Spitfire had never flown so fast in her life. She rocketed up and away from where Soarin and Sapphire were. A minor jolt told her she’d just gone supersonic as she reached a critical velocity.
The only ones who can help Sapphire now are the princesses. She thought as she climbed.
She began to speak the incantation loudly and clearly, picturing her destination in her mind’s eye. “Intermeare dimensiones obsecro manus bullas dimensiva potest ligare claustra patitur quisque ratione transitum incolumem. Canterlot meus destination est civitas sita in Equis dimension!” she cried, with each passing word, a powerful glow built up around her cutie mark and the amulet that she was on her neck. With an immense screaming ssshh-rack! A brilliant burst of silver light exploded outward from the amulet.
The air in front of her reacted as the beam interacted with dimensional walls. With an immense and distinctive twin boom boom that rang out across the Northwest Territories, as a clean cut between dimensions appeared in front of her. A second later, silver light enveloped her and slingshotted her right into the dimensional cut. It closed several seconds latter.
The actual trip between dimensions lasted about three seconds. With a hypervelocity boom, Spitfire rocketed out of the dimensional cut that for the briefest of moments separated Equis from Earth.
The first thing she noted was that it was raining with some minor hail, the wind was howling like a mad dragon, ice cold rain and pea-sized hail pelted her hide with such force that it stung, with a brilliant flash a forked tongue of lightning exploded across her flightpath, the resulting thunderclap nearly deafened her.
Damnit, forgot about the planned thunderstorm over Canterlot today! She thought with a shudder from the cold wind and rain that she was flying through.
Not that Spitfire cared about that. She winged over and dove, her memory guiding her down. Another bolt of lightning exploded into vivid life not three feet from her right wing. The resulting thunderclap was so loud that Spitfire was most certainly going to have to go to the ear doctor to get her hearing checked.
But then she bolted out of the cloud deck. The city of Canterlot glowed in the rain that was coming down. A bolt of lightning hit one of the lightning rods on the castle. Resulting in another enormous crack of thunder.
Spitfire could now see her landing zone, one of the main courtyards.
A new voice suddenly got her attention and scared Spitfire absolutely shitless. “My, my aren’t you in a massive hurry today Spitfire. Where’s the fire?”
She glanced right and spotted flying casually in formation next to her was a member of the Canterlot Royal Guard, purely ceremonial of course. Princesses Celestia and Luna could stomp anyone into the ground relatively easily and thus didn’t really need guards, instead they tended to handle more local problems.
“Windstorm, I need to see the Princesses now. I was scouting out new training grounds on Earth, in their equivalent of the Frozen North and we found that a large number of humans actually live their, unlike in Equestria apart from a scant few, the Frozen North is practically uninhabited.” Spitfire began as she explained everything that had happened.
“So wait, hold on. You mean you’ve actually seen how humans fight wars?” Windstorm asked confused.
“Yes, well air aspect only, but it seemed to be very impersonal. I never even saw the enemy fighters that splashed one of the human fighters.” Spitfire explained.
“So let me get this straight, you left Soarin with a critically injured human. While you're here, all I am asking is why have you are suddenly here? This wasn’t arranged beforehand!” Windstorm asked in a confused voice.
“I was wondering if one of the Princesses could provide her with a second chance. She saved Soarin’s life and it’s likely going to cost her, her own life. Taking a blow that would’ve killed him no doubt. I just want to show my gratitude in some way, but thanks to her wounds. I will never be able too.” Spitfire said, a wetness that wasn’t from the pounding storm leaking from her eyes.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me. But now you got to convince the Princess, you're lucky. Princess Celestia has just started her day.” Windstorm said in a casual tone.
“Great, wonder how she’ll handle this bombshell?” Spitfire muttered.
“Not sure, but she’ll probably be happy with the change of pace with having to deal with a bunch of stuff from that has resulted from the Great Royal Wedding Fiasco of 2/18/1002. How the hell did we not see the signs of a Changeling Invasion?” Windstorm stated in a sour tone.
