Subversion

Rainbow Dash was stretched out, laying on her bed, awaiting news from Spitfire as to whether she had made special forces or not, it was taking so long, the wait was painful. The past two days she had been trying her hardest to get qualified as special ops material, still, her competition was pretty good, even by her standards, she didn't know his name, none of them knew the other's names, but he had managed to take on five royal guards at once,  Rainbow Dash was only able to beat three at once, she was a little concerned that she might not get to join special ops because of this. The minutes passed away, then rolled into hours.

"Maj. Rainbow Dash, please report to Gen. Spitfire's office."

Rainbow Dash looked up at the intercom and smiled. "Looks like I did it..." Rainbow got off the bed and walked over to the door, her wings were bustling with excitement, she had to prevent herself from jumping and taking flight constantly, as much as she would have preferred to fly, she wasn't wanting to risk her new job.

Gen. Spitfire was sitting at her desk, awaiting the arrival of Rainbow Dash. She looked at the clock, it had been two minutes since Rainbow has been asked to come to her office, she had half expected Rainbow Dash to bust through the doors flying at full speed immediately after she had heard it announce on the intercom. The clock ticked away. She returned her eyes to her papers, she was going over Rainbow Dash's profile. Yeah, Rainbow Dash, you'll make a good special operator... she thought. Sure, she had only been able to fight off three royal guards at once, but she was the fastest pegasus they knew of, and she had the attitude of a winner, plus she represented the element of loyalty. She smiled, she only needed one last thing before she approved it. Rainbow Dash's presence. She glanced at the clock again, three minutes. She already had a callsign picked out for Rainbow Dash, Ghost, it was, perhaps, not the best fit, but because she was fast, it made sense that she could get in and out of a situation rapidly. There was a knock at the door, this made her raise an eyebrow, "Enter."

Rainbow Dash walked in, "General Spitfire." she saluted. "Major Rainbow Dash, Reporting as ordered."

Spitfire returned the salute, "Guards, please excuse yourselves for a moment." she motioned for the door. The guards saluted and stepped outside the door. "Major Rainbow Dash, are you sure you can fulfill the role of special operator?"

"Mam, yes mam." she replied without hesitation.

"Then i hereby immediately promote you to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Welcome to special forces, Lt. Col. Rainbow Dash."

"Thank you, mam."

"Now we should discuss some important information, before you meet the rest of the team." she paused, "You may not discuss the other members of your team with anypony without security clearance. Pegasus Team 3 has a training mission scheduled soon, you should have the info in the packet next to you." she paused for Rainbow to look over the packet. "The other members of your team are Blaze and Hunter. Blaze is team captain, you will follow his orders, and he receives orders from high level Wonderbolts and the princesses." she paused, "Go report to Blaze, you should be able to find him with the info in that packet, also, do not lose that packet. Dismissed."

Rainbow Dash saluted, grabbed the packet and walked out of the door. The two guards returned to their previous post standing guard beside the door.

Spitfire smiled, That'll be one heck of a force to reckon with.

"So Blaze, who do you think the new recruit will be? Probably some rookie right out of flight school?" Hunter paused, waiting for a reply.

"Hunter, this is special forces, we don't babysit. I'm sure whoever we're going to get stuck with can handle themselves." he paused, "But, on the slight chance that you're right..." he smiled. "One hundred bits says the pegasus we're stuck with has seen combat experience before."

"You're on, Blaze. You're so going down." he chuckled. "Have you heard about those new magic weapons that the griffons are developing? I've heard they are quite lethal."

"Yeah, I've heard about those things, command says we should be developing similar weaponry soon, of course special ops will get the first combat ready weapons of those." he paused, "Intel on those weapons currently indicates they can only weakly penetrate light armor though, don't get your hopes up, wouldn't be surprised if it goes nowhere."

"You underestimate the griffon's obsession with perfecting weaponry, and, perhaps our own scientists ability to make it work."

"Not true, I just don't know how practical they'd be, we're not unicorns, we're pegasus, our innate magic gives us the ability to fly, unlike unicorns who can project their magic to do a lot of things." Blaze replied.

"They'll figure it out, they're smart."

"Yes, they are, Hunter, yes they are." Blaze paused at the sound of a knock on the door, he walked over to the door and opened it. "Hello?"

"Um, hi, are you..." Rainbow Dash looked at the packet, "Blaze, right?"

"Who's asking?" Blaze replied.

