Chapter 20
Lightning Dust felt as if all the blood in her body was pooling in her face, building up an intense pressure as she stared down at what had been given to her. That stupid, dirty old flight cap that Twitch had always worn, tattered and burned to a crisp, and the knowledge that its owner was dead. She stomped it into the floor and, not satisfied by the dull plop it made as she ground her hoof into it, cried out in anguish. She wanted blood. She wrenched the table vertical and kicked it as hard as she could, shattering the cheap pressboard surface and sending memos and papers twirling about the commander’s lounge. It wasn’t enough; nopony messed with her or her airponies and anypony who did would bleed. “Who?!” she roared at Crimson Sky, who had brought her the cap and the bad news, “Who did this to him?! WHO?!”
“Still working on it, Dust,” said Crimson Sky in a tone so calm it was maddening, “We haven’t—”
She flew into the air and dove into the ground, punching the floor hard enough to crack the tile surface and silence her wingpony. “Then find out!!! Beat him savagely and then kill him! No, beat him savagely and then bring him to me, as PAINFULLY as possible, so I can kill him! Do you hear me?!”
Sky’s hoof slapped down on her shoulder. “We’ll get him, don’t you worry,” he said with a rare note of anger in his voice, “Featherweight’s on it already.”
“That’s not good enough, Sky!” she screeched as she hurled herself out of his reach and smashed one of the chairs against the wall. “We’re going out! Right now! The entire unit! There will be no sleep, no REST, until we catch him!!!”
“Dust!” yelled Crimson Sky. “Use your head! Believe me we all feel the same way,” he said as he dropped to his haunches and let his head hang, “We wouldn’t even know where to start. The Inspector doesn’t have anything either. She—”
Lightning Dust cut him off with a stomp of her hoof. “What was that?!” she yelled with a growl, “Leave the guards out of this! We don’t need their help or their charity; we’ve never needed them!”
“Maybe it’s time to rethink things,” said Crimson Sky, “We’ve never lost an airpony on a routine mission before either. He was my friend too, and I’ll take all the help we can get to avenge him.”
Lightning Dust walked toward him with her wings unfurled and enough rage carved into her features to make her wingpony step back. “I said we leave the guards out of this. Do I make myself clear?” she hissed, holding back the urge to take her anger out on him behind a low, malevolent tone.
For a moment he was intimidated, but he swiftly collected himself and stood his ground. “And I said I’ll take all the help we can get,” he said sternly. “I’m going after his killer using any and all means available to me; I couldn’t care less about your pride.”
“Are you questioning my orders?” she growled, her wings quaking with barely-contained fury.
“Yes,” he said coldly, “If we had just taken that thief out on the train like I had suggested, none of this would have—”
She lunged and struck him across the face, cutting him off with a dull whap as her hoof connected with his jaw and sent him stumbling. “I am in charge, do you understand me?! You want to make something of it, Sky?! Go ahead!” She stared down her wingpony as he stood up with a hoof to his face. He ran it up the side of his head, snapping off his goggles in the process, and threw them to the side. Lightning Dust growled under her breath; he always did that before a fight. “Come on,” she said as she pulled her own goggles over her eyes, “I need to work out the stress.”
“I’ll beat it out of you,” he said angrily, “Make room for some sense.” He pounced and swung— but was too slow; she rolled under his leg and onto her back, poised to kick him in the stomach as he soared overhead. He anticipated it and rolled out of the way, and threw a punch at her face. Again she outmaneuvered him and hurled herself out of range, and the two stood up across the cluttered office from each other ready for another round—
—and her entire body locked up; she couldn’t move. She strained and growled, tensing her muscles but barely managing to quiver her limbs against the unseen force. Her wingpony was faring no better; his aged face was locked in a grimace as he fought with all of his might as well and failed.
“Would either of you care to explain to me,” said a stern voice that shot fear through Lightning Dust, “why I would come to offer my condolences for the loss of your friend only to find the two of you at each other’s throats?!”
Lightning Dust fought to turn her head but only managed her eyes. In the very corner of her vision she could make out pale violet dressed in elegant clothing, standing in the doorway. “Y-your Highness… I…” she sputtered, and the force that held her let her go. She didn’t say another word; she only dropped to the floor and bowed silently.
“Is it any wonder you failed?” said the princess as she ran a hoof through her mane and tossed it back out of her face. “I am disappointed in all of you,” she said coldly, “Quite frankly I expected much better. That thief was wrapped up like a birthday present with a bow and given to you. What do you have to say for yourself, Major?”
