23. Journey to the capital
Wings of Tomorrow
Lament of the World
23. Journey to the capital
“I should have known I couldn’t make a trip to the Republic and back without running into trouble, ” Rainbow Dash thought grimly, as she jumped aside to dodge a magic spell fired at her by a severely angry Republican. The pegasus admiral immediately returned the favour by throwing a lightning bolt at her attacker. The attack struck before the unicorn even had the time to react, and a moment later his smoking body lay motionless on the deck.
Rainbow Dash had no time to pat herself on the back. Her trained senses picked up a movement in the air behind her and she dropped low to the floor. A sword swung over her head in a wide arc, held by another pegasus. Before he could recover from his missed blow, Rainbow Dash had whirled around and rammed the blunt end of her lance in his side. Her foe’s eyes bulged and his mouth was forced open in a soundless scream of pain. Rainbow Dash reared back one of her hooves and charged it with lightning, before punching the pegasus in the abdomen with it. He fell down, shocked into unconsciousness.
“Once, just once, I’d like to take a trip with my ship without ponies trying to kill me, ” Rainbow Dash grumbled mentally. She’d been in such a good mood, too. She had succeeded in getting the plans of the Republican invasion, her friends had agreed to join her on her mission and their journey back to the capital had gone smoothly. At least until they had gotten near the border between the Kingdom and the Republic, and had run into a Republican patrol ship. Conflict had been inevitable, and the Republicans had opened fire without hesitation.
Not wanting to risk her friends getting hurt, Rainbow Dash had decided to handle this one on her own. Thus it was that she now stood on the deck of the Republican ship, facing its entire crew of fifty ponies strong on her lonesome. Despite being vastly outnumbered, Rainbow Dash didn’t show even a hint of worry.
“Alright everypony, I think it’s safe for me to assume that you know who I am, and so you should also know what I’m capable of,” she said, addressing the enemy crew with a slight grin on her face. The posture and way she held herself screamed confidence. “Luckily for you, I’m in a hurry. So if you kindly turn your ship around and leave mine alone, then nopony needs to get hurt.”
A shiver of unease ran through the Republican, and they glanced nervously from the smoking bodies of their comrades to Rainbow Dash. None of them wanted to be the first to step forward and risk being struck down. Rainbow Dash’s reputation preceded her, and her little display from just now only served to further increase the fear she invoked in them.
Finally, one of the bravest among them nervously cleared his throat and spoke, looking around at his comrades the entire time. “W… we shouldn’t be intimidated! She’s only one mare, we have her outnumbered… We… we can take her!” the stallion stammered.
“Y… yeah! We’ve got forty against one! We can take on any royalist scum!” another joined agreed, and he tried to look brave while he spoke. His rallying cry was slowly taken over by his fellow guards, and their anxiety was replaced with budding courage.
“If we take down ‘the Thunderbird’, we’ll be heroes!” a third Republican shouted, and many nodded or mumbled their agreement. A shiver of excitement ran through the group, and Rainbow Dash could feel that the atmosphere had changed. There was a certain kind of tension in the air, and the Republican soldiers look uncomfortable, as if they could break down any minute. They feared her, as they rightly should, and that fear, coupled with desperation, drove them to near madness.
The Republican ponies drew their weapons and charged their spells, and Rainbow Dash clenched her jaw and her expression was grim. “I can see that this is something that can no longer be solved with words,” she said. The cyan pegasus spread her wings and with one flap found herself hovering a foot or two above the deck. In one hoof she held her golden lance, ornate in design and with a diamond spearhead, while her other hoof crackled with lightning.
“Do as you like!” Rainbow Dash called out to them, before charging straight at them. Her opponents let out their own wordless battle cry and charged as well. The collision was great and terrible, and the air was filled with the sound of clashing steel, magic and sheer power.
---
“How could you have let her take off on her own?!” Twilight demanded angrily, her entire body shaking with barely contained fury. She gave the pony right in front of her a heated glare, but the target of her anger, vice-admiral Rose Thorn, remained perfectly calm. His lack of response only served to make the female unicorn even more frustrated.
“How can every pony on this ship remain so call when Rainbow Dash just flew off to take on an entire airship full of Republican soldiers on her own?!” she asked again, stomping her hoof. Behind her, her friends nodded in agreement. The entire group of mares was gathered on the deck, having been woken up by the sound of cannon fire when the Republican ship had first attacked.
