Chapters The sun beat down along the sandy dunes of Saddle Arabia. The unforgiving landscape had long been traversed by travelers throughout the centuries, always unchanging and always brutal. From the sand that blew everywhere with the slightest hint of a breeze to the rattlesnakes that inhabited the desert, it was no easy feat to make it through the barren wasteland.
Over the horizon, the sun climbed higher into the air, casting an orange glow that chased the dark of the night away in order begin the day anew. Shadows elongated themselves along the ground as they stretched to greet the new day. All was still in the desert landscape, not a grain of sand moved and not a breeze was felt.
However, just over a tall hill of sand, one could make out a cloud of dust rising into the air and moving forward. On the other side of the hill, four motorized carriages made their way through the desert. Inside each were a group of ponies of all kinds wearing gold plated armor and carrying weapons. These were the Royal Guards, the strongest and best trained military force in Equestria. Though their name implied that they should be guarding a fair princess in a castle in some far off land, they were in fact, soldiers, meant to defend Equestria whatever the cost. Highly trained and heavily armed, they would stand up to any foe who threatened the safety of their home.
In all of the carriages, they sat talking among each other, laughing with each other and talking amongst themselves. There they chatted, merely enjoying the company of their brothers in arms. Many had grown close to one another over the past few years they had spent in the desert together during their service and had been through some of the most grotesque events in their lives together.
One carriage in particular, however, was especially alive with activity, electric guitar music blared from the speakers inside as a Rainbow maned pegasus sat with a pair of stallions on either side of her. Had it not been for the music, the carriage would have been utterly silent, not even the soft laughter of two normally wisecracking young privates was able to break the silence in that carriage. It was then that the cyan pegasus opened her mouth to talk.
"Oh come on you guys. I feel like you're taking me to a court-martial or something. This is crazy! What did I do wrong this time? Any minute now, you're probably gonna pull over and shoot me! I mean, come on! What, are you not allowed
to talk or something?"
One of the stallions swallowed nervously.
"We-we can talk, ma'am. Its just that-"
"Oh, I see how it is. It's personal, huh?" said the pegasus, playfully feigning offense at the guard's remark.
"You intimidate them. They're not sure how to react to someone being bigger and badder than them," she heard a feminine voice say from the seat in front of her.
Rainbow Dash smiled a bit upon hearing the mare's voice front of her. Just then, she saw the stallion on her right slowly raise his left hoof into the air. Dash turned to look at him.
"You're- you're kidding me with the hoof raising thing, right?" She asked. "Come on, just speak up! I don't bite..... often". She playfully flashed her white teeth at him in an animalistic manner before giving him a warm smile.
For a moment, she thought the young stallion (who may as well be a colt) would wet himself any second by the look on his face. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes a bit and wrapped one of her wings around him, pulling him close and keeping the same smile on her face.
"Come on," she said to him. "What is it?"
He merely stared at her, wearing a blank expression for half a second before he suddenly remembered that he was in the real world.
"Um.... Miss Dash... I know you probably get this way too much, but I was wondering if you um... might take a picture with me? I mean... 'cause.. my friends at home will never believe me if I say-"
"Is that it? Jeez... With the way you were acting I was expecting you to kneel down and propose to me right here!" said Rainbow, cutting him off. "Sure. Why not?"
Turning his head around, the guard reached into his saddlebag and pulled a small camera out with his mouth, giving it to the mare in front of him with a nervous grin. As she took it and began to fiddle with it, he leaned in next to Rainbow Dash and put on smile. Rainbow in turn put on a face that she thought would look... cooler to everyone. She didn't smile, but her face didn't show signs of unhappiness or anger; she just looked very calm and... cool.
The camera clicked and the inside of the carriage filled with a bright light for no longer than the blink of an eye. The guard reached his hoof out and took the camera back from his female comrade, thanking her.
"Now, just remember, kid," Rainbow Dash said, "if you have something to say, just say it. Don't wait for someone to call on you like a little schoolcolt in the first grade."
The white stallion opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, the windows were filled with a blinding flash of light as they felt their carriage suddenly come to a halt. The driver slammed his hoof on the brakes and made a sharp turn that nearly flipped the entire vehicle. When they came to a stop, the side window was now facing ahead. Looking out, Rainbow could see that the carriage in front of them, once made up of fine iron, was now nothing but a smoldering mass of molten metal and flames.
"Contact! We have enemy contact!" the mare in front of them screamed out as she grabbed her gun and attached it to the side of her armor.
Checking to make sure it was secured and that the ammo belt in her saddlebag was properly linked in, she leaped out of the carriage and opened fire into the distance. The surviving soldiers in the convoy followed suit as they filed out of their transports one by one and opened fire. The second stallion on Rainbow's left opened the door and scrambled out, taking his gun with him.
"You! Stay with Miss Dash!" he yelled to the remaining soldier in the carriage. Just as he finished his sentence, he was engulfed in flames from a nearby explosion.
Rainbow Dash wasn't looking when the door behind her opened. Her eyes were locked on the explosion that had just taken the life of a young soldier barely into his adult years. When she felt the carriage shake from the closing door, she snapped out of her trance and looked behind her to see that the soldier who was supposed to guard her had directly disobeyed his order and climbed out to help his friend.
"Wait! Wait!" cried Dash, beginning to fear for her life upon hearing the sound of guns firing and grenades detonating just outside. "Give me a gun! Or a knife! Or something!"
"Stay here!" screamed the soldier, attaching his gun to his saddle bag and loading a clip of ammo. "You hear me?! Stay he-"
He was cut off as a barrage of bullets hit him right in the chest, puncturing a few holes in the door he had just closed. His lifeless body leaned against the side of the carriage before sliding down to the ground. Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyes shut as she did her best to collect herself after what she had just witnessed. Opening the door opposite the one covered in bullet holes, she crawled out of the carriage, the sound of guns and explosions filling her ears the second she put her front hooves on the ground. In the distance she heard a loud noise that sounded like a rocket had gone off. Just to her right, she saw the carriage that had been driving behind the one she was in explode. Its wheels flew off in different directions as everyone inside or nearby was instantly incinerated. Before she had time to register that over seven ponies had just been killed, the fourth and final carriage was also hit.
In a haze, Rainbow Dash scrambled through the sand towards a rock that was just large enough to hide and hopefully protect her from any incoming bullets. From her own custom saddlebag, she pulled out a small cellular phone, among the most advanced in existence, and desperately tried to press the buttons with her shaking hooves. As she finally pressed the final button there was a soft thud to her right. Looking away from her device, she saw that a small, glowing, fire red ruby had landed right next to her. What struck her as even more odd about this already unusual projectile was that it seemed to
glow from the inside and... oh no...
Rainbow Dash let out a scream of both surprise and horror when she realized that it wasn't just any ruby that had been designed to explode. On the side, she could faintly make out the words "Dash Co." engraved onto it's surface. Before she could turn to run, the gem detonated. The force of the explosion sent her flying backward, slamming her down on her wings several feet away.
Rainbow Dash lay unmoving on the sandy floor of the desert; her entire body burned in agony for several seconds before she felt a warmth trickling down her chest and stomach. Pulling her head up with a groan, she found that dozens of small cuts had been slashed into her chest area by shards of the ruby, each progressively releasing more blood as the seconds went by. She let her head fall back down and looked to the sky above her as the blood continued to flow out of her body. She felt her body beginning to shut itself down as she slowly slipped into the depths of unconsciousness.
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to find that the sun had been replaced with a glaring lightbulb overhead and that something, although she wasn't sure what, was holding her down and keeping her from moving. Suddenly, she felt an excruciating pain in her chest; she looked down to see several silhouetted figures standing over her and talking to one another, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. Dash opened her mouth and released a scream of pain into the air. She managed to pull one of her hooves out of the restraints and began to flail it around in a hopeless attempt to escape.
Whatever had been holding her down sprang back and wrapped itself around her hoof once again, slamming it back down onto the table she was lying on.
"Noooooooo!!!!" She screamed once again, trying to pull her hoof away.
She struggled seemingly endlessly, her chest on fire, every muscle in her body flailing in an attempt to escape whatever force was keeping her down. She screamed once more before she could see what looked to be a small metallic object being lowered down into her chest, where an incision had been made. The sight of this immediately sent her into a panic, and she began to struggle even more than she already had. Before she could manage to yank herself free once more, a cloth was plastered over her face.
"NO!" She screamed, suddenly feeling very dizzy "Don't do... don't do... don't... do... do... do... it..."
Before she could finish her sentence, her body once again went limp and the entire world around her faded into blackness...
For the second time in one day, Rainbow Dash pulled herself back from the depths of unconsciousness. The room she was in appeared blurry and there seemed to be an unnatural dark tint to everything. As her senses slowly returned to her, she could feel that something, a common potato sack perhaps, had been cast over her head. She was sitting in an unnatural position on what felt to be a chair, with a rather heavy object in her hooves. Her vision started to clear a bit, allowing her to make out what seemed to be a tripod-mounted camera in front of her.
Rainbow Dash moved her head around in an attempt to try and make sense of her surroundings. She heard a voice overhead seemingly speaking to the camera ahead. The sack was suddenly yanked violently from her head, taking the dark tint it had given to the world with it. Rainbow's eyes widened as her vision finally cleared itself up; upon viewing her surroundings, however, she truly wished she could go blind again. She was strapped to a chair in a room filled with strange bipedal dogs. Each of them, with the exception of the one talking, was carrying a gun of some form or
another. Their gazes were focused on her as the one speaking read aloud from a scroll held in his paws. Rainbow Dash's breathing grew quicker and shallower as she realized the horrible truth.
She had been kidnapped... and she was now a hostage...
36 hours earlier...
"Rainbow Dash. Daughter of the legendary Spectrum Dash, she quickly began to overshadow her father with her breathtaking intelligence and remarkable home inventions. At the ripe young age of four years old, the filly built her first circuit board, a very new technology at the time. At age seven, she invented the first computer machine known to ponykind. At age sixteen she graduated at the top of her class in the Wonderbolts Academy, shattering all previous records in flight and academic achievement. Finally, at age seventeen she changed the world with the development of Equestria's first artificial intelligence system.
Then... came the end of a legend. Spectrum Dash died when the young mare was 18 years old, leaving Dash Co. in the hooves of his very young personal assistant and friend, Lightning Dust. Also a graduate from the Wonderbolts Academy, Lightning Dust had set the all the previous records that would be broken by Miss Dash nearly a decade later. With the fate of a corporate empire on her shoulders, Lightning Dust set to work at keeping Dash Co. afloat for the next several years.
Then, three years ago, the legend continued as the 24-year-old Rainbow Dash stepped up to claim her father's throne. In the course of three years, Miss Dash has taken her company in an entirely new direction, expanding its assets and paving the way for a new Equestria. Along with the further development of computers and making them accessible to the general public, she also created Equestria's very first working mobile telephone network. Today, Dash Co. remains Equestria's top weapons manufacturer, using cutting edge technology to make the world a better place every day."
The crowd began to clap and stomp the ground with their hooves as the projected film ended on an image of Rainbow Dash saluting the Equestrian flag. Lightning Dust was among those in the audience, which consisted of ponies from the upper echelons of society as well as fellow scientists. A moment later, a yellow-coated pegasus pony with a fiery orange mane stepped out onto the stage where the film had been shown. Lightning recognized her as the leader of the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash's closest friend, Spitfire. The legendary flier trotted up to a podium at the front of the stage before tapping the microphone and clearing her throat.
"Mares and gentlecolts, for the past several years, it has been my honor and privilege to work alongside an incredible pony. She is a great friend and an even more amazing pony. It is my pleasure to present this year's Award for Incredible Service to Equestria to the lovely Miss Rainbow Dash!"
The overhead speakers drummed out a catchy fanfare of trumpets and saxophones while the audience began to applaud. The curtains behind Spitfire pulled away to reveal an empty spot where Rainbow Dash was supposed to be standing. Spitfire looked behind her while holding the small silver statue only to discover that Dash was nowhere to be seen. She laughed nervously as her face began to develop a reddish tint.
"Uh... Rainbow?" she said, turning back to the audience with her face still red. "That's... that's your cue!"
Lightning Dust merely shook her head, watching as Spitfire desperately tried to keep her cool in front of an increasingly suspicious audience. She locked eyes with her before finally standing up from her seat and trotting up to the podium. She reached her hoof out to Spitfire and took the award from her.
"Thanks for the save," Spitfire whispered into her ear. Lightning Dust simply nodded with a smile, turning to face the crowd. She blinked before starting to speak.
"Well... uh... if you can't tell by now... I'm not Rainbow Dash!" She said, trying to lighten the mood. A few ponies in the audience chuckled in response.
"Wow, that is one fancy trophy!" Lightning said as she examined the silver statuette in her hooves. "You know... Rainbow Dash might not have been able to make it here tonight, but I can assure you of one thing. If she were here, she would be delighted and honored to receive this very prestigious award and even more pleased to know that, in obtaining it, she has been able to make the world a better place. If there's one thing I've learned about her in my many years of knowing her, it's that no matter what, she is always working to improve our lives every day.
The crowd around her was completely silent as Rainbow Dash stared at the cards in her hooves. In front of her sat a grey pegasus pony with a blonde mane and strange crossed eyes. To her right was a white unicorn mare with purple sunglasses and a sapphire blue mane chewing on a piece of gum. None of them said a word as they tried to maintain their unreadable faces in spite of the high stakes.
Finally, the moment that the game had been building up to arrived. The grey pegasus laid down her cards in front of her to reveal three tens. The white unicorn released the cards from her magical grasp and set them on the table, grinning. Glancing at the cards the unicorn had set down, Rainbow saw three Jacks side by side. All eyes in the room turned to look at her, the crowd holding its breath in anticipation. A look of mock disappointment crept onto Rainbow's face as she slowly slid her cards down, revealing the ultimate poker hand: A royal flush!
The crowd exploded into a choir of cheers. Some stomped their hooves while others whistled their enthusiasm. The white unicorn's jaw dropped, letting the gum she had been chewing fall to the table top below, while the grey Pegasus merely fluttered away with a disappointed look.
"Awwwwwwww yeah!" cried Rainbow, shooting her hoof into the air and taking a victory stance.
She reached over and grabbed all the chips from the middle of the table, pulling them toward her and sliding them into her saddlebag. Just then, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Spitfire, wearing her trademark tinted shades, glaring at her. Rainbow smiled upon seeing her friend and stood up from the table, taking the winnings with her. She turned to face her Wonderbolt friend and wrapped a wing around her.
"Spitty!" she said. "What brings you to this neck of Las Pegasus?"
Spitfire tilted her head down and looked at Rainbow from over her shades. "You are unbelievable sometimes, you know that?"
"Aw jeez, what did I do now?" asked Rainbow with a slight eye roll.
"You told me that if they gave you the award, you would be there to gratefully accept it."
"Well, did I get it?"
"Yes, it's right here," said Spitfire, pulling it from her saddlebag and showing it to her, forcing her to talk with the statue in her mouth. "Bu' thaths not the poin-"
Rainbow used her wing to yank the trophy from Spitfire's mouth and held it in her hooves. "Wow! Look at this fancy thing! And you know what? I AM grateful for it, Spitty!"
Spitfire rolled her eyes through her shades, turning away and walking toward the bar on the other side of the room. "Come on Rainbow Dash... Let's get a drink... Celestia knows I need one."
"Uh, actually, I was planning on turning this in right now. I don't wanna end up losing these," Rainbow Dash said as she patted her saddlebag with a wing. "I'll catch up, okay?"
"Whatever you say, Dash." said Spitfire, not turning around or stopping. Rainbow giggled to herself as she walked toward the desk to turn in her chips.
Not much later, she found herself at the bar sitting next to Spitfire. A blue earth pony stood behind the bar, taking orders and mixing drinks for the various customers. She called him over and asked for a cup of cider, an old favorite of hers. Turning to her friend, she wrapped her front hoof around her and placed it on her shoulder.
"Come on, Spitty, what's got you so down?"
"Oh, nothing at all, Rainbow. I'm totally okay... you know, except for the fact that I had to go up in front of a crowd of ponies to present an award to someone who wasn't even there. Thank Celestia Lightning Dust was there to save my flank," Spitfire sighed.
The earth pony walked back over and placed a mug of fizzy liquid in front of Rainbow Dash. She slid her hoof through the handle on its side and brought it up to her mouth, taking a sip.
"So good ol' Dusty saves the day again, huh?"
"Yeah, but that's not the point. The point is that-"
Spitfire was cut off mid-sentence by a soft voice from off to the right. "Excuse me! Miss Rainbow Dash?"
Both mares looked over to see a green colt, easily two or three years younger than Rainbow Dash, trotting up, a pencil nestled behind his ear and some blank papers in his saddlebags.
"I hope it's not a bad time," he said.
Judging by his cutie mark, a simple pencil and paper, his appearance, and his overall presentation of himself, it was easy for Rainbow Dash to deduce that he was a reporter of some sort. A fresh young reporter too, as he sounded like he had just been given his first story assignment this morning and didn't want anything in the world ruining his chance to prove himself. Rainbow turned on her stool and stepped down, leaning against the wooden bar next to her.
"Nah. You're good," she said while looking at Spitfire, who merely glared at her back.
"Oh, thank goodness. I was so nervous that I might be interrupting you two and I didn't want to make a bad impression, especially with this being my first assignment and all. I was watching you play cards earlier and I wasn't sure if it would be okay to-" he started before being interrupted by Rainbow.
"Woah woah woah, there. Slow down and take a few steps back," Dash said as she took another sip from her cider mug. "What assignment?"
"Oh yes! Forgive me, Miss Dash!" he blurted, turning his head and burying his nose into his saddlebag. A second later he pulled out a slip of paper with his mouth. "My name ith Grath 'Arkth with tha Daily Cloud, and I wath athked by my bothh
thith morning to go on my firtht athignment."
Rainbow smiled and took the slip out of his mouth, slightly amused. "What say we try that again, huh? This time WITHOUT the card in your mouth."
The green Pegasus simply gave an embarrassed smile. "My name is Grass Marks with the Daily Cloud. This morning, my boss asked me to go on my very first assignment, which is to interview you, Miss Dash. So I've been trying to get a chance to talk to you and-"
"Calm down, kid. I get it. Let me guess... the colt who was supposed to do this has a cold and he can't make it, so your boss sent you instead?"
"Actually, the other guy broke his wing while reporting on a hurricane in Fillydelphia," the newscolt said, his smile growing a bit.
"Alright, well, let's see what you got. Go ahead, kid."
"I... um... well... yes, Miss Dash. Okay... um.. first question: You've been called the Star-"
"Call me Rainbow."
The young colt paused. "I'm sorry?"
"Call me Rainbow. It sounds so much less uptight. After all, we ARE in Equestria's best casino."
His voice seemed to shake a bit as he continued. "Well, Miss Da- ahem, Rainbow... Some ponies have called you the modern Starswirl the Bearded, and given that you-"
"Absolutely not. I don't even have a horn on my head. Next."
The green pegasus held the yellow pencil in his mouth and wrote down her response. He put it down before moving on to his next question.
"What about when ponies call you 'The Mare living off Death?'"
Rainbow Dash sipped from her cider before answering. "What a lot of ponies out there don't know is that we make more than weapons. I'm not too proud to say it, but they happen to be the number one thing we're known for. But think for a second: If we didn't make things like the world's first Saddle Gun or the Dragon's Breather's or the Mini Bomb Ruby, we wouldn't have any money. And that's the money we use to make other things. The bits that come from selling our weapons help us make advances in medicine. It even let us create the only apple tree in the world that's always in bloom, even in the freezing winter. Yeah, we make things that go 'kaboom,' but without them, we can't do other things. You got all that?"
The pegasus struggled to write it all down on his paper. When he finished, over half of the paper had been scribbled on and his pencil was nearly dull.
"Um... yes, Miss Da- I mean, Rainbow. I believe I did," he said, looking over his notes.
"I'm glad, uh... What did you say your name was again?" Rainbow took another drink of cider.
"Grass Marks, ma'am."
"Grass Marks... I'll remember that. Anything else you want to ask me?"
"Not that I can think of at the moment. I asked all the questions I needed."
"Alright. You'll do good, I can tell. And hey, good luck on the job!"
Grass Marks appeared shocked that a celebrity had just wished him, a simple pegasus who was merely filled in for someone else, good luck with his job. He walked away smiling from ear to ear as he put the paper back into his saddlebag.
Rainbow swore she heard him let out a both relieved and star-struck "Sweet Celestia" as he headed out.
"What is it with you and never being able to put down your cider?" Spitfire mumbled next to her.
"What can I say? This mare loves her cider!" With that, she downed the remainder of her drink and set her empty mug on the bar, ordering another round for both of them.
It was morning when Rainbow awoke in her bed. Her head was throbbing and she couldn't remember a thing from the night before. It wasn't uncommon for her weekends to start off with a slight hangover, but normally she would at least remember where she had been and what she had done the night before. She put a hoof on her head and groaned a bit. Outside, rain came splashing down and the occasional lightning bolt flashed through the air while the thunder struggled to catch up. The sky was a dark shade of grey and she could see that the “ocean” (technically the Quiet Sea) was choppy through her window .
She looked up at the ceiling and called out, "T.A.N.K, what time is it?"
A moment later, a slow but gentle voice responded, "Time is currently 11:56 AM, ma'am."
Rainbow Dash rested her head back on the pillow, shutting her eyes once again. "And when did I get home last night?"
"Time of arrival was 3:30 AM last night."
Rainbow Dash groaned as she tried to go back to sleep in spite of the thunder and rain outside. As if the universe was doing all it could to keep her from falling back to sleep, there was a knock on her bedroom door.
"T.A.N.K.?" Rainbow called out, not opening her eyes or leaving the bed.
"Right away, ma'am," said the robotic voice.
A second later, the wooden door opened on its own, allowing an orange young mare with a purple mane to step through.
"Good morning, Miss Rainbow," she said in a warm and friendly voice.
"Scoots, I swear to Celestia... If this isn't important, I'm going to tie your mane to your tail... or... something... whatever..." Rainbow Dash groaned into the pillow.
"Well, depending on what you call important, I suppose this can count as such. Here." Scootaloo set a glass of water next to Rainbow's bed and plopped in a tablet of antacid.
Rainbow Dash moaned as she turned her body around and reached for the glass, taking a sip. As much as she loved Scootaloo for being such a good assistant, there was nothing she despised more than seeing her in the morning. No matter what time it was, she always seemed to be up and ready for Dash to wake, armed with a cup of coffee and her schedule. As effective as it may have been, it was the last thing Rainbow ever wanted to wake up to.
"Today you have a demonstration for some kind of new invention, I believe you called it a Rainboomer, with some high ranking officials in Saddle Arabia. Then you have to meet with the Captain of the Royal Guard before you come home."
Though she was very young, just barely making it past the minimum age when she had first been hired, Scootaloo was very hard-working and steadfastly loyal no matter what. Quick to respond to nearly any situation she was presented with and never unprepared for whatever drama the day might bring, Rainbow Dash never doubted she had picked the right mare for the job. In fact, as the years went by, Rainbow had begun to see her as more of a younger sister rather than an employee. She sometimes wondered if Scootaloo thought the same of her.
"Oh don't worry, it's not much. Just visiting another country to show off a piece of amazingly expensive and advanced technology, right in the middle war zone. No biggie..." Rainbow said sarcastically.
Scootaloo merely smiled at her boss' reaction. "And I suppose you would want something to eat before you head on out?"
"You know me too well, Scoots," grinned Rainbow Dash.
In theory, a pegasus could fly across the Quiet Sea in approximately 96 hours without stopping. However, the amount of food and water that pegasus would have to carry in order to sustain themselves would only cause them to lose strength faster than they would be able to recover, ultimately leading to a plunge into the unforgiving waters below.
Nearly 85 years ago, two pegasi had created a machine that was only able to fly on its own but also, if large enough, was able to carry ponies who lacked wings inside of it! That machine became known as Equestria's first airplane. Over the decades, it had gone through many changes, some improving upon the original design while others simply fell to the wayside. Rainbow Dash had initiated and led the project to create fastest flying machine in Equestria. Drawing on a team composed of the nation's most brilliant minds, Dash Co designed a plane that would be able to make the journey across the Quiet Sea in a mere three hours. The extraordinary development led to planes overtaking sea travel as the primary method of overseas transportation and also allowed Dash Co to become the world's first air service, carrying passengers in large commercial airliners for affordable prices. With no competition, the corporation held a monopoly over the skies, flying unicorns and Earth ponies wherever they needed to be within a few short hours.
Many newer and faster variations had come and gone in the years since Dash Co had changed the face of air travel, but Rainbow Dash never gave up her first design. She never explained why she didn't exchange her first plane for a faster one, but many speculated that she kept it as a reminder of the day she changed history.
That plane was the same one she sat in right now. It wasn't nearly as large as the ones used to carry passengers, but it certainly stood out; Rainbow had made sure of that. With a cyan blue base and rainbow colors streamlining all along it, it was easily visible against the sky. Inside, Rainbow waited silently in a seat next to the window, looking out at the sea below. The water was still choppy and dark from the storm they had flown out of not long ago. The view wasn't very thrilling, just the occasional white puff of sea foam breaking the otherwise dark and still surface.
Rainbow let out a sigh. The sight of a whale breaching now would be enough to make her jump out of her seat and press her face against the window just to catch a glimpse. At least it would be better than the total silence that dominated the interior of the plane. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out of her chair, trotting across to the other side of the cabin to pick up a magazine. She flipped through it before tossing the print on the ground and letting out a groan in frustration.
"Ugh! I'm sooooooo bored!" she announced to no one in particular.
"Well, get used to it. We've got about another hour to go before we get there," came Spitfire's voice from behind.
"You're kidding, right? It's been, like, six hours now!" Rainbow turned to Spitfire, scrunching her face.
"Just two actually. We still have one more hour to go before we can land. Better sit tight, Rainbow Dash. We've still got a while to travel."
"Sure feels like it's been six..." Rainbow Dash hung her head low in boredom. "Why didn't I bring more Daring Do books?" she muttered.
"What was that?"
"Uh, nothing, just... thinking out loud," Rainbow quickly replied.
"Rainbow Dash, are..." Spitfire snickered a bit. "You're not still reading those children's books are you?"
Rainbow could feel her cheeks burning. "Not at all! I got past that kiddie stuff ages ago!"
Spitfire's mouth began to transition to a sly grin, the kind a filly would make if she was trying to keep a secret but doing an awful job of it. Rainbow stared while Spitfire trotted over to a cabinet in the back of the plane and used her hoof to pull it open. Two thick hardcover books fell out, each depicting a mare wearing an explorer's hat and holding onto a golden statue while swinging from a tree with a crumbling temple in the background.
"Okay, okay... So I have two Daring Do books lying around that I must have forgotten to take out. That doesn't mean I still read them..."
Spitfire's smile only grew as she made her way over to the dufflebag Rainbow had thrown together at the last minute before leaving. She looked back at Rainbow before reaching her head down and using her mouth to pull the zipper. Once she had opened the bag, she reached in with a hoof and pulled out another Daring Do book, showing it to Rainbow.
"Well, uh, that's my, er... lucky book! I've taken it with me everywhere for the past few years..." Rainbow sputtered in an attempt to salvage her dignity.
"Hm, this must really be an incredible book for you to have carried it around all this time. In fact, you must love it so much that I bet you've had it for years before before its official release a week ago!" she smirked. "And perhaps I'm mistaken, but doesn't it look like Daring Do signed it just last week?" Spitfire opened the book to look under the front cover.
She turned the book over, holding it open so Dash could clearly see the written message on the inside. Scribbled in perfect cursive with black ink was a note from Daring Do herself:
"To my biggest and favorite fan in Equestria, Rainbow Dash. Your inventions have saved my neck more times than I can count! Thanks, and good luck! Keep Rockin'! -Daring Do." The message had been dated just the week before.
"Wasn't she in Las Pegasus for the release of this one? Just this Sunday?" Spitfire's smile grew wider and wider. "Still gonna try to save yourself now, Dashie?" she teased, referring to Rainbow with the nickname she had used since they were fillies.
Knowing she was backed into a corner, Rainbow let out a puff of air from her mouth, blowing a stray rainbow-colored hair back into its proper spot in her mane. She turned to glance back out the window when something suddenly struck her. She looked around to see Spitfire sneaking a peek inside the book.
"Hey, wait a minute. How did YOU know Daring was at the release of 'Raiders of the Temple of Doom' a week ago?"
She watched Spitfire's smug grin disappear before the yellow mare began to bite her lip. A small tint of red crept onto her face.
"Well, uh... see... my little, um... cousin loves them and she, uh, wanted me to take him to go meet Daring Do..." she struggled to make up an alibi on the spot. As it turns out, she was an even worse liar than Rainbow Dash.
"You know, Spitty, before you take your cousin anywhere, it's pretty important to know what gender they are..."
Spitfire's face made it clear that she had been caught. Rainbow Dash laughed as she walked over to her friend and put a wing around her.
"Don't worry, I'm sure Daring Do has enough room for two big fans in Las Pegasus."
Spitfire continued to blush before suddenly cracking a smile. A moment later, she found herself laughing at the unusual situation they were currently in. It wasn't long until Rainbow began to smile herself and joined into the peals of laughter with her friend. The two young mares continued to giggle together as the plane sped on through the sky.
After what felt like forever, the plane finally began its descent and landed smoothly on the runway, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. Rainbow Dash was already standing in front of the cabin door awaiting word from the pilot that it was safe to step outside.
His voice sounded through the speakers on the ceiling: "Miss Dash, we have safely arrived in Saddle Arabia. If you would please-"
Before he was even finished, Rainbow had already pulled the hatch open and flown out of the plane as fast as she possibly could, coming to a stop a short distance away. She simply hovered in the air for a bit, stretching her wings. The sun beat down on her from high in the air while she closed her eyes and stretched out her front hooves as far from her body as they could possibly go. Rainbow Dash let out a satisfied sigh of relief at finally being free from the cramped chambers of the plane. She turned around to see Spitfire talking to a gruff-looking earth pony with a graying mustache on his face.
Letting out a deep sigh, she began to take in her surroundings. It was exactly what anybody would expect to find in a military base: Everyone around her was either doing some kind of training exercise, fixing something, or simply standing alert. Rainbow had never liked visiting military bases; they always made her uncomfortable for some reason. She loved to be free and do what she wanted her own way; she liked to stretch her wings both literally and metaphorically. A military base felt like a complete foil to her personality. There was only one way for ponies to do things, following orders and carrying them out. Not even the pegasi could fly when they wanted to; they weren't allowed to take off without clearance. The rest of the time, they weren't even allowed to move their from the sides of their bodies, much less stretch them. At least she had known Spitfire since they were both fillies, meaning that she rarely acted so-
Her thoughts were cut off as she heard Spitfire's voice behind her. "Rainbow, this is General Silver Shield. He's here to observe your presentation today."
Rainbow Dash turned to look at the mustachioed pony Spitfire had been speaking with moments ago. He extended a hoof out to her, which she shook awkwardly.
"Welcome, Miss Dash. We look forward to what you have to show us today. I hear it's quite the spectacle."
"Well, I guess that depends on what you call a spectacle, I guess," Rainbow said, trying not to look at his eyes for fear that she might somehow anger him.
"I suppose we shall have to wait and see then, yes? If you'll excuse me, I have some forms in my office that need signing. I will see you two at the presentation this afternoon. Good day."
With that, the decorated pony began to trot past them toward what Rainbow assumed was his office. She leaned over to Spitfire. "He's kind of uptight, don't you think?"
The yellow mare leaned back and whispered into her ear, "Just behave yourself. I know how much you hate these places."
Rainbow turned to look at her with a smile. "You know me, Spitty. I'm ALWAYS on my best behavior!"
She shot her friend the most innocent face she could manage.
Spitfire just rolled her eyes and put a wing around her before the pair walked off to where she was scheduled to present her invention.
Rainbow Dash cleared her throat as the group of uniformed ponies quieted down and stood at attention. She took in a deep breath before starting.
"I'm pretty sure you all know who I am. I'm the mare who makes your fancy toys." Some of the ponies in the audience chuckled. She licked her lips before continuing.
"Those toys keep the bad guys in line and save innocent lives each and every day. With that being said, there always comes a point when the bad guys decide, 'Hey! Lets do something new!' Well just like them, we need to try something new now and again too. And that's why I'm here to present to you the newest toy from Dash Co. If you ever find a reason to fire one of these, I can personally guarantee that the bad guys will be running home to their mommies." She motioned to a large crossbow-like device behind the group. A large red sphere rested at the rear end where the long band had been pulled back. On the side , the words “Dash Co.” had been printed in white paint on the ball.
Rainbow Dash pressed a button on the remote she held in her hoof, causing the slingshot to launch the ball into the air. All eyes followed the speeding object. As it gradually flew farther away, it gained speed and grew smaller in the distance. Suddenly, less than a quarter of a mile from its target, the ball exploded and broke up into several smaller pieces, each leaving a tail of vibrantly colored smoke behind it. The balls fell in a line, each different color aligning perfectly to give the illusion of a rainbow flowing to the ground. As the pieces neared their target, Rainbow pulled the pair of sunglasses she had been wearing on the top of her head back down over her eyes. She turned to look at her audience once more.
