Chapter 20: Abducted
August 9, 2558
2300 hours
Cloudsdale
Rainbow Dash awoke to a green flash and the sound of the door to her house creaking open. The silence that followed as she sat up in her bed was unnerving.
“Hello?” she called into the dark after clearing her dry throat.
No answer.
She felt her heartrate rising as she realized somepony must have just broken into her house!
Deciding to confront whoever it was, she took a sip of water from the cup on her nightstand before removing her sheets and hopping off the bed.
“I know you’re in here!” she called a little louder, trying to sound tougher. “Somewhere…”
Having moved some distance from the foot of her bed, a stillness enraptured the space, like the calm before a storm.
Suddenly, a changeling swooped in and grabbed Rainbow Dash from behind by putting a hoof around her neck. She bent down and thrust her hips up, sending the shape-shifter careening over her back.
Dash turned and bolted for the door, but as she lifted off and was about to fly out, one of the changelings tackled her to the floor right in front of the entrance to her house. He lifted her onto her knees and held her in place by her neck and one of her hooves.
Another changeling landed in front of her, just before the doorway’s threshold, and started walking towards her. Instinctively, the cyan pegasus attempted to wrestle herself free, to which the changeling holding her then released her neck and grabbed the other hoof, placing both behind her back.
Rainbow continued to struggle and fight, but the changeling’s grip was too strong. She began to panic as the one in front of her closed the door behind him with his hind leg. She desperately began to flap her wings, for maybe she could fly out of this creature’s grasp.
Seeing this, a third changeling came up from behind on her left, grabbed her left wing, and swiftly snapped the bone inside, causing Rainbow to shriek loudly as agonizing, white-hot pain seared through her appendage.
Her scream was cut short as the changeling in front of her sent a swift blow from his hoof into her throat. He then gave another, similar blow to her gut before punching her across the face with his other hoof, and then punching her straight in her left eye.
Stars were now flying across Rainbow Dash’s vision. So much pain radiated through her body and all she could focus on was trying to breath. She made out a dozen more changelings surrounding her, and there was nothing she could do.
She was helpless, and she knew it.
She wanted to scream for help, call for anypony that may be close by. But all that came out was a soft squeak as the changelings behind her released their grip on her and the changeling in front of her grabbed her and threw her out the door.
She landed softly on the cloud outside, though having tumbled and rag-dolled to a stop. She attempted to get up, but a changeling landed on her back before she could get the chance, flattening her face and body into the cloud. The changeling on top of her proceeded to slap both her hooves behind her head, before gluing them one at a time behind her back. Her muzzle remained in the cloud.
She was too weak to resist anymore.
The changeling then pulled out a black bag as another changeling landed in front of the two, lifted Rainbow’s head out of the clouds by her mane, and quickly cast a sleep spell on her by touching his horn to her forehead.
The effects weren’t immediate, but Rainbow could feel the sleep coming on.
In her panic, her last conscious thoughts were of a black bag being put over her head, drowning out her scream before she slowly passed out.
. . .
August 10, 2558
0830 hours
Ponyville
Sweet Apple Acres
Greyblade and the rest of Applejack’s Ponyville family all waved goodbye as she was escorted away upon a UNSC pelican. After some time, Granny Smith and Greyblade were the only two left outside on the porch, sitting in rocking chairs and looking on at the distant, rising sun.
“Ah’m so prouda that girl,” said the elderly pony.
“I’m sure you are,” Greyblade responded with a smile. “I definitely would be.”
Granny smiled back.
“I don’t understand something though,” the younger pony continued. “Why does she care so much about a pegasus?”
Granny now seemed taken aback.
“She’s her friend,” she said simply. “What more reason does she need?”
“But she’s a pegasus,” Greyblade pushed.
Granny just stared.
“Abigail? Where’re ya really from?” she asked calmly. “‘Cause you sure as haystacks ain’t from Equestria…”
Only now did the gray earth pony realize the mistake she’d made, and seeing it pointless to try correcting herself, she only sighed in defeat, knowing the gig was up.
