The Fate Of Equestria Book 1: Sombra's Reign

Rainbow Dash woke with a jump, sitting up in bed, her breathing ragged and her white t-shirt plastered to her chest as it had gotten soaked in a cold sweat from her nightmare. Even sleeping in only her t-shirt and underwear, though it helped, she still managed to sweat like an elephant in the desert while she slept. She was lucky enough to be one of the few to get their own sleeping quarters, meanwhile the majority of everybody else had to share one of several rooms filled with typical military style bunk beds.

Eight years and she was still having nightmares about that day, the day that Equestria fell and The Sombra Empire was born. With Celestia dead and the other three princesses missing in action, there was nobody who was able to stop the tyrant from taking the throne and making his own twisted version of the land she had grown to love. To make matters worse for her, the pegasus she loved had been trapped in a coma for these eight long years. After everything that happened that day, Rainbow had awoken several days later in the med ward, her wing missing and her arm nearly unusable.

She had to be told what had happened after she had blacked out from the sheer shock and pain of being hit by that blast of magical energy. After the blast, the castle had started to crumble and both her and Jet had to be carried to safety by Applejack and Fluttershy, but Twilight had stayed behind to give them time to escape. From what they had told her, by the time they made it out, it was too late to go back for Twilight and she hadn’t been seen or heard from since then. Rainbow gave a hard shudder and a long sigh at the memories before throwing the fuzzy green thermal blanket off of herself, exposing her bare legs to the admittedly cold air of the room. She scooted over the side of the bed and dangled her legs off the side as she stretched, her metallic replacement wing and arm glinting slightly in the dim light, and ran her fingers through her messier than typical bed head hair. After a few minutes of just sitting there letting the air dry some of the cold sweat on her body. She slowly got up and moved across the dimly lit off white room to her locker on the far side, grabbing a change of clothes and heading out into the hallway. She made her way down the hall to the communal showers they had to use.

Just as she was about to enter the door, a puff of very bright pink smoke emitted from within and a humming draconequus walked out. He stopped to give Rainbow a smile, his uneven pointed teeth gleamed in the fluorescent light of the hallway, those teeth always made her uncomfortable as it reminded her of Sombra’s wicked grin on the day she lost nearly everything that she cared about.

She had never really liked the guy with his mismatched body parts. His cloven hoof and dragon clawed feet tapped lightly on the tiles of the floor. In his one lion pawed hand, he held a towel, in the other gryphon taloned hand was a bottle of some sort of body wash. He gave a small flap of his wings, one bat wing and one pegasus wing stuck to his back, and stretched his long snake like body as he gave a shake like a dog. This sent droplets of water flying every which way off of his pony like head and snake like tail. Rainbow covered her face and gave him a glare, this guy really was just a walking pile of spare parts.

“Well, good morning Rainbow Dash. Sleep well?” He asked while he literally flossed his ears through his head with a towel.

“Good morning, Discord, now get out of my way. I’m sweaty and need a shower.” She said with a scowl, trying to push past him, but he just moved to continue standing in her way.

“Oh, come now, is that any way to treat the guy that saved your skins by magicing this bunker into existence?” Discord said, still smiling down at her. She glared at him.

“Sure, thanks for using your reality breaking powers to make this bunker instead of helping us stop Sombra in the first place or maybe even stopping him from dropping that mega-spell bomb that decimated the country.” She replied sarcastically, giving him a look that would’ve made him drop dead on the spot if such a thing were possible.

“Oh, like I was supposed to kn…” He started to spout off a defense for himself, but Rainbow wasn’t in the mood to hear it and she quickly cut him off.

