A Rainbow in the Dark

by Sparky Brony

Chapter 8. Leavetakings

Twilight was only planning on one night, not the weekend. But that was how it turned out. Madison, it turned out, was an excellent friend, and she missed Rainbow Dash just as fiercely as Twilight did herself. Though finding humans in this world who loved her friend as much as she did was very refreshing. Twilight spent hours telling the young lady about events in Equestria since Rainbow Dash had disappeared. Maddie was especially interested in Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. She was even able to secure a promise that when Rainbow Dash returned, that would not be the last they saw of each other. It was a tenuous promise at best, she made that clear, but knowing that Rainbow Dash wasn't going to be gone forever without any warning really made the little girl happier. But the Monday morning was here, bringing school around for Maddie. Twilight made sure to give the young girl a hug before she ran down the road to the bus stop. After her blonde curls bounced out of sight, she turned to Bill.

"Well, that was a fun weekend, thank you, Bill, for putting up with me this weekend."

"We were glad to have you Twilight, don't be a stranger now."

Twilight smiled as she responded, "I'll try not to be Bill."

Twilight adjusted her saddle bags, once again, thanking Celestia that she had brought them with her. Maddie had shown her the primary feather than Rainbow Dash had given her to remember her by, and after getting to know the young lady over the weekend, a lavender feather was added to Madison's collection. She understood perfectly how Rainbow felt for this small family that she was getting ready to leave. Her mission was why she was here. And after some research at the Bill's family farm, she had determined the best route to avoid people. Bill had cautioned her to keep her altitude low in deference to the radar keeping an eye on the sky. Twilight spread her wings and took off, looking back at Bill waving at her as the farm receded behind her. She looked forward and concentrated on covering distance. She had learned quite a bit from Rainbow's letters to her friends here on this Earth. In a short while she had found the train tracks heading west to east. After a bit, she found a westbound train and settled in for the trip. Better to let a train take her west than to fly the whole way. She was well rested, but the movement of the train, and the clickety clack of the metal wheels on the rails lulled her into sleep within a few hours.

***

Twilight woke up, the train was slowing down. She looked around. This wasn't the first time she had to deal with changing trains. She remembered the map that Bill had shown her. This must be Chicago. She was thankful for the dark night as she took off from the roof of the train as no one could see her. Heading west, she found another train, this one looked like it was carrying vehicles, all of them mottled green, most had tracks and the tops of the vehicles were very oddly shaped to Twilight's eyes. She finally found a regular freight car to land on. After a while, she was drowsy once again, she lay down her head.

"Hey, what's that?" a faint voice interrupted her slumber. She raised her head and looked around. Behind her were to men in green uniforms, they were walking on the tops of the train car. Twilight froze. She noticed that the train had slowed down. She slowly looked around using only her eyes, they were in the countryside, though behind the train she could see the lights of the city.
Please don't come closer, she thought desperately to herself, and of course, her silent prayers went unanswered.

"It looks sorta like a dog," the first voice said.

"How did a dog get on top of the train cars?" the second human responded.

Twilight's eyes went wide. They couldn't see her very well, and they thought she was a dog. Time to get away from them.

"Here boy," one of them called, then he whistled. She got up and started trotting away from them.

"It's going to hurt itself, let's get it." The two men started moving faster on the rail car. Twilight picked up the pace, looking back at her pursuit. She risked a glance forward just in time to jump over the gap between the rail cars, she rushed down the next rail car. The two men behind her started to run, calling out for her to stop. Twilight had no intention of stopping and letting them get a good look at her though. She bumped up to a canter, only to smack into something near the end of the next rail car. She landed on her rear and looked forward. Another man was there, he turned around and she was blinded by a bright flashlight.

"What the hell?" a new voice said as a pair of arms encircled her.

"Let me go!" she screamed in panic. The flashlight didn't move off from her, and she wiggled enough to see the face of the creature that had her in its arms. It turned out to be another one of those men.

"Holy shit, it talked!" the man with the flashlight said. "Hold on to it." The man holding her tightened his grip on her. She tried to wiggle free, but he was too strong. She thought of teleporting away, but she would likely accidentally take him with her, and she would be in the same situation. She decided to reason with these humans.

"Please, I'm sorry to be on your train, but could you please let me go?"

The man with the flashlight considered her for a moment. "I'm having trouble believing my eyes here. But you talk?"

"Yes, and I'm just trying to find a friend. Please, I'll leave, just let me go."

The man considered her for a moment. "I'm sorry." He looked at one of the men who had been chasing her as they came up. "Tase her."

The man holding her let her go, but she didn't have any time to move before thousands of volts of electricity coursed through her body, knocking her out.

***

"Wake up."

Twilight heard the voice, it was different than the ones on the train. She also noticed the lack of movement, she either wasn't on the train anymore, or it was stopped. She slowly opened her eyes. She was chained up. She had chains around her hooves and neck. With difficulty she was able to shift around and stand up. Her initial panic had passed, so she simply looked around calmly. She focused on the man in front of her.

"What are you?" A man in front of her said. She took a minute to appraise him. He was tall, a bit older. He had a different set of clothes on than the others. His jacket was green. He had a plastic name badge that said Sheppard on it. On the other side of the jacket was four different bars, they had many little ribbons on them, what their meaning was, Twilight had no clue. She looked at his shoulders, he had a golden leaf on each side of his shoulder. His hair was short and gray, though he didn't look that old. One other man came in the room and sat a chair down in front of the young alicorn. He sat down and continued to study her as much as she was studying him. She looked around, several other men were sitting in chairs around the edge of the room, but the man in front of her, he seemed to be in charge.

