//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Under The Rainbow 
// by CommissarVulpin 
//------------------------------//

Equestrian Military Cargo Plane
Skies above San Palomino Mountain
5:35 PM

“Alright, listen up!” The officer in charge of inserting Agent R had to shout over the noise of the huge engines pushing the plane through the air. “Agent C has been inserted prior, and you’ll rendezvous once you’re in.”
“Got it,” Johnny nodded. He and the stallion giving the briefing stood in the cargo bay.
“This is one of the most dangerous drops ever tried, so pay attention! You’ll be riding this thing all the way down,” he motioned to the white snowmobile next to them, “and it’s got your parachute. So don’t let go!”
The navigator opened the door from the cockpit and shouted to the two that they were almost over San Palomino Peak. The officer nodded and pulled a lever nearby. Deafening wind noise filled the cargo bay as the huge door in the back slowly winched open.
“You’ll be thrown around like a ragdoll in a hurricane, so the first thing you want to do is deploy your drogue chute!”
Johnny pulled a helmet on, completely obscuring his face, and got onto the snowmobile.
“Oh, by the way!” The officer shouted. “Agent V wanted me to give this to you!” He produced a silver case, which he secured to the side of the snowmobile.
Johnny nodded, then gave the officer the ready signal, and crouched low over the handlebars as he was pushed towards the back of the plane. The snowmobile slowly tipped over as it was pushed over the edge, and then Johnny was falling through the cold mountain air.
As it fell, the horrible aerodynamics of the snowmobile made it tumble and spin wildly. Johnny quickly yanked on the ripcord to deploy his drogue chute, and a small white parachute popped out from behind the seat. This parachute did not slow him down, but rather made his descent more controllable. The snowmobile rapidly straightened itself out, and Johnny was able to get his bearings.
He could see the San Palomino Peak clearly below him, blanketed in snow, with pine trees dotting the landscape. Johnny waited until he was only a few hundred meters above the ground before deploying his main chute. It yanked the snowmobile to a more controllable speed, and he guided himself to a clearing in the woods.
Once he touched down, he cut away the parachute, started the engine, and sped off into the woods.

Secret Underground Facility
San Palomino Peak
5:39 PM

The technician sitting at a bank of monitors was beginning to fall asleep. Nothing was being shown, just a boring landscape of snow and trees. Nothing moved.
Just as he was laying his head on his hooves to catch a few winks, something caught his eye. As he jerked his head up to look at it, he saw that in addition to the bleak landscape, there was something moving on the screen. Something that looked like a pony riding a snowmobile. He blinked and wondered if he was dreaming, watching the snowmobile pass out of one frame into the next.
He finally managed to realize just what was happening; they had an intruder. He quickly pressed a button on his control panel, and alarms began to blare.