"Mares and Gentlecolts, I present to you a little something I like to call..." she paused, waiting two seconds before deciding her timing was right, "the Rainboomer!"
Just as she said this, the rainbow behind her crashed into the distant ground with a deafening explosion. A massive rainbow-colored ring of light formed at the epicenter of the shock wave and began to spread out in different directions. The ring sped towards the group while Rainbow Dash braced herself. The force of the shock waves knocked several stallions off their hooves and to the ground. Struggling to get back up, they all saw Rainbow's proud, smiling form standing over them.
A small chest in front of her opened up, releasing a cloud of cool air and dry ice. She reached in and pulled out a bottle of cider, pouring herself a mug. "If you order right now, I'll throw in one of these absolutely free!" she joked, sipping the cider.
A convoy of motorized carriages was lined up in front of her, ready to make the several-mile-long trek back to the base. She stepped inside and situated herself between two young stallions dressed in the standard golden armor. She would meet Spitfire that night before they both left to go back to Las Pegasus on the plane. An electric guitar began playing over the speakers in the carriage as they started to move.
Revelations and Realizations
Rainbow Dash suddenly felt herself pulled back from the depths of unconsciousness. She took in a deep breath through her nose, filling her lungs with cold damp air before exhaling it through her mouth. There was a steady beeping coming from somewhere to her left. Slowly, she began to take deep and steady breaths, hoping that she would be able to stay awake this time. Closing her mouth after taking another gulp of air, she felt a foreign object resting along the bottom of her mouth. Moving her tongue along her teeth, Rainbow Dash discovered that the object was long and tubular; it was almost like a straw but much more flexible, trailing all the way out of her mouth.
Her eyelids slowly started to creak open, allowing her to scan her surroundings. As her vision began to clear, she tried to make out the various shapes around the room. To her left was a heart monitor that appeared to be a decade old, and to her right was a small box of some kind continuously emitting a soft electrical hum. The room was completely dark, save the faint light of a dimming candle next to her.
Bringing her hooves up to her face, Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes and pushed away stray strands of her mane from her vision. She brought her hooves up to the tube in her mouth and began to tug at it. While she was pulling, she suddenly felt something shift inside of her stomach. Rainbow froze in horror. With shaking hooves, she tugged at the clear tubing once more, and again she felt the movement on the inside of her stomach. Her eyes widened as she felt the tube slide along the bottom of her jaw. She continued to pull it out of her mouth, feeling it slide upwards through her body and back out of her mouth.
"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!" She cried out as the neverending snake of a tube slid out of her.
With one last pull she finally managed to remove the tube from her innards. Gagging, she threw it across the room and looked away, shivering at the thought of what had just happened. As she lay curled up on what she presumed to be a bed, he heard the sound of moving hooves from where she had just thrown the tubing.
"Wh-who's there?" she asked in a shaking voice.
The sound of the hooves stopped as she spoke. Rainbow Dash held her breath in fear at whomever or whatever had put her here. Across the room, Rainbow could make out the dark silhouette of a pony leaning against the wall. She then heard a soft, yet heavily accented, voice from the shadows.
"Leaving that bed is most unwise. Resting 'til you can stand is what I would advise."
"Who- who are you?" Rainbow called out into the shadows.
"Fear not, young pony, for I am a friend," came its soft-spoken reply. "One who has spared you a most grisly end..."
The shadow began to cross the room towards her. The dark mass stepped into the dim light of the candle next to her. Rainbow watched as the figure revealed herself; her body was covered in stripes and her mane pulled up, almost like a mohawk. In her incapacitated state of mind, it took a moment for her to realize that the strange looking creature before her was a zebra .
"You're... you're a zebra..." she said weakly.
"But of course I am, and I'm not alone. Many of us call these great fields of sand our home," the zebra said.
"Where... where am I?" Rainbow Dash asked, noticing how dry the inside of her mouth was.
As if she could read her mind, the zebra walked to a small table at the foot of the bed and grabbed a pitcher in her mouth. She reached under the table and sifted through the contents with a hoof. A moment later, she pulled out a glass, which she then filled with water from the pitcher in her mouth. She gave the water to Rainbow Dash, who merely stared at it, skeptical as to what might be in the glass other than water.
"I give you my word there is just water in this glass. I cannot imagine-" she began.
"Where. Are. We?" Rainbow cut in through clenched teeth.
"Ah yes. You wish to know the whereabouts of this place. I see you are quite unaware from the look on your face. We're in the depths of the planet where the sun cannot shine. We are both trapped in the bottom of a mine."
Rainbow put a hoof to her forehead, taking the glass of water against her better judgement. Sipping it, she looked down into the cup. The water inside was clear for the most part, but she was still wary of what it might contain. As she continued to sip it, she noticed that her chest was covered in bandages that had been wrapped around her body. What really caught her attention, however, was a pair of wires leading into her chest and under the bandages, one red and the other green.
Using her hoof to pull one up to her face, she noted that the end not leading under her bandages led somewhere off of the bed. Rainbow Dash's eyes followed the wire trail away from her body until they ultimately led her to the small humming box next to her.
Her heart stopped for a moment and the world around her seemed to freeze for several seconds. She looked back down and stared at the bandages covering her chest. Suddenly, she reached her hoof up and began pulling at the white fabric, ripping and tearing it away from her. Layer after layer of the cloth were peeled away until finally her bare chest was exposed. Rainbow's eyes widened in shock at the ghastly scene on her body. There, on her chest, was a series of cuts and slashes scattered all over; in the center was a circular metal device of some kind where both wires ended.
For a moment, Rainbow Dash sat there on the bed, her eyes locked on the device embedded into her. She couldn't say a word as she touched the metal ring with a hoof. Once the tip of her hoof made contact with it, her breath quickened and deepened.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Her scream echoed throughout the walls of the cave and carried on even after she had run out of breath.
It had taken half an hour for Rainbow Dash to recover from her panic-induced frenzy. She had screamed for nearly ten minutes, barely stopping to even take a breath; it had take. another twenty minutes for her to stop thrashing her body.
After what felt like hours, she merely sat on the mattress and looked at the floor below. A small fire burned in the center of the room, which was completely silent save the crackling of the wood. The zebra was standing over a cauldron she had set above the flames, a bubbling liquid inside.
"What.... what the hay is this thing?" Rainbow asked in a low, monotone voice.
The zebra turned to look at her before turning back to her cauldron. "They brought you to me in a ghastly state. I got right to work, no time to wait. There was no guarantee you would come out well, as your chest was filled with the ruby's shrapnel," she answered. "I had little supplies with which to make do, but I worked best I could in order to save you. The result was not pleasant, but it would have become worse. But I fear my blessing of life may turn out to be a curse.
"You see, I removed all the shards, I was doing quite well, until the whole process went straight to Hell. In the midst of the loosely-named 'operation,' your heart stopped beating, a severe complication. Your breathing grew shallow, your vitals grew worse, I feared it was the time that you ride in a hearse. I-"
"Wait, wait," Rainbow interjected. "Are you telling me that... my heart stopped, and... I was dead?"
The zebra began to stir the boiling liquid in front of her with a large wooden spoon. She slowly and silently nodded her head, not glancing up from the cauldron.
"No matter what I did, your heart would not pump. I tried all I could but could not give it a jump. Then a radical idea dawned on me, and I got positive results through basic energy. It was a dangerous and radical, I was taking a chance, but I had come so very far that I had to advance. I needed a means to keep you alive, for your body and soul to once again thrive. So I devised a potion, of my own personal brew, and enchanted a dragon's scale, which I inserted into you. In a way, that scale now runs your heart. It is not a permanent solution, but a good place to start."
"Okay, so let me get this straight: My heart stopped... and you found out, I don't want to know how, that as long as there was some kind of energy powering it, it would still beat. So you put a spell on a dragon scale, and now this... thing, is like a battery for my heart?" Rainbow held up a wire with a hoof and motioned her head in the direction of the little humming box.
"Think of it as a simple cup, designed to hold magic until it is all used up. It holds the potion I brewed to enchant the scale, but if you are not attent, it is prone to fail. For the potion to keep working it must be refilled, and if you fail to do so you will likely be killed."
Rainbow Dash simply sat there, looking bewilderedly at her strange striped companion. Shock and disbelief were plastered onto her face, her eyes unblinking. She stayed like this for a moment before her eyes lit up and she gave a sarcastic smile.
"Yeah... right," she chuckled. "A dragon's scale is inside me and if it comes out, my heart is gonna stop. Sure... I believe you. Now really, where are we?"
She began fiddling around with the device. She gave the wires a small tug and pulled them away from the box, causing the humming noise to cease. Immediately she felt her chest grow ice cold, like everything inside of her had stopped and shut down in the blink of an eye. Every single noise seemed to echo itself five times over as she slowly slid down from the bed to the floor.
Through the echoes, she could barely make out what she thought to be the zebra's fading voice shouting at her. She struggled to catch the smallest breath; her head began throbbing and her eyes strained. The world slowly started to blur and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
In the span of 24 hours Rainbow Dash had been knocked out and pulled back into the world several times. Had it not been for the zebra reconnecting the two wires back to the metal circle buried in her chest, she would have gone out for the fourth time in just that one day. Had she not been there, it was very likely that Rainbow would never have woken up again. It was the second time the zebra had saved her life.
She lay flat on her back in a daze, looking straight up at the ceiling of the cave. At first, she was unable to believe it (or perhaps simply didn't want to), but her heart was actually being powered by what was essentially a battery. The idea of her entire life being in the balance of whether or not she was able to keep a little machine inside of her powered was still fresh in her mind. It was awful; everything she had ever worked for in her life, her inventions, her friends, her father's final creations and the Dash family legacy would end right there with her. It wasn't just shocking; it was terrifying. It was too much...
Rainbow Dash felt a lump in her throat growing in size. It wasn't long before she felt the first tear slide down her face and an even shorter time until she completely broke down. She cried. For the first time in years, Rainbow Dash, the mare famous for being so headstrong and never backing down from anything, was crying. She dug her face into the flat pillow she was resting her head upon and continued until her eyes were dry of all liquids.
She felt a hoof come to a rest on her back before sliding down. Rainbow Dash looked up from the pillow and saw the zebra standing next to her bed, stroking her wings as a mother would.
"What am I supposed to do?" she asked, her nose still a bit runny.
The zebra merely sat there silently for a moment, thinking of what to say next. "In my old village we always liked to say, 'What doesn't kill you now will make you stronger another day.' I cannot imagine that you have ever felt worse, but maybe one day you’ll be blessed through this curse," she said in the best maternal voice she could muster.
"And how wou-" Rainbow's question was cut off by a pounding on the other side of the cave.
The zebra suddenly pulled her hoof away from Rainbow's wings and stood up straight looking with unblinking eyes in the direction from where the pounding had come. Rainbow Dash pulled her head up and looked in the direction the zebra was staring. Across the room there stood what she assumed was a metal wall of some sort; with the candle being the only source of light, it was quite hard to tell. As the pounding began again, it was accompanied by a low growling and what sounded like... a barking?
"For both of our sake, I beg of you," she heard the zebra whisper above her, "lay there still and simply do as I do."
Mere seconds after she said this, there was the sound of sliding metal on the other side of the door. A moment later, the door swung open and three dog-like creatures stepped in. Each was holding what looked to be a gun on their backs. What Rainbow Dash thought most strange about their weapons was the fact that each one looked strikingly similar to the saddle-mounted ones given to soldiers in the Equestrian Military; the only difference was that the heavy plastic straps which would normally hold them in place on a pony's saddlebag had been removed. The dog-looking creatures made their way into the room and approached the zebra.
Rainbow's eyes never moved from the one leading the other two in as he stepped up to her striped companion. After looking into the zebra's eyes for several seconds, the dog began to let out a series of soft growls and woofs. It took her a moment, but Rainbow realized that the dog wasn't just making noises; it was talking to her. Her suspicions were confirmed when the zebra turned her head over to her.
"He says they have spared you for a task that they wish done. He wishes you to build a weapon greater than any gun. The one you introduced to the world today, that rains death from the sky into the bloody foray," she said. "He says he wants you to build what you called the Rainboomer."
Rainbow's eyes shot open and she jumped up to her hooves.
"No," she said firmly, a look of anger in her eyes. "No way!"
The zebra merely looked at her with a somber expression in her eyes before letting out her own set of awkward-sounding growls and grunts to the dog. The creature in front of them turned to look at Rainbow Dash. They each glared at each other before the dog turned and barked orders to his cohorts, who stepped forward and grabbed Rainbow by her forehooves and began to pull her away. They threw a sack over her head once again.
Rainbow's vision was hindered almost to the point of blindness by the sack but her other senses were still hard at work, doing their best to make sure she knew what was going on. As she was dragged and pulled through the cave, she made sure to count each individual step and the number of turns she had taken. The small box was tucked snugly under her right wing as she was pushed along. The sack was suddenly yanked off her head, forcing her to squint her darkness-accustomed eyes at the sunlight's abrupt appearance.
Looking around, Rainbow Dash could see dozens of the dog-like creatures, all doing something or other. She could have cared less what they were doing; what she did care about, however, was the disturbing fact that everywhere she turned, there was a weapon of some kind. But they weren't just basic guns or makeshift explosives like one would expect.
They were HER weapons.
"Dash Co." was plastered on the side of each mechanism and every box of shells or bullets. There were Mini Bomb Rubies, Modified Saddle Guns, Dragon Breathers... you name it and it was there.
She was suddenly thrown to the ground and felt two of the dogs pinning her down. The barrels of multiple guns were pointed directly at her face. She struggled against them but could do little to fight the combined mass of the dogs. One of the guns clicked above her as the barrel was pressed up against the side of her head. The dogs above her all snarled and growled as her face was buried into the sandy earth underneath. The box became dislodged from its place under her wing and fell to the rocky surface of the ground.
Rainbow watched helplessly as one of the dogs lifted it up using its paws. It held the small object and examined it, as if trying to understand its purpose and workings. After a moment, the dog sniffed the wires and came to the conclusion that whatever this strange device was, it was important. Using its free paw, the disgusting creature began to tug at one of the wires leading into the metal container that held the vital Dragon's Scale.
"No! Wait!" cried Rainbow in a panic. "Okay! Okay! I'll do it! I'll do it!" As if understanding what she had said, a toothy grin grew across the dog's face as it dropped the wire.
Rainbow Dash's heart sank as she realized that she was in a lose-lose situation. Betray Equestria by giving these monsters a weapon that would ruin the lives of others or die a slow and painful death. A death that would wipe away any chances of her finding out how and why these creatures had her inventions at their disposal. There had to be a way to weasel out of this one; the only question was how.
The fire in front of her crackled softly as the flames danced back and forth quickly and smoothly. Rainbow Dash merely stared at the embers floating up into the air slowly and gracefully before fading away. In less than a day, her entire world had been flipped upside down and changed forever. Not only did she have a battery for a heart, but she was being held prisoner by some grotesque dog-looking things who wanted her to build a weapon that would kill who knows how many innocent ponies and other dog... things.
From what she had seen outside, the mine she was being held captive in was nestled between two very generic-looking mountains. Even if Spitfire was putting everything she could into finding her, the chances of them locating the exact same mountains were very slim at best. And the chances that they would actually look between them and find the tiny entrance were even slimmer.
Why had she been so impatient? Why couldn't she have waited to fly with Spitfire back to the camp together? If she hadn't been so eager to get home and too lazy to fly, she probably wouldn't be here.
Rainbow's thoughts were cut off when she felt a blanket of some sort being draped over her back. Looking up, she found the zebra looking back down at her with a sympathetic smile. She weakly grinned back before using her mouth to pull the quilt around her so that her entire body was bundled inside. She gve a slight shiver; despite the fire and the generally hot weather outside, the cave was still freezing cold.
Her zebra companion walked around and sat on the opposite side of the flames, looking across at her. Aside from the crackling noise coming from the fire, the room was silent.
Rainbow's eyes were fixated on the ground, partially in defeat, but more with shame at the fact that she ended up here by her own accord. But above all other reasons, she was ashamed that somehow, someway, these creatures had gotten their paws on her inventions and were using them against her and who knew who else.
"I am sure that someone so smart as you, will find a way to escape this place very soon."
Rainbow glanced at her for a moment before looking back down. "What does it even matter anyways? We're stuck here until I give them what they want. And if I don't, they're going to tear this thing out of me! And even if I DO build them their own Rainboomer, what am I supposed to do? Just walk out? Just walk back to Equestria and pretend none of this happened? Just go back to getting rich off of building things that kill?" She tapped the metallic casing on her chest with a sigh as she spoke. "That Grass Marks kid was right... I DO live off of death!"
"Now, now. All will end well, of that I am sure. As long as your faith remains strong and your heart stays pure."
"Speaking of my heart, how long is this thing supposed to last before it runs out of juice?" she asked as she tapped the box next to her with a hoof.
"The potion should last 'til eleven tonight. Provided of course that my math is right."
Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head with her free hoof, trying to think of what to do with the cards she had been dealt. She wouldn't actually build a working Rainboomer for these freaks in a million years, but they DID say that they would give her whatever she needed in order to build the launcher and the Boomer itself. And, as far as she knew, they had no clue what it really took to build one or how long. If she played her cards right, she would be able to convince them to provide her with enough tools and supplies; then she might be able to find a way to build something that would get them out of here. It was just like in Las Pegasus back home... All she needed to do was play the cards. And if she knew how to use those cards, then she would win the game.
A grin slowly crept on to Rainbow's face as an idea began to form in her head.
The dogs were all gathered in front of her and the zebra. She stood tall, keeping the blanket from earlier wrapped around her.
"Okay. If you want me to build you... guys this thing, I'm going to need a lot of stuff," she began.
Rainbow turned to the zebra who relayed the message to the dogs. The one she assumed to be the leader simply nodded its head in response.
For the next half hour, she listed all the different supplies she would need in order to make them their "Boomer." No matter the request, they provided it without question and without hesitation. It occurred to her that, despite their knowledge of how to tinker with her inventions and make them work, these mangy creatures weren't very smart. At least, they weren't smart enough to realize that she was requesting more tools than were necessary even to build the Rainboomer three times over...
After the dogs had carried in all the equipment she wanted, the small room was filled with dozens of lights and more tools than she would ever need for her supposed task. Big, red Dazzler Fireworks, once the pinnacle of the Equestrian Military's armory, were lined up against the wall opposite of them. Copper wiring rested on the table she had designated as her "workshop." Boxes filled with disarmed Mini Bomb Rubies were stacked high in the corner.
Rainbow smiled at the sight. Under different circumstances, she would love to be surrounded by so many toys with free reign to do whatever she pleased. But she wasn't under different circumstances, and she had a problem that needed dealing with. A big problem.
Rainbow Dash picked up a screwdriver in her mouth and walked over to one of the Dazzler Fireworks leaning against the wall. She pulled it from its resting place and brought the tip of the nose to her ear, lightly tapping it with a hoof. A moment later, she smiled as if the firework had somehow just told her a secret path to freedom. Using her screwdriver, she wiggled the tip in between the nose and fuselage of the Dazzler.
The Dazzler Fireworks were the biggest and baddest explosives Equestria had to offer before she introduced the world to the Rainboomer this morning. They were meant to both distract and eliminate the enemy in one swift stroke. The fuse on the back end would be lit and, twenty seconds later, the firework would speed away on a straight path in whichever direction it was pointed. Generating a high-pitched frequency, the firework would soar through the sky, leaving a brightly-colored rainbow trail in its wake. With the enemy focused on the noise and the multi-colored trail of light, they wouldn't see the firework itself until it was far too late. The resulting explosion rarely left any structure standing and, more often than not, any living being unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius was wiped from the plane of existence. It was effective, it was fast, and she was more than confident it would be able to blast the metal door off... at the cost of collapsing the entire mine and killing her in the process.
But that wasn't the reason she was picking it apart; there was something very specific she was looking for. There was a small pop, and Rainbow Dash knew that she had loosened the nose enough to pull it off entirely. Using her hooves, she tugged the pointed tip from the cylindrical body and turned it upside down, looking inside.
"Aha!" she said, using a wing to reach inside. "There you are!"
When she retracted her wing there was a small, fiery red glowing gem nestled snugly between two feathers. She picked up a nearby metal cup in her hoof and dropped the gem inside before placing it on her back and balancing it there. Without a word, Rainbow Dash trotted across the room and began to do the same with a second Dazzler. The zebra looked over her shoulder as she pried the tip off of the second one. Again, the nose came off with a slight "pop" and she reached inside, her wing reemerging with another gem. This time, the gem was glowing a dull and calm shade of green.
"If you do not mind that I may ask, what is the point of this entire task?" came the Zebra's voice from behind.
Rainbow Dash dropped the gem into the cup with the other glowing crystal. She didn't say a word as she pulled another Dazzler close to her and wedged the screwdriver between the nose and body again.
There were twelve Dazzler Fireworks in the room, three of which she had just taken apart. That gave her three gems, and she needed at least 7 more to make her idea work. If she was able to keep up her lucky streak of not dropping or damaging them, then she might be able to use extra, which would be a tremendous help. Rainbow Dash sighed and went to work on the other Dazzlers.
With the screwdriver in her mouth, she began to answer the zebra's question, the tool between her jaws hindering her ability to enunciate: "Ith 'ou reely mutht know, I nee' to pull ou' each o' theeth gemth fro' the Dathlerth 'ireworkth. Onth we do that, we can thart workin' on tha nethxt thtep."
She glanced over to the zebra, who merely looked confused. She rolled her eyes briefly before spitting the tool back out into her hoof.
"I said, we need to get each of the glowing gems from inside these things and put 'em in here," she motioned in the direction of the cup on her back. "Once we're done with that, we can get to work on melting them."
The Zebra blinked before responding. "You are suggesting we melt the gems? I do not understand how we would liquefy them."
"Don't worry," Rainbow said as she pulled her wing out of another Dazzler nose with an indigo-glowing gem tucked between two feathers. "I know what I'm doing."
She turned to the zebra with a reassuring smile. The gem made a small "clink" as it was dropped in the cup. Rainbow turned and picked up another screwdriver in her mouth, offering it to the striped mare.
For the next half hour, the pair picked apart the Dazzlers one by one, carefully removing the glowing gems from within.
By the end of the process, they had pulled open all of the Dazzlers, dropping only two of the glowing gems in the process.
Rainbow explained that the magic inside the crystals was very sensitive to impact, which was why it was placed at the front end of a Dazzler Firework. Once it came in contact with its target, the magic held within the gem was released; when combined with the concentrated gunpowder inside the tube, the result would be the Firework's famously colorful explosion. However, if the gems themselves were dropped, then the magic they contained would be released. With no gunpowder to ignite, the magic would simply fade away.
Rainbow picked up both of the dropped crystals, no longer glowing, from the floor and tossed them into the crackling fire.
Ten gems, she thought to herself. Not bad...
The metal cup glowed from the gems inside. As she carried the cup over to the table, she asked the zebra if there was any kind of fireproof material they would be able to use to melt its contents. The zebra trotted off and returned with a smaller version of the cauldron she had been using earlier grasped between her teeth.
"Perfect!" Rainbow exclaimed.
The zebra trotted over and placed the mini-cauldron on the table in front of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow set the cup down next to the black container, which had two small metal handles protruding from its sides, almost like a smaller form of the grip on a cider mug. One by one, she plucked the gems from the cup and dropped them into the cauldron. One by one they clinked into place at the bottom, illuminating the otherwise dark interior of the black pot.
Now that they had a melting pot for the gems, they were faced with the issue of how to safely place it in and remove it from the fire. Unsurprisingly, the zebra had a pair of tongs, not unlike the ones used to reposition wood in a fire place. Rainbow Dash used her hooves to pick up the tongs and carefully slipped them into the handles of the cauldron before lifting it from the table. She carried it over to the fire and set it down in the middle of the flames.
"Okay," she said, breathing a sigh of relief as she watched the flames surround the small pot. "We got that done..."
Rainbow continued to stare at the flames for a moment before turning to face the zebra.
"By the way, I never learned your name..." she said, flashing a grin.
"I've been called many names throughout the years, but my true identity remains. The name bestowed upon me at birth is Zecora, one I will never change," came Zecora's soft reply as she smiled back meekly.
"Well, I don't think I have to tell you my name, but... I'm Rainbow Dash. Nice to meet you, Zecora," Rainbow replied as she extended her hoof to her zebra friend, who shook it.
Rainbow made her way back to flat mattress, and sat down. It was going to be several hours before the gems were fully melted. In the meantime, she rested her head on the pillow and closed her eyes. For the first time in 43 hours, Rainbow fell asleep on her own, and not from being knocked out.
Rainbow Dash was standing in the middle of a sandy landscape. The sun beat down on her from above and there didn't seem to be anybody around for miles. She could see a plume of sand rising into the air above a nearby dune. A moment later, a convoy of several motorized carriages began to roll down from the top of the rise. What struck her as odd, though, was that there was no sound coming from anywhere. Nothing at all. Not even the sounds that should have been coming from the motors on the back of the carriages. It was strange. It wasn't normal... it was unsettling. It was scary. The carriages continued to silently crawl along the flat landscape. That was all they were doing. Just chugging along...
Suddenly, it occurred to Rainbow to turn her gaze upwards to the rocky mountain that she didn't quite remember being there a moment ago. Along the jagged surface of the cliffside, she was barely able to pick out several grayish shapes moving amongst the boulders and rocks. She looked back down at the four carriages pushing on through the desert, the cloud of sand following their every move.
Wait a minute. What were those things doing... Oh Celestia no...
Rainbow Dash tried to take off, flying at top speed in an attempt to warn the ponies driving the carriages that they were about to be attacked. However, as she flapped her wings she found that, no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't able to lift herself from the ground. She beat her wings furiously as she watched the convoy of carriages move forward, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. Rainbow Dash was pounding her wings faster than even she thought was possible, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't take off.
"HEYYYY!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs in the direction of the convoy. "LOOK OUUUUUUT!!!!"
It was too late. From the mountainside came a small flash of light and, before she could register in her head what the flash had been, a trail of smoke sped toward the first carriage. The world suddenly flashed all around her at the moment the missile made contact with the vehicle, forcing Rainbow to squeeze her eyes shut. When she opened them, she could see that the carriage was now a twisted wreckage of fire and molten iron. The air all around her was suddenly filled with a horrible wailing noise. It took Rainbow Dash a moment to realize that the awful, agonized screams were from the ponies that had been inside the vehicle burning in front of her.
There was another flash as a second trail of smoke sped toward the second cart. As the carriage caught fire, the sounds of the wailing and screaming from moments ago were amplified two times over. Rainbow pulled her front hooves up to her ears only to find that, even through her hooves, the screaming was just as loud; if anything, it became louder than before.
Rainbow Dash could only watch in horror while the final two carriages met the same awful fate as the the first. The wailing grew more ear-splittingly painful and horrible to listen to. They weren't just screaming in pain, they were screaming because they all knew they would never see their families again. They were screaming because their lives had been cut short before they even had a chance to really live them out and make their marks on the world. They were screaming because they had never had the chance to say “goodbye” to their loved ones. Never had the chance to tell the pony they had a crush on how much they truly loved them. Just like that, their lives were over. Their screams of agony grew louder and more awful by the second.
Just then, there was another flash from the mountainside. There was no loud noise. There was no trail of smoke. There didn’t seem to be anything at all until Rainbow Dash felt something crash into her. She was knocked off her hooves by the impact and slammed into the ground below. Her body was unable to move save her head, which shifted on its own to the side, bringing into view a fire red ruby embedded in the sand.
"No..." she whispered upon realizing she was looking directly at a Mini Bomb Ruby. "Oh Celestia please no..."
The ruby began to turn itself over in the sand. In place of where the "Dash Industries" logo would normally be there instead was one awful word, written in a dark, red liquid that trickled down the surface.
"MURDERER" the word seemed to scream out at her.
The ruby then exploded, sending a flash of unimaginable heat through her body. She screamed and writhed in agony, both in pain and guilt. Rainbow’s scream continued to fill the air...
Her eyes shot open with a start. Her body was covered in a cold sweat and her hooves were shaking uncontrollably. Rainbow Dash looked all around her, somewhat paranoid of what might happen next. It took her a moment before she began to realize that the horror she had just experienced was merely a nightmare. A nightmare based on true events, but a nightmare nonetheless.
There was a sick feeling stemming from her gut that was growing by the second. A moment later, Rainbow Dash jumped off the cot, ran over to a corner, and vomited.
As her stomach contracted, her mind was racing with thoughts of guilt and disgust. All her life, she had been told that her family built weapons to defend Equestria from anyone and anything that wanted to bring about harm. But now she knew that those very same creations of hers were being used AGAINST the ones she had meant them to protect.
It made her sick to her stomach. At least fifteen ponies had died just the other day as a direct result of the things she had built falling into the wrong hooves... well, paws in this case. But these weren't just any old things that one would be able to pick up at the store. In fact, the only possible way that anybody would be able to get ahold of them was through a direct shipment from her company. It had always been that way. And if these... things had gotten them into their possession, then there was only one possible explanation: Somebody in her company was dealing them under the table. And if she didn't somehow find a way to get out of here and return home, then more ponies would die and more lives would be ruined.
Rainbow Dash got up to her hooves, picking up a nearby rag and using it to wipe her mouth. A determined look was set on her face as she tossed the rag to the ground.
One way or another, she was going to get out of here. And she was going to make everything right...
Spitfire gazed up at the sky from the raised platform she stood on. It had been several hours since word of what happened to the convoy carrying Rainbow Dash reached her. Ever since then, she had been constantly sending out teams of pegasi to search the surrounding mountains for any sign that she might still be alive.
Spitfire learned against the railing of the covered platform and watched the sun slowly descend beyond the horizon.
There was a voice behind her. She didn't need to look to know that it was the lieutenant in charge of the base's flying teams.
"Ma'am," she heard him say. "The fourth team just got back..."
"And?" she said, still staring at the setting sun
"They, um, didn't find anything..."
Without turning to face him, she merely sighed, half in frustration and half in disappointment.
"Tell the fifth team to gear up," she instructed him, still not turning around.
"Ma'am, with all due respect," the lieutenant began, "it’s nearly nighttime. And with no way for the pegasi to see Miss Dash in the dar-"
The colt stopped as Spitfire turned to face him. Even through her sunglasses, her cold stare alone was enough to make him stop in his tracks. The mare stepped away from the rail and walked up to him, slowly pulling her shades from her face. Each hoof clicking against the wooden floor sounded like a gunshot.
"I said..." she hissed, "go... tell... the fifth team... to get ready."
"Y-yes, ma'am," stuttered the colt. "Ri-right away, ma'am."
He quickly began to climb down the stairs back to the ground below. Spitfire turned back to the railing, tucking her shades away in the collar of the white button-down shirt underneath her heavily decorated overcoat. Propping her front hooves over the railing again, she couldn't help but feel her eyes water up just a bit. Reaching into the breast pocket of her blue coat, she pulled out a worn photograph and stared at it.
In the picture was Rainbow Dash and herself sitting next to one another in the booth of a restaurant as fillies. There was icing covering both of their cheeks and an utterly annihilated cake on the table in front of them where the words "Happy Birthday, Spitfire" had once been written in red icing. The writing on the cake had long since been eaten away, but Spitfire remembered her sixth birthday as if it were only a week ago.
When they were young, Rainbow Dash was the only friend she ever had. Everyone else always avoided her because of her father's rank in the military, but not Rainbow. She wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. From their kindergarten class all the way through their high school graduation, Rainbow had always been there for her no matter what. When her first coltfriend dumped her for another, prettier mare at the Cloudsdale Prom, Rainbow Dash was the one who had dumped a bucket of milk on the both of them from the ceiling, making them the laughingstocks of the school. It was Rainbow Dash who had always told her that she was meant to be more than just another pegasus mare. It was Rainbow who was standing next to her in front of all of Equestria when the Wonderbolts were officially recognized as the most elite fliers in the Equestrian Military.
As she stood there lost in memory, she hadn’t realized how much her eyes were watering up until a tear fell from her cheek and onto the photo below. Spitfire quickly wiped away another one before placing the photo back into her pocket.
"Darn it, Dashie... why couldn't you just wait ten more minutes? Why did you have to jump into those carriages? Why... why did it have to be you?" she whispered to herself before burying her face into her hooves, silently sobbing to herself.
"Careful," she said. "Careful, this is our only shot at this..."
Rainbow Dash watched as Zecora carefully carried the miniature cauldron with the tongs in her mouth, holding her breath in anticipation. She ran over to the table that she had designated as her "workshop" and placed a clay brick on the wooden surface. Earlier, she had cut the clay in half and carved a diamond-shaped mold in the center of both pieces. She had then put them back together to create a hollow point in the center of the brick. After that, she drilled a funnel-shaped hole from the top side of the brick that led all the way down into the cavity inside.
Zecora walked up to the table and held the small cauldron over the brick. Rainbow Dash brought her face up to the space that separated the bottom of the pot from the hole in the clay.
"Okay" she said between breaths "Do it..."
She watched while Zecora slowly tipped the cauldron over and poured its red hot contents into the funnel. There was a soft hissing noise as the liquefied gems settled into place inside the clay brick. As soon as the final droplets fell out of the cauldron and into the hole, Rainbow Dash quickly put a small piece of clay over the opening, sealing the gems inside.
"Okay," she sighed. "That's done..."
