Into the Mouth of Hell

Chapters

I: Who's for the Game?
II: Labour For Thy Kingdom
III: Marched Through the Forest
IV: Son, have you seen the World?
V: I have no need to Pray
VI: Oh, Death was never an enemy of ours

I: Who's for the Game?

The path of cloud underneath Rainbow Dash’s hooves sunk slightly with her every step as she walked slowly towards the Pegasi Corps recruiting station, Fluttershy in following. The building was not so magnificent by Cloudsdale standards, the only notable architecture being the classic Pegasopilan pillars around the door of the bland, blue, cloud-formed building.

They stopped in front of the door, Fluttershy turning to Rainbow Dash, giving her a melancholy look, her mane covering half of her face in pink.

“Rainbow, if you don’t mind me asking...before you leave...” Fluttershy spoke almost quieter than usual.

“Fluttershy, I have to go, it’s not that I really want to it’s just...my duty, y’know?” Rainbow replied, in a rather saddened, but stable tone.

There was a pause of a few seconds.

Fluttershy spoke first “But you don’t have to g-“

Fluttershy let out a surprised squee as Rainbow gave her a constricting hug. Fluttershy felt calmer in her arms, resting her head on Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Do you remember when we were just fillies?” she asked, not letting go.

“Yes...” Fluttershy whispered.

“I remember all too well, the day the first flight exams turned into a disaster, and everypony was making fun of me, Rainbow Crash this, Rainbow Crash that. Even the teachers thought my dreams of being the best flier in Equestria were stupid.”

Fluttershy’s cheeks went red as she meekly replied “I never made fun of you...”

Rainbow smiled.

“Exactly Fluttershy, no matter what, you always stood by me, you believed in me and well...you where just, awesome. Without you I never would’ve had the confidence to get this far,” Rainbow chuckled. “Even if you’re not the most confident yourself,” she added quietly in a joking tone.

Fluttershy couldn’t help smiling slightly, even if it could be considered an insult. She also couldn’t help tearing up a little, and looking to Rainbow she could see a few teardrops escaping from her eyes too.

“But Rainbow, you did the same for me, surely you haven’t forgotten that race have you?”

“How could I?” Rainbow replied cockily.

They both laughed at that, Rainbow Dash releasing Fluttershy from her embrace.

“Rainbow, before you go...” Fluttershy started before her question turned into near-silent mumbling.

“What?” Rainbow asked.

“How is this, your duty? I don’t understand.”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Well, it’s what my Mom and Dad did, it’s what they...” Rainbow gulped. “...Died doing; I guess it’s in my blood. And what about Equestria? I don’t want our lifestyle destroyed!” she spoke with some anxiety. “And, well, we need all the help we can get. And I’m an element of harmony; does it not make sense to have me on the lines? Maybe that’s just...I dunno, me being cocky again.”

Fluttershy placed her wing on Rainbow Dash’s back.

“Just...come back alive, for all of us?” Fluttershy sniffled.

Rainbow walked forward, Fluttershy’s wing falling off her back. She raised her hoof to open the door in front of her, and then she turned to look back at Fluttershy giving her a bashful smile.

“I promise.”

Rainbow Dash pushed the doors open, entering the shining white room inside, seeing the various desks where Pegasi were already filling in forms to join up, and the bored officers sat behind the desks, wearing their golden armoured saddles.

She sat down in front of the desk of a brown-furred officer who was looking bored already; and so began the monotonous answering of questions and filling in of forms. Yet Rainbow’s mind was in another place completely.

She thought about how she had left her friends in Ponyville who couldn’t come with her to Cloudsdale.

She remembered Twilight’s shock. Twilight, even as an avid student of Princess Celestia, didn’t fully understand the reasoning behind the war; she seemed rather upset Rainbow was taking part in it.

She remembered Rarity’s worrying, she had acted completely melodramatic about the situation, failing to understand most of Rainbow’s reasons at all; but Rainbow knew it was just her motherly side. She’ll be fine once I’m gone.

She remembered Applejack’s understanding, hay, Applejack even said herself she would join the war effort if it meant the safety of her way of life, but she had a farm to run and a family to care for.

Pinkie Pie’s reaction was surprisingly depressing for a pony so often cheerful. She had cried and urged Rainbow to not leave. However, it wasn’t long until she got over it, and even gave Rainbow Dash a leaving party. Pinkie is Pinkie in the end after all.

However, there was still the common feel amongst the other five ponies. They were all incredibly saddened to see her leave, they had all asked her to stay (with the exception of Applejack, but not because she didn’t mind, more because she understood she could never stop Rainbow); but Rainbow Dash knew that this war was her place. Here and now.

Heh, cursed Loyalty, always getting in the way, Rainbow Dash thought to herself, trying to inject some humour into her rather drab and un-rainbow thoughts.

The officer handed took back the forms and looked through them, which took a surprisingly short time. He slammed a blue stamp on the papers. Dash caught a glimpse of the stamp’s message.

APPROVED

“Well, Private Dash, welcome to the Pegasi Corps...”

***

It felt like, and probably was hours of being guided around from place to place; it wasn’t long until her, and the many pegasi recruits that had also been orderly following the officers , came into territories of sky they had never seen before.

Some of the pegasi were tired; one even nearly passed out, but was saved by an officer who gave the young pegasus a word of warning. Of course Rainbow wasn’t really listening, she just wanted to get wherever they were going; she found it hard to enjoy such an orderly flight.

Then Rainbow saw it.

The structure in the clouds reminded her of flight school. In the centre there were magnificent, elegant buildings of traditonal Pegasus design, pillars at the entrances. Around it she saw various obstacle courses (some very complex) and cloud paths going out for miles. Rainbow couldn’t help but be awed at such a complex existing so far away from Cloudsdale. She noted a sign on a cloud in front of the complex:

VIIITH PEGASI BATTALION

She found herself going with the rest of the pegasi as they all landed on a large stretch of flat cloud. A podium stood at the front, and there stood a stallion.

His coat was a drab grey colour, and his eyes brown. His mane was pure white; and as if he didn’t look old enough, he had a big curled moustache. Despite his age and the scars on his face, the stallion still looked strong and able. As if to match his mane, his armoured saddle was a polished ivory white, and he adorned a golden cape. Rainbow also saw a white Chalcidian helmet under his arm, its hair crest as white and gold as all of his other pieces of attire.

Oh I know who this guy is...

“Greetings, recruits!” His voice was aggressive, deep and loud; he didn’t even need a microphone.

“I’m sure that most of you did not spend your time in Cloudsdale under a ROCK, and know that I am Commander Thunderstorm.”

How could I forget? Rainbow nearly planted her face in her hoof. I’ve spent too much time in Ponyville...

“You might be wondering why her Majesty has been so willing to let so many new recruits into my beloved forces...”

There was a short pause.

“Horse shit. Of course you know why. The clawed beasts to the East shall threaten us no longer!”

There was cheering for that line, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but join in. Not after we deal with 'em!

“Before we assign you to your platoons, privates, there are just a few things you should know about your foes. They may be larger, they may have those vicious talons, and they may have their hard, sharp beaks...but that is nothing, without the main ingredients. Courage! Relentlessness! The drive to succeed! I’ve seen a mouse bring down a cat and let me tell you privates, you have more fight in you than a mouse ever will!”

There was applause as his short speech ended.

He seems like a respectable guy, Rainbow thought. A tad over the top but…

what the hay, I hang out with Rarity all day, he isn’t over the top at all.

A whistle sounded, and everyone went silent again.

“You will be divided into your platoons according to your accomplishments, skills, employments, and traits! I hope you were telling the truth in those forms privates, or you’ll be in...Deep water,” the Commander said the last two words with a malicious smile on his face. Rainbow saw a few Pegasi shiver.

“If such a thing warrants, you can always ask for a transfer, but you’ll be causing us trouble,” Commander Thunderstorm grumbled.

“A few of you may be lucky enough to end up in Omega platoon, and have the incomprehendable joy of being led by me,” Thunderstorm’s cynical tone emphasized his sarcasm. “That is, if you’ve got what it takes. Yes, Pegasi-who-lied-on-the-forms, I’m talking to you.”

A stallion next to Rainbow wobbled and fell over. She had to stop herself from laughing.

“Those designated to Phi maintenance platoon go behind Lieutenant Red,” he said, pointing to the left to an old red stallion in golden armour (the usual for officers) and a red hair crest atop of his Chalcidian helmet.

“Those designated to the Tau markspony platoon go behind Lieutenant Draw.” The Commander pointed to a thin, bored-looking green-coated pegasus mare, her helmet sporting a green hair crest to match her coat.

Rainbow heard him go through all of the ten platoons available. Most of the rest after Tau were just bog-standard and she doubted there was any real selection for them at all except ‘everypony else.’ Rainbow remembered dropping out of Flight School. More likely I’ll probably end up in one of those.

After he had finished, a yellow mare came to the podium and started calling out names in Alphabetical order. Rainbow thanked Celestia that ‘Dash’ was near the start.

“Private Abacus, Martha; Zeta platoon.”

“Private Amber, Al; Iota platoon.”

“Private Aura, Galliant; Omega platoon, Passing 100% on Flying school further education.”

“Private Aquamarine, Janie; Epsilon platoon.”

“Private Azure, Diamond; Tau platoon.”

This is taking a while…

But it wasn’t long until her name was getting closer.

“Private Cane, Sugar; Omicron platoon.”

“Private Cupcake, Magenta; Phi platoon.”

“Private Dash, Rainbow; Omega platoon, the harmonic element of Loyalty.”

Rainbow Dash’s mind went blank.

ME?! Wonder if Twilight pulled a few strings...

She was too distracted to hear some rather quiet ‘ooo’ing in the crowd.

I guess the whole saving Equestria twice thing finally counts for something!

She smirked smugly, taking her place behind Commander Thunderstorm.

***

All of the pegasi had finally put into their platoons. The last was a ‘Zanny Zonday’ who ended up in Theta.

The yellow mare who had been calling out the names looked tired; she took a jug of water, downing the whole thing. Calling out five-hundred names did not bode well for the throat.

Commander Thunderstorm turned to Rainbow and the rest of Omega. There was a mere ten ponies in this platoon, compared to the fifty seen in others. Makes sense if we’re supposedly ‘the best’ I guess.

Thunderstorm turned around and sighed.

“This is what they give me to work with...,” Rainbow heard him mutter under his breath. She was starting to wonder if she had misjudged the Commander.

“Well Omega, follow me in single file, we have a SHITLOAD of work to do!”

_____________________________________________________

Not so proud of this chapter, feel free to criticise so I can improve it.

II: Labour For Thy Kingdom

AUTHOR'S NOTE: "B.D." means "Before the first fall of Discord and the reign of Luna and Celestia." "A.D." is it's 'after' equivalent.

___

More ponies had joined Omega platoon from other regiments; at this point it was fifty ponies strong, and all fifty of them were assembled in a line, Commander Thunderstorm pacing in front of them.

“You know why you’re here, you’ve got TALENT. But really, you have NOTHING!”

Thunderstorm went up to the face of a stallion as he shouted the last word. He seemed to shrink in the Commander’s stare.

“Here we will train you to fight like your great ancestors. All pegasi have a warrior hidden inside them, it runs in our very veins! You shall unleash it, for the glory of the Sun Princess Celestia!”

There was a long silence. Thunderstorm gave us an implying look.

“Well c’mon! Give us a neigh.”

The lined-up pegasi neighed rather dispassionately.

“Hmm...We’re going to have to work on that,” Thunderstorm said, looking off into a daze.

“Anyways privates, I know you’ve came a long way, and it’s nearly time to rest, which is EXACTLY why I’m making you run the course in full equipment! Gear up at the armoury; I expect to see you all in at least fifteen minutes; if not, run the course twice!”

Thunderstorm galloped out of the room, leaving the pegasi to groan as they trotted in the direction of the armoury rooms.

“Pfft, he’s a harsh one,” the mare next to Rainbow said, her Trottingham accent showing.

“I’m ...not sure how to judge him yet,” Rainbow replied, taking some time to note the mare walking beside her. She had a black coat and a ruby mane, its fringe slopping over one of her scarlet eyes rather than raising above it like Rainbow’s own mane. Her cutie mark was a pencil and a notebook.

“What do I call you then?”

“Onyx Scarlett, and I know you Miss Dash.”

“Miss Dash?” Rainbow nearly laughed. “What was that?”

“Um, Sorry,” Onyx looked flustered. “It’s a sense of habit, I...um...did some of my journalism on you,” she flushed a shade of beetroot.

“Am I really that big of a deal?”

Onyx sighed, and breathed in. “Rainbow; you saved the world twice, won the 2011 Best Young Fliers competition and performed a Sonic Rainboom for the first recorded time in front of thousands of witnesses. Do you honestly think you haven’t made an impact?” Onyx gave Rainbow a look somewhere in-between disapproval and confusion.

“Oh yeah, it’s all true!” Rainbow said, basking in her own glory.

Onyx facehoofed.

“Somehow you’re exactly how I expected you,” She replied flatly.

“So, what’d you do to get into Omega?” Rainbow asked.

Onyx looked away a little. “Some high success in further flight education, and apparently the journalism doctorate helps. Seems odd consi-“

“WOAH!”

They had just entered the armoury. The walls were lined with silver armoured saddles and helmets. The walls almost appeared to be glowing. Additionally there were black capes with a grey ‘Ω’ symbol on each of them to represent Omega platoon.

But what interested Rainbow were the weapon racks covered with all kinds of instruments of war. Kopis swords, round silver shields, spears, revolvers, bolt-action rifles...

“This is SO AWESOME!” Rainbow said, grabbing a Kopis and admiring the curved blade, turning it, watching the light dance off its edge.

Onyx shook her head.

“War is hell...,” she muttered under her breath, as she picked out a bolt action rifle and examined the loading mechanics.

***

The green grass felt soft under Twilight’s hooves as she trotted calmly though Ponyville, levitating a pile of scrolls in front of her.

“Awful lot of changes to the library recently, don’t ya think?” Spike said to Twilight, sitting on her back as usual.

“I know what you mean Spike, all this removing of books, all these NEW books,” Twilight looked up at the scrolls, glowing in her purple magic; lists of books required to be removed.

“Maybe the Equestrian Ministry of Arts are just cutting down on costs for the war, but it doesn’t matter, they haven’t taken anything important.”

“I don’t know about that...,” Spike said cynically, absorbed in his little dragon thoughts. Then he turned around, wide eyed.

“Hey! Twilight! What’s that?”

Twilight turned and saw a small metal, cuboid box-like object propped on a wall, an orb inside it, with a texture like shifting fumes. She couldn’t help but almost compare the object to an eye.

“First time seeing one of these new sec-eyes?” Filthy Rich revealing he had been standing there the entire time.

“Se...a what?” Twilight questioned. It seemed odd that this was a magical artefact she hasn’t heard of.

“Security eyes. The Princess had them issued about a week ago in most towns. They’re all over Ponyville, and Equestria for that matter. Know who designed them? My old friend Steel Watch!” Filthy Rich laughed heartily. “Had a lot of investment in him, and it’s paying well for us.”

“Seems awfully snoopy if you ask me,” Spike narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, disapproval radiating from him.

Filthy Rich turned to him with a look of shock so ridiculous you could claim it was a joke.

“Well, Spike! We have to watch out for Griffin spies! They could be anywhere, and it’s more likely than you think. It isn’t like they’re going to do something obvious anyway, like send one of their own kind,” Filthy almost rolled his eyes. “These sec-eyes can show that somepony’s been betraying us all.”

There was a short pause.

“Anyway, I should get going, Diamond’s got a party at our mansion coming up.”

Filthy walked away, leaving Twilight standing there.

Twilight looked back at the sec-eye, the glass showing nothing but swirling grey clouds, and yet it was staring right at her.

***

Rainbow had thought training would be arduous, stressful, painful, designed to break pegasi of their psychologies, to turn them into cold-blooded killers.

And yet in truth, she found it otherwise. Perhaps she had read too many of those action comic books, but this was unlike the difficult experience she had imagined. The course had just reminded her of her usual flight practicing; some parts of it even reminded her of when she challenged Applejack to that Iron Pony competition.

Heh, good times, Rainbow thought, flying at the front of the formation of pegasi, cape flying in the wind, her rainbow motion trail dazzling some of the other recruits behind her.

They don’t call me the fastest flier in Equestria for nothing! Rainbow seemed to ignore the fact that title was only really self-proclaimed, but she seemed to be the fastest flier here none the less, outcompeting her peers by miles.

“You know Rainbow, you really ought to co-operate more here!” Onyx spoke through heavy breaths, just managing to catch up behind Rainbow Dash, frantically flapping her wings.

“You’re fighting...” You could almost hear Onyx’s heart frantically beating in her chest “...the griffins, not u-”

Onyx soon found herself flying backwards, supersonic speed like Rainbow’s did not bode well with the Journalist pony.

Rainbow chuckled a little, but slowed down slightly, understanding her advice, even if she didn’t really want to follow it.

In speed and strength, Rainbow was queen. She even found herself excelling in blade practice, despite only having held a sword once or twice in her childhood (You don’t tend to get away without doing so if you’ve got military parents). However, in other areas she found herself...slipping.

“Private Dash! Do you think the target is a Celestia-damned hostage?! Shoot AT it!”

Rainbow Dash pulled her hoof on the trigger of the shotgun again, the gun making a bang as it let off another round of buckshot, which went through the clouds next to the target with a poof, leaving a temporary shock wave.

She groaned, and pumped the shotgun again, noticing now that the weapon was empty of shells. She had already gone through all the rounds in two revolvers and three rifles, and she was quickly becoming a massive waste of Equestrian bullets.

