The Lost Soldier

Rainbow Dash sobbed into Applejack’s shoulder.

“Shhh it’s okay Rainbow, he didn’t belong here anyhow,” Applejack tried to console her friend.

“H-how will it be okay? Ray l-left me here…” Rainbow Dash sobbed.

“Just cause he left you doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about you Rainbow. ‘Sides, you belong here, in Equestria with your friends!” Applejack replied.

“Ray is my friend too...”

A strange noise suddenly filled the air; one which that none of the ponies had ever heard before. It was a loud screeching that was emanating from directly above the library. Fluttershy let out a small yelp and all the other ponies looked up at the ceiling.

“Girls, outside!” Twilight shouted over the noise, bolting for the door.

Rainbow Dash wiped the tears from her eyes and followed four of her friends outside as Fluttershy had taken refuge under a table, trembling with fear. The blue pegasus looked up in the sky to see what seemed to be a small, black airship with two cylindrical objects sticking out of the side. Both of them were engulfed in flames as the aircraft spun out of control, plummeting towards the ground. Stunned, the ponies watched as the machine danced over Ponyville before narrowly missing a building on the edge of the town. The explosion jolted the ponies out of their stupor and they rushed over to the crash site as fast as their hooves would let them. Rainbow Dash arrived first to find the fire was quickly spreading throughout the machine. The large belly of the metal object was open, which allowed Rainbow Dash to see something moving inside. She quickly jumped into the fiery wreckage to see if anyone was inside.

“Click, come on, wake up! Anya! Come on, wake UP!…” Rainbow Dash heard someone say in desperation as she flew inside. She landed near a man holding an unconscious woman in his arms. He had his sidearm out. “Stop and don’t come any closer!”

Rainbow Dash froze knowing a gun was pointed at her.

“Don’t shoot! I want to help you!” Rainbow Dash replied, trying not to let fear creep into her voice.

“How? How can I trust you?” The voice replied bitterly, though he probably asked it out of sheer shock at who stood before him.

“Because Ray trusts me.”

“How the fuck do you know Ray?” he coughed. Rainbow Dash bit her tongue at his language.

“He was here this whole time he was gone. Look, clearly this isn’t the time or place to be talking about this, so at least let me get you two out of this thing.”

The male thought for a few seconds before lowering his weapon. “Okay, take Anya first then.”

Rainbow Dash nodded with a reassuring smile and pulled the girl onto her back. She quickly moved away from the burning vehicle and set Anya down once safely out of harm’s way. The pony then re-entered the Osprey to grab the male human.

“Your turn Connor,” she said. Connor looked relatively surprised as Dash pulled him onto her back.

“Ray told you about me?”

“Oh yeah, he’s told me a lot about you!” Rainbow Dash replied.

“What does he think of me?”

“He thinks you are a great leader and an even better friend. He’s told me more than a few stories about what the both of you have done. Some fascinating and others scar- Uh, I mean, interesting?”

“Oh God, did he tell you about the bomb incident?”

Rainbow Dash snickered with delight. “Yeah, he did.”

“What about the time he dragged me through an event in basic?”

“Nope, haven’t heard of that one yet!” Rainbow Dash stated as she exited the Osprey.

“I should have figured; he doesn’t like to brag. What about all the times he has saved lives by risking his own? Not because he was on the end of a rifle putting a .338 into someone trying to kill his friend, but because he risked his life and sometimes even disobeyed orders to save someone.”

“No...” Rainbow Dash replied, somewhat in awe.

“In truth, I kinda look up to him. He is extremely talented, brave, kind, and humble. The world needs more people like him. I’ll tell you some stories about him sometime, but right now you have to get the two pilots out from the cockpit.”

“On it,” Rainbow Dash said and flew over the Osprey because the fire had spread inside and made it impossible to pass.

Rainbow Dash recalled the time when Ray had described the strange machine. She felt as sorry for humans as she did for unicorns and earth ponies who needed machines to fly. Rainbow Dash pushed the thought back to get to the more serious task at hand.

It was easy to find the pilots behind the glass, but when she tried stomping on the glass, it didn’t even crack. However it did catch the attention of the two pilots, one of which had tears streaming down his face and the other reaching out, looking grim, but unwilling to show fear. They both turned to the source of the noise and upon seeing Rainbow Dash their eyes widened, though most likely also in surprise at the pegasus’ appearance. They talked excitedly to each other while Rainbow Dash continued to attempt to break the window. After a few seconds, the pilot that hadn’t panicked turned to Rainbow Dash and shook his head grimly. He then pointed his pistol, which he had been holding and pointed it towards a portion of the window next to him. Rainbow Dash watched as the pilot shot the window twice with little damage. Despite this, Rainbow Dash continued to pound the stubborn window as the two pilots balled their hands into a first and touched them together.
The other pilot whose tears had not dried yet looked back to see the fire was nearly in the cockpit and tried to move away from the flames. Rainbow Dash could only watch in horror as the other pilot shot the crying one in the head. He then looked the rainbow-maned pony in the eye, where she could read the guilt and sadness in his eye. Then, the pilot took the gun to himself and pressed it up to his temple. He seemed to hesitate for just a moment, but then the trigger was pulled and a second bang rang in Rainbow Dash’s ears.

