//------------------------------//
// 07: Lobster Trap 
// Story: A Tear in the Fabric 
// by Cold Bolt 
//------------------------------//

"Whoa, ooh, ugh... oof."

Disoriented after her trip through the portal, Rainbow Dash staggered for a moment before falling to her knees. She raised a hand to her head to steady it as the world around her swam into focus, chaotic voices slowly growing more distinct.

With a quick shake of her head, she snapped to attention. It was night, but she could see well enough thanks to several portable-looking spotlights nearby. There were people running this way and that, wearing what looked like... were those supposed to be military uniforms? Why would anybody outfit their troops with bright red uniforms?

In seconds, one of the spotlights had been pointed directly at her, causing her to squint and shield her eyes... but she could still tell that several of them were pointing weapons at her; some brandished swords and spears, while others propped up their rifles on rows of sandbags.

"What the - ?" Rainbow scrambled to her feet, but suddenly found herself hovering as her wings seemed to automatically kick in. Momentarily distracted, she glanced at them over her shoulder. "Oh hey, cool! When did that - ?"

"Attention!" a voice called out. "You will land and submit yourself to military custody immediately, or appropriate force will be employed!"

"What?!" Rainbow shook her head again, glaring against the spotlights as her hands balled into fists. "No way! I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just looking for my friends! Who do you guys think you - ow!"

Something small and sharp struck her side. Looking down, she winced as she carefully plucked what appeared to be a small dart embedded in her skin and immediately threw it away. "Hey! What's the deal with you guys? I, ugh..."

Why were her wings getting heavy?

Rainbow could feel her strength gradually leaving her as she descended slowly, falling to her knees again. She looked up to see two of the soldiers lowering their weapons and approaching her, lifting her roughly under her arms and beginning to drag her away. She tried to summon the will to resist, but her body would no longer obey.

"You... guys... suck..." was all she could manage before her consciousness faded completely.





"...ugh."

Rainbow Dash was getting really sick of being dizzy.

Her surroundings had traded the military base for what looked like a crude cell, complete with iron bars and unpainted stone brick walls. Its only features were an equally barred window, a toilet, and a bed so uncomfortable she doubted she'd ever have fallen asleep on it if she hadn't been drugged.

She tried to reach for her head, only to find her arms wouldn't move - they were bound behind her back, as were her wings.

Rainbow fought the adrenaline urging her to leap to her feet as quickly as possible. Instead, she took her time with it to ward off the wave of disorientation she might have gotten otherwise and stood up gradually.

With that out of the way, her fear soon made way for anger, and she marched up to the bars of her cell to give one a solid kick. "Hey, let me outta here!"

"Good, you're awake."

A dark-skinned soldier stepped into view. He wore the same red uniform she'd seen before, but his had much larger and more elaborate patches on it - an indication of rank, maybe? She didn't actually care either way; she was too busy wishing she could punch him. "Who are you supposed to be?"

The soldier spent a moment idly straightening his sleeves. "You haven't heard of me before? Lieutenant Lucas Diamondback, youngest Victorian officer in decades? Master of the Illusion Blades?" He punctuated this by patting what appeared to be an empty sword sheath at his hip and smirking at her, as though expecting the gesture to mean something.

It really just made him look like a smug idiot.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Hmph. Tell someone who cares."

Lieutenant Whatever seemed particularly irked by this. "Hey, you're the one who asked! Besides, I'm cooler than any of you rebels will ever be!"

"You wouldn't know cool if it walked up and bit your tail," Rainbow spat. "Wait, 'rebels'? What the heck are you talking about?"

The lieutenant huffed. "Oh, don't bother. We already know you're some kind of secret weapon they developed to surprise attack us through the portal. Now we'll be prepared when more come through."

Rainbow's heart missed a beat as she remembered she hadn't been the first through the portal. "Wait a minute! Where are my friends?"

"I don't know." The lieutenant quirked an eyebrow, faking surprise. "You tell me. Where are your friends? And how many of you are there?"

