Pony of Interest

2 years before "reactivation" Equestrian/Griffon Kingdom border Outpost 15

Outpost 15 was like any other border outpost out there. Two squads of eight guards. All of the squads in the local outposts consisted of a platoon. The platoon consisted mostly of pegasi and earth ponies and unicorns being used as comanders and special operations teams, but not Rainbow Dash's platoon. She had an entire army of pegasi at her disposal. She wasn't exactly like other platoon comanders though. While most unicorn and earth ponies fought, they would fight at a distance with higher ranking officers, but not Dash. She would be the first to charge in and the last to fly out. Her guards respected her for that and the fact that she has saved all of their flanks at least once.

"Hey chief!" shouted Fletch. Fletch was a pegasus who had a black and green camo pattern for his entire body. His cutie mark was a drawn back recurve bow. He was the best shot in Outpost 15 and probably the best in the entire platoon.

"Yes. What is it Fletch?" Rainbow Dash responded. She was currently in the medical cabin treating a pony who had just been in a recent skirmish with a griffon scouting squad.

"Outpost 14 has reported seeing some more griffon scouts and Outpost 16 has responded with the same report." Fletch finished.

Then Dash began to speak "Alert everypony in the station, tell them to prepare for another battle. You and Deadshot get to the clouds with your bows and prepare an ambush from above. If they see you guys then fly back down where ever the rest of the squad is." Rainbow finished her orders. This was not good. This was the third skirmish this week and with four injured ponies one of them being the medic it would only be a matter of time before her outpost gets over run. At the beggining of the week there were only a few sightings of scouts most of them becoming unnecesary battles resulting in shallow victories for the Equestrian guard. More soldiers were getting injured or killed as a result the border was getting weaker.

Rainbow Dash flew up to her post and her loyal troops followed her. The border between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom was a little odd in Dash's opinion. The Equestria side had hills and green grass growing, but the griffon side was a dark desolate desert with large mountains in the backround. "Stand your ground. Stay focused, stay alive!" Shouted Rainbow Dash. Her troops took their position and she took out, and loaded her crossbow.

Dash looked up and saw Fletch and Deadshot take their positions in the clouds above. There was a flash from a storm cloud on the griffon border and suddenly dark figures started to emerge from a nearby mountain. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH The griffons cried out flying towards the small outpost drawing their bows ready for a fight. 100 meters..........90 meters......70 meters. WHOOSH The first arrows of the battle were shot by Fletch and Deadshot striking down a few griffons, breaking their flying formation. Dash had been leading her platoon for adecent amount of time and one thing that she knew was that you could never assume anything in a battle especially when your winning.

"Shade! take your squad and take the right flank. Spark and Scout, come with me we're going to take the left!" This plan was simple, but effective. The idea was to focus the majority of the fighting to the side with less ponies and have the squad with greater numbers intercept the enemy while being covered by both the cloud snipers and the fort. The griffons charged the right attacking Shade's squad which was a surprise to Rainbow Dash, but her tactics could easily be changed. Her squad flew and took the griffon mob by surprise. A volley of crossbow bolts were fired and then a wingblade charge to keep enemy long ranged support out of the fight.

The battle has gone on for for fithteen minutes with violent results for the griffons. Their numbers have gone from over forty to below twenty. Due to anatomy griffons couldn't wear wingblades so they would usually charge with bows or swords in their talons which were easy targets for anypony. Dash flew up opening her wings slashing any nearby opponents and breaking off any engagments that were working in the griffon's favor. The battle in the air was easily being won by the Equestrian Guard.

Suddenly Dash realized something was wrong. There were no more arrows coming from the clouds. Fletch and Deadshot couldn't have ran out of arrows so quickly and she didn't see either of them fighting in the bloody close quarters battle. She was suddenly tackled by a griffon in mid air interupting her thoughts and forcing both of them to decend towards the ground. The air war was happening over 100 meters above the ground and although pegasi and griffons alike were designed to take a fall like that, there was another problem. The griffon had a lit fuse on him. Dash quickly closed her wings in front of her and opened them getting some distance from the griffon. A second later......BOOOOOOOM The griffon exploded knocking Rainbow Dash through a cloud and sending hot shrapnel across her body cutting her in multiple places. She flew then fell on a cloud trying to regain her senses and asses the situation. The minute she assumed she was ok she flew towards Fletch's cloud hoping that no one had spotted him. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Dash saw a griffon ultra grab Deadshot by the head and drill his sword into the sniper pony's stomach. The body went limp and the griffon bastard discarded the body by throwing it off the clouds letting it plumet to the ground below. The griffon screeched in victory marking another kill. WHOOSH An arrow pierced the skull of the griffon leader by Fletch who was standing 30 meters away with a broken wing and a bleeding thigh.

"Fletch!" Rainbow Dash flew over to Fletch who collapsed to the ground due to severe bleeding.

"They surounded us and attacked at every angle. W-we managed to take out as many as we could, but..... There were too many." Fletch started to cough up some blood and Rainbow Dash took off his uniform and started to tend to his thigh trying to stop the bleeding. "The griffon charged me, but Deadshot intercepted him. The ultra....cut his neck then..grabbed him.....and killed him." Fletch finished his sentence coughing up more blood.

"I'm getting you out of here Fletch." Dash said. "I'll carry you back to the med station I'm not losing you!" Rainbow Dash said. Fletch sighed looking at his broken wing realizing he could do nothing. "Stay here." Dash said. She then looked down at the battle below. The remaining griffons were trying to regroup and started to retreat. She then looked at her troops. Unfortunantly most of them were on the ground trotting back to the outpost which was a bad sign.

"We won didn't we?" Fletch asked.

"Yeah another victory with more consequences" Rainbow Dash replied.Dash then trotted over to Fletch. Fletch knew that he wasn't going to make it.

"The griffons have a nerotoxin on their arrows and swords......It hurts for a long time until eventually death........Captain I not going to make it." Fletch finished. Rainbow Dash knew very well about the affects of the nerotoxin. Even a drop of it could kill you and suicide was a more prefered option than waiting for death."I want you to shoot me Dash." Fletch was still coughing up blood and his thigh was bleeding through his makeshift bandage. Rainbow Dash was shocked about the request her trooper, her friend has given her.

"I can't do it Fletch! I won't! We can still make back!" Atleast that's what she wanted to believe. Fletch was her best friend in the platoon and they've faced countless struggles togehther saving each other's lives more than once.

Tears came to Dash. "Dash. I want you to do this. You and me both know that I can't make it and that if you kill me now.........I won't have to suffer anymore."

Rainbow Dash understood, got up and replied "Ok.......I'm sorry I have to do this" Fletch understood perfectly.

Fletch smiled and said "You don't have to be sorry Dash....I want this......thank you" He then felt a sharp pain in his chest, but it wasn't an arrow. It was a syringe. Fletch closed his eyes and went silent and Dash took out the syringe from Fletch's chest and put it back in her jacket. With tears still in her eyes she flew back to her outpost.

End of Flashbacks part 1

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