Chapter 5

When Swift finally got downstairs, he was amazed. Celestia stood petrified, staring at Applejack. and when Swift could look past her he saw why. The mare was suddenly wearing a necklace in the shape of an apple.
"Oh wow, that's beautiful!" said Applebloom and took a closer look at the necklace, "It looks like your cutiemark!"
Celestia began to shine like the Sun.
Swift could see it out of the corner of his eye.
Her horn lit up briefly and she closed her eyes when she said it: "I can feel the energy. You are the element of honesty! I haven't felt it in a long time." Her magic went to the statue, "The other elements have not yet awakened, but they seem to want to take their place."
"Element of honesty?" Applejack asked confused, "What's going on here?"
Swift looked at Celestia, who nodded, whereupon he explained: "I had a vision. Six mares will each get an element of harmony. And with the help of these six elements we will probably be able to heal Princess Celestia's sister."
Applejack deadpanned, but then started to smile and says, "Ah, I see, you want to fool me. Nice try."
"no, this is not an attempt to fool you. this is the truth." said Celestia, "Tell me what you want. You can have everything, just please, accompany my sergeant and search for the other elements!"
Applejack was speechless, but only for a moment: "Your Majesty, you gave my family the land where we have our farm. Maybe ... I can repay a part of our debt."
"So be it. If you can bring my sister back to me, I'll see the Apple family forever indebted." said Celestia, then looked at Applebloom: "And while Applejack is on the way, we will provide helpers that things continue to run well on your farm. At the expense of the palace, of course."

Swift ran a hoof through his mane.
He had a headache. But only because all of a sudden he had received so much new information about this mission. Apparently a small, fast airship was dispatched to pick up the elements, Applejack and Swift, the Squadron that Swift should have received on the front line was also on the Ship, and a Second Squadron on board the ship was supposed to be the Wounderbolts.
That showed him how important it really was to Celestia.
The apsens of such an important squadron at the front could hardly be justified.
Unless you were a princess ...
and a deity that moves the sun ...
there was also the possibility to use the elements of harmony against sombra,
He felt a hoof at his side, looked and realized it was Applejack, the necklace still on her neck, who said, "do you mind if I sit next to you?"
"no I do not mind." Swift said and made her a little more space to sit down, "At least that suits me. I wanted to talk about the task at hoof anyway. If ... you don't mind."
Applejack smiled and sat down next to him, took a deep breath and looked down at the necklace. "Do I have a choice to come on this crazy mission?"
Swift laughed and said after he had taking in a deep breath: "I already asked myself that question. But by Faust, if it means that we can end the war, I am ready to risk everything I have left."
Applejack gave him an oblique look, "Who is Faust?"
Swift waved off, "Do I explain another time ... and? Can I count on your help?"
"Of course you can. My hope is that Applebloom can grow up in a world without war." Applejack replied with certainty and confidence, but also hope in her voice.
The airship could already be seen on the horizon, and Pegasie from the weather team did everything possible to keep the weather in check around the airship.

Commander Rainbow Dash landed in front of Swift. Her left wing was now also a prosthesis, but made more elegant and it looked so nice and light.
Swift saluted, "Ma'am. I see Electric and Twilight made good use of the time. Nice to see them back in the air."
"Carry on, sergeant." said Commander Dash, and returned the salute briefly. "Yes, both of them did a great job. Electric said I owe that to you. You gave her a very good tip."
"Nothing that the two of them wouldn't have thought of alone." Swift said and went ahead, "Commander, how far has Princess Celestia initiated you and the others in the company? Who can I discuss the mission with?"
Commander Dash was about to answer something when there was a loud: "Swift!" to hear.
When Swift turned around, he was almost knocked over by a blurry orange lightning bolt: "What do I have to hear? You messed with timber wolves alone? Are you crazy?" she turned him around, "Let me see your wings. Princess Celestia said she saw you using them to keep the mouth of one of these beasts open." she gaspe, "Oh no, dents everywhere!"
Commander Dash chuckled at the sight, and said: "I'll go ahead. You two make it out between the two of you."

When Commander Dash was gone, Swift said with a small smile, "I missed you too, Electric. Tell me, how were you? I wasn't away that long, but as I saw you built a new wing for the Commander."
"That was easy. It was another prototype, and only parts had to be removed. And since Rainbow was already at the doctor's because of the nerve connections, it went quickly. Even if I think it's too fast." She looked after the cyan blue mare worried, "No tests, no test runs, just screwed it on and off into the air. It is astonishing, but also questionable."
"She is a soldier. Her place is with her comrades at the front. I would have reacted the same if more of my squadron had survived."
Electric couldn't help but hug him, but was interrupted when a bright light came from the direction Commander Dash had gone.

