“Okay, listen up,” Rainbow Dash commanded, her voice ringing out across the dark plain. She and her squad stood at the edge of Bronco’s Bluff, the moon shedding a pale light onto their faces. They weren’t wearing the bright blue and yellow flight suits the other Wonderbolts usually wore. These were dark gray, sleek, skin-tight, and yet able to allow the squad to move their limbs freely. The pale moon glared off each of their goggles, which matched the color of their suit. Each had only a small satchel at their sides, carrying only a small amount of food and whatever essentials Spitfire had deemed necessary.
Dash faced her team with a stern glare, stating, “Fleetfoot will be my wingpony. Same with me, anything she says, goes. Also, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve increased our group by one.” She nodded toward another mare, who looked remarkably similar to Cloudchaser in mane and color. In fact, if it wasn’t for the pink bow pulling her hear back into a ponytail, the two would have looked identical in their uniforms. “This is Flitter. Another good friend of mine. She ain’t a Wonderbolt, but she’s a whiz with medicine. She’ll be the team’s medic. Whether you get a papercut or a knife in your eye, she’ll be able to patch you up.”
“But you know, try your best not to,” the medic said with a wink.
“Okay then, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” Dash continued, trying to brush off the new member’s arrival. “You all know what’s at stake here. Remember, I don’t give two bucks about whatever past history we’ve had with each other. There is no room for error. We’re going to do this mission right, and we’re going to hit ‘em so hard and fast, General Razorbeak isn’t going to know what hit him. But if all of you want to make it back in one piece, you better follow Fleetfoot’s and my orders, understand?”
“Yes ma’am!”
With a cool smirk, Dash nodded and uttered, “Awesome.” Then, slipping on her goggles, she commanded, “Alright Wonderbolts, form up! Fire Streak, take the rear!”
The seven pegasi lined up on the runway in pairs, with Fire Streak flying solo in the back. Fleetfoot positioned herself to the right of Dash, and two began to crouch low in takeoff position. The rest of the team followed suit, with Lightning Dust being the last to prepare for flight. Rainbow cast a fervent gaze at the dark horizon before her, sweat forming on her forehead, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Finally, she turned her head towards Fleetfoot, who simply nodded.
Extending her wings, Dash uttered, “Let’s fly.”
Pair by pair, the team leapt off of cliff side. The group carved a low arch into the air before curving upward, beating their wings almost as one. Moving like a graceful snake, they climbed higher and higher into the sky. The wind blew back their messy manes, and the cold night air nipped at their exposed snouts. Further and further they climbed, until the moonlit trees below them were just tiny dots upon a gray landscape. Then they leveled out, and the squad flew onwards with only the moon as their companion. Their direction: north, toward the faraway land of Veneighzuela.
Fleetfoot inched herself closer to Rainbow and inquired, “So what’s with the new recruit?” She motioned her head towards Flitter, who was unsurprisingly conversing with Cloudchaser.
“Flitter?” Rainbow began. She began to recall just how difficult it was convince Spitfire to get her, how adamant the commander seemed about letting another pony in on the mission. However, after much debate, prodding, and a slight bit of groveling, Spitfire finally relented, repeating that “it’s your mission Dash. I’ll let you make the decision”.
“Cloudchaser requested her, so I got her. But don’t worry, I’ve known her as long as I’ve known CC. She’s a good flyer, but an even better medic. I know she’s isn’t a Wonderbolt, but she was a cadet once; she knows how this works. If this mission’s as dangerous as it seems, we’ll need her.”
“Medicine, huh? That’s fine and all, but don’t you think that, with the things going on between CC and Dust, giving CC another friend would be…troublesome?”
“If it comes to that, I’ll handle it. But Flitter isn’t as hot-headed as Cloud. I don’t think she’ll be a problem.”
Satisfied, Fleetfoot nodded and turned her head forward. Keeping her eyes straight, she added, “One more thing, Rainbow…I know the past history you and Soarin have together, but you cannot let that get between us and the success of this mission. You’ve got quite a brash history behind you, Dash, and I just wanted to make sure you understood that.”
