February, 1882

“So what’s the situation?” Sergent Rainbow Dash asks as she trots briskly into Princess Twilight’s study. She’d known something was up the moment the diplomatic group had returned from the Citadel. Indeed, everyone had known something was up from the moment that the almost daily protests had suddenly thinned into almost nothing and whispers had started to circulate through Tarhen about Equestrian superdreadnoughts.

Twilight looks up from where she’s been scanning through documents, and Dash is surprised by quite how dishevelled the princess looks. Her tunic is tossed over a chair and her hair looks mussed, like she’s dragged her fingers through it like she did when she was stressed all those years ago.

“I’m glad to see you, Sergent.” Twilight says formally, glancing across her desk at Diplomatic Incident, who clears his throat gruffly. “It’s my understanding that you’re familiar with Tarhen and its environs… how familiar are you with the Ashad-Mar military base?” Twilight asks, and Dash notices how the princess doesn’t look directly at her as she’s talking.

“Not super familiar Twi- Princess.” Dash catches herself at Diplomatic Incident’s sharp glare. “We didn’t really have much of an opportunity to go visit their military bases… things have never really been smooth, you know?”

“Yeah.” Twilight agrees, “They really haven’t…” She looks back up, and this time she looks at Rainbow Dash directly, and Dash is struck by just how tired the princess looks. The lamplight throws sharp shadows over the drawn lines of her cheekbones and Dash can hear the soft tap tap tap of the fingers of her right hand against the table.

Dash knows that as a sergent, she has no business commenting on Princess Twilight’s appearance or her health, but as her friend… well, there are some concerning signs.

She opens her mouth to say something, but then Diplomatic Incident cuts her off.
“You’re about to become a whole lot more familiar with Ashad Mar. Her Majesty has been invited to attend their army day celebration in a week, and Princess Twilight has graciously accepted the invite.”

Diplomatic Incident’s eyes narrow slightly at this and the tapping of Twilight’s fingers skips a beat, Dash can hear her feathers fluttering slightly as they do when she’s agitated. Clearly there’s been some kind of argument or problem here. Dash thinks, but she doesn’t say anything as she listens.

“This invitation has not been accepted solely in the interests of fostering good will and cooperation. Princess Twilight’s theory is that the weapons that were used in the attacks on Equestrian citizens have come from the arsenals of Ashad Mar, or at least Ashad-Mar was involved in some way.”

“That’s a big leap, Princess.” Rainbow Dash says, “Rifles and shit are fairly easy to get hold of. I could probably go onto the streets of Tarhen and get you fifty in fairly short order.”

“Would they be fifty of the same kind of rifle, with similar dates of manufacture and condition?” Twilight asks, and Dash feels her cheeks heat up at the correction.

“Well… no.” She’s forced to concede, and Twilight nods as if the point is proven.

“In any event, it’s not just rifles. Baron Night Light and the Royal Marines managed to capture one of their staging areas. No skiffs or written orders, but there were rifles, radio gear and mortars.”

“Baron Night Light, isn’t that-“ Dash seeks clarification, not quite sure she can believe the evidence of her own ears.

“Yes, it is.” Twilight’s tone stiffens at the mention of her father, and Dash blinks. She’d always thought relations in Twilight’s family were pretty good. “Because my f… father thought it was a smart idea to lead a bunch of marines into the teeth of a bunch of Boer separatists… he’s lucky they didn’t have a Gatling gun.” Little patches of colour appear on Twilight’s cheeks, but Dash can see a faint half smile tweaking her lips.

Dash nods, knowing that expression very well, that Twilight is angry with her father but also intensely proud of him. She’d met Night Light in passing and she’d always considered him to be a wimpy, mild mannered man who enjoyed living in the shadow of his scholarly wife and his princess daughter.

“Sorry, we’re getting off at tangents,” Twilight says, “The point is, there was enough ordinance that had to leave the arsenals to carry out these attacks that it couldn’t just come from one of the smaller bases without depleting their stores in a noticeable way. That leaves the three main State Arsenals. Add to that the way Springbok’s hanging around the capital… he’s still got connections to the remnants of the Boer separatists enough to perhaps run an operation like this if someone gave him enough guns.”

“If I may…” Diplomatic Incident interjects “Springbok’s not such an influential figure as all that. He lost a fair amount of his credibility when his little All Boer Conference collapsed. He was a major leading figure in that movement, and a lot of his reputation was tied to that. He probably couldn’t summon up a whole lot of shitbags on just his personality alone. He was very difficult to work with and age hasn’t improved him.”

“You sound like you know him personally, or that you were involved.” The words tumble out of Dash’s mouth before she can quite catch them, and she feels her face heat up when Diplomatic Incident turns and treats her to the sort of look a schoolmaster might give to a slow student.

“Yes. Anyway, I’d say that Springbok alone wouldn’t have the pull to make an attack like this happen. He’d need some sort of inducing factor beyond the old ideologies.” Diplomatic incident says, and Dash purses her lips thoughtfully.

“Heavy weapons might prove to be a pretty good inducing factor.” She suggests “If Springbok has new toys and he can show them off, that might draw some in. Add money to that…” She suggests, and Twilight nods.

“You may be on to something Rainbo- Sergent.” Twilight corrects herself, her blush deepening. “Sorry, I’m going off on a tangent again, the point is… we want to use the opportunity that the dance will present to sneak into Ashad Mar’s armoury and we’ll secure weapons issue records, anything that might suggests weapons got issued.”

“One glaring issue there ma’am,” Dash says softly, “What’s to stop them destroying the records? This would be the worst kind of smoking gun, in their place-“

“They wouldn’t destroy the records.” Diplomatic Incident says. “Armourers, in my experience, are somewhat like librarians. They would rather die than destroy records.” He says, and Dash notes the way his eyes flick to Twilight, yet the Princess’ eyes remain focussed on the maps and documents spread across the table.

“Perhaps… destroying the records is what I would do, but… well, that would assume they’d expect the records to come to light or be used in some manner that may subject them to scrutiny. I’m relying on the fact that nobody expects us to make such a move, to break into the state armoury of a country we’re on the edge of a war with. I know it’s a desperate plan, but… I’ve got confidence in you and your team. I’ll be bringing some of you along as my bodyguarding element, and that should give you cover to get in… beyond that, well, there’s not a lot I can do for you.” Twilight says, and this time she does look up at Rainbow Dash directly.

“If you don’t think it can work, if you-“

Dash wants to tell Twilight that of course it will work. She’s Arc Bolt, Rainbow Dash. She’s the youngest compagnie commander in the battle group, of course she can make it work. Yet this is not Ponyville and these are not the misty days of the past. She may have been an Element of Harmony and faced down all manner of strange threats, yet those days are gone. She has men she’s responsible for, and this mission sounds like it will be dangerous.

Yet even as she thinks that thought, she remembers how these people have hurt her. Because of them, she’ll never be able to see again. Because of these people, soldiers from her compagnie, people she called her friends are now dead. Because of these people, one of her friends is in danger.

“We’ll make it work your majesty.” Dash says, and as she looks up at Twilight, there’s a grim smile of satisfaction upon her face.

Author's Note

So we are experimenting with shorter chapters, let me know what you guys think, or what you think of how things are going so far?