Subversion

Rainbow Dash rolled over in her cloud bed, enjoying herself just lying there in the warm, blissful comforts of home, the sun barely peeping into her room. She rolled over again, hoping to fall back to sleep, but the sun's rays fell upon her closed eyes and would not relent. She closed her eyes harder, groaned, and opened her eyes. The bright early morning sun nearly blinded her, forcing her to squint until she sat up and her eyes were no longer bombarded by the sun's light. She sat there for a moment, inhaled deeply, and sighed. "Guess now is as good a time as any to get up..." she said while starting to get up. She let out a yawn and walked for the kitchen, she was hungry.

Upon entering her kitchen she looked around, trying to decide what to eat, "Hmm... cereal sounds as good as anything." she went over to the cabinet where she kept the cereal, took the box out and put it on the counter, she then went over to another cabinet to get out a bowl, and then she got the milk out of the refrigerator. After fixing her cereal she decided to go to the living room and eat breakfast while watching some television. She sat down on a puffy cloud chair. "Huh? Where did I leave the remote... Oh, ugh, I left it on the couch." having realized her pressing issue of not having the remote at hoof to turn on the tv, she sighed, put the bowl of cereal on the table beside the chair and went to grab the remote. Having returned with the remote she turned on the television and looked for something good to watch while she ate her breakfast.

"And the weather for today is sunny..."

"Cloudsdale weather workers strike demanding pay raise..."

"Now we see the snake in it's natural habitat..."

Rainbow Dash flinched slightly at the sight of the snake on the television, then chuckled before switching the channel again.

"Come to Quills and Sofas for all your quill, sofa, and bed needs! Located...."

"Oh, the calamity! What a crash, ooh, that's going to take him out for a while..."

Racing, that was good, Rainbow Dash liked fast things, and racing was, obviously, fast. Having finally found something to watch, she began eating her cereal, and she took her time, enjoying the race as much as her cereal. "Come on, come on.... Yes!" Rainbow leapt into the air, knocking the cereal bowl over, fortunately, she had already consumed all of her cereal, so there was no mess to clean up.  Having finally woken up fully from watching the race, and eating her cereal, she turned off the television, picked up the now empty cereal bowl and flew into the kitchen. She placed the cereal bowl in the sink, she could wash it later, but right now she needed to take a shower.

She stepped out of the shower, having finally cleaned the sleep off of herself, she took a towel and started drying herself off, she then walked in front of the mirror and smiled, "Looking good, Dash." She then finished the rest of her morning routine quickly, and decided to get go outside and enjoy the day, as she walked out the door she remembered she hadn't checked the mail from yesterday, she then flew over to her mailbox and opened it, sure enough there was a letter in it. She took the letter out and examined it, it looked like a normal letter, then she turned it over, and it had the stamp of the Wonderbolts on it. "Heh, what's this?" Her interest now perked, she opened the letter and examined it closely, and then read.

Maj. Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt Reserve,

You have been chosen to be eligible to apply for special assignment, the following  contents of this message are classified and you are to disclose to nopony, except one with high enough security clearance, I.E. a princess, or high ranking Wonderbolt, the opportunity now given to you.

CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET

A spot has become available in a Wonderbolt special forces team, Pegasus Team 3, you are one of several eligible applicants to join as the third member of Pegasus Team 3, a highly specialized, one of the 7 highly elite, highly classified Pegasus Special Forces Branch of the Wonderbolts, being a member of Pegasus Team 3 would require a large amount of effort on your part to become elite enough for you to be instated as the third member, but you've already proven yourself superior to many of your competitors.

Joining would mean you would take a much more active role in not just the Wonderbolts, but also in covert operations, and special assignments, it would also be very dangerous for you. Should you apply and get chosen for this position it would bring with it an immediate promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, along with a massive pay raise, to compensate for the increased danger, and time spent on your part protecting Equestria and serving the princesses.  Should you choose to apply, we will expect you at the wonderbolt academy on the 7th of the 10th moon, 1001 CR.

Dated, 3/10/1001.

"Wonderbolts. Special Forces? Me?" Rainbow Dash shot up into the air with joy "Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! This is so awesome! I can't wait to tell-" then she remembered it was classified. "My friends..." she finished and slowly fell back to her cloudhouse. "Well, it did say I could at least tell a princess, and Twilight is a princess and one of my friends, so I can tell her!" Rainbow Dash folded the letter and shot off into the sky to find Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow Dash flew quickly to the first place where she thought Twilight would be, her castle, upon arriving she hovered in the air for a bit before landing, she inhaled deeply, she was excited about her new opportunity to join Pegasus Special Forces. She walked up to the castle door and knocked, half expecting nopony to hear due to the castle's size, however after a few minutes the door opened to reveal spike panting.

"Oh hi... Rainbow... Dash what... are you... doing... here?" he asked as he panted.

"I came to find Twilight, also Spike, you don't look so good." Rainbow Dash replied, Spike obviously had ran quite a distance to get to the door so quickly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know... I was on the other side of the castle reading a comic... Anyway, Twilight's not here, she said something about visiting Fluttershy today, you should check with her." Spike replied with his now stabilized breathing.

"Okay, thanks Spike!" Rainbow replied and shot off into the sky for Fluttershy's cottage to find Twilight.

"You're welcome." Spike grumbled and said something under his breath as he returned into the castle to continue reading his comic.

"It sure is a lovely morning, isn't it, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked with a smile on her face, it was a beautiful fall morning, a little on the chilly side, but still nice. The birds were singing, and there was barely a cloud in the sky, she enjoyed mornings like this, so calm and peaceful, with as hectic as life could get, it was nice to take a break and relax every once in a while. Twilight levitated her tea cup to her mouth and took a sip.