Lightning Dust kept her face buried in her forelegs. “We… we ran into some difficulties, your Highness. Some unexpected resistance. The thief had backup, armed to the teeth.”
The Princess reached down with a hoof to Lightning Dust’s chin and raised her head softly so they could make eye-contact. “There are times that I truly hate always being right,” she said softly, “It is as I suspected when that unwashed little hookworm wriggled her way into my little sanctuary; there are several ponies out there making a very deliberate… and very successful… attempt at getting on my nerves. Silver Spoon is only one of them.”
The Major leaped to her hooves. “Then give us another chance!” she spat, and awkwardly added “Your Highness” to answer the glare from the Princess. “Please, your Highness. They caught us off-guard. It won’t happen again; next time we’ll be ready.”
“As much as I appreciate the offer, major,” said the Princess with a slight smile, “There is no need. You have my sympathies for your friend, but unfortunately this is bigger than that.”
“But—”
“Not to worry. Your friend will be avenged. These ponies like to play games? Well, I went ahead and upped the ante. You know how good he is at tracking; we might as well consider that killer captured already.” The Princess smiled so cruelly that it made Lightning Dust cringe, “I gave strict orders to bring the killer in alive for questioning. You can have him after I’m done with him.”
“Understood, your Highness…” said Lightning Dust sadly.
Great. She sent him. I’ll be lucky to have anything left to kill.
“Now, there is one other thing,” said the Princess inquisitively, “Captain.”
“Your Highness.”
“On my way in I heard something about ‘the Inspector?’”
“Yes, your Highness,” said Crimson Sky nervously, “She showed up in Broncton not long after the raid, your Highness.”
“She?” said the Princess with a hoof to her chin in thought, “The one with the bad lung? Who is always coughing? Mmm… that’s interesting, to say the least. Now, if you will excuse me of course, I have something I simply must attend to.”
She watched as the Princess strode casually toward the door and she couldn’t hold it in. “Your Highness, please!” pleaded Lightning Dust, “Give us one more chance! Somepony out there killed our friend!”
The Princess stopped in the doorway. “I truly am sorry about what happened to your friend, but I simply will not authorize your unit to go out on a revenge mission.” She turned her head deliberately so the blinded side of her face pointed toward Lightning Dust, “That being said, I truly hope I do not find out you went out without authorization. Do you understand what I am telling you?” With that the door closed behind her without giving Lightning Dust the chance to respond.
Lightning Dust felt her heart surge. The implication was crystal clear and she was going to pounce on it. She tore the filing cabinet open and rifled through personnel files. She needed a new wingpony and she already had one in mind; a satisfied smile crept across her face as she found the one she was looking for.
“Now what?” said Crimson Sky in a miserable tone.
“We move,” she said coldly. “Form up the fliers. It’s promotion day.”
“Understood,” he said, leading the way out the door and through the headquarters building towards the briefing room where the airponies waited, “and Dust? About before. I’m sorry.”
Lightning Dust nodded. “At least we got it out of our system, right? Now we can focus on important things.”
“Sounds good,” said Crimson Sky. He threw open the door and hollered “ROOM, ATTENTION!” and the sound of countless hooves rumbling into place echoed for a solid five seconds.
Music to my ears.
She entered and looked the row of ponies up and down, left and right. Like statues they all stood motionless, heads high and wings open, awaiting their next order. Each one was dressed immaculately in their flight suits, with their flight gear buckled and sized perfectly, and with their issued goggles strapped to their foreheads so she could see their eyes staring forward and only moving on occasion to blink. Each and every one, from the rookies to the veterans, had been trained by her to be unwavering and to obey her orders. They were not mere henchman to her; they were a part of her, and no pony alive was going to mess with a single one of them on her watch. She would start with Twitch’s killer. Once he or she was six feet under, she’d find the one who liked to play with arrows and teach him a thing or two.
Maybe put him in front of the rookie first. Give the kid the chance to give back a scar or two.
“Ears up, and take a good look!” She threw Twitch’s singed hat to the floor in front of them, watching as they fought the urge to cringe as it landed with a sickeningly dull plop. “As you all know the lieutenant was killed. This is not something we’re going to take lightly now, IS IT?!”
“No, Ma’am!” hollered every one of them in unison.
“And what about poor little Pinstripe, laying in a hospital bed right now doped up on painkillers with a hole in his shoulder? Are we going to accept that?!”
“NO, MA’AM!”
