking the base, so we could watch the new recruits in training. Fluttershy didn't tag along, because she's terrified of guns. Rarity was afraid people might think she was going 'googly eyed' for the marines. I didn't mind, it just meant they'd miss out on Applejack's delicious apple fritters.

It was probably better that they weren't with us. Maybe they didn't have to witness the horrors I would.

The picnic was going well. Spike served punch and me and AJ got into a chugging contest using a small case of apple cider she brought along. The marines were going through firearms training, and we could see all the action. The drill sergeant called out inaudible things to the recruits, trying to get them to fire their guns straight. One of the recruits noticed us and waved. We waved back and the drill sergeant smacked him on the back of the head and sent him to a line.

We were almost done with the picnic when a large explosion sent a plume of smoke up on the other side of the base. It looked like it came out of Ponyville. We sat in shock until a siren began to wail, snapping us out of our reveries and back into reality. Something was wrong in Ponyville, and we needed to help. The five us stood up and rushed down the hill straight for town. More explosions erupted ahead, and screams and gunfire could be heard.

At the time, I had little experience with guns and firearms. I had taken self defense courses, but that was about it. I tried to rationalize that a training exercise could have gone wrong, but the explosions were still going off. Plus, that was way too much gunfire for an accident. Something was seriously wrong, and we were headed right into it.

We arrived at Ponyville, but it looked like hell.

Buildings had entire portions missing. Rubble was thrown about, scattered across the pavement. Fires roared in destroyed buildings. Babies and full grown adults could be heard crying, and gunshots silenced them. The Elites had invaded.

The Equestrian army set up for an attack, but this was systematic murder. Men and women alike were lined up, and shot. Some were bused off to who-knows-where, and the remaining marines where handcuffed and forced to watch. For a moment, we thought we could run. Turn away and get help, maybe find Rarity and Fluttershy, and use the elements of harmony. Somehow fix all of this.

Then Spike hit the ground.

Instantly, Twilight got to her knees beside him. She lifted his head, asking if he was okay. She shook him violently, trying to wake him up. I thought he passed out. Maybe the sight was too much for him. Then Twilight began to cry, she held Spike and sobbed into him. She held him to close to her chest and cradled his head on her shoulder.

It was then that I noticed the hole in his forehead.

Shock settled in, one of my friends just died in front of me! If I didn't do something, who's to say we weren't next!

"Hands in the air!"

We were next.

We raised our hands, all of us except for Twilight, who held Spike in her arms.

The Elite approached us, gun pointed at Twilight. He had brown fur, and a black mane and tail. He was about a foot taller than me, and he was very muscular. He looked like a slightly smaller version of Iron Will, with a re-color. What scared me most though, was that he had no pupils or irises. His eyes were a stark white, no emotion whatsoever in them.

He spoke again, "Ma'm! Drop the baby!"

Twilight mumbled something, and sobbed again. The Elite reached out and snatched Spike's lifeless body. He threw it to another Elite. Twilight screamed, trying to get to Spike. The Elite who approached us held her back. The one who caught Spike put his body on the ground and put two more rounds in his head. Twilight screamed as if she was stabbed, then the Elite released her. Twilight ran to Spike's body and cradled him in her arms again. The Elite went to restrain us, and the other one held up his gun to Twilight's head.

Applejack screamed, "No! Leave Twilight alone!"

The Elite froze, "Twilight? Twilight Sparkle?" He put his gun away, and restrained Twilight with handcuffs. Then he put a blue band on her horn and dragged her away. Literally dragged her, as she kicked and screamed to get to Spike's body. It was futile, she was dragged away forever. Now it was just me, Pinkie, and AJ.

The Elite took us to town square, where they had lines set up. Kill lines.

A line for men, a line for women, and a line for children. They were split up right in front of town hall, everybody gathered there and was directed to the proper line. I saw people I knew: Bon-Bon, Sugar Sweet, Firefly, Sweetie Bell, even Big Macintosh, though I don't think Applejack noticed him, or if she did, she didn't dare call out for him.

When it was our turn, we learned who was sending the ponies to their deaths. It was the mayor. The mayor had mascara stains all over her face from where she was crying. The Elites were forcing her to send people to their doom. When we stepped up, the mayor froze.

"What's the hold up?" An Elite called out.

The mayor broke down, "I c-can't! I c-can't do it an-nymore!"

The Elite pulled out his gun, and ruthlessly splattered the mayor's brains all over the ground. Not with a bullet, but with the butt of his rifle. As if it never happened, the Elite dragged somebody else aside, and put her in the mayor's place. The new lady, held at gunpoint, pointed us to the women's line. These weren't people, these were heartless monsters.

And they were going to kill us...

The wait seemed like forever. We were directed to a line for women to go...who knows where. Judging from the crying and gunshots ahead, probably to die. We all shivered in fear, nothing like this had ever happened before. There was a woman who had managed to hide her baby from the Elites, until one of them noticed. He grabbed the woman and shook the infant from her arms, making them both burst into tears as a result. The Elite held the infant in one hand, and chucked it as if it were a football. I turned away as I heard it hit the pavement, no doubt killing it.

"My baby!" The lady screamed, running out of line. The Elite didn't hesitate to end her life as well. One bullet was all it took, straight to the head. She was lucky. Most of what I'd seen so far was nothing compared to that. Some people got shot in the gut and were left to bleed out. This was a massacre.

Then the worst part of my life began.

Applejack saw it, laying there. It was vacant. Nobody was guarding it, and it wasn't too far away, maybe about five feet away, maximum. I saw her staring at it until we were closer, it was a rifle. Alone and abandoned by some Elite. Applejack, the bravest and strongest of us all, turned to me and said only four words, "I'm going for it."

She jumped out of line and raced for the rifle. It was only five feet away, but it seemed like it was a mile. Applejack picked it up and pointed it at the nearest Elite. He only grinned as he stared down the end of the barrel. It seemed like time itself had slowed down. Like Applejack might get us out of this. Like everything might turn out okay. It was all silent, or it at least seemed that way. For a moment, the entire world went silent as Applejack pulled the trigger.

The only sound that could be heard for miles was the sound of the pin striking an empty magazine.

Applejack froze. She dropped the gun, and looked back at the line, and took a step toward me.

Blam!

Applejack fell to the ground. A fresh bullet hole in the side of her head.

It was over. My friend was dead, and I would soon be too.

Then things got worse. Pinkie Pie stepped out of line to mourn her dead friend. She shook AJ, as if that could somehow bring her back. She screamed, but no sound could be heard.

Blam!

Pinkie Pie fell over beside Applejack. She looked up at me with the utmost remorse in her eyes. She reached her hand out to me, and simply whispered, "I'm sorry, Dashie..."

Her hand fell, and both my friends died before my very eyes.

I turned, and stayed in line. Crying harder than I ever had before.

It was over.

I was alone, I would be alone for the rest of my life, assuming I lived past today.

Then an old friend stopped by to say hello.

Lyra Heartstrings. The most infamous person in all of Equestria. She was in this mess with me.

I wasn't alone.

Lyra had a plan.

It was an incredibly stupid one, but it was a plan. It would take a miracle to work. It turned out, the line we were in was a line to get shot in the face. They lined us up, 10 at a time, took aim, and fired. It was inhumane, cruel, and horrifying. I was done crying, my tears had run dry hours ago. As quick as you might think it was to kill people, it was painstakingly slow. Which gave Lyra plenty of time to get the word around about her plan.

There was about 80 of us here, lined up in front of the base gates to get killed right outside of a place created to protect us. They had lined up the next ten, and were taking aim. It was time for Lyra to doom us all.

Lyra screamed, "NOW!" and jumped out of line.

The ladies lined up to get shot, ducked and tackled the Elites that were seconds away from executing them. The girls in line pounced any nearby Elite and shook the weapons from their hands. Not all were so lucky. Some Elites reacted quickly, and took a few shots. Some of us went down, but me and Lyra ran for the base gates. We ran in the base, full speed. Lyra apparently knew where she was going, she took us straight to the armory.

We could see the men's kill line, unguarded. I grabbed a rifle, and chucked it over the fence. A man looked at it, then at me. I gave a grin, showing much more confidence than I actually had, and threw another one over, and another one, and another one. Then, they started getting out of line to pick them up. Then, they started fighting back.

I grabbed a gun from the armory, a rifle called an "M4." I ran outside, and met with Lyra. I had no way of knowing how to use the gun, but if my life depended on it, then I was certain I'd find out how. Lyra had a similar looking rifle, she ran to the streets.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To help the others escape!" She replied.

Lyra was never like this before. This was a whole new side of her, a heroic one.

Lyra led the way to an intersection. We looked to see chaos all around us. The citizens of Ponyville were fighting back! Everything was falling apart! We were winning! But the fight was far from over.

Bullets whizzed by my head.

"Get down!" Lyra shouted.

I complied, laying behind a street barricade. I shouted out, "What do we do?"

Lyra looked around, then she found an open door to a nearby building. "This way!" she called back.

She bolted for the door, and I was right behind her. Bullets shot past our heads, one bit through my ear, causing a sharp pain. We dove inside, where I nearly pissed myself. Inside, were two Elites with their guns drawn. I hesitated, but Lyra didn't. She opened fire and gunned down both the Elites in record time, before they could even react.

She bent down over their corpses. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Seeing if they have any equipment we can use." Lyra replied.

"What? You're looting them? That's horrible!" I shouted.

"Yeah, well, this might save our life." Lyra held out what appeared to be a...grenade.

I clammed up, as much as I wanted to say that it was wrong for her to do that, I felt like it was okay because of the evil they had enacted upon us. Was that wrong of me? To think that because they were so ruthless, that they didn't deserve any respect? Even after death? An eye for an eye, right?

Lyra stepped out the back door, leading us into an alleyway. She guided me into Sugarcube Corner, where I nearly pissed myself again.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake had gathered some survivors in here, and they scared the living hell out of me. For a brief moment, I thought we were about to take on a family of Elites. I don't think Lyra's reflexes could manage to deal with that. The Cakes had corralled some survivors in here and holed up. The Elites were just outside the door, keeping them inside.

Sugarcube Corner was on the edge of town, of course they'd guard it well. The bastards didn't want any escapees. It just got worse and worse. Then the Cakes told us how they sent out a man to try and talk to them. When he did, they rolled his head back in through the doorway. I looked, and the severed head still sat there, on the other side of the room. Fury grew in me as I looked for a way to get out of this. I wanted to breakdown and cry, but that was the last thing we needed right now.

"Lyra," I mumbled, "Give me that grenade."

Lyra obeyed, and handed me the device. "Pull the pin. It goes off five seconds afterwards." was all she said.

I walked to the door, and put my finger in the loop for the pin on the grenade. I pulled the pin, and waited three seconds. They were the longest seconds of my life. With each second that passed, I grew to despise the Elites even more. When those three seconds were up, I wasn't throwing the grenade to save my life. I was throwing that grenade to get payback.

I slammed the door shut, and waited.

Boom!

A couple screams, and then everything went quiet.

I peeked outside at the horror I had created. Blood and entrails had been strewn about. They were encamped here. I had thrown the grenade right into the middle of their setup, killing them all.

Well, not all of them. There was one left. He was on the ground, near death. I stepped out, and some of the others followed me. The gawked at the mess I had made. I focused only on the Elite at the ground.

He peeked up at me. I looked away for a second to look at the other bodies, they were all embedded with shrapnel. I looked back at him, he was too. He looked at my M4, "Please," he begged, "have mercy?"

He wanted me to shoot him, put him out of his misery. To have mercy.

He wanted me to have mercy?

Me?

After all he had put me through?

"Never." I said, picking up a sharp piece of glass from the ground. I jabbed it into his hand, and twisted. He screamed and writhed in pain, begging me to stop. I found another piece, and jammed it right next to the first. I twisted both pieces in opposite patterns, causing as much damage and pain as possible. The makeshift blades separated the bones from where they were supposed to be, deforming his hand and making him cry. I wanted him to cry, to feel the pain that I had to. But I couldn't make him hurt the way I did, he killed my closest friends. I abandoned the glass and stepped on his elbow. I grabbed his hand and pulled towards me, forcing his arm to bend in a way it wasn't meant to. A satisfying snap! let me knew that I broke it. The Elite let out a yelp of pain, and passed out.