“That’s not important right now Windstorm!” Spitfire snapped hotly.
“Right, Great Royal Wedding Fiasco not important. Let me glide you in, okay?” Windstorm said and Spitfire nodded in response, at this point she’d be glad to get out of the rain.
Still the primary courtyard to the palace loomed, Spitfire flared her wings out and lowered her legs from their “raised” position against her belly to a standard landing position. This increased dragged and thus slowed her down, but she realized that she was still coming in too fast, thus in an attempt to slow down even more she performed a wide descending 360-degree turn.
When she managed to acquire the courtyard again. She judged that her speed was low enough to perform a safe enough landing. She flared her wings out and with a bit of a jarring thump-thump landed on the slick stone and nearly slipped and fell immediately.
Cursing she quickly regained her balance and then got her bearings. She was in the main courtyard, two Royal Guards were sprinting towards her. Their white coats and blue manes, a simple spell, glistening in the rain approached her.
“Wing Commander Spitfire! This is unexpected is there something wrong?” One of the guards asked once he got close.
“In a sort of roundabout way, it has to deal with the training grounds search me and Squad Leader Soarin were performing.” Spitfire said frantically and both guards understood at once.
“I’ll go let Princess Celestia know immediately, Starscream you take her inside and get her dried off and warmed up. I’ll go tell the Princess!” The other guard said.
Starscream glanced at Spitfire. “Come on Wing Commander, let’s get you warmed up and dried off.” he said and promptly lead Spitfire out of the rain and into the palace, to be specific one of the Common Rooms.
The Common Room itself was very similar to a Common Room that one would find at a major university. There was a few scattered chairs and sofas lying around, as well as a few tables, plus and most importantly a fireplace with a calm crackling fire in it.
Spitfire gratefully sat down in front of the fireplace and felt it’s warmth on her fur. It felt good and also allowed her to finally think over everything that had occurred within the past couple of hours.
She vividly remembered the complete and utter destruction of Igloo Base-the roar of those bombs detonating, the scream of engines as those two -what had they been called?- Lightnings as they pulled away from the base, trailing the Lightnings as they raced off on a final sortie, watching them drop bombs and then splitting away from each other dropping brightly glowing orbs of light, chasing or trying to chase both Lightnings before settling on the wingman, watching the craft explode as it took a direct hit from a guided rocket with a highly explosively tip, rescuing Sapphire from her burning craft, distinct squelch of flesh parting as her wing sliced through that soldier’s neck, the brief resistance that the bones in it’s neck put up before failing, voices shouting harsh alien words in a accent similar to somepony from Stalliongrad, the noise from their lethalized miniature and micro-sized cannons, the extremely loud pops and FFFHHHH sounds from the projectiles that they fired missing by inches, the shock and sadness she had felt when Soarin had been tackled by that enemy in such a brutal fashion fearing that he’d been killed, the relief when Soarin had rolled over and stood up, the feeling of dread and hopelessness to do anything to stop the ‘Russian’ from killing him, the surprise, shock, and sadness when Sapphire basically gave-up her life to protect Soarin, the feeling of bones giving way violently under her hooves as she planted them into the back of the ‘Russian’ to stop him from finishing Sapphire off, and the sorrow, regret, and thanks -or was it hope? She couldn’t tell- in Sapphire’s voice as she lay dying in the snow.
It became too much for the mare and she started sobbing quietly. She’d seen more lives ended in just maybe an hour if that, than she had in her entire career in the Royal Equestrian Air Force and as a member of the Wonderbolts combined. Worse, she had actually ended the life of another sentient being and killing another sentient was held in a really low regard in Equis. Everything that had transpired well, it was going to haunt her dreams just how her failure to save those two mares and that filly from the Flying Goatstream when she had sank, watching them get dragged under the waters of Horseshoe Bay by the suction the Flying Goatstream had generated when she’d slipped below the waves.