Rainbow Dash recoiled in shock. She could feel her heart beating madly and her eyes were unable to remove their sight of the two humans she had failed to save. Taking a shaky breath, Dash forced herself to fly away from the scene and back to where she had left Connor and Anya. By this time the rest of her friends had arrived and Connor had been talking talking to them until they had heard the gunshots, though Anya was not anywhere to be seen.

“What happened?” he asked when Rainbow Dash returned. She looked numbly at Connor.

“They… They shot themselves.” Rainbow Dash was all she could manage. Her face had become a much paler shade of blue than its original color.

Connor sighed. “At least they didn’t burn…”

“Is that a normal thing in your world?” Twilight asked, shocked at the news.

“Well yes. If someone is about to face an either extremely painful death or a fate worse than death, they either kill themselves or ask someone to do it for them.”

“That’s terrible!” Rarity said.

“Yes, but it’s better than some things,” Connor responded. Applejack stepped forward next to him.

“I think now would be a good time to get ya on to the hospital with yer friend Anya,” the farmer suggested. Connor agreed and was hauled onto the orange pony’s back to make the trip to the medical facility.

“Um Twilight, do you know how this thing got here anyway?” Rarity asked Twilight.

“Yes as a matter of fact, I do.” Twilight answered. “I pulled it into Equestria after I saw it begin to lose control..”

“Thank you Twilight.” Rainbow Dash sprung forward and hugged her unicorn friend. “You at least saved two people Ray cares about.”

“Well, we had to find some way to pay him back for all the good things he has done while here, right?”

“Yep.” Rainbow Dash replied, but it was very clear to Twilight that Dash was still very much distraught. The purple unicorn felt she needed to distract her flying friend a little bit.

“Did he do it to you too?” Twilight asked.

“Do what?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Called you by name.”

Rainbow Dash nodded slowly. “How did he know our names?”

“I asked him before and, well, it’s kind of ridiculous,” Twilight replied. “He said, well, first of all, there is this thing he called a television, which is apparently like a small movie theater that you put in your house, but it's smaller and is like a box, but anyways he said that we are on a show where he is from.”

"A show? Like a movie kind of show you said?" Rainbow Dash thought for a moment before continuing. “Is it any good?”

“Well, he said despite it originally being for a younger demographic, it is still enjoyable.”

“A younger demographic?! Oh please, I’m sure we we are much more classy than that.” Rarity commented.

“Uh, English please?” Rainbow Dash asked

“Demographic means audience!” Pinkie chimed in.

“Yes, exactly- Wait, how did you know that anyway?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

“Oh you know...” Came the reply.

“No I don’t.”

Pinkie Pie just expressed her tooth grin at Twilight, so the unicorn just shook her head and shrugged it off.

“Well anyway, we should probably go see if we can talk to Connor some more and see what else he has to say,” Twilight suggested, to which all of her friends agreed unanimously.

Connor sat in a chair next to the bed his girlfriend was lying in. He ignored the pain in his left leg, which was in a cast, and gently held Anya’s hand. Applejack stood off to the side quietly, waiting for the rest of her friends to arrive before striking up a conversation. After a few minutes, her five friends entered the room, but then following them was Princess Celestia herself. The ponies and Connor all greeted her graciously, but the princess wasted no time.

“I understand you know Ray?” Princess Celestia asked, getting straight to the point.

Connor, though slightly startled by the question, snapped to attention despite the cast and answered, “Yes ma’am.”

“At ease soldier,” Celestia said. “And you also know who we are.”

“Yes,” Connor replied.

“I trust you will behave yourself during your stay here in Equestria?”

“Ah yes, but what do you mean by stay?”

Before Celestia could respond, Anya groaned and began to stir.

“Anya! Hey honey, how you doing?” Connor asked quickly, bringing all attention to her.

“Uuuugghhh...” Anya blinked several times, rubbed her eyes and stared at the ponies before her. “Uhh, are we where I think we are?”

“Yes we are,” Connor replied, excitedly.

“So we finally got killed and went to heaven?”

“Actually, Twilight pulled us in here when the Osprey got shot down.” >

“Woah, really? You're a lifesaver Twilight! Thanks Twilight!”

“You’re welcome!” Twilight responded.

“So uh, do you think we COULD stay?” Connor asked

“I don’t see why not! I mean Ray stayed for a while, right?” Rarity said.

"And left..." Rainbow Dash muttered bitterly, but no one noticed.

“No, I meant do you think we could stay here?” Connor asked, specifically towards the alicorn in the room.

“Oh, I don’t see why not.” Celestia said.

“Fantastic!” Connor said gleefully.

“But Ray-” Rainbow Dash started before she could stop herself.

Rarity cleared her throat and nudged her. “Perhaps that’s a good idea! I mean if Ray was a good example, they could be of tremendous help should something arise.

“Oh yeah, I guess, but what has Ray helped with?” Connor asked.