Underneath her goggles Dash couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows. Keeping her voice in check, Dash simply pretended to shrug and say, “Of course. That’s all in the past, anyway.”
“Oh I know,” her second-in-command replied. But with a quiet, grave tone, Fleetfoot warned, “It’s just that some ponies…don’t let go of the past real easy.”
“Maybe sometimes,” Dash began, her voice trailing off as she thought about it for a little while. “I don’t know…maybe sometimes it’s okay to hold on to it.”
“Well, I’m just saying, Rainbow. Think about it.” Then, with a light-hearted smirk, Fleetfoot added, “After all, once we get to Veneighzuela, we won’t have any time to think.”
Rainbow Dash wanted to chuckle at that statement, but in the end, she figured it would have only sounded fake.
xxx
As the fast-moving squad jetted further away from home, Spitfire stood next to a large window in her office, watching the clouds drift across the sky. A few minutes ago, she had witnessed the seven take off in the flight pattern that she herself had taught them. Her body was slightly trembling, and her face was warm and covered with sweat. Her sunglasses hid a pair of blank eyes, which continued to stare far, far off
“So they’ve gone then?” a voice said from behind her.
“Yes. I hope we hear back from them soon.” Spitfire slowly turned around to sit back at her desk. Before her was an armor-clad stallion, sporting a pair of emblazoned wings on his chestplate, which meant he was a colonel. He had a rugged beard spread across his chin, and his striking green eyes glared sternly at the Wonderbolt.
“I take it they don’t know?” the stallion said gruffly.
“About what?” Spitfire responded, staring back over the top of her sunglasses.
“Don’t play dumb, Spitfire. Do they know about what you’re doing here?”
“What I’m doing is preventing a war, Colonel. They know about Border B. They know what happened.”
Suddenly, the stallion slammed his hoof on the desk, sticking in nose in Spitfire’s face. The Wonderbolt could smell the scent of cider wafting from his mouth, and see the bits of lettuce still stuck to his teeth. “Dammit, Spitfire, you know that’s not the whole truth,” he uttered. “You’re doing this without Celestia’s authorization. If they don’t come back, then you’ve got to explain why some of our ponies were found dead far across the border. That is, if you’re not already busy fighting a war that you started. This whole thing could be the catalyst for—.”
“To Tartarus with Celestia’s authorization!” Spitfire yelled, causing the stallion jump back in shock. She stood up over her desk, toppling a lamp and scattering papers across the floor. With a low, spiteful voice, she uttered, “She’d never do anything until it’s too late! In my opinion, it’s already too late! My fliers were massacred, Colonel Stinger. How do you expect me to not do anything about it?”
“My men were killed too, Spitfire,” the colonel countered. “And I would do anything to see that griffon dead. But this…this is only going to make things worse!”
“The plan’s going forward, Stinger, and that’s final!” Pointing an accusing hoof at the stallion, Spitfire whispered, “You’re in this just as much as me, and unless you want to lose that armor of yours, I suggest you stick with the plan and shut up. Those griffons have been planning a war for years now, and we’ve done nothing but keep Equestria in the dark. But we waited too long. Now, this isn’t just about war.”
“Then what is it about?”
Sitting back in her seat, the Wonderbolt readjusted her glasses and answered, “I’ll give you one letter to figure it out…”
xxx
Meanwhile, a heavy fog began to surround the team of pegasi, making the already dim night even more opaque. Thanks to Fleetfoot’s expert navigation, however, they continued on their path to Veneighzuela, never even pausing for one second.
In the middle of the pack, a pair of lifetime friends was conversing. Flying a bit closer to each other so they could speak over the wind, Flitter said, “I totally, like, never thought I’d fly with the Wonderbolts again, CC. And when Dash called me, I was like, ‘No way!’ It was pretty crazy.”
