//------------------------------// // Chapter IV: Hope // Story: Rainbow Dash: Prisoner of War // by The Mountaineer Brony //------------------------------// The small room was lit by several lanterns and candles, though an air of darkness still seemed to pervade the space. Spitfire, Seaspray, and a number of both officers' support staff were crowded around a low table, upon which was sprawled a topographic map of the area. Several marks had been drawn upon it in red pencil, indicating the camp where they currently were, the last known trajectory of Wonderbolt Dash, and numerous places they'd unsuccessfully searched for her over the course of the past four months. "I think just about the last place we can look is near this mountain, several miles north." Spitfire indicated to the map with her hoof. "Our allied Crystal Empire contingent said they would keep their eyes open in our latest correspondence, but I don't think it likely that Dash would've gotten lost that far to the west." General Seaspray awkwardly cleared his throat. "Quite frankly, Captain, I don't think it likely that Rainbow Dash will be found at all..." Spitfire raised a domineering eyebrow. "You were there with me, General. If she didn't leave a body, she's still out there. I know Dash, she's capable of surviving." "Plus," added Soarin "she's literally the Element of Loyalty. Dash wouldn't betray us to the enemy, either." "That may be so," Seaspray replied "but it may be time to face facts, Captain. It's been four months and we've turned up no signs of your star mare. Even if she is alive, she may well be in the clutches of our enemy, and who knows what kind of information they might extract from her." Spitfire popped off the ground with a snort from her nostrils, glaring across the table. "Dash would NOT betray us." She responded. "She's a model Wonderbolt and a good friend. I'd trust her with my life. I'm confident that even under threat of death, she'd stay true to Equestria." "Captain Spitfire, I merely wish to point out that we have spent a great deal of time and resources searching for a single mare. We are at war. I'm sure there are better pursuits to devote our time to. Friendship may be a core tenet of Equestrian culture, but don't let it cloud your vision and interfere with your duties to my troops and yours." The other ponies silently turned to look at Spitfire, wondering how she would respond. The yellow mare merely sat across from the hippogriffs, forelegs crossed, her lips silent but her eyes seeming to burn like fire. Seaspray returned a stern countenance, having said all he intended to. The tension was palpable. "...This meeting is adjourned." Spitfire said after a few moments. Once the others had all left, Spitfire rolled up the map and returned with it to her quarters in the barracks. Stepping inside, she let a loud sigh as she ignited the lantern on her footlocker and hung it on a hook above her. Shrugging off her officer's jacket, she placed it and her sunglasses neatly on her bed before turning her attention to the trunk at the foot of her bed. She cracked it open and rifled through a few personal possessions before she located what she sought: a framed photograph of herself, Rainbow Dash, and several other Wonderbolts enjoying a few drinks after one of their biggest performances. The usually gruff mare permitted herself a smile as the memories- old and new -came flooding back. Inevitably, her thoughts drifted to the past few months and the nature of the war. Chrysalis' army had been winning, though the combined efforts of Equestria and Thorax's kingdom had prevented them from taking many important positions. Though Spitfire's unit was positioned far away from the front, they'd been called up a handful of times as reinforcements at minor battles. Unit casualties had been low, and her original Wonderbolt squadron, minus Dash, remained intact, though Fleetfoot had been wounded at their last engagement and Spitfire herself suffered some minor scrapes when she charged a changeling fortification. Whenever she wasn't required to command or coordinate, Spitfire had spent most of her waking moments searching for her lost comrade, often accompanying the search parties herself. Just as Seaspray had said, every one had turned up empty. She refused to believe that Dash was gone; even though it was 100% possible, the thought hurt her too much. The captain had formed such a bond with her team throughout the years, losing any one of them was unthinkable, but Dash she knew especially well. The two mares had had each others' backs in more than one tight situation and trusted each other deeply... perhaps that was why Spitfire couldn't bear thinking that she'd sent Rainbow to her death. The captain made herself bite back a tear as she pictured herself telling Rainbow's family that their daughter was dead. She was determined to keep looking, but she knew that the longer they searched, the more likely that dreaded scenario became. Spitfire set the photo down on her bed and continued digging through her trunk. Down in the bottom, she found a smallish, albeit weighty, bottle of whiskey that had been a Hearth's Warming gift from her mother. She'd kept it in her office back at headquarters for "emergencies"- the occasional overwhelming day -and although she wasn't supposed to have it here at camp, nopony would