“Listen here, you mismatched assembly of spare parts, the only thing keeping me from beating you to within an inch of your sorry life is the fact that I promised Shy I wouldn’t hurt you. Keep that in mind next time you think you have anything to say to me. Now, get the hell out of my face and let me go shower in peace.” She said, managing to keep her voice steady despite wanting to scream at the draconequus. His smile finally faded and he stepped aside, allowing Rainbow to finally step into the shower room. Once inside, she peeled off her soaked t-shirt and underwear, tossing them into a bin that held the dirty clothes of the others who had taken up residence in the bunker since that initial attack. With another sigh, she set her change of clothes on one of the nearby benches and stepped under the shower head. As she kicked on the water, she stared down at the ugly green and white floor tiles. Over the years, she had grown to hate everything about this place, from the aforementioned floor tiles and wall-less shower stalls, to the eye straining off-white paint that adorned every wall, even the softly buzzing fluorescent lights had grown to be a source of hatred for her.

The slowly warming water cascaded down over her body, washing away the dirt and sweat as it swirled down the drain in a small whirlpool. She stood there, simply enjoying the feeling of the water for a few minutes before grabbing one of the clean wash rags from the stack, which were on a small wooden shelf next to the showers. She held the rag under the water for a moment to get it wet before wrapping a bar of soap around it and scrubbing lightly to get the rag good and soapy. After putting the bar back on its little soap dish, she began to slowly wash herself off. The whirlpool at her feet quickly becoming bubbly with soap suds. Once she finished washing off her body, she grabbed the shampoo, which she hated the smell of due to the fact that it smelled like a hospital room, and began to soap up her messy hair. She washed said soap out her hair and shut off the water, holding her head down to let her hair drip dry for a moment. After she was satisfied with the drip drying, she whipped her hair back and stood upright, moving to grab a towel from the same shelving space that held the rags. She started to towel off, wrapping her hair in the towel once she was done drying her body.

She grabbed her clothes off the bench and frowned, Yet another aspect of this new life that she hated. With very little material to work with, everybody’s wardrobe had been limited to just plain white bras and underwear, drab army green cargo pants, plain white tank tops and t-shirts, and combat boots. Rarity had once told her that they may not be the most fashionable, which she absolutely hated, but they were the easiest to make and the most efficient for their situation. She regrettably slipped on the clothes and rubbed the towel against her head to finish getting the rest of the water off it. She looked at her unused hairbrush and shrugged, opting to comb her hair down with her fingers as she always did.

With her shower finished, she went on with her usual daily routine, heading down the buzzing and occasionally flickering hallway towards the science wing of the bunker. Luckily, they had been able to save some of the smarter science ponies during the initial attack, and with the supplies they had raided from Sombra’s camps and shipments, they were able to keep the place up and running as well as replace the damaged limbs of those who were injured. Nobody was really sure where or how Sombra was able to get his hands on such advanced technology, but they were happy to be benefiting from it. She made her way down the hall, boots thudding softly against the tiled floor as she passed a variety of ponies going about their new lives, each one having specialty duties based on their varying skill sets. She walked into the science wing and looked around. The main room wasn’t very big, but it was big enough to hold a variety of equipment needed to keep up with the research and experiments they had going on. The room itself was slightly different from the rest of the bunker. The tiling here was a deep blue color, which made her think of Jet’s deep blue eyes and further made her hate this place, and the walls and ceiling were the same off-white but had a pair of vertical parallel lines going across it in the same shade of blue as the tiles. Against the various walls were machines that flashed and beeped, displaying various indicators that Rainbow had zero idea what their purpose was for. In one corner sat a small four drawer filing cabinet that they used to file away intel and the blueprints for their various inventions that made this new post apocalyptic life easier. At the other end of the room was a door with a large red ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ tag painted across it.

As she stood there lost in thought, a unicorn stallion with a green coat of thin fur, hair similar to Jet’s but with a pink stripe instead of red, and wearing a lab coat over his army fatigues and white shirt came up to her. He carried a clipboard and had a pen sticking out from behind one ear. She recognized him as Jet’s best, and really only, friend Sunblast. He had once been a pretty good musician, but had been made lead scientist thanks to his background in physics and quantum theory. He’d never admit it, but he only went into the music field to spite his parents, who had attempted to push him into the field of science, as they were once Celestia’s top researchers and inventors back before the megaspell bomb happened. Rainbow noticed that he was looking at her, his mouth moving, she shook herself from her thoughts and tuned back in just in time to catch the end of what he was saying.

