Prolouge

I have to say this, dying sucks.

You’d think that when you're flying a F-35B Lightning II and you take a direct hit from a Russian-made AA-14 Angel medium range air-to-air missile with a sixty-six pound warhead that it just blows your fighter apart and pulverises you before your brain even realizes the pain, either that or it’s so sudden and intense that you just can’t react to the pain. You’d be wrong, only in rare cases are fighters when they take a direct hit from a missile, unless they take that sucker right up the tailpipe, they’ll rarely explode spectacularly into dribbling bits.

At least, that’s what you’ll think. What happens in real life is that the airframe is ripped apart and incinerated beyond all recognition. But usually, the aircraft is before it goes killer lawn dart into the ground is somewhat recognizable, albeit on fire and out of control, with usually the cockpit canopy getting blasted away and having the ejection seat hurl the pilot straight out of the plane. However that only tends to happen with proximity hits, where the proximity fuse on the missile detects the plane and thus triggers the warhead creating a storm of steel that tears planes apart.

When the missile hits directly, the plane just tends to fragment, breaking apart and usually making a fiery smear across the sky, becoming an ugly glittering arc of aircraft aluminum and such as the airframe destroys itself as the plane plummets from the sky in a wild tumble, but even when this occurs the craft is still recognizable.

But what’s worse than surviving getting shot down? Getting shot down, getting knocked out by the hit, somehow survive the crash, get rescued by a technicolor pegasus, and then have your sorry ass engaged by Russian Ground Troops - yeah, that fucking sucks. It’s also what resulted in me getting into a bizarre situation, one that I’ve learned to adapt to and live a relatively normal life.

Now that I think about it, I should really start from the beginning. Everyone around here and to a degree back home, called me Sapphire. But my actual name is Lisa Johansson, my life as a human ended on October 15th, 2020 when I was shot down and killed in the skies over the Northwest Territories in Canada by a Russian-made Su-98 Reporting name Ferret with an AA-14 Angel missile, a little hint the AA-14 Angel was called as such because you usually went up against one of those Vympel R-84s or AA-14 exactly once because they’d turn you into an angel. My life here in Equestria, began in December of the year 1002 A.D. or After Discord, just a couple of months after an ugly fiasco of a wedding, or so I am told.

The day of my death as a human however, happened on an incredibly frigid dawn over Alberta in the Northwest Territories.

“Come on, Major! We got to get the hell out of here! We have a flight of Su-34s inbound and I would bet a promotion to General of the Air Force that their target is Igloo base!” Captain Lisa Johansson, callsign Sapphire cried over the radio as two JSF F-35B Lightning IIs taxied to the singular runway at Igloo Base, this had simply turned into the training mission from hell.

“I am well aware of that Captain. But first we got to get into the air.” Her flight lead, Major Stephanie Halverson call sign Siren growled in response.

“Siren, Sapphire, this is Igloo Tower. You’re cleared for take-off, engage the enemy at will after take-off. Godspeed.” A flight traffic controller in the small five-story flight control tower that Igloo base had said. The man seemed extremely calm, despite the fact that death was rapidly approaching.

“Affirmative, tower. Siren taking off.” Siren said as she advanced the throttles and the Pratt and Whitney F135 Afterburning Turbofan engine went into afterburner and the Lightning II raced down the runway.

“Roger tower. Sapphire departing.” Sapphire said numbly right after her flight lead, they had started with six pilots on the base and now they were all that was left. The other four pilots, also flying F-35Bs were dead, shot down by invading Russian fighters which were escorting massive lumbering Antonov An-130 Transport Jets, which were based on the famed Antonov An-124 Transport.

She lowered her Helmet Mounted Display down in front of her eyes after glancing at a image of her family taped to the inside of her cockpit and then advanced the throttles. The powerful turbofan roared and the F-35B raced down the runway. Her landing gear, as well as the Major’s had just left the ground and were starting to come up when the inevitable descended with a vengeance onto Igloo base. Dozens of Russian 1000-pound guided bombs dropped by those Su-34s.

The shock wave from the first one rattled her Lightning and she went to full afterburner and rapidly climbed after her flight leader who was climbing rapidly as well. She banked left, pulling up and away from the base and while she formed up with her flight lead to watch the carnage unfold on the ground.

The snow covered Quonset huts which housed the barracks, officers quarters, offices, etc. all went up one after another as bomb after bomb slammed into each individual one. Turning them simply into galvanized steel confetti which was thrown for hundreds of meters, great gouts of flame shot upward and ignited the lodgepole pines behind those buildings. Then, just as several HMMWVs and M-ATVs began to move away from the fueling trucks, bombs hit the trucks as well. The vehicles went up explosively like dominos, sweeping the aforementioned HMMWVs and M-ATVs which were carrying the crews of the fuel trucks up in the blast. Effortlessly sending the vehicles flipping, more bombs landed near the vehicles in-question turning their remains into almost nothing.

Those explosions caused several smaller vehicles to go up explosively just outside the two hangers which had housed the F-35s, those buildings stood for a moment longer before each one was hit by two bombs that crashed into each hanger and blasted them to smithereens. My God! Sapphire thought morbidly.

But the Russians were going to be nothing but thorough, for even as the base’s singular taxiway and runway was reduced to mostly crater by at least a dozen one thousand pound bombs each, the small control tower and adjacent command center took at least three direct hits and several near misses and were lost in massive black fire-filled mushroom cloud that engulfed the small structure. “My God.” Sapphire said weakly, she’d met everybody on base and now they were dead too.

“Oh, God, Siren, you see that?” Sapphire asked her flight leader, barely able to hold back tears.

Her flight leader was in the same shape as well. “Yeah.” she whispered, her voice barely audible with grief, anger, horror, and disbelief.

Igloo base, the only place where they could rearm and refuel was gone. Along with everyone who was still on the ground. Hell, had there refueling gone on for just another minute they’d be dead too, caught on the ground when that ordinance hit. She remembered the last set of orders that Igloo base had given them. “You’re cleared to engage the enemy at will after take-off.”

She quickly went over what her F-35B Lightning II was laden down with. Two GBU-54/Bs and two AIM-9X Sidewinders were mounted externally, while slung in the internal weapons bays was a single AGM-140 which in essence was the AGM-130 little brother, using a Mark 83 instead of a BLU-109, also, in a stealth gun pod mounted externally was a GAU-25 Equalizer.

Siren was loaded similarly, with Sidewinders, JDAMs, AGM-140s, and the gunpod. Igloo Base hadn’t been outfitted for war, dammit, the war was happening in Europe!

Sapphire glanced down at her AESA radar display and grimaced. There was at least three dozen An-130s soaring through the skies over Canada. Their escorting squadrons engaging USAF and JSF squadrons in the skies over Alaska. That’s when she noticed something on radar, there wasn’t a single Royal Canadian Air Force jet in the skies engaging the Russians.

“Where the hell are the Canadians! I’d feel much better with three additional squadrons of fighters out here!” She growled as the two Lightnings descended to an altitude of 1,500 feet and went supersonic.

“I don’t know Sapphire. But I got a feeling that pretty soon Cold Lake will start rolling it’s two tactical fighter squadrons and it’s Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron. No way in hell they will just stand by and watch.” Siren replied after a moment.

“Roger that.” Sapphire said, trying to keep her voice even and steady. Both of them were likely flying to their deaths, but Sapphire wouldn’t have it any other way. Better get a few beers ready, because we’re coming home soon. She thought as she glanced up at the sky.

She heard Siren take a deep breath over the comms. “This is it girl. Ready?” Siren asked calmly.

“Ready.” Sapphire replied, her voice shaking slightly. This was it, like or not, neither of them were probably going to be returning from this sortie except in a wooden box.

“Let’s go get’em!” Siren growled and together both Lightnings engaged their Afterburners and the craft rocketed forward. An immense acceleration pinned both pilots to their seat. Both jets for a moment had a condensation cone wrap around the jets, but then the cones were left in the exhaust trails.

Together the pilots held a steady course, heading for coordinates roughly seventy-five kilometers north of Behchoko. Where dozens of AN-130s had landed and were now in the process of unloading numerous Kurganet-25s and T-14 Armata MBTs.

They were five minutes out from their drop point when Sapphire saw something on her radar. “Siren, remember how yesterday what we thought was an idiot in a custom very light jet followed you around for several minutes but when you doubled back you couldn’t find him?” Sapphire asked, her eyes narrowing at two contacts that were following the Lightnings about five miles behind them.

“Yes, I remember. Then we ran software and hardware tests on the radars and found nothing wrong. Why?” Siren asked in response.

“Well, he’s back and he’s brought a friend. Same pattern and everything.” Sapphire growled looking at the radar screen.

“Ignore them. We’ll investigate later. Two minutes thirty seconds.” Siren said and that was Sapphire’s cue to start looking for targets for her JDAMs. If there is a later. Sapphire thought.

“Roger that. I got two AN-130s and a mess of other targets on the ground on the east side of the staging area, over.” She said as she glanced at the targeting window.

“I see them,” Siren replied and then after likely checking her own displays came back on. “I’ve got two more AN-130s on the west side. Christ, you see all of those Kurganets and Armatas?” Siren asked obviously stunned at how many vehicles that Ivan was bringing.

“I do, Jesus. Really wishing we were packing a lot more punch right now.” Sapphire said and she knew she was right. The AGM-140s were one thousand pounds of general destruction but the JDAMs were only of the five hundred pound variety. In order to really make a dent, one thousand pounders would really help of course, right now Sapphire would simply kill for having two thousand pound bombs.

“One minute.” Siren announced calmly.

Sixty seconds, come on. Just give us sixty seconds. Sapphire thought as the F-35s bored in toward their drop point.

Dawn was coming, streaks of light purple was appearing on the horizon. Thirty seconds, we’re almost there. Sapphire thought, her finger poised over the release for her JDAMs. That’s when her RWR pinged an alert. She glanced at her AESA radar screen and her heart sank into her stomach.

Flying three thousand feet above of them, flying at Mach 1.1 were four bogeys. So much for sneaking in and out. “Shit, got four bogeys inbound on our eleven o’clock.” she said bluntly.

Siren swore under her breath. “They ain’t ours.” she said.

Just then, she got an ID on them. “Nope, they aren’t. Got an ID: Su-98 Ferrets. Countermeasures seems ineffective, they seem to have us. We better launch before they do!” Sapphire said, panic starting to lace her voice for a very good reason.

The Sukhoi S-98 was the newest thing in Russian Single-Seat Fighter technology, it was derived from the Flanker but incorporated a swept back delta-wing, canards, a V-Tail, three-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles, and to top it all off it was capable of carrying eighteen thousand pounds of ordinance. There was a reason why most USAF and JSF pilots agreed that the Su-98 was the most lethal fighter outside of the Sukhoi T-50 as the most lethal Russian Fighter in the world.

“Stay on target. Fifteen seconds to release.” Siren replied as it became a race against the clock.

Sapphire glanced at her displays and came to the conclusion that they were either going to make it … barely, or they weren’t. She was leaning toward the latter. “They’re going to get missile lock!” She cried, they weren’t going to make it, or they were going to cut it so close that the enemy was going to acquire missile lock and then the R-84 would likely do the rest.

When Siren replied, her voice was surprisingly calm. Years of training and the fact that she’d stared death in the face more than she had on this night were kicking in. “Sapphire, let’s make it all worth it. We’re almost there.” Siren said calmly.

“Jesus” Sapphire gasped. “We’re not going to make it!”

“Hang on! Five, four, three, two … bombs away! Flares, chaff, evade!” Siren cried.

Sapphire hit the bomb release. Two five hundred pound JDAMs dropped away from her wings. Once the bombs were clear, she rolled inverted and dove going into a split-s the oldest trick in the book, deploying flares and chaff. She pulled out with Siren on her wing, now heading away from those Su-98s.

As they came out of their split-s about two thousand feet lower. The alarm that Sapphire feared began blaring in her helmet, missile lock warning. Those Su-98s with their damnable AESA and Low-Frequency Radars saw right through their stealth.

Then the alarm changed from a rapid-fire half-second high-pitched beeping to a different tone, this one a piercing shriek. That piercing shriek meant one thing: Missile launch warning. “Siren they’ve fired!” Sapphire cried out.

“Break!” Siren replied without thinking.

Sapphire hit the afterburner and climbed, going into a high-speed climbing and banking turn, deploying flares and chaff. Meanwhile the computer had identified the incoming, a Vympel R-84T, or as NATO called them before it dissolved, the AA-14 Angel. That name now proved to be very adept, because you usually tried to evade an AA-14 Angel just once before it made you one.

Ten seconds till impact.

She rolled into the missile, dropping flares and chaff. The G-Suit clenched around her legs, preventing blood from pulling in her legs, too most it was uncomfortable but to her it was. She watched as the missile that was after her flew right through a cloud chaff. Fuck me. she thought morbidly.

Seven seconds till impact.

She craned her neck and managed to spot the missile, her HMD helpfully had it outlined with a red box not that it was needed the rapidly growing orange dot that indicated the missile was nearly impossible to miss. Somewhere nearby where four Su-98 pilots who were probably saying “Do svidaniya” as they watched them frantically and vainly try to evade the R-84s.

She popped the flares and chaff again. The missile ignored them, boring in hard on her Lightning. Sapphire realized she wasn’t going to shake the missile and began to alert her flight leader. “Oh, God, Siren I don’t I can -”

BOOM

An enormous explosion slammed her Lightning, with a tortured scream, the vast majority of the Pratt and Whitney F135-PW-600 Afterburning Turbofan engine ripped itself clean out of the mounting, in the process left wing, left horizontal and vertical stabilizer was ripped away and sent the Lightning into a wild spin. The lift-fan was ripped apart and a sizeable fragment punched into the cockpit, clipping her midsection before burying itself in the instrument panel. Which had lighted up like the Las Vegas Strip, that fragment caused the majority of it to go black. Searing pain erupted in her side, thanks to passage of that fragment.

The centrifugal force was pinning her to her seat, but grunting in pain and exertion as her vision began to go black. She reached out, with tears streaming from her eyes and touched the picture of her family for what was going to be the final time. Then with a terrifying CRUNCH the shattered remains of her F-35B Lightning II slammed into the ground with such force that it snapped her head to one side and caused her vision to go totally black.

“Holy Celestia! You saw that right, Spitfire?” Soarin asked as they watched one of the human military fighters emblazoned with a star take a direct from a missile and get blown apart.

“Yeah, I did. Jesus, this has turned into quite the scouting mission for new Wonderbolt training grounds. Getting caught in a warzone. Hey, wait! Soarin were are you going?!” Spitfire said as Soarin rocketed toward the rapidly descending craft, which was streaming fire and smoke.

That’s when she realized unlike the first one they’d seen go down tonight, there was no bright trail of fire shooting upward from it. Oh sweet Celestia, the pilot isn’t getting out of it! Spitfire realized in horror, before rocketing after Soarin, increasing her speed dramatically when she heard the heavy booming crash that resulted when the craft slammed into the ground.

From what she knew about airship crashes back in Equestria, they probably didn’t have long before something caused that thing to catch fire and simply go up.

Spitfire remembered the original purpose of her visit to Earth, which despite being in a different dimension, held promise for serving as a training ground for Wonderbolts. Mainly because the possibilities that Earth offered in terms of flying conditions, well Equestria couldn’t hope to measure up too, only in places like the Everfree Forest did it have a chance at doing so, in other words perfect training grounds. In order to get to and from Earth a simple magic amulet which when an incantation was chanted would result in the thing opening portal between Earth and Equestria. It was all very complex magic that Spitfire didn’t really understand.

Either way, she knew that if it was possible they had to rescue that pilot. Because herself and Soarin were likely the ones who could help that pilot.

Action

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Author's Notes:

Alright, so when we left off. Sapphire had just been shot down, likely had gone through the crash of her life, and Spitfire and Soarin are moving in to see if the pilot of the unknown craft needs help.

Also I know the FN Five-Seven isn’t standard issue for the United States Military, but come on, do you seriously expect 9mm Parabellum to penetrate a level three or four grade ballistic vest? No, you don’t. The 5.7x28mm round can if you know where to aim could probably penetrate a level-three ballistic vest and anything less it will go right through it, the round is called a ‘Vest buster’ after all.

The M12 Aircrew Survival Rifle is an OC weapon, it’s based on the Armalite AR-7 Survival Rifle.

“Hooah” is in fact not only the battlecry for the United States Army, but also the Air Force. The most probable reason for this is because before the United States Air Force was called the United States Air Force, it was called the United States Army Air Corps, so it likely has to do with the Air Force’s United States Army roots. (No it isn't in our roots. Actually, the USAF doesn’t have a battlecry since you can’t hear it over the sound of an 11 ton bomb being dropped on someone’s ass! - Nugget)

Special thanks given to my editor Nugget

Alright, let’s get this show rolling!

Landing near the crash site, crunching the snow underneath her hooves, Spitfire desperately galloped towards the wreckage in hopes to recover the downed pilot. Besides the cockpit, what remained was engulfed in flames. Through the smoke, she managed to spot Soarin just as he delivered a powerful buck with his front legs to the canopy. A section of its glass managed to break off.

“Spitfire! Little help here!” Soarin cried, frantically trying to get the pilot out of the craft. The flames were spreading towards the cockpit. Soarin lifted a wing beside his face, shielding him from the heat as he reached down to tug on the pilot’s jumpsuit.

Surprised, he noticed something under the remains of the canopy. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but Soarin saw what appeared to be a rank abbreviation, a name, and likely a nickname stitched into her flight suit: Capt. Lisa “Sapphire” Johannson.

He realized whoever the pilot was, she probably held the rank of Captain. The bit after was probably her name, but the words in quotations had to be her nickname. However, figuring those things out wasn’t the top priority.

“Dammit! The pilot is stuck!” Soarin growled as he continued to frantically tug on the pilot.

Arriving at the scene, Spitfire flew over to where Soarin was frantically tugging. What she immediately saw made her realize why Soarin couldn’t get the pilot out. She was held down by a system of belts.

“Soarin, hold the pilot back and give me some space,” she ordered. Soarin stopped his frantic tugging and pushed the pilot back in its seat, grimacing as he felt the heat of the blaze on his fur.

Spitfire shimmed into the cockpit, flinching as she felt several shards of glass cut into her hooves. She quickly found what she was looking for, a buckle. Pressing her hoof to it, the belt metallicity clicked and came loose. “Pull!” she yelled, clearing herself from the cockpit.

Soarin heaved the pilot out of its seat and flew her to safety. Just before Spitfire caught up to them, a picture on the dashboard caught her eye. Realizing it may be important to the pilot, she grabbed it before taking off with several strong flaps from her wings.

Spitfire soared a few meters into the air before she heard the roar of something exploding behind her. The fire managed to completely engulf the aircraft. The shockwave from the blast caused Spitfire to land hard on her belly. She then slid through the snow till she was practically nose-to-nose with Soarin.

“Now, then,” Soarin huffed, completely exhausted. “That was interesting.” He looked at Spitfire, who was nearly out of breath.

Suddenly, both pegasi heard a low groan. “Ow, my head,” the pilot moaned, rubbing the side of her helmet.

Soarin wanted to help the human pilot sit up, but Spitfire gave her a look as if she said let me handle this.

“You alright?” She asked in a calm, level, and surprisingly sweet voice.

The pilot sat up and raised a trembling hoof or was it a claw? To her helmet and opened the visor. Spitfire blinked in surprise, she hadn’t been expecting in the slightest for the pilot to be a girl. She had rather angelic features, light tan skin, and a pair of deep, clear, luminous shining medium-blue eyes. Those eyes reminded Spitfire about the gem Sapphire. Capt. Lisa “Sapphire” Johansson. The part “Sapphire” suddenly made a lot more sense.

Lisa as it were, first gave herself a once over and grimaced. Numerous cuts and scrapes adorned her body, as well as a noticeable gash in her side. Several of them were oozing blood, she took a ragged breath and screwed up her face in pain before putting a trembling claw to her side. Judging by the way she winced, the crash had clearly fractured a few of her ribs. She sighed, her eyes shutting tight from the sharp pain in her side.

Opening back up, her eyes then came to rest on the two pegasi. They went from first Spitfire to Soarin and then back to Spitfire. “What the fuck?” she said in a quiet voice.

Spitfire mentally recoiled at the usage of sharp language. She had heard such language before, but only when someone just saw something mind-bogglingly stupid happen in front of them. Not seeing a Pegasus, well then, she remembered Equestria was in a totally different dimension. So, her reaction was justified.

“What’s wrong?” Soarin asked.

“What’s wrong? I must be imagining things, mainly because I have two technicolored ponies from the look of it in front of me, who can also talk. So, I must be imaging things.” Sapphire replied before calmly with one of her claws pinching herself. She sighed.

“Nope not dreaming. Alright next question, what are you and how the hell I am I still alive?” she asked as she shook her head.

“Myself and Spitfire pulled you out of that wrecked thing before it went up! Name’s Soarin, that’s Spitfire!” Soarin chirped happily, before gesturing to himself and then to Spitfire, then finally to the burning remains of her craft.

“As for what we are. We’re both Pegasus.” Spitfire replied with a business-like tone, opening her wings for emphasis.

Sapphire dipped her head, clutching it with her claws. She mumbled about how the crash must’ve really screwed her head over. If she believed what’s going on to be real, she’d definitely knew she needed a shrink. However, her concerns right now weren’t important.

“While I am grateful for the fact that you saved my life. I’ve just given up one type of death for another. I was fucked even if you didn’t pull me out of my plane, I would’ve burned to death. Not the most pleasant way to go, but at least it would’ve been over quickly. God, this has become some training mission and now instead of getting a relatively quick death it’s going to be a long and miserable one for me,” Sapphire said her voice oddly tranquil and calm.

“What do you mean by that?” Soarin asked in a confused tone.

And good-bye tranquility, Sapphire’s tone of voice if it could have probably would’ve made Nightmare Moon whimper in sympathy and it caused Spitfire to take a step back and closer to Soarin out of instinct. “Considering the fucking night I’ve had! A quick death by fire would’ve made sure that it was over fucking quick! My squadron mates are all dead, Igloo Base a small enough air base where everyone knows everyone has been completely destroyed killing everyone there, I am behind enemy lines, the built-in helmet transmitter is likely kaput thanks to the crash, and to top it all off, I don’t have access to my full survival kit which means no cold weather clothing, no sleeping bag, no space blanket, no snowshoes, no snow glasses, no survival rifle, no locator beacon, no full-sized first aid kit, and that’s just for starters. If I do survive the day and by that, I mean, avoid capture by Russians or pissing off local wildlife, I am probably going to freeze to goddamned death when night falls. All I got on me is just my fucking FN Five-Seven, a M9 Bayonet, a mini-survival kit, and nothing else in my Survival Vest.” she snarled, slumping back on a smooth rock.

Spitfire sighed. “I am sorry to hear about that. But, I am guessing you're wondering where we are from.” she asked.