The zebra set the tongs and cauldron down next to her and trotted next to Rainbow Dash, who was staring at the wall weighing her options and assessing her situation. There was a large whiteboard behind her and a green marker in her mouth. Little notes and hastily drawn sketches that Rainbow had thrown together littered the otherwise clean surface.
"Okay, so here's what we know," she said while looking over the board. "We know that they check in on us every hour or so. We know that the mine entrance is smack in the middle of a pair of mountains right here," she said, pointing to a small black dot between two crudely drawn mountains on the board. "And we know that they only open the tiny little hatch on the door when they're giving us food and water. So as far as we know, they're not watching us directly most of the time, meaning that as long as we stay subtle, we can get out of here."
Zecora sat in front of her friend, watching as the cyan pegasus paced back and forth, still looking at what she had drawn out on the board.
"All of this, we have already been through, but what do you propose that we might do?" she asked, a hint of fatigue in her voice.
Rainbow Dash suddenly stopped in her tracks. She turned to look at the zebra with widened eyes.
"Zecora... say that again..." whispered Rainbow, almost distantly.
"All of this we have been through…"
"No, no, after that!"
"What do you propose that we do?"
"Do... Do... Do... That's it! That's it!!!" Rainbow cried out in excitement.
While she certainly seemed to be overjoyed, Zecora was at a loss as to what might have caused such a reaction from her. "Pray tell, Rainbow Dash, what exactly is 'it'? Or should I be worried that your mind has finally split?"
"Daring Do! That's it!"
Rainbow ran over to the duffel bag she had brought with her from Las Pegasus. It was in the carriage during the attack and the dog-things had dumped it in here with her, but not after emptying it of anything they thought she would be able to use in an attempt to escape.
She set it down on the bed and pulled open the zipper using her mouth, shuffling through its contents one item at a time. There was a toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste, a brush for her mane, a tiny bottle of shampoo, and... There it was!
She pulled a thick, hardcover book out from the bag and laid it out in front of her on the bed. She opened it and flipped through the pages as quickly as she could. She kept this up until she found what she was searching for and stopped. She sat there, staring at the page she had opened to. Zecora trotted up behind her and peeked over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of what it was that she had found.
At the top of the page were two words that signaled the end of one chapter and the start of a new one. In large print and underlined were the words "My Escape," stylized to look as if they had been written in ink. Zecora turned to Rainbow Dash, whose face was quickly forming into a broad smile.
"This is it, Zecora," she whispered, a sense of eagerness in her voice. "This is how we're gonna get out of here..."
Rainbow tapped the middle of the page opposite the one announcing the new chapter. "In this part, Daring Do escaped from the Timberwolves by taking four pieces of hard wood and shaping them to fit her body. Then she just marched her way out of the woods. When the wolves tried to bite her, their wooden teeth almost fell out of their mouths. It was just like... a suit of armor..." her voice trailed off.
Rainbow Dash ran off to the area where the stripped Dazzlers lay on the ground in a pile, leaving the book behind on the bed. She picked one up with a hoof and examined it closely, staring at its metallic surface. She looked back over at the various tools around the room before returning her eyes to the Dazzler. Her smile grew even broader than before...
For several hours, Zecora had been napping on cot next to Rainbow's. After Rainbow had her brainstorm, she had galloped to the other side of the cave with a pencil and pad, leaving her to sleep for the first time in hours. The clock on the wall had read one in the morning when she first put her head on the pillow and-
"Zecora! Zecora! Wake up!" Rainbow Dash's unmistakable shouts pulled her back from the depths of slumber.
With a groan, she managed to pull open one eye and was faced with what she could barely manage to identify as a sheet of paper. Upon opening both of her eyes, she found that a heavily detailed... thing had been drawn on its surface and that Rainbow held at least six more papers in her hooves. What struck her as strange was that whatever her pegasus friend had drawn covered only a small portion of the entire sheet. Zecora pulled her head up and blinked before taking another look at the sheet, trying to register what she was seeing. She looked up to Rainbow with a confused and sleepy look.
"What is this strange machine you have drawn," she yawned, "and why can it not wait until dawn?"
"Because this, Zecora, is how we're going to get out of this hole!"
Zecora rubbed her eye with a hoof, yawning again and struggling to comprehend the drawing before her.
She watched as Rainbow pulled a small lamp up to the side of the bed. "Here, this should help." Rainbow flicked the light on, causing Zecora to squint her eyes immediately in protest. After a bit, her eyes adjusted to the brightness and she could fully open them once more. What she saw caused her jaw to drop in awe.
With the powerful light bleeding through the papers, she could see that there was a detailed drawing of a different machine on each of them. When Rainbow had turned on the light, they all came together to make up what may just have been the most incredible drawing Zecora had ever laid her eyes upon. It was a massive suit of armor, made up entirely of scrap metal from the Dazzler Fireworks. There was a box-shaped apparatus on the back of the armor that seemed to connect to the legs. Under the wings was what appeared to be an engine of sorts.
As if hearing the question before Zecora even had a chance to ask it, Rainbow Dash explained what it was for. "This thing it going to weigh a ton, right? And it’s going to have to move fast so we can get out and away right? That thing in the back is like a motor; it'll make it a million times easier to move around. But that's not what we need to focus on now..." Rainbow pulled the drawings away and tucked them under her wing.
After making sure that the design was as safely hidden as possible, she trotted over to her "workshop table" and picked up a mallet with a hoof. Rainbow pulled the clay brick up to her and with one swift motion, she brought the heavy mallet down on the brick, smashing the top to smithereens. She pulled the mallet up into the air again and hit the cube once more. Bits and pieces of hardened clay flew everywhere as Rainbow Dash hacked away at the brick. With a final swing of the mallet, a brilliant white light began to stem from inside. The light became bigger and brighter as she continued to chip more and more away.
Zecora walked up next to her and stared in amazement at what she was seeing. The zebra put her front hooves on the table, remaining entranced by the white diamond embedded in the clay like a filly gazing into a snow globe on Hearth's Warming Eve.
"Never before have I beheld such a sight," she whispered, "but what is this gem that glows so bright?"
Rainbow Dash stood up straight and wiped her brow with a hoof before dropping the hammer to the ground, where it landed with a soft "thump" in the sand.
"It’s called a Crystal Charger. It takes any kind of energy and amplifies it ten times over before sustaining it permanently. My dad built the first one back home after the Crystal War, but he scrapped the idea shortly after. Mostly because it used up a lot of gems and was big and impractical. But this is a smaller version... And you said that potion of yours can generate energy, right? Well, this should make it so that we won't need this anymore," Rainbow Dash glanced over at the black box next to her. "Think you might be able to pull it off?"
Zecora was unable to stop gawking at the Crystal even as she answered, "Give me about an hour or two, I may have a potion that will do..."
It had been a good ninety minutes by the time Zecora had finished brewing her potion. During that time, Rainbow Dash continued to look over her design for the suit of armor that she hoped would get them out of the mine.
Zecora busied herself with the potion, dropping in the occasional ingredient and even sticking her nose up to the bubbling liquid and inhaling its fumes. The larger cauldron from earlier rested neatly over the crackling flames as she continued to add more things into the potion. When she felt satisfied with the final product, she picked up a ladle and dipped it into the green bubbly concoction, filling it up to its maximum capacity
"Now that the potion had been brewed, what do you wish for me to do?" asked the zebra, the ladle making her voice sound a bit odd.
"Pour it on the Crystal," Rainbow said as she stood up from the bed.
Zecora paused for a moment, a look of confusion on her face.
"You want me to pour this onto your gem? Wh-"
"Believe me, I know what I'm doing. Just pour it onto that bad boy and the Crystal will do the rest."
Hesitantly, Zecora approached the Crystal on the table and held the utensil over it. It took her a moment before she was able to pull her attention from the glowing, white diamond and to the task at hoof. Carefully, she began to pour the ladle's contents out and onto the Crystal's shining surface; the potion immediately began to sizzle upon making contact. As the sizzling continued, it almost seemed like the Crystal was absorbing the liquid directly into its core. Even after it had swallowed Zecora’s brew, the sizzling continued for a brief moment until at last it began to subside and stop entirely.
Rainbow Dash walked up to the table. With her bare hoof, she reached over and pulled the diamond right out of the clay brick. The light in the room seemed to shift itself in unison with the Crystal.
"There we go," she whispered. "It’s done. All we need to do now is get it inside me."
Rainbow turned to her friend. "What do you say, Stripes? Think you can pull it off?"
Zecora scratched the back of her head with a hoof. "To put in this device is no simple task, so I want you to be sure that this is what you ask. But if you are confident that this will succeed, I suppose that it may just be safe to proceed. Though I do have to warn you, Rainbow Dash, a procedure like this may go wrong in a flash..."
"I don't think anything can go more wrong than it already has, Zecora. This is my only chance... This is my only chance to get back into the world... My only chance to make things right.... Will you help me?"
There was dead silence in the air as Rainbow Dash waited for her response.
"Yes... yes I will."
The dog and its two companions silently made their way through the caves, their paws sinking into the muddy floor underneath. Upon their arrival at the metal door blocking the room where Rainbow Dash was held, the lead dog raised its paw to the air, signaling for its subordinates to stop where they were. Both of them sat on their haunches and stopped moving.
The lead dog slowly approached the door and used its paw to flip up the small metal flap, much like a mail slot one would find on a house door, and take a peek inside. It scanned the room with its eyes, searching for the pegasus and zebra. At the other end of the cave, it could barely make out the zebra standing over a table with what almost looked like a pony-shaped mass in front of her. That was odd…
As far as it knew, only the zebra and Rainbow Dash were in there. As the dog glanced again, though, it realized that the pony-shaped thing WAS Rainbow Dash. The dog peeked back in through the slot where it saw the pony shape move before pulling itself up into a sitting position. The dog almost had to squint its eyes as she did this, as its eyes were met by a bright light coming from Rainbow’s chest. Rainbow Dash looked down at her chest and tapped the light before looking to the zebra thing and shaking her hoof.
Whatever it was, it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. The dog rolled its eyes and let go of the metal flap, causing it to drop back down to the door with a small "clank."
As it walked away, it dropped to its behind and licked the area between its legs, searching for any mine-bugs that might have crawled up its leg. Surely if that disgusting, mangy, striped zebra had anything to do with it, it couldn't possibly be important. It pulled its tongue away from its legs and shook its head, allowing droplets of spittle and dirt to fly off in different directions. Ponies are such disgusting creatures, the dog thought to itself...
Rainbow Dash carefully held the two metallic plates near one another and brought the bright blue flame of the welder up to them with her mouth, using her hooves to keep them in place. She held the welding tool like a pencil and carefully guided the flaming tip down between the metal slabs, slowly bonding them together into a singular sheet of thick metal. As soon as she was sure that they weren't going to fall apart, Rainbow used a hoof to turn off the welder, wiping her brow with the other. Over on the bed, Zecora was busy tinkering with a Dragon Breather tank and hooking up its nozzle to a rubber tube.
All day long she had been hard at work, piecing together what could very well be her one and only chance to escape back home to find who was responsible for these monsters getting her creations. Grass Marks' statement about reaping treasures from death had left a huge impression. If her idea somehow worked and she got out, then she was ready to do anything and everything to fix her past sins and turn herself around. And if her machine broke down ten seconds after turning it on, well... at least no one could say she didn't try. All she could do was hope that she didn't screw anything up.
Rainbow Dash shook her head to pull her mind back to the present. “No,” she told herself, turning the welder back on. “You won't screw up. You never have and you sure as hay won't start now.”
Just then, there was a loud pounding from the metal door on the opposite side of the cave. Rainbow jumped and quickly cut off the flame. She turned to Zecora, who was staring wide-eyed at the door. Within seconds, they both heard the sound of dozens of locks being undone. The pair quickly sprang into action and hid anything that would draw suspicion before the door swung open, revealing a group of the dog things on the other side. Again, Rainbow glanced at Zecora, who had taken a bowing position. She quickly dismissed the notion of following suit and stood tall as the dogs filed in one by one. She was not about to bow down to these mutts, even if they DID have her life in their paws. Out from the crowd walked a single dog with a strange glowing red ruby hanging by a gold chain from its neck. It walked right up to Rainbow and looked her in the eyes as it stood in front of her while the rest kept their place at the door.
"Welcome," it said in a guttural voice."I am Rover..."
Rainbow Dash was almost shocked that this strange dog creature could actually speak to her on its own. Until now, she didn't think they could even understand what she was saying, let alone talk to her. The dog approached her and stared at the Crystal Charger in her chest before it continued to talk in its growling voice.
"Many centuries ago, the most powerful weapon a soldier could wish for was the common spear. The weapon won battles that would change the course of history; it was the weapon that caused the rise and fall of entire empires. Time has passed and things have changed. Ideals have changed, war has changed... and weapons have changed. The spear has been replaced by your famous saddle guns. Where the bow and arrow struck fear into the hearts of soldiers marching through the forests, your mini bomb rubies now wipe out entire armies and the woods they hide in. Your legacy has changed the planet, Rainbow Dash; your inventions have put Equestria on the top of the world. Now, whoever has the latest Dash Co weapons at their disposal quickly comes to rule these desert lands. I cannot describe how overjoyed I was when I learned you had agreed to help us in our cause. When your Rainboomer is complete, the time will come for the Diamond Dogs to rise to power... and it will all be thanks to your contribution."
Rainbow could hear the sadism and malevolence dripping from its voice. Just the thought of what they could (and would) do with a Rainboomer sent a chill down her spine. The dog's eyes scanned the room around them before they settled on the papers behind her. It pushed her out of the way and walked up to them, picking one up and looking at it.
"A bit more complex than one would expect for a catapult, yes?"
"A lot more goes into it than you would think, especially with the dump you want me to work in…" Rainbow retorted, darting her eyes to Zecora, who was biting her lip.
She heard the dog let out a growling noise. It took a moment for her to realize that it was speaking. Zecora let out a very awkward-sounding growling noise of her own. The two were obviously talking to one another, that much was clear, but it bothered Rainbow that she wasn't able to understand what either of them were saying. From the tone of their voices, they seemed to be arguing over something or at least disagreeing. The dog's voice grew more intense, angry and even a bit threatening as Zecora's grew fearful.
Suddenly, the dog grabbed Zecora and threw her to the ground. Rainbow's eyes widened at the sight of her friend lying motionless on the floor. The dog walked over and used its paw to flip Zecora onto her back, stepping on her throat. The zebra began to gasp for breath as her windpipe was suddenly closed by its paw. It began to bark at her, snarling while she continued to struggle for even a gasp of air. Zecora could barely cough out what vaguely sounded like a response as her face began to turn red from lack of oxygen.
By this point, Rainbow had had enough. With a furious look on her face, Rainbow Dash stepped forward, ready to do whatever it took to save her friend. As soon as she moved, all the dogs standing in the doorway suddenly jumped into action and pointed their guns at her. Rainbow grit her teeth in frustration. If anything happened to her, not only would Zecora die right then and there but she would never be able to get home to find out how these... animals got ahold of her own inventions. Growling, Rainbow stepped down, watching as the dog lifted its paw from Zecora's throat; as soon as her windpipe was free, the zebra coughed and gasped for air on the floor. Rainbow Dash looked up to see the dog walking back toward the metal door.
"You two have twenty four hours," she heard it hiss, "to finish the Rainboomer. And if you don't…"
The dog turned around to look at her.
"Then Celestia help you both."
The group of dogs turned around in synch with their leader as it walked out, slamming the metal door behind them.
Rainbow Dash trotted up to her friend and put a hoof on her back. "You alright?" she asked.
The zebra looked up at her and continued to cough, simply nodding in response. Rainbow reached down and helped her to her hooves.
"Good. Now let’s get going. We only have twenty four hours to bust out of here."
Rainbow slammed the heavy mallet down onto the sheet of metal in front of her with her hoof.
Wham! Wham! Wham!
The sound of the hammer colliding with hard metal echoed throughout the cave. Sweat dripped down from her forehead to the floor below. Her legs ached and her hoof begged her to stop. With each impact from the mallet, the metal slowly but surely took a more defined shape until at last Rainbow felt it was just right and picked it up with a pair of tongs. She carried the metal over to a cauldron filled with the coolest water they had and dunked it into the water, causing a cloud of steam to rise up from the edges.
Zecora sat in front of a table, tinkering with a Dragon Breather and carefully attaching it to a steel half pipe. She jumped a little bit when the table shook from the impact of a heavy object on the other side. She looked up and came face to face with a heavy steel mask with eye holes and a mouthpiece that presumably allowed access to air. It had a very menacing look to it. Rainbow Dash looked back at her with a wide grin and wiped her hooves with a piece of cloth.
At long last, they were ready.
"Okay, let’s go over it again," whispered Rainbow Dash, pointing to a sheet of paper in front of them.
Lines scratched out in pencil crisscrossed its surface, completely indecipherable to anyone without knowing their purpose. Rainbow tapped one end of the paper with her hoof, where two crudely drawn stick figures were scribbled.
"This is us," she said, sliding her hoof along the paper towards the opposite end, "and this is the exit we're going for."
"This all seems to be a well thought out plan,” Zecora interrupted, “but there is one thing I do not yet understand."
Rainbow didn't look up from the paper. "Yeah? What's that, Stripes?"
"What did you intend to represent with these? Are they some form of two-dimensional ponies?" Zecora asked, pointing at the two stick figures..
Rainbow sighed, rolling her eyes. "I didn't feel like going into huge detail, so let's just say for the sake of situation that, yeah, those are us. Anyways, once we get out of this room, we take about twenty steps down and then there should be a left turn somewhere... here."
Rainbow picked up a pencil in her mouth and scratched an “X” over the spot she referred to.
"Thirty five steps down this way, then there's going to be a right turn here," she said, drawing another “X” on the paper. "Then we take one more left turn here... And after that, it's a straight shot to the surface and WE. ARE. OUTTA HERE!"
Rainbow's voice cracked, as it always did when she was excited.
Zecora could hardly believe what she was hearing. Rainbow Dash had been dragged in, bloodied, bruised, and burned; her heart at a total halt; she was technically dead, and, yet, she was miraculously able to survive the ordeal. Not only that, but she had single-hoofedly managed to create an incredible device to keep her heart pumping out of nothing but a box of scrap, and thought of an even more amazing (albeit far-fetched) plan to escape. All on her own, Rainbow Dash had pulled herself from the edge of death and given herself an entirely new reason to live. It was incredible. Never in her life had Zecora seen such a strong mare who-
"You ready?" Rainbow's voice cut into Zecora's thoughts, something she had long become used to..
"For what?"
"To get out of here, of course! I don't know about you, Zecora, but after being trapped in a mine for... however long we've been here, eating only... this..."
Rainbow motioned to the platter of what could loosely be termed “food” on the cot behind them.
"…I’m more than ready to get out of here and get home."
Rainbow trotted over to her "workshop" where she found the metal mask lying exactly where she left it. She picked it up and looked into its empty eyes while the air around her slowly quieted down. Rainbow Dash sighed as she continued to look at the helmet.
"We might die today, Zecora. If we die... then we died fighting. We died trying. And we died showing these creeps that you can't keep a couple of mares like us down. So... Are you ready?"
Zecora took a deep breath before replying, "Ready as I shall ever be."
"Then let’s roll"
The zebra picked up one of the heavy metal plates Rainbow had forged and carefully began placing it on her back.
The dog carried the platter in his mouth down the hall and through the mines. On the platter was a small mound of a green and yellowish colored… form of sustenance. Supposedly, it was a mixture of hay, oats and grass, something ponies apparently ate all the time, but, as far as he knew, neither hay nor grass were so slimy and... Did the food just move ? He shook his head a bit, shaking the platter and sending some of the slop flying off the platter and to the ground, where he was sure he could hear the slimy substance splat. He was eager to slide the platter under the door and to the pony and zebra, who were actually disgusting enough to eat this mess. The sooner he did that, the sooner he would be able to escape the horrible odor that came from it.
Eventually, he approached the door, where he could hear the sound of drilling and hammering coming from the other side. The dog opened the small opening at the bottom of the door and pushed the platter and its revolting contents under it, as was routine. Normally, the mares would drop whatever they were doing in order to scramble for their food like the pathetic creatures they were; it was a sound that the dog would often wait to listen for. Partly because it was to make sure that neither had died, but mostly because he found a sick sense of enjoyment in hearing them act so pitiful for just one bite.. But this time, the sound never came. The pair just continued drilling and playing with their metal. That was strange... normally, he would be able to hear them nearly pushing each other out of the way just to grab one bite. But not this time. This time, they just kept working on their.... whatever it was
...
It couldn't hurt to look inside at what they were doing, just to be safe, he decided. The dog used his paw to lift up the metal flap in the middle of the door and took a peek into the room. There, on the opposite end of the room, was the zebra standing in front of a giant mass of metal where Rainbow Dash's head was poking out from the top, facing the wall opposite from where he stood. Wait, why would Rainbow Dash's head be sticking out of a pile of metal? As the flames danced along the interior of the room, he could barely make out two pairs of legs made of metal sticking out from the bottom of the strange cluster. That didn't look like a Rainboomer. That didn't look like a Rainboomer at all…
In a panic, the dog began to bark and howl in alarm. If the two of them were up to something, then it couldn't be anything good. With his paws, the dog began pulling at all of the latches that kept the door sealed. He pulled a knife from the sheath on his front paw using his mouth and unbolted the final lock before pushing the heavy metal door open. The zebra instantly turned her head over to the dog standing in the doorway, while Rainbow seemed to struggle to even turn her head halfway she would normally be able to..The dog was about to charge at them, knife ready to put an end to whatever they were doing, when he heard a small beeping noise coming from the ground directly in front of him. Rising up from the sand came a small, circular piece of metal with a blinking red light on its top and several blue and red wires all linking to a central green circuit chip. It stood on four little metal legs and began to crawl all by itself toward him, the beeping noise progressively becoming faster with each step it took. The strange little device continued to make its way between his front paws. Curiously, the dog lowered his head down to sniff at it when the beeping quickened until there was no discernable interval between-
There came one final beep, louder and deeper than the others. In the blink of an eye, the entire cave was engulfed in a blinding explosion that sent the dog flying backwards and into the corridor behind it.
Rainbow Dash snickered to herself as she heard the distinctive explosion. Spidermines; a classic from the Crystal War. Even today, ponies (and apparently dogs) could never see the explosion coming until it was way too late. She wished she could have seen the dog's face right before it went off.
"Did it work?" she asked as Zecora continued to piece together the suit of heavy armor on her body, drilling bits and pieces here and there in a struggle to finish the job before more dogs arrived.
Zecora looked over Rainbow's shoulder and saw the Diamond Dog lying on its back, slammed into the sandy ground behind it.
"I stand corrected; it worked far better than I expected," she said.
"What did I tell you?" said a very confident Rainbow Dash. "There's no problem a Spidermine can't fix in ten seconds flat. Even one made from a pile of junk."
Suddenly, the sound of several snarling and barking dogs echoed through the mine shafts, confirming that others had heard the noise from the Spidermine.
"Zecora,” Rainbow said, a hint of urgency in her voice, "time to hurry up...."
Zecora was fumbling with the multicolored wires with her hooves, desperately trying to connect wires from the heavy engine on Rainbow's back to the rest of the suit. She rubbed one open wire to another, waiting for the telltale sparks of flowing electricity. After what felt like an eternity, several small flashes of bright light jumped between the red and green cords. Zecora smiled in satisfaction and reached over for a piece of electrical tape, which she then used to fasten the two wires together.
"It is done," she said excitedly.
"That's peachy, Stripes. Now start it up!" said Rainbow.
Zecora searched for a moment before finding her target: A basic pull string, not unlike what one would see on a lawnmower stemming from the side of the engine-like machine. She lifted her head and clamped down on the end of the string with her mouth, giving it a tug, before letting go. The string reeled back in and the engine growled a bit but quickly died down. She reached up again and pulled the string a second time, causing the motor to growl again before dying down once more. The barking and howling only grew louder as the engine grew quieter. In desperation, Zecora jumped onto Rainbow's back, gripping the string tightly between her jaws, and gave a mighty tug, thrusting her weight backwards. With a small snap, the string broke right in two, sending Zecora flying onto her back in the sand. Seconds later, the engine began sputtering to life.
"Perfect! Now just hold tight, Stripes. It needs a few seconds to power up the rest of the suit before we can get going.”
The dogs were getting closer and closer by the second. Precious time was quickly running out. Zecora's mind raced as she struggled to think of a way to stall the dogs before they burst through the doorway and ended both their lives. Her eyes frantically darted around the room, and quickly settled on the dog's fallen knife that lay in the sand. Without thinking, the zebra ran over and picked the blade up between her teeth, darting out and into the dark tunnels ahead
"Wait! Zecora! Get back here!" she heard Rainbow Dash screaming behind her.
Ignoring her, Zecora raced down the corridor with the knife and a determined look on her face. Even if she didn't survive, she was going to ensure that Rainbow would. Just down the mineshaft, she saw the shapes of several dogs charging right at her, holding spears and one wearing what looked like a Saddle Gun on its back. Zecora tilted her head back and, with one swift flick of her neck, sent the knife flying at the dog bearing the gun. The sharp blade dug itself into the dog's chest. With a gasp, he fell to the ground on his side, the gun on his back misfiring from the impact, sending bullets flying in all directions and causing the pack to flee back down from where they came in a panic.
Zecora continued galloping after the dogs, yanking the knife from the fallen Dog's corpse and giving chase. Farther down, she could see them turning a corner off to the right. Pressing forward in her pursuit, Zecora ran on, determined to do whatever it took to allow Rainbow Dash more time. As she turned the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at the horrible sight in front of her: Several dozen dogs, all holding spears, large knives, and at least seven with Saddle Guns on their backs all looked right back at her. The ones she had been chasing snickered to themselves at their newfound backup. Outnumbered and disadvantaged, Zecora threw her knife forward one final time and sprinted as fast as she could back into the caves, not knowing or caring if the knife had hit any of the dogs. Up ahead, she could make out the fallen dog that lay on the ground and just beyond it was the doorway leading into the chamber (and relative safety) that she and Rainbow Dash had called home for a very long time. Zecora sped up and galloped faster than she had ever gone in her life, hoping that the heavy door would be able to keep the dogs at bay, at least for a little bit. Adrenaline ran through her veins as she continued her mad dash to what she hoped was a safe zone. She dove and landed on the sandy floor of the chamber, immediately jumping back up and pushing the door closed. As soon as she felt it click shut, Zecora sat down, leaning against the door, out of breath and throat dry as a result of her short crusade. Looking up, she saw Rainbow begin taking her first few steps inside the armor and picking up the metal helmet, placing it on her head.
"Open the door, Zecora," the Pegasus said, her voice echoing from inside her fearsome looking mask.
Rainbow took another step forward, the engine on her back sputtering and coughing. Before her, Zecora sat wide-eyed and unmoving. Rainbow Dash took another step.
"Zecora, open the door!"
The zebra shook herself out of her trance and managed to piece together a reply.
"But they wait to kill us on the other side! I do not think that-"
"Zecora, trust me! Just do it and get behind me!"
Zecora squeezed her eyes shut and turned around to pull at the door, jumping back as soon as it swung open. On the other side, Rainbow made out the shapes of dozens of Dogs rushing toward them, their weapons ready to either gun her down or tear right into her. She took in a deep breath.
"Let’s do this," she whispered to herself.
For a moment, several Dogs froze in place, surprised by this unexpected new target; they quickly pushed their confusion aside and continued their attack, snarling as they ran at her.
Rainbow Dash braced herself as they drew closer. The first dog to reach her was a skinny little thing carrying a long spear aimed at her chest, obviously intending to run the blade right through her. Rainbow Dash swung her hoof forward, hitting him with what could be described as an uppercut and sent him soaring through the air and towards the rest of the group. His body knocked down several of those standing in front, who slammed into those behind them and in turn, pushed them backwards.
"Sorry!" she shouted, "you were in my way!"
The dogs carrying the twisted Saddle Guns opened fire while Rainbow began pressing forward. The entire cavern lit up in a display of flashing light and filled with the deafening noise of gunfire. The bullets all hit their mark, but none of them were able to even scratch the thick metal. Seeing that their weapons were proving to be useless, most of the Dogs twisted their head and gave the strap a sharp tug with their mouths, letting the guns fall from their backs. The tables had turned and the dogs now ran from the advancing metal monster, the impenetrable shell of which protected it from even their best weapons.
Underneath her helmet, Rainbow Dash smiled as she watched them run away in fear. So far, the suit was proving to be just as effective as she imagined, if not more. None of them could even make her flinch, let alone harm her. All she needed to do now was follow the plan and soon they would be home free.
"That's right!" she yelled after them. "Run! Run, you mangy mutts!"
And run they did, pushing and scrambling over one another in their mad dash to escape. Some tried to flank her with their spears, hoping that one of them would be lucky and find a gap somewhere in the armor that would put an end to her rampage.
None of them did. None of their thick blades even left a dent before they were sent flying backwards.
"Oh yeah! I could do this ALL day!" she shouted, the cockiness prevalent in her vocal tones.
The armor clanked and crashed against itself as she moved along. Dogs continued running from her down the mine. All but one. The very same dog who had nearly choked Zecora to death stood unmoving, and directly in her path. In his paws, he held a thick, tube like object. As she got closer, Rainbow Dash could make out the shape of a Gem Launcher, another Dash Co. product. She watched as he dropped a glowing red ruby into the barrel and shut it tight before lifting it up and taking aim. Seconds later, the ruby was sent flying toward her, leaving a red trail of light in its wake.
Rainbow didn't even flinch when the gem exploded just inches away from her face and merely pressed onward. The Dog looked horrified and his body visibly tensed up. Even as she grew closer and closer, he didn't move. Soon, Rainbow was within a leg's reach of him. She extended one hoof and brought him up close to her.
"That..." she whispered in a menacing tone, amplified by the metallic echo that her helmet gave her voice, pulling him even closer, "Was a REALLY bad idea..."
Rainbow lifted him up and tossed him over her shoulder like a rag doll. She heard his body hit the rocky wall and slide down to the sand below.
Continuing down, she made a left turn and at long last found herself looking at the bright light of the outside world just ahead. Zecora walked up next to her, also staring down the path.
"Ready to get the hay out of here?" she asked, turning to her friend.
Zecora smiled and nodded, not taking her eyes off the exit.
"Then let’s roll!"
Rainbow began leading the way to glorious freedom with Zecora following from a safe distance. The motor on her back sputtered and spat with each step she took as it kept her metal-encased legs moving smoothly. Just a few more minutes, and they would be out of this nightmare...
Crash... Boom... Bang…
The sound of the approaching metal beast's stomping shook the ground underpaw, striking terror into all of them. Most of the Diamond Dogs who ran inside the mine hadn't returned, but those who did talked of a huge monster made of invincible metal that struck down dogs with one swipe of its mighty metal paws. Whether Rainbow Dash was still alive or not wasn't a concern to them. All that mattered was that they destroy this monster and find out what it was.
The ground shook more and more as the creature came closer. All of them lined up in front of the mine entrance with any weapons they were able to grab. Most had put a Saddle Gun on their back while the more brave (or perhaps stupid) ones stood directly in front of the mine shaft carrying spears and other bladed weapons, poised to attack.
Just then, the metal giant crashed its way out of the mine and stood in the entrance. Its hollow and soulless eyes stared each of them down, no doubt plotting their demise.
From the back, one dog let out a howl and opened fire with its Saddle Gun; the rest soon followed suit. None of the heavy metal projectiles from their Saddle Guns had any sort of effect on her, just as she expected. Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself from smiling underneath her mask upon seeing the looks on their faces when they realized that none of them had even left a mark.
The sound of gunfire slowly began to die down before stopping altogether, the air falling dead silent save for a gust of wind. Rainbow Dash brought her hoof up to her mouth and exaggerated a yawn, quite enjoying herself by now. She pretended to just notice that she had survived a bullet storm unscathed.
"Oh- oh you're done?" she said, taunting them. "Cool! Now it's my turn!"
Rainbow lifted her metal-encased wings, revealing the nozzles of two Dragon Breathers, both of which were connected to a separate tank of fuel on the motor she wore on her back. A pair of searing jets of fire erupted from the open end of both flamethrowers, setting anything unlucky enough to be caught in front of them ablaze. In a desperate attempt to escape a fiery death, the Diamond Dogs instantly scattered in all directions. As Rainbow began to make her way down from the mine shaft, she continued to spread the flames all around her, making sure that anything and everything with her name on it was turned to ash. Within seconds, the entire camp was caught up in a massive inferno.
"Play with fire, and you're gonna get burned!" Rainbow called out, mockingly.
Rainbow Dash looked at what remained of the dogs' crude camp, deciding that she was satisfied with her handiwork. With just moments before the flames reached anything explosive and the mutts nowhere to be seen, Rainbow turned to Zecora, who was pressing a piece of cloth she had brought from the mine over her mouth, trying to keep the hot smoke out of her lungs.
"Ready, Stripes?" she yelled over the roaring fire.
Zecora merely nodded in response, coughing as the oxygen in the air around them quickly burned away.
Rainbow lifted her hoof and pulled a second string on her back that instantly caused her armor to split itself down the middle and fall apart, allowing her to freely take off into the air. She quickly picked up Zecora and flew straight up into the blue sky, leaving the horrible mine far behind.