Commander Thunderstorm grabbed Rainbow by the front collar of her armour, raising her up off the ground. The Commander’s strength couldn’t help but impress Rainbow slightly, but then he started shouting.

“PRIVATE DASH! Not only are you WASTING bullets that could be USED TO KILL THE ENEMY, you’re under-leading your SHOTS! When a bullet or shell fragment goes through the cloud it keeps going until it hits the ground, or some unfortunate buffalo! You think the buffalo haven’t complained ENOUGH about this base?! You plan on KILLING THEIR ENTIRE TRIBE?!”

Thunderstorm’s expression suddenly softened.

“Although that would save us a lot of trouble...” he off-hoofedly commented, before returning to his stern expression.

“It doesn’t matter anyway, Private Dash, ninety push-ups for attempted buffalo slaughter!”

“Wha-” Rainbow just managed to blurt out.

“NOW!”

Rainbow groaned as she looked over to Onyx Scarlett, who smirked at her, before turning back to the target range, holding her rifle steady. She had proven to be quite the markspony. Rainbow knew she should be happy for her, but she just felt a kind of green-eyed jealously, knowing the journalist pony could beat her at something.

Later in the day, they all returned to the main building’s canteen. The Omega Platoon base was of similar structure to the 8th Pegasi Battalion base that Rainbow had seen, but much smaller. It was still very much the same pillars and walls of blue.

Rainbow Dash had finished her rather bland lunch quickly, and was about to leave the table when Onyx trotted over, dinner tray in her mouth, putting it down on the table and sitting, smirking at Rainbow.

Rainbow sighed. “You’re gonna rub that in my face forever aren’t you?”

“Correct!” Onyx stated with a smile on her face.

“How is an egghead like you so good at shooting anyway?”

Onyx shrugged. “With the amount of writing I do, you’d need a steady hand.”

“Well…er…” Rainbow tried to retort. “I’m still stronger, and faster!”

“Nothing can fly faster than a bullet,” Onyx simply replied.

Rainbow was about to stop her there, but then she was interrupted.

“Hey, you do realize we’ve been here this whole time right?”

Rainbow turned to see the two ponies sitting opposite her and Onyx at the table.

The one on the left was a hardy stallion with a light brown mane going down to his shoulders; chin covered in stubble. Rainbow just managed to get a glimpse of his rather unusual cutie mark: a black belt.

The one on the right was another stallion, but of smaller frame; glasses perched on his muzzle, he was a near pure white in coat with a navy blue mane, not exactly messy or neat; Rainbow quickly saw his cutie mark was unusual; a wrench crossed over a fireball. Rainbow thought he might have been worrying, but on second thoughts he looked more bored than anything. But the most shocking thing about him was his lack of wings, and the pointy horn on his head.

“Whoa, you’re a unicorn?!” Rainbow nearly shouted in shock.

The other, burlier stallion smirked; he spoke in a mild country accent.

“Yup, Bleue Pearl’s a unicorn, enchanted himself to walk on clouds.”

What a funny name... Rainbow thought to herself.

“Hi,” Bleue said, in a voice lighter than feathers. Rainbow was suddenly reminded of Fluttershy, but it wasn’t so much shy as it was quiet.

“Well, what’s he doing here?” Onyx was still staring at Bleue’s horn in relative awe.

“He’s one of the unicorns who signed up to work with us Omega pegasi, and let me tell ya,” the stallion let out a low whistle. “He’s a powerful one for managing to stay on the clouds so long! Aren’t you Bleue?”

“Um...” Bleue was talking shy, but his tone of voice was otherwise. “...sure.”

“You don’t talk much, do you Bleue?” Onyx looked curiously at the unicorn.

Rainbow broke the momentary pause. “So enough about Bleue, what about you?”

“Well I’m Rusty Chop, came straight from ol’ Dodge Junction when I heard about this war, thought I could put m’self to more use than buckin’ Cherries fer the Cherry family,” he had a strangely proud look on his face saying all of this.

“Well what about you two? Where’d you mares come from?” Rusty’s smirk returned as he finished the question, leaning back in his chair.

“Well, I'm Rainbow Dash, you might know me,” Rainbow replied cockily.

Onyx facehoofed.

“She’s a pegasus from Ponyville who...” Onyx regretted having to say what she was going to say. “...is the element of Loyalty, and broke the sound-light barrier with only her speed.”

Rainbow suddenly put her arm around Onyx, almost crushing her. “Damn right I did! Did you see the shock wave in Dodge, Rusty? Of course you did, it went out for miles!”

Rusty chucked. “You seem rather proud of it fer sure.” Rusty laid back a little more in his seat. “I read about it later anyways, in the Equestrian Inquirer, forgets the writer’s name but...”

Rusty looked at Onyx with a smile.

“I remember her picture.”

“Well um,” Onyx rubbed the back of her neck, slightly embarrassed. “I’m Onyx Scarlett.”

“You got yerself a nice voice there Onie, anyone ever told you that?” Rusty’s eyelids closed half over, an attempt at looking seductive. This did not go unnoticed by Onyx.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, giving him a cold, dagger-like glare. “Anyway, blade training is starting soon, we should get moving.”

“Rodger that, Onie,” Rusty said with a wink as they all stood up.

Onyx turned to Rainbow, giving her a look that said it all. Can you believe that guy?

Rainbow simply chuckled slightly in return as the four of them disappeared down the corridors of the base.

***A WEEK LATER***

“Let me tell you this now, privates!” Commander Thunderstorm shouted throughout the sleeping dorms. “You shall sleep with the sword you are holding, for the sword is your very life, and you shall remain faithful to it, or your blood shall be spilt in the night!”

The pegasi, who were all standing with their armour off but with their swords at their sides, replied singularly. “SIR, YES, SIR!” The same exchange had happened in the sleeping dorm for the past month and a half of training, but now the words of the pegasi corps were adamant.

“BED!” The Commander shouted, turning off the lights. The pegasi all quickly moved into their beds and under their light covers. The room went quiet as if someone had flicked a mute switch.

Thunderstorm couldn’t help but smile slightly, as he left, the room was almost pitch black.

It wasn’t long until almost everyone was asleep. Everyone, except Rainbow Dash.

The rainbow mare was anxious; she almost reminded herself of Pinkie Pie, with her many ‘Pinkie senses’ and Rainbow could sense no good would come in the morning.

It wasn’t long until Rainbow’s eyes adjusted to the darkness of the dorms, seeing the rows of bunk-beds along the walls. She suddenly noticed an item lying on the floor not far from her bed.

Wondering what it was, Rainbow took her lamp, turning it to a very dim setting, the fireflies inside giving the slightest glow. Not even going to try and think about how these things work, Rainbow thought, already leaning out of bed to fetch the item.

It was a book, lying open, pages down on the floor. Picking it up and bringing it back to bed, Rainbow looked at the front. The book was a dim red, with black embossed letters on the front.

JOURNAL

Probably fell from Onyx’s bunk, Rainbow thought, reminding herself of the ruby-maned mare on the bunk above her.

Rainbow was just about to open it, when she stopped.

Isn’t this personal? She thought to herself, closing the book over. Oh, well it’s too late to stop now.

Rainbow opened the book again, now at a folded page near the start of the book, the date was today.

15th November 2014 AD

There isn’t much to say for today, Pegasi corps training continues as always. It’s simple, but effective because, well, as the Commander says “It’s in our blood.” Never thought I’d agree with that guy.

Those two stallions popped up again, Rusty and Bleue. They don’t really change, Bleue never really speaking, and Rusty just hitting on me. If I have a crush on anyone here it’s not Rusty, that’s for sure.

Rainbow was nice today; we got to have another one of our talks in the canteen, sure she was a little jocky at first but she’s growing on me. I wish I could’ve talked to her sooner, I’ve learned so much that could’ve been useful back when I was reporting on her. She was telling me all about her friends too, of course, the elements of harmony. Tend to shy away from the media, if rumour has it correct, Twilight Sparkle once turned a particularly intruding journalist into a cactus for a day until he learnt his lesson. Glad I never had to report on her!

Rainbow closed the book quietly. She almost sniggered remembering that cactus. Spike, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy had been awfully critical of the whole thing, but Rainbow thought it was awesome. She guessed Pinkie did too, but all she did was try to put hats on the poor cacti paparazzi.

Rainbow lay back down to sleep, pulling the covers over her, but after fifteen minutes of twisting and turning she has given up trying to fall into her slumber. She noticed the Commander hadn't closed the door completely; it was a matter of seconds before her curiousity got to her. Rainbow slipped quietly out of her bed, sneaking low to the floor towards the exit of the dorms, and slipped through the door out of the room.

As she walked through the silent barracks, only the corridors dimly lit, she couldn’t help but remind herself of when she tried to steal The Quest for the Sapphire Stone from the Ponyville hospital, snickering at the parallel.

It wasn’t long in her midnight wanderings that she reached a cleaner, more formal area of the barracks. She was surprised to see a shaft of light shining through a doorway, breaking the greyish glow that the dim hallway lights were giving off.

Rainbow was initially suspicious, looking around her to make sure no one was awake and following her, but her suspicion was not confirmed. She held her breath as she looked through the doorway, and was greeted with a rather magnificent sight.

The entire room was lit up with formal candles and chandeliers made of shining silver metal, everything in the room almost appeared to be glowing. Rainbow noted what was in the room too, cases filled with ceremonial swords, spears, armour, medals of the highest valour, and many objects relating to Omega squad. The ‘Ω’ appeared on many ornaments, hilts and clothing items.

The most impressive thing in the room however, was that the walls were covered in framed paintings, commanders of the pegasi race. From Old Pegasopolis that existed before the take over of Discord, to today’s commander’s of the Equestrian Pegasi Corps. The rank had meant everything to the pegasi race ever since it’s incarnation; it was once a sign of leadership over all pegasi, now it means the mayor of Cloudsdale and second-in-command of Princess Celestia when it comes to air-based military duties, but it still had all its symbolic value.

Rainbow looked at some of the paintings. One of the very first commanders was a stallion, coat as white as snow and an icy blue flowing mane. Rainbow smirked, the pony in the painting reminded her far too much of Thunderstorm in its palette. She noted the plaque below it.

Commander Snowpeak

Founder of Old Pegasopolis

3057-3009 B.D.

Looking down the portraits, Rainbow saw a recognisable name.

Commander Hurricane

One of the three founders of Equestria and last King of Pegasopolis

325-240 B.D.

She almost laughed to find out the commander she had played in the Hearth’s Warming Eve play, was actually male. A sturdy, brown-coated stallion with a scar under his eye and a black mane greyed with stress, looking nothing like Rainbow Dash at all. The only thing they shared was a vaguely similar cutie mark, although his cloud was grey and his bolt white.

Another one she noticed was further down on the wall looked oddly familiar. The dark orange-beige coat, magenta eyes and greyscale-striped mane that reminded Rainbow Dash of her own, bar the colour. Rainbow did indeed recognise the mare in the painting.

Commander Dr. Compass Point PhD

Accomplished Archaeologist and Adventurer

1839-1900 A.D.

Of course, she inspired the Daring-Do series, Rainbow had remembered reading this fact in the Author’s notes of her favourite book series. She kept looking down the paintings until she reached the last two commanders of the more recent years, and froze.

She saw Commander Thunderstorm there of course, looking as stern as usual in his painting, but it was the second newest that had made Rainbow stop.

In the painting there was a turquoise mare, her medium-length mane striped in colours of purple, green and blue. Despite her bangs, her light blue eyes were not concealed. Her appearance was similar to Rainbow’s in many ways, more so than Dr. Compass Point, or anyone on this wall.

Like mother, like daughter.

Commander Sky Dash

Loyal to the Grave

1984-2002 A.D.

***

“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she plodded slowly home through Cloudsdale. It was a hard day at flight school, she had failed her end-of-year flight exam. Thankfully she wasn’t alone.

“Don’t worry Rainbow, it was just a test, we’ll have another chance next year,” Fluttershy reassured her, reversing her usual role in their friendship.

“I just know my parents will be mad at me, they always are,” Rainbow lamented. She put on a mocking deep voice. “Rainbow Dash! You have a heritage to live up to, don’t fail us! Do what the teacher says! Don’t be cocky! Blah, blah, blah!”

Fluttershy gave Rainbow a concerned look, but didn’t say anything.

“Well here we are anyway,” Fluttershy said as the pair turned the corner to see the Dash house. It was a rather rich place, but it didn’t usually have a high ranking officer stationed outside it.

Fluttershy squealed and hid behind a nearby statue of an armoured soldier.

“Um, Rainbow? I don’t mean to be rude but…do you know him? He looks…scary,” Fluttershy spoke quietly.

Rainbow nearly facehoofed, but instead rolled her eyes.

“Fluttershy, he’s in the corps, our corps, I’m sure he’s fine. C’mon, walk up with me,” Rainbow said, patting Fluttershy on the back once and walking towards her house.

Fluttershy followed, but lagged behind.

“Excuse me, Miss Rainbow Dash?” the soldier said as Rainbow Dash approached him. He had a drab grey coat and a smooth brown mane, and was clearly toning down his voice, not wanting to scare the fifteen-year old filly in front of him.

“I'm Colonel Thunderstorm, your parents sent me to tell you they won’t be home until later today.” He took some keys from the pocket of his armour and put them at Rainbow’s feet.

Rainbow took the keys, but looked at the colonel critically. “Why?” she asked.

“Well, um…” the Colonel tripped over his words. “um, er, it’s classified, sorry Miss Dash.” He gulped.

“I pretty promise I won’t tell anyone,” Rainbow said in a deeply sarcastic tone.

“Oh, what the Tatarus, I’ll tell you anyway,” Thunderstorm sighed, kneeling down in an attempt to get to the filly’s level.

“Some bad griffins have taken some innocent ponies, and your parents are on a mission to save them and make sure the griffins don’t do anything bad again.”

“I’m fifteen, colonel, not nine,” Rainbow replied. “I think I know what they’re doing.”

“Will it go…okay?” Fluttershy meekly asked, she had finally caught up with Rainbow.

Thunderstorm smiled, and looked at Rainbow. “Your parents are the finest warriors in all of Equestria, I am completely confident they will come back alive and successful. Trust me.”

***

Rainbow didn’t know she was crying until she heard her teardrop splash as it landed at her hooves.

The mission had been a success. Rainbow’s parents, Commander Sky Dash and Colonel Bolt Dash, had gone in, backed up by the Wonderbolts. The one-hundred hostages were saved, but at a cost. Both of Rainbow’s parents had been killed by an improvised bomb. They had sacrificed themselves for ponies they never knew, and never would know. Following orders right to the end.

“They didn’t deserve to die,” Commander Thunderstorm said.

Rainbow nearly jumped fifty feet into the air upon hearing his voice. She turned around swiftly.

“Um, I can explain!”

Thunderstorm smiled slightly. “I understand, I was like this too back when I was your rank, could never sleep, found places like these.”

Rainbow remembered something. “I knew you seemed familiar.”

Thunderstorm snorted. “I was never good with kids.”

Rainbow looked back at the painting of her mother, she had been beautiful, to the eye of someone who had never known her the painting would have seemed flattering, but this painting was exact to life, every detail was accurate.

“You knew them…my parents, I mean,” Rainbow stated, turning back to Thunderstorm.

“More than that,” The Commander started. “I aspired to be like your mother. She was the very model of the perfect Commander. Dedicated to not only the Princess, but the ponies of Equestria, wildly popular and a talented soldier, used the sword like it was a third hoof! As for your father…smart, cocky, but a good mentor none the less, even if we were the same rank, he taught me a lot, lessons I wish I could still follow.” Thunderstorm sighed.

“The war has changed,” Thunderstorm looked around the room, noting the ceremonial weapons. From the spear of Commander Hurricane, to the blade and revolver of Commander Sky Dash.

“Just, promise me this Private Dash,” Thunderstorm turned back to look at Rainbow.

“Loyalty runs in the Dash family, keep it that way,” Thunderstorm suddenly scowled. “Oh, and this never happened. I’m supposed to be hard-lined, something tells me this didn’t help…”

“Sir, yes, sir,” Rainbow said, smirking slightly. Walking out of the room.

As Rainbow Dash got back into her bed, she looked into her chest of possessions. The necklace of Loyalty was still there.

“Don’t fail me now,” Rainbow whispered, turning over in her bed as she started to finally fall asleep.

III: Marched Through the Forest

Rainbow Dash awoke at the harsh sounding of a whistle.

“Privates, you have ninety seconds to line up fully equipped for battle!” The Commander shouted gruffly, a return to his usual self, different from the side Rainbow had seen last night.

Rainbow put on her silver armour and black Omega cape as fast as she could. Thankfully, the armour was not so heavy, being built for pegasi after all, so this task was not so difficult. After doing this, she took the kopis blade lying beside her pillow in her hoof, the sun glancing off the edge as it escaped the shadow of the bunk above (which Onyx had already vacated) and put her saddlebags over her back, not bothering to fill them with anything for now though.

Before Rainbow could line up with the rest of the platoon however, she opened her locker briefly, and removed the necklace of Loyalty.

Rainbow placed the necklace around her neck, the red lightning bolt shimmering brightly in the rising sun that was peeking through the windows. She had no time to stand around admiring it however, and quickly got in line.

“Well privates! Despite insisting to the Princess that training go on for the required amount of months, she insisted that it needs to be cut to get you into battle!”

Some of the pegasi grinned, Rusty Chop among them, glad to be getting into the action. It came as a surprise when the Commander suddenly went up in his face.

“Don’t get your hopes up! To make up for those three lost months, you’ll all be going through a test that may be the most important of all, to survive and endure!”

There was a silence, quickly broken by Onyx.

