Rainbow Dash's wing had begun to feel much better in the week to come. Rainbow Dash dreaded the day it was time to go back to scouting, however. Derpy hadn't shown up at their house since the library field trip. And for Derpy, that worried Rainbow Dash. But she couldn't do anything about it. A few days passed until her wing was finally healed completely.
As soon as Fluttershy removed the bandages, Rainbow's first mission was to report for duty at her job. But first she had to put on her uniform. It was the uniform she had grown to despise. Fluttershy opened the closet door for Rainbow before quickly sprinting to the kitchen (Angel was throwing things about in there). Rainbow Dash glared at the simple black and white armband. It was white with the solid black silhouette of a cloud in the center.
Once the armband was on, Rainbow Dash said a rushed goodbye to Fluttershy and left the house. The path to the scouting tower was short, but every minute it took to fly was an hour in Rainbow's mind. The wind ruffled her newly healed wing, making Rainbow Dash smile. It had been too long since she last flew. She spun in a graceful circle before finally getting herself back together.
The scouting tower came into view shortly. It was a dark, tall, and looming structure in the Cloudsdale skyline. The way it just stood there, gave everypony the chills. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath before gliding down to the tower where her early morning shift would begin.
"Rainbow Dash," her boss barked from across the tower perimeter.
Icy Rain quickly approached Rainbow in two strides. Icy Rain was the scout leader of Cloudsdale. She had once been an admirable, young Pegasus, but she became feared by all once the war broke out. Ponies had often just simply thought of her as your everyday, regular, nice Pegasus. But she proved everypony wrong when she voluntarily became involved in the pegasi air raids. They knew for a fact that they had misjudged her when she was in the frontline air raid on Ponyville.
Icy Rain glared at Rainbow Dash, a cruel smile painted upon her face, "You weren't here for a full month, Rainbow Dash," she spoke with stone-cold malice.
Rainbow Dash didn't even blink an eye when she replied, "I told you and showed you that my wing was broken due to the fact that you were running more than the maximum number of pegasi for each scouting mission, ma'am."
Icy Rain's lip trembled in anger, "Just get back to work," she finally spat out.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as she was given a pair of goggles. She snapped them on and took off in a brilliant flash of colors. Her speed increased and her breath quickened. Rainbow Dash hadn't felt the rough ruffling of her wings or had heard the whooshing of that glorious wind in a month straight. It felt great to be back in the air where she belonged.
Rainbow Dash was supposed to be looking for Pony ecncampments or unicorn-made force fields on any cities, but any loyal pegasus never reported it in. Rainbow Dash would have rather broken both her wings than betray anypony who was on her side. Instead she would give the real location to Fluttershy, who was making a map for all of the pony encampments They were planning on sending it to Rarity, so that she could give it to Twilight if she ever saw her again.
As she soared, Dash's thoughts ventured to Flitter's story. Was it true that pegasi were randomly forcing civilian pegasi to be in the frontlines of air raids? Rainbow Dash couldn't even bear to think if that had happened to Fluttershy. How does a pegasus attack their own friends and be fine with it? How?
As Dash was absorbed in her thoughts and opinions, she almost didn't notice the small ball of fire hurtling towards her. She expertly dodged it with only moments to spare. What was that? Where did it come from? Rainbow Dash's eyes flickered downward to the ground below her. There were at least ten more balls heading their way from a nearby encampment. Rainbow let out a scream as she dodged each one, swinging wildly from side to side.
What did they think they were doing? And then Rainbow Dash became aware of the armband she had around her. Oh yeah, she was on the bad side. She winced as a comet streaked past her, missing her only by a few centimeters. Dash quickly began to think of her next plan of action. While momentarily distracted she caught a whiff of smoke oddly close to her. The scent was then followed with an excruciating pain in her front leg. Her armband was on fire!
Thinking fast, Dash bit the armband off and threw it down. The flames licked her face. She let out another scream. Her right cheek was pounding in time with her front leg. A few bullets of fire singed her tail as she sailed off without looking back. This would be slightly hard to explain to Icy Rain.
As soon as Rainbow Dash landed safely inside the tower, Icy's consistent glare was turned to her, throwing daggers in her direction. A medic was bandaging rainbow's front leg as Icy Rain growled curses and insults to her face.
"Why are you back after only twenty minutes. Your shift runs for another four hours, Dash. You may as well kiss your paycheck goodbye for this if you don't hurry and go back to action! I am warning you, Rainbow Dash! What happened out there that made you come back here like a frightened little school filly? Huh?"
"Fireballs," Dash grimaced as the medic pulled at her bandages tightly, "They shot at me. They...ouch, pummeled me with, eh, flaming rocks and you want me to go back?!"
"Who shot fireballs at you?"
"Who do you think?" Rainbow Dash snapped.
Icy Rain was taken aback by this answer, but only for a second or two. Her glare returned and her teeth clenched, ""Where are they located? I'll send a squad out there immediately."
"I think it was, ow, in the far west of Cloudsdale," Rainbow Dash lied, "But my sense of direction wasn't exactly at its best when my armband caught on fire!"
