Treason

by Trevosta

A Misssion

A Mission

"Ok, he's your brother, that doesn't explain why he wants to kill... wait. Your brother is dead. I was there when you got the message at flight school. My brother had his wings mounted as a trophy in his room."

"THAT WAS YOUR BROTHER!?!?!" Spectrum screamed at her, causing her to recoil at the anger in his voice and the pain in her ears.

He could see that she was getting worried, and very scared, so he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "I'm sorry, but you look a lot like he did, and I have been haunted by the memories I have of him for the past nine years now. I can still see him killing my best friend and then turning to me to rip my wings off..." he said fading away.

"Wait... But you have wings." Gilda said questioningly. "If my brother ripped your wings off, how do you have them now?"

"Specs," Rainbow said, attempting to calm him down. "She was the one who brought your wings back here."

He took another deep breath, "Alright, I'm sorry." he admitted. Then he explained what had happened for him to get his wings back.

"Ok, Gilda, we answered your question, now you answer ours." She nodded her understanding, "Why are you here, and injured?"

"Well, here goes." she said, looking down. "Know how I told you by brother ran away from home? Well, it turns out that he was actually forming some sort of army, to take over the Northern Provinces. He has been terrorizing other towns, gaining support and gathering minions." she said, with her voice trembling slightly.

"His 'campaign' most recently led him to our town, he demanded that we all join him. When we refused, he beat us and took us captive." Tears fell from her eyes as she continued.

"He took me, and beat me, demanding that I join him. When I kept refusing, he locked me up. I was able to escape and fly down here, but my injuries were too serious to make it the whole way here." then she looked at the stallion her brother had killed. "Thank you for saving me..."

"N-no problem..." he managed. The ponies who were gathered there had lapsed into silence, deep in thought. Several, who had experienced similar, could feel their anger growing. Those who hadn't, were thoroughly horrified.

They had walked into the hallway shortly after, because Gilda had passed out again. "Red." Specs said, turning to his second-in-command, "Get Angel and meet the rest of us back at the barn. The 51st is officially back in business."

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There were four Pegasi, two griffons, two earth ponies, a dragon, and a unicorn gathered in the Apple Family barn. Spectrum Dash was at the head of the gathering, marching back and forth, overseeing his ragtag crew, waiting for a response from the princess. They all sat in uncomfortable silence, until the small dragon's stomach rumbled, everyone gathered turned their heads to face the source of the sound.

A few seconds of agonizing silence went by before he belched out a plume of green flame, which materialized in the form of a scroll with the royal seal on it. Spectrum caught the paper, before it had completely solidified, breaking the seal and reading it aloud.

Dear Captain Spectrum Dash,
As the princesses we hereby recognize the Mustangs of the 51st, reinstated as a military branch for special missions.
We have received and appreciate your warning of the Griffon uprising in the Northern Provinces, and your first mission is to take care of the issue. If possible, bring the leader back to Canterlot Prison for interrogations.
Don't get yourselves killed.
In peace and harmony,
Princess Celestia and
Princess Luna

"Captain... I like it." Spectrum said, puffing his chest out slightly. "But more to the point, we are going in to battle with the only beast that has ever bested my team. We need to get training, so Applejack, Big Macintosh, Miss Sparkle, and Spike, if you would leave, we need to get training." he said, adopting a commanding stance.

The serious face on the new captain brought discomfort from those he was talking to. They hurried out of the doors, grumbling about how, "I wanted to see them training." and "Mah fiancé jus' kicked me outta mah own barn." but quickly all of those complaints were ended.

"AttenTION!" came a violent shout from the inside of the barn, loud enough to rattle the shutters. The ponies and dragon who had been kicked out of the barn cringed at the sound and hurried away from the barn, hoping to escape the wrath of the energized captain.

Back inside the barn Spectrum was pacing in front of his troops. Red Arrow and Blue Angel were standing at attention, immediately returning to their military mindset. The remaining three were scared and standing on shaking hooves.

"Alright," The Captain shouted, "You are all soldiers now. Many of you I have trained or trained with. One I have seen fly, and the final one of you, I have no idea how good you are." He said walking by, saying each description while in front of the corresponding figure.

"This session will simply be for me to see how good you each are in rapid response situations. It will start off with a simple skill evaluation."

The skills test went well, the official members of the 51st passing perfectly, while the griffons could still execute all of the moves, just not as perfectly.

The tests progressed into evaluations of how fast they could react, how quickly they could switch manuevers, and how immediately they could follow orders. Once again, the pegasi excelled, where the griffons were slightly behind.

