//------------------------------// // Chapter I: Free No Longer // Story: Rainbow Dash: Prisoner of War // by The Mountaineer Brony //------------------------------// Scootaloo followed Rainbow Dash as she zipped back and forth throughout her humble abode in the clouds, trying to carry on a conversation as she gathered countless things into her saddlebags. "But you could be gone for a long time... a-and what if you get hurt? I don't want you to get hurt, Rainbow Dash..." "Scootaloo, listen. I want to stay here as much as you want me to, but I just can't. When the Wonderbolts are needed to protect Equestria, I'm obligated to as well. You never got worried when I was off with Twilight and the others saving Equestria, did you?" Scootaloo hesitated in her response; she wanted to sound tough, but she already knew that she could level with Rainbow Dash how she felt. "Well... yeah, kinda. I mean, I believe in you, and I believe you can figure a way out of any mess, but... I can't say I'm never worried, Rainbow Dash. There was the time Cozy Glow trapped you all in Tartarus, the time the Storm King invaded and threw me and everypony else in cages, that time you guys got captured by Tirek, or Discord, or Chrysalis, or..." Rainbow stuffed a hoof into Scoots' minute muzzle. "I get it, kid." She tested her flight goggles to make sure they still fit, before taking them off and placing them and her bags on the couch. Sitting down, she patted the empty cushion next to her with a hoof, and the pint-sized Pegasus hopped up next to her. "Well, if I came out of all those other scrapes just fine, who's to say I won't come back home again this time?" "This time is different, Rainbow Dash..." Scootaloo averted her eyes to the floor. "I... I saw what they did to those changelings." Rainbow's face washed with concern. She went to put her forehooves around Scootaloo. "Aw now, Scoots, I--" "I don't want them to kill you!" She buried her face in Rainbow's fluffy chest. "You're my only sister... you're my family..." The two put their hooves around each other and closed their eyes, Rainbow's rapid, daredevil heartbeat pounding in Scootaloo's ear. Rainbow ran a hoof through her sister's messy purple mane and sighed. "Scootaloo, I... I know this is dangerous, but... you're just gonna have to trust me. You're just gonna have to have faith that I'll get home to you safe. Faith in me, faith in my commanders, faith in... well, whoever's up there... it doesn't matter who." She pulled back and locked eyes with the filly. "If you can show me a little bit of that faith, mixed with that Scootaloo-brand toughness, then I swear to Celestia herself that I'll come home once this is all over and give you a huge hug. Okay?" Scootaloo managed a smile and a quiet "Okay." Rainbow Dash wiped a tear from the filly's eye and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Love you, squirt." "I love you, too." It had been a little over a month since Rainbow had shipped out. She, along with Spitfire and the rest of her squadron, as well as a few others from across the nation, were stationed at a forward operating base somewhere in northern Equestria. It was summer, and while it didn't get too hot at the northern latitudes, the mosquitoes were just about everywhere. Rainbow and the other Wonderbolts would often complain about mosquitoes "being the only bugs they got to squash", but internally, they were almost glad not to have to do anything. By this point in the war, there had been sporadic fighting amongst the warring factions, mostly between the two changeling clans; Spitfire, who occasionally attended meetings between much higher-ranking military officials and the princesses themselves, was glad that Equestrian forces hadn't been very necessary, though she feared that they may become so soon. Strategic intelligence pointed towards a larger mass of changelings than what Chrysalis had brought to bear so far, though their location was as-of-yet unknown. As Spitfire sat behind her desk in her makeshift office of the base, a thin, wiry mare, one of the newer recruits from outside her own squadron, came scurrying in. She saluted and took a moment to catch her breath. "Ma'am," the lanky mare began "I bring a report from the generals' latest meeting with Celestia and Thorax!" Spitfire's face brightened; though, as a field officer, she often couldn't make (and more often, wasn't invited to) every meeting, she could always count on getting a courier after the fact. She was excited; she knew from her sources in higher command that this particular meeting would yield responses to Celestia's correspondence asking other leaders to join in the conflict against Chrysalis. "Good!" Spitfire