Luna had called last nights training early, and told her students to get to sleep as early as they could. "We will be training in the day tomorrow, very early in the morning. I want you all here before the sun rises. We will be doing something very special."
Neither Twilight nor Rainbow had managed much, as they had their sleep schedule turned around so drastically, and barely managed to make it back to Luna that morning. Twilight had managed just four hours of sleep. Not too bad; I've aced tests on less. By the looks of it Rainbow had managed far less; her landing was as sloppy as Twilight's.
"Are you ok?" Twilight whispered to Rainbow as the students gathered around Luna.
"Huh? Yea, I'm... Yea..." Rainbow muttered mostly to herself.
"That's a hard no," Rapidfire called, moving over to Rainbow. "Seriously, Dash, you're a real light weight."
"I'm not... drunk," Rainbow muttered to the ground, rubbing her eyes with a foreleg.
"Sure you're not," Rapidfire said, with a truly excessive dose of sarcasm as she jabbed Rainbow in the side with her muzzle.
"She'll wake up when we start flying," Procyon said in a dry voice. "That always raises her spirits."
Twilight suspected as much, but she didn't know why Procyon would know that; they had only met two weeks ago.
"We are going to do something very exiting today," Luna said to her students, with a wide smile across her large snout. "Do not consider this a true test; you can not fail today, but I would like to know how well coordinated you will be in a more proper battle situation. Most of the time I suspect you will be fighting against terrible odds, but only simple soldiers. Sometimes though, you will find yourself face to face with the best our enemies can throw at you. Today we will be simulating that very situation.
"Come; we are going to fly to your battle ground." Luna spread her large wings, and smoothly slid into the air.
Twilight was worried she might bump into someone as they all flew in such close formation, to stay near enough to Luna to hear, but as she climbed into the sky Rainbow took up position on her immediate left. Even in her sleep deprived state Rainbow was able to hold precise formation with Twilight, even as Twilight wondered side to side as she struggled to keep up with Luna's rapid pace. Rapidfire took a position on her right, staying a bit further away but still held formation with Twilight, allowing her to concentrate on flying and not worrying about flying into anyone.
As it turned out, they didn't need to stay very close to Luna, as she transitioned into her royal Canterlot voice.
"Celestia and I have perfected a training aid that I feel it is time to fully utilize. It is a very simple substance in theory, but it's application is something I am personally very proud of. Celestia likes to call it Paralzyme, but I prefer Occisus Pingere."
"Huh? Death Paint?" the dark grey pegasi, Thunderlane, called out. He was the only pony here besides Rainbow and Twilight that was from Ponyville, although Twilight didn't know him at all. Rainbow knew him a bit, but not very well either. Twilight didn't know why, or how, he knew old Equittish, but unfortunately he was only partially right.
"Actually," Twilight began, shifting into her lecture voice, "death in old Equit is mortium. Occisus is an verb, not an adjective or noun. It basically means, to cut down or, to slay. You are right; pingere is old Equittish for paint, so it's sort of... a knockdown paint?"
"Very good, Twilight, Thunderlane," Luna's voice boomed over them.
"Why call it paraslime then?" Rapidfire asked.
"Paralzyme," Twilight corrected immediately. "I believe it's a compound of paralyze and enzyme? If so does this mean you've finally completed Clover The Clever's prison lock?"
"No," Luna stated. "If we had completed Clover The Clever's work, we would have used her name for the potion. While it is heavily based on her work, it was made in a completely different intent. Clever's potion was intended to disable a unicorns magic for as long as is needed. Our paint is instead a skin contact short term paralytic, intended only for the purpose of creating more realistic training. Maybe in a few years we can use it in law enforcement as well, but for now it is in very limited supply and requires an outside power to function."
"What is the outside power source?" Procyon asked.
"Me," Luna answered.
"What does it do?" Rapidfire asked. "Oh, let me guess!... Knocks ponies down?"
"Yes, by paralyzing them. The most important aspect of it though; it is fast acting but also easily treated, allowing those disabled to return to the battle quickly afterward. I also have great control over the specific effects. The paint itself is nothing more than a marker; the real effects come from a spell I will cast on you all, and maintain. All the paint does is locally trip the spell, activating it's effects. The spell itself can be almost any; extreme pain, weakness, or total paralysis. We will be using the later."
They continued on in silence for a few moments. This is incredible, but not actually as forward thinking as Luna makes it out to be. Using a physical object to trigger a preexisting spell is a concept that has been around for thousands of years, as is the basic paralysis spell. I guess having the spell trip only locally is a pretty big achievement, and making the spell's efficient enough to cast and maintain on over twenty individuals would be a challenge, but it's something I could probably work out in a few days. Why wouldn't they bring me in on this?
They were flying away from Canterlot to the north east, deeper into the remote northern spine of the Unicorn Range. Canterlot was originally built as a castle with an internal town, intended to guard Equestria's northern boarder. The only way to travel from north to south through the Unicorn range would either be to go through the large valley to the west that Cloudsdale usually hovered over, or to travel through the mountain pass that Canterlot guarded. Once Canterlot had become the capital of the Empire, a new fort was built further down the pass, deep in the heights of the range, to guard the now much more important Canterlot from the north.
After the Crystal Empire joined with Equestira, and Canterlot suddenly became the center of the Empire, the north fort was abandoned. Years of disuse and the cooling climate had permanently frozen most of the pass, forcing all road traffic to the northern Crystal Lands to travel through Cloudsdale's valley instead. Any traffic travelling to the east towards Manehattan would now travel along the southern perimeter of the Unicorn Range, rather than risking going over or through the massive mountains.
There was no practical reason to come up here anymore. At least we won't be interrupted by anything... as long as there are no avalanches.
As they approached the old fort, Twilight had to steady herself; they fort was huge! Twilight had never seen even a drawing of it before, as archeologists had supposedly picked it clean millennia ago, and only a handful of ponies even knew it existed at all. It's walls stretched at least five stories high, and was as wide as Canterlot itself was.
As they crested the wall and began to descend into it Twilight made another major discovery, it was at least ten stories to the central courtyard. The outside of the lower five stories must be underneath the snow! The courtyard itself was at least three thousand feet across, and then the ring of buildings was at least another 800 feet.