"Are you going to answer me?"

She thought about his words for a moment, being quiet wasn't going to help. "Yes, what I am is an alicorn."

He grunted. "So, it's true, you do talk. So maybe you can answer my questions."

"I would be happy to answer your questions sir, but could you please remove these chains? I promise I won't run anywhere."
"Perhaps in a short while, miss. You were found on top of a train that was transporting nuclear weapons. Do you know what that means?"

She shifted a bit. Nuclear weapons, she knew nuclear theories, but she had never heard about nuclear weapons. "No, sir, I don't."
"It means no matter what you are, you were on United States Government property, and you have made yourself a national security issue."

Her eyes went wide, he noticed.

"Yes, you are in a lot of trouble."

"I'm so sorry. My friend is lost, I'm simply trying to get to her, she traveled by rail a few months ago…" Twilight trailed off. Unsure of how much to tell this man. "Where am I?"

"You were removed from the train and taken to the nearest Military installation. You are in Fort McCoy, in the state of Wisconsin."

Twilight looked down, remembering the map, she still had a ways to go. "As I said, sir. I'm very sorry that I was on your train. Could you please let me go?"

He considered her for a moment. "I don't think I can let you go, but I can let you out of those chains. I remember you promised not to run away. Does that include you using those wings of yours? In return, I promise you will not be harmed while you are in my custody."

She slowly nodded. Fighting the sense of dread rising in her throat.

He nodded his head and one of the soldiers rushed forward and unlocked the chains, in moments she was free. She spread her wings to stretch them.

"That better?"

"Yes, thank you, sir."

"Now, what are we going to do with you?" He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

She decided to take matters in her hooves.

"You are holding royalty against their will, I would think that would be considered an act of war."

His eyes widened at her words, and she momentarily thought she had made a mistake. Well, nothing to do but press on. "My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. I have no desire for our nations to be at war. If you let me go so I can find my lost friend, we will leave your nation in peace and never return."

He was silent as she wound down. He simply continued scrutinizing her.

"If you release me, I will make sure that our crown Princess, Princess Celestia, will know of your mercy and will look kindly upon you."

After several tense seconds, Twilight noticed the sweat trickling down her body, still he didn't say anything.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, huh?" He said after several agonizing minutes of silence. She nodded.

"Of Equestria, you say?" Again, she nodded at his words.

He looked at the soldiers in the room. "Leave us." They saluted and left the room.

"First off, I must remember my manners, my name is Major Sheppard. And, about your friend, does your friend have wings like yours and a very bright, multicolored mane?" Her eyes widened at his words, "Ahh, I see that I'm right. Well, Princess…" He shifted in his chair.

"Some months ago, our radar detected a fast moving object. We dispatched some aircraft to investigate, as well as some ground units to investigate. Our pilots reported a truly unbelievable story. They were lucky that a camera on one of the airplanes captured a single image of a winged horse that happened to be blue, with a Technicolor mane flying ahead of them. They reported that the horse…"

"Pony," she interrupted him. His face grew dark and she cringed, but still stood her ground, "We are ponies, not horses, horses are extinct in my home."

He growled a bit, "Fine, the pony accelerated faster than a rocket, literally. And actually went hypersonic. And when it did, it produced an explosion of color."

"That's a sonic rainboom, my friend has performed that several times."

"Well, that is interesting."

"That sounds like my friend, I've come here to get her, and bring her home. She's been missing for over a year now. Her friends, myself included, miss her very much. And I came here to bring her home."

He sat back. Apparently pondering her for several moments. After a bit, he reached behind his chair and brought out her saddle bags. He opened them.

"Well, we went through the bags you had on you when you were brought in. I am happy to say that their contents corroborate what you are saying to me. There were no weapons, no bombs, nothing but food, some gold, paper, quills, and a couple of bottles of ink."

"Can I have my bags back please? I really need to get going."

"I'm sorry, Twilight Sparkle, but you are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. I was appointed after the first incident to investigate, so imagine my surprise when I was called very early this morning and brought to the first transport out of DC to be brought here. I am glad you have been found and I was able to interview you. But you are going to be joining me on the next plane to DC, where you will be interviewed further by our civilian leadership. I have superiors that I must answer to."

Twilight stood up again. "I'm sorry, sir. But that's not acceptable. I promised to not run, nor fly away. I made no promises about using other means though." With those words she lit her horn and used her telekinesis to grab her saddlebags and brought them to her. The major yelped and jumped back. She smiled as she concentrated her magic again and teleported, one thousand feet straight up. She was all of a sudden in the pre-dawn morning, spreading her wings as gravity took hold she used her telekinesis to strap her saddlebags to her body. Then she took off, heading west, thanking Celestia the whole time that she didn't take the letters to Bill so these soldiers couldn't find Rainbow's location from them.

"Well, I guess I had better avoid the trains from now on," she said to herself as she leveled out a hundred feet from the ground, powering west as fast as she could fly. In the distance behind her, she could hear sirens howling from the base she had just vacated.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Will Rainbow Dash be beating anybody up in this story?

[Sparky Brony]

4188724

No plans on her getting rough with anyone in this story.