“So here’s the deal. We’ve not been given the go-ahead to go out on a revenge mission, so we’re doing this one under the radar. No uniforms! No weapons! We’re stripping to our skivvies and going in dry. What we’re going to do, is chase down these ponies who figure they can screw with us and shove those weapons of theirs so far up their rears they’ll be burping the next time they use them! SOUND GOOD?!”
The entire group stomped eagerly. “MA’AM! YES MA’AM!!!”
Lightning Dust smiled at the group, reveling in the feeling of bloodlust that radiated from each and every one of them. “Featherweight will be along soon to provide Intel and point us in the right direction. From there we fan out and track them down. The one who killed the lieutenant is mine, are we clear?! The one with the bow? All yours. Make them suffer. Any questions, problems, points?”
The group was silent and unmoving, and she smiled again. “Good. That brings me to the next matter at hoof. I need a new wingpony,” she said as she took the personnel folder from under her wing and held it out to read the printed name. “Second lieutenant Merrilay!”
“Ma’am!” said the 2lt with a stomp of her hoof.
The major walked over and paced back and forth, reading the personnel file as she did. “Merrilay… Resident of Hollow Shades, until the R.E.A.F. recruited you. Mother, ‘Cheerilee’, earth pony. Hm, happy name, that. Father, name not given…” she trailed off and raised an eyebrow as she read the last line, “Earth pony. Huh. You didn’t give his name but you knew his race? Didn’t like that he couldn’t teach you to fly or something?”
“Had to learn myself, Ma’am,” said Merrilay, “Never even met my father.”
“You didn’t miss much,” said Lightning Dust passively with her eyes in the file, “Know the only thing I learned from my father? He taught me to take a punch. By punching me. Now, what I’m interested in, is how a pegasus managed to have two earth pony parents. I didn’t even think that was possible.”
“It’s rare, Ma’am,” said Crimson Sky.
“Mm? Oh, that’s right, you had a little pegasus with an earth pony back in… in…”
“Ponyville, Ma’am. But that’s ancient history.”
“So? How did the little bundle of joy fly?”
“Wouldn’t know. I left that mare before the kid was even born.”
Lightning Dust nodded. She didn’t need Sky’s input on this one, and quite frankly she couldn’t care less about the family he left behind; Merrilay was one of her best fliers. Fast, strong, and best of all, absolutely vicious: a prime example of what a little parental neglect slow-cooked with military training can do to create a capable and effective airpony. “Congratulations, Lieutenant Merrilay. You’re my new wingpony.”
The newly promoted lieutenant saluted, and Lightning Dust saluted back. “I won’t let you down, Ma’am,” said Merrilay with a determined scowl.
Lightning Dust turned away to hide the satisfied smile that had snuck onto her face. “Lieutenant, captain, you two are with me. The rest of you are on your own until Featherweight gets here. Have a drink in memory of the lieutenant. DISMISSED!”
The entire rank saluted in unison and turned right, “R.E.A.F! NOW AND FOREVER!!!” they chanted proudly as they headed out of the room in two ranks. As Lightning Dust led the way to the commander’s lounge she was only vaguely aware of the hoofsteps of her two wingponies. All she could think about was revenge against whoever had signed their own death warrant the moment they had killed one of her closest friends.
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So, I'm guessing that 2nd Lt. Merrilay, now just Lt. Merrilay, is the figure directly over Lightning Dust in this image: http://astringe.deviantart.com/art/Bad-Future-Royal-Equestrian-Air-Force-355734459
And I think I can safely guess that Big Mac is her father.
4253585 I don't think Big Mac would do that, then again I didn't think Dinky could be that evil... So who knows?
I just finished chapter 20 (aka the whole thing!) Please CONTINUE!!!
What do we have here? Another great chapter?. Things are definitely going to be harder for the girls. Also, correct me if I´m wrong, but I understood that Crimson Sky had another family before he joined the R.E.A.F.? Because if that´s the case I cant´wait to see who it is. Although I can guess...
4263186
I think all bets are off in this story. Frankly, it's probably never occurred to Lightning Dust that the pony she's after would give every bit she has to put a whole right through LD's face and have at least as good a reason for it as LD does to be after her.
Is Merrilay male or female?
You introduce them as her but then go on to say they had a foal with a mare and left before it was born and then say "he" but the artwork made for the character depicts them as female. I'm so confused lol
5676732
This was a while ago so I have no idea if you already found out, or even care at this point. But Crimson Sky had joined the conversation and the 'he' was referring to him.