//------------------------------// // Ch. 4: In Love and War // Story: History Reimagined // by Pun System //------------------------------//     Rarity awoke in a dungeon cell—the same cell she’d “escaped” from earlier—with a dryness in the back of her throat. She sighed, pulled herself off the floor, and walked over to the bucket of water. To her surprise, it had been refilled in her absence.     Staring down at the still water revealed a messy-haired mare with black crystals on her horn. There wasn’t a hint of makeup anywhere on her face, and she looked more ready to cry than take a drink. But, she knew she needed to keep her strength up (for what, she hadn’t quite figured out). She leaned in, put her mouth to the water, and quenched her thirst. When she had drunk enough, she sat down and dipped her front hooves in, splashed water onto her face, and began to wash up.     After drying her face with her hair, she trudged over to the heavy wooden door. Sure enough, there was a crystal pony patrolling the hallway. “Sir,” she timidly asked through the door's small, barred window, “do you know how long it’s been since they put me down here?”     The soldier gave no reply. Instead, the crystal stallion in the cell across from her spoke up. “I do. It’s been about half a day.”     Rarity tried to think back to when she was last free. “So, is it nighttime then? Oh, I wish I had a window.”     “I have no idea,” he replied. “Hey, you’re not from around here are you? What’s that accent? Are you from the city?”     “I’m from—Ponyville.” she stuttered.     “Where’s that?”     Rarity paused to rein in her emotions. “It’s nowhere now. It’s—gone.”     “Did it get banished too?”     “No,” she said, resisting the urge to sob. “There’s nothing left of it. It's only a ruin now.” A warm, wet tear fell from Rarity’s eye.     The stallion hung his head. “I’m sorry. That sounds terrible.”     “That’s because it is,” Rarity said flatly as she rose to her hooves and walked over to the other side of the cell. She laid back down on the sorry old cot in the corner of the room and curled up to be alone with her thoughts.     Spitfire looked up from her clipboard and scanned the command deck of her airship. “Navigator, how are we doing?”     “Maintaining course and heading, ma’am.”     “Engineer?”     “Full speed ahead, ma’am.”     “Flight officer?”     “Nothing to report, ma’am.”     Spitfire furrowed her brow. “There’s got to be something for you all to report.”     “Respectfully, ma’am,” said the navigator, “you just checked in with us ten minutes ago.”     Spitfire wanted to lash out. Of course I’m up here again, she wanted to say. It’s better than being down in the hanger with you-know-who!     But she didn’t. She dropped her gaze and ruffled her feathers. “Probably just my impatience.”     “Ma’am?” the flight officer asked trepidly. “You’re not—nervous, are you? The airship’s nurse is more than qualifi—”     “I’m fine.” she said curtly. “Inform me if anything noteworthy happens.” She turned and began making her way to the door in the back of the room.     “Yes, ma’am.”     Spitfire opened the door and exited briskly, only slowing her pace once the door had fully closed. She strode past the officers’ quarters and the ladder to the uppermost deck without heeding either of them. She opened the door at the end of the corridor and entered a room populated with over a dozen unicorns. The windows in the back and sides of the room afforded the occupants a panoramic view from the rear of the ship.     “How are we doing?” Spitfire asked.     “We stand ready to raise the airship’s shields at your command,” replied a stallion with a gold bar on the shoulders of his uniform. Spitfire sighed. It was the answer she knew she would get even before she asked the question. She was running out of checks to run through.     “Very well. As you were,” she instructed.     Without another word, Spitfire exited the rear quarters of the ship and returned to the airship’s central ladder. She descended into the lowest of the ship’s three decks before heading to the rear—the ship’s hangar. With a sigh, she opened the door and entered.     Scattered among her pegasi were the original members of the Wonderbolts. These were easily distinguishable by the bars on their uniforms. Most of the rest wore unadorned blue-and-yellow combat flight suits. Spitfire soon singled out—No. Don't even think her name.—She singled out the only non-Wonderbolt pegasus aboard, and determined to stay away from that area of the room.     