"Sir!"

“Yes, Private Scarlett?”

“What exactly do you mean, sir?” She tried to keep her tone military.

Commander Hurricane grinned, and stepped back.

“Well this examination would just test survival and endurance; it will test another important skill, one that will prove invaluable.

Adapting to surprise.”

Rainbow only saw a flash of gold, and then no more.

***

Wet earth.

That was what Rainbow Dash felt as she lay on her back, eyes closed, and only just regaining consciousness. The air was sticky and humid, quite different from the crisp air of high altitudes, or indeed anything Rainbow had experienced.

Opening her eyes she saw a blur of green and brown all around her. Focusing, she saw she was surrounded by exotic foliage, some of which very colourful; shining red flowers and dull mossy vines, Venus Fly traps and purple-petaled orchids. The place made the Everfree forest look like Whitetail wood.

Moving her head up, she saw the sky, a clear blue, not a cloud in sight.

Well, I guess I can see where I am, Rainbow thought, picking herself up from the sticky mud of the clearing, waterlogged dirt sticking to her mane. She was no Rarity, but this just felt wrong on so many levels.

Rainbow Dash opened her wings…or rather, tried to open her wings to reveal they would not, as if an invisible force was sticking them to her sides. She couldn’t even feel them, and for a second she panicked, thinking she would not fly again, and then she remembered what the Commander had said.

“Adapting to surprise.”

This is all part of the game, Rainbow realized, as she sat down again, not caring so much about the mud getting on her flank.

And a pretty cruel one.

Rainbow scowled, her greatest asset in life being taken away did not go well with her, but then Rainbow realized something, looking down at the now mud-splattered loyalty necklace.

Am I seriously going to die out here whining about my wings?!

Standing up, Rainbow looked around the clearing, she was looking for a good tree, and quickly saw one, or perhaps two winded together to create what could possibly be most complicated tree in the world, nooks as common as the lines in the bark.

Climbing trees may have been an old habit of filly Rainbow Dash, but she hadn’t done it since she had learned how to fly. Clinging to the bark, Rainbow was just glad that she, like most pegasi, had grown up used to heights.

Reaching the canopy, Rainbow looked over the blanket of green foliage to see that Rainforest covered the landscape to the horizon. She nearly groaned, it didn’t help the birds of the forest where creating a cacophony of loud noise in the high trees, but then she looked in a few more directions and noticed it wasn’t all dark green.

In one direction she saw tall mountains piercing the duvet of leaves, but they looked even more inhospitable than the humid forest. However, in another direction she saw breaks in the trees, a glimpse of light green grass plains. Looking at the sun, she could tell this paradise of sorts was due North, if she had learned anything from Junior Speedsters camp. It was far, but it was where she had to go.

After a rather awkward climbing down of the tree, in which far more branches broke than she would have liked, Rainbow picked up her sword from the clearing in her mouth and started to run, remembering to always have the setting sun on her left. Even if it was a useful notification of direction, Rainbow was anxious about the sun going down. She didn’t expect the rainforest to be so kind at nightfall, but there was no choice now.

“Survive and endure.”

***

“Security increase in Canterlot…Steel Watch Industry’s shares at all time high…Sapphire Shore’s latest album…”

Twlight Sparkle set down the Equestrian Inquirer with her magic neatly on the pile of papers that was now accumulating.

“I told you! Nothing on the war! Doesn’t that seem a tad suspicious?” Spike said from the stairs, voice tinted with both a mild anger and pride that he was ‘on to something.’

“You have a point Spik-wait! Found something!”

Spike nearly choked on his forked tongue. “What?”

“Victory in Toothless Valley! But…wait…”

Twilight tossed the paper aside.

“Waffle journalism at its best right there…” Twilight looked back at Spike.

“Hm, guess I am ri-OOF!”

Twilight had decided to telekinetically transport Spike to her so he was hovering above her head, upside down.

“Yes Spike, and now we have to find out why!”

Dropping Spike, he landed with little injury. Rubbing his scaly purple head he stood up.

“I guess so, what’s got you so worked up all of a sudden anyway?”

“Because Spike, if this is what I think it is, it can’t be Princess Celestia. I mean really? Celestia? Censorship? This whole war? It’s all adding up Spike!” Twilight started to trot towards a round mirror, the wooden edges lavender as herself. The mirror seemed to sparkle, as if magical.

“Um, Twilight, is this really the time to be looking at yourself?” Spike questioned.

“Spike, don’t you remember? I enchanted it, and it should give us a direct link with…”

Shining Armor poked into view, docked in full armor, helmet and all. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes showing.

“Hey, Twily! You called?” Shining Armor was still bashful, if not his usual self.

Twilight smiled. “Hey big brother,” She replied. She was glad to see him again, even if through the looking glass.

Shining saw right through the smile though, and went straight to the point. “You’re calling me about something else, aren’t you?”

Twilight sighed. “I just want to know what’s going on. The Newspapers are being awfully vague and I thought as y’know, Captain of the Royal Guard, you might know something about the war right now,” Twilight gave a grin, expecting a good answer.

Shining gave her a look that said the opposite. “Twilight, I’m not on the line here, if you really want to know about the war you should go ask Commander Thunderstorm or General Thora, or even Archmage Solarius, even if he scares the crap out of me.”

Twilight recognized the names; Thunderstorm, leader of the Pegasi; Thora, leader of the Royal Equestrian Army; and Solarius, leader of the unicorns and their special forces. She had never met the first two, but Solarius was an old teacher at Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns. He never was the kindest soul.

Twilight still couldn’t help but let a laugh at his brother’s fear.

“What?” he replied, awkwardly smirking. “He’s dictionary creepy.”

“Well what’s up with you then?” Twilight asked, tilting her head slightly.

“Well,” Shining started. “It’s tough times. We’re being pretty overworked; it’s hard to keep up with the patrol schedules we’re being given now.”

Shining looked back. “If only marrying into the Royal family got you a pair of wings…”

“How is Cadence?”

“Oh she’s been great, though we’re both a bit worried about what my next orders might be.”

“Why?”

“Twilight, they’ll want some of the Royal Guard on the front line. I don’t doubt my second-in-command; he’ll do a good job defending the city, but…” Shining closed his eyes.

“I don’t know Twilight, even if it’s ceremonial and we won’t exactly be doing suicide missions…I’m scared.”

Twilight put a hoof on the mirror. Useless, but a meaningful gesture none-the-less.

“If anyone can pull through it’s you, B.B.B.F.F.”

Shining sniggered slightly at the use of their wordy acronym, but returned a caring smile.

“I hope so.”

Twilight thought for a minute. “Oh, and Rainbow Dash is out there, heard she got into Omega as well!”

“Oh yeah, Sonic Rainboom mare, how could I forget?” Shining’s more cocky side returned in his voice.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well maybe you’ll have a familiar face out there.”

Twilight couldn’t help but notice how tired she felt. Too much time spent reading small print, she thought, giving the pile of newspapers a glare.

“Listen brother, I can’t stay awake much longer.”

“To be honest I’m feeling about the same…” Shining said, letting off a yawn.

It wasn’t long until Twilight yawned, then Spike.

“Careful Shining! Those are Contagious!” Spike responded, half way between joking and anger.

Shining laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind, little dragon. Anyway, I need to go, my shift’s ending and I can’t keep Cadence waiting.”

Twilight smiled. “Goodnight, love you, Shining.”

“Love ya too, Twlight.”

The mirror rippled the image of Shining Armor gone.

There was a hoot as Owlywicious escaped into the night out the window, going hunting after just waking up. Twilight looked up at the sky as the Owl’s silhouette blocked out the shine of Luna’s moon.

Twilight wondered if she would ever see her big brother again.

***

The sky was black. The ground was black. The trees were black, the leaves were black. The bark was black. Rainbow Dash looked at her blade, it was black, so was the hoof carrying it.

The night had fallen, and now Rainbow Dash was carefully trotting forward, using her sword to tell if there were obstacles in front of her. So far it had only been trees and rocks blocking her way, but every chink that indicated her blade had touched something drove fear into her heart, something she would rarely admit feeling.

A fear of losing direction, getting lost in the pitch black darkness of the forest, never being able to carry out her duty, or see her friends again. That is what she felt as she squelched along in the black mud under her black hooves.

She wondered if the other pegasi were in the same situation. She suddenly had an image of Onyx moving along a pitch black background that hid all the horrors of the night.

I hope she’s okay, Rainbow thought for a second. But then again, I’m not. I’m walking in a straight line in pitch black, feeling around, scared shitless of whatever might come out of the bushes. Hardly my definition of okay, and if she’s in the same position I doubt she’s…okay, either. Doesn’t she have a thing about dirt anyway?

Rainbow Dash tried to recall the conversation but couldn’t. It was becoming hard to think, not out of fear, not out of the concentration required to walk in a straight line in such a complicated jungle, but because of the stupendously loud din that was being created by the creatures around her. Chirps, growls, snorts, tweets, roars, caws, hoots, all kinds of noises. The horrors of the night may have been hidden, but Rainbow could hear them all around her.

And it wasn’t long until a particularly loud noise startled her so much she ended up tripping over a root, falling face first in a muddy puddle, which might as well have been oil in the darkness.

Exhausted, confused, scared, half her face submerged in mud; for the first time in years, Rainbow Dash felt like giving up.

But…I…can’t…stop.

Think about them, they need you, all of Equestria needs you, the commander needs you, your friends need you, what would they think if they saw you now Rainbow Dash, Huh?

The red lightning bolt around her neck glowed dimly, making Rainbow stand up in shear surprise. The crimson light was hardly illuminating the forest, but at least allowed her to see a few feet in front of her.

Rainbow picked up her sword in her mouth now she did not have to use it as a feeling-around stick, which made her feel safer. A blade is after all, better aimed if held in the mouth, and not the hoof, which makes movement difficult.

The peace was short. Rainbow Dash heard the noise which had made her fall over again. This time louder, directly in front of her. The red glow of the Loyalty necklace reflected off two golden eyes peering from the veil of black.

Dash primed her sword in her mouth, and began to charge forward. The creature roared and Rainbow caught a glimpse of it: stripes adorning its thick fur, fangs dripping in saliva.

She jumped as she charged along the tiger’s left, her sword held to face the right. The blade slashed along the big cat’s body, making it let out a cry of pain. Rainbow Dash did not immediately look back to see the damage, she already could feel the hot, sticky blood of the tiger covering her right side.

When she did turn back, the feline was limping and missing an eye, red spilling over its face; but it had turned around, ready for more. Before Rainbow could react, she felt the air leave her chest. For a moment she flew, then she hit the ground hard.

The tiger’s claws had left scratches on her belly, but it was the bruise and the ache that prevented Rainbow from standing up. Suddenly, her armour and empty saddlebags seemed so much heavier.

The kopis blade lay just inches away, the blood on the sword mixing with the muddy water of the ground until you could not tell which was which in the red light. Rainbow Dash reached for it, trying to ignore the sound of heavy paws plodding through the dirt and undergrowth, but it was coming closer.

The tiger had earned this meal, and even if he could only see it with one eye, the sight of the downed pony made him proud. He now stood over the mare, his saliva dripping down on her face.

“Not…today!”

Rainbow Dash swung the sword up, the blade piercing through the skull of the cat, becoming lodged in its brain. The tiger fell to the ground, but made no sound. At least no sound that Dash could hear. Everything seemed quiet again; all was well as her vision drifted into darkness.

***

The crowds cheered in approval, as Rainbow Dash stood in the middle of the Cloudsdale stadium. Their applause made Rainbow feel strong, she soaked it in, letting her pride grow. In the audience she saw Commander Thunderstorm, smiling warmly, an odd sight. Princess Celestia stood in the stands, also smiling, proud of her most loyal heroine of Equestria.

Rainbow Dash then looked down to be greeted by a different sight. Below her she saw a tiger looking up at her, pain in its eyes, blood gushing from its wounds, soaking Rainbow Dash’s hooves. The cat’s eyes said one word.

Why?

***

Celestia’s sun could barely be seen through the thick cover of the forest, but as Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes, she could see light coming from the east through the trees.

Picking herself up, she couldn’t help but notice how wet the ground was, then she looked around.

“Messy…” she couldn’t help but say aloud.

She was thick in the rainforest, and looking around, she was surprised she did not have to dodge more trees in the darkness of the night, but it was the blood that formed an inch high puddle across the area that surprised her. In the saturated muck, very little had soaked into the ground, and the corpse of the tiger dominated the area, a thick, nearly disembowelling cut along its side where Rainbow’s blade had first struck, and of course, the head. It almost seemed there was little left of it. Her sword still stuck out of the skull.

Rainbow Dash cringed as she pulled the sword out of the tiger’s skull with her mouth; bone fragments, pieces of brain and a steady flow of blood coming out with it.

“Ugh.”

She noticed a stream going through the area and took quite a few gulps of water; trying to ignore the fact the liquid was red-tinted. It wasn’t long until she started to trek through the forest again, in the same direction as always: North.

She tried to ignore the pain in her legs, the stains in her fur and the blood, brains and mud dripping from her sword. She had to push on, just as she had before. The forest seemed thicker, even if by all logic it should be thinning out, Rainbow had to push away more vines and slice through more plants.

Hours of trekking through the forest had made the colourful flowers and fruit seem boring. Rainbow thought about how much Zecora would probably love this place. She betted all of these plants could be used in some kind of potion, but for her, they were obstructions. Obstructions blocking what she had to do.

It had taken her the entire day to finally hear something outside what could be considered normal in this forest. The foliage was rustling, one movement after another; the crunch of leaves and squelching of mud indicating footsteps of some kind.

More...

Rainbow stooped low to the ground, sneaking around the trees, darting between them, trying not to make a sound against the leaves, which was difficult when she was without her wing power. As she clung to the tree trunk she prepared her sword. She could hear the creatures coming this way.

CRACK!

They had arrived, Rainbow Dash lunged out from behind the tree, with the sword, holding the blade to the neck of-

“BY CELESTIA!”

Onyx Scarlett cried out, Rainbow Dash’s blade against her neck. It took a second for Dash to calm down; she lowered the blade, still breathing heavily.

Onyx looked nearly as Rainbow remembered her, albeit far more flustered, sticks filling her mane. Rainbow noticed her saddlebags were filled with the colourful fruits of the forest. Her omega cape still looked somewhat well kept, just muddy at the sides, Rainbow hadn’t even bothered looking at hers but she imagined it wasn’t exactly in peak condition.

“…Rainbow Dash? Is that...what happened to you?” Onyx looked shocked.

“What?” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help notice how hoarse her voice was. “Am I that bad?”

“Um, Bleue? You can come out now, it’s just Rainbow.”

Bleue Pearl seemingly dissolved into existence, his horn glowing a powder blue colour. Rainbow Dash seemed shocked at this, which prompted Onyx to talk.

“Oh, he can turn invisible.”

“It has its limits, Scarlett,” Bleue said flatly. Compared to Onyx and Rainbow he almost looked as if he had just stepped out of the base, no doubt a special ops unicorn can survive better in the forest than a grounded Pegasi.

“On the subject of spells Bleue, any chance you can show Rainbow what she looks like?” Onyx asked, glancing back at Rainbow Dash, who looked slightly confused.

Bleue simply nodded, and his horn glowed as it made part of the air in front of him reflective, like a floating, ethereal mirror. Rainbow Dash looked in and she was surprised by the mare she saw.

The mare in the mirror had bags under her eyes and a face covered in scratches. She was soaked in now drying blood, more on one side than the other. Her cape was ripped and soaked to the cores of every strand of fabric, and it was the same story for her empty saddlebags. The mare also had three long, still slightly bleeding scars on her belly, which was bruised heavily.

“Wow,” Rainbow said. “I look…badass!”

Onyx facehoofed.

“You look like you’ve been maimed by a bear.”

“Not too far from the truth,” Rainbow said as she sheathed her sword.

“I’d like to know at some point, I mean…what the hay? If somepony covered in blood jumps out from behind a tree with a sword to my neck-”

“Yeah, it’s…understandable,” Rainbow Dash gave an awkward smile.

Onyx simply stared back. “Have you eaten? You must be starving, come on, me and Bleue are just about to set up camp for the night.”

***

“You did WHAT?!” Onyx’s voice nearly broke.

“I drove my sword through its skull,” Rainbow Dash said, somewhat straight faced.

“And…you don’t have any problems with that?”

“Well, yeah but…” Rainbow stroked the back of her neck. “It hit me first, and besides we’ll be killing hordes of griffins soon.”

“Oh, um, yes, good point,” Onyx said hesitantly, looking back at the forest. They were in a clearing not so different from the one Rainbow found herself in when this had all started. Bleue had made a fire in the centre, and they were sitting around it, trying to keep warm. They were on guard though, Dash had her sword by her side, and Onyx was holding her rifle, which she seemed to prefer by her bedside compared to a blade or a spear.

“Bloody Hay though…I’ve got it easy. I just fell down a few ditches and eaten potentially poisonous fruit, and now I’ve found Bleue and well…”

Onyx looked at Bleue, who was now patrolling the clearing, horn glowing to light his way.

“This is barely a challenge for him it seems. Apparently he came voluntarily, wanted to know what the new lightning training scheme for pegasi was like, hmph.”

“Wonder where Rusty is?” Rainbow said, looking around.

“Probably lost, is it bad I don’t feel particularly saddened by this?” Onyx said dryly.

Rainbow snickered. “Well,” Rainbow yawned, and then Onyx yawned, and then Bleue yawned.

“Rainbow! Don’t you know those are contagious?” Bleue harshly whispered back.

Onyx let off a surprisingly feminine giggle. “He’s so serious. Surprised he isn’t getting a desk job, don’t you think Rainbow?”