I didn't realize it, but a crowd had gathered around me. Everybody had watched as I took the pain I had experienced today and relayed it onto him. Why did they look so sad?

I collapsed to my knees. Everything seemed so quiet. Lyra put her hand on my shoulder and said something. I couldn't understand her, it sounded like she was mumbling it from the end of a long tunnel. I went blank, I didn't move or speak, I don't even think I breathed.

I broke down and cried.

At some point, I stopped crying. Mostly everybody had cleared the area, except for Lyra, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and a young boy. I thought of what Lyra did, and searched the Elite. He had a strange looking knife on him, one with a slight curve to it. I took it, I still carry it with me this very day. I stood up, and walked with Lyra towards the edge of town. The Cakes followed.

I recognized that boy, it was Pinkie Pie's brother. He approached me, "Rainbow Dash, did you happen to see my sister?"

I nodded. The boy continued, "Do you think she's okay?"

I gave a grave look, and the boy broke down crying. The Cakes tried to comfort him, and they all wandered off.

It just me and Lyra, and anybody else walking in the same direction.

There came a point in time when my legs gave out, and I couldn't walk anymore. Lyra lifted me in her magic, and somebody held carried me in their arms. We were in this together.

All the while. Somebody hummed Silent Night.

To this day, I still don't know what happened to Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy. I do know, that Applejack and Pinkie Pie are buried somewhere.

Under the piles of bodies who died with them.

Welcome to BLACK

Operation: Welcome to BLACK

Location: Classified

Date and Time: September 23, 2037. 18:36 Hours.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Unknown

I sat there for hours, at some point a lunch was passed back to me, but it wasn't very filling. All I had to think about was my friends who I may never see again, and the Equestrian Takeover. Thoughts clouded my mind, and I experienced many emotions. I cried, screamed, laughed even, at stories I told myself. It helped the time go by, and before I knew it, the vehicle had stopped. The door opened, and I saw the black car I was in, was parked in a underground parking garage. The man riding shotgun got out and grabbed my arm. I quickly tried to jerk away, out of reaction, but he was strong and grabbed my other arm. A man, who I had no idea was there, came up behind me and cuffed my hands behind my back. I frantically tried to escape their grasp, but it was as if these people were super humans or something! A man entered a door at the end of the garage, not far from us, and started walking our way. He looked just like the men holding me, black fur and a white mane, built very muscularly and wore a black business suit with a red tie. A smaller woman followed behind him, holding a clipboard and writing something down. She had black fur and a white mane as well. She sported the same suit as everybody else, I felt under dressed! I got a really bad feeling as the man and woman grew nearer, and when he finally reached us, I noticed he looked exactly like the man who grabbed my arms, exactly. I looked to make sure, and I was right, they looked exactly the same! Then I noticed the man who handcuffed me looked exactly the same as well! This was like something out of a sci-fi movie that involved clones. Where the hell was I? Who the hell were these people? Why did this bitch keep looking at me funny? Then the man who approached us started speaking.

"Don't worry Ms. Dash, you are in very good hands." His voice sounded like chocolate tasted, if you can imagine that.

"Oh really? Then why the fuck am I handcuffed and being held against my will?" I retaliated

"Because this is a top secret facility, and we can't have you knowing it's location. If you choose to join us then you will be allowed free passage. But if not then you will be put back in the car and sent back to your original base."

I calmed down now, "So then where are you taking me?"

"This way," the man guided his clones and the lady towards the door he came from.

We walked through the door and the woman turned around, "I'm going to have to blindfold you so that you do not know the layout of our facility."

I growled as she put the blindfold over me and we continued walking. We made some turns and passed through some security checkpoints, but the group was silent. I decided I would break the silence with a question that had been bugging me, "What is this place exactly?"

The man replied, "This facility is the organization known as BLACK."

"BLACK? Who came up with that stupid name?"

"If you decide to join us then you will get to find out yourself." he said with a laugh

We walked through a door, I could hear it open and close, and the clones set me down on a chair. The lady took my blindfold off as I saw we were in an interrogation room. One of the clones handcuffed me to a slot in the table and then they left the room. The man sat across from me and the lady stood by, pen at the ready.

"So," the man began, "what do you know of this place?"

"Well I know that you must run some pretty sick experiments in here to be cloning yourself!"

"Haha, Rainbow Dash, those are not clones, they are simply androids! I am the lead designer of them, so I found it fitting to put them in my image!"

"Fair enough..." I looked at the lady who was scribbling madly on her clipboard

"Do you know anything else about this place?" the man continued

"No, never heard of it."

"That's how it's supposed to be!"

"Huh?"

"BLACK is a top secret facility that is built for the sole purpose of freeing Illesia from the Elite's grasp. We operate undercover, and nobody knows we exist. Our operatives take the pledge to put themselves in the line of fire or darkness, whichever they see fit. No matter how things happen, if they are captured, we burn all intelligence of them and deny any association with them. Our operatives do not get funerals, the get a tombstone with their name on it, placed in a private graveyard. They do not wear name tags, or any other form of I.D. This is how we have operated, since the start of the Equestrian Republic."

"Wow, that is the biggest load of shit I have ever heard. Did you watch Men in Black twenty times yesterday, and that's a line from it or something? I don't know who you think you're talking to, but I am captain of the 91st Pegasus Division, and I demand to be given a proper explanation to just what exactly this place is!" I slammed my fists against the restraining cuffs.

"Don't believe me?"

"Not in the slightest!"

"Well you might want to look behind you then."

I turned around, expecting to see another wall, but what I saw was truly astonishing. There was a five inch thick wall of bulletproof plexi-glass between me and the spectacle on the other side. It appeared to be an entire city street in size, and along the sides there were technicians working on prototype weapons, and doctors injecting men with some green liquid. Dogs, the size of bears, wandered around, sniffing for any signs of danger. A tank that was completely black was loaded with about eight different cannons at one station and about five rifle barrels stuck out from underneath them. A jet was at another station, a man got inside and the wings retracted, then extended again. Another station had a man using a jet pack and shooting some targets against the wall. The entire room was made out of dark grey steel and many support beams held up the roof that seemed to be at least a mile above the floor. I turned around and the man had a big grin on his face, "Believe me now?" he asked.

I simply nodded and motioned for him to continue, I probably looked like I'd just seen a ghost.

"BLACK is a one hundred percent deniable operation, in case of emergency, the entire facility can be detonated and buried in a matter of seconds. If you choose-"

"Wait, buried?"

"Oh, yes, the entire facility is underground."

My jaw basically hit the floor at this point.

"As I was saying, if you choose to join us, then you'll need to take an oath of secrecy first."

"Where do I sign?"

"Just repeat after me: I, Rainbow Dash, do solemnly swear..." he motioned for me to repeat

"I, Rainbow Dash, do solemnly swear..."

"To protect the rightful citizens of Equestria from danger..."

I recognized this, this was the first part of the oath for joining the Wonderbolts, "To protect the rightful citizens of Equestria from danger..."

"No matter what the cost..."

"Now, on to the BLACK oath."

"I have to take two oaths?"

"Yes, now repeat after me."

"Okay."

"I do not exist..."

This was new, "I do not exist..."

"But I will fight for the right to live in Equestria once more..."

I repeated

"Even if I do not get to see this goal accomplished, I will die trying to see it through..."

I repeated

"If I am captured, I will deny all association with the Equestrian Republic, and I will claim to be a rogue agent..."

I repeated

"I accept that I will not have a funeral, and a tombstone will be placed in my memory, in a private graveyard..."

I repeated

"I accept that the Equestrian Republic will deny any association with me, on any matter, and will expel me from the country if necessary..."

I repeated

"Rainbow Dash, Welcome to BLACK."

The man uncuffed me and led me to a security checkpoint, where he showed a card to a guard, said some numbers to another guard, and then went through a locked door using a retinal scanner.

"Man, you went all out on security with this place." I said

"We have to, keeps everything near impossible for the wrong people to access. Oh, and my name's Gear Head."

"Well it's nice to know the name of the guy who's giving me a tour of the place!" I laughed

"Oh, I won't be touring you around. The person who 'came up with this place's stupid name' will be giving you the tour."

"Who might that be?"

"Here she is now!"

I looked over his shoulder and the person approaching us was one who I had not seen in a long time.

"Princess Celestia!" I called out in surprise

"Ah, if it isn't Rainbow Dash!" she replied

I ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug ever. She still looked exactly the same, white fur and multicolored mane. The reason for the big fiasco was because Princess Celestia was presumed dead after the Equestrian Takeover.

"Everyone thinks you're dead!" I scolded her

She backed away and replied with a serious look, "That's the way things need to be, if the Elites knew I was alive then they'd come after us. It's better staying under the radar."

"Well, are there anymore surprises I should know about?"

"Just one," Celestia gestured towards the door she came from at the end of the hallway.

I approached the door, Celestia and her guards in tow, and turned the knob. I pulled the door open, and my eyes were met with the most advanced piece of machinery I had ever seen. The room inside was dark, everything was painted black, but the room was lit up because almost every square inch of wall space had been taken up by a computer monitor. The room was about the size of an enclosed football field, with a ceiling about twenty feet high. Men and women alike paced back and forth, talking to the technicians at the keyboards and giving them commands. The center of the room was lined with booths of people on more computers, doing who knows what. At the very center of the room, on a huge pedestal-like structure, was a holographic display of the entire planet. Multicolored dots whizzed about the projection, and people gathered around it, taking notes on clipboards. A huge screen displayed on the back wall, and on it was the word: DEFENSIVE, with a blue background behind it. "Wow..." was all I could manage to say.

"What do you think?" Celestia asked me

"Who built all of this?"

"Who do you think?" Celestia pointed at the globe in the center of the room, but a specific person below it. This person had a bright blue-green coat with a slightly brighter mane to match it.

"LYRA!" I called out

Lyra looked up at me, and she smiled instantly. She got out of the chair she was in and started running towards the stairs to the platform I was on. I rushed down as fast as I could to meet my long lost friend with a huge hug. By the time we reached each other, we were both crying.

"Where have you been Dash?" Lyra asked me

"I've been here and there, you know." I replied sarcastically

"Oh, that was a joke! I know exactly where you've been!"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah! I run this place as a second in command to Celestia! I know everything that goes on around here!"

"And what exactly goes on around here?"

"Intelligence." Celestia cut in

"I'm sorry?" I asked

"Intelligence," Lyra explained, "we gather intel here. Not a single event goes unnoticed all around the world! We record anything of importance, and file it here. We have been monitoring the military with extreme precision as of last night! Since you returned from your mission last night, we have every single thing that has happened in all of our military bases on file here! Hidden cameras and mics! You name it!"

"Huh?"

"That document you retrieved last night, it confirmed some very important information about the Elites and some forces they have on the inside, so we've been keeping a keen eye on our own forces. That means nothing goes on in any military base without us knowing!"

"What about-?"

"Yup, even your little adventure last night!" Lyra winked, "But don't worry, I took the honor of deleting the footage myself."

"Phew, thanks." I praised

"This reunion has been all fine and dandy," Celestia interrupted, "but you're getting shipped out for your first mission in less than an hour Rainbow Dash."

"I am?"

"Yes, so go hit the showers and get the lay down on your new gear from Gear Head."

"Where exactly is my first mission?"

"Where we have feared to tread for ten years..."

"You don't mean-"

"Illesia..."

I hit the showers and was about to get suited up when a man entered the shower room.

"AH! What the hell are you doing in here you pervert!?" I rapidly hid myself behind a wall.

The man was Gear Head, he approached me very calmly, "Don't worry Dash, everybody has to do this when they first come here, you have nothing to embarrassed about, this is completely professional."

"What do you need to do?"

"I'm going to tint your fur and mane black."

"What?! Why would you do that?"

"Because a cyan coat of fur and a rainbow colored tail tend to stick out like a sore thumb. If you're gonna run a stealth op, then you can't go in like that."

I looked myself over, the bright colors of my rainbow tail reflected the light in the room like a mirror, he had a point, but still, "Why don't I just wear the special forces Wonderbolt suit? That covers my entire body!"