The courtyard itself contained almost nothing but a bunch of random snow drifts, and at least twelve other ponies. None were in uniform, but Twilight could clearly recognize Spitfire and Soarin in the lead. No, not twelve; there are sixteen of them! Twilight thought, as they came in for a landing on the loose snow.
"Wow, Luna, are you serious?" Rapidfire blurted out, coming in on Twilight's right, her heavy hooves sinking into the snow.
"I am," Luna cooed to her students, as she moved forward towards the Wonderbolts assembled in the middle of the courtyard, her light steps leaving almost no impression on the snow.
"Are those all veterans?" Procyon asked, gouging a deep track in the snow as he pulled himself along. "That's Spitfire and Soarin in the lead; we may be in trouble."
"No," Rainbow quickly answered, hovering above them all. "Do you see the pegasi on the back left, with the amber and orange mane? That's Lighting Dust; she was in the same class as me two years ago, before I... left."
"Is she the one that—" Twilight began to ask.
"Nearly killed you and the rest of our friends? Yea, that was her," Rainbow's answer interrupted.
"How much do you know about the rest?" Procyon asked, craning his head to look up at her hovering above.
Twilight didn't need to look; she could feel the cool breeze from Rainbow's wings on her back. Instead she looked the collection of Wonderbolts over, trying to remember the names a the few she recognized. Just the famous few, she finally admitted to herself.
"Spitfire's full squad is here," Rainbow said from above, "Spitfire herself, Soarin, Fleetfoot and Blaze. The second squad, the one on the right, is Fire Streak's. It's him, Lighting Streak, High Winds and Silver Lining. I don't recognize most of the other two squads; I think they're all recent recruits. That's Cloudchaser with Lighting Dust, and Cloud Chaser is in the other squad."
"My brother. He was accepted just last year," Thunderlane said, sounding uninterested.
"Yea..." Rainbow mumbled. "Twilight, is that Candy Floss?"
"It is," Twilight answered, spotting the bright maned pegasi from Ponyville. "I didn't know she even wanted to be a Wonderbolt!?"
"We might not actually have it so bad," Rainbow began, "if half of them have only been flying a year or two. That's Cloud Kicker too. I guess half of Ponyville's weather team made it in."
"You ponies and your clouds," Procyon taunted. "I think we'll do well enough."
"We'll win!" Rainbow shouted, and hurried ahead to land beside Luna.
"You heard her!" Rapidfire barked; "let's do this!"
Twilight followed as the others rushed ahead, but she couldn't shake the dread that fighting out numbered against a well trained squadron was a bad idea.
"Hello, everypony, and every griffon," Luna began. "Thank you for making it out here on such short notice; I'm glad Celestia could spare her Wonderbolt squadron for today's war-game."
"Thank you, Luna," Spitfire responded, with a curt bow. "It was no issue, but we are only half of the Wonderbolts squadron. As Celestia rebuilds the Royal Air Force she thought it would be wise to expand the Wonderbolts squadron, so we've begun calling in some of our reservists to double our active size."
"A wise step," Luna said in a cool tone. "We will need to expand rapidly if we hope to take our objective, and Celestia is wise to not underestimate the power of the skies.
"Today I wish to test my own growing squadron, and to see how my techniques compare in a practical test to those traditional tactics taught by my sister." Luna then explained to the Wonderbolts the basic premiss of the paralzyme compound, repeating everything she had told her students earlier.
"Each of you have a trough filled with paralzyme near your flag, which is located in a small enclave on either side of this courtyard. This is a simple objective competition; whichever side manages to gain control of both flags, and return them to their base will be victorious.
"You will be able to compete as long as you are physically able, with one exception; if any of you are disabled in the air, and I am forced to intervene to rescue you, you will be considered out of the competition. You can take a beating on the ground, but it takes very little to lose control of your wings while in flight, and even a short term loss of control can be fatal when flying at high speed. If you cannot protect your wings, stay on the ground.
"Now, move to your base, and prepare."
"So Luna, what are you hoping is going to come of this," Twilight asked, as the group moved back from the Wonderbolts with Luna in tow.
"To see how close we already are, and where I will need to focus our future training. We are running out of time, and I want to make the most of what we have left. I'm also curious how well the Wonderbolts strategies will function against an unconventional enemy."
"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.
"You will see. Rainbow Dash is in charge."
"...I am?" Rainbow asked, sinking to the snow.
"You are. I will now cast my spell." Luna bowed her head, her horn glowing a deep blue. None of the other students reacted, but Twilight could feel a powerful spell settle in around her. It was eerie; she could feel an immense energy contained within the spell, but there was no other immediate effect or sensation.
Twilight glanced over all of the other students, paying particular attention to Rainbow; none of them could feel it, not even Rainbow. I'll need to train her better, or she'll still be helpless against a powerful caster, Twilight thought to herself, again feeling dread rise in her stomach.
"I will now cast this spells counterpart on the Wonderbolts. Prepare yourselves." With her spell complete, Luna turned and pushed herself into the air, flying towards the Wonderbolts assembled on the other side of the courtyard.
Twilight sifted her focus back to the powerful hex pressing in around her, and began to consider how the spell worked. Does it really use this Paralzyme as a catalyst or an enzyme to begin the spell, as Clover the Clever theorized, or is it just a simple marker to trip it? If so I might be able to manually trip the spell with my magic... although I think that may be considered cheating.
As they moved to the trough to wet their hooves in the sapphire blue paint, a few of the pegasi, including Rainbow, also wet the tips of their wings. "That's clever," Twilight commented, moving to copy them. Since her wings were larger than most pegasi, even the stallions, it would give her a major advantage in reach.
Procyon not only coated his talons, he also smeared the paint down the entire leading edge of his thick wings. Procyon had often used his wings as battering rams, using his thick wing bones in a way that would shatter the wings of a pegasus; that would be sure to catch the the pony exclusive Wonderbolts off guard. He also dunked his beak, giving him a clown-like blue mask.
As Rapidfire looked up she managed to hold a straight face for only a moment, before dissolving into uncontrolled laughter. "Procy—on, what are? Are you really? That is fantastic! You're going to really kill out there!"
"What's so funny Pony?" Procyon growled. "Griffons are built and bred for combat, with more powerful weapons built into our bodies than most ponies can carry."