“... Lieutenant Dash. I have some stuff you should look over.” He was saying, she rolled her eyes at him.

Ever since that incident eight years ago and only a handful of the Wonderbolts making it to safety, she had been given the title of lieutenant, and she hated it almost as much as the rest of the place.

“Sunblast… I’ve told you how many times now, you can just call me Rainbow. I’m not a fan of being in charge of things and calling me lieutenant just reminds me of that…” She said with a sigh, not wanting to get upset at him because he didn’t really do anything wrong.

“Right, sorry lieut… Uh, Rainbow. I just needed you to go over some new intel before you get busy with the trainees.” He said with a smile, pushing the clipboard towards her. She pushed it back and shook her head.

“Not right now. You know why I’m here, so let’s get on with it.” She replied without trying to sound irritated.

“Right, I’m sure he’d appreciate you coming by everyday, but I don’t really think it’s the best for your mental health. Not to mention that it’s not doing much good, honestly.” Sunblast said slowly, leading her through the ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ door and down another poorly lit hallway.

This hallway was different in the fact that along the walls was a series of viewing windows that allowed the lead scientists to check the progress on their various experiments and inventions without having to go from room to room. Rainbow never really paid much attention to what they were working on through the windows, and she frankly didn’t really care. The only thing she cared about in this section of the bunker was at the end of this hallway, through another door. Sunblast led her through that door and out into a room that looked like a cross between the science wing and the medical ward. The floors were still tiled with that bright blue but the walls were so bright white that they kinda hurt the eyes to look at for long periods.

There wasn’t much in terms of equipment in this small circular room, just a large cylindrical stasis chamber hooked up to a few smaller machines to keep it running. Among these machines was a respirator, a heart monitor, and an injection station that allowed the scientist or medics to inject various medicinal serums and such into whoever was inside the chamber. The one currently inside the chamber was what she had come to see, just as she had everyday since finding out his fate. She walked up to the chamber and looked through the semi-foggy glass, staring into the tightly shut eyes of her beloved stallion Jet. She raised her hand and gently placed it on the chamber, the metal apparatus that made up her arm clinked softly against the glass. Inside the chamber, Jet floated in some form of viscous liquid that the scientists told her was supposed to help his body heal in addition to making his replacement limbs adhere better to his comatose body.

She was lucky enough to not have witnessed the full aftermath of the blast, but Sunblast had filled her in on the details about it. According to him, the blast was so powerful that it had taken out nearly Jet’s entire left side, along with frying the feathers from both his wings. The shock to his system of such an immense injury had taken a toll on his mind as well as his body, which was why he had been sent into a coma. Sunblast had also told her that even if Jet did eventually come to, he’d be flightless due to the amount of metal implants and replacements they had to use to make him whole again.

“Any news on his status? Anything at all?” She asked, a hopeful tone coming through in her voice.

“Well, the replacement parts are successfully adhered to his body, so that issue righted itself.” Sunblast replied, checking the vitals on the heart monitor and recording them on a separate clipboard that hung on the side of said machine.

“So, that’s good, right? He’ll come around soon, right?” She asked, more hope flowing into her voice.

“Sadly, no. Though his body is repaired, his mind is still very much broken and in a perpetual state of shock. We’ve done all we can, the rest is up to him, the only thing we can do now is wait and see if he can fight through it.” He said in a steady tone to avoid upsetting Rainbow anymore than she already was.

“But he’s making progress, right?” She continued, her hopeful tone wavering now. Sunblast sighed and handed her two sheets of paper from beside one of the machines. She took them and looked them over, raising an eyebrow as she didn’t know what she was looking at. Both showed some kind of graph that looked like a lie detector readout, one looked like a normal ‘truther’ and the other was far more aggressive and at times went outside of the little scale lines as if taken from a compulsive liar.