Icy Rain pursed her lips, "Those are twenty bits to replace."
"Yeah, but it was on fire," Dash groaned in pain, "It wasn't my fault that all of this stuff happened to me! What can I do about it?"
Icy relaxed suddenly, as if a pin had ruptured her swollen, angry blob of an aura. She smiled for a short while. It was enough to make Rainbow quiver slightly.
"I'm...impressed Rainbow Dash," Icy chuckled calmly.
"Why?" Dash's brow furrowed in confusion. She couldn't help but sense danger creeping up behind Icy's compliment.
"You are just a…well, you're prone to danger, aren't you? You cut your leg on the first day of work almost by magic, you broke your wing about a week or two after that, and now you have second-degree burns on your front legs and face. But...that's not why I'm impressed with you."
"Then what is?"
"The fact that you are the first pegasus here to be...fired," she purred.
"What?" Rainbow Dash roared in anger, causing her face to swell up slightly more, "What do you mean fired? You can't do that, I'm a volunteer!"
"Oh, but I can," Icy Rain laughed, "Because you see, as the leader I can pick and choose who gets to be on the team and who doesn't. You are unfit to be a scouting pony."
"Hey, breaking my wing was your fault. Maybe I should, I don't know, report you for it," Rainbow Dash replied coyly.
"You blackmailing me, Dash?"
"No, I'm just doing something I should've done before," Rainbow Dash said, honestly.
"Well, go ahead. Because after today, not even a scouting pony will believe your story, why should they? After all, you did do your job so poorly that you were fired even though you were a volunteer."
"Why are you doing this Icy Rain? Huh? Why?"
"I'm doing this for everyone's sake."
"Well, not mine!" Dash raised her voice.
The few scouting ponies that were still on the tower gawked at Dash and Icy's heated argument, their mouths hung open. Never had they seen somepony stand up to Icy Rain before.
"Too bad," Icy Rain snarled, "Now leave, Dash."
"No! Not until you give me a good reason for why you're firing me in the first place. And don't tell me it's because of my flying, cause' I'm the best flyer here."
"Fine, if you really insist," Icy's smile vanished, "You are getting to be a danger, not only to us, but to yourself. You are a proper Ditzy Doo, and a liability if anything else. This shall be the last paycheck you get from me and I never want to see you here again, is that clear?"
Rainbow Dash shook off the medic, who had now put a cloth bandage on her right cheek, "FINE!"
Icy reluctantly thrusted the small sack of bits at Dash. She snatched it away rudely and took off.
Dash reached the house in a blink of an eye and slammed the door behind her. She threw the meager sack of coins to the corner of the sofa on her way to the bedroom. Fluttershy looked up abruptly from her place on the armchair.
"Rainbow Dash, aren't you supposed to be scouting? Are you l- oh, my," Fluttershy gaped at Rainbow's new wounds, "Are you all right?"
"NO!" Dash stomped her hoof, "I had dozens of fireballs thrown at me by ponies and Icy Rain has the nerve to fire me!"
"Why would she ever do that for?"
"You tell me! She said that I'm a danger to others and myself. All I know is that we're going to have a harder time paying the bills now," Rainbow Dash plopped down on her bed.
Fluttershy sighed as she slowly got up from the chair. Everypony knew that if you were fired from the military, your former boss would inform every low or high military boss in Cloudsdale. Dash would have to find a new job, and that was a hard thing to do. Most of the better, slightly higher-paying jobs were already full to capacity. Rainbow even considered blackmailing Icy Rain for her job back, but the price of blackmail was far too steep for even Rainbow to do.
Angel tapped his foot impatiently as Fluttershy sadly pushed a small bowl of leaves in front of him. Leaves and grass were the closest forms to a salad as Fluttershy could make at the moment. Rainbow Dash used to sneak down to the forest and pick some vegetables for Fluttershy, but after a public beating for somepony who had been caught stealing vegetables from the forest, Rainbow Dash couldn't do it anymore. The job was now Fluttershy's and even she couldn't venture far. She only stayed for a mere few seconds before rapidly taking off again before even touching the ground.
"What're we going to do about this?" Fluttershy said after a few moments of silence passed.
Rainbow Dash was just about to say, "I don't know," when a sudden and abrupt knock on the front door startled them both. Angel flew underneath Fluttershy's desk in a hurry. He had learned quickly to not make a habit showing his face around when a visitor appeared. Rainbow Dash got up from her bed and answered the door with Fluttershy following behind her.
Two Stallions stood side by side. Rainbow Dash looked them over suspiciously. One was lean and had a sandy brown coat. He had on an armband similar to Rainbow's old one, only it was black with a white cloud in the center and a slash going across the cloud. Wasn't that a bit bold to flaunt in public? Dash thought to herself. She glanced over at the other stallion. He had a white coat, was slightly more muscular, and just stood there like a statue.
"Are you Rainbow Dash," the sandy-colored stallion asked hastily.
"Yeah, what's it to you?"
"We have a small proposition to ask of you," he said with a grin.
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the strange pair. She already could feel Fluttershy backing off into the bedroom behind her.
She opened the door a bit wider, "Is that so?"