“Admiral Rainbow Dash said she was going to engage the enemy on her own, and ordered us not to interfere,” Rose Thorn said sternly, meeting Twilight’s heated glare with an even look of his own. “You were all present when she gave her orders, or did you not hear them?”
“She charged on her lonesome at a ship full of ponies who want nothin’ more than to tan her hide!” Applejack objected loudly. The orange mare marched up to the unicorn stallion and planted her hoof on his armoured chest. “Orders or no orders, y’all can’t just let a stubborn pony rush to her death! She’s your captain! She’s our friend! We should be out there lendin’ her a hoof!”
Rose Thorn sighed and gently removed Applejack’s hoof from his chest. “I understand that you are worried about the admiral, who is your friend, but you are letting it cloud your common sense,” he berated the ponies standing before him. He spoke sternly, but not unkind. “As you are now, you cannot help her. You have neither the skills nor the experience for combat, and you would only hold her back and be a hindrance.”
“Though it isn’t pleasant to hear spoken aloud, he does have a point, darlings,” Rarity agreed reluctantly, as she came to stand between Twilight and Applejack. The white unicorn placed a hoof on each of their shoulders in turn, trying to get them to calm down a bit. “Rainbow Dash was trained for this sort of thing, while we’re not. I think our little fiasco in Canterlot was proof enough of that.” She glanced at Twilight with some concern. “Speaking of which, even should we be of any help, you still would have had to sit this one out, Twilight. You are still recovering from your injuries.”
Rarity’s words made Twilight instinctively reach to her chest with one of her hooves, touching the bandages hidden underneath her dress. The memories of that night in Canterlot and the excruciating pain from the spells that had left her heavily wounded came back to her, and Twilight involuntarily winced. She bowed her head in defeat, having to admit Rarity had a point.
Regardless, it still didn’t feel right to Twilight to let Rainbow Dash charge off into danger on her own, injured or not. Judging from the looks on her friends’ faces, they were all thinking along the same lines, though at the same time they realised as well that Rose Thorn had a point, too. None of them had any combat experience. Sure, they had wrestled with a swarm of changelings in their previous lives, but never with experienced ponies trained to fight. It made them feel powerless and useless.
Twilight loathed the feeling more than anypony else, for it made her once again think of that night in Canterlot two days ago. If she had been stronger, if she had her skills and experience in magic that she had possessed in her previous life, then she could have saved her friends and wouldn’t have gotten injured. And if she hadn’t been injured, she could have been of some use to Rainbow Dash now.
“Ah get what you’re sayin’, sugarcube,” Applejack admitted reluctantly to Rose Thorn. “And Ah suppose you do have a point. Buckin’ an apple tree and a pony just ain’t the same. So Ah get why we have to sit this rodeo out.” She narrowed her eyes and gave the unicorn stallion another sharp glare. “But what Ah don’t get is why y’all ain’t over there with her to lend her a hoof! Y’all are trained to fight, so why let her run off on her own?!”
“I, um, was kind of wondering about the same thing… If that’s okay with you,” Fluttershy said softly, speaking up for the first time since Rainbow Dash had left. Around her tender frame was wrapped Rainbow Dash’s cape, the cyan pegasus having given it to her timid friend with a promise to come back for it. Fluttershy held it wrapped tightly around herself, and she was still shaken from the earlier bombardment.
All five of them had been sleeping peacefully in Rainbow Dash’s cabin, regaining their strength after an eventful night, when a loud explosion had brusquely shaken them awake. That explosion was followed by many more, then a soft thud ran through the entire ship as the Wonderbolt returned the fire with its own cannons. It became clear to Twilight then that they were under attack, but how many attackers they were and how big of a threat they formed was impossible to determine from inside Rainbow Dash’s quarters.
The five mares had waited for a little while, but when the artillery fire continued and nopony came to inform them of the situation at hoof, it was decided to go to the deck to find Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy had been reluctant to go, for the cabin seemed relatively safe to her, while on the deck they would surely get caught in the fight. She hadn’t wanted to remain alone in the cabin either, however, so she had followed her friends. And despite them being with her, she had still found the entire ordeal frightening.
---
The Wonderbolt shook with every explosion that rang through the air, and Fluttershy could barely resist the urge to curl up into a ball every time that happened. The deafening noise of cannon fire tormented her ears, and for a while all she could think about was why she had left the safety and silence of her home behind. How she longed for the comforting presence of her little friends, the calming, assuring familiarity of her home…
Then one of her friends, mostly Rarity and Pinkie Pie, would stop to make sure she was alright. A gentle word would be said, or a warm gesture made, and then she found the courage to go on a little bit further. Time and time again, her friends never losing their patience with her, for which she was endlessly grateful. Timidly and more than a bit frightened, but strengthened by the support of her friends, Fluttershy followed them as they ran towards the deck, to find Rainbow Dash and learn what was going on.