Swift had seen this before and galloped to the chamber with the elements. When he got there he saw Commander Dash wearing a necklace similar to Applejack. she looked down at herself in amazement, looked at the necklace, then at Swift
"sergeant, can you explain that to me?"
Swift looked at you with wide eyes and said: "Commander ... you are an element of harmony. That means we have already found two out of six!" he started smiling, "Thank you Destiny! Thank you very much!"
"What's going on here?" asked Applejack, who now came running too, closely followed by Twilight sparkle.
"Have we already found another element?" Twilight asked joyfully, but was asked to be silent by Commander Dash, who pointed to Electric with her hoof.
"Oh right, sorry." Twilight sheepishly apologized.
"Oh, I'm the one who shouldn't know what's going on here?" Electric asked with an offended look on her face.
"I'm sorry, Electric. I like you very much," Commander Dash began, "but we have orders that came from Celestia personally. If it were up to me I would do some other things, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way."
"I will send a letter to Princess Celestia if you wish. I could ask if you can be let in on the secret. She showed me a spell with which my letters can be sent directly to her."
"That would be nice." Swift said with a smile, "After everything Electric has done for Commander Dash and me, it would be unfair if she was only partially involved in the mission."
Commander Dash nodded in agreement, then looked at Electric, "But until this point I have to ask you to leave. Please, believe me that I see it similar to the sergeant, but orders are orders."

after Electric left, Commander Dash turned to those who remained. "Okay, apparently I'm also an element of harmony. That surprises me as much as everyone else. But as sergeant Swift said, it helps us a bit. To come back to the question from earlier: initiated into this secret mission are just a few officers of the airship, and here we are, and only the elements may be initiated when we find them. " She looked at Swift, "sergeant, your squadron is on the airship. Our squadrons will work closely together. The student Twilight Sparkle here is our advisor on magic, and as she said, sends and receives letters direct from Princess Celestia. It's all already prepared. But ... "
she looked at each one in turn, "we have no direction."

The elements were brought to the airship where another surprise awaited Swift. The yellow Pegasus mare from the hospital had been assigned to the ship's doctors because she was one of the most capable. And another surprise awaited everyone when she was dragged to the elements.
"Do not touch!" Twilight exclaimed enthusiastically, "This is wonderful! I can use this to find out how we can look for the other three elements!"
Her magic went over the stones, especially over the one who reacted, over the mare who tried to hide behind her mane.
Swift noticed this and walked next to her, asked, "The world's small, isn't it?" he smiled openly.
"Oh dear."she said and looked unsure.

A little later they all met for a chat in a conference room. Fluttershy, as everyone was introduced to her, was the third element they had found.
"With the speed we will be finish our task tomorrow." Rainbow Dash said with a grim grin.
"I'm afraid it won't be that easy." Twilight said and began to write an equation on a whiteboard, "According to my calculations, the three other elements are quite far away. The spheres that contain the elements are easily drawn to the respective mares they get. However, I can't say how far they are away. We only have a direction. Theoretically, it would be possible to triangulate the position, but that takes some time because we have to fly quite a long way. Even then, it is uncertain how exactly we can determine the position. After all, the mares can move freely. "
She drew two lines on a map.
"One sphere is drawn roughly in this direction, the other in this one. The third sphere has not yet shown any movement. Princess Celestia believes that this is the element of magic."
Everyone present looked at the lines. One led roughly in the direction of Manehatten, the other would, if one led it further, exactly north, to the front.

"Attention, an announcement to everypony. Our next destination is east. Get ready for a long flight, we won't stop anytime soon." came the captain's voice from the PA system.
"Hey Swift!" called Electric, "come here!" Swift looked at her, raised an eyebrow, and followed her. She led him into the machine room.
"Look at this!" she said enthusiastically.
Swift looked at the machine, cocked his head, and read the badge. "EPS 001 version 1 ... what does that mean?" asked he.
"That, my favorite pegasus, is the same one that is in your wings, only bigger. This is the propulsion system that guides and distributes the Pegasus magic through your wings. In other words, this ship can reach unimagined speeds and even lose all of its buoyancy tanks without crash! "
"Impressive. Very impressive." Swift said with a smile, "Then the E at EPS stands for Electric, hmm? It's your patent after all."
"Correct!" she beamed
"Let's celebrate. Would you like to come to the canteen? I wanted to finally get to know my squadron." suggested Swift, "I'll pay"

A surprise awaited Swift in the canteen. The squadron assigned to him had a bat pony. Something rarer that Swift had never seen in person.
He sat down with Electric at the table that the squadron had claimed for themselves after they had fetched dinner.
"So." he began as he began to eat, "I'm sergeant Swift Specter. This squadron is under my command now and," he looked up briefly and smiled, "would like to meet you all."
The squadron remained silent, staring at him.
"Since when has an earth pony been given command of a flight squadron? And these wings ... are they screwed on?" everyone started laughing.
Electric was about to get up and say a few ugly things when Swift put his hoof on her shoulder.
With another movement, and after she had calmed down a little, Swift indicated his badge of rank.
"You talk to a superior officer. If I were to take the whole thing seriously, I would immediately have you thrown into the brig. But since I understand fun, I think that you do 50 laps around the airship followed by 50 push-ups. Any objections ? "
A Squadron mare was about to say something when Swift pointed to her, "One hundred push-ups for you."
Everyone remained silent and looked at each other in confusion until Swift raised his voice, "It seems like I'm not being taken seriously here." He got up, but everyone in the squadron went off to meet on the deck outside. Electric followed him and looked at him questioningly.
"Sometimes you have to show dominance. I hope I don't have to do that too often. That would be a bit annoying. With a little luck, this is the one and only time today."

