//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Rein of Darkstar 
// by lemonsrcool 
//------------------------------//

	The Rein of Darkstar


Star Shine was brave. Star Shine was valiant. Star Shine was a hero. Star Shine was also dead. She was struck down in the last battle of the 3rd pony war. First, actually, I should get into how this all started. The great pony wars were started when the great Princess Celestia died, assassinated by a Pegasus extremist. Luna stepped up to take the throne, as was her rightful place, but an alternate leader appeared. His name was Darkstar Twinkle. (Don’t mention his last name to him. It kinda pisses him off.) He immediately vied for power along with his lackeys, a large majority of the great pony council. He kicked Princess Luna out of leadership and established a new oppressive rule of power and cruelty. Luna didn’t go easily, though. She established a rebellion of all those who she knew supported her and went up against the oppressive ruler. That was the first pony war. Luna lost. Luna, with many of her troops dead, went back into hiding, plotting revenge. 

The Second Pony War started with another rebel leader, Iron Sun, who was a great strategist, but an ill- equipped leader. He quickly lost control of his own forces and was killed in the great siege of Phillydelphia. The second pony war was also lost, but unlike the first, the rebels actually gained some foothold against the terrible regime of Darkstar. 

Thus, the third Pony war started. Under the guidance of Princess Luna and Ironheart’s son, Steelhoove, the rebels slowly began to reclaim the world. Many great leaders came and gone in this Great War, which has lasted for over 20 years now, but now their best, Star Shine, had been killed. Morale was low within the ranks of the rebels, and for the first time in years, they had not won a decisive victory against Darkstar. This is not their story. This is the story of a single pony that was standing at guard duty at Fort Whoovington, A small stronghold deep within the Everfree Forest. This was just about as far as far could be from Darkstar’s New Capitol of Darkstar City. (Talk about conceited.) This pony’s name is Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had a thick, ruffled mane with all the colors of the rainbow, albeit darker. She had never seen the front line before. That was about to change. 
“Hey, Rainbow!” yelled her sergeant, a dark yellow earth pony. “You’re getting transferred to the front!”
Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat. The front? That’s where pony’s died. She was perfectly fine with this guard duty at some obscure base in the middle of nowhere. 
“What? Can’t anypony else go?” Rainbow argued.
“They specifically need a Pegasus pony and you’re the only one in this entire base.” He replied. “I wish I could help you out, but I can’t do anything. This comes directly from the top.”
“Fine. When do I have to leave?”
“Immediately”, the sergeant said sternly. “Good luck out there.”
Rainbow Dash sighed. She always kind of wanted to go into the front lines, and that’s why she didn’t argue much, but now that she was actually going, the thought made her sick to her stomach. So while on the shuttle to the front lines, she did the sensible thing that someone who is really nervous would do. She slept. 

When Rainbow Dash awoke, the shuttle was almost there. She looked out the window. All dead trees and fog. Not a living thing in sight. She asked the pilot how much longer.
“We should get there in about-” 
He didn’t get to finish. Just at that moment, the shuttle jerked to the side. 
“Everypony get down! We’re under attack!” yelled the pilot. Rainbow fell over and tried to grab hold of something; anything. Just then, the cockpit of the shuttle was blasted from the rest, taking the flailing pilot to his doom. Rainbow crawled back. She was in a ship that had no pilot that was falling fast into the dead forest below. She braced herself for what would surely be a hard landing. She closed her eyes. 