The door to the deck loomed ahead, but Applejack barrelled straight into it, throwing it open, and the rest of them followed swiftly. There were fewer ponies there than they had expected, but it made it much easier to find the pony they were looking for. Rainbow Dash was standing at the railing on the left side of the ship, and vice-admiral Rose Thorn was at her side. She was telling something to four guardsponies, but with the wind in their ears and the explosions filling the air, Fluttershy nor any of her friends could hear what was being said.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out to the cyan pegasus, while running as quickly towards her friend as her still injured body allowed her. At the same time Rainbow Dash looked up and the four guards left, quickly disappearing below the deck, apparently having received their orders. Only Rose Thorn remained with the admiral to greet the remaining Elements of Harmony.
“What’s going on? Are we under attack?” Fluttershy heard Twilight ask in between breaths. The purple unicorn looked around worriedly. “Have we been followed?”
“No, we just had the misfortune of running into a Republican patrol ship,” Rainbow Dash replied, speaking quickly and in an entirely serious tone that surprised her friends. She was fully in her role as a royal admiral now, and it showed in the way she behaved and spoke. “We’re nearing the border, and it’s always under heavy guard. I knew from the beginning there was a big chance we’d run into one.”
She made a nod with her head to something in the distance, and when Fluttershy looked in that direction, she could see another airship that was rapidly approaching them. Then the Wonderbolt shook when its cannons were fired again, and with a squeak Fluttershy quickly dove underneath Applejack for cover.
“There’s nothing to worry about, everything is under control,” Rainbow Dash said quickly, with full confidence, when she saw the looks of fright and panic on her friends’ faces. The pegasus admiral glanced at the vice-admiral at her side. Rose Thorn met her gaze evenly, and Rainbow Dash nodded. “You know what you have to do, vice-admiral?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the stallion replied calmly. His horn glowed, and an ornate, golden lance with a diamond spearhead appeared out of nowhere.
“Good,” Rainbow Dash said shortly, and she snatched the lance out of the air. She spared a moment to look at her friends, then turned her attention back to her subordinate. “I’m leaving my friends under your protection, Rose Thorn. They’re not to get hurt even the slightest bit, do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal, admiral Rainbow Dash, ma’am.”
Rainbow Dash nodded again. “You girls stick with Rose Thorn, he’ll keep you safe. Don’t try to do anything stupid, and don’t worry about me, I could do this in my sleep,” she then said to her friends. This being said, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and jumped onto the ship’s railing. Behind her, Fluttershy and the rest of her friends gasped in shock.
“Darling, wait, wherever are you going?!” Rarity cried out, not understanding what was going on. Everything was happening so quickly, her brain had a hard time trying to catch up.
Rainbow Dash glanced over her shoulder at the white unicorn. “Well, somepony’s gotta keep those guys entertained while you guys hightail it out of here,” she explained, which caused another round of shocked gasping.
“You’re going to the Republican ship?! Alone?!” Twilight all but shouted, her mouth and eyes opened wide. “Are you crazy?!”
The pegasus admiral groaned. “Look, I don’t have time for this! You girls just have to trust me, alright? I know what I’m doing!” Rainbow Dash snapped, frustrated by the seemingly lack of confidence her friends had in her. They probably thought she was just being reckless again, and she could somewhere understand that they believed that, given how she had been in her previous life. But this was a different life, and she was an admiral here. That rank required ponies to possess certain skills, and not being reckless was one of those.
Rainbow Dash sighed and turned away from her friends again. She had no time to explain how she her life as a royal guard had changed her. That could wait until after she had made sure her friends got past the border safely. She spread her wings and prepared to leap off the railing.
“Wait!”
Before Rainbow Dash could jump off the ship, Fluttershy rushed forward and wrapped her forelegs around her fellow pegasus’ waist, desperately trying to keep Rainbow Dash where she was. “You can’t go, Rainbow Dash, you can’t go all alone! You mustn’t! You could get hurt!” Fluttershy pleaded with a panicky voice, too concerned for her friend’s wellbeing to speak on her usual reserved, quiet tone. At the same time, another cannon ball from the Republican ship was shot down by the Wonderbolt’s artillery, and the explosion made Fluttershy whimper in fright, but she held on.