said, casually propping her hindlegs up on her desk. "Who all can we expect to see joining us?" "Well, of course, Shining Armor was there, and said that he'll be sending a few thousand fresh reinforcements from the Crystal Empire to strengthen the western and southern sectors. As for new allies, King Aspen pledged to contribute 2,000 of his elite stags to guard key points of interest, including Canterlot, Ponyville, and the changeling capital; the kirin don't have a military per se, but Rain Shine made a public declaration of support, and will supplement our regular supply shipments with her own, in addition to contributing a council of kirin mages to help train Thorax's fresh troops in more advanced spells. The breezies… can't... really... do much, but they seem to believe in us anyway, and Queen Novo of the hippogriffs is deploying her finest warriors across our nation by the thousands. Expect to see a contingent stationed at this operating base as well." "Are the dragons joining in this fight?" Spitfire sat back up and eagerly clopped her forehooves down on the desk, leaning forward. "Erm, well... Princess Ember is having trouble corralling her subjects into anything resembling an organized military... dragons are just too fiercely independent. So while we may have the support of the Dragonlord herself, I fear that her nation may not back us." Spitfire sighed and looked down at her desk for a moment. "Well, what can you do?" She looked back up, managing to smile and act like she wasn't annoyed. She put her forehooves under her chin expectantly, her elbows on the desk. "When can I expect our hippogriff reinforcements?" "Um..." The Pegasus mare glanced down the hallway to a great ruckus coming from outside. "Now." Outside, a great deal of talking could be heard, accompanied by thunderous wingbeats and footfalls, as no less than 300 hippogriff warriors made themselves at home, bolstering the already considerable Pegasi garrison of 700, a mixture of Wonderbolts and Royal Guards. Spitfire stepped outside with the messenger mare, both equally surprised at the sudden arrival of reinforcements. Before Spitfire could gather her thoughts to speak, the hippogriff general Seaspray approached her. "Ah, and you must be Sergeant Spitfire!" the tall, regal hybrid greeted her jovially. "I've heard much about you from Princess Celestia; it's so nice to finally meet you." "It's captain, actually." said Spitfire, pointing to her officer's insignia. "And it's nice to meet one of Queen Novo's finest." "Hm." Seaspray nodded succinctly, coming off a little flippant. "I'm quite eager to set up shop here, what with this being the primary protection against invasion from the north--until you reach the Crystal Empire, that is, but that's a bit too far north--but Queen Novo was quite hopeful that--" "Wait a minute..." Spitfire cut off the eager hippogriff, stepping into his path as he began to walk away. "You didn't think you were just going to come in here and take over my operation, were you?" He may have outranked her, but this was still an Equestrian camp. "Oh-ho-ho, no, of course not!" Seaspray gave an awkward laugh in response. "How silly would I look blatantly ignoring the values of friendship Equestria holds so dear? I was hoping we could work together!" He sat back on his haunches, drumming his talons together. "Good." Spitfire replied. "In that case, have a hat." The fiery Pegasus produced a Wonderbolt-branded ballcap seemingly from nowhere and plonked it down on the general's head. She proceeded to flutter away lightly on her wings; it was approaching eventide, and she was curious what the mess hall had for dinner. The sun stayed out long after dinnertime had passed. Rainbow Dash, along with several of her fellow Wonderbolts, were sitting around a large bonfire in the courtyard of the camp, getting to know their hippogriff neighbors. "Wow, I wish we hippogriffs had uniforms like that." A young stallion named Ocean Wake remarked. "They're so sleek and aerodynamic, unlike these feathers." Rainbow Dash inspected her own form-fitting attire. Though she wouldn't have been caught dead saying it out loud, she liked how it made her look, and had spent long hours posing in the mirror, inspecting her accentuated curves. "Yeah, I guess they are pretty cool." Without warning, Spitfire poked her head into the circle of conversationalists, her own orangish mane indistinguishable from the fire before them. "Dash! We need somepony to do a perimeter sweep five miles out before we hit the hay. You up for the job?" The cyan mare hopped down from the log she sat upon and saluted. "Yes ma'am!" "Good. Bring a friend, there's safety in numbers." Rainbow turned to