“The thought did enter my mind, but first let’s get moving. The Russians will likely be sending troops to see if the pilot of that thing survived the crash or ejected.” she gestured to the burning remains of her plane and then to herself “Since I survived the crash, we got to get going.” Sapphire announced.

“Agreed, we got four no five unknowns on horseless, open-air, carriages moving towards us from the west!” Soarin spoke. Sapphire sprang to her feet in shock, letting out a stream of profanity caused by the pain. Meanwhile, a black matte, L-shaped device came out of a pocket on the vest.

“Damnit! We got to move now!” Sapphire growled before breaking into a slow jog heading east.

“Why?!” Spitfire asked as she pursed the human.

“Because those are Russian soldiers, at best were talking regular army maybe VDV at worst we are likely dealing Spetsnaz Guards Brigade troopers. As it stands I just have a pistol and at best I can only get a shot off with maybe a second between each shot, they are armed with weapons that can fire 10 rounds per second or more if they decide to cut loose. My weapon is only effective out to maybe fifty yards and that’s with head, neck, leg, or arm shots, in order to punch through their armor, I need to be close like 10 yards and, even then, I probably wouldn’t penetrate. I am not wearing any armor, just a survival vest, pressure suit, G-suit, and aviator uniform. They can kill me effortlessly from 300 yards on average, farther than that if they have any sort of optics or scopes on their weapons. You two have done a lot for me, but just go back to wherever you came from. It’ll be easier for you two, the last thing you need to see is watching me get cut to pieces by a fusillade of gunfire, I don’t intend to become a guest of Russians, not willingly of course.” She said with a smile as she grabbed the top part of the matte L and it slide back, she then released it and went forward with a sharp metallic clack.

How did I not get incapacitated during that crash? Then again, a pilot may break their neck when their parachute opens or they may walk away from a devastating crash. But, not completely unscathed it would seem. Certainly, got a couple of broken bones at the minimum. Sapphire thought as she broke into a brisk jog away from the Russians.

“No way in hell I am abandoning you. Myself and Soarin got you out of that thing alive, we’re going to make sure you get home alive.” Spitfire said and to her surprise Sapphire laughed bitterly.

“Yeah, but thanks to having no survival kit, I can’t treat this wound.” The human said as she gestured to her abdomen, part of her uniform was darker than the rest.

“I had something hit me in the back and then proceeded to bury itself in the instrument panel, a through and through wound. Without my survival kit I can’t treat it, hell the mini-survival kit that I carry, all it has is just a pocket compass, some safety pins, water purification tablets, a couple of pieces of hard candy, a laser pointer, some Neosporin, a couple of bandages, and a roll of electrician's tape. The bandages I got are just standard size bandages, no way in hell they’d really help. But I can’t reach my back wound, still I am a dead girl anyway. If the Russians and blood loss doesn’t get me, either the wildlife or the cold will get me. Might as well take as many of the bastards with me as I can. If I had my survival rifle, I might stand chance.” Sapphire said in a dejected tone.

“Why? What’s so special about your survival rifle?” Soarin asked in a confused tone.

Meanwhile behind them, the sound of engines was getting louder and louder.

“It’s an M12 Aircrew Survival Rifle, it recently replaced the M4 Survival Rifle. Unlike the M4 Survival Rifle which is chambered in .22 Hornet, and thus is easily stopped by the heavy armor that infantry wears to the point where they won’t even notice a hit. The M12 Aircrew Survival Rifle is chambered in I believe .357 SIG, with two types of rounds issued FMJs for use against enemy soldiers and soft-points for use against varmint for hunting. It’s semi-automatic with upwards of twelve round magazines. The power those rounds have would easily be able to make the Russians think twice, mainly because if I am accurate enough I could penetrate their armor, but only at close range.” Sapphire said as they continued moving.

“I see a tree line, it could be easier to fight defensively from beyond it.” Soarin said, gesturing with a hoof.

“No, it won’t. That will just give the Russians even more of an advantage. Because I am not wearing armor which does lend a few advantages, mainly in the agility and speed departments I will totally negate those advantages if I leave the cover of the trees. Fighting in terrain such as this will level the playing field somewhat, both sides will be able to use cover and I’ll be able to use my superior agility and speed to my advantage in order to get from cover-to-cover. The combat ranges will also be closer, meaning I may just be able to stand a chance. Still, once the lead starts flying I want you two to bug-out. No offense, but you two kinds of stick out like sore thumbs and would just wind up being a bullet magnet and I don’t know a thing about your anatomy. Besides, this is going to become hot, so when I say so just get going.” Sapphire said in an authoritative voice.

“No way! We aren’t abandoning you. We got you out of the wreckage of your craft alive and we’re going to make sure that you get home.” Spitfire said calmly.

“Like hell you are, trust me death by getting shot isn’t pretty.” Sapphire said and a moment later, even though the engines were getting louder, a new sound caused both Pegasi and the human to look up.

It was the scream of a jet engine. “Really wish I was up there.” Sapphire muttered, laying behind a tree and taking a deep breath. Meanwhile, the sound of engines stopped.

“Naydi etogo pilota Yanki!” A harsh commanding voice growled.

“da ser!” several other voices barked in response.

The distinct sound of snow being crunched under heavy combat boots reached their ears. Sapphire peered out from around the tree and quickly spotted the Russian infantry. There was five of them, judging from the fatigues they were members of the Spetsnaz Guards, four of them were armed with either Assault Rifles or Carbines, but Sapphire wasn’t sure what they were, but the lead one was armed with an LMG.

An LMG was bad news, if the Russian opened fire with it, well the thing would tear her apart. Granted so would the Assault Rifles, but the LMG would really ruin her day.

“Remember what I told you two?” Sapphire told Soarin and Spitfire who both nodded.

“Good, get going. Because here goes nothing.” With that she rolled out of cover, brought the black matte-L up and in front of her eyes. One of her claws slowly pulled back on something under the top part of the “L”.

With a sharp pulse of fire that erupted out of one end of the matte L and a loud crack. The pistol bucked in response, part of it sliding back and ejecting a gleaming object.

Downrange, one of the figures stumbled cursing. “Der'mo, chto bol'no! Ikh yanki! Oruzhiye besplatno!” someone growled.

Sapphire didn’t let up, the Five-Seven spat fire twice more, producing a loud crack each time. Finally, the figure which was the target of her wrath dropped with a thud.

“Paren' ubit! Paren' ubit!” Someone shouted as Sapphire dove behind a tree. Moments later a sound like thunder filled the air. Ferns and snow exploded as something responded to Sapphire’s actions.

Sapphire glanced over her shoulder and spotted Spitfire and Soarin rapidly fleeing. Good, no innocents were going to get caught in the crossfire.

She peeked around the tree she was hiding behind, spotted a Russian moving rapidly from cover-to-cover. She saw her chance as the Russian began to run to his next bit of cover, Sapphire came out of cover as far as she dared and fired twice, smiling slightly in satisfaction as with a cry of pain one of her rounds annihilated the man’s knee. The other round missed.

That’s when she heard a thud to her left. She glanced and spotted a grenade. Aw shit. She thought as she took a flying leap away from the thing and into the open. The grenade detonated with a resounding boom.

Sapphire snarled in pain as several fragments buried themselves into the meaty part of her thigh. She converted her flying leap into a roll, and got behind a tree. Cursing as she felt new stinging wounds from where a round had grazed her back and from where the shrapnel had buried themselves in her legs.

If there was one thing that Soarin hated, it was getting run-off. Still he hadn’t questioned why Sapphire had forced them to leave her behind. Now she was fighting foes who were both better armed, armored, and likely trained.

“Argh! Buck!” Soarin growled suddenly, before ceasing his flight and going into a hover.

“Soarin? What’s wrong?” Spitfire asked as she decelerated and entered a hover looking confused at Soarin.

“Have you ever been forced to do something that you know is wrong?” Soarin asked in a sharp tone.

“Not really, no. Except for a rescue mission in Horseshoe Bay going sideways, I was forced to leave the ship because it began to capsize even though there was still two Mares and a Filly onboard. The sight of watching them first getting dumped in the water and then dragged under by the suction created when that ship sank. Their cries for help have haunted me ever since.” Spitfire said in a sorrowful voice.

“I remember that mission, but for me. It was the Sun Valley disaster, a filly died because I couldn’t dig her out of the snow fast enough after that avalanche. She died in my hooves, alone and scared. Now I had a chance to actually redeem myself in terms of saving someone from mortal peril and I allowed myself to follow orders like a fresh recruit.” Soarin said dejectedly.

“You're talking about Sapphire, right?” Spitfire asked in a semi-worried tone. Mainly because well, knowing Soarin this meant that their lives were about to get very interesting.

“Yes, you saw how she felt. She’s staring death in the face and knows that no matter what she does that it’s going to claim her. Can you imagine how terrifying that must be!? Princess Celestia has always said that Equestria is a place for second chances and I want to grant her a second chance.” Soarin said, beginning to get antsy about it.

“Ugh! I get that Soarin, Equestria has always been a place for second chances. But, why? You heard what she said! Her squadron mates are dead as is everyone at the base she had operated out of, which need I remind you was small enough that she had met everyone on base. So, if we rescue her, how would we help her? Emotionally I mean? She would likely receive a condition that nopony has ever heard of before!” Spitfire said, bringing up several points that were in mind valid.

“So? How would you feel if you had the chance to protect somepony and yet you were ordered to do something that you knew was wrong? Would you follow those orders or would do you what you know is right?” Soarin asked in a firm tone.

“Ugh, your dead set on this aren’t you?” Spitfire said with a deep sigh and got her answer when Soarin nodded in response.

“Great, you realize we don’t have our combat gear, right?” Spitfire asked in a worried tone.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. If we remain on the move and use our ability to fly against them. We should be fine.” Soarin said and before Spitfire had the chance to reply, Soarin turned 180 degrees and rocketed in the direction from which they came.

“Wha? Celestia-dammit, Soarin! Wait for me!” Spitfire cried and raced after Soarin who was already going transonic.

Sapphire dove behind a tree, a burst of gunfire barely missing her, and took stock of the situation. There was still three active Russian Spetsnaz Guard Riflemen. All three of them were armed with what she was mostly certain that they were AK-107s, chambered in 5.45x39mm and capable of a rate of fire of 850 rounds per minute. Plus, their armor was proving to be as tough to crack as she had feared.

To make matters worse, she was almost completely out of ammunition. Pilots only carried two magazines on them, with one in the pistol, with the weapon unchambered, not charged, and the safety off. Also, they only had one spare magazine. Each magazine had twenty-rounds, by her count she’d fired thirty-four rounds. That meant she only had six bullets left and then she was down to her M9 Bayonet, her Five-Seven which could be used as a club, and her wits.

In addition to that she had also been grazed several times by rounds and had taken a single hit to her shoulder and had several fragments from a grenade in one of her thighs. The bullet wound while it wasn’t exactly in the joint, but the round had struck close enough to it that the wound had rendered her left arm almost useless. The wound hurt as if someone had rammed thousands of red hot needles into her left shoulder and the wounds that she had her in thigh and shoulder were bleeding profusely.

This meant that she was only able to fire one-handed. Which meant she was going to be less accurate overall and even if she did survive. She was probably going to be dead by noon from blood loss, as it stood it was already starting to affect her, so it was probably more like ten hundred hours that she’d be dead. She took a deep breath, ready to meet her maker.

That’s when something unexpected happened. A voice, one that sounded very familiar yelled a battle cry that made Sapphire blink in response. “FOR EQUESTRIA!”

What followed next was surprising, there was a shout of surprise, followed by a scream, and then a thud.

“Chto za? SVYATOY FUTK! PAREN' UBIT! SMOTRITE, CHTO VESHCH'!” One of the Russians yelled and a moment later, two AK-107s began to thunder.

Wait, just two AK-107s? Wasn’t their three Russians remaining?

Seeing her chance, she rolled out of cover and what she saw surprised her. “What the fuck?” she muttered.

One of the Russians was down, his head taken off his shoulders. Two shapes were flying around weaving through the trees like racing remote controlled drones with incredible speed and agility. One of the shapes appeared to be a red and orange blur and the other a light blue and dark blue blur where trying to keep the Russians off-balance. Sapphire realized with a start as well as surprise that it was Spitfire and Soarin, what the hell where those two technicolor idiots trying to pull?

Not that Sapphire was complaining her pistol came up and fired five times in rapid succession. The Russian she was aiming at dropped like a rock unmoving.

Then Soarin with a high-pitched cry raced toward the remaining Russian. “Break-off!” she started to yell in a hope to get Soarin to not charge into a ready Russian Spetsnaz Guard who knew your primary method of attack when you entered Close-Quarters Combat. That always resulted in your ass getting kicked.

Unfortunately, Soarin either didn’t hear her warning or ignored it. As it stood though, the results were predictable.

Soarin streaked into view, certainly, faster than the Russian probably expected, but not quick enough to throw off his timing. The Spetsnaz Wolf moved fast, two thick gloved hands grabbed Soarin around the neck and chest, arresting all forward motion in almost an instant. The force of the impact shoved the Russian back at least a full yard, but didn’t topple him. Soarin for about five seconds had the most surprised and comical expression on his face and then with a roar, the Russian Spetsnaz Wolf slammed the unfortunate pegasus into the ground where he landed on his back with a hefty crunch.

Sapphire winced at the noise. At first, she thought the blow had killed the pegasus until she heard him groan in pain.

Ooooooh! Doesn’t matter where you're from, that’s gotta hurt! Sapphire thought grimly.

The unfortunate pegasus stallion had to be seeing stars or Spetsnaz Guard shoulder patches after that hit, because that looked like that had hurt. The Russian then ducked and caused an attempt to strike down the enemy soldier by Spitfire to miss. He scooped up his rifle and emptied the clip in the direction which he expected the other Pegasus to be. Judging by the lack of shouts or cries in pain, he probably missed.

Meanwhile, Soarin was groaning and just starting to roll over and bring himself to his hooves. But it was clear as day that he was obviously still out of it. The Russian meanwhile calmly reloaded his weapon, the spent magazine falling to the snow and a new one being slotted in place. The rifle was then leveled right at Soarin’s face, the Pegasus’s ears dropped in shock for only a moment, before his wings flared out defensively in probably an instinctual reaction to make himself look bigger than he was, to compliment the affair Soarin reared and whinnied loudly.

The Russian took a step back for a moment, obviously impressed and probably surprised by Soarin’s display before starting to level the rifle at the Pegasus again.

Oh no you don’t! Sapphire thought and leveled her pistol and pulled the trigger.

Instead of bang like she had been expecting. The sound that came from her gun was instead much louder, the dreaded dead man’s click.

What the f- Oh fuck me! Sapphire thought when she realized her firearm suffered from a misfire. The last round she had was a dud! Sapphire huffed, knowing she was left with one choice. Soarin and Spitfire had saved her life, and now it was time to return the favor.

She swore it could kill her.

“Sorry Soarin, but this is going to hurt me a hell of a lot more than it is going to hurt you,” she muttered as she exploded into a sprint at the same time she threw her pistol away, it was worthless now anyway.

With a grunt, she kicked and managed to get her boot under Soarin and with a startled cry coming from him, punted the light blue Pegasus away and to safety. A split-second later, the Russian pulled the trigger. Three rounds ripped directly into Sapphire’s right hip. She tumbled to the ground, screaming in agony.

Soarin watched as the ‘Russian’ rifleman approached the downed aviator and pulled out an object exactly like the one that Sapphire had been carrying earlier, he ran his claw across the top and pulled something back before releasing it and then leveled the weapon at her.

“It’s over Yankee pilot!” the ‘Russian’ growled at her in a thick accent, extremely similar to a Stalliongrad accent.

That’s when suddenly Spitfire appeared, the mare looked angry and was clearly at full capability, she streaked toward the ‘Russian’ who was standing triumphantly over Sapphire at nearly seventy miles per hour. With a powerful cry, she planted her front hooves directly into the back of the ‘Russian’ and it resulted in a strangled cry of pain as well as a very nice sounding crunch coming from the man and pitched him face first into the snow.

Sapphire who was still on the ground saw her chance as the ‘Russian’ scrambled back to its feet and emptied another magazine, this time though the sound was different, after Spitfire and like before it resulted in absolutely no hits on the Pegasus Mare. The human pilot pulled out an object from her ‘survival vest’, and with a shouted cry of “Hooah motherfucker!” threw it.

Whatever it was, the result was immediate. The ‘Russian’ let out a gurgled scream which made Soarin shudder in response as the human collapsed and went still.

Soarin shook himself out of what had just occurred before exploding into a full-fledged gallop toward Sapphire.

“Sapphire!” Soarin cried as he reached her. The human aviator looked at him, her eyes filled with sorrow and pain, she was on her back, attempting to hold herself up with one hand, but after a moment she lowered herself back to the ground. Her right hip was just … a bloody mess.

“Hey Soarin.” Sapphire greeted weakly. She glanced down at her hip or rather what was left of it. “I am screwed now. Can’t walk, not with an utterly destroyed hip bone. I am bleeding profusely with no way to stop it. Heh, I guess this is it.” she said with a slight laugh.

Spitfire landed nearby and galloped over herself. She recoiled when she got a look at Sapphire’s injuries. “Sweet Celestia.” she muttered.

“You going to be alright?!” Soarin asked.

Sapphire snorted. “At best, I have maybe thirty minutes to live. But, it’s probably more like five or ten minutes at most.” she said before taking a ragged breath, wincing in pain.

Spitfire and Soarin shared a look and with a sigh, Spitfire stood up. “I am going to get help! I’ll be back as quick as I can.” she said and then she spread her wings and took-off.

“Hey Sapphire.” Soarin started and the human turned her head to gaze at the Pegasus.

“Yes?” she croaked out.

“Thanks for saving my life. Honestly, I don’t know how Spitfire would’ve been able to take it, seeing me get killed like I would’ve been had you not punted me out of the way.” Soarin said, his tone grateful. Although he didn’t mention it, he had a surprise kick to get him out of the way probably broke at least two ribs maybe more. Of course, the unexpected tackle from the ‘Russian’ probably left him with several bones that were either cracked, bruised, dislocated, sprained, or broken.

“No problem, you saved my life earlier today and I returned the favor.” Sapphire said, giving a visible wince with each word spoken. It was clear that she was fading and fast.

Hurry Spitfire, in the name of Celestia just hurry! Sapphire doesn’t have much time left! Soarin thought in a panic, before putting his hooves to the wound in Sapphire’s hip in a frantic attempt to stem the bleeding.

Sapphire struggled with the effort, but managed to lift a hand and put it on Soarin’s cheek. “Thanks, Soarin for trying, but like it or not I am done for. The temperature isn’t helping my case here. Still, thanks for making the last bit of my life interesting, even more so than it was made out to be.” She said weakly, her eyes glittering with tears, a faint smile on her face. Moments later, an immense and distinctive twin sonic boom rolled over them. To Soarin, it signaled that Spitfire was on her way to Equis.

“Sapphire please, just hang on! Spitfire should be back soon, alright! We’ll get you out of here!” Soarin pleaded.

However, Sapphire didn’t respond, she had lost consciousness, from loss of blood.

Spitfire! Where the hell are you?! Soarin thought as he remained by Sapphire’s side, praying to every god and goddess that he knew that Spitfire would arrive with help in time.

Soarin calmly put a hoof to the human’s neck and was relieved when a weak pulse fluttered against it. But, that same pulse seemed to be fading slowly.

Then suddenly, there was a brilliant flare of white light and Soarin caught a glimpse of two figures within it.

Reveille

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Spitfire had never flown so fast in her life. She rocketed up and away from where Soarin and Sapphire were. A minor jolt told her she’d just gone supersonic as she reached a critical velocity.

The only ones who can help Sapphire now are the princesses. She thought as she climbed.

She began to speak the incantation loudly and clearly, picturing her destination in her mind’s eye. “Intermeare dimensiones obsecro manus bullas dimensiva potest ligare claustra patitur quisque ratione transitum incolumem. Canterlot meus destination est civitas sita in Equis dimension!” she cried, with each passing word, a powerful glow built up around her cutie mark and the amulet that she was on her neck. With an immense screaming ssshh-rack! A brilliant burst of silver light exploded outward from the amulet.

The air in front of her reacted as the beam interacted with dimensional walls. With an immense and distinctive twin boom boom that rang out across the Northwest Territories, as a clean cut between dimensions appeared in front of her. A second later, silver light enveloped her and slingshotted her right into the dimensional cut. It closed several seconds latter.

The actual trip between dimensions lasted about three seconds. With a hypervelocity boom, Spitfire rocketed out of the dimensional cut that for the briefest of moments separated Equis from Earth.

The first thing she noted was that it was raining with some minor hail, the wind was howling like a mad dragon, ice cold rain and pea-sized hail pelted her hide with such force that it stung, with a brilliant flash a forked tongue of lightning exploded across her flightpath, the resulting thunderclap nearly deafened her.

Damnit, forgot about the planned thunderstorm over Canterlot today! She thought with a shudder from the cold wind and rain that she was flying through.

Not that Spitfire cared about that. She winged over and dove, her memory guiding her down. Another bolt of lightning exploded into vivid life not three feet from her right wing. The resulting thunderclap was so loud that Spitfire was most certainly going to have to go to the ear doctor to get her hearing checked.

But then she bolted out of the cloud deck. The city of Canterlot glowed in the rain that was coming down. A bolt of lightning hit one of the lightning rods on the castle. Resulting in another enormous crack of thunder.

Spitfire could now see her landing zone, one of the main courtyards.

A new voice suddenly got her attention and scared Spitfire absolutely shitless. “My, my aren’t you in a massive hurry today Spitfire. Where’s the fire?”

She glanced right and spotted flying casually in formation next to her was a member of the Canterlot Royal Guard, purely ceremonial of course. Princesses Celestia and Luna could stomp anyone into the ground relatively easily and thus didn’t really need guards, instead they tended to handle more local problems.

“Windstorm, I need to see the Princesses now. I was scouting out new training grounds on Earth, in their equivalent of the Frozen North and we found that a large number of humans actually live their, unlike in Equestria apart from a scant few, the Frozen North is practically uninhabited.” Spitfire began as she explained everything that had happened.

“So wait, hold on. You mean you’ve actually seen how humans fight wars?” Windstorm asked confused.

“Yes, well air aspect only, but it seemed to be very impersonal. I never even saw the enemy fighters that splashed one of the human fighters.” Spitfire explained.

“So let me get this straight, you left Soarin with a critically injured human. While you're here, all I am asking is why have you are suddenly here? This wasn’t arranged beforehand!” Windstorm asked in a confused voice.

“I was wondering if one of the Princesses could provide her with a second chance. She saved Soarin’s life and it’s likely going to cost her, her own life. Taking a blow that would’ve killed him no doubt. I just want to show my gratitude in some way, but thanks to her wounds. I will never be able too.” Spitfire said, a wetness that wasn’t from the pounding storm leaking from her eyes.

“Alright, you’ve convinced me. But now you got to convince the Princess, you're lucky. Princess Celestia has just started her day.” Windstorm said in a casual tone.

