The hooves of the advancing troop sunk into the damp earth several inches as they slunk through the broken wood. Smashed and splintered trees were all that was left of a once lush forest. As their the hooves sucked and popped loose from the waterlogged ground, everypony tried to ignore the faint red streaks visible in the mud. The bodies had been cleared out, but only time and rain would wash away the last signs of the battle that had been fought here. Even as close to Celestia’s camp as they still were, and faced with a broken and scattered enemy front there was an unspoken nervousness.
The group was small. Rainbow had felt that they would gather less attention that way, which would be especially important once they left the south. While they would be less likely to be spotted this way, for now they were still close to large numbers of shells from the earlier battle, and it wouldn’t take many to overwhelm Rainbow’s team. Celestia’s troops would mop them up before advancing farther, but for now it was in their best interest to move quickly and draw as little attention as possible. There were thirty-two of them in total, ten Wonderbolts and twenty-two grounders. Every one of them maintained a deathly silence.
In spite of her own jittery nerves, Rainbow Dash held herself high. She could see the effect that it had. Her troops needed to see their commander confident. She was asking a lot of them, she needed them to believe that she could do this. So, Rainbow pretended that she still had the bravery of her cadet years, and marched forward. They crossed miles of devastated land, watching as the sun sank low, in perpetual fear of an ambush. After almost a full day of near-silent marching, Rainbow called the group to a halt. She signalled her second in command over. Soarin came running over as the unicorns in the group began laying down soundproofing spells.
“What is it ma’am?” Soarin whispered. Rainbow rolled her eyes. With the spells in place, he didn’t really need to stay quiet.
“This spot seems relatively dry. We’re going to make camp here. I want you to take Pinkie, and scout around. Make sure we don’t have any friends nearby that might try and pay us a visit tonight. Ok?” She said in a deliberately loud voice, a hint of amusement entering her voice as she say the larger stallion flinch.
“The earth pony?” He asked, more than a little confused. “Wouldn’t it be a better idea to use scouts that can fly?”
“Tell me Soarin, do you think it’s a good idea to fly right now? You know, up in the air where there’s no cover and nothing to hide you?” The stallion’s silence answered her well enough. “You’re going because you have the best nonmagic-assisted night vision, and you’re Pinkie so that if you get caught, there’ll be somepony there to save your ass. Now hurry the hell up.”
When the camp was fully set up, Rainbow found Maud where she had expected to. There was a large stone in the middle of the camp. It was a mossy, speckled thing. Little flecks of mica glittered on the rocks outer layer.
“Make a new friend?” She called out. The grey mare barely looked up to acknowledge her presence
“We’ve met before.” Maud dryly replied. “A few days ago.” Rainbow shuddered at that.
“You were positioned here?” She asked, to which Maud nodded. Rainbow was about to ask more, but she didn’t have the chance.
“Where’s my sister?” There was no inflection in Maud’s voice, but Rainbow had known her long enough to see through the outer calm.
“With my best scout, they’re surveying the area.” Rainbow responded. “Don’t worry. She’s with Soarin, I trust him to take care of her.” She lied. She didn’t feel like telling Maud that Pinkie was the one she’d sent to take care of Soarin. “I’d have sent you with them, but I need you here in case something happens while they’re gone.” Maud nodded, not saying a word.
The cold night wind sang loudly as the two ponies moved silently through the darkness. The pinkie mare brought up the rear, her distinctive fur covered by dark garments to better hide her. Soarin scanned the trees carefully. they ‘d been out for hours at this point, and he was beyond hungry, but there was still a bit more he wanted to check out before returning to camp. He whispered quietly to the mare behind him.
“See anything behind us?” Pinkie looked up at him in surprise, it was the first time either of them had said a thing in the last several hours.
“Nope.” Came her bright response. She shook her head vigorously to emphasise the point, a now familiar smile plastered on her face. Soarin had no idea how he was supposed to act around this nutball. Ignoring his better judgement, that was telling him to remain silent, he decided to probe a little.
“So, Pinkie….” He began. The mare looked up and smiled, her ear tilting in curiousity. “What made you join the CGF? No offense, but you don’t really seem the type.”
“No offense taken, silly.” Pinkie replied in a bright tone, but Soarin could almost feel the atmosphere darken as she continued. “I joined for Maud. I was….” She stopped. Her ears shot up in alarm. In a blur of pink, she leaped forward, and shoved him down. A sickly green bolt of light shot by where he’d been standing. In the gloomy darkness, a pair of emerald eyes watched. The dark form circled the two ponies.
Soarin rose to his hooves slowly. The shell watched him rise. There was no words, no grunts, no sounds of breathing from within that grey helmet. The mare next to him had tense her body, ready to respond to any threatening movement. Sure enough, the shell came bursting towards them. Pinkie threw herself at it, halting its momentum. She ducked under a thrown hoof, then shot one of her own towards its chest, stunning it.