“These are brain activity readouts that we’ve pulled from CAT scans. The one in your left hand is a normal brain scan from your average pony, the one in your right was taken from Jet just a few days ago.” He replied, pointing to each as he gave her the rundown of them. The one she held in her left hand was the ‘truther’ readout and the one in her right hand was the crazy one that went outside the lines occasionally. She handed them back and nodded slowly to show she understood.

“Whatever’s going on inside that head of his, it has to be an awful experience for him. But don’t worry, he’s a strong willed stallion, I’m sure he’ll beat whatever it is and come back to you in no time.” Sunblast said reassuringly, putting a hand gently on her shoulder.

“Yeah…” Rainbow said quietly, moving back to the chamber and placing her hand on the glass again. On the outside, she put on a strong face to keep some hope for those living in the bunker, but internally she was completely crumbling under the weight of depression and heartache.

“So, about the intel I was telling you about?” Sunblast asked, once again snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Sure, let’s see it.” She replied with a frown now adorning her face. She took the clipboard from him and looked it over, it was a short file detailing the little info they had about Sombra’s operations.

“As you can see, our scouting parties have identified three main compounds that would be beneficial to take out if we’re ever going to win against that crystal obsessed tyrant. But…” He stated as they walked back down the hallway towards the main room of the science wing.

“There’s always a but…” Rainbow said with a roll of her eyes.

“Unfortunate, but true. These facilities are heavily guarded and have unknown assailants running them. One we’ve identified as the source of the frequency that Sombra uses to keep his soldiers under his mind control. We’ve also been able to identify the main source of his supply shipments, a large warehouse set up in the middle of what used to be Ponyville, but it seems to have some sort of cloaking technology keeping it hidden and electrified force field up until a truck arrives to pick up its next shipment of supplies. The last one has been identified as the power source of an energy field protecting what’s left of Canterlot Castle.” Sunblast explained while fiddling with one of the machines, checking dials and readouts to make sure everything was where it needed to be.

“Wait, why protect the ruins of the castle? Doesn’t he have his entire kingdom in what used to be the Crystal Empire?” Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, that’s the thing, we don’t know. Of the three scouts we sent to investigate, none have come back. The only reason we were even able to get this intel was thanks to my invention of a camera with a sniper scope for a lense. But, if he’s putting that much effort into protecting it, he must have something worthwhile hidden there, and we know for a fact that he makes routine visits to the castle as he’s been spotted both coming and going from there.” Sunblast replied, standing upright from checking another of the machines.

“Hmm… Whatever it is, if it’s leaving the safety and comfort of his throne in the Crystal Empire, then I’m certain it’s worth looking into. But we really can’t afford to lose any more scouts for it. I’ll go myself when I get the time.” Rainbow said, still looking over the file, which included photos of Sombra entering and exiting the ruined castle.

“No! I mean, no, We can’t afford to lose you too. Not to mention how pissed off Jet would be if I let anything happen to you while he’s out of commission. Besides, we need you here to keep the trainees in line. They don’t exactly listen to anybody else.” Sunblast said quickly, knowing that his friend would indeed be furious with him if he woke up only to find that Rainbow had gone MIA while he was out,

“You have a point, but somebody has to get this intel. There could be something important in there, What if it’s Twilight? He could be using the ruins as a hideout to torture her or worse…” She said with a hard shudder at the thought of what became of her friend.

“Rainbow, it’s been eight years. We’ve seen from the ones we’ve managed to rescue from his internment camps that he doesn’t feed his prisoners. So, even if he was keeping her prisoner, she’d have likely starved to death by now.” He said in a slow steady tone as to keep her calm. Rainbow didn’t want to accept that, but she knew he had a point.

“I guess you’re right, but it doesn’t hurt to hold onto the hope that she’s still out there somewhere in this hell hole.” She said with an attempt at a smile, but Sunblast knew it wasn’t a genuine one. Nobody had seen her legitimately smile since Jet went into a coma.

“Well, yeah, hope is kinda all we have at this point. Maybe I’m wrong and we’ll find her one day, but until then, we’ll just have to assume the worst. In the meantime, I’ll file this with the rest of our intel.” He said as she handed the clipboard back and he moved over to the small file cabinet in the corner.