"That's the point, we need you mobile, your wings cant be put down and an uncomfortable suit would only make things harder on you."

Ugh, there was no way out of this, "fine, what do you have to do, paint my fur?"

"No no silly! I'm just here to give you this pill! The only reason I'm here is to make sure it works! It's still a prototype and I need to see the results. It's supposed to turn your hair completely black!"

"Does it work?"

"Well so far it has turned fur black, but the mane and tail turn white. Every time we send somebody out on a mission, we have to shave off their mane and tail."

"Well give me the pill, maybe I'll have some luck with it."

He handed me the blue capsule, and I downed it without fear, I thought I would look cool with black fur and a white mane. I knew this was completely professional, so I stepped out for him to see the effects. He pulled out a clipboard, pen at the ready. A strange feeling started in my stomach, it felt as if a small worm was wriggling around in my chest. The small irritation quickly grew, and soon my entire body singed like it was on fire. I clenched my eyes shut and held back tears, the pain was almost unbearable. I could feel my mane and tail getting longer, and my fur grew in length too. I opened my eyes to see a very strange sight. My fur had doubled in length, the half that stuck out farther was cyan, but the half closer to my skin was a dark black. I pulled my mane around to see if it was any different. It was twice as long too and the farther half was rainbow colored, and the new half was black as well.

"It's a success! I'll have to tell Lyra right away!"

"But my hair is only half black!"

"Yes, that's what's supposed to happen, a team of hair trimmers will be in shortly to give you a haircut!" He left out the door and two clones walked in with suitcases. They remained speechless as one turned their suitcase into a chair and pointed to it. I sat down and the other opened his and pulled out hair trimmers. They cut my hair and gave me a mirror to look at myself. I looked about twenty percent cooler. My fur and mane were now completely black, and when I looked at my tail, it was black too. I got up and one of the clones handed me a black jumpsuit with holes for my wings and tail, it had a built in bra. I put it on and walked out of the showers, feeling very awkward.

I followed the signs to the room Celestia told me to go to, the Loadout Room is what she called it. When I went in Gear Head was hard at work on some sort of gun, "Sup?" I said.

He turned around to face me, "Ah, right on time! Are you ready to see your new gear?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!"

He lead me to a display case with a bunch of gear stashed inside. There was a complete suit: Night vision goggles, a kevlar vest and military issue pants, all dubbed in black. A five seven with a suppressor sticking off of it hung beside a M4 with a suppressor as well. An ACOG sight sat on top of the rifle and both weapons were outfitted with laser sights on the underside. A SOG knife, with teeth on the back that looked like they could saw through steel, hung next to its holster beside the guns. A pistol holster was already on the pants and the M4 was outfitted with a sling. Several different grenades hung beside the suit: Flash bangs, Explosive, Concussive, Smoke, EMP, you name it and it was there. There were also these strange looking balls that stuck to the back wall, they were about the size of marbles.

"This is your new loadout!" Gear Head proudly said

"What are those little balls?" I asked, then I noticed he looked a little heartbroken, "Oh this is all really cool! But those little balls just caught my attention is all!" I defended.

He brightened up, "Really? Because those little balls are designed not to catch attention."

"Pardon?"

He opened the lock on the case and pulled one out, "This is the mini-mic mk.8, it's a microphone that can stick to any surface and record noise. It's a design that me and Lyra came up with together!"

He handed me the microphone and I inspected it, "How does it turn on?"

He reached inside the display case and held up a tac-map, only when he turned it on did I realize it wasn't just a tac-map. It was some sort of wrist mounted command...thingy. He turned it on and then tapped his fingers on the screen a few times to wake it up, then he held it out to me, "With this baby right here, this is a tac-map I modified to control these things, the display is only visible from one angle, thanks to little shutters installed in the screen. So now if you turn this thing on, you don't have to worry about somebody seeing it, and it only lights up according to the light around you, so you won't have a flashlight mounted on your arm. Lyra helped me with it!"

"Got a name for it?"

"I was thinking something along the lines of Op-Sat but I didn't really like that, maybe you can name it?"

I put the device on my left arm, and fiddled with the settings, it seemed a little rigged. That would be a great name, "How about The Rig?"

"That sounds awesome! I'll toss the name in the database!" He ran over to a computer and typed some stuff in real fast then came back, "Now, lets get you suited for your first mission!"

Into the Rabbit Hole

Operation: Into the Rabbit Hole

Location: Tuto, Illesia: Site of main Elite military headquarters, suspected to contain vital information.

Date and Time: September 24, 2037. 00:23 Hours.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Retrieve any enemy intelligence and vacate the base undetected.

This was a suicide mission from the start. I was in scuba gear, approaching the Naval base, trying to keep an eye out for underwater security, such as mines. Tuto was supposed to be the main military headquarters for the Elites, even BLACK didn't know anything about it. I just hoped that I would be able to pull this off without a scratch but my wits were telling me otherwise. As I kicked my legs to propel myself forward, I tensed up and waited for the first mine to cross my path. It was hard to see in the murky water, the boats kept this water filthy, so I could barely see two feet in front of me. My guts wrenched tighter with each kick, until eventually I had to stop again. My jaw implant crackled as Gear Head's voice came over the radio, "Dash? How you holdin' up?"

To talk into this thing I didn't even have to separate my lips, I could simply try to say the words without opening my mouth and, thanks to the vibration sensing technology, the mic could make out what I was saying and play it back. I caught my breath and replied, "Oh I'm just fine, except for the fact that I'm at least a mile underwater, surrounded by Elite forces, and I'm probably feet away from a mine I can't see! Oh, and did I mention that I'm also on a suicide mission!"

"Calm down Dashie! I-"

"Hey fuck you! Nobody can call me Dashie except my friends!"

"You mean I'm not your friend?"

"Of course you're my friend! Just not the ones I'm referring to..."

"Oh, well we can talk about that later. But right now, I got some good news!"

"What is it?"

"We have an operative who's not too far from your position, he's making his way into the compound on foot, and he's agreed to meet you at a rendezvous point! He's a veteran, so he offered to help you out on this mission."

"I thought that I was the first person to ever come here?" I hummed, as I began to swim forward

"Well that's not exactly true, you're part of a team to be the first to come here."

"You mean there's more people in there from BLACK too?"

"As a matter of fact, there's people retrieving information right now from the base. I have the scans here on my computer."

"Jesus, and here I was thinking I was special!"

"Well don't worry Dash, you're special to me, and I don't see why anybody else should think differently!"

I blushed at the compliment, "Thanks Gears but let's keep things professional, I don't want to die smiling like a college girl."

"When did I say something unprofessional?"

I giggled, that's adorable, he was being serious, not flirtatious.

"Well anyway, get to the docks and up on dry land. I smackin' a marker on your Rig for the meet-up point now. God I love that name."

"Roger roger!" I replied, trying my best to imitate a droid from Star Wars.

As I pulled myself up on the concrete ramp, I wriggled off my scuba gear and I quickly realized why BLACK was sending us in tonight. Thick black clouds had rolled in and totally blocked out Luna's moon. I knew if she was here, and not back at the Wonderbolts base camp, then she'd be throwing a fit. Then again, she'd probably be throwing a fit that her sister never told her she was still alive. I pulled down my NVG's and flicked them on. Wow, why didn't the Wonderbolts use these? Everything looked brighter than daytime, and I could clearly see the guard on patrol behind the fence a few yards away. I stealthily approached the fence and pulled out the electrician's wire cutters. The had long handles and the thing was pretty much entirely coated with rubber. I was about to cut a hole in the electric fence when somebody's voice caught my attention.

"Psst! Hey!" somebody behind me whispered

I turned around and saw a man wearing the same gear as me and wearing a pair of night vision goggles. He approached me and whispered, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Getting into the base! Why?" I silently screamed back

"Because don't you think they'll see a gaping hole in the fence when they inspect it in the morning?"

He had a point, "What other way is there to get in?"

He simply pointed towards a gate shrouded in lights, and led me to it. Before we stepped into the light, I protested, "We'll be lit up like a Christmas Tree! Is there any other way to get in?

He simply held up three fingers, and started a countdown. When his hand turned into a fist, the lights in the base went off.

"DAMN SHITTY WIRING!" The guard yelled

"Ladies first." The man told me

"How kind of you." I replied sarcastically

We ran into the base and took shelter under a truck, moments before the lights came back on. I looked over to the man who helped me, his face was pretty well hidden under the goggles, but I could see he had some grey around his chin. I decided to introduce myself, "I'm Rainbow Dash, I'm new to this whole stealth thing." I whispered

"Well Rainbow Dash, nice to meet you. My name's Shadows." He whispered back, not facing me but still focusing on the guards down the road.

"Shadows...?" I asked, stopping the sentence there, asking him to finish his name

"That's it, Shadows. That's my name."

"Do you mean, Shadow?"

"No damn it! Shadows, it has an 's,' why is that so hard for everybody to grasp?"

"Well, uh, that's a cool name!"

"Rainbow Dash, I know that you're new to this so I'll cut you a break. But the first rule of sneaking around is to shut-up. If you talk then you can give your position away."

"Oh okay then," I replied, even quieter, "So then how do we communicate?"

"Quickly, follow me." he said, completely ignoring my question. He jumped out from under the truck and sprinted for a small building. Totally fazed, I gathered my senses and followed suit. I hoped that nobody would see me, and luck was on my side. I came in the building and was about to run down a hall after Shadows when an arm reached out and held me back. I quickly reached for knife and was about to stab my captor, when I realized it was Shadows. I sheathed my knife and closed the door behind us as silently as possible. I faced him, as he stood motionless, facing the hallway in front of us, "What the hell? You gave me a heart attack! I nearly stabbed you!"

He reached for a canister on his belt and sprayed something in front of him. As his spray spread around the hallway, red lasers revealed themselves. The lasers formed jail cell bars, and were close enough together that you could not fit a hand in between them. I was astonished, "Well, what now?"

He pointed to the ceiling and faced me, "The second rule of stealth is that the ceiling is your best friend."

He jumped up and popped a ceiling tile out of place, then he climbed in the ceiling over the wall. He motioned for me to follow. When I jumped up and had finally pulled myself in the ceiling, Shadows put the ceiling tile back in place, "Rule number three, leave no trail." He simply started crawling along the ceiling, just above the wall though, I'd assume he'd fall through anywhere else. We made our way through pipes and wires, until eventually he turned right and lifted up a ceiling tile, "Here we are." He jumped down and I followed. We were right in front of the door at the end of the hallway. He picked the lock and opened it to a stairwell that went down underground. He looked at me with a grin on his face, "Well, into the rabbit hole!"

We descended down stairs for what seemed like hours. I checked my map for our location, but it was just fuzzy at this depth. Finally, we reached the bottom to an extremely cold room, with fog flowing out from the many doors that lined the walls. The room was probably half a mile long and doors with bronze plates lined the walls. Each door had a different number, the first door to our left had '001' on it, the last door to our right had '237' on it.

"Wow, I never knew there were this many!" Shadows said

"This many what?" I asked

"You don't know what these are?"

"No, what are they?"

"They're cryogenic time chambers."

"English please."

"Each of these rooms has a frozen person in it."

"Oh, and why do they have this down here?"

"Don't you feel how naturally cold it is down here? It's perfect for these!"

"No, I mean why do the Elites need frozen people?"

"The Elites keep important individuals down here: Kings, Queens, Government Officials-"

"Princesses?" Dash asked hopefully

"It's possible, but if you're asking about somebody in particular then I wish you luck in finding them! You have over two hundred chambers to look in!"

"Well then why did we come down here?"

"Well...uh...to look for somebody..."

"Well I guess we better start searching, who are we looking for?"

"Funny you should ask! We're looking for princess Twilight Sparkle, she might be-"

"WHAT?!"

I caught Shadows off guard, "What? What's wrong?"

"TWILIGHT IS IN HERE?"

"Shhh! Keep your voice down! Yes! She might be here, we're not sure yet!"