"Uh..." she looked at the packet, "Your new team member."

"Ah, you're the new special operator, right? Replacing Parrot?"

"Uh, yeah i guess so." she smiled.

"What's your name?"

"Rainbow Dash, sir."

"Well, don't just stand there, come in and meet Hunter, his eyesight is better than a crow's."

Rainbow Dash walked in and Blaze closed the door behind her, "Hello, Hunter, I'm Rainbow Dash."

"Nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash, you should get yourself acquainted with the gear before we head on out to the training course."

"Right." Rainbow Dash replied and walked over to the weapons and armor rack, there was an impressive amount of equipment there, ranging from swords, daggers, light armor, crystal armor, and much more. "What would you recommend?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Whatever suits you best." Blaze paused, "Say, have you seen any direct combat before?" he inquired.

"Uh, no, I've not seen any direct combat before... Is that a problem?" Rainbow answered.

"Yes, it is, because I just lost my bet to Hunter." Blaze sighed, "I guess I owe you a hundred, heh, maybe next time."

Hunter chuckled, "Right, never doubt my instincts, you should know that by now."

"Anyway, we should probably get suited up and ready, not much longer till we start." Blaze said.

Blaze walked over to the armor rack and took a suit of dark metal and a helmet with three white dots on it centered above his eyes, when he put on the helmet the suit of armor was complete and the enchantment took effect, changing his tan coat to white, he now resembled a royal guard, meanwhile Hunter had put on his armor, and his gray coat was now replaced by a similar shade of white to Blaze's.

Rainbow Dash decided to use light metal armor, that offered enhanced mobility at the cost of reduced protection, the armor was yellow, similar to the royal guard's armor, but more sleek. Having put on the helmet the Suit was complete and the enchantment took effect, her blueish coat changed to white.

Now the only noticeable difference between the three of them was their armor, and gender, Rainbow Dash being the only female. Rainbow Dash walked over to the weapons rack and looked over the weapons. "Any suggestions?"

Rainbow Dash, Blaze, and Hunter stood outside an old abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, or rather, the middle of a large Equestrian military base, the building was a training compound, it only appeared abandoned. Rainbow Dash looked to her left, Blaze was standing beside her, and Hunter on Blaze's left side, in a triangular formation, awaiting the siren that signified they were to start. Rainbow Dash checked her armor, it was tightly secured to her body, offering good protection, she then checked her weapon, she had opted for a hoof mounted sword, for ease of use, and mobility. She was growing impatient, patience was never her strong suit, and waiting around was always hard for her, she had only just now thought of that possibly being a problem for her in special ops.

The siren sounded, signaling the start of the training mission. Rainbow Dash anxiously awaited Blaze's orders.

"Hunter, take point, Dash stay close." he paused while they moved up in unison towards the door, "Breach on three... one, two, three!" and with that they bucked the door down and stormed in keeping close and clearing the first room without incident.

"Clear!" Hunter shouted, signaling that the room had been cleared, he swiftly moved to the next door, and waited on the others to stack up. "Breach in three... one, two-" click the door swung open forcing Hunter clear, three royal guards came charging out weapons drawn, Hunter was slightly dazed by what had happened but was recovering quickly.

The first guard moved to engage Blaze, whom had already prepared his sword to meet the guard's blade. The guards weren't real, they were magic projections being projected by unicorns, manipulating them for training purposes, the swords they wielded would not kill but would hurt and stun you if you had been hit by one.

The other two guards moved to engage Rainbow Dash, and due to the tight spaces she couldn't take flight to get an advantage. "Guess we'll do this the old way." she thought. The first of the the two royal guards charged at Rainbow Dash bringing down his sword as he closed the cap, Rainbow Dash brought up her hoof-blade to block it, but the other guard had now closed the distance and was preparing to strike, she quickly jumped back barely dodging a blow from the sword, she quickly checked on Blaze who was locked in combat with a guard, and Hunter had jumped to his hooves and was preparing to kill the guard attacking Blaze, Rainbow Dash quickly turned back just in time to see a blade impact her side, fortunately, it impacted her armor and glanced harmlessly off, although she still felt a decent amount of force from the impact, Rainbow grunted from the impact, "Yeah, that may bruise." she thought. She quickly sidestepped as the other guard began bringing his sword down in an attempt to hit her head, the guard having under estimated Rainbow's reflexes was caught off guard by a swift kick in the chest from Rainbow Dash, the guard was knocked clear, leaving the one other guard to deal with, she quickly brought her hoof-blade to bear in an attempt to penetrate the guards side armor, the guard saw this and sidestepped, however he didn't see Hunter waiting in anticipation for this. The guard met Hunter's swift blade and quickly faded. Rainbow watched as Blaze quickly walked over to the immobilized guard and thrust his blade into the back of his neck where the shoulders were. Rainbow flinched slightly at that sight.

