The Reiter Pony War

by ASDeckard

3: Rainbow's First Injury

Rainbow Dash powered herself into Canterlot's mid day sky, climbing almost vertically. After the flight to Canterlot she had to admit her wings felt a bit weak. She'd flow upside-down for some significant time before, but never that far or fast, and the muscles across her back, that were normally only used to pull her wings up in preparation for the next flap, had noticeably tired after having held her weight for so long. That was a silly choice I made, but thankfully, as always, I'm awesome enough to pull it off anyway!

Now, where are they... It didn't take Rainbow long to locate the pegasi and griffons she'd spotted on the way in, still standing in the grassy field off the main road. She entered a shallow low speed dive heading in their direction, suddenly not so existed about being the center of attention. Is this a good idea, jumping into the middle of a military training exercise? Eh, I'm sure I'll live.

Rainbow folded her wings back and entered a steep dive, only pulling out a few feet above the ground. The pegasi and few griffons were standing in a lose rectangle, four rows back and about ten wide standing at attention. Another griffon was pacing back and forth in front of them as she talked.

Rainbow flared her wings out, stalled them, and expertly landed dropping into a comfortable sitting position on the soft grass, only about 10 feet from the pacing griffon. The griffon, still deep in her speech, ignored Rainbows arrival entirely.

Since Rainbow had arrived quite late she expected her speech to be nearly over, unfortunately it wasn't.

"—all this stuff you hear about Equestrian's not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of bull. Equestrian's love to fight. All real Equestrian's love the sting and clash of battle. When you were foals, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest flyer, and the toughest Equestrian Football players. Equestrian's love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Equestrian's play to win all the time. That's why Equestrian's have never lost and will never lose a war. The very thought of losing is hateful to Equestrian's. Battle is the most significant competition in which a pony or griffon can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base and standard.

"You are not all going to die. Only a few of you right here today will be killed in a major battle. Every pony is scared in their first action. If they say they're not, they're a gods-damned liar. But the real hero is the pony who fights even though they're scared. Some ponies will get over their fright in a minute in combat, some take an hour, and for some it takes days, while others are never able to. But the real ponies never let their fear of death overpower their honor, their sense of duty to their country, and their innate bravery.

"An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, and fights as a team. This individual hero stuff is bull. The cowards who write that stuff for the Equestrian Evening Post don't know any more about real battle than they do about procreating. And we have the best team—we have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit and the best ponies and griffons in the world. Why, by Celestia, I actually pity these poor cowards we're going up against.

"Why are you here?" the griffon asked, suddenly turning to Rainbow.

Rainbow stared back, blinking a few times before her mind was able to get her body to respond. "To do what I can to shorten this terrible war, keep my friend Twilight from getting herself killed," Rainbow said jumping to her feet, "and because I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, and it would be a shame to waste my abilities in our time of need."

All in all, she was rather proud of her impromptu speech; she just wished Twilight was here to see it.

"Fastest flyer," the griffon commander (Rainbow recognized the rank insignia she was wearing; I wonder if she knows Spitfire?) stated more than asked. "How is that going to help you?"

"Umm," Rainbow was take aback, "excuse me? How wouldn't it help me?"

"Will you run away every time we commit to battle?"

"What? No!"

"Then you will rush ahead into the storm, leaving your squadron-mates behind?"

Rainbow had to consciously stop her wings from rising as her anger built. "Of course not! But I can cut through and run interference on a flank, play hit-and-run at their rear, or you can hold me back to rush and counter breakthroughs, or," Rainbow continued, shrugging with both her shoulders and wings, "you can use me as a scout, or heck, even a messenger pony. I don't really care; I just want this war to end, and to keep my friend's safe."

"You want to keep ponies safe? Then why not join the guard?"

"I... don't like standing around all day." This statement drew some snickers and even an outright laugh from the ponies and griffons standing at attention; even the griffon commander—I should really get her name—smiled at the remark. If there's one thing a pony could always count on, it would be the competitiveness and distrust between the service branches. They're as bad as sports teams sometimes.