"Well what are we waiting for! Let's get searching!" I said, approaching the first chamber

We looked through the chambers for hours, every once in a while, Gear Head would call us up and say somebody found some valuable intel or something that I didn't really care about. There was a silent siege of intelligence going on above us, and all I could think about was seeing Twilight again. We opened every door, peeked inside, then closed it. We were about to reach the hundredth-something door when we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Shadows looked at me worriedly, "Quick! Hide!" he silently screamed. I jumped in the next chamber and shut the door, I can only assume he did the same.

"Dash? Dash are you in one of those chambers?" Gear Head asked me over the radio

"Yeah," I hummed, "but somebody's just outside so shush!"

"Don't stay in there too long Dash! It only takes about five minutes of cryogenic fog exposure to put you under sedation!"

"Hey, I took ten years of Spanish class, and all I remember is how to correctly pronounce the word 'tortilla'" I hummed into the mic, "so could you repeat that in English please?"

He sighed, "It means that if you stay in there for five minutes, you'll be as unconscious as the person you're laying on."

Who was I laying on? I turned around to look, it was Twilight! Of course something would go wrong when I actually found my friend. I heard voices outside the chamber now, one had a heavy Russian accent, and the other was German.

"Now now," the German said, "I assure you, this is completely safe. The chambers are designed to hold prisoners for over a millenia!"

The Russian responded, "That may be true, but how long does it take for them to recover from sleep for interrogation?"

"That's the beautiful part! Only five minutes!"

"FIVE MINUTES? That means at least ten minutes total for each prisoner! And that's not counting interrogation time!"

"Well then, I see we have reached an impasse!"

I checked my tac-map, as it had vibrated. Gear Head had pushed a countdown clock on my display, and it was already at thirty seconds.

The Russian continued, "It's too late to discuss this now, besides, we have an eavesdropper." I heard a door open, and then I heard Shadows struggling against what sounded like a behemoth, "Well well well, if it isn't my old friend! Good to see you!"

I heard Shadows spit, "You filthy piece of shit, you'll never keep Equestria from it's rightful owners!"

My tac-map vibrated, five seconds. Now or never. I burst out of the chamber, and drew my M4. I shot the German, he was wearing a full body haz-mat suit, and was about to shoot the Russian when he hurled Shadows at me. I dodged and I could hear Shadows grunt as he slammed the wall. I quickly regained my balance and trained my gun on the Russian Elite before me. He was already at full charge, and grabbed me by my neck. I had a good look at him now. He looked like an Elite that ate too much fiber and benched eight-hundred pounds every morning. He was about two feet taller than the average Elite, which put him at about five feet taller than me. He hoisted me up as though he was lifting a roll of toilet paper rather than an entire person. He looked at me and growled, "What do you think you are doing little girl?"

"I was going for a stroll and thought I'd drop in and say hello!"

He tightened his grip around my throat as he laughed, "You are funny! I wish I could keep you here for shits and giggles, but I'm assuming there are more, correct?"

I spat on him, "Fuck you!"

His smile turned sour, and he roared at me, "I AM VLADIMIR BISCOFF MIRSCHEETIN THE FOURTH! HOW DARE YOU SPIT ON ME!" He tightened his grip around my throat and I could no longer breath. I hung there, hopelessly pounding at his huge fist, as I tried to gasp for air. His mouth slowly grew into an evil smile as darkness creeped around the corners of my vision. Suddenly, an ear piercing crack sounded throughout the room, and Vladimir's grip was relinquished. I fell to the floor, gasping for breath, and looked at my 'host'. He was on the floor with a hole in his forehead. I looked over and saw Twilight standing and holding Shadows's gun, "Let's get the fuck outta here!" She yelled.

We scooped up Shadows and dashed for the exit, alarms were sounding and choppers were rolling in, nothing ever goes as planned. We ran into the nearby woods and watched as guards searched for us. Flashlight beams went all around the base and eventually the search left the base and they traveled along the main roads. A boat was waiting for us and we took it all the way back to the Equestrian Republic. A chopper met us with about six other people on it, they patched Shadows up and everyone was going googly-eyed over Twilight. I admit, I was kinda jealous, but she was a princess, and I was just a soldier, so I kinda saw that coming. We traveled by air back to BLACK, and at some point I dozed off, letting my mind wander back to the good ol' days in boot camp. I remember when the Elites attacked us there, it was totally unexpected and we weren't ready at all. That was the day me and Soarin became inseparable.

A Rough Start

Operation: A Rough Start

Location: 91st Pegasus Division Base Camp, Training Grounds.

Date and Time:December 25, 2028. 00:00 Hours.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Survive Boot Camp

The trumpet sounded, playing the Wonderbolts wake up call, which meant you better freakin' hurl yourself out of bed, because the General expected everybody front and center before the short song was over. I threw the covers off of me and flew into position in front of my bunk. The other privates joined me in falling in rank. Soarin, or as I knew him at the time, Foxtrot, was standing next to me just as the song finished. This directed the General's attention towards us, which normally meant trouble.

"PRIVATE FOXTROT," the General screamed, "WOULD YOU MIND TELLING ME WHY THE FUCK IT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO GET OUT OF BED?"

"SIR," Soarin started, "I HAD A LATE NIGHT LAST NIGHT, SIR!"

"A late night? Why, were you masturbating to hot young boy-bands from Europe?"

Everyone giggled at that, everyone except Soarin who turned bright red, then a huge grin crept over his face, "SIR, NO, I WAS UP WITH YOUR SISTER LAST NIGHT, SIR!"

Everyone instantly stopped laughing, and whatever sense of happiness from the General's face had completely left and took a train nine miles south. Everyone stared at the General, waiting for their punishment, because in boot camp everybody gets punished, not just an individual person. The General turned bright red, and Soarin's grin disappeared. It seemed as if the General was an overheating teapot, but instead of steam coming out, it would be a wave of cuss words.

Then, the General surprised us all, by responding very calmly, "Do you know...how a man settles a dispute such as this with another man?"

"Uh...Jenga, Sir?"

Nobody laughed, the General was very serious, which meant that if you weren't then you'd be in trouble. The General was still calm, "No, they fight about it." And with that the General took off his jacket, leaving him in his camo tank-top.

"Sir?"

"You heard me private," The General replied, putting his fists up, "those are fightin' words, and if you think you can take me down, then I'll buy the whole platoon ice-cream!" his voice now loud again.

"Uh, Sir, I don't want to fight you, Sir!" Soarin nervously replied

"Well then if you don't then you have gone down without a fight, and then I get to nick-name you pansy cakes! NOW PUT UP YOUR FISTS!"

Soarin put his fists up very slowly and nervously took a fighting stance, everybody just watched in awe. Soarin had a tear streak down his face and, he peeked over at me as if begging for help. The General was now bobbing back and forth, as if in an imaginary cage match. The General took one swing and it was over. The General gave Soarin a right hook to the face and knocked Soarin on his back to the floor. Nobody ever agrees with me, but I swear that Soarin skidded a few feet when he hit the ground. Soarin was struggling to get up from his helpless position, but the General was far from done. The General pounced Soarin and punched him two more times in the face, sitting down on his chest. The General, now satisfied with his example, got up and turned to face us, his face was bright red, and he was sweating a little, "DID ANYBODY ELSE HAVE SOME FUN WITH MY SISTER LAST NIGHT?" he screamed, louder than he ever had before.

The room remained silent, all except for Soarin who was grunting on the floor as he struggled to get up. When he finally did the General approached him, and Soarin put his hands up in a hopeless/defensive position. The General stopped right in front of Soarin, inches from his face. He gave him this thousand-yard glare that said, 'one more crack like that and my foot will be so far up your ass that it will come out your mouth!' The General was really good with giving faces like that, some say he could tell you his life's story just by looking at you a certain way. Soarin, now with two black eyes, whimpered before the man in front of him. The General simply said, "GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR PANSY CAKES! GIVE ME A THOUSAND!" then he turned around and faced us, "AND AS FOR THE REST OF YOU, I WANT YOU ALL TO-!"

Suddenly, the air raid siren came on. The General looked at the door in astonishment, as if a giraffe with three heads was standing there. His expression was pure surprise, then he gathered his senses and looked back at us again, "I WANT YOU ALL TO GET READY FOR BATTLE! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"

Soarin got up and approached the General with a smirk on his face, "What about me Sir? I'm not in fighting condition!"

The General punched Soarin in the nuts, "Fuck you that's what! I hope whatever is attacking us shoots your balls off because you don't deserve them!"

Ouch, that must of hurt, I'm a woman so I didn't really understand, but I was too busy putting on my gear to care. When we were all finally ready, I met up with Soarin, because he was my partner and we were supposed to stick together in situations like this. We headed outside and rushed towards the AA guns, I grabbed Soarin and started yelling to him over the siren, "Foxtrot, let's hang back! You're not gonna be shooting very well with eyes like those! If we're lucky then all of the AA guns will be taken and we can just take cover!"

"Good idea!"

I could hear the jets incoming now, I decided that NOW would be a good time to take shelter. I grabbed Soarin and we dove into the nearby AA bunker and shut the hatch behind us. The AA guns were placed underground in little bunkers so you could shoot the AA gun out of it and take cover in it as well. The gun stuck out the side and rotated in the window so you had maximum protection. There were already two guys inside operating the gun, and they handed me a rifle, they would have handed Soarin one, but they said it wouldn't do him much good if he had a hard time seeing anyway, so they saved it for the next soldier to stumble inside. Suddenly, the bunker started shaking, bombs were falling outside. We could hear feint screams and Soarin heard somebody scratching at the door outside. He was about to open it when the man who wasn't at the gun stopped him, just as he did a loud boom could be heard just outside the door, and the scratching stopped. We waited there for a while, just letting the ground shake as the man behind the AA gun fired away, the other man kept a tally of how many planes he took down. I came back to that bunker after the assault and saw that he shot down exactly thirty-seven planes.

The bunker shook and rattled, and eventually the AA gun ran out of ammo and we were just sitting there, doing nothing. Finally, the bombing stopped, and the gunner looked out the window. We were cheering but the gunner had a really dreadful look on his face. His partner looked out the window too and he got the same look, me and Soarin took a look and we instantly realized why. The Elites had stopped bombing, just so they could send in paratroopers and Pegasi battalions. We quickly opened the hatch, and I left the gunner there with Soarin, and me and his partner ran to the front lines.

"What's your callsign?" I yelled to him

"Delta!"

"Mine's Alpha! Let's get over this embankment and see if we can get a better position!"

We advanced through the camp over the edge of the embankment that ran along the side of the base against the water. There was a retaining wall that a lot of Wonderbolts were taking cover behind, so we decided to join them. What a coincidence, the General was right next to where we jumped in.

"What's the laydown Sir?" I asked him

"Well Alpha, it's not lookin' good!"

"What seems to be the problem?"

"We're probably outnumbered five to one! That airstrike took us totally off guard!"

"How many casualties?"

"At least a hundred KIA and twice that in wounded!"

Delta cut in, "Sir, I think I have a plan, Sir!"

"Well any plan's a plan, private! What did you have in mind?" The General responded

"The mounted guns sir, the crews who were supposed to assemble them got scattered in the initial attack! If we could gather up the guns then we could clear these bastards out in ten seconds flat!" Delta suggested

"And just how do you suppose we do that, private? If we don't know where they are then-!"

Gunfire erupted from the beach, I peeked out and saw the Elites advancing. The air teams had taken to dog-fighting and a stray would come in for a gunning run every few seconds. They were only fifty yards away at most, and getting closer. Our side opened fire and rained hell upon the enemies without cover. The General turned to look at Delta, and gave him a confirming look. Delta ran back up the hill in, what seemed like, a hopeless effort. I turned my attention towards the Elites advancing on our position. I aimed down the holographic sight on my M16 and opened fire. I started counting the kills so I could brag about them to Soarin later. I got up to about twelve when a Pegasus thought it would be good idea to drop a grenade on our encampment, "GRENAAAADE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, diving on the General, who was in the opposite direction of the explosive. I heard the grenade detonate and felt shrapnel stab into my backside, my ears began to ring and all I could feel was the pain of the fragments in my back. My hands and feet had gone numb and my vision was blurry. The General pushed me off of him and I fell on my stomach, he called out to me to see if I was okay. I gave a quiet response which I was sure he didn't hear. At some point the General pulled me back up against the embankment and I regained my focus. My back was still singeing with pain at the shards trapped in it, but I bit my lower lip and fought on.