“Well during a wedding in Equestria, he helped with the Changeling invasion and > there was a group of unicorns kidnapping ponies he dealt with, and when Twilight accidentally teleported another human here that tried to kill us, all he took care it.” Rarity summed up.

“Oh, helped you like that... I guess if something happens, we will be able to help.” Anya replied.

“Yeah, if those supply crates we keep in the Ospreys are as strong as they say, we may be able to stay supplied for quite awhile,” Connor added.

“Do you want us to start unloading them?” Applejack asked.

“No not yet, they are rigged to, well, explode if you don’t have the key.”

“I think we can wait then!” Twilight said quickly.

“For now though, could you please excuse us so we can talk about what has happened?” Connor requested.

“Of course! You will probably be in here for a while, so please take your time.” Princess Celestia said. “The group will check on you tomorrow.”

The ponies all began to file out, but Connor noticed a certain pegasus wasn't looking too good.

"Rainbow Dash, are you alright?" Connor asked.

Rainbow stopped in the doorway, but didn't look back at the humans.

"No..." she choked out.

"Hey, is it about what happened before?"

"Look, I just don't want to talk about it, okay?!" Then the mare dashed out of the room, fighting her emotions.

"What happened?" Anya asked when she was gone. Connor sighed.

"It's nothing to worry about. I'll take care of it later."

There was a short pause before Anya decided to change the subject.

“So, we are actually here?!”

“Yeah, we are! This is no dream!" Anya and Connor changed from acting like adults that killed people for a living to six year old children.

“I can’t wait to get out of this hospital bed start looking around.” Anya said.

“On my way here, it looks even better than what it shows in the show,” Connor replied excitedly.

“I wonder what it will be like to live here for the rest of our lives,” Anya wondered.

“Well, I won’t have to compete with other guys to date with you now.” Connor joked.

Connor waited for his girlfriend to stop laughing until he continued. “I guess we will have trouble eating meat though, so we will probably be just limited to fish.”

“Yeah, but even that might still freak out some ponies.”

“I wonder if that was one of the reasons Ray chose to leave,”

“I don’t think Ray would leave just because of that.”

“True, I’m sure one of the ponies will tell us.” Connor said. "Rainbow Dash seems to have been the closest one to him. Maybe she'll know something."

Anya nodded while letting out a yawn.

“I’ll stop talking and let you fall asleep now.”

As he said this, he gently grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. She yawned again and her eyes fluttered closed. Connor, while still holding her hand, leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

Rainbow Dash lay sobbing in the exact spot they watched the sunset at night, already missing her friend greatly. “Why Ray?” She kept asking herself. She also couldn’t stop herself from thinking about when the pilots had killed themselves. The sad look in their eyes and the moment when a red-pink mist exited their head signaling not only the end of their lives, but the prevention of excruciating pain. Why couldn’t she have saved them? She had learned from Ray that there is always a solution, so why hadn’t she found one? As she buried her muzzle into the clouds, she felt something dry and rough buried in the cloud. She half heartedly used her hooves to uncover the object, which turned out to be a simple piece of paper. Rainbow Dash almost tossed it away until she noticed the uniquely small writing on it. Generally, when ponies wrote with their mouths, the writing was larger than when unicorns used their magic to hold onto the quill. She suddenly realised that Ray also had smaller writing because he used his hand to write.

Upon closer inspection, Rainbow Dash realised it was indeed a handwritten note from Ray! Eagerly, she began to read the letter. As she read, the sun had begun to set, casting an orange glow across all of Equestria as Luna began to raise the moon. Rainbow Dash didn’t notice the drop in temperature or the dimming light. She stopped once when a drop of water had landed on the paper and tried to figure out where it had come from because there was no rain scheduled for the day. But then the pegasus realised she had begun to cry again while reading the letter. She wiped away some of the tears and continued reading.

Dear Rainbow Dash,

Hey, I guess this is it. I really hope you receive this letter, but I’m sure you can find it. I would like to say that you were a great friend and I will miss you. I wish I could spend more time with you, but I am needed elsewhere. I’m sure you understand... Well I hope you understand and hope you don’t hold this against me. I’m sorry I chose this, but I want you to know that this decision was very difficult for me and again, I am so sorry. I hope you have a good life after I leave and I know you will make a great Wonderbolt. Just keep training and I am know they will notice you eventually. Also, I want to thank you for listening to me when I talked. It may not seem like much, but it helped more than you think. I can’t really explain it to you and you’d have to experience it yourself to understand it, which I hope you don't have to. Thank you, and goodbye.

Your Friend,

Ray.

After she finished reading the letter, she turned it over and saw a picture taped to the letter, which was from the wedding in Canterlot. Rainbow Dash was standing in her dress forcing herself to smile while Ray was grinning at the fact she was in a dress. She couldn’t resist laughing at the memory. As tears still fell from her eyes, she trotted back to her bed and placed the letter and the picture on the nightstand next to her bed. Rainbow Dash crawled into bed, tucked herself in, and with memories of Ray flooding her mind, she quickly fell asleep.