Subversion

Twilight Sparkle was getting ready for bed, she had brushed her mane, preened her feathers, and had made sure Spike was asleep in his bed, convincing him to go to sleep had been difficult, he gets into those comic books as much as Twilight could get into a good book. She looked into the crystalline mirror at her mane again, checking to make sure it looked right, then she turned and stepped out of her bathroom and into her bedroom, she stretched her wings out and yawned, it had been a long day, she was tired. She slowly walked over to her luxurious bed, and pulled back the covers and slipped into it slowly. She pulled the covers over her tightly, relaxed, and let out a sigh. She closed her eyes and smiled, then there was a knock on the main castle door. The fact that the enchantment on the door meant that knocking could be heard all over the castle was annoying at times. Especially these times. "Ugh, It's late, who could this be?" Twilight said as she frustratedly threw the covers off of herself, got out of bed and walked to the door, opened it and walked out.

Spike was peeking out from his room, Twilight motioned him to go back to bed, Spike sighed.

Twilight chuckled slightly, Spike had been reading. She turned down the hallway and started for the main door. One disadvantage of having a castle of your own was the immense size, and all the wasted space. It bothered her slightly that she didn't have a use for three fourths of the rooms in her castle, and the library was massive, and not even halfway filled, it bugged her.

Twilight approached the crystalline structure that was the castle's main door, she stopped, inhaled, exhaled, and used her magic to take hold of the doors and open them, they opened with little resistance, despite their size and being crystal, the doors were well balanced, and she was quite talented with her magic.

"Hello? What can I do for you?" Twilight asked as she was opening the crystalline doors, then she saw it was a pegasus wearing a Wonderbolt uniform, with an insignia for a messenger.

The blue pegasus saluted her, "Princess Twilight Sparkle, Director of Special Operations, I'm here to inform you of an incident in a special ops mission involving espionage of a Zebra weapons lab." the pegasus paused, and reached into a pocket on her uniform, and pulled out a file folder. The pegasus waited for Twilight to take the file folder with her magic, "Inside that folder are all the details we know of what happened and what went wrong. Now, Princess, if you will excuse me, I am to report back immediately."

Twilight opened the file folder with her magic and paused, "Yes, thank you." Twilight paused, "Dismissed." she saluted.

The pegasus crouched down, and leaped into the air, flying off to wherever she was going now.

Twilight sighed, then turned around and closed the door, as she started back to her room, she decided that the report probably couldn't wait, so she chose to start reading it.

Operation Izel report summary:

Status: Questionable success, team made it in undetected and retrieved data, but not a functional weapon. Team was unable to get out undetected, one operator was injured by a sword, condition stable.

Mission summary: Pegasus Team 3, Blaze, the team leader commanded this operation. Operative Hunter made a mistake which caused a bomb to explode, resulting in their detection, he was unable to retrieve a bomb for study. Operative Rainbow Dash was able to secure the information contained in the lab's data core, crystal memory being analyzed now. Operative Rainbow Dash was unable to get to the data core without causing an incident, there was a door blocking her way that required a zebra hoofprint to open. Operative Rainbow Dash took out a zebra guard and used his hoofprint to unlock the door. After Operative Hunter's mistake, Operative Rainbow Dash encountered two zebra guards, she managed to kill one without problems, however, the second guard was able to injure Operative Rainbow Dash, she was almost killed, but was saved when Blaze snuck up behind the guard and managed to kill him. Blaze then assisted Rainbow Dash in their escape, they encountered limited resistance, only having to nullify two guards. Operative Hunter had been ordered to return to command to report, but disobeyed that order to instead wait on the rest of his team. The team was able to escape with the data, but no bomb for direct study. Lt. Col. Rainbow Dash is now recovering in the Wonderbolt Hospital.

Twilight's eyes went wide as she read what had happened to her friend Rainbow Dash, she had to see that she was alright. She decided that before she left, she should tell Spike what she was doing. She smiled, he'd probably be more surprised if she teleported in there. She reached out with her magic to Spike's room, locked on, and used her magic to teleport herself into his room with a flash of light.

There was a flash of light, Spike jumped and looked up. "Ah!"

"Spike, I told you to go to bed." Twilight paused, "I have to go check on Rainbow Dash... You better be asleep in bed when I'm back, Spike."

