Nursing her bruised cheek, Dusk let out a long sigh of relief as the squad reformed. By now, she wanted nothing more than for this mission to be over. Is this what Luna wanted? She pondered. The pain in her face was nothing compared to the emotional hurt of rejection. What will happen if they split up me and my sisters? What if other Wonderbolts have the same attitude towards me?
Dusk shook her head. She and her sisters were practically joint at the hip. There was no way she would let herself be kept from them, regardless of what any asshole officer said. I guess this bigotry is why Princess Luna wanted us here. She sighed again. Her heart yearned to embrace her sisters in a hug and just let all her emotions loose. But she knew this wasn’t the time or place for it. For the sake of the ponies she dedicated her life to, she would complete this mission and earn her place as a Wonderbolt.
Following Fire Storm, the squad started to descend, high enough to survey the terrain for enemies without being seen clearly. It didn’t take long for Dusk to spot their target.
The Hive was a gigantic structure, dwarfing even the massive skyscrapers of Las Pegasus and Manehatten. Jagged spires jutted from cylindrical sections, all crafted from a single, earthen spiral. It would be a magnificent thing if it weren’t so terrible. But Dusk knew there was no time to float around and admire.
“Listen up, and listen good, everypony,” the Lieutenant stated, the hive drawing ever closer. “The time for action has come, so don’t screw this up. Stick to the formation and follow my lead for the first ascent!”
Without any further warning, Fire Storm rocketed upwards. Dusk pumped her wings furiously, pushing her body against the immense G-forces pressing down on her to ascending at a sharp angle, going from horizontal to near-vertical in the blink of an eye.
After what felt like an age—fighting against both gravity and her burning muscles to keep pace—Fire Storm crested over in a narrow arc. Using the energy generated from the climb, he pushed his muzzle forwards into a dive.
Fanning out her wings, huge stabbing pains shot through Dusk’s flight muscles. If she wasn’t careful, the force of the manoeuvre could rip her wings clean off. Yet Luna’s armour held steady, keeping everything in place. With a single, heavy flap, she flipped over into a reversing-vertical loop.
At the top of the arc, Dusk opened her saddlebags and grabbed a cluster of bombs. With the window of negative-G closing fast, she pulled in her wings and plunged earthward at terminal velocity – aligning her sights with the hive’s upper levels.
It was inevitable that her acrobatics wouldn’t go unnoticed. Still, this didn’t worry Dusk. She didn’t have the capacity to worry right now. Dropping at a speed she had never experienced before, her mind focused on timing her bomb drops. She had to be close enough to release with deadly accuracy, but far enough for her avoid crashing into the walls as well.
Drones buzzed frantically about the towers, flying at them in droves to intercept before they reached striking distance. But as the Lieutenant had predicted, the squad’s speed was far beyond the changelings’ reaction time. Despite the enemy’s considerable numbers, Dusk zoomed straight past them – the force of the shockwave sending her foes into a tail spin.
The spires drew closer by the second, their details magnifying as if she was looking upon them with a piece of glass. Dusk’s heart raced, her lungs straining to fuel her muscles with oxygen. But she pushed herself on, offering a silent prayer to Princess Luna that she would make it out in one piece.
At the last moment, Fire Storm kicked out his hind legs, slowing him just enough to unleash his wrath on the Changelings below.
The bombs scattered across the spire’s peak, exploding into bright balls of flame and blowing the structures open. Everything within the blast area was incinerated instantly.
Mirroring the lieutenant’s moves, Dusk unfolded her legs as gently as she could. Even the smallest of movements cut her speed dramatically. To her side her sisters lined up, dropping their explosives through the opening carved out by the lieutenant’s payload. In a series of simultaneous blasts, the spire’s tip collapsed in on the skittering changelings below.
Dusk briefly caught a glimpse at those inside; hundreds of drones scrambling to get away, the slower amongst them buried alive.
If these hit-and-run attacks remained consistent, it looked to Dusk like the mission would ultimately be a success. Pulling out of her dive, she briefly considered if she’d misjudged the lieutenant’s tactical prowess.
Those thoughts ended when she began her next ascent.
She gasped in shock at the sight to her left – or rather, the lack thereof. Half of her team was missing. Fire Storm was still on the move, but neither Mist Match nor Starry Sky were anywhere in sight.
There was worse to come.
The full width of Dusk’s vision became filled with the swarm. Armed to the teeth with spears, tridents, swords – if she could name it, the changelings had it. The way they licked their lips when they looked at her chilled down the bat pony’s spine.
“Fall back!” Dusk’s cries came too late. Fire Storm’s speed was greater than his reactions. It only took a handful of changelings from a swarm big enough to intercept him – immobilising the lieutenant with heavy chain nets. It mattered little if one or two missed; there were plenty more that made their mark. Enveloping Fire Storm’s limbs in the weave of heavy iron, his wings fractured in multiple places.
Immobilised, the changelings descended upon the arrogant solar Pegasus in complete silence – skewering him from every angle with their spears.
The lieutenant’s body went limp, dead in seconds.
Curling her body forward, Dusk narrowly avoided colliding with her sisters as she veered hard to the right.