For what seemed like hours, we kept the Elites at bay, until eventually they started to get very close. Their forces seemed to never end, and they kept rising out of the water. One of them was able to reach our encampment and stabbed one of ours with the bayonet on the end of his gun. It looked like an over dramatic death from one of those old war movies, where the man who was stabbed was lifted up into the air as he helplessly fought at the knife in his chest. The Elite raised him up in such a manner and twisted the gun that was supporting the Wonderbolt in the air. The Wonderbolt stopped moving, and the soldier next to him opened fire on the Elite, but it was too late. Another Elite had broken the ranks and shot down even more Wonderbolts. This was it, this was the end.

I looked over the embankment to see how close they were, and then an Elite grabbed me by the throat. He was about to stab me with his already drawn knife, but he stopped dead in his tracks. I noticed a large red hole had appeared in his chest, and he let go of me and fell over. I looked over my shoulder to see none other than Delta with his machine gun mounted on the top of the hill behind us. I quickly fled up the hill to get behind him, and when I safely reached him, I saw that other crews were setting up their guns as well. At some point, Delta had opened fire on the Elites. I passed by him and heard him yelling something about being all out of gum. I assisted the other crews in setting up their guns, and found myself on one of them. The machine gun was heavy and the sights were inaccurate, but it felt like I was playing Call of Duty or something as I mowed down rows of Elites. I felt more like I was cutting a lawn than shooting at an enemy. All of the gunners had kind of silently chosen their own killing grounds, and we kept within those boundaries. I got the section in front of my gun, and the guys next to me got theirs.

After another few hours of conflict, we finally cleared the beach, but the base was being overrun by the Pegasi forces at this point. Time to take to the skies. I ripped my jacket off and slapped my wings against the open air. I pulled out my sidearm and started firing at anything not wearing Wonderbolt colors. I downed about five Elites when two ended up on my tail. I pulled a loop and ended up behind them, downing them both in seconds. I continued my killing spree until the Elites began to flee. One of the recruits looked at me and said, "Woo! We won! Score one for the Wonderbolts, zero for the Elites!"

Soarin was in the bunker chatting with some Medic over Delta's partner's lifeless body. I asked him what happened, he told me that an Elite came in there and attacked them. Soarin grabbed the rifle they didn't give him earlier and shot the Elite, moments after he killed Delta's partner. We had a moment of silence then went to find Delta to break the bad news. Delta didn't take it too well, him and his partner were apparently brothers. Delta went to the medical ward to give his brother the proper dog tags for burial. I later learned from the General that we had a very important person MIA. Spitfire, who ran the Armory for the base, was nowhere to be found. We all assumed she was KIA and went on with our lives, but nobody ever got closure. There was a service held for her and Delta cried the whole time. I had heard Spitfire had a thing going with a new recruit, but only after Delta admitted it to me did I know that he was the one she was seeing. I still can't figure out if he was crying because of Spitfire, his brother, or both.

Me and Soarin had a long talk that evening at dinner, he told me his real name, which was highly against the rules, and Delta was assigned to our squad. We weren't the only squad with three people, at this point, it was odd to have a two person squad. I didn't sleep that night, I was afraid they would come back. In the morning, everybody was having a late start, even the General. So we got let off easy and we got up at about six o'clock. The General didn't really push us and the whole day went by slowly. After that the guns remained set up at the shoreline, and the air raid siren was always at the ready. Things didn't go back to normal after that, they just kinda set into a new normal and we went by that routine. From then on, the General and Soarin hated each other, but since I saved the General's skin by diving on him, he cut him some slack. I still have the scars today from the shrapnel in my back, and I can feel the pain that I felt that day when I lay on it. It's been much harder ever since then, because that was the attack that proved the Elites knew where we were, and that they could attack us.

The worst part was, was that the Elites weren't even supposed to know the Equestrian Republic existed, much less that it had a military force. If they knew that, then what else did they know?

Turnabout

Operation: Turnabout

Location: BLACK HQ

Date and Time: September 24, 2037. 06:49 Hours

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Safely transfer Princess Twilight Sparkle into the BLACK headquarters

"Rainbow? Rainbow wake up!"

I groggily got to my feet to see Twilight waking me up. She had on a black jumpsuit that fit her body snugly, and the guards were going nuts over it, which I thought was weird at first but then I noticed they weren't the cyborgs. The helicopter had landed and we were back at HQ, but things were far from good.

A guard escorted Twilight off the helicopter and down the hall, I climbed out by myself and groggily followed them. The man made his arm in the shape of a hook and Twilight wrapped her arm in his. I growled, and then I caught myself doing it. I was jealous? Of Twilight? Well she was a princess, I guess when you have wings and a horn to go with a good looking body, things work out pretty well for you in the men department. Just then somebody grabbed my hand a wrapped it in their arm. I turned to look and it was Shadows who was the culprit.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" I attacked

"Escorting a young lady to debriefing!" He defended

I wasn't interested in him, but I could see that he didn't mean it like that. He noticed my jealousy and was just trying to cheer me up, I guess he sorta thought of me like a daughter? I wasn't sure, but I didn't really care either, it was nice to have somebody to hold me up, I was unbelievably tired.

We got to the debriefing room, where a welcoming party waited for Twilight, Celestia and most of the staff were there. Well that was great, things just keep piling on to my jealousy.

"C'mon kid," Shadows said, "Let's go somewhere else, this place bums me out."

"Thanks Shadows" I told him

He led me to the Loadout room where we met up with Gear Head. He was tinkering on that gun again and had another Rig beside him on the next workbench over. We walked up to him and Shadows let go of my arm. I walked over and sat down next to Gear Head.

"Watch'a workin' on?" I asked him

He nodded his head and hummed "mhm."

"Gears?"

He looked at me, and said, "Oh, sorry Dash I'm just really focused, what do you need?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering what you're working on."

"Oh, it's a prototype rifle with a built in silencer."

I looked at the gun, "It looks like an ordinary M4 to me."

"That's the point, the silencer is built in. Don't you have a mission you need to go on?" He asked very politely

"Just got back from one, sorry if I was bugging you." I said, starting to get up. Shadows was moving in to take my arm again but then Gears grabbed me by my other arm.

I faced him and he desperately said, "Sorry, sit down, we can chat!"

I laughed and motioned for Shadows to go ahead and join the party, I was gonna hang here.

Gear Head had a lot to say about his new 'toys' as he called them. He got a bunch of guns and has to design a way to put a built in silencer in each one. He wasn't very gun savvy so he was having a lot of trouble with it. I decided that I'd take it upon myself to help him get the silencers in. Together, it took us about fifteen minutes to get the silencer in the gun. When we finished, you couldn't even tell the gun was silent.

"Wow! I didn't know you knew so much about guns!" Gears said, amazed

"Well I kinda shoot them everyday so I guess I have to." I laughed

Just then, he gave me this strange look, and started leaning towards me. His lips began to pucker.

"What are you doing?" I asked him

He instantly stopped and leaned back into his work, "Sorry, uh...just forget it."

"Gears, you're a cool guy and all but can't you tell when a girl just wants to be friends?"

"I dunno, I never really was good around girls. All through my life I've had a hard time in the 'ladies department'."

I laughed at how he said those last few words, "Well you seem like a cool enough guy, I don't see why women don't come to you!"

Just then, Lyra walked in the room from the back closet. I had no idea how long she'd been there, or if she could hear anything, hopefully not.

"Hey Gearsy!" She started, "I got that circuit for you!" She pranced over to him with a sway in her step, and placed it on the table for him. She made sure to get her breasts as close to his face without touching him. Her body language just screamed 'horny schoolgirl' as she swayed her hips on the way back to the closet. Gear Head didn't even notice and went right back to work on his Rig from the next station over.

"Really?" I asked him

"What?" He said, confused

"What do you mean you have trouble with women?"

"I can't seem to get any of them to like me for me I guess!"

"No no! I mean did you just see what Lyra did?"

"Gave me the circuit?"

"No! I mean how she talked to you and approached you!"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know anybody else who calls you Gearsy?"

"Well, no but-"

"And how about the fact that she practically rubbed her boobs in your face?"

"That's what she always does! I just thought she never noticed how-"

"WHAT? She does that all the time? Gears, you really do need help!"

"Well what am I not seeing?"

"Next time she comes in here, pay attention to how she talks and moves. Watch her hips, she's wanting you to lay her out on a workbench and fuck her brains out!"

"What? You're lying!"

"Next time she comes in here, I'll leave and you just try it! Just ask her and you'll see!"

A little time passed and sure enough, here comes Lyra, swaying her hips. I got out of my chair and left, I closed the door and put my ear up to it.

"Hey Gearsy! I got your filter you wanted!"

"Thanks Lyra."

"Need anything else?"

"No...but I got a question."

"Oh really?" Lyra's voice perked up

"Yeah, uh...is there anything you want me to do to you?"

"Do you mean, do for me?"

"No no, to you." Gear Head's voice cracked

There was silence, then there were noises of a struggle and I heard belt buckles being fumbled with. My work here was done. Just as I started to wander off, a voice called to me from down the hall.

"RAINBOW DASH!" Celestia called out, rushing towards me

"What what? What's the problem?"

Celestia made her way to me before speaking, "Where have you been? We've been searching all over for you!"

"I was here the whole time! Why? Is something wrong?"

"Yes! I expected you to be at the welcome party so I could tell you this directly and we could act upon it quickly: While you were on your mission, we finished decoding the document you retrieved from the Elite Aircraft Carrier!"

"What did it say?"

"It confirmed the Changelings were working for the Elites, and that they had over a hundred Changelings positioned throughout our entire military force, including here at BLACK!"

"When did you find this out?"

"About an hour ago when Lyra deciphered it! We need your feet on the ground in Changeling territory ASAP! Where's Lyra? We need her to prep you for this mission!"

"Oh, uh, she's in the Loadout room here, but I wouldn't go in there."

"Why not?"

"They're sort of having a... physical moment..."

"What? There's no time for that!" Celestia ignored me and knocked on the door a few times

"Uh...don't come in! Um, top secret!" Lyra called out

"This is Celestia! I'm coming inside!" Celestia stated, as she charged inside.

I fully expected to see the two of them naked on the floor, but what I actually saw made me reach for my sidearm. A Changeling was perched over Gear Head with a knife, Gears was struggling to hold the knife back. I quickly drew and put one right between the Changeling's eyes. The beast's body went cold and collapsed on top of Gear Head. Gears quickly got up and threw the monster off of him, jumping back and squealing like a little girl. I gave him a look and he straightened up instantly and acted like he had some backbone. Celestia, totally amazed at what just happened went to investigate the Changeling.

"What happened?" She asked

"That thing posed as Lyra and tried to...well...seduce me! Then when it had me on the table, I...I started taking my belt off and it transformed into that...thing and attacked me!" Gear Head responded

"Where is the real Lyra?" Celestia questioned

"I think I know," I said, approaching the closet, "probably in here." I looked inside, and sure enough, Lyra was unconscious on the floor. I picked her up and carried her over to an empty table and laid her down.

"How did it get in here?" Gear Head asked

"I don't know, but I think we'll be finding out soon enough." Celestia stated

"What are your orders?" I asked her

"Gear Head, prep Lyra for a trip to the medical bay. Rainbow Dash, come with me: you're getting prepped for your next mission."

"Where is that?"

"You're heading straight into the center of the Changeling Hive. We have a squad of Wonderbolts who was napped in a raid, while you were out. You are going to save them, and get as much intel as possible."

"Who was in the squad?"

"We don't know, we don't even know if they're still alive. That's the problem Dash, we've been in the dark for too long. Tonight we go on the offensive."

Mended Wounds

Operation: Mended Wounds

Location: Outer Illesia, Changeling's Hive.

Date and Time: September 25, 2037. 22:48 Hours.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Infiltrate Changling Hive undetected and rescue trapped Wonderbolt squad.

