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// With Broken Spear (Was previously 'With Broken Wing') 
// Story: Sword of Equestria: A Sword of the Stars II Crossover 
// by ForceUser 
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Sword of Equestria: A Sword of the Stars II Crossover



Chapter 5: With Broken Spear


Finally! Rainbow Dash was finally going to see a sun for the first time in a week and a half of being cooped up in a med-bay bed. For the athletically focused mare that may as well have been a year of torture.

Well not that I minded that much, I at least had a cute torturer. She smiled to herself.

In fact, right at that moment Fluttershy was removing the bandages from around her waist and wings for the final time before leaving the med bay. They were still a mess, having been too sore to be properly preened yet or even stretched out fully.

With a long sigh, Rainbow Dash slowly stretched out her wings, wincing when they were finally fully stretched out at the tenderness and stiffness of never properly being used. “So Flutters, when can I take these babies for a test flight?”

With a concerned expression Fluttershy slowly combed through the still sensitive wings with her hooves for a bit, smoothing out the worst of the kinks in the feathers. “Oh I'm sorry but I don't think you should try flying today Dashie, your wings still need a proper preening or you'll just crash into the ground.” With a slight tug and a yelp from Rainbow Dash she pulled a particularly skewed feather back into place. “Oh- um sorry if that hurt, just get used to them and move them around a bit. They will be bit stiff but we should be able to preen them tonight, if that's OK I mean.”

Moving her wings open and close a few times she smiles “Yea, that'd be great Flutters! Can't wait to see what they can do. They feel kind of weird,” spreading her wings out and craning her neck to look at them she grimaced, “and they really are a mess, not cool at all.” Closing her wings and shrugging  she peered at Fluttershy’s pristine wings in comparison, “But I mean yours look great, almost as awesome as those wings on that featherbrained Morrigi Consular Ra’irtei we had on boa-“ with a sudden gasp of air Rainbow Dash froze in wide eyed shock, “the Consular! Dear Celestia I'm such an idiot, I completely forgot about her! How is she? What happened to her? Did she change? Did-” A small giggle from next to hem broke of her tirade thankfully before it really got into full swing.

“Oh she's fine, don't worry about her,” Fluttershy game a small smile, “She's a bit sad about the loss of her wings but she adapted just like the rest of us. Remember how you said that she was the most human Morrigi that you ever met?”

Rainbow Dash's face lit up at hearing that her Morrigi friend was safe, “I sure do! I remember her request to be transferred to a SolForce vessel ending up on my desk somehow,” narrowing her eyes a nagging suspicion at the back of her mind hopping up and down trying to get her attention but ignoring it for now, “and after meeting her I was impressed at her generosity and love of all things shiny.” Blushing a bit she remembered that Ra’irtei was in fact the one who shared the preening and mating habits of their race, “So um- what happened to her exactly?” Looking a bit sad she added; "she really did love her wings."

“Well um- she turned into a Unicorn actually. Twilight said it was to be expected because of how psionically powerful Morrigi are but she's doing fine, really. Actually she's even accepter her new name, she goes by Rarity now.”

Smacking her hoof to her face she groaned “Pinkie Pie! Figures.”

Raising an eyebrow Fluttershy asked in a timid voice, “The cook? What did she do?”

Hopping down form the bed Rainbow dash motioned for Fluttershy to follow her, “Common, I'll tell you on the way out. Right now I really, really need to get outside,” under her breath she muttered, “and find a certain cook to strangle.”


0ooOoo0


"-and then she just shrugged and said 'Well duh, laughter is the best medicine! How else do you expect me to live forever silly?'," with an exasperated sigh Rainbow dash threw her arms into the air, "she's just so- so-"

"Pinkie Pie." Fluttershy finished for her with a smile.

"Exactly!" Rainbow dash yelled in triumph.

They were almost to one of the main entrance hatchways, having had to detour several times due to some minor damage to the internal structure and closed off bulkheads. The damage was not that extensive but recounting the dream to Fluttershy managed to keep most of the worry out of Dash's mind. She knew that forcing a planetary landing and ejecting the Antimatter cores, was something only done in the most severe cases and mostly to save as much of the planet's surface from the resulting crater. The most likely cause would be containment breaches and Life support failing

When they reached the hatchway Fluttershy stopped with a worried expression on her face, "Dashie, there's something I need to tell you, before you we go outside and you see it for yourself."

Rainbow dash shrugged, "What, is the grass blue? The sky purple?" She stood up on her hind hooves and started punching the air in a mack boxing match, "there's giant sentient otters running around with stone tipped spears and a real craving for fish?" That last one earned a raised eyebrow from Fluttershy.

"That um- last one is kind of specific don't you think Dash?" but Rainbow Dash merely shrugged, falling back on her front hooves.

"It comes up more often than you'd think. You remember that trip to Arrackis VI?" Dash looked at the wall remembering over to Fluttershy, who nodded her head.

"Oh yes! You came back with multiple stab wounds if I recall correctly. Oh my, the Otters! You didn't hurt any of them did you?"

