Rescue From the Crystal Castle

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."