Rainbow woke up looking into somepony’s eyes. She realized that she must have survived the fall, and their attackers had taken her captive. She looked around. There were 3 more rebels around her, those who had been in the back of the ship as it was hit. 
“Are we all that are left?” She asked the colt next to her. 
“As far as I can see.” He replied.
“No Talking!” yelled the soldier that was tasked with guarding them.
Rainbow looked around. They were in the middle of a clearing, and the enemy were all around. There was a large, mossy wall to the left, probably the remains of some unfortunate town. To the right, was a trail leading off into the distance. She wondered why the enemy would deploy such a large force to dispatch a single shuttle. She heard some talking from a large tent on the other side of the clearing. 
“Then we will end this here!” A large black Pony exited the tent. He had dark eyes and lots of wrinkles around his mouth that seemed to form a permanent scowl on his mouth. He walked up to the guard. 
“Which one is it?” he asked.
“That one”, replied the guard, pointing straight at Rainbow. Rainbow suddenly jerked back. What did they mean? She was the one? The what? 
“Alright then dispose of all these rebels so we can go home.”
Rainbow shuddered. Dispose of? 
“With pleasure”, said the guard. He took out his weapon, a specially designed gun that was made specifically for the imperial guards of Darkstar. He went up to the first rebel in line, placed the barrel up to his head, and pulled the trigger. A bolt of light went straight into the unfortunate colt’s head. His eyes glowed a second before he slumped to the floor, his head smoking. The guard proceeded to the next pony in line. Rainbow looked away. She heard a scream, and then something hit the ground. Next was the pony directly to her right. She heard him try to crawl away, but a single flash of light showed that his efforts were in vain. 
The guard approached Rainbow. “Your turn now.” 
Rainbow closed her eyes, bracing for the light... The gun was right up to her forehead. She could feel the pressure building up within the barrel. Then, the pressure went slack. She looked up. The guard’s forehead had been cut clean off, revealing brain underneath. He fell over. The wall to her side burst open.
“Charge!” Yelled a purple unicorn, bursting through the gap. 
She looked at Rainbow. Her eyes glowed for a sec, and then she looked up and pressed forward. Rainbow realized that the unicorn had used magic to loosen her bonds enough for her to escape. She looked around. She could see a whole assortment of rebel ponies fighting against her captors. She saw a pink earth pony dash by throwing all assortments of grenades into the fray. She saw a white unicorn seemingly flaring her arms out randomly, but in every direction she flung, an imperial guard fell over, grasping his neck. Rainbow saw an orange earth pony with a cowboy hat on walk into the fray and take out a small pad out of her pocket. She placed it on the ground and pressed a button. It immediately began to whir and expand, revealing hidden compartments that housed supports and ammo boxes. It grew until it was a fully functional automatic turret, homing in on foes and taking them out quickly. Rainbow saw the purple unicorn that had burst in beside her, taking out enemies seemingly with a glare. Her horn would glow and enemy guards would fly in different directions, or suddenly convulse and fall. Then, to her right, she saw a yellow and pink Pegasus, surrounded by imperial guards. 
“Watch out!” yelled Rainbow. 
The Pegasus looked at her, and smiled at her. Then, in one big move, she thrust out her hoove, which had been holding a bag. The bag burst open to reveal some sort of insect that quickly honed in on her enemies and stung them. They fell to the ground, writhing in pain. More rebel ponies of all types burst through the wall and Pegasus flew in from above. Within a minute, every last enemy guard was either dead, dying, or tied up and gagged. The purple unicorn approached Rainbow. 
“You’re the only on left?” She asked.
Rainbow was too stunned to answer. 
“You… Just... Whuh... Huh... Duh?” Rainbow replied.
“Are you the only one left???” The unicorn repeated. This time Rainbow mustered up enough brainpower to answer.
“Yeah... They killed the others just as you arrived.” Rainbow looked to the side. She saw the yellow Pegasus checking the pulse of some fallen ponies. 
“Damn. We were too late.”
“Well, I’m the only one left if that’s what you want to know.” The unicorn looked around grimly. She finally sighed.
“Come with me to the shuttle. We can get back to a safer location for now.”
They boarded a shuttle with all the other rebels and strapped in. The purple unicorn turned to face her. 
“Our mission was to locate a fallen shuttle carrying high priority personnel. Unfortunately, our shuttle broke down mid-flight and we had to stop to fix it. We were late to the enemy base, and therefore were too late to save the others in the shuttle.” She looked away from Rainbow.
“Well, who was the high priority personnel?” Asked Rainbow.
“You”, replied the unicorn.

