Blue Breeze flew hard. A squad of other pegasi followed close behind him, their formation tight and angular. They were going really fast. It had already been several hours since the flare from the center of the Everfree had been sent up. No pony in the guard knew what the situation was there and it was imperative that they provide support as quickly as possible. It would be hours more before the ground troops would arrive, so it was doubly important that the aerial reinforcements were fast to their destination.
They had been flying for some time, riding very fast on a cold air current that was blowing down from the top of the mountain the City sat on. It was conveniently streaming right over the forest and towards the rendezvous point. They were making excellent time. Breeze couldn’t remember the last time he had flown this fast.
Suddenly, looming before them was the edge of a huge storm front. It neither moved towards them nor away from them, but remained in place, churning and roiling. The squad skidded to a halt, their wings still ruffled in the cold current that was feeding the massive storm cell.
“Sir, it’s not moving because it’s Everfree weather, sir! We’ve reached the border!” One of the soldiers behind him informed the group. This was Blue Breeze’s first command mission and he was in charge. He turned to face the group.
“We can fly over it for some time, but we need to watch the tracker carefully. Cloud Puncher, make sure that you let us know the second we are close to the coordinates that were given.” He announced, nodding towards a stallion in the group, who nodded.
Breeze turned and they flew up and over the storm, the wind rushing around them in all directions.
---
Applejack raced through the halls of headquarters, desperately searching for an exit. She had bucked down her door moments before and was now frantically racing towards the lower levels. She slid to a halt as she heard voices coming from around the corner. She cautiously poked her head out, and pulled back against the wall when she saw a guard on patrol, talking into a walkie. She stayed perfectly still, not even breathing as he walked past. She could not be seen. She doubted that the Council would have informed any of the Guard that she was no longer in command, but if they saw her racing through the halls in the middle of the night, there would be questions raised. On top of all of that, it was only a matter of time before the Council noticed she was gone.
Luckily, for some reason unknown to her, there weren’t as many ponies around in headquarters. Something must be going on, but she had no idea what it was. As the guard on patrol rounded the next corner, she inched out of her hiding spot and quickly trotted to the end of the hall. If she was where she thought she was there should be an exit right around here somewhere. She looked around, and finally down a side hallway, she spotted it.
She grabbed the handle and shook it in dismay. It was locked. Oh horseapples! She cursed. This was the best exit, and the next closest one was right past the control rooms, where the Council and probably half the Guard would be right now. She frowned, and then realized she still had her badge in her saddle bag. She grabbed it out and swiped it past the door’s reader. It blipped red. The Council had already shut her badge number down.
She growled in frustration. She couldn’t just buck the door down; it was metal, unlike her office door, which had been wood. She was about to turn away when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She whirled around, ready to face any attacker. When she did see who was behind her, she was met face to face with her second in command, Silver Shot.
She was about to tell him to stay quiet when he put his hoof up.
“I know what’s going on. I know what the Council did. I’m here to help. You need to get out.” He held up his badge. “I just got promoted. My number will let you go.” He told her and went to swipe his badge.
“Why are you helping me?” Applejack asked suspiciously.
“The Council is a bunch of idiots and the world is ending. Maybe I don’t want to die in a fiery inferno when the sun explodes, or maybe I’m just being nice. Either way, you need to high-tail your flank to the Everfree. That’s what all the commotion is about. The agent that was sent found Rainbow Dash and that filly. They sent out air troops hours ago and the ground forces soon after. I would be surprised if either of them manages to survive the night.”
Silver Shot told her in a harsh whisper. She just stared at him, the pieces in her head clicking together. She thought of the Element in her bag. She would be surprised if Rainbow Dash would be alive in the next few minutes. Silver Shot swiped his card and the door popped open.
“Get going!” He said and motioned to the door. Right as she was about to exit, a loud siren wailed and the red emergency lights started flashing.
---
“Sir! We’re over the rendezvous point! Coordinates match perfectly, dive!” Cloud Puncher called from the back of the squad. Blue Breeze nodded and took the nose of their formation into a dive that tore through the storm clouds. When they were above the storm, the sky was blue and clear, below it was a maelstrom of wind and rain. The squad was instantly blown apart by the sheer fury of the storm.
“Land and regroup!” Blue Breeze called to his troops. They did as he said and swooped through the gale-force winds to the ground. He stayed up for just another second, making sure everyone had gotten down safe. Then, as he was about to join them on the ground, a massive gust of wind surged and pushed him away. He snapped his wings shut, hoping to fall out of the current. He did, but as he tumbled he slammed into a bush.