The commander suddenly dropped from the smirk into an angry glare, and the ponies and griffons went silent. "What is more important," she shouted at the new recruits, turning away from Rainbow Dash, "speed... or strength?"

"Actually it's arguably endurance," Rainbow piped up.

Griffon Commander's glare was all Rainbow needed to be reminded the question was not directed at her.

"Strength," about half the requites shouted, while the rest remained silent, not sure what to say.

"What is more important, speed or strength?" the griffon asked, looking at Rainbow.

"It really is strength," Rainbow answered, completely confident in her answer.

"Well, I know what we can do!" the Commander shouted. "Strength," she shouted, thumping herself in the chest with a fore-claw, "vs speed!"

It took Rainbow a second to put it together. "Me? But I'm one the the strongest ponies I've ever met! I'm not exactly the incarnation of pure speed. When I win, how will we know it was my speed and not my strength that beat you?"

"Because I'm not a pony," the Commander said, digging a small trench with one of her claws, "and you're not going to win. I'm stronger. We stop at first submission, or when one of us losses consciousness." She began pacing around to Rainbows left, her massive wings flaring out to her sides. "When you're ready, little pony."

Rainbow wasn't expecting to get into a fight with anyone, but she was up for it. She started pacing in the same direction as the Griffon, both of them moving in parallel, away from the recruits. This is going to be... interesting. Rainbow had gotten into fights with griffons before, and had also spent a lot of time sparring with her griffon friend Gilda.

Gilda was only a few inches taller than Rainbow, but she weighed about twice as much and that weight had played into her advantage during their fights. This griffon was over a foot taller than Rainbow, and weighed probably close to four times as much as she did. Just one of her wings was longer than Rainbow was from nose to the base of her tail.

The Commander suddenly turned straight on with Rainbow and lunged forward, her rear legs digging into the soft grass.

Rainbow turned straight on as-well, paused until right before the Commander landed on her, then jumped sideways to her left using her wings to add extra speed to the jump.

The Commander landed where Rainbow had been, then sprung sideways after Rainbow, twisting to her right and lashing out with her left claw.

Rainbow smashed her front hooves into the ground as she landed and flapped her wings, rearing up and back. The Griffons claw passed where her shoulders had been, passing harmlessly an inch from where her stomach was now. Rainbow then sprung forwards off her back legs, and planted her fore-hooves into the griffons left shoulder. The impact sent a shock-wave through Rainbows entire body, and sent lances of pain though both of her forelegs.

Rainbow then flapped hard, rebounding off the griffon to get some distance between herself and the counterattack she expected to come immediately, but none came. Landing she felt a small spike of pain in her forelegs, but nothing very severe, nothing that would slow her down or weaken her strikes.

"Congratulations," the griffon cooed, "you landed the first strike."

"Yea, you're not so ba—" Rainbow was cut off as the griffon lunged again, this time coming in straight rather than a slow high arc as she had with her first lunge.

Rainbow dove to her right, putting herself on the side of the griffons injured fore-claw. It didn't help; the griffon still managed to rake her claw across Rainbow's flank and left thigh as she darted passed, cutting deep into her skin and muscle.

Stupid, stupid; you didn't have to do that! You could have just dodged back and away, or even up, and she'd have never hit you! Rainbow had already committed though, so she did what she could to make it pay off. She flared her wings, using them to turn her momentum around in a hard left turn, directly back into the griffon who was still recovering from her powerful swipe.

Rainbow planted her forelegs into the grass, and pivoted around, lashing out with her hind-legs in a powerful buck that would make Applejack proud. Her back hooves connected with the griffons rear-left leg, and with a loud 'pop,' it crumpled under the force of the strike. Rainbow didn't look to see what had happened, instead once again using her wings to power herself away from the griffon before she could counter.

"Ugh, Gods," the griffon exclaimed behind Rainbow, "you'll pay for that!"