However, there was a unicorn seated next to that pony. Why isn’t she up with the other unicorns? she thought. And why is she out of uniform? As much as Spitfire disliked the pegasus sitting next to the unicorn, she disliked it even more when things were not done properly. So she resolved to approach the unicorn.     “Hey, you!” she called out as she approached. “What’s your name and rank? And why aren’t you with the other unicorns?”     “I’m—”     “This is our passenger,” stated the pegasus next to her.     “You’re Starlight Glimmer?” Spitfire asked with a hint of surprise, not even acknowledging the other mare who had spoken. “I was expecting a pegasus.”     “Spitfire, isn’t it?” she replied. She bit her lip a moment later. “Or is it just ma’am? Or ‘Captain Spitfire’?”     Spitfire opened her mouth to reply, but the mare beside Starlight rose abruptly from her seat and began hovering between them, flapping her sky blue wings in Spitfire's face. “You haven't met Spitfire, have you? Best not even to talk to her. Even the slightest deviation from anything by-the-book, and she loses her bucking mind!”     Spitfire reached out with a wing and gave the mare’s rainbow tail a good yank, effectively moving her out of the way. “Go run your mother-preening mouth someplace else,” she said through clenched teeth. She turned to Starlight. “I'm Spitfire, Captain of the Wonderbolts and Army Air Fleet Commander. For the duration of this operation, you’ll call me ‘Captain’ or ‘Ma’am.’”     Spitfire watched Starlight’s eyes dart off to the side. She turned and looked in the direction of her gaze only to see the mouthy pegasus hovering beside her while holding her front hooves behind her back and staring at the ceiling. Acting innocent. Spitfire frowned and returned her attention to Starlight. “I assume your friend here has already briefed you on your part in the mission?”     “Actually, she’s not really letting me do all that much to help,” she said with a pause. “Uh—ma’am!” she corrected.     “Typical,” Spitfire said. She thought she heard a noise from the pegasus beside her. Holding her head still, she subtly looked for something reflective, eventually settling her gaze on the goggles of the pony seated on the far side of Starlight. “If there’s one pony who thinks she knows better than me what the plan for the mission should be, it’s her. Did I tell you what she did last month? We were in the middle of—”     There. With her eyes focused on the reflective, tinted goggles, Spitfire saw what she was looking for. She whirled her head around to see the hovering pegasus mimicking her gestures, crossing her eyes, and wagging her tongue. Spitfire was livid. “Rainbow Dash!”     With a start, Rainbow dropped to the ground a few steps away. A moment later, she regained her composure. “What?” she asked defensively.     “What in Tartarus gave you the half-flanked idea that you’ve got the Celestia-given right to try and subvert my authority, on my airship, in front of my soldiers!?”     “I’ll order your darned troops wherever, however, and whenever the hay I bucking feel like it! Captain!” said the General.     “You’ve got all the military experience of an unpreened, half-feathered foal!”     “Look, Spitfire. Chill. You’re not helping your Celestia-darned reputation by blowing your head in front of all your horse-feathered troops.”     Spitfire stomped, snorted, and flared her wings up. “Alright! Everypony who’s not a half-feathered civilian on your hooves, now!” In unison, everypony except Starlight rose to their hooves. “Now sit your bucking flank down, Rainbow Dash!”     “For the duration of this mission, you will call me ‘General’ or ‘Ma’am,’” Rainbow said tauntingly.     Spitfire stepped forward and lowered her tone. “Get. The bucking Tartarus. Off! My! Airship!”     “No!”     “Get off!”     “You can't make me!”     “Now!”     “Never!”     “Or I’ll bucking throw you off myself!”     “Then bucking do it!”     For several tense moments, the two pegasi stared each other down. Nopony spoke. Nopony even breathed. Finally, Spitfire broke the silence. “Tell you what. When we make contact with the changelings, do us all a favor and fly straight in front of a mother-preening changeling sharpshooter. I don’t want to see your Celestia-darned flank ever again.”     Spitfire turned and walked out the door, being sure to kick-slam it shut on her way out.     Chrysalis walked among a complex of tents populated with changelings. Many of them gawked at the larva on her back. Some busied themselves with sparring matches. Others took the opportunity to scarf down their rations—transparent vials of a pink liquid.     