Ocean Wake. "Do you wanna come along? We can keep talking." "Sure." The hippogriff hopped down as well, and they both lowered their flight goggles to their eyes. The two aerial aces of allied nations took to the sky, the pink sunset lighting their way from behind. It had been about an hour since the Pegasus mare and hippogriff stallion had started their patrol. The sky was perfect for flight that evening, if a bit chilly, and they were making better time than expected, already having completed a quarter of their circular sweep. The two of them continued their chatting and laughter as if they had still been at the campfire, occasionally challenging each other to aeronautic feats. Rainbow Dash was in the middle of telling her companion a particularly funny story about her friends when things went wrong. "So Scootaloo tries to bring Pinkie the bag of flour, but it just busts open onto her head! And then when I come back in and ask what happened, Scootaloo says..." Rainbow glanced back at Ocean Wake; he'd stopped flying, and was hovering, awestruck, in one place. Rainbow made her way back towards him, poking him in the shoulder. "Uh, Ocean Wake? You okay?" It didn't take long for Rainbow to follow his line of sight; her eyes grew large in equal parts surprise and shock. On the ground below them stood three black changelings, who were staring up at them, equally surprised. In their magical aura, they held bows with nocked arrows. Rainbow quickly snapped to and gave Ocean Wake a shove; they both began flying rapidly back the way they came. "Quick! Shoot them!" cried one of the changelings on the ground. The other two, heeding the party leader, drew back their bows and fired at their enemy. The arrows whiffed hopelessly through Rainbow's aerial wake. As the two fliers beat their wings for all they were worth, they passed over a patch of coniferous forest; gazing up ahead, as the visibility was quite clear, Rainbow Dash noticed two birds sitting in the top of a spruce that were eyeing them curiously as they approached. Before she could warn Ocean Wake, the birds leapt into the air, enveloped in green fire. They were changelings. Ocean Wake performed a hairpin turn on the spot, reversing direction and avoiding the strike of a changeling's hoof. The attack just managed to remove some loose plumage from his wing, and the royal blue feathers slowly plummeted to the forest below. With Rainbow now in the lead, the Wonderbolt and her companion launched into high gear, quickly leaving their treetop pursuers behind, though they were now headed back towards the enemy archers. Coming back into range, the three bow-equipped changelings on the ground fired again at their quarry. Their shots missed... ...at least, most of them did. "I'll lead them away! You circle back to camp and... Ocean?" Rainbow jerked her head back to look over her shoulder upon hearing a strange noise come from her friend. Instead of seeing him flying at her side, she instead witnessed his limp form plummet like a stone, a wooden shaft sticking from his chest. "OCEAN!" Rainbow cried with terror. She swung with her momentum into a wide turn, hoping to circle down and catch her falling comrade, but instead, she was met with a searing pain in her right wing. The changeling scout leader chuckled as a flash of pain crossed the mare's face. His arrow had grazed her. Rainbow managed a glance at her right wing as she dove uncontrollably towards terra firma. There was a deep gash across the elbow joint, and a fine stream of red fluid trailed into the air behind her like an afterglow. She was too preoccupied by that particular pain to prepare herself for the pain which was to follow. Rainbow Dash plowed into the earth, tearing up sod as she bounced and rolled along the ground in front of the changelings who'd shot her down. Stray feathers flew, accompanied by droplets of blood and the odd patch of skin or uniform. Sprawled out in a heap after eating so much dirt, Rainbow somehow found the strength to rise to her knees. She pushed her goggles up onto her forehead as her vision tried to clear itself. She could just make out the crumpled body of Ocean Wake before her. The amount of blood leaking from his wound was grievous; they must've shot him right through the heart, she thought. Rainbow, though luckier with her arrow wound, didn't have much time to think before a powerful blow came to the back of her head, knocking her almost to the ground again. Her vision blurred as she glanced up at the young hippogriff one last time. The blow came again, and she passed out cold. The leader of the changeling scouting party cast down the heavy stone he'd used to bash the Pegasus' skull. He made sure she