Rainbow felt the wind blowing through her mane as she soared above the ground, carrying her friend with her to freedom. Behind them, she heard a thunderous explosion, the unmistakable sound of fire flirting with gas cans and dynamite.
"Aw yeah!" she shouted in victory, her voice cracking.
They were out! She could hardly believe that her crazy plan had actually worked. Now all she needed to do was find a safe place to land and-
Rainbow felt the shock wave from the explosion hit her like a freight train from behind and knock her off balance. With Zecora in her hooves, Rainbow Dash struggled to readjust her positioning, dreading the possibility of crashing into the sand below. A fall from this height would mean either serious injury or even death under normal circumstances. Holding Zecora meant that they would BOTH be injured and stranded in the middle of the desert with no food or water. The two tumbled around through the air, yelling all the way.
"No no no no!" shouted Rainbow Dash, realizing that they were, as she feared, plummeting down to Earth.
By this point, adjusting her balance was impossible. The window of opportunity had long since closed for good. The ground came closer and closer as Rainbow fell face first out of the sky.
Any experienced Pegasus pony would tell you that, in the case of an unavoidable crash from high altitudes, the best thing to do was to turn upside down. Your wings would be crushed but the soft feathers would cushion you from most of the initial impact, protecting your spine from any crippling damage. And even if you found your wings injured to the point of being unable to fly, your hooves would still be able to move, meaning that you would be able to get yourself back to safety.
As far as Rainbow knew, no Pegasus had ever fallen from this height and lived, let alone while carrying a wingless pony (in this case zebra). Nonetheless, she twisted her body around and put her belly up, facing the sky. If she was right, then there wasn't much space left between her and the ground. Since she sure as hay didn't plan to be holding Zecora when she hit the earth, she yelled to her friend over the rushing wind around them.
"I'm gonna let go of you now, Zecora. Please don't be mad at me later for this!"
With that, Rainbow Dash loosened her grip on the zebra and twisted her body off to the side.
"Have you gone-" Zecora began.
Rainbow let go and Zecora began falling on her own.
"MAAAAAD?!" she heard her scream.
With that out of the way, Rainbow twisted her body back around as fast as she could. If she could just manage to fix herself just right before she hit the ground-
Rainbow Dash felt the wind knocked out of her as she crashed into the sand. Her entire world spun around while she did her best to pull herself together. Groaning, she lifted her head and put her hoof on her forehead, taking a deep breath. That's when the pain hit her. An unbearable screaming pain on her underside began spreading like wildfire all around her body. She grit her teeth.
"Okay... okay," she said to herself, laying her head back down on the sand. "That one hurt...”
She groaned again.
"...a lot!"
"Rainbow Dash!" she heard off to her right.
She turned in the direction of the voice and saw Zecora galloping toward her. Soon enough, her friend was standing over her.
"I thought for sure you would not survive, but thankfully you are still alive,” she continued.
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't exactly call this a whole lot better..." Rainbow groaned.
"Perhaps you can pull yourself to a stand? Or would you rather keep yourself buried in the sand?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes and lifted a hoof up for Zecora to take. Soon, she was leaning against the zebra and the two of them began to slowly make their way through the desert.
"You know something, Stripes?" Rainbow Dash said as she limped along. "Next time, you can fly us out of there..."
The pair chuckled and pressed onward into the seemingly infinite sandy world ahead.
Spitfire flew high above the desert, two other Wonderbolts at her sides. It had been three months since she came to Saddle Arabia. Three months since she last saw her best friend. Three months of dragging five or so different teams of Wonderbolts out into the searing heat to fly around all over the desert. Just about everyone had told her at some point or another that her efforts were in vain, that all she was doing nothing but draining her energy all day, every day.
"She's gone, ma'am. I don't think there's anything to find out there," they always said.
"No," she always snapped back. "She's alive. I know she is, and we're gonna find her even if it takes until the end of time."
Thus far, she had kept her vow. Because she was the leader of the Wonderbolts, and therefore head of all military operations involving Pegasi, no one could object. The only one who had the authority to do so was Princess Luna herself, and even then, Spitfire wasn't sure if that would stop her.
"Ma'am," she heard from behind and off to the left.
Spitfire pulled her eyes away from the desert landscape long enough to look at the light purple Pegasus pony fly up next to her.
"It’s been nearly 5 hours..." she continued. "With all due respect, maybe it’s time to... to..."
Her voice trailed off as Spitfire turned her head to stare her right in the eyes. The look in her eyes alone, even behind her goggles, was enough to silence any protest.
"We'll head back to base... when I say we will... until then. We're sta-“
"Spitfire ma'am, what's that?" the other Pegasus on her right exclaimed.
She darted her head over and looked down where the sky blue pony was pointing.
Far below in the endless sand were two small figures slowly crawling through the desert. One seemed to be leaning on the other and limping. Even though they were at least six hundred meters below them, Spitfire was able to spot one striking feature about the limping one.
A bright, Rainbow colored mane that she recognized anywhere...
Without a word, Spitfire dove headfirst to the earth, ignoring her confused partners' shouts behind her as she flew faster and faster.
It was her! It was Rainbow!
Rainbow Dash looked up when she heard the sound of wings from above. She nearly jumped when a mare dressed in the standard Wonderbolt uniform landed in front of her. Rainbow instantly recognized her best friend before she even removed her goggles.
Both mares simply stood where they were for what felt like several minutes, before Spitfire suddenly rushed over and wrapped her hooves around Rainbow Dash, her eyes watering up.
"I knew it! I knew you were alive!" Spitfire said in between sniffles. "I just knew it!"
Rainbow Dash could feel a few tears of her own welling up in her eyes as she hugged Spitfire back.
"How did you know we were here?" she asked, a tear slowly sliding down her cheek.
"I didn't. I haven't stopped looking for you since you first disappeared."
"Spitfire... you're the best."
"I know I am…"
Rainbow turned her head to look at Zecora, who slipped her an approving smile in return. She turned her head to look back at Spitfire, only to catch a quick glimpse of her best friend leaning in toward her. Before she knew what was happening, she found herself kissing Spitfire, who still had yet to let go. Time froze and the pair looked at one another before quickly pulling apart and sitting awkwardly in the sand across from one another.
Rainbow felt a flush of red take over her face and nervously scratched the back of her head.
"Sorry... that was... that was meant for your cheek..." Spitfire said in a hushed voice, also blushing.
"Don't, uh, don't worry about it..."
They looked around to see that the two other Wonderbolts had apparently found their way over to Spitfire and were now staring at the pair with a "we know what you were doing" look on their faces. Zecora shared their expression, having not heard Spitfire say it was an accident.
It didn't take more than a second for Spitfire to return to her normal self and for the Wonderbolts to wipe the grins from their faces.
"What are you two looking at?" she barked. "Get going!"
With that, the two Pegasi grabbed hold of Zecora and began lifting her away. As soon as they were gone, Spitfire turned back to Rainbow Dash.
"Can you fly?" she asked.
"Well, not really... I'll tell you all about that later. If it makes you feel better, I probably dropped like fifteen pounds while I was gone."
"I'll believe it when I feel it."
Spitfire fluttered over to Rainbow Dash and wrapped her hooves under her friend's front legs. With a grunt, she began lifting her off the ground and soon enough they were making their way back to the Wonderbolts outpost.
"Yeah... I still don't believe it" Spitfire poked.
"Shut up, Spitfire," Rainbow said with a chuckle.
Several Diamond Dogs were pawing through the smoldering remains of their campsite, looking for anything they might be able to salvage. Over the course of two and a half hours the only things their entire search party found were pieces of the metal suit that Rainbow had used in her escape.
Rover toyed with the glowing ruby hanging from his neck as he watched the Dogs dig through the wreckage. It was his idea to allow Rainbow Dash to live in the first place, believing that she would succumb to her failing heart at some point or another. He hadn't counted on her overcoming that, much less escape.
Perhaps, he thought, allowing Rainbow Dash so many resources was not the best course of action.
Just as he was about to bark at the dogs for being slow he heard a chilling voice behind him, causing the hairs on his back to shoot up instantly.
"I see that your plan has failed," it whispered. "Just as I knew it would..."
Rover did not turn around, too terrified at what stood behind him. Instead he merely looked down at the earth underneath his paws and spoke in a meek voice.
"I did not think-"
"And that is why you are worthless," the voice cut in. "You never think."
"I thought she was going to-"
"Build your precious Rainboomer? And simply drop it at your paws? To comply wholeheartedly?"
"She resisted at first..."
The voice became harsher yet remained a whisper.
"You never questioned her sudden cooperation? You never suspected her of anything when she demanded such a large amount of supplies?"
Rover shifted his eyes up to look at the dogs sniffing through the ashes.
"No...." he said.
"Clearly you are as clumsy as you are stupid. Your weakness has cost the lives of several others."
Rover growled to himself, though not loud enough to be heard by his master.
"You are a pathetic waste o-"
"I did what I thought was best!” Rover snapped. “I made a choice. Which is more than you have EVER done for us. You make us do your dirty work, and yet you give us nothing in return! The Diamond Dogs are my family! I wanted my family to have something more for once! I had my family's best interests at heart!"
"And now nearly half of your family is dead."
"I know," Rover growled, a bit louder this time. "But I will prove to you, and to my pack, that I can do right. With or without you, I will make things better."
Rover heard the voice snarl behind him, an animalistic sound that caused him to shudder. He felt something on his shoulder and looked down to find a blue paw resting there, with four different colored glowing gems in the place one would normally find claws. A silver gem on the nearest digit began glowing even brighter than the others, causing Rover to squint his eyes.
Seconds later, Rover found himself turning and bowing down to the being before him. All protesting thoughts faded away, replaced by unending and infinite loyalty to his master. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, like the servant he was, unworthy to even look at his Master.
"I will give you one more chance, Rover. One final chance to prove yourself worthy to lead the Diamond Dogs," he heard his Master say. "If, however you fail... If you make one more mistake, one single misstep... You will not live to see the next day."
Rover took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the voice faded away like a breeze on a silent night. He opened his eyes and looked up, finding nothing but a depression in the sand where someone had been sitting moments before.
"Yes... Ahuizotl..." he whispered, staring at the spot.
He turned to look back at his pack of Diamond Dogs.
"I will not fail you again..."
"So, you actually did it? You actually slept an entire week?"
"I TOLD you, Spitfire, there's a first time for everything. Someone out there had to be the first pony ever to sleep a week of their life away. Who better than me?"
Rainbow Dash took another swig of cider from the large mug in front of her and put it back down. The pair sat across from each other in the Sunrise Casino, the very same place Rainbow Dash had visited the night before she left the city. Just as she had done last time she went out in public, Rainbow Dash wore her grey jacket over the Crystal Charger. Around the room, ponies of all kinds sat in front of machines or were biting their lips as the last pony put their cards down on the table. Loud music blared over the building's enormous speakers the hung from the ceiling as ponies everywhere gained and lost countless amounts of bits to one another or fell victim to the horrible, endless cycle of lost bits known as the slot machine.
"You're really something else, you know that?" said Spitfire, whose trademark sunglasses rested neatly on top of her fiery colored mane. "You're probably the smartest mare in Las Pegasus- no wait, the smartest pony in Equestria , who happens to head of one of the biggest, multi billion bit companies in the entire world, who just escaped from a bunch of mutts holding her prisoner in the desert for three months, and you somehow manage to stay asleep for an entire week.... How do you do it?"
"I guess it's just because I'm that awesome, Spitty." Rainbow Dash finished up the last of her cider before putting the empty mug back down on the table.
Seconds later, a blue mare galloped over and snatched up the empty container before returning with another one, filled to the brim with the fizzy liquid.
"Hey. See if you can get an extra mug for my friend here," she said, nodding her head in Spitfire's general direction.
"Woah woah woah, I'm not having any cider. I have a new group of Wonderbolts I gotta break in tomorrow. I can't go with a hangover." Spitfire looked over at the young mare. "You don't need to get me anything, hun."
"Here's a little something-something if you TOTALLY ignore Dullfire over there and make it the biggest mug you have," Rainbow Dash said, slipping the mare a small sack full of golden bits from her bag and gave her a nudge. The young mare didn't even look back at Spitfire before nodding at Rainbow Dash.
"Yes ma'am," she said, and quickly trotted back to the bar at the other end of the room.
Rainbow Dash turned with a smirk to Spitfire, who now held her head in her hooves. "Tell me you didn't just do that, Rainbow," she groaned, her voice a bit muffled by the hooves that covered her mouth.
"Okay. I didn't just do that."
Spitfire looked back across the table at Rainbow Dash who was now taking the first sip of many from her newly refilled mug.
"You DO know I'm not gonna take one sip once it gets here, right?" she said, pulling her hooves from her face.
"Oh, we'll see about that..." said Rainbow, placing her cider back on the table.
"I mean it, Rainbow, my lips aren't even going to touch that mug, let alone drink from it."
The mare returned with an enormous mug of cider in her mouth that she placed down in front of Spitfire then began trotting away to another table before the latter could protest.
"Well? I'm waiting, Spitty..." said Rainbow Dash, who leaned back in the booth and crossed her two front hooves together behind her head. A wave of sharp pain shot through her wings as she pressed her back against the leather seat. Give it time, she thought, it'll go away soon enough. You’ll be flying again in no time.
"Well you can wait there all you want, but I'm not gonna touch that mug."
"Oh don't be such a downer, Spitfire. Just have a drink! It won't kill you!"
"No way, Dash."
"Okay, fine, just drink half of it."
"It’s not happening, Rainbow Dash, so just stop asking."
"It’s just half a mug, Spitfire, you won't even know you had any!"
"Miss!" called Spitfire.
The blue mare returned with several empty cider mugs on a tray that she balanced on her head.
"Yes ma'am?"
"Could you get me the check? And I'll throw in a few extra bits if you don't listen to Rainbow Dash when she says-"
"...That I'LL give you fifty bits if you TOTALLY ignore Spitfire again and keep refilling our mugs and walk away right this
second."
Again, Rainbow Dash reached into the saddle bag next to her on the booth and pulled out another small sack filled with
bits. She hoofed over the sack to the waitress, who galloped away as fast as she could.
"You are unbelievable, Rainbow Dash..."
"I know I am. So, are you gonna drink that soon or what?"
Spitfire gave Rainbow a disgusted look before pushing the mug away from her.
"It’s not happening, so just drop it."
"Just half the mug, Spitfire. Just half of it"
"No. I'm not doing it."
"Okay, fine. One-third of it."
"No."
"One-fourth."
"No!"
"Alright just take one sip."
"NO!" shouted Spitfire, grabbing the attention of several ponies sitting at the surrounding tables..
She did her best to hide the red tint that spread across her face before looking at Rainbow Dash again.
"Come on, Spitfire, just one sip. It won't hurt."
"Fine, one sip. But I swear to Celestia that that's ALL I'm having."
"So... so that's why... ya always gotsta make sure to never ferget to wear a rainhat ona windy day in-in Hoofington... I- I swear on my life…" said Spitfire, a flood of slurred words flowing out of her mouth.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure." said Rainbow Dash, as she helped her friend up the stairs and to the front door of her house.
"No... no I'm being serious... s'like... a rule of life over there or... or some-" Spitfire hiccuped. "Something stupid like that."
"Yeah. Totally. And Equestria won the Crystal War because somepony took on the entire Crystal Army by herself."
"Hey, hey, hey, you weren't s'pposed to know 'bout that... tha's… tha' was a super secret project from- Hey... Hey Rainbow Dash, when did my house turn inta’ yours?"
Rainbow chose not to answer but simply opened the door and stepped inside, slowly guiding Spitfire along. Spitfire hiccupped agan, still clinging on to Rainbow Dash for support as the two slowly trotted along.
"T.A.N.K.!" Rainbow called out, shutting the door behind them with a back hoof.
There was a faint beep and, seconds later, her house returned to life.
"Yes, madame?" said T.A.N.K.
"How's the guest room looking?"
"But... I wanna sleep in my room…" mumbled Spitfire.
"Still as untouched as it was before you left for Saddle Arabia," replied the supercomputer.
"Great. Alright, Spitty, let’s get moving.”
Spitfire continued leaning against her friend as she was led over to the guest room, still slack-jawed and with a reddish
tint to her face.
"Hey... Hey Rainbow... whendid- When did your house get sucha fancy voice in your house?"
Ever so slowly, Rainbow Dash and her heavily-intoxicated friend made their way up the stairs and to the guest room at the end of the hall. Spitfire continued her nonsensical ramblings all along the way.
"Okay... okay, Rainbow... so... so I been thinking, what if like... like... I told you... that... that I love you?"
"I'd... probably never let you live that one down," said Rainbow Dash, now nearly halfway down the hallway.
"Well... well s'true... I swear in my life... I mean, on your life. Like... when you were lost in... Saddle Ara... Arab... that sandy place... I missed ya so much that I kept the-" Spitfire hiccuped once again, "kept the Undervolts lookin' for ya the whooooooooole time."
"Oh yeah, I'm sure you did."
"No, no. I’m being super seriah- serious right now... I never stopped thinking 'bout how much I missed you 'til, like, you were gone... And... I missed ya, and when we kissed in the de- des- sand place... It was the best kiss from my life..."
"That was a complete accident, Spitfire. You said it yourself."
"I... I totally lied… I loved it... ‘Cuz I just, like… I missed you, like, the whole time until you were back…"
Finally, Rainbow Dash managed to get the very giggly Wonderbolt over to the guest room and slid out from under the drunken mare's front leg. Once inside, Rainbow Dash guided her over to the guest bed and slowly began to lay her down on the mattress. Just as Rainbow was about to turn around and walk away she felt Spitfire's hooves around her neck, and before she knew what was happening, she found her lips locked with Spitfire's once again. Even through the kiss, Rainbow Dash could smell the cider on her breath.
Stunned, Rainbow Dash stood there a moment, eyed wide as saucers and red taking over her entire face, before pushing her friend away and back down on the bed. Spitfire's sunglasses fell down crookedly back over her eyes.
"Told ya..." she giggled.
Rainbow was at a total loss for words. Spitfire had just kissed her again. Only this time, it was no accident. She shook her mind back to reality once she reminded herself that Spitfire was drunk off her plot. Still... it was pretty... pretty... there was a word for it out there somewhere, she just couldn't think of it right now. Rainbow turned back around and began making her way toward the guest room door when she heard Spitfire's voice come from behind.
"Hey... hey, you know that, like... that uh, Crystal Glowy thingy you got in your chest? You should like... make another one and... give it to Dightning Lust or someone like that so she could show it to... to someone..."
Rainbow rolled her eyes and walked away, shutting the door behind her and started to trot over toward her own bedroom. It wasn't long before she slowed her pace down a bit and thought for a moment.
Maybe Spitfire was on to something. True, she was tipsier than a one-wheeled carriage, but maybe her drunken ramblings could have a real point behind them. Of course, she wasn't about to hoof over the Crystal Charger to Lightning Dust. True, she trusted her, but she just felt it was too risky to simply let the Crystal Charger go and, by default, let the power it had go with it. Rainbow Dash's head once again went back to the Crystal currently embedded in her chest. Zecora had said that her heart relied on energy in order to keep running. A sort of electrical current literally shocking her heart to life every second. The Crystal was meant to keep that electricity running permanently via the energy it sustained. Basically, the Crystal Charger took the smallest amount of any kind of energy, cranked it up tenfold, and then perpetually produced that same kind of energy in a very adaptable format that could be hooked up to just about anything. If one were to figure out the inner workings of one, and use it for the wrong reasons... Then there would be bigger problems in the world than just a few Diamond Dogs playing with Saddle Guns and Mini Bomb Rubies in Saddle Arabia.... MUCH bigger problems.
Spitfire was right about one thing, though: She could definitely use a new Crystal. One that wasn't thrown together in a mine. It'd probably be more powerful too, so that was a plus. The only speed bump in her plan was that she couldn't switch out the two Crystals all by herself. Rainbow Dash shuddered at the thought of what happened the last time she yanked out the thing keeping her alive. She wasn't about to let just ANYONE play around with it. One wrong move and she was gone for good, leaving not one, but two Crystal Chargers out there for anyone to snatch up. It needed to be someone she trusted. Rainbow Dash began weighing her options in her head while heading over to her room. Spitfire was out of the question because, well... she wasn't exactly going to be up and at 'em any time soon. Lightning Dust was still over in Manehattan kissing the plots of those in the Board of Directors. That left just Scootaloo. Thankfully, Rainbow knew she could trust her.
After all, the young mare had never let her down before. She didn't expect her to start now.
Rainbow yawned. Somehow, even after sleeping for an entire week, she still managed to find a way to become sleepy. She trotted over to her bed and laid down, quickly regretting her choice to lay down on top of her wings.
"That's another thing I should probably take care of," she said to no one in particular.
Ever since her crash-landing back in Saddle Arabia, Rainbow hadn't exactly used her wings. They hurt every time she tried opening them up and screamed at her if she tried laying down on her back. Maybe she should have listened to... well, everyone who had told her to see a doctor.
Rainbow Dash sighed. Why couldn't she have gotten drunk like Spitfire back at the casino instead of just egging her on? It was her own fault, really, for having not joined in on the fun when the opportunity came. Still... it was so worth it to watch Spitfire slowly crumble down into a cider-fermented mess.
For the time being, there was little more that Rainbow could do than just take everything day by day.
She felt the Crystal once again press into her chest and sighed in frustration. This was going to be a long night.
The next day, Rainbow arranged for a visit to Las Pegasus General, where she planned to finally allow the doctor a close up inspection of her wings. It probably wasn't anything. Just her body's natural reaction to being knocked out of the sky. It was expected for her wings to hurt like nobody's business for a few weeks. Then again, it didn't hurt to be on the safe side, just in case there WAS something wrong with her wings. Scootaloo, ready as ever for anything that life may throw their way, sat right next to Rainbow Dash, holding a notepad in her hooves and going over the day's scheduled events, though there wasn't anything big planned. The stallions pulled the carriage through the crowded roads of Las Pegasus. Out the window, Rainbow could see ponies all trotting along the sidewalk, talking amongst each other and going about their daily affairs. Just another day, she thought to herself. It wasn't long before the carriage pulled up in front of Las Pegasus General Hospital. Rainbow Dash stepped out of the carriage and into the hospital, one of the larger buildings in Las Pegasus.
"Well, Miss Dash, I won’t lie. I have indeed seen wing cartilage with far more damage in the past." The doctor, wearing the stereotypical white coat and thick-rimmed glasses, was facing away from her, examining an X-Ray of her wings.
"So how long will it be until I can get flying again?" Rainbow said, eager to get back in the air.
"That's quite another matter. You see, I have seen worse damage to wing cartilage in the past because, in all cases, there was cartilage to damage in the first place."
The doctor pointed to a spot in the center of the dark blue photograph, where Rainbow could just barely make out the outline of her wings. She wasn't very knowledgeable in the field of medicine, but she was pretty sure that there was supposed to be something in that area.
"Miss Dash, you said you fell out from at least a mile in the sky and onto your back. Your spine made it with little to no damage. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of crushing the cartilage in your wings to virtually nothing. Miss Rainbow Dash, after reviewing these X Rays, I'm very sorry, but... There's nothing I can do. The damage has been done. I'm afraid you will never be able to fly again.”
The words hit Rainbow Dash like a freight train. For several minutes she simply sat there, struggling to register the truth in her head. And once she did, Rainbow Dash broke down into tears.
"How long has she been in there?"
"Almost three days... She hasn't left her room once.”
"It shouldn't have happened to her. No Pegasus should ever have to lose her wings... You're sure they can't do anything to fix her?"
"Spitfire, there's nothing to fix. The cartilage in her wings was crushed to powder. And the little bit that managed to stay in one piece wouldn't be enough to get even one wing working again."
Spitfire and Lightning Dust stood next to each other on the balcony of Rainbow's large wooden house, staring out into the Quiet Sea. Scootaloo had been the first to share the news with them several days ago. At first, neither of them were able to fully grasp the idea of one of Equestria's best flyers being permanently grounded. All her life, Rainbow Dash had always been proud of her flying abilities, at many times to the point of overconfidence. And now that she couldn't even get herself off the ground, neither mare could imagine what was going through her head nor did they want to.
Spitfire turned to Lightning Dust, who continued looking out at the calm, blue water. "Do you think she's gonna be alright?" she asked.
Lightning closed her eyes and took in some of the salty sea air. "I don't know. Losing your wings is losing a part of who you are. It’s-"
"It's alright, you two... I'm fine."
Spitfire and Lightning Dust both turned around to see Rainbow Dash standing in the middle of the open sliding glass door. Her mane was disheveled and her eyes were surrounded by dark circles, a clear sign that she hadn't slept for some time.
"Rainbow," said Lightning Dust, who trotted up to her and gave her a tight hug. "Are you okay?"
"About as okay as I can be," said the rainbow-maned mare in a broken voice.
"Is there anything we can do for you?" asked Spitfire, who had also come to give her a hug.
"What's there to do? My wings are gone. I can never fly again."
"Oh, don't be like that, Rainbow Dash. I'm sure you'll-" Spitfire's voice trailed off when she saw the hopelessness in the other mare's eyes.
"Look, if it's okay with you two, I need some time on my own," said Rainbow, yawning.
"You sure you're going to be oka-" started Lightning.
"I said I'm fine, alright?" Rainbow cut her off. Her voice made it painfully obvious that she was fighting back the tears building up in her eyes.
Lightning Dust glanced over at Spitfire, who merely pulled her shades down over her eyes and cleared her throat. Looking back to Rainbow Dash, she merely sighed. Without a word, both she and the Wonderbolt turned around and began trotting back to the front door of the mansion. As they continued, Lightning Dust heard Rainbow Dash sniffling behind them. She continued until both walked out of the front door, which automatically closed itself behind them.
"I've never seen her like this," Spitfire whispered. "She's totally broken..."
Lightning Dust, having known both Rainbow and Spitfire since they were fillies, understood that Spitfire looked up to Rainbow much like Scootaloo did, albeit much less noticeably. Nearly everyone who knew Rainbow Dash better than what they read in the supermarket tabloids and heard on the gossipy press radio looked up to her, and often times even wanting to model themselves after her. Not that she could blame them, either. Rainbow Dash was smart beyond words, knew just about everything there was to know about machines, a personal friend of Princess Luna herself, an inventor, rich, famous, brave, beautiful, and an amazing flyer.
Well, at least she WAS an amazing flyer...
* * *
Rainbow Dash sat alone, her head down and tears running down her face. Spitfire and Lightning Dust had both left just moments ago, leaving her to wallow in depression. She continued crying for a few moments after she heard the front door close downstairs. As soon as she was sure the pair was gone, she sniffled one last time. Without looking up from the ground, she brought her hoof up to her face and wiped another tear from her cheek.
"They gone?" she managed to choked out.
"Miss Spitfire and Miss Dust have indeed left the premises," came the robotic reply from inside.
Immediately, Rainbow perked up, sniffled one last time and rubbed her nose. "Alright, good. Let’s get to work."
With that, Rainbow Dash, patted her mane down as best she could, wiped her nose with the back of her hoof and stepped back inside. She trotted over to her bedroom where she looked in the mirror, something she quickly regretted when the bright light of the Crystal attacked her eyes. She squinted and turned away, feeling around for her jacket on the floor. She felt her hoof touch the thin fabric nearby. Less than a moment later she pulled the zipper up along her chest and covered the beaming white Crystal, smothering the light underneath to a barely visible glow.
"Gotta remember that," she whispered to herself as she pat her mane down to its normal, somewhat-neat state.
"With respect, Miss Dash, I fail to understand the reason behind feigning depression to send Miss Dust and Miss Spitfire away," said T.A.N.K.
"Simple, T.A.N.K. With them gone, I can start working."
Rainbow walked over to the bathroom connected to her room and turned the faucet on, watching the water flow out into the basin of the sink below. She propped herself up against the sink and began splashing water onto her face, washing away any tears left behind from her performance.
"Were the fake tears necessary?" asked her invisible butler as Rainbow began using a towel to dry herself off.
"Mmm... nope," was Rainbow's simple reply. She reached over for her toothbrush next to the sink, picking it up in one hoof and grabbing a tube of toothpaste on the other side with her mouth. After dabbing some of the paste from its container onto the brush, she tossed it to the side and began scrubbing away at the inside of her mouth. She continued brushing her teeth in silence for a bit before T.A.N.K. once again questioned his master's motives.
"Was there any purpose behind it?"
Rainbow Dash spit the toothpaste from her mouth and examined her teeth in the mirror. She mumbled something about them having dulled a few shades from their usual pearlescent glow as a result of her stay in the mine. That slop she had been eating probably didn't help either. She ran her tongue along her two front teeth for good measure before using the same towel to wipe her mouth clean.
"I was bored. And I needed some reason to ask them to leave without sounding like I'm hiding something. But mostly bored," she said, walking out of her bathroom. "You're asking a lot of questions today, aren't you?"
"I meant no disrespect, Miss Dash," came the computer's voice over the speakers that lined the walls and ceilings.
"Oh please, T.A.N.K. If I wanted a total ‘yes’ pony, I would have just hired one instead of creating Equestria's one and only computer with a personality. There are hundreds of ponies out there who would kiss my flank and do whatever I said, even when I've had… a little too much cider, if you know what I mean."
Rainbow trotted out of her bedroom into the hall and made her way to the staircase. She continued speaking as she descended.
"You can't find any good help nowadays," she said, reaching the final three steps and jumping the rest of the way down, just as she had when she was a filly. "In fact, it's pretty much impossible to find a perfect butler who isn't already working in Canterlot Castle. So I made one. And you've worked out pretty well so far. You can actually talk back to me, for pony's sake. Pretty cool to have the only computer in the world that can give me lip service now and then."
Rainbow walked away from the staircase and down another hall with a single wooden door at the end. "Got it?" she asked, coming to a stop in front of the door.
"Understood, madam," was T.A.N.K.'s reply.
"Good. Now let’s get rolling."
Rainbow brought her eye up to the lock on the door, which cast out a small blue beam of light that ran itself up and down her eyeball before shutting itself off. Seconds later there came the sound of several different locks and latches undoing themselves before the door slowly pulled itself open to reveal a flight of stairs descending into blackness.
Rainbow Dash made her way down to the bottom, her body swallowed by the darkness of the room. She lifted her hoof and flipped a switch on the wall that instantly activated the lights and illuminated the entire chamber, revealing it to be a large, open basement.
This was her favorite room. The place where almost every single thing she had ever invented was conceived, planned, designed, built, and tested. Ever since she tested the very first Dazzler Firework, the area had been affectionately known to her as her "Boom Room". This was where she kept her favorite toys. Things that ponies in Equestria wouldn't even begin to imagine for at least another ten years were stored here. Rainbow Dash always saved the best inventions for herself. Everything she ever needed was kept in this room. Tools, drawing boards, prototypes, supplies, old designs, records of her past creations. And most importantly, the room came with a small refrigerator that held several bottles of cider for her to drink whenever she wanted.
A large, flat table rose up from the floor, and cast a three-dimensional projection of the room over itself, with every detail mapped out and modeled down to a small image of Rainbow Dash walking in. Her greatest creation: The one and only three-dimensional projector in the world, and it was hers and hers alone. No one aside from her, Spitfire, and Scootaloo knew about it. Not even Lightning Dust knew about the incredible machine's existence. And for good reason. Equestria was just getting used to the idea of computers being commonplace; there was no way that the world was ready for this. In fact, Rainbow herself wasn't even sure she was ready for it.
The idea had come to her in a dream. It was wild, it was amazing, it was unexpected, it was decades before its time, and it was probably the most amazing thing she ever came up with. The next day she had designed it, planned it, and even started working on a specialized bulb that would be able to cast a three dimensional image. Within a week, Rainbow Dash found herself turning the machine on for the first time. It worked flawlessly. Almost disturbingly perfect.
It didn't take very long for Rainbow Dash to begin asking herself questions about it. If the world discovered it, how would everyone react? Would the military want it for themselves? What would they use it for? If it fell into the hooves of a competitor, what would THEY use it for? Where did its uses end? Where did they even begin? What would even need to be projected on a three-dimensional platform? Would Dash Co. be able to use this? Was Equestria and the world even close to being ready for it?
Rainbow Dash decided that she would keep it for herself and not tell anyone in public or the government about it. The world was going along fine without a three dimensional projector, she was sure that it wouldn't come to an end without one. Besides, it was just so awesome to have…
Rainbow took in a deep breath, inhaling the air of her Boom Room, and all the ideas she had ever conceived. She smiled.
Time to get to work.
* * *
Rover sat and watched as each of the Diamond Dogs stepped before him and presented whatever they had managed to salvage from the ruins of their camp. Thus far, they had managed to assemble one Saddle Gun, two Dragon Breathers, one box of Mini Bomb Rubies, several crates of ammunition, and several pieces of the metallic armor that Rainbow Dash had used to escape their grasp.
Rover bit his lower lip as more and more pieces of her metal suit were placed before him. It had been several days since his master had last spoken to him, yet the words his master had whispered still stuck in his head.
If he were fail one last time, then he would die a very slow, very horrible death…
At last, the final Diamond Dog placed his finding on the ground in front of him. Rover looked down to find a large metal helmet, shaped to fit the head of a pony. He reached down and lifted it up with a paw, staring into its black, cold, and hollow eyes.