He groggily pulled himself up and looked out. His eyes widened as he realized this bush was huge and surrounded an entire clearing. He squinted in the dark of the storm to see what was in it. A flash of lightning illuminated what he was already beginning to suspect. Hidden behind the wall of bush was a huge camp.
“Sir!” A member of his team called from below. He pushed himself out of the wall of vegetation and landed down where his squad was waiting. The pony that had called up to him was one of the few females on his team. A young green cadet by the name of Sassaflash.
“Did you see what was on the other side?” She asked, tipping her head towards the bush wall. He nodded.
“There is a camp on the other side. Looks like at least a hundred ponies are living there.”
“What? No pony should be this deep in the Everfree! We don’t even have records of a clearing on our maps! How have they not been noticed?!” Cloud Puncher exclaimed.
“I don’t know, but something is up. This would explain a lot of inconsistencies in Guard records though.” Breeze said thoughtfully. Then something occurred to him. “Hey does any pony have a sweeper?” He asked.
The female member of the group nodded and pulled out a small black device. Blue Breeze wanted to know what the levels of magic were. If they were at a certain level it could mean this camp was hiding the unicorn filly. The sweeper would light up and blink depending on how strong magical forces were around it. It was an incredibly sensitive device. It was one of the biggest innovations the Guard had ever produced and had lead to the capture of many, many unicorns back in the day.
Sassaflash flicked on the device and waved it through the air. They expected to see some magical feedback, they were in the Everfree after all, so it was no surprise when the device went from green to yellow. She cracked the sensitivity dial on the side of the sweeper. A high pitched ringing began coming from its speakers. Then in less than a second the device turned dark red.
The entire squad just stared at the angrily glowing device.
“How is that possible? That indicates a lot more magical energy than one unicorn! Even a full Alicorn wouldn’t make it light up like that!” Sassaflash exclaimed, looking to Blue Breeze for support. “Sir?” He was speechless for a moment.
“There are two possibilities. One: that entire camp is full of unicorns. Two: they have some serious magical objects hidden somewhere in there. Either way we need to tear that camp apart and find out!” Blue Breeze told his troops. They nodded.
A buzzing sound came from Breeze’s pack. He pulled out his walkie-talkie just as a message came in.
“Captain Breeze? This is Sergeant Clover requesting copy. Over.”
“This is Captain Breeze. I copy. Over”
“What’s your position and situation?”
“We have reached the coordinates. No sign of the agent that sent the flare. We just came across an encampment. Unusually high sweeper readings.”
“An encampment? This deep in the forest? Any more info?”
“Sir, I think I know what this camp is. I believe it’s an anti-Guard resistance settlement.”
“Captain, I think you’re right. I’ll radio to headquarters. Proceed with regular procedure. Our position is less than ten minutes out. Try to find that agent. I suspect that might be the reason she called for backup.”
“Yes Sir. Over and out.”
“Over and out.”
Blue Breeze turned to his troops.
“Well, you heard him! Let’s capture and secure the position.” His troops nodded. “If any pony finds either that unicorn or Rainbow Dash they are to report directly to me!”
---
Applejack froze as the sirens wailed even louder. She tried counting the number of tones before a repeat. Obviously it was a code red, but she wanted to know what type of emergency it was. Five. She counted five ascending tones in the wail. She relaxed slightly. The number for a lockdown (as in the case of an escaped prisoner) was three ascending. She frowned. She didn’t know what five tones meant. Then Silver Shot’s walkie cackled to life. Iron Flare’s voice came over the radio.
“General Shot. You are needed in the nerve center immediately. Our ground troops just radioed in. They seem to have found a resistance camp in the middle of the Everfree. To top it all off, they believe the camp is hiding the unicorn and there are higher levels of magic being detected. All of headquarters is on high alert!” Flare barked at them. “Get your arse in here immediately!” He roared and signed off, the walkie fell silent.
“Well, now you know.” Silver Shot looked at Applejack. She nodded and went for the exit. She turned quickly. “Uh, well, thanks for helping me.” She said to Shot. He nodded his expression firm.
“No problem, General.”
“Call me Applejack.” She told him and then raced off into the streets of the City. She needed to be fast if she wanted to get there in time. She was not going to let another of her friends die. Even if that pony would not count her as a friend anymore.
---
Rainbow Dash could feel her heart beat in her ears. She breathed heavily and she knew that this was probably it. Rain and wind lashed around her as the storm continued to visit its unholy wrath on the forest. Everything seemed to slow down as Dash looked up at the knife that the pegasus that was pinning her down held only inches above her neck.
She swallowed and looked into the eyes of her attacker. There was nothing there but cold malice. She braced herself for the feeling of the knife coming down. If she was going to die she was going to do it with dignity, looking right into the eyes of her killer.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this.”