Despite the sorry state that Spitfire was in, the one part of her mind that wasn’t wrapped up in self-pity and sorrow was telling her. How are you going to explain the whole fiasco on Earth to Princess Celestia?
In truth, it was the rational part of her mind and what it was saying, that had Spitfire extremely worried. While the rest of her mind was focusing on how the Taratus she was going to explain what had happened to her family or worse how would they react.
Still, one can imagine how surprised she was when she heard a voice behind her. It was soft and sweet, with an undertone of immense power that could be unleashed if you succeeded in pissing the speaker off, combined amount of authority that was behind said voice was immense. It could only be just one pony at this hour in Canterlot. “Wing Commander Spitfire, you wanted to see me?”
Spitfire shakily stood up and turned around. Sure enough, standing behind her was Princess Celestia herself. She didn’t looked annoyed, in fact she actually looked slightly curious. Which surprised Spitfire, she hadn’t expected that at all, despite that all of her military training took over and she bowed respectively.
“It’s complicated, your majesty. First I am sorry for arriving unannounced and doing so out of uniform.” Spitfire said in an apologetic tone.
“It’s no problem Wing Commander Spitfire. If anything, I welcome a change of pace from the monotonous and boring joys of bureaucracy. Now from what you told Sergeants Jade Dare and Windstorm you were doing one of your expeditions to find new training grounds for the Wonderbolts when you stumbled across something?” Princess Celestia asked.
Spitfire nodded in response. “It’s complicated Princess, but myself and Soarin were on Earth, which thanks to these dimensional amulets interdimensional travel is possible even if it is slightly risky. But anyway…” Spitfire said as she began to explain.
When she finished, Princess Celestia looked at her apprehensively and with more than a little surprise and shock visible in her eyes. “Spitfire, you must realize that even with my magical skill, there are things beyond even my abilities.” Celestia said in a sorrowful tone.
“But have you ever seen somepony do something so incredibly brave that while it did fatally injure them, you’ve wanted to grant them a second chance?!” Spitfire asked, desperation and pleading seeping into her voice.
Celestia sighed. “I have been there, but I must ask Wing Commander Spitfire, why? Why do you want me to do such a complicated and complex spell, one that is extremely painful for the castee, just to save one life?” she asked.
“That’s just the thing Princess. From what me and Soarin can wager, Sapphire’s injuries would have been survivable had she received the proper medical treatment. But, where Sapphire and Soarin are now is basically the middle of nowhere! Please, I don’t want this impromptu rescue mission to end in failure, not after everything that has transpired.” Spitfire said, her voice breaking.
“My little pony, what you must realize is that sometimes it’s better to allow the Circle of Life to run it’s course rather than to intervene. But you realize that what you're proposing to do could have adverse effects to Sapphire’s psyche?” Celestia asked.
“I realize that, it’s just that. It just seemed like she was hoping for some sort of miracle to occur. Throw in the fact that while she’s not a member of the Royal Equestrian Armed forces, she is a member of a nation’s armed forces and thus is a fellow soldier! I feel like, I should at least try to do something to prevent her from dying.” Spitfire said, putting as much emotion as she could into her voice.
Celestia sighed, she knew that within the military, it was common for it’s service ponies, particularly the ones who would fight on the frontlines of war were it to ever breakout, to develop a kinship that went far beyond even friendship, to something even greater than friendship, that something greater was family. After all in combat, sometimes the only thing between life and death would be the pony next to you.
But something told her that while Sapphire wasn’t in the Equestrian Armed Forces, it was clear that Spitfire and Soarin had felt obligated to help. Perhaps it was possible that the kinship that service members felt toward service members from there own military branch extended to members in foreign military services, at least to a degree, or simply because it was just the right thing to do, or it could be like Spitfire had said that herself and Soarin wanted their impromptu rescue mission to succeed in order makeup for past failures, finally it could have been a combination of the three.