Rainbow Dash may have been able to escape their grasp, but in doing so, she had left behind an incredible creation. If the Diamond Dogs could somehow managed to reassemble this weapon, then there would be no stopping them. Rover’s lips pulled back into a toothy, malicious grin as he continued to examine the helmet in his paws.
* * *
"Okay, so we know that I can't fly anymore, right?" said Rainbow Dash, searching through a large box filled to the brim with assorted tools of all kinds.
"That is correct, Miss Dash," came T.A.N.K.'s reply.
"Wrong, T.A.N.K.!" exclaimed Rainbow in a rather excited tone. "Only my wings aren't able to work anymore! No one ever said I can never fly again."
She lifted a hammer from the toolbox and examined it closely before deciding it wasn't what she was looking for and tossing it over her shoulder. It clanged against the marble floor, the noise echoing throughout the vast, empty room.
"So, if I can't use my wings again – there you are!" she said, pulling out a large screwdriver and holding it up to her face. "Anyways, if I can't use my wings to fly, then we'll just have to find another way to get me back in the air!”
She walked over to the flat table, where the three dimensional projection continued to map out the room. "Pull up a project file, T.A.N.K. Lets call this sucker, hmm... V.2."
"Shall I back these files up to the Dash Co. network?"
"And let those nosy ponies there find this? No thank you. Besides, this is the only machine in the world that can even do this !"
Rainbow Dash poked the miniature version of herself that stood in the middle of the protected room, causing the rest of the room to be cast away and the projection to focus in on her.
"Hey, remember that little drawing I've got up in my room? The one next to my bed?"
"I do indeed recall you placing it there."
"Scan it for me and pull it up. Keep everything all nice and symmetrical on both sides and make sure that it's got the same dimensions and all that jazz."
"Yes, Miss Dash."
Moments later, a three-dimensional model began forming itself in front of her, right next to her own projection. It was a perfect recreation of the suit of armor that she and Zecora had constructed back in Saddle Arabia. It had taken her two days to sketch up the exact drawing again, and a third day to jot down all the small details. Now that it was finished, scanned and displayed before her, Rainbow Day was presented with a perfect recreation of her machine.
Rainbow rubbed her hooves together and took in a breath. "Okay, let’s start off by putting that sucker back on me. I just hope I haven't gained weight since then…"
The suit split itself apart into individual pieces, which them reassembled themselves around Rainbow's own projection. Fortunately, it fit her just fine; no weight had been gained.
"Perfect. Okay, now let’s get rid of all of the hefty stuff. Get rid of that huge engine on the back… We don't need the helmet or the dragon breathers under my wings… Keep the hooves..."
With every item she listed off, that specific portion of the suit pushed itself away from the overall structure until all that was left was the projected model of Rainbow Dash and the metal encasing her wings and torso. She smiled as she gazed at the projection.
"Okay now let’s see if we can't get a smaller generator to replace the engine. Something we would be able to hook up
to the Crystal Charger. Uh, let’s try... Oh! Perfect! Let’s try out the Dazzler Firework launch system. We might be able to toy with it enough to get that sucker to hook up with the Crystal. Once we tune it to the Crystal, we can use it to maintain the kinetic energy that we get from the initial launch. Bring me up a model of a Dazzler, T.A.N.K."
"As you wish, Miss Dash." Seconds later, the projection of herself was pushed away and replaced with a rotating image of a Dazzler Firework.
"Now take away the outer layer. Let’s get a peek inside."
The outer shell of the firework disappeared, and revealed its inner workings. A complex network of wires throughout its tube like body all led to a small cylinder on the bottom.
"Okay perfect. Can you give me a simulation of a launch?"
"Do you wish to view the Dazzler Firework during its initial launch or during sustained flight?" asked T.A.N.K.
"Give me both. Side by side."
"Yes, madam."
The projected firework duplicated itself into two smaller models, which shifted themselves apart from one another. The projection on the left turned ninety degrees to its side and began to glow near the bottom, as if it were flying through the air. The one on the right stayed where it was, shaking and rattling as if it had been fired, but was being forced to stay where it was.
"Beautiful. Now take away anything that doesn't directly connect to the ignition systems."
All the wires quickly disappeared, leaving only the glowing cylinder at the bottom, and several wires. It barely resembled the shape of the original tube structure. Rainbow Dash grinned even wider than before.
"Blue skies and sunshine, here I come!" she whispered to herself.
* * *
Spitfire and a group of Wonderbolt recruits stood in the middle of the Academy field. They weren't ready to be assigned a squadron yet or given uniforms, but they weren't fresh off the sign-in sheet either. They had been in training for almost six months now. Four more, and they would be ready for the final tests before being assigned to a flying squadron.
"So you've all made it through six months now," she began. "You're really tough, huh? The toughest of the tough? No
one in Equestria has any idea how hard it is, right?"
She began walking along the line of recruits, inspecting their stance, their spacing, even their manes.
"Yes ma'am!" one of them shouted from the other end of the line.
“Who said that?” yelled Spitfire, spinning around and walking in the direction of the voice. “WHO SAID THAT?”
None of the colts said a word.
“Nobody, huh?” said Spitfire. “The fairy godmother said it…” She walked up to one of the recruits. “Was it you?”
“NO, MA’AM!” the scared colt replied.
“I bet it was, you scroungy son-of-a-mule!”
“Ma’am, I said it, ma’am!” piped up a voice to the left of Spitfire. Her eyes shot over to the offending colt and glared at him through her shades. The air went dead silent as she slowly walked over to him. Several of the ponies in line bit their lips. She continued walking at an intentionally slow pace until she reached the offending Pegasus, who by now was wishing that he had never opened his mouth.
"Is that so?" she said, a horrifyingly calm and warm smile on her face; the same one her face always wore before she lashed out.
The recruit said nothing, a trickle of sweat starting to run down his face. Spitfire brought her hoof up to her face and
pulled her sunglasses away from her eyes, the absolute worst thing any of them could see her do. She kept her horrifyingly calm smile as she put a hoof around the now silent and scared colt.
"What? Spitfire's here, so you don't wanna say anything anymore?" she said, still very calm. "That's fine by me."
Spitfire patted the recruit on his back, causing him to let out a barely audible whimper. "Because now…” she said, pausing before suddenly screaming at the top of her lungs into his ear, "YOU ALL GET TO FLY TWELVE HUNDRED LAPS AROUND THE COMPOUND!!!"
With that, she picked up her whistle and blew it into his ear, causing him to dart off as fast as he could. The rest of the group quickly followed suit and began to fly in a giant circle around the Academy campus.
Recruits personally trained by Spitfire were rarely subjected to the normal stream of yelling and shouting that came with being trained by other instructors. This came as a relief to most; however, they would quickly learn that sometimes her method was even worse than being screamed at for everything. Rather than yell, Spitfire would remain eerily calm, even friendly at times, until one thing was done wrong. And when something was wrongly done, it resulted in an explosion of yelling and screaming directly into the ear of the perpetrating pony and a severe punishment for the entire group. More often than not, she found her method to be more effective, as it kept the recruits on the tips of their hooves at every moment. And since all recruits she personally trained were meant to be assigned to her own squadron, it gave them an idea of what serving under her was like: Calm, somewhat laid back, and even friendly to an extent. But Celestia forbid you ever mess an order up, the consequences would be dire for the entire group.
Spitfire watched as the team completed their first lap. Of course, she didn't expect them to complete twelve hundred laps, she planned to let them stop after the six hundredth. At this rate, they would finish those laps in about seven minutes.
"You don't seriously think they're going to pull off twelve hundred laps, do you, Spitty?"
Spitfire jumped in surprise and turned, coming face to face with Rainbow Dash. She was sitting neatly as if she had been waiting for some time now.
"How long were you there?" She asked
"I got here around 'is that so?’" Rainbow Dash put on a voice that mimicked Spitfire's for the final bit.
Spitfire popped her friend over the head with a hoof. "Don't like my 'Angry Spitfire' voice?" she asked, still ribbing her friend. Rainbow merely smiled.
"That was for getting me wasted last week." Spitfire popped Rainbow's head again, this time a bit harder. "And THAT'S for doing a horrible impression."
“You had fun that night."
"I wouldn't know. I don't even remember anything except waking up with a hangover that would knock Celestia off her hooves. Why did you even want me drunk anyways?"
"Because you were SO stuffy that night! You didn't even want to take off your glasses!"
"Rainbow, I never take off my glasses," Spitfire said, pulling them down over her eyes. And it was true. Spitfire might remove them from her eyes and up to her forehead on occasion, but it was a well-known fact that, aside from when she was in her own home or out on high-flying missions, those sunglasses never left her head. Among the recruits, seeing her without them on in some form or another was worth bragging over.
Rainbow paused. "You were still stuffy... But I didn't come here to talk about your drunk plot."
Spitfire sat down in front of her, rolling her eyes behind the darkened shades. "Then what is it?"
Rainbow Dash looked to her left, then to her right before continuing. "Spitfire, I'm working on something big. And I
need your help."
"What do you need?" asked Spitfire, her interest growing a bit.
"I’m gonna be flying again soon, and it might freak some ponies out. I need you to make sure the Wonderbolts don't shoot me out of the sky."
Spitfire was perplexed. How was Rainbow supposed to be flying again if her wings were gone? And if it were going to "freak some ponies out," could that really mean anything good? It occurred to her that Rainbow Dash might be suffering some sort of delusion in reaction to her being told that she would never fly again. If that was the case, should she call a hospital? Did Lightning Dust know anything about this? After all, Lightning Dust was older than the both of them by at least six or seven years. Surely she would have a better knowledge of if this was a normal reaction to something awful. Question after question rolled through her mind as Spitfire remained unsure how to respond to Rainbow's claim of flying again.
"Well?" Rainbow Dash's voice cut the silence that had fallen between them.
Still uneasy, Spitfire merely agreed. What could she do? Saying no would do nothing but tell Rainbow Dash that she
didn't trust her, and if she really did have some sort of way to get back in the air, who was she to deny her the chance? If anything, she would tell Lightning Dust about this encounter. She would probably know what to do if worse came to worst.
"Spitty, you're the best." As she said this, Rainbow Dash wrapped her hooves around her friend and planted a kiss on her cheek, causing the Wonderbolt's face to heat up a bit. Spitfire just stood there, watching the rainbow-maned mare walk off. She loved Rainbow Dash, and recently she was beginning to question the extent of that love, but she couldn't stop herself from worrying about her. Was it really a good idea to let her go off on her own like that?
Just then, it occurred to her that her recruits were still doing laps. By now, they might actually be at twelve hundred laps!
Quickly, she picked up her whistle and blew as hard as she could into the mouthpiece.
* * *
Rainbow Dash stood in the middle of her Boom Room, a determined look on her face. Both her front legs were covered in a thin layer of silver, glossy metal that went from the bottom of her hooves to her knees. Under her hoof was a separate, golden-colored, short bit of metal that housed the ignition system of a Dazzler Firework. Several wires ran from under the silver material on her hooves in a direct line to the Crystal in her chest.
If her design worked like she planned, the ignition system of the Dazzler would launch her off the ground and the initial thrust from the launch would keep her hovering in the air.
Rainbow began to think aloud as she prepped the final two wires between her hooves and the Crystal Charger. "The Dazzler can launch a five-hundred-pound firework into the air at two hundred miles per hour at full power," she mumbled as she toyed with the blue and red cords. "Okay, so the coolant should provide an initial thrusting force to get me in the air, and then we'll see what happens..."
"Miss Dash, might I suggest–" began T.A.N.K.
"Can't hear ya, T.A.N.K.!" Rainbow called out, finally able to direct her words at someone. She continued to toy with the wires in her hoof before deciding she was satisfied with their position. She trotted over to the center of a blue mat she had laid out on the floor.
"Okay, everyone!" she said, her voice echoing through the emptiness of the Boom Room. "Get in your places! Let’s make this look pretty!"
"But, Miss Dash. I must insist that–"
T.A.N.K's voice was once again cut off by Rainbow Dash. "Starting out in the center of the mat, two feet from any of the edges. All systems are ready for launch. Hoof thrusters are hooked up to the Crystal. Energy flow seems steady."
Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath as she mentally pictured herself soaring through the air. She brought her hoof up to her head and used her nose to tap a small button on the surface of the metal, causing a small beep to be emitted from within.
"We're locked! Launch is prepped!" she cried out, growing more excited by the second.
"Miss Dash!"
"Hold that thought, T.A.N.K.! Tell me after!"
Rainbow Dash knelt down into a sturdy stance. "We're launching in three, two..."
"Miss Dash!"
"One!"
CRASH!
Before she was able to register what had happened, Rainbow Dash found herself lying belly-up on the floor. Her wings ached and the pain from the impact was just starting to settle in.
"Ouch..", she barely managed to whisper.
* * *
"Okay, so last time, I was only wearing two thrusters, one for each of my hooves – ow,” Rainbow groaned as she pressed the ice pack against her head. She gazed at her reflection on the silver leggings. It worked just fine – beyond fine, in fact – but the problem was her initial assumption that having only one pair of them on her front hooves would be able to maintain stable flight. Well, that and the fact that she had miscalculated the amount of thrust power that would be needed to lift her off the ground. Rather than gently push her upwards, the force of the initial launch was enough to send her flying upwards into a back flip before crashing into the ceiling.
"As I was trying to say, madam, perhaps you should consider balance. That way unintended airborne stunts will no longer be an issue."
"Duly noted, T.A.N.K.," grumbled Rainbow Dash. "Next time, let's run a projection of how it'll turn out, okay?"
"Yes, Miss Dash. Shall I take into consideration your thick skull?" chided the computer.
"Very funny..."
With that, Rainbow turned back around and began to draw up an identical pair of hoof casings for her hind legs.
"Okay, day three, test, uh... twenty seven," began a nervous Rainbow Dash. "I think I've finally got the hind leg stabilizers balanced right so I won't be doing anymore flips in the air, I hope..."
She gulped at that last statement. Until now, she had been consistently crashing less than a second after activating the launch mechanisms. It was always either the power being too high or low, the balance between her front and hind legs being off, or both in especially painful cases. At this point, Rainbow Dash's entire body was covered in a layer of bruises, scratches, and aching pains.
She stood in the same spot she always did when testing. She swallowed again before licking her lips. "Let’s, uh... let’s start off nice and easy with forty percent coolant and sixty percent thrust capacity so I don't go flying again. Okay, launch begins in three, two..." Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyes shut before finishing her countdown. "One!" With that, she heard the sound of the Dazzler Launchers under her hooves activate and, seconds later, felt herself being slowly pushed off of the floor.
"T-T.A.N.K.?" she called out, still keeping her eyes shut. "Is it safe to open my eyes yet?"
"Congratulations, Miss Dash, you have performed a flawless liftoff."
Upon hearing that, Rainbow slowly began to open her eyes, finding herself hovering just inches off the ground. She smiled, looking down and around. The energy output of the thrusters that kept her afloat gave off a very soft, pure white glow.
"Okay! Test over!" she called out, her voice cracking as it always did when she grew excited. Rainbow Dash dropped back to the floor. She stumbled for a moment, catching her balance. An enormous grin spread across her face. "It works!" she cried out. "It works!"
She had been flying! The Crystal managed to sustain the initial kinetic energy from the toned-down take off and keep her afloat in the air. And, for once, the test didn't end with her smashing into the ceiling or crashing into a wall. Though the amount of power she set it to wasn't nearly enough to get her flying above the clouds, she was sure she had figured out the balancing issues she had faced in previous tests.
"Do me a favor, T.A.N.K.," said a very giddy Rainbow Dash.
"Ma'am?"
"See of you can assemble the outer layer of omnium armor. Just like we simulated earlier."
"As you wish, madame"
Rainbow Dash trotted over to the middle of the mat once more, where four hoof marks were spaced equally apart from one another. From the ground underhoof came several mechanical arms that reached out and began to assemble the glossy silver armor all around her body. Sparks flashed as pieces of metal were welded together for the first time. The armor whirred as tiny screws were twisted together. Metal was connected and fastened all around her. Two gleaming pieces of the omnium metal were placed at the sides of her head before the last piece was finally was finally positioned over her face. The world darkened around her, as the two eye holes in the mask allowed just a smidgen of light from the outside world to seep in. Seconds later, a miniaturized three-dimensional projection of the environment around her flashed to life before her eyes. Rainbow Dash had always specialized in miniaturization; it was the first thing she had experimented with as a filly. To her, taking something and making it smaller was a piece of cake. While making her own three-dimensional projection smaller was a bit of a challenge, it no doubt worked perfectly; and most importantly, it looked awesome.
The projector displayed the entire Boom Room in front of her face. Off to the right side of the display was a slightly enlarged rotating image of the newly-assembled suit of armor she wore.
"T.A.N.K., old buddy, you there?" she asked.
Seconds later, the familiar computerized voice echoed within the helmet. "At your service, madam, I have indeed been properly uploaded into the armor."
"Peachy. Now let’s run some tests, huh?"
"Yes, Miss Dash. Preparing to power down and run flight simulations to make calculations for further reference."
"Yeah, about that..." said Rainbow, her voice sliding into T.A.N.K's sentence. "Let’s check up on the weather outside and do a straight-up flying test around Las Pegasus. Give the ponies something to see."
"Ma'am, I must protest as there are still hundreds of calculations that need to be completed, in addition to the fact that there are no-"
"One, two three, GO!" shouted Rainbow Dash before T.A.N.K. was able to finish. Seconds later, Rainbow Dash had crashed directly through the ceiling of her Boom Room, through the floor above and directly up into the sky above.
"-windows or doorways in your present location," finished T.A.N.K.
Rainbow flew through the air, going higher and higher into the night sky. She looked down below, barely able to make out the hole she had left in the roof of her house. The flight stabilizers left behind a white trail in her wake. Rainbow Dash couldn't stop herself from grinning like a fool as she came to a halt in midair, hovering for a few moments in order to look around her. She had done it! She had singlehoofedly spat in the face of medical science and gotten herself back in the air.
The sound of thunder in the distance slowly rolled into her ears. Turning to her left, Rainbow Dash was barely able to make out a large mass of dark clouds forming against the indigo night sky.
"T.A.N.K., how long until that sucker hits us?"
"Calculating," said T.A.N.K with a pause. "ETA is twenty minutes. However, several DashCo weather balloons are
reporting that sudden lightning-"
"That's more than enough."
With that, Rainbow Dash sped away as fast as she could toward the Las Pegasus skyline. Thus far, her suit had been handling itself quite well. There were no malfunctions, the in-helmet projector was working properly, T.A.N.K. had been properly uploaded, and the flight stabilizers were working like a charm now that she has perfected the balance between each hoof. The only thing that Rainbow Dash was uncomfortable with was flying with her wings pressed flat against her back by the suit; but aside from that, going through the sky was an all too familiar sensation.
She zipped through the night sky, the glowing trail she left behind catching the eyes of onlookers below. Ponies on the streets looked up to catch a glimpse of what looked to them like a shooting star. Fillies and colts were awoken by the whooshing noise she made as she flew on. It was a remarkable sight to behold. So remarkable, in fact, that some ponies questioned if they had seen anything at all. But they had. They had caught their first glimpse of the brilliant pony who had beaten all odds and regained her ability to fly. They had seen, for the first time, the pony that would later come to be known as the Iron Mare.
"…being universally described as a 'metal pony' was spotted over Las Pegasus last night. No comment has been made by officials as of yet, but some have already speculated that this is some sort of secret Wonderbolt—"
"…captain of the Wonderbolts, has declined to comment on last night's strange event, saying only: ‘It sure was something—‘"
"…down, ponies. Vinyl is back on the mic and she's ready to take on the night. Anyways, did any of you out there catch what happened last night? I was here playing music when this CRAZY fast... uh, thing, just FLEW past the station window! I dunno what you think, but this DJ is going on record saying THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED ON THIS SHOW EVER! Oh Celestia, did you SEE how fast it was going?! I mean, Spitfire is probably over at the Wonderbolt HQ right now trying to wrap her head around the whole thing! It was— Oh! Wait a minute! What time is it? Oh jeez, I hope I'm not too late! Hold on, guys, I gotta make a phone—”
"…last night was indeed a most unusual one. Everypony is going on about this 'metal pony' as if it were the return of Princess Celestia herself! Oh, that reminds me! We must begin the call-in show! That's right, Las Pegasus! Starting now, I will begin to accept your calls! Pray tell, everypony, did you happen to catch a glimpse of— Oh! It seems as if we have our first caller already! Goodness, you ponies must have quite a bit to say on the matter! Hello, this is Octavia speaking, and you are live on— Vinyl?! I know you're excited about seeing it fly past your station window last night! What? No! Vinyl, I— Yes, I understand that your listeners can hear our conversation, mine can hear as well, but— Don’t you have some of your electronic music to play? ...Well yes I do, but I was— Wait a moment! How did YOU know I had begun the call-in segment? Oh, please tell me you haven't been toying with our show schedule again. ...I knew it. Ugh, you are unbearable! ...Oh, don't you use that tone of voice with me, Scratchy! Just you wait until I get home tonight. I'll give you what for! I—"
* * *
Rainbow flipped the knob of the radio one more time, finally finding a station that was playing actual music rather than blabbering on about her stunt from the previous night
"Sounds like we're making news, T.A.N.K.," she said, turning back toward the glowing table and examining a projection of her latest and greatest invention.
"We have been the main theme of most of today's radio broadcasts, Miss Dash."
"Well, it's not the first time I've heard my name on the radio."
Rainbow looked the projection of her suit up and down. "Okay, so we know it works. We know it can fly. We know that it should protect me from most outside forces. But omnium alone isn't gonna cut it if we get struck by lightning in the air. What can we do?"
"According to DashCo records, the material used to construct the Sparkle Satellite was a top-secret titanium-dipped omnium alloy. It is meant to retain omnium's endurance as well as protect the satellite from any natural forces."
"Let me see what it would look like. Pull up a model," said Rainbow, trotting over to the small fridge she kept in her Boom Room. Opening it up, Rainbow found a green bottle of AppleFamily Classic and picked it up. Using her teeth she pulled off the top, causing foam to leak down from the rim of the bottle.
"The render is complete, Madame."
She looked up to find a rotating image of her very same suit, albeit colored gold now. Rainbow made a face. "Oh yuck, it looks awful. Give it a paintjob. A cool color, like... red!"
"Yes, that should help keep you under the radar," said T.A.N.K. as the image of the golden suit fizzled away.
"You know something, T.A.N.K? Your attitude is starting to grow on me," she said before taking another sip from the bottle of cider.
The image of the suit returned, the golden hue having been reduced to a mere trim among a coat of glossy red paint that covered most of the armor.
"And I like that too! Assemble it!"
Just then, the soft rock playing from her radio was interrupted by the sound of a knock at the front door of her mansion that played through the speakers. Rainbow Dash glanced down at her watch before looking over at the clock on the wall. 2:55. Spitfire must be early.
Rainbow rushed away from the table projector. She grabbed her jacket in her mouth and zipped it over her chest, a ritual she was slowly growing used to.
* * *
Spitfire stood outside Rainbow Dash's front door, holding a mobile telephone up to her ear. "No. It’s not— No, the Wonderbolts don't even have the technology to build something like that. You're not listening. We're not— we're not involved. What? No! I am not acting suspicious! I'm not—"
She dropped the piece of hardware to the ground and kicked it into a nearby bush, deciding that it was a better than letting some conspiracy theorist get the better of her. All day she had been putting up with calls from Canterlot and from ponies who obviously had nothing better to do than track her phone number down and try to tell her how Equestria was hiding some sort of mutant machine/pony hybrid from the public. Quite frankly, she had heard enough about "government cover ups" and "alicorn magic," and didn't care to hear what some reporter from a newspaper named The Tattler had to say. Had Rainbow Dash not called her over, she would probably still be at the Wonderbolt headquarters, once again explaining that neither she nor the Wonderbolts had anything to do with the anomaly from the previous night. And, on top of all this, she was still doing her best to coordinate the latest Wonderbolt strike against the Diamond Dogs in Saddle Arabia, which in itself was stressful enough to break the back of a donkey. At least Rainbow Dash would be able to get her mind off of the whole—
"So what do you know about what happened last night, Spitty?"
Of course.
"I know that I've heard enough conspiracies to last a lifetime."
"What?"
"Never mind," said Spitfire, choosing not to elaborate any further. "What is it you wanted me for, Rainbow? I have work to do."
"I need to show you something," Rainbow Dash said as she turned around and trotted back in. Spitfire rolled her eyes and followed the cyan-blue Pegasus through the door.
* * *
It's okay, Rainbow. Just tell her that you were the thing in the air last night. Easy. She's your best friend. What's she gonna do? Arrest you? Can she even do that? ...WOULD she even do that?
The thoughts raced through Rainbow's mind even as she unlocked the door of her Boom Room.
"Enough with the mysterious stuff, Dash. I'm very busy and I have a long day—"
Rainbow pressed a button on the wall, lighting up her Boom Room and revealing the silver suit of armor in the center.
"Ahead of... me..." Spitfire's voice trailed off.
"Remember how I said I would get myself back in the air if it killed me? Well... there it is."
Spitfire was speechless. In front of her was not only the most incredible machine Rainbow Dash had ever built, but the fabled "metal pony" everypony in Equestria was talking about. This was amazing! This was perfect! Now she would be able to get everyone off of her flank about it being a secret Wonderbolt project and Rainbow Dash would—
"But you can't tell anyone."
"What? Why not? This is amazing! Do you know how much—"
"I want you to see something."
Rainbow Dash trotted over to the table projector and pressed a button, bringing up a model of the silver suit of armor facing a projection of one of the Diamond Dogs, armed with a twisted Saddle Gun on his back. The projected dog opened fire with its gun, sending bullets flying at the suit of armor, which merely stood there.
"Now watch this."
In one motion, the suit of armor lifted up one leg and pointed at the dog. The Dazzler Thruster on the bottom of its hoof glowed for a moment before shooting off a bright beam of white energy that hit the dog, sending it flying backwards and out of sight. Seconds later, the word "Fatality" hovered over where the projection had once been. Spitfire stood there, at a loss for words for the projection in front of her.
"I discovered that little side-effect last night when I was conducting a few tests with the Dazzler Thrusters," Rainbow said, turning to face her Wonderbolt friend. "It’s not just a suit, Spitfire, it's a weapon. That's just a simulation. Imagine what it would do if it fell into the wrong hooves."
"So what do you want to do with it?"
"I want to end the war with it, Spitfire.”
"You want to what?" asked an understandably astonished Spitfire.
"I want to end the war with it, Spitfire. We can go out into Saddle Arabia and take out the Diamond Dogs with no problem. But I need—"
"And who do you expect to fly this thing?"
"Me, of course. And if—"
"Absolutely not. I'm not letting you do that."
"You don't get it, Spitfire—"
"No, I get it perfectly. You think you can suit up, fly out, beat up some bad guys and everyone goes home happy. Well, you know something? You won't. You'll get killed. And I already went through the grief of losing you once. I don't plan on doing it again."
Spitfire looked around the room before settling her gaze on the silver suit of armor behind Rainbow Dash.
"I don't care how amazing that thing is. I'll call the Canterlot Royal Guard before I let you out into Saddle Arabia."
With that, Spitfire turned around and began storming out of the room, pausing only to look back at her friend for the briefest of moments before continuing out the door.
She'd lost Rainbow Dash once in Saddle Arabia; the idea of her best friend wanting to fly back into a war zone downright scared her. She couldn't lose her again, and she was willing to do anything to ensure that she wouldn’t.
* * *
Rainbow Dash merely stood alone in silence after Spitfire had stormed out of the Boom Room. "That, uh... That could have gone about twenty times better."
Rainbow turned around and began to tinker with the dial of her radio once more.
"I don't suppose you intend to attend the DashCo Charity Fundraiser tonight then?" inquired T.A.N.K.
"The what?" asked Rainbow, still trying to find the ever-elusive balance between volume and clarity.
"The fundraiser at DashCo's headquarters, madam. The very same one you announced several months ago."
"Hey, T.A.N.K., I don't know if you've picked up on this one yet, but I've been sort of... out of town for a few months. Why
didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't ask. As I was saying, the fundraiser will begin in half an hour."
"How much longer ‘til the new model is complete?" Rainbow asked the computer.
"Estimated time remaining is three hours."
“It's been a long time since I crashed a party,” Rainbow thought to herself mischievously. She picked up a small silver watch from a nearby table and slipped it around her hoof. "Don't wait up for me, honey," she said as she left the Boom Room, grabbing her coat.
* * *
The Diamond Dogs all stood perfectly in a line, heads bowed and eyes closed. All were unworthy to even look at their master as he passed them one by one. At the end of the line was Rover, the only one brave (or perhaps foolish) enough to keep his eyes open. Though his eyes pointed downward, he was easily able to distinguish the blue and black figure of his master approaching along the dim rocky corridor.
As his master came closer, Rover bit down on his lip. They had pieced together the suit of armor Rainbow Dash left behind as best they could, and yet he still was not sure if it was enough to please him.
As Ahuizotl finally came to a halt, Rover couldn't help but find himself shaking in fear.
"Where is it?" said the blue- and black-coated creature in a hushed voice that shook Rover to his heart. Without a word, Rover turned around and led his Master into the next chamber of the cave, where Rainbow Dash's original suit of armor stood assembled.
For the past month, his Diamond Dogs had worked to put the machine back together. Even though Dash had left the original schematics behind, their complexity and the overall difficulty of figuring out which bit connected to what made the task much more difficult.
"Relax, my friend," whispered Ahuizotl. "I have not come to punish you. In fact, I believe congratulations are in order."
Rover managed to pull his mouth up into a nervous smile. His master had praised him. Surely he was pleased with their progress.
"And now... destroy it," his master said simply.
"E-excuse me?"
"Destroy it. We do not want such a machine used against us again."
Ahuizotl turned and began walking out of the chamber without another word. Rover followed and fell into step alongside him.
"B-but, master, I thought we were going to use the machine ourselv—"
Rover was thrown to the ground after a sharp blow by Ahuizotl to his face. As he got back up, he found his master to be
nowhere in sight, the only sign of him being a trail of prints that simply came to an end.
Rover had no intention of destroying the original suit of armor. He had plans of his own.
Rainbow Dash looked down at the small town below her. From her height, she was able to make out the grey shapes of several Diamond Dogs. The display in front of her face quickly highlighted all of them and took note of two wearing Saddle Guns on their back. As the repulsors on her hooves pushed her through the sky, she continued to scan the area, searching for any sign of other weapons.
"Alright, Spitfire, what's the word?" She said.
Seconds later, the sound of Spitfire's voice filled her helmet.
"The Wonderbolts have been keeping their eye on this town for weeks. We know that the Diamond Dogs use it to stash a good portion of their weapons, but we never got the clearance to shut them down."
"What's stopping you?"
Rainbow continued to fly in a wide circle high above the small settlement. Zebras and Dogs alike looked like ants dotting the landscape.
"According to our Wonderbolt Intel Balloons, they're using the towns citizens as meat shields. Even our best sharpshooters couldn't get them because they stay too close to the zebras for us to get a clear shot without risking hitting a civilian, too."
"Don't worry, Spitfire. Gimme ten minutes and you'll never have to worry about them again."
There was a pause before Lightning Dust's voice came through the helmet's radio.
"Don't get yourself killed, Rainbow, and don't mess around. This is serious."
"Me? Mess around? Never!" Rainbow said before flying down toward the town at an angle.
"Don't worry, Spitfire. Gimme ten minutes and you'll never have to worry about them again."
Both Spitfire and Lightning Dust stood huddled around the projector table in Rainbow Dash's Boom Room. Before she had left on her first "mission" (as she called it) Rainbow had shown them how to use the machine and even wired up a radio that would allow the pair to communicate with her while she was in the suit. Right now, the projector was focused on a spinning image of Rainbow Dash flying through the air with a small map of the town below her.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Said Lightning Dust, turning to look at the younger mare.
"Look, Rainbow Dash said she knew what she was doing. If that armor is as strong as she says it is, then she should be fine." Spitfire said without turning away from the projector.
Lightning Dust leaned over to the radio.
"Don't get yourself killed, Rainbow, and don't mess around. This is serious."
"Me? Mess around! Never!"
Lightning Dust rolled her eyes and glanced at Spitfire, who still stood over the projector.
"How are you so calm about this? Rainbow could be killed. Aren't you worried?"
"Of course I'm worried. I'm very worried. But if she says she can get the job done, then I believe her. She might be reckless, she might be arrogant and she might be a little crazy, but you and I both know that if there was any one pony on the planet who could end a war all by herself, it's Rainbow."
All her life, Rainbow had been one to take risks, from jumping out of a tree and breaking her leg in an attempt to fly before her wings were fully developed, to building and testing experimental weapons in her own home. But this was different. This was a whole new ballgame. Here, Rainbow Dash faced death. Lightning Dust knew how strong omnium was, and she knew that Rainbow's new toy was virtually indestructible, but there were so many other factors that went into the situation. Was what they were doing legal? What would happen if Princess Luna found out about Rainbow Dash's crusade? What if she ran out of power? A Crystal Charger could maintain a huge amount of power for a long period of time, but it could only put out so much before it died out and required a new burst of energy to restart. What if the computer in Rainbow's suit malfunctioned? What if the Dogs were leading her into a trap and planned to somehow force her out of the suit? There were so many "What if" scenarios playing through her head that she nearly jumped when Spitfire suddenly spoke up.
