CH 57.2 Royal Mail
With each measured motion of her wings, Rainbow flew faster and faster. Small bursts of lighting rippled along her feathers with each powerful flap. The raw power of her augmented magic sent a thrill through her as it pulsed through her wings. Each sensation a whispered promise of what she might be able to do once she mastered this gift. She surged through the air, her focus as razor-sharp as her blade. She was utterly intent on the cleanest motions, the most exact magic flow she could manage.
She snapped her wings to full extension, and the air caught her. She let herself glide as she mentally ran through a post-flight review. Two dozen minor corrections were the only thing that kept her course true. Ponyfeathers.
She sighed as her senses expanded in the open sky around her. Behind her was a mess. Yet again, unstable eddies of turbulence trailed in her wake.
The new power was great, but untamed power was just an accident waiting to happen. She had regained much of her fine control, but it was not enough. She could practically hear Spitfire’s voice in her mind berating her. Her captain, well, her former captain now, would have dropped her from the flight roster for the merely ‘adequate’ performance. “Stormfront.” The name on her lips summoned a silent gathering of ponies to mind. A life was lost because she was not fast enough, because she was not good enough.
Her blade strapped to her leg felt like it might drag her from the air with the weight of her failure. The metal warmed against her coat, the blade's grim determination only added to her own. She had improved. She would improve.
“Buck.” She dipped one wing as she re-oriented on the airship she was ostensibly providing a close air patrol for with these training runs. She kept to her glide, her mind wandered as her senses drank in everything for as far as her pegasus sharp vision could see.
So much had happened, and yet from so high up, even the conflict-torn lands below looked almost peaceful, if a little withered from the lack of water. “The weather patrols are going to be flying their wings off.”
Apart from Candice remastering her own flight with methodical diligence, the only others in the air were small specks in the distance.
Out of well-drilled habit, she noted the range, speed and, barring of everything in the air. Extracting every bit of intelligence in case RGIS grilled her over what she saw had become an ingrained reflex.
Her eyes narrowed. “Are my eyes better? What the hay did Twilight do to my eyes.” What should have been a single flicker of movement at most resolved into small ordered points of motion. The other flyers flitted around in textbook formations. If that was not enough to identify them, the slightest glint of gold revealed the royal guard armour.
She glanced around, her eyes locked onto landmarks, trees, individual flowers, anything and everything in her sight. Each time she focused, pushed that little harder to resolve details, it simply worked. Just like enchanted goggles or binoculars, only without losing any situational awareness. If anything, the sharpness in her full field of vision was enhanced, just to a lesser degree than what she focused on.
Rainbow easily banked into a lazy circling of the airship, the lavender feathers that flickered in her peripheral vision were more distracting than she would admit to anypony else.
Releasing whatever new power had enhanced her vision was simple. As soon as she let her concentration waver, it was gone.
A tightness in her chest had nothing to do with the effort of flying. The one thing she had worked her whole life the achieve was gone. The Wonderbolts were now only a part of her history. She was Twilight’s, her chosen, her knight.
Even without turning to look, she could feel her. As intimately as she could feel the pull of magnetic north, but it was far more. It was as if her Princess, her friend, was beside her despite the open air between them. It mixed the warmth of a friend's embrace with the reassurance of knowing your wingmate had your back. It was just like when they used the elements. Her loyalty anchored to Twilight’s friendship. Rainbow’s eyes unerringly followed that link.
Twilight posed, balanced at the prow. The wind caressed the feathers of Twilight’s impressive span. She simply stood there with her outstretched wings and a serene smile on her face.
As Rainbow circled around again, Twilight raised her head and opened her eyes and instantly found Rainbow’s own. Twilight glanced at the deck crowded with mercenaries for a moment. Her eyes lingered on the unicorn mare decked out in fancy gold armour covered with sun symbols.
Twilight looked away and readied for flight. Her leg’s powerful muscles bunched. With a fluid explosion of motion, she lept. With only her launch and a single flap, she rocketed up past Rainbow’s altitude.
Without a thought, Rainbow navigated the turbulence of Twilight’s passage and fell in on her wing.
Twilight sighed contentedly. “I don't know how I lived without my wings.”
As if summoned, Candice ascended and fell in on her other wing. Twilight turned to look at her. By the slight drop of Twilight’s ears, the slight hitch in the strokes of her wings, Rainbow just knew what Twilight's expression would be. A guilt-filled apologetic mixed with a loving welcome.
Candice was just like Rainbow herself. Rainbow let her gaze trail over her wing and lingered on a single lavender primary We’re just a pair of broken mares restored by Twilight.
“Tell me, you two, what do you see there?” Twilight asked.
“A village?”Rainbow offered.
“Yes…”
“One without a wall,” Candice stated, her voice laced with suspicion.
The world so far below was like a map. There were more than a dozen similar villages. Most destroyed or abandoned. Two were walled up and fortified. Only this one looked mostly normal. Candice was right.
Rainbow focused her vision again, and the distant village lept into crystal clarity. Ponies moved around as if it was a normal day. Mixed and dotted around was the distinctive gold of royal guard armour. “How have they not built a wall yet?”