"Yea? You've clearly never seen how much I can carry," Rapidfire said with a wide smile, pressing her muzzle into Procyon's face.
"Be careful, or you may trip Luna's spell," Procyon warned, wiping some of the pain from his beak across Rapidfire's forehead. "Oops."
"We can't trip the spell Luna placed on us with this paint, otherwise we already would have," Twilight explained. "It doesn't look like the paint itself is anything special. The spell must have the detection built into it, which I suspect is tripped by the pigment in the paint; that's the only difference between ours and theirs."
"Cool," Rapidfire mumbled, spreading the paint Procyon had smeared on her more evenly across her forehead. "That's a great idea. Everypony always calls me bull headed."
As they moved away from the trough Twilight was expecting them to leave a trail of paint with each step, but it had already mostly dried in just a few moments. Strange... Will the interaction between the paint and the spell Luna cast on the Wonderbolts turn it back to liquid? Clever, Luna, but this is not what Clover had in mind.
"So what's the plan?" Rapidfire asked no one in particular.
"We can either focus on defense, or focus on offense," Rainbow began. "We can play defense either by setting ambushes, or by concentrating everything in the flag room. Either way we'd be giving them time to prepare and organize, which I don't think we can afford. If we play offense we can either press straight for the objective, and hope we can make it through before they do, or we can play... meaner..."
"I'm cool with mean," Rapidfire said, jumping into a low hover.
"I see your point, Rainbow Dash," Procyon said solemnly. "They've trained for years to work as a team; we have not."
"You guys have a bit, while playing against me, but you're not very good at it." Rainbow lowered her eyes to the snow, spending a moment in thought.
Twilight felt she had a good guess what Rainbow was going to say, so she spoke up to say it herself. "You want us to play a game of attrition, to take the numerical advantage away from them?"
"Sort of. Luna was right, we're not actually fighting sixteen against twelve; we're twelve independent ponies and griffons fighting against just eight elements of two. I remember what it was like training as a wing-pony under Lighting Dust; you have to follow them everywhere, never thinking for yourself; only reacting. They can't split down any lower than groups of two, and they are not used to fighting alone. If we can split them, or take out their leaders, we will have a much easier time.
"Also, we will never be able to match their organization, so we might as well not even try. No complex plans, all we're going to focus on is interrupting theirs. Chaos. We'll leave four of us on permanent defense, with the other eight focused on disabling as many of them as possible. Once we get enough of them out, we take their flag and it's over."
"Are you sure, Rainbow?" Twilight had to ask. "There's no way to do this without a long drawn out fight? I think, if we—"
"Twilight, this isn't chess," Rainbow bluntly stated. "We don't move one at a time and there's no time to think once it starts. We don't know how to fight as a group yet; they do. If we let them fight as a team we're going to lose. The only advantage we have is that we can be in twelve places at once, while they can only be in eight.
"We break their formation, and take them out. We can't even think about going for the flag until we have the way mostly cleared, or have them all distracted."
Luna had finished with the Wonderbolts by now, and had flown up to take a position on the high wall surrounding the courtyard. When she spoke, her Royal Canterlot Voice boomed off the high walls. "Begin."
"I'll play defense," Procyon said, moving backward towards their flag room.
"So will I," Thunderlane said in his empty voice.
The rest of Luna's students scattered randomly.
Twilight performed a simple teleport, coming out on top of the surrounding wall, opisite Luna. Rainbow had exploded into a pure vertical climb, and was just reaching the same height.
"What am I going to do?" Twilight asked herself. Her mind exploded into thought, but unfortunately they all tripped over each-other and she was left there, without a plan, watching as the Wonderbolts began to act.
One flight of four began to flank around each side, Lighting Dust leading one, Cloud Chaser leading the other. Fire Streak's flight remained stationary, fanning out in the entrance to their flag room. Spitfire was in a hard climb, slightly outrunning Blaze as she struggled to keep up with her flight leader. It looked like Spitfire was trying to head off Rainbow's climb, but it didn't look like she was going to make it; Rainbow had a clean advantage in a climb.
Soarin, with Fleetfoot in tow, climbed slowly into the sky, scanning the courtyard for something. After a few moments he began to raise his search to the sky, then along the walls surrounding him. As his gaze slid to Twilight, instead of continuing on his eyes locked onto her. He immediately began powering himself straight at her.
Oh no, what do I do, what-do-I-do, whatdoIdo! she screamed at her mind, as Soarin closed in.
Twilight caught herself as she began to look for a hiding spot, and forced herself to calmly watch him approach. "Don't be silly," she scolded herself, "if I can stay out of Rainbow's reach, I'll be fine."
Her heart didn't listen, and began to thunder in her chest, and she couldn't stop her muscles from tightening.
As Soarin was still a few seconds from reaching her, Twilight teleported away, aiming for the opisite side of the wall. Opps, I forgot Luna was there! Reaching out with her senses Twilight could feel were Luna was sitting, right were she was originally going to come out. Using what strength she could summon as she traveled through the ether, Twilight bent the angle she was teleporting, coming out sitting beside Luna rather than on top of her.
"Umm, hi."
"Twilight Sparkle," Luna said with a smile, but she did not take her eyes off of the courtyard.
It only took Soarin a moment to realize what happened, and a moment longer to find Twilight again, and he began closing in again. How long until he realizes, as Rainbow did, that trying to close on me is wasted effort?
"Is there any out of bounds?" Twilight asked Luna while she had the opportunity.
"No; fly back to Canterlot if you wish, but the objective is below."
"Right," Twilight mumbled as she turned and dove off the backside of the wall. After a moment of hovering there she teleported up, as high into the sky as she dared.
Coming out Twilight had to struggle hard to hold herself in the extremely thin air, high above the battle ground. I wonder how long until he'll give up? Twilight thought, as she looked around, trying to find Rainbow Dash or Spitfire. Were are they?
On a whim Twilight looked up. "What in Equestria?" All three of them were well above her, at least five thousand feet above her. Twilight herself was at least five thousand feet above the ruins, which themselves were at about fifteen thousand feet elevation. That puts them at twenty five thousand feet...
Rainbow was still above Spitfire, and Blaze was still struggling hard, and ultimately failing, to keep up with Spitfire.