suspect her if she nipped at it infrequently. Fishing out a shot glass, she pulled the cork with her teeth and poured with her wing. Raising the little glass in her hoof, she glanced at the photo, at the smiling faces, with concern. "If you're out there, Dash... here's to you." Back in Ponyville, the citizenry had been abuzz with activity. Indeed, across the nation, Equestria's home front was all too eager to support the fighting mares and stallions in any way possible, seeing as this was their country's first war in well over 1,000 years. Foals at Cheerliee's school helped make care packages for deployed soldiers. Mayor Mare, Filthy Rich, the Apple Family, and other public figures held various benefit dinners, concerts, shindigs, or other events to raise funds as well as morale. The best of the best from Ponyville General Hospital, including Doctor Horse and Nurse Redheart, were called away to the mobile surgical hospitals near the front. Princess Twilight found herself popping up on more and more posters, serving as a rallying figure to the public as Celestia and Luna took turns leading troops and governing. And of course, ponies everywhere bought and sold war bonds to generate badly-needed bits for the government. Often, these were advertised publicly by children, especially those who had family in the war... and among Ponyville's herd of younglings, none had sold more bonds than Scootaloo. Rarity and Fluttershy watched from a café window as she stood on the corner, bundled up from autumn's howling winds in a cap and scarf, using a rock to keep her bonds and receipts from blowing away. "That poor darling..." Rarity said, holding a warm latte in her hooves. "She's been sitting on that corner from sunup to sundown for months now, selling those bonds." "Even when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle try to get her to come inside out of the wind, she won't stop until she says she's done enough." Fluttershy replied, concern in her voice. "I even had to carry her home in her sleep one night!" Rarity added. "It's a good thing you, Applejack, and I have been taking care of her, or else she'd probably catch a cold out there." "I hope Rainbow Dash is okay, too." continued Fluttershy. "She only replied to Scootaloo's first letter, and that's what brought all this on." The Pegasus sighed and sipped her tea. "I hope we hear from her soon, and maybe Scootaloo will be able to take it easy." Outside on the corner, she was making out a bond to Caramel. At the end of the day, she'd take her passel of slips to the bank for proper registration, but that would be several hours from now. "In the meantime, I guess we'll have to support the war effort in any way we can." Fluttershy said. "The animals and I have been making care packages and I'm teaching my chickens to cluck the national anthem... not to mention, Scootaloo sold me a war bond the other day." "She's very persuasive..." said Rarity from behind her coffee "I've bought three." In the four months that had passed, Dash's physical condition had greatly improved. Her black eye was gone, and the injured wing that got her captured was almost back to working order, though she wouldn't trust it to carry her just yet. She'd also managed to avoid too many of the guards' beatings by leading Chitin on a wild goose chase: she had him convinced that an Equestrian base was somewhere to the east of their position, and Rainbow had managed to strike a good balance between exaggeration and realism that kept him believing her lies. She had also continued to improve her relationships with her fellow prisoners. Not only did many of the mares in the cell block know her by name, but Peach, Aura, and Fairy now counted her among their closest confidants. Rainbow had even helped run interference from time to time while Aura and her contacts smuggled contraband -such as the sugar Fairy needed- into and about the prison. Perhaps most importantly, though, Dash had been slowly but surely bringing down Morphos' walls. Every night as he patrolled the halls, they locked eyes, and every night he lingered just a little longer, as if curiously inspecting her. They hadn't yet spoken, but she got the sense that every time they met at midnight, his guard came down little by little. Soon, she thought, she'd have to try actually talking to him; with luck, maybe they'd make a connection. But for now, Rainbow Dash had more pressing matters on her mind: the massive log she was attempting to move, and the whip cracking above her head that urged her to move it faster. As the autumn progressed swiftly towards winter, the prisoners' labor was largely being directed toward the frantic felling of trees and cutting of firewood. Rainbow was harnessed to a 15-foot log alongside one of the stallions from the camp, both of whom were straining to get it pulled in the direction of the lumber shed for processing. "Come on, you miserable ponies!" Shouted the big changeling captain. He cracked his whip in the air, just narrowly avoiding Rainbow's noggin. "We're all gonna freeze to death if you don't get these trees moving!" Dash snorted and huffed from her nostrils as she pulled with all the might her legs could muster. The stallion next to her was sweating and gnashing his teeth, keeping up but threatening to overtake her with every ponderous step. He seemed irritated as