Atop San Palomino Peak
5:41 PM

Johnny skidded the snowmobile to a halt, and slipped his helmet off. He pressed a pair of binoculars to his eyes and surveyed the mountain. There was nothing to be seen except snow and more trees.
As he was making another sweep of the landscape, he suddenly heard the chatter of gunfire, followed by several bullet impacts peppering the trees around him. He swung the binoculars around, and saw three black snowmobiles racing toward him, with machine guns mounted to the handlebars firing at him.
Johnny instantly revved up his own snowmobile and took off, abandoning his helmet. The enemies behind him were faster though, and were catching up to him quickly. Fortunately, their machine guns were inaccurate, and failed to hit him; but they were dangerously close.
Two of the black snowmobiles pulled up next to him, while the third hung behind. Swerving around trees and over hills, they began to ram him, attempting to make him crash. As they approached a thicket, Johnny rammed the snowmobile on his right, making him swerve and slam into a tree.
The other snowmobile that was right next to him had now disappeared. Johnny looked all around, seeing nothing. Out of the corner of his eye, he finally saw it attempting to flank him from the right. It came around and was headed directly for him, at which point it began to fire its machine guns. Bullets struck the snow around him, a few hitting the snowmobile and one grazing Johnny’s right hindleg. He winced at the pain, but kept his course, allowing the other snowmobile to continue directly towards him. When it was just about to run into his side, Johnny hit the brakes and skidded to a stop, letting the enemy snowmobile zoom past him. Not expecting this, the rider swerved uncontrollably and careened down the side of a steep hill, separating from his mount and tumbling down the slope.
The third snowmobile, however, seemed to have disappeared. Johnny cautiously rode back in the direction he had come from, looking around. Suddenly he heard a commotion coming from a thicket of trees, and so he turned off his engine and dismounted to investigate. Pulling back the foliage, he saw the third snowmobile, with its rider being held in a stranglehold by another pony atop it. Once the body fell limp, the strangler dropped it to slump over the handlebars, and leapt down into the snow. They were wearing a stealth suit, which covered the head.
“Well, that was quite breathtaking,” Johnny commented from the trees.
The other pony spun around. “Who are you?” The voice was obviously feminine.
“I could ask you the same question, miss.”
She took a defensive stance, and whipped out a knife that was strapped to her foreleg. “I asked you first.”
He held up his hooves in innocence. “Now, now, no need to get violent.” He cleared his throat. “The trees are nice this time of year.”
She immediately calmed down, recognizing the code phrase. “Yes, but the snow can be such a bore,” she completed it. “Agent R, I presume?”
“Precisely. Agent C?”
“Indeed.” She replaced the knife, and slipped off the hood of her stealth suit. She was quite fit and relatively young, with a purple coat and a mane striped with two shades of pink. “I found an entrance to their base before you came.” She turned and began to walk in the appropriate direction. “They didn’t seem to notice the huge cargo plane overhead, but that was still hardly a covert—” She stopped when he felt a hoof on her shoulder.
“Now, now,” Johnny interrupted. “That’s no proper introduction. Might I be acquainted a little first? My name’s Recon. Johnny Recon.”
She sighed. “All right, I’ll play along. My name’s Cheerilee. Happy?” She continued to walk away.
“And what do you do, Miss Cheerilee?”
“I’m a schoolteacher.”

Secret Underground Facility
San Palomino Peak
5:46 PM

The “entrance” to the facility was a well-hidden hole in a rock face, concealed by trees. It was not an entrance proper; rather, a ventilation grate that facilitated crawling. Making their way slowly and silently, the duo crept through the ductwork, stopping at vents to peer through. Most of them led to storage bays and rooms glowing with computer screens.
One of the larger grates provided a view of a giant hangar. Within the hangar, various structural components were being unloaded from the familiar wooden crates and being assembled beneath a huge gantry. With a gasp, Cheerilee pointed to the Rainbow Core, suspended from a small crane next to the structure. The black pegasus with the mechanical wing was standing nearby, overseeing the operation. As they watched, the Rainbow Core was fitted into some sort of cylindrical metal shell, and then sealed inside.
They continued down the ventilation shaft, stopping above an empty barracks room. Figuring it would be safe, Johnny carefully lifted the grate away and dropped down the hole, with Cheerilee in tow. Several bunk beds occupied the room, and Johnny stashed the case that he had been given beneath one of them for safekeeping. They crept over to the open door, which led to a catwalk looking out over the hanger they had seen earlier. Suddenly, they heard a voice from behind them.
“Vell, vell, vell. Look who ve haff here.”