There's not a lot I can do to help up there, Twilight thought to herself as she struggled to breathe were she was. At least she's taken Spitfire out of the battle, and Blaze too.
Looking back down, she spotted Soarin again coming after her, struggling up at a steep angle. I'll do my best, but all I really need to do is keep the two of them busy; that will leave the other ten of us just down two. I hope they do ok.
⁂
Rapidfire was sick of trying to catch Rainbow Dash all the time. She had done a good job of hiding it, keeping her rising fury hidden beneath her camaraderie and bravado. Rainbow Dash was frustrating as hell to fight, but she was a nice enough kid and didn't deserve to be hated, so Rapidfire had turned her anger on Procyon.
Procyon had dealt with it remarkably well, ignoring her almost completely, with the exception of just a few outbursts. I probably shouldn't have wound him up so tight though; Rainbow nearly had to pay for it... focus!
As the match began Rapidfire had rushed straight down the middle, intending to cut loose and have some fun, but half of the Wonderbolts had flanked around the sides, four had charged off into the sky, leaving just four in the entryway. Rapidfire seriously considered charging into the lead pony, a stallion with a light orange mane with a silver stripe down the middle, but decided against it. If you want to waste four of you sitting in the doorway, fine, go for it.
Throwing herself into a hard turn, Rapidfire powered herself around the left side of the courtyard back around behind the Wonderbolt flight that had started around just a few moments earlier. The courtyard was large enough that even at full speed it would take nearly twenty seconds to cross through the middle. Since the courtyard was a near perfect three thousand foot diameter circle, that would give it over a nine thousand foot circumference.
It would take me nearly a minute to lap this place, Rapidfire thought as she pushed herself to catch up to the Wonderbolts who had started to flank around the left side. Luna's other students had already broken up their flight, scattering the elements in various directions.
As Rapidfire pressed in she spotted the flight leader; the pegasi with the striped yellow and orange mane Rainbow had pointed out earlier. What was it, Lighting Dust? Rainbow Dash didn't sound very happy about seeing you here. This one's for you Dashie.
As she charged in, Lighting Dust turned towards her, landing in the snow in a low crouch. Her wing-pony, a stallion with a light blue mane spiked back, turned to cover her back, taking his eyes off Rapidfire.
Really? Rapidfire though, shocked at how easy they were making this for her. I guess you've never fought a pegasi who's built like an earth pony before. Speed is your only ally, and you've given her up!
As Rapidfire closed in, at full speed, Lighting Dust tried to raise her fore-hooves to ward off the attack. Rapidfire swatted them down with her own hooves, before turning to drive her right shoulder into Lighting's own shoulder. None of the Paralzyme was exchanged, and neither of Luna's spells were tripped, but the impact shook Rapidfire to her core, sending a lance of pain from her shoulder across her entire side. She transferred almost all of her forward momentum to Lighting Dust bringing herself to a near stop. It was painful, but she'd be fine.
Lighting Dust was not as lucky; the impact sent her tumbling, flying backward into her wing-pony and knocking him on his side as she continued passed. Rapidfire lunged forward to tag out the stallion, before remembering this was not the simple game they had been playing over the last few weeks.
Let's see how this works, she thought, driving her hoof into the stallions shoulder. It didn't look like much had happened at first; he recoiled as one usually did when struck, but as he tried to rise his foreleg crumpled beneath him.
Rapidfire lunged forward again, striking his opisite leg midway up. This caused the stallion to fall onto his face, before trying to right himself by furiously flapping his wings.
"Oh, no you don't!" Rapidfire shouted, jumping on top of him, whipping her fore-hooves across the base of his wings. They fell to his sides, motionless. "Haha, this is fantastic!"
"Is it?" an obviously pained mare said from Rapidfire's right, before striking her hard across the right shoulder.
Reeling back from the blow, Rapidfire took to the air for a short hop away, turning to face her attacker. Lightning Dust was barely able to stay on her hooves, her left foreleg hanging limply at her side as she used her wings to keep her front off the ground.
As Rapidfire landed she crumpled uncontrollably to her right, frantically flapping to keep herself upright. What the hay? Her right foreleg was completely unresponsive, and completely numb. It went so fast I didn't even feel it go numb; that is weird!
Lighting Dust's leg, however, was clearly not numb; Rapidfire had dislocated it when she rammed her.
"Hey, let me get that for you!" Rapidfire shouted, pushing herself into the air off her hind-legs. You have no right foreleg, you have no right foreleg, you have no right foreleg, Rapidfire changed to herself as she flew at Lighting Dust. It was impossible to tell without looking, as she could feel nothing at all.
As she approached Lighting Dust tried to fly sideways around the attack, but unfortuatly she hadn't thought it through and moved to Rapidfire's left, exposing the side with the dislocated leg. Reaching out as she passed Rapidfire brushed her still functional left fore-hoof down the length of Lighting Dust's side, making contact not only with her dislocated shoulder, but also her left wing-root and hip.
She continued passed, electing to slow into a hover rather than attempt a three-legged-landing, and turned in the air to admire her work. With both her left legs and left wing numbed, Lightning Dust had fallen on her side and was unable to right herself.
"That's two!" Rapidfire shouted.
She was too busy feeling proud of herself to hear Cloudchaser fly up behind her, and tag both of her wings at their root.
Suddenly, without any control over her wings, Rapidfire flopped directly into the snow.
"That's one," Cloudchaser cooed into her ear before moving on.
⁂
Twilight had spent a good few minutes wasting Soarin and Fleetfoot's time teleporting around five thousand feet above the mountain, but she was starting to see a pattern emerging. They were both getting board and losing focus, spending more time looking up at Rainbow, Spitfire and Blaze than they were watching Twilight.
As Soarin moved in towards her again, Twilight teleported out, then immediately back in, only slightly to the side. Soarin, who had again turned his eyes up at his leader jolted backwards. Perfect, Twilight thought, teleporting again, this time coming out right behind him.
As she lunged forward to hit him in the back, Soarin folded his wings and dropped like a rock.
As Soarin fell away Twilight found herself tumbling forward.
Without making a sound Fleetfoot struck her from behind, sending Twilight into a tight forward spin.
"Whaaah!" Twilight exclaimed as the world blurred around her. She teleported away, coming out a few hundred feet away.