well, and if he'd been unchained, he probably would have attacked the guard. Dash decided to try and funnel a little bit of anger herself, clenching her jaw and pulling ever harder on the slowly-moving log. In fact, it may have worked just a bit too well, as soon, Dash heard a loud snap behind her before falling face-first to the dirt. She'd managed to pull hard enough to break the frayed leather straps of her harness. "Fucking great." moaned the big changeling. He turned to call across the way to some other guards. "Yo Nyx! We need a new harness over here!" Rainbow and the stallion took a moment to catch their breath on the cold, trampled earth. The forest's edge wasn't far from the prison camp, and up in the towers they could see the noonday changing of the guard. Already a chill breeze was in the air and the days were shortening; Rainbow figured they could expect snow within a month, but wondered how much of this firewood would actually go to heating the drafty prison cells. From out of her peripheral vision, the Wonderbolt spotted the stocky Peach Crumble hauling a similarly massive log on her own with little sign of fatigue. "Howdy, Rainbow." she said, glancing over her shoulder. "How ya holdin' up?" The blue mare finally caught up with her own breath. "Oh... not bad... could be better... I broke a harness..." "Eeyup, I did that a bunch too when they first started workin' me." Peach replied. "Poor craftsmareship is what that is. Now they just hook me up with these." The large mare shimmied her shoulders, rattling the shiny metal chains binding her to the log. "Hey! Who said you could stop?!" A changeling shouted as he approached them. Peach gave a quick nod and a flick of her ear to Rainbow, then continued plodding towards the lumber shed. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash felt the harness swiftly plucked from her shoulders as she was ushered onto her shaky legs. "No new harnesses, boss. Gonna hafta swap in a pony from one o' the other teams." From behind, two subordinate changelings were bringing in another mare to take Rainbow's place. "Send this one to the shed then, she can start splitting." The big changeling said, gruffly jutting a hoof in the proper direction. Tossing aside the broken harness with a nod, the changeling called Nyx put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulders and guided her to the processing station. Inside the temporary setup, numerous prisoners stood with axes, wedges, and hammers, splitting segments of the larger logs into more manageable hunks of firewood. Rainbow was placed at an empty station near the end of the room, and one of the guards provided her a small hatchet and a block of wood, but no instructions. Rainbow couldn't recall ever helping cut firewood before, but figured it couldn't be that difficult, as long as she observed what the others were doing and was careful with the sharp bit. After nearly letting the axe fly out of her hooves once or twice, Rainbow decided it was better to clench the little handle in her teeth and come at the logs from the side; it was a somewhat awkward manner in which to cut firewood, but one which she made work well enough, as did many other ponies likewise tasked. She would split a log into two or four pieces of roughly the same size, whereupon a changeling came down the aisle to present her with another. Once the pile of wood on her table grew tall enough, another guard would come by with a large cart to collect it. Dash spent a good while repeating this process until she noticed the next changeling approaching with the cart-- it was Morphos. The mare sat up somewhat awkwardly in her place as she waited for the cart to roll by her station. When it finally did and the stack of wood was lifted and lowered magically into place, the changeling's eyes widened a little as he realized who she was. "Hi." Rainbow said, trying not to come off as too eager or too uninterested. Morphos' shiny blue eyes darted back over his shoulder. The other guards were talking idly among themselves, and the other prisoners seemed focused on their work. Cautiously, his head drifted back towards Rainbow, his expression unsure. "...Hi." "You know who I am, right?" It was an obvious question, she knew, but it got a nod of confirmation from the changeling. "A-And you know who I am." he replied in a low register. "How do you know my name?" "I heard the Colonel yell at you one morning." said Rainbow. Morphos winced. "Yeah," said the changeling "that happens sometimes. You... you shouldn't call me by my real name. If anypony found out, there could be trouble." Rainbow nodded. She didn't want to put either of them in hot water. "Could we talk later then? Maybe tonight?" Morphos flattened his ears against his head and looked around worriedly. "I really shouldn't be talking to ponies unless I'm reprimanding you... but all that the other changelings want to do is talk about the war or insult me... I'll see what I can do. It would be nice to have somepony to talk to..." As the cart rolled away, Rainbow returned to her task of splitting wood, albeit with a bit more energy now. She was hopeful that this line of communication would get her a set of eyes on the outside, and perhaps, eventually, a way to get out. She felt like she'd made it to the front porch; now she just hoped Morphos would open the door.