Swooping Pegasus

by FenrisianBrony


Friendship is still magic

***
The Next Morning
***
Rainbow awoke from one of the most blissful night’s sleep she had experienced in the last two years, the Eldar may have been an advanced race of interstellar aliens, but they could not for the life of them make a bed that was comfortable for pony physiology. Rainbow slowly stretched her wings and shuddered slightly as she remembered how close she had come to losing them forever on multiple occasions. Slowly she got out of bed and went over to where she had laid her armour the night before, and carefully looked over its worn surfaces. It was hard to imagine how much the armour had been through due to its state, but it still had some damage. Colours that were once as vibrant as her mane had dulled down, until the whole armour had a washed out colour that seemed to reflect how Rainbow had felt while wearing it for the first time. She had never imagined herself needing the armour, and had almost refused it, but now, even when she didn’t need it anymore, she couldn't imagine a life without it.

Beginning the ritual, piece by piece Rainbow donned her armour, until only her head remained unarmoured. She looked at the helmet and sighed. Sadly it had not come through the ordeal as well as the rest of the armour, with dents and scratches that didn’t seem to want to come out, no matter how had the Eldar had tried.

Rainbow left the helmet on her bedside table and headed down to the dining hall to get breakfast. When she entered she saw it was empty, apart from Twilight at the far end, poring over a book. Silently Rainbow moved over to Twilight and sat down next to her.

“Rainbow?” Twilight asked in surprise, “You’re up early for you, it's only just gone seven.”

“Force of habit” Rainbow said plainly, pouring herself a bowl of cereal, “Do something for a couple of years and you’ll find it difficult to break out of the habit as well.”

“Tell me about it” groaned Twilight, “So you had to get up early for two years? How did you of all ponies manage” Twilight asked with a smirk.

“With a lot of shouting and a vengeful Warlock.” Rainbow replied calmly.

Twilight was about to ask what a Warlock was, but thought better of it, waanting to allow Rainbow to tell her in her own time.

"When do you think the princess's will be here?" Rainbow asked

“Please, don’t let us keep you from your story Rainbow Dash” Princess Celestia said as she walked into the dining hall, followed closely by Luna, and the rest of her friends. “My sister and I were having a much needed talk.”

“Ok then” Rainbow began. “Where was I?”

***
The 41st Millennium
***

“Rainbow. Get up. I have things I need to do and you being there makes it hard for me to do them.” Elarique said, walking into the morning.

“Uhhhh. What time is it?” Rainbow mumbled.

“6:30, meaning you need to get up. I won’t ask nicely again.” Elarique said.

“Uhhh.” Rainbow groaned, before rolling over and snoring loudly.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you then.” Elarique whispered as he left the room.

For a few blissful seconds Rainbow began to drift back to sleep. However, just as Rainbow was about to go to sleep, the entire bed was lifted off the floor, and she was flung across the room. Getting to her feet quickly she saw a lone figure in a black robe and a helmet with a white face mask. Rainbow ran over to her, giving her wings a few experimental flaps. She managed to get slightly off the floor, and rose until she was level with the new comer.

“Hey buddy, what’s the big idea?!” She shouted at the figure, who didn’t react in the slightest. Rainbow turned around and got ready to buck the new comer in the chest when Elarique appeared behind the other figure.

“Ah. I see you are up. My thanks Talvan, as always your ‘unique’ touch in dealing with problems is much appreciated.” Elarique smirked, “as you are up now Ms Dash would you kindly accompany myself and Talvan outside. I have some friends outside who are very eager to meet the newest species to grace our small planet.” With that Talvan and Elarique turned in unison and left the room, followed closely by a disgruntled Rainbow Dash. When they finally exited the building, Rainbow got her first real view of what the planet was truly like. All around the village were massive trees and vines that made the Tower in the Crystal Empire look small by comparison. All the buildings in in the village were built out of the same strange white-ish material, and seemed as if they had been carved out of a single giant crystal rather than built. When Rainbow asked Elarique if this was actually how they were made, he let out the first true laugh not tinted by sorrow.

“Ha! No Rainbow, the buildings are not carved from crystals. They are made from a special psycho-reactive plastic substitute called Wraithbone that can be shaped by specialised psykers who can force the Wraithbone to take any shape they want, from buildings to ships to weapons.” Elarique explained nonchalantly. Before looking back at Rainbow, who currently looked as if she was trying to experiment with the limits of pony jaws.

“I’m sorry Elarique, you seem to have confused me with my friend Twilight,” Rainbow said with a slight sigh. “She’s the egg-head, all I got from that is the material isn’t crystal.”

“Don’t worry about it pony.” Talvan spat “I would not expect a creature such as yourself to self to understand Eldar technology.”

“Wow, what’s up with you grump pants?” Rainbow asked, in a slightly pained voice.

“My problem, is you thinking that you are on par with us as a species. As with the rest of the universe, you would do well to learn your place.” Talvan snapped, as she continued to walk, not even looking at Rainbow.

“That’s mean, what did I ever do to you?” Rainbow asked, getting very angry now.

“Don’t go there Rainbow” Elarique said, laying a hand on Rainbows back, softly yet forcefully pushing her down to the ground. “Most Eldar are like this when it comes to species other than our own. Until you prove yourself to her she will continue to treat you as such."