“Well, then get on with it. If you’ve waited this long, what’s stopping you now?” Dash pointed out sarcastically. The dark blue pegasus shrugged and raised her knife. Dash was determined to keep her eyes open as it sliced towards her.
“Agent Rain! Stop!” screamed a voice from behind them.
Silver huffed as the blade was about to reach Dash’s neck. Dash watched it, just waiting for the impact, but at the very last second, her attacker flipped the knife and the handle slammed into Dash’s temple. She only felt a second of pain before everything went dark.
---
Silver Rain hissed in frustration.
“WHAT NOW?!! What could you possibly want?!” She screamed at the cadet who had just interrupted her kill. “I have orders to kill, I’m following those orders. You better have a damn good reason why you felt the need to stop me!” She yelled in the Guard pony’s face.
“We can’t find the unicorn filly. We need Rainbow Dash to locate her. That filly’s capture is far more important than Rainbow Dash’s death. Besides, we just got new orders from the General. We’re to bring both of them in alive if possible.” The young green private told Silver.
“Fine.” Silver rolled her eyes. “So I take it both the aerial and ground troops have arrived? Have they taken control of the camp?”
“They’re working on it. I was sent to find you and do a check on the situation that caused you to send up that flare.”
“It was so we could take the camp. I knew it was anti-Guard and needed to be eliminated. So, Private…?” Silver asked.
“Sassaflash, ma’am.” Sassaflash responded.
“Take care of Rainbow Dash. I’m going to see how the capture of the camp is coming and see if I can’t get my hooves on that little filly.” Silver told Sassaflash dismissively.
“Yes ma’am.” Sassaflash nodded.
---
Starlight watched in horror from the edge of the camp clearing. Seconds after she had shut the barrier behind her, shouts and crashes had echoed from the camp. She had climbed to the top of the wall with little bursts of magic and levitation and was now sitting on top of it, hunched down to avoid being seen.
A whole squad of pegasus Guards had raided the camp and were prying open the door to the underground shelter.
“By the legal authority of the Guard I order every pony out! This camp and every pony in it are now under the control of the Guard. Now get moving!” A tan pegasus captain shouted over the roar of the storm.
An older mare, one of the doctors from the med tent came up to meet him.
“There are sick ponies and foals in here! If you haven’t noticed there is a severe storm going on! I can see how that might not be a problem for you Guard pegasi, but the rest of us need shelter!” She told him hotly. “What do you want?! We’ll cooperate, just don’t force us out into the weather!” She continued.
“We’re looking for a unicorn filly and a pegasus mare by the name of Rainbow Dash. There are reports of this camp hiding them. Now, give them up or we tear the entire compound to pieces!” He snarled back at her. She met him stare for stare, her blue eyes meeting his green ones.
“A unicorn filly?! Have you completely lost your mind? All the unicorns are gone. Read your history books officer because it was you who killed them!” She yelled at him.
“That’s it!” He roared back, and turned to his troops. “Search the building! Search the tents and get a perimeter going! Search everywhere! Find that unicorn!” He turned back to the white doctor pony and she promptly punched him in the face. She turned back towards the opening.
“Every pony! We’ve got a full breach! Prepare for battle!” She shouted and ran down the stairs, the Guard ponies hot on her hooves. Before they got two steps however, a massive boom resounded from the basement. A huge explosion of streamers, balloons, confetti and other miscellaneous party items sent the Guard officers flying away from the opening.
“Come on party ponies! We’ve got them on the retreat! Let’s GO!” Pinkie Pie shouted from behind a large blue cannon that she had pulled out. A massive cheer rose up behind her and all the ponies of the camp swarmed out to do battle in the storm.
A large streak of lightning illuminated all the ponies in the clearing and nearly scared Starlight into falling off her perch. The camp would be alright, she reasoned. She felt bad that she had brought the Guards down on them, though she had no idea how they had all been found.
Starlight didn’t have time to worry about that though. Rainbow was still out in the storm all alone and possibly hurt. She had to find Rainbow. Starlight’s horn lit up with a dim purple glow and she popped out of existence, only to reappear on the ground. She shook her head, teleporting was dizzy business.
Then she stopped, concentrating and blocking out the storm. She needed to find Rainbow, she needed a finding spell. She thought of Rainbow Dash and her only. Her blue coat, her rainbow mane, the friendship they shared. Starlight’s very first friend. Suddenly, like before, the magic of the spell clicked into place and Starlight directed her magic through the patterns of this new spell. Her eyes opened and her horn continued to glow; and now, laid out over the stormy forest before her was a purple and red glowing magic string.
Starlight smiled, all she had to do now was follow it. It would lead her to Rainbow.