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by The Boss

Leading Edge

Two Days Later

Shield sipped a cup of coffee as he lounged in Dashie’s kitchen, the pegasus had not fallen asleep in the two days he had been here. The beds were too soft, they brought out the worst of his nightmares. He hadn’t told Rainbow about it though, it wasn’t her cross to bear. Since he had been back he had learned so much about her, she was an element of harmony, had been accepted into the Wonderbolt Academy and was teaching a young filly to fly. It made him proud to know that she had grown so well without him, and then he remembered that he had missed all of those moments.

He sighed and took another sip from his cup, looking at the rising sun in the distance. Shield heard Dash come into the room despite her efforts to remain stealthy, he let out a soft chuckle.

“You can’t pull that with me Dash.” He heard an exasperated sigh and Rainbow Dash walked over to the chair across from him, upon seeing his bloodshot eyes she took on a look of concern.

“Shield, did you sleep last night?” Shield shook his head and took another sip. “Shield you know what can happen if you don’t get enough sleep, I don’t normally play egghead but when it comes to your health… I won’t lose you again, Shield.”

“I’m fine Dash.” Dash pointed at his wings, they had seen better days.

“If you don’t get some sleep that’s gonna be permanent. Please, Shield just do it.” Shield looked at her for a moment. “For me?” He sighed and nodded, Dash smiled and watched him climb the steps to the guest room. When she heard the door close she began to clean up the kitchen, to her surprise Shield had not only cleaned his used cups but everything from the icebox to the kitchen sink. It was eerie, considering Shield had been the closest thing to a pig that a pony could be. When they had cleaned his room after he left they had to hire an entire crew, now the was kitchen sparkling when he was finished with it.

Rainbow Dash was perplexed, but shrugged it off. He hadn’t slept in several days, it made sense he would clean the dishes to have something to do. Right? The kitchen was the least of her concern’s however, Shield seemed distant. As if part of him was just off in another place, it unnerved the prismatic pegasus. He hadn’t really made any jokes as he had done when she was a filly, he hadn’t smiled much either and his remaining eye seemed to have a depth to it that went beyond anything she had seen before. His face was sunken, and his ears seemed to twitch about as if something was following him.

“What’s wrong with you, Shield?” She asked herself, the clock on the wall chimed and reminded her that she had to go to work. Dash trotted up the steps to the upper floor and then to her room, she could hear Shield snoring as she passed his room. “At least some things don’t change.” She chuckled.

After combing her mane and going about her other morning rituals Dash left the house. She was absolutely quiet so she wouldn't wake Shield. She was going to have to talk to her friends later, and tell them the whole story. They only knew Shield as one of her friends from flight school, Applejack had already taken a disliking to him. Hopefully clearing the air would change that.

[♠]

”Lieutenant! We got thirty Griffons on our six!” The words echoed through Shields head as he tossed and turned.

”The Saddle Arabians are blasting us out of the sky! We need to pull out now!” Shield knew that voice, but he couldn’t put a face to it.

”SIR! WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS!” That was his voice, the images were starting to come back. ”If you can’t make the choice I will!”

”I-I”

”Bucking Canterlot boys! Come on! We’re pulling out of here!” Shield could see it forming in his mind, it was getting clearer and clearer.

Shield dodged a massive blast of magic fired from the Saddle Arabian Capital below, he and his flight had been lead off course by their incompetent excuse for a flight lead. Now the Griffons and the Saddle Arabians were making it near impossible to escape. The flight of three pegasi had left the flight leader behind, they would get killed if they kept following his orders.

“What’s the plan sarge!” Shouted the pegasi to his left, Corporal Light Wing. Shield looked around for a moment, the spells being fired at them were exploding at a set height. The gears in his head turned and a light bulb went up in his head.

“Fly on the deck! Avoid the casters and try to get the griffons to crash into the buildings.” Shield ordered, his flight looked at him with shocked expressions. “You want to die here!” Another spell exploded close to them, the others shook their heads. “Good! Follow my flank and stay tight! Lets thread the needle!” Shield and the others angled their wings down, avoiding spells coming up from the large city below them. Shield lead his crew through a narrow street, flying inches over the shocked heads of Saddle Arabian Civilians.

The Griffons on their six dropped down as well, seven were slammed by the spells still flying from the ground. They tried to imitate the flight of Shield and his crew but failed miserably, smashing into Saddle Arabians on the ground or getting caught on balconies. Shield smiled as he saw that now only four remained, before quickly turning his head back forwards. He barely had time to dodge a cart that was being pulled by a lanky Saddle Arabian. Sparks flew from his armor as it grinded over the top of the cart, Shield sighed as he saw the end of the street ahead. There was a group of enemy pegasi, they had cleared the street and hovered directly in front of the flight.

“Plan!?” This time the shout was from Private Leading Edge.

“Drop low on my command!” Shield shouted back. “We’re gonna kiss the ground!” The Griffons were starting to catch up, Shield had to time this perfectly. Crossbow bolts flew towards them, but miraculously they missed. When Shield saw the shocked eyes of the Saddle Arabians he said a quick prayer. “NOW!” The group dropped again, to the point where they were they were only inches from the ground. The remaining Griffons crashed into the shocked Saddle Arabians, sending them flying.

