The Divided, Reunited

Commander Supreme Rainbow Dash of House Stormwing stared at the island in the distance, it stood alone in the eye of typhoon winds that never seemed to let up, hence why she and her subordinates, Spitfire and Soarin had trouble getting there.

Rainbow turned to her second in command and spoke, “Make sure the division is prepared to decimate them if they don’t agree to the terms.”

Spitfire nodded and went to pass the message down the line of clouds that held a division of troops, just in case talks went south.

“You think the bats will agree to our terms Commander?” Soarin asked to the cyan mare's left.

“Commander Sidewinder is a fool, but he’s dangerous, don’t drop your guard around him,” Rainbow warned before she saw that Spitfire had returned and without warning took off above the massive storm, the two lieutenants trailing behind her.

“Is it true that he brought all of the Thestral here? I heard it was a myth but with how many mare ’o war that are out there I’m not too sure if it is,” Spitfire said as she caught up with her leader.

“Not sure, but he has most of the navy, and I won’t let him have that many ships,” Rainbow responded before she dived over the edge of the storm and darted towards the beach past the ships.

Rainbow landed on the black sand softly, so as to not announce her presence. She looked around for any signs of life, until her eyes rested upon a set of chairs and a table. The table separated the two chairs, the one that faced away from the interior held a Thestral whom sipped from a straw that was dipped into a coconut, Commander Sidewinder himself.

Rainbow was confused as she slowly trotted over to him, weary of any trick or trap. Sidewinder wore sunglasses and swimming trunks, from where he got them whom could say, but it was him. He took notice of her, evident in the way his head turned to look at her then to his drink and back again.

“Rainbow Dash, that you?” he asked, voice slurred from the beverage no doubt.

“Commander Supreme Rainbow Dash,” Rainbow reprimanded lightly before she took a seat opposite him.

“Sorry, not sorry ,um, what’re you doing out here?” Sidewinder asked in a haze.

“I’m here to seek an alliance with you, we could help each other,” Rainbow said without missing a beat, “Now put your drink down so we can talk.”

“Live a little Dash, I mean Supreme Commander. I’ve got more, you want one?” Sidewinder answered, only to have his drink knocked from his hoof.

“Focus and think, I want the Thestral to join with House Stormwing. And I want you to command them,” Rainbow said with a smile, she really wanted this.

“Why would you want us?” the drunk bat pony questioned.

“Because while Thestral are slower than Pegasi you make up for it by being quiet. I’m in need of a stealth force to get rid of House Moon and Star,” Rainbow answered, hoping to appeal to the natural Thestral mindset of shadow war.

“And ,um, what uh will happen if uh we say no?” Sidewinder questioned as he swayed from side to side.

“I can’t have any enemies, you can accept our offer of partnership or you can be destroyed.” Rainbow leveled the ultimatum to the stallion, confident that her show of force would work.

Sidewinder smiled and extended a hoof before he spoke, ”Yeah, lets do it. And we’ll have a drink in celebration.”

Rainbow raised her eyebrow as she noted that there were no more drinks around that she could see. Her gaze shifted back to the older Thestral to see him no longer swaying, but sitting still with a serious demeanor.

Now Sidewinder looked at the scarred Pegasus with an unreadable glint in his eye, his words were, instead of slurred, sharp and to the point, “… That little banter is what I would be saying if I actually was drunk and had any intention of cementing an alliance with house Stormwing.”

Rainbow Dash frowned, she didn’t understand where the Thestral was going on about, until he spoke next.

“Quite the position you find yourself in Ms. Dash. Here, on my island, threatening it’s inhabitants with death if we refrain from adding fuel to the fire that plagues Equestria. Not a wise move Ms. Dash, not a wise move,” Sidewinder said with the evidence of disdain growing in his voice with each passing word.

“Anypony who doesn’t ally with us is a traitor to Equestria! And that’s Commander Supreme Rainbow Dash to you!” she shouted with rage.

“A traitor to Equestria? Or a traitor to your idea of Equestria, one with a Pegasi dominant society?” the stallion responded with narrowed eyes.

Before Rainbow could retort Sidewinder sat up from his relaxed position and continued, “You serve no pony but yourself and the rest of the traitorous Pegasi! All of you elements merely want dominion over the other, breaking the very core foundations of Equestria! Worse yet, you believe yourself to be the second coming of Commander Hurricane! As for your rank, tis merely there to inflate your ego.”

Rainbow snorted in an attempt to intimidate the bat winged pony and replied, “The Pegasi are the only ones that can lead Equestria into the future, it’s our responsibility. I was going to give the Thestral a chance to join, but after seeing you I don’t need you. And if your answer is final, I will sink this island, all of the lives that you thought that you were protecting are now forfeit to your stubbornness.”