"Uh, okay... What's wrong wrong with Rainbow Dash?"

"She was hurt doing..." Twilight paused, trying to think of an excuse. "A uh... A trick."

"Is she going to be alright? Did she break a wing like that one time?"

"No, she... Ugh, nevermind, and she had better be alright..." Twilight paused and smiled, "I'll be back soon Spike, and you had better be asleep when I'm back." Twilight reminded him.

"Okay, okay." Spike replied.

Twilight smiled, and reached out with her magic and then teleported herself into her room. She frantically looked around, and went into her bathroom, her mane looked fine, and her feathers looked good. She quickly walked out into her backroom, she turned and looked at the hidden door. "Should I put on my uniform?" Twilight trailed off, and thought for a moment. "No, I'm just going as her friend in an unofficial visit..." Twilight paused, "Maybe I should tell the others..." Twilight paused in thought for a moment, "No, I'll talk to Rainbow first, and tell them later."

With that Twilight Stretched out her wings, focused on General Spitfire's office at the Wonderbolt Academy, reached out with her magic, and teleported in a flash of light, with a small popping noise.

General Spitfire heard a pop and saw a flash of light and looked up from her desk, she had been up late reviewing reports and requests she needed to attend to. "Princess Twilight Sparkle?" she inquired.

"Spitfire, I'm not here on official business, no need for formalities, now, please, tell me where Rainbow Dash is, she's my friend and I'd like to see her." Twilight said as she folded her wings and approached Spitfire's desk.

Spitfire looked around her desk for a file telling where Rainbow Dash was currently, she found it and moved it closer to herself. She looked over the paper, "Room  twenty-two, level one. She may be asleep right now, she needs rest to heal from her injuries, Twilight."

"Thanks, Spitfire, and how bad are they?"

"They're not that bad, but still, bad enough." Spitfire paused and lowered her voice, "She could have been killed though, I'm not sure if she's cut out for this, Twilight. I hope your recommendation wasn't misplaced."

Twilight smiled wryly, "Don't worry, she'll be able to pull it off. But perhaps it wasn't my best idea." Twilight paused, "Thank you Spitfire, I will check in back with you before I leave."

"Of course, Twilight." Spitfire smiled, and returned to her work.

Twilight smiled back, and turned and walked out the door, into the hallway. Room twenty-two... I don't know where that is so I can't just teleport in there, looks like I'm going to be walking. Twilight quickly took off towards the infirmary and room twenty-two.

Rainbow Dash sighed, her wing and chest were bandaged to her body, it hurt slightly to breathe, and move. The doctor had said it would most likely be a few weeks before she could go, which was something she was not looking forward to. "A few weeks, ugh... Might as well be a few years, ugh!" Rainbow Dash was alone in the room, talking to herself, she looked at the desk beside her bed, there was a lamp and a clock on it, along with a glass of water. She sighed, last time she was in a hospital she had to stay in at least she had a book, even if she initially refused to start reading it. She quickly overcame that though, due to boredom. But now she was alone, and had nothing to do. Nothing. At all. To do. "Ugh."

Rainbow Dash rolled over onto her side, "Ow." Rainbow quietly yelped as she rolled onto her injured wing. She looked out the window at the dark star filled sky, the moon was slowly rising into the sky. She thought back to the time before the moon looked like it did now, back when there was still the Mare in the Moon. Rainbow smiled and chuckled, "Ow, maybe I shouldn't laugh..." Rainbow trailed off and continued thinking about how her friends and herself had been brought together. "Who would have thought defeating a great evil would have led to some of the closest bonds I've ever had." Rainbow whispered to herself and smiled.

She heard the door click, and open. Probably the doctor back to check in on me again, probably trying to make sure I'm asleep... Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and feigned being asleep. She heard slow, steady, quiet hoofsteps as the doctor approached her. The hoofsteps stopped as the doctor reached her bed. She felt the doctor looking at her, it was slightly creepy.

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight whispered.

Rainbow Dash heard her name, and it wasn't the doctor's voice, it was Twilight's. Rainbow Dash perked up, "Twilight?" Rainbow asked as she turned her head towards Twilight. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to visit you to make sure you're doing okay."

"Well... Thanks, Twilight. But, uh, how did you find out about this?"