“I was going to tell her,” she said as she looked at the floor. “My name isn’t Abigail, it’s Greyblade, and I’m from Gildedale.”
“Shoot, I was only pulling yer leg!” Granny replied, drawing a surprised look from the Dalepony. “Figures though: that there name explains yer cutie mark way better than Abigail.”
Greyblade looked down at her flank, seeing the imprinted dagger she’d received all those years ago.
“Does nopony else here have a cutie mark like this?” she asked earnestly.
“Wha would we?” she asked in response. “We’d given up on fightin’ long before ma own granny was born.”
“…Makes sense…”
“So wha come ta Equestria? And wha hide tha truth?”
“I-I was on a mission…to secure Manehattan for the glory of my country…”
She couldn’t bring herself to look up at Granny.
“I led the army that attacked the city,” she continued with misty eyes. “…a-nd…I lost…all of them…”
Her breaths were shallow as she subtly shook her head, her emotions too riled up to figure out how she could tell an Equestrian the truth about one of their princesses; but she wouldn’t have to find the words, because Granny had simply placed a sympathetic hoof on her upper arm.
“Ya don’ hafta finish,” said Granny calmly, Greyblade now managing to look up at her. “Whatever yer feelin’ right now, that’s why we left war behind.”
The Dalepony only sniffled and nodded in understanding, quietly glad to have narrowly avoided having to tell the elderly Apple of her ruler’s cruel act.
“I don’t deserve sympathy for what I tried to do,” said Greyblade as more tears began rolling down her cheeks. “But thank you anyway.”
Granny remained silent.
“So, you understand now,” the grey earth pony continued. “I can’t go back home…I’m a disgrace!”
“Oh, don’ go sayin’ that nonsense about yerself!” Granny rebutted. “Everypony makes mistakes! Surely yer family knows that at least. They hafta understand eventually.”
“No, no, it-it goes deeper than that.”
“How d’ya mean?”
“Well, you see…I may, or may not be, the King’s daughter…”
. . .
Unknown Date
Unknown Time
Unknown Location
Rainbow Dash jolted awake in cold sweat.
Soon after, looking around with adjusting eyes, she could see that the changelings had locked her in one of their prison cells. It was cold and dark, she was almost completely sapped of energy, and everything hurt (especially her throbbing black eye). Her wings were tied together, and her two front hooves were chained behind her back.
Her last waking memories flooded back to her, and fear overtook her every emotion and rational thought in an instant as her breath became shallow; she began struggling uncontrollably for a moment, despite how tired she was, until a familiar, white-hot pain burned down her left wing. The pain stiffened her, causing her to stop moving, and soon after, forced her to begin calming herself with deeper breaths through her nostrils so that she could assess the situation as best as she could; but she was simply too exhausted for some reason.
Perhaps the changeling’s sleep spell hadn’t entirely worn off?
She was about to doze off again when the loud clanging of the cell doors opening shocked her back into alertness with a gasp, allowing dim light to flood into the small room. She saw three changelings standing in the doorway.
As they walked forward, Rainbow was able to tell that the lead one in the middle was much more highly ranked than the two at his flanks, for he was wearing a more official-looking purple robe-and-helmet combination that none of the other changelings wore.
“Rise and shine, peach!” he said just before grabbing her by her mane and chin, lifting her face up to his own and grinning menacingly. “It’s time for the show to start…”
He released her before turning his back and saying, “Make it quick! We don’t want to keep our viewers waiting!”
He walked between two changelings that had followed him in.
“Wha-what viewe-? AhOOf!” Rainbow stuttered as one of them pinned her to the floor.
The other detached her chains from the wall before they both lifted her by the armpits.
“Wait, where’re you taking me?! What’s going on?!” she asked. “Please! Somepony please tell me WHAT THE HAY IS HAPPENI-AAh!”
Her voice had quickly gone from sounding somewhat tough, to sounding like the frightened foal that she currently was, before getting backhoofed across her cheek by the lead changeling.