Each of the four drawers had different labels, corresponding to what was held within. The topmost drawer was labeled ‘intel’, the one below it was labeled ‘schematics and ideas’, the third read ‘future projects’, and the bottommost one which was also the newest looking label read ‘top secret projects’. Rainbow took notice of the newest looking label and pointed at it.

“Hey, I don’t remember that being there. What sorta top secret projects you got going on?” She asked, trying to move over to open it. Sunblast stepped in the way with a nervous smile.

“N-Nothing you need to worry yourself with right now. Shouldn’t you go try and get some breakfast before you have to train those newbies?” He said casually, as if he didn’t just prevent his superior from viewing his secret files.

“Fine, but this isn’t over. We’re going to talk about what you’re hiding in the cabinet.” She said matter of factly before walking off, making her way out of the science wing and back down the hall to the cafeteria area.

She walked slowly down the dingey hallway, not really in a hurry to start the training with those rookies. They weren’t bad or anything, she had just fallen into a rut of the same daily routine for nearly three-thousand consecutive days with nobody for her to vent to or hold her and tell her everything would be ok, like things used to be. She stepped out into the cafeteria, which was painted the same off-white as the rest of the hallways and rooms as well as the same gross green floor tiles. It was a very large square room that consisted of two floors, the second floor had handrails painted the same depressing green as the floor tiles, a handful of tables with attached benches that were the only thing not painted green but instead a bright shade of yellow, and of course the service counter where you got your food from. Around the cafeteria were five hallways branching off further into the bunker, each one leading to a different wing and a set of stairs as well. There was the science wing, the med ward, the greenhouse, the gymnasium, and the hallway that led to the ladder outside. The hallway for the ladder outside was the least used, mostly only used by the scouting parties and the few technicians who occasionally went out to check on the hidden generators that kept the place powered.

Rainbow got in the line that was formed at the service area of the cafeteria and grabbed a tray from the stack at the end of the line. It wasn’t much of a line as most had already gotten their breakfast and went to find seating at the various tables and she was the last one in line. After a short while she made it to the front of the line and was greeted by a familiar face, Applejack. She wore the same army fatigues and white t-shirt as the rest of the inhabitants in the bunker, the only thing different was the hairnet she had over her blonde hair, her usual red scrunchie still holding it up in a ponytail beneath the hairnet. Applejack had been put in charge of the greenhouse and cafeteria, along with her little sister Applebloom, given their prior experience running a farm.

“Well, howdy there Rainbow. Yer lookin’ a lot worse fer wear today. Ya ain’t sick, are ya?” Applejack asked, concerned by the look of her friend.

“Pfft, I wish I was sick. At least then I’d have an excuse for looking this bad and I’d be able to stay in bed.” Rainbow replied with a shrug.

“Maybe ya just need somethin’ to eat? Here, try this, we been tinkerin’ with some new recipes to change things up a bit.” Applejack said as she plopped some kind of vegetable dish onto the tray, along with a carton of milk and a granola bar.

“New? Looks like the same old veggies and granola to me.” Rainbow said with a grimace at the food, sure it was good for keeping in shape but just once she’d like to have a nice greasy slice of pizza or even maybe even one of Pinkie’s cupcakes that she always used to smother in extra icing.

“Oh, hush up and give it a try before ya judge it.” Applejack replied with a small punch to her friend's shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll give it a try, geez.” Rainbow said with a slight smirk before picking up the tray to go find a place to sit down and eat.

As soon as she turned around, she already spotted a bright pink pony waving at her excitedly through the crowd. Pinkie had a seat saved right beside her, as per the usual. Rainbow loved Pinkie like a sister, but her constant upbeatness sometimes got on her nerves. She just couldn’t see how Pinkie managed to stay so upbeat under their dire circumstances. Rainbow walked over and plopped down in the saved seat, as soon as she did, Pinkie leaned over and gave Rainbow one of her signature bear hugs. Rainbow ler out a small groan as the force of the hug made her back pop like a Rice Krispie.

