//------------------------------// // Departure // Story: Flames of the Rainbows // by ShadowFall //------------------------------//         Twilight brushed her head against something soft. She felt like she was wrapped in a bed, but it wasn’t her own. It felt smaller, and more restricted. The ambient noise of some ponies walking around her then broke the illusion of her being back at home. She had opened her eyes to find that she was indeed, resting on a hospital bed. The Ponyville Community Hospital was tiny compared to the one in Canterlot, but that was because not many ponies got seriously injured, despite the strange and dangerous occurrences that often happened around town.         The ponies that were walking around were speaking in muffled voices, but most likely from the fact that Twilight still hadn’t had her senses fully adjusted.         “The Princess is waking up.” the familiar voice of Nurse Redheart came from Twilight’s left as she trotted over and looked over her.         “She seems to be okay.” the nurse smiled and nodded to a group of ponies waiting in the doorway, “You all can come in, but take it easy. She’s still a bit tired from what happened earlier.”         Twilight felt all of the happiness in her life return when she saw her five friends walk into her room.         “Guys…” she looked up, a tear forming in her eye.         “Hush now, Sugercube. It’s all over now.” Applejack patted her mane, “You’re a real tough pony for overcoming all of that.”         “I’m glad that you’re okay now. All of that must have been horrifying…” Fluttershy brushed her mane to the side of her face.         “I’m not sure if I’m really the brave one here. Those humans were the true heroes of the day, rescuing Spike and Starlight-” Suddenly, Twilight nearly bolted up, “W-Where are they?! Are they okay?”         “Yeah! They’re in the next few rooms! We stopped by yours first before we saw them!” Pinkie Pie smiled and leaned on her bed, “I gotta throw a ‘Welcome Back Twilight, Spike, and Starlight’ Party! Or… is that name a bit too long?”         Rainbow Dash chuckled, “Leave it up to Pinkie to throw a party now. Honestly, I think it’s what we kind of need after all that happened…”         Twilight then looked back at the group of friends that were before her.         “Where did the humans go?”         “From what I last heard, Celestia and Luna were talking to them before they were going to return home, as well as taking that prisoner with them.” Rarity spoke up, trotting around to Twilight’s other side, “Honestly, I hope a pony like him would never show his face in Equestria again.”         “But what do ya’ll think those humans are gonna do with him?” Applejack rose an eyebrow in thought.         “Maybe it’s best if we don’t really pay much mind to it. I’m very certain that those humans will just transfer him back to a prison here. They seem to work on the side of the law, and with these ‘terrorists’, as they call them, they must believe that they deserve process of the law.” Twilight replied back. “Ugh… why did this conversation become so booooring? Twilight, Spike, and Starlight are fine!” Rainbow Dash hugged her friend around her shoulders, being sure not to disturb her bandaged injury. “Awh… you guys…” “Specially cautious group hug!” Pinkie gleefully called as her friends enveloped Twilight around her shoulder area. “Move it along, buddy.” Tachanka nudged Rocky along back towards the open portal that lead back to Russia. As he did, Rocky once in awhile squirmed in Tachanka’s grip. “You really think you’ve done anything good here?! The White Masks will only come in greater numbers and help achieve my image of a male-ruled Equestria!” Rocky spat back. The Canterlot Royal Guards that were lined up in salute to the departing Rainbow Team members never changed their stoic and stern faces as they walked past them. “Look at all of you! You are nothing more than bitches for Celestia! Bitches!” Rocky was about to say more, but Tachanka shoved him forward and gripped the back of his mane. “You think these soldiers are bitches for their leader? Fucker, I shot up your little buddies. I saw their arms and legs blow off as I mowed them down. You want to know what a bitch is, I will make you my, and the rest of this team’s, bitch!” Tachanka roughly muttered into Rocky’s ear as he kept him moving along. Doc had recently finished up by telling Celestia that Starlight and Spike had no substantial injuries, and Twilight would be making a full recovery. However, Starlight would need a minor blood donation since drawing her blood for Twilight left her pretty “drained”. On the other hand, Luna had to be told about the whole situation from Castle, and with each word and description he made, she seemed to be filled with more and more guilt. “I should have been there. What kind of Princess isn’t even in her own country when this happens?” Luna looked down. “You had duties, and you still came back despite them. That truly shows your loyalty to your country, and the citizens within it.” Castle patted her shoulder. Then, Jäger came over, “Castle, it is time to get going now.” “In a minute, kid.” Jäger then walked away, fuming a bit, “Kid… Twitch and IQ are younger than me.” Castle chuckled a bit, and so did Luna. “Well, I hope you all take care. Best of luck to all of you, and hopefully, nothing like this happens again.” Castle smiled and waved to the two Princesses as he took up his supplies and rejoined the rest of the crew. Smoke was standing by the energy field that reconnected to Earth, and watched as each one of his team and Rocky enter in through the portal. He waved briefly to the ponies watching the humans disappear, then walked through the portal. “Fucking horses…” he chuckled to himself as he walked through the portal. When he arrived back there, as well as with the rest of the team, he was greeted by the tons of other familiar faces already there, applauding the defensive team when they stepped through. Thatcher nodded to Tachanka, taking possession of Rocky as the other operators gave their congratulations to every one of each other, as all of the operators here in the compound