"Make sure you take out the Dazzler Fireworks to the east, Rainbow. You don't want one of those going off in your direction".
"Got it" came Rainbow's voice through the radio, followed by a wooshing noise that Lightning Dust assumed to be her descending from the air.
Lightning Dust gazed at the dull grey projection of the landscape. Every small detail had been mapped out by a Wonderbolt Intel Balloon earlier, which, when combined with the constant stream of information from Rainbow's suit, gave a live feed of what was going on as it happened. It was an incredible tactical advantage and it provided Spitfire with everything she needed to keep Rainbow Dash updated on her surroundings.
Lightning Dust looked to the floor. Rainbow Dash and Spitfire were the closest she had to family. She had watched them grow up from fillies into the unstoppable duo they were today. When Spectrum Dash died, she had taken up both the reins of DashCo and became the only role model Rainbow had left. Being the eldest of the three, she felt a sort of responsibility to keep them safe from harm, even if that meant protecting them from themselves.
"I'm on the ground, Spitfire!"
"Good. Now engage at your discretion."
"What?"
Spitfire rolled her eyes.
"Beat them up!"
"Oh!"
Lightning Dust turned her gaze to the yellow mare. Before she could open her mouth to talk, Spitfire cut her off.
"I know you're worried, Lightning Dust... just have a little faith in Rainbow. I'm sure she's going to be okay."
"Spitfire?" said Rainbow
"Do you really blame me for worrying?"
"Uh... Spitfire?" Rainbow said, there was a twinge of worry in her voice this time that went unnoticed by either of them.
"I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying that you should have a little more faith in her."
"Guys?" Said Rainbow
"We're breaking international laws by doing this, Spitfire. I have faith in her, but there's so much that can go wrong." Said Lightning Dust, her voice growing a bit louder.
"Don't talk to me about what laws we're breaking." Spitfire retorted, the Wonderbolt's own voice increasing in volume.
"So why agree to this entire scheme of Rainbow's?"
"Because I want the stupid war to end! That's why!" Shouted Spitfire spinning around to face Lightning Dust.
The mares continued to shout at one another and didn't notice the growing concern in Rainbow's voice until she finally yelled.
"GUYS!"
"What is it, Rainbow Dash?" Snapped Spitfire.
"I think we have a problem...."
Rainbow Dash watched the machine in horror as it's metal feet shook the ground with each step it took. She could hardly believe her own eyes. It was a Diamond Dog..... wearing a suit of armor that looked nearly identical to the one she used to escape the mine.
"T.A.N.K. scan that thing for me" she said, taking a step back from the approaching metal monstrosity.
"Scanning now, madame"
"Rainbow, what is it? We can't make it out on the projector." came Spitfire's voice.
Ignoring her, Rainbow continued to back away from the Dog. Truthfully, it wasn't much of a threat, as its suit was inferior in every way. But the fact that the Diamond Dogs had somehow managed to reverse engineer a set of designs that were not only carefully drawn to hide their true form, but also thought to be destroyed, scared her.
"Scan is complete, Miss Dash. Isolating results and displaying the data in thirty seconds." Said T.A.N.K.
"Peachy." She mumbled, before looking up at the armored Dog. "Alright, you wanna play with the big colts? Lets play!"
With that, Rainbow engaged the thrusters in her hooves and flew at the machine, crashing into the dog and flying forward, pushing the Dog back. Rainbow before suddenly come to a stop, causing the Dog to slam into the ground several feet away. Rainbow hovered in place for a moment before flying directly up in the air and landing back down on top of his stomach.
"Displaying the results now, Miss Dash." Said T.A.N.K.
A three dimensional image of the armor suddenly popped up in front of Rainbow's face and began to rotate. She took a moment to examine the readout, while keeping him pinned under her. According to the scan, the suit lacked any crystalline power source and carried no weapons. From what she could tell, it seemed to be powered by the large engine on its back. Without a Crystal to run said engine, the only way to keep such a machine moving would be gasoline. And if gasoline were the primary source of energy, that meant-
Rainbow was suddenly grabbed from her sides and slammed into the sand. The sound of whirring machinery filled the air as the Diamond Dog stood up on its back paws. Rainbow licked her lips before getting up and raising her hoof. A bright beam of repulsor energy shot out from her hoof and sent the Dog flying backwards.
All Rainbow needed was to get a clear shot at the engine on his back.
Much easier said than done.
She bit her lip and began to think how she would accomplish such a task.
Suddenly, the Dog stood up again and charged Rainbow Dash. With little time to think, Rainbow leaped into the air and activated her hind leg thrusters, hovering in place. She looked down at the dog who simply stared back at her, smiling at her advantage.
Rainbow landed and galloped over to the Dog. She grabbed him with both her front hooves and lifted the titanic metal monster into the air, struggling to keep her hind legs balanced. Even with the incredible strength granted by the suit of armor, Rainbow found it difficult to keep him above her head and felt her knees nearly give in as she lowered the armored Dog in front of her so that so that his back was in a direct line with the Crystal in her chest.
"T-T.A.N.K.!" She barely managed to gasp out as he struggled in her grasp. "Divert all power to Chest Unibeam!"
With that, a blinding, white beam escaped the glowing gem in her chest and caused the engine on the dog's back to explode, the shockwave sending Rainbow Dash flying backwards and into the sand once again. She grunted with the impact and found herself looking up at the sky.
"That was easy..." she panted, before painfully pulling herself up.
"...ain....bow... Dash. -re you okay? Come in! Come in, Rainbow!" she heard Spitfire's voice yell through the helmet's sound system
"Yep." she groaned, still struggling to keep herself on her hooves "I'm alive, but we've got a situation."
"Tell me on your way back. I want you home right now."
Rainbow rolled her eyes "Yes, mom" she said, taking off into the air and flying away.
"How did the /Diamond Dogs/ manage to rebuild your suit, Rainbow?" Asked Spitfire, the distress clear in her voice.
"I- I don't know.." Was all Rainbow could say.
"Well you've got to know something, Rainbow. The Diamond Dogs aren't smart enough to put it together all on their own." Said Lightning Dust, gently patting a gash on Rainbow's head that came as a result of her battle with the armored Dog.
Rainbow had been silent for a majority of the long journey home from Saddle Arabia. She was at a loss for words, a very rare occurrence. The plans she drew up in the mine had been specifically designed to be indecipherable to anyone but her, with the possible exception of Zecora.
"Ow..." she said, slightly jerking her head away as Lightning continued to dab the gash.
"Look, Rainbow" Lightning Dust said, putting the gauze down and closing the first aid kit in front of her. "The Diamond Dogs have your designs and they're using them to build suits.... We need to stop them before they get out of control."
"What we need to do" Rainbow began "is find a way to get those designs from them. If the Diamond Dogs are anywhere near as stupid as we know they are, then getting them won't be much trouble. We just need to figure out where they're hiding."
Rainbow looked up at the ceiling "T.A.N.K., pull up a map of the area surrounding the mine I was in."
"Yes madame,"
Seconds later, the table displayed a three dimensional map. Every cave had been specifically marked and highlighted in red. Rainbow walked up to the table and looked down at the grid.
"Okay, so we know that the Diamond Dogs were using this cave as their base of operations, right?" She pointed to the center of the map. "Now, they wouldn't have gone far.... the mountains are their main defense against Wonderbolt air strikes and they need a large cave system to keep themselves sheltered.... so let's take away any caves that are too small..."
A number of the highlighted caves vanished from the projection. Rainbow continued her musings.
"And it wouldn't be too far from the original cave... so we can eliminate any that are more than... let's say three miles away..."
Several more caves disappeared from view. Lightning Dust and Spitfire trotted up on both sides of Rainbow Dash in time to see the rest of the highlighted areas vanish, leaving one final cave on the table.
"There. That's where they'd be its in the same area, about the same size and it's not far from where I was being held."
"So what do we do, Rainbow? Go up, and just ask nicely?" Asked Lightning Dust with more than just a little sarcasm in her voice.
"We won't... but /you/ will." Said Rainbow, looking over at the eldest of the three.
Lightning Dust looked from Rainbow Dash to Spitfire, then back again.
"Say again?"
Lightning Dust looked out the window of the airplane before turning to face Rainbow Dash.
"This is the stupidest idea you've ever had, Rainbow" she said, almost angrily. "And that's saying something."
"Well what do you suggest we do?" asked Rainbow Dash, sitting in a chair across the aisle.
"I suggest we find some other pony to do this.... some pony who isn't me!"
"You'll be fine, Dusty! All you need to do is go in, convince them that you want in on their little organization and then take the designs right from under their noses. Bing, bang, boom, we get the designs, we destroy them, and then go home happy."
Rainbow leaned over to pat her friend on the back.
"Why me, though?" Lightning inquired. "Between us, we're probably richer than most of Equestria will ever dream of being, can't we just, I don't know, hire someone to do this?"
"We need someone who can pull off the 'corrupt shareholder' role. Since no pony in Equestria knows about our little side project, that means you're the only one qualified. And, if memory serves me correct, didn't you used to brag about how good of an actress you were?"
"That was three years ago, Rainbow! And being the lead role in Beauty and the Manticore is very different from convincing terrorists, let me say that again, TERRORISTS, that I'm an executive from DashCo out to get revenge or whatever. How do I know they won't kill me on sight just for being a PART of DashCo?"
"They won't, trust me. They're stupid, but they know that a DashCo executive willing to provide weapons for free is too juicy to pass up. Here," Rainbow reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small device. "Keep this in your ear, and I'll be able to hear everything. If you're in trouble, I'll be there in ten seconds flat."
"With your armor?" Asked Lightning Dust, reaching her hoof out to take the device.
"With my armor." Said Rainbow, with a reassuring smile.
Lightning Dust bit her lip and gently placed the tiny machine in her ear.
The plane landed smoothly. All had gone well, and Lightning Dust now found herself behind the wheel of a motorized carriage. Rainbow had arranged for the vehicle to be dropped off at the Wonderbolt landing strip earlier, so that she wouldn't have to traverse the desert at night. It was a modest machine, nothing like the fancy, expensive ones she was used to riding in, yet wasn't worn down and beat up like one would expect to find in a backwater town like Ponyvil-
"Okay, Dusty, I'm here. According the the suit, you're less than five minutes away." Came Rainbow's voice through the earpiece.
Lightning Dust rolled her eyes. She was well aware of how far she was from what could very well be where she met her maker.
The carriage rocked and creaked as she drove over rocky terrain. If it were any louder, the Diamond Dogs would surely be able to-
Lightning Dust felt her heart skip a beat and her blood run cold as she spotted the flickering lights of a campfire up ahead.
"Rainbow..." she whispered "I see them..."
"Alright, Dusty, stick to the plan..."
Lightning Dust stopped the carriage and took in some air. She knew she was walking into a deadly situation, but there was so much at stake. If the Diamond Dogs continued to make their own suits, then they would slowly grow more advanced, and maybe even become as powerful as Rainbow's first suit of armor, given time. Considering how destructive Rainbow Dash's first crude attempt had been, Lightning Dust shuddered at the thought of such a machine being in the paws of murders.
There are lives on the line she thought to herself, patting her saddlebag for the small, mouth operated pistol inside
Let's do this...
With that, she opened the carriage door and stepped out. The instant she shut the door, every visible Diamond Dog looked directly at her.
She held her breath as she began taking her first steps, the sand ever so slightly sinking beneath her bare hooves. Doing her best to give off a confident vibe, Lightning Dust puffed out her chest and continued forward, counting each step under her breath.
"One.... two.... three.... four.... five.... six.... seven.... eight...."
Several of the dogs stood up and ran toward her, snarling as they closed in.
I'm dead she thought, but pressed on.
If she ran, her cover would be blown and she'd lose any chance of getting the designs. Not to mention that it was very unlikely she'd be able to outrun them. The dogs' grew louder and closer. With not enough time to pull out her pistol, she closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.
"STOP!" A voice yelled.
She looked up, stunned to find that the Dogs had all stopped in their tracks and were now looking over at a dog wearing a strange red ruby around his neck. He walked past all the others and approached Lightning Dust.
"Relax", he said in an eerily calm voice. "You must forgive my brothers... they are not exactly the brightest... My name is Rover..."
He motioned to the Dogs behind him, who merely growled in response.
"Come" he continued, beginning to walk back toward the campfires.
Unsure of what to do, but very certain that she didn't want to be left behind with the snarling dogs, Lightning Dust followed, falling into step alongside him.
"I've come with a proposal." she said in the most confident voice she could muster.
Rover did not turn to look at her and simply continued walking.
Lightning Dust bit her lip and looked from side to side. She took the fact that he hadn't ordered her killed as a sign that he was at least willing to listen. She went on.
"DashCo has a surplus of weapons after Rainbow Dash shut down our arms manufacturing department." Lightning paused to lick her lips "I was wondering if you would be interested in having them in exchange for something"
Rover turned to look at her with a toothy grin, obviously tempted by such an offer
"What could we have possibly done to deserve such kindness?"
"Rainbow Dash and I had a falling out over where we should take the company next.. Personally, I don't agree with where she wants to go, and I plan to change her mind. Don't think this is for free, though. I expect something in return."
"And what is that?" he asked.
"The designs you took from Rainbow Dash."
Rover stopped walking and turned to face her, still grinning.
"Ah... you seek our designs..." he said.
"Yes... DashCo would benefit greatly from having them in our archives. Once Rainbow Dash is removed from the equation, we'll be able to produce new weapons based around the original designs, some of which may land in your possession."
Rover began walking again. Lightning Dust took note of the fact that he was leading her toward the mouth of the cave. It made her uneasy, yet she continued. He seemed to be buying it and hopefully, she'd be able to leave in one piece.
"You wish to see what we recovered after her escape?"
"That's what I came for." She said.
Going against her better judgment, Lightning Dust followed him into the cave. She went down a dark passage and turned in to a small room, lit only by a lantern, pausing when she saw it. Before her was Rainbow Dash's original suit of armor, reassembled and propped against the wall. She trotted up and gently placed a hoof against its metallic face.
"So this is how she did it" she whispered.
"Her escape bore unexpected fruit. We eventually learned how to harvest this fruit. As we speak, my Diamond Dogs are working to recreate it yet again"
Lightning Dust turned her head away from the suit.
"Again?" She inquired, feigning ignorance.
"Yes, again." Said Rover, walking up next to her and placing his paw on her shoulder.
She felt uncomfortable with his paw on her body, but decided against pulling out from under him.
"Or did Rainbow Dash tell you otherwise, Lightning Dust?" He continued.
Lightning Dust felt her heart stop. Did he just-
She felt his arm suddenly wrap itself around her and throw her into the sand. She looked up at him, her eyes widened as he slammed his paw on her stomach to keep her pinned. He brought his head down close to hers.
"Our master said you would arrive..." He snarled into her face.
She heard a sadistic chuckle off to her side and looked to find a large, blue creature with ten glowing jewels on his front paws. Rover turned, keeping his paw on her and bowed to who Lightning presumed to be his master.
"R-Rainbow...." she whispered, hoping that her earpiece would be able to pick up her words. "I think I need some help.."
"Lightning Dust!" she heard Rainbow yell through the speaker "It's an ambush!"
I never would have guessed she thought.
Just then, Rover stuck one of his claws into her ear and forcefully yanked the device out, causing her to wince.
"Lightning Dust?" Rainbow's tinny voice continued through the earpiece until Rover slammed his paw down on it, shattering the poor machine to bits.
"Well done, Rover..." said the creature. "You have proven your worth..."
Lightning was pulled up to her hooves, and pushed forward. She fell into the sand before the blue monster and looked up into his dark, yellow eyes.
"I have backup on the way." She managed to choke out.
Lightning Dust held her breath as one of his long arms lifted her off the floor. She watched as he pulled his free arm up and held his bejeweled paw in front of her face.
"By the time Rainbow Dash arrives, it will be too late..." he rasped sinisterly "You shall soon prove to be one of our most valuable assets...."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
With that, the he lifted one of his glowing paws and brought it up close to her face.
"No! Wait! NO!" Lightning Dust screamed out.
Beep beep beep....
Where was she?
Beep beep beep...
The last she remembered, she was driving toward the Diamond Dog camp in a motorcarriage before.... her memory cut off after that, leaving only fragments behind. There was something about rebuilding.... something about plans.... something about glowing diamonds...
Beep beep beep...
"Dusty? You with me?" She heard an ever so familiar voice say.
Wherever she was, Rainbow Dash was with her.
She opened her eyes to find herself lying in a hospital bed in the middle of a pearly white room, surrounded by medical equipment. A heart monitor continually beeped next to her.
"She's awake!" Cried out Rainbow Dash.
"Where am I?" She mumbled.
"You don't remember?" Asked the younger Pegasus, passing over a glass of water, which Lightning gratefully sipped from.
She shook her head as the cool water refreshed her dry mouth.
"I got ambushed by two Diamond Dogs and tried to tell you that it was a trap. When I got to the cave you were on the floor, alone, 'cept for my original suit of armor next to you. You were out cold. I brought you back to the Wonderbolt base, and now... well... here we are"
Lightning Dust gulped down the last of her water and placed the glass on the table beside her bed.
"Where's the suit?" She asked.
"Its safe... I had Spitfire send a pair of Wonderbolts to the cave to pack it up. They'll destroy it and the designs will be put into DashCo archives once we get back to Las Pegasus."
Lightning Dust placed her head back down on the pillow and shut her eyes.
We will use the designs... she heard a voice whisper
"What for?" She asked, not opening her eyes.
"What?" Said Rainbow Dash, who, judging by the position of her voice, had moved toward the exit.
"What are we using the designs for?"
"Dusty... what?"
Lightning Dust opened her eyes and scanned the room.
There was nobody there, except for her and Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash knocked on Lightning Dust's door. She lived in a large house, though it didn't quite qualify as a mansion. It was perfect for Lightning Dust, who had never been one to spend bits on lavish things.
Rainbow hadn't seen or heard from Lightning Dust in almost two weeks. Normally, that wouldn't be cause for worry. Lightning Dust had always enjoyed her privacy, but with the circumstances being what they were, Rainbow couldn't stop herself. On top of all that, Lightning Dust had been acting a bit strange ever since her experience in Saddle Arabia several weeks ago.
It started with her constantly asking for others to repeat themselves when no one said anything. At first, Rainbow dismissed this as a simple hearing problem, and even made a crack about Lightning Dust being ancient (something she would normally laugh at) only to receive a hateful look from the older mare. That's when Rainbow found her mumbling to herself during a routine walkthrough of the DashCo factory. Hearing problems were one thing, but talking to herself was another.
Rainbow begun to worry that the entire thing was somehow linked to Saddle Arabia. She hadn't seen or heard anything about the Diamond Dogs since she found Lightning Dust in the cave they were supposedly hiding in. It was like they vanished without a trace.
Rainbow Dash let out a quiet gasp when Lightning Dust opened the door.
There stood her friend, mane disheveled and dark circles under her eyes. She obviously hadn't slept or groomed herself for some time.
"What?"
"What happened?" Was all Rainbow Dash could force out.
"Nothing. I'm fine."
"But, what about your eyes? They're-"
"I haven't gotten much sleep. Sue me." Snapped Lightning Dust. "Are you going to come inside, Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow looked from side to side before answering. "No... no I'm good... but I just want to know if you're okay."
Lightning's eyes brightened up and she smiled.
"Fine! I've never been better, Rainbow!"
"You really don't look it..."
"I look a little under the weather, so what? It's not like I'm the face of DashCo or anything. I'm not you, Rainbow Dash. I'm not a celebrity."
All the cheeriness quickly faded from her face, as if the previous statement had brought up a long buried feeling of jealousy. The world around them went silent for a moment before Lightning Dust shook her head and looked at Rainbow with the smile plastered on her face again.
"Now go on! Don't worry about me, Rainbow. I'm fine" she finished.
Hesitantly, Rainbow Dash turned around and began walking down the way she came. She heard the door close behind her as she continued along the path.
Lightning Dust turned away from the door and leaned against it before sliding down to the floor. The turquoise Pegasus let out an exasperated sigh and shut her tired eyes.
She couldn't remember the last time she slept. Her anxiety had made sure that she got as little as possible over the past several weeks. Was it three days or four? Maybe it was even five-
There was a sudden cackle off to her right, causing her to jerk her head in the direction it had come from.
"S-somepony there?" she asked.
"Somepony...." came an eerie, whispery reply.
Lightning got to her hooves and looked around the room.
"Where are you?"
"Follow the cold shiver running down your spine..." said the voice.
Lightning slowly began to walk in the direction the voice had come from, toward a nearby hallway that lead to her bedroom. For weeks, she had been hearing things. Voices. Laughing at her. Mocking her. It was scary, yet at the same time, she hadn't brought it up to anyone else for fear of being labeled a nutcase, or worse, institutionalized.
Lightning Dust continued through the room, the air growing colder. Like a twisted game of hot and cold, she went in whatever direction felt more uncomfortable. Pressing into the unknown, she continued down the hallway and made a turn into her bathroom.
"I'm right here!" she heard.
Turning, Lightning Dust found herself looking at her reflection in the mirror.
"I don't get it..." she whispered.
"Don't play dumb..." said her reflection, causing her to take a step back. "You've known this whole time."
"No... That's not possible. This is a dream. I'm dreaming!"
"Oh but it is, Lightning Dust. I'm as real as you are."
Lightning reached over and turned on the sink before splashing cool water onto her face. A moment later, she opened her eyes and looked in the mirror once again.
"I'm still here" said her reflection, grinning back at her.
She took a step back and leaned against the wall, putting her face into her hooves, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Oh, don't be such a scared little filly. This shouldn't come as a surprise to you" it said
Not moving her face from her hooves, Lightning Dust simply asked the most pressing question in her head.
"What are you?"
"I'm you. Just.... Improved." said her reflection. "I'm everything you ever wished you were. Everything you are or wanted to be, I am.
She opened her eyes and lifted her face from her hooves, looking into the mirror to find her reflection staring back at her, still grinning.
"What do you want?"
"To say what you won't. To do what you can't. To eliminate those who would stand in our way."
"Where did you come from?"
Her reflection licked its lips deviously, almost sexually. Like it was enjoying the fear on Lightning Dust's face.
"Remember? Saddle Arabia? Your little run in with the Diamond Dogs and Ahuizotl?"
Lightning Dust gasped at the realization.
"The cave..." she whispered.
"Bingo. Me! The single best thing that's ever happened to you."
"How is a split personality supposed to be the best thing that's ever happened to me?"
"You'd be surprised what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.. That is... If Rainbow Dash hasn't already done it."
"Shut up!" cried Lightning Dust.
"Too scared to admit that you're jealous of Rainbow Dash? Too scared to face the truth?"
"I'm not scared!"
"Then say it!"
"Say what?!"
"Say you hate Rainbow Dash!"
"I don't! I don't hate anyone!"
"Admit it! You can't stand her. The way she trots all over you to get what she wants. The way she's always strived to outdo you. The way she took DashCo. from you when she was old enough and shoved you out of the spotlight."
"I don't hate her for that!" Lightning yelled at the mirror, the slightest twinge of uncertainty in her voice.
"How long have you lived in the shadow of Rainbow Dash?"
"I'm not IN her shadow!"
"No.... you're not. You're just another pony she stands on the shoulders of to stay on top."
"That's not true and you know it!"
Lightning Dust's voice was growing just a bit in volume.
"You know it's true. Let me help you, Lightning Dust."
"Shut up!" Yelled Lightning Dust, stomping her front hooves.
"I'm your friend, Lightning Dust. I only want what's best for you. Now let me out. Let me out, Dusty."
"SHUT UP!" Screamed Lightning Dust.
Having heard enough, she raised her hoof and smashed it into the mirror, causing the glass to crack. Her reflection stopped smiling at her and split into several smaller images of her.
The room fell silent for a moment before she heard the cackle again. She fell to the ground in a heap and buried her face in her hooves.
"Please...." she whispered, "Go away..."
Lightning felt tears welling up in her eyes.
"You hate Rainbow Dash... you've known it all along. Now let me out... "
Something snapped in the back of her head. She began to smile wickedly and stood up, the tears that had built up in her eyes now trickled down her face as she walked out of the bathroom, leaving the broken mirror behind.
Lightning Dust trotted up to a nearby wooden drawer and opened it up, rummaging through it's contents for a bit before finding what she was looking for. A small tape recorder. She rewound the tape, not caring how important whatever was on it was and brought the recorder up to her mouth.
"It took me some time to figure out what happened to me in Saddle Arabia. I thought there was something wrong, but now I realize that I've just never had my eyes opened before. I feel amazing. Whatever happened there was incredible. Life changing. This is a new me."
She stopped and licked her lips.
"I'm going to show Rainbow Dash that she's not going to walk over me ever again!"
"I swear, Scootaloo, she just had these... DARK circles under her eyes. It looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. They kinda creeped me out."
Rainbow Dash sat in the middle of her boom room, looking over a set of schematics for her suit of armor. Scootaloo stood next to her, gazing over her shoulder at the designs on the table.
"Miss Dash, if you ask me, it just sounds like she's still shaken up about what happened in Saddle Arabia."
Rainbow rolled her eyes and turned away from the schematics to look at her assistant.
"Being shaken up is one thing, Scoots, but this is something else. I've never seen Dusty so.... out of it, before. It was like she was a completely different pony. And with the way she's been acting, that can't be a good thing."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, she's been acting strange. Talking to herself. And not just mumbling, she's having full on conversations. I'm really getting scared that she might be showing signs of schizophrenia..." Rainbow paused to think for a moment.
"Miss Dash, can I ask what happened in Saddle Arabia?"
"Well... basically, Lightning Dust went into the cave on her own, and I was ambushed by two dogs with Saddle Guns. That was no issue, but I figured that if the Dogs knew I was staked out there, then they must've known that Lightning Dust was in on it. But it just leaves the question... /How/ did they know? It just bothers me that-"
"Miss Dash" came T.A.N.K. "Miss Spitfire is at the front door asking for you."
"Alright, let her in, I'll be up there in a sec" said Rainbow Dash, rolling up the schematic.
"I'll tell you later, Scoots."
Rainbow Dash ascended the stairs rather quickly to find Spitfire standing in the living room, gazing up at the shiny trophy Rainbow had won earlier that year. She trotted up next to her friend, and placed a hoof on her shoulder.
"So did you do it?" She asked the Wonderbolt.
"We did. The suit is locked up in a Wonderbolt facility just outside of town."
"Good. I guess the only thing left to do now is keep an eye on Lightning Dust."
"Lightning Dust?" asked Spitfire, unaware of the elder mare's strange behavior "What's wrong with Lightning Dust?"
"She's been acting weird lately... just... not herself. I'm worried about her."
"Should I call a doctor?"
"I'm honestly not sure... I just got back from from her place like an hour ago. She seemed kind of eager to get me out of there. Maybe we should let her be. Give her some time to cool down from whatever it is that's bothering her."
Lightning Dust held the phone up to her ear.
"Set up a new project under the Crystal Chamber in the DashCo factory. Recruit our top engineers for this one, I want a prototype right away." She said, "Label 'Project Dynamo' in the records. I'll bring the designs over tonight."
Lightning Dust looked at the crumpled papers in her hooves with a twisted smile and an eye twitch.
Rainbow Dash stared at an old photograph of her next to a younger Lightning Dust hanging on the wall. It was taken nearly a year after her father had passed, a decade ago. Rainbow sighed and looked to the floor. Lightning Dust had always been there for her when she needed her most, and, next to Spitfire, was the only pony she could call her best friend. It was no coincidence that Lightning Dust's strange behavior began so soon after her return from Saddle Arabia. In fact, it was quite obvious by now that what was happening to her was a result of whatever had taken place in the time Rainbow had lost contact with her in the cave.
Rainbow shut her eyes. She couldn't help but feel responsible for what her friend was going through. She had been the one to pressure her into going to Saddle Arabia. She was the one to tell her to try and fool a group of terrorists into believing that-
"Miss Dash?" Scootaloo's voice came from behind. "I was wondering if you needed anything before I left for the day"
Rainbow opened her eyes and looked at the clock on the wall. Its hands read five o clock, the usual time Scootaloo went home. She turned to face her assistant.
"Actually. Scoots, I need you to do something for me."
"Anything, Miss Dash." said Scootaloo in a chipper voice.
Rainbow grinned at Scootaloo's enthusiasm for her job.
"I need you to head down to DashCo HQ and get into Lightning Dust's office. Once you're there, I'd like you to do some snooping and see if you can find anything about what happened in Saddle Arabia. A journal, a recording, a file, something on her computer, anything suspicious. We need to figure out what she's not telling us. If you find anything like that, bring it to me. Maybe it'll clue us in on what's going on with her."
Scootaloo looked at her boss with a confused expression before nodding and turning to walk out the front door.
Rainbow faced the picture again and picked it up in her hoof.
"Don't worry, Dusty." She whispered "We'll figure this out."
Lightning Dust merely smiled back at her.
Scootaloo opened another drawer and looked inside. Nothing. Just like the last one, and the one before that. She slid the drawer shut and shuffled over to the next one, slowly opening it. She didn't expect to find anything. They were all either empty or held business records of some kind. More than likely, she wouldn't- Scootaloo looked down to see a small grey tape recorder resting alone in the drawer.
Looking from side to side, Scootaloo picked up the tape recorder and looked it over. It seemed innocent enough, but Rainbow HAD asked her to bring back anything out of the ordinary. A lone tape recorder in the middle of an otherwise empty drawer certainly fit that description. She sat down behind the fine wooden desk, held the tape recorder up to her ear and pressed a button on the side.
"Project Dynamo continues on schedule." She heard Lightning Dust's voice come through the speaker.
"Once it's complete... DashCo will once again be at the top of the-"
Scootaloo nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the door open in front of her. In the blink of an eye, she stopped the tape and shoved the recorder into her saddle bag and looked up to see Lightning Dust standing in the doorway.
"Scootaloo?" she asked.
The young orange mare simply smiled back at her and did her best to maintain her composure.
"Um, yes?" Scootaloo asked with a nervous laugh.
"What are you doing in my office?"
Rainbow Dash was right... She DOES look out of it... She thought, taking note of the dark circles under her eyes.
"Um... what are you doing here?"
Lightning took several steps into the office, allowing the door to close behind her. Scootaloo bit her lip, silently praying that the older pony had not heard her snooping.
"This is my office room... why wouldn't I be here?"
"Uhm... it's the end of the week?" Scootaloo continued to grin as she shuffled awkwardly out of the chair.
"Did Rainbow put you up to this?"
Scootaloo's grin vanished instantly.
I'm dead... she thought.
Lightning Dust sighed.
"Rainbow thinks I can't keep my own office under control so she sent you to come check on me. Ugh... Tell her that I don't need to be foalsat."
"Uhm... yes! That's exactly why I was sent! To check up on your office!" Scootaloo said, looking around "Yep! Heheh... Looks fine to me! Yessirree! Everything looks just fine! I, uh, better get back to Rainbow and tell her that she doesn't need to worry about you anymore."
With that, Scootaloo began heading for the door, trotted around Lightning Dust and through the exit. She continued until she reached the nearby staircase and began descending them as fast as she could, breaking into an almost sprint at the bottom.
"What the hay is 'Project Dynamo'?" Asked Rainbow, leaning in a chair in front of Scootaloo.
"I was going to ask you."
Rainbow Dash reached for the tape recorder that lay on the coffee table between them and held it up to her ear. She waited for a moment before pressing the button to play the tape. Lightning Dust's recording began.
"Project Dynamo will change the world upon its completion... So far, the only problem I've faced is obtaining a Crystal to properly power the armor itself. None of those created by DashCo scientists have been able to power it without exploding. Rainbow Dash is the only pony in Equestria who has been able to make a Crystal with enough energy output and durability to power my design."
Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo exchanged concerned looks as the tape continued.
"Rainbow Dash... She's taken everything from me. The love of Equestria, the spotlight, she even took DashCo from me the second she was old enough. And here I thought she was my friend for the longest time. I thought that she was the best pony I had the honor of knowing. I thought I loved her like a little sister."
Lightning Dust's voice seemed to be cracking, as if she were breaking down. An audible sniffle from the speaker confirmed that she was indeed crying.
"I HATE HER" screamed Lightning Dust "I hate her more than anything! Ever since Saddle Arabia, I haven't been right... I've been hearing voices in my head. Voices that keep telling me the painful truth about her. How she's always strived to out do me, how she's always walked all over other ponies to keep her place at the top. How horrible of a pony she actually is. I can't wait to see the look on her face when-"
Rainbow stopped the tape and tossed the recorder back to the table. The room was silent as they both sat there, taking in what they had just heard.
It was Scootaloo who broke the silence.
"What do we do?" She asked in a somewhat shaky voice.
Rainbow looked up at her assistant.
"...I'm not sure..." She said solemnly, brushing a strand of her mane from her eyes. "Lightning Dust isn't right in the head, that's for sure, now. And I get the feeling that this... 'Project Dynamo' or whatever it is, isn't anything good. First thing in the morning, we go up to Lightning Dust and confront her about this whole thing."
"Why not now?"
"Because right now, I've got a new Crystal cooling in the Boom Room, and I need to be here when it's- Oh! Darn! I totally forgot! I had a meeting with that little Dragon from DEFENSE, or whatever it was called! Scoots, there's one more thing I need you to do. Head down to DashCo and meet up with him. Tell him we need to reschedule or something.