Onyx saw the cyan pegasus had fallen asleep.

“Hmph, typical,” Onyx said dryly. Looking at Bleue again, he showed no signs of rest. Onyx sighed and lay down, looking up at the stars. It wasn’t like Trottingham, where the lights of the buildings and houses blotted out the sky, it was clear, every speck of light in the sky visible, the moon resting amongst them.

“Well, that’s something,” Onyx stated, before turning over and going to sleep.

***

The crowds cheered in support, Rainbow Dash enjoying every second of it. Celestia was coming out onto the stadium to present the Medal of Harmony. Rainbow was more than a mare, she was a symbol of everything that Equestria stood for; and yet, she looked down again, seeing the tiger. The blood pooled below her, as if trying to drown her. Her necklace of loyalty floated in the red, Rainbow rushed to get it, ignoring the ethereal, Trottingham-accented voice in her head.

"And…you don’t have any problems with that?"

***

“Are you entirely sure this was a good idea, Thunderstorm?”

“Well, they needed some experience, experience that a few more months of training could have prepared them for,” Commander Thunderstorm replied.

“Excuse me, but did you really think that sending them into the Maunaman rainforests would prepare them for war in the Baltic eastern highlands of the Griffin Kingdom?” Archemage Solarius concurred.

He wasn’t in a good mood, then again, he never usually was. His coat was a pearl white, and his long mane and tail in the colours of fire, though his mane was mostly covered by the hood of his brick red cloak, which also covered his cutie mark. He was a tall unicorn, much taller than the pegasus he spoke to.

The two military leaders stood in front of the vast Maunaman rainforest. The forest was no pony’s land, bordering Zebrica on its west and the Hayseed Swamps on it's north-east, and was well known for its diverse wildlife, most of which dangerous. So far, thirty-three of the thirty-five Omega platoon pegasi had returned, some of which poisoned, but Solarius’s best medical unicorns where quick to cure them. He was not here for that reason though.

“Bleue still hasn’t returned,” Solarius said to the Commander. “You know Thunderstorm, if this idea of yours gets one of my best operatives killed, the Princess will have your head on a pike,” Solarius had to stop himself from smiling menacingly.

“And in return we’ll have thirty-five well-trained pegasi who know how to survive in the most unexpected of conditions, your bullshit threats won’t work on me, Solarius,” Thunderstorm was not looking at the unicorn, but at the tree line. The undergrowth was moving.

“And here he is now!”

Out of the trees came two pegasi and a unicorn, Bleue Pearl, who walked in a different direction than the pair of pegasi, heading towards Thunderstorm and Solarius.

“Well, what did I say eh?” The commander smirked.

“Indeed,” Solarius tried to hide the frustration in his voice, he distracted himself looking at the two pegasi. He couldn’t help but notice one of them was absolutely coated in blood. He cringed inwardly.

Pegasi brutes.

“Well I’ve gotta fly Sol, see you in hell,” Thunderstorm’s cocky smile not yet wiped off his face as he walked over to see Dash and Scarlett.

“Well congratulations privates! You’re the last two out! How do you feel?” Thunderstorm greeted the pair.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Rainbow Dash remarked, coughing slightly. She was exhausted.

“Stay in line Private Dash, and for that matter,” Thunderstorm started to whisper. “Get a shower, you’re scaring ponies.”

Rainbow smirked. She couldn’t help but notice another pegasus walking over, a familiar light brown mane upon him.

“Well Onyx, here’s Rusty, I think I’ll leave you two alone,” Rainbow said, winking as she started to run, leaving Onyx in her tracks.

“Argh! You…um,” Onyx sighed, she was too tired to think of insults. It felt like she had been in that forest for weeks, even if it was just days. All she wanted to do was sleep.

IV: Son, have you seen the World?

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The terms “Griffin Kaiserdom”, “G.K.” and “Griffannia” are interchangeable.

___

“Anypony got any idea t’why Twilight invited us t’her place?” Applejack asked the four ponies walking with her.

“And in such bad weather, this water is absolutely destroying my mane!” Rarity said, sounding slightly outraged. It was indeed raining, quite heavily. The weather pegasi said it would be cleared up tomorrow but for now, the ponies had to just grin and bear it.

“Ooh! I’ve got an idea! Maybe she’s figured out how to sustain Equestria without rain!” Pinkie Pie began jumping up and down excitedly.

“I…I don’t know Pinkie, in Cloudsdale they always said that wasn’t possible…not that I’m arguing,” Fluttershy noted meekly.

“Ah think it’s somethin’ else, she usually don’t summon us like this for nothin’, and with Spike too, Twilight must be too busy to get us ‘erself.” Applejack sighed. “We’ll jus’ have t’see.”

It wasn’t long until they reached the tree library. Applejack knocked the door, and it was a good few seconds until Twilight opened it. She greeted the four ponies in front of her with a smile.

“Girls! It’s good to see you,” Twilight glanced left and right, then gestured back. “Come, inside, now.”

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie trotted (or in Pinkie’s case, hopped) into the library one by one. Twilight closed the door after them, muffling the sound of the rain.

“Twilight, what the hay is goin’ on?” Applejack swiftly asked. She glanced around the library and noticed it was a bit of a mess. Twilight’s saddlebags lay by the stairs, half-packed.

“Girls, I wanted to just tell you all…I’m leaving,” Twilight hung her head low.

“WHAT?!” the four ponies said in unison.

“But why, Twilight?” Rarity was the first to speak.

“Something’s came up, I need to go south,” Twilight said quickly.

“What’a y’hidin’ from us Twi?” Applejack questioned, trying not to show her irritation.

Twilight groaned. “OKAY, I’ll admit it. I’ve been looking into the more recent actions of Celestia and her government and well…none of it adds up.”

Applejack was about to interrupt, but Twilight went on.

“Say what you want about the war but, military expansion? Radical tax increases? Magical surveillance? Plus, she hasn’t been answering my letters very passionately recently.”

“That does seem fishy, fishy as…a trout…” Pinkie said, narrowing her eyes. Rarity tried hard not to facehoof.

“But simply why must you leave us because of this Twilight?” Rarity questioned.

“I have an idea,” Twilight started. “And I’m going to find my first lead, which could take me all over Equestria at this rate.”

Applejack laughed heartily, resulting in some odd looks from the others, except Pinkie Pie who joined in out of impulse with her high-pitched giggles.

“So y’were gon’ go on some big adventure without US? What a classic!” Applejack said through her laughing.

“Frankly, I’d be honoured to join you Twilight,” Rarity said. “Even if it gets a bit…rough.”

Twilight smiled. “I didn’t expect…thank you. Thank you so much.”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes lit up and she let off an over the top gasp and started jumping up and down on the spot excitedly. “WE’RE GOING ON A ROAD TRIP! At least I think it’s a road trip, it could be an off-road trip, could we do an off-road trip Twilight? Could we? Could we?”

The other four ponies laughed, Pinkie being Pinkie as usual. However, it wasn’t long until Applejack spoke up.

“So Twi, what exactly is this hunch of yers?”

“I’ll explain when we leave, should be the day after tomorrow,” Twilight replied, optimism in her voice.

“It could get complicated.”

***

Mountains and cliffs rose at every turn, the high altitude landscape making even Rainbow Dash, a pegasus, quite dizzy. Snow powdered the top of the mountains giving them the appearance of rocky puddings, forests of evergreen covering the ground at the feet of the hills, where rivers flowed, forming valleys and reservoirs. It was quite the sudden break from the small eastern sea that had to be crossed to reach the land of the griffins.

And to top it all off, Rainbow Dash was seeing all of this from a blimp, painted in grey and white camouflage in an attempt to blend in with the mountains it was flying by. She had questioned why a nearly all-flying force like the Pegasi Corps would need blimps, but then realised that simply flying such a distance would not only take too long, it would also be incomprehendably tiring, and all the equipment required could not simply all be held by pegasi soldiers.

Despite the vehicle being armed with gating guns, it was not for use in battle, as a stray sword stroke at the balloon could spell death for all those in the blimp, and a gunshot could result in explosion; plus, it was not the most aerodynamic or small construction. It was meant for transport only.

“Beautiful, isn’t it Rainbow?” Onyx Scarlett said, revealing she was next to Rainbow Dash, also looking off the port of the airship. The two pegasi were both donned in silver armour with the black capes of the Omega platoon flowing behind them in the wind of the high altitude. Neither wore helmets, which would have been over-the-top outside of battle, and both the red mane of Onyx and the many-hued mane of Rainbow were blowing in the wind theatrically.

“It’s somethin’ alright,” Rainbow Dash replied, not taking her eyes off the mountainous landscape. “You ever been to the Griffin Kaiserdom?”

“Once, actually,” Onyx replied, “Before the war started the news agency often sent me here to report on various things, such as the acts of the Himmelsupreme terrorists.”

Rainbow recognised the name of the organisation that had killed her parents.

“Oh,” she replied, still looking away from Onyx.

“Are you okay?” Onyx asked, tilting her head quizzically.

“It’s nothing I’m just,” Rainbow gritted her teeth, “Tired from last night.”

“Is this about finally going into battle? Because I’m scared too,” Onyx said, putting a comforting wing on Rainbow’s shoulder.

“Dashes don’t get scared,” Rainbow retorted, before taking a more sincere tone and looking over at Onyx. “Well, maybe I’m a little nervous.” Her ears drooped.

“Well we’re just getting to base, once we’ve had some time to rest I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Onyx sounded like she wasn’t so confident in her words.

“Y’know what Onyx? You’re right, it’s probably just this travelling getting to me,” Rainbow Dash remarked, looking down off the ship again. “Are blimps always this…dizzy?”

“Yeah, they are,” Onyx said, giving a small smile in Rainbow’s direction. “Did you see Rusty?”

Rainbow gave a devilish grin, “Yeah, I saw him,” she looked over to the other side of the blimp, where Rusty Chop was vomiting over the starboard side.

“Ah can fly m’self!” Rusty proclaimed before throwing up some more, making Rainbow Dash giggle.

“What a loser,” Rainbow remarked.

Onyx simply nodded in reply, still looking at Rainbow Dash, watching the way her messy mane flew in the wind. Rainbow looked over at Onyx again.

“I think we’re here Onyx,” Rainbow said, pointing forward.

Shaking her head a few times, Onyx looked in the direction Rainbow was pointing and saw a surreal sight. They were entering a valley, the ground of which was covered in a huge encampment, rows of tents going out for long distances. Ponies like ants could be seen moving around between them, some lined up, moving in formation. Onyx guessed the army must be set up down there. She also saw a small section of tents far more refined and stable looking than the others. There was a blue fire burning there, symbolising that this was the unicorn camp.

Of course, they were not going to either of these. The blimp was heading towards one of many camps on outcrops from the cliffs bordering the valley. This particular camp had black tents, and a flagpole with three flags displayed on it. The first flag being the flag of the royal sisters of the Equestrian Principality; the second flag being the flag of the pegasi, not so different from the flag of old Pegasopolis; and the third flag was the silver ‘Ω’ over the black background to symbolise Omega platoon. This was the camp for Omega troops, the high-ups of the Pegasi corps, and, as Rainbow quickly began to realise, the Wonderbolts.

She didn’t know if they had been mobilised for the war, the military actions of the Wonderbolts were more than often classified; but they had been having less and less shows in Equestria. Rainbow wondered if she would get another chance to meet her role-models, she found herself having to conceal her excitement.

“Omega! Mobilise!” Commander Thunderstorm bellowed, and it wasn’t long until Rainbow, Onyx, and even the sickly-feeling Rusty had arranged themselves into lines. The blimp began to slow down and grind to a halt, just a few metres off the outcrop holding the camp. A rather old-looking pegasus stallion not dressed in any protective armour, threw a rope to the outcrop, where it was caught by a soldier and tied around a rock to give the blimp an anchor.

“Troops! Abandon ship!” Thunderstorm bellowed once more. The pegasi soldiers left the blimp in neat lines, landing orderly on the rocky mountain, including Thunderstorm himself.

“Alright troops, I currently have war business to attend to, I suggest you find your tents and get some rest for today, you’ll be needed soon,” Thunderstorm began to walk off in another direction. Most of the pegasi began to walk off in other directions to find their lodgings in the camp, but Rainbow was left behind. Instead of going to find where she was sleeping, she decided to go a different direction.

What is the Commander up to?

***

“Is she coming?” Thunderstorm said anxiously to the Colonel pegasus at his side.

“Sir, General Thora isn’t known for her punctuality,” the Colonel replied.

“Hey, don’t expect I didn’t know that, we military leaders are often forced together,” Thunderstorm remarked. “It’s just; I’m a little dark on the situation out here at the moment.”

“HURRY UP GUARDS! IT’S A NEW DAY!” a gruff female voice echoed throughout the canyon.

“What was that?” the Colonel said, fear in his voice.

Commander Thunderstorm simply smiled.

“Oh she’s coming alright.”

A hammer suddenly appeared, coming up from underneath the cliff and smacking the rock, almost smashing it. With the hammer came a dusty-coloured pony with a cream mane, a red cape flowing behind her, complimenting her bright silver armour. She was climbing up the vertical cliff as if she were a mountain goat, not a heavily armed earth pony. When she had reached the top, she walked over to Thunderstorm as if she had just climbed nothing but a staircase.

The Colonel was almost too shocked to speak. “H-how…”

“Trust me, it’s easier than it looks,” Thora said, her blocky grey hammer hanging from her mouth by a thin leather strap.

“Good morning, Miss Thora Mjölna,” Thunderstorm said calmly, still smiling. “I see you took the longest route possible.”

“Fashionably late,” Thora replied with a wink. “Anyway, we have a war to plan out, and thankfully Archmage Pretentious has a cold today, so we can discuss it over some cider.”

“Sounds like my kinda planning session; come, I’ll show you to the war room,” Thunderstorm said, leading her to the large black, blue, brown and red striped tent in the centre of the encampment.

Damn, you could cut that sexual tension with knife it’s so thick, Rainbow Dash thought to herself. She was nearly about to leave until she saw Thora’s escorts just beginning to dust themselves off after climbing the mountain. One was your average earth pony soldier, powder blue in colour with a dark blue mane and donned in dull steel armour. The other was a white unicorn, dressed in purple armour with gold linings and a chalcidian helmet with a blue and light blue striped crest. He also had a shield-shaped pendant with a familiar looking six-pointed pink star decorating it, and held a spear. Something about him seemed familiar to Rainbow Dash, and then it hit her.

“Shining Armor?”

Shining turned around. “Rainbow Dash?” He began to walk closer. “It is you then! Good to see more familiar faces around here!”

Rainbow blushed; they had barely had much time to talk before, even at his wedding. She was surprised she was considered familiar.

“Wait, shouldn’t you be guarding Canterlot?”

“Half of the guard were sent out here to the G.K. to help in the war. Symbolic really, just to show Celestia’s presence. Reassuring the troops, I suppose,” Shining replied. “I volunteered to guard the General; it felt more satisfying than lounging around with a bunch of wine-tasting unicorn operatives.”

“Mmhm,” Rainbow said, glancing down at the rich-looking unicorn camp on the valley ground. “You seem right for the job, you did just scale a near vertical mountain to, er, ‘protect’ the General…come to think of it she doesn’t need protecting does she?”

Shining nodded. “She’s more competent than most of the military put together. Hay, she’s always hoof-wresting her troops, which just breaks all of our tables.”

Rainbow Dash smirked “Heh, sounds like fun down in the army camps.”

“More fun than the unicorn camp I guess, how’s the Pegasi corps treatin’ ya?”

“It’s alright I guess,” Rainbow replied. “Everypony seems cool, even the Commander once you get used to him.”

Shining Armor snickered. “Good to see you’re alive anyway; welcome to Toothless Valley, Private Dash.”

***

Onyx was tired. Just around two hours ago she had arrived in the camp, and only around seven hours before that she had left a dark, disturbing and dangerous rainforest. Now she was getting a well earned rest.

And she couldn’t sleep.

So much had happened, so much was happening; she found herself awake, scribbling the events of recent times in her journal. Some information was personal; other tidbits were to be used again in her journalism. The pencil was near broken from were she had held it in her mouth for such a long time.

Looking around the small tent, she saw Rusty Chop, fast asleep in his top bunk, snoring like a dragon. In the bed below him lay Bleue Pearl, who had fallen asleep too, but was much more silent, face turned to the canvas.

On the bunk above her, Rainbow Dash was supposed to be getting her rest; but despite her notorious laziness, she was nowhere to be found; but Onyx soon heard the sound of the canvas tent flaps getting pushed aside. Looking up, she saw Rainbow Dash, slowly trotting in, thinking everypony was asleep.

“Good afternoon, Private Rainbow Dash,” Onyx addressed her formally, making Rainbow freeze. Onyx chuckled at this, but began to ask a question. “But seriously, where the hay were you?”

“Just lookin’ around,” Rainbow Dash replied, trying to sound casual. “Found an old friend.”

“Really?” Onyx piped up. “Who?”

“Just Shining, haven’t spoken to him in months.”

“Wait,” Onyx was suddenly rather ecstatic. “You mean Prince Shining Armor is HERE?”

Rainbow Dash smiled awkwardly. “Um, yeah! I er…guess he is important!”

“That’s it, I can’t sleep. You get your rest, I’m off to find Prince Armor,” Onyx jumped out of bed suddenly and started galloping away out of the tent.

Rainbow Dash smiled. She was happy to see Onyx excited for once, but for now, Rainbow could only think about her bunk, and how she was going to get a nice long re-

“PRIVATES!”

Rainbow nearly banged her head again the bars of the bed upon seeing Commander Thunderstorm in their tent. She quickly jumped off the bunk bed and stood, giving a salute.