Cloudchaser couldn’t help but smile at the fact that Flitter still talked in the same way they did years ago. “Yeah, it’s been awhile, Flitters. I’m kinda sorry this isn’t exactly the ideal way to meet up.”
“No prob.” Casting a reluctant glance behind her, Flitter leaned in close to her friend’s ear and whispered, “So is that…?”
Letting out a sigh and rolling her eyes, Cloudchaser uttered, “Unfortunately.”
“Hey! You girls know I can hear you back here, right?”
“Back there!” Dash called. With a smirk, she shouted, “Less talking, more focusing! If were you, I’d enjoy the peace and quiet, ‘cause chances are it’s gonna be a long time until we get any more.”
Flitter and Cloudchaser sunk back into obedient silence, flying onwards without so much as a glare at each other. Lightning Dust, on the other hand, wasn’t too keen on obedience. With a quiet snort, she muttered to nopony in particular, “Yes, oh brilliant captain of ours…”
Turning to her flying partner, who happened to be Thunderlane, she said, “So, Mohawk, not much of a talker, huh?”
Keeping his eyes forward, he replied dully, “Just got a lot on my mind.”
“Well, I’m no therapist, so don’t go telling me now,” Lightning Dust answered, a sarcastic smirk plain her face. And unless her goggles were smudged or broken, she could have sworn there was a grin on Thunderlane’s face too.
Up at the front of the formation, Rainbow said to her second-in-command, “So how long until we hit the border?”
“Well, we oughta be hitting the mountain range right about…now!” Suddenly, a giant rock face appeared out of the thick fog, almost invisible in the darkness. With its jagged edges quickly approaching, Fleetfoot hollered, “Whoa, whoa, slow it down!”
Being the highly-trained pegasi they were, the team stopped on a dime at Fleetfoot’s command. It was a good thing she had called out when she did, otherwise they would have had a head-on collision with the mountain standing just a few feet in front of them. Rainbow Dash surveyed the rock before her, finding a thin crevasse almost obscured by the fog and overgrowth. Gesturing towards the passage, Dash said, “Fog here’s pretty dangerous. Let’s take it slow. Single file. I’ll lead.”
With an adventurous grin, Dash ventured into the dark, uneven crevasse with her squad following closely behind. The crack was barely wide enough to fit their wings through, every now and then scraping them against the ragged sides. Their breath began to condense in the chilly air, forming little puffs near their muzzles. Although there was no snow, the air still tingled against their flesh, and an ominous wind weaved throughout the passage. When the group looked up, they would see bits of brush poking through the rock, the shadowy night making them look like specters in the fog. A shiver ran down Thunderlane’s spine, and he uttered, “This place gives me the chills.”
“Already?” a deep voice responded in the back. “And we ain’t even been to griffon territory yet.”
“You’ve been?”
The stone-faced Fire Streak replied, “Once. Hoped I’d never have to go back there again. Obviously, I ain’t too lucky.”
The group continued to snake through the mountain, often times having to fly underneath rocks that seemed unsteadily balanced between the two sides. However, after about an hour of flying, the crevasse opened up into open air. The team had made it through unscathed, aside from a few ruffled feathers and damaged personal space bubbles.
“Glad to be outta there,” an upbeat Cloudchaser commented.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart? Can’t handle a few bushes?” Lightning Dust replied, only getting a look of scorn from CC in response.
Before either pony could make another snide comment, Dash wheeled around to address her team. “Congratulations folks. You just flew across your own country without dying. Whoop-de-doo.” Moving down the ranks, she continued, “That was the easy part, ladies and gentlemen. But now, things are gonna get a whole lot different.”
The steely lieutenant turned back, casting her gaze upon the jungle that seemed to expand far past the dim horizon. Fog seemed to twist and turn throughout the foliage, like some kind of unknown entity engulfing the land in its wicked trap. And here, the stars seemed to shine less, as though they knew something was about to transpire.
“Welcome to Veneighzuela.”