The Element of Laughter

by The-rogue-shadow

Chapter 3

Pinkie watched as Heartstrings preened her feathers, a rare moment for earth ponies; as Pegasi are usually very shy when it comes to that. Her mint green feathers fell to the ground, but they had already been replaced by newer and better feathers. Heartstrings finished, stretching her wings out fully, and Pinkie was surprised to see her full wingspan, which was the largest of any Pegasus that Pinkie had ever seen. Heartstrings noticed her look of amazement and smiled.

"Checking out my wings huh? Yeah I pride myself on my wingspan. hehe its actually funny, during summer flight camp, a fair few of us started puberty, myself included and we held competitions to see whose wings were the biggest. I always won of course, but there was this one pony I remember, her wings were so close but I won by a good half inch. We were rivals, me and her, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't beat her during races. I can't remember her name now; it was something, uh Dash." She said and Pinkie's ears pricked up.

"Rainbow Dash?" she asked, and Heartstrings smiled and nodded.

"That's it, do you know her?" she said, and Pinkie nodded slowly, and then regaled her with the story of Rainbow Dash, as well as her current condition. Heartstrings' ears dropped as Pinkie told her what happened in detail. When she had finished, the two ponies sat quietly for a moment.

"And that's why we are fighting this war isn't it?" Heartstrings said finally. Pinkie nodded, taking a deep breath to hold back the tears. Heartstrings gritted her teeth.

"Then at least I know that we are fighting for a good cause." She said. They both turned as Swift and Rosethorn entered the special ops tent. Pinkie was happy to have gotten so close to the ponies in such a short time, although getting to know a pony that couldn't talk was a challenge for Pinkie. Swift had learnt to communicate through pony sign language, which involved movements of the ears, but unfortunately, Pinkie wasn't versed in pony sign language, but she was learning it from a book that Twilight had given her. So instead, swift wrote down anything he wanted to say to Pinkie, and had started to carry a notepad and pen around his neck for such a reason. He waved, not wanting to waste paper on simply "hello". Rosethorn placed a dossier on the table, which contained their next mission. Pinkie opened it, reading aloud to the group;

"Good work on your last mission, those supplies will come in handy. Your next mission will be a quick snatch and grab from a griffin gulag on the coast of the sea of Luna. Your target is a Pegasus pony that goes by the name of I.Q; he specialises in tactics and would be vital to our mission. His reasons for being in the gulag are unknown but we do know that we need him. Also, try not to draw too much attention to yourselves, we want this kept quiet. Signed P.C." Pinkie looked up from the document at her team. Rosethorn was already deep in thought, thinking about what they might need, Swift wrote something and handed it to Pinkie, it said; 'What kind of approach do you want to take? Land, Sea or air?'

"Good question Swift. How are we going to enter? Land, sea or air? Well I think that land would be the obvious choice considering we only have one Pegasus on the team, and besides, it is a griffin gulag, so their air defence is probably going to be strong." Pinkie reasoned, she looked at the others, hoping they had some ideas.

"Well that just leaves us with a sea entrance." Said Rosethorn, but Heartstrings shook her head.

"If we use the water, I'm going to be useless inside until my wings dry out. Water makes them too heavy for me to use." She explained. Pinkie smiled, as did Swift.

"Well then, I guess you will get a taste of what it's like to be an earth pony." She said, giggling. Swift held out his arm for a brohoof, and Pinkie shook her head, holding out both arms. Swift returned the double brohoof with enthusiasm. Heartstrings shot them a dirty look, and Rosethorn smirked.

"The point, Heartstrings, is that it is really the only option, the air will be swarming with griffins, the main entrance is just plain suicide, but the griffins would stay away from the water for the same reason as you." She said, hoping to convince her. Heartstrings sighed, before relenting and nodding.

"Okay then, as the sea of Luna runs into New Grifburg, many merchant ponies will be passing, so I suggest we get a ship at the nearest port and get them to take us as close as possible, then we just jump ship and get inside anyway we can." Said Rosethorn. The other ponies nodded, before all turning to pack up some things for the mission. Pinkie grabbed her book on sign language, some candy, and a dagger that the Doctor had given her, saying it was given to him by an old friend. Pinkie looked at it; the blade was made of a metal that refracted light, giving it a rainbow colour. The blade had a message carved into it, which read;

'The war won't keep us apart- Romana.' When Pinkie had asked about who Romana was, the Doctor had just said;

"She is a Dentist in Ponyville now, but she used to be more. I wish she could remember who she was." He refused to say anymore on the subject so Pinkie had left him alone. An hour passed before they were all ready, saddlebags on they made their war to a cart being pulled by two muscly earth ponies, their ride to the seaside town of Maneflow springs.

They arrived in the small town to find it bustling with activity, as one of the major tourist spots in Equestria. The four ponies' pushed their way through the torrent of bodies, Swift having to discipline some greedy teenagers that tried to pickpocket him along the way. They eventually found themselves at the docks, much to the mares' displeasure. It seemed that every sailor pony thought themselves to be ladies men and continually tried to proposition them. Each stallion was politely turned away, until one unlucky sailor mistook Rosethorn for a lady of the evening, and was violently rejected. They soon found themselves given a wide berth after that, and even sooner found a ship that was headed to New Grifburg. After explaining their mission, the captain agreed to take them as close as possible, but they would still have quite a swim to do, as the gulag was known for firing on ships that got too close to the cliffs. The boat ride was going to take at least four hours, so the ponies set themselves up near the bow of the ship, and waited. Pinkie took out the book and began to practice on Swift, who encouraged her greatly. Heartstrings and Rosethorn, who were fluent in sign language as they had been working with Swift for a while, just giggled when Pinkie made a mistake or moved her ear in the wrong direction, meaning that she had signed a swear word. They tried to enjoy themselves while they could, laughing and smiling before the violence started.