The sun had set on the first day of training and the troops were exhausted. Spectrum stepped in front of them, looked at them, and smiled. "You did excellent, you going to make the best airborne combat team that the world has ever seen." His smile then turned back into a stern glare, "Tomorrow we begin to learn how to fight. But first I want to know something." he paused, looking into each of their eyes with a look that could rival that of a cockatrice. "Can. You. Kill?" he put a slight emphasis on each word to cover the importance. "Think about that tonight and get back to me in the morning." he said before walking back into the barn and over to the nest he had made for himself when he was first allowed to stay there, where he curled up and went to sleep.

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Early morning came and the soldiers of the 51st were slowly arriving at their training grounds. Gilda and T.C. were confused about something however, and needed answers.

The team awaited their captain patiently, wondering when he would come out of the barn. They were starting to get antsy, and were debating whether or not to go in and wake him up, when suddenly Rainbow arrived. She looked like she had just awoke, and like she was not happy about it. T.C., trying to be a good boyfriend, told her how beautiful she was and kissed her on the cheek, drawing a gag from Gilda. Rainbow didn't pay him any attention, because she didn't get much sleep the night before. She was tired and grumpy and decided that if she didn't get to sleep in, then neither did her brother.

She kicked open the barn door, and flew over to his hay-bed, preparing to wake him up and...

He wasn't there.

Panic began to set in as the team scoured the barn for their missing captain. After a few minutes of searching, Red heard something.

"Shhhh... Wait... Is that him?" They stopped what they were doing and heard distinct wing beats approaching. The five of them hurried outside and looked up to see Spectrum with a large sac thrown over his back.

"Who wants Breakfast?" he asked as he landed, dropping the sack beside him, which landed with a sickening slosh. "It's fresh!" he added, attempting to make the wet sack full of something seem more appetizing.

Red Arrow and Blue Angel looked at each other, knowing what was in the sack, and backed off with Blue Angel saying, "No thanks. I never really liked fish."

Rainbow was horrified. She couldn't imagine her brother killing innocent fish, let alone eating one. "F-f-fish? L-like the a-animal? In the water?"

Specs sighed, "Yes, Rainbow, the animal." he said, working on untying the drawstring of the bag.

Gilda and Thunderclaw were confused and intrigued by the PONY bringing them fish. "Uh, what kind of fish?" Gilda asked, hoping for something good.

By this time Spectrum had successfully opened the bag, and was sifting through the piles of aquatic meat. "Let's see... I have rainbow trout, large mouth bass, catfish, and a salmon, as well as a few clams." he said, holding each fish up accordingly. He then got to work on building a fire.

"I'll have the trout!" Gilda shouted snatching one of the colorful fish out of the bag.

"Dibs on the salmon!" Thunderclaw said, before he grabbed the reddish fish in his beak and swallowed it whole. "Here, Rainbow, I think you will like the trout." he said, passing the fish to his marefriend, who wasn't really paying attention.

"The catfish is still alive." she said, pointing a hoof at the ugly fish, that was still gulping for water.

"No it isn't, catfish are just like that." Specs said, while he used a knife to gut and fillet the bass. "They just act alive when they a really dead. Just don't worry about it, and eat your trout, sis. Pegasi are part-bird, or something, so we are able to eat fish. I even like it. But I would recommend cooking it first." as he said that, he laid his two fish fillets on a frying pan over the fire he had built.

She felt slightly nauseous just looking at the scaly, dead, thing in front of her. "I don't even know where to begin." she said, hoping it would get her out of this exercise.

Gilda could see her intent, and decided to mess with her a little. "Here, let me help you." She picked up Rainbow's rainbow trout and with the practiced claw of a master, she gutted, skinned, and filleted the fish using her claws. She then proceeded to eat the leftovers, drawing stares from the pegasi. "What? It's still good fish!"

"I agree with her." T.C. said, "And, speaking of which, can I have yours?" he said, looking at Specs who, in turn, looked down at his fish head and guts, which were being attacked by a small group of kittens. "Nevermind..."

After Rainbow's trout had finished cooking, they all stared at her as she held a piece of the fish in her fork. "Do I really need to do this?"

"Yes." Spectrum said, smugly.

"But, Blue Angel and Red Arrow didn't have to." she reasoned.

"We already did, in basic training, so he knows we can." Red argued. "Besides, we get the clams."

Rainbow raised her eyebrow. "I like clam chowder." Blue Angel explained with a shrug.

Rainbow closed her eyes, groaned, and quickly put the piece of fish in her mouth. Surprisingly, it didn't taste that bad. She chewed and felt the interesting texture breaking over her tongue. It was actually alright, but it could use some seasoning.
"It's not too bad..." she mumbled. T.C. was excited, now they could eat together, and she wouldn't be disgusted when he ate fish. Spectrum was excited because he realized that the experiment was a success.