“Pull up!” Shield ordered, Light Wing and Shield began to climb. Leading Edge began to ascend as well, but Shield saw what was coming. “PULL UP!” Leading edge was too slow, a spray of blood signified the young private’s impact with a building. “FAUST DAMN IT!”

“He would have died instantly, sir.” Light Wing said as they climbed out of the range of the Saddle Arabians. Shield nodded slowly and sighed.

“From now on, no one gets left behind.” He said firmly, Light Wing snorted in affirmation.

[♠]

Shield woke up to the sound of the front door closing, he looked at the clock and saw the that he had been asleep for five hours. He grunted a bit and got out of the bed, he put on his eyepatch and stumbled a bit. Shield walked to the door to his room and opened it.

“Dashie? That you?” He called down, there was a brief moment of silence.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Dash’s voice called, slightly surprised. Shield exited the room and walked downstairs, Dash was in the kitchen with several bags of groceries. She smiled at Shield as he came in. “You sleep alright?” Shield nodded before grabbing a bag and putting it’s contents away.

“Yeah, I slept fine.” He lied, shaking the image of the blood spray from his mind. “What about you, how was work?”

“It was okay, had some rouge clouds from the Everfree fly in but nothing too bad.” Dash finished with her groceries and looked at the clock. “Hey I was going to meet my friends later, want to come?” Shield looked thoughtful for a moment and shook his head.

“Nah, they’re your friends.” Shield noticed Dash’s face droop a bit and sighed. “On second thought, I guess it could do me some good to get out of here for a bit.” He gestured to the house, Dash hugged him tightly.

“Thanks.” She said before releasing him, Shield tossled her mane and nodded. “We were going to meet up at the library, you know where that is right?”

“It’s kinda hard to miss.” Shield replied, walking to the coat closet for a moment. He opened it and looked in, his bag was on the floor and open. “Wonder what the security looks like over there.” He pulled out a necklace with two metal tags hanging from it, as well as an eight pointed hat Dash had learned was called a ‘Cover’. It was similar to the hat she had worn when they had watched the dragon migration, but had an emblem stitched into the front. It was a faded eight pointed sun with an anchor behind it, wings sprouted from the anchor in an odd fashion.

“Why do you care about security? Twilight already knows I’m coming.” Shield shrugged and adjusted his cover. After that he put the strange necklace around his neck.

“Because, they may know you’re coming…” Shield paused and coughed a bit. “But they don’t know I’m coming. From the looks of it those guards are just out of basic.” He and Dash started walking towards the door, the strange necklace clinked as he moved. “They’re bound to get antsy when I show up.” Shield opened the door and let his sister exit first, then closed the door and locked it with the key she had given him. He stretched his wings and smiled a bit, an idea had formed in his head. Dash seemed upset, maybe he could remedy that? “Hey Dashie?”

“Yeah?” Dash turned and saw the grin, Shield gave his wings a massive flap and took off into the air.

“Race ya!” He rocketed past Rainbow Dash and towards the small town, Dash smiled and took off after him. She actually found herself having a hard time catching up, which didn’t surprise her. Shield had always been faster, though he often eased back a bit to let her win. Shield dropped low to the ground, lower than Dash had ever flown. He weaved through trees and bushes with ease, even with only one eye.

Dash caught up to him and flew at a safer altitude above him, as they got closer to the town Shield tilted his wings up and soared over Rainbow Dash.

“Its been a while since we did this!” Dash said excitedly, Shield smiled and laughed.

“Remember when you were learning to fly? This was the only way I could get you out of the house!” Shield came up alongside Rainbow Dash smiling, the town was getting even closer now. “Glad to see you grew out of that fear of heights!”

“I wasn’t scared of how high we were, I was scared of hitting the ground.” Dash retorted, Shield laughed again. This was the Shield she remembered, telling stories and laughing.

“Alright, slow up. We’re going into a residential zone.” Shield said over the wind, Dash nodded and flared her wings to slow down. Shield was still ahead of her even at the reduced speed. “Alright, here it comes! The final push!” They flew down mainstreet, getting the attention of the guards at the Library/Palace. Dash flared her wings to slow down for a landing, but Shield continued on like a bolt of lightning. Right as he was about to hit the boundary that indicated the no fly zone he started flapping backwards, his muzzle was now inches from the boundary.

He dropped to the ground and rolled his neck, Dash landed next to him and looked at him with an awed face. The guards stared at him as well, though more out of curiosity than awe.

“Lets go meet your friends.”

[♠]

DOG TAG COLLECTED

Author's Note:

I don't know why, but I felt like adding in Dog Tags. I guess cause it lets me experiment with Photoshop, but whatever. Yay! Consider it like an achievement, though all you did was read... I'm just gonna stop typing now...

Comments

[hollowhoofer]

how do i get the dogtag on bf4?

[Shadow_Wolf]

Awesome update

[Blue Spark]

IT LIVES!!! :D
Man, I can't wait to see what happens next, keep it up please! :)

[boothnat]

I LIKE.
VERY MUCH.

[Forrest Hunt]

I agree to this.

[GammaG3]

This chapter, I like it....

ANOTHER!

[Bronzedragon]

excellent story couple of nit picks. [ grinded ] (ground),
[rouge] (rogue) everyone seems to do this one.
Dog tag is a nice touch.

[Trouble Cleft]

This Is GREAT!!!!
MOAR!!!!