So despite herself and how she felt about doing this. She understood where Spitfire was coming from. She had been the one to organize the memorial service for the lives lost in the sinking of the Flying Goatstream and to a degree she understood Soarin’s position as well, both herself and Luna had organized and then participated in the commemorating of the memorial for the Sun Valley Disaster.
Celestia sighed deeply. “Alright, I’ll agree to do it. But only if you agree to a certain set of conditions.” she said.
Spitfire nodded. “I understand your majesty. Although I got the feeling that Sapphire probably wouldn’t want to be in the military; considering how close of a brush with death that she’s going through.”
Celestia nodded in understanding. “That’s doable and believable. Regardless several conditions must be met, the first condition is that in order to help Sapphire acclimatize to her new life, she’s to be settled in Ponyville. And second, she’s to join the Ponyville Weather Team and receive basic training in that respect.” Celestia said.
“I understand the whole bit about settling her in Ponyville, it is the home of the Element Bearers after all. Wait, what about the whole Cutie Mark?! Wouldn’t it look a little strange seeing a fully Pegasus Mare without one?!” Spitfire said in a worried tone.
Celestia’s brow furrowed, Spitfire had brought up a very good point. It would look a little odd. “I have a general idea, you said that she was a pilot back on Earth?” Celestia asked and Spitfire nodded.
“Maybe that was what she wanted to do for her life as her talent. Be a pilot, if that’s the case. Then it could be possible that once the transformation is complete then maybe she may get a Cutie Mark of her own.” Celestia mused.
“It could happen, but who knows nopony because this has ever done this before.” Spitfire said.
“Correct, let me send some urgent messages explaining everything and what we’re about to do, then let’s get this finished.”
Soarin blinked his eyes several times to adjust to the blinding white light that had suddenly dazzled him. What he saw made his heart soar with relief. Walking out of the portal was both Wing Commander Spitfire and Princess Celestia!
“Oh thank Faust! We got to hurry, she’s slipped into unconsciousness and her pulse is fading!” Soarin said briskly from where he was.
When Celestia first laid eyes on Sapphire, the first connection she thought about was with the Minotaurs, at least in terms of basic shape, she was bipedal although the legs were different in design judging by the clothes she was wearing. Not only that but she was lacking the horns that Minotaurs had. But the more she thought about it, the more she decided that a closer comparison would be apes that inhabited Zebrica, but clearly further along in terms of evolution.
She was wearing a helmet, although it appeared to have visor. But said visor was in the stored position. Hanging from a tube that went behind the pilot’s back was a mask of some sort. She was wearing a dark green uniform that provided nearly 100% coverage of her body, with the exception of her hands and feet which had gloves and boots respectively also attached the uniform was what appeared to be a vest of some sort attached to it.
Celestia had no idea what everything was for, but it probably served some important purpose. But she pushed those thoughts out of her mind.
“How bad are her injuries?” Celestia asked as she cast a time dilation spell on Sapphire’s prone form to help slow the amount of blood loss down drastically, although she could tell that she was in a bad way. The mess that had probably been her hip was one of several of the more noticeable wounds, the other was a circular hole in her front near one of her shoulders, dark red blood leaking slowly out of the wound, another wound was an ugly thing, lower torso if Celestia where to guess roughly half the distance between her belly button and flank, it was rather bloody.
“Got those three nasty wounds, but also a bunch of cuts and bruises from her crash, probably a couple of broken bones as well. Wouldn’t be surprised if she got a concussion as well. Probably has a minor case of Hypothermia and certainly shock from blood loss. She’s lucky to still be alive.” Soarin said his head drooping.
“Thank you Soarin, what we have planned is going to be rather painful for young Sapphire but it’ll give her a chance of living through this ordeal.” Celestia said.
“Right!”
Sapphire wavered in and out of consciousness. It was like she was teetering on the knife’s edge of life and death. But she swore she could hear voices, speaking in urgent and worried tones.
“How’s … vitals…?” one voice said.
“... thready but … pulse. Bp’s dropping …” A second voice replied.