With a perfect deadpan Rainbow dash looked back at Fluttershy, "your concern for the Otters is heartwarming, even if they tried to kill your Captain," Fluttershy huffed a bit at that but Dash continued, "but it worked out in the end, I was able to smoother things over in ten seconds flat. Those guys really liked fish."

Fluttershy giggled, she really liked spending time with the Captain who seemed to always be able to make her laugh. Putting on a more serious face though she cleared her throat, "It's about- about the ship Dash. Applejack said that the landing was very hard on her..." Fluttershy trailed off, worriedly looking at Dash.

Rainbow Dash wasn't looking at her, she was staring at a bulkhead, running her hoof over it. Even though she hadn't commanded the ship for long, she still felt the unmistakable bond that forms between a ship and her Captain. And I was just getting to know you too old girl.

With a resolute expression Rainbow Dash dropped her hoof from the bulkhead and walked to the to the control console for the hatchway. After a few tries -still not quite used to the somewhat less dexterous hoof- she managed to get the console to respond and open the hatchway. A sharp, blinding light, at least to the ship-bound Captain's eyes, came streaming in causing a dull pain in the back of her skull that she was all to familiar with. Everyone who served extended periods on star ships suffered from it. Blinking a few times to get used to the outside light the captain was momentarily overwhelmed by the sensory input from finally seeing, hearing and smelling the outside for the first time. Closing her eyes, she decided to focus on the overwhelming amount of sound first, her ears twitching and rotating, almost like radar as she took in all the sounds around her.

Dash could hear the clang of metal on metal right behind her as the hatchway slid close and a bit to her left more metal on metal of what sounded like someone in... 'full plate armor!?' To her right a stiff military greeting from a vaguely familiar voice, Lt. Lucius maybe?, accompanied by the sound of a rifle knocking into a shoulder. The sounds of nature were quick to make itself known once the noises closer to the Captain silenced. She could hear various birds singing and insects buzzing all around her and even a light breeze as it blew past the treetops causing the leaves to rustle. Far off in the distance she could hear the clang and thuds of tools and heavy machinery and shouts of various ponies, too far away to be made out clearly.

Acclimatised to the sounds around her now Rainbow put a hoof up to her brow, shielding her eyes, and slowly opened them. Squinting she looked to her left to confirmed that there was indeed a pony -a cobalt blue maned white Pegasus in fact- standing at attention next to her and staring straight ahead. Clad with a set of shining golden armor on his chest, legs and back -expertly articulated in various place- she could see the symbol of Celestia on the rear part that covered the flank of the Pegasus. Resting on his should was a long spear that looked strong and sharp enough to act as a very real and dangerous weapon but decorative and ornate enough to stand in as a ceremonial weapon.

Looking over to her right she saw a cream colored Earth pony mare with a two toned burgundy and rose colored mane and tail with a combat rifle resting on her shoulder. Dressed in military fatigues that looked expertly tailored to fit the soldier's new form she was also looking straight ahead, not to be outdone by the professionalism showed by her Equestrian counterpart. The name tag sewn into her fatigues and the Lt. badge on her shoulder confirmed that it was indeed Lt. Rosana Lucius, one of Dash's hand picked security officers. Standing at attention with a weapon unsuited to her new physiology she none the less looked ready and alert for any danger. Rainbow Dash made a mental note to ask the Princess about issuing weapons to her personnel; not for defense but more as a morale boost instead. A soldier without her weapon just wasn't cool, kind of like a Captain without a ship.

The ship, right. Forcing down the lump in her throat Rainbow Dash slowly walked forward and turned around to look at how bad the damage was. What she saw left her jaw slack and forced her on to her hunches.

Now even when a smaller ship like a destroyer is forced to make a planetary landing, under full power and with working engines the results can be quite messy if there isn't an army of tugs to help bring her in. A dreadnought or even a smaller cruiser on the other hand -with no main engines to boot- would end up as nothing more than a complete wreck if it was lucky, and a smoldering crater if it was not.

So it was with that knowledge that Rainbow Dash was rather confused at seeing a nearly intact Flagship class Dreadnought in front of her, minus a few holes from the battle a week and half ago. Well most of it anyways since quite a bit of it was sunk into the soft soil of the surrounding country side. It was even positioned in such a way as to have the iconic armored Node Ring, that all SolForce ships use to travel faster than light, hang off the ship rather than the ship resting on it. It seemed almost like it was placed there very carefully but by who or what Rainbow Dash didn't know, nor was she sure she wanted to know.

It was to the credit of the guard ponies that they did not even let a smirk show on their faces as they watched the Captain's eyes glaze over and a big goofy grin form on her face. The stern look from Fluttershy eying them had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

"Well hay there sugar cube! Captain!" Came the cry of the Chief Engineer as she came trotting up to them from the rear section of the giant craft. "Yah might want to be closing your mouth there Dash, don't want a parasprite to be making a nest in your mouth."

"Parasite" Dash said automatically.