Behind her, the rest of her friends were giving the timid pegasus looks of both sympathy and approval, and they smiled. Rose Thorn, however, was neither pleased nor touched. He cast a nervous glance at the still approaching enemy ship, then looked at Rainbow Dash. “Admiral, we cannot afford any further delay. Within a few moments the Republicans will be close enough for their pegasi to disembark!”
Rainbow Dash met her subordinate’s worried gaze. “I know that,” she said coolly, before looking down at the pegasus who was clinging to her. Despite the situation, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile. Gently, she removed Fluttershy’s legs from around her waist. The butter-yellow mare squeaked and tried to regain her hold on her friend, but Rainbow Dash gently held her back.
“You don’t have to worry about me, Fluttershy,” she said sincerely, and she gave her fellow pegasus a confident smile while looking down in Fluttershy’s tear-filled eyes. “Really, I know what I’m doing.” When her friend still didn’t look convinced, Rainbow Dash removed her cape and wrapped it firmly around Fluttershy’s trembling body. The timid mare’s lips parted in a soundless gasp, and she looked from the cape to Rainbow Dash in incomprehension.
“I’ll come back for it,” the cyan pegasus promised with a grin. Then, with Fluttershy speechless and the rest of her friends too far to interfere, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and leaped off the ship. The freedom of the open air welcomed her, and she enjoyed the exhilarating feeling that only flight could give her. With swift beats of her wings, Rainbow Dash sped towards the Republican ship, ignoring the worried cries of her friends.
“Rainbow Dash!”
“Dashie!”
As soon as she had jumped, all of her friends had rushed to the railing, in a vain attempt to catch her and stop her from doing what they perceived to be a reckless act. All, except for Fluttershy. The shy pony sat down quietly on the deck of the Wonderbolt, holding Rainbow Dash’s cape tightly around her body, watching as one of her best friends flew into battle.
---
The sound of Rose Thorn’s voice pulled Fluttershy out of her trip down the memory lane. The unicorn stallion was talking calmly but sternly to Applejack. “We have our orders, lady Applejack,” the vice-admiral said, answering the orange mare’s question of why nopony of the crew made a move to go help Rainbow Dash. “If admiral Rainbow Dash orders us to not interfere when she engages the enemy on her own, then we obey.”
“Since the five of you are going to be living on royal territory very soon, and are planning to lend your aid to our cause, you would do well to remember what I am about to say!” he continued, speaking on a rather harsh and firm tone, like a teacher talking to a disobedient student. “In the Royal Kingdom of Equestria, the authority of the three royal admirals is absolute, second only to the grand admiral, steward and the Princesses themselves! Their orders are not questioned or argued against, only obeyed, by guard and civilian alike.”
His hard words did not fall on deaf ears, and for a moment all five mares were silent, mulling over what Rose Thorn had said. Then Twilight looked up at the vice-admiral, her expression unhappy and troubled. “But you’re letting her go on her own against an entire airship of enemy ponies!”
The vice-admiral’s expression softened, and he gave Twilight the barest of smiles. “Your concern for your friend speaks well of you, Twilight Sparkle, but it is entirely unnecessary.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, sugarcube, but Ah don’t see how it ain’t necessary to be concerned about your friend when she’s outnumbered fifty to one,” Applejack objected. “Those odds aren’t exactly what us farm folk would call fair, they ain’t.”
Rose Thorn’s smile widened the tiniest of amounts. “That, I can agree with,” he said with a nod. The vice-admiral walked calmly to the railing of the ship, and turned his head to watch the battle taking place in the distance. “Only one airship against the admiral can indeed hardly be called faired.”
Before her friends could gather their dropped jaws from the floor and utter weak cries of disbelief at that statement, Pinkie spoke up. “You know girls, he might be onto something,” she said. The pink pony was watching the battle as well, with an almost comically serious expression on her face, and she was rubbing her chin thoughtfully with one of her hooves. “Dashie seems to be doing pretty well over there.”
---
‘Doing pretty well’ might perhaps have been somewhat of a grotesque understatement, for over half of the Republicans lay unconscious and scattered on the deck. Most of them looked as if they had been struck by lightning, but a select few bore the marks of a well-placed slash of a lance or the bruise of a kick or punch. Rainbow Dash herself did not have so much as a scratch on her, however.
The pegasus admiral dodged another magic spell fired at her by a unicorn, then dove off the ship with rapid beats of her wings. Two of her enemies rushed to the railing and looked down, but Rainbow Dash seemed to have disappeared. “We’ve lost sight of her!” one of them cried out. “Be on your guard! What about the other side?!”