"Why, yes, it is a beautiful morning. I'm glad you wanted to come over Twilight, it was nice of you to have morning tea with me. Normally it's just my animal friends and I, sometimes Discord is over, which is nice too, but, um, he can be a bit outgoing... not that I dislike that..." Fluttershy said and inhaled the cool fall morning air, the birds sang their beautiful songs, and it was peaceful, she loved it.

"How often is Discord over anyway? If you don't mind me asking." Twilight asked.

"Every few days he will have morning tea with me, he also likes to go on picnics with me." Fluttershy replied.

"Really? That often?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"Well, yes..." Fluttershy replied shyly.

"Sorry, Fluttershy, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable by my asking."

"It's fine." The sky suddenly got slightly darker, "Oh my what is-"

Rainbow Dash plowed right into the ground, sending dust flying and animals scattering. She groaned slightly, "Maybe I shouldn't have been flying so fast..." she said to herself.

"Rainbow Dash? Are you alright? That looked like it hurt." Twilight said still overcome with shock of her friend falling out of the sky, something she should be used to, but was not.

Rainbow stood up, "Uh, yeah, sorry, hehe, was just a little over excited... So, anyway, Fluttershy, can I talk to Twilight in private?"

"Oh, of course Rainbow, I'll just go over there and leave you two alone until you want me to come back." she said pointing towards a tree. She took flight and flew over to the tree and called her animals to her.

"Rainbow, what's this about? Why did you want to talk to me in private? Is something wrong?" Twilight asked, wondering what was so important that she had to be flying that fast, and why she wanted to talk to her alone.

"Everything is fine, Twilight, I just got some awesome news in a letter though, it's uh... kinda classified so I can't exactly tell anypony... but you're a princess so I can tell you! ...Right? I can tell you right?" Rainbow Dash asked, anxiety and energy building up.

Twilight chuckled, "Yes Rainbow, I have security clearance... Wait, why would I need that to let you be able to tell me what's up?" Twilight frowned slightly.

Rainbow handed Twilight the letter she had received earlier, with a big smile on her face. Twilight took the letter with her magic and began to read it.

"Wow, Rainbow, congratulations! Being eligible for that position is an honor in itself,  but uh, aren't you a little worried about it, I mean, it's special forces, Rainbow, the kind of thing that could get you in trouble and possibly...killed." Twilight shuddered having finished saying that.

"Pft, relax Twilight, don't you remember who I am? I'm Rainbow Dash! I'm the best flyer in all Equestria! It'll be a piece of cake, plus it's not like we're in any conflicts, or in any deteriorating relations with any other nations." Rainbow shrugged off Twilight's comment.

"Rainbow, It's special forces. Most ponies wouldn't know what special forces do during times of 'peace', it's still dangerous for them. And since you have been given the opportunity to try to become special forces... I suppose I should warn you..." Twilight trailed off nervously, eyes darting around quickly, she eyed Fluttershy and smiled. "Hey Fluttershy, Rainbow and I are going to go for a short flight, we will be back shortly."

"Oh um, okay then." Fluttershy replied.

"Twilight what's this about?" Rainbow asked and leapt into the sky following Twilight.

After a few minutes of flying and making sure they were alone, away from other ponies, Twilight finally began to speak. "Rainbow, special forces are deployed even in times of peace for special operations, even inside our ally's territories, it's dangerous, if you were to mess up, we wouldn't be able to rescue you without causing an incident, which is something we can't risk. Heck, Rainbow, I've even issued a special operations order to..." Twilight trailed off, realizing she was about to say something she shouldn't, but Rainbow caught that.

"To what, Twilight?" Rainbow asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." Twilight quickly replied.

"Tell me, Twilight, I won't tell anypony, you can trust me." Rainbow attempted to convince Twilight, who decided to continue her story.

"Fine... But if you tell anypony... I'll have to issue a special ops hit mission on you." Twilight replied and glared at Rainbow.

"Haha, good one Twilight, but really, get to the story."

"I'm not joking Rainbow." Twilight replied with a serious look on her face.

Rainbow realized what Twilight meant. "Haha... uh... right... I won't tell anypony..." like i'd risk seeing Twilight follow through on that... Rainbow shuddered at the thought.

"Anyway, as I was saying... I once had to issue a special operations team to... uh..." Twilight gulped, fearing what Rainbow's response might be. "To... kill somepony... who was a threat..." Twilight looked at Rainbow, whom had not been bothered by this revelation.

"Okay... so you had to make a hard decision? I'm sure you made the right one, Twilight." Rainbow replied.

"That makes one of us..." Twilight sighed, "The operation was a complete bust, the target got away and only one of the pegasus survived."

"Really...? Only one survived? What happened?" Rainbow asked slightly shocked.

"We're not entirely sure, but from what we discovered in the aftermath, it seems like he knew we had sent special forces after him, he led them into an ambush. The survivor was lucky."

"Who was the target?" Rainbow asked.

"I really shouldn't say..." Twilight replied.

"Come on Twilight, I already said I wouldn't tell anyone." Rainbow argued.

"I've already told you too much..." Twilight sighed, "Might as well tell you the full story, The target was a violet unicorn whom had been at least partially responsable for the return of King Sombra and the Crystal Empire... We didn't know his name, nor do we know it now..."

Diplomatic envoy from Equestria to the Griffon Empire is preparing to leave to discuss further cooperation among aspects of joint interest. In other news the Griffon Empire have developed magic projectors that rely on the recently developed magic micro capacitors that are capable of unleashing highly focused bolts of magical energy, this is currently being researched for use in weapons...