"I got a report. I'm the Director of Special Operations." Twilight answered

"Oh..." Rainbow Dash paused, "You're not going to... kick me out of special ops for this are you?" Rainbow Dash smiled slightly and laughed slowly.

Twilight smiled, "No, but be more careful next time, Rainbow Dash, your friends would hate to lose you." Twilight gulped at that thought.

"I know, Twilight. I... I kinda screwed up, didn't I?"

Twilight smiled and shook her head, "Kind of. Want to talk about it?"

Rainbow Dash sighed and rolled over, "Ow. I guess..." Rainbow trailed off.

"Are you alright?" Twilight asked in a concerned voice.

"I'm fine, Twilight."

"Okay, you sure? Anything I can get you?"

"Twilight. I'm fine, really."

"Okay." Twilight paused, "Mind if I sit down beside you?"

"Uh, sure."

Twilight got on the bed and laid down beside Rainbow Dash and smiled, "So what happened, Rainbow Dash, I read the report, but I think you could explain it better."

Rainbow Dash sighed, "Right." she paused, "Well, my team and I were able to get to the infiltration point without problems, we got in without problems, and then we split up. Blaze, the team leader, went to a empty security room to keep tabs on everything. Hunter went to a lab to get a bomb for study, somehow he accidently set a bomb off which sounded an alarm... But before that had happened, I was sneaking through a hallway that had a guard in it, I was about halfway through the hallway when a door opened in front of me, I wasn't scared, of course, and a guard walked out, he was followed by a zebra in an orange vest with his hooves chained."

"They had prisoners there?" Twilight asked.

"I guess, no idea why though."

"That's strange... Unless they were... No, they wouldn't use the prisoners as test subjects... Would they?" Twilight shuddered at the thought of such cruelty.

"Um... I certainly hope not, that's just... Not right." Rainbow Dash was spacing out, then shook her head, "Ugh, anyway, where was I?"

"You were sneaking through a hallway."

"Oh, right. Um, so anyway, after I had gotten to the end of the hallway there was a locked door, it needed a zebra hoofprint to open it, so I had to kill a zebra guard to unlock it to get in." Rainbow Dash paused.

"You know you didn't have to kill the guard right? You could have knocked him unconscious..." Twilight trailed off.

"I uh... I didn't think of that at the time..." Rainbow Dash rubbed her head and looked slightly embarrassed. "After that I managed to get into the data core, before I was able to access it two guards walked in, they didn't see me, and they left. After that I was able to get the data onto the crystal without any problems, then Hunter said over the com that he accidently set off a bomb, and that guards were now swarming him. Blaze told him to forget about the bomb and to get out, he then told me to get out of the data core room because guards were coming. He had to go too, guards were approaching him." Rainbow Dash paused, and sighed, "And then I made the mistake of jumping out of the room without checking to make sure it was clear, and i ran right into a zebra guard, I managed to take him out but not before the other guard realized what was going on, and he engaged me." Rainbow Dash paused, and shuddered. "The guard could have killed me... He was about to..." Rainbow Dash was hit with sudden realization that she could have died.

"Rainbow Dash, you alright?" Twilight asked. No answer.

"Rainbow?" Twilight asked again.

Rainbow Dash shook her head, and rubbed a hoof across her eyes, "Uh yeah, I'm fine." her voice crackled slightly.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, it's okay..." Twilight paused and put a leg around Rainbow Dash and pulled her into a hug.

Rainbow Dash sighed, "Thanks, Twilight."

"Of course, Rainbow Dash. What are friends for?" Twilight smiled.

Rainbow Dash returned the smile, and pulled out of the hug, "Ow... Ugh... Say, I don't suppose there is anything you could do about this, is there? Maybe numb it or something?" Rainbow chuckled slightly.

"I can do you one better, Rainbow." Twilight smiled and focused her magic on Rainbow's wounds, slowly healing the wounds.

Rainbow Dash scrunched up her face from the pain, it wasn't bad but it was still unpleasant. There was a slight tingling sensation now, but the pain was gone. The tingling stopped, and Twilight's horn stopped glowing. "What did you do?"

"I healed your wounds. But that now means you have to go back to work." Twilight teased slightly.

Rainbow Dash laughed.