"Clear..." Blaze called out, and shot a quick glance over to Hunter, who simply shrugged.

"Dash, take point, Hunter, guard our six." Blaze ordered, Rainbow Dash quickly took the lead followed by Blaze and Hunter, she quickly stormed through the next door and scanned the room for more signs of danger, "Clear."

Blaze walked forward, scanning the room for sings of trouble. "Three doors, we should split up so we can cover more ground quickly. Hunter, take left, Dash, take right, I'll go straight. Assume you're on your own, that the others are dead and can't help you, don't screw up again Hunter. Move out."

Rainbow Dash quickly headed for her door, and lined up behind it, her heart rate had increased from the previous fight and she wondered what was beyond this door, she inhaled and let out a inaudible sigh. "Show time." Rainbow thought as she turned and bucked down the door, the quickly walked in scanning the hall that lay before her, it was dark and looked like the paint was flaking off, there was a red and blue door at the end of the hallway, she quickly took off towards it, scanning the hallway constantly on the look out for danger. She slowed as she approached the door, she stopped at the door and listened, nothing. "Maybe this'll be easier than I thought..." she thought, then turned and started to buck in the door only to be met with the door opening, withing nothing for her legs to crash into she lost her balance and fell over, she heard movement coming from the room and quickly rolled over to see a sword impacting where her body had been, impaling the floor a good 4 inches, "Yeah that would have got me..." Rainbow gulped and quickly took to her hooves, as the guard re-readied his sword Rainbow had launched her counter attack, the guard however was quick and blocked it, forcing her to recoil, the guard then quickly thrust the sword straight at Rainbow Dash, who jumped, only to find the guard had expected that, she felt a tingly sensation in her chest as the magic sword impacted her armor with enough force to break it, had it been a real sword. Rainbow was having some trouble breathing now that her chest had been partially stunned, but she had an opportunity to counter attack she would not pass up, she quickly brought her left hoof-blade to bear and swung it with all her might as the guard, who moved his sword to block, she then recoiled and swung her right hoof-blade quick enough to impact the guard and knock him over. She quickly walked over to him and bucked him as hard as she could, knocking him unconscious, and then buried her hoof blade into his stomach. She then paused to take a quick break from that combat. She sighed, even if the guards were just magical projections, she was not a cold blooded killer, the guards looked so real, perhaps she wasn't cut out for special forces after all.

Rainbow Dash inhaled, and exhaled, and walked into the room, scanning it cautiously, they were supposed to retrieve a package, and not to leave any signs of who had been there, she spotted a crystal, she remembered that the package they were supposed to retrieve was a green crystal, it was hard to tell in the dark, but that crystal looked like the right one. She quickly walked over to it and picked it up, and put it in her armor, she started to turn, but something caught her attention, a file folder, while it hadn't been specified it looked important. She thought for a moment, it wasn't in their details, but in special ops they might not have all the details. She grabbed the file folder and put it in her armor also, she started to turn, but saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She quickly turned her head and looked in that direction, she didn't see anything. She starred at the general direction for a second longer and reluctantly turned her head back towards the door and started to take a step when she saw a shadow move. Now she knew she wasn't alone. She quickly turned around and scanned the room, nopony was there. But she wasn't alone. She took a closer look at the corners, empty, she took a closer look at the shadows, and that's when she noticed a distortion. "Oh bu-" her thought was interrupted when the cloaked unicorn realized he had been detected and charged at Rainbow, the distortion field rendering him invisible was not perfect, but it would appear almost completely invisible when not moving, but when moving, the distortion was obvious, like glass changing how light passes through it.