“Rainbow! I was starting to think that you weren’t coming to breakfast and that I saved this seat for nothing! How are you feeling?! You look kinda bad! Is there anything I can do to help?! Maybe one of my famous Pinkie Pie songs will bring up your mood! You should smile more, your smile is pr…” Pinkie was talking very excitedly and nonstop, which Rainbow expected nothing less from the overly hyper pink pony, but regardless Rainbow put a hand over Pinkie’s mouth to put a stop to the overflow of words.

“Pinkie… I feel fine, I know I look like shit, Applejack already told me as much just nicer about it. You can’t help what’s bothering me, and for the love of the Gods, please don’t start singing. Now, I’m going to remove my hand, but I need you to chill, ok?” Rainbow replied, answering all of Pinkie’s questions all at once in the hopes that it would satisfy the literal word fountain that she called friend. Rainbow slowly removed her hand from Pinkie’s mouth.

“Sorry, Rainbow Dash, I just get so excited when I see you. All I have left is you, AJ, and Rarity now…” Pinkie said calmly, her ears folding back against her head and her eyes darting towards the floor. Rainbow just sighed and put her hand on Pinkie’s back gently.

“It’s ok, Pinkie. I’m sorry and I know, that’s just too much to take in this early. If I’m honest, I wouldn’t have you any other way. Somehow you’ve managed to stay happy and upbeat through everything, and that’s kept morale high. You’re the backbone of our whole resistance operation.” Rainbow said, rubbing Pinkie’s back slowly to help reassure her friend.

“You mean it?” Pinkie asked, her smile coming back and her ears perking up again.

“I truly do, Pinkie. Without morale, there’s no way we would’ve made it this long.” Rainbow replied with a small smile at the corner of her lips.

Pinkie squealed happily and bear hugged Rainbow again, this time making her shoulders pop. Rainbow groaned again and gasped slightly, tapping Pinkie on the shoulder to her attention.

“Pinkie… Need… Oxygen... “ Rainbow gasped out through the sheer force of the bear hug. Pinkie let go and giggled lightly.

“Oops, sorry Dashie! I forget my own strength from time to time!” Pinkie said with another giggle.

“Y-Yeah, I noticed… And I’ve asked you not to call me that. I’ve only ever let one pony call me that, and he’s currently in a coma.” Rainbow said, shaking her head lightly and trying not to sound so depressing.

“Oh, right, oopsie daisy!” Pinkie replied with a giggle snort.

Rainbow rolled her eyes jokingly at the silly pink mare, grabbing her fork and digging into the veggie dish. They both munched away in silence for a while, Rainbow had to admit that whatever Applejack had done to these veggies was incredibly good and definitely different from the usual bland steamed variety. She finished them quickly, she was clearly hungrier than she initially thought. After finishing the veggies, she moved on to open her carton of milk, still a bit confused how they managed to put it in the little cartons, given their current circumstances. She sipped from it as she picked up her granola bar. She sarcastically thought to herself, ‘gee, wonder what flavor it is.’ She took a bite, and surprise surprise, it was apple flavored. As she scarfed down her millionth apple flavored granola bar since being basically trapped here, she noticed Pinkie was staring at her with a huge grin plastered across her face. Rainbow swallowed her last bit of granola bar followed by her last drink of milk.

“Uh… What is it, Pinkie? You’re weirding me out here…” Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow and leaning away slightly.

“Oh… Noooothing. Just this!” Pinkie replied, pulling a small paper bag from under her seat and setting it in front of Rainbow.

“Uh, thanks? What is it?” Rainbow asked quizzically as she eyed the paper bag suspiciously.

“Open it, silly!” Pinkie replied, nudging the bag closer to her.

“Fine, but if this is another prank I’m going to slap the curls out of your hair.” Rainbow said, only half joking.