Seeing an opening, Soarin burst forward and smashed into the armored form. The shell barely budged, and just brought its hooves down on Soarin’s comparatively unprotected skull. The world spun, and the stallion fell to the ground. Through his blurry vision, he saw Pinkie scream in rage. She slammed bodily into the shell, then crashed her hooves into its helmet. Again and again the hooves came down, the air beginning to fill with the sound of twisting metal and cracking bone.
A loud horn blast cut through the camp, and Maud jumped to her feet.
“They’re back.” Rainbow said, tilting her head towards the sound, giving her subordinate the hint to go. Maud didn’t hesitate. The loose earth was thrown into the air as she sprinted through the camp to rejoin her sister. Rainbow followed in the air.
At the edge of the camp, just inside the sound barrier, a small group was huddled. In their midst, a clearly unnerved Soarin, and a Pink mare with a frightening expression and blood-soaked hooves. The scouting had gone well apparently. Maud quickly ran to Pinkie’s side, but Rainbow wanted to have a word with her scout first.
“Alright, alright, everypony get back to what you were doing.” She dispersed the other ponies and walked up to Soarin. “I take you encountered the enemy.”
“Just the one. There shouldn’t be any more to surprise us. Not tonight at least.” He glanced over at Pinkie and Maud, “She uh...she made sure of that.” He paused before continuing, “Do you know about….”
“Yeah I do. It’s not a good idea to make Pinkie mad. Maud will calm her down eventually though, so don’t worry about it.” She walked off, ignoring him as he tried to sputter out a response. “You alright, Pinkie.”
“I’m fine.” She spat. Her shoulders rose and fell with her heavy breathing. Maud ran a hoof through her pink mane, and even as Rainbow watched, she could see the mare calming down. Finally, her blue eyes blinked, as if she waking from a dream. “I’m sorry, Dashie. That was mean. I’m doing alright. Thanks for sending Soarin with me, he was a big help.”
“I’m glad to see you feeling better.” Rainbow looked to Maud, “Get her cleaned up please.” She said, referring to the coagulated blood stuck to Pinkie’s fur. The grey mare nodded. The two mares disappeared over the nearby hill, as Soarin walked up to Rainbow Dash.
“I think I get why you brought them now.”
Author's Note
Sorry this took so long. Hope you enjoy it.
The air screeched as it was forced aside by a blinding jet of blue. The magic lance tore into the ground, melting the ground and everything near it. Even as far away as she was, Rainbow Dash could still feel the charged air causing her fur to bristle. The lines of rushing ponies below closed the cap between one another, and the dust and debris kicked up obscured their battling forms. Spitfire's wing arched slightly, and Rainbow followed suit. The five wonderbolts silently curved, then dove toward the ground at an exhilarating speed. Rainbow identified her target, a Celestial unicorn was pinned to the ground. At full speed, Rainbow slammed into his attacker. The shell flew through the air, slamming into a nearby hill. Landing, Rainbow helped pick the unicorn up, and turned toward her attention back to the fight at hand. Another shell hurled itself at her. Ducking under its attack, she delivered a backward kick that incapacitated it. The mind control helmet sparked and hissed as it overloaded. A too-familiar sick feeling rose up in Rainbow's stomach as she watched the shattered helmet end its host, rather than surrender him.
"Crash, help!" Spitfire yelled out to her. Freed from her reverie, Rainbow dove back into the fray.
"Lieutenant Rainbow Dash, the princess requests your presence at the war tent." Rainbow looked up at the unicorn holding a letter out to her. Nodding, she wordlessly took it and dismissed the messenger. Her eyes flicked across the parchment, curious as to what Princess Celestia would want from her so soon after a battle. The letter wasn't exactly clear on what precisely Celestia wanted with the wonderbolt, but it was almost certainly something urgent. The Princess was perpetually pressed for time, there was a war on after all. She wouldn't take time out of her schedule for a lieutenant otherwise. The smell of sweat and blood clung to Rainbow Dash's body. She would have preferred the chance to get cleaned up after the battle, but when the princess commands a meeting, it was never wise to keep her waiting. As she trotted through the makeshift camp, Rainbow absently brushed her damaged prosthetic wing. The metal screeched in complaint, and she winced. It would likely need to be repaired before she could safely fly.
The command tent was up ahead. It wasn't very auspicious; in fact one unfamiliar with the camp would likely think it to be the tent of a mid-tier officer, and not the mobile seat of royal power. The guards at the entrance both gave a small nod to Rainbow Dash, as the mare took a deep breath. Striding into the dark tent, she saw the Princess seated at her makeshift desk. The battle had ended four hours ago, but Princess Celestia was still covered in the grime and blood, just like Rainbow Dash. The mare found herself breathing a small sigh of relieve as she realized that she would likely be chastised for her appearance. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak; without even looking up, Celestia beat her to it.