As the Queen approached the large tent in the center of the camp, one of the posted guards noticed her and entered the tent. A moment later, he returned with a second changeling following him. The second changeling had red spines and tail, and purple eyes, wings, and back chitin. “My Queen!” he called. “I’ve already heard the news. Congratulations! You must be very proud!”     “Yes,” she said with a smile, “of course I am. How is the attack going?”     The changeling’s posture stiffened. “We’re making progress, your Highness, but it’s slow. Every time we launch a raid, they retreat to the Acropolis. We’ve taken dozens of prisoners, but they refuse to break.”     “You’re keeping the pressure on them?”     “Of course, your Highness.”     Chrysalis smiled. “You make me proud, Pharynx.”     “Thank you, my Queen,” he said with a bow.     “The siege is almost over. We will launch one more raid, just convincing enough to get them into their fortifications. When I make my move, call your forces away from the city. Understood?”     “Yes, my Queen!”     It was ten minutes after the officers’ cursing match before anypony dared talk above a whisper, and more than twice that length of time for the atmosphere of the crew to fully recover. It took similar amounts of time for the color to return to Starlight’s face and her body to fully recover.     “Hey, Rainbow?” Starlight finally ventured. “Is she—always like that?”     “I’m sorry you had to see all that,” Rainbow said. “We soldiers live around each other so much, we sometimes forget how different we are from civilians. But, that’s military life.”     “Does everypony have a mouth like her?”     “Pretty much.”     “Really?” Rainbow nodded. “I guess I could understand all the swearing, but wishing that another pony gets killed by the changelings…”     “Ok, that wasn’t normal.” Rainbow looked over at Starlight. Her answer seemed to provide Starlight some small measure of comfort to cling to. A moment later, Starlight raised her eyes. “I guess you could say we have our differences. We had a—a falling out.” "What happened?" Rainbow shook her head. "If I try to talk about it, I'll just get mad again. Especially after what just happened."     Starlight paused a moment. “Well, what about you? Are you always like that?”     Rainbow laid her ears against her head. “I don't know. I guess so.”     Starlight sighed. “I don't even recognize you.”     Rainbow looked away. “Ok. Now you're just making me uncomfortable.”     “Sorry.”     An awkward silence followed Starlight’s apology. After a few moments, Rainbow decided it would be better to break the silence than to let it continue to ominously hover over them. “So, you're from another world, right?” Starlight nodded. “And there's another pony who looks like me and has my name, but isn't me?”     “Right.”     “She doesn't think or act like me, either, huh?” Starlight shook her head.     “The Rainbow Dash I know is the Spirit of the Element of Loyalty, same as you. She's also a Wonderbolt.” Now it was Rainbow's turn to shake her head. “She's fun-loving and confident, and she loves a good prank. She's got a bit of an impulsive streak, though.”     “What would you say she's most afraid of?”     Starlight thought a moment before forming her reply. “I'd say she's probably most afraid of not living up to her potential. She—” Starlight paused a moment. When she began again, her speech seemed more deliberate. “She knows she'll be asked to do some things that are going to be hard, and she sometimes fears she won't get them done right.” Starlight sighed. “Maybe that's why we get along so well.”     Rainbow turned her head towards Starlight. For the first time, she found herself looking not into the eyes of a changeling, not into the eyes of a criminal or a convict, but into the eyes of a civilian uprooted and thrown into the front lines. She was worlds away from the safety of her own place, fighting for the freedom of a world she wouldn’t even get to live in. Suddenly, every instance when Rainbow had judged, accused, or insulted Starlight rushed to the forefront of her mind. Rainbow found that looking away from Starlight helped to repress these feelings.     “How well did you know the Rainbow Dash back home?”     “We were friends. We have been for several months. I have this self-levitation spell and we—we’d spend time flying together. She’d sometimes teach me to do advanced aerobatic tricks, or—invite me to one of her airshows, or just hang out, you know?”     Starlight sniffed, prompting Rainbow to look back at her. “Are you—crying?”     “It’s home!” Starlight said. “I guess I kind of miss it. Here I am in the back of an airship on my first mission and we’re about to land in some town I’ve never even heard of to help ponies I don’t even know and it’s all just… I don’t know…” Starlight trailed off before wiping an eye with the back of her hoof.     Rainbow Dash lowered her head. “I uh—I may not have meant all of those things I said to you back in Manehattan. I guess—what I'm trying to say is—I’m—sor—I’m sorr—ry.” Rainbow’s ears flattened reflexively as a chill coursed through her body. “I hope I don’t have to say that again.”     “No, I heard you. And it means a lot. Thank you.”     Rainbow sighed, and it felt like a built-up pressure from deep within her spirit escaped out of her chest as she did. It felt freeing. “There was one other thing though. About landing in Mareathon,” she said with a smile.     “What’s that?”     “You know we’re not actually going to land, right?” Starlight looked up at her quizzically. "Then—How—" “We’re going to jump.”     “What!?” Rainbow’s smile grew wider. “Oh, no. No no nononono!”     “See now why Spitfire thought our passenger was going to be a pegasus? Don’t worry. You said you’ve got that levitation spell, right? Looks like you’re gonna get to use it!”     Before Starlight could answer, Spitfire’s voice came over the intercom. “Command deck to hanger. We are in position. Prepare to make the jump.”     “Copy that, command deck,” replied a technician at the side of the room closest to the bow. “Hanger out.”     “Ask Spitfire if she’s coming down one last time,” Rainbow called. The technician relayed Rainbow’s request, and Spitfire’s reply came a moment later.     “No way in Tartarus, Rainbow Dash.”     Rainbow sighed and shook her head at the speaker before rising from her seat. “Alright everypony, here’s the plan. We’ll hit the ground outside the city and advance inward from there. If you see Green Changelings, engage them on sight. But remember, this city has been repeatedly attacked by them, and they’ll probably be suspicious of us. Under no circumstances should you engage the locals. If they engage first, drop your weapons and take cover. Once we make diplomatic contact, we can set up a location to distribute the changeling paint. With the paint in allied hooves, we’ll have a far easier time fighting against Chrysalis.     “The only thing left to do now is make jump! Strap yourselves in!”     Rainbow returned to the seat next to Starlight. She fastened herself in, then looked over at Starlight. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw her fumbling with her harness. “No, that strap goes across your chest. Here, pull your foreleg through—There you go. Now make sure it’s as tight as you can get it. Yeah, like that. Looks good!” Starlight grit her teeth and held onto the harness with both front hooves. When the alarm started up and the red lights started flashing, Starlight gasped and shrank back into her seat.     “Relax, Starlight.” Starlight, however, was not relaxing. Her breathing increased, her grip tightened, and she squirmed in her seat. Rainbow’s smile disappeared. “No, seriously. Relax. I need you focused when we make the jump.”     Starlight nodded and made a concentrated effort to control her breathing. The hanger door opened and a rush of air whipped through the cabin. When the red light switched to green, the first few pegasi released their harnesses and jumped out. Rainbow released her harness early to make sure Starlight could get out of hers. Sure enough, she was having trouble. She felt around for the release ring, locating it only with a good bit of effort. She had to pull twice, only releasing herself on the second try. She stood upright and made her way towards the door. One look down at the cloudtops, and she backed away from the edge. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, breathing swiftly. Rainbow approached and put her wing over Starlight’s back, exerting a slight amount of forward pressure. Starlight looked over at Rainbow and took a step forward. With a single forceful push, Rainbow shoved Starlight out the door, jumping after her herself.     With her wings held straight up behind her like rudders, Rainbow monitored Starlight below her. For a moment, Starlight disappeared into the clouds that were providing cover for the airship. Rainbow angled her wings and extended one front leg. Her barrel transitioned from horizontal to vertical, and with her right front hoof, she punched a hole in the cloud. Immediately afterwards, she resumed her controlled descent.     As the ground approached, Rainbow watched Starlight more closely. If she failed to pull up in time, Rainbow was going to have to drop her altitude and grab her. To her surprise, Starlight activated her spell about the same time Rainbow would have begun pulling out of her dive. Upon final approach, Starlight maneuvered towards a relatively flat meadow. Not bad.     