“Commander!”

Thunderstorm couldn’t hide a grin.

“Good to see somepony’s awake. Some of our lookouts have gone dark; I need you to do some recon with Private Scarlett and that bozo on the top bunk.”

He gestured at the still asleep Rusty Chop.

The commander grew impatient, and started to poke Rusty’s mattress with his spear.

“I SWEAR TO CELESTIA PRIVATE, ONE MORE INSUBBORDINATION AND YOU’LL NOT EAT FOR A WEEK!”

This managed to wake him up, albeit surprise and shock him heavily.

“Now ARM UP, your mission starts in TWO MINUTES.”

***

Speed.

Rainbow Dash had forgotten the meaning of the world, having gone so many hours without flying through the sky, but now she remembered it as she felt the air move around her like it was parting way for a Queen.

Onyx was managing to catch up, but Rusty lagged behind a little; still very tired from being forced to wake up.

“There it is,” Rainbow Dash pointed at an arrangement of four rocks. “The lookout post is just beyond there if the commander was right.”

“You’re takin’ authority very quickly Rainbow,” Rusty Chop remarked.

“Hey! We’re not a flock led by a Sheppard, we’re a unit; that’s how we operate,” Onyx said to Rusty.

“Interestin’ analogy, an analogy broke when one of us gits a promotion,” Rusty smirked. “Anyhow, what exactly should w’do here?”

Onyx halted flight and moved towards the cliff for cover, Rainbow and Rusty copying this action.

“I have an idea,” Onyx started. “You two should move along the cliff until you’re close enough, then charge in.”

“What about you Onyx?” Rainbow asked. “Overwatch?”

“Indeed,” Onyx replied, checking the sights on her bolt-action rifle. For a moment she looked its side. The rifle was made of polished wood and steel and had a long curved bayonet. Embedded into the steel was an inscription saying:

TROTCHESTER BOLT-ACTION

Made in: Stalliongrad, EQ

Pointless, but worth noting later, Onyx thought to herself, before looking back at the two more physically able pegasi in front of her.

“We should go now, wind’s on our side,” Rainbow Dash noted, seeing the wind was blowing towards them. She didn’t know if griffins had a particularly good sense of smell, or for that matter, if they’d be able to catch their scent on the wind, but she definitely knew that she and the other two pegasi smelled very bad. The only one of them who had a shower since leaving the rainforest was Rainbow Dash, and it was more a hose-down to remove the blood. She still reeked of sweat, and the excitedly fast flying to the outpost didn’t help.

Onyx nodded back, and flew up to the cliff, landing softly in the snow. She began to slowly move in on the outpost to get a better look.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Rusty Chop flew along the cliff and up to the formation of three rocks. Hiding behind the main rock, Rainbow was about to risk a peak around, but then she heard something.

“Wir sollten darüber Bericht zu erstatten Hambeak bald, wir haben zu weit gegangen.; was, wenn wir angegriffen werden?”

An unseen voice spoke behind the rock, speaking in a language Rainbow Dash could not understand, but she recognised the language of the griffins.

Rusty looked agitated, very much ready to attack, but Rainbow Dash shook her head at him. She didn’t want to go until she was sure Onyx had a good position on the cliffs close to theirs. It wasn’t long until another voice was heard, a deeper, richer, more experienced voice.

“Wir nähern uns Zahnlos Tal, unserem letzten großen Verlust. Vielleicht finden wir die wichtigsten Pony Lager, und dann können wir einen Überraschungsangriff zu arrangieren. Wenn wir Glück haben, die pegasi immer noch nicht organisiert werden, dann können wir den luft Vorteil.”

What the hay are they saying? Rainbow thought. She had known Gilda, and she had heard Gilda speak a little Griffanian in front of her, but she had never managed to pick up a word. She would be useful right about now… Rainbow thought, feeling a little regretful that their friendship had to end on such bad terms.

Rainbow dared peek around the rock for a split second, and caught a glimpse of approximately five or six figures. She was outnumbered, but that was hardly an excuse to give up. Looking over at the edge of the cliff, she saw Onyx about fifteen metres away. It was time to go. Rainbow Dash nodded at Onyx.

Onyx knew that this signalled the attack, aligning her iron sights on one of the griffins. She was aiming at who she assumed was in power judging from their conversation, and indeed, her understanding of the griffin language. Her target was an older griffin, grey in feather colour with a scar along his face. He was speaking to one of the five griffins under his command, on what was obviously a scouting mission. One of the griffins was pulling a gold armoured pegasus away, about to throw the body off the cliff. The dead pegasus seemed to have been near-decapitated, and her blood stained the sparse alpine snow.

“They did that, they’re monsters, they’re the enemy, come on Onyx, shoot! Shoot!” Onyx told herself under her breath. She was starting to wonder why she had joined up; was it to kill souls like this unsuspecting scout? He was a life, just like her, and she was just…going to end it?

Rainbow was now looking furious at Onyx. She mouthed two words. DO IT.

Onyx sighed, lined up her sights, and fired.

Rainbow flew out from behind cover in a serenely beautiful twirl, moving her sword in her mouth and slashing across the neck of one of the griffins she heard talking, killing him instantly. Quickly, before the other griffins could even respond, she began to engage another in battle, ducking the clawed swipe of the creature and stabbing it in the chest, gravity causing blood to gush like a waterfall, painting Rainbow Dash’s sword red.

Rainbow felt something solid hit her helmet, and she fell to the ground; suddenly very vulnerable to the griffin above her, about to mutilate her with its claws. However, it wasn’t long before that fear was alleviated by Rusty Chop’s hooves bucking the creature away and again against the ground, crushing its eagle-like skull.

Rusty quickly bit on the handle of his revolver, pulling it from its sheath on his leg and moving his tongue in the trigger position. Pony-designed revolvers were generally fired from the mouth, and Rusty looked like no stranger to its usage. Turning around to one of the approaching griffins, he shot it square in the beak, the bullet creating a large hole in the creature’s skull.

“Coo-ee! Did’ya see that Rainbow? A got him in one sh-“

Unfortunately, in his cocky moment, Rusty did not notice the last griffin sneaking up behind him and he received a clawed blow to the face, three bloody scratches staining his muzzle as he fell back in the snow.

Rainbow saw this, and began to run towards the griffin, sword at the ready, just like that tiger back in the rainforest.

Then the griffin exploded.

Rainbow took a few seconds to gather what she was seeing. The griffin was in two bloody halves, it’s flesh smoking, most of it cauterised. Above the body she saw a familiar unicorn.

“Bleue?”

“Charmed,” Bleue Pearl replied calmly, turning to the country stallion he had saved. “You should be a little more careful Chop.”

“Hey, how was ah supposed to know that there’d be some griffin else still left?” Rusty replied. “My thanks t’ya anyways Bleue, but ah didn’t know you’d be joinin’ us.”

“I tagged along,” Bleue said dryly.

Rainbow was watching the conversation with some curiousity until she felt a presence behind her.

“He gives me the creeps that Bleue,” Rainbow said to Onyx.

“Tell me about it, I got lost in a bloody jungle with him,” Onyx replied, smiling slightly. “Sorry about being so useless there.”

Rainbow remembered Onyx’s hesitation.

“We’ll talk about that later. First we gotta see if anypony posted here survived.”

“I don’t think so,” Onyx said, pointing at the body of the silver-armoured pegasus she had seen before.

“Armour’s shiny, this mare was in one of the regular divisions, not special forces,” Rainbow said, looking at her own dull silver armour.

“The helmet crest is blue, so she’s probably from Iota platoon. If that’s true, then that spear over there was probably hers, considering the leader of Iota is so, um, spear-crazed.”

Onyx looked shocked. “Rainbow, I didn’t know you knew so much about the corps…”

“Not just a pretty face!” Rainbow Dash retorted, then she shrunk back. “Also had far too much time doing nothing while we were training, looked up this stuff, and thought it would be, er, useful.

Onyx smirked. “Didn’t see you as much of a reader.”

“I…um…dabble,” Rainbow almost tried to hide behind her fringe as if she was Fluttershy, but that just made Onyx giggle.

Daring Do, this is all your fault! Rainbow thought to herself.

“Anyways, we should bring this body back. I think we can carry it,” Rainbow said, returning to the subject at hand.

Onyx was about to say something but then they heard something.

A squawk. A cry of pain.

“Rainbow? Onyx? Come over ‘ere,” Rusty’s voice called.

The two mares turned around immediately to see what the matter was, and saw Rusty and Bleue standing over the body of a griffin. It was the leader of the scouting mission, grey-feathered and scarred. His helmet was no different from that of the other griffins, black with a single spike on the top, it was safe to say he wasn’t awfully high in the ranks, but at the same time, his face showed experience.

None of this experience of course, could make up for the fact he was lying on the ground, bleeding out from Onyx’s rifle shot which had hit him in the hip.

“Verdammt…Bitte…helft mi; ich gebe,” he gasped, in shock from the pain.

“He surrenders,” Onyx said, lowering the rifle she was pointing. “We should take him in, ask him questions. Bleue, can he survive?”

Bleue was quick to scan the wound. “He’ll survive; we’ll have to get him back quick, if we can get him back that is. I’m afraid I can do little without medical supplies.”

Rainbow Dash had not spoken yet, and frowned. “Onyx, I’m sorry but, we can’t bring him back, they’ll be sending out a search party for us if we don’t come back soon, and we already have to carry a dead pegasus lookout. I mean c’mon.”

“But he’s going to make it Rainbow!” Onyx said, now very flustered. “We can’t just leave him!”

“No,” Rainbow replied, closing her eyes. “We can’t leave him, he’s not going to make it.”

“Was machst du da? Nimm mich gefangen! Ich gebe!” the griffin seemed very agitated.

Onyx gulped, she trotted slowly over to the griffin, and looked into his glazed eyes.

“Es tut mir leid,” Onyx said to him softly. The birds’ pupils dilated in shock.

“Nein! Nein! Ich gebe!” The griffin started to cough up blood.

Rainbow Dash drew her blade against the neck of the griffin.

“Nein...ich kann nicht sterben…”

The snow was again stained with blood and feathers.

***

It had been a few hours since the re-taking of the outpost. Rainbow Dash was now telling commander what they had encountered, griffin scouts who had gone too far.

“Too far for their own good!” Rainbow Dash grinned.

“From what you’ve told me, that’s a remarkable job you pulled off there Private Dash,” Commander Thunderstorm said with a grin of his own.

“If you don’t mind me sayin’ Commander, I think this means we aught a move up soon,” Rainbow noted.

“Good observation Private!” Thunderstorm again replied in a tone that reminded Rainbow Dash a little too much of Cheerilee. “I’ve gotta say Dash, you’ve improved since I met you. You used to be so disobedient, so rude, and if you don’t mind me saying er, ‘block-headed’, but you’re a true warrior now Dash; smart, brave and loyal. Your parents would be proud.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Rainbow Dash replied in a snarky fashion.

“Was a shame about Private Airwaves,” the Commander referred to the dead Iota pegasus mare by name.

“Well, these things happen Commander, it’s a war, ponies die,” Rainbow Dash replied with remorse.

“A good mindset for one so young Private Dash, dismissed,” the Commander said, returning to the war room, or ‘war tent’ as it was now being called more often.

Elsewhere in the camp, Onyx Scarlett sat by the cliff, looking out at the earth pony camp below, the ant-like soldiers moving from place to place in neat little lines and formations. She was thinking, and what she was thinking about made her sigh.

“Greetings,” the voice of a familiar, deadpan stallion appeared behind her.

“Hi Bleue, is this really the right time?” Onyx asked, turning around to the unicorn.

“You seem like you could use some company,” he said, sitting down next her, their hooves almost parallel to each other as they both looked out to the valley.

“I’m just…worried,” Onyx sighed.

“There’s not too much reason to worry,” Bleue Pearl said nonchalantly. “The war may as well be won. The griffins have poor tactics and training, and we have numbers on our side.”

“It’s not the bloody war,” Onyx replied, scowling slightly, then her face muscles began to relax once more.

“It’s…Rainbow Dash.”

Bleue turned around. “Really? Let me guess, her newfound ‘attitude’?” His accent slipped, as he started to divert into something that sounded more foreign than the usual upper-class Canterlot accent.

“Well…yes,” Onyx said. “She’s suddenly so much more...efficient, ruthless, and dare I say tactical? Back at the outpost she was analysing the body of the soldier we found, and managed to guess her position in the corps immediately.”

“And?”

“She’s not herself Bleue!”

“Are you just jealous she’s better at your job?” Bleue said, smirking slightly.

Onyx blushed furiously. “No I am not!”

“Don’t worry, I believe you,” Bleue said. “Continue with what you were saying.”

Onyx looked back at the valley, and spoke again. “Well, it’s not just that Rainbow Dash has gotten smarter about war, it’s also…well, you saw what she did to that griffin.”

“She’s just confused,” Bleue said. “I could see she was hesitant about it, but she probably wants to live up to her world-famous parents.”

“Hey, maybe she wants to live up to the commander,” Onyx commented, which gave her an odd look from Bleue.

“The commander doesn't seem to me like the sort of pony I would willingly suck up to.”

This made Onyx smile, glad to see another pony that agreed. “Him and Rainbow are getting closer though, some weird father-daughter thing going on.”

“That would surprise me,” Bleue said. “Anything else bothering you Onyx? It can’t just be that.”

“Well…” Onyx wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk about this with a much more experienced soldier, but she had little to lose. “I’m not sure I can do it.”

“What?”

“Kill.”

There was a silence. Bleue looked down at the unicorn camp, where his colleagues were firing bolts of energy at targets.

“Understandable, you’re new blood,” Bleue replied calmly. “But at one point you’re going to have to realise, that what ever power that manipulates this world gave you marksponyship skills for a reason: to protect your nation, and your friends.”

“I suppose,” Onyx shrugged.

“You need to understand this; it’s the only way to cope. Some ponies can kill without too much remorse, like me, or even Rainbow Dash or Rusty Chop; and this is because they have realised this; that the deaths of the griffins they slay save so many more ponies.”

Onyx chuckled.

“What?” Bleue questioned.

“It’s just, you’ve never been so personal since we met,” Onyx said, looking at him. “What’s your story anyway? If you don’t mind me saying, you seem so quiet.”

“It’s nothing,” Bleue Pearl replied, looking away. “A stallion may have his secrets.”

“Hmph,” Onyx snorted. “It’s just, now I hear you talking at length, your accent seems so…dirty. Are you really from Canterlot?”

“I…” Bleue sighed. “Merde; no, I’m from Prance. I moved to Equestria a while ago.”

“Why hide it?” Onyx asked.

“The Equestrian military is not so tolerant of migrants,” Bleue replied, darkness in his voice. “I would rather you did not go spreading this little fact around.”

“I promise,” Onyx said sincerely. “Now come, it’s getting late, we should get some more rest, and get cleaned for that matter.”

***

“Rainbow Dash! Fancy seein’ you back ‘ere!”

Applejack smiled at Rainbow, before bucking the tree she was under, causing the apples to fall into their buckets.

“Heard about what you did out there, tough call, but it had t’be done. Wait, Rainbow? What is that?”

Rainbow Dash heard a harrowing squawk behind her. Blood was emerging from the soil around her hooves, and a feathery body clawed out from behind a tree, a slash across its neck where Rainbow’s kopis sword had struck the griffin’s gullet.

“Rainbow Dash? How could you do such a thing? He surrendered!” Applejack turned around, now speaking in a familiar Trottingham accent.

The griffin spoke gibberish, before standing up. The creature was rotting rapidly, but it continued to walk towards Rainbow Dash until it was but a burnt skeleton with flesh hanging off it. The blood that covered the ground was now at Rainbow’s neck level, turning Sweet Apple Acres into a macabre swamp…

***

Rainbow Dash awoke immediately, breathing heavily, her feathers lined in sweat. Looking around she saw nothing of importance, simply the darkness of the tent. She lay down again, but before going to sleep she put on her loyalty necklace and grabbed her sword, holding it to her chest.

Now nothing could get her.

V: I have no need to Pray

The Friendship Express sped across the green Equestrian countryside at a speed few other trains could rival. There was once a time where the train was much slower, and a trip from Ponyville to Canterlot could take a full day, but since then new discoveries have been made, and with the help of some magic the train was much faster. It wasn’t long in fact until the train would reach Dodge Junction and pass into the Southern deserts, and the five ponies in one of the carriages in particular knew this well.

Pinkie Pie was hanging her head out the window, perhaps trying to catch flies, but inside the carriage Rarity was about to ask a question.

“Twilight, could you remind me where we’re going? I think I fell asleep.”

“We’re going to Appleloosa. When my brother and Cadence pushed away the Changelings they were sent south, so we could find where they’re hiding from there.”

“A still don’t see why you think that Queen Changeling could be involved ‘n this,” Applejack said. “Would sh’ really wanna try copy’n Equestrian royalty again after what happened?”

“Well it’s the best lead we’ve got,” Twilight answered matter-of-factly.

“And ah guess it means ah get to see Braeburn again in er, less turbulent circumstances,” Applejack noted, before looking around.

“Applejack? What’s wrong?”

“Just…ah miss Rainbow. A know at this point she’d make some snarky comment about ‘sexy cousin Braeburn’.”

They all laughed, even Applejack sniggering a little.

“I don’t know what Rainbow sees in him, he’s much too rough,” Rarity said haughtily.

“I think that’s part of the appeal, Rarity,” Twilight noted.

“Hay, A’m not even sure his barn door swings that way,” Applejack said, smirking.

“Wait, what?” Twilight was in genuine confusion.

“Gosh, a swear a spend most’a my days explainin’ expressions to Twilight,” Applejack blushed. “Well Twilight, what I mean by that is...”