“I must apologize for Eisenhuf’s…brutish ways. Sometimes he doesn’t know his own strength.” The black pegasus pony who had been identified as Night Wind sat at one end of a long metal table, with Johnny and Cheerilee sitting together at the other. After the large white stallion with the thick accent had captured them, he had brought them before his superior. Rather than acting angry or threatening them for trespassing, Night Wind had greeted them with a warm smile and generously brought them into this room, which was some sort of dining room. Despite its industrial appearance, it was furnished with candles and various ornaments that gave it a homey feel.
“I only wish he wouldn’t be so willing to demonstrate it,” Johnny responded, massaging his sore neck.
“I must say, Mr. Recon, you’ve caused quite a bit of trouble for me.”
“If I must choose a skill, Mr. Night Wind, I must say that it is causing trouble.”
The black pony ground his teeth at this. “I don’t go by that name anymore.”
“Oh? And why would that be?”
“You see Mr. Recon, I wished to disappear. And in order to disappear, one must abandon one’s name and take on an assumed one. I have redefined myself, Mr. Recon. I am no longer the pony you think I am.”
“And what pony are you?”
“Let me begin with a little backstory. You see, I was a strapping young lad, strong and able-bodied. I didn’t care much for school, and was full of that characteristic libido that all males seem to possess. I thought it an excellent idea to join the Royal Guard! Fighting for my Princess and defending Equestria! Such a romanticized idea.
“But as soon as I enlisted, I quickly learned that was a mistake. Do you know what they used to call the Royal Guard, Mr. Recon? Do you? They used to be called the Whitecoats, because only ponies with the brightest, gleaming white coats were allowed to enlist. Princess Celestia stamped out that discriminatory policy centuries ago, but the attitude is still there. It may not show to civilians, but they have quite the negative attitude to those who are…different.”
“But why have I seen grey ponies in the Guard?” Cheerilee asked.
“They have tried to accept ponies of different colors for PR reasons, to make them not seem like bigots. But you see,” He held up his good wing, “I am not grey. I’m not even close. I am more ‘different’ than anyone else. And they hated me for it.
“I was always ordered to do the horrible jobs, always forced to work overtime, always looked down upon by my superiors and comrades. I was something less than a pony to them. But the final straw came during a training exercise.
“They brought us out to Ghastly Gorge for some flight training. I thought it was a dangerous place for cadets, but I had learned to keep my mouth shut. Well, some of my comrades decided to horseplay a little with me and…well, to make a long story short, I ended up at the bottom of the gorge. They, of course, tried to pass it off as a ‘training accident’, but when they went to collect the body, I was nowhere to be found.
“I managed to limp to a small camp of gypsies who took me in and nursed me back to health. They were able to magically heal everything…except my wing, which needed to be amputated. But, Mr. Recon, magic is capable of some very astounding things.” He showed off his mechanical wing, which Johnny could see was very expertly crafted, inlaid with various crystals that undoubtedly powered it.
With a crisp knock, the doors to the dining room swung open and a group of waiters walked in carrying various trays of food.
“Ah! Dinner is served. Please enjoy, Mr. Recon. It’s been such a long time since I’ve had guests.”
The meal was simple, but well-made, consisting of butternut squash roasted to perfection, with a crisp salad on the side. As they ate, he continued to monologue.
“Once I found out that I was proclaimed as ‘missing, presumed dead’, I was presented with a unique opportunity. I decided to reinvent myself. No longer was I Night Wind, the pony who was different; no, I decided to call myself Blackwing!”
“Hm,” Johnny commented, “Has a certain ring to it.”
“You like it? I always thought it fit me.
“Under this new identity, I traveled throughout Equestria and beyond. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one with a vendetta against my homeland. There are some very powerful factions out there, hungry for a taste of revenge… and desperate for anything – or anyone – who could get them closer. I made deals. Conducted business. Smuggled money. Made friends.
“All the scheming paid off, as you can see from everything around you. Everything I have worked for has culminated to this day. My revenge will finally be complete.”
“But what exactly are you doing? Surely you must have something to show for all your hard work.”
“Indeed I do, Mr. Recon, indeed I do,” Black wing smiled slyly. “With various ‘inside information’, I found out about this Rainbow Core. After some simple calculations, I devised a way to make use of it. Using this new discovery, I have created the vehicle which will allow me to exact my revenge.”
He spun around in his chair and pressed a button on the wall. Metal grates in the walls retracted, allowing the occupants of the room to view the hangar beyond. Johnny and Cheerilee could now see that the structure hanging from the gantry had been attached to the top of a massive cloud. Currently, cranes were in the process of lowering two large engines affixed with propellers onto one end of the cloud.
“It’s a cloudship…” Johnny realized.
“Indeed it is, Mr. Recon. A cloudship, guiding a mobile base of operations directly over Canterlot. Once there, during the fireworks display at the Grand Galloping Gala tonight, I shall drop several tons of high explosive upon the city.” Blackwing, upon concluding his plan, began to chuckle to himself ominously.
“I just have one question,” Cheerilee piped up. “What did you need the Rainbow Core for?”
“Ah, yes. The Rainbow Core. That, my dear, will be part of the grand finale. You see, I have devised a way to bypass the magical barriers and release the vast energies that are so carefully contained within. This weapon I have dubbed the Atomic Rainboom. The resulting blast of concentrated magic will be enough to level the city and cause it to go crashing to the base of the mountain below!”
“You’re mad!” she exclaimed.
“A wise pony once said that the difference between madness and genius is measured only by success,” he replied calmly to her accusation.
Blackwing stood up from the table. “I am afraid I must take my leave now. I have some very important business to attend to, and I do not need anyone meddling in my affairs. Good night, Mr. Recon.”
With that, several guards appeared and escorted the two to waiting prison cells.