Alright, listen up! Those Royal think-they-can-do-anything has a plan to launch a new war airship towards here, Baltimare. I'm not sure how, but they know we have a base here, and that airship is designed to raze everything in it's path, including innocent ponies! As a part of our 'Wave of Liberation' plan against Canterlot, we will launch a preemptive attack to stop the airship from reaching Baltimare.

Here's where it gets tricky. That airship is located in Cloudsdale. So not only it'll restrict this mission to pegasus only, but remember that Cloudsdale is the base of the Wonderbolts. Our solution is to attack it just outside Cloudsdale, where resistance is a bit lighter. Not too long from now, it'll depart towards this city. I don't know how you plan to do it, but you must stop that airship at all costs! Because if you fail, I don't know how you'll cope with the fact that hundreds of ponies die because you failed.

With the briefing replaying in your head, you and the pegasus strike team assembled to bring the airship down keeps climbing to the sky. It's nighttime, so it's a bit difficult to tell how far you are from the ground. When the group of a dozen pegasus think it's high enough, the head of the pack speaks to you.

"Hold on." Gust Whipper is one of the respectable leaders of the Freedom Fighters, and she's the one who'll came up with a plan. "We should be high enough, remember that we must strike from above the airship to catch them off guard."

The lead mare started to observe towards the direction of where the airship is supposed to appear from. Meanwhile, a dark blue pegasus next to you nudges your shoulder.

"Hey, you ever partake in a mission this important?" He asked. Horizon is your loyal wingspony, even though he's a bit young. He's considered as a rookie in terms of experience, but you noted that he's a quick flyer, better then most of the fighters. Nevertheless, you told him that you've fought a battle in Baltimare twice, almost pushing the Royal guards away from the city entirely. The young pegasus looks at you with glimmering eyes.

"Wow, feels like an honor to fly with you tonight!" He said, and you chuckled. You never knew that your reputation can effect other ponies like him.

"Alright, mares and stallions, you see those dense clouds over there?" Gust Whipper spoke, pointing at a part of the sky that's covered by clouds. "That will be our ambush site. Might be some thunderclouds in the mix, so watch your flank."

With that, the group moves towards the designated spot. You take a look at Horizon, and he seems pretty eager. You just hope that it's not a mistake to choose an inexperienced pegasus like him to go along with you, considering the dangers and importance of this mission.

Hiding within thunderclouds is a tougher task then you'd thought. Although Gust Whipper doesn't seem to be fazed, some of the pegasus in the squad is shaking in their boots. You'll never know when the cloud is going to unleash lightning or any spark of electricity, nor you can tell how strong it'll be and what direction it'll go. Horizon, in particular, is very nervous.

"I'm... scared of electric shocks..." You hear him mumble.

As you look at the rookie, there's a thundercloud close to his left, and he doesn't seem to notice. You swiftly take position left of them, slightly pushing him to the right, where there aren't any thunderclouds nearby. He seems to be confused momenterily, but then realizes why'd you do that.

"This is tougher then I thought..." He commented. "But I guess the action of taking over an airship will cheer me up."

You smile and shook your head in amusement. Having experienced the horrors of war, you still wonder how rookies can think that fighting an enemy is a 'fun' thing to do. Better then being scared stiff or bawling on the floor, you suppose.

Gust Whipper suddenly give a 'psst!' to attract the squad's attention. She points down, and you see the tip of your target emerge from the clouds.

"On my mark. Fly straight for the deck, and take out anypony that tried to attack you." She said.

Your target soon reveals it's entire being into your eyes. The airship is big, the envelope is definitely more then a hundred meters long. Yet, the deck under it is only slightly less long. Magic armed guns are mounted on either side to defend itself from an aerial attack, just like what you're going to do, but you don't see anypony manning any of them right now. There's several levels under it too, perhaps to store ammunition and supplies, you thought. You waited until the middle section of the deck passed you, then Gust Whipper signals the attack.

"Attack! Long live the Freedom Fighters!"

The rebels clearly took the airship by surprise. You easily reach the deck without any resistance, looks like the Royal guards didn't have time to man the anti-air guns. A hoof fight broke out everywhere on the deck. Focusing on one guard amongst the chaos, you deliver an uppercut on a guard unlucky enough to be your opponent, followed by a low sweep to bring him down, and one last punch on the head, knocking him out. Too easy.

Looking around, looks like most of your fellow rebels are faring rather good, too. It seems you really caught the airship and it's crews with their pants down. Although, you spot some struggling, and you move in to help. Taking flight, you swooped a guard off one of the rebels, and throws him across the deck, followed by a flying kick to the gut. That's another one down.