Sidewinder’s eyes flicked to Spitfire and Soarin then to Rainbow herself before he began to chuckle, that then morphed into full blown laughter. The rainbow manned Pegasus nearly jumped out of her seat to strangle the bat only, she found that she couldn’t move.

“Have you ever wondered where the Princesses went?” Sidewinder asked out of the blue as he finished having a laugh.

“I was once perplexed by this, why would they simply disappear without so much as a word?” he asked, not expecting a response, but received one anyway.

“They lied to all of us, they didn’t control the moon and sun. Equestria was a lie, a lie to keep us all in line. Now let us go!” Rainbow shouted, utterly perplexed as to how the bat was holding them in place.

Sidewinder made a clicking noise as he shook his head, then he looked past her and said, “I don’t believe she’s noticed yet, are you ready to come out?”

It was then that Commander Supreme Rainbow Dash looked down, for the first time during the meeting, to find a blue magical aura surrounded her hooves and barrel, they were crisscrossed in such a way so as to keep her rooted to the spot where she sat. Rainbow turned her head to find that the same happened to both her subordinates, save that their mouths had been covered, hence why they had said nothing the entire time.

When Rainbow looked back to the Thestral her eyes became akin to pin pricks as to her right sat the mare of the night herself, Nightmare Moon. A Nightmare Moon that was no doubt made of flesh and blood, as she felt the near scalding hot breath upon her. Rainbow couldn’t believe her own eyes, the evil that was cast out of the missing lunar princess sat beside her, a furious look upon her face.

“Good day and salutations to thee Commander Supreme. Forgive mine protégé, he lacks the bluntness that We require for what happens next.” Nightmare Moon said, slipping into a mixture of modern and ye olde Equestrian.

Rainbow had built up a raging retort to get the crazy Thestral to release her. However, it died in her throat.

Miraculously she managed to get a word out, “How?”

It was a whimper, a mewl of a rabbit in the face of a hungry lioness.

“How what my little pony? How doth We stand here, upon this beach? It doth not matter at this point in time,” Nightmare looked to Sidewinder and switched tones so opposite that one would even question whether she had been angry not a second ago, “Commander, inform the strike teams to decimate Our enemies camps, take the ones whom surrender alive. All of the noncombatants are to be taken unspoiled and brought to Canterlot when we give the order.”

Sidewinder bowed to his princess and left the beach to the mountain at the center of the island.

Rainbow watched his retreating form before Nightmare turned her attention back to the armored Pegasus.

“Doth thou know what Commander Hurricane would do if he saw you right now? As a traitor to the crown he would have both you and your subordinates crucified, or pressed. He was rather fond of the latter when it came to traitors,” she trailed off before she spoke again, “Your punishment is to be most severe, but for now you’re safe from the chopping block.”

Rainbow finally found her strength before she bellowed, “Punished for trying to fight a tyrant? I beat you once, I can do it again. When I get out of here I’ll kill you for everything that you and your horse of a sister-,”

Magic wrapped around the cyan mare’s neck and squeezed, it cut off her air and blurred her vision as the mare in the moon spoke, “That was a mouthful ‘commander’ and it’s very rude to talk with your mouth full, you could choke.”

The magic was taken away before Rainbow went into a coughing fit, “We expected more from all of you, to be understating the point. Rest assured, your former friends will be joining you soon enough.”

Rainbow continued to cough as a trio of black clad Thestral landed beside the princess of the night and bowed.

“Bind her so that she doth not have sight or hearing. As for her wings, remove them. That goes for all three.” Rainbow’s eyes widened at what she heard and she began to struggle before everything went black.

Nightmare Moon looked to the sky above the island and gave the barest of nods, with that something miraculous happened. The storm surrounding the island let up, only white clouds surrounded the place. The night princess finally heard it, the sweet sound of yelling and screaming from the division that was meant to kill all of the bat ponies as their leaders were taken away to be bound as per her instructions. Fleetfoot was commencing the attack, and it was working from the sound of it.

“Princess?” a now armored Sidewinder called from behind, “If I have your leave?”

Nightmare Moon looked at the stallion out of the corner of her eye and said, “Commander, leave Ms. Fleetfoot to her job. You may commence with the attack on House Earthborn. But a word of warning, I am aware that you have an axe to grind with Applejack. There will be no dissent on the matter of taking her alive to face true justice. if you do kill her, the consequences shall be dire.”

Sidewinder bowed before he took off, and was followed by five more armored Thestral. It was then that Nightmare shrunk slightly and morphed into Princess Luna whom turned away from the conflict and headed towards the mountain to offer the Thestral, Pegasi, Earth ponies, and Unicorns who lived on the island, comfort in knowing that soon, very soon, the madness would be ground to a halt and peace would return to the lands.

After the trial of the former Elements of Harmony.