was still alive; the colonel would be upset if he didn't get someone alive to interrogate. One of the other changelings set down his bow and retreated to a nearby stand of brush, which concealed a small wooden cart. The two changelings that had emerged from the trees arrived about that time as well, and one of them went to help retrieve the cart. "Get the medical supplies while you're over there!" barked the leader. "If this one dies, I lose my bonus, and I take it out of your hide!" "What about this one, boss? What do we do with him?" The other changeling archer nudged the corpse of Ocean Wake. "Eh, just leave the body. Ain't like he coulda told us nothin' if he were alive. The hippogriffs don't know jack-shit about this war, they only just did enter it. Make sure you take your arrows, though; maybe whoever finds him will think it was somethin' else got him... nice shot by the way, rookie." The changeling archer nodded in thanks as he wrenched his arrow from Ocean Wake's chest cavity, letting loose another red flood. Meanwhile, the two other changelings had hitched themselves to the cart and brought it out of the brush. The squad leader bandaged the mare with some basic first aid and, with the help of his squadmates, loaded and locked her into a metal cage in the cart. "Man, I bet this one's full o' love." One changeling remarked. "I can't wait to get my hooves on her..." "Like hell you will!" Snapped the scout leader. "If you try to drain her now, she could die! You just wait til' we get back to camp; the colonel will be so pleased, I betcha he'll let us drain any prisoner we choose." "Eh, fine by me." The rebuked changeling replied, reclining in the back of the cart. "I can just watch her sleep for now." The archer changeling squirmed. "You're weird, dude." With marching orders issued, the two changelings hooked to the cart magically metamorphosed into oxen, and they began plodding back towards their camp. It was much later when Rainbow came to inside her cage. The last vestiges of sunlight had faded from the sky, and storm clouds now gathered overhead to blot out the rising moon. She was initially curious as to why her surroundings were different when she realized she was moving. Shortly thereafter, her sense began putting the situation together: her body ached all over, her uniform had tears in it, and she was covered in bandages. Her right wing still throbbed with pain, and she could feel cold metal all around her. Then she heard gates opening. Then she saw torchlit watch towers. And changelings. Lots of changelings. It was then she realized she was a prisoner of war. Rainbow could vaguely recall learning what to do in these types of situations in the classroom portion of Wonderbolt Academy, but frankly, she'd probably slept through it. It wasn't her fault that Spitfire had such a good "story time" voice. Even now, Rainbow felt as though she might pass out again when the door to her cage was unlocked and she was dragged out into the world. The ground beneath her hooves was hard, grassless, and cold, packed down by hundreds of hooves over time. The changeling guards holding her at sword-point didn't seem too happy to see her, especially this late at night. She was escorted to a small room adjacent to a long brick building, which she gathered to be a row of prison cells. They took tally of when she'd been captured, by whom, and the circumstances of her capture. They took her goggles from her, the only item she'd been carrying, and, failing to deduce how to remove the skin-tight fabric from her normally, proceeded to cut her out of her uniform. Rainbow was somewhat embarrassed by this; even though she, like most ponies, was accustomed to going around in the buff near-constantly, having these gruff, vicious changelings peel away her clothing with their blades, teeth, and prying eyes felt invasive and perverse. After stripping her and applying fresh bandages to her wounds, they put her in a grey prison uniform, Number 3307. It was but a simple linen shirt which left the Cutie Mark revealed for ease of identification; they made a crude sketch of her mark in their files under her number, as well as giving her a heavier orange version emblazoned with 3307 for when she was required for manual labor. Finally, they escorted Rainbow Dash down the hall, past rows of sleeping mares, both pony and changeling alike, and put her in the very last prison cell, on the corner of the block. Rainbow watched as her freedom disappeared with the turn of a key. Now, not only was she a bird with a clipped wing, but a caged one as well. As that night dragged on, she gazed up out of her window, listening to the thunder and the driving rain. She cried.