“Great, wonder how she’ll handle this bombshell?” Spitfire muttered.

“Not sure, but she’ll probably be happy with the change of pace with having to deal with a bunch of stuff from that has resulted from the Great Royal Wedding Fiasco of 2/18/1002. How the hell did we not see the signs of a Changeling Invasion?” Windstorm stated in a sour tone.

“That’s not important right now Windstorm!” Spitfire snapped hotly.

“Right, Great Royal Wedding Fiasco not important. Let me glide you in, okay?” Windstorm said and Spitfire nodded in response, at this point she’d be glad to get out of the rain.

Still the primary courtyard to the palace loomed, Spitfire flared her wings out and lowered her legs from their “raised” position against her belly to a standard landing position. This increased dragged and thus slowed her down, but she realized that she was still coming in too fast, thus in an attempt to slow down even more she performed a wide descending 360-degree turn.

When she managed to acquire the courtyard again. She judged that her speed was low enough to perform a safe enough landing. She flared her wings out and with a bit of a jarring thump-thump landed on the slick stone and nearly slipped and fell immediately.

Cursing she quickly regained her balance and then got her bearings. She was in the main courtyard, two Royal Guards were sprinting towards her. Their white coats and blue manes, a simple spell, glistening in the rain approached her.

“Wing Commander Spitfire! This is unexpected is there something wrong?” One of the guards asked once he got close.

“In a sort of roundabout way, it has to deal with the training grounds search me and Squad Leader Soarin were performing.” Spitfire said frantically and both guards understood at once.

“I’ll go let Princess Celestia know immediately, Starscream you take her inside and get her dried off and warmed up. I’ll go tell the Princess!” The other guard said.

Starscream glanced at Spitfire. “Come on Wing Commander, let’s get you warmed up and dried off.” he said and promptly lead Spitfire out of the rain and into the palace, to be specific one of the Common Rooms.

The Common Room itself was very similar to a Common Room that one would find at a major university. There was a few scattered chairs and sofas lying around, as well as a few tables, plus and most importantly a fireplace with a calm crackling fire in it.

Spitfire gratefully sat down in front of the fireplace and felt it’s warmth on her fur. It felt good and also allowed her to finally think over everything that had occurred within the past couple of hours.

She vividly remembered the complete and utter destruction of Igloo Base-the roar of those bombs detonating, the scream of engines as those two -what had they been called?- Lightnings as they pulled away from the base, trailing the Lightnings as they raced off on a final sortie, watching them drop bombs and then splitting away from each other dropping brightly glowing orbs of light, chasing or trying to chase both Lightnings before settling on the wingman, watching the craft explode as it took a direct hit from a guided rocket with a highly explosively tip, rescuing Sapphire from her burning craft, distinct squelch of flesh parting as her wing sliced through that soldier’s neck, the brief resistance that the bones in it’s neck put up before failing, voices shouting harsh alien words in a accent similar to somepony from Stalliongrad, the noise from their lethalized miniature and micro-sized cannons, the extremely loud pops and FFFHHHH sounds from the projectiles that they fired missing by inches, the shock and sadness she had felt when Soarin had been tackled by that enemy in such a brutal fashion fearing that he’d been killed, the relief when Soarin had rolled over and stood up, the feeling of dread and hopelessness to do anything to stop the ‘Russian’ from killing him, the surprise, shock, and sadness when Sapphire basically gave-up her life to protect Soarin, the feeling of bones giving way violently under her hooves as she planted them into the back of the ‘Russian’ to stop him from finishing Sapphire off, and the sorrow, regret, and thanks -or was it hope? She couldn’t tell- in Sapphire’s voice as she lay dying in the snow.

It became too much for the mare and she started sobbing quietly. She’d seen more lives ended in just maybe an hour if that, than she had in her entire career in the Royal Equestrian Air Force and as a member of the Wonderbolts combined. Worse, she had actually ended the life of another sentient being and killing another sentient was held in a really low regard in Equis. Everything that had transpired well, it was going to haunt her dreams just how her failure to save those two mares and that filly from the Flying Goatstream when she had sank, watching them get dragged under the waters of Horseshoe Bay by the suction the Flying Goatstream had generated when she’d slipped below the waves.

Despite the sorry state that Spitfire was in, the one part of her mind that wasn’t wrapped up in self-pity and sorrow was telling her. How are you going to explain the whole fiasco on Earth to Princess Celestia?

In truth, it was the rational part of her mind and what it was saying, that had Spitfire extremely worried. While the rest of her mind was focusing on how the Taratus she was going to explain what had happened to her family or worse how would they react.

Still, one can imagine how surprised she was when she heard a voice behind her. It was soft and sweet, with an undertone of immense power that could be unleashed if you succeeded in pissing the speaker off, combined amount of authority that was behind said voice was immense. It could only be just one pony at this hour in Canterlot. “Wing Commander Spitfire, you wanted to see me?”

Spitfire shakily stood up and turned around. Sure enough, standing behind her was Princess Celestia herself. She didn’t looked annoyed, in fact she actually looked slightly curious. Which surprised Spitfire, she hadn’t expected that at all, despite that all of her military training took over and she bowed respectively.

“It’s complicated, your majesty. First I am sorry for arriving unannounced and doing so out of uniform.” Spitfire said in an apologetic tone.

“It’s no problem Wing Commander Spitfire. If anything, I welcome a change of pace from the monotonous and boring joys of bureaucracy. Now from what you told Sergeants Jade Dare and Windstorm you were doing one of your expeditions to find new training grounds for the Wonderbolts when you stumbled across something?” Princess Celestia asked.

Spitfire nodded in response. “It’s complicated Princess, but myself and Soarin were on Earth, which thanks to these dimensional amulets interdimensional travel is possible even if it is slightly risky. But anyway…” Spitfire said as she began to explain.

When she finished, Princess Celestia looked at her apprehensively and with more than a little surprise and shock visible in her eyes. “Spitfire, you must realize that even with my magical skill, there are things beyond even my abilities.” Celestia said in a sorrowful tone.

“But have you ever seen somepony do something so incredibly brave that while it did fatally injure them, you’ve wanted to grant them a second chance?!” Spitfire asked, desperation and pleading seeping into her voice.

Celestia sighed. “I have been there, but I must ask Wing Commander Spitfire, why? Why do you want me to do such a complicated and complex spell, one that is extremely painful for the castee, just to save one life?” she asked.

“That’s just the thing Princess. From what me and Soarin can wager, Sapphire’s injuries would have been survivable had she received the proper medical treatment. But, where Sapphire and Soarin are now is basically the middle of nowhere! Please, I don’t want this impromptu rescue mission to end in failure, not after everything that has transpired.” Spitfire said, her voice breaking.

“My little pony, what you must realize is that sometimes it’s better to allow the Circle of Life to run it’s course rather than to intervene. But you realize that what you're proposing to do could have adverse effects to Sapphire’s psyche?” Celestia asked.

“I realize that, it’s just that. It just seemed like she was hoping for some sort of miracle to occur. Throw in the fact that while she’s not a member of the Royal Equestrian Armed forces, she is a member of a nation’s armed forces and thus is a fellow soldier! I feel like, I should at least try to do something to prevent her from dying.” Spitfire said, putting as much emotion as she could into her voice.

Celestia sighed, she knew that within the military, it was common for it’s service ponies, particularly the ones who would fight on the frontlines of war were it to ever breakout, to develop a kinship that went far beyond even friendship, to something even greater than friendship, that something greater was family. After all in combat, sometimes the only thing between life and death would be the pony next to you.

But something told her that while Sapphire wasn’t in the Equestrian Armed Forces, it was clear that Spitfire and Soarin had felt obligated to help. Perhaps it was possible that the kinship that service members felt toward service members from there own military branch extended to members in foreign military services, at least to a degree, or simply because it was just the right thing to do, or it could be like Spitfire had said that herself and Soarin wanted their impromptu rescue mission to succeed in order makeup for past failures, finally it could have been a combination of the three.

So despite herself and how she felt about doing this. She understood where Spitfire was coming from. She had been the one to organize the memorial service for the lives lost in the sinking of the Flying Goatstream and to a degree she understood Soarin’s position as well, both herself and Luna had organized and then participated in the commemorating of the memorial for the Sun Valley Disaster.

Celestia sighed deeply. “Alright, I’ll agree to do it. But only if you agree to a certain set of conditions.” she said.

Spitfire nodded. “I understand your majesty. Although I got the feeling that Sapphire probably wouldn’t want to be in the military; considering how close of a brush with death that she’s going through.”

Celestia nodded in understanding. “That’s doable and believable. Regardless several conditions must be met, the first condition is that in order to help Sapphire acclimatize to her new life, she’s to be settled in Ponyville. And second, she’s to join the Ponyville Weather Team and receive basic training in that respect.” Celestia said.

“I understand the whole bit about settling her in Ponyville, it is the home of the Element Bearers after all. Wait, what about the whole Cutie Mark?! Wouldn’t it look a little strange seeing a fully Pegasus Mare without one?!” Spitfire said in a worried tone.

Celestia’s brow furrowed, Spitfire had brought up a very good point. It would look a little odd. “I have a general idea, you said that she was a pilot back on Earth?” Celestia asked and Spitfire nodded.

“Maybe that was what she wanted to do for her life as her talent. Be a pilot, if that’s the case. Then it could be possible that once the transformation is complete then maybe she may get a Cutie Mark of her own.” Celestia mused.

“It could happen, but who knows nopony because this has ever done this before.” Spitfire said.

“Correct, let me send some urgent messages explaining everything and what we’re about to do, then let’s get this finished.”

Soarin blinked his eyes several times to adjust to the blinding white light that had suddenly dazzled him. What he saw made his heart soar with relief. Walking out of the portal was both Wing Commander Spitfire and Princess Celestia!

“Oh thank Faust! We got to hurry, she’s slipped into unconsciousness and her pulse is fading!” Soarin said briskly from where he was.

When Celestia first laid eyes on Sapphire, the first connection she thought about was with the Minotaurs, at least in terms of basic shape, she was bipedal although the legs were different in design judging by the clothes she was wearing. Not only that but she was lacking the horns that Minotaurs had. But the more she thought about it, the more she decided that a closer comparison would be apes that inhabited Zebrica, but clearly further along in terms of evolution.

She was wearing a helmet, although it appeared to have visor. But said visor was in the stored position. Hanging from a tube that went behind the pilot’s back was a mask of some sort. She was wearing a dark green uniform that provided nearly 100% coverage of her body, with the exception of her hands and feet which had gloves and boots respectively also attached the uniform was what appeared to be a vest of some sort attached to it.

Celestia had no idea what everything was for, but it probably served some important purpose. But she pushed those thoughts out of her mind.

“How bad are her injuries?” Celestia asked as she cast a time dilation spell on Sapphire’s prone form to help slow the amount of blood loss down drastically, although she could tell that she was in a bad way. The mess that had probably been her hip was one of several of the more noticeable wounds, the other was a circular hole in her front near one of her shoulders, dark red blood leaking slowly out of the wound, another wound was an ugly thing, lower torso if Celestia where to guess roughly half the distance between her belly button and flank, it was rather bloody.

“Got those three nasty wounds, but also a bunch of cuts and bruises from her crash, probably a couple of broken bones as well. Wouldn’t be surprised if she got a concussion as well. Probably has a minor case of Hypothermia and certainly shock from blood loss. She’s lucky to still be alive.” Soarin said his head drooping.

“Thank you Soarin, what we have planned is going to be rather painful for young Sapphire but it’ll give her a chance of living through this ordeal.” Celestia said.

“Right!”

Sapphire wavered in and out of consciousness. It was like she was teetering on the knife’s edge of life and death. But she swore she could hear voices, speaking in urgent and worried tones.

“How’s … vitals…?” one voice said.

“... thready but … pulse. Bp’s dropping …” A second voice replied.

“You sure …. this? …. once this …. no going b.ck.” A third voice, said in a questioning tone.

“I am … sure … do it! Save her life …” A fourth voice, it sounded vaguely like Spitfire but she wasn’t sure.

After that she slipped back into unconsciousness. However despite the void that she floated in. Well, even you are unconscious your body could still feel pain, thus it wasn’t uncommon for patients on the table in the OR to actually moan during a surgery.

The sudden amount of pain that she felt without warning. Likely would’ve had her screaming in agony. It felt like she’d been dunked in Napalm, ignited Napalm. It was like as if her entire body was getting transformed into a new form and that the pain was her nervous system reacting to it. After what felt like an eternity the pain slowly subsided.

Now there was an interesting train of thought, going through a transfiguration. Sapphire came to the conclusion that she had read far too many Fantasy novels. Transformations were impossible, weren’t they?

Still, something told her that the life she knew was gone and that she was in for one hell of an adventure.

Canterlot Regional Medical Institute

As the glow died away from Celestia’s horn as she completed the permanent transformation spell on Sapphire. The form of the human was gone, in it’s place was a young Pegasus Mare, roughly thirty or in age from appearance alone.

She had a dark grey fur coat, with a maroon mane and tail with gold highlights running through it. However it was the sudden appearance of her Cutie Mark that really caught her attention: It had what appeared to be a majestic Eagle of some kind, the feathers covering its head was pure white and the body was brown, yet the wing tips appeared to blur between feather and lightning, it was as if the Eagle was riding on a brilliant blue lightning bolt that had a point of origin from it’s wingtips.

“Any idea when she’ll wake up?” Spitfire asked in a worried tone.

“No, but this is the first time we’ve performed a spell like this with the intent that we had. For all we know she could wake up in five minutes from now or seventy years from now. We just don’t really know.” The chief doctor, Doctor Heartbeat said calmly. Heartbeat was a Unicorn Pony, he had a deep brown coat and a cyan mane and tail, his cutie mark was that of a heart with the lines from an EKG superimposed onto it.

“Great.” Spitfire said.

“Besides once she does wake up she’s bound to have a few questions. But during the first few days after she wakes up, don’t be surprised if she’s out of it. Plus of course the shock from the transformation itself.” Heartbeat replied.

“Don’t forget Doctor. The Element Bearers will be helping in the acclimation process, as well as naturalization.” Celestia said.

Although truth be told, Celestia had her doubts about this. The only reason she had gone through with it in the first place, was because Spitfire had felt that she should’ve done something, anything to save a fellow soldier from dying. Still she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea with this.

“Right, I forgot. Any idea when they’ll be here?” Heartbeat asked in a curious tone.

“Probably around noon today. I sent an urgent letter to Twilight Sparkle earlier.” Celestia said.

“Good. The sooner the better.”

“All aboard for the Friendship Express, now departing Ponyville for Canterlot! With connecting trains departing for Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Bolton, Baltimare, Marecester, Trottingham, Coltland, and Vaaanhoover!” The conductor for the Sun and Moon Express, All Aboard, called out.

The Friendship Express provided daily service between Ponyville and Canterlot, making two trips each day. The whistle on the brand new 4-6-0 Steam Locomotive let out a distinctive tone. With powerful motions, the valves that led to the cylinders opened and steam began the movement of the connecting rods. With a noticeable lurch the locomotive went into motion, starting the three and half hour trip.

Inside one of the cars, were six middle aged mares, two Earth Ponies, two Pegasi, and two Unicorns. To someone who had been living out on the frontier for the past three years or under a rock, they wouldn’t have appeared to have been all that familiar.

However to someone who was “in the loop” they were instantly recognizable. For they were the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

“Twilight, when you came to tell us that Princess Celestia needed us in Canterlot as soon as possible. You seemed to be in quite a rush, any idea what this is about?” Applejack asked in a semi-worried yet also semi-curious tone.

“That’s just it. The content of the letter, was brief and to the point about something that Wing Commander Spitfire of the Wonderbolts while she was looking for new training grounds for the Wonderbolt Academy, bore witness too and that she said would be hard to explain in a letter and would prefer to do so in person.” Twilight said.

“Why would Wonderbolts be looking for new training grounds? I thought that the Wonderbolt Academy could provide for all of the needs that they would ever have.” Rainbow said in a confused tone.

Twilight looked thoughtful before saying the one phrase that she rarely said. “I don’t know, Rainbow.”

“Maybe Princess Celestia summoned us because she’s going to reveal that some sort of disaster is going to be coming soon to Equis and that we’ll have to evacuate to a different dimension? Hence why the Wonderbolts were looking for new training grounds.” Pinkie said in her usually cheerful tone.

It took a few seconds for the brains of the rest of the mane six to reboot after that statement. “What?” Rarity stated dumbfounded.

Pinkie blinked. “Yeah that’s probably not it.” she said.

Truth be told, the cryptic nature of Princess Celestia’s letter had all of them baffled, and although Pinkie's guess was more than a little out there. Twilight wasn’t going to admit openly that the thought had crossed her mind. But for some reason it just didn’t fit, if the end of days where actually upon them, she was certain that Princess Celestia would have explained it in her letter.

“No, that’s not it. If it was, I am sure that Princess Celestia would’ve mentioned something like that in her letter.” Twilight said.

“Whatever it is though, it must be serious if she’s calling us to Canterlot without an explanation.” Rarity said.

“But it was also mentioned that it has something to do with the Wonderbolts! Which means it’s probably awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Could be, but like Twilight said. She doesn’t know why, the details in the letter were rather vague.” Fluttershy said.

“It is kind of weird for Princess Celestia to be vague when it comes to stuff like this. But she probably has a good reason to be vague.” Applejack said and everyone nodded, it did make sense.

Soarin glanced at Spitfire. “How are you feeling?” he asked. The two of them were in the same hospital ward as Sapphire was.

“Physically or mentally?” Spitfire replied.

“Both, you look like you're about ready to bolt.” Soarin remarked.

“Physically I am fine, a little sore but nothing a hot shower won’t fix. Mentally, I’ll probably never forget what we went through to rescue Sapphire.” Spitfire replied.

“Which parts about rescuing Sapphire?” Soarin asked.

“All of it, including the lead up. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the noise from the destruction of Igloo Base. Nor will I ever forget engaging those enemy soldiers.” Spitfire said in a low tone as she hung her head.

Soarin nodded. “I understand, I am probably going to feel like shit this afternoon. But yeah, I agree, the destruction of Igloo Base was incredible, while saddening it had also left me awestruck, the amount of power that was unleashed…” He said trailing off and letting the rest of his statement hang in the air.

“Yeah.” Spitfire replied. The destruction of Igloo Base, that sort of damage was only seen if a Unicorn with a penchant with explosive magic or an alicorn went all out, either that or two Earth Ponies from San Franciscolt decided to have some fun when busting a myth related to stuff blowing up.

That’s when they suddenly heard low and pain filled groan.

Sapphire was waking up.

Consciousness and awareness came slowly to Sapphire. The first thing that came back was her hearing, a subtle but continuous beeping which meant it was a heart rate monitor. The next sensation she got was her sense of touch, her head was laying on what she assumed was a pillow, with the rest of her body on a bed which judging by how uncomfortable the thing was the bed was a hospital bed, she could also tell that she was covered by a bed sheet. The next sense that began to work was the sense of smell and it proved her theory about being in a hospital, the scent of antiseptic and other smells that were commonly found in a hospital was everywhere.

Sapphire shuddered, while she didn’t exactly hate hospitals, she didn’t like them either mainly because the smells of a hospital often clung to one’s body and was an utter bastard to get rid of.

The last sense that came around was vision. With a great effort, her eyelids slowly fluttered open and she took in the view of an unfamiliar ceiling.

Well this is unexpected. She thought.

Author's Notes:

There you have it, another chapter of on Lightning’s Wings. One of the things of note, I couldn’t think of a Ponified name for Baldwin Locomotive Works, thus the only difference between the one in Equis and Earth is that the one in Equis is located in Fillydelphia and not really much else. While we are on the topic of locomotives, the train that the heroes take to the Crystal Empire won’t be pulled by a 4-4-0 pattern Steam Locomotive nor a 4-6-0 pattern Steam Locomotive that pulled the Friendship Express to Canterlot in this chapter, it will be tremendous beast, designed to pull heavy freight over mountain ranges. If you want to, you can guess as to what this locomotive is.

Translations:

“Intermeare dimensiones obsecro manus bullas dimensiva potest ligare claustra patitur quisque ratione transitum incolumem. Canterlot meus destination est civitas sita in Equis dimension!” Translates from Latin into English as the following: “To pass between dimensions, I call upon the power of the dimensional amulet, may it allow me pass through the barriers that bind each dimension unharmed. My destination is the city of Canterlot located in the Equis dimension!”

Questions and Answers

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Canterlot Station

With several piercing blasts from it’s whistle. The Friendship Express announced it’s arrival at Canterlot Union Station. The station as normal was packed with ponies, zebras, deer, minotaurs, and griffons were all going about their business. Some were rushing to catch their trains, others were running to catch carriages that to take them to various places throughout Canterlot. To add to the complexity of the problem, it was rush hour so there was at least double the usual number of passengers going about their business.

It was into this chaos, that the element bearers disembarked from the Friendship Express into. It was this chaotic hustle and bustle that made both arriving in and departing from Canterlot by train a real hassle, mainly because you could get turned around in the crowd and miss your train.

“This is crazy, I have never seen Canterlot Union Station like this before!” Rainbow said in a baffled tone as she had to step right to avoid getting hit by a minotaur.

“Me neither darling.” Rarity said as a gryphon just barely missed her and didn’t even notice her.

Somehow they managed to make it off the platform and to relative safety, for they weren’t in danger of getting knocked off the platform. But they still had the problem of trying to get out of the platform area and to the concourse. They had just managed to catch sight of the ramp that led up from the subsurface terminal with three platforms and into the concourse, when suddenly they nearly got bowled over by a trio of Minotaurs that came stampeding out of nowhere to catch the Silver Meteor that was giving its final boarding call before departing for Manehattan.

“That was unexpected, how are we going to be able to reach Canterlot Regional Medical Institute when everyone is running around like crazy?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know, but this is crazy!” Rarity said.

“Aren’t you the element bearers?” A deep, male voice said behind them.

Every member of mane six jumped in surprise, although Fluttershy also squeaked. Twilight turned around and instead of a member of the faculty like she’d been expecting or even just a pony, minotaur, or gryphon who was simply being a good samaritan. Instead she came face to lower chest with a full blown horse, that made Twilight blink in surprise.

Outside of Princess Celestia, she didn’t know that many full grown horses, they tended to be nomadic and were scattered throughout Equestria, with the closest three to Ponyville living deep in the Whitetail Woods, with those three being Man o’ War, Brushup, and War Admiral.

Twilight didn’t recognize this horse however. He was easily taller than Princess Celestia by probably at least head if you didn’t count the horn. Like all horses who lived in Equestria he didn’t have a cutie mark or a stud stamp as it was called on colts and stallions. He had this absolutely gorgeous chestnut coat which just rippled with muscle, with the exception of his left foreleg had white socks whereas the left foreleg had the same gorgeous chestnut fur that the rest of the stallion’s body did, between his eyes was a simple white star and a thin white line. His brown eyes gleamed with intelligence, kindness, and a hint of devious mischief.