Rainbow stood up.
"I've gotta check on the Crystal."
With that, the two went their separate ways, unsure of what was to come in the next twenty four hours.
"Alright." Said Rainbow Dash, putting on a pair of black goggles. "Lets do this."
She turned to face the block of clay that rested on a worktable in front of her. Lifting a mallet in her hoof, she brought it down on the block, shattering the clay and revealing a bright, glowing Crystal. Rainbow set the mallet back down and picked up the Crystal in her hoof, squinting at its brilliance even through her tinted goggles.
"That was easy" she said to herself, a satisfied grin growing across her face.
There came a small buzzing noise behind her. Before she could turn to find the source of the strange sound, Rainbow suddenly felt her entire body go numb and watched the world around her disappear in a flash. She dropped the Crystal and fell to the ground in a heap.
When her vision returned, she found herself looking at Lightning Dust standing above her, holding a small, pen-like device in her mouth.
"D-Dusty?" Was all she could manage to choke out.
Lightning Dust trotted up to the new Crystal that lay on the ground.
"Don't worry, you'll live." Said Lightning, a deranged grin on her face as she dropped the device from her mouth and into her hoof. "Its a shame that the Equestrian Royal Guard never approved this one. There's so many ways causing short term paralysis can come in handy."
Rainbow groaned as she did her best to try to move her body, but to no avail. She could only follow with her eyes as Lightning Dust picked up the Crystal in her mouth and gently placed it in the brown saddlebag she wore on her back.
"What are you doing?" she asked, still struggling to piece together a coherent sentence.
"I guess you can call it revenge, Rainbow Dash." Replied Lightning Dust as she closed the saddlebag tight.
"Revenge?" Rainbow coughed out. "What the hay are you talking about?"
"Oh, you know what I'm talking about. After all, you did have Scootaloo steal my tape recorder." Lightning Dust grinned wider as she brought her face down to Rainbow's. "Did you really think that I bought that lame brain story she gave me back in my office? Did you really think I'm that dumb?"
Lightning Dust let out a quiet, unnerving giggle.
"Its really too bad that you brought Scootaloo into this. She's a good kid. She doesn't deserve what's coming to her tonight. But you did, and I can't have any loose ends hanging around. After all, Project Dynamo launches tonight."
"Lightning Dust, no! You're sick!" Gasped Rainbow, still struggling to move. "Let me help you!"
"Please, Rainbow... I think you've helped enough." The older mare patted her saddlebag with her hoof.
With that, Lightning Dust turned and began to walk towards the exit. Suddenly, she paused and walked back to Rainbow Dash, stopping mere inches from the fallen mare.
"Oh... and just in case you get any ideas..."
Lightning Dust reached down with a hoof and in one swift motion yanked the Crystal out of Rainbow's chest.
Rainbow gasped as she felt her body go cold.
Lightning Dust tossed the Crystal over her shoulder, where it landed with a clunk on the floor behind her and rolled for a bit before settling in a spot far out of Rainbow's reach. Lightning Dust smirked and briskly walked out of the room, leaving Rainbow to her fate.
Rainbow Dash's body grew colder with each second. She couldn't move. Everything was cold. Freezing. She knew that if she closed her eyes for more than a second, she would lose consciousness and if she lost consciousness, then it was game over. She had to stay awake no matter what. There was no Zecora to put the Crystal back into her chest, this time.
Across the room, the Crystal that kept her heart beating lay on the floor. Rainbow struggled to turn her body so that she lay flat on her stomach. If she could make her way over to the Crystal, she could try to put it back in her chest and hopefully get her heart going again. If she could just stay awake.
The world was growing blurry.
"No..." she whispered.
As the world slowly faded to black, she struggled frantically to move, the paralyzing effects of the device preventing her from getting very far. With all her might, Rainbow Dash managed to stretch her hoof out in front of her, desperately reaching for the Crystal that was too far away for there to be any hope of getting to it.
The world grew darker with each second as Rainbow Dash finally passed out.
"Rainbow!" She heard someone in the far distance yell.
Everything was dark. Quiet. There was nothing but blackness all around her. She couldn't feel anything throughout her body.
I'm dead... She concluded. ...the other side isn't as awesome as you'd expect...
"Rainbow!" Came the voice again, this time a bit closer.
Guess I'll have to start getting used to this...
"Rainbow, come on!"
Who is that?
"Rainbow, please!"
I'm dead, right? Who else could possibly be here?
"Rainbow, I swear to Celestia, wake up!"
She felt a sharp, painful sensation on the side of her face. It wasn't very long before she felt it again, on the other side of her face. It was almost like someone was slapping her.
"Rainbow, please!"
She felt it again as she began to consider the possibility that she was still among the living.
Only one way to find out... She thought.
With that, Rainbow began to picture herself opening her eyes. A moment later, a bright streak of light started at the bottom of her field of vision and slowly began to extend upward. As she opened her eyes more and her vision cleared, she was faced with the sight of Spitfire's concerned face staring back at her.
"Oh thank Celestia! You're alive!" She said in an excited tone, wrapping Rainbow Dash in her hooves and pulling her close.
It took a bit before Rainbow could manage to put together a reply.
"I guess the afterlife isn't ready for me yet." She coughed.
Looking down, Rainbow found that the glowing Crystal was once again embedded in her chest.
"What happened?" She asked, looking back up at Spitfire.
"Scootaloo called me and told me to come check up on you, since you weren't answering your phone. I got here as quick as I could, and you were on the floor with the Crystal over there." Spitfire motioned her head in the direction where Lightning had tossed the Crystal. "I put it back in your chest and hoped to Celestia that you weren't gone for good."
"Where's Lightning Dust?"
Rainbow slowly began bringing herself to her hooves.
"Rainbow, I'm more worried about you. You almost died. We need to get to a hospital to see if there's-"
"No, you don't get it." Interrupted Rainbow "She's the one who did this."
"Lightning Dust? What?"
"Something's wrong with her. She's sick or something." Rainbow shook her head from side to side a bit, trying to wake herself up. "We don't have much time."
"Look, I know Rainbow Dash is a very busy pony, but we had an appointment. I expected her to keep it." Said the small purple dragon.
"I know. I know she said she'd be here, but she isn't. I'm sorry." Scootaloo paused for a moment, a thought creeping into her head.
She turned her head and reached into her saddlebag, pulling out the tape recorder. She dropped the device into the little dragon's claws.
"What's this supposed to be?" He asked, looking up at her.
"Just give it a listen."
Lightning Dust smiled as she looked at the suit. It was enormous, nearly ten feet tall from hooves to the top of its head, much larger than Rainbow's, with two heavy caliber saddleguns on both of its shoulders. Lightning Dust's eyes settled on an empty socket in the middle of the suit's chest, the size of the Crystal in her bag.
She had assigned several DashCo scientists to create a Crystal with an equal energy output to Rainbow's. Several attempts had been made, but none were able to power the suit for long before they overloaded and exploded. This had led to Lightning's conclusion that the only Crystals in existence that would be able to power the suit were ones Rainbow had created herself.
Lightning reached into the saddlebag with her hoof, pulling out the white Crystal. She lifted it up to the socket in the armor's chest and aligned it just right before pushing the gem in.
The sides of Lightning's mouth curled into a maniacal grin as the machine powered up with a loud mechanical hum.
Rainbow Dash had a stern look on her face as the armor assembled around her. Spitfire watched as the various machines bolted the pieces of omnium together.
"Rainbow Dash, she tried to murder you, for pony's sake!" She said, in a tone that, had Rainbow not known better, would have been interpreted as fear.
"I know, but you gotta let me try to reason with her."
"And I guess you're just putting on the suit because you want to look like a bad flank doing it"
"If this whole Project Dynamo thing is anything like what I'm hoping it's not, then I need to be prepared for anything."
"Rainbow Dash, you could get killed!"
"Spitfire, one of my best friends in the world needs help. If I need to beat the daylights out of her to get through, then I'll do it."
Spitfire sighed and rolled her eyes, accepting the fact that there was no stopping Rainbow.
"Fine, but is there anything you need me to do?"
The final piece of armor was placed on Rainbow's back, covering her wings and pressing them flat against her body.
"Keep the skies clear."
The golden mask lowered itself over Rainbow's face, the eyes lighting up. With that, Rainbow Dash looked up and and took off into the night sky.
All was silent as they opened the door to the DashCo factory. Scootaloo shivered at the sudden temperature drop when they stepped inside. It wasn't unusual for the factory to be a little cool, but this was downright freezing. Why was it so abnormally cold?
"Stay behind me" said the little dragon, who Scootaloo learned was named Spike.
Scootaloo noticed that Spike was visibly shaking as the cold air engulfed his body. Dragons were cold blooded creatures, meaning that if Scootaloo found the air cold, then Spike must be literally freezing.
Poor thing she thought. Actually... he'd look adorable in a little sweater. Maybe I'll get him one for the winter and-
Her fluffy thought was cut off by the sound of a crash up ahead, in the darkness. She turned to Spike, who had drawn a strange pistol that he held in his claw.
"What's that for?" She whispered, not particularly fond of guns.
Spike, never taking his eyes away from the space front of them, whispered back.
"I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it."
They proceeded into the factory, the door closing behind them. As soon as the door clicked shut, the pair felt the floor shake underneath them. The two stopped in their tracks.
As the shaking continued, the floor in front of them cracked and rose before finally collapsing, leaving a gaping hole in the ground. They both took a step back as an enormous machine rose from the earth.
Nearly twice the size of a large stallion, the dark grey suit of armor sported glowing white eyes and two large saddleguns on both its shoulders. It took Scootaloo a moment before she was finally able to put together that this must be the fabled "Project Dynamo".
"L-Lightning Dust?" She barely managed to sputter out.
The machine looked down at them with its bright eyes before a deep voice that barely resembled Lightning Dust's came from the headpiece.
"I'd like to thank you for all your help over the years, Miss Scootaloo... but your services are no longer required..."
With that, both saddleguns pointed themselves at Spike and Scootaloo. She let out a small yelp.
"Lightning Dust, wait!" she yelled at the suit. "You don't need to do this!"
"Of course I do" came the deep, mechanical reply "Now that Rainbow is dead, you two are the only ones who know about this."
With Lightning Dust talking, Scootaloo hadn't noticed Spike aim his gun, causing her to jump in surprise when he fired. Unsurprisingly, the small bullet had no effect on the heavy machine.
Lightning Dust jerked her head to look at Spike and turned to face him. With a swift swing of her hoof, she sent the dragon flying until he crashed into the wall behind them. Lightning turned back to Scootaloo and aimed both saddleguns down at her.
Scootaloo quickly turned and ran as fast as she could out of the Crystal Chamber. She felt the ground shake and assumed that Lightning Dust was close behind. She didn't turn to look, she just ran for all she was worth.
She ran and she ran, faster and faster. She didn't care if she pulled something or hurt herself, she just wanted to make it out of the factory alive. She made through the doorway and heard a crash behind her. The ground stopped shaking. Scootaloo turned to see that Lightning Dust's suit of armor was unable to make it through the steelframed exit due to its immense size. She didn't stop, she just kept running until she was outside of the building.
Finally, when she was a safe distance from the factory, she slowed to a stop. Her lungs were on fire, as were her legs, but she was safe. Lightning Dust was trapped inside the building, and she- The small cellular phone in her saddlebag rang. Scootaloo shakily reached into her bag and pulled the phone out, holding it up to her ear, turning her back to the building.
"H-hello?" she gasped.
"Scoots! Thank Celestia, you're okay!" she heard Rainbow Dash say.
"Depends on your definition of okay, but sure, I'm alive. Lightning Dust's gone crazy. She's- she's built a suit of armor and she's... she's.."
The ground began shaking once again as she whirled around to see that Lightning Dust had escaped from the factory and was now headed directly for her.
"Keep her busy, I'll be right there!" said Rainbow before Scootaloo dropped the phone to the ground and began running once more.
Keep her busy? she thought as she sprinted What does that even mean?
Scootaloo shook her body side to side, never once stopping. Eventually, she shook herself free from the saddlebag on her back.
Okay, let's do this...
Scootaloo spread her small wings and fluttered them with all her might. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't enough. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't lift herself more than an inch off the ground.
Up ahead was a wall. Originally built around the perimeter of DashCo to keep trespassers from entering the facility after hours, it now blocked Scootaloo's escape route. She slowed to a halt as she reached the wall, turning around and pressing her back against it. Lightning Dust continued her charge. Scootaloo closed her eyes, hoping that however Lightning Dust chose to end her life would be quick and painless.
Just when Scootaloo expected it all to end, there was a whooshing sound followed by a crash. Opening her eyes, Scootaloo found that Rainbow Dash had flown in from seemingly nowhere and smashed herself into Lightning Dust, sending the larger mare flying back. Rainbow landed with a thud on the grass and turned to look at Scootaloo, the mask lifting itself from her face.
"You okay, Scoots?" she asked, a genuinely worried expression on her face.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine..."
"Good." Rainbow said, the mask pulling itself over her face once more. "Get someplace safe. I'll deal with Lightning Dust."
Scootaloo merely nodded before scrambling to her hooves and sprinting away.
Rainbow Dash turned to face Lightning Dust, who had managed to climb to her hooves again. The two metal titans prepared themselves for what surely would be a battle of the ages.
"Lightning Dust, please... We don't have to do this..." Rainbow said, almost begging.
Lightning Dust charged at her without a word, her armor's metal feet smashing into the ground.
"Please, Dusty! I don't want to hurt you!"
Lightning Dust didn't stop and continued to run her down. With a heavy sigh, Rainbow activated her repulsors and flew at the larger metal pony.
With a crash, she slammed into Lightning Dust, sending the pair flying backwards and into the wall behind them, easily smashing through the bricks and into the crowded streets of Las Pegasus. Heads turned all around them as the Iron Mare and her opponent disrupted the on coming traffic.
Rainbow Dash pushed herself to her hooves as motorized carriages swerved in all directions to avoid hitting them. She looked up to see Lightning Dust on her feet and standing on her hind legs.
Before she could react, Lightning reached out and grabbed her by her foreleg. Rainbow yelped out loud as she was pulled.
"For ten years, I've been holding you up!" boomed Lightning Dust
She lifted Rainbow over her head and slammed her to the ground, the armor cracking the pavement beneath her.
Lightning Dust grabbed her by the head and slammed her to the ground once more.
"How's it feel, Rainbow?" yelled Lightning "How's it feel to be walked all over?"
With that, Lightning Dust stomped on her body with a metal hoof. While Rainbow's armor protected her from injury, that didn't mean it couldn't be damaged. And damaged it was.
Rainbow Dash lay in the street as Lightning Dust stomped on her again, trying her best to remain calm.
"Armor status, T.A.N.K." she coughed out.
"Damage level three. Weapons: offline. Crystal Power Link: online. Repulsors: online. Flares: online-"
"Flares! Now!" she cried as Lightning lifted her hoof.
At her command, two flaps opened on her back, shooting out several dozen bright flares, causing Lightning Dust to cease stomping on Rainbow, and step back, her suits HUD blinded by the flares.
Rainbow managed to flip onto her stomach as Lightning reeled from the flares.
"Yeah, you take a minute." she said, shakily standing up.
Every part of her body ached from the beating she had just received. Her armor was heavily damaged and dented in several places.
Rainbow watched as Lightning Dust lifted a nearby carriage over her head, obviously planning to crush her with it. Thinking quickly, she took off into the air, hovering several meters above the ground. Due to the damage her armor had taken, Rainbow's repulsors flickered and shorted as she struggled to remain airborne.
"You're always full of surprises, Rainbow. I've got one for you now!" cried Lightning Dust, dropping the carriage.
With that, the metal on her hind hooves shifted around, rearranging before finally shooting out a beam of repulsor energy. It wasn't long before she slowly began to rise from the ground.
"Oh boy..." mumbled Rainbow as she watched Lightning Dust's suit of armor come closer and closer.
"Ma'am, we can't survive another beating like that. I recommend taking evasive action." said T.A.N.K.
"I'm starting to agree with you, there." she replied.
Rainbow frantically looked around for something, anything that would prove useful. Looking up, she found that the night sky was quickly being blanketed by a large black cloud. That's when it hit her.
"Come and get me, Dusty!" she yelled out, taking off directly into the air.
All around Las Pegasus, ponies looked up to the sky to find two bright streaks of light flying higher and higher above the city.
Rainbow Dash could feel her body cooling down as she neared the clouds.
Almost there... She thought.
Seconds turned into minutes as she climbed higher into the sky.
"Miss Dash, oxygen levels are dropping." reported T.A.N.K.
"Just keep going! I know what I'm doing!"
Rainbow continued flying, the air around her began to cool rapidly. There was a small layer of ice building up on her armor as she went further.
"Miss Dash, we've reached the upper troposphere."
"I know, I know, just keep going."
They were now mere feet from the black clouds. Rainbow could hear Lightning Dust creeping up on her. It wouldn't be long before-
She yelped out as she felt Lightning grab her hind leg and drag her body back down. She was suddenly and forcefully turned to look right into the glowing white eyes of Lightning Dust's mask.
"You've always been a clever pony, Rainbow, but for once, I'm further ahead than you could ever hope to be!"
Rainbow strained to glance up as a flash of lightning cracked through the sky. She looked back at Lightning Dust.
"Time to live up to your name, Dusty!" she cried, kicking away just as a bolt of lightning struck the other mare.
Rainbow was forced to look away when Lightning was struck, the intensity of the light too great for her eyes to take. She could hear Lightning screaming as the deafening thunder pierced her ears.
She looked back in time to see her friend falling down to earth, her suit smoking and its eyes flickering out.
Rainbow took a deep breath and began her long descent to the ground. Wind blew all around her as she allowed herself to freefall before using her repulsors to catch herself a dozen feet above the DashCo factory.
Looking down, Rainbow found Lightning Dust laying stomach up in the middle of a large, circular skylight on the roof above the massive Crystal Chamber. The glass had shattered from the impact, leaving only the metal beams to keep her from falling through. The suit of armor opened up, revealing a battered Lightning Dust inside. She coughed twice before looking over at Rainbow.
"...hey" she whispered.
A quiet alarm sounded from within the large armor.
"Hey, Dusty..." Rainbow replied, taking a step forward.
The metal bars creaked under Lightning's weight as she shook herself out of a daze. She unlatched a harness around her chest and attempted to pull herself out of the armor. The metal creaked louder and sank into the building a bit. Seeing that she was stuck, Rainbow took her friend's hoof and began to pull.
Lightning smiled a bit.
"Couldn't help yourself... Even after all I've done." she coughed.
Rainbow grunted as she struggled to keep her grip on her friends hoof. The metal creaked and caved a bit more.
"Rainbow, listen.. I just want to say I'm sorry. For everything. I don't know what came over me.."
"I know you are. Just hold on. We'll get you out of there."
Rainbow pulled with all her might, but to no avail. Being considerably larger, Lightning Dust's suit of armor was much heavier than Rainbow could lift, even with her greatly enhanced strength.
"Rainbow, just stop. It's not happening..." Lightning said in a defeated tone.
"Don't talk like that, you're gonna be just fine."
Lightning shook her head.
"I know I haven't been myself these past few days, and I think I know why."
Rainbow grunted as she took a stance to try and pull her friend up.
"In the cave... I met a creature... It called itself Ahuizotl... And it took control of me... It got in my head. And it drove me crazy... It took away my soul and replaced me in my own body."
"Tell me about it once you're out of there."
"That's the thing, Rainbow... I... I don't want to get out of here. As long as I'm alive, it can get me. He can get me. He can get back in my head."
Rainbow Dash paused and looked at her friend.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying... This is it for me. I'm not going to go on any longer with this thing in my head."
With that, Lightning Dust pulled her hoof away from Rainbow's. Quickly, Rainbow reached out and grabbed her friend just before she could slide down into the Crystal.
"Wait! You don't have to do this!"
Lightning looked back at the cyan colored mare.
"This is the only way to get away from him."
"No! We can figure this out together!"
"I'm sorry, Rainbow. I'm so sorry..."
Again, Lightning Dust pulled her hoof from Rainbow, who made a frantic move to catch her friend. This time, however, she was unable to catch her in time before she and her armor slid down the metal beams. A loud creaking sound pierced the air as the metal gave way to its immense weight. Rainbow looked away as her friend fell through the skylight and directly into the Crystal Charger. An explosion lit the sky all around her as Lightning Dust and her suit were consumed by flames.
"Dusty!" screamed Rainbow Dash as the fire extended to the heavens.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized that Lightning Dust was gone for good. Her partner. Her friend.
She was gone.
Rainbow Dash played with the zipper of her black hoodie as she waited backstage in the DashCo auditorium.
Two days had passed since her battle with Lightning Dust. Two days since she lost one of her best friends.
Honestly, she wasn't sure what to feel. She had never been good at dealing with her emotions. Even when her father died, she wasn't sure how to confront her feelings. Now was no different.
Rainbow pulled down her zipper once again before bringing it back up, covering the Crystal in her chest.
She had called for a press conference earlier that morning. She felt it was only right that she make some sort of statement regarding what had taken place in the last forty eight hours. After all, the entire ordeal had taken place at DashCo's primary factory. It was expected of the company's head to acknowledge what happened.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in", she said, pulling the zipper up one last time.
The door opened with a creak. Scootaloo walked in, followed by Spike the Dragon, a cast on his arm and a bandage wrapped around his head.
"They're just about ready for you, Miss Dash" said Scootaloo.
Spike walked up and passed her a set of flashcards.
"DEFENSE took the liberty of writing out an official statement for you. Just stick to the cards, and you'll be fine."
Rainbow flipped through the cards, searching for any word of Lightning Dust.
"There's nothing about Dusty in here" She said.
"We took care of that. As far as anyone will know, she's on a plane to the Griffon Kingdom. Those private jets have such terrible landing gear."
"But no one will know what really happened to her, if I say that."
"That's the point."
Rainbow opened her mouth to argue, before realizing that it was the very least she could do for her friend to not destroy Lightning Dust's legacy.
"Fair enough."
The crowd clapped and stomped their hooves as Rainbow Dash stepped out on stage. She walked up to the podium and adjusted the microphone a bit before clearing her throat. Everyone in the crowed quieted down until the room was silent.
"So..." Rainbow began. "Here we are, again."
The crowed chuckled.
"I'm sure you've all heard about what happened at the DashCo factory a couple of nights ago. I guess it's only fair that I say something about it. Well, I'm gonna be honest... The truth is..."
Rainbow looked down at the flashcards before her. There was something about an experimental robot malfunctioning and causing the damage to the city. She snorted. No one in their right mind would buy that. Especially those who had actually seen the incident. With that she tossed the cards aside. They fluttered to the ground as she brushed a stray strand of her mane from her face.
"I am the Iron Mare." she said simply.
The crowd of reporters exploded with questions as cameras flashed and notes were written down as fast as they could be written.
"So now what?" asked Spitfire, taking a sip from her cider mug.
"Well... I guess this changes things a little." said Rainbow.
"Yeah, no kidding. You just told the world you're a superhero."
"I could get used to that." she said with a smirk.
Rainbow sipped from her own mug. The pair sat in the middle of the Las Pegasus Casino.
"But that's not why I asked you out today. I want to talk about what Lightning Dust said before she... You know..."
Spitfire nodded knowingly. She, too, had been affected by Lightning Dust's death. Like Rainbow Dash, Lighting Dust had known her all her life. To hear of her death took a toll on her, though she tried her best to hide it.
"Before she died, she was scared. She told me about someone named Ahuizotl. How he was the one behind everything. How he was the one who drove her to insanity."
"Who's Ahuizotl?"
"I don't know.." said Rainbow, putting her mug down. "But I'm going to find out. And I'm going to make him pay for what he did to Dusty."
"Hey. Do that another time. You've had a long few days, Rainbow Dash. Right now, I want to tell you something."
Rainbow turned to look at the fire maned Pegasus.
"What's that?"
Spitfire bit her lip and opened her mouth.
"Rainbow... I think I-"
"Rainbow Dash!" came a tiny voice from behind them.
Both ponies turned to find a group of several fillies and colts had gathered. It wasn't long before she was bombarded with questions.
"Where's your suit?"
"Are you really the Iron Mare?"
"What's it like inside?"
"Can you really shoot lasers from your hooves?"
"Hold on, everybody." said Rainbow, raising her hooves and glancing at Spitfire. A hush fell over the foals.
"What did you wanna tell me, Spitfire?"
Spitfire seemed to have the slightest tint of red covering her face, barely noticeable by even the sharpest eyes.
"Nothing... It's not important."
Rainbow Dash shrugged and turned to look back at the group of youngsters.
"Who wants an autograph?" she cried, eliciting a cheer from the crowd.
"It's over, Master... Lightning Dust has failed."
Rover kneeled before Ahuizotl, who sat in a throne made of stone, surrounded by candles and sculptures of dragons. The shadows cast by the tiny flames danced along the walls of the cave.
"It seems we've underestimated Rainbow Dash. We won't make that same mistake twice." he said.
"Our sources say she's begun a search for you. That she plans to expose us."
"It matters little. Our ultimate weapon will soon be completed. We will soon gather 'volunteers' for testing. And once the Extremis Virus is perfected, we will be... Gods."
A cruel grin spread across Ahuizotl's face as the ten diamonds on his paws continued to glow.
"It's Great Not To Be Dead!"
"Okay… That's it, Dash, just take it slow..."
Rainbow Dash slowly made her way down the ramp of the plane. She wore a plain grey jacket, zipped up in order to hide the glowing crystal embedded in her chest. Though she had said countless times back in Saddle Arabia (and even once in the plane before she fell asleep) that she could walk perfectly fine, Spitfire insisted on helping her along. And that meant going slower than a snail riding on a turtle’s back in a mud pit on an icy Hearth's Warming Eve.
"Spitfire, you can let go now. I think I got it."
Rainbow Dash pulled her leg away from the other mare and continued on her own. The Wonderbolt snorted before stepping forward and walking alongside.
"So the first thing we're gonna do is get you to the closest hospital and then-"
"Whoa, whoa. Back up there, filly," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "Hospital? I don't need to go to a hospital."
"Rainbow, for the love of Celestia, you've been who knows where doing who knows what for three months. On top of that, you fell on your wings from at least a mile high and-
"What did you just say?"
There was something off in Rainbow Dash's voice. Spitfire paused before repeating her sentence. "You fell on your wings from a mile in the sk-"
"No, no. Before that."
"You were gone for three months?"
She watched as Rainbow's face drained of all color before she fell on her plot and sat there, looking down at the
concrete floor underhoof. "It feels like it was just a week."
"You were gone for three months, Rainbow..."
Rainbow Dash didn't respond and just kept looking forward.
"You gonna be okay?"
Rainbow Dash smirked, quickly returning to her cocky attitude.
"You kidding? I'm ALWAYS okay, Spitfire."
Rainbow playfully popped her friend on the back of her head.
"You mule," replied Spitfire.
The two continued on over to a carriage where two stallions waited to take them anywhere they wanted. Sure, motorized carriages were gaining popularity, but there was something Rainbow preferred about a good old-fashioned pulled carriage. Besides, she paid them well.
Spitfire stepped aboard and Rainbow quickly followed suit, sitting down in the seat across from her. There was a briefcase on the floor, which Spitfire picked up with her mouth and opened to reveal a large stack of papers and official looking documents. She began shuffling through them as Rainbow made herself comfortable.
"Ma'am?" grunted one of the stallions.
"Get us to the Dash Co. factory," Rainbow said, leaning back in her seat.
Spitfire was surprised. She looked up from her papers and over to Rainbow.
"Dash Co? Really?" she inquired. "I thought you'd want to get home and do all this later."
"Oh trust me, I will. And once I DO get home, I'm gonna take a week-long nap, but right now… There's something I need to get off my chest."
Spitfire didn't quite like how she said that. Still, she trusted her friend's judgment. After all, she had never steered her (or anyone for that matter) wrong before. Deciding that it wasn't anything to be concerned over, Spitfire continued the conversation.
"You DO know that it's not possibly for a pony to sleep an entire week, right? You'd have to get up to eat and go to the bathroom," she said.
"Those don't count. Everyone is always half asleep when they do that, so it doesn't count as being awake."
"Still. It’s not possible to keep sleeping for a week."
"Just you watch me, Spitty."
"Whatever you say, Dash..."
With that, the two stallions began pulling the carriage, and were off on their way. It wasn't much later that rain slowly began to fall from the sky. Droplets of water soon became a full-on downpour as the carriage rolled along.
Rainbow stared out the window of the carriage. It was a nice, stylish wagon on the outside, but the inside was even nicer. A fine, polished wood interior with red carpeting that covered the floor, cushioned seats and tinted glass windows. It offered privacy, and it was just plain cozy. Rainbow would often come inside it on a rainy day and just stay there with some soup or coffee, thinking things over while she watched the thunder and lightning outside, as she was doing right now.
Had it really been three months? It felt like she was in that mine for no more than a week, maybe two. But three months? That was unimaginable.
What did she miss? How did Equestria remember her? Her mind brought her back to what Grass Marks had said to her so long ago. "Living off Death". The words burned into her brain. All she had given the world was a bloodbath... All she did was make things that kill and destroy.
Not anymore, she thought to herself. She was going to change everything. She was going to make it better.
"I got a message from Lighting Dust," she heard Spitfire say.
"What's she got to say?"
"She's so happy you're safe and she can't wait to see you."
"Yep," chuckled Rainbow Dash. "That's Dusty."
"She took over Dash Co. about nine hours after she was first told you went missing. Kinda quick to jump the gun if you ask me. She almost seemed excited to get behind the wheel."
"Eh, it's just how she is," said Rainbow, sitting on the cushioned seat like a couch. "It’s the personal assistant in her. She hears something's up and she jumps to fix it. That how she's always been. Hey, what about Scootaloo? How's she been?"
Spitfire continued shuffling through the various papers, stamping some with her hoofprint and using a pen to sign others.
"She's been a wreck," she said without looking up. "But she kept your house nice and tidy while you were gone, so there's that."
"She's such a good kid."
"She looks up to you like a big sister, Rainbow. She really hasn't been herself since you disappeared."
Rainbow opened one eye and looked across at Spitfire, who was still shuffling through the papers, before closing it again and smiling.
It was about an hour later when the two stallions pulled Rainbow's carriage up to a large, concrete building with a stone statue of Princess Luna that stood in the front. She looked out the window to see a large crowd of newsponies and photographers clustered around the entrance of the building. Rainbow Dash sighed and patted her multicolored mane back into shape. She didn't exactly look her best, but she just got back from being held captive for three months. She was pretty sure that no one would care about her looks. And even if they did... She didn't.
The door was pulled open from the outside and Rainbow Dash was greeted with Lightning Dust's smiling face.
"Here she is, everyone!" exclaimed Lightning, who moved aside to allow her to step out of the carriage.
She gave Lightning a hug before beginning to trot over to the building. Cameras flashed and reporters swarmed her with all kinds of questions about her experience. Rainbow merely walked alongside Lightning Dust into the building, where she found an even larger group of reporters bunched up in the lobby. Like the mice in the story of the Pied Pony Piper of Trottingham, the reporters all followed her as she walked over to a doorway that lead into a small auditorium.
Normally, she would use this room to discuss business models with any other companies interested in becoming part of or collaborating with Dash Co. Since she didn't have the time to organize a proper press conference, she supposed the auditorium would simply have to do. Besides, she didn't plan on taking up much time.
"Rainbow Dash!" she heard a very familiar voice exclaim from the crowd.
She couldn't stop herself from smiling as a young orange mare pushed her way through the news ponies and over to the stage. Scootaloo ran up to Rainbow and gave her a lung-crushing hug.
"I was so worried!" Rainbow heard her say.
"Hey, don't worry, kid," she said, hugging her young assistant back.
She gritted her teeth at the pain in her wings that came with the hug, but held her close nonetheless. She silently prayed that she would let go soon.
Scootaloo looked up at her; a few tears welled in her eyes, and one already halfway down her cheek. Rainbow smiled and lifted one of her hooves to wipe the stray droplet away.
"Never thought I'd see someone so happy to have their boss back.”
"Well... I guess I just didn't want to have to go job hunting again."
"Let’s face it kid, you're just happy to see me again."
"Yes, I am."
"That's what I thought," said Rainbow before lowering her voice to a hush. "Listen, Scoots, I need you to do me a favor."
"Anything, Miss Dash."
"Go stand next to Lightning Dust. If any of the press come up to her and ask her questions, just let me know what she says."
"You've got it, Miss Dash."
With that, Scootaloo made her way down from the podium and over to Lightning Dust, where she stood and listened attentively.
Though she knew for a fact that Lightning Dust was just being herself by taking over Dash Co. in her absence, what Spitfire had told her back in the carriage still stuck with her. It WAS kind of strange, but really? Was she really about to think that Lightning Dust had used the situation as an excuse to take control? Besides, even if Lightning Dust had jumped at the chance to take the reins, so what? It’s not like there was anything wrong with it. She was just prepared to keep everything running, that's all. ....Still, though, it couldn't hurt to have just a smidgen of an idea of what Lightning thought about her coming "back from the dead", as everyone called her return. And the best way to do that without blatantly spying on her was to hear what she would tell the reporters. It probably wouldn't reveal anything, but hey, what's the worst that could happen?