She found herself having a very difficult time keeping her balance to hover level. It took her a moment to realize she couldn't feel her lower half. "Oh no... Umm..."
"Are you ok?" Soarin asked, slowly moving forward.
"Yea... I never realized how much I use my legs to balance." Twilight had to struggle a bit, but she could still fly well enough. It's not like I was going to beat anyone with my flying anyway, her mind added.
"Soarin, hey!" A voice echoed up from below. "We need some help down here!"
Twilight didn't recognize the voice, but Soarin clearly did. He spent a moment looking at the ponies still struggling with each other below. "Go and help them," he said suddenly, pressing himself into a steep climb.
"What? Me?" Fleetfoot asked, starting up after him.
"Yes," Soarin responded, accelerating quickly away.
"Who will cover you?" Fleetfoot asked, slowing her own climb.
"I will!" he responded.
Fleetfoot hesitated, hovering in the air for a moment before looking at Twilight. "What about her?" she shouted after Soarin, but he had already climbed too high to hear.
"Well, it looks like you're on your own," Twilight cooed as she moved forward. It looked like Fleetfoot was beginning to panic. This is exactly what Rainbow was talking about, Twilight realized. How do I take advantage of it though?
Fleetfoot suddenly broke into a steep dive, angling towards the center of the courtyard, where the last few Wonderbolts were facing off with Luna's remaining students.
Twilight followed, easing into her own gentle dive.
⁂
Rainbow had expected something like this to happen; going after Spitfire was exactly what she herself had planned to do, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to have Spitfire coming after her. She had tried using several of her best tricks to catch Spitfire off guard, but Spitfire had already done all of them herself. Ah hay, she invented half of these herself! There was only one trick Rainbow could do that Spitfire couldn't, and a Sonic Rainboom would do nothing to help in a close range fight. At least I know I can always run away...
There was something else Spitfire had that Rainbow didn't; she could turn unbelievably tightly, enduring massive acceleration's that would knock most ponies unconscious if it didn't outright rip their wings off. Rainbow could easily extend away, and turn to attack Spitfire head on, but as she approached and tried to circle around behind her, Spitfire would pull an incredibly tight turn and be attacking Rainbow from the side before she had even completed half of her own turn. Rainbow would then abandon the turn and extend away before Spitfire could catch her, but Rainbow could never catch Spitfire off guard; every time she tried to turn in Spitfire would be right there, ready to get her.
Worse, Spitfire was not getting angry. She was calm, diligently pressing any opening Rainbow offered, but never over extending and not wasting energy trying to chase her. Rainbow Dash herself was getting very frustrated, and began to consider less conventional means of attack.
"Spitfire!" Soarin's voice echoed up from below.
"What?" Spitfire shouted back, without taking her eyes off Rainbow.
"We've lost too many down here; they need backup."
"Copy," she shouted, folding her wings to her side as she entered a hard dive.
Blaze, who was struggling along at a bit lower altitude, immediately followed.
Rainbow pressed into her own dive, and began to consider what to do. I can catch them, no pony can out run me, even in a dive... but Spitfire will just turn into me again; how do I get around that? As she continued to build speed the air pressure squeezed around her, pressing her wings hard against her side. I bet I can get her to lock up, if she's dumb enough to follow... which she isn't.
As she closed in from behind, Spitfire did exactly as she expected and pulled into an extremely hard turn; one that Rainbow could never follow without ripping her wings off.
Soarin and Blaze turned in their own directions, also pushing themselves into turns Rainbow couldn't follow at this speed without hurting herself. Rather than even try Rainbow simply dove past them. She was getting close to the sonic barrier now; far faster than any pony but her could reach; unfortunately there wasn't much she could do at this speed.
She flared her wings forward, shifting her center of lift enough to begin a hard pull out. I think that's part of why no other pony has done a Sonic Rainboom; they don't know how to pull out without killing themselves. After pulling into level flight, Rainbow began pulling back into another hard climb, angling towards the three descending Wonderbolts. What happened to Fleetfoot?
Rainbow considered pressing another attack, but Spitfire was at the perfect speed to pull into any attack she tried. Instead she simply flew passed, climbing above them again.
"Both of you, help the others!" Spitfire shouted as Rainbow passed, before pulling an incredibly hard reversal to begin climbing after her.
"Yes ma'am!" Soarin shouted, staying in his steep dive.
Rainbow continued to push herself up, building altitude almost as quickly as she had given it up. After about twenty seconds she was well ahead of Spitfire, who had begun to climb in a tight spiral, unable to power herself straight against gravity as Rainbow was.
"This... is it..." Rainbow mumbled to herself, between ragged gasps. This is were my advantage over Spitfire is, she continued in her mind. Rainbow herself was beginning to run out of strength, her wings struggling to get purchase against the thin air. It's like trying to run up a frozen ramp.
Finally reaching her limit, Rainbow transitioned into level flight, and began to power herself to higher speeds. As Spitfire leveled out behind her, Rainbow began a loose high speed turn, circling around Spitfire's side.
Spitfire tried to not only follow, but to turn inside Rainbow as she had at lower altitude's, but her wings were unable to find enough air to support the tight turn, leaving her to skid wide.
Rainbow turned as tightly as she could, straining her wings to close around the circle behind Spitfire.
As she closed, Spitfire played one last ditch maneuver, spinning her body around in mid air even as her momentum carried her backward, and tried to slow into a hover to face Rainbow's charge. It didn't work; as she strained to hold level Spitfire instead began to descend as Rainbow closed.
Giving up, Spitfire suddenly closed her wings and allowed herself to fall.
Unable to adjust her course down in time Rainbow shot by over her head, before rolling inverted and diving after her.
Damn it; that was my chance! Furious at missing the opportunity Rainbow dove after Spitfire, rapidly building as much speed as she could. I need to get her before we reach thicker air!
As she closed in, right before catching her, Spitfire flared her wings wide and pulled up at an impossibly steep angle. Rainbow flared her own wings as wide as they would go, and strained against the centrifugal force as hard as she could. The pain in her wings was immense, threatening to tear away.
It wasn't enough; Spitfire easily pulled up out of Rainbow's view.