Against her instincts, Rainbow bit her tongue. Whatever was going on, it was obvious this guy wasn't going to be any help to her in finding Pinkie and Rarity; any information she volunteered was as like as not to be used against them.

"Uh... n-nowhere," she stammered. Even if her lie was obvious, she at least owed it to them to put up an uncooperative front if it meant any chance at all of keeping them safe. "I-It was just me."

Were she not being held back by rope and iron bars, Rainbow would have been all too happy to see how much smirking this diamond-jerk would still be doing after she knocked half his teeth down his throat.

"Sure, whatever you say." He glanced at his watch. "Anyway, I have some preparations to oversee in case any of these not-friends of yours show up. Holler to the guards when you feel like cooperating; if you give us something useful to work with, we might even remember to feed you once or twice."

With a backhanded wave, he spun on his heel and marched down the corridor out of sight, leaving a furious Rainbow to stew in her own rage.





Sitting in a cell for hours on end was seriously the most boring thing in the universe.

Granted, the passage of time was pretty hard to gauge in this place; she couldn't see all that much of the sky from her barred window, but she could almost swear the sun hadn't actually moved. She could hear voices every now and then from down the hall, but no one else had shown up to bother her.

Her stomach growled. Immediately she was reminded of that comment from... what was it, Diamondface? She almost wished she had offered him some information about them, just for her own peace of mind... but it wasn't worth it. Giving that jerk the satisfaction of knowing he'd gotten to her was unappealing enough, but the thought of potentially selling out her friends made her heart sink - she would gladly endure this by herself for their sake.

If nothing else, she could at least hope that their absence from the adjoining cells meant they'd found a way to escape, and she was just the unlucky one who got caught.

"Hey... hey, over here!"

A barely audible whisper came from somewhere nearby, snapping Rainbow to attention. "What? Who's there?"

"Shhh, careful..." The voice seemed to be someone just outside the window, which was just barely too high up on the wall for her to see them. "We're gonna get you out of there, okay?"

Rainbow scowled, but said nothing. She wasn't exactly in the most trusting mood, but it wasn't like it could make things any worse, right? She hoped not, at any rate.

"Stay away from the wall here for a sec," the whisperer warned. "Once it's breached, I need you to hang a left, head as far as the back wall, then turn right past the crates. Move as quickly and quietly as you can. Okay?"

"Uh... got it?" Rainbow quirked an eyebrow, but backed up all the same.

A few seconds later, she heard the footsteps of someone dashing away from the wall, followed by a low rumble. As she watched, part of the wall beneath the window crumbled to dust, leaving a hole barely two feet in diameter.

"..."

It wasn't exactly what she expected, but it would have to do.

After a minute of awkward squirming made more difficult than it needed to be due to her still being partly tied up, Rainbow found herself standing on dirt and dry grass between two low buildings, with no one else in sight.

Off to the left, a tall concrete wall reminded her of the instructions she had been given, and she marched toward them. A stack of wooden crates sat just behind the corner of the building to the right... but it didn't look like anyone was there.

Rainbow snuck slowly past the crates. "Uh, hello? Is anybody - "

SLASH

Something sharp swung just behind Rainbow, missing her by a hair. Immediately, she felt the ropes binding her arms and wings slip, prompting her to shrug them the rest of the way off.

"Whew, that's better." Rainbow rubbed at her sore wrists and flexed her wings. "Hey, thanks for the save back...?"

She trailed off as she turned around to find herself staring at none other than the very lieutenant who had given her such a taunting before. He held a strange translucent sword in his hand, which he turned and threw at the wall, causing it to shatter and vanish into thin air.

"There. Hopefully that, uh, evens things out a little." He turned back toward Rainbow. "Hey, are you... uh oh."

"YOU!" she snarled.

Diamondback flinched, staggering backward a step. "W-Wait, maybe you shouldn't - "

Rainbow didn't wait for him to finish. Wings flared, she took off toward him with her magically enhanced speed, ready to throw a punch that she sincerely hoped would send him through the wall behind him.