***

Rainbow Dash was pushing with all her strength, her right hoof was tiring, but she had to win, she had to…

The sound of a hoof slamming against wood signified her victory.

“Aw yeah! Ain’t got nutin’ on these guns Rusty!” Rainbow Dash declared.

“You’re quite the hoof-wrestler, Rainbow,” Rusty said. He was competitive, but it had been a best of three, and he knew when he had lost.

“So Rusty, what’s up?” Rainbow asked, moving closer to him.

“What’d’ya mean by that Rainbow?”

“I mean, how’re you holding up?”

Rusty chuckled at the rather common question. “Well, it’s different from Dodge, and more excitin’ at that. Never been ‘round so many pegasi; almost everypony where I’m from’s an earth pony, even ma parents! Imagine their surprise when they had me!”

“I know an earth pony couple that had unicorn-pegasus twins, so that surprise isn’t…too hard to picture,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Hay, that sounds like a handful,” Rusty said. “Don’t unicorns have magical influxes as babies or somethin’?”

“Oh boy,” Rainbow Dash smiled. “My friend Pinkie Pie certainly learned that from babysitting them.”

Rainbow remembered how Pinkie Pie would babysit the Cake twins when she needed to. Sometimes she would tell her some crazy stories about their shenanigans.

Rainbow Dash frowned.

“I miss her…” she thought aloud.

Rusty came to her side. “Hey, don’t you worry, you got us after all.”

Rainbow looked at him. “Guess you’re right,” her smile returned to her face.

“How about you then, you got anyone back home? Maybe some pretty mare?”

“Oh-OH no, definitely not,” Rusty said. “I got my eyes on somepony here.”

Rainbow thought for a moment, then half-closed her eyes. “Really? Who?” she said slowly.

“Yeah, your friend Onyx, she’s somethin’,” Rusty answered.

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Really? Thought you were just flirting to…well…annoy her! Didn’t know you actually liked her.”

“Well she’s very purty, ain’t she?” Rusty said.

“She is pretty cute but, well, you got no chance,” Rainbow said nonchalantly.

Rusty gave Rainbow a deadpan look. “What makes y’say that missy?”

“She’s a filly-fooler…I think,” Rainbow answered, now with a thinking expression on her face. “Just the way she carries herself, my gaydar goes off the charts near her.”

Rusty facehoofed.

“Well whatever y’say, it was more of an…appreciation…of her good looks than a crush anyway.”

“Besides, I think she likes somepony else,” Rainbow pointed out. “As much as I like to think your arguments with her are foreplay, they…probably aren’t.”

“Golly,” Rusty responded. “You seem to think y’know a lot about ponies.”

“My best friend studies friendship, it rubs off,” Rainbow replied, proudly smirking.

Rusty shook his head. “C’mon, we’re nearly late for a briefing.”

“That we are!” Rainbow said, trotting past Rusty, taking lead. “C’mon, speed up!”

***

Stepping out of the train to Appleloosa station, Twilight Sparkle was immediately hit by the heat of the desert. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed her out of the carriage and also felt the sun. Despite it being November, it was a shockingly hot and sunny day; then again, in a desert that was not an uncommon occurrence. Pinkie Pie was quick to take a pair of ridiculous-looking pointy orange shades out of her saddle bags and put them on her head, making Rarity roll her eyes.

“We should find Braeburn, he knows what’s goin’ on in this here town, and A’m sure he can hel-OOF!” Applejack nearly had the breath knocked out of her by Braeburn’s sudden appearance.

“Cousin Applejack! Fancy seein’ you here this fine day! Welcome back to AAA-“

“-aaaappleloosa. We got it cousin,” Applejack interrupted, finishing his phrase in the driest fashion possible. The situation was so ridiculous that even timid Fluttershy couldn’t help but let out a giggle.

“Anyways Braeburn, We need your help. Ah assume you heard about what happened at the weddin’.”

Braeburn’s grin was replaced with a sympathetic frown. “Ah did, nasty business there cousin, and the Changelin’s got thrown this way too, we’re scared they’ve set up hive nearby.”

“And that’s why we’re here!” Twilight declared. “You wouldn’t happen to have any leads on where they could be?”

Braeburn looked in thought for a second, then turned back to Twilight. “We got somethin’ alright. I’ll take you to Sherriff Silver Star, he’ll tell you all about it.

It wasn’t long until they had gotten to the Sherriff, who was sitting idly outside his office, almost asleep. He saw Braeburn and the five ponies with him approaching, Pinkie Pie moving near the front of the group. Silver Star admired Pinkie’s shades with curiosity.

“Wow, jus’ like in mah Neighponese mangas…”

“What did you jus’ say?” Braeburn asked.

“Oh, nutin’,” Silver Star quickly changed the subject. “So, what brings you fellers here?”

“They’re here ‘bout the Changelin’s, think they’ll wanna see the prisoner,” Braeburn said.

Silver Star’s eyes widened. “Follow me,” he said, walking back into the station. The six ponies followed him accordingly, into the station and down some stairs until they reached a musty old cellar, filled with four empty cages.

Only one wasn’t empty.

“…Rainbow Dash?” Twilight gasped.

The mare in the cage was no doubt Rainbow Dash, and she was shaking the bars.

“Help me friends, I’m innocent!” she cried in a strangely un-Rainbow Dash-ish fashion.

“Oh…my,” was all Fluttershy could say as she backed away and shrunk to a size as small as possible.

Twilight on the other hand was gathering magic in her horn, ready to bust the lock on the door when-

“No! It’s not who you think it is, it’s a Changlin’!” Sherriff Silver Star almost shouted.

“Don’t listen to him!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

Twilight casted her spell, targeting Rainbow Dash and returning the changeling to its original insectile form.

“Well, that was never going to work,” the bug-like thing said in a croaky voice unlike any pony that Twilight had ever heard.

Trotting up to the cage, Twilight got a closer look at the creature, looking at its powder blue, featureless eyes.

“How did you catch it?”

“Landed on one of our outhouses the day they were purged from Canterlot, t’was unconscious, but we knew what it was, so we brought it ‘ere,” the Sherriff answered.

“If you’re going to ask about me, I’m right here you know,” the Changeling remarked, before changing into a doppelganger of Twilight Sparkle.

“I remember you, one of the wielders of the elements of harmony, magic of course,” the Twilight-formed changeling said, perfectly imitating Twilight’s voice. “Of course, it was never you or your friends who defeated us.”

“This is jus’ plain weird,” Applejack said.

Twilight had enough. She stomped her hooves against the ground. “Listen! Er…um…what do I call you?”

The changeling decided to switch to another form, that of Fancy Pants. “Oh Twilight, my name is completely unpronounceable by your pony tongues. For now you can call me Drone I suppose,” Drone said, again perfectly imitating the voice of the pony he had taken form of.

Rarity was speechless at the form that Drone had decided to take, she wanted to speak out but she didn’t, knowing she shouldn’t interrupt the exchange between Twilight and the changeling.

“Drone; I know you probably don’t want to help us but we have no choice, but we need to find where the changeling Queen’s hive is so we can talk to her.”

Drone switched forms once again, this time taking the form of Twilight’s old nemesis, Trixie.

“You are lying. She is your enemy; I don’t see why I should lead you to my Queen if you simply plan to destroy her. You have no chance anyway. You could not do it before; it was your brother and Mi Amore Cadenza who stopped us due to our unfortunate underestimation of their power.” Drone reminisced. It all sounded very strange coming out of Trixie’s mouth, but that made it no less of a serious claim.

Twilight started to ask a new question. “First of all, we don’t plan to attack your Queen-”

“Oh, of course,” Drone interrupted as he morphed back into Rainbow Dash. “You don’t have all of your elements.”

“He’s right, and I don’t think Spike can be the new Rainbow Dash again!” Pinkie Pie decided to pipe in. Spike was indeed back in Ponyville, the library could not be left alone, which was a pity, Twilight could use his sarcasm right now.

“Hey, I could be the new Rainbow Dash,” Drone remarked, looking at his cyan hooves. “I look like her, talk like her…”

Twilight stomped her hooves against the floor again.

“Listen ‘Drone’! We don’t even know if your Queen is home! In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s in Canterlot pulling a similar trick!”

Drone morphed into another form, the form of Flam.

“Why that’s incredibly odd my dear, listen up!” he started, genuinely impersonating his character for once. “The plan failed, so why would she try messing around with that particular monarchy so soon?”

“I’m interest’d in how you know all these figures that you’re morphin’ into,” Applejack asked, cringing at the sight of Flam.

“We researched the Equestrian royal family, the military, and even acquaintances of the authority like you,” Drone was now taking the form of a pony Twilight barely recognised: Commander Thunderstorm. “We spent months planning the invasion,” Drone frowned. “My Queen would not be so unwise as to attack again so soon.”

Drone morphed back into his original Changeling form, speaking again in his unique croaky voice.

“You know what? Fine. I will lead you to the Changeling hive. Do not misbehave in there, for we are legion, and we will not hesitate to take you as prisoners, or worse,” Drone could not hide his devilish smile.

Near the back of the group, Fluttershy whimpered.

“Fine,” Twilight finally replied. “We’ll take up your offer. Sherriff, release him.”

“Ah hope y’know what you’re doin’, Sparkle,” Sherriff Silver Star mumbled as he fumbled with his keys before unlocking the cage. Drone stepped out, stretching his leathery, almost rotted-looking wings.

“Freedom,” Drone said, taking in a breath and taking the form of a blue unicorn mare with a dark blue and white-striped mane.

“From here on, I shall take this form. She is not recognised often in this part of the world."

"Why are you being my dentist?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking almost scared, if such a thing was possible for Pinkie Pie.

“I don’t know, because it scares you? Cut down on the sugar Pinkie, or else…” the Colgate-formed Drone gave a toothy smile.

“Ah…dun even know what t’think of this,” Braeburn said, a look of utter confusion on his face. “I need to go back to the farm, A’m off schedule fer some Applebuckin’. See y’next time cousin?”

“See’ya cousin. Hope we can meet again under better circumstances,” Applejack replied, sounding a little sadder than intended.

When Braeburn had left, it wasn’t long until Drone said something.

“I’m surprised he didn’t come with us.”

“He has responsibilities here, ‘Drone’,” Applejack replied a little angrily.

“It’s just, travelling the hot, sweaty desert with five available mares, six if you count my form; are you sure his barn door swings that way?”

Twilight facehoofed.

***

Onyx Scarlett stood in formation with the other pegasi of omega, Commander Thunderstorm beginning to approach the front to issue an announcement. They had all been called for this, so it had to be something important.

“’cuse me,” Rainbow Dash said, pushing her way through the ranks to her position. In following was Rusty Chop, doing a similar amount of pushing. They took their place in the rows and columns, but disturbed the crowd somewhat in the process. Onyx looked at Rainbow and smiled.

“What?” Rainbow questioned. “We were just late.”

“I’m just glad to have you here, didn’t even know if you’d turn up,” Onyx explained.

“So we’re cool then?”

“Cool? When were we not?”

“Never mind,” Rainbow Dash looked back at the front.

She isn’t over it, she still can’t do it… she thought, remembering back to her hesitance to kill at the outpost. For now she just accepted it, Rainbow hoped Onyx would figure out her issues in her own way.

“Troops! I have good news!” Commander Thunderstorm said, even though his poker face said otherwise. “We have formulated a plan to take the griffin city of Hambeak. Without this vanguard fortress, we will cut through their lines like butter, but FIRST, we have to take it.”

Thunderstorm pulled out a map for the troops to see. It was of Hambeak and the surrounding area, which was incredibly mountainous.

“Unlike us pegasi, griffins like to build on ground with rock and stone, which gives us an aerial advantage. Most griffin cities are built on the tips of mountains and Hambeak is little exception, but it isn’t built quite as high as some of the others, making this an easier job for us!”

Bleue Pearl, who was also up at the front, raised a paintbrush with his telekinesis and painted a red semi-circle around Hambeak on the map. Thunderstorm continued.

“The standard formation of attacking cities for Equestrian forces is the horseshoe formation, but we think this formation may be predicted. That’s when you come in.”

Bleue painted a black stroke in the gap of the horseshoe.

“Us pegasi special forces, along with a crack-squad of unicorn operatives plan to use the caves in the surrounding mountainside to ambush the city from behind, taking pressure off the main forces. The team shall be led by Wonderbolts Spitfire and Soarin’.”

Rainbow Dash nearly had a heart attack at that last statement.

Working with the Wonderbolts! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh…

She could barely contain her excitement, beginning to quietly jump up and down on the spot. Onyx shook her head at the typicality of her actions.

“Our forecasters for Griffanian weather tell me tomorrow is a cloudy day, which is good for our pegasi forces, who can easily assault from above if our intel is correct that there is no griffin guard in the upper Hambeak airspace,” Commander Thunderstorm took the map and rolled it up. “More specifics shall be given at the time. We mobilise at sunset. Any questions?”

There was silence.

Thunderstorm smiled.

“Dismissed.”

***

17th November 2014 AD

I’m still not quite sure what to make of Rainbow Dash’s attitude. To be honest, training was changing her, but somehow she doesn’t seem as rebellious as she was when I met her, or as morally sound as she was. Sure, she already had fairly loose morals, but killing a prisoner…that crossed some kind of line. Oh what am I saying? I wrote this all in the previous entry.

Anyway, today the Commander announced we shall begin our attack on Hambeak this evening. He doesn’t want a siege, he wants an immediate assault, hell I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants it taken by morning. Fighting in the dark, even if I was trained for it, isn’t really my deal. I’m a markspony, and performing that kind of activity on a cloudy night could be difficult.

I suppose the idea is to surprise the griffins. So far the war has been slow, after talking to a few Colonels I discovered this was a plan to surprise the griffins for when the pegasi commander and the special forces were ready to be deployed.

The politics of our military are a strange thing. Commander Thunderstorm may just be leader of the pegasi, but he might as well be the leader of the entire military. Pegasi are a war-like race, and he is little exception. He knows how to fight a war. Sure, General Thora of the earth ponies knows a few things too, but she’s wise enough to listen to him. As for the Archmage, he just thinks he’s in command. I haven’t seen him the entire time I’ve been here, which is strange since military operations are decided from Thunderstorm’s camp, but I’ve met him before. He’s quite the suck up to the Princess. It’s said he was once her private student, but things have obviously changed…

“Onie?”

Onyx dropped the pencil out of her mouth and turned around to see Rusty Chop standing idly at the entrance of the tent.

“What?”

“Just wonderin’ if you’re free for lunch, thought we could talk.”

Onyx nearly laughed, but instead narrowed her eyes.

“Really?”

“Hey, A’m not asking y’out here, just wanna talk,” Rusty replied sincerely.

“I’ll come in a minute, just need to finish something off,” Onyx gave her answer rather dryly.

Rusty shrugged. “Okay, A’ll just wait in the canteen tent for ya.”

He walked off, and Onyx returned to look at her journal, and closed it.

Putting it under her pillow, she couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t the only one hiding things.

Bleue Pearl’s pillow looked a little higher, like there was something under it. Onyx’s curiousity drew her to this, and she lifted the pillow gently to reveal…

Nothing.

It can’t be…

Feeling around, Onyx discovered she was right. There was a book of some kind, but the cover had been given a basic camouflage charm, initially hiding it. Onyx hesitantly opened the near-invisible book, revealing the quick, neat handwriting of Bleue. The page was near covered in small text, she simply read a small expert.

…will be a surprise attack on Hambeak tomorrow, the cloud layer will be unguarded but it is likely firearms shipments are likely to come in from other nations…

Onyx closed the book and replaced the pillow.

And I thought my journal was boring, she thought, beginning to leave the tent.

***

“Onie? Y’really aught t’eat up. Gonna need all your energy for tonight,” Rusty nodded at Onyx’s full tray of bread and vegetables.

“I will,” Onyx replied. “How are you feeling about that anyway?”

“’Bou whaff?” Rusty said through a mouthful of potato.

“The fact we have to fight in darkness?”

Rusty swallowed. “Could be worse. Sure, Griffins’ll be sleepy, give us a real edge; also should motivate you more to eat y’carrots.”

“True,” Onyx smiled. “You seem different today, is it that you’re not incessantly flirting?”

“Could be,” Rusty said between mouthfuls.

“Wonder why that is?”

“Didn’t wan’ get in the way of yer own pursuits,” Rusty shrugged.

“Rusty, I am a professional, if you think I’m looking for a…special somepony in a warzone, you’re wrong.”

Rusty smiled. “Aw, denial, how cute. I know y’got a thing for Rainbow Dash.”

Onyx Scarlett blushed furiously at once. “I DO NOT have a crush on Rainbow Dash!” she near shouted. “She’s just a good friend.”

“Heh, ah know a look when ah see it,” Rusty said, getting braver. “Ah wouldn’t have believed it myself until Rainbow Dash said somethin’ that made me suspicious.”

“Not even going to ask,” Onyx hid behind her fringe in embarrassment.

“Hay, y’could probably go for it, Rainbow Dash looks the sort who’d like mares anyway.”

“I’m a journalist. I literally stalked her for months. I think I realise by now she swings both ways,” Onyx replied flatly. “I’m also a professional; I’m not going to ask her out at war.”

There was a long pause.

“Also I don’t have a crush on Rainbow Dash!”

Rusty chuckled. “Sure; A’m off to get some shut eye. Catch y’later Onie?”

“Sure…”

Rusty left in high spirits, leaving Onyx to her meal.

Might as well eat now… she thought, beginning to dig into her carrots.

***

Water danced through the air of the desert, controlled and divided by a magical lavender tint. The water divided into five pieces, which entered the mouths of five mares walking through the dry wasteland.