The cloaked unicorn charged at Rainbow and she brought her hoof-blade to bear expecting a sword to block, instead she was hit by a bolt of magic. "Ugh..." Rainbow moaned, the spell had clearly been designed to penetrate armor and stun, the tingly sensation in her chest was now much stronger, but she had to keep going. The glow of the unicorn's horn made the cloak easier to detect, thus alloying her to dodge the next bolt of magic, but the next one would have hit her when she landed, but she raised her hoof-blade to absorb most of the impact, her leg was now slightly stunned and numb. "Okay maybe that wasn't the best idea..." she thought as the tingly sensation made it hard to move her leg. The unicorn jumped into the air and charged it's horn. The glow rendered the cloak practically useless, this was a big one. Rainbow groaned, her leg was slowing her down, and she wasn't sure if she could dodge this one. The unicorn released the bolt of magic and Rainbow Dash jumped to the side, but the bolt struck her left hind leg and seemed to be drawn into it, her leg was now completely numb, she couldn't move it. "Crap..." she thought as she collapsed, now unable to bear her own weight on her legs. With no viable alternatives remaining, she used to wing to push herself up with enough force to keep her in the air long enough to start flying, there wasn't much room in the building, but it was enough, getting through the hallway would be problematic. She scanned the room for the unicorn, having lost sight of it during her fall, once she saw the glow of it's horn she immediately forced herself at it, with her hoof-blades extended as far as she could, she managed to impact with enough force to knock the unicorn to the ground, and the unicorn faded.

Rainbow Dash, of course, still had one fully stunned leg, and one partially stunned leg, this was more than she wanted, and she was once again laying on the floor. She sighed as she pushed herself up again and started flying in the air, she checked to make sure she still had the document and crystal, she did, "Good..."

And with that Rainbow Dash flew through the door into the hallway and then into the second room of the building. She stopped to wait on the others for a minute, they should have already been here, she was concerned by this. She was starting to regain feeling in her hind leg when Blaze walked out from his door.

"I didn't find anything, what about you Dash?"

"Yes sir, I found a crystal like the one described, and some documents." Rainbow replied.

` "I see, Hunter should be along any moment now... As long as he didn't screw up like earlier." he paused, "Come to think of it, he should be here by now..." he thought for a second, "Dash, you good?"

"My two left legs are slightly stunned, but other than that, yes sir."

"I see, in that case, I'll take point. Stay close." Blaze ordered.

"Yes sir." Rainbow replied and landed slightly behind Blaze, following him closely as she limped on her tingly left legs.

Blaze walked down the hallway that Hunter had been down, it was well lit, unlike the other two hallways, and it had windows, which were broken, letting crisp, cool air inside the building. There was a door at the end of the hallway, it was yellow with blue corners and a green center panel, they slowed as they approached it, it was closed. "Form up." Blaze ordered, Rainbow Dash backed up to the door on the right side, while Blaze took the left side, "Breach on three." he whispered, and paused, "One... two... three, breach!"

Simultaneously they kicked the door in with their legs, the quickly turned and prepared to face whatever was laying in wait for them. Blaze cautiously walked inside the room, followed closely by Rainbow Dash, he constantly checked the corners and shadows, "Clear..." Blaze said as he continued scanning the room, it was similar to the hallway, peeling paint, broken windows, and just as well lit. Rainbow Dash was being even more cautious than Blaze, she had fought a cloaked unicorn earlier, and since she was partially stunned, she figured it would be better to be safe than sorry, Rainbow Dash motioned towards a staircase leading to the upper level.

Blaze nodded and slowly walked over to the staircase, Rainbow Dash followed closely behind him. Blaze slowly started up the stairs, but paused when the first step let out a creaking noise. Blaze thought for a moment, looked at Rainbow Dash and readied his wings, Rainbow Dash nodded. Blaze leaped into the air, followed closely by Rainbow Dash, they both flew to the top in unison, staying under the top and peering out to attempt to avoid detection, the room looked empty. Blaze flew up and was scanning the room, and then landed, "Clear..."