[Optional]: Retrieve enemy intelligence and destroy Changeling Hive

I had heard of cryogenic sleep but never did I think I would experience it first hand. As I stepped out of the sleeping chamber, I instantly stopped shivering, as the air outside was much warmer. The men in the air ship had come to release me from the chamber, and they were wearing jackets? I guess it was way colder than I thought, and the air outside the chamber was just a lot less cold than the air inside the chamber. I was still shivering a little, as I realized why they were wearing jackets. The bay where all the sleep chambers were stored was freezing! I warmed up a little, but only to the point that the frigid air would let me. One of the soldiers noticed how cold I was, and kindly took off his jacket and gave it to me. It wasn't anything compared to the treatment Twilight got, but it was a start. As I dawned the jacket and left the room with the two men, I decided that I'd get laid ASAP when I got back from this mission. Only problem was, that Twilight was big competition, she was a princess after all, and had 'physical' needs that rivaled mine. But that would have to wait for now, I was on a mission.

The C-130 cargo plane we were on was modified to act as an airship: It could almost hover in mid air and was stable enough that you could balance spinning plates with ease. The ship was code-named Falkon, although I don't understand why it wasn't with a 'c' instead of a 'k' but I guess that wasn't up to me. I approached the drop bay, and gave the soldier his jacket back and thanked him. He simply nodded and the two of them left as the door started to open.

"This is Cubby Leader calling Raven, come in Raven. Over." Lyra's voice came in over the implant

"This is Rainbow Dash, no need to be all serious." I hummed as the wind started leaving the room. There was no answer from the other end, then I realized why, "Over."

"Da- I mean Raven! We use code names to hide identities! The enemy could be listening on this broadcast right now! Over!"

"Lyra, if the Changelings had a use for these radio frequencies, then they wouldn't have sleeper cells in our bases! Over."

"Good point, but it can't hurt! Over."

"Fine, what do you want Cubby Leader?"

"Ahem..."

"OVER!"

"I just wanted to say good luck and apologize for not being awake to give you your new gear! I had a new Rig all prepped for you but it needs to be applied to your arm in a certain way. When you come back then I'll hook it up. Over."

"Ly- Cubby Leader, from now on, put Gear Head on the comms? Over."

"Okie doke. Cubby Leader, over and out."

Fuckin' Lyra, she was cool but she got on my nerves sometimes.

As I fell through the air, I waited to spread my wings. This was how it was meant to be, my wings I mean. They weren't restricted in any way, and I could soar freely through the air, just like back before the invasion. My new M4 with a built in suppressor was strapped to my chest and my pistol was holstered to my hip. I decided to go light this time, and leave a bunch of the grenades behind, all I were carrying were flash bangs and EMP's. I was good with the flash bangs, but these EMP's were a whole new concept to me: a grenade that could fry enemy electronics, even through walls. But the thing I didn't like was that it fried mine too, but only for a short while.

The treeline was close now, and just before I reached it, I spread my wings wide and pulled up hard. My belly skimmed the treetops as I flew across the sky, keeping as low as possible. I looked up, yearning to go higher, but if I did then I'd be caught for sure. Now, I could see it clearly, the Changeling hive. Picture a Changling, holes and all right? Well the hive looked about like a giant Changeling version of a termite hill. It had at least four peaks, and each was riddled with its own holes, each an equally as accessible entry point. I chose the hole at the highest point in the tallest tower, and I'd work my way down from there. I swooped in to find out that the space was used as an attic, and no guards were nearby, but I could hear them underneath me. They scuffled about, doing this and that, they sounded busy. Maybe that's whey nobody noticed me zoom up the side of the tower and dash inside. Whatever the case was, they didn't know I was here, and I planned to keep it that way.

Time to see if any of Shadows talent rubbed off on me I silently thought to myself. I cracked open the attic entrance and peeked out below me. Two Changelings were wandering about, on guard duty in front of some door. I was about to jump down and get them both when one of them started talking.

"Why do you we need to guard the weapons cache?" The first one said, pacing back and forth

"Because the queen told us to." the second replied, calmly leaning back in a chair

"Yeah but why did she tell us?"

"I dunno, but it's probably important! Don't question what the queen asks!"

"Well, we never have to guard it any other night! Why tonight?"

"Probably something to do with that Wonderbolt squad we captured."

"You think that somebody might be coming after them?"

"It's a possibility, and it's not them anymore."

"Huh?"

"It's just him, they killed everyone on that squad except the captain in an attempt to break him, but he's really stubborn."

Those heartless shits.

"Well what do they plan on doing?"

"I think I heard somebody say something about cutting off his fingers one at a time? Or some form of ancient Japanese torture. There was a big debate on it, it was funny 'cause the guy was right there the entire time! I could see him squirming at the mention of letting bamboo grow inside him!"

Fuck this, I need to act now before they scar this Wonderbolt for life, if he isn't already...

The pacing one replied, "Well if you ask me they should-"

Then, I dived out of the attic and did a combat roll up to the first Changeling. When I got out of the roll, I pulled out my knife and planted it in the first one's chest, and in one fluid motion, I shot the other with my sidearm. Before the first one could scream in pain, I held the gun up to his head, "Shout, and I'll make sure you die with no fingers!" I quietly yelled at him.

He clamped his mouth shut, and then he quietly said, in a very scared voice, "What do you want, I'll tell you anything! Just let me live!"

"I'll think about it, but first, I need some information."

"Okay! Okay! What do you want to know?"

"First off," I said, pulling him closer to me, "We're gonna play a game!"

"What game?" He sounded much more scared now

"You're gonna pick a number between one and ten, if you choose correctly, then I'll let you live!"

"Oh god, uh...um...seven?" He asked, closing his eyes

"Darn, lucky guess." I said, even though I never had a number in the first place

"Okay, please let me go!"

"Okay, but first how do I get to this Wonderbolt?"

"You head down two floors, and head into the door labeled 'Interrogation Quarters.' When you go in there, the Wonderbolt will be in cell G!"

"Hmm, you've been very good so far. How about another game?"

"Please, no more?"

"Fine, suit yourself." I said, pulling the trigger

The Changeling fell lifeless to the floor, and I dragged both bodies into the weapons cache room. I advanced to the stairwell, and sneaked my way down two floors. I was about to go through the door to the second floor, and found it was locked. A couple Changelings came up the stairs, I looked around and my only escape was back up. I went up to find two more headed down, I was trapped. I flew up against the bottom of a flight of stairs and prayed that they wouldn't look up. I held my breath as I pressed myself harder against the moldy bottom of the stairs. I could hear the Changelings walking beneath me and above me. Please don't look up, please don't look up, please don't look up! The were talking about football but my heart was pounding too hard in my head to hear them. The ones above me remained silent, which scared me more because then I wouldn't even know if they'd seen me. The ones below me opened the door to the second floor and proceeded through it. I was about to fly through it when the two above me rounded the turn, blocking my path. I tossed a mini-mic through the doorway, and hoped that it would be enough for a doorstop. The Changelings passed the door as it swung shut, but my microphone held it slightly open. They continued walking under me, and rounded the corner to the floor below. I flew at the door, picking up my mic in the process, and shut it behind me. The two Changelings that passed through were already halfway down the hall, and I started reading the labels on the doors.

Weapon's Modifier, Grenade Room, Firing Range Storage, etc. It took me a while to find the Interrogation Quarters, and when I did, I found the door to be locked. I was about to take my knife and break the lock, but voices came from the other side.

"Yes I agree, that would suffice nicely." It was the Queen!, "Our latest prisoner has been very problematic, and an acid treatment would be the perfect thing to make him talk." Her voice was closer to the door now.

I quickly flew up and attached myself to the ceiling, as the door opened below me. Chrysalis and some Elite in a lab coat walked out.

"I'll have more shipped to you by morning, we'll have this sorted out and this dunderhead will be singing for you in no time." The Elite told the Queen

"Fantastic! I look forward to the trade!" The Queen said.

"Now, on to more pressing matters," The Elite continued as they walked down the hall, "I believe that the death of your operative in BLACK was tragic, but he must be replaced effective immediately!"

The door was closing now so I dashed inside. The room was bleak, grey walls and doors that looked like those of an insane asylum. Each of the eight doors in the room had a letter on it: A,B,C,D,E,F,G, and H. I peeked in the window of cell G and saw the Wonderbolt, curled up on the floor facing the wall. I went to some controls on the wall and unlocked the door. I slowly opened the door to present myself, but the Wonderbolt shot up and tackled me to the floor.

"YOU BITCH! I'M NOT TELLING YOU ANYTHING!" He yelled, hovering a shiv made out of a chicken bone. He was about to jab it into me when he realized I wasn't an enemy, "Oh sorry." He apologized, as he got off of me.

I brushed myself off and readjusted my gear, he continued to talk, "Hey, do I know you from somewhere?"

I looked up and saw the Wonderbolt who I was saving, it was Soarin! I tackled him with a big hug and he had this huge grin on his face. When I finally released him he stood there, his cheeks had lit up now. Scratching the back of his neck, he asked, "Uh, thanks for saving me and all, and the hug is appreciated...I guess...but who are you?"

At first, I was shocked, how could he have forgotten me that quickly? Then I realized I was dubbed in black now, thanks to the agency I worked for. I laughed and looked at him, "You mean you don't recognize me, Foxy?"

He seemed very confused, then he contemplated what I said and realized who I was. He shot into me and gave me a huge hug. When he finally released me he had tears in his eyes, "Dash! What happened to you? Why are you black? I thought your rainbow look was way sexier!"

I blushed at the statement, then realized this was no time to turn into a blubbering mess, we were in the hive, what was Soarin thinking? "Soarin, we gotta get out of here! I got an escape plan, we can go out the way I came in!"

"What way is that?"

"We can get to the top of this tower and fly our way out of here!"

"Oh uh, that could be a problem."

"Why?"

Soarin lifted his wings, both of them were clipped. I knew Changelings were cruel, but taking away a Pegaus's ability to fly? That was just wrong. "Soarin..." was all I could manage to say, as I thought about how painful it must be to know you can never fly again. The holes in his wings seemed like something you would see in a horror movie, they weren't small holes, I could fit my hand through these.

"Don't worry Dash, I'll be fine, I just can't do anymore flying..." he looked at his feet as tears streamed out of his eyes

"Soarin, I can't imagine what sort of pain you're experiencing right now, but we need to get out of here! I'll cry with you as much as you want later, but a Changeling could walk through that door any minute!"

"You're right," Soarin said, collecting himself, "Let's go."

I led the way, as we navigated the stairwell to the first floor. Instead of sneaking our way past things, we just silently put a hole in each Changling's head. After some careful navigation through the lobby, and some close calls in the front courtyard, we made it to the front gate. We ran out and into the woods, and then I thought about Soarin's clipped wings. I stopped and he turned around, "What's wrong? We're home free now!" he asked.

"After what they did to you? They need to pay..." was all I said before I flew off to the weapons cache. I slipped inside, and went straight for the C4. I linked it to a trigger and armed everything I could find. I grabbed as much as I could, and flew out through the attic. I let the C4 rain down on the hive, and flew off, setting off alarms in the process. I noticed Changelings beginning to leave the hive, so I pressed the trigger. Everything went white, and I took the opportunity to dive beneath the treetops and rejoin Soarin. We ran off as Changelings rapidly hurried about, fixing as much as they could, only setting fire to more of the structure. I called in a evac chopper and when they asked why, I just told them to get it here ASAP.

Soarin looked miserable, his wings were clipped, his suit was torn, he had burns on most of his body. There were a few cuts on him, and part of his mane was ripped out. Not to mention but he smelled like a wet dog that died on the side of the road and rotted for a few weeks. All I could think to do was just hold him, he didn't need to say he was hurt, I could tell. We sat there, in the grass for a while, just me holding him, until the chopper showed up. I helped him up, and helped him into the chopper. I hadn't noticed it before but he was limping. When he got in, a soldier looked at me and said, "What's wrong? Why couldn't you fly?"

