Friendship is Deception

by Your Antagonist

12 Part 1: Now that we're Together Again

Time forces change, this fact is universal to all living beings. Change can come in the form of the adoption of a new lifestyle, or it can instill new efficiency in old habits that won’t die. The only thing time can’t change is the bonds that bind one soul to the next, but it can test those limits.

        During her countless missions for the EIB, Rainbow Dash often found herself in tight situations, but this was ridiculous even by her standards. This was supposed to be a simple mission: get in, get the bad guys, and get out; but nooo, nothing is ever that simple for me is i--

Her internal griping was cut short by the report of a bullet grazing her mane, exciting her nerves and causing her teeth to chatter from the influx of adrenaline that ensued. The rush was starting to get to her, tempting her to run out kicking names and taking flanks; but she needed to survive this, and survival meant keeping a cool head.

Taking a long deep breath and exhaling, she re-assessed her situation: She currently found herself seeking cover behind some rather fragile marble statues in a warehouse overrun with the remnants of the Crossheart Syndicate spread thick across the place, keeping her pinned down with sniper fire.

She then took a glimpse at the long black bracelet presently around her hoof: the research and development staff called it a hoof-pistol, and claimed it would easily replace the ring-trigger rifles used in field missions. The same rifles that were keeping her pinned down while she glanced miserably at the useless thing on her foreleg. In retrospect, she should have brought a rifle instead: they were easier to aim and had better range, but this thing had its advantages too;such as mobility, faster reload, and a better fire rate.

Rainbow Dash took this time to observe her other resources: Pinkie Pie wearing her trademark Nightmare Moon-may-cry optimism that didn’t break, even as another round flew overhead clipping part of the statue 6 inches above her, and Rarity who still shook like a foal that came face to face with a spider for the first time. They both enlisted in the EIB shortly after the Black Anarchy incident, and were assigned to work as Rainbow’s personal assistants. Rarity’s reason for joining was so she could protect her family and protect other ponies from becoming a victim of blackmail like herself a few months ago.

Pinkie Pie’s reason for joining was questionable as best. Had anypony with a lesser reputation than one of the elements of harmony and a national hero given it they would not only have failed the interview and mental health screening process, they would have been recommended for an extended stay in a padded room. Her reason on her application stated, “The masters who live in her head told her there would be fun and pudding cups if she worked as a loose cannon in law-enforcement.” Somehow, seven months later, here she was as Rainbow Dash’s back-up.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Pinkie Pie shouted as the report of another round sailed harmlessly overhead.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash, the dust from all of these statues is going to ruin my mane if we don’t move quickly,” Rarity complained. 

How anypony could find the time to be worry about their appearance in a firefight was beyond Rainbow Dash. Pushing it to the back of her mind, Rainbow Dash responded, “Alright, alright, give me a moment... Pinkie Pie, how many flashes do you have left?”

“Hmm...two! But I still have lots of--”

“For the last time, we are not using plastic explosives!” A salvo of gunshots ripped through statues, causing the three to duck even lower as their cover was ripped apart.

“Rainbow Dash, I understand you want as few casualties as possible, but I do not believe we have any alternatives if we want to escape with our lives,” Rarity pointed out as she shook marble chips out of her mane

Mulling it over for a few moments, Rainbow Dash reluctantly nodded to Pinkie Pie who wore an extra hopeful grin. “Fine, but only two packages. Any more and when we’re done here you’ll be in a cell with them,” and in seconds Pinkie Pie was already digging through her vest pulling out various wires, receivers, two packages, and two small spheres which Rainbow Dash seized immediately placing one in her vest.

Rainbow turned towards Rarity and Pinkie Pie, who was assembling the mass of parts on the floor. “I’m going to buy some time with these, if I’m not back here in two mikes*, send that out anyway.”

“Understood, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity nodded in compliance

“We won’t let you down, boss!”

Rainbow Dash struck the flash grenade to the ground and hurled it behind her in the general direction of her assailants. Upon hearing a satisfying and resounding cry of pain from behind, Rainbow jolted into action. Diving from behind the statues, she recovered into a gallop and scanned the area for the sniper, but almost froze when she noticed a singular rifle-wielding stallion who didn’t succumb to the initial flash. She stared down the barrel of his weapon as he pulled the ring-trigger back and-- the dry click of an empty magazine caused Rainbow to grin as she took flight, steadily increasing her forward momentum.