“No sign of her here either!” an earth pony guard called from the other side of the deck, after he had looked over the railing and had found no trace of his enemy there either. “Is she hiding under the ship?”
Before anypony could respond to that question, there was a terrible crash on the left side of the ship. The entire vessel tilted dangerously to the side from the sheer force of the impact, and those of the Republicans who couldn’t fly scrambled to hang onto something. A pegasus flew over to inspect the damage, and saw something had smashed straight into a ship. At the site of the impact was nothing but a gaping hole
“She tore a hole in the hull!” he cried out in dismay, but his words were lost when there was another terrible crash, this time on the other side of the ship. The starboard hull was smashed to splinters when Rainbow Dash barrelled straight through it with the speed of a rocket.
“She smashed straight through the ship!”
“We’ve lost twelve of our cannons!”
One of the soldiers noticed a rainbow-coloured blur pass him by and fly to the back of the ship. His eyes widened in shock as he realised what the royal admiral had picked as her next target. “She’s going for the rudder! Somepony stop her!” He saw the same unicorn from before standing around doing nothing. “Don’t just stand there! Blast her out of the sky already! Aren’t you an unicorn?! Use your magic already! DO SOMETHING!” he thundered, his panic making him unreasonable.
“She’s too fast!” the unicorn snapped back. “There’s no way I could hit her!”
His comrade was about to say something awful in reply, but stopped when a group of pegasi flew past him towards the back of the ship in an attempt to stop Rainbow Dash from further wrecking their ride. When they got there, however, the rudder appeared intact and of their enemy there was no sign. “She’s not here!”
The announcement caused only more panic, and the frightened soldiers looked around frantically, trying to find see where their enemy was. The fear of not knowing where the next attack would come from was greater than their fear of facing the terrifying admiral head on. It had been a mistake to think they could bring down ‘the Thunderbird’ with only fifty ponies, that had become painfully obvious when Rainbow Dash had taken down half of their comrades with only three blows.
After a few tense moments had passed in absolute silence, one of the guards finally snapped under the pressure. He began to walk backwards slowly, while looking around frantically, as if trying to be prepared for an attack from all sides. Cold sweat ran his neck and he was breathing so fast as to be nearly hyperventilating.
“Where are you?!” he screamed, his voice shaking with fear.
“Here.”
The word was spoken calmly and quietly, in a completely non-threatening way, and still it made the blood of the guards freeze in their veins. It had come from somewhere behind them, and when they slowly turned their heads, their fears were confirmed. Rainbow Dash was hovering lazily in front of the door that led to the ship’s bridge, her left front hoof reared back and glowing with lightning.
Before the Republicans could recover from the shock and respond to it, Rainbow Dash struck. With a slight groan uttered through gritted teeth, she thrust her lightning-charged hoof forward, calling upon the terrible power bestowed upon her by the shards of magicite embedded in her armour. A torrent of sizzling lightning burst forth from her outstretched hoof, the attack engulfing the entire deck of the ship.
The lightning flew forth and obliterated all it engulfed, and the prow and figurehead of the ship were utterly destroyed. The entire airship shook violently when the intense heat of Rainbow Dash’s electricity heated up the air until it exploded in the form of a thunderclap. The discharge of pure energy was immense, and could be felt all the way on the Wonderbolt.
Then all became quiet, the literal calm after the storm, and Rainbow Dash finally lowered her hoof. She let herself drop down gently on the deck, and stored her lance away on her back. Her cerise eyes calmly observed the results of her final blow.
The airship’s deck was a ruined mess. Scorch marks littered the place, marking where the wood of the deck had caught fire due to the intense heat of the lightning. The flames in turn had been doused by the sheer air pressure created by the thunderclap that had been Rainbow Dash’s grand finale. Said clap had also levelled most of the railing, smashed in the walls of the deckhouse and broken probably more than a few bones of the ponies unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast.
“… Forty-eight… Forty-nine… Fifty… Fifty-one… Alright, all present and accounted for,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself, having finished counting the bodies of her foes scattered across the ship. She was pleased to note that none had fallen off the ship to their deaths, for she really would have felt bad if she had killed any of them by accident. Using her powers to enhance her hearing, she quickly determined they were all still breathing and would wake up after a while.
As she overlooked the wrecked ship, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but sigh and shake her head. She trotted over to the nearest guard and looked down on his beaten form with pity. “You guys should consider yourselves lucky that you ran into me, and not one of the others. Sparkler and Derpy wouldn’t have hesitated to use lethal force,” she said.