"Umm, actually," Rainbow began, landing and checking her wounds—it wasn't as bad as it felt, just three dark red slashes down her left flank, starting just below her ribs and going back to halfway down the top of her thigh; no arteries, no tendons, just muscle and skin. It was bleeding a bit, but not enough to be dangerous and it only burned slightly—before looked back at the griffon; it was exactly what Rainbow had feared, she had broken the griffons leg. "I don't think you should try and continue with that leg."

"I will not submit!" the griffon shouted, pushing herself into the air on powerful flaps.

"Ok," Rainbow muttered under her breath, also taking to the air. "What's it going to take then?" she asked herself; this could get messy.

The griffon powered herself forward, building speed far quicker than Rainbow would have expected such a large creature to be able too, but it didn't matter. Rainbow began a pure vertical climb; while she probably could out run the heavy griffon in level flight by a decent margin, she could easily double her rate of climb.

She was right; the Griffon Commander tried to strain after her, but was unable to continue the vertical climb, and was forced to fall into a loose spiral climb, making altitude at less than half of Rainbows rate, and opening herself up to attack.

Rainbow quickly transitioned into level flight, extending away from the griffon, then as the griffon tried to follow, still in a steep, slow climb rainbow reversed and flew back over the top of her, just out of reach. As the griffon slowly tried to turn, her wings struggling to cut into the thinner medium altitude air. Rainbow used her wings to pull into a tight half loop, to position herself directly above the griffon, and then dove directly down on top of her. The griffon tried to pull her nose up, to meet Rainbows attack head-on, but her wings couldn't grab the air with enough force to hold her up at such low speed.

Rainbow drove both of her forelegs directly into the griffons back, right between the wing joints. The griffon, howling in fury and pain, attempted to twist to the right, lashing out with a backhand claw swipe, but Rainbow dove with the roll and stayed directly behind the griffon as she turned. Rainbow then lashed out with her rear-legs as she flew away, connecting with the base of the griffons right wing. It wasn't hard enough to break the joint, but it had to hurt.

After gaining about 15 feet of separation Rainbow slowed into a comfortable hover (the air at this altitude was still thick enough for her to easily support her weight even on her small wings, not something the griffon could say; it pays to be light up here), and turned to face the griffon, who was glaring at her as she struggled to maintain her own hover.

"Are we done yet?" Rainbow asked. She didn't want to have to cripple the griffon to the point she couldn't fly; if she fell from this height it may kill her. "You've already lost this; you're not fast enough to hit me, especially not injured as you are now."

"...why?"

"...What? Because I've been pounding on you!"

"No!" the griffon shouted, worrying Rainbow she may attack again, even in her crippled state. "Why is strength more important that speed? That's not what it looks like from my side right now."

"Oh, well... you can't fly fast on weak wings!" Seeing the griffon's confused and angry look, Rainbow elaborated, "on the ground your weight can be an asset, but up here, were you can't corner me there's nothing you can do to counter my speed, but I'm only fast because I'm so strong!"

"But I'm stronger," the griffon spat. Her wings, especially the one Rainbow had injured, were starting to tire and she was starting to slowly lose altitude.

Rainbow descended with her. "Yea, you're at least twice as strong as I am, but you're also four times as heavy and it takes a lot of strength to move that weight! Just trust me, you can't have speed without strength but it's also important not to have any unnecessary weight, especially not up here. So are we done, do you submit?"

They were nearing the ground now. Rainbow looked down, and spotted Twilight among the recruits, standing a bit to their side. She looked back at the griffon, not wanting to look away from her potential opponent for too long.

"Yes," the griffon finally said, just as she was coming in for a gentle landing. "I submit."

A rustle of hushed whispers arose from the gathered recruits.

"Ah yea, Rainbow takes down another one!" Rainbow then exploded over towards Twilight, approaching from the left then looped around behind Twilight, landing in line with and on her friends left (keeping the injury on her left flank hidden from Twilight the entire time). "Enjoy the show?"

"No," Twilight said, shaking her head, "I didn't arrive until you two were in the clouds. Where did that blood come from." Twilight was gesturing to the small pool of blood Rainbow had left on the ground, just after she had been slashed.

"I..."