“You sure …. this? …. once this …. no going b.ck.” A third voice, said in a questioning tone.
“I am … sure … do it! Save her life …” A fourth voice, it sounded vaguely like Spitfire but she wasn’t sure.
After that she slipped back into unconsciousness. However despite the void that she floated in. Well, even you are unconscious your body could still feel pain, thus it wasn’t uncommon for patients on the table in the OR to actually moan during a surgery.
The sudden amount of pain that she felt without warning. Likely would’ve had her screaming in agony. It felt like she’d been dunked in Napalm, ignited Napalm. It was like as if her entire body was getting transformed into a new form and that the pain was her nervous system reacting to it. After what felt like an eternity the pain slowly subsided.
Now there was an interesting train of thought, going through a transfiguration. Sapphire came to the conclusion that she had read far too many Fantasy novels. Transformations were impossible, weren’t they?
Still, something told her that the life she knew was gone and that she was in for one hell of an adventure.
Canterlot Regional Medical Institute
As the glow died away from Celestia’s horn as she completed the permanent transformation spell on Sapphire. The form of the human was gone, in it’s place was a young Pegasus Mare, roughly thirty or in age from appearance alone.
She had a dark grey fur coat, with a maroon mane and tail with gold highlights running through it. However it was the sudden appearance of her Cutie Mark that really caught her attention: It had what appeared to be a majestic Eagle of some kind, the feathers covering its head was pure white and the body was brown, yet the wing tips appeared to blur between feather and lightning, it was as if the Eagle was riding on a brilliant blue lightning bolt that had a point of origin from it’s wingtips.
“Any idea when she’ll wake up?” Spitfire asked in a worried tone.
“No, but this is the first time we’ve performed a spell like this with the intent that we had. For all we know she could wake up in five minutes from now or seventy years from now. We just don’t really know.” The chief doctor, Doctor Heartbeat said calmly. Heartbeat was a Unicorn Pony, he had a deep brown coat and a cyan mane and tail, his cutie mark was that of a heart with the lines from an EKG superimposed onto it.
“Great.” Spitfire said.
“Besides once she does wake up she’s bound to have a few questions. But during the first few days after she wakes up, don’t be surprised if she’s out of it. Plus of course the shock from the transformation itself.” Heartbeat replied.
“Don’t forget Doctor. The Element Bearers will be helping in the acclimation process, as well as naturalization.” Celestia said.
Although truth be told, Celestia had her doubts about this. The only reason she had gone through with it in the first place, was because Spitfire had felt that she should’ve done something, anything to save a fellow soldier from dying. Still she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea with this.
“Right, I forgot. Any idea when they’ll be here?” Heartbeat asked in a curious tone.
“Probably around noon today. I sent an urgent letter to Twilight Sparkle earlier.” Celestia said.
“Good. The sooner the better.”
“All aboard for the Friendship Express, now departing Ponyville for Canterlot! With connecting trains departing for Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Bolton, Baltimare, Marecester, Trottingham, Coltland, and Vaaanhoover!” The conductor for the Sun and Moon Express, All Aboard, called out.
The Friendship Express provided daily service between Ponyville and Canterlot, making two trips each day. The whistle on the brand new 4-6-0 Steam Locomotive let out a distinctive tone. With powerful motions, the valves that led to the cylinders opened and steam began the movement of the connecting rods. With a noticeable lurch the locomotive went into motion, starting the three and half hour trip.
Inside one of the cars, were six middle aged mares, two Earth Ponies, two Pegasi, and two Unicorns. To someone who had been living out on the frontier for the past three years or under a rock, they wouldn’t have appeared to have been all that familiar.
However to someone who was “in the loop” they were instantly recognizable. For they were the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
“Twilight, when you came to tell us that Princess Celestia needed us in Canterlot as soon as possible. You seemed to be in quite a rush, any idea what this is about?” Applejack asked in a semi-worried yet also semi-curious tone.