“Shut it! Equestrian scum,” he shouted. “We’ll be the ones asking the questions around here. Not you!”
He then pointed an authoritative hoof at one of the changelings holding her.
“Gag her mouth and put a bag on her head already!” he ordered before about-facing and heading back towards the open cell door. “Quickly!”
“Yes, General Hives,” said the subordinate, momentarily releasing her. “Right away, sir!”
“Ge…genera–ACK?!” was all the cyan pegasus could say before a piece of cloth was tied over her mouth.
She gave a muffled squeak as the gag was pulled tight, the black bag being placed over her head for the second time soon after.
. . .
August 10, 2558
0830 hours
UNSC Infinity Bridge
Aboard the UNSC Infinity, Captain Lasky stood with the princesses on the bridge once again.
“Back here again,” Celestia deadpanned.
“Neither of us expected to be back here so soon,” said Luna.
“Honestly, I don’t think anyone did,” said Thomas. “But emergencies happen, you know?”
“At least in most of these emergencies, there are already some reliable leads,” said Roland, reviewing a file footage hologram. “In this case, this is all we have.”
The uncertainty in the AI’s voice drew the eyes of his Captain and both princesses.
“What is this?” asked Luna.
“This is a recording from last night,” said Roland, matter-of-factly. “Helmet-camera footage from a patrolling Broadsword pilot. He and his squadron seemed to be giving chase to what, at first, appeared to be quite darkly colored pegasi. That is, until he zoomed in…”
When the pilot focused in on the group they were chasing, it became clear that these were no pegasus ponies; in fact, there was only one in the group, and she appeared unconscious, her cyan form limp as one of the others carried her on his back.
“Changelings!” said Celestia. “And they’ve got Rainbow Dash!”
Suddenly, the whole group onscreen disappeared in a flash of green.
“The unidentified group appeared to have teleported before the Broadswords could intercept,” Roland said, closing the recording with his virtual hands.
“’Course, now we know what they are, and who they’re carrying,” said Lasky. “As you’ve just pointed out, your highness.”
“The problem is, though we know they were traveling to a location somewhere behind enemy lines, as their heading was southwest,” Roland continued, opening a world map hologram in the shape of a globe before centering it in the middle of the table. “That puts her location somewhere in all of this!”
“As you can see,” said Roland, holding up one hand and making a circle with his thumb and index finger while keeping the other three fully extended. “We’ve really narrowed it down.”
It was at this time that Fireteam Icebreaker entered the room, followed closely behind by Rainbow’s five best friends.
“Ah, just the people I needed to see,” said Captain Lasky. “I hope you don’t mind, princesses, but I took the liberty to bring the five other Elements of Harmony here, where we can keep a better eye on them.”
Jenkins, having noticed that his rainbow-maned friend was not present, was the first other human to speak up.
“Sir? What’s going on?” he asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
“Dashie’s gone missing!” Pinky Pie responded immediately.
“What?!” said Jenkins back to Pinky.
“Were you not told?” said Rarity.
“Uhh, no,” said gunny. “None of us were. We’ve been kept in the dark about all this until just now.”
“How…how are they aware of this, but our own men aren’t?” Roland interjected. “That’s gotta get addressed at some point, no? And do I have to say everything again just to fill in the gaps?”
“However that happened, we’ll address it later. The issue at hand right now is priority,” said Lasky. “Just give ‘em the short version, Roland.”
The AI pulled up the recording once again before saying, “Okay, in short: we know the changelings abducted Rainbow Dash, but we don’t know where they took her.”
“And that’s why I made the decision to keep the rest of you where we can easily see you,” said Lasky.
“Because if they could take her,” said Twilight.
“They could take any one of us!” completed Fluttershy, horrified at the thought that any of the animals under her care might currently be a changeling in disguise.
“Exactly,” said Lasky. “So, you five will all be staying on board the Infinity until further notice. Icebreaker, since you all are, by coincidence, the most acquainted with these equines, would you volunteer to house them in your quarters if need be?”