played a vital part to the success of the hostage rescue. Then, Clark looked back at Ding after he was done clapping, and ushered him to follow. They walked back into the portal that lead to Equestria, emerging behind the grassy hill like before. Celestia quickly noticed the two approaching her. “Oh, hello Clark and Ding. What brings you back so early?” Celestia asked. Clark began to speak up, “Alright, we have possession of the terrorist that seemed to be leading the other stallions. However, we’ve run into a problem with returning him to you.” Luna rose her brow, “A prisoner?” Celestia nodded to her sister, “One of those stallions was apprehended by the Rainbow Team. But what seems to be the problem?” “You see, we are going to have to destroy the portal that is in Russia currently, as we don't want these sorts of devices being discovered by anyone else on our world. It would only spell disaster for both of our universes if our governments found out about this technology. Wars would break out over it, and from the scale of what these portals have to offer, it might be our last war.” Ding sighed dreadfully, “And not in a good way.” “So we are going to interrogate that stallion to see what he knows about the other portals, where they are located, and so we can go on a hunt for them. Hopefully, there won’t be too much. And since none of those stallions are reporting back after we have killed them, those White Masks would probably guess something terrible happens in your world, so they will probably cross it off of their list.” Clark noted.         “But the problem is, since we are destroying the portals, we have no way of returning our captive to you. We can’t just bring him along if we clear out a portal, since we risk him dying in the process, or letting White Mask reinforcements show up.” Clark continued on with his reasoning.         Then, Celestia and Luna smiled, “I think we have a solution to your problem.”         “You do?” Ding asked, interested.         “You see, we also have our own portal device in our world, but it is only activatable every thirty moons. Currently, we have connected to another alternate universe that looks similar to yours, and ours blended together, but Twilight would be able to take that frequency and modify it to find your world. We can even open up the portal at specific coordinates.”         “Really. Wow. The wonders of ‘magic’, I guess.” Ding chuckled and looked at Clark, “So Mr. C, should we give them coordinates?”         Clark then asked for a paper and pen, and was given a scroll and quill. He quickly scribbled down some numbers of degree, latitude and longitude, and handed them back to Celestia.         “That’s our headquarters. I entrust that esteemed leaders like yourselves will not share this information with anyone else.” Clark spoke to Celestia and Luna.         “Of course. For everything that you and your team have done for us, this is the least we could help you accomplish. Even then, you’re still giving us back our prisoner.” Celestia graciously smiled, “I hope you can at least not bloody him up too badly, even considering what he’s tried to set in motion…”         “We follow guidelines.” Ding said, of all people.         “Well, best of luck to both of you and your team. You are all such amazing beings for doing what none of us could.” Celestia nodded, a beaming smile on her face.         Clark smiled back, “That’s why we exist.”         The two counter-terrorists waved goodbye as they walked back to the portal.         “Nice girls.” Clark chuckled at Ding.         “Hey, if I were going to be the underdog of a civilisation, I wouldn’t mind being ruled by those two.” Ding laughed as well.         The two friends shared a hearty laugh, one they haven’t had in a long time.         Upon coming back, they found that the rest of the Rainbow Team had finished packing up in the various trucks they had arrived in, with Popov being the last one in the compound.         “How did it go? Besides the hostage rescue?” the Russian asked.         “Well, now we have to go on a hunt for the rest of those portals around the world. Need to destroy every one of them we can find, and hopefully, the White Masks will get the message.” Clark stretched himself.         At this, Popov sighed with relief, “I’d never thought I would hear myself say this, but thank you. Thank you all so much for what you and your team are doing.”         Ding cracked a little smile, “Funny coming from you of all people…”         Then, Ding shook his head, “You know what? You’re okay. For a terrorist before, you might as well have helped save the world twice. I think that’s a pretty appropriate redemption.”         “Nah, you still have to cure cancer.” Clark chuckled as the three men walked out of the compound.         When they hopped into the truck where Thatcher was waiting inside, as well as Rocky in the back seat, Clark got into the passenger side, Popov at the driver seat, and Ding flanked Rocky in the back with Thatcher on his other side.         “This is Thermite. All ready to go,” Thermite called, as he was ready to drive the attackers back.         “Jäger here, good to go.” Jäger also noted, starting up his engine with the defensive operators.         “This is Pulse. Let’s head home, everyone.” The preparations operators all nodded inside their truck.         Then, Thatcher clicked the trigger on his detonator. The compound blasted apart as the C4 detonated, blasting the roof from the entire structure and vaporizing the contents inside. The bright explosion got the operators to shield their eyes as they turned away from the blast in their trucks and began to drive off.         In Equestria, the Princesses watched the energy that the portal was sustaining flicker, then disappear all together.         “Well… that portal is gone. I guess we should be working on ours now.” Luna noted.         “We will wait until Twilight makes a full recovery before she gets to work.” Celestia nodded back.         In Russia, Ding tapped the back of Popov’s shoulder.         “Hey, Mr. Russian Spook. About those plane charters…”         Popov sighed and at the same time, groaned.