Rainbow Dash landed next to Blaze, and was scanning the room, it was well lit and didn't look abandoned like the rest of the rooms, it looked like it could have been a control center, but it was empty, or so it seemed. Rainbow Dash noticed something move out of the corner of her left eye, it was a slight distortion. Rainbow quickly turned towards it, "On the left!" she shouted out, startling the cloaked unicorn, whom immediately sent a surge of magical energy at Rainbow, but she was able to avoid it, Blaze was now moving to intercept and counter attack, but there was a flash of light and the distortion had disappeared. "Where did it go?"Rainbow thought as she looked around the room for the tell tail distortion.  Nothing, Blaze was also scanning the room, still no sign of Hunter. Rainbow Dash thought she heard something from above her, she quickly looked up just in time to see a bright flash and a stream of magic coming right at her, she attempted to sidestep but her right leg took the hit and was now paralyzed. Having lost her balance from the paralysis in her right front leg and her left legs still being weak she fell over, Blaze had jumped into the air to attack the cloaked unicorn, but it had teleported again. Rainbow felt pressure on her back and she turned just in time to see the unicorn thrust a magical energy blade into her chest, through her wing. She now couldn't do much of anything, her wing and most of her body was paralyzed. Blaze was quickly turning in every direction attempting to find the cloaked unicorn, he was blissfully unaware that the distortion was behind him, "Behind you!" Rainbow Dash called out, the unicorn's magical blade formed and it brought it down upon Blaze, but he sidestepped and turned, he then counter attacked with his sword, which met the magic blade, their intense sword fight continued, all the while the unicorn occasionally sent a bolt of magic at Blaze, who managed to dodge it every time.

Rainbow Dash still had feeling in her left front leg and right leg, so she reached out and started pulling herself forward, she had to do something to help Blaze, who appeared to be losing, the unicorn had managed to land a few hits on blaze, and blaze had only managed to land three hits on the unicorn, who just refused to lose. Rainbow Dash slowly inched closer to the fighting, the unicorn didn't realize she was doing this until she was right below it. Rainbow Dash thrust her hoof-blade at the unicorn's distortion as hard as she could, the blade stopped just shy of hitting the unicorn, stuck in a light blue energy field.

The unicorn chuckled, "Good job, I yield." the unicorn said, the voice was strangely familiar, and surprisingly calm for having been in a tense fight for a few minutes. The unicorn levitated Rainbow Dash beside Blaze and carefully set her down. The unicorn uncloaked and bowed. Except it wasn't a unicorn. It was Princess Luna.

"Wait what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Princess Luna raised her head and smiled, "Congratulations, Rainbow Dash, you managed to best me." Luna paused, and smiled slightly, "But only because Blaze had me occupied." she paused, "This was meant to be a test for your team, Blaze, to see if you could work well enough together with your newest member to beat me, I applaud your success."

Blazed bowed slightly, "Thank you, princess." he paused, but if I may inquire, where is Hunter?"

Luna smiled, "He didn't fair as well as you two, he's in the next room... Tied up and stunned." Luna smirked, "I may have had a bit too much fun with him..."

Blaze leaned over to help Rainbow Dash up, she could barely stand from the paralysis, but she would have to make due.

"Oh, and one more thing, you have two minutes to rescue Hunter and get out before none of you will be walking out of here." Princess Luna smiled and teleported, and a light on a control panel started flashing red.

"Move now!" Blaze ordered as he ran to the door to the next room to rescue Hunter, who was indeed tied up and paralyzed.

Blaze and Rainbow Dash quickly worked on untying Hunter, who appeared to be asleep, "Dash take point, I'll carry Hunter, go!"

Rainbow Dash nodded and started off as quickly as she could on her still slightly paralyzed legs, they tingled with each step, she paused at the stairs and scanned below them, it looked clear, so she started down the stairs, once at the bottom she quickly glanced around the room, "Clear." she called out, awaiting Blaze to catch up.

Rainbow Dash quickly moved to the next room and checked for danger again, "Clear." she shouted again, and she took off without waiting on Blaze who was slowed by carrying Hunter, she approached the door they had entered from, it was shut, she tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. "Door's stuck!" she shouted as Blaze approached her.

"Stack up, breach on three!" Blaze paused while they both took up positions on either side of the door, "One... Two... Three!" they bucked the door down in unison, and quickly ran outside as quick as they could, they barely made it to where they had started from when a bright flash of light engulfed the abandoned building.

"Wow, what was that?" Rainbow Dash asked as Blaze set Hunter down.

"Magic stun field bomb, if we were caught in that we all would have been paralyzed and would have failed." Blaze replied and looked at Hunter, and then walked over to Rainbow Dash. "You did good today Rainbow, for your first 'combat' mission, even if it was only simulated." Blaze paused, "I think you'll make a great addition to our team..."

Rainbow Dash smiled, "Thanks, Blaze."

The king of the Griffon Empire, King Tafkal has announced that he and his Minister of Trade will be visiting Canterlot; rumors of a plot against the Griffon Empire circulate, Equestrian government officials wave it off as nothing. The Zebra Nation has announced plans to rapidly increase it's military preparedness level, and greatly increase troop reserves...