Upon reaching him, the stallion flipped the rifle around and swung the butt like a club. Rainbow responded by ducking the attack, jumping up, and swinging the hoof pistol at his head which connected with a nasty Clonk sound; there was no need to waste ammo at this range.

The sounds of groaning from behind prompted Rainbow Dash to buck blindly behind herself; her hooves finding purchase on what she surmised to be the snout of another Crossheart. She searched around for the sniper a second time and finally noticed the glint of a scope from the rafters of the warehouse. I’ve got you now.

The sounds of recovering Crosshearts piqued her attention and prompted her into action: Rainbow Dash reached into her vest procuring her last flashbang, and dashed the remaining grenade to the ground while covering her eyes. She was rewarded with more screams and an awful ringing in her ears that she ignored as she ascended towards the the rafters while unloading her pistol at the glint she spotted earlier. Upon arriving on on the rafters, she was baffled to find that only the rifle remained with a cracked scope and a trail of blood that led off to nothingness, but no sniper.

She didn’t have enough time to mull over where her quarry could have gone, due to the sounds of rifles below training on her position. This doesn't look good. Individually, the Crosshearts were lousy shots but with all of their weapons focused en masse at her they might not miss with the volley that was sure to ensue.

Rainbow Dash noticed something blue and glowing move to the center of their formation and saw Pinkie Pie jump on top of a crate standing on her hind legs holding something with her forehooves. Something she recognized as a detonator

“I KNOW YOU WEREN’T INVITED, BUT THIS PARTY IS GONNA BE A BLAST!” And she slammed the detonator switch with a maniacal laughter.

One second passed and the conglomerate of Crosshearts were sent flying across the warehouse, the most unfortunate of those being a blue unicorn who stood at the epicenter of the explosion, as though Rarity had been intentionally guiding the bomb towards the poor stallion.

As Rainbow Dash descended to the ground, Rarity and Pinkie Pie cantered up and rendered a salute, which Rainbow returned, “Good work ladies, I knew I could count on you, but, Officer Pie: what kind of Cow-Colt crap was that?”

 
A few hours later, the EIB crime scene investigation unit arrived on the scene and Rainbow Dash’s team was being debriefed by the Chief, who was now head of the department thanks to his “excellent decision making skills” during the Black Anarchy incident.

“Well, it looks like you fillies did a good job here as usual. Say Rainbow, you’ve become quite popular with our mail-room staff lately.” The Chief produced a stack of letters that he passed off to Rainbow, who began sifting through them immediately. Out of the stack, which was comprised of mostly fake letters of gratitude from kiss-flank higher ups who were trying to relocate her to their branches because of how decorated she was as an officer, only two actually caught her eye: A letter from Iron Bastille Prison, and a letter of summons from Princess Celestia.

“Well, fillies, that’s all I’ve got for you, good work, yadda yadda yadda. I need to get home before Vanilla gets into something she shouldn’t.”

“Vanilla, Chief?” Rarity inquired

“Mmmm.. vanilla.... hey does anypony have any pudding?” asked Pinkie

“Yeah, my newly adopted daughter thanks to my most reckless agent over here. Her parents were killed in--”

“Chapter 1.5!” Pinkie blurted out attracting strange looks to herself.

Rainbow Dash recovered the quickest from the stupor Pinkie had just dropped the group into. “Wh... I don’t even... nevermind. How is she, chief?”

“She just earned her cutie mark last week, and she’s doing so well in school; she’s the top of her class you know. She wants to grow up and become a law enforcement officer like her hero: the great Rainbow Dash. You should come give her a visit some time.”

“I will chief, but I have some business to take care of in Canterlot.”

“Hmmm... I guess you’ve earned a vacation; take those two with you, especially the pink menace right there: she keeps eating the staff lunches whenever she finds herself in the office.”

“Roger that, chief!” Rainbow Dash saluted, Pinkie Pie and Rarity following suit.