"You did not mention your friend was this Twilight," the griffon Commander suddenly said, a bit of reverence slipping into her voice. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, I am sorry if I caused your friend any excessive discomfort," she finished with a bow.

"Naw, nothing that wasn't expressly called for... and sorry about the leg." Rainbow added after a seconds though.

"What? What did you do to her leg?" Twilight asked, anger creeping into her voice.

"Oh, I, umm... kinda broke it."

"Rainbow, we've only been here an hour," Twilight started, moving towards the griffon, "and you've already injured one of the few wing commanders Equestria has left!" Twilight moved in to inspect the griffons broken leg.

Rainbow folded her left wing down to cover her injuries, but pulled the wing back when she felt it stick to her side. On closer inspection the gashes in her side where still bleeding, and had made a bit of a mess. The bright red contrasted beautifully with her cyan fur, although Rainbow doubted Twilight would think so.

"Oh my, even at full strength I don't think I'll be able to fix your leg with magic," Twilight told the griffon.

"It is not your fault Princess Sparkle. The leg will heal in it's own time."

"Please, Twilight will do. What is your name, commander?"

"Geora Patton, and Geora will do for you miss Sparkle," the griffon Geora said kindly, "but will remain commander Patton to you!" she added, fiercely addressing her still fresh troops. "I was planning on having the troops do strength and stamina training for the first few weeks anyway. I can yell at them just fine while resting on the sidelines, and I can still fly well enough if I have to."

"Ok, "Twilight said, backing off. "Please be sure to get in to see a doctor at some point though; you need to have that leg set and caste as soon as possible."

Twilight turned back to Rainbow. Rainbow had already turned to the side so Twilight couldn't see her injured side; she'd tell her after they left so not to disturb Geora's training any-longer. Rainbow had done far more than enough.

"Let's go Twi," Rainbow said spreading her wings.

"Yea, I think I'm still strong enough to make it up to Celestia's tower." Twilight and Rainbow took off into the mid day sky, Twilight swaying a little but holding together.

It was a relatively short flight back to Celestia's tower. They landed on a small balcony that lead into the floor with all of the guest rooms, two floors below Celestia's room. The floor between them was were most of Celestia's Guard slept and their main armory was located.

"Are we checking in already?" Rainbow asked as Twilight lead her into the tower.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you," Twilight said glancing over her shoulder but continuing into the tower, so Rainbow followed her in. "Princess Celestia thinks the two of us are better suited to joining a sort of... 'fast strike team' that Princess Luna is preparing."

"Well yea, fast pretty much has my name on it!" As Rainbow walked along pretty much every guard they walked by on her left looked her up and down, with a quizzical look on their face. She gave each a quick smile that she hopped said, 'yea I know it looks bad, but at least I'm not bleeding on your carpet.'

"Luna plans on the team mostly operating at night," Twilight continued up ahead, "so she want's to train us at night, so we should get to sleep as early as we can. I don't think we're going to have much time, although after that flight I feel like I may pass out anyway. Would you like your own room or are we having a slumber party?"

Rainbow was sort of hoping to get by without Twilight noticing her injury, but it would be nice to have help cleaning it... Twilight was going to need to get comfortable with the sight of blood some time soon anyway, and there was no reason to take up more space than they needed too. "We can use the same room, and besides, I'm sure the beds here are enormous."

Author's Note:

So, interesting things in this chapter; Geora Patton? George S. Patton's griffon daughter! Specifically her speech was copied almost word for word from one of Patton's famous speeches (although it was obviously pony and griffonafied). It's not plagiarism, it's parody! (I also just cited the original work, so I'm calling it fair. It's only plagiarism if I try and pass it off as mine, which I'm not).

As always, feel free to point out any spelling or punctuation errors in the comments. Please include a copy and paste of were the error is so I can easily find it using the search function. If there is any grammatical device I consistently use that irritates you, feel free to bring it up. Having me explain to you why I do it may help you enjoy the story, and if it's something I don't have a good reason for doing then I should stop doing it and would love the opportunity for you to teach me. Happy readings.