“That’s just it. The content of the letter, was brief and to the point about something that Wing Commander Spitfire of the Wonderbolts while she was looking for new training grounds for the Wonderbolt Academy, bore witness too and that she said would be hard to explain in a letter and would prefer to do so in person.” Twilight said.
“Why would Wonderbolts be looking for new training grounds? I thought that the Wonderbolt Academy could provide for all of the needs that they would ever have.” Rainbow said in a confused tone.
Twilight looked thoughtful before saying the one phrase that she rarely said. “I don’t know, Rainbow.”
“Maybe Princess Celestia summoned us because she’s going to reveal that some sort of disaster is going to be coming soon to Equis and that we’ll have to evacuate to a different dimension? Hence why the Wonderbolts were looking for new training grounds.” Pinkie said in her usually cheerful tone.
It took a few seconds for the brains of the rest of the mane six to reboot after that statement. “What?” Rarity stated dumbfounded.
Pinkie blinked. “Yeah that’s probably not it.” she said.
Truth be told, the cryptic nature of Princess Celestia’s letter had all of them baffled, and although Pinkie's guess was more than a little out there. Twilight wasn’t going to admit openly that the thought had crossed her mind. But for some reason it just didn’t fit, if the end of days where actually upon them, she was certain that Princess Celestia would have explained it in her letter.
“No, that’s not it. If it was, I am sure that Princess Celestia would’ve mentioned something like that in her letter.” Twilight said.
“Whatever it is though, it must be serious if she’s calling us to Canterlot without an explanation.” Rarity said.
“But it was also mentioned that it has something to do with the Wonderbolts! Which means it’s probably awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Could be, but like Twilight said. She doesn’t know why, the details in the letter were rather vague.” Fluttershy said.
“It is kind of weird for Princess Celestia to be vague when it comes to stuff like this. But she probably has a good reason to be vague.” Applejack said and everyone nodded, it did make sense.
Soarin glanced at Spitfire. “How are you feeling?” he asked. The two of them were in the same hospital ward as Sapphire was.
“Physically or mentally?” Spitfire replied.
“Both, you look like you're about ready to bolt.” Soarin remarked.
“Physically I am fine, a little sore but nothing a hot shower won’t fix. Mentally, I’ll probably never forget what we went through to rescue Sapphire.” Spitfire replied.
“Which parts about rescuing Sapphire?” Soarin asked.
“All of it, including the lead up. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the noise from the destruction of Igloo Base. Nor will I ever forget engaging those enemy soldiers.” Spitfire said in a low tone as she hung her head.
Soarin nodded. “I understand, I am probably going to feel like shit this afternoon. But yeah, I agree, the destruction of Igloo Base was incredible, while saddening it had also left me awestruck, the amount of power that was unleashed…” He said trailing off and letting the rest of his statement hang in the air.
“Yeah.” Spitfire replied. The destruction of Igloo Base, that sort of damage was only seen if a Unicorn with a penchant with explosive magic or an alicorn went all out, either that or two Earth Ponies from San Franciscolt decided to have some fun when busting a myth related to stuff blowing up.
That’s when they suddenly heard low and pain filled groan.
Sapphire was waking up.
Consciousness and awareness came slowly to Sapphire. The first thing that came back was her hearing, a subtle but continuous beeping which meant it was a heart rate monitor. The next sensation she got was her sense of touch, her head was laying on what she assumed was a pillow, with the rest of her body on a bed which judging by how uncomfortable the thing was the bed was a hospital bed, she could also tell that she was covered by a bed sheet. The next sense that began to work was the sense of smell and it proved her theory about being in a hospital, the scent of antiseptic and other smells that were commonly found in a hospital was everywhere.
Sapphire shuddered, while she didn’t exactly hate hospitals, she didn’t like them either mainly because the smells of a hospital often clung to one’s body and was an utter bastard to get rid of.
The last sense that came around was vision. With a great effort, her eyelids slowly fluttered open and she took in the view of an unfamiliar ceiling.
Well this is unexpected. She thought.