"Take a seat Lieutenant." Doing as she was asked, Rainbow sat down in front of Celestia's desk. Her back straight, and her eyes focused, she tried to give the impression of calm when she was anything but. "I saw your performance at the battle today." Celestia said calmly, still sorting through the scrolls in front of her. "You were impressive." Dash's wings shifted in a brief loss of self-control, she was always a little weak where her ego was concerned.
"Thank you ma'am." She responded curtly. Looking up from her scrolls, Celestia met Rainbow's eyes for the first time.
"Captain Spitfire speaks very highly of you, and I have long trusted her judgement." Celestia paused briedly, before continuing. "She recommended you specifically when I asked for a team leader this morning."
"Ma'am?"
"Lieutenant, there's something I need you to do for me. Something I would normally assign the entire Wonderbolt force too, if there wasn't any need for secrecy." Dash's throat felt dry as she listened to the Princess speak. 'Well, I was right. This does sound urgent alright.' She thought to herself. However, she kept her mouth closed, and listened as Princess Celestia continued. "How is the war going Lieutenant?" Seeing Dash's confusion, she rephrased it, "Are we winning?"
"No ma'am. I don't believe we are." The Princess nodded at her answer.
"No, we aren't. Our troops vastly outclass his, that's what happens when you put well trained forces against a hypnotized mass. However, that doesn't matter. Whenever he captures a city, or a soldier surrenders to him, his numbers swell. No matter how many of his armies we crush, their forces recuperate." Rainbow nodded seriously, though she was truthfully confused about where this was going. Celestia slid a scroll over to Rainbow Dash. On it was a report of what was clearly a disastrous military failure. "Our northern front collapsed. This would be bad enough under any circumstance, but said front was under the command of my best magical student. She was studying Sombra's mind control helmets. In her final letters to me, she implied that she was close to finding a way of safely removing them." Rainbow's brow furrowed.
"But, if she's been captured...."
"That's what I need you for. As powerful as she is, it will take some time for the mind control to take full effect." Celestia's eyes glistened as her voice became even softer, "I need you to bring her back to me."
'My own team....' The thought kept bouncing around Rainbow Dash's head as she walked out of her tent. 'My own team. Why, me though?' Rainbow had used the time since her meeting with Celestia to clean herself up, and get into dress uniform. She would need to look professional for this, even if she knew all these ponies personally. She'd left her metal wing with an engineer to be repaired, and the dress prosthetic she now wore glimmered with a more subdued hue. She couldn't fly with this one, so she worked her way through the camp on hoof. Soarin was an obvious first pick. Spitfire would be pissed, but Celestia had given her free reign to choose whoever she wanted. She found the goof in the medical tent, getting his ear patched up and doing what he did best, fail miserably.
"So, uh hey, do you like pie? I like pie, we should get some sometime. I mean not now, I don't think anypony at a military camp makes pie, but eventually." The nurse treating him, Redheart if Rainbow remembered correctly, was trying desperately not to laugh at the poor boy. Rainbow however, didn't bother. With tears of mirth in her eyes, she called out to him.
"Clipper, for the love of Celestia, leave the poor girl alone. Also, if you could stop bleeding for a second, I need to talk to you." The disappointment was as clear on Soarin's face as the relief was on the poor nurse's. Redheart finished wrapping gauze around Soarin's ear, and he reluctantly stepped away from the makeshift hospital bed. Rainbow looked at the reddened bandage around his ear, "Is that going to be a problem?" Soarin shook his head.
"Nah, it's just a slight cut. I mean, the nurse said that I wouldn't have an ear it the cut had been any deeper but it wasn't so I'm fine." Seeing that Soarin was still flustered, Rainbow just chuckled.
"Soarin, get a hold of yourself. The only mares you're going to be spending the night with are me and a couple of ground pounders, and not in a way you will probably like." Soarin's eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Do...I get a choice in this?"
"Nope."
"So what are you looking for this time?" Pinkie's voice cut through the thick silence that always followed her sister Maud. The scorched ground had hardened in a jagged pattern that followed the magic lance's path.
"Nothing in particular. I just like how melted rock looks when it hardens again." Maud didn't even look up as she said this, her eyes still transfixed on the globules of stone. Pinkie shrugged, and continued shifting in place.
"I bet Mom and Dad missed us." Maud nodded. "Limestone and Marble too." Maud nodded. "Do you think that they are still running the farm?" Maud nodded. "Good, good. That's far away from anything dangerous, right?" Maud nodded. Pinkie saw Rainbow and Soarin before Maud did, and visibly perked up. "Hey! Hey Dashie! Do you have something to do? I'm boooored!" She turned to Maud, "Not that hanging out with you isn't fun, I just need to move around more. You understand, right?" Maud nodded.
"Hey Pinkie, I do have something for you to do. How would you like to go to the Crystal Empire?" Maud looked at her in shock, as did Soarin, who Rainbow had told nothing. Pinkie blinked for a few seconds.
"For a vacation? 'Cause I don't think Sombra would be OK with that."