The two-remaining Solar Pegusi were not so quick on the draw. Breaking formation in a mild panic, they flew straight into the Lunar Guard trio. Hooves collided with faces and wings, spiralling down in an uncontrollable spin, straight into the hive walls.
A second after impact, Dusk’s world went dark.
“Dusk? Dusk! Wake up, Dusk!”
“Will you quit with the incessant yelling already, Phantom?” Winter Flight groaned, rubbing her throbbing temple. Phantom had been violently shaking her unresponsive sister since the moment she awoke, getting no response. “If you scream any louder, you’ll end up waking the dead.”
“Don’t you bucking speak like that!” Phantom snapped, snarling like a mother wolf defending her cubs. “She is not dead! If she still has breath in her lungs, I’m gonna wake her!”
“That’s not how this works…” Winter grumbled, though she knew there was no talking sense into Phantom at a time like this. If it wasn’t for her head pounding like an ill-timed jackhammer outside of a Canterlot bedroom, perhaps she, too, would be screaming in frustration.
One loud cough and splutter later, Winter’s headache was still present, but she at least felt a smidge of tension dissipate from the knowledge that Dusk was waking up.
“Oh, thank Luna, you’re alive!” Phantom cried, pulling Dusk into a tight hug.
“Ugh, good… to see you… too, Phantom,” Dusk groaned, wincing with pain. “Just… not so hard, okay?”
“Oh, sorry,” Phantom said, blushing slightly as she released her sister. “Got a little carried away, I guess.”
“Well that’s the understatement of the century,” Winter quipped, rising to her hooves.
“Any sign of the other Wonderbolts?” Dusk asked.
“Are you kidding?” Phantom replied, indignantly. “We were lucky to escape the changelings with you in our hooves. Given what they did to Fire Storm…” she trailed off, shuddering at the image etched into her memory.
“Ugh, poor guy,” Dusk said with a sombre tone. “I guess that’s the risk we take with every mission. Wouldn’t wish an end like that on anypony.”
The trio sat in silence for some time, collectively processing the inevitability of their fate.
As the sun’s presence faded in lieu of the moon rise, Phantom broke the silence. “So…” she started, though immediately trailed off.
“Vampire…” Winter stated with an anxious grimace.
“Fruit Bats,” her sisters concluded.
“Good, none of us are changelings.”
“Well, duh,” Phantom groaned. “If we were, one of us would be crawling back to the hive by now.”
“I suspect that’s the point,” Dusk added, sitting up gently. “Our mission hasn’t failed just yet.”
“What are you babbling about, Dusk?” Phantom asked, a raised eyebrow leading into a rant face tensing more and more as she went along. “We were shot down for Luna’s sake! Our commanding officer is dead and the other solar Pegusi are MIA. Not only that, but we barely made a dent in the hive we were supposed to destroy! That’s the end of it! Finished! Game over!”
“Enough!” Winter snapped, getting right up into Phantom’s face. “Why, of all ponies, are you giving up so quickly? Have you forgotten everything we’ve been through in the Night Guards? How many times have we succeeded against so-called impossible odds?”
Phantom’s face dropped, her frustrated exterior melting away to reveal the vulnerable expression underneath. “I get what you’re saying, sis,” she began, avoiding eye contact. “But this is… different. We were supposed to work with the Wonderbolts and learn their ways. So, what happens when we do everything by the book? They die. We should’ve saved them. It was our duty.”
“Phantom, how many ponies does it take to form a team?” Dusk asked, her voice as calm as her expression.
Phantom blinked, tilting her head. “Well, at least two, obviously.”
“And when we gave Lieutenant Fire Storm our suggestions, what did he do?”
“Threw them back in our faces! How I wish I could’ve punched that smug mother-bucker in the face in before he died…”
“So, why beat yourself up for the failings of other ponies’ teamwork?”
Phantom went silent, eyes rolling from left to right as she processed Dusk’s words. “I…” she said, pausing to translate her thoughts into words. “I guess… I guess I just wanted to show them our stuff. Make them respect us by doing the impossible.”
“And you think we’d have gotten any credit?” Winter asked, her words as sharp as any blade.
“…Hardly,” Phantom admitted. “So, what do we do now, then?”
“What else?” Winter grinned as she backed down. “We complete the mission and rescue any captives. But this time? We do it our way.”
“You really think we can do this?” Phantom asked, her straight expression showing greater confidence than her weary voice implied. “I mean, we’ve taken out organised crime gangs and the like. But this is a changeling hive! No question they know we’re still alive, so if we’re gonna do this, we need a real plan.”
“If it’s a plan you want, a plan you’ll get!” Dusk stated, a wide grin growing across her face. “But first, we need more weapons. Proper weapons – so we can conserve the bombs we still have.”
“Thank Luna they didn’t explode on impact,” Winter interjected. “But yes, we’ll need better armaments for us. Phantom already has her claws.”
“Oh yeah! I knew these babies would serve us good.” Phantom pumped her hoof in the air, her fighting spirit renewed. “One thing, though: where are we gonna get more weapons?”
Dusk grinned. “Not from where, but from who. And to that question, I think we all know the answer.”