“And you are?” Fluttershy asked in a kind tone, but semi-nervous tone.

The big stallion -the mane six just couldn’t get over how big he was- smiled. “Just call me Red, the name is actually Big Red but I prefer Red.” Red said with smile.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Red.” Fluttershy said.

“Likewise, never thought I’d ever met the Element Bearers. Particularly here at Canterlot Union Station during Rush Hour.” Red said in a calm voice as he neatly tilting his head to avoid a gryphon that went flying past them at roughly the level of Red’s head.

“Were trying to get to Canterlot Regional Medical Institute. Princess Celestia sent us a cryptic letter, but she did reassure us that she wasn’t sick or anything. But at this rate were going to be late.” Twilight said in an extremely nervous tone.

Big Red looked thoughtful for a moment. Let’s see from Canterlot Union Station to Canterlot Regional Medical Institute it’s roughly 40 Furlongs from the doors of the station to the institute, throw in an additional furlong for getting from the platforms to the doors. Plus Sham’s train isn’t due for another hour or so, I got time. He thought before adding haven’t gone all out in a while, this will be fun!

“I can give you a lift. I can probably carry Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and, where the hell did Pinkie go?” Red asked, his ears flattening.

“Knowing her, she’s probably already at Canterlot Regional Medical Institute. Somehow.” Applejack said.

“Right. Anyway I can probably carry Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack on my back. Won’t be easy, but then again I am used to not easy.” Red said.

“What about us?!” Rainbow and Fluttershy asked in unison.

“You two are Pegasi you could simply fly after me.” Red said.

“Oh.” The two pegasi said in unison as Red crouched down in order for Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack to climb aboard. Due to space, they had been forced to sit up right, although Twilight made sure that she maintained a grip around Red’s neck as he stood up, effortlessly supporting the weight of the three ponies on his back.

Red in the meantime was coiling up for his run. He had an extremely powerful body and in order to keep in pristine condition would trot roughly ten miles twice a week or in this case gallop five miles. It was a little known fact but he was fast, really fast. He smiled when he heard a voice in his head that was distantly familiar, but to a former racer like him and what that memory entailed it was his “get up and go” memory. “I am sick of this dirt. Let’s get rollin’!”

Twilight had to admit she hadn’t been expecting for Red to suddenly explode into motion, it quite literally took her breath away. “Hoooooly!” Applejack cried in shock and Rarity screamed in surprise.

“Horseapples! Wait up!” Rainbow yelled and rocketed after the thundering stallion. Fluttershy right behind him, truth be told Rainbow was stunned that Red could move like he was. An extremely powerful gallop that put Applejack to shame and she was really the only athletic mare that could match her in a hoof race, and she had nothing on this guy.

Twilight after probably the first thirty seconds got over her terrified screaming and decided to watch, first of all she noticed that anyone who spotted Red or even heard him coming, mainly because his breathing was sounding like a goddamned train, instantly hit the walls or took to the air. Still the ride wasn’t the smoothest one that Twilight had ever been on.

Within probably a matter of minutes they had left the station and were now flying down an avenue. Canterlot Regional Medical Institute loomed in front of them. By this point Twilight had gotten over her shock enough that she actually let out a cry of joy. She knew that she was quick in terms of a gallop, but she had nothing on Red; the stallion was moving like an absolute machine, a machine of pure perfection.

Princess Celestia was waiting for Twilight Sparkle and the other element bearers in the waiting room for Canterlot Regional Medical Institute. But she was very surprised when Pinkie Pie suddenly came zooming into the room.

After she got over said surprise she greeted her. “Greetings, element of laughter.” she greeted.

“Hi!” Pinkie said in a loud booming voice.

“Be quiet! Ponies are trying to sleep!” A sharp voice said from behind the front desk and Pinkie’s snout despite being bubblegum pink somehow managed to turn a very bright and luminescent red with her blush.

That’s when Princess Celestia noticed that the other element bearers weren’t with her. “Pinkie, where are the other element bearers?” she asked.

“Oh, they are getting a lift from a horse named Big Red, although his actual name is Secretariat.” Pinkie said and to her surprise Celestia smiled.

“I know him, he’s one of the best athletic trainers in all of Canterlot. I first meet him in the year 985. He had just opened his gymnasium here in Canterlot and I heard about it and was a little curious, so one night I went to see what it was all about. I met him as he was closing up, he was rather surprised but got over it quick. He’s the kindest, sweetest soul you’ll ever meet and probably the biggest too.” Celestia said.

“Big is right, he makes Big Macintosh look like a filly!” Pinkie said and despite herself Celestia actually had to restrain laugh. Mainly because well Secretariat was taller than she was and heck even Lulu and the Royal Guard tended to get slightly uncomfortable around him, although Celestia figured that probably had to do with his size.

As if on cue the entrance burst and quite possibly the fastest stallion in all of Equis when it came to galloping burst into the room, right behind him came Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the former of which was panting heavily. Secretariat slowed and came to a stop, breathing heavily he then crouched and the other element bearers dismounted. A little dizzy from the ride but unharmed, after getting their bearings they all bowed deeply for a moment, after they all rose Fluttershy turned to the massive stallion.

“Thanks for helping us arrive on time Big Red.” Fluttershy said with a smile.

Red smiled in response. “No problem, anything to help a couple of bonafide national heroes. Next time though, try and time your train so you don’t arrive during rush hour. Anyway, I got to get going, promised a friend I would meet him at Canterlot Union Station.” He said and with that the massive stallion turned around and calmly strode out of the waiting room.

Twilight turned to Celestia. “Princess, you mentioned in your letter that something involving the Wonderbolts happened recently. But you were sort of vague on the details.” Twilight said.

Celestia sighed. “Are any of you aware of the concept known as war?” she asked. Truth be told, Celestia hated talking about war. The reason being was that war had given her memories that well were to put it in one way horrifying. She would occasionally have nightmares about it, even though the event that gave her those memories happened centuries ago.

The mane six shook their heads in response. “Princess, what is war? I’ve never heard of it before.” Applejack said.

“I am not surprised that you haven’t heard of it mainly because it’s so incredibly rare on Equis, but war is armed conflict between two or more parties and the reasons that wars breakout over can be seemingly petty whereas other times the reason is very much legitimate, and it’s one of the most hellish things you can ever go through. However, the last war that happened on Equis occurred nearly seven hundred fifty years ago against the Minotaurs, it lasted only ten months but it claimed the lives of at least fifteen thousand five hundred sixty eight ponies and twenty three thousand three hundred ten minotaurs. The majority of those deaths happened at the Battle of Marethon, where the main Minotaur invasion was soundly defeated. I was at the Battle of Marethon, personally leading both the Royal Equestrian Army and the Royal Guard into battle and to this day the sounds of it as well as my actions during it still haunt me occasionally in my dreams, even to this day.” Celestia said in a sorrowful tone.

“Princess Celestia, what do you mean that the sounds and your actions during the Battle of Marethon still haunt you to this day?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t like to talk about it for it drags up memories that I’ve been working to forget for centuries.” Celestia said with a deep sigh.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to Princess.” Fluttershy said.

“I wish I could explain why I summoned you without dragging up those memories but it’s practically impossible.” Celestia said.

“What does this have to do with the letter you sent us Princess?” Rarity asked.

“More than you think. Twilight, I am sure you're aware of the interdimensional amulets that have been recently developed by the University of Califoalnia, Los Angevin School of the Arts, Architecture, and Magic?” Celestia asked.

“Yes I am, I read about them in the latest issue of Popular Magichanics. Hard to believe that they managed to get that to work without breaking the fourth wall or something.” Twilight said with a nod.

Well during testing, I had to respond to an interesting incident with two large autonomous robotic organisms that were rampaging through the city having a hell of a fight, dragged to this dimension thanks to the testing of those amulets, that wasn’t a fun day mainly because I’ve never been thrown around that much before. Celestia thought, suppressing a shudder expertly.

“Well, when Wing Commander Spitfire; overall CO of the Wonderbolts heard about the amulets. She requisitioned two, one for herself and the other for Squadron Leader Soarin. Despite the fact we have teams exploring some of these other dimensions, Spitfire was curious about using one of the various dimensions that we’ve discovered and explored somewhat as training grounds for the Wonderbolts. Because in her words “there is only so much that the Wonderbolt Academy and Cloudsdale Weather Factory can prepare you for.” and despite my reservations about the idea I approved her request.” Celestia said.

That’s when part of the puzzle clicked into place. “Wait a minute, Princess. So what you're saying is that one of these other dimensions that Wing Commander Spitfire visited was engulfed in war?” Rarity asked, understanding starting to dawn in her voice.

“The opening moves of a war, Rarity. The opening moves, in this case an invasion force deployed by heavier-than-air transport craft at least according to Spitfire. With the only thing to fight it off being five small and fast, single rider heavier than air craft.” Celestia said in a low voice.

“Something tells me that the bad guys besides having transports also had an escort, like whenever you or Princess Luna have to travel by carriagecade.” Twilight said.

Celestia nodded. “They did, however those brave defenders didn’t care. They had a job to do and they did it. However, superior numbers took it’s toll reducing the defenders numbers down to just two. Then to make sure that they couldn’t resupply after their sorties, the invaders completely destroyed their base with a heavy aerial attack. Yet those last two remaining defenders didn’t care instead of running away, they launched one final attack against the invaders. One that probably got both of them shot down.” She said.

The sound of something getting munched on caused everypony to look at Pinkie Pie who was eating a bag of popcorn that she had pulled from seemingly nowhere. “What? It’s a good story!” She said.

“No food allowed!” The Unicorn behind the front desk snapped and her horn ignited in a sepia glow and Pinkie’s bag of popcorn disappeared with a loud pop.

“My popcorn!” Pinkie cried in a shocked tone.

That resulted in a couple suspiciously timed coughing fits.

“Anyway, Wing Commander Spitfire and Squadron Leader Soarin rescued one of the pilots from their downed craft. They tried to help her escape on foot, but the arrival of enemy troops on self-propelled sleds forced the pilot’s hand. After telling Spitfire and Soarin to flee and that her fate was upon her, after that she engaged enemy forces.” Celestia said before stopping and taking a deep breath, some of the more unpleasant memories from the Battle of Marethon were bubbling up; to be more specific, ones during the second day of the battle where everything began to sideways when the Equestrian phalanx had begun to fall apart and everything started look to hopeless.

“But, thankfully for her. Spitfire and Soarin didn’t like be told off and while they were retreating. Soarin made the conscious decision to go and help, Spitfire followed because of training having told never leave your wingmate. Together with they working with the downed pilot accounted for two hostiles out of five, with the downed pilot before Spitfire and Soarin arrived having accounted for two as well.” Celestia said, pausing and taking a deep breath, almost failing to suppress a shudder as a new memory from the Battle of Marethon flashed across her vision an extremely … unpleasant one.

I am going to have to talk to Deep Relief later today or tonight, as much as I dislike him. He’s a shrink and thus incredibly useful. Celestia thought.

“But I am assuming something went wrong when trying to take care of fifth guy?” Rainbow asked.

Celestia merely nodded.

Sapphire gazed up at the unfamiliar ceiling. The ceiling was about as unfamiliar as you could get for a hospital ceiling. It was stark white and featureless, although it did seem like it was way higher than a normal ceiling that you would find in a hospital room or ward. This ceiling was practically a vaulted ceiling, she had never heard of such a thing in a hospital before. It was more than little surprising but she didn’t mind, a nice change of pace from the usual she associated with hospitals.

That’s when she became aware of a dull throb seemingly all over the place. She groaned slightly in pain, it seemed like everything hurt.

That’s when she heard a unique sounding clip-clop, as if it was on tile. She turned her head toward the source of the sound and was very surprised to see Spitfire walking toward her.

“Spitfire, well isn’t this an unexpected surprise!” Sapphire said in response, wincing as pain flashed across throat and mouth just from speaking.

“Yeah, it is. How do you feel?” Soarin asked, popping up out of nowhere.

Sapphire gave the blue pegasus a deadpan look. “I feel like I’ve just done a sparring match with the Incredible Hulk.” she said in a deadpan.

Soarin’s ears flattened. “The Incredible Hulk?” he asked confused.

“Basically The Incredible Hulk is a really smart guy, but if his heart rate gets above a certain number of beats per minute he transforms from a skinny guy that’s about five foot five into about a eight foot tall giant green rage monster that can eat 120mm HEAT rounds and just laugh it off.”

“Right, I’ll take your word for it.” Soarin said with confused expression on his face.

“Besides, I got to ask. Where the hell am I? I certainly can’t think of any hospitals with vaulted ceilings and I am certainly not in the middle of nowhere.” Sapphire asked.

Spitfire and Soarin exchanged a look. “Long story short, you're in Equis, which is our home dimension.” Spitfire said in a even voice, trying to make sure that the former human didn’t freak out.

Sapphire’s ears drooped and she blinked. “Didn’t expect that. Stuck in another goddamned dimension, I suddenly feel like I am in a Doctor Who episode. Well that’s one hell of a shock, anything else I should know?” She asked in a surprisingly neutral tone.

Spitfire and Soarin glanced at each other nervously. They wanted to tell her in a such a fashion that Sapphire wouldn’t freak out. But they couldn’t figure out how, eventually they just decided that it would likely be best to just be blunt on the matter.

“About that, do you remember anything strange occurring between Spitfire leaving and you waking up here?” Soarin asked in a semi-worried tone.

“Not really, well actually yes. Believe it or not when a human loses consciousness and I am not sure if it’s the same for ponies, but it’s actually possible to feel pain and I was wavering in and out of it. I remember picking up bits and pieces of a conversation then I felt like someone decided to set my nervous system on fire plus it also felt like my muscular and skeletal system during that time transformed into molten glass and got reform into a new shape, I don’t really want to experience that again.” Sapphire said, wincing at that unpleasant memory.

This time when Spitfire and Soarin glanced at each other it was one of surprise. However when they turned their attention back to Sapphire they had sympathetic looks on their faces. They obviously hadn’t been expecting that.

“The thing is Sapphire, when you thought that your body was being forced into a new shape. Well it actually was.” Spitfire said quietly.

Sapphire’s ears flattened and she gave Spitfire a look.

“So let me get this straight, Princess!?!” Fluttershy said in a shocked tone, her love of life clearly taking over. “Against your better judgement, you decided to agree to save a life of a being from another dimension one that was on the verge of dying via a permanent transformation spell as well as medical magic just so that way Wing Commander Spitfire and Squadron Leader Soarin wouldn’t feel like failures?!”

“I explained all of the risks that such a transformation could have plus I told them that once done there was no going back and yet they were adamant! But you have got to remember that both of them were among the responders to the sinking of the Flying Goatstream and the Sun Valley Avalanche Disaster and how Spitfire blames herself for not being able to get the last three ponies off the Flying Goatstream before it sank and that their cries for help have haunted her ever since and that for Soarin she failed a filly because he couldn’t dig her out of the snow fast enough and wound up dying in his hooves. Neither of them wanted this impromptu rescue mission to fail, not after they had failed to save lives previously.” Princess Celestia said in a defensive tone, but it was clear in her tone that she still disagreed with it.

“So, what’s the darling’s name?” Rarity asked.

“Her name Rarity is Lisa Johansson; however she was in the military back in her home dimension as a member of the air force. Her military nickname is Sapphire. However from what I’ve managed to gather from both Soarin and Spitfire, she doesn’t really care if she’s called Lisa or Sapphire although you would have to ask her about her preference on it.” Celestia replied, forcefully shoving the bad memories that the conservation had dragged up earlier to the back of her mind.

“Wait a minute. Princess, why did you say that we’re going to have to ask her about her preference about being called either her nickname or her actual name?” Applejack asked.

“I only agreed to save Sapphire’s life if and only if it was decided that her naturalization and acclimation to her new life happened in Ponyville and that for employment she joins the Ponyville Weather Team.” Princess Celestia said.

The mane six looked at each other with surprised looks on their faces. “You can count on us Princess, we’ll get her acclimated with her new life!” Rainbow said after a minute.

“Rainbow, you do realize that this is going to be a first for us? We got almost no experience on this sort of matter.” Applejack said.

Rainbow’s ears flattened, she hadn’t thought about that aspect clearly.

“Well, first thing we could do is giving her flying lessons that and given her a place to stay.” Fluttershy said, looking thoughtful.

“I make something like curtains and the like for the darling’s house.” Rarity said.

“I could offer a place to stay until her house is completed, wouldn’t mind having a guest over. There’s gotta be so much to learn about her home dimension!” Twilight said.

“I could throw a ‘Welcome to your new home!’ party once her house is completed!” Pinkie said in an energetic tone.

“Just don’t overdo it on the invitations Pinkie, we don’t want to put the darling into an uncomfortable position so quickly.” Rarity added and while Pinkie’s expression did flatten a little she nodded.

“I guess while the house is getting built and Pinkie is preparing for the party. I could show her around town.” Applejack mused.

Celestia smiled, this was why she had decided to bring the element bearers into this. Because once they put their minds to something, they could easily think of a plan to overcome nearly anything. That and they were used to all of the strange that happened, particularly at Ponyville which just seemed to be the weirdness magnet of Equestria. If they could handle the strange that happened in Ponyville on a nearly weekly basis, then Celestia was certain that they could handle this.

“What do you mean by that?” Sapphire asked.

The two Wonderbolts once again exchanged nervous looks with each other.

Spitfire then sighed before explaining. “You were dying Sapphire. Me and Soarin could tell that you wanted to live, but we were in the middle of nowhere and couldn’t give you the aid that you needed.” Spitfire said sobbing slightly.

Mercifully for Spitfire, it was at that moment that Soarin decided to take over. “So, Spitfire wanting to see that you survived this ordeal came back here to Equestria. I don’t know how she did it, but she managed to convince one of the diarchs; Princess Celestia to do something rather drastic and-” Soarin said before Sapphire cut him off.

“Let me guess, she did something to transform me into an equine like you guys so the docs could patch me back together.” Sapphire stated.

Spitfire shuffled her hooves nervously. “More than that Sapphire, you see due to the extent of your injuries, no transformation spell that Celestia could think of would last long enough for your wounds to fully heal before you changed back, which would bring us back to square one.” Spitfire said in a low voice.

What? Oh please don’t tell me! Sapphire thought.

“Which means that I am stuck like this?” Sapphire asked, dread beginning to seep into her voice.

“Yeah, it does.” Spitfire whispered.

“I never did ask for this. I wouldn’t have minded dying, we all make it eventually. But now the life that I knew is gone, my friends are gone, my family are gone, my colleagues are gone, I am in a entirely different dimension for Christ Sakes! I just don’t know where my life is going to take me now, everything is so different that who knows what I’ll be able to apply my talents as a fighter jock too if at all. Just why?” Sapphire said in sorrowful voice.

“I wish I knew why all of this happened Sapphire. But I just don’t know why! You just got to roll with the punches now and handle what life gives you.” Spitfire replied trying to cheer the mare up.

“You didn’t leave a loving mother and father behind in your home dimension who will be told by the military that their beloved daughter had been killed in action over Canada when in all actuality she’s still alive! You haven’t lost all connections to the dimension that you lived in before! I have!” Sapphire said starting sob.

Soarin looked at Spitfire who was wearing a worried look on her face, they needed to get Sapphire out of this spiral. “About that, it was a pain but I managed to convince the docs to save your flight suit, although they insisted on throwing out part of the leggings. We also still got your helmet and survival vest, couldn’t find the knife though.” He said and Sapphire perked up.

“You did?” she croaked, but sounding hopeful.

“Yes, I did. I’ll got get them, the docs cleaned them of blood to the best of their abilities but I wouldn’t recommend wearing it because it’s pretty torn up and plus who knows what it’s contaminated with.” Soarin said, putting his forehooves on the bed.

Sapphire reached forward suddenly and gave him a hug. Soarin, not expecting it blushed in surprise. “Thank you, Soarin! Thank you so much!” She said her voice full of emotion.

“No problem!” Soarin grunted out and then realizing she was squeezing a little too hard. Sapphire released the Squadron Leader, that’s when she noticed she had something else beside being an equine.

She was actually a pegasus which meant that her flying days weren’t over. Although she’d have to go through flight school again in order to learn how to use them. She was so enthralled with them that she didn’t that Soarin had grabbed a large ziplock bag with her things until it was deposited on the bed she was laying on.

Inside was her helmet, the remains of her Flight Suit, and most importantly her U.S. Senior Pilot Badge better known as Pilot’s Wings. She didn’t mind the fact that the docs had thrown out the g-suit, it was something that was worn over the leggings of the flight suit after all. Still it was something to cherish and hold dear.

“Hey Sapphire, before I forget I wanted to give you something as well. Me and Soarin are going to be leaving soon, we got to get back to base and start planning our next training session at the Wonderbolt Academy.” Spitfire said.

“Wait, your military?! Why the hell did you not mention that! Had I known I wouldn’t likely be in this situation to begin with!” Sapphire snapped.

Soarin and Spitfire glanced at each other an “Aw shit!” look on their face.

“Uh, crap. You're right, but to be fair we had never been in that sort of situation before and it slipped our minds!” Spitfire said hastily.

Sapphire’s anger drained away in an instant. “Point, if our roles had been reversed with me your shoes err hooves, I would’ve likely forgotten as well. It happens to the best of us.” she said rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.

“No problem. But anyway, here’s the thing I wanted to give you.” Spitfire said as she held out her wing. Sapphire looked at it and was amazed, despite the edges being the slightly charred, it was the picture of her family that she had taped to the inside of her cockpit, the image was only 2 inches by 3 inches in size, but that single 2 inch by 3 inch picture held enough emotion to bring a teary smile to Sapphire’s face.

“Thank you.” she said, teary eyed.

“Your welcome. I hope you can handle crazy.” Spitfire said as she and Soarin walked out of the room.

She’s hoping I can handle crazy? The whole situation that I am in right now is crazy. Still I wonder what she meant by that. Sapphire thought, the occasional tear still sliding down her cheek.

Author's Notes:

Well, I decided that besides the ponies, their will be mentions of full-sized horses who live throughout Equestria in a nomadic lifestyle with a few exceptions, as the cameo from Secretariat in this chapter shows. More to that matter, on occasion we will be seeing these full-grown horses.

As for Canterlot Union Station, well Canterlot is the capital of Equestria so I am not accepting the in-show decipection of the Canterlot train station, as in reality it would be similar to a major train station with multiple tracks and platforms. Particularly since it appears to be a major hub for rail traffic in Equestria.

Also, yes the term University of Califoalnia, Los Angevin is a play on University of California, Los Angeles and let me tell you it was a bit of pain finding the horse related name to go off for the city. I settled on replacing Angeles with Angevin. The Angevin was an actual horse breed but it went extinct probably in either the early or late 1960s.

Popular Magichanics equals Popular Mechanics

Release, Memories, and Ponyville

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Sapphire while she knew she had to stay in the bed, that didn’t stop her from becoming extremely curious about her wings and more to that matter her new form. However the more she examined herself the more she realized that she was actually very pretty. She had to admit, the maroon mane and tail really complimented the dark grey fur coat well, although she wasn’t breath-takingly gorgeous by any stretch of the imagination she was certainly pretty.