“You need any water Drone?” Twilight Sparkle asked, before telekinetically closing her water pouch on her saddlebags.

“Changelings do not require water in large quantities, if you plan on saving it, don’t give me any.”

Drone was taking point in the group, still in ‘her’ Colgate form. It did not cost energy for a changeling to remain in form, only for them to change. It was an energy preserving act that ‘she’ remained in the form of Ponyville’s number one dentist.

“How do you obtain forms?” Twilight asked. She had been asking constant questions of Drone as they travelled, wanting to know more about the changelings.

“It takes only a look,” Drone stated. “We are very analytical, some of us can transform only from glance, but there is a limit to our power. Our figure cannot be massively tested. I could become an earth pony, a pegasus, a unicorn like I am now; maybe even a zebra or donkey, but I could not become an alicorn. My Queen can because of her size and shape, but I could never hope to assume such a large form.”

“What about magic? The Queen could do it, and you have a horn, so could you?”

“It varies. Some of us can, but I personally have little ability,” Drone turned around and looked at Twilight, ‘her’ blue eyes turned green.

“Now, you wouldn’t mind toning down with the incessant questions? You’re driving me insane.”

Twilight shrugged, and they continued walking.

Near the back of the group, Fluttershy and Rarity walked next to each other.

“I don’t know how you deal with wet dirt all day darling; I can barely handle it dry!” Rarity complained, frowning at her dust-covered hooves. She was wearing a large sun hat and beautiful orange-rimmed sunglasses with tiny diamonds embedded in the rims. It was obvious the fact no one was watching in the desert was no excuse to not to be fabulous.

“I’m booking a hooficure as soon as we’re finished with this adventure.”

“It’s not too bad,” Fluttershy said, looking around her. “Well…it is a little…lifeless.”

Angel hopped out of Fluttershy’s saddlebags, landing on Fluttershy’s head. The bunny wiped his brow, suffering in the heat.

“Fluttershy? I didn’t know you were bringing Angel.”

“He asked to come along, how could I decline?” Fluttershy said, smiling at the bunny on her head.

Rarity was familiar with Fluttershy’s pseudo-boyfriend that was Angel, but had rarely got an opportunity to meet him. It wasn’t going to change now however; the bunny was now nibbling a carrot, ignoring everything and everypony around it.

Rarity decided to change the subject.

“I know he’s a bit…ghastly, but I’m surprised you’re not more interested in Drone. You do like new animals.”

“He’s…not really an animal,” Fluttershy answered looking at Drone. “I don’t know, he’s more like a pony. A very mean pony.”

“I see,” Rarity replied. “I can’t help but find Changelings oddly…fascinating though.”

“What’s so fascinating about replacing a loved one with yourself?” Fluttershy questioned. “Not that I’m…trying to argue.”

“It’s not that dear, it’s just…the concept. Imagine if you could change into any pony you pleased, live in their shoes,” Rarity turned to look at Fluttershy. “How could that not be fascinating?”

“I guess,” Fluttershy said unenthusiastically.

Rarity sensed this. “Are you alright dear? You seem a little down.”

“It’s just the heat,” Fluttershy replied. “Applejack’s relatives must have had a hard time making their life out here.”

“We shall have to make camp this evening,” Drone announced. “I have realised that at this speed we will reach the hive tomorrow.”

Twilight was the first to speak.

“What ever you say, but I’m curious: How do you know where it is?”

“The scent of the Queen’s pheromones.”

Twilight didn’t question this; clearly the changeling was filled with surprises.

***

The sun was beginning to set over the mountains of Toothless valley. It was the cue to begin operations, and it wasn’t long until soldiers flooded out of the tents into formation.

The three commanders looked out over the valley from the high outcrop of omega camp. The Commander, the General, and the Archmage.

“I hope you know what you’re doing with my unicorns, Commander,” Archmage Solarius spoke in his usual pretentious tone. “You’re putting a lot on the front line. You would think you would want to put more unicorns to the team moving in through the back.”

“We have enough unicorns there,” Commander Thunderstorm replied. “Your favourite, Bleue Pearl, is among them, and even I can agree with you for once that he’s a good soldier. So no, we don’t need more taking the back entrance. It would attract too much attention.”

“As for us,” General Thora pipped in. “Best if we stay with the front line. We’re important, so we’ll draw attention. Besides, I’ve never been the sneaky type.”

Thora twirled her hammer around her hoof by its leather strap.

“I have to go, the army’s waiting. Try not to burn off Thunderstorm’s moustache while I’m away Solly, it reflects poorly on our strength.”

Thora ran down the valley as if she were a mountain goat, already nearly at the army camp.

Solarius sighed. “I hate it when she calls me that.”

Commander Thunderstorm turned around; he saw the pegasi he had commissioned for the flanking operation. All thirty-five pegasi of omega platoon in full dull silver armour with black crests on their helmets, their capes flowing gently behind them in the evening wind. Five unicorns also stood (Bleue Pearl included), wearing blue robes with the symbol of the unicorn forces: the royal seal with blue flames engulfing it.

“I’ve never quite understood your fascination with leading operations with so few ponies,” Solarius commented dryly. “If I were you I would let more ponies into omega platoon. I mean, it’s hardly a platoon is it?”

“It’s not the size,” Thunderstorm retorted. “It’s what you do with it.”

“Interesting,” Solarius replied. “If you don’t mind, I shall make my leave now. Goodbye.”

Solarius disappeared in a flash of his red cloak.

“Uptight bastard,” Thunderstorm muttered under his breath.

“Commander, we’re ready,” a familiar mare’s voice. Looking around, Thunderstorm saw a sight he’d not seen for a long time. Spitfire in combat gear.

The Wonderbolts had a more subtle uniform for combat operations. It was black with blue stripes, as opposed to blue with yellow stripes. Even the goggles had been altered to avoid sun glare. Spitfire herself was holding a spear in her left forehoof. Soarin’ who stood next to her in identical gear held an earth pony long-sword in his mouth.

“If you’re ready, conduct the mission. We’re moving out,” Thunderstorm said to Spitfire before flying over to join the other pegasi platoons in the head on attack.

He was excited. The war had reached a watershed moment, and the twist would be in their favour.

VI: Oh, Death was never an enemy of ours

An island of light in a sea of black.

That was what Rainbow Dash felt like their team was like. Forty-two ponies marching through the darkness of the caves, led by the five unicorns of their crew, who were giving off lighting that, for stealth reasons, did not illuminate the entire cavern.

Bleue Pearl took point, something Rainbow Dash was surprised to see of the unicorn usually accustomed to staying out of the fight. She was also surprised to finally see him in uniform, even if it was just blue robes.

“So Rusty,” Rainbow said to the familiar burly stallion next to her. “What’d’ya expect out there?”

“Ah dunno,” Rusty admitted. “This is our first big battle, ah just know it’ll be intense.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, we’re capable,” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean we kicked some flank at that outpost.”

“That was only five griffins,” Rusty replied. “Besides, you seemed better at it than me. More…graceful when fightin’. Like you was dancin’.”

“Me. Dancing. You’d never see that happening,” Rainbow chuckled. “And come on Rusty, you were awesome too, you saved my life, and you never even used your sword!”

“Gits in the way,” Rusty commented, making Rainbow laugh.

“Y’know,” Rainbow looked at Rusty. “I used to think you were kind of a loser, but you’re pretty cool Rusty.”

“Aw, shucks,” Rusty Chop smiled. “Golly you seem nice today. Very…lively.”

“Could be all that coffee I drunk to stay awake,” Rainbow Dash said. “I don’t have the luxury Onyx has.”

“What’s that?”

“Insomnia,” Onyx walked over to the pair. “Wow Rainbow Dash. I’m kind of surprised you’re walking with us two.”

“Well, you’re my friends,” Rainbow Dash answered with a smile.

“How sweet,” Onyx said with a hint of embarrassment. “But I would’ve thought you’d be using this opportunity to talk to, you know, the Wonderbol-”

Rainbow Dash was replaced by a cloud of dust as she sped off to the front of the group.

Onyx sighed, “I regret saying that.”

Spitfire and Soarin led most of the group with the exception of the unicorns, who were making the light. It came as a surprise to Spitfire when a soldier suddenly appeared on her right.

“Hi Spitfire!”

She took in the sight in front of her. The mare was fully armoured with a kopis sword in sheath on her leg. It took a while for Spitfire to notice her cyan fur, rainbow-striped tail, and familiar magenta eyes.

“Rainbow Dash? Wasn’t expecting to see you here of all ponies,” Spitfire admitted.

Rainbow Dash squealed in a rather overly effeminate manner to hear she was remembered.

“But er, yeah. I joined up for the military, got into omega, pretty cool huh?”

“I imagine you’re doing well, being the fastest flier in Equestria an’ all,” Spitfire looked pleased. “Did any of your friends sign up?”

Rainbow’s ears flopped down. “No, they’re all either too busy or too…er…peaceful.”

Spitfire frowned. “That’s too bad, I’m sure Fluttershy would be formidable.”

Rainbow Dash nearly laughed, remembering Spitfire’s only real memory of Fluttershy was of when she helped bring the water up from Ponyville reservoir to Cloudsdale. Suddenly, Rainbow remembered the real reason she really wanted to talk to Spitfire.

“Um, Spitfire, I wanted to ask something about…trying to join the Wonderbolts.”

“Well I knew you were trying to do that, you do use every possible opportunity to meet us,” Spitfire smiled and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I guess what I’m trying to ask is, how do I get in?”

Spitfire shook her head.

“You can’t just sign up. Civilians can’t get in either, not usually anyway. The Wonderbolts started as a bunch of soldiers who happened to be good fliers. All these shows, costumes and celebrity statuses came later.”

“Well how do you get in?” Rainbow tilted her head.

Spitfire pointed at Soarin’.

“Y’know how Soarin’ got in? He destroyed the last remnants of the Himmelsupreme terrorist organisation single-hoofedly, or so we thought. It takes an act of extreme valour, an act of defence to Equestria and all it stands for. This job isn’t all flashy shows, it’s something more.”

Spitfire sighed.

“Sorry, I’m getting a little worked up.”

“It’s okay,” Rainbow Dash said. “I just want to ask, what do you mean by ‘or so we thought’?”

“Well, don’t you know how this war started?”

“I usually get answers that don’t make sense, or contradict the other answers I’ve been given,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Well it turned out Soarin’s final blow to the Himmelsupreme was unsuccessful. They took all of Stalliongrad hostage, made it look like an anti-Celestial revolt. Celestia and her most trusted pegasi and unicorns took control of the situation, but they discovered the G.K. endorsed the attack. So here we are, fighting back.”

“Hm,” Rainbow Dash simply nodded.

“Surprised you didn’t know Dash, those are the same terrorists that got your parents, you have a personal reason to fight this war.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash looked forward. “I guess I do.”

“HALT!” Bleue Pearl exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash moved back in the group to where she was originally, next to Onyx and Rusty.

“They know our plan. The entrance is blocked. I think with some help I can clear it, but be prepared for what is on the other side.”

Bleue turned around.

“I hate to seem…patronizing, but many of you soldiers are new. Many of you joined up to fight this war. Tonight, at Hambeak, you will discover what that means. Prepare yourselves; I will release the signal for the rest of the troops that we are ready to attack as soon as we leave.”

“Wow, he sure can talk when he wants to,” Rainbow Dash commented.

“You’d be surprised,” Onyx simply stated.

Bleue strained himself, his blue magical aura now surrounding the boulders blocking the way forward. The other four unicorns were quick to join in, the aura becoming a mix of blurred colours as the rocks began to shake, and then suddenly shift forward and hover in the night air.

Rainbow felt the cold night air hit her as soon as she stepped forward. The night was indeed cloudy, and she saw the silhouette of a settlement.

Once her eyes were adjusted to the dark, she could see the city was mainly made of stone, just like the Commander had said. It may as well have been carved from the mountainside they were leaving, as the structure gave that impression. Looking down, Rainbow saw what looked like artillery cannons, aimed forward to the front of the city were the bulk of their forces would be attacking. Guarding them were griffin troops, many of which facing this way. Bleue had been right, their attack had been anticipated.

Bleue Pearl let off a jet of yellow light, which was replied from the main body of troops with a charge as earth ponies and unicorns began to storm the gates while pegasi flew in from the clouds, creating gaps letting silver slivers of moonlight through.

The griffin soldiers guarding the artillery had seen the flanking team, and had taken flight, advancing towards them. Bleue Pearl growled, engulfing the rock debris that was once blocking the cave within his exclusive magical grasp and throwing it at several of the griffins, some falling in midair from concussion or death, others going down with the boulders, creating a wet, red, feathery mess on the ground.

The battle quickly elevated, the ponies and griffins now engaged in total war. Chaos defined the battlefield, Rainbow Dash knew that much as she slashed her sword along the gullet of one of the birds, its single-spiked helmet falling off and dropping to the ground with a thud alongside its body.

Rainbow Dash found herself fighting dozens of targets in midair. The griffins were relentless, but did not have the agility of Rainbow. She danced between them, her sword slashing through their vitals before they could raise their spears. The ground below Dash may as well have been raining griffin entrails.

She was near unaware of the environment around her. It was her, her sword, and the enemy. Everything else seemed hazy, whether it be Spitfire and Soarin’ using shock and awe tactics to scare the griffins into easy kills, or the advancing forces upon Hambeak, it was all a blur.

It wasn’t long until there was a gap in their attacks of her. She breathed heavily and moved towards the ground, seeing many of the fallen dead around her. There were a few pegasi, but the majority of the dead were griffins. Looking up, she could see the battle still raging around her, on the ground and in the sky. She also saw something straight ahead, something she near hit herself for ignoring.

The artillery cannons.

In all the chaos of the battle, no one had managed to take them down.

Rainbow Dash bit down hard on the hilt of her sword, ready to go in again. She began to charge in on foot, ready to attack the gun operators, but she hadn’t looked close enough.

She only managed to catch a glimpse of the steel glint of a mounted machine gun before she could dodge behind a rock. The relentless noise the mechanism was making made Rainbow’s ears almost bleed. No machine like that existed within the Equestrian forces. The commander had been warned that the griffins had superior firearms strength but this was ridiculous. Rainbow could not so much as lift a wing from behind the rock without risk.

“Need some help?” a familiar stallion’s voice shouted over the sound of the gun.

“Rusty? I would appreciate it!” Rainbow Dash shouted back.

“Ah got a plan! He can’ shoot two of us at once! You’re faster; you go for him while ah take a different route and distract ‘im!”

“That’s suicide!”

“Hey, a’m lucky!” Rusty got ready on his feet. “Now let’s go!”

***

He was ready to take on this invading Equestrian menace; he was ready to defend his home from the hoofed barbarians wishing to burn it down. He aimed his rifle, his colleagues to either side doing the same, ready to release a surge of hot lead on the advancing ponies.

Suddenly, his rifle glowed red.

Looking at his comrades, the same was happening to their rifles. Then their rifles moved from their claws, turning around so every griffin was looking down the barrel of their own gun. Before they could react there was the sound of many shots at once, and a thud as seven feathery bodies fell to the ground.

The seven rifles cocked themselves as Archmage Solarius trotted slowly onto the scene, a red hue on his horn. With him was General Thora followed by Shining Armor.

“Y’know, that gun-turning trick of yours really creeps me out,” Shining pointed out, looking at the bodies the tactic had killed.

“We were deceived, they knew we were coming,” Thora said, letting her hammer hang by its strap from her mouth.

“Think we can figure that one out later Thora? We have a battle to win,” Solarius replied.

“What I’m saying is that Thunderstorm’s flanking troops are probably in trouble. I’m going to the other side of the city, give a little aid to them,” Thora began to sprint away, swinging her hammer around her, carving a path in the griffin forces; Shining Armor also followed, stabbing multitudes of enemies with two telekinetically-controlled spears, one his, the other taken from a griffin.

***

Bang.

The bullet of Rusty’s revolver went straight through the skull of the last artillery operator. Rainbow Dash and Rusty Chop had spent a great deal of time dodging machine-gunners, but it was finally done. The Griffin artillery in Hambeak was officially non-functional.

There was no silence, the air was filled with the noise of the battle around them; the sound of screams, squawks, shots, and magical discharge. And yet, Rainbow felt like there was a silence of sorts. It was probably the break in the battle, the fact that she and Rusty had just taken out a major section of the griffin defence.

She turned to Rusty, and looked at him. His eyes were a certain breed of dark green, nearly reminiscent of Applejack’s light green irises. Rainbow Dash could not help but find them familiar, a sign of acceptance about them.

Moving closer, she opened her mouth to say something but was immediately interrupted by a rock wall of the city falling over next to her, General Thora having crushed through. A griffin, feathers black as oil, was advancing on her, along with two others of similar colour. In his beak was a familiar leather strap, off which hanged Thora’s rock hammer.

“You von’t be needing this,” the black griffin said, throwing the hammer aside, his Griffanian accent showing. “This unjust var should at least be halted by your death, pony general.”

“Sorry to disappoint you mister Griffin, but there’s someone else in line for my job,” Thora spat, breathing brokenly. She could barely move. Looking Rainbow guessed the griffin had broken her legs.

“At least halted,” the griffin replied. He looked up, seeing Rainbow Dash and Rusty Chop, who already had his revolver ready to fire.

Click. Click, click, click.

“Darn, outta bullets!” Rusty swore.

“Tötet die pegasi, soldats,” the black griffin murmured, as the two griffins at his side leapt into action.

One of the griffins ran towards them and threw his spear. It nearly hit Rusty square in the body but he managed to get out of the way, though it ripped off his cape, pinning it to the ground.