I looked at Soarin, and the soldier did too. The soldier had a look of realization as he noticed the holes in Soarin's wings. He simply shut up and went to give him medical attention. I jumped in the helicopter and we took off. We flew for a while, and the soldiers bandaged Soarin up, he wasn't bleeding, it was just protocol to bandage any possible wounds on an HVT. I planned on getting some intelligence while I was there, but the fury that balled inside me at the sight of Soarin's state just totally threw the thought from my mind. How could they do something like this to him? Why didn't he just tell them what they wanted to know? I guess there was no use thinking about it now. The soldiers finished with Soarin and went to the cockpit, I walked up and sat down beside Soarin. I put my arm around him, and let him lean into me. It was funny because normally Soarin would say something like, 'shouldn't I be holding you? I am the guy after all!' or something along those lines. But he just sat there, silent, with a glazed look in his eyes. He mumbled something and I couldn't hear it very well.

"What did you say?" I asked him

he mumbled again

"Speak up Soarin."

"I said..." he mumbled it again

"Soarin I can't hear you."

"They...They killed them...right in front of me..."

I sat there, silent.

"They killed them all, one by one. Each one died in a more painful way than the last...I should have told them what they wanted to know, then...they'd still be here..."

"Soarin, you did what you needed to, you had no control over what happened..."

"They died, because I wouldn't speak...It's my fault they're gone..."

"Soarin, you know that's not true...they would envy you right now if they saw how you stood up to the Queen. You held out, you didn't break."

"I broke, I broke before they killed my team," Tears were coming from his eyes now, making my chest wet, "but I carried on, because I knew that if you heard of me dying like some worthless Wonderbolt, who broke down and revealed everything, then you might be ashamed of me...to have had me as a squad mate..."

"Soarin," I lifted his face to mine, "you have been my squad mate for my whole campaign, if I didn't want you as a squad mate, then I would have made that clear. Those men died, they died knowing that you wouldn't tell that bitch anything, and that it made it worthwhile to them. If you had told the Queen what she wanted, then she would have killed you all then and there, and you would have all died for nothing. You didn't break, you held your own, you attacked me thinking I was the Queen. You were far from breaking Soarin."

He wiped a tear from his eye, and looked at me like those hobos on street curbs do, with immense sadness in their eyes. All he could manage to say was, "They're still gone, and I still have to live with that experience every day that I live."

"Well from now on, we're living through it together. You won't have to face this alone, Foxy."

He sniffled, "Thanks, foxy." and he barely managed a smile. After a few moments of silence he leaned in and we just embraced one another for the ride home.

But one thing kept bugging me at the back of my mind:

The Changelings knew we were on the offensive now, which meant the Elites would know too. It was probably really stupid of me to blow that place up without lifting some intelligence first, but that's in the past. Now the Elites will be merciless, and we need to strike at them with all we have. That's just the problem though...

What if all we have, isn't good enough?

Endgame

Operation: Endgame

Location: Canterlot, Illesia

Date and Time: September 26, 2037. 3:12 Hours

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Wipe out the main Elite force, and turn the tables of the war

Silence.

Silence is what I like the most, it allows me to think. Now, things weren't exactly silent, as the helicopter blades made sure of that. Thanks to the mute button, there was no more chatter on my radio.

Silence.

Throughout my career as a soldier, silence was my ally. When I was silent, I could take out an entire base without raising alarm. It was one of the few skills I could apply in this world of violence, but this mission calls for a loud and proud attack.

Silence.

My teammates sat across from me, staring at their feet. I had no idea what was going through their minds, but I didn't really care at the moment.

BZZZZZ!

The red light on in the helicopter turned green, and I jumped out the side of the chopper. I flapped my wings once to slow my descent, and landed with my rifle pointed at the enemy. I held the trigger and cleared as many as I possibly could. I was now a part of the war-zone. The war-zone was a place of life and death. Those at the handling end of a rifle were given life, those at the receiving end were given death. I could practically hear the Equestrian national anthem playing in my head as Elites hit the ground left and right. In the war-zone, there was no right and wrong, just living or dying. I had been here many times, not to Canterlot, to the war-zone. There were no rules, just live or die, and I didn't like it one bit.

I decided to avoid the fray, and ran to cover in a nearby building. Rubble littered the floor, and holes scattered the walls. Dust was kicked up, and gunfire sounded all around me. I had been in fights like this, so I tuned out the gunfire. Other than that, it was silent. I set down my rifle and sat beside it, resting my back against the wall. I had almost hoped that a brick would fall down, and bash my skull in...almost. I had come so far, and now here I was, fighting another suicide mission. It's funny how things work that way, no matter how hard you try, it always seems that you end up in the same place. Here I was, staring death in the face again, me and death had become quite the pair of friends over the years. I always managed to escape his friendly embrace, but he knew I would be coming back, only to nearly reach him once more. There was some video game Soarin had me play with him one time, what was it again? Fallout: Equestria I think? At the very beginning of the game, a man starts speaking, and his first and last words were: War never changes. I had just thought of it as some cinematic thing at the time, but now I could see what he was getting at. Life, death, destruction, pain, agony, etc. These were all things that came about with war. These were the things that took my friends from me.

After some quiet sobbing over my past, I finally gathered enough strength to stand up. Suddenly, a grand piano began playing a particularly sad song. I looked over to the corner of the room, to find a young boy playing Silent Night on a black wooden piano. Such a fitting song for so many people dying. I regrettably trudged outside, and opened fire, listening for the boy's song in between bursts. Many screamed in pain around me, bullet holes covering their bodies. I moved from cover to cover, shooting my way through Elites. We made our way through the courtyard, and approached the main castle. Bodies of Elites scattered the ground. I had to sit down for a moment, I decided to let the others handle the castle guard and eliminating the new king. I realized I was out in the open, and this was no place to mope. I quickly headed back, through the battle scarred wasteland, and made my way back to the building where the boy was playing Silent Night. He was still at it, tears streaming down his expressionless face. I looked around, and saw two people laying on the ground in a loving embrace, they must have been his parents. Then I realized it, the two people were Elites, and the boy was too. I knew a little bit of piano, so I approached the boy. He stopped playing, and turned around to face me with a pistol. His hands were shaking as he pointed it at me, tears streaming down his face. I cautiously reached out, and pushed the sidearm down, and sat beside him. He turned around, full force crying now, and I began to play his song. I wasn't too good at piano, but I could play Silent Night. Me and the boy hummed as the song rang throughout the broken structure. I felt like I was reliving a scene from a movie, as death surrounded me and this strange boy. I didn't understand the Elites, nor did I care for them, but this boy had lost his parents, his two closest family members. My parents died when I was young, and I never knew them. My only family were my friends in Ponyville, but they were gone now. Back at base, I learned that Twilight had witnessed Fluttershy and Rarity dying, which meant me and her were the last two of the group. Although I had so much reason to hate the Elites, I felt for this little boy.

Silence.

The only sound that could be heard for miles, was me and the boy, playing our song.

Silence.

That, and the gunfire that rang throughout the city.

Silence.

The boy shuffled around, facing me.

Bang!

A piercing pain bit me in my side, and I fell to the ground. The boy, holding the gun up, started to cry again. He had the same fire in my eyes, the fire when I first joined the Wonderbolts. That's when I realized it, we were no better than the Elites. We were doing the same thing to them, that they had done to us so long ago. But why? Why were we doing this? The sounds of victory reminded me why, as trumpets rang from outside. The boy dropped the gun, and ran away, through a hole in the wall. We had done it, we had taken back Equestria, our homeland. Wonderbolts ran in the room, and began performing CPR on me, as blackness crept at the corner of my eyes.

Funny how things work that way, here I was again, dying. I wasn't Rainbow Dash, the real Rainbow Dash died so long ago, in the invasion. I was the hollow shell, who was left as a tool for the Equestrian Republic to use. It seems that man from Fallout: Equestria was right: War never changes. I had served my purpose, I had taken back Equestria. My purpose was served, and I had become the monster that I so loathed.

Funny...funny how...things work that way...

Operation Zero (EDITED)

Operation: Blood and Shadows

Location: Classified

Date and Time: Classified

Subject: Classified

Objective: Retrieve enemy intelligence

"Ok boys, you know the drill. Get in, get the intel, and get out. No kills, no noise, no trace. Any questions?"

"Can I go potty?"

"Shut it Foxtrot! Now is not the time for jokes!"

"Jeez Alpha, I was just trying to lighten the mood."

"Any real questions?"

No response. Just silence.

Silence. Silence was what I liked most. It allowed me to think. Now, albeit, the helicopter blades made sure it was far from silent, but this was as close to silence as I was allowed.

We were on a stealth op. It seemed pretty straightforward: Get in, get some papers, and get out. Of course, it wasn't that straightforward. The documents we needed were on an aircraft carrier out in enemy waters. So we decided it would be best to use the cover of night to try and sneak our way through. If we had stealth on our side, maybe we could make use of the intel before the Elites even knew we took it.

What a wonderful plan, I thought, maybe the guards will be blind *and** deaf!* Stealth missions don't normally go smoothly, especially when you have a team like mine. If we were lucky, we'd pull together and get through this easily. Although I suspect at least one magazine of ammo will be spent before the night is out. Who am I kidding? We'll use it all!

Of course, a hand goes up. Yes, he was actually raising his hand.

I sighed, "Yes, Foxtrot?"

"Can I go potty now?"

I was about to slap him when Delta cut in.

"Remind me why we bring him along?"

I raised an eyebrow at Delta, then shook my head and leaned back in my seat, "For comedic relief."

Delta just chuckled and went back to spinning that silver coin in his fingers.

I reached into the storage compartment, and pulled out the baggie of Lyradex pills and handed them out. We each popped them, and waited until the pilot gave us a green light. You see, the plan was to drop us off about a mile or so away from the actual ship, so that way the helicopter wouldn't risk getting seen. However, due to all the rigging that had to be done for the stealth equipment on the helicopter for it to even get that close, it flew poorly. So we would be jumping into the water from pretty high up. And if you hit water with enough momentum, then you might as well be hitting concrete. The pills were supposed to reinforce our cells, to keep out brains intact when we smacked the water. Plus, it would give us the extra boost we'd need to swim to the carrier.

This plan sounds better by the minute! I thought, this way, when we finally get on the boat, not only will we be goners, but we'll die tired and soaking wet! That was probably a little pessimistic, but it didn't make me look any more forward to swimming that far. I knew Lyra personally, until she up and disappeared. Her company still outputs products, but I'm still a little skeptical about using them. I trust Lyra, but not her company.

The intercom fuzzed as the pilot started to talk, "15 seconds to drop time."

We all put on our Lyradex g-force masks. The pills kept our brains from being smashed, but the masks kept our faces from being shredded. Foxtrot opened the door, and the wind blasted in. It would have been unbearable, but the masks worked just as well on wind as they did on water.

"10 seconds to drop time."

I turned to my two teammates, "Are you guys ready?" I yelled

Foxtrot puffed out his chest, "I was born ready!"

Delta looked at me, "Ready as I'll ever be!"

"Okay!" I yelled, "Let's do this!"

"5 seconds to drop time."

I grabbed my P90 and snapped it to my vest. Foxtrot and Delta did the same.

"Drop on my mark."

Silence, silence was what I liked most.

"MARK!"

Delta jumped, and I waited for Foxtrot to follow, but he didn't. I looked over at him, to see him gesturing towards the open door.

"Ladies first!" He yelled

"Oh!" I called back, "How kind of you!" I said, jumping out.

And just like that, I was flying. Only there was one problem, I couldn't spread my wings.

The suit I was wearing, the same suit that Delta and Foxtrot had on, was completely black. In order for maximum concealment, it had to go over my wings as well.

So I went into a face-first nose-dive, straight for the water. Praying to Celestia that Lyra's tech worked the way it was supposed to.

Smack

So, you remember that time you tested the bath water, and it was too cold? Colder. What about that time you fell in the pool in the middle of winter? Colder. The time you tried to write your name in the snow with your pee, only to have the urine turn into ice before it hit the ground? Well, maybe you're close.

The water felt as if it was a step down from ice, and took my breath away. Not figuratively, literally took my breath away. I swam up as fast as I could before I started inhaling my death. I broke the surface of the water, and gasped for air. Of course, the first thing to greet my ears was Foxtrot's voice.

"Oh! There you are cap'n!" He said, as sarcastic as possible, "It's about time you showed up! I thought you had stood me up!"