Pinkie could see the gulag as they approached; a giant eyesore on the side of a cliff, a soulless structure of stone and steel. The ship captain walked over, telling them to get ready to jump ship and swim. Pinkie put the book back into her waterproof saddlebags, and Heartstrings strapped her wings down, limiting their exposure to the water. The captain waved his hoof and the ponies dived off the boat into the cold salty water. They began to swim towards the gulag, struggling against the current as it threatened to drag them into open sea. After what seemed like forever they exhaustedly pulled themselves out of the water and onto the beach at the bottom of the cliff. They just lay there for a while, catching their breath. Pinkie eventually stood, taking a water bottle out of her bag and taking a long drink to get the salty taste of swallowed sea water out of her mouth. She then noticed a staircase carved into the side of the cliff, directly below the gulag.

"That's for when somepony dies; they would take them down the stairs and dump the carcass into the ocean." Said Rosethorn, Pinkie shivered, the look of the place sent her Pinkie sense wild. They all started to head towards the stairs, hoping that nopony had died today because there was nowhere to hide as they climbed. At the top of the stairs was a trap door, luckily unlocked. Pinkie went first, slowly advancing along the dank corridors towards the cells that were marked on their stolen map. Pinkie looked around a corner and saw two guards approaching, she motioned to swift with sign language, and Swift just gave her a bemused look. She grabbed his head and stuck it around the corner. He nodded, understanding what she meant. Swift gripped his short sword, but didn't remove it from its sheath. The guards passed them, and Swift moved, shadowing them as they entered a room. Pinkie heard the dripping sound of spilled blood and the muffled groaning of a griffin. Swift walked back, sheathing his sword again and smiling at Pinkie, as if what he had just done was nothing but a walk in the park for him. They continued onwards, looking in every cell they passed along the way. The description they had been given was vague, all they knew was that he would be a Pegasus and he would respond to the code word sunbeam, with the word lunacy. Luckily for them, there were not many pegasi in the gulag. They found him on the fourth floor, in a cell all to his own.

"Sunbeam." Said Pinkie, the Pegasus stood walking up to the door and pressing his face against it.

"Shhh, not so loud. Lunacy." He said with a raised eyebrow. "You're pink."

"Yes I am." Said Pinkie smiling at the pony.

"You can't be very stealthy." Said I.Q rudely. Pinkie glared at him, and he backed away a bit.

"Look, can we talk later, right now I just want to get out of here." Said Heartstrings. I.Q nodded.

"If we get to the roof, me and the other Pegasus should be able to get you all down." He said, but Rosethorn nodded.

"We can't we had to come in using the sea entrance, so Heartstrings' wings are too soaked to fly." She said and Pinkie heard I.Q curse under his breath.

"Well then, what are our options?" he asked, the ponies all shrugged and I.Q facehooved. "Fine, we will head for the side gate, it is less heavily guarded and leads straight into some low hills that should cover our escape." The ponies all agreed to this plan and started to make their way down to the gate, in a similar manner as before.

This seems to be going too easily." Said Rosethorn. They rounded the last corner to find a group of about twenty griffins.

'It must be time for the guard change over.' Thought Pinkie as they turned towards the ponies. Heartstrings punched Rosethorn in the shoulder.

"You just had to say it didn't you, haven't you ever read a Daring Doo book, this always happens when somepony says that." She said mockingly, before drawing her sword. The others did so as well. Pinkie handed hers to I.Q, taking out her dagger instead. The ponies charged at the griffins, slashing and stabbing as the griffins fumbled with their weapons, unprepared for an attack from within. Pinkie had too slow down as she felt the same darkness she had felt while beating Duskheart rising into her heart. Within no time, Pinkie was finishing the last guard, she was now covered from head to toe in griffin blood, and it scared her that she liked it. They galloped out of the gate, making their way towards the low hills that I.Q had mentioned. The found themselves a cave, settling in for some rest. Pinkie remarked how they had spent their first mission in a cave as well and the team laughed. Pinkie went in search of a stream so she could wash the blood of her body, and found a small oasis, complete with waterfall and pool. She stepped in, surprised to find the water to be warm, and made her way over to the waterfall. Pinkie closed her eyes and let it cascade over her, washing the blood and the darkness away. Pinkie felt movement through the water and opened her eyes to see Rosethorn making her way over, she smiled, and the smile was returned. Pinkie stepped out from under the waterfall and lay down on her back, floating in the warm water, as Rosethorn cleaned herself.

"You did great today Rosethorn." Said Pinkie, Rosethorn blushed.

"You did pretty well yourself." She replied, swimming over to Pinkie. "I'm proud to have you working alongside me." Now it was Pinkie's turn to blush. She straightened up, no longer floating on her back and swam next to Rosethorn. She got closer and noticed that Rosethorn was starting to breath heavily, and in a move that even shocked Pinkie, she pulled her close and tenderly kissed her. Pinkie returned the kiss, noticing that Rosethorn tasted sweet, and remarkably similar to rose petal tea. Rosethorn pulled away, still breathing heavily.

"I… I'm sorry; I just don't know what came over me." She stammered. Pinkie shook her head and took Rosethorn's hoof in her own.

"It's okay, believe me its okay." Pinkie said, smiling. Rosethorn blushed an even deeper red. Now it was Pinkie's turn to pull her close and kiss her. Pinkie could feel the last remnants of the darkness fading as she kissed Rosethorn. She was experiencing a bliss and peace she had not known since the war began, and wanted to savour it for as long as possible.