Despite a shortage of supplies, Pinkie still managed to keep up with her pranking. Against her better judgement, Rainbow slowly unrolled the top of the paper bag and looked inside. What she saw made her gasp loudly. At the bottom of the bag, inside a plastic container, was a small brightly colored cupcake decorated with rainbow striped frosting. She pulled the container out of the bag and set it on the table in front of them. With some hesitation, she popped open the top and brought it to her nose and took a sniff from it, the delicious sugary smell almost bringing a tear to her eye. She sat it back down on the table and prodded it with her fork, making sure it was real and not some kind of day dream brought on by missing this sort of thing.

“Happy birthday, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie screamed and delicately plunged a small misshapen blue candle into the cupcake.

“Pinkie… How did you…” Rainbow started to ask, still mesmerized by the fact that she was looking at probably the first cupcake to exist in eight long years.

“Weeeeeell, I had to bribe a couple ponies to get all ingredients, and pull some favors for Applejack to get access to the ovens in the back and then I had to do some things for Discord to get the matches, the candle I made myself though! But, that’s not important! It’s your birthday and you should be able to have some cake for once! Now, make a wish, silly!” Pinkie replied before she could finish, as if reading Rainbow’s mind to know what she was going to ask.

Rainbow didn’t know what to say as Pinkie reached over and flicked a match, lighting the candle and almost vibrating in her seat as she waited for Rainbow to blow it out. With only a moment of thought, she blew it out, making her wish. She knew it wasn’t going to happen, but the only wish she had was to be reunited with Jet.

“So, what did you wish for?! Huh?! Huh?!” Pinkie asked excitedly, fully bouncing in her seat now and shaking the whole table.

“You know if I tell you, it’s a guarantee that it won’t come true.” Rainbow replied, a genuine smile slowly crossing her lips as she couldn’t believe what Pinkie had done for her.

“Oh, yeah! Oopsie poopsie!” Pinkie said as she giggle snorted yet again.

“Did you want some? I know how much you must miss cake yourself.” Rainbow asked, removing the candle and licking the frosting off before using her fork to split the cupcake down the middle and sliding half over to her.

“Are you sure, Rainbow? I made it for you, after all.” Pinkie said, unsure about accepting the offer, she really did miss all the sweets she used to get at Sugarcube Corner.

“Of course. Like you usually say, sharing is caring.” Rainbow replied with a small smile now on her face.

Pinkie’s smile widened as she took half of the cupcake. They two sat in silence as they ate the cake. Rainbow’s taste buds went alight with the sort of pleasure one can only get from eating something that was so desperately missed. Pinkie scarfed hers down like it was going out of style, which technically it was. Meanwhile Rainbow ate hers slowly, savoring every bite of the moist delicious cake and the creamy sugary frosting. It might give her body an overload of sweets followed by a sugar crash from hell after so long without the stuff, but she didn’t care right now, it was more than worth it. Once she finally finished, she sat back on her seat and let out a quiet belch of satisfaction.

“Wow, that tasted incredible Pinkie, thank you so much.” Rainbow said, giving her hype friend a big hug.

“You’re welcome, Rainbow Dash! I’m glad you liked it, and even more glad to finally see you smile again!” Pinkie said happily, returning the hug and lightly patting her friend’s back.

“Well, Pinkie, I hate to eat and run but somebody has to go keep those trainees in line.” Rainbow said as she got up, picking up her tray and heading to the tray return beside the serving counter.

“Oh, it’s ok. I know you have important things to do as a lieutenant. Just don’t push them too hard, they gotta be able to laugh at my jokes later tonight!” Pinkie replied with another giggle.

Rainbow set her tray on the return conveyor belt and waved bye to Pinkie, heading for the gymnasium where the trainees were likely already waiting, if they kept to her set schedule anyway. Pinkie was right though, she shouldn’t be too hard on them today, they needed to be able to attend Pinkie’s stand-up act later on. She did it every week to give the ponies living this dull life a good time and lots of laughs. Rainbow didn’t mind letting her keep up with it, it helped morale immensely and made everyone forget about their problems for one night, plus it helped that her bad jokes were legitimately kinda funny most of the time. But, she didn't have the time to think about that just yet, she had newbies to train.