"It's good to see you doing good again, I'll go talk to the doctor and Spitfire, then I'll come back."

"Okay... And thanks, Twilight. It means a lot to me."

Twilight was walking down the hall from telling the doctor about her having healed Rainbow Dash, much to the doctor's surprise, it wasn't so much the fact that she could heal Rainbow Dash, so much as it was the fact that she did heal Rainbow Dash. Twilight had to explain to the doctor that Rainbow Dash was one of her best friends, and eventually the doctor understood what she meant. She turned the corner to the hallway leading to Spitfire's office, she would explain to Spitfire that she had healed Rainbow Dash, but wanted to give her a day or two off to recover emotionally, then she would report back to duty. She approached the door, stopped, and knocked on the door, not wanting to barge in on her.

"Enter."

Twilight used her magic to open the door, and walked inside, the two guards looked at her and saluted as she stepped inside, Spitfire looked up from her desk and saluted as well. "I'm not here in an official capacity, you don't have to salute me." Twilight said, paused for a moment, and returned the salute. She sighed, she didn't really care for having to do that.

"What can I do for you, Twilight?" Spitfire asked.

"Well, I told you I would stop by after checking in on Rainbow Dash, I figured I should let you know that I healed her wounds, and have checked her out of the infirmary, I'm going to take her home, and I'm giving her the next..." Twilight paused and thought, "Two days off active duty."

"Okay, I'll put that down, what about her team?"

"You can give them that time off as well." Twilight paused, "Actually, make it three days off."

"Yes mam, anything else?" Spitfire asked as she wrote something down.

"No, that will be all, thank you." Twilight said, and turned and walked out of Spitfire's office, leaving her to her work. Twilight shut the door quietly with her magic. Twilight started back to the infirmary and Rainbow Dash's room to help her out. She trotted quietly through the halls of the Wonderbolt Academy, it was slightly eerie when it was night, quiet, dark, little movement, which was a major change from during the day. Twilight slowed as she walked past a window, and she stopped and looked outside. The moon was still rising into the sky and was halfway directly overhead. She slowly started walking again and turned her head away from the window.

Rainbow Dash was laying on the bed looking straight up at the ceiling. She was once again bored. "What's taking Twilight so long..." Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. She rolled over and looked out the window, and saw a shooting star. I wish Twilight would hurry up. Rainbow Dash thought as she got up out of bed and walked over to the window, she paused and just looked out at the night sky. The door clicked open, and she turned around as Twilight walked in. Heh, guess those wishes really do come true. "Jeez, Twilight, what took you so long?"

"I had to explain to the doctor why I healed you... More than once." Twilight paused, "Maybe I should have just mentioned I'm the princess of friendship." Twilight rolled her eyes while saying that.

Rainbow Dash chuckled and walked over to her, "Well, you ready?"

"Yeah, everything is taken care of, oh, and you have the next three days off."

"What? Really?"

"Yes, I gave you and your team the next three days off, so you can relax."

Rainbow Dash sighed, "Right... Relaxing. That's... So... Not... My thing."

Twilight chuckled, "Come on, I'll teleport us to your house." Twilight said as she readied her magic.

"Wait, Twilight, why don't we fly back?"

"You sure? Teleporting would be quicker."

"Yeah, I'm sure, while teleporting would be quicker, I need to burn some energy from being cooped up in a hospital bed."

"Well, okay then." Twilight said and opened the door with her magic for Rainbow Dash to walk out, and then followed her. They walked in silence until they got outside.

When they stepped outside the cool, crisp fall night air filled their lungs as they breathed, it wasn't unbearable cold yet, but it was getting there. The stary sky was clear, not a cloud in sight, the moon was shining brightly, all in all a perfect night for flying.

"Rainbow Dash, don't forget I'm not as fast of a flyer as you." Twilight said as Rainbow Dash was flaring her wings. Rainbow Dash turned her head and looked at her.

"Right, I wasn't going to go that fast, I am kind of wanting to relax and enjoy flying." Rainbow replied and smiled, and then jumped into the air and flew to the edge of the structure, and folded her wings, letting gravity pull her downwards, increasing her speed.