The cyan pegasus glanced over her shoulder to the back of the ship, where the engines and propellers were still working fine. “I even was nice enough to leave your ship in a working condition so you’ll be able to get back home once you wake up.” Rainbow Dash turned away from the fallen guard and walked to the edge of the ship. Her keen eyes spotted her belloved Wonderbolt in the distance, and she spread her wings, ready to fly back.
Before she took off, she couldn’t help but look back at the fallen Republicans one last time. They had been so certain they could take her down and become heroes, but in truth they had simply been blinded by their fear. “Stupid foals, did you honestly think you could beat me?” she growled. “If you wanted to take me down, you should’ve brought a war fleet with you.”
Shaking her head sadly, Rainbow Dash leaped off the ship and raced back towards the Wonderbolt. Nothing about her appearance would suggest she was coming back from a battle, for she looked every bit as fresh and relaxed as if she had just been taking a stroll in the Canterlot gardens.
---
Later that day, Twilight Sparkle was laying on the deck of the Wonderbolt, near the ship’s prow, enjoying the warm rays of the afternoon sun. There was nopony else on the deck, for which she was grateful. She had tried to catch some rest or sleep, together with the rest of her friends in Rainbow Dash’s cabin, but her mind had flat-out refused to settle down. So she had come here, basking in the comfortable warmth of the sun, to think.
The events of the past few days and especially this morning had shaken her more than she would like to admit. The images from the Princess’ broken form during the parade still haunted her, nor had she forgotten the nightmare of the Princess burning her alive. One of her hooves drifted to her shoulder, rubbing idly over the bandages underneath her dress. Her wounds still ached at times, a painful reminder of her failure to help her friends back in Canterlot.
She thought back to the morning. She could still see the state the Republican airship had been in when Rainbow Dash was done with it, and it left Twilight awed as much as it made her shiver. She had seen with her own eyes the incredible amount of power magicite could bestow upon a pony. It hadn’t even been the first time, as she had been there when the Republic had battled Nightmare Moon, but to see one of her own friends wield such power somehow made it all the more real to her. It also made her feel so powerless. Rainbow Dash had been able to protect her friends when the Republic had attacked them, something she hadn’t been capable of. Somehow, that fact stung more than she had thought it would. It wasn’t that she was jealous, far from it, more like she was ashamed.
The sound of hoofsteps pulled her out of her ponderings, and she looked up and over her shoulder to see the same pony she had just been thinking about approaching her. Rainbow Dash wore a disarming smile, an expression that looked kind of odd on her.
“Heya, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash greeted. She gestured with her head at the floor right next to the lavender unicorn. “Mind if I join you for a little while?”
“It’s your ship, Rainbow, I don’t think you need my permission,” Twilight responded, with a wry grin.
Rainbow Dash chuckled softly. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.” She lay down beside her friend, her front legs folded over each other, and for a moment all was quiet. Rainbow Dash seemed content to simply watch the clouds roll by and enjoy the sunlight warming her skin.
Twilight observed her pegasus friend as subtly as she could, even though she knew it was rude to stare. Now that they had a peaceful, quiet moment to themselves, she was able to truly take in her friend’s appearance. The pony next to her looked every bit like the Rainbow Dash she remembered from her previous life. Her mane and tail, with their rich rainbow hues, the sky-blue coat, it was all exactly the same. And yet the golden armour Rainbow Dash was wearing, with the glowing shards of magicite embedded in them, made it seem to Twilight as if she was laying next to a total stranger. It was an almost surreal feeling, and more than a bit unsettling. Especially now that she had seen what the pegasus was capable of.
“Rarity told me you were restless and couldn’t sleep, even though she’s right when she says you should take it easy with those wounds,” Rainbow Dash said, so suddenly it startled Twilight. The pegasus gave her friend a curious look. “Something bothering you?”
Twilight blinked a couple of times and gave Rainbow Dash an incredulous look. “You want to talk about somepony’s troubles?” she asked, surprised. Then, with a teasing smile, she added: “Who are you, and what have you done with Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah, yeah, very funny, egghead,” the admiral replied, and she snorted in mock-offence. “I’ll have you know that one of an admiral’s duties is to take care of the wellbeing of those she’s responsible for. And I count my friends amongst those.” She tapped her temple a couple of times with her hoof. “So I pretty much had to learn a thing or two about that psychology stuff, since wellbeing means more than just the body being in top condition and all that jazz.” She rolled her eyes. “So darn boring, but I can’t deny it’s true.”