When they reached main base, Rainbow still couldn’t understand why she was the high priority personnel. She was some random unimportant pony who stood at guard duty at some obscure base in the middle of nowhere. Why would she be so important? She decided to save that question for later. Now was the time to find out where she was, and why she was sent here. She found the answer to that question a moment later when the purple unicorn talked to her again.
“You’re here because the last flyer in our squad was killed last week. Star Shine; you heard of her?”
Rainbow had heard something about a flyer named Star Shine who had been killed. Apparently she was the best flyer in the entire rebel forces. Then, it hit Rainbow. She was the replacement for Star Shine. How could it be? Rainbow was a good flyer, but only because she got lessons from her grandmother and mother before even the first pony war. She couldn’t be the best.. Could she? Rainbow looked around hesitantly. 
The purple unicorn confirmed her fears when she said,” You’re here to replace her.”
Rainbow figured that getting scared wouldn’t do anything good, so she went on ahead with the unicorn. 
“So... What kinda squad are we anyways?” asked Rainbow.
“We are the third battalions’ squad on special ops. We do all the things that a meat wall of normal troops can’t. Espionage, sabotage, subversion... Those kinds of things.” 
All Rainbow could do was nod. A special ops squad? She wasn’t special at anything! How could she be part of this squad? And how could she be as good as Star Shine?? 
“Why me?” asked Rainbow.
“Huh?” replied the unicorn quizzically. “Why you what?”
“Why did I get picked for this? I mean, it’s not that you guys are bad or anything... You’re awesome... It’s just that... I’m not! I’m not special at anything! How could I be the one who joins this team?”
“Just calm down. I know as much as you, but if you know as little as you say, and I hope you don’t, then we might be in trouble. I’ll send a letter to the higher-ups and ask why you were brought here, though, if it would make you feel better.”
Rainbow nodded. At least she would be out of this nightmare soon. Already an entire shuttle of rebels had died for her today. How many more? She followed the unicorn onwards through the base. They entered a room at the end of a long hallway. The plaque next to the door indicated that this room was the barracks for the special ops squad. Inside, she saw the white unicorn using her magic to spin a needle around in the air in front of her. A pink earth pony touched the needle in midair, yelled “ouch!”, then giggled. An orange earth pony was fiddling with something in her arm, and a yellow Pegasus was feeding a carrot to a... what? A bunny it looked like she had? OK, thought Rainbow. This is getting weirder by the second. Then she realized these were the same ones who had fought so fiercely to free her. The first to talk was the white unicorn. She walked up to Rainbow
“Hello... are you the replacement for Star Shine?” she asked.
“Uhh... yeah I am.” Rainbow replied. 
“Alright... I love your mane... very colorful.”
Rainbow looked around again. 
“Oh, how rude of me...” said the unicorn. “I didn’t introduce myself... My name is Rarity.”
“Oh, hello Rarity”, Rainbow replied. “I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“How nice to meet you! Alright, everypony introduce yourselves to Rainbow.”
The pink earth pony came up first. 
“Hi! I’m Pinkamina Diane Pie, but you can call me Pinky Pie! I’m in charge of demolition! Do you want a muffin?” She took out a muffin seemingly out of nowhere and put it right up to Rainbow’s face.
“Uhh. No thanks”, Rainbow stammered.
“Alright!” Pinkie said. Then she threw the muffin through the doorway into the adjacent room, where it exploded. Rainbow jumped a little.
“Does she do that a lot?” Rainbow asked.
“Nah”, replied the orange earth pony. “She only does that when she has enough flour n’ gunpowder to make muffins. Howdy. I’m Applejack. Nice to meet you!” 
“You too”, replied Rainbow.
“I’m the engineer in this squad. I make all the equipment that you’ll be usin on field missions.” She took an apple out of her saddlebag and began to munch on it. 
Rainbow looked around again, and saw the yellow Pegasus. She approached her. 
“Hi”, Rainbow greeted. 
“Hello...” replied the Pegasus.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m...Fluttershy”, she said quietly.
“Uhh... alright? Well I’m Rainbow Dash!” She made a squeaking noise and hunched back into the corner.
“Don’t worry about her. She’s a little shy.” Said the purple unicorn. ”I’m Twilight by the way. I’m the squad leader and I specialize in magic.” 
“Magic?” replied Rainbow. She had heard that unicorns could use magic, but to specialize in magic? 
“Yes. I have been good at magic since I was just a philly.” 
“Really? That’s really cool! I don’t know many ponies who can specialize in magic!” exclaimed Rainbow.
“Well, I guess that makes us have something in common.” said Twilight. Just then, a large pony came in wearing a full camo suit. 
“Your squad must report to the briefing room. Immediately.” All the ponies rushed out of the room except Rainbow and Twilight. 
“A mission? Already?” stammered Rainbow.
“No training like on the job training”, replied Twilight, smiling. “Let’s go.” They went through a maze of hallways until finally reaching a large, dark room. A large, dark pony awaited them.
“That’s Ironhoove!” thought Rainbow. They all got into line in front of him. He got straight to the point. 
“A large force of enemy ponies has massed to the north of our position. We are already battling them with our own troops, but we can’t get past their artillery. Your job is to get to the artillery bunkers, and destroy them so our own troops can press forward. Be careful, though. This base is heavily guarded, but our spies have found a way in. An old service tunnel leads straight into the heart of their base. Unfortunately, the only entrance to the tunnel is right in the middle of the battlefield. Your first priority is to get to the tunnel, maintaining that it hasn’t been destroyed by the enemy artillery as of yet. If it has been destroyed, you’re just going to have to find another way in. This operation is vital to the continued operation of this base.” He saluted and stomped out of the room.
“So what do we do now?” asked Rainbow.
“We go of course”, replied Twilight.
They boarded a shuttle bound for the battle. She had been told earlier after the briefing that she would go with the 15th airborne division and find the insertion area. After that, she would need to signal the area with tracking beacons, all while avoiding the innumerable number of imperial soldiers trying to take her out of the sky. She had to get on a different shuttle than the rest of the squad. It began to rain outside. The harsh raindrops made thick resonating sounds within the metal carapace of the shuttle. She put on her helmet. Then she realized that this is the first time she ever put on a helmet. She didn’t need one for guard duty back in the everfree forest. She had basic training, of course, but that was it. This was the real deal. She tried to remember everything she learned back in the military academy. Fly straight. Don’t hesitate. Basic things. Speed is power in the air. If you have speed, you have power. She heard cracks coming from outside. Thunder, she thought. Then no... She was in a battlefield. This was not thunder. This was artillery, or explosions. She was afraid to look outside. She looked around the chamber she was in, with the rest of the Pegasus who were in the 15th airborne. Most were veterans. A few were fresh out of the academy. She looked at the Pegasus next to her. She was grey with a yellow mane. Her cutie mark was bubbles. 
“Hi”, said Rainbow.
“Oh, hi. Are you the one who is taking over Star Shine’s spot?”
“Yeah”, replied Rainbow. “I’m Rainbow Dash.”
“Oh, well I’m Derpy. You ever see battle before?”
“Nope.”
“Well me neither so good luck out there!”
Rainbow got a pit in her stomach. These Pegasus were now under her command. She was responsible for their lives. She was the new leader of this division. It was her job to make sure these Pegasus returned home. Rainbow took on a defiant look. Nopony was gonna die while she was on duty.