But it was her new wings that held most of her attention, they were similar to the wings that would be found on birds. Now while she was a fighter pilot and knew maneuvers that could make civilians lose their lunch but when it came to biology? That wasn’t her strong suit.

However, she was ninety percent sure that the wings she had would be more fitting on a bird like a Peregrine Falcon or something. But then again, it seemed like ‘magic’ existed in this world so maybe just maybe it would be possible to fly with the wings she had. Still it was strange going from a biped to a quadruped and one with wings too boot.

Still realizing that she had the ability to fly under her own power, well that was something that most humans dreamed of. To fly like a bird without the use of an engine or propeller. The closest thus that any human had ever come to flying like bird without having to power something was by using a Flying Squirrel Suit better known as the Wingsuit.

But how do I use the damn things? And more to that matter, what dumb is that? Sapphire thought, looking at something that was on her flank. The bird was one that nearly anyone born in the USA would recognize in an instant, a Bald Eagle. But said Bald Eagle appeared to be riding a lightning bolt, which while it looked cool as hell, what did it mean?

She just decided to add figuring out what that flank mark thingy meant to her growing too do list.

That’s when she realized that there was something else. Her hearing was way sharper than it had been as a human, to the point where despite being halfway down the length of the ward from the door, she could hear the sounds of hoofsteps coming down the hall and constantly getting louder.

At that moment, the hospital room door was encased in a sun yellow fiery glow. There was a subtle click as the door knob was turned and then it swung open. The being that then strode through the doorway was a combination of a pegasus and a unicorn. Her fur was a sharp white, while her mane and tail were seemingly ethereal in the fact that they were acting as if there was wind despite being inside and contrasted between green, blue, pink, and indigo, plus she was wearing a crown and regalia that was made out of gold. She carried this aura of power and authority around her, it just screamed ‘national leader, treat with utmost respect.’

But, she wasn’t alone, trailing behind her was half a dozen other ponies. Two were unicorns, two were pegasi like she was, and two appeared to be just regular old ponies. But given that she’d seen some pretty whacky stuff, there was probably something about them that she didn’t know about.

Still wasn’t everyday that you met a national leader. So in her mind, it was clearly a great honor. Still, she was wondering why the Princess or could it be Queen, was actually taking interest in her. But who were the six that were following her?

Her first thought was that they could have been members of the Joint Chiefs. But she quickly dismissed the notion just as quickly, mainly because they didn’t appear to be military nor did they look old enough. Who were they? Another equine walked in right behind them, the medical scrubs and the white medical hat just screamed doc.

Once they got close enough, the pegacorn? Started speaking. “How are you feeling Sapphire?” she asked.

Normally she would have been miffed at someone she didn’t know using her callsign. But at least she wasn’t calling her by her actual name. “Not bad your majesty. Could be feeling a little better, but considering the ordeal that I’ve gone through over probably the last thirty hours, not bad.”

“That’s glad to hear, and please call me Princess Celestia or Princess if you must. It’s how I am with all of my subjects.” The now identified Princess Celestia said.

“Oh, I understand Princess. If anything, I should be saying thank you for this second chance.” Sapphire said with a sad smile.

While the conversation between Sapphire and the Princess Celestia and the mane six started, the doctor busied herself with getting Sapphire ready for discharge from the hospital.

“It’s alright my little pony. Equis is a place for second chances. Plus, Wing Commander Spitfire said that judging from your actions. That if there was anyone who needed as well as deserved a second shot at life it was you.” Celestia said.

“Thanks, but Princess I got to ask who are the six others that are with you?” Sapphire asked.

“Behind me are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. They are not only an integral part of the Equestria’s defense but also serve in a much different role. Together with my personal Twilight Sparkle, they are working to discover the magic of friendship.” Celestia said.

That made Sapphire look over the six mares with apprehension. Well, that made some sense. “Alright and I bet that the element bearers have saved Equestria more than a couple of times. What does this have to do with me?” Sapphire asked.

Celestia blinked. “I got to admit, you have a sharp wit Sapphire. But, I decided to bring the element bearers into this to help with getting settled and used to living in Equestria.” She said.

Sapphire’s eyes widened. “I, uh, don’t know what to say to that. But, I guess having a place to look forward to live at is always nice, particularly when you're living in a new place. But, how are the element bearers going to help with that?” she asked, shrugging.

“Well, most pegasi when they live in a rural areas actually build their own house thanks to the fact that Pegasi can actually walk on clouds and using magic can even move them and thus most cities have weather teams for controlling the weather. Thus they’ll help with moving in, plus receiving flying lessons and other things, such as receiving a job.” Celestia said.

Sapphire looked thoughtful for a moment. “Ah, that makes sense. Got to admit, learning how to fly would be nice. Although I got to ask, what are the names of the elements bearers?” she asked.

Instead of Princess Celestia speaking, a unicorn with Lavender fur spoke up instead. “Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I am the bearer of the element of magic and Princess Celestia’s personal student. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Twilight said introducing herself.

“Likewise, it’s a pleasure and a honor to meet you Miss Sparkle. Also, I am sure the Princess told you about the fact that I am military and that my call sign is Sapphire, but I am perfectly willing if you use that. Although if it’s absolutely dire or you need to get my attention in a hurry you can call me by my actual name, Lisa.” Sapphire said with a smile.

“Oh, okay. Makes sense, Sapphire is the sort of name you would encounter here in Equestria. Helps with blending in and please call me Twilight.” Twilight said.

“Right, okay Twilight.”

“The name’s Rarity, I am the element of generosity. Although, I am also a seamstress and I got to admit darling I’ve never seen a pony as pretty as you.” A unicorn with white fur and a purple mane said.

“Nice to meet you.” Sapphire said.

“I am Applejack, element of honesty. However, I am also a farmer.” An orange furred pony said.

“Nice to meet you Applejack. Now that I think of it, I’ve never really seen a farm before, well not in person.” Sapphire said.

“Why’s that?” Applejack asked confused.

“I was born and raised in New York City, to be specific Manhattan Island, and well there’s not a lot of room on that island for stuff like farms. I was the first member of my family to join the military rather than go into business or meteorology and I don’t really like talking about the reason why I made the choice to join the military either.” Sapphire said looking down.

The mane six all glanced at each other nervously. “What do you mean by that? Surely whatever it was it couldn’t be that bad, right?” A pale, light grayish gold furred and pink maned pegasus asked.

“No, it’s bad. All I am going to say is that I was eleven when it happened and the thing that became synonymous with that day was this phrase “Where were you when the world stopped turning?”.” Sapphire said, appearing to hold back tears, a melancholy look clear in her eyes and tone of voice.

“Oh you poor thing. It’s alright, Sapphire.” The same pegasus said, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

“Thanks, uh” Sapphire said, starting recover a bit.

“Fluttershy.”

“Nice to meet you Fluttershy, you're a very kind soul.” Sapphire said, the melancholy look still visible in her eyes.

Twilight made a mental note to ask why she had that look in her eyes when she mentioned why she had chosen to join the military. That and the way she looked utterly heart-broken when she mentioned “Where were you when the world stopped turning?”.

“Thanks Sapphire. It’s my element after all.” Fluttershy said.

Right, so Fluttershy is the element of kindness. Makes sense given how my feelings and emotions over what happened nearly twenty years ago almost got the better of me and she helped me get out of it. Sapphire thought.

“I am Rainbow Dash! I am the leader of the Ponyville Weather Team and the most awesome flier in all of Equestria. I am also the element of loyalty and I promise I'll get you flying in no time, believe it!” A cyan furred and rainbow maned pegasus greeted.

“Nice to meet you. It’s always nice to meet someone who is willing to put aside their schedule to help someone.” Sapphire said.

“No problem, Sapp. Besides, while it sounds hard, flying and manipulating the weather is actually very easy!” Rainbow said.

“Thanks.” Sapphire said.

“HIYA!” A Pink maned and furred pony said, loudly seemingly right next to Sapphire’s ear.

“GAH!” Sapphire yelped jumping nearly a foot in the air. “What the?!”

“The name’s Pinkie Pie! Do you like parties, because I like parties! Do ya! Do ya! Do ya?” Pinkie said and Sapphire quickly got over her shock and burst out laughing.

“Yeah, I like parties. Been awhile since I’ve been to one, but I like them. Pinkie no offense but your a laugh a minute!” she said, getting over her laughter.

“Pinkie is the party pony when it comes to Ponyville. She’s always trying her hardest to make people smile and to make new friends. But it just comes natural to her.” Twilight said.

“I can see that. I guess it stands to reason that she represents laughter or something. Because I haven’t had an honest laugh like that in a while.” Sapphire said.

“You catch on quick.” Celestia remarked.

“You had to be like that in my line of work or the results could be … unpleasant.” Sapphire replied, suppressing a shudder.

“Well, near as I can tell. While you're still healing, you should be back to your full capability within probably six months. This is going to be a slow process, but I will be willing to release you just as long as you promise not push yourself too hard otherwise you’d aggravate your injuries, to be specific the one for your right rear leg. Lot’s of scar tissue and healing ligaments, you aggravate it you're probably going to tear the hell out of something.” The doc said as she completed looking over reports.

“What could aggravate that injury, doc?” Sapphire asked.

“Heavy landings were your rear legs take the brunt of the impact, high speed crashes, any sort of galloping over long periods of time, bucking, and possibly even rearing could aggravate it. Now how badly will the injury get aggravated will likely depend on the activity you were doing. But expect it to be painful and it will most certainly prolong recovery by a substantial amount.” The doc said.

“Great, so basically everything fun that comes with being a pegasus.” Sapphire groused.

“Pretty much. But you're an energetic soul and pegasi generally hate being stuck on the ground.” Doc said.

“Figured.” Sapphire grumped.

“Doctor Heartbeat, is Sapphire clear to go?” Celestia asked.

“My professional opinion is telling me that she isn’t, but just from watching her for the past couple of hours. I can tell that she’s very curious, before you arrived I could clearly tell that she was about ready to call for a nurse to ask to have something to read. Plus, given her background she’s likely smart enough to avoid aggravating her injury, but if she does I will chew her out for it.” Heartbeat replied.

“I’ve never been chewed out by a doc before, but I have been chewed out by a flight instructor once for nearly pancaking a multimillion dollar training jet into the ground when I accidently stalled the thing and it entered a flat spin, that wasn’t fun. So honestly, being chewed out by a doc can’t be that much worse.” Sapphire said holding up a hoof. Before adding “At least I hope so, but I don’t want to find out.”

Her attempt at a joke fell flat for the most part. Although it did cause Doc Heartbeat to chuckle slightly.

“Right, then in that case. I go get the discharge papers and then you can be on your way.” Heartbeat said before leaving.

Once the doc left the ward, Sapphire looked at Celestia. “Princess, I am grateful for all of this. But where I am going to live? I doubt that I can find a flat for cheap when I got no money on me to begin with and no source of income.” Sapphire said her expression flattening.

“About that darling. We decided that we were going to help with getting you settled in for living.” Rarity said and Sapphire’s mood brightened slightly.

“What do you mean?” Sapphire asked in a curious tone.

“What we mean is that we’re going to get you up on your hooves. Just provide a design and Rainbow can have a house for you built within a minute although expect half that time and she along with Fluttershy are willing to take you under her wing so you can learn to fly and become a member of the Ponyville Weather Team. Rarity is going to handle some of the interior decoration if you want her too as well. Applejack is willing to show you around town while the house is being constructed. Pinkie has plans for a party. Also, depending on how long it takes to put the house together, and considering we are taking the afternoon run for the train back to Ponyville your welcome to spend the night at my place.” Twilight said.

Sapphire’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t been expecting this level of support. “Thanks, for the support. It’s heart-warming really, because it lets me know that I am not going to be cast out into this new world alone.” She said.

“No problem, but I got to get back to the castle and host the courts.” Celestia said her expression dropping slightly.

Sapphire’s muzzle scrunched up slightly. “Let me guess, some of the members of the courts are pompous, self-centered, and always looking to see if they can further their own agendas?” She asked.

Celestia nodded. “Let me guess, your government has much of the same problems?” She asked with a slight smile.

“You got no idea how much so. Guess even though I am in a different dimension, somethings never change.” Sapphire said in a deadpan tone.

That sentence despite being stated in a deadpan somehow managed to get everyone in room laughing out loud. The stress that Sapphire felt that building in her shoulders just surged out of her shoulders and back, in it’s place relief swelled up.

I am not being forced to spread my wings, god considering my situation that pun was terrible, I am going to have a chance to thrive and expand my horizons with a couple of friends to begin with! Sapphire thought happily.

At that moment Doc Heartbeat returned, held within a telekinetic grasp was a clipboard and pencil. A moment later Celestia took her leave and left.

Sapphire sighed as she read over the forms including the fine print and then with a little bit of help from the others managed to sign them. “Here you go doc. All the papers have been signed.” She said hoofing over the clipboard back to the doc.

“Thank you, alright you're clear to go.” Doctor Heartbeat said.

Sapphire nodded and with some help got out of the bed. Wincing slightly as her hooves hit the brick floor. What was it with hospitals and having their floors brick? Guess somethings really never did change. While it was tempting to try the normal bipedal standing position, common sense told her otherwise.

She had to admit, the normal walking position for horses felt more than a little weird. But considering how awkward it would feel, she just decided to roll with it. Still, there was something that felt off, that’s when her eyes rested on the bag and helmet she figured it out. “How am I supposed to carry those back to what was it? Ponyville?” She asked.

“Here you go!” Pinkie said holding up what looked a pair of saddlebags that she’d pulled from … somewhere.

“Where’d you get that?” Sapphire asked confused.

“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it Sapphire. Trust me you're better off not questioning it. Just be grateful.” Twilight said waving Sapphire’s question away.

“Right, still thanks Pinkie.” Sapphire said. “You know, you remind of me of my mom. She was prepared for seemingly anything.” she added, her tone growing somber for a second.

“Darling, I have to ask. Did you really wear that helmet when you were in the air force?” Rarity asked as Sapphire calmly put the ziploc bag in one of the saddle bags.

“Yes I did Rarity and I know it’s not the prettiest thing in the world. But when it comes down to it, the military is very much utility over beauty. This mask right here would connect to an oxygen tank that would allow me to breath once I got above fifteen thousand feet or so, it would clip on and cover my mouth and nose while feeding me a steady stream of oxygen, inside is also a mic for the radio. The visor, comes down like so and it provides not only eye-protection from the sun, but also has the heads-up display which shows information like throttle setting, what weapon I have selected, my speed and altitude as well as angle of attack, plus it can allow me to target foes with air-to-air weapons with just a look. Another thing, if I eject, my helmet has a transmitter for radio communications and would constantly transmit my vitals.” Sapphire said as she stowed her helmet into her other bag and then with help of Twilight donned them, it felt a little weird but she wasn’t complaining, a gee-suit could be uncomfortable when it clenched around her lower legs to stop blood from pooling.

Then together they strode out of the room and started heading toward the exit.

“Why would need you an external source? Don’t you already have air inside your cockpit?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s a very good point and believe it or not, when I am not doing high-g maneuvers but just flying straight and level even above fifteen thousand. But that’s because at that altitude you can fly without the aid of external oxygen, however you can’t really do much in terms of maneuvers. Once you decided to put the mask on, it’s either because you're flying above thirty thousand or you're doing high speed and high-gee maneuvers. Hell, I’ve done maneuvers where let’s say in one gee of standard gravity you weigh oh seventy kilos and then you do a turn where you pull 5 gees your weight will go from seventy kilos to three hundred fifty kilos, that sort of maneuver is not fun on the body and stuff as easy as breathing becomes a lot harder. So it’s purpose is two fold.” Sapphire said.

“So wait, you’ve flown at thirty thousand feet?!” Rainbow asked in a stunned voice.

“Yeah, I have. Hell I’ve flown higher than that. But on Earth you can only reach those altitudes if you climb into plane that can reach that altitude. Although I doubt that I’d be able to reach that height here. Hell once you get above I think it’s fifty thousand you need a pressure suit otherwise your internal fluids start to boil, and it’s mostly water at that altitude water boils at body temperature or about 98 degrees. Not a pleasant way to die. Only way that you can reach that altitude and not be riding in a plane is because well you're an astronaut and on your way to orbit or your climbing Mount Everest to the peak.” Sapphire said and Rainbow’s expression softened.

“What is the view like from up there?” She asked.

“Incredible, on a clear day you can easily see over a hundred miles; there is nothing like it. It’s even more incredible during the night, you won’t believe how many stars you can see, plus there is the awe you can get for flying through thunderstorms, the rain pattering the canopy and fuselage of your craft, fighting the winds to keep her level, and naturally the adrenaline rush you get from seeing wicked thunderbolts dancing before your eyes.” Sapphire said.

“Sounds like fun. I got a feeling that you and I are going to get along very well.” Rainbow said.

“We better, you're going to be my teacher after all.” Sapphire said and Rainbow laughed openly as they walked through the doors and out of the hospital.

“Well, this ain’t too bad it actually reminds me of home in a way.” Sapphire said casting her gaze over the hustle and bustle.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“I grew up in a city with a population that swings between 1.5 and 1.6 million people all jammed packed into an area of 22.83 square miles. There is always a good number of people up and about doing their jobs.” Sapphire said and every single jaw of the mane six dropped, which caused Sapphire to laugh.

“That’s insane!” Twilight yelped.

“No, that’s city living Twilight.” Sapphire said.

“City living?! I would rather move to Cloudsdale and constantly have to cast a cloud-walker spell every seventy-two hours than live in a place like that!” Twilight yelped.

“I can tell you more about city living once we get to Ponyville.” Sapphire said.

“Right, the train station is this way!” Twilight said before starting off.

As they walked, Sapphire made small talk with every member of the mane six. “So Fluttershy, if I am understanding this right, you're basically a veterinarian?” she asked.

“That’s one way of putting it. I absolutely adore animals.” Fluttershy said.

“Although I don’t love animals, well probably not to the extent you do Fluttershy, I am fond of dogs. While we couldn’t have one because the building that I grew up in had a no pets rule; I have always wanted a dog as a pet.” Sapphire said.

“Well, I have a dog for a pet. Her name is Winona, she’s the friendliest and most protective soul that you’ll ever meet.” Applejack said.

“That’s nice, hey Applejack?” Sapphire said.

“Yeah?” Applejack replied.

“What’s it like farming? I’ve never done it myself, well because farms aren’t a thing on Manhattan there’s simply no room.” Sapphire asked.

Applejack’s expression flattened somewhat. “Never been asked that before.” she said before speaking in a louder tone of voice. “Well, it’s an honest life and good for the soul, of course nothing will get you in shape quicker than working on a farm.”

“Sounds interesting, I may have to stop by at some point just to help.” Sapphire thought, intrigued to no end at the thought of farm work.

Rarity blinked at Sapphire. “You seem rather curious about working on a farm Sapphire.” She said.

“City girl remember? We couldn’t do farming on Manhattan Island, there is no room. Plus I went into the military as soon as I was able too, to be specific the air force.” Sapphire said.

“So similar to the Royal Equestrian Air Force?” Rainbow asked as they arrived at the train station and Twilight paid for the tickets.

“In a sense yes. Although it likely hasn’t been around as long REAF. Huh, that’s going to be really damn annoying trying to remember that Equestria isn’t a member of the New Commonwealth, but I digress.” Sapphire said.

“The REAF was founded shortly after the Battle of Marethon. About seven hundred and forty six years ago. But the Wonderbolts, an elite flying corps that specializes in acrobatic displays was founded over a thousand years ago. However the REAF was founded after the Wonderbolts were almost wiped out at the Battle of Marethon.” Twilight said as she handed out the tickets and they started to head toward the platforms.

“Well damn, that makes the REAF older than the oldest air force back home. The Royal Flying Corps of Great Britain which became the Royal Air Force for the same nation was founded in the year 1912 or roughly 108 years ago and thus makes the Wonderbolts way older than any acrobatic team that I can think of.” Sapphire said.

“Now ain’t that something. I guess the Wonderbolts are incredibly awesome if they are older than acrobatic team you can think of. I bet they're better than the acrobatic teams from your dimension.” Rainbow said.

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen them perform. Maybe they are in some ways but I don’t know.” Sapphire said.

“So since you were a pilot did you have anything exciting or memorable happen?” Fluttershy asked, her tone curious.

“Yeah, I was once in the flyover for a NASCAR race, I think it was Aaron’s 499, that was memorable for sure. As for exciting, well nothing beats Air Combat Maneuvering with two planes twisting and turning trying to get a clear shot to down a foe because your allies need…” Sapphire said before trailing off as a memory overtook her.

“Lightning 1-2, where the hell are you?! I got a Flanker on my ass and I can’t shake him!” First Lieutenant Felix “Joker” Miller said frantically, the RWR inside his jet beeping insistently as the Flanker’s targeting radar lighted the Lightning up.

“Hang on Lightning 1-5 I am coming! Just hold out for a minute at most, I am nearly in Sidewinder range!” Sapphire replied glancing at her AESA display and watching as the dot representing Joker’s Lightning II and the dot representing a hostile Su-35S maneuvered like mad.

“Hurry Sapphire! I can’t hold this guy off forever, he’s in a much better jet than I am! SHIT! I am spiked!” Joker said, dropping normal call sign doctrine in his panic. While the RWR changed it’s tone as the Su-35S got a lock-on.

“I am hurrying 1-5! I am almost, there!” Sapphire said as she tried to coax more power out of her Lightning’s singular engine. She didn’t have any AIM-120s and she was still out of range for her sole remaining Sidewinder missile.

“Shit enemy missile launch! I am evading!” Joker yelled as he began to maneuver even more frantically … at least for about fifteen seconds probably before his fighter dropped off of Sapphire’s scope. He hadn’t even ejected.

“JOKER!” Sapphire screamed.

“You alright sugarcube?” Applejack asked and Sapphire blinked shaking her head, dispelling the memory.

“Yeah, just a bad flashback. That’s all.” Sapphire lied, hoping that Applejack didn’t notice the tears or the slight lie.

“Sapphire, that wasn’t a “just a bad flashback”. What’s wrong really?” The orange mare inquired.

Damnit, better tell the truth. “Remember how I said that Air Combat Maneuvering is one of the most exciting things you can do?” Sapphire said, her expression dropping.

“Yes I do. Why?” Applejack said.

“Well it’s not only exciting, but also incredibly stressful and even sad. Because when your Radar Warning Receiver starts beeping at you. Unless it’s a buddy spike, that beep means one thing and that’s death. Unless you manage to decoy the missile or eject before it hits, that sound before you get blown out of the sky by a missile, along with your racing heartbeat and heavy breathing are usually the last things a fighter pilot hear’s before getting blasted out of the sky. That’s the fate that befell three of my squadron mates, three of my friends. Then there is what happened with Captain Byod, Russian Ka-29s armed with rocket pods, they fired at his fighter, scored direct hits, but he managed to bailout then while awaiting rescue a Ka-29 arrived at where he was and unloaded Russian Ground Troops who killed him. I don’t even know what befell Major Halverson or if she’s still alive for all I know she’s dead too, hell it’s more than likely! Why did five of my best friends die but I survived? Why?” Sapphire said holding back tears as they arrived on the platform which fortunately was rather noisy.