“I mean, you’re kind of putting us on the spot here, sir,” said Gunny.
“You can say no,” Lasky reminded him.
The marine then looked down at Twilight to find her giving him the puppy-dog face.
“Well, you've housed me already, so I guess I owe you one,” he said, to which the purple alicorn smiled, before looking back to his men. “We all do.”
As the rest of Icebreaker nodded in agreement, Luna’s horn suddenly began to glow bright.
“Luna?!” said Celestia, a tad shocked at the spark flowing from her sister’s horn.
“It’s a message!” she said, eyes consumed in light. “I’m receiving a message!”
“Strange, it’s normally not this bright!” Celestia explained to the others in the room. “Or this loud!”
“This one might be in real time!” said Twilight. “That could be why!”
“A livestream?!” said Roland.
“Luna! Can you project it?!” asked Lasky.
“Yes! I can try, but I won’t know where I’m shooting it!” she responded.
At this, Roland’s avatar moved to the center of the holo-table.
“Aim at the sound of my voice!” said Roland.
Without a second thought, Luna shot her magic directly over the holo-table at the AI’s projection. In apparent reflex, Roland held his virtual hands up in front of his face, as if to block the blast, causing a holo-screen pop-up perpendicular to the holo-table; the cone of magic struck the screen before becoming transparent, displaying the streaming message.
“Holy shit, that actually worked!” Roland exclaimed. “Glassman and Halsey always miss the cool stuff…”
Everyone in the room, even junior officers by the wayside, had now stopped what they were doing to look at the screen; on it, they saw a changeling dressed in a robe and wearing a purple helmet.
“Good morning princess Luna, and whoever else may be watching,” he began. “Don’t bother responding to anything I say, as this is a one-way, real-time message.”
“Livestream,” Roland corrected, even though he knew the changeling wouldn’t hear him.
“My name is Hives,” he continued. “I am the Queen’s top General, and I’ve come to you with an urgent ultimatum.”
"Hives?" said Roland. "Real freakin' origin-oh, my god..."
Quiet murmurs of shock and horror filled the room as a chained, cyan mare with a broken left wing and a bag over her head was dragged onscreen behind General Hives.
“Shit,” said Lasky under his breath.
“Cease any and all further advancement into changeling-held territory,” Hives began.
“No!” Celestia exclaimed quietly as the black bag was ripped off of Rainbow Dash’s head, revealing one frightened, magenta eye, one black eye, and the gag over her mouth.
“Or we torture your precious, Element of Loyalty, for every step you take!” he finished.
Behind him, one of the changeling guards extended his spear and laid its point upon Rainbow’s cheek.
“Oh, and just to prove to you that she isn’t one of us in disguise,” said the general before turning and nodding to the guard.
With a squeal of pain from the cyan pegasus, the guard then sliced a moderately deep cut across her cheek, causing red blood, not green, to begin dripping from her chin; but he had also accidentally sliced through her gag, freeing her to speak.
On instinct, she looked in the vicinity of where Hives was looking and yelled, “Don’t do it Celestia!”
Of course she would. Almost everyone watching knew that was just the way she was. Before she knew it, the changeling guard that cut her had already whacked her across the face with the butt-end of his spear, knocking her to the floor; everyone watching had either gasped in horror or audibly recoiled at the perceived pain.
That is, everyone but Jenkins, who simply clenched his fist tight in anger.
Both changelings then picked her back up onto her knees, revealing the newly created bruise on the side of her mouth, and the increased rate of blood flow out of her lips.
As the black bag was being tied over her head again in the background, General Hives spoke for the last time onscreen.
“Those are our demands,” he stated simply. “I await your compliance.”
He ended the livestream there, prompting Luna’s eyes and horn to stop glowing and the cone of magic to stop flowing, and leaving everyone in momentary stunned silence.
Breaking the silence, Lasky simply turned to Luna and asked, “Could you trace where that signal came from?”
“It wasn’t easy, nor may it be entirely reliable,” she said, on the verge of crying tears of terror. “But yes.”