Landing was both the hardest part of the dive, and the part where Rainbow could do the least to help Starlight if something went wrong. She held her breath and observed Starlight’s form. She first locked her knees. Then, she leaned backwards. When she touched down, she led in with her hind legs, then dropped to all fours. As Rainbow repeated her landing technique, Starlight skidded to a halt. Rainbow overshot her, finishing a few strides away from where Starlight had.     “Oh, my gosh,” Starlight moaned as she fell to her knees. “I hope I never have to do that again.”     “You did great, especially for a non-pegasus. That other Rainbow Dash must have taught you how to perform a high-speed landing.”     “Yeah, but—you pushed me!”     Rainbow shrugged. “It’s how all pegasi learn to fly. Now c’mon. Let’s get to the side of the field before the others come in to land.”     “Hurry! Get inside!” The soldier had to shout in order to be heard over the Changeling Alert System bells and the panicked cries of the townsponies. Winter Wind followed the herd of ponies flowing through the gate into the Acropolis. Beside her, she could make out the forms of Gumdrop Holiday, Limelight, and Double Dare all galloping the same direction.     “Has anypony seen Storm Patrol?” asked Double Dare.     “He’s a soldier,” Limelight replied. “He’s rather busy at the moment, I’m sure.” Limelight’s tone had changed by the time she spoke up a moment later. “Why? Were you wondering if he’s safe?”     “Yes. I mean no! I mean, I’m sure he is. Right?”     “Eeee! I know who Double Dare’s crush is!” Gumdrop Holiday said in a sing-song voice.     “Cut it out, will ya?”     “There’s nothing wrong with having feelings for somepony else, Double Dear,” Limelight teased.     “I said, stop bringing it—What did you call me?”     The mares slowed their pace as they got in line for their designated changeling shelter building. “If Double Dare doesn’t want to talk about her feelings,” Winter Wind began, “I don’t think we should make her.”     “Thanks for the support, Winter, but I don’t have feelings to talk about!”     “Then I guess we won’t be talking about them,” Winter replied.     At the door to the shelter, the posted guards appeared to be whispering something in each pony’s ear. Each pony in response whispered something back to the guard before being admitted into the shelter. By now, it was standard protocol for the guards to ask a pre-selected security question so as to weed out changelings. Winter Wind was first of her friends to approach the guards.     The guard lowered his spear in front of her and leaned his head in close to hers. “Most famous leader of the pegasus tribe."     “Commander Hurricane,” she whispered back.     The guard raised his spear and Winter entered the shelter. She had hardly gotten across the threshold before she heard trumpets behind her. She turned to see a pinkish figure descending into the courtyard, flanked by what looked like a pair of the town’s soldiers. “What’s going on?” she asked. “I can’t see who it is.”     “I can’t believe what I’m seeing, Winter,” Limelight said.     “It’s Princess Cadance! And a filly!” announced Double Dare.     “Oh no!” Gumdrop cried. “I left all my confections at home!” Even with her poor vision, Winter Wind could see her friends turn and stare at Gumdrop. “What? Princesses have a sweet tooth too. Remember that time the paper published that article on Princess Celestia?”     “Attention, ponies of Mareathon,” Cadance proclaimed. “I have escaped from Chrysalis's dungeons at last! We can put an end to your changeling troubles once and for all, but only if we work together.” The ponies around Winter Wind began to come out of their shelter and approach the Princess.     “What would you have us do, Princess?” asked Governor Gale. Winter Wind turned her head and saw the Governor with one pony on either side of her. Probably, they were soldiers.     Princess Cadance lit her horn and raised a hot pink object which Winter Wind couldn’t quite make out. “Behold, my firstborn daughter, Princess Skyla!” The crowd elicited ooo’s and ah’s at the sight of their new princess.     “Isn’t she so adorable!” shouted Gumdrop Holiday.     “Yawn. Seen one cute baby, seen ‘em all,” said Double Dare.     “But this one’s an alicorn!” objected Limelight.     “I wish I could see her.”     “You’re not missing much, Winter,” Double Dare comforted. “She’s kinda an eyesore.”     “Now that you mention it, I see your point,” agreed Limelight. “I mean, really? Periwinkle and fuchsia? Poor thing got all the bad hair and coat genes.”     “As I can wield love magic,” Princess Cadance continued, “so too can my daughter. You must lend us all your love if we are to save this city from the changelings.”     “Guess you’ll have to get rid of your feelings for Storm Patrol,” Gumdrop said to Double Dare.     “Quit it!” she replied.     “Double Dare is blushing! Double Dare is blushing!” sang Gumdrop.     “I—I am not!” she said, raising a hoof to her face.     The courtyard was getting quite full now as more ponies emerged from the buildings. “You may begin transferring your love to the two of us!” Cadance announced. Ponies throughout the courtyard bowed as pink energy flowed from most every pony’s chest towards the Princesses. “Keep it up! I can feel—the love—building! There’s—” Cadance hissed loudly and her voice dropped nearly an octave. “There’s just so much!”     The town collectively gasped. “Who are you?” shouted Governor Gale.     “Wha—No! I—”     “Get her!” At the governor’s orders, her soldiers galloped towards the Princess. Cadance shot green flames at them before bathing herself in the same green flames. The villagers watched in horror as their princess revealed herself to be none other than Queen Chrysalis, and Princess Skyla morphed into a tiny changeling larva.     The Governor gave a shout as she flew straight and low towards Chrysalis, her hoof ready for a punch. Chrysalis shielded herself, flaring the shield out just as Gale approached. The impact threw Gale to the ground along with two nearby soldiers. Chrysalis strode towards Gale before stomping on her hind leg with one of her forelegs. Gale cried out in pain as she tried to sit up. Chrysalis lowered her gnarled horn and made a stabbing motion, procuring a grunt from Governor Gale. For once, Winter Wind was glad to have such impaired eyesight.     “Now, if you will not give me your love, then I will take it by force!” she said as she pulled her head back. The streams of magic renewed again, this time accompanied with sounds of ponies attempting to resist. She saw several unicorns try to shield themselves, some with more success than others. The ponies’ eyes all seemed to be the same shade of green.     “Limelight, can you hear me?” Double Dare shouted. “She’s using a psychological attack! Use the Trance to get these ponies out of it! If anypony here can do something to counter her, it’d be you!”     Limelight didn’t respond.     “Limelight? Limelight!” Double Dare grunted. “She’s getting stronger! My shield—can’t take—much more!—I’m losing it!” Winter gasped as she saw Dare's shield power down, and a stream of green energy began to flow from Double Dare’s chest. Nopony around her said a word.     “C—can anypony hear me?” she asked, though she spoke too quietly to be heard. “Is there anypony left?” she asked, slightly louder this time. “Oh, I wish I could see what was going on,” she lamented. Winter gasped and began to beam. “I can’t see!” she exclaimed. She stepped in front of her friends. “Double Dare, Gumdrop, Limelight! Don’t look at her,” she said, spreading her wings to block their view. Within moments, her friends began to come to. “Look away!” she cried.     Double Dare shook her head before shielding the four of them. “Ugh. I knew Skyla was a stupid name. How'd we fall for that?”     “Limelight! Do the Trance!” Gumdrop said.     Chrysalis let out a bellowing, villainous laugh. “I think she's on to us,” Double Dare said.     “I almost want to let you live,” Chrysalis said condescendingly. “That way you'll be able to regret your mistake!”     Double Dare fired a beam of magic, and it looked for a moment as though Chrysalis was just going to let it hit her. Suddenly, a turquoise partial shield appeared in front of the pair. “Woah! Cool! The changeling grub is doing that!” shouted Gumdrop.     “It’s certainly something, but I don’t think ‘cool’ describes how I feel about this,” Limelight said.     “No fair! It's just a baby!” shouted Double Dare.     “As you can see, even my infant daughter is more powerful than you. How powerful?” she asked before laughing again. “Let's find out!”     Chrysalis began pooling her love magic in a ball above her. “What are we gonna do?” asked Gumdrop Holiday.     “Let me try my Trance. If I can cut off these ponies from Chrysalis’s mind control—”     “It’s no use. She already has almost all the town’s love. The only reason I’m able to hold up this shield is because she doesn’t care about the four of us anymore.”     “We could run,” offered Winter Wind.     “We’d be fried the instant I lowered my shield,” said Double Dare.     “Please tell me you’re not going to try to whether the storm,” said Limelight.     Chrysalis levitated her daughter into the middle of the giant ball of energy. Despite being several times smaller than it, the grub absorbed every bit of it.     “Looks like we’ve run out of options.”     “I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Chrysalis agreed. “Time to watch your world burn!”     Double Dare grunted, putting more power into her shield. Chrysalis lowered her larva to eye level and smiled gently before nuzzling and kissing it on the forehead. The grub giggled, then squealed with delight as she began to radiate an intense love magic that consumed the ponies outside the shield right where they stood. The outpouring of magic became blinding within just a couple seconds. If the sun itself had been as close as Chrysalis, it could not have been brighter. Double Dare grunted and strained as her hooves sank into the ground. Winter Wind felt herself being pulled into an embrace, and soon found herself pressed against Limelight and Gumdrop.     Double Dare opened her eyes, revealing her shrunken pupils. She shouted in agony as a trickle of blood began to flow from her nostrils. Her horn began to glow red with heat, then white. Not her magic aura, but the horn itself. A faint column of smoke began to rise from her horn. Double Dare raised a hoof, shut one eye, gnashed her teeth, and contorted her body all in the name of simply staying alive. “Do you think she’ll be ok?” Winter whispered.     Limelight spoke just above a whisper. “We have to have faith that our friend is up to—”     Without warning, Double Dare’s horn shattered. The world instantly became singularly white and blinding. The heat that followed was the most excruciating pain Winter had ever felt. It came so fast, she couldn’t even scream.     “Alright, everypony stay with your squad,” Rainbow Dash instructed. The pegasi had all applied fresh paint and were ready to enter the town.     Rainbow had her doubts about this place. She tried pushing these doubts to the back of her mind, but they kept creeping back, quickly strengthening into an instinct, then a feeling, then a full-fledged sense of danger. Yet in this sense, there was something familiar. It reminded Rainbow Dash of Bon Bon.     At first, Rainbow failed to make any meaningful connection. Then at last, it dawned on her. Bon Bon is a changeling. That sense—it’s love magic. Rainbow glanced among the Wonderbolts. But I just watched them put fresh paint on. They’re not changelings. Rainbow Dash turned her head towards the city. While she was in the process of turning her head, a blinding flash of light emanated from the city. Rainbow shielded her vision with a wing. She heard the ‘Bolts begin to chatter. "What in Tartarus—" "Oh, Celestia... I can't see a darned thing!" "Nopony look at it! Here, lean on me." A few seconds later, the light still hurt to look at, but Rainbow could make out a giant turquoise mushroom cloud rising over the city.     “Rainbow Dash, what are your orders?” asked Fleetfoot, who was be the closest officer to her.     Rainbow Dash hesitated a moment before answering. Her coat felt warm on the side of the explosion.     “I could put a shield around us,” Starlight suggested.     “We have no idea how far that blast is going to go, and we don’t know what it’ll be like when it hits us.” Rainbow was growing uncomfortably warm underneath her gear and armor. The ground beneath her subtly trembled.     “Do you feel that, ma’am?” asked one of the newer recruits. “There’s a pressure wave inbound.”     The stallion was right. Rainbow’s days as Ponyville's weather manager taught her to recognize subtle differences in barometric pressure.     “Let me shield us,” Starlight requested. “Trust me, Rainbow. My safety is on the line here too.”     Time was running out. Rainbow had to make a choice. “Close ranks around Starlight Glimmer.”     The pegasi quickly did as ordered. As the shield went up, Rainbow took her place at Starlight’s side.     Starlight's horn blazed with ethereal energy as a large cyan dome formed around the Wonderbolts. With a concentrated effort, a second slightly larger aura formed around the first, and a second shield formed around the dome above them. As the heat intensified, nearby shrubs, grass, and trees withered before their eyes. As the color seeped away, some of them began to smolder, then to burn. Once started, the flames spread quickly. Two more auras brought with them two more shields. The shockwave arrived just as the fourth shield finished forming, shattering it before it could reach full strength.     