“Oh you poor thing! We had no idea, if you want we can avoid that line of conversation.” Fluttershy said, draping a wing across her back.

Twilight bit her lip, but one thing nagged to her about that. “Sapphire, the way you trailed off. It’s almost as if a memory completely overtook you. What caused it?” She asked as they boarded the Friendship Express after getting their tickets punched and headed to the sleeper car. The train was surprisingly empty, with only two or three other ponies onboard and they weren’t even in the sleeper car.

Sapphire sighed. “Twilight have you heard of the condition known as PTSD?” she asked.

“No I haven’t.” Twilight said and her friends nodded in agreement.

“PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and I’ve been through some pretty traumatic stress recently, what with losing my squadron mates, watching Igloo Base get flattened, and of course nearly dying. It’s something that’s in my mind, PTSD attacks are triggered by either certain types of conversations or more often just certain kinds of sounds; it’s apart of who I am now, there is medical treatments available but there’s no permanent solution. I just got to adapt to it.” Sapphire said, her expression dropping.

“Hey, don’t get so down! Just because you got this slight mental problem it doesn’t change who you are. You're still the same that you were previously, it doesn’t define you. No matter you can still be the adventurous soul you want to be in this new world!” Pinkie said and Sapphire perked up.

“Yeah, you're mad right Pinkie.” Sapphire said as she hopped onto one of the beds. “I can still be the adventurous soul that I want to be. It’s not a factor of my personality but of humanity as a whole, we all got a sense of adventure and curiosity. Why would I suppress that?” she added.

“I wouldn’t, because then how would you be awesome?” Rainbow asked.

“Exactly, if I suppress that; well it’d be taking apart of who I am away. I wouldn’t be able to discover what I can do, particularly now.” Sapphire said, working the muscles in her back and spreading her wings for emphasis before folding them back in.

The train whistle emitted a sharp piercing blast, the conductor yelled “All aboard! Friendship Express departing Canterlot for Ponyville!” and then the train lurched into motion.

“Don’t worry Sapphire! We’ll be able to find out what your abilities are soon, I can tell.” Rainbow said.

Sapphire nodded in response. “How long’s the train ride going to be?” she asked.

“Roughly three and half to four hours depending.” Applejack said.

A food trolley had come by earlier and Sapphire had gotten herself a bottle of root beer, non-alcoholic but it served it’s purpose.

Sapphire gazed out the window of the sleeper car as the Friendship Express headed toward Ponyville. The sun was currently setting and it looked absolutely amazing. But it also reminded her of those who she’d never see again, her family, her friends, her colleagues, and her squadron mates.

Thus she began to sing softly under her breath as she raised her bottle.

“Here’s a toast to the host

Of those who love the vastness of the sky,

To a friend we send a message of his brother men who fly.”

Sapphire blinked and rubbed her eyes with a foreleg in order to wipe away the tears. When she looked back, she would’ve sworn that she saw five ghostly F-35Bs flying proudly in a Vee formation into the sunset.

“We drink to those who gave their all of old

Then down we roar to score the rainbow’s pot of gold.

A toast to the host of the men we boast, the U.S. Air Force!”

With that she downed the last of her soda and set the bottle down. What good was she? She failed Joker, Chopper, Switchback, Ghost Hawk, and Siren. That wasn’t even the worst of it, she was still alive while her squadron mates were dead and she should’ve joined them over Canada.

“Sapphire? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked as she joined the dark grey mare. Sapphire glanced around and saw that the others were starting to turn in. She didn’t mind, she could finally tell someone about how she felt in a modicum of privacy.

“No, I am just thinking about why I survived when my squadron mates were killed in action. Hell I don’t even know if Major Halverson was shot down or not, so I don’t know if she’s dead or alive, yet I failed her because I was her wingman and I got myself shot down. But I also failed First Lieutenant Miller, Second Lieutenant Davenport, and Second Lieutenant Ramirez.” Sapphire said, her expression dropping.

“What were your squadron mates like?” Fluttershy asked.

Sapphire looked thoughtful. “James Ramirez was a quiet man, only speaking when the situation called for it or when spoken too although he had a knack for always being their, Alvin Davenport was a motormouth he just loved to talk but in a sense when we were in the air he would become sort of the life of the squadron, Felix Miller was the funny guy whenever we weren’t flying he was always playing harmless pranks or telling jokes and when we were flying he would crack the occasion joke, Jake Boyd was a easy going man except whenever he was around Stephanie Halverson those two were most certainly an item, then there was Stephanie the leader of our little squadron she was almost always serious although she did have a slight playful streak as in she loved to play board games like Monopoly and Life. They were good people, every last one of them and now their gone. Of course that’s not even counting the brave souls who were at Igloo Base.” Sapphire said flicking away a tear with a hoof as she remembered the faces of her fallen comrades and friends.

“I get that you miss them. But do you think they would want you to be like this? If I was in their place I wouldn’t.” Fluttershy said, putting a comforting hoof on Sapphire’s back as they looked out into the setting sun.

“True, but you didn’t know them for almost a decade or in Stephanie’s case since you were a kid, nor did you through SERE training together, nor primary flight training together, etc. They were more than friends they were family. Being in the military does that to you and that’s because if you get a bandit on your back it would be up to your fellow airman or airwoman to get said bandit off your six. Have you ever lost family members?” Sapphire asked still gazing out into the setting sun.

“No, but it must be a horrible experience. Is that why you're acting so down?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes it is. I lost my squadron, my military family in a matter of hours. Hell, Stephanie after we evaded missiles once actually called me sister. Goes to show how being in the military brings you together.” Sapphire said, raw emotion evident in her voice.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not really, but thanks for thinking about me.” Sapphire said shaking her head.

“Your welcome. One last thing, what were you saying under your breath earlier?” Fluttershy asked.

“That was the third verse to Off We Go…, the march of the United States Air Force. It’s also known as Here’s a toast and it has a more reverent mood compared to the rest of song as it commemorates those who have fallen in the service of the Air Force and the United States. Which considering what I’ve been through recently and the loss that I’ve gone through, it’s fitting. At least I didn’t hum Taps, that would’ve made me break down completely.” Sapphire said.

“Why would have Taps made you break down completely?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because it’s only twenty-four notes, but each only carries so much goddamned emotion that it can make even grown men err stallions cry.” Sapphire said, choking down a sob.

“Who would come up with such a song?” Fluttershy asked.

“I dunno, I am fighter pilot not a music historian. But it’s only played really at funerals mostly.” Sapphire said. “Beside I got to ask, what’s Ponyville like?” she asked.

Fluttershy looked at the sky which was had now mostly turned purple, while on the opposite horizon the moon was starting to rise. “You could say that at first glance that Ponyville is a typical town in central Equestria. But, it seems that Ponyville is the weirdness magnet for Equestria. You name it we’ve seen it, parasprite infestation, Macro-viruses, and whatever the hay Discord counts as.” Fluttershy.

“Sounds interesting at least my life won’t be boring. That’s good at least.” Sapphire said.

“No problem, but how about the two of us work on a design for your house. Mainly because Rainbow won’t be able to build it unless she’s got a design to work with.” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, I’ll work on that tomorrow. Right now though I am dead tired.” Sapphire said.

But any thoughts of getting to work on that were put to rest when the whistle began to emit sharp blasts and the train began to slow. Sure enough a train station began to come into view, it had a single platform to provide service.

Twilight groggily stood up. “Oh we’re home.” she said as the train lurched to a stop.

After dismounting from the train with all of their belongings and leaving the station. Sapphire got her first look at Ponyville, the town gave her a distinct medieval feel, with timber-framed houses, overhanging second stories, and thatched roofs, the streets were made out of what appeared to be cobblestone. In a sense it was quaint and quiet unlike her hometown of Manhattan were it seemed like something was always occurring, it was nice actually but it was also unnatural at least to her mainly because it was so quiet.

“It’s so quiet, it’s not natural.” Sapphire said.

“I like the quiet it helps one get their sleep, why isn’t it natural with it being so quiet?” Rarity asked.

“They call New York the ‘City that never sleeps’ and truth be told, it never does sleep. Something is always happening with citizens going about their daily lives, police and fire departments responding to calls, ships in the harbor coming and going, trains in motion near constantly, etc. Thus there is always a noticeable level of noise within the city. Still, if there was one thing that Manhattan lacked it was a small town feel.” Sapphire said.

After that the mane six split up and went home. With Sapphire following Twilight. “Hey Twilight, thanks for offering me a place to stay.” Sapphire said as they headed toward the Golden Oak Library.

“No problem Sapphire, I just hope that Spike doesn’t mind if we have company.” Twilight said.

“Spike?” Sapphire asked.

“He’s a baby dragon, but he’s the closest thing to a little brother that I’ve ever had. He’s also my assistant when it comes to working at the Library as well as maintaining organization.” Twilight said with a smile.

“That’s nice, hell it must be nice just running a library; perfectly safe from anything really dangerous.” Sapphire said solemnly as she looked up at the stars that were twinkling in the skies above. She could only think of one possible place where she had seen so many stars: Igloo Base.

“It is nice. But you wouldn’t believe just how dangerous it can get here in Ponyville at times. Most of the danger that comes with living in Ponyville is because of the Everfree Forest, some of the most dangerous creatures in all of Equestria live there and occasionally they’ll wander out of Everfree and attack Ponyville and it’s usually up to us, the element bearers to drive it off. Of course than there are the rogue storms that occasionally strike Ponyville.” Twilight said.

“Rogue storm? You mean a storm that wasn’t created by pegasi right?” Sapphire asked.

“Yeah, they mostly form in places like Horseshoe Bay, the oceans, and the Frozen North, although they can also form over the Everfree Forest for some reason and no one knows why.” Twilight said.

“There maybe a scientific reason for that. To become a pilot you have to know how to read weather maps otherwise it can get unpleasant of course when your mom is a meteorologist and your dad is a Wall Street business man, you tend to have a higher level of knowledge on weather and banking than normal, you can guess they were surprised when I decided to go into the Air Force. Best reason I can come up with is that you having a flow of cold dry air from a mountain range somewhere, a flow of warm moist air coming from most likely the ocean, and a flow of hot dry air coming from a desert. Combine those three and you got a recipe for some real nasty weather.” Sapphire said.

“How nasty can storms back home get?” Twilight asked.

“What’s the most powerful tornado on record here in Equestria?” Sapphire asked picking a topic for extreme weather.

“Most powerful tornado on record happened during the Reign of Discord over a thousand years ago. Peak winds of I think 130 miles per hour, with gusts of 150 miles per hour as recorded by Ted Foaljita, a unicorn who came up with many of the spells used by unicorns today for measuring the intensity of Rogue Storms.” Twilight said before frowning as Sapphire burst out laughing.

Twilight’s ears dropped. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“130 mile per hour winds sustained? That’s the most powerful tornado on record in Equestrian history, God that’s a mad riot!” Sapphire said, still laughing.

“You see Twilight, back on Earth we have this thing known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale which is an improved variant of the Fujita Scale, with ratings from EF0 all the way up EF5. With EF0 being the weakest and EF5 being the strongest. A tornado with peak winds of 130 miles per hour makes that thing a high end EF2 although those wind gusts put it squarely within EF3 territory. But EF5 tornados, they are monstrous beasts; I think the highest ever recorded wind speeds in a tornado back home was recorded on via a doppler on wheels and it was 301 miles per hour ± 20 miles per hour momentarily during a tornado that completely tore apart an area of Oklahoma City and they can be over a mile wide.” Sapphire said.

“301 miles per hour!? With that sort of wind speed, that tornado could likely pick up the locomotive for the Friendship Express and throw it a mile.” Twilight said gasping after doing some quick mental calculations.

“I guess you can tell why they call EF5 Tornadoes the “Finger of God”.” Sapphire said.

“No kidding, any building hit by that would just be simply swept away and would simply suck anyone out of a basement. How do ponies survive that?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, but they do the vast majority of houses in the midwest have either a purpose built below ground or above ground storm cellar, those above ground storm cellars are designed to take a direct hit from a EF5 Tornado with winds in excess of 250 miles per hour and survive.” Sapphire said and Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“How do they manage that?” Twilight asked.

“No idea, best guess is that they use copious amounts of reinforced concrete and steel in it’s construction and it’s so firmly rooted to the structure’s foundation that not even a bulldozer can push it over. As for how they designed it? Likely large amounts of trial and error. But I digress, it sounds like living in Ponyville is certainly adventurous and surprising.” Sapphire said.

“You have no idea!” Twilight said with a slight smile.

After that however the two walked on in silence until they reached the Library where Twilight worked and lived.

Sapphire’s first opinion about the Golden Oaks Library was that in many ways it looked outlandish and a little strange. A library built inside an Oak Tree, the fact it was still living was incredible in itself, well the fact that the tree was still living was incredible until she remembered the Sequoias could be almost completely hollowed out by fire and the tree would still be standing and alive. So it wasn’t that far of a stretch.

However the inside while it would be a little cramped for a human as it was inside a tree. But for ponies, it wasn’t all that bad. “If you don’t mind, I am going to bed.” Sapphire said.

“There’s a guest room upstairs. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.” Twilight said before surmounting the stairs. Sapphire followed, enjoying the smells from the oak tree.

“Here we are. I am sorry if it’s not the best, I don’t have guests often.” The unicorn said.

The room in question wasn’t that big, but it did appear to at least have what had to be likely a bed-size equal to a full. The bed itself was nestled in the corner of the room, next to it was a small nightstand with a lamp. The floors were carpeted and it was moderately warm as well. She trotted over and climbed up onto the bed to her surprise it wasn’t too firm nor too soft but right in the middle. “It’s not that bad Twilight. Plus the bed is really nice and rather comfortable, much better than your standard military bed. Plus it’s quaint, thanks for everything you’ve done for me today, I don’t know how I can ever repay you or your friends.” Sapphire said.

Twilight blinked. “You can thank us by enjoying life to the fullest.” She said in response.

“Thanks, hey Twilight one last thing. If you ever go on an adventure that takes you out of town is it okay if I tag along?” Sapphire asked.

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked.

“I want to see more of Equestria. Call it curiosity, wanting to explore and broaden horizons, you could say that I am an adventurous sort.” Sapphire said.

“We’ll see about it. Still good night Sapphire.” Twilight said with a yawn.

“Same to you.” Sapphire said before rolling over instinctively onto her back and pulling the sheets up to her chin. Within a minute she was sound asleep.

But her dreams weren’t going to be pleasant, far from it.

Phantasms

View Online

Sapphire looked around. The first thing she noted was that she was a pony, which was more than a little surprising. The second thing she noticed was that the land was covered in snow and ice; cold air nipped at her coat, ears, hooves, and nose. A thin layer of fog rested at knee level, in the distance trees rose into the air judging by the smell they were pines, and in the sky, stars twinkled.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she started trotting toward the trees. The snow crunched under her hooves and she breathed in the nice crisp air. It felt so good.

That’s when her ears perked up at the sound of a roar and she froze. Instincts from who knows how long ago went into overdrive. “Oh Christ a bear,” she breathed.

Now, she didn’t know much about bears, except that they could get very big, had one hell of a bite, were powerful runners, and had some very nasty claws. The bear roared again in the distance, but it sounded closer this time. She could tell it was coming from likely behind her. Wanting to get away from the bear, she broke into a canter, trying to get away from the predator stalking her.

She was wondering what else could happen besides having a bear stalking her in this dream and then promptly froze at a sound she’d never expected to hear: the sound of rotor blades from a helicopter with contra-rotating propellers.

This sound continued for several long moments and caused Sapphire to look around frantically. When she spotted it, she recognized the helicopter design instantly as a Ka-29, the Russian made helo was casting an angry beam of light from its searchlight on something, however the helicopter also seemed distorted as if it was wavering in heat. Sharp yellow flashes appeared from multiple sources and then the sounds reached her and it chilled her for she recognized them. The first was the sound of a Kalashnikov rifle firing on full automatic and the second was the sound of a Five-Seven pistol firing, no, two of them

That’s when a voice, distorted slightly by the sound of a radio crackled from seemingly all around. It was male and filled with terror, surprise, and resignation. “Igloo base this is Ghost Hawk! I’ve been engaged by Russian infantry!”

“JAKE!” Sapphire yelled, exploding into a gallop toward the hovering helo. One of her fellow airmen, Jake “Ghost Hawk” Byod was in trouble, she had to rescue him!

The sound of the grenade exploding surprised her, again it sounded distant,almost like a firecracker going off, but the sound was unmistakable.

A new voice, again distorted and crackling like it was being spoken over a radio reached her ears. It wasn’t Jake’s but it made her freeze regardless, it was the voice of Major Halverson. “Jake! Jake, stay with me! Jake!” she cried, each syllable tore at Sapphire’s heart. The gunfire she was hearing suddenly died, because Jake was gone.

The bear roared again, this time sounding triumphant as if it had just killed something. More disconcerting, the bear sounded really damn close.

Another voice sang through the air in the same strange way that Jake’s and Stephanie's did, but it was different, it was that of James “Switchback” Ramirez. “Igloo Base, this is Lightning Team. We’re engaging the enemy, let’s go and avenge Ghost Hawk!”

A moment later, three F-35Bs loaded down with two missiles externally and two internally rocketed overhead, their engines aglow in full afterburner.

“Affirmative Switchback, listen up we’re still rearming and refueling Siren’s plane and Sapphire has volunteered to be Siren’s wingman. Lightning Team, weapons free neutralize all hostiles,” Igloo Tower reported.

The bear roared again, this time it was alarmingly close. Sapphire spun around and paled, less than two hundred yards away was an absolutely enormous brown bear. The creature was probably three and half meters tall on all fours and would be freaking gigantic when standing. It’s eyes glowed with malevolence, hatred, and most alarmingly, intelligence.

The bear roared yet again. The animalistic sound caused Sapphire to bolt in the opposite direction, she got all of maybe fifty feet away before the ground trembled. She looked over her shoulder and what she saw made her pick up the pace as much as was physically possible, her hooves tore deep furrows into the snow, the bear was chasing her! That sight caused a jolt of pure panic to surge through her and caused her to push herself harder just to get away from the predator.

Another voice filled the radio or whatever the hell the source for the voices was. “Look out, Chopper!”

“Wha? SH-!” Chopper yelled before the connection dissolved into static and a fiery flash appeared, before becoming a downward streak of flame as the Lightning riddled with cannonfire dropped from the sky. Another jet pulling up and away from the dead the F-35 as it dropped, either a MIG-35 or Su-35S.

“Chopper!” Sapphire choked out, stumbling slightly, her ability to run getting even more diminished. The bear behind roared gleefully and Sapphire looked over her shoulder and saw that the bear was gaining.

More chaos erupted in the skies.

“Lightning 1-2, where the hell are you?! I got a Flanker on my ass and I can’t shake him!”

“Joker, no," Sapphire breathed as she heard her own words from so long ago seem to waft over her ears via radio.

“Hurry Sapphire! I can’t hold this guy off forever, he’s in a much better jet than I am! SHIT! I am spiked!”

“No, please God," Sapphire begged as she heard Joker yell about an enemy missile launch before a vibrant fireball erupted in the sky and unlike last time where there had been the carcass of a plane dropping from the sky. This time, there was simply flaming bits, with one piece larger than others but due to darkness it was unidentifiable.

Behind her, another thunderous roar sounded as the bear bore down on her. Yet her own legs seemed to be turning to lead, each step was more difficult than the last.

“What the … AA-13 Arrows? Aren’t Arrows meant for shooting down bombers and AWACS birds and not fighters? Who the hell shoots Arrows at - OH FU-” Ramirez said before letting out a yell of terror before it was cut-off mid transmission.

Meanwhile in the sky another fireball, bigger than the last one appeared. This time, no sizeable fragments descended from the fireball, just bits and pieces.

“Switchback, why? Why I am I experiencing this!” Sapphire gasped, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

Sapphire stumbled and nearly fell into the snow and that allowed the bear to nearly get her. New strength surged through her limbs as she felt it’s hot and rancid breath on her rear and flank and she began to separate from the predator that was on her.

The monstrous behemoth roared in anger, she looked over her shoulder just as the creature lunged its teeth bared with canines that were easily five inches long gleaming in the moonlight, she screamed as paws as big as the diameter of the main guns on a battleship with razor sharp claws seven inches long reached forward ready to sink themselves into her, and then suddenly someone from above and behind yelled “BE GONE, FOUL BRUTE!”.

The loudness of that shout, like an enraged drill sergeant bellowing through a megaphone at maximum volume but with noticeable amount of wind behind it, combined with the brilliant cobalt blue flash that came out of nowhere caused Sapphire to slip, fall and promptly go sliding. She squeezed her eyes shut for the inevitable bite from the bear but after several seconds, with her own heart still hammering in her chest and no wave of agony over-taking her. Sapphire slowly opened one eye and she let out a gasp of relief.

The bear was gone. In its place, slowly descending, was a pegacorn. At first glance Sapphire thought it may have been Celestia but quickly dismissed the notion as the color was off, instead of being white with gold regalia this one had dark blue coat with an inky mane and tail that sparkled like starlight and her regalia was pitch black with a crescent moon in the middle. That, and she was shorter than Celestia.

Regardless, the aura that was coming from the winged-unicorn -Sapphire made a note to figure out what the hell the actual name for the species - was comforting and soothing.

Still, that didn’t stop the uneasiness she was feeling. Something was telling her not to trust this one. This pegacorn had easily vanquished the largest brown bear that Sapphire had ever seen and now, now it was calmly approaching her. In response, the she began to back up, ready to run at a moment’s notice.

Still, Sapphire was grateful the bear was gone. She shook her head breaking that train of thought about what would happen if that bear had caught her and what it would do after killing her. Thinking about what that bear would’ve done to her had it caught was bad enough.

That is at least until the newcomer spoke. “It’s alright, We aren’t going to hurt you," she said.

More than a little baffled as to what the hell was going on, Sapphire slowly began to approach, but was still ready to run at a moment’s notice. “Who are you?” she asked cautiously, her instincts still screaming at her to be cautious.

“WE ARE PRINCESS LUNA, PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT AND GUARDIAN OF DREAMS!” The new pegacorn, Princess Luna, said in a rather excitable tone of voice, although the volume wasn’t as bad as the first time she’d spoken. But Sapphire was fairly certain that it would’ve awoke a man from a deep coma.

“Loud” she groaned, holding a hoof up to her head. “Way too goddamned loud,"

In response Luna suddenly looked very abashed. In a way it was adorable and Sapphire never thought that a princess could be adorable and bashful. But yet Princess Luna had just proved that point wrong and it was actually pretty amusing.