He stood in front of the Squadron and called out: "ATTENTION!"
The Squadron immediately came to attention, eyes straight.
Swift paced up and down and said, "I know that we all met on the wrong foot. But I see it very critically if you call me earth pony, because I don't have the ability or the stamina of them." he spread his wings, "I am a Pegasus. Even if I lost my wings in battle!"
Swift stopped in front of the mare he had previously prevented from doing push-ups.
She had a green and yellow mane, her coat was a light blue. "You. What's your name, specialist." he asked her
"Sir, my name is Sharp Wing, sir." she saluted.
"Well then, Specialist Sharp. If you finish the fifty laps around the ship first, you will be spared the fifty extra push-ups." said Swift with a grin.
He went on, "Squadron. Prepare. Ready. Go!"
The pegasie and the bat-pony took off.

On lap 43, Commander Rainbow Dash came and sat next to Swift.
"sergeant Swift. How is the Squadron doing?" she watched the ponies that had just finished the round
"Very well. I think I'll let them off the hook after the training flight and give them some R&R." Swift said, leaning back, "If I had known how good it felt to be on command, I would have tried much earlier." He was beaming.
"Careful, sergeant, the job also has its downsides." Commander Dash warned softly, "The one thing that is out of control ... the enemy can always come and grab one of your wingponies. And before you know it, you're alone, behind enemy line, wedged the wing under a rock and the enemy came closer."
Swift shuddered, "or watch the whole squadron die around you and for some reason be one of the few survivors."
"We both have our stories." said Commander Dash, then hit him on the shoulder, "But we'll get through that together, won't we, sergeant?"
"Yes, ma'am. You can rely on me." Swift replied with a small smile
Electric joined them and also looked up. "And? Can I at least listen here or is that also top secret?" she sounded a little ... angry. Swift chuckled, then opened his wing and put it around Electric, who looked up in surprise. "I think you already know where it's going. You were in the workshop when I said it for the first time."
Electric looked down, but then nodded.

After a while the Pegasie and the Batpony landed back on the airship, a little out of breath but still quite fit.
"Very good work." , Swift announced, "I'll give you the push-ups. Take a rest, we'll be getting pretty close to the front lines in a little while. And it's getting dark too."
"I'll take over the night watch." said the Batpony and turned back, ready to take off. With a flap of his wings the bat pony was back in the air and flew a little ahead, a weak light on the rear hoof indicated where he was.
"Don't worry, sergeant. He's always been a bit ... grumpy." said Sharp Wings, "and thank you for allowing us to rest."
"I think you understood that I'm sensitive to insulting Earth ponies. It was my fault that I lost my wings, not theirs."
With a raised eyebrow, Sharp headed for the cabin, presumably to rest.

After midnight
Swift was sound asleep when another dream struck him.
"Destiny? Are you there?" he asked in the dream. Clocks were lying around everywhere that melted, when he went up the stairs he came out somewhere on the wall.
"What a strange dream ..." Swift said and continued to look around when a dark figure appeared in front of him.
This felt different, more like a danger than anything else.
And before he knew it, he saw a black Alicorn before him. "My name is Nightmare Moon. I'm here for the eternal night!" she stepped up to Swift, "and I heard you are about to ruin my plan. I'll take something from you for that." Suddenly Electric appeared, carried by a fog to this nightmare.
"Swift please! Save me!" Electric shouted desperately
"Electric!" Swift just called back and tried to run, but the ground wouldn't let him. This floor was sticky and barely allowed him to walk. Then the mist twisted and turned around Electric and blood came out of her eyes and mouth, as well as a wet gag, followed by more blood.
Swift woke up from the nightmare. He had wet eyes, probably tears. his pillow was wet with tears too. He was breathing heavily and was wet with sweat everywhere. Water was strictly rationed on this airship, so he couldn't just take a shower. But he could no longer sleep either.
Maybe, thought Swift, a little scenic flight? get his mind free again?

As quietly as he could, Swift crept onto the upper deck. He didn't want to wake anypony. Also, as quietly as possible, he rises into the air and waved to the observation tower. These ponies needed to know where he was, even if he was just flying on the side of the ship. If something happen while he was flying, he wouldn't just go "missing in action".

Author's Note

Airships

Airships were used as an alternative to trains at the beginning of the war against Sombras Crystal Empire, as they can move large quantities of goods quickly and easily, but they also have their disadvantages. They are hard to hide, and the Pegasus Pattoulien are quite effective at distracting individual airships for a long time until an allied airship shows up and can fire the enemy.
A relatively new Trent is to use airships as carrier ships for squadrons at Pegasie, since the preferred armament of many captains are unicorns, who can use their magic shields and various combat spells to summon. Earth ponies have been stationed on these ships since the beginning of the war. They mostly operate the engines, repair and sometimes fight with crossbows mounted on the deck. Should the ship ever be captured by enemy troops, it is the task of every soldier on board to render the ship unusable.