Rainbow closed her wings again, falling back into her dive. Haaay... Glancing over her shoulder she saw Spitfire diving hard on her tail. Does she really think she can catch me? Rainbow thought, watching her idol struggle to follow her.
A sudden thought dawned on Rainbow. This is going to be very mean, but catch me if you can.
Rainbow purposefully slowed her dive, allowing Spitfire to close in. Glancing over her shoulder again, sure enough Spitfire was closing. As Spitfire moved almost within hooves reach, Rainbow picked up the pace again, just enough to goad Spitfire on.
Spitfire flapped harder, pushing herself to speed's she had never reached before.
I really hope this doesn't get her killed.
As they continued to build speed, the force of the air crushing in on them built to truly incredible levels, pining their wings in place. Rainbow pushed on a little further, before forcing her wings forward and beginning her pull out.
She had only pulled up about five degrees when Spitfire carried on passed her, completely unable to pull out of the dive as the air pressure locked her wings in place. Gotcha.
Rainbow pressed back into her dive, and closed in behind Spitfire. They were still a good ways away from the sonic barrier; at this speed they'd have about ten seconds before they reached the mountains still eight thousand feet below. Ten seconds to tap out, and save, my idol! Perfect!
As she reached Spitfire, Rainbow wrapped her forelegs around Spitfire's midriff, and began another pullout, after taking a moment to drag the tips of her wings, still coated in paralzyme, across Spitfire's own wings. She took her time with the pullout, being careful not to put too much pressure on Spitfire's stomach. She managed to get them into level about two thousand feet above the mountain.
"I really hope you've had fun today," Spitfire said over her shoulder, sounding surprisingly composed all things considered, "because you've earned it with that one!"
"Thanks Spitfire!"
"But I'm afraid this is it for you too!"
Before Spitfire could try anything, as that last statement made clear she was going to, Rainbow simply dropped her.
Letting out a little squeal Spitfire dropped, tumbling slightly as she fell.
"Don't worry, Luna will catch you!" Rainbow called after her, before powering herself into a steep dive, quickly out running and passing Spitfire on her way down. Soarin is next.
⁂
Procyon had spent the last few minutes sitting near their flag room, watching as eight Wonderbolts had brawled with eight of Luna's other Students. Rainbow's original plan to have four of them stay to guard the flag was apparently abandoned, as just Procyon and Thunderlane remained, but it seemed to be working well enough.
There were just a handful left now, on both sides. As the four Wonderbolts held in reserve, guarding their own flag, moved to join the fight Procyon decided it was time for him to move in too.
"Let's go," he barked at Thunderlane, as he shoved himself into flight.
Thunderlane said nothing, but he followed immediately, moving slightly to the right as the two of them pressed into the middle. The battle was closer to their side of the courtyard, meaning they would have a moment before the four Wonderbolts closing from the opisite side arrived.
Procyon singled out the little pegasi mare who had taken out Rapidfire. Cloudsomthing. She was circling with the other griffon that had been training alongside them these passed weeks. I should have gotten to know her, I know that, but... she reminds me of everything I've left behind, and with good reason. There would be time later, he decided, as he timed his approach so he'd be behind Cloudsomething as he arrived.
Cloudchaser heard him coming, and tried to turn to face him, but the griffoness took the opportunity to press in, forcing the pony backwards.
As Procyon arrived he grabbed the ponies rear-legs and pulled her down from her low hover, before reaching up to bring his talons down her back. He was very careful that his talons didn't actually bite into her skin, but it was enough to cut thin lines into her fur and the paralzyme disabled the muscles along her back and wings.
Letting the pegasi fall to the snow, Procyon turned his attention to the sole remaining Wonderbolt, save the four that were still rushing to join them.
"Brother!" the Wonderbolt shouted with a wicked grin.
What?
"Brother," Thunderlane mumbled in a dry tone.
Oh, "I'll leave you two alone then," Procyon said, turning towards the approaching flight of four.
The griffoness, without a word, moved to flank around the right side.
Another of Luna's students, a slightly larger than average mare with a dark azure-grey coat and silver and light blue stripped mane, was galloping in from the left, but her right wing hung limp at her side.
Procyon began to climb above the approaching Wonderbolts, waiting for them to get involved with the griffoness and mare before diving on them. He took a quick glance at Thunderlane and his brother behind him; Thunderlane had already paralyzed his brother's wing and was quickly pressing in. With just a bit of luck this will be a fair fight soon, Procyon thought, turning back.
The lead Wonderbolt, Fire Streak, turned hard to the side, aiming for the griffoness who was still trying to flank around. His wing-pony followed close behind, but the second element continued to charge ahead, ignoring Procyon and the grounded mare, heading straight for Thunderlane.
The griffon can hold her own, Procyon though, as he began to maneuver to dive on the two Wonderbolts passing below him. He waited for them to pass underneath him, then dropped behind them, rapidly picking up speed in the steep dive. The lead pegasi continued straight for Thunderlane, oblivious to Procyon's rapid approach, but his wing-pony, who's sole job was to keep his tail clear, did notice; she pulled up steeply, and turned to fend off Procyon.
Procyon simply pulled up slightly, and sailed clear over the wing-ponies head, before diving steeply at the element leader. He flared his wings wide to slow down not only so he would have more time to aim, but also so he wouldn't break the ponies back. Crashing down with immense force in a way only a griffon could, Procyon drove the pony chest first into the snow, skidding to a stop perched on his back.
After carefully paralyzing both his wings and forelegs, Procyon pushed off into the air, turning to face the wing-pony as she rapidly approached.
She lead with her forelegs, aiming to dive them trough Procyon's chest. Procyon reached forward and caught both of her forelegs as she screamed in, pulling them to her sides. Her chest slammed into him and her momentum pushed him backwards, but he had her now.
To her credit, she didn't hesitate for a moment, leaning back and lashing out with her hind-legs, connecting with Procyon's abdomen. He felt a brief flicker of pain before all feeling from his lower half vanished.
In response Procyon threw her up, then pulled her forelegs down, whipping her rear into the air and exposing her back. He then leaned forward and pecked the base of her left wing, before dropping her. She took one flap with her right wing, which sent her into a tumble, before spiraling to the snow below.
Taking a quick look around Procyon discovered that the griffoness had been overwhelmed by the two Wonderbolts, who were now turning their attention to the ground bound mare, hounding her from the air.