I would have lifted the mask, but it was suction cupped to my face from the impact on the water. So I smiled underneath it and said, "Oh, I'd never stand you up, Foxy."

Delta groaned from my left, "Great, you too?"

That got a chuckle out of all three of us.

But fun-time was over, it was time to get to work.

"Alright, let's get going." I said as we started to swim.

It took us a good hour to reach the ship. Normally, we'd be exhausted, but thanks to those pills, we were just barely winded. Now was the time for the hard part, actually getting onto the ship. The ship was currently stationary, for how long I was unsure, but the problem was that we had to climb up the side.

"Alright guys, time for the fun part." I said, pulling out my pair of Lyradex magnets. They were basically disks with earth-magnets built into them, and handles for me to hold on to. Foxtrot and Delta pulled theirs out, and attached them to the boat. They hoisted themselves up, and started to climb the walls as if there were ladders. I followed suit.

Of course, things didn't go smoothly. About halfway up, the boat jerked, and water started to spray up every once in awhile. The boat had started moving, which meant this experience would be a lot less pleasant for us. Every ten or so feet, water would splash up the side of the ship and re-soak us. Though it did reassure me of the durability of Lyra's tech.

As luck would have it, our climb was cut short by an open docking bay off the side of the ship. Lucky for us, the magnets worked just as well on hanging surfaces as they did on vertical ones. We used the devices like monkey bars and worked our way to the end where two pairs of legs dangled over. Two Elites sat right above us, talking about football or something, I wasn't sure, I couldn't hear over the sounds of the ship hitting the water.

Foxtrot looked at me and I nodded. Then, as if he read my mind, he grabbed one Elite's leg, and I grabbed the other's leg. We yanked down hard and the two plummeted towards the water. Without Lyradex tech, they might as well have been falling towards concrete. Plus, we hadn't been given up yet either, because their screams were muffled by the loud smack of the front of the boat on the water. Wait...which meant.

I slowly turned my head and stared my doom straight on. A giant wave of liquid turbulence was on its way along the side of the massive ship. At that instant, I knew if we were in it's path, we'd be wiped off the face of the planet.

"Move, now." was all I said, as I started a silent prayer that we weren't spotted. I swung myself up onto the platform, and bolted for the nearest cover. I didn't even check to see if Foxtrot and Delta were behind me. I dove behind a cart holding some missiles when the wave gushed in the docking station. Water went everywhere, setting off alarms left and right. Instantly, Elites started rushing in, and lights began turning on. This just got a whole lot harder.

The Elites rushed about cleaning up the mess the wave left behind. Their brown coats and black manes matted and soaked. Their eyes still lacked pupils, same as always. Plus, they still towered at least two feet taller than us.

Foxtrot scared the shit out of me, as he whispered in my ear, "Can I start shooting now?"

Delta jumped in the whisper fight, "Absolutely not! We're on a stealth op!"

"Every party needs a pooper," Foxtrot began to sing, still whispering, "that's why we invited you!"

"I'm going to beat the shit out of you if you don't-" Okay, starting to get a little loud.

I cut in, "Look, can we just get this shit and get out?"

Foxtrot and Delta both clammed up and nodded in agreement.

The moment we had a chance, we bolted for the nearest door, and rushed inside. It didn't take long to wait for them to turn their backs, most of them were busy cleaning up anyways. Now it was time to get searching. I turned to Delta and he instantly brought up his wrist-mounted tac-pad. He pressed a few buttons and began a scan of the ship. Within a few seconds the device displayed a 3D map of the surrounding area, any nearby hostile threats, and anything that might be a firearm. Plus, it kept scanning even afterwards, until a full map of the ship was produced. Damn, Lyra was one smart cookie.

Most guards were at the docking bay, so the trip to the objective was easy. A little too easy if you asked me, even for a catastrophe such as that. I began to question the map that Delta's tac-pad made for us. Was there a trap? It was impossible to be sure, the Elites knew stuff we didn't even know they knew. Which is scary, because in war, intelligence on your enemy can be the key to victory or defeat. Which is also kinda funny because that's exactly what we were here for.

"The documents should be in the next room," Delta said, pointing at a door, "open it Foxtrot."

Foxtrot put his hand on the handle.

"Wait." I said, stopping him.

"What? Why wait now?" Foxtrot said, "The guards could come back any minute."

I ignored his complaints and turned to Delta, "Delta, run an x-ray on this room."

Without question or hesitation, Delta walked up to the door and held his tac-pad up to it, tapped a few buttons and waited. In a few seconds we had a clear picture of what we were about to step into.

"What are all those red marks?" Foxtrot asked, pointing to a few red triangles across the screen.

"Anything marked with a red triangle means it's hazardous." Delta replied.

"Oh," Foxtrot commented, "that's a lot of red."

It was all rigged to release the chemicals by a mouse trap rigged to the door handle, like a Rude Goldberg device. The image sent chills down my spine.

"Damn it," I said, "any other way in?"

"There," Delta pointed to an open electrician's shaft, "that's probably how they got out after they set it up. I wouldn't be surprised if the entrance is guarded."

"Well, that's the only way we're getting in there alive. So I guess we don't have much of a choice, do we?" I replied.

Delta ran another scan, and we followed the shaft along to the next room, which was guarded by an Elite and a guard dog. The Elite was at a table playing a card game, probably Solitaire. I always hated that game, I could never seem to win. Well, unfortunately we'd be cutting his game short, and since bullets impacting the metal walls wouldn't be exactly quiet, it seems we'd literally be cutting his game short.

Foxtrot cracked the door, and the dog growled. The Elite asked, "Callsign?"

Foxtrot replied, "Uh...whiskey?"

There was a brief moment of silence and then I heard the growling subside, and the Elite's voice return, "Come on in, Mason, Winnie's been muzzled."

"Whatever you say." Foxtrot replied, as he snapped the door open and planted his knife in the Elite's throat. The Elite flailed his hands in a hopeless attempt to get Foxtrot off, but the life quickly faded from his eyes.

The dog, muzzled, was very quiet. He scratched hopelessly at Foxtrot's legs. Foxtrot removed his knife from the Elite and went to stab the dog. That is, until Delta stopped him. Instead, Delta snatched up the dog and strangled it into unconsciousness.

"What did you do that for?" Foxtrot asked.

"Sorry," Delta said, "I have a soft spot for animals."

Ignoring them, I slithered into the electrician's shaft and weaseled my way through the death trap rigged in the next room. I grabbed everything that looked important, other than the radioactive crates, and went back out the way I came in.

"You got it?" Foxtrot asked.

I held up a small waterproof bag that I put the documents in, "Right here." I replied.

"Good," Delta commented, "Now can we get the hell out of here?"

The trip out was a little more difficult than the trip in. The docking bay gate had been closed, which meant we'd have to climb up to the flight deck and jump from the side of the ship into the water. Again. There was only one problem, we didn't have the pills reinforcing our cells this time. Which meant we'd have to scale down about half way along the side of the ship, and jump from there. Easier said than done.

We creeped along the hallways and up stairwells until we were right below the flight deck. Delta ran another scan to make sure the coast was clear, which it was due to inclement weather, and we opened the hatch.

The moment I opened the hatch, a jet slid right over my head, the landing gear nearly taking me with it. The boat was rocking so hard, that the helicopters and jets that sat on top were going everywhere. Somebody didn't do a good job of securing their gear. So I climbed out, and the boat rocked again, the jet began to come back. I dived out of the way and the landing gear missed me by a hair. Delta and Foxtrot climbed out and we instantly dashed for the edge of the ship. A helicopter rolled past us, a jet skidded through our path. The whole time, rain poured down on us in buckets as thunder roared in the sky.

We finally reached the edge, and pulled out my magnets. I clamped to the side of the ship and instantly started descending. The waves splashed us in the face, but our masks were still on, so there really wasn't a problem there. It was just the matter of holding on so we didn't lose our grip from the magnets.

I climbed what I thought was a reasonable distance down and simply let go. I smacked the water with a force that would probably sting in the morning, but no major injuries. Delta and Foxtrot quickly followed, and we began to swim away right as a jet fell off the side of the ship right where we were just climbing down.

We began treading water and simply watched as the ship floated away. It seemed like ages before the helicopter came and got us. Mainly because they had to wait for the boat to get even farther away because in order to get close enough to the water to get us, they couldn't use the rigged stealth-chopper. Sometimes I hated technology.

"Captain, I have some important news for you." The general said to me, "You've been fighting with the Wonderbolts Corps since the war effort began. You're more qualified for a promotion than anybody else here. So it's my pleasure to inform you that you'll be shipping out first thing tomorrow morning!"

They brought us back, took the documents, and took Delta and Foxtrot to debrief. Me, I had to go talk to the general, "What? Why?" I asked him.

"Well, some higher ups really like your work, so you're going to work for them. I don't really know too much about them, they're very classified, just that they say they're the best there is. Which means you must be too if they want you to join them. Most likely permanently." He replied.

"So, do I have a say in this?" I asked.

"No, they'll be here to get you at ten-hundred hours, STAT."

"Great. Here I was, thinking I was at the top of the ladder, only to be told I'm not quite there yet. Plus, even though I'm comfortable on the rung that I'm on, I gotta be forced up to the next one."I complained.

"Rules are rules, Dash. Uh...I mean- shit." In the Wonderbolts Corps, in order to retain maximum confidentiality, we were only supposed to know each other by callsign. Nobody followed that rule, but it was still a rule. A rule that saved lives every day.

"It's fine, Carrot Cake." I replied with a smile.

"Hit the hay, you have somewhere to be in the morning." He came back, stoic as before.

I turned and went for my quarters, opened the door, to find Foxtrot waiting for me. He was out of uniform, his shirt off, revealing his off-white coat, and his dark blue mane and tail.

"Wassup cap'n?" Soarin asked.

"You know I hate it when you call me that?" I joked.

"Oh c'mon! I think it's cool!" He said with a chuckle. Yeah, he knew I liked it.

"Well you won't be calling me that much longer, I'm getting promoted." I said walking towards the bed.

"Oh yeah? What to?" Soarin asked.

"I don't know. Something even more classified than the Wonderbolts Corps." I replied, flopping down on my bed.

He sat next to me, "When you coming back?" He asked.

"I don't know if I am." I said. Wait, where was everybody else? Normally the barracks were full.

"Well, the general tells me you're probably not." He said.

"Wait, the general talked to you about this?" I said, as he layed down next to me.

"Well of course! Who do you think cleared out the barracks for us?" Soarin replied, as a scandalous smile crossed his face.

Oh my, is it hot in here?

Epilogue: Aftermath

Epilogue

Operation: N/A

Location: Canterlot Royal Graveyard

Date and Time: September 26, 2038. 12:23 Hours

Subject: Twilight Sparkle

Objective: Mourn over a lost friend

One year.

One year ago, Rainbow Dash died in the take back of Equestria. I only wish she was here to see it now, just as glorious as it was when the rest of my friends were around. I stared at the stone in front of me, unaware of the princess sneaking up behind me.

"You miss her, don't you?" Celestia asked me

"I do. I miss her like a sister. She was the last of my friends, and I didn't even get to talk to her much."

"We mustn't blame ourselves in times like this, she wouldn't want that. There was no way of you knowing how little you would see her before she passed."

"Princess...?"

"Yes Twilight?"

"Do you think, that...somewhere...Rainbow Dash is in a better place?"

"I know it. Not only that, but she died doing what she always dreamed of, taking back Equestria. She was found by a piano you know, she was playing music during the battle."

"What song?"

"Soarin was there, he said it was Silent Night."

"Heh, that's kinda cheesy."

"Why?"

"She always did like silence..."

Celestia stared blankly at the tombstone with me, thinking of the good times she had with the person beneath us. A crowd had formed around us, and Luna started with the opening of the annual mourning of the dead. This was an event that was held in honor of those who passed during the take back of Equestria, but all I cared about was Rainbow Dash. So many died that day, but I only cared about one. Funny...how things worked that way.

Here lies Rainbow Dash

February 12, 2006-September 26, 2037

Bravest fighter and flier in all of Equestria,

and sister to princess Twilight Sparkle.

R.I.P.