You also managed to spot Horizion in the mess. He's rapidly zooming past a guard, hitting him every time the pegasus got close. You decide to give him a helping hoof. With the guard has his back turned from you, you grabbed him from behind and held his hooves, forcing both of you to stand on back legs. With one last flyby, Horizon's hoof smacks the guard's cheek with great force, knocking him out.

"That's quite cool!" Horizon grinned. Looks like his spirit is rather great.

Soon, all the guards are incapacitated, and the airship is successfully taken. Against a force that outnumbers you two to one, only two pegasus from your squad is badly injured. Gust Whipper orders them to be treated.

"We got somepony on the wheel, this thing is ours." She remarks.

"...Ma'am?" Horizon raises his hoof."What do we do now?"

Actually, you don't know either. The higher ups in the Freedom Fighters only told you to stop the airship, and you just did. The next step is all up to your squad leader.

"Let's give the Royal army a taste of their own rotten medicine. Let's turn to Cloudsdale. We'll wreck havoc in their base." Gust Whipper grins, a rather sick grin, you must say.

"H-Huh? Won't we get shot down immediately?" Horizon asked.

"I doubt it. This is supposed to be their airship, right?" She argued. "They won't realize something is up until it's too late. We'll bring their base down with this ship."

"How?" Horizon asked again. You hope Gust Whipper isn't that impatient with a rookie.

"An airship this big must be carrying some bombs. I'm sure it's not rocket science from there. We'll bail during the chaos." She explained.

That's a pretty daring plan, you must say. But if pulled off successfully, it'll be a big blow to Cloudsdale's garrison and the Wonderbolts in particular. Unlike the Royal guards, the Wonderbolts pose a bigger threat if allowed to take off. Their bombing runs and aerial superiority is a pain in the neck, and there's little to do about them when they're in a battle, because no pony can keep up with them in the air. The rebels thought of bringing the fight to the base, but it's heavily guarded, making infiltration or an attack hard to pull off.

"Well, I like it, if we get out alive." Horizon smiles sheepishly.

"Hey, it's freedom or nothing, rookie." Gust Whipper claims, before walking away, while giving an order to two pegasus to check the airship's lower decks. You also see her lock the wheel in position, to make sure that the airship stay on course.

You give Horizon a look that says "Welcome to the rebellion.". Looks like for some reason, he didn't thought he'll be partaking in a potentially suicidal mission. The pegasus gives you an uncertain look.

"...You ever had a near death experience?" He asked out of the blue. Well, to be fair, not really. You might've been in the rebellion for a while, and had been in some dangerous missions, but you've never been in a dangerously fatal situation. Thinking back, it's very lucky of you to have never been in that kind of situation. You tried to reassure him that everypony will get out safely. Gust Whipper is a top dog in the Freedom Fighters, surely she knows what she's doing.

"If you say so..." Horizon said. "Guess we're about to find out together, huh?"

You smile calmly. Looks like you started to really like being the mentor like figure for this young pony. Likewise, you feel he's glad to have you by his side.

Just as you're enjoying the moment, a loud 'CRASH!' is heard from the stairs leading down into the lower decks. You and Horizon are the first to notice it. As you two are about to inspect what caused the sound, suddenly the two ponies assigned by Gust Whipper to check the lower decks went flying out from the stairs. They landed with a thud right at your hooves, both badly bruised and unconscious, or at least you hope they just fainted. You recoiled a bit, these guys took quite a beating.

"W-What happened to them!?" Horizon speaks your mind. At this time, some other rebels had taken notice of this strange occurance, even Gust Whipper returns to the scene. The group's attention soon got distracted by a raspy voice, and the sound of hooves brushing against each other.

"Is that all you rebels got!?"

A blue female pegasus emerges from the lower deck, sporting in a uniform similar to the Wonderbolts without the hoodie, but where it's usually blue, had been replaced with red. What really caught your eye, though, is her mane has all the seven colors of the rainbow. There's only one pony who has that mane...

Blue female pegasus... Rainbow colored mane and tail... Magenta eyes... Usually in a red Wonderbolt suit...

Possibly the most dangerous member of the mane eight. She is called Rainbow Dash, and dash is a fitting name. She is known for her insane speed, said no pegasus can match her in flight. But her speed is not just limited in flight. If you ever got in close quarter combat with her, all she knows is to attack. Rentless as hell, and is almost an one mare army because of her speed. Don't let her use her wings, or you'll be in a world of pain.

The remaining group made a perimeter around the prismatic mare. She doesn't look fazed at all, however. In fact, after looking around her, she laughs. She actually laughs.