Procyon began to build speed, but without his lower half responding he was having a very difficult time balancing.
Thunderlane flew passed him, coming in behind the two Wonderbolts quickly.
"Soarin, hey! We need some help down here!" the lead pony shouted at the sky.
Aah, I had forgotten, Procyon though, looking to the sky. Rainbow will be ok still, and I doubt they could catch Twilight either. We could still be out numbered.
Procyon dragged his eyes back to the two Wonderbolts, who were being driven back by Thunderlane. This took the dark azure mare out of the fight, but it also protected her. She doesn't need to be protected, Procyon thought, as he climbed above them, intending to push them to the ground.
As he neared the peak of his climb, and began to dive, he took one more quick look at the sky. One of the Wonderbolts was diving on him, fast.
Without thinking Procyon turned to face the attack, hovering in place. As the Wonderbolt approached she turned away at the last moment, staying just out of reach as she arced around Procyon, forcing him to turn in place to track her. Rainbow has done this to me before; I can't fight like this.
Rather than continue the lopsided high speed fight Procyon simply closed his wings, and dropped towards the two Wonderbolts below. Thunderlane can deal with her, if she tires to follow me.
Again aiming for the wing leader, Procyon dropped on him, slamming into him with enough force to send them both into a tumble. He didn't manage to tag any part of the Wonderbolt as they both fell to the snow below, both in their own uncontrolled spin. As Procyon struggled to right himself both of his arms and his wings went limp, and he collapsed on his side.
The Wonderbolts wing-pony had followed him down, and taken him out from behind. He couldn't help but smile though as the dark azure mare managed to tag out the Wonderbolt he had driven into the ground. That's two and an assist; I could have done far worse.
⁂
Oh no, who do we have left? Twilight thought as she descended. It looks like it's just me and Thunderlane now... Oh, and the other pony on the ground, but it doesn't look like she can fly. We're still against Fleetfoot and I think that's High Winds still up. We need to get them quickly.
Thunderlane and Fleetfoot were circling each other; both were extremely fast. High Winds was climbing toward them from below, ignoring the ground bound mare below. I can help Thunderlane with Fleetfoot, or I can stop High Winds... can I take her alone? Can Thunderlane take Fleetfoot alone? Oh... I just don't know.
Rainbow had been clear; keep them from being able to work as a team, but Twilight didn't know if she could take her alone. I'll help Thunderlane, she decided, closing her wings to dive as quickly as possible.
As she approached Fleetfoot turned to intercept her, giving Thunderlane her side. Right before the two collided Twilight teleported away, coming out on her right side. Thunderlane pressed in from her left.
Fleetfoot turned to lunge at Twilight, hitting her on the left shoulder, numbing her left foreleg. As Twilight tried to fly backwards to open the distance, Fleetfoot tried to follow, but Thunderlane tackled her from behind. Thank you, Twilight thought, as she teleported away now that her distraction had played it's part.
Coming out just a hundred feet away, she took a moment to look herself over. She couldn't feel anything below her midsection, and her left foreleg was now out of action. Both of her wings were fine, but it was extremely difficult to keep her balance with just one leg.
Fleetfoot was falling down, completely unable to stop herself. Twilight was about to reach out to catch her with magic, when she suddenly took on a blue aura. Oh, thank you Luna; I forgot you were here. Who else is left?
High Winds was climbing after Thunderlane, but Thunderlane had already turned to face her, and was circling down from above.
Twilight's eyes fell on the dark azure pegasi stuck on the ground. Twilight teleported down to land near her. As she came out of the teleport she only felt one hoof touch the snow; the rest of her crumpled to the ground without any sensation.
"Oh, are you ok?" the azure mare shouted.
"Yea, I can still fly... a little. Go get their flag." Twilight struggled into a low hover.
"Huh? Oh!" and with that, the mare galloped off.
How big is this place? About three thousand feet across? We're nearly half way there already, so it'll be a be nearly five thousand feet for her to make it there and back. That will take her well over a minute if she can run at full speed, but she has a disabled wing to look after and is running on deep snow... Maybe I should try flying it the distance, or we switch out Thunderlane?
But no, Thunderlane is committed and she's already going for it now.
Twilight started to teleport towards Thunderlane, to help as much as she could, but she noticed Blaze and Soarin both in a hard dive, coming down quickly. Oh no, oh no, umm... Twilight could think of nothing to do that she wouldn't consider cheating, so she decided to only bend the rules a little bit.
She teleported up in front of Blaze and Soarin. Soarin simply dodged to the side, continuing passed her, but Blaze attempted to tackle her. Blaze only slowed slightly from her dive before slamming into Twilight, nearly knocking the wind out of her. The spike of pain traveled through all of her body that she could still feel, before the pain in her wings vanished as Blaze reached around her to tag them both.
Twilight reached her one responding foreleg around Blaze, held her tightly, and pulled her with her as she teleported.
They came out with most of their velocity intact, slamming them both into the snow. Twilight felt a spike a pain across what little of her body she could feel, and did her best to rise with her one working leg. She ended up on her side, unable to really move.
Blaze was sprawled on her side, but otherwise unharmed and moved to rise, before the dark azure mare tacked her from the side, tagging out her wings and legs in quick succession while the Wonderbolt was still dazed.
"Thanks, Twilight! That's two for me now!" the mare shouted, preparing to dash on.
"No problem," Twilight croaked, "umm?"
"Night Glider!" the mare shouted, as she continued towards the Wonderbolts flag. "We can talk later!" she added over her shoulder.
So, I've assisted with two, and distracted several for awhile... I could have done worse.
Thunderlane was still brawling with High Winds, neither making any progress. Both were playing it safe, knowing that this could be what decides the battle.
Soarin suddenly dropped in from above, Thunderlane barely managing to dodge his high speed pass.
High Winds took the opportunity to rush him, closing in a straight attack.
Thunderlane suddenly closed his wings, and dropped below the attack before catching himself, and furiously flapping, drove himself back up into High Winds midsection. As she crumpled around him, she managed to strike both of his wings, but he wrapped his forelegs around her and dragged her down with him, getting both of her own wings before Luna caught the two of them.