It didn't, but not for the reason she was expecting. Instead, she bounced backward as her fist connected with some sort of barrier that had formed in front of him, and landed in a heap in the dirt. "Ow! What the hay?"

"I would appreciate you not manhandling my informant, please."

A tall, pale woman stepped into view. Sporting a long green dress and a big green ribbon with long tails tied in sky blue hair that went halfway down her back, she was probably the silliest thing Rainbow had seen all day. Her hand was outstretched toward the lieutenant, but she lowered it as she approached, causing the barrier in front of him to fizzle and vanish. Crouching, she extended it to Rainbow instead.

"My name is Scarlet Lombardia, ally of the Cascadian Rebellion," she declared.

Rainbow stared for a moment at the offered hand before finally taking it and allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. "Uh... right. Then I'm Rainbow Dash."

Scarlet blinked, hesitating for a moment. "An... unorthodox name I suppose, but an amusingly apt one," she concluded, her eyes lingering on the teen's impressively ostentatious hair. "Rainbow Dash, I believe we can be of use to one another."

"Huh? What do you mean by - " Rainbow stopped mid-sentence, turning to Diamondback as a memory resurfaced. "Wait a minute! You said I was the one working with these 'rebels,' but that's what you're doing! What's going on here?"

"Shh, keep your voice down!" The lieutenant winced. "Yeah, I am. And I'm sorry about before... I, uh, kinda had to put on a good show until I could contact Scarlet here and put a plan together to get you out." He idly straightened his sleeves. "That trick I used will only work once, though; there'll be a guard tower back here by this time tomorrow, and the longer we stand here, the more likely you are to get caught again."

Scarlet nodded. "While you deserve a proper explanation, time is a luxury we can ill afford. In short, I am here to offer you a deal, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow glanced around. "A deal?"

"We of the rebellion fight for the liberation of this land from the very forces that detained you," Scarlet explained. "I believe you would be a valuable asset to our cause. Unless I am misinformed, those wings are no mere decoration, correct?"

More than happy to demonstrate, Rainbow hopped into the air and flew several speedy circles around them. The pair stared at her in awe, Scarlet in particular donning a delighted grin as the teen touched back down.

"Marvelous." Scarlet put her hands on her hips. "And yet, I saw a glimpse of even greater power just a bit ago, did I not?"

"Maybe you did!" Rainbow ran her fingers down the length of her wing. "I am pretty awesome, you know. Not really much of a soldier though," she admitted.

The lieutenant shrugged. "Oh, don't worry about that. Scarlet here is one of the best fighters I've ever seen. Found that out first-hand," he admitted, instinctively reaching up to rub his shoulder. "If anybody can teach you how to use your powers to fight, it's her."

"Wait, you can fight?" Rainbow looked Scarlet up and down. Her choice of dress seemed fairly lacking in the combat readiness department, and it covered a chubby frame that surpassed even the confection-loving Pinkie Pie. "No offense, but you... really don't look like it."

Scarlet hid her mouth behind her hand and giggled. "You are hardly the first to make that assessment, and I doubt you will be the last."

"Uh, more to the point," the lieutenant interrupted, "we're also prepared to do what we can to help you find your friends."

Scarlet nodded again. "The communication network in the region is rather heavily locked down, so while I can make no other promises, we will keep our eyes and ears open for any information that may lead us to them."

"So let me make sure I got this straight." Rainbow crossed her arms. "In exchange for helping me find my friends and teaching me how to use my powers to fight, you want me to help you beat up a bunch of punks who already shot me with a dart and locked me in a cell?"

Diamondback blinked. "Uh... actually, yeah, that's a pretty good summary."

Even now, she wasn't totally convinced she could trust them... but if she wanted to find Rarity and Pinkie, she could do a lot worse than finding allies, and here were two being handed to her on a platter.

Plus, it was a chance for her to impress them with her awesomeness. All in all, basically a no-brainer.

Rainbow Dash grinned. "When do we start?"