Candice seemed to reminisce. “According to the regulations, they should have fortified or fallen back to a larger settlement by now.”
Rainbow snorted. "So what, are they incompetent, or lazy?"
"Or not who they seem to be?" Twilight hummed as she turned, aligning with a thermal and letting the rising air take up the effort of keeping her in the air. “Leaving the question of who… or what they are, they are protecting ponies. They have clearly fought off one attack.” Twilight’s extended hoof pointed to an all too familiar burn pit.
Just like in Ponyville, it was the only real way to get rid of so many tainted bodies.
“So, Twi? What do we do?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight's sharp descent was her answer. She expertly pivoted on her wing and started a loop around the airship. Rainbow twisted in the air and followed. Candice lagged behind one moment before she also fell in again.
Twilight flared her wings wide before gracefully alighting upon the deck. Rainbow smirked and pushed herself into a flashy flip and twist. Her hooves crashed into the railing as she nailed the landing and dramatically posed with flared wings.
Candice’s landing was sedate in comparison. A technical and precise manoeuvre, but with zero flair or showponyship. Rainbow’s eyes flicked to the two ponies next to her, one being an Alicorn, the other with freakishly large wings. Rainbow rolled her eyes. If she was less awesome, she might be feeling wing envy.
The old scarred griffon approached. The distinct clicks of each talon on the wooden deck, so distinct from the sound of hooves. The last time she had heard it had been when Gilda stormed out of Sugar Cube Corner. Please be alright.
“Need something, Princess?” The bird rasped.
“Simply clear this quarter of the deck for a few minutes.”
“You heard the Royal. Move your tails.”
Various card and dice games were snatched up with minimal grumbled complaints. As soon as the space was cleared, Twilight’s horn lit.
First, a flat-packed wooden crate popped into existence and assembled itself. Nails appeared and drove themselves into place. The finished shipping crate was sizable enough to fit a trio of Celestias inside.
Rainbow hovered and peered in as boxes of medical supplies and wax-paper wrapped bundles of preserved food simply manifested into the crate one by one.
The scratch of a quill joined the repeated pops as more and more supplies filled the crate. Finally, the precisely filled-to-the-brim container was sealed, the lid nailed in place.
A vindictive smirk spread onto Twilight’s face. Twilight signed the scroll, and in a flash of magic, it vanished a moment later, and so did the crate.
Twilight almost had a bounce in her step as she regally made her way back to her cabin.
“Hey, Candice, any idea what that was about?”
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This story is still after season 5. Wasn't there an episode during that season where Rainbow and Gilda met up again? Or are we talking about the sound itself in the case where she never heard the clicking of talons when they met again in Griffonstone?
I think it's the sound of talons on the ground that's reminding Rainbow of Gilda.
Kinda wish the chapternwas linger and just as confused as Dash is
Given the last chapter introduced Chrysalis, I'm going with "Twilight figured the un-walled town was being protected by Changelings and sent them a snarky I-Know-What-You-Are-But-Thanks letter".
one too many comma in there.
also, bearing not barring.
i like how 3 celestias is now a unit of measurement.
Did Twil just make a friendship bomb and send it to the changlings
11173950
Well, I don't think they have washing machines so the royal rear is the next best thing.
11173936
That's my hope
Dwell not on the minds of your alicorns, for madness lies this way.
Sweet another Rainbow Chapter. Now she has to deal with the age old problem of sudden Power amps, the loss of control. Though that’s probably a good thing, that will make it much more likely for her to stumble upon whatever new powers Twilight gave her besides improved eye sight and the “find your Princess” tracker side effect.
Ahhhhh after over a year, I came back and reread this from start to current in four days. Daaaang, this seriously deserves to be turned into a full on TV Production!
11201265
agreed
I actually have a document that has all of the dialogue of the first 5 chapters written down because I wanted to write a script for fun but then I was like : why am I doing this , this will never lead to anything , Im just wasting my time lol
11210506
I think Platinum is part of Nightmare Moon ... I think thats pretty obvious
11228437
Midnight Sparklenthwre was created to be a host to Nightmare 100 years after Luna's banishment. Thankfully thqt was prevented but Midnight jas macabre tastes.
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Discord nearly didn't work. Starlight should not have been able to time travel. After the door left his post she didn’t check or alter Tartaris security. Then their is Sunset. Again look at how many opponets Twilight jave to face that were forst faces by Celestia.
Found this story recently... and binged the whole thing. You have a VERY interesting world and magic system going on. Looking forward to more.
Currently listening to chapter 22 from straight to the point, and I have gotta say;
1. What the fuck
2. Holy shit and,
3. So far as I can tell, celestia deserves a .950 JDJ Fat Mac
Something about the story just gets under my skin, not entirely sure what, and I really don't want to dwell on it.
I've had to take a couple breaks, but the desire to know more and see what happens next always comes back, your characters are awesome and the storyline is immaculate. Not to mention the romance aspect :)
But i'unno, celestia being so casual about being a demon from wh40k is kinda prickly to my senses. I always line up a few romance fics with celly after binging a story where she's a proper evil overlord
Anyways, I've said my hopefully not misjudged peice, carry on.