((Prompt: Alpha Protocol.))
There was a trick to flying undetected. Moving your wings too much made noise and gave away your position. Hold too still, and you lose altitude and crash, leaving you on the ground and giving away your position. Stealth flight required planning and patience, taking as much advantage as possible from updrafts where they could be found, and gliding wherever possible.
It also helped if your mane wasn't full of bright colors, but Rainbow Dash made up for that by being extra good at the flying part.
She glanced to her side, catching glimpses of her wingmate as they swooped through the abandoned alleys and backways of Canterlot. The two of them darted like shadows through the darkened nightscape. The standard blue and yellow Wonderbolts uniforms would have drawn too much attention, so they wore black fatigues.
Despite herself, Rainbow grinned. It was her first field op, and they had her partnered with the Captain herself. They were already pairing her with the top aces. Spitfire's orange mane and tail flickered in the muted light of the street lamps as they sped silently through the city.
Some ponies thought that all the Wonderbolts did was flight shows, but that wasn't true. Sure, they performed now and then because ponies love a good airshow, but their real function was to go in and do their thing wherever the crown needed a squad of elite, highly-trained pegasi.
Spitfire's wings raised slightly, and Rainbow Dash slowed herself to a hover. They were under strict silence protocols, so they could only communicate with wing-signs. Dash waited for the Captain to give her the signal.
She didn't have to wait long. Spitfire tilted her head toward a darkened warehouse. That must be where the target was. The Captain raised one hoof in the air, took three short flaps, and twisted to the left.
Rainbow Dash nodded. Spitfire would clear the roof while Rainbow went in through the lone window on the front of the building. She took a perch on a stone ledge and waited for Spitfire to give her the all-clear.
The Captain took off noiselessly, circling twice around the warehouse before carefully alighting on the eave. A pony without as sharp of eyes as Rainbow might have missed the nod of her head from this distance, but Rainbow saw it and made a line for the window.
Fortunately it wasn't a glass window, but a simple opening with a couple wooden slats. Dash had been trained how to breach glass without getting scratched up, but she didn't like having to pick the little shards out of her primaries. The wooden slats broke easily under a quick blow of her hooves.
She wasn't entirely certain what to expect inside. They had been a bit vague on the exact nature of the mission objectives during the briefing. Need-to-know stuff, and all that. She imagined a group of rough thugs huddled about inside. Maybe they were smuggling salt, or were part of an underground sugar-beet ring.
It was dark inside. Very dark. Rainbow blinked, looking around her. The only light was the square of moonlight cast from the window she had entered.
She frowned. Something was up. Either they had the wrong place, or they were waiting for her...
Rainbow twisted and rolled away the moment she felt a hoof touch her back. She kicked out blindly, grinning as she felt her rear hooves connect and elicit an “oof!”
She didn't have much time to celebrate her triumph, however, as a leg swept her hooves out from under her. Rainbow snapped her wings sharply against the air, rising upwards rather than falling to the ground like her assailant no doubt expected her to.
Rainbow whistled loudly, the signal for Spitfire to come in and back her up. Still unable to see her attackers, she braced her hindlegs against the wall and sprung forward. She just needed to delay until backup came in to even the odds.
Or that was the plan, anyway. Something wrapped around her wings, dragging Rainbow Dash to the ground. She tried to roll out of it and keep moving, but the weight of somepony kept her pinned to the floor. Dash tried to struggle, lash out, throw her attacker off balance, but she couldn't get leverage.
A match lit up ahead of her, revealing the outline of a stallion. “Welcome,” he said. There was something familiar to that voice, but Rainbow couldn't quite place it. “What brings a famous Wonderbolt here, I wonder?” His tone was jovial and mocking.
Rainbow growled, “I'm not telling you anything!”
“Hm, hm,” the stallion laughed. “Perhaps not. Perhaps you won't tell me anything, little Wonderbolt.” Dash winced as she heard his hoofsteps come closer, stopping just ahead of her face. Something was dropped on the ground in front of her. “But perhaps you will tell... my pie!”
The lights suddenly flipped on. Rainbow Dash squeezed her eyelids against the sudden brightness. When she opened them, she saw an apple pie on the ground in front of her. Soarin' grinned at her over the top of it, dressed in his blue flightsuit. The pony on top of her, Fleetfoot, also wore her flightsuit as well. In fact, of the half dozen ponies in the room, the only two who were not wearing their Wonderbolts uniforms were Rainbow Dash herself and Spitfire, who she saw leaning against the wall, smirking.
“Wha?” Dash said.
Fleetfoot got off of her, and Soarin' helped her up. “Congratulations, rookie! Welcome to the 'Bolts!”
Rainbow worked her mouth soundlessly.
Cloud Fire rubbed his jaw where Dash had kicked him. “They do this with all the new recruits,” he said. “You should've seen the one they pulled on me. I'm still finding bits of goo in my feathers!”