The purple unicorn next to her laughed. “The great Rainbow Dash serving as a psychiatrist, I didn’t think I’d ever get to see that! I could barely get you to read Daring Do, and here you are having studied psychology.” Twilight smiled playfully at her friend. “You’ve changed a lot, Rainbow Dash.”
“Tell me something I don’t know yet,” the pegasus grinned. Then her expression became more serious. “You dodged the question, though, egghead. What’s on your mind? Rose Thorn told me you’ve been looking pretty down ever since this morning.”
“I just have a lot to think about,” Twilight answered. “After everything that’s happened the past few days, can you blame me?”
“Nah, speaking from experience here, that’s pretty normal,” Rainbow Dash replied, and she shrugged. She kept looking serious, though. “Still, it helps if you talk about it. And don’t look at me like that!” she snapped when Twilight gave her that incredulous, disbelieving look again. “Yeah, yeah, I know it’s strange to hear me say that, but that’s not the point, okay? Just tell me what’s bothering you already!”
Now it was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes. “Very subtle, Rainbow Dash,” she said with a laugh. Her smile quickly died away, however, and Twilight sighed. “It’s just… Well, I can still hardly believe that I’m really here. That I’ve really boarded this ship and am on my way to try and help the Princess, I mean.” She shook her head. “It’s kind of funny how this was all put into motion by Fluttershy coming home. I mean, if she hadn’t, Rarity and I wouldn’t have been in Canterlot in the first place, and then we wouldn’t have met you.”
Rainbow Dash blinked and looked confused. “I’m not sure I’m following you, Twilight. What’s this about ‘Fluttershy coming home’? When did she leave?”
Twilight stared at her friend in incomprehension for a few seconds, and then her eyes lit up as it dawned on her. “Oh, that’s right! You don’t know yet what happened in Ponyville during all those years you were in the Kingdom, do you?”
The pegasus admiral shook her head. “Nope, nothing aside from the occasional report from our agents and spies, and what little news I could gather from Republican refugees that came from Ponyville,” she said. “Why? Did something happen to Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked, suddenly worried for her timid fellow pegasus.
“Oh, something happened alright, but don’t ask me what, because I don’t have a clue myself,” Twilight replied. She proceeded to tell the pegasus admiral about her and her friends’ lives in Ponyville, about how Fluttershy had been nowhere to be found during all those years, only to then suddenly reappear roughly a month ago, and how the return of the timid pegasus had caused them to go to Canterlot for the parade.
“And the rest you know,” Twilight finished, giving Rainbow Dash a small smile. “If it hadn’t been for Fluttershy wanting to see the parade, Rarity and I wouldn’t have gone to the parade, and then we wouldn’t have ran into you, which means we probably wouldn’t be here now.”
The cyan pegasus rubbed her chin with the back of her hoof. “Well, I probably would have sought you guys out anyway, but without Fluttershy to pass a message, I wouldn’t have been able to get you all together in time,” Rainbow Dash muttered thoughtfully. Her gaze darkened. “More importantly, if the three of you hadn’t been in Canterlot, those guards that did such a number on you and Rarity would have caught up with Night Wing before I got there, and then the plans of the invasion would’ve been recaptured.”
Rainbow Dash grimaced. “That would’ve been bad news. We really have to know the details of this invasion the Republic’s planning before it happens, or else we’re royally bucked,” she said. Then a smile broke through on her face and she laughed. “Guess we owe it all to good old timid Fluttershy, huh?”
“I guess so,” Twilight admitted slowly. She trailed off and made a helpless gesture with her hooves. “But I just don’t understand it. From what Fluttershy told me, it’s like she literally was taken from one timeline and dropped into another one. But that’s just impossible! There’s not a single spell in all of, well, everything, that can do that! It makes as much sense as Steel Gear being able to travel in time somehow!”
Rainbow Dash noticed how Twilight’s voice rose more and more with every word she said, and she was still going. It appeared as if Twilight was finally voicing all the frustrations that had been building up the past month, now that she had a listening ear.
“Or how about my library, Sugarcube Corner and Fluttershy’s cottage being exactly like they were on the day Fluttershy vanished from our previous lives and ended up in this one?” she continued, without skipping a beat. “Not to mention the fact that all ponies in Ponyville had a memory of her, even though they never met her even once!”
