"There it is." Fleetfoot pointed toward the only known path through the Crystal Mountains. Rainbow Dash and Surprise peeked around the edge of the cloud they were hiding behind to study the situation. All three were in their Wonderbolts outfits; partly because it was the closest thing they had to military uniforms, but mostly to hide their very-noticeable contrails.
As expected, there was an airship hovering directly in front of the pass to make sure no one could sneak a message north. Whether traveling by train, hoof, or wing, anypony trying to reach the Crystal Empire would have to go directly past that ship and whatever weapons it was equipped with.
Rainbow Dash sank heavily into the soft cloud and stretched her aching wings, trying to shake the fatigue out of them. They'd been flying since morning, and it was now nearly evening—by the clock, anyway. It had been dark for hours already.
"You okay?" Surprise whispered into her ear.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," Rainbow lied. She'd pushed herself to her limit yesterday to reach the Wonderbolts, and the day before flying everypony down the mountain. Her wings were screaming at her, and she was worried that if she didn't get to rest soon she'd seriously injure herself.
None of that mattered right now, though. Her friends—no, her whole kingdom—were counting on her to get this message through to Cadance and Shining Armor. She just had to make this one last flight.
"Dash," Fleetfoot said quietly, "you've had a closer encounter with these airships than most of us. What do you think?"
Rainbow pulled herself up to take another look. The airship was hovering in the center of the pass, too high to fly over, with a clear view of the ground below.
"Crud," Rainbow Dash groaned. "There's no way we're getting past without them seeing us, and those things are faster than they look. Racing it would be way too risky."
"What we really need," Fleetfoot mused, "is something to draw their attention. A distraction, or—"
"Or a surprise!" Surprise squealed. "Fleetfoot, you and I can get it away from the pass, then Dash sneaks in behind it."
"No, no, way too risky," Fleetfoot answered. "What if they see Dash and chase her instead? What if they catch us?"
"I could outrun it with a sonic rainboom," Rainbow Dash said. For the first time since the Young Flyers' Competition years ago, she was reluctant to try the stunt, but it would certainly give her enough speed to get away from that airship.
Surprise frowned. The expression looked strange on her, like she hadn't had a lot of practice with it.
"Can you do that right now?" she asked, with a glance toward Rainbow's trembling wings.
Rainbow Dash swallowed hard, but nodded.
"Yeah. No problem."
Fleetfoot looked at her suspiciously, but finally nodded in agreement.
"Okay then, here's the plan!" Surprise chirped. "Fleetfoot and I make like we're trying to get through the mountains. We get the airship to chase us, then Dash rainbooms her way straight through!"
"Once Dash gets past, you and I split up and meet back at Cloudsdale," Fleetfoot added.
"Split up?" Surprise tilted her head in confusion. "Why would we do that?"
"Because," the other pegasus said with a heavy sigh, "the ship can't chase us both. This way at least one of us is sure to get back."
"O...oh," Surprise answered, suddenly subdued. "I don't think I like this plan anymore."
"It's the only one we've got," Fleetfoot answered grimly. "Dash, you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm ready." Rainbow swallowed hard and gave her burning wings one last stretch before the last push.
"Okay. Surprise, one dive bomb and then we book it away from the canyon. Follow my lead."
The other two Wonderbolts took off, trailing stormy gray clouds behind them. They soon shrank to small, dark shapes against the backdrop of the airship.
Rainbow watched anxiously as the two pegasi dove at the ship, passing close over the deck to buzz whatever monsters were crewing it. They cleared the deck safely and shot off away from the canyon.
Come on, come on! Rainbow mentally willed the dull creatures to take the bait. Her prayers were answered a moment later as the ship clumsily turned to point toward the retreating pegasi. Unfortunately, she knew from experience that what those ships lacked in handling, they more than made up for in airspeed. She'd have to race for the pass as soon as she dared.
Rainbow Dash licked her lips and resettled her flight goggles over her eyes. The ship was moving. She'd have an opening soon.
Three... two... one... now!
Rainbow Dash leaped from the cloud and spread her wings, catching an updraft from the rocks below and gliding easily toward the canyon. She had to save all of her strength in case she needed to use the rainboom, but she was hoping desperately that it wouldn't come to that.
For one sweet minute, she actually thought their ploy had worked. The airship continued to chase Fleetfoot and Surprise, leaving the pass wide open for Dash. She soared toward it as quickly as the wind could carry her. When the ship started gaining on her fellow Wonderbolts they broke formation, shooting upward and then splitting off in opposite directions. The ship starting turning toward Fleetfoot, evidently pegging her as the leader.
Then it kept turning.
Oh, crud.
It was facing directly toward the pass and Rainbow Dash.
Dash put on a burst of speed, which she quickly regretted as her wings screamed from the added effort. The ship was closing fast. Rainbow squinted in confusion as she saw that it wasn't crewed by those huge gray monsters after all, but by smaller, more colorful creatures that she couldn't quite make out from this distance. It was a mystery for another time.
Rainbow looked toward the ground and grimaced. On a good day, this would be more than enough height to build speed for a sonic rainboom. Today... well, it would have to do.
She angled her nose toward the ground and flapped hard. A contrail immediately sprang out behind her, the flight suit turning it into the Wonderbolts' signature dark clouds. She pushed harder, bending all of her willpower and all of her awesomeness toward this one thing. Just this one last thing, then she could rest.
A cone of pressure started forming around her muzzle. The pain in her wings faded to insignificance as she flapped even harder. The quickly-approaching ground didn't matter. Nothing mattered except breaking through the sound barrier and reaching the Crystal Empire.