Soarin, now the sole Wonderbolt, looked around, and quickly spotted Night Glider, just now leaving the Wonderbolt base with their flag.
He immediately dove towards her, closing the distance far faster than a ground bound pony could ever hope to run.
⁂
Rainbow dove in at an incredible speed; still not to the sonic barrier but far closer than any other pegasus would dare. She hadn't been fast enough to save Thunderlane, but she was more than fast enough to catch Soarin before he caught their last mare.
Rainbow took a moment to fly passed Luna, to let her know Spitfire was coming in for an uncontrolled landing, before turning to dive after Soarin.
To think I once idolized that slow stallion! Rainbow thought to herself. In truth, she still did, just as every sane pegasi mare did, but her small time with the Wonderbolts had done a lot to give her a bit more of a realistic view on their capabilities. Soarin was about to turn her realistic view on it's head.
As she closed in, right before she reached him, Soarin threw himself into an impossibly sharp turn, even more tightly than Spitfire had managed. Rainbow tried to throw herself to the side, to at least tag him as she flew by, but he managed to get entirely out of her reach. Not only had he managed a turn that would have pulled Rainbow's feathers out, he was grinning across his entire snout as he did it. Every one of Rainbow's sense told her he should be howling in pain after a turn like that, but he was laughing at her!
"I'm sorry, Dash, but this is going to be a lot rougher than our last dance!"
"You can't catch me, Soarin," Rainbow shouted back, her mind racing to come up with a trick to beat him. I can do this.
Rainbow cut back in, trying once again to attack Soarin, this time from above. As she approached he tucked into a tight downward loop, drawing them both into a dive, and to higher speeds.
Rainbow dove, directly down on top of him. Right before she caught him, Soarin pulled another sharp turn, cutting to the side too quickly for Rainbow to follow. As Rainbow shot passed, she pulled up sharply to avoid the ground. Soarin twisted back around, diving to try and catch her but Rainbow effortlessly sped away at ground level, before beginning to climb above him as she circled back around.
Rainbow tried making diving passes several more times, but each time Soarin simply turned in and Rainbow shot passed, before extending away and climbing again.
Enough of this! Rainbow moved in again, and as he had before Soarin dove to build speed, but rather than diving on top of him Rainbow simply followed, matching speeds with him, following slightly above and behind. As Soarin reached the bottom of his dive, he again threw himself into a hard turn. Rainbow still couldn't match the turn, so she didn't even try, instead pulling into a slow turn to try and stay above him.
As Soarin slowed, he tried to turn back into Rainbow and climb to catch her. Without much effort Rainbow was able to stay just above Soarin as they climbed, until he slowed into a hover. Rainbow dropped into her own hover and turned to face Soarin, still slightly above him.
This is it, Rainbow thought. Without hesitation, she lunged forward, using all of her strength as well as the altitude she still held over Soarin to close. Soarin was slower than she was, and was at a clear disadvantage; his only advantage over her lay at higher speeds, but it would take him too long to reach those speeds now, even if he tried to dive.
But Soarin had one other major advantage over Rainbow; he was a good, well trained soldier, and on top of his training he had been in many air-brawls with other pegasi over the years, giving him a level of practical experience not even Spitfire had.
As Rainbow dove, Soarin leaned back and closed his wings, letting himself fall, then, as Rainbow was about to make contact, Soarin flapped his wings, rotating backwards even further, dropping his head down towards the ground and away from her attack as he lashed out with his hind-legs, catching Rainbow square in the stomach.
The pain evaporated almost immediately, as her lower half was paralyzed, but her eyes still blurred and the air was forced from her lungs. Half blind, Rainbow slammed into Soarin's chest. Soarin immediately wrapped his forelegs around her, squeezing what little breath she had manage back out and grabbing the base of her wings.
Her left foreleg ended up pinned between herself and Soarin, but she managed to pull her right foreleg free, and reached around Soarin to tag his left wing. Rainbow's eyes managed to focus just in time to see Soarin's cocky grin shift to shock as they began to fall.
Rainbow closed her eyes and pressed her face into the white fur of Soarin's chest as they tumbled, waiting for Luna to catch them. As the world slowly stopped spinning, she again opened her eyes, to be greeted with the midnight blue glow of Luna's magic, gently setting them down in the snow.
Rainbow tried to push herself up, but Soarin held her tightly against his chest. "I think I've earned a little snuggle..."
"You?" Rainbow asked, legitimately confused. "What about me? I've taken down two Wonderbolts today!"
"Ok, ok," Soarin began, "fine... You can snuggle with me then... I'm sure Spitfire won't mind."
"Why would Spitfire mind?" Rainbow asked, struggling onto her side with just her front half responding. "Wait... you don't mean..?"
"Of course not," Soarin stated, looking away, blushing slightly.
"Whatever," Rainbow mumbled as she lay her head on Soarin's chest. I didn't realize I had competition... Ugh, forget about it; I have enough to worry about.
Night Glider was nearing their base, with the Wonderbolts flag in her mouth. Now that she was the only pony left that wasn't disabled or disqualified Luna's students had practically already won.
Spitfire, with her wings hanging limp at her sides, was marching towards Rainbow and Soarin. Sure enough she was wearing a angry expression, but Rainbow couldn't tell if it meant get off my stallion or I'm beating you next time. Maybe it was a little of both.
"Train hard, Rainbow Dash; you're not going to trick me that easily again!" Spitfire shouted as she neared the two cuddling ponies.
I guess she doesn't care about Soarin then, Rainbow concluded, closing her eyes.
"At attention, soldier!" Spitfire barked at Soarin as she came up beside them.
"Can't boss," Soarin said, shrugging his shoulders. "Besides, this civilian managed to get herself hurt, and needs looking after."
"I'm not a civilian anymore," Rainbow mumbled into Soarin's fur, "and I don't need looking after." That might carry more weight if I wasn't taking a nap on top of him right now, Rainbow thought to herself. It's cold, and he's warm.
Rainbow's eyes were still closed, but she could clearly hear Spitfires sigh, then the sound of snow crunching as she walked away.
Two Wonderbolts, Rainbow thought to herself, her chest swelling with pride. I managed to take down two Wonderbolts! Yes, one was with a one-off trick, and the other cost me everything, but I took down the two lead Wonderbolts!