"That's all of you? Hahaha! I can beat you all with one wing tied!" She taunted. What a smug mare.

"Then let us help and break one of your wings." Gust Whipper growled. Oh snap, that's a pretty good comeback.

"You want it?" Rainbow Dash cheekily stretches one of wings out and waves them in a taunting manner. "Come get me!"

The next second, the pegasus turned into a blur of rainbow trail, already pummeling one rebel with ferocity. You and the others starts to close in on her to restrain her, but she's already done, her target is already a battered mess on the floor. Realizing the threat of this pegasus is too real, the rest of the rebels immediately swarm in her, but Rainbow barely got hit by any of them. With extreme speed, she defeats pony after pony. At one time, Horizon dives into the action, but one kick sends him flying back the way he came from. As you come to his rescue, you see Gust Whipper going towards the pegasus from the corner of your eye.

"She... kicks hard!" Horizon caresses his cheek, the place he'd been struck before. You help him get back to his hooves.

"N-no, I'm fine." Horizon flaps his wings, ready to charge in again, but you told him to wait and told him you're going in, and tell him to help the injured regroup. Meanwhile the last rebel besides you, Horizon, and Gust Whipper have all been defeated, but thankfully not dead. Speaking of Gust Whipper, now she's doing some hoof to hoof action with Rainbow, and somehow she didn't get knocked out in ten seconds flat by being super defensive. Punches after punches were blocked, you're wondering if Gust is actually using iron hooves.

"Heh... Heh... Stupid rebels." Rainbow delivers two jabs, one right hook, and a back hoof before finishing the sentence. "You think you can win?"

Gust Whipper didn't say a word, but you can tell that she's starting to struggle. You decide it's time for you to step in. Opening your wings, you zoom towards Rainbow. She sees you, and turns her attention away from Gust Whipper for a moment. Thankfully, you've predicted this from how she deals with Horizon. Turning as sharp as you can, you flew up, avoiding getting a roundhouse on your face. However, what you didn't expect is Rainbow is still able to grab your body by springing herself from the floor with her legs. Hugging you tightly, she brought you down to the floor hard.

For a moment, the world flashed and turned into a blurry darkness. You felt dizzy, and pain is radiating from your shoulders and head. You took a moment to recover, and just in time to see Gust Whipper getting kicked in the gut, sending her away. In the next second, Rainbow is over you, both hooves joined together over her head...

You protect your head from the smash. You felt your bones are that close to breaking, it was THAT strong. Rainbow wastes no time sitting on your chest and started beating your defensive hooves. You can block the early punches, but somehow she manages to slip through your hooves and started to pound your face left and right. You desperately use your hoof to push her off during the beatdown, but it did absolutely nothing. Suddenly, a dark blue swooped Rainbow off you and they tumbled together on the wooden deck. After recovering from the nasty punches given to you, you realize that it was Horizon that saved you. He was on top of Rainbow for a moment, but was quickly pushed off. Rainbow did a loop in the air and went down hoof first at Horizon. He barely dodges the attack as you watch Rainbow's hoof break through the first layer of wood, sending tiny splinters flying.

You got up on four hooves, and Horizon took position beside you. You ignore the fact that he's supposed to help the injured right now, and just be grateful that he's here. Rainbow wipes his cheek, and looks at both of you.

"What's wrong? Afraid to do a 1 v 1?" Rainbow smirked.

"Give up, there's two of us, and one of you." Horizon retorted. That won't help much, considering she just took down seven rebels alone.

"Make that three..." You hear Gust Whipper next to Horizon. She's flying with her front hooves dangling in the air. Looks like she's feeling quite the pain there when she blocked Rainbow attacks. The three of you are all injured in way, and Rainbow barely got hit. You snarled and tried to be as intimidating as you can, Rainbow simply brushes it off.

"Fine, I'll take you all on!" Rainbow dashes forward, targeting Horizon, who zooms away as you and Gust Whipper dodges to the side. You observe with disbelief at the two, Horizon is somehow only slightly less faster then Rainbow, allowing him to stay in front of her for a good while. Zig zags and loop da loops were thrown, but in the end, Rainbow tackles Horizon to the deck. You, who have been following their movements, were quick to push Rainbow away from your young companion. You even manage to punch her in the face a few times with jabs. Turning your body, you deliver a two leg buck, but Rainbow dodges and hit you hard on the side, followed by a roundhouse kick that turns your vision black until you hit the floor.