Shaking her head Rainbow focused on the new arrival, who was beaming with a smile ready to split her face in half, and smiled herself. "Chief Engineer Jackson?" In front of her was an orange coated pony with long blond mane and tail tied at the ends with a single red band and on her back a saddlebag loaded with various tools and data-pads. The Chief Engineer always managed to get away with hair much longer than regs although she normally wore it in a bun. Even she wasn't stupid enough to let a lock of hair get caught in some piece of machinery, at least not twice. What surprised Dash the most though was the large Stetson that sat on top of the Earth pony's head, as if there was no other place in this universe it would rather be. 'No, more like AJ wouldn't want to be anywhere other than underneath that hat.'

There was incidentally a lot more truth to this than the Captain would ever realize but unfortunately since hat-mind reading technology had not yet been invented it would remain the hat's little secret as to witch was truer.

With a soft jab on her should Rainbow Dash was quickly brought out of her revere by the rumbustious orange mare. "Aw shucks Dash, the closest SolForce outpost is probably on the other side of the universe, call me Applejack." Seeing the raised eyebrow coming from Dash, clearly saying 'I'm still your Captain you know', she smiled nervously. "Now I ain't saying we should throw out all the rules and regs mind you, just that there's no point in being all formal like with us being friends right?"

Rainbow Dash considered this for a second, "Hmm I guess that's true Applejack. I've already pretty much threw out any formality with Fluttershy here so I see no reason to be a hard ass about it." She titled her head towards the colossal ship and looked at the engineer. "So, how is she? Damage isn't nearly as bad as I though it'd be."

Applejack turned towards the ship and replicating Dash, plopped down on her rear haunches as well. Brining up a hoof to her head she scratched underneath her stetson in an obvious display of confusion, "Ya'll can sure say that again. I just can't figure how you managed to keep her in one piece on the on the way down. Now Twi said something about the Princess having something to do with it but I don't know if I can swallow that." She quickly looked over to Dash with an apologetic smile. "Not that I'm one to look a gift horse in the mouth mind you."

Rainbow Dash grimaced at the pun and even Fluttershy gave a small cough next to her; AJ may be one of the smartest and best engineers in the fleet but her sense of humor left a lot to be desired. It was also no surprise she was a bit skeptical about the whole magic thing, she was one the most sensible and down to earth people she knew. 'Ponies, not people anymore,' Rainbow Dash reminded herself as she stared at the the Earth pony mare. AJ had taken out a data-pad from her saddlebag and was tapping on it, bringing up schematics and quickly and efficiently completing a detailed damage report. 'She must have completely flipped out with the change. Heck most of my crew must have been completely freaked out and yet, so far all of them I've seen have been calm and normal.'

"Um- AJ" Rainbow Dash began nervously, not sure how to approach the subject.

"Mhmm sugar cube?" AJ said absentmindedly, her focus still on the data-pad in front of her as reports and alerts from her engineering teams came in on the device.

"We're- well, we're pastel colored ponies and..." she trailed off.

AJ gave a short hmph and smiled, "Noticed that did ya?"

She groaned. "This is serious AJ! I mean, you all seem so relaxed about it! Aren't you the least bit freaked out?"

AJ stared at the data-pad in front of her for a second and turned it off, the sounds form the alert messages and incoming reports silenced. Looking up at the indomitable she considered her words before finally putting the data-pad into her saddlebag.

"Who are we Rainbow Dash?" She asked, staring at the Captain. "As in me and Fluttershy and Lt. Roseluck over there," she points towards the security officer, "and Twilight and even Pinkie Pie."

Rainbow Dash, momentarily taken back by the cryptic question; It wasn't like AJ to be cryptic. "I- I don't know, the crew of the Indomitable?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yea, but it's more than that, we're not just some old ship's crew." She pointed at the ship to punctuate her point. "A ship is just a ship Dash, I mean sure we love the ship and serve on her but that's not it." AJ moved closer to the Captain, stopping right in front of her and putting her hoof on Rainbow Dash's chest. "We're your crew Dash and it doesn't matter how we look on the outside, we'll always be your crew. You've never steered us wrong and so long as you're here we know we'll be alright."

She was immediately reminded of what Luna had said in her dream, how the element of Loyalty was not just about being loyal to someone or something, but about being able to inspire it in those around her as well. Gripping AJ's shoulder with a hoof and with a tear in her eye she nodded at AJ who in turn beamed brightly. Grabbing Dash into a bear hug and managing to somehow scoop up Fluttershy -who was able to only get out a surprised 'eep'- into it as well they stood there for what seemed like forever. Dash was somewhat sad when they were finally released by the engineer's strong earth pony's arms.

With one last squeeze AJ let the two Pegasi go, much to Fluttershy's relief, and looked over at the ship again. "Now I reckon you'd want to see the damage report Dash? Well as good as she looks she still took quite a beating in the fight," reaching into her saddlebag for the data-pad again she flipped it on and handed it to Dash, "but we're none too worried about the armor for now, that Tarkan doohickey worked like a charm. We're mostly just the internal structure and of course the Node Ring..." 

Dash zoned out as AJ was continuing to list and point out things that needed to be fixed or that they were already working on. She looked over the Indomitable and sighed. 'She's probably never going to see space again, but if it helps the crew to be around something familiar and doing familiar things then she will have served more than it's purpose.'