The chief returned the gesture and trotted off to finish investigating, while Rainbow Dash opened up the two letters of interest. The first, from Princess Celestia, was as she expected: a Summons to the Castle for something important, but the letter from Iron Bastille prison caught her interest a little moreso. It wasn’t Gilda’s usual bi-monthly “hey, how are you” letter, it was from the warden of Iron Bastille himself informing Rainbow Dash that there was a jailbreak and she was needed immediately. “Rarity, Pinkie, come on: we’ve got some business in Canterlot.”

“But what about my sister?”

“Isn’t she with your parents? The ones who weren’t killed like in the events of that movie about us?” Pinkie Pie chipped in.

“Yeah, so let’s go already, I’m sick of this warehouse.”

Upon arriving in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash decided to investigate what happened at Iron Bastille first; Princess Celestia could wait.

She and her team were currently being escorted into the interrogation room of the prison, where they would meet with the convict who had apparently chosen not to escape from that cell. Looking at a list of its occupants, all three began placing bets on who chose not to run. Upon entering the cell, the trio found it to be far too bright, and far too white. There was a simple rectangular gray table in the middle with two chairs on either side. Rainbow took a seat, while Pinkie Pie and Rarity chose to stand on either side of her.

“Agents, the witness is here,” announced a guard from the doorway. “Alright, get in there you.”

“Watch how you touch me, officer, I don’t know who you think you-- Dash?”

“Gilda?”

“Five bits? That wasn’t a question. Rarity, Rainbow, pony up the bits, I just won the bet!” Pinkie Pie held out her hoof and, begrudgingly, the two losers of the bet paid the currently beaming Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing around the room singing: “I haven’t even started gloating yet, but I, but I, but I just won the bet,” much to Rarity’s chagrin

“You seem surprised, Dash.” Gilda casually moved to the chair at the opposite side of the table.

“Well I just figured that--”

“I’d up and jump at freedom the first chance I got?”

“Yeah...” A guilty look played across Rainbow Dash’s features

Gilda took note of this and began drinking in the image She looks kind of cute when she...Ughh.. Please stop it, brain...  “So anyways, what’s a cut-- “ Gilda caught herself quickly and crossed her talons defensively.  “ I-I mean, what do you want, Dash?”  Please say me-- Stop it!!

“Well, it’s actually about why you didn’t escape.”

“I just didn’t feel like it, do I need a reason? Besides I kinda owe all of you for lessening the severity of my sentence.”

Rarity spoke up this time: “Well, I suppose not, but surely you must know something about the breakout, hmm?”

That Rarity is kind of hot too, those eyes and that-- Why won’t you leave me alone, thoughts? “Yeah, there was this one weirdo with freaky green magic, and they kept talking in rhymes.”

“Rhymes? Green magic? Sounds like a Zebra to me. What do you think, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked.

“I think this wall isn’t vanilla flavored--”

“So stop licking it and focus!”

“Anyway, do you recall anything else, Gilda?”

“Something about some master... world for the taking... then I stopped caring and went back to sleep,” Gilda’s attention was solely on Pinkie Pie, who bounced back over to Rainbow Dash. You know she’s a pretty weird one but I wouldn’t mind throwing her in for a nigh-- ”SHUT THE BUCK UP AND GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”

Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh my gosh,you hear him too? I thought I was the only one!”

Rainbow Dash looked a little taken aback, but decided to ask about Gilda's well-being anyway. “Gilda, are you alright?”

“Yeah, it’s just being in here for so long, does things to an inmate... don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” Gilda looked down at the floor, too ashamed to say anything or make eye contact.

Rarity took note of this and, casting a glance at a nearby wall clock, said, “Rainbow Dash, I think it be best if we left, right now.” With this she began moving towards the door

“But I rarely get to-- oh... okay, ummm, see you later, Gilda.” Whenever Rarity’s intuition was at work, Rainbow Dash took it into heavy consideration, so she slowly got up and followed Rarity’s suit.

“Wait for me!” Pinkie Pie shouted, bolting after her companions, leaving Gilda to stare at the ground and stew in her shame for the outburst and lewd thoughts.

Chapter 12 Side A End

Footnotes: Mike*-- Tactical lingo for a minute