To the right you see Gust Whipper flying at high speed towards the blue pegasus, who noticed and duck underneath her as she puts her leg in front. Skidding into a halt, Gust Whipper tries again with a flying tackle. Unfortunately, Rainbow, perhaps in desperation, grabs you and uses you as a meat shield. The impact is mostly absorbed by your body as you somehow got thrown away from the two mares. Once again, you hit the deck hard. Parts of your body started to hurt badly when you move them, especially your hooves. Meanwhile, Gust Whipper is doing her best against Rainbow. The blue pegasus dodges hooks after hooks. Gust Whipper went for another hook, but she decided to feint it, and uses her other hoof, hitting Rainbow at the cheek. Annoyed, Rainbow Dash retaliates with ferocity, sending kicks after kicks. Gust Whipper can only block so many of them before she got kicked to the side.

However, right behind her is Horizon yelling a war cry. He flew up and went down with four hooves that would trample Rainbow if she didn't dodge to the right. Horizon is vulnerable after the attack, and Rainbow, with her speed, grabs him and brought him up to the air, before throwing him down. You notice that there's no way a pegasus can recover in time when thrown that close to the ground. Despite your injuries, you took off low and caught Horizon mid air. But the sudden extra weight causes you to crash straight away. Horizon, however, manages to recover quickly. Looks like your intervention had cushioned his fall.

"Are you alright!?" Horizon checked up on you. You nodded and smiled weakly. In truth, that crash rather hurt. To show him that you're okay, you slowly stood up on all fours, despite the initial wobble, and pats him on the shoulder. The dark blue pegasus looks worried, but eventually he nodded back. He looked at Rainbow, who's pinning Gust Whipper to the floor. The rebellious mare got hit several times in the face, before she grabs Rainbow's face and turn the tables.

You and Horizon rushed to aid Gust Whipper as she smacks Rainbow's head to the floor. When she sees you, she opens her wings and flew away, flipping Gust Whipper to the deck. She initially went for you, but Horizon got in the way, forcing her to put on the air brakes. Horizon swings his hoof at the mare, who casually blocks it and twisted it painfully. You took the initiative and pushes Rainbow away off your wingspony. Gust Whipper soon join you and you both started swinging. Rainbow either block your attacks, or dodge it completely. Soon, Rainbow tackles Gust Whipper to the deck. You tried to help her but a backhoof hits your face. As you recoil from the strike, you heard a nasty 'SNAP!', followed by a scream from Gust Whipper.

"Not so talkative after I break your wing, huh!?" Rainbow taunted. That mare just broke Gust's wing. You must help her! Luckily, there's Horizon to help you out. With a flying kick, he sends Rainbow flying across the deck. With Horizon standing guard, you help Gust Whipper get to her hooves. You notice a small trickle of blood escapes Rainbow's nose. Horizon must've broke her nose, atta boy!

Meanwhile, you just noticed that the other rebel members are starting to regroup. They are all very injured, but able to stand up with a bit of support from their comrades. Looks like Rainbow had the odds stacked up against her this time. You also see that the skies had cleared up, revealing something in the distance. Rainbow also notices it when she looks back behind her. Cloudsdale is within sight, around probably 5 kilometers from your current location.

"Ngghh.." Rainbow zips past everypony and towards the wheel. You remember seeing Gust Whipper lock the wheel, and just as you thought (and thankfully), Rainbow couldn't turn the wheel to steer it. It's even worse for her because Horizon keeps harassing her by zipping near her, threatening her with a hoof everytime. Finally, Rainbow gave up trying to steer the wheel, just in time for Horizon to land a hoof to her cheek, sending her tumbling down the deck.

"So this is what you rebels are trying to do." Rainbow stood up on her hooves again. "Fine, you left me no choice..."

With that enigmatic message, Rainbow flew away, off the airship, and to the dark sky above. Wait, is it over? you thought.

"That mare..." Gust Whipper, who's right next to you, gritted her teeth. "Regroup! We should abandon the plan to Cloudsdale, steer this airship down."

"Huh? Why?" Horizon flew to towards the rebel leader, along with the less injured rebels.

"She'll try to alert Cloudsdale about us, no doubt." Gust Whipper said. "With that speed of hers, a Wonderbolt squad will be all over us in minutes. We better land in the Everfree Forest below, and get help from our hideout there."

You look over the railing and see the forest below. The Everfree Forest hideout is the most elusive of all the Freedom Fighter's hideout. The Royal guards can never find it's exact location, making it the perfect hiding spot. With the rebel squad too injured to fly all the way back to Baltimare, looks like this is the only option.

"Hey." Horizon nudges you with his hoof. "You okay?"