“Sorry," Princess Luna said.

“It’s alright, it’s just good lord the pipes you have make most drill Sergeant when they are yelling seem like a normal speaking voice," Sapphire said shaking her head.

“Sorry about that, We tend to get like that when excited or angry. Still, are you alright, Sapphire?” Luna asked as she approached.

Sapphire’s head jerked up. “How do you know my name?” she asked.

“We are in your dream and also We asked Celestia about why she looked more tired than usual at the end of her day,” Luna said.

“Oh, wait so you were the one who banished the bear?” Sapphire asked.

“Yes, We were. But is there anything wrong, Sapphire? You seem troubled,” Luna asked.

“I am just wondering as to why I am having this nightmare. It’s the worst one that I’ve ever had,” Sapphire said shuddering.

“We’ve only seen nightmares this bad in the dreams of my sister, Celestia, and those tend to pertain to her dreams about the Battle of Marethon or the Banishment of Nightmare Moon to the moon. Your dream was similar yet different, where Celestia was scarred by the deaths she caused and the loss of the vast majority of the Royal Equestria Army and the Royal Guard. Combined with the several close calls with death that she had, it changed her a lot to the point that sometimes We barely recognize her dreams. Yours on the other hoof seemed to focus more on those you have lost and your inability to save them while at the sametime also representing your own close brush with death. But there are clear differences,” Luna said, looking at Sapphire,

“Y-yes, you’re right. I failed my squadron mates, I failed horribly in that respect. I am a wingman and it’s my job to protect them. But I couldn’t, if anything if I wasn’t in a different dimension they’d probably haunt me for it," Sapphire said.

“Now what makes you say that?” Luna said.

“Felix “Joker” Miller, he yelled about him having a Flanker on his tail. I told him to hold on, that I was coming. But I couldn’t get in missile range fast enough, that enemy jet blew him out of the sky. He didn’t even bailout. I couldn’t even avenge him either, for that Flanker managed to dodge my last remaining missile!” Sapphire said, sobbing slightly.

“So you feel guilty that you couldn’t do anything to save those that you care about?” Luna asked.

“Yes, everyone at Igloo Base is dead and I know for certain that four of my squadron mates are. The only one I don’t know about the fate of, is my element leader: Major Halverson, call sign Siren. I wouldn’t know because I was hit before she was, hell I don’t know if she even managed to evade that missile," Sapphire said sobbing slightly.

“We understand loss. But, why torture yourself on the simple basis that you don’t know if your last squadron mate survived or not?” Luna asked.

“I first met Stephanie when I was fourteen. She was a few months older than I was and was also native to New York City, but she wasn’t native to Manhattan like I am, but she’s native of Queens. We’ve known each other since then, we both decided to go into the USAF and then after several years our flight on account of merit and record was selected to become apart of the JSF. The JSF is an elite group of the U.S. Armed Forces, they aren’t Special Forces but they are a cut above the rest of the regular military forces," Sapphire said, her voice trembling slightly.

“So, Stephanie is a long time friend?” Luna asked, putting a comforting hoof on Sapphire’s shoulder in an effort to calm her down.

“Yes Princess, she is; but because of how the military is, you often develop bonds that go far beyond friendship to point that your brothers and sisters. Because sometimes the only thing between life and death is your wingman, err, wingpony or the soldier in the foxhole next to you. Yet I failed as a wingpony, because I let Joker get shot down and killed. I wouldn’t blame him if he’s angry at me for letting him down, hell, I never even got to say goodbye to the my fellow pilots," Sapphire said, silent tears starting trickle down her face.

Luna thought about that. While she was practically immortal, she had to admit the pain of not being able to say goodbye to those that were lost was always tough to deal with. For somepony in the military, finding out if your buddy was killed or not could also be a source for grief. She realized that she would have to get one of those amulets herself and go to the dimension that Sapphire was from in order to track down Sapphire’s squadron mates in that dream realm.

Luna simply marked that for a later time before thinking about what Sapphire had told her. Maybe it was wise that Sapphire had elected to not join Equestria’s military, she certainly would have trouble passing the psychiatric part of the enlistment tests. Perhaps it was for the best that she didn’t join, at least not the Air Force but maybe the Pegasi Air Patrol? That could work.

“Maybe We could work something out, We will see what We can do. But regardless, We can say for certain that these nightmares will likely persist for sometime, but chances on getting medical help are certainly low given how rare that Traumatic Memory Stress Disorder is in Equestria," Luna said.

“TMSD? That’s a new one, back home it was called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD for short. As for finding out I got PTSD, considering what I went through it’s not surprising. Still thanks for everything," Sapphire said with a slight smile on her face.

“No problem, we all have our inner demons that we must confront everyday. You have them, Celestia has them, and We have them as well. But you can conquer them," Luna said.

“You're not wrong on the inner demons. But, the one thing that will likely haunt my nightmares will be the destruction of Igloo Base as well as the loss of my squadron mates for the rest of my life," Sapphire said, her expression flattening and shuddering.

“Why is the destruction of Igloo Base going to haunt your nightmares, We can understand the loss of your squadron mates but not Igloo Base," Luna said looking confused.

“Igloo Base was a small base, Princess, small enough that you could easily meet everyone on base. It was really just a cluster of various buildings, I mean it only had one runway. Everything that was needed to carve an airbase out in the Canadian wilderness some 300 kilometers north of civilization," Sapphire said with a small sob.

“We do not follow nor do We see how you could’ve been long time friends with everyone at Igloo Base," Luna said, looking a little baffled.

“Think of it this way, Princess. They weren’t friends, but they were acquaintances so you know them decently well. Now imagine watching them from a few hundred feet in the air. They are just dots. And now picture the whole base going up in numerous explosions as enemy ordinance systematically destroys everything and knowing that as smoke clears that the chances for survivors is astronomically low," Sapphire said and Luna’s eyes widened.

“How many were stationed at Igloo Base?” Luna asked in a low voice as realization started to sink in.

“Not many, two hundred tops, it was a pretty small base. But just seeing it go up, it was horrible to watch and one of those things that you just couldn’t look away from," Sapphire said, gazing back up at the Lunar Princess with tears shining in her eyes.

In that moment, Luna realized that the emotional and memoric scars that Sapphire had ran deep. But something also told her that there was more to this than what met the eye. But as to what it was, it eluded her.

“Sapphire, We may not be able to help with every nightmare that you have. But We do have a suggestion that may help," Luna said.

“Oh?” Sapphire asked, intrigued and more than a little hopeful.

“Lavender. It’s calming scent is known to aid dreamers in achieving a restorative sleep," Luna said.

“You mean the flower? Huh, I never knew that. It’s certainly something to look into. Thank you, Princess," Sapphire said.

“Anything to help one of My Little Ponies, but We must bid you farewell," Luna said as she flapped her wings and quickly took off and ascended into the moon and disappeared.

“Goodbye!” Sapphire called after her.

However it was only after that Princess Luna had left that Sapphire realized she’d forgotten to ask her some important questions, like why the heck did she use “We” instead of “I”? Then again, having one of the Diarchs suddenly appear in your dream would probably leave you more than a little stunned if you didn’t know that it could happen.

As Luna left Sapphire’s dream and reentered the dream realm she took in it’s grandeur. To most ponies the dream realm was thought to be akin to a star field, with no coherent surface for her to stand on, with the dreams of individual ponies taking on the form of stars.

That wasn’t entirely true, a closer analogy to what the dream realm actually was … well it was hard to explain. But it had surface almost like a great ocean that expanded onward into infinity, with individual stars of varying colors, but usually varying shades of red for Earth Ponies, blue for Pegasi, and yellow for unicorns. If a dreamer was having a nightmare, the star in question would be throwing a fit with incredible bursts of energy lashing away from it whereas if the dreamer was sleeping calmly the star would be rather calm with only the occasional burst of energy. However as dreamers aged and eventually passed on, their stars would eventually fade and then sink below the waves of the ocean.

However it was still possible for her to communicate with those who had long since passed on through this realm. But she didn’t do it much on the account that it generally resulted in a visit from an annoyed Nyx, the Equestrian Angel of Death, in her own dreams.

Still, she had to admit; the guilt she’d felt in Sapphire’s dream had been so thick she could’ve practically tasted it. It actually boggled her mind that somepony could carry so much guilt with them, however there had been hints of other emotions in that dream. It certainly warranted a more in-depth investigation because there was certainly more to Sapphire than she had thought.

“Sapphire certainly seems troubled by something, I will have to send a note to the element bearers and bring it to their attention. Maybe they’ll have some insight," Luna said before admonishing herself, she’d been using the Royal “We” for her entire conversation with Sapphire. That revelation made her facehoof in embarrassment, she’d probably succeeded in thoroughly confusing the mare.

Still, is it worth it, I want to learn more about her. Find out what else is eating her, Luna thought.

However the more Luna thought about it, the more she realized that perhaps she should seek a second opinion and possibly even a third opinion. Now one thing of note was that one of the powers that Luna had in the dream realm was that she could sift through the dreamer stars and find a particular dreamer.

She used that ability now. Igniting her horn she focused, looking for one particular dream. The vast majority of the dreamer stars fell away and left only one hovering in front of her. Unlike the a large percentage of the dreamer stars when it came to color, this one was different. It was a rather startling shade of pink, with minor outbursts of energy coming from it.

Luna took a breath and peered into the dreamer star of Princess Cadence. She swore loudly when she saw that it was one of her favorite dreams, one where she’d just learned how to fly and was soaring through various thermals over a large grassy plain. Sorry Cadence, but I need your opinion on something, Luna thought as she plunged into the dream. It felt like for several seconds she was moving through ice cold water as she transitioned from the dream realm and into the dream itself.

She expanded her wings and quickly flew toward Cadence who had seemingly detected her in an instant. She spun toward her a surprised look on her face. “Luna! My, this is a surprise," Cadence said awkwardly.

“Sorry for arriving without prior notice. But do you remember how exhausted Celestia was at breakfast, well breakfast for me but dinner for you, Shining Armor, and Celestia?” Luna asked.

“Yes, didn’t she say something about having to perform an extremely complex spell save somepony from dying?” Cadence asked.

“That is the case, I asked Celestia about later before you turned in and she told me the whole story. You may want to be on the ground for this," Luna said and then the two Alicorns descended to the ground below them. Once they were, Luna explained everything, including the conversation she’d had with Sapphire.

Once she was done, Cadence’s jaw was slack for several seconds before she shook her head and got her wits back. “Well, that explains why Celestia was exhausted. The sort of spell that she must have performed would be exhausting even for Twilight, plus if she added healing magic into it. Well, keeping the intended effect of the main spell the same while adding additional spells into it. That’s incredibly exhausting, even for an Alicorn. Still, what does this have to do with me?” Cadence asked.

“Cadence the reason why I’ve decided to bring you into this is because I want to find out what sort of heart Sapphire has. She said that she was military and that she had seen combat before, but from what I can tell she’s going through a lot of guilt but it seemed like there are other hidden emotions as well," Luna said.

“I can understand that. By viewing the emotions in one’s heart it’s easier to figure how somepony would likely act. But I’ve never tried to do it across dreams before. I don’t know if I can do it," Cadence said, looking down.

“Could you do it if the dreams were linked?” Luna asked.

“Easily, but I would prefer if you do it quietly," Cadence said.

Luna smirked. “I can do it, I haven’t cast the spell in a while but it’s possible. The spell itself will cause only a slight ripple effect in the dream itself during the initial merge although she’ll be wondering why on Equis her dream was so bizarre," she said with a snicker, showing that while it had been a millennia since she’d wielded the Element of Laughter, the humor she had that allowed her to wield it came up every now and again.

“Considering the fact that you already helped with a nightmare that she had tonight and now you're thinking about linking my dream with hers. I wouldn’t exactly blame her,” Cadence added with a giggle.

Luna laughed out loud. Now that she thought about it, Sapphire probably would probably be wondering why she had such a strange dream. Then again she had seen stranger dreams before, so who knew.

“Ready?” Luna asked.

Cadence nodded. “Yes, but I am a little nervous though.”

“It’s alright, even I am a bit nervous,” Luna added as her her horn ignited in its distinctive cobalt glow and then tiny strands of white magical energy began to coalesce at the base of her horn within the grooves. The white strands then began to race up the horn, seemingly growing brighter with each passing moment. As the swirling white energy reached the tip of her horn, it began to slowly lift itself out of the grooves and intertwine together becoming thicker, stronger, and radiating pure power.

Suddenly the thick cable-like concentration of magic splintered into two halves, one of the cables buried itself into the ground of Cadence’s dream and the other shot upward.

In the dream realm, the thick cable of white magic leaped out of Cadence’s dreamer star and spiraled through the realm, seeking out one particular dreamer star. Then when it found it, the burst of magic speared itself into the dreamer star and then it went from slack to taut.

“Got ya,” Luna said in triumph.

“Now what?” Cadence asked.

“Now comes the tricky part. Right now the dreams are bonded but not merged, but funnily enough the difficulty comes in not merging them but separating them,” Luna said as new energy appeared at the base of her horn, this energy was a deep royal purple. It raced up the crests between the grooves, spiraling up the horn. When it reached the tip and erupted from her horn, this new energy wasted no time in wrapping itself around the white energy that was also being projected from Luna’s horn.

Like before the energy spiralled into the ground of Cadence’s dream and instantly went taut, intertwining itself seamlessly with the white energy. While the other portion of the royal purple energy raced upward, intertwining itself with the white magic. This process continued until it reached Sapphire’s dreamer star, the star shuddered and then like a fishermen reeling in its catch the white and purple magical energy went taut and began to reel in the star.

When the two converged, the bright pink of Cadence’s dream star and the Old Glory Blue of Sapphire’s. For several moments they clashed before seamlessly merging.

The dreamscape shimmered and rippled, the vast and warm plains being replaced with a vast snowy tundra, in the distance pines rose into the sky, a soft cold wind blew over the vast wasteland and both Alicorns had to suppress shivers from the cold as it bit at their hides. But in the distance was some sort of structure, the purpose that it served, neither Princess knew.

Together they slowly advanced, stepping lightly being very aware about the snow that was crunching under hoof. When they spotted the grey mare, Luna noted that while the aura of guilt that was around her was severely diminished, it was still there.

“Is that her?” Cadence asked.

“Yes,” Luna replied still looking at Sapphire.

Cadence focused on the mare and her eyes widened. “It’s unique,” she breathed and when Luna gave her a curious look she continued. “There’s regret, sorrow, guilt, and loss predominantly. However there is also some hope, a little happiness, as well determination and loyalty, with a fair amount of bravery, and strangely enough a lot of curiosity. It’s such a variety of different colors I’ve never seen anything like it at all, ever. I can’t fathom what they all mean.”

Luna cocked an eyebrow in response. “That is a strange combination. But thinking back to the conversation that I had with her earlier. I am fairly certain where most of those different emotions that she has comes from. Sapphire, as you know, was in the military back in her own dimension and she went up against enemy forces, she ended lives but her entire squadron was also wiped out as was the air base that her squadron operated from. So I am guessing that the regret comes from ending those lives, the sorrow and loss is for her fallen comrades, the guilt is about not being able to save them. It would also explain bravery and loyalty, she knows what it’s like to stare Nyx in the eyes and make her blink first, plus she also said that she was I believe she called it a wingman or wingpony now, which means she is supposed to protect her flight leader. The hope and happiness would likely come from the fact that she’s been given a second chance at life and the determination would thus mean that she doesn’t want to squander said chance.”

“Well, I had no idea you could do that Luna. Heart magic maybe my forte as well as having an excellent understanding of what the various colors mean, particularly looking at the combination Sapphire has. But, when you put it that way; everything just clicked. It’s clear that she’s the sort of pony that would sacrifice her own life if needed so that others may live,” Cadence replied realization dawning in her eyes.

“So what’s your verdict then?” Luna asked.

“Just by going off on what I was able to tell with her the sort of heart that Sapphire has. It’s not as bad as I feared, she’s an honest soul that’s been through alot and it shows. But I think it was wise for Celestia to entrust her acclimation and naturalization to the element bearers, if there are any ponies would could help with that it’s them. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have her learn the fate of her squadron leader, that will just eat her up,” Cadence noted.

Luna nodded. “I know, I was planning on talking to Wing Commander Spitfire to see if I could go to the dimension that they encountered Sapphire. It may help with her guilt if she finds out what the fate of her squadron leader is.”

“I understand completely and it makes some sense. But in the meantime, can we please separate this dream now, I feel like we should go before Sapphire discovers us,” Cadence said and Luna nodded before igniting her horn again, the dreamscape around them shimmered and rippled visibly before returning to what Cadence’s dreamscape had been originally.

Luna then, panting slightly smiled at Cadence.

Sapphire groaned as she slowly woke up as the first rays of the morning sun started to kiss her face. That’s when she noticed she had somehow contrived to have fallen off the bed. Probably because of the nightmare that she’d had before it had seemingly taken a turn for the surreal.

“That was the most bizarre and lucid dream that I have ever had,” she said to herself as she extricated herself from a tangle of bedsheets.

Right, first thing’s first, I need some breakfast. Hope Twilight wouldn’t mind if I ask a number of questions as well, Sapphire thought as she began to head downstairs, not even aware of her stance.

Flying Lessons

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Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia and head librarian to the Golden Oaks Library wasn’t really a morning pony and that Spike wasn’t really a morning Dragon either. Still needless to say, they were a little shocked when Sapphire staggered into the room like a zombie muttering one thing. “I need coffee.”

“Morning Sapphire,” Twilight said in a groggy tone.

“Morning Twilight, Morning Mr. Dragon. God, where do you keep the coffee?” Sapphire groaned.

“First, my name isn’t Mr. Dragon, it’s Spike! Here I’ll pour you a mug. You don’t look well, you alright?” Spike, asked.

“Just give me a cup of coffee and a bagel if possible and I’ll be good,” Sapphire grunted.

“Okay,” Spike said with a yawn.

Without further ado, Sapphire sat down heavily on a stool, nearly overbalanced, and fell flat on her back. Or she would’ve had Twilight not caught her with her magic. “Thanks, I hate morning blues. What day is it today?” Sapphire asked bleary eyed as Spike poured a steaming hot cup of coffee and grabbed a bagel and put it on a plate before giving both to Sapphire.

“Monday,” Twilight said.

“That explains why I am still half asleep, I hate Mondays,” Sapphire grunted.

“Who doesn’t?” Spike asked.

“Exactly,” Sapphire replied before taking a sip of her coffee.

“So how did you sleep?” Twilight asked.

“I had the strangest nightmare/dream that I’ve ever had. As in on a scale from one to ten it was probably about a twenty,” Sapphire groaned.

“Let me guess. Princess Luna visited you in your dream?” Twilight asked.

“How did you know?” Sapphire asked, still groggy but her voice sharp and clear, somehow.

“Princess Luna has visited me in my nightmares on occasion. Now that I think about it. She’s probably protected every single pony in their nightmares at least once,” Twilight said.

“Huh, go figure. Still, it was a strange dream,” Sapphire mused, taking another sip of coffee.

“What happened in the dream you had?” Spike asked.

“Trust me, it started off rather bland, then got incredibly scary, then it sort of turned surreal, before just becoming sad,” Sapphire grunted.

“Sad? Sad how?” Twilight asked.

“Mainly because one sorrowful song was playing the background, behind these five tombstones was an American Flag at half-mast, while those five tombstones, had the name and rank of my fallen squadron mates.” Sapphire said looking down.

“Oh,” Twilight said in understanding.

“Still, thanks Twilight for having me over. Don’t know where I would’ve slept otherwise,” Sapphire said as she took a bite of bagel.

“No problem. But I do remember hearing a thud shortly after I went to bed. I take it you likely fell off the bed?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Sapphire said blushing.

“Happens to all of us sometimes during nightmares,” Spike said.

“Point. Still I got an interesting day ahead of me today. I mean I got flying lessons, got to work on a house design, gonna get a tour of the town, and who knows what else!” Sapphire said.

“You don’t say. However, I got to ask. What the hell was up with that stance that you had when you walked in?” Spike asked.

“What do you mean?” Sapphire asked confused.

“You walked in, walking on your hind legs only.” Twilight said and Sapphire promptly face hoofed.

“I knew I was feeling a little awkward while following my nose to breakfast. Goddamnit, I can’t really function without coffee in the morning. I mean I can, but not very effectively.” Sapphire groaned.

Everyone blinked.

“That normal for you Sapphire?” Spike asked.

“What do you mean by that?” Sapphire replied before taking a sip of coffee.

“Oh, you know…” Spike began.

“Being practically a zombie in the morning when you don’t have coffee, yes it’s true,” Sapphire deadpanned.

Everyone at the kitchen table laughed.

“So, Sapphire have you thought of any designs for your place?” Spike asked.

“Yeah, a few ideas. But the main one I am thinking about is nice and simple; with a lovely loft design as it would give me lots of flying room,” Sapphire said looking thoughtful.

“Oh? What’s the basic house design?” Twilight asked.

“It would likely be easier if I could draw it out. If only I knew how though,” Sapphire said.

“I can imagine, I’ll be more than willing to show you,” Twilight said.

“Thanks,” Sapphire said.

Thirty-minutes later, after taking a hot shower and making her bed, Sapphire was sitting with Twilight. Between them was a table with a large piece of paper as well as a pencil. “Alright, since you're a pegasus, you don’t have access to levitation magic like unicorns do. You have two different options for manipulating items. Well technically it’s three, but as a rule of thumb for pegasi, you don’t want to use your wings to manipulate items, it’s not good for them. Which means you have your hooves and your teeth primarily,” Twilight said in a teaching tone.

“Alright,” Sapphire said, nodding in understanding.

“Now then, how do you want to start?” Twilight asked.

Sapphire thought about it. The idea of using my teeth to manipulate objects is a unique prospect. But the idea of using my hands, dammit Lisa they are called hooves; would likely be better. Less awkward.

“Let’s start with using my hooves first. It’ll probably be less awkward,” Sapphire said.

“Fine by me. Alright, first let’s focus on finer motor control, you seem to have a firm grasp at being able to pick up stuff like coffee mugs. Then again, once you get past a certain age, that sort of thing just seems to become ingrained,” Twilight said.

Sapphire laughed out loud. “I can agree on that,” she said.

Thus the next fifteen minutes were focused on just picking items up and manipulating them. At first it was difficult and a couple of times Sapphire swore sharply, introducing Twilight to several new curse words, including a certain four letter one that made the unicorn admonish the pegasus sharply.

Then finally success. “Alright, come on you bastard. Come on,” Sapphire muttered, trying to get her hoof under the pencil. Suddenly, her hoof slipped underneath the pencil and she succeeded in picking it up. For several long moments Sapphire simply stared at the pencil she was now holding in her hoof.

“WOOHOO! I did it!” She cheered at the sight and Twilight smiled slightly.

“Good job Sapphire,”

“Thanks, it was tricker than I thought it would be. I mean I was easily able to grasp that mug,” Sapphire said looking at Twilight.