Rainbow Dash suddenly felt a knock on her helmet, pushing her back. The other griffin had shot her, nearly hitting her in the head, but instead grazing the helmet. Rainbow took it off, as its dent from the shot made it near impossible to wear, and began to run up to the griffin, sword in mouth, dodging the birds’ shots until she was on the griffin, her sword deep in its neck.

Looking over she saw the griffin that had attacked Rusty also lay slain by Rusty’s back-hooves. They both turned to face the black griffin, charging at him.

The griffin shook his head, revealing a strange-looking rifle and aiming it at Thora.

“No!” Rainbow Dash near shouted, getting between Thora and the griffin, taking a bullet that she could not feel due to shear adrenaline rush.

The griffin fired again, but the shot went wild as he was tackled to the ground by Rusty Chop, who turned his rifle on him, firing several times. The rifle was semi-automatic, something Rusty had never seen, but there was little mystery to its operation.

He fired until the rifle would fire no more, and then dropped the weapon. He turned around to Rainbow Dash, who was now approaching him with a slight limp.

Rainbow Dash stopped walking a foot from him, and said nothing, simply looking at him, staring into his deep green eyes once more, moving closer and closer.

“Wow, that was a close ca-” Rusty’s words were muffled by a sudden, but soft kiss. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to enjoy the feeling of her lips against his as their tongues danced.

Rainbow Dash finally broke off the long kiss, opening her eyes just slightly, smiling dimly.

“R-Rainbow,” Rusty stuttered, obviously never having a mare make such an advance, especially in such a dire situation. “You’re bleeding.”

Rainbow looked down to see a hole in her back left leg where a bullet had hit. There were a multitude of other injuries, but that one was the most obvious, the blood loss looking dire. But Rainbow Dash felt nothing, she felt almost drunk, although she wasn’t so sure why.

“Hey, it can wait,” Rainbow replied, bring her hoof up to remove his helmet as she closed her eyes, moving in agai-

“Very cute privates, but I could use a little help here,” General Thora coughed. “Maybe get a medic or something. I don’t know, drag me to safety would you?”

“Seems like a good idea,” Rusty said, chuckling, but not seeming his usual nonchalant self. “Rainbow you stay here, I’ll get help.”

Rusty flew off into the air. The sounds of battle suddenly seemed quieter, the moonlight peeked through holes in the cloud created by the fighting pegasi and griffins. Rainbow felt numb as the world began to blur away…

***

“Ponies! We’re losing time, wake up!”

Twilight Sparkle was the first to wake to Drone’s Colgate voice, followed by Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity.

“The off-road trip is back in town!” Pinkie Pie near-shouted as she immediately stood up upon waking, her bags already ready.

“Um, you could say that,” Drone groaned and continued. “Ponies, we are very close, it’s best you have your breakfast and we keep moving; we need to get there soon.”

It wasn’t long until they had all hesitantly got up. They had all packed a tedious amount of sandwiches due to Applejack’s insistence they would all ‘die of hunger otherwise.’ Twilight was digging into her dandelion sandwich, watching Drone as ‘she’ sat outside the group, staring out into the mountainous scrubland and sparse forest that had replaced the flat desert.

Twilight moved over to Drone, eventually settling beside the mare-formed changeling.

“I know you’re there, what do you want?” ‘she’ said.

“I just, want to know if you’re okay,” Twilight answered, taking a bite of her sandwich.

“Hmph, I’ve been better,” Drone groaned.

“To me you seem pretty angry,” Twilight noted.

Drone’s eyes instantly turned from blue to green as ‘she’ turned to Twilight, voice suddenly becoming croaky and echoed.

“And what’s that to you, pony? To you I’m a disgusting, evil monster; you could never understand me.”

“Try me,” Twilight replied, now determined to know what was wrong.

Drone’s eyes returned to blue and ‘her’ voice was Colgate’s once more.

“It’s just...isolation from the colony isn’t good for us. For months I’ve lived in pain in that prison cell, and maybe it’s just because we’re close to the hive, but now I’m really getting impatient.”

“What does isolation do?” Twilight asked.

“When we’re part of the colony we have the collective knowledge of every changeling in that colony, and power beyond anything I have now. We managed to take out your royal guard very quickly because we were united. But without that…well…imagine having immense knowledge and power and having that just taken away. That’s what it’s like. Then we start to develop other things: individuality, more emotions, things you ponies would approve of, but to us they are alien, and they hurt us. Makes us feel alone.”

“I…well…we’re nearly there, Drone,” Twilight reassured the changeling.

Drone chuckled. “Funny, that name, Drone. Changelings aren’t supposed to have a concept of names. I guess that was another side effect of isolation. It doesn’t even make sense. I’m a soldier changeling, not a drone changeling.”

“Maybe you’ll feel better if you talk to me about the ranking system of your hive?”

Drone smiled. “Can’t believe I’m saying this but…thanks, Twilight Sparkle.”

***

Commander Thunderstorm pulled his spear out of the griffin’s beak, its blood staining his ivory armour with yet more red.

“Clawed brutes,” he grumbled, looking down at the city. The army was flooding through the streets, the griffins soldiers becoming outnumbered.

Soarin’ came flying out from the city up to Commander Thunderstorm, looking tired, but not uncomfortable.

“Commander, we’ve won. Nearly are griffin troops are dead or captured and the mayor of the city has surrendered.”

“Just in time too,” Thunderstorm said, looking over at the horizon. The sun was rising over a new Hambeak, controlled by them.

“Get the pegasi to set up a guard around the city.”

“What do you plan on doing sir?”

“I plan to find General Thora; don’t tell anypony, it’ll cause panic, but she’s gone missing. I have an idea of where she might be…” the Commander flew off to the other side of the city, leaving Soarin’ in confusion.

He saw the city was clearly under their control. An earth pony stood at the top of the town hall, waving the flag of the royal sisters, which made him smile.

He landed at the outskirts of the back of the city, and was pleased to see twenty pegasi immediately point their swords, spears, rifles and revolvers at him. Their capes flew the insignia of omega. It wasn’t long until they all lowered their weapons.

“Good to see you omega, where’s the rest of you?” the Commander asked.

“Some of us got scattered, the griffins deployed a hell of a lot of troops back here once they realised we were coming,” a familiar clear-voiced white unicorn said, standing out from the pegasi.

“Good to see you’re alive Bleue, at least Solarius won’t try to skin me alive,” Thunderstorm replied dryly. “I need you all to search the area. We have missing troops around here, including the army general! If you find her report to me immediately!”

A chorus of neighs came in reply.

They’re getting better at that, the Commander thought, as he walked over to the griffin artillery.

The weapons had been sabotaged by his pegasi; griffin gun operators lay dead of sword slashes and bullet strikes around the cannons. This reassured Thunderstorm, and also solved the mystery of why there were so few artillery attacks later into the battle.

A dirt-coloured pegasus flew in from the sky and landed on the ground heavily. He was an omega pegasus, the Commander could tell that even if he had no cape, and clearly he had been fighting with no rest for a long time.

“Private Chop, good to see somepony in my platoon survived.”

“Then a got more good news for ya Commander,” Rusty breathed heavily and coughed. “The reason a was gone was to get help for two wounded back there, unfortunately everypony was too busy fightin’ to help, A’m scared they’ve died while a was gone.”

“They’ll be safe now,” the Commander reassured him.

“One of ‘em might interest you,” Rusty remarked as they went around the corner.

Thunderstorm first saw General Thora, who was unconscious, her back legs twisted badly.

“Thora!”

He ran over to her and shook her, making her cough and wake up.

“Gosh ‘storm, don’t try to kill me, my legs are broken,” Thora said, clearly in a sour mood. “Good to see help arrived anyway.”

“I’ll make sure you’re fighting soon, Thora,” the Commander reassured.

Looking up, he tried to see the other wounded, who Rusty Chop was standing over. He walked over and found himself stepping in a pool of blood.

Rainbow Dash’s blood.

“By Celestia, we need to get help now, she’s been shot, not sure how long she’s gonna last.”

Thunderstorm looked up at Rusty.

“Bleue should be in the area. If he took my advice he brought medical supplies with him, get his help.”

Commander Thunderstorm ripped off his golden cape and put it over Rainbow Dash’s wound. It was immediately soaked red, but at least helped to stop some bleeding.

“Don’t die on me, Private…”

***

“Stop.”

Twlight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all stopped immediately in their tracks at Drone’s order. There was a green flash, and Drone transformed back into his original form.

“We’re here,” Drone croaked, nodding his head at the field of burrows ahead.

“Holy moley that’s a lot of holies!” Pinkie Pie quoted herself, looking around in shock. “We don’t have to do the fishing thing again do we?”

There was a long pause, broken by Drone.

“What?”

“Don’t ask,” Applejack murmured. “But how exactly do we get in there?”

Drone didn’t reply, instead he went over to the edge of one of the holes, holding his head low to the ground. It was hard to tell was he was thinking due to his insectile face and unblinking eyes, but he lifted his head with a definite look of satisfaction.

“The others shall help you of course.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rarity asked, and her question was answered by four changelings flitting out of one of the holes.

“Oh, that’s what it means,” Rarity gulped and cringed as a Changeling grabbed her body with its rotted-looking legs.

The other three changelings and Drone did the same for the other four ponies as they all flew down the hole they came up in, plunging them into complete darkness.

When the darkness ended and the five ponies felt like they could open their eyes, they were flying through a huge underground structure. The walls were lined with green pod-like eggs and holes, probably leading to other passages, or perhaps homes. Twilight had never asked about how Changelings slept. The most magnificent thing in the subterranean hall were the platforms carved from the stone and dirt poking from the underground lake that dominated the bottom, serving as pathways across. Buildings of a strangely artistic combination of stone, dirt and green goo were everywhere, looking like hut-sized beehives.

Looking around, Twilight saw not all the changelings had horns and wings. Some lacked horns all together, and scurried busily from place to place. She assumed those were the “drone changelings” that Drone told her about.

It wasn’t long until the changelings dropped them off on a long platform. Soldier changelings stood at either side and behind them, pushing them along until they reached the end. There was a well-carved stone throne room there that they found themselves standing in, waiting for something to happen.

“Submow f’a ser glorack’stay d’ei Ma’trach Chrysalis d’ei Fir’agn!” a soldier changeling said. Their language was croaky, filled with clicks and stops.

The changelings bowed, and a familiar, tall creature walked into the room, her green eyes examining the ponies that had entered.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” her echoed, venomous voice stated.

“We’re not here to defeat you! In fact…I wasn’t even sure you’d be here, we come in peace,” Twilight forced herself to curtsy to the monstrosity that had imprisoned her in the crystal caves under Canterlot.

“That wouldn’t matter, if you tried you wouldn’t be in the best position to fight back,” the Changeling Queen narrowed her eyes.

“For now you are my guests; but be quick, you’ve already put me in the most awful mood.”

Fluttershy had shrunk into the smallest shape she could possibly assume, curled into a ball on the floor.

“Well, um, we were just here because we thought you were impersonating Celestia, and, um, you’re…not, we should go Twilight,” Fluttershy said very quickly.

“No, Fluttershy, we need answers, Celestia’s actions are downright strange!” Twilight Sparkle near shouted back.

“You know, maybe ‘Tia’s just gone coo-coo in her old age,” the Queen chuckled.

“Listen, Changeling Queen-”

“Call me Queen Chrysalis, ‘Changeling Queen’ will get old fast,” Chrysalis replied.

Twilight started again.

“Listen Queen Chrysalis, I know you’re up to something, not many villainous creatures can manipulate like you.”

“Twilight,” the Queen narrowed her eyes once more. “I’m tired. I’ve barely recovered from my rather…over-ambitious project to invade a nation. For now I’ve been sticking to feeding my subjects on simpler loving relationships between normal, everyday ponies just so we can survive. I don’t have the strength to try something like messing with royalty again.”

“A likely story,” Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious, do you really think my life is all about plans of world domination? No, I try to feed my hive, that’s it,” Chrysalis walked past the five ponies, looking over the magnificent underground city that her children had created.

“Frankly, her behaviour confuses me too. My children have been living among you ponies since the fall of Discord, and never has she been so imperial. It is a similar story with Luna, at least back when she had more power.”

The Queen looked back at Twilight.

“It could be another changeling leader, you know.”

“What?” Twilight was confused. More changeling queens? Maybe changeling kings?

“Did you seriously think this was the only changeling hive in the world? Oh, no.”

Chrysalis approached the five ponies as she talked.

“Changelings are an old and varied race. The only thing we share is our ability to change into similar-formed equines. I may feed on love but other changeling monarchs may feed on different emotions: humour, for example. King Chucklescales was a popular comedian in Equestria for centuries, taking different identities every once in a while. I’m pretty sure he’s still doing it.”

“I knew Sillywing was different!” Pinkie Pie stomped a hoof.

Chrysalis shook his head. “He never was good with names.”

“Wait, so are y’suggestin’ this is the work of some different changelin’s?” Applejack asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Chrysalis sighed.

“Wouldn’t you be, I don’t know, happy about one of your kind succeeding?” Twilight questioned.

“Listen, as hard as it is to get you ponies to believe, I don’t like war. I feed off love, which tends to occur in a peaceful environment.”

“Not what y’said when y’tried to invade Canterlot,” Applejack retorted.

“That was different. It was a stupid idea to try and intimidate more love into Equestria,” Chrysalis replied angrily.

“I’ve realised it works better it if comes naturally. Unfortunately, not all Changeling colonies have such peaceful concepts to work with.”

“What do you think these changelings feed on then?” Twilight asked.

“I’m hoping it’s not conflict,” Chrysalis looked away. “I would rather not face Mars again.”

“Mars? Like the planet?” Twilight asked.

“No, like the chocolate bar,” Chrysalis sarcastically replied.

“Oh boy! Mars bars!” Pinkie Pie hopped up and down.

“Wait, there’s a chocolate bar called Mars?” Twilight thought aloud.

“It’s popular in Prance-Oh for love’s sake! Are we seriously going this off topic?” Chrysalis groaned.

“Originally there were not very many Changelings. We were a race that came about during the confused evolutionary structure in Equestria created by Discord. He saw the original changelings as a ‘wonderful race’, named them after planets in the sky. Nearly all of us managed to escape the harmonising of Equestria, and since then we have evolved into many different types. I personally, am a direct descendant of Venus, one of the original Changelings. In our hive, queens can only have one child that can grow up to be a queen like them, and they can choose her name. In the hive of Mars it is different. They have a King, and every King must have the same name.”

Chrysalis started to pace around the throne room.

“I have met Mars and his changelings. King Mars the Forty-first, as his ridiculous title goes. He feeds off conflict, which usually means taking the form of debaters, or struggling marriages.”

“And you think he has…become Celestia?” Twilight asked.

“The changeling hive of conflict has never been very ambitious, sticking to traditions of staying out of major business like this, but perhaps Mars has finally swallowed his pride and started a war,” Chrysalis frowned.

“I’m surprised you’re so bothered by this,” Twilight noted.

Chrysalis turned to look Twilight in the eye.

“Not only does this cut down on the amount of love in Equestria that I can feed on, it also means that there is an incredibly malicious creature with total control over the ponies I feed off! For all I know he’ll send the armies to me once he’s done with the griffins!”

“You’re…scared?” Twilight said reluctantly, hoping her inquisition would not backfire.

“Why should I not be? There’s a ridiculously powerful changeling king controlling an army of not only ponies, but also changelings near drunk on the amount of conflict going on in Griffannia!”

Twilight sighed. “Chrysalis…I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Applejack exclaimed, but she said nothing further.

“What do you mean?” Chrysalis replied.

“For giving you such a hard time when we arrived, I’m not saying I approve of what you do, I just think I misjudged you.”

Chrysalis sighed. “If we’re going to be like this, I’m sorry for trying to trying to take over Equestria.”

Twilight gave her a drab look.

“Oh, and imprisoning you and Cadence while brain-washing your brother.”

“There we go,” Twilight smiled.

“We’re still not friends, you do realise that, right?” the Queen replied. “Like, I’m not going to hug you or anything.”

“I’d rather you didn’t either,” Twilight replied, smiling. “Although I’d like to ask for your help. We plan to bring down this Mars guy, who’s with me?”

The other four ponies cheered, but it stopped as soon as it started.

“Wait, how are we gon’ take this feller down?” Applejack asked.

“I’ll work out something,” Twilight answered, before addressing Chrysalis again. “Anyway, Queen Chrysalis, will you help us take down Mars?”

“I’m afraid I can’t help so…directly; but, I can help. My changelings are dispersed all over Equestria. Many are busy harvesting love, but a great amount are spies too, examining the state of the world and looking for couples to sabotage. They can help you in your cause, and will always be able to find you.”

Twilight couldn’t help but find the idea of replacing someone’s loved one to feed off their love for them disgusting, but she held back her criticism; she wanted to get on the Queen’s good side.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Queen.”

“You too, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis nodded in acknowledgement. “I’ll get some changelings to escort you out and back to Appleloosa where you can take the train back to the main body of Equestria. I understand not all of you can fly.”

It wasn’t long until they were grabbed by changeling soldiers once more, and flown through the vast cavern again, up one of the tunnels that led out of the hive and into the open air. The changelings flew in formation close to one another as they raced along the scrubland, nearly back in the desert at this speed.

“A…did not see that comin’,” Applejack turned to Twilight. “It’s safe to say that was the most surreal experience of my life.”

“I agree, never saw that coming either,” the changeling holding Applejack croaked, earning him a rather grim look from Applejack.

“Hey, I’m just saying!”

Twilight spoke up.

“It’ll be late when we’re back in Ponyville; we’ll get some rest, meet the next day. We have a lot of planning to do.”