Twilight shook her head and smiled, and took off running towards the edge, once she reached it she jumped and reached forward with her front legs, forming an aerodynamic shape, reducing the wind resistance on herself, allowing her to fall faster. She pulled in her wings more tightly as she closed the distance on Rainbow Dash, "On your left." Twilight shouted at Rainbow Dash whom had her eyes closed. Rainbow Dash was startled by this and instantly opened her eyes and looked at Twilight just in time to see her fall past her.

"Oh I don't think so!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she pulled herself into a more aerodynamic shape, increasing her speed significantly, Twilight turned her head and looked at Rainbow Dash and smiled right before she reached her. Then Twilight flared her wings, instantly bleeding a significant amount of speed, catching Rainbow Dash off guard, as Rainbow Dash zoomed past Twilight whom was now gliding carelessly through the air. Rainbow Dash flared her wings, and flapped them to reduce her speed, her pegasus wings weren't as large as Twilight's alicorn wings, but she had more experience, and strength in her wings, allowing her to more quickly reduce her speed and catch up to Twilight above her.

"Got that out of your system, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked as she smiled.

"Yes."

"How long have you been wanting to do that?"

"A while." Twilight smiled.

"I bet." Rainbow returned the smile.

"Do you want to tell your friends in the morning about what happened?" Twilight asked.

"Well, it's sort of classified, Twilight, you know that."

"I meant, tell them that you were injured in the military and could have been killed."

"Right, should probably leave that last part out though. Last thing I need is all of them to be thinking I'm a softy."

"There's nothing wrong with that, Rainbow." Twilight paused, expecting a comment which never came. They continued flying in silence until they reached Rainbow's cloudhouse.

Rainbow Dash landed first, followed by Twilight landing closely beside her and to her left. Rainbow Dash walked up to the door and put her hoof on the handle, and then paused and pulled her hoof back. Rainbow sighed, turned around and had the kind of smile you have when you screw up on your face. "I kinda forgot my keys..." Rainbow scratched her head as she said that.

Twilight facehoofed. "Well, you can stay at the castle until morning I suppose, there's plenty of room." Twilight paused, "I mean, I have like, twenty spare unused bedrooms." Twilight said in sarcastic annoyance.

Rainbow Dash laughed, "Well, you sure?"

"Of course, the castle has the room, and attempting to teleport inside your house would be impossible because of magic security enchantments. What else would you do?"

Rainbow Dash thought for a moment, "Well, okay then."

Twilight smiled, "Excellent!" then grabbed Rainbow's hoof and reached out with her magic and teleported them both into her castle's throne room. Twilight looked around, and then at Rainbow Dash, her wings were standing straight up, she hadn't expected that teleport.

Rainbow Dash saw her looking at her wings and quickly folded them. "So where am I going to sleep?" Rainbow asked with a yawn.

"You can stay in the room across the hall from mine." Twilight smiled and teleported them both into the room of which she spoke. She looked at Rainbow Dash, whose wings were straight again, and laughed.

"What? You can't tell me you've never been startled before." Rainbow replied defensively.

"It's just that, you're in special ops and you don't seem like it." Twilight paused and pointed at the bed, "You should have everything you need in the room, feel free to look around and use anything you need. If there's anything you need, just come get me, I'll be in the room directly across the hall." Twilight smiled as she stepped out of the door and closed it silently with her magic.

Rainbow Dash looked around the room, it had the same crystalline design as the rest of the castle, but looked luxurious compared to the rest of the castle. It appeared to be a master bedroom, or at least she would assume it was, the bed looked like Princess Celestia could use it, that thought made her wonder what Twilight's room looked like. She walked around the room and over to a window. She starred at the sky for a moment, before turning to investigate a side room. She walked over to the crystal door and pushed it open. "Personal bathroom, heh, really is a castle fit for a princess and her guests." She then turned her attention towards the door on the opposite side of the room, and opened it. It looked like it had been meant to be a closet, but it was empty, not surprising considering that only Twilight and Spike lived here, what was, however surprising, was the size of the closet. It looked enormous, like something Rarity would have. Rainbow Dash then turned and walked over to the bed and laid down. The bed felt nice, and was surprisingly comfortable for not being a cloud bed, she pulled the covers back and then on top of herself and closed her eyes, slowly drifting to sleep.

Zebra Nation runs massive military preparedness drills, tests flight suits.