The ground was only a few hundred feet away. If she hit it at this speed she'd be splattered like an insect under a careless hoof. She gritted her teeth and went even faster. Two hundred feet. One hundred.
Finally, it happened. With a sound like an explosion and a quickly-expanding circle of clouds, Rainbow Dash pulled off the hardest sonic rainboom of her life. She made a sharp turn in midair and rocketed straight through the valley, dangerously close to the ground and the walls. Not even the Storm King's airships could hope to keep up with her now.
The rock walls zipped past too quickly to see as Dash left her pursuers in the dust. Soon the large airship was a tiny speck at the far end of the of the canyon, and a moment later she emerged into the fields around the Empire. She could just make out the Crystal Castle in the distance. At this speed, she'd be there in no time.
Suddenly, she felt a sickening pop in her right wing, and an all-too-familiar pain shot out from it. She screamed in agony and involuntarily clutched the wing to her side, sending her into a high-speed spin. She fought desperately to regain control, but slammed hard into the ground. She bounced across the grass like a stone skipping across a pond, tearing her flight suit to shreds in the process. Finally she skidded to a stop in a cloud of dust.
Was she hurt? She had to be; nopony came through a crash like that without some broken bones at least. But she couldn't feel anything.
Spitfire was going to kill her, once she got done shouting about Rainbow ending up in a full wing and body cast, drinking through a straw. Wait, where was Spitfire? She was usually at these... practices? Was that where Rainbow was?
How had the crash happened? What was she doing here? She had to tell... somepony... something...
The world spun around her before fading mercifully to black.
"This had better be good news," the Storm King's magically-transmitted image threatened. "You could not imagine the day I've had. Would you believe that this stupid airship didn't stock enough peanuts for the trip?"
Tempest Shadow didn't even bother responding to that.
"The situation is under control," she reported. "But I think the ponies may try to get a message through to the Crystal Empire."
"You got airships on the border?" the Storm King asked.
"Yes, sir. Guarding the only pass through the mountains."
"Then whattaya worried about?"
Tempest shook her head slowly. "There's more. Discord is helping the ponies."
"Discord?" The Storm King scratched his chin with one claw. "Discord... Nope, I got nothin'."
Tempest Shadow closed her eyes so the Storm King wouldn't see them rolling.
"The lord of chaos?" she reminded her slow-witted boss.
"Right, right, him." The Storm King's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah, that could be a problem. Is that why the moon's up all of a sudden?"
"The anti-magic stone works against him," Tempest reported. "Without his magic, he's no threat. Unfortunately we've only got the one stone; I've put it in the throne room so he can't take the princesses out."
"Good. Yeah, that's good."
Except that means that I'll be defenseless if he comes after me again, she thought ruefully. The Storm King either hadn't thought of that little problem or didn't care about it.
"Anything else?" the Storm King demanded.
"No, sir. Discord's interference aside, things are proceeding as planned."
"Good."
As the Storm King was reaching out to brush away the cloud of magic, there was a tentative knock at the door of Tempest's office. Tempest glanced over her shoulder, but didn't move toward the door.
"Well?" her boss prompted. "Go on, answer it."
Tempest sighed. "I'm sure it's nothing interesting, sir. I get reports from underlings all the time." You would too, if you actually cared about ruling your empire.
"Well, hey, this underling's in luck, then. He can give his report straight to the big guy!" the Storm King answered.
Tempest took a slow breath to calm her temper, then turned toward the door.
"Enter!"
The door opened and Grubber shuffled in nervously. He was wringing his hands and looking anywhere but at Tempest. That couldn't be a good sign.
"Report, Grubber," Tempest ordered. "And mind your manners." She jerked her head toward the image of the Storm King.
Grubber looked up and yelped as he finally noticed that they weren't alone in the room. He immediately dropped to his knees and babbled some nonsense about the Storm King's awesome mighty awesomeness.
"Report!" Tempest snapped.
"Right. Uh. Report. Yeah. So, uh, Celeano just messaged us that a, uh—" he cleared his throat nervously, "—a pegasus... uh, got through the Crystal Mountains?"
"WHAT?!" the Storm King and Tempest Shadow roared in stereo. Grubber screamed and threw himself prostrate onto the floor.
"A pegasus got through the Crystal Mountains!" he sobbed. "I'm sorry, Tempest! I'm sorry, Your Royal Majestic Kingliness!"
Tempest ground her teeth together.
"Get up, Grubber," she said coldly, before turning back to the Storm King. "We planned for this, remember," she told her boss. "The odds of the Crystal Army reaching Canterlot before you do are almost zero."
"Almost zero," the Storm King growled. "Not zero. If I get there and find a bunch of sparkly, lovey-dovey crystal ponies running around, you can forget about your horn!"
A sharp spike of rage stabbed Tempest's heart, but her face remained stony. "Not a problem, sir," she answered through gritted teeth. "I promise you, there won't be a single Crystal Empire soldier in the city."
"There had better not be. So get back to work!" He angrily swiped a claw through the magical smoke, severing the transmission.
Tempest stood frozen in place. She was distantly surprised to realize that she was shaking—was it with fury or fear?
"Uh... Tempest?" Grubber hesitantly reached a claw toward her shoulder. "You okay?"
Tempest snorted and knocked his hand away with a swing of her head.
"I'm fine," she snarled. "Let them come! Discord, the Crystal Army, all of them. They won't take this away from me."
She stormed out of the room, with Grubber scurrying behind her.