The roar of internal combustion engines drowned out any hope of conversation between Crimson and the odd American Jackson. The red Pegasus was keeping up quite well with his wings, but the bulk of the galloping Equestrian, Atlantean, and Dominion armies were left in the dust, with the Americans even farther back. Behind them was all the heavy stuff - artillery, ammo carts, random kitchen supplies, the likes.
Crimson was sweating profusely and breathing heavy, however. He’d never flown at this speed for the several hundred miles they’d already gone in his entire career - not to mention life! A constant sixty miles an hour worked into his muscles, but he dared not drop to the ground, lest he willing to be trampled by the United States M1A2 Abrams tank directly behind him. He decided leaving keeping his armor on was a bad idea after all.
Eventually, the tanks slowed to a crawl and stopped for the night. Crimson’s wings gave up and he faceplanted into the soggy, snow-covered ground. That was another thing. The colder, drier air was harder on him. Jackson hopped down and helped him stand.
“We gotta wait so the fuel trucks can catch up, along with your armies. We’ll set up camp for the night, stay a day to rest, then move on. Getting to where it counts is hard when there’s only one place to strike, so we gotta move fast.”
Crimson closed his mouth on some snow that hadn’t been hit by anything and let the melted water go down his throat. The cooling sensation that followed was beautiful. “All I had before this was a hoofful of hay and a few gulps of water! Way too fast, General!”
“Sorry, Colonel, but this is lightning war. You want to strike sometime within three months, this is how you do it.”
“But we are literally a hundred miles ahead of both the supplies and support! What if we get ambushed?”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take. Deal with it.”
“I am in charge of the operation. I don’t have to ‘deal with it.’”
“And you want to do three things: resurrect your princesses, rescue your daughter, and defeat Sombra once and for all. I’m helping you get there in time to actually do something. Besides, if what you say about this Dragonspire Citadel is true, then we need to take it out before they get smart.”
“Fine. But we will wait for the others to catch up.”
“And I don’t intend on getting far enough ahead that they won’t arrive in a reasonable time. That was the exhaust port in the Dominion’s take on blitzkrieg, was it not?” Turning to a tank driver, he ordered, “Make a circle. We camp here for the night. Double guards and pickets. And someone set up a fire! We’re freezing and hungry!”
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Crimson shot out of his sleeping bag. He looked around and saw a curious-looking ponylike creature. In the dark, it was hard to distinguish colors, but fire looked like it crept up its legs. It cocked its head to the right and cautiously stepped forward, sniffing for food. It crouched low where the fire had been hours ago and stared at Crimson, its glowing eyes begging for food.
He walked to it and sat down. Seeing it was clearly a mare, he pulled some food out of a pack and gave it to her. She gobbled it up and cursed softly. The voice was unmistakable.
“Rose? Is it you?”
“Shhh!” the mare harshly replied. “I escaped the Dominion six years ago after being captured in a raid on Summercrest, and have been on the run since. I lost their tracking wolves near the Crystal Empire three months ago, but it was even worse there. Another escape and I’m here. I’d rather not get taken back there.”
“Rose Thorn, daughter of Atlanta. Right?”
“How do you know my name? You’re an Equestrian.”
Crimson pulled up on his jacket where it concealed his scarred flank and left wing. “Aquarius River. The Final Stand.”
She looked up at him. “By Harmony! Crimson, is it really you?”
“In the flesh, my dear.”
Rose Thorn sobbed quietly and leaned into her husband’s waiting hooves. “It’s really you…”
“Shh. you’ll wake up the others.”
“But-”
“I have my own tent. You can sleep with me.”
The next morning, Jackson was sitting by a relit fire. He was cooking a sausage on the end of a metal stick for breakfast. Crimson came out of his tent and sat next to the general, munching on some hay.
“An intruder showed up last night. You don’t happen to know where or what it is, do you?” Jackson asked.
Crimson gulped down his hay and guzzled some cold water. “Nope,” he replied simply.
“I think it was a horse or pony of some kind. It must’ve flown in and landed right there.” He pointed at some hoof marks in the ground. “It also makes sense that you woke up last night, since hoof prints are leading away and to your tent.”
“Yeah, I was investigating. Wasn’t anything important. I remember stepping right in those, then turning around and going right back.”
“Alright. Atlanta should be here in an hour. Radio says. But they could be delayed somehow between now and then, so… oh, frack!” Jackson pulled his burning sausage out from the flames and blew harshly on it. “Looks good,” he mumbled. Then he dug in. “Holy shit,” he went on between bites, “this is frickin’ amazing. And I don’t cook my own food.”
“Good. I might have something to say to the Queen that only she would understand.”
“What?”
“Rose Thorn. She’s alive.”
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Atlanta trotted into the circle of tanks around the tents. She slowed down when she saw Crimson’s face beaming like the golden sun. “Colonel, what have you done this time?”
“I found her. Rose Thorn. The Dominion didn’t kill her after all.”
“Really? Where?”
“Follow me.” Crimson lead Atlanta into his tent, where a dark pink alicorn with green flames licking her legs slept peacefully for probably the first time in years. Her eyes fluttered open and she yawned with the daylight streaming through the tent flap, now closed by Crimson. She took one look at her husband, then at his companion.
“Mother?”
“Rose? You were executed by the Dominion. We saw it!”
“That was propaganda. They never actually did. It was a traitor to the Dominion that they dressed to look like me. I escaped and arrived in the Crystal Empire trailed by Dom tracker wolves three months ago.”
“During the Manehattan Siege.” Crimson put in for a time scale.
“Whatever. Thing is, I lost the wolves. Then I had to escape the Empire, which I did a few weeks ago. Lied low the whole damn time, so they probably don’t even know I’m gone. Your campfire and the smell of cooked meat drew me here, because cooked meat can mean some sort of civilization.”
“Rose, there’s something you don’t know. It’s one of the reasons I’m headed to the Empire.”
“What?”
“Our daughter. Sombra foalnapped Andromeda during the Manehattan Siege. I was in Manehattan at the time, so I couldn’t do a thing.”
“He WHAT?! Where’s that slimy son of a-”
She was interrupted by Jackson’s knocking scratching the tent door. “Crimson, Atlanta, Flawless Ice is here.”
Crimson and Atlanta walked out with Rose Thorn directly behind. Nobody seemed to notice her until she tried to charge the Dominion king. “Where’s your father? I want him so I can hang his head by a tree where it belongs! You stole me from my family, and now you ally with them? Crimson, what has the world gone to?”
A bunch of American aimed their rifles in the direction of the outburst, only to stop when they saw Atlanta holding a dark pink and green alicorn, of all things, with her magic.
“Rose Thorn, you must calm down. Without Flawless Ice and his Domination Army we would not be here. His troops give us many of the numbers we need to carry out an invasion of the Crystal Empire.” Her daughter struggled a bit less after that. “Besides, as much as I don’t want to trust him, I have to. So get used to it.” With that, she let go. Rose immediately ran to Crimson and huddled behind the red Pegasus.
Jackson ran from the campfire. “Just what the hell is going on here? The last thing we need is internal division!”
Crimson turned to face the human. “You know how last night, somepony flew into the circle without being noticed, or so you believed?” Jackson nodded. “Well, I lied. It did happen, and it was important. But I didn’t want you chasing off somepony who seriously needs our help. This is Rose Thorn, daughter of Atlanta, and my wife.”