In truth, everything above your chest hurts. You can't move your shoulders without feeling pain, and there's a sore spot on your cheek. You flap your wings, and they seem fine. You hover a few centimeters off the ground for a few seconds before landing, yep, you can fly just fine. Now it's your turn to be concerned with Horizon's condition, who noted your worried look.

"I'm good, mostly..." Horizon massages his left shoulder as he said that. "Damn, I've never seen a pegasus fly that fast! I swear, she can break the speed of sound if she wanted to!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!

You barely have time to register what just happened. A massive force from the airship's right side blows everypony off their feet. You crashed to the railings with such force that it gave way, but by sheer luck you manage to hang on, avoiding a potentially dangerous tumble. You also feel the airship rocks violently to the left. You can see Horizon not far to your right, the railing barely preventing him from falling.

"Wh-What happened!?" He's impressively quick to fly to the deck, probably to help his fellow rebels. If only he'd look to his left, though. You open your wings and flies back to the deck. By now, the airship is slowly stabilizing, but the deck is still tilting to the right.

That's when you see it, a rainbow colored ring just above the deck on the other side. You also notice that there's an orange glow on the airship's envelope. One of the rebels yelled, "The ship is on fire!", much to everypony's horror. Everypony must get off this ship, now!

"Fly off the ship! Get to the Everfree hideout everypony!" Gust Whipper ordered as she rallies the rebel squad together. In panic, some took off immediately, before realizing the injured ones. You help a rebel nearby get to her feet. She got a black eye, but looks like her wings are fine. As she managed to stand up on all fours, another rebel take over and help her take off. It doesn't take long for everypony to take flight one way or another.

Wait a minute... Didn't Gust Whipper had one of her wings broken? Crap! You just remembered!

You spotted the mare being one of the last few on the ship, you ran at her, but you stumbled from the pain on your hooves. As your face is on the deck, you can feel the airship is dropping altitude fast. You tried your best to stand up again, but it's even more difficult now that the airship is falling.

"What are you doing!?" Gust Whipper seem to notice you. "I told you to get off the ship!"

Not without her, you ain't leaving her! You flap your wings and flew towards her, grabbing her body and attempts to fly off. Oh god your body hurts! Your hooves threatened to give away as you took flight. Gritting your teeth, you flap your wings faster then ever, trying to manuever yourself off this falling airship. Suddenly, you see the burning envelope looming closer towards you. You can't possibly dodge it in time, not the two of you...

A loud 'whooosh' rang through the air, and you're pushed to the left, off the airship safely. It's Horizon, his impressive speed had saved you.

"I'm not leaving you all behind!" The pegasus hold Gust Whipper together with you, and you three leaves the burning airship to fall to the forest below.

The survivors hovers above Everfree Forest as they watch the airship crash and burn to the ground. You, Horizon, and Gust Whipper is in the middle of the flock, supporting each other. Some of the remaining rebels also needed somepony to help them stay afloat.

"Ten... Eleven... Twelve... Well I'll be, we all survived somehow." Gust Whipper counted the remaining pegasus. Amazingly, none of your fellow rebels had fallen in combat.

"Ha... We did it...! We stopped the airship!" Horizon said. The other rebels all expressed their happiness to be alive with cheering. Well, it could've went better, you thought. But in the end, your mission is to stop the airship from reaching Baltimare, and with it being set ablaze on the forest, Baltimare is save from it. You looked at Horizon, young flier had saved the day. If he wasn't there when you tried to save Gust Whipper...

"Everypony, listen up!" Gust Whipper said, catching everyone's attention as they finished celebrating. "No doubt the Wonderbolts will be dispatched to see what happened. Dive into the forest and straight into the hideout. Once we're all in a better shape, we'll return to Baltimare."

The order had been spoken, the flock of pegasus started to descend into the forest. They know where their hideout is, so they won't get lost in the Everfree. Looking at the sky, you see Cloudsdale in the distance, partially covered by the smoke from the burning airship. This is the path you choose, you chose to be a rebel, you chose to put yourself in danger, and it's for a better Equestira.

But as you look closely, you see a trail of rainbow towards the floating city. Usually, rainbow brings hope and happiness, but that rainbow seems tainted, as if the red color is made from blood. This won't be the last time the Freedom Fighters cross paths with Rainbow Dash.

Yet, maybe the victory you've achieved today is the reason you saw that rainbow. Maybe there is hope for Equestria.

Author's Note

See? I promised you won't always find yourself dead!

Longest chapter so far as well.

By the way, is there anything amiss from my writings? Or the story? Constructive feedback and criticisms are always welcome!