"Alright troops, now we are going to spend the rest of the day hunting, but first I have a question. Do you three have any experience killing things?" he said, looking at e newest members of the team.

Thunderclaw sarcastically responded, "No, I have your sister catch my breakfast every morning."

Then Gilda chimed in with a childish voice, "My momma still digests my food before I eat it."

Spectrum blinked at that disgusting mental image and then realized his mistake, "Right, you two are griffons, you eat meat, you hunt on a daily basis. I agree it was a stupid question." he said. "You two don't have to do this training exercise, and neither do Red, or Angel because I have seen them kill things. Rainbow, you're up, go kill something and bring it back to me." he said, with a commanding voice and a confident smile.

"WHAT!?! Why?" Rainbow screamed, stepping back.

"It will prove that you can bring yourself to kill something." her brother said with confidence. "Plus, Fluttershy is taking care of an injured wolf so she needs meat."

Rainbow was shocked, she didn't even know what to do. She was flying over Whitetail woods, holding the knife that Specs had given her, looking for something to kill. Her sharp eyes settled on a rabbit.

She gulped, adjusted the handle of the knife, and angled into a dive.

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Spectrum Dash was thinking through a battle plan, trying to decide how he could take the militia by surprise and bring them to their knees. The whole time he was doing that, he was sharpening some spikes that he could attach to his horseshoes for use as a weapon.

Gilda was talking with Thunderclaw for a while and they reached a similar conclusion. Why were they there? Neither of them had been expertly trained, neither of them had been in real battle before, neither of them knew why the Captain wanted them. They had decided to ask him, but they would wait until he didn't have a weapon in his hooves.

They waited for a while and then, suddenly, he dropped the spikes, lifted off the ground and zoomed over to Red Arrow, and whispered something in his ear. Red Arrow seemed to like whatever Spectrum had told him, and he took off in the direction of town.

T.C. approached his new captain, and the brother of his marefriend, with determination. Spectrum noticed this and looked at him with a sincere smile. "Captain?" Spectrum nodded. "Why did you want Gilda and I to stay? We are horribly under-experienced."

Spectrum's face became serious. "Because, my team, that had much more experience working together, lost to this same leader years ago. That failure cost me my wings, my identity, my family, and my best friend. I will not let that happen again. With you on the team, we will have insider information, better training, and more fighters. All of that combined makes you both valuable members of the team. You also are going to be easier to train to fight than my sister. " he threw in as an afterthought.

"I finally got that stupid rabbit." they heard Rainbow saying as she approached, holding a limp white form in her hooves. "This thing was a pain!" she said.

Specs could tell that this thing had made her angry, which in turn made it easier for her to kill it. "Good work, sis. Wait... Where is my knife?" he asked noticing a distinct lack of blood.

"Well, I dropped it, and now I can't find it." she said sheepishly, the limp bunny in a heap on the ground.

"So how did you kill it?"

"I, uh, broke its neck." she said, rubbing her own.

"Nice, way to improvise!" Spectrum said, "Now everyone, take the rest of the day off, we leave before sunrise so you better get some rest. We will be doing aerial combat training on the way tomorrow morning." he said, walking towards the farmhouse.

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Applejack was worried about her fiancé, she knew that of all the ponies around, he could take care of himself and the others, but this was the same griffon that had almost killed him eight years ago. She took a deep breath, and sliced up a few more apples, readying them to be baked into a pie.

Just as she was putting the top crust on her delicious masterpiece, the door opened up and in stepped Spectrum. "Hey, Sugar Cube." he said, as he trotted up to her, kissing her on the cheek, causing her younger sister Applebloom to pretend to barf. "Oh, you find that gross, do you?" he said with a mischievous smile.

Applejack caught on to his little plan, and dove for his lips. The two kissed passionately, leaving the youngest Apple sibling to back out of the room in shock and horror.

When she was gone, Applejack broke the kiss, "So, do ya think they're ready?" she asked, referencing the group of soldiers that he had been working with all day.

He didn't follow the train of thought. "Applebloom? And who? For what, this?" he referenced the spontaneous make out session. "NO! Absolutely not! Who is he?"

"What? No! Ah meant yer troops, are they ready?"

"Oh, ok, no. They are not ready." he admitted. "But I have a few tricks up my sleeves, so as long as everything goes as planned, we should win." he said with confidence enough to rid Applejack of all her worries.

All of her worries, that is, until the apple fritters in the oven started burning.

Comments

[Trevosta]

That was probably one of the most horrifyingly painful writing experiences of my life. There was just no inspiration.

[jordanwriter]

Just drink some VODKA!

[Xaratos]

No vodka whiskey :D