The intensity of the heat began to evaporate large segments of the outermost shield. Starlight dropped her head slightly as her hooves sank into the grassy terrain. The third shield held for a bit longer before it too showed signs of nearing its limits. Starlight threw her head high and fired a beam of magic at the shields. A pulse of energy descended along the shield, starting from the apex. With the shield strength renewed, Starlight sighed and turned her head towards Rainbow Dash. “I think the worst of the heat has passed over us.”     “Clear Skies, Open Skies,” Rainbow called, “once the shield goes down, you’ll conduct a recon sweep to see what the damage is to the city. Everypony else, prepare to mobilize.”     “Yes, ma’am.”     Starlight paced back and forth, awaiting the recon team’s report. They’d been gone near an hour. Orders had already come back from Spitfire that they were to evacuate at once. Surprisingly, Rainbow’s reaction had been a simple nod for Spitfire’s messenger. Already, half their force had made the ascent.     Starlight kept about the bottom five meters of the shield dome all around them to protect them from the flames. She had raised another three meters on the windward side to protect against sparks blown by the crosswind.     At long last, the recon team returned. Once they landed, Starlight intercepted them on their way to Rainbow Dash. “What’s it like out there?” Starlight asked Open Skies.     Open Skies looked at her gravely. “Almost all the buildings are destroyed,” he reported. “The ones that weren’t were all on fire. The entire town is surrounded by one giant firestorm.”     Starlight hung her head. “I can’t believe it.”     “Everypony get ready to head back up!” Rainbow called from behind her.     “Hey, glad you were here,” Open remarked to Starlight, “or that would have been us, too.”     “Yeah,” Starlight muttered. She raised her head and looked for Rainbow Dash. She turned her head toward Starlight as Clear Skies flew away. For a moment, Starlight and Rainbow just stood there, staring from a distance. Slowly and silently, Starlight began approaching, their eyes fixed on one another. She stopped once she was within comfortable speaking distance.     Starlight felt like she was about to cry. A town she was tasked with protecting—a whole town—had been completely destroyed. A thousand questions rushed through her mind; concerns weighed on her mind as heavily as all of Equestria would have weighed on her body. What do I even ask first? she wondered.     “She—she told me I had to fix this world,” Starlight lamented. “I failed! The whole town is completely gone!” Starlight closed her eyes and wiped her tears away with the back of her hoof. “What are we going to do? How do we fight something like that!” she asked as she felt the dam break. She heard Rainbow’s hoofsteps approaching her.     Rainbow put a hoof on her shoulder. “You can’t let it get to you.”     “How?” Starlight blurted. “An entire town just ceased to exist! Not just the buildings, but everypony in them!” “You can’t expect to fix everything, Starlight,” Rainbow said. “You have to keep your goals realistic. That feeling you have right now? Don’t let go of it. Let it drive you. Let it motivate you to be better than that. Casualties are an extremely unfortunate reality of war. I promised over Fluttershy’s grave I’d never let another innocent pony die. And, well, I’d be lying if I said I’ve kept that promise. Protecting my friends’ lives almost cost me my own,” she said, turning so Starlight could see her prosthesis.     Starlight tentatively raised her hoof again, and Rainbow put her foreleg over Starlight’s withers. Starlight returned the gesture by wrapping her forelegs around Rainbow’s neck. “Starlight, I’m not hugging you. I’m picking you up,” Rainbow clarified. “Be sure to hold on tight.” Starlight felt herself rise off the ground. She and Rainbow were the last two to depart. Starlight watched the ground below as her shield spell un-cast, leaving a single green circle among the scorched countryside.     As they rose higher, she turned her head to see the city. There were no distinguishable buildings; only a single pillar of black smoke blown off to one side by the wind. The entire existence of several hundred ponies erased from the face of Equestria more thoroughly than any display of destruction she had yet seen. Plans unfulfilled, dreams unrealized, hopes crushed, lives unlived—The sight was enough to move her to tears as she hugged Rainbow Dash tighter.     Starlight swore she would never let herself forget that image.