Rainbow Dash walked up to a microphone that stood atop the podium and waited for the reporters to file in and get settled. Deciding that this was as calm as they were going to get, Rainbow held her hoof above her head, causing a hush to fall over the room. She played with the zipper on her jacket before beginning.
"So... Hey guys," she said, not quite sure how to start off.
"It’s, uh... It’s great to be not dead!"
The crowd chuckled at this.
"So, I'm pretty sure all of you know what happened a few months ago. If you don't, and you're a reporter, you seriously need to move out from that rock you're living under. Like... now ."
There came another wave of laughter from the crowd. Flank-kissers, Rainbow thought to herself.
Just then, she saw a hoof raised in the air above the front row of the audience. Rainbow Dash nodded at the blue unicorn, who held a magical grip on a pencil and notepad in front of his face.
"What happened over there?"
Rainbow Dash put her face into her hooves before looking back up and pulling the microphone closer.
"Uh... I guess you would say that I uh... had a wake-up call. I learned a lot about myself. But more importantly, I learned some things about Dash Co. that really hit home."
Some of the ponies in the audience began to ask their own questions before Rainbow Dash again quieted them down.
"I was in a, uh... a convoy, I guess you could say, of those motorized carriages. We were driving along, all hunky dory... then we were attacked. .....I saw a group of brave young ponies give their lives to protect me. They didn't deserve to die like that. They didn't HAVE to die like that. But they did. They sacrificed themselves to save me."
Rainbow paused and licked her lips.
"And I learned something else. Something I spent the last several weeks wishing was a bad dream. I found out that the killers who murdered those young mares and stallions were using my inventions. I learned that out there, somewhere, there's a group of monsters that have MY inventions. The same inventions I spent my entire life creating. The same inventions that Equestria's Armed Forces use every day. Weapons... They've got my weapons... Things I built to help protect Equestria are in the hooves- I mean paws, of a group of murderers. And that's when I decided that..."
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath
"Starting right now... I'm gonna shut down the entire Weapons Development program in Dash Co. until I can think of something else that we can put our bits into that will-"
Rainbow's voice trailed off as the crowd suddenly roared with question after question.
Lightning Dust quickly trotted up and nudged Rainbow away from the microphone.
"Woah! That's uh... that's a pretty big announcement there, Rainbow Dash! Um... So, the point is that... uh... Rainbow Dash is back! And uh... We're all very happy that she's safe and sound and home now! So, for right now, I'm going to need to have a talk with Rainbow Dash before we can move forward with anything! Thanks for coming, everybody! But for right now, that's all, folks!"
Rainbow Dash played with her jacket zipper as she stood before the massive Crystal Charger, looking at some papers in front of her and pretending to read them over, using her free hoof to pull the zipper down just a tiny bit before pulling it back up. Looking first to her left, then her right, she slowly pulled the jacket zipper down all the way and looked at her chest, where her own Crystal Charger was buried. Rainbow looked back up at the bigger crystal and sighed.
There were a lot of things on her mind. Things that happened and things that were to come in the near future. One thing was for sure: She wasn't going to spend her life building things that kill. There were so many other things she could have been doing to make the world a better place, yet all she built were Saddle Guns, Dragon Breathers, Mini Bomb Rubies… Rainbow Dash pulled the zipper of her grey jacket back up, covering the Crystal Charger and smothering the light back down to a barely visible glow. There came a familiar voice from behind her.
"You know, if you were gonna pull something like that, the least you could have done was tell me..."
Turning around, Rainbow Dash watched as Lightning Dust walked over and stood next to her, glancing at the giant crystal before them. She turned to look at Rainbow.
"I COULD have, but I didn't. If I did, you would have tied me to the bed before you let me go in front of that mic," said Rainbow Dash.
She leaned against the metal railing that surrounded the Crystal and looked back at Lightning.
"Don't tell me you wouldn't have..."
"Well... I would have hogtied you and put you in the closet, if you want me to be honest," Lightning said as she shot her a grin.
"Well either way, you wouldn't have let me near a reporter."
"Can you blame me?" said Lightning Dust. "You just told the world that we're gonna drop.... well, EVERYTHING! How's that gonna end for us? Look, Rainbow you can't just tell the world that we're not making weapons anymore. I mean, that's what your dad built this entire thing around in the first place. It’s what we do. And what we do helps keep the balance of the world in check."
"Maybe it's not just about us. Maybe it's about something bigger. Want me to be honest? I vote we start playing around with Crystals again. See what we can do," Rainbow said as she looked at the large Crystal Charger next to them.
"You're kidding me right? The Crystal Charger? THAT big old piece of junk? Come on, Rainbow, that was a one-time thing. Even your father knew it wasn't going to take off. All it does is waste hundreds of thousands of gems, costs millions of bits, and for what? Just a big Crystal that takes up half of an entire building to-"
"And it works. You gotta trust me on this one, Dusty. I know it works. Just think what ponies all over would be able to do
with- Okay, seriously, don't ever play cards. You have the worst poker face I've ever seen. Just tell me who told you. Actually, don't even. Let me guess: Spitfire?"
"She called me as soon as you got back."
Rainbow sighed. Spitfire couldn't keep a secret for her life.
"You know, if you wanted to see it, you could have just said so from the start."
"Just let me see it, Rainbow Dash."
Again, Rainbow pulled the zipper down and opened the jacket just enough for Lightning Dust to see the glowing white Crystal. Lightning Dust looked from side to side before examining it closely, bringing her face up close to Rainbow's chest.
"Oh please, Miss Dust, I'm not ready for this. It’s only my second week on the job!" said Rainbow Dash in an overly dramatic tone. "Everyone will know how I got my promotion!"
She grinned as Lightning Dust looked up and shook her head like a colt whose dad had just told a corny joke in front of his friends, and all of them found it hilarious.
"And you're SURE it works?" inquired the opal Pegasus.
"I'm pretty sure it does. I'm still alive aren't I?"
"Okay, fine. Just let me take that over to the colts down at the lab to get a good look-"
"Oh yeah, Dusty! Let me just pull the thing that's keeping me alive out of my chest!" Rainbow pantomimed reaching up and hoofing over the Crystal. "There ya go!"
"Okay, okay then… So what should we do? Dress up in maid outfits and start working in Canterlot Castle?"
"Actually... you'd look pretty cute in the outfit. Get Spitfire in and you got a deal."
Lightning Dust simply sighed and put a hoof up to her face. "Rainbow, I'm being serious."
"So am I."
"Ugh... You're impossible..."
With that, Lightning Dust turned around and began trotting toward the exit as Rainbow continued to snicker to herself. Acting quickly, Rainbow Dash ran over and put a hoof on Lightning Dust's back.
"Okay, okay," she said, still smiling just a bit. "I'll be Serious Dash now. So what's up?"
"Look. Just let ME handle this. The newspapers all around Equestria are gonna go crazy with this one. All you need to do is lay low for a while, for BOTH our sake. If you let me smooth talk the press and kiss up to the Board of Directors, then I think we might be able to get through this in one piece."
"Alright, I guess... Besides, I'm not even gonna get out of bed for the next week once I get home, so you won't have to worry about me."
"Just promise me you won't go off doing this ‘do now, think later’ thing anymore."
"Alright, I promise," said Rainbow. "But you gotta promise me something too."
"What's that?"
"You have to put on a maid's outfit and clean my room after this."
Lightning Dust rolled her eyes and began walking toward the exit again.
"I'm not doing this," she huffed.
"Oh come on, Dusty! I HAD to! Take a joke!" laughed Rainbow Dash.
She continued laughing to herself even after Lightning Dust had left the room. She had been trapped in a mine for 3 months. She deserved a laugh.
It was almost nine o’ clock by the time Rainbow Dash was able to finally get back home. Several times she had been stopped by some representative of something or other who took her aside and questioned her about what had taken place. Every single one of them took up an hour or more of her time. Hours that she could have spent sleeping. Normally, Rainbow wouldn't mind the attention; in fact, she would relish in it, but all she wanted to do right now was go home and make good on that promise to take the world's longest nap.
Rainbow yawned as she finally pushed her door open and trotted inside. The house was dark, and quiet, just like she hoped it would be. Outside, the rain continued to patter down from the sky as she shut the door behind her. She used her hooves to wipe some of the excess water from her face. Not that she was complaining. Rainbow Dash had always loved the rain, it was her favorite kind of weather, even as a filly.
"Honey! I'm home!" she called out.
The house instantly came to life. Various lights began turning themselves on and the sound of an electric current running through the different rooms filled the air.
A familiar, electronic-sounding voice echoed throughout her home. "Welcome home, Miss Dash. I’m glad to see that you have returned safe and sound, all things considered," it said.
"Things could be better, but hey, it's better than being dead. All I care about now is getting to bed and taking a week-long nap," said Rainbow in reply to her virtual butler.
"Madame, with all due respect, I do not believe that it is possible for someone to sleep an entire week. There are no such records that indicate anyone ever accomplishing such a feat."
"Well, there's a first time for everything, right T.A.N.K.? Somebody's gotta be the first one to do it. Might as well be me."
"Yes ma'am. I trust you want no disturbances while you sleep?"
"Exactly right.. In fact, if anyone comes to the door, just tell them I'm in a coma or something. You won't be too far off, so I wouldn't call it lying."
"Yes, Miss Dash," said the computer. "There came a message from Miss Scootaloo earlier today."
"Make it real quick."
"Apparently, she was approached by a dragon, claiming to be an agent of an organization calling itself ‘Designated Equestrians For the Enforcement of National Security in Equestria'"
"That's... probably the stupidest name for a government agency, or whatever, I've heard in my entire life. I mean, they couldn't come up with-" Rainbow stopped midsentence. "Did you say a dragon?"
"It was a baby dragon, ma'am"
"Oh, well I guess that makes a little more sense..... kind of. Still a bad name, though... So what did they want?"
"According to Miss Scootaloo, they wish to speak with you regarding the circumstances of your escape in Saddle Arabia."
"Eh, I'm not so sure that's really something a group of ponies for 'Enforcing National Security in Equestria.' would care about But I guess I'll talk to 'em. I mean, I don't even see why they want to hear how I got out. Does that even count as something that would fall under 'Enforcing National Security in Equestria'?" Rainbow rolled her eyes and sighed once again Whatever... I'll deal with it later. There's a soft comfy pillow upstairs with my name on it.”
"Understood, madam. I will remain online should you require anything else of me."
"Fine by me, T.A.N.K. Just don't let anyone bother me while I'm sleeping."
"Understood."
With that, Rainbow Dash made her way up the stairs and toward her bedroom. She opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief before trotting in. Closing the door behind her, she locked the knob and bolt and looked out the window where the choppy Quiet Sea sent waves crashing against the shore below.
"Heh," she said to herself.
This was exactly how her morning started off on the day she left for Saddle Arabia.
Fitting, I guess, she thought, turning toward a mirror on the other end of her room.
She slowly pulled down the zipper of her grey jacket, allowing the light from the Crystal Charger to flood out.
For a moment, she simply stood there, staring at it in silence. Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof up to her chest and tapped the crystal twice, still unsure how to feel about the entire ordeal. How to feel about herself.
In the mirror, she glimpsed a flash of lightning that reached out to touch the surface of the water before disappearing, soon followed by the sound of thunder that gently shook her house ever so slightly.
Turning back around and looking at the comfy mattress before her, Rainbow Dash trotted over to her bedside table where a small, polished wood radio rested neatly on top. She reached over and pressed a button on the side, causing a static infested channel to leak out of its speaker. Rainbow Dash sighed before adjusting the dial on its side, switching between the different radio channels in Equestria.
"Welcome back to 'Your Bits Today,' Las Pegasus' number one radio station where we keep you up to date and discuss Equestria's financial infrastructure. Tonight we are discussing Rainbow Dash's groundbreaking decision to shut down the weapons manufacturing division of Dash Co. While some might say her behavior is the result of events over the past few months, I say that she shouldn't even be making any sort of business decisions. Especially not decisions regarding a multi-billion bit international corporation and that put so many ponies’ bits at risk. Shouldn't she be in a hospital, not playing with things that she obviously has been very out of touch with for quite some time-"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and turned the dial once more.
"-lier today, world-famous inventor Rainbow Dash shocked Equestria with the revelation that she plans to shut down the weapons manufacturing division of Dash Co. Some experts claim that this highly controversial decision can be attributed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after her experience in Saddle Arabia. Just hours later, Equestria's stock market was flooded with-"
"-experts from all over Equestria are saying that Rainbow Dash is still in shock from her experience in Saddle Arabia, and that this has clouded her better judgment, therefore leading her to come to this unexpected conclusion. More from us here at WEQR as it comes alon-"
"Hey guys, glad you stuck around for the break. So I'm hearing a lot about this whole Rainbow Dash business, right? Let me start off by saying: Give the filly a break, will ya? I mean she just got back from Saddle Arabia where she was being held captive or something for like, what was it? Three months for pony's sake. I mean seriously, everyone, calm down. She just got back. And who knows? Maybe she has a really cool plan for Dash Co. or something. You don't know. Just give her a break already. And I can't seriously be the only one in the world who noticed that weird glow coming from under that jacket, right? That was kinda weird, but whatever. Anyways, once she's all better and back in action, I'm gonna challenge that filly to a rematch. She got me once in a game of cards, but she won't be so lucky next time. So, there's my two bits on this whole thing. This is your favorite DJ, Vinyl Scratch, coming to you live from Equestria On Air. While I go get a soda from the vending machine in the hall, you ponies can take a listen to some tunes. We got a lot of good stuff coming up tonight, so hold on to your plots."
Rainbow Dash turned the dial again after a barrage of loud electronic music began blaring out of the speaker.
"Lucky, huh?" she whispered to herself. "Yeah. Keep tellin' yourself that, hun. We'll do that rematch and I'll kick your flank just like I did last time."
After some tinkering, Rainbow finally settled on a channel where a pony who had a very upper class feel to her voice spoke in a hushed tone. And for once, she wasn't talking about her.
"Such a lovely storm outside, is it not? Weather like this calls for a very soothing piece. And I believe I have just the right one for the occasion. Mares and gentlecolts, sit back and relax as we listen to Coltbert's famous String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, 'Rosamunde.' One of my personal favorites. While the rain continues on into the night, I hope you stay with me, Octavia, on Equestria's number one channel for classical music and symphony alike."
There came a very slow and tame string piece through the speakers. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and sighed. She switched off the bedside lamp and laid down on her back, instantly causing her wings to scream their protests. She quickly flipped herself over, with her belly lying flat on the soft, foamy mattress. She felt the Crystal pressing up against her chest, making the position quite uncomfortable. Rainbow decided that it was simply something she would have to learn to put up with.
Just give it a week or two, she thought. That'll give everyone time to go on about some other gossip.
For the first time in months, Rainbow Dash was lying in her own bed, happier than ever to be home again. She buried her face in the pillow and sighed.
They said it wasn't possible to sleep for a week. She didn't count grabbing a snack or going to the bathroom as waking up. After all, who was even fully awake when they did that stuff in the morning?
Like she said earlier, there's a first time for everything.
Rainbow shut her eyes as the classical music rocked her gently off to sleep.
Rainbow sighed and pushed open the door of her carriage, squinting her eyes as the flashes of countless cameras went off in her face.
As Rainbow Dash stepped down from the stallion-pulled carriage and onto the soft, red carpet underhoof, she quickly scanned the area for anypony she recognized. Up ahead she saw Lightning Dust, who seemed to be in the middle of a conversation with a news pony she wasn't able to fully make out before her eyes were bombarded with several more camera flashes. Not quite sure where else she should go, Rainbow began making her way across the red carpet in the general direction of where she had seen Lightning Dust seconds ago.
"So tell me, Dusty," said Rainbow as she trotted up to her friend, who looked legitimately surprised to see her. "What's the world coming to when a mare has to crash her own party?"
Lightning Dust grinned and wrapped both hooves around her in a warm hug. "Didn't expect to see you here, Rainbow."
"Yeah, well, even I need to get out of the house sometimes."
"Just don't do anything stupid, Rainbow. I think I finally have the Board of Directors where we want them. The last thing EITHER of us need is for something to mess it up."
"Lightning, come on," said Rainbow, confidently puffing out her chest. "It’s me!"
"That's what I'm worried about..."
Rainbow only smiled at the remark and pushed her way into the lobby.
* * *
Truth be told, the DashCo Firefighter Fundraiser was more a public relations stunt than an actual gesture of goodwill at the time of its conception several months ago. The idea was simple: Gather a collection of Equestria's richest and most famous ponies under one roof in the name of a good cause, and gain instant publicity for it.
“So far,” Rainbow thought, “it's working. Now where's the bar? A-ha, there it is!”
Rainbow let out a sigh of relief.
A nice mug of cider will do the trick, she thought.
"Cider. Apple Family, if you got it," she said, putting three golden bits into a nearby tip jar.
It wasn't that she disliked DashCo events, it was... actually, that was exactly the case. Rainbow disliked her own company's
events, ironically enough. They always felt so uptight and very droll, which was a direct contrast to her very laid back and easygoing attitude.
The bar colt placed a mug of the fizzy liquid before her, which she promptly took a sip from.
At least Lightning Dust has those board of director ponies where we want them, Rainbow thought. I guess that's-
"Miss Dash?" came an unfamiliar voice from off to her right
Turning to look at whomever it was who had pulled her from her thoughts, Rainbow was faced with a rather strange sight. Sitting on the stool next to her was a small light-purple dragon, about half her height, with green spines running down from his head to the tip of his tail.
"Hi. My name is Spike, I'm from—"
Scootaloo's mention of a previous encounter with a baby dragon came to mind as Rainbow took another sip of cider. "Oh yeah, aren't you with the, uh..."
"Designated Equines For the Enforcement of National Security in Equestria," finished the dragon, sipping from a glass of what Rainbow assumed to be juice.
"Yeah, I remember, now. Dear Celestia, couldn't you have come up with a better name?"
"I didn't exactly come here to discuss the name of the ponies I work for, Miss Dash. I'm here on very serious business. Time can be of the essence with these things. Can we make an appointment? Something close? Say, this Thursday at DashCo HQ?"
Rainbow rolled her eyes, and looked Spike over. He was obviously a baby dragon, but he certainly knew what he was after.
"Thursday, you got it," she said with a grin as she took another sip.
"Thank you," replied the dragon, returning the smile before reaching over to drop several bits in the same tip jar and walking off.
"Designated Equines..." Rainbow scoffed to herself, bringing the mug up to her mouth.
"Rainbow?" came a more familiar voice, to her left this time.
Rainbow turned and found herself face to face with Lightning Dust. A concerned look on the older mare's face told Rainbow
that whatever she was about to say wasn't good news.
"We need to talk. Right now."
Lightning pointed off to a less populated corner of the large ballroom and tilted her head for Rainbow to follow. Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed her mug and fell into step alongside her friend.
"We have a major, major situation," she said, obviously trying to keep her calm in spite of whatever the "situation" was.
"What's up?"
"I just got off the phone with the Equestrian Coast Guard. They found one of our ships drifting in the Quiet Sea. Crew gone, and cargo entirely missing," she whispered.
Rainbow slowly pulled the mug away from her mouth as Lightning continued. "That's not even the scary part: It was carrying the final shipment of recalled DashCo weapons from Saddle Arabia, including..." Lightning's voice trailed off.
"Including what?"
"A Rainboomer."
Rainbow's heart stopped cold as her eyes met Lightning Dust’s.
"I thought we halted all production of weapons months ago," she whispered. "Why do we have a Rainboomer in Saddle Arabia?"
"It was part of the two you had shipped over for your demonstration four months ago. You detonated one, and we were going to bring the second one back to Equestria for safekeeping. The crate we had it shipped in was unlisted, so whoever did this must have found the Rainboomer by accident."
"Do we have any idea who did this?"
"They're still working on it, but they reported finding pawprints all over the deck."
Rainbow felt the mug drop out of her hoof and heard it shatter on the ground below.
* * *
"The zebra citizens of a small Saddle Arabian town woke up this morning to the sound of gunfire and explosions outside their homes in what officials have described as a 'hostile takeover' of the town. A group of insurgents, calling themselves the Diamond Dogs, are clearly on a mission of some sort. A mission that is proving fatal to anyone who—"
Rainbow Dash turned off the radio. She couldn't bear to listen anymore. As she sat in her Boom Room, thoughts of guilt
quickly filled her mind.
She knew she was responsible for the situation that countless innocent zebras in Saddle Arabia currently found themselves in. Even though Lightning Dust had managed to keep the story from making headlines all over Equestria, Rainbow knew deep down that, at the end of the day, she was ultimately responsible for whatever the Diamond Dogs did with her weapons. She had invented them, she had built them, she had tested them, all with maximum destruction in mind. And now, they were in the hands of terrorists and being used against innocent civilians.
Rainbow grit her teeth in frustration, downing the final sip of cider from her mug before tossing it over her shoulder where it crashed on the floor behind her.
"T.A.N.K.!" she called out.
"Yes, Miss Dash?" came the immediate reply.
"Time to suit up. We're going on a little field trip."
"Miss Dash?"
"Upload yourself into the newest suit and lets get moving."
Rainbow trotted into the center of the room and took a deep breath as the red and gold suit of armor began to assemble itself around her for the first time.
* * *
Over the mountain, a Rainboomer bomb went off, sending a large, multicolored cloud out in all directions that quickly swallowed the entire village.
The attack had started earlier that morning when Zecora had first seen the Dogs lining up along the surrounding mountains. As time went on, their methods of assault grew more destructive. From the feared Saddle Guns to the dreaded Rainboomer, the Diamond Dogs had used all of their resources to bring the entire village to its knees. Houses burned and buildings crumbled to the ground in a cloud of sand.
A young zebra colt Zecora had come across while leading others to relative safety began coughing as the cloud from the
Rainboomer explosion swallowed the shack they hid in. It wasn't long before Zecora found herself and the five others with whom she shared the tiny room struggling to breathe as well. Zecora squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the younger zebra pull her close.
"Do not fear, little one," she whispered to him. "Better things are sure to come."
Just then, the door was kicked in, causing all of them save Zecora to cry out in fear. In walked a large Dog, wearing what
appeared to be a gas mask and a Saddle Gun on his back. In one movement, he grabbed Zecora by the scruff of her neck and began to drag her out. The others were soon forced to follow suit.
Zecora found herself thrown into the sandy earth under hoof and the metal barrel of a gun pressed against her head. By now, the rainbow-colored cloud had dissipated, allowing her to see all the Dogs surrounding her.
"You..." she heard one of the Dogs whisper. "You were the one who destroyed our home!"
The sand rubbed roughly against her face as she was pushed deeper into the ground.
"Yes, I was. Rainbow Dash and I both escaped your filthy-"
She felt the wind kicked out of her before she could finish.
"Shoot the mongrel!" another dog barked in his native tongue. "This time she will not escape!"
Just as Zecora felt the barrel of the Saddle Gun press even harder against her head, the air was filled with a deafening roar. Both she and the Diamond Dog looked to the sky just in time to catch a glimpse of a red and gold metal being flying down from the heavens and crashing down into the sand in front of them.
* * *
Rainbow Dash turned her head around, finding every dog and zebra staring at her in awe.
A Diamond Dog opened fire with his twisted Saddle Gun, causing her to barely flinch before she raised her hoof and took aim at the offending mutt. A bright white beam of energy shot out from her hoof and struck him directly in his chest, sending him flying backwards and into the wall of a nearby shack.
Rainbow Dash turned her body to face the next dog and sent him flying with another burst of energy. Within seconds, the Diamond Dogs had all opened fire with their weapons, none of which were able to pierce the omnium shell that covered Rainbow's body. She turned again and fired another beam of energy at a Dog off to her right.
By now, the Diamond dogs were beginning to get the message that their modified guns were having no effect on Rainbow's armor. Despite this, they continued firing in hopes that they would be able to slow her down.
"Aww..." yelled out Rainbow, in a mocking tone. "Having trouble?"
Two small flaps opened on both of her shoulders, revealing several small tubular devices under each of them, There was a beep, and within seconds, each of them fired a small bullet directly at the group of the Diamond Dogs, downing a majority of them instantly.
"Chew on that," she said as the air went silent.
The sound of gunfire had stopped and Rainbow stood silently over the remaining Diamond Dogs. She stared at them through her mask.
"Get out," she said simply.
The dogs simply cowered, shaking in fear.
"I said..." Rainbow raised her hoof, pointing it directly at the group. "Get out!"
She smiled as each of them dropped their weapons and ran away as fast as they could. “Mangy mutts…” she thought to herself.
"Miss Dash, according to the Wonderbolt Intel balloons above you, there are several carriages full of Equestrian Guards on their way now. ETA is five min—"
"So it's time to get out of here."
Rainbow turned to the zebras, all of whom still stared in shock.
"Its been fun, kids, but I gotta go!"
With that, Rainbow braced herself for takeoff and within moments was flying high above the clouds once again.
* * *
Rainbow hummed to herself as she zoomed through the air. A small image of Spitfire's face suddenly popped up before her eyes, followed by the sound of her voice.
"Alright, Rainbow, what are you up to?" said the Wonderbolt in a rather serious tone.
Rainbow though for a moment. "Uh... just out for a stroll."
"What's that noise?"
It suddenly occurred to her that the fact that she was a good several miles in the air would have an effect on the sound quality of the telephone she had implemented into the suit of armor.
"I'm.... on the roof of my house."
"I thought you said you were out for a stroll."
"Yeah, I am," Rainbow said, trying to quickly piece together an alibi. "I'm just out for a stroll on the roof of my house."
"Have I ever told you that you are probably the weirdest mare I've ever met?"
Spitfire bought it. She actually bought it. Rainbow let out an audible sigh of relief before replying. "A couple of times, yeah."
"I got a question for you."
"What's that?"
"There was some sort of Diamond Dog incident that some of our colts in uniform were about to take care of in a town right by where you were being held captive. When they got there, the zebras were talking about a 'metal pony savior' who liberated the town from the dogs. Rainbow... what did you do?"
Rainbow's heart sank as she realized that the game was up. Still, she tried to play it off.
"Me? Spitty, I'm offended! I’m at home, just walking around the roof."
"You're sure you don't need to tell me anything about what just happened? Because my Intel balloons picked up a small flying object several miles from the area and I have two Wonderbolts out to investigate."
"Nope!" said Rainbow, a little too quickly.
Just then, Rainbow heard the unmistakable 'woosh' of wings creeping up behind her.
"Good," she heard Spitfire say, "because we're about to blow that thing out of the sky."
"You what?!"
The image of Spitfire's face suddenly disappeared and was replaced with two smaller projections of a pair of Wonderbolts flying side by side.
"They're behind me, aren't they, T.A.N.K?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Peachy. Alright, put all available power into the thrusters and lets get going!"
Rainbow spun in the air as she felt herself speed up. The Wonderbolts were quick to catch up, however, and soon were keeping pace with her while they zoomed through the air.
Rainbow felt a small pop in the back of her armor. It didn't take her a second to realize she was being shot at.
"Saddle guns!" she exclaimed.
There was no immediate threat. Just like the Diamond Dogs, the Wonderbolts had no hope of piercing her armor. However, if one of their bullets were to happen to hit her hooves, the fragile balance of flight would be thrown off or even worse, the thruster would fail. The last thing Rainbow needed was to crash land into the sand again.
"Alright, call Spitfire, T.A.N.K!"
The image of Spitfires face returned, soon followed by her voice.
"Yeah?"
"Hi, Spitty," began Rainbow in a cheerful tone. "Remember when I said I was walking around the roof of my house?"
"Yes"
"I lied. That thing you're trying to blow out of the sky? It’s the same thing I used a few nights ago when I—"
"Look, Rainbow, you do not send civilian technology into a war zone when—"
"Gee, Spitfire, I'd love to hear a lecture about all of this, but I've got two Wonderbolts shooting heavy bullets at me right now! Call them off!" Rainbow yelled the last bit as she felt several more bullets strike the back of her body.
"You and I are going to have a long talk about this when you get back to Equestria."
"Fair game, Spitfire. Now get these Wonderbolts off my flank!"
* * *
"What were you thinking?!" asked Lightning Dust.
Rainbow sat down in the middle of her living room and stared at the floor below while the older mare continued. Spitfire, who had been pacing behind Lightning Dust, stopped in her tracks and opened her mouth to continue where she had left off.
"You could have been killed, or worse, captured again, Rainbow! Do you even understand the magnitude of what you just did?”
Rainbow looked up, having heard enough. "What was I supposed to do? Let them murder those zebras? Zecora was in that village; she would have been killed if I didn't step in!"
Spitfire trotted over and removed the sunglasses from her face, glaring at Rainbow with her orange eyes.
"I needed to,” finished Rainbow.
"You didn't need to do anything. We had it under control."
"Oh, and you were doing an amazing job with that, Spitfire. Look how well you stopped that Rainboomer from going off."
Spitfire huffed and turned back around. "You're impossible," she said, glancing over at Lightning Dust.
Lightning put a hoof on the Wonderbolt's shoulder before looking back at Rainbow Dash.
"She's right, Rainbow. You can't just fly off into a war zone like that."
"What don't you two get? I did what I felt was right. I saw zebras suffering, dying. Because of me. Because of the things I built. I needed to stop those Dogs before they destroyed the entire village."
Rainbow Dash stood up from her chair. "You two stood around while I reaped the benefits of death and destruction. Now that I'm trying to do something good for once, you tell me I'm wrong. Well you know what? I know what I'm doing is right."
She paused and looked at Spitfire. "Tell me, how many soldiers could have been killed if it were just them vs. the Dogs? How many lives did I save? How many families don't have to be sent a letter telling them that daddy didn't make it?"
Spitfire wordlessly looked down at the floor. Lightning Dust stepped forward and looked Rainbow in the eye.
"Rainbow Dash, don't be stupid. The Equestrian Soldiers can handle themselves. They've been trained exactly for this kind of thing and—"
"That's not what I saw when the Diamond Dogs attacked my convoy. They were caught totally off guard. They needed someone to help them. I can be that pony. I'm sick and tired of being known for death and destruction. I want to be known for being something better than that. And now, I can be. I can be somepony who saves lives instead of destroying them!"
"Rainbow, you might be smarter than anyone in Equestria, and you might have a new toy, but that doesn't make you a superhero," said Lightning Dust.
"I can be! But I need both of your help to make it possible!"
Spitfire, who had been silent for a good few moments suddenly spoke up. "I'm in."
"You are?" said the other two mares in unison.
"I might not like it—in fact, I hate it—but Rainbow Dash is right. How much longer will this war go on? How many have been killed? It’s all so stupid. And I'm tired of signing condolence letters to families who've lost someone. How can the three of us have a tool that we can use to end an entire war and not use it?"
Spitfire looked over at Rainbow Dash, pulling her sunglasses down over her eyes once more. "I'm in..."
Rainbow Dash couldn't stop a smile from growing on her face as she stepped over to give her friend a hug. Lightning Dust was left across from them, unsure if Spitfire had lost her mind or had a massive revelation.
"Spitfire, you can't be serious..." she said, still shocked.
"I'm dead serious. I want this stupid war to end as much as the rest of Equestria. If there's any pony in the world who would be able to end a war all by herself, it's Rainbow Dash. And if she needs my help, then, by Celestia, I'm going to help her."
Rainbow Dash turned to face Lightning Dust and reached out her hoof.
"We still need one more pony to help, Dusty..."
Being older than both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash automatically made Lightning Dust a sort of authority in Rainbow's eyes, quite possibly the only one she listened to. After her father had died, she had been the closest she had to any sort of parental figure in her life and, up to now, had always been there to keep Rainbow's constant shenanigans in check. To gain the support of a mare who had always meant so much to Rainbow Dash would mean to gain her permission in a metaphorical sense.
Lightning Dust sighed. "You're sure you can't be hurt in that thing?" she asked, nodding her head in the direction of the red and golden suit of armor.
"Dusty, nothing they throw at me will ever break through."
After another moment, Lightning Dust reached her hoof out and took Rainbow's.
It started raining not long after she left the Las Pegasus Casino. Having always loved the rain, Rainbow Dash didn't exactly rush home, in fact, she took her time, allowing the water to drench her body and mane. She made her way up along the pathway to her large house, and reached the door. Rainbow reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a small key. She unlocked the door and trotted inside, freezing in place after just a few steps. Something was off.
She couldn't put her hoof on it, but something didn't feel quite right. She felt a presence.
"T.A.N.K.?" she called out, cautiously stepping further into her house.
There came no response.
All was silent, save for the sound of rain pattering outside. Swallowing, she began down the halls and turned a corner into her living room to find a strange sight before her.
There stood a tall white pony with a long pink mane on the other end of her living room, faced away and staring out the window that overlooked the Quiet Sea. Rainbow stopped in her tracks.
" 'I'm the Iron Mare' " said the stranger "I'll admit, it's original."
"Who the hay are you?" asked Rainbow Dash.
The thin pony turned around, revealing a pair of pale violet eyes.
"I'm Fleur De Lis. The director of DEFENSE."
"Oh" was all Rainbow could think to say.
"I'm here to tell you that you're not the only superhero out there. There's plenty of others just like you. Ponies willing to put their lives on the line for the greater good. Rainbow Dash, I'm here to speak with you about the Harmonian Initiative."
Rainbow tilted her head.
"The what?"