Twilight slammed her hoof on the deck in frustration, but she kept rambling on. She wasn’t even paying attention to Rainbow Dash anymore, didn’t even bother to check if her friend was still listening. Luckily for her, however, the pegasus was still with her, patiently waiting until Twilight was done blowing off her steam.
“And how about us, who remember our previous lives? At first I thought it was because we’re connected to the Elements of Harmony, but that can’t be the case, because Shining Armour also remembers his old life!” Twilight all but shouted. “I know he’s my brother, but I’d find it a stretch to say that my ties to the Element of Magic influence him as well, especially since there’s never been anything in the past to even hint at that! None of it even begins to make sense and I can’t make heads or tails of it! GAAH!” She threw her hooves up in the air to accompany that final cry of frustration, and then at long last Twilight calmed down.
It became silent for a while, for Rainbow Dash said nothing after Twilight was done rambling. The purple mare gave her pegasus friend a nervous glance, afraid that Rainbow Dash had either tuned her out or was upset with her.
“Anomalies,” Rainbow Dash said finally. She met Twilight’s gaze with her own and smiled when the unicorn gave her a puzzled look. “Well, I was wondering why I could remember that kind of stuff, too. The High Chancellor tried to explain it to me as best as she could, but it’s kinda complicated and I didn’t really get it. But all that weird stuff that doesn’t make sense that you mentioned? She called it anomalies. I’m sure she’ll explain it all to you in detail once you get to meet her.”
Twilight frowned. The word ‘anomalies’ was of course familiar to her, but she had never come across it used in a context concerning time. Not in this life or the previous. Still, this was the first time in the seventeen years of her life that she had gotten so much as a hint, no matter how tiny, of an explanation to all the oddities. It was a hopeful sign, if nothing else, though it left her with another question that begged to be asked.
“Who’s this ‘High Chancellor’?” she wondered, giving Rainbow Dash a curious look. “And how can she know anything about these ‘anomalies’ when no book I’ve read in either of my lives has ever mentioned them?”
“I can’t tell you,” Rainbow Dash answered reluctantly, and she smiled apologetically. “It’s not that I don’t want to or that I don’t trust you, Twilight, but I’d be breaking the law if I did. The identity of the High Chancellor is top secret. There are only five ponies who know who she is: myself and the other two admirals, the grand admiral and the steward. I’ve been sworn to secrecy, because so far the Republic doesn’t know the High Chancellor even exists, and we’d like to keep it that way. It’s to keep her safe from the Republic.”
“Don’t worry, though, I’ve already requested to have a meeting arranged with her for you guys,” she added quickly, when she saw Twilight’s disappointed look. “Normally you’d have no chance to get that request granted, but the High Chancellor wants to see you guys herself as well. She’s been dying to talk to you again especially, Twilight.”
“She knows us?” Twilight asked, clearly surprised by this revelation. She couldn’t think of any pony who knew her but wasn’t already known to the world as a high officer on either side of the war. She didn’t know that many influential ponies to begin with – the Princesses aside – and certainly none who could have any understanding of these ‘anomalies’ Rainbow Dash mentioned.
“Yeah, kinda,” Rainbow Dash replied. The pegasus admiral climbed to her hooves and stretched her legs and wings. She could see Twilight was nearly exploding with curiosity at this point, and it made her grin. “Just be patient, Twilight. The wait is almost over, anyway.”
The cyan pegasus walked to the railing of the ship and mentioned for Twilight to join her. Once the purple unicorn stood next to her, Rainbow Dash pointed at something far in the distance. “Look over there, egghead,” she said. “You can already see Cantropolis from here. We’ll make port in less than two hours. We’re almost at our destination.”
End of chapter 23.
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Calling it now: The High Chancellor is (somehow) Luna.
Achievement: Badflank
Display your levels of coolness by defeating the patrol ship in less than two minutes.
I'm on board the "The High Chancellor is Luna Theory Bandwagon". Because who else is that important that the Republic absolutely cannot know of their existence.
Of course, Cadence would also make some sense as well, but I really want to believe Luna is somehow alive.
Rainbow Dash is overp- oh. Okay then. You read my mind. How did she become this powerful? Ah well, anyway, I really want more. MORE!
1418506
Years of training, hard work, and magicite charged with lightning.
I'll also go with the "High Chancellor is Luna" theory.
1418658
Perhaps Rainbow Dash isn't overpowered, but magicite sure seems to be. The impression I get is that a magicite-equipped cadet with a basic knowledge of its capabilities could wipe out an entire squad of elite non-equipped soldiers without breaking a sweat.
The airships aren't how I imagined them.