Rainbow was about to complain more, but saw how futile such an attempt would be, and instead consented to follow Elarique to where his friends were standing. Elarique strode up to the group and said loudly,

“Friends, I would like to introduce you to the newest member to our little planet, Ms Rainbow Dash”

Elarique stepped aside to reveal a, now blushing, Rainbow Dash, she nervously started to hover in the air, causing some of the group to gasp. Rainbow got a good look at the group. There were four of them in total, three boys and one girl by the looks of their faces and the strange clothing they wore. The clothes looked as if they were flexible, but also looked like they had plates of metal on parts of the fabric. All of the clothing, both the under skin and the plates were a dark red colour. The only exception to this colour scheme was the large crystal on their left side, which seemed to pulsate with a faint white light, kind of like the glow from a Unicorns horn, although it was not quite as bright. Looking over, she realised that Elarique was also wearing a set of the same clothing, although his had Black plates on his upper body, and the stone set in the plates was a bright blood red colour, as opposed to white.

“Allow me to introduce you to the rest of my squad Ms Dash, D…” Elarique began, but was cut off by Rainbow.

“Stop with the Ms Dash, you can just call me Dash if you want, or Rainbow, just not Ms Dash.” Rainbow said.

“Very well Rainbow, Allow me to introduce you to the rest of my squad. This is Dorgolmar,” Indicating one of the men, “the two brothers, Aranel and Elensar, and finally, the second female of our squad, Egarion.” Elarique said, indicating each member of the squad, “I believe you already know Talvan. And that makes up our squad, technically Talvan is in charge, but he respects my judgement.”

The Eldar looked at Dash in various states of interest, the two brothers Aranel and Elensar looked indecisive, on whether or not they should like Rainbow or not, Dorgolmar was acting similar to the way Talvan was currently acting. The only one taking a serious interest in her was the other female, Egarion. She seemed to be staring intently at Rainbow, or more specifically, the mark on her rear. She could have sworn she had seen a similar marking in one of the Mon-Keigh’s primitive tanks when they had tried to invade a few years ago, she decided that this could only be a coincidence, and dismissed the thought from her mind.

“I want to ask something,” Aranel asked suddenly. “What is that mark on your rear? It looks almost like a human tattoo, but looks a lot smoother, and not done by a machine.”

“Oh that,” Rainbow answered, relieved to be talking about a subject she knew a lot about, “That’s my cutie mark, it shows my special talent, which for me is speed, racing and winning.” Rainbow said with pride, taking to the air and puffing her chest out in pride.

“So, you get a tattoo when you discover what your special talent is? What happens if you get it wrong?” Elensar asked, apparently deciding that if his brother could speak to the new creature then he could as well.

“No,” rainbow said hesitantly, “What’s a tattoo? Cutie marks only appear when a pony discovers there super special talent, its magic.”

“Magic?” Talvan scoffed, “I assume you mean a psychic power. Only primitive human cultures believe that some among them can wield Magic.”

“Well Mrs know it all,” Rainbow replied, “I know for a fact that magic exists, as two of my best friends can wield it better than you could ever hope to, and our princess’s use Magic to raise the sun and moon each day, so don’t tell me Magic doesn’t exist.”

At this last comment Dorgolmar finally decided to speak, or in this case, laugh and then speak.

“Raise the sun? What are you on? And where can I get some? Maybe you’re not all that bad Rainbow, I mean I can deal with things that are insane as opposed to just ignorant”

Rainbow was about to reply to Dorgolmars’ comment, but Egarion leaned down to her and whispered in her ear.

“Don’t, please. Dorgolmar is slightly insane himself. He has split personality disorder, so don’t be surprised if he changes suddenly, just whenever he accepts a point, please just accept it, arguing with him is like trying to fight a Titan with a chainsabre.”

Rainbow looked at her, and was going to ask what a Titan or a chainsabre was, but thought of a better question instead.

“Fine, Dorgolmar, I’m insane,” Rainbow said, drawing sighs of relief from the five others, “Just one thing, what are those clothes you're wearing, they look radical” Rainbow said.

“This is our Guardian armour,” Elensar started, “It’s a weave of thousands of individual pieces of Wraithbone interwoven to produce a dense material resembling reptile scales, and when hit temporarily becomes solid and disperses the force over a wider area, reducing damage and effectively dispersing heat and energy.”

“Thanks egg-head” Aranel said, lightly punching his brother in the shoulder, as Rainbow looked at him expectantly, “Basically its armour that’s really flexible until its hit, when it becomes solid.” Aranel explained, causing Rainbow to roll her eyes.

“There’s always an egg-head who over explains everything." Rainbow chuckled

***
“I wish you would stop calling me an egg-head Rainbow” Twilight grumbled “I just like studying, that’s all.”

“Ok Twilight. I’ll stop calling you an egg-head. Geek.” Rainbow said, smiling as Twilight ground her teeth.

“So is this Guardian armour what you are wearing now?” Rarity asked, “I must say a material like that which is more flexible and solid would make fabulous dresses, perhaps I could get a look at it later?” Rarity asked.

“Sure you can, look that is. This isn’t Guardian armour, but I’ll get to that later."

***

“Don’t insult your betters” Talvan snarled, “you should be in awe, standing in the presence of the rightful rulers of the planet”

“Alright, that’s it.” Rainbow shouted, flying up to Talvan’s face, “all you’ve done since you met me is insult me and make me seem worthless when compared to you, what makes Eldar so bucking great that you think you can lord it over me, the fastest flyer in Equestria.”

The two began to argue, with the rest of the squad looking on in slight amusement, Rainbow had guts to argue with a Psyker. Meanwhile, a pair of yellow eyes watched from the cover of the forest.