“Probably because the mug was more or less designed to be held in hooves. Probably because, well, most ponies that I’ve met tend to be a little nonfunctional in the morning after waking up,” Twilight replied.

“Yeah, anyway. Here’s the idea that I got. It’s modest in my opinion,” Sapphire said she began, with some difficulty to sketch out a design. It had only two flat walls, on the exterior, one on the front and one on the back, while between that were curved sections that formed both the exterior walls and roof.

“Wow, that is modest, but why would you want to live in a house like that?” Twilight asked looking at it.

“I am, well I was in the military however it wasn’t any Equis Military, but if I have too I will fight again for freedom, liberty, and equality. Anyway, this building was actually a type of prefabricated structure that the military used. It could be built without the use of experienced labor and served in all sorts of roles from barracks to latrines. You could say that it’s just my way of wanting to maintain connections to my old life,” Sapphire said as she looked nostalgic.

“I can understand that. But how was your old home different from Equestria?” Twilight asked.

“Very different from Equis, one of the main differences being the name, my homeworld you could say is called Earth. Plus it’s not the only difference either other differences include that there is only one dominant species, Humans, also there was many different nations, each with their own government, well most of them did a couple, particularly in the Balkan Peninsula and Africa there is no government because they either collapsed or have so little actual power it's not even funny; those areas are known as “Lawless Zones”. I was a member of the armed forces, to be specific the Air Force for a nation known as The United States of America or just The United States or U.S.A or U.S. as it was also known,” Sapphire said her eyes gaining a nostalgic look with her tone becoming the same.

“How many nations were there on Earth? Here in Equis there's Equestria, the Griffon Empire, the Minotaur Lands, and the Changeling Kingdom,” Twilight said.

“Let’s see, last time I checked there was 174 countries in the United Nations. Each one was different and unique, having its own culture and heritage. So it’s certainly a lot more diverse,” Sapphire said.

“That’s interesting, but is there anything special about the United States?” Twilight asked and her ears drooped when Sapphire laughed.

“I could be here for a couple of hours telling you what’s special about the United States. The U.S. has been an independent nation for 244 years, since the year 1776, won the ensuing war for independence against Great Britain in the year 1781 which at the time was the strongest nation in the world. Just thirteen small colonies won a rebellion, with really only receiving aid from the nation of France after a decisive victory near a town called Saratoga. Now one of the things that the United States pioneered was that it recognized individual rights, rule of law, and separation of powers. But since it’s been years since I’ve reviewed that sort of stuff, I can’t really explain more in-depth about those things; but then again I am was a fighter pilot not a politician or a historian on the United States government for that matter,” Sapphire said.

Twilight looked thoughtful before continuing. “First you mentioned fighting for freedom, liberty, and equality earlier why would you fight for that?” She asked.

“All men and women are created equal, there is no such thing as a second class citizen in the United States or anywhere for that matter, the liberties are the various civil liberties that you have, and the freedom is the fact that you're born free and you can’t be born into slavery however it also is stuff such as Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, and Freedom of Religion. But the cost of that has been high, very high. But Freedom, Liberty, and Equality they are worth fighting and dying for, as for why? They are values that are always worth fighting for,” Sapphire said her tone sorrowful.

“The way you spoke, it sounded like you were remembering fallen brothers and sisters,” Twilight said, looking at Sapphire.

Sapphire smiled in a melancholy way. “It’s because I am. When you join the military, you join a family thousands strong. A family that’s not of blood, but one that’s formed through traditions, oaths, grueling training, ordeals, and trials of fire. You feel a special connection to them no matter where you are,” She said.

“Wow, that was kind of deep,” Twilight said looking at Sapphire.

“Yeah, but I failed my closest military family members: my squadron mates. I should’ve died with them over Canada, but instead I was granted a reprieve a second chance on life. A second chance I feel like I didn’t deserve,” Sapphire said, her tone turning even more sorrowful.

“You shouldn’t. How would they feel if they saw how you're taking surviving while they died?” Twilight asked.

“Not well, but it’s a type of Survivor’s Guilt. It’ll probably go away in time but it’ll take awhile,” Sapphire said.

“Oh,” Twilight said.

“Don’t fret about me. I’ll just have to deal with my inner demons and such personally,” Sapphire said leaning back into the chair.

“Sapphire it’s not good for you to be dealing with this on your own. You have to have friends, somepony that you can stand on for support when needed,” Twilight said.

“True, but I am just worried that if I become friends with you and your friends, and then something unexpected and bad were to happen … well you get the idea,” Sapphire said.

There it was out in the open. Twilight’s ears drooped and her eyes widened with shock. Did Sapphire seriously believe that due to the loss she had gone through that she now wished to distance herself from making any friends?

“But Sapphire, here in Equestria the most powerful magic of all is friendship. So why are you pushing that away, if there’s any magic in Equestria that can help with your mental wounds it’s the magic of friendship,” Twilight said shocked.

Sapphire’s voice turned bitter. “Last time I made friends and acquaintances. I was utterly helpless to prevent their deaths and they weren’t peaceful deaths either. If it had been on a hospital bed with me by their side, I would’ve been shaken and saddened but I would be willing to make new friends. But all of my closest friends met their makers in the frigid skies over Canada and I didn’t when I should’ve met my maker,” She said.

Before Twilight could think of a response, there was a knock at the door. “I got it,” Spike said.

Sapphire had to admit that while Spike was an honest to god dragon, something that Jake would’ve been head-over-heels for, it was also a little strange to see. Of course, now that she thought about it, this whole situation was strange.

“Hey Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy,” Spike said and the two pegasi walked in.

“Hey Twilight,” they both greeted as they walked in.

“Hi girls!” Twilight said.

“Hello,” Sapphire greeted.

“Hey Twil and Sapph. What are you working on, Sapph?” Rainbow asked.

“Just a basic design for my place. It’s not much, but I like it mainly because it’s simple and utilitarian,” Sapphire said.

Rainbow flapped her wings and took off and began to hover over Sapphire’s shoulder as she looked at it. “I can see why you called the design simple and utilitarian. But it can get absolutely freezing here in Ponyville, so I would recommend adding a fireplace,” Rainbow said looking at the design.

“Thanks, because these things back home, well they don’t come with fireplaces and despite being fairly well insulated they could get it well let’s just say I would prefer to wear a jacket inside,” Sapphire said with a barking laugh as she added a chimney.

“Wow, who would build a building like that?” Fluttershy asked.

“The military, naturally,” Sapphire deadpanned.

“I think it looks nice, it’s unique,” Fluttershy said.

“Thank you, I wasn’t aiming for it to be unique though. But I guess it was because I was hoping to have things to remind me of home, although Quonset huts don’t come in two-story, loft type layouts. Nor do they have a fireplace. Now that I think about it, I never really thought about how it would look,” Sapphire said in a mildly amused tone.

“Go figure on that, still I’ll get to work on this,” Rainbow said before calmly rolling up the design and then went to fly out of the library, only to fly face first into the door jamb, actually succeeding in chipping the paint.

“Sonofa!/You alright?!” Sapphire and Twilight said in unison as they galloped over to the groaning pegasus.

“Ow, I thought your door was wider Twil,” Rainbow groaned as she stood up and shook her head.

“Shouldn’t you go and see a doctor? You clocked yourself pretty-” Sapphire started to say before she was cut off by Rainbow.

“No! Nononononono, I hate doctors, I am not going to the doctor!” she said before racing out the door and then taking flight off into the sky.

Sapphire looked at Fluttershy and Twilight. “Is she always like that?” she asked.

“Usually, although with her it’s typically trees that she tends to crashes into, she’s never to my knowledge crashed into a door jamb before,” Twilight said.

“Okay, thanks. But she seemed to flip out when I told her about taking her to a doctor what was up with that? If I conked myself like that, I’d be asking someone to help me to a medical office just to see if I have a concussion or not,” Sapphire said, slightly concerned.

“Rainbow doesn’t really like going to the doctor. I am not entirely sure why though,” Fluttershy said.

“Right, well I know I’d feel better once we get her to a doc for a checkup,” Sapphire said with a sigh.

“Rainbow is tougher than she looks. Last year she had pretty bad crash, broke a bone in her wing, as well as three ribs, plus she either cracked or bruised several others plus got a minor concussion out of it. Twilight how fast was she going again? I forget,” Fluttershy asked.

“Just a hair over I think it was 150 miles per hour. She was lucky, had she hit that tree branch dead on with her wing instead of just a glancing blow, it likely would’ve shattered most of the bones in it and would’ve resulted in a amputation. She suffered the wounds to her ribs and head came when she hit the ground. It wasn’t pleasant to watch,” Twilight said meekly.

“I can imagine. Any sort of crash involving flying of any sort always has exactly one setting and that’s ugly. Still, if she survived that crash and only got a minor concussion out of it then she should be okay,” Sapphire said, remembering when the news broadcast about Asiana flight 214 crashing.

“But you still want her to have a check up?” Twilight asked.

Sapphire sighed. “Yes, if only to be on the safe side,” she said.

Truth be told, neither Fluttershy nor Twilight could really argue with that logic. It made sense, being safe than sorry.

Twilight then smiled slightly. “Hey Sapphire ready to learn how to fly?” she asked.

Sapphire suddenly felt extremely nervous.

Thirty minutes later found Twilight and Fluttershy standing in a grass field outside of town, hovering above them was Rainbow Dash and standing a few feet away was a very nervous looking Sapphire.

They had decided that Fluttershy and Twilight would help with theory as well as taking off, hovering, and landing from a hover while Rainbow would handle the actual flying lessons.

“Can we please start with just simple hovering? You know what they say you got to crawl before you can run,” Sapphire said nervously, her tail flicking from side to side and causing her to glance at it. Damn the more she really thought about it, the more she realized that this was likely going to end so badly.

“Yeah,” Rainbow started. “But some also state that you have to gallop before you can walk.”

You, Rainbow Dash, and Tony Stark would likely get along quite well. Mainly because you both like to run headfirst into things without thinking, Sapphire thought sourly. “In some cases yes that would be the better but in this case it isn’t,” she said nervously.

“In this case that’s actually correct. It would be wiser to start simple,” Fluttershy said looking at Rainbow with a serious look.

“First can you explain how pegasus magic even works?” Sapphire asked expanding her wings for emphasis before folding them back up.

“I dunno, I didn’t really pay attention during the biology classes in school,” Rainbow said with a yawn.

“I can explain, but it gets rather complicated really fast, so please try and bear with me,” Twilight said.

“Probably can’t get more complicated quicker than trying to understand high school physics when dealing with atoms,” Sapphire deadpanned.

Twilight ignored her and continued. “Anyway, all species of pony, whether they are Earth ponies, unicorns, or pegasi have something called magic leylines. Think of it like the cardiovascular system; except instead of blood flowing through veins and arteries it’s magic that is flowing through them and they aren’t like veins or arteries but more like shallow channels,” Twilight said.

One question quickly came to Sapphire’s attention. “Is it possible to injure your leylines?” she asked.

Twilight blinked at the sudden question but nodded. “Yes and thaumaturgic injuries are usually very severe and life-threatening. For a unicorn it could mean that they could lose most of their magical powers they could cast through their horns or if the injury is severe enough may result in having the horn amputated, for Earth ponies it would mean greatly decreased magical strength and stamina, and lastly for pegasi it could mean a number of things from greatly reduced to flight stamina to never being able to fly again,” Twilight said and Sapphire nodded in understanding.

“Something tells me that thaum-thaumat-” Sapphire said trying to pronounce the complex word before giving up “that magic leyline injuries are extremely painful.”

“Very painful, I suffered one when I was a filly and it had me bedridden unable to even read a book or even talk for the better part of a week. All things considered, I was extremely lucky it could’ve been a lot worse,” Twilight admitted.

“Alright, note to self. Don’t do anything incredibly stupid that results in a magic system injury,” Sapphire mused.

“Anyway, for a pegasus. The natural thaumaturgic system is focused primarily along the spinal column and wings, with a few minor ley lines extending into the hooves to help cushion the impact from rough landings. Now, to help lighten the burden on the thaumaturgic system, the bones that comprise the skeletal system of pegasi are actually hollow to reduce weight. Another thing that’s different from other pony species is that the heart beats at a much higher speed when compared to unicorns and Earth ponies, also the lungs that pegasi have are not only more efficient than the ones that a unicorn or Earth pony have but they are also larger,” Twilight said.

“Twilight, not to sound rude or anything. But you're starting to sound like an Egghead, because about half of that went right over my head.” Sapphire then blinked and flattened her ears when Rainbow burst out laughing, while Fluttershy appeared to be giggling slightly, and Twilight had an amused expression on her face.

“Is something wrong?” she asked confused.

Twilight smiled slightly. “No, it’s just that, Rainbow usually calls me “Egghead” as a nickname.”

“Oh,” Sapphire said, blushing slightly. “Sorry about that. Anyway I how do we start with flying or at the very least hovering?” she asked.

“It’s rather simple. First spread out your wings to as far as you can,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright, that’s easy enough,” Sapphire said under her breath, expanding her wings.

“Now it gets a little complicated, but now focus on the air around you and then give your wings a couple of flaps while at the sametime willing yourself upward,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” Sapphire said, as she focused on the air around her. To her immense surprise she could actually see minor updrafts in the air around her and then she gave her wings an experimental flap and to her immense shock it felt like power surged through her and then she yelped as she gave a few more flaps and felt her hooves leave the ground, to be specific her forward hooves followed shortly by her back ones.

Wow this feels weird. Sapphire thought as she hoovered probably about a foot or so off the ground. “Alright, this is feeling a little weird but I think I can get used to it, now then how do I land?” Sapphire asked looking around and marvelling at the fact that she was actually hovering under her own power.

“It’s like taking off but in reverse, make sure that you have your legs out and not folded against your body otherwise it’ll be uncomfortable,” Fluttershy said.

“Alright here it goes,” Sapphire said before focusing on the air currents around her. She slowly willed herself down, but she still nearly fell when she landed slightly off balance.

“Nice job, now then let’s do that again but this time go a little higher,” Fluttershy said sounding excited.

Thus the next twenty minutes were simply doing takeoffs, followed by hovering, and then landings. At least until Sapphire lost track of how high she was going and wound up nearly sixty feet in the air. “Jesus!” she yelped in shock when she looked down and realized the she was much higher than she intended to be.

Fluttershy and Rainbow flew up next to her. “Are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, just didn’t expect being able to go this high with simple hovering! Thank goodness I am not afraid of heights,” Sapphire answered looking around.

“Think you're ready to handle flying?” Rainbow asked.

“Probably can we take it slow though,” Sapphire replied looking thoughtful and more than a little nervous.

Fluttershy nodded and then descended to a lower altitude, followed shortly by Rainbow and Sapphire. “Right, so flying is more complicated than simply hovering. This is because unlike hovering where you are mostly relying on your magic to hold yourself into the air, when you are flying you have to control not only your magic usage, but also your center of gravity for balance, the quickness of your wing beats for speed, the angle of that you have your wings are at for climbing, and even usage of your tail for turning. Plus as you approach the sound barrier it gets a lot harder to stay in control,” Rainbow said calmly.

“Wow Rainbow, I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable on the finer points of flying,” an amused Twilight said with a smirk.

“What?! I am the best flier in Ponyville and the first pegasus in living memory to be able to do a sonic rainboom and I am hoping to become a member of the Wonderbolts someday! So I have to have the know-how on how pegasi fly.” Rainbow crossed her forehooves across her chest -or was it barrel?- and fixed Twilight with a look.

“Alright Rainbow, just surprised that’s all,” Twilight said holding a hoof up in a placating gesture.

“All of a sudden I got the feeling that I am likely going to have a couple crashes before I figure out how to fly straight,” Sapphire groaned as her ears flattened.

“Wouldn’t be surprising, all pegasi when they are learning to fly always crash a couple of times when they first begin,” Rainbow said.

“That’s comforting,” Sapphire deadpanned.

As it turns out, Rainbow was correct. The first time Sapphire tried to fly, she wound up pushing her center of gravity too far forward. That resulted in her somersaulting downward before Twilight managed to catch her with a Telekinetic spell. Then gently set her down on the ground.

“How do you feel, Sapph?” Rainbow asked.

“Dizzy,” she stated bluntly.

“That looked scary, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“It was scary, mainly because I have no clue how to get out of a head over heel, err, hoof tumble, but yes I am fine,” Sapphire said as she took deep breaths in attempt to get her bearings.

Rainbow shook her head. “My old flight instructor had this saying about head over hoof tumbles, he said that they were incredibly dangerous and are almost impossible to recover from and that unless you're close to the ground or have a fellow pegasus to catch you. Well the way he put it when talking about them was “Start tumbling in this gear, start praying.” and to be frank it’s true, the proper term for that thing is “Gravedigger somersault” because if you're high enough and nopony can catch you; well I am sure you can figure out the rest,” Rainbow said.

“Alright, I’ll remember that.” Sapphire shakily got to her hooves.

It took the better part of five more minutes before Sapphire was comfortable enough to try and fly again. “Right, remember when transitioning from a hover to level flight you want to shift your center of gravity forward slowly, while at the same time increasing how fast your wings are beating and bringing in your legs. We’ll focus on the complicated stuff later. Ready?” Rainbow asked once Sapphire was hovering.

“Ready!” Sapphire said.

“Alright, remember what you’ve been told and get flying!” Rainbow exclaimed.

With a carefulness that really showed that she was taking what she’d been told seriously, Sapphire slowly pitched forward while bringing her legs in against barrel and increasing how fast her wings were beating. With a feeling of forward motion she began to do it.

“Alright! You're doing great!” Rainbow cheered as she watched Sapphire fly for the first time.

“How does it feel?!” Twilight asked.

“Amazing, but girls, one question.” Sapphire said inquiry seeping into her voice.

“What’s the question?” Fluttershy asked.

“How do I turn?” Sapphire questioned sounding absolutely thrilled at the prospect of flying.

“Simple shift your center of gravity in the direction you want to go. Be careful to not-” Rainbow began before there was a sudden shout of alarm followed by a loud thud and a then pained groan. “Overdo it at low speeds and low altitude or you’ll stall and then faceplant into the dirt.”

Meanwhile Sapphire stood up and spat the dirt that had gotten in her mouth out and then shook her head to get the cobwebs out. “Right, that sucked. I guess I got too excited there,” Sapphire said in embarrassment.

“Happens to all of us at times.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Right, well I think that I can get turning down, but I would like to learn how to accelerate mainly because that would give me more energy to work with when turning. I can’t believe I forgot the adage “speed is life, energy is life insurance” and I wound up stalling like some nugget who was flying a plane for the first time!” Sapphire growled angrily face-hoofing.

Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy all looked at each other with confused looks. But while they didn’t understand some of the terminology they did understand the overall gist that Sapphire was making, she’d made a common rookie mistake.

“We all make mistakes. No need to get angry about it,” Fluttershy said with a slight smile.

“True.” Sapphire moved her wings up and down despite them being folded in the equal of a shrug. It was obvious that she was pissed but at herself but then she sighed.

“Ready to try again?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, you know what they say. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.” Wings expanding for emphasis and going into hover, Sapphire smiled slightly.

“That’s an interesting adage, alright let’s do this again. We can focus on turning after on learning to accelerate and decelerate,” Rainbow said.

Truth be told, over the course of the next four and half hours they found that while Sapphire had it made in the agility department, she struggled in the speed department and to make matters worse was below average in the acceleration department as well as rate of climb, the stress of not being able to improve in those areas started to get her. The fact that she had introduced herself to several trees Rainbow Dash style wasn’t helping matters at all.

“Ugh! Why the hell am I not improving?! We’ve been at this for hours, I would’ve expected at least a little improvement by now!” a peeved Sapphire ranted angrily.

“These things take time Sapphire, you must know that!” Rainbow said in a placating fashion.

“I know that, but it’s just while flying is a thrill, it takes forever to climb up to a decent altitude to fly. I have all of the climbing characteristics of a crippled whale and ugh, probably because of my poor acceleration I have a low top speed it’s just starting to get to me,” Sapphire groaned, still irritable.

“Ah, so you were hoping to see even just a little improvement by now? I guess that makes sense then. But every pegasus is different, still you’ll probably be showing improvement by the end of the week,” Twilight said in calm tone and Sapphire nodded.

“Look on the bright side though Sapph,” Rainbow said.

“What bright side?” Sapphire asked.

“I might be the fastest flyer in Ponyville, but your probably one of the most agile pegasi in all of Ponyville and thus that’s nothing to be ashamed of at all. So you may not be quick, but you're going to be a weather pony and thus speed really isn’t issue but agility like yours can be incredibly useful so don’t get down,” Rainbow said with a smile.

“Now when you put it that way, it makes a little sense. But I am sorry for snapping,” Sapphire said with a frown.

“It happens to us all, particularly if you’ve been training for the better part of a day but show no improvement, but I am certain that you will improve,” Fluttershy said, putting a comforting hoof on Sapphire’s shoulder before she could start pacing.

“Thanks, I guess. At least I can go high-subsonic so that’s not bad; biggest problem I have though is climbing at least I am good in the deceleration department.” Sapphire fixed Fluttershy with a grateful look.

“Yeah, you always want to look on the positive side of things and know that if you keep up at practicing you’ll improve,” Fluttershy replied.

That’s when Rainbow remembered something. “Hey Sapphire have you ever heard of the term B.N.P?” she asked.

“No I haven’t. What does it mean?” Sapphire asked, confusion spreading across her face.

“It means Bucking New Pony, even though you're joining the Ponyville Weather Team and they are some of the nicest ponies you’ll ever met, well you're still new around here and a new pony joining the Weather Team,” Rainbow stated.

“No, I am not familiar with that phrase but we got two such phrases back home. F.N.G and N.U.B. those two phrases mean Fucking New Guy and New Useless Bitch respectively but the gist is the same, it’s always directed towards the greenhorn. Been awhile since I’ve been a F.N.G but at least it’ll be a breath of fresh air, besides back home we didn’t really have weather control unless you’d count cloud seeding so it’ll probably be fun,” Sapphire said with a smile looking somewhat relieved, happy for the change of subject.

“Still, you’ve been doing great Sapphire. At any rate it’s always nice to have a some extra hooves on the weather team, particularly considering that winter starts in just a couple of weeks it means that we are going to be very busy getting both Ponyville and the surrounding area ready for winter,” Rainbow said looking thoughtful.

“Oh, okay so who’s currently on the Ponyville Weather Team and where do you meet?”

“Let’s see you got Bulk Biceps, Thunderlane, Helia, Blossomforth, Buddy, Honey Rays, and Jetstream. Although for major events like Winter Wrap-Up for example it’s an all hooves on deck affair and thus all pegasi, Earth ponies, unicorns, and on occasion even Zecora help with wrapping up winter and bringing in spring. As for where we meet, it’s by the town hall, usually just before dawn.” Rainbow said.

“So wait pegasi control all aspects of the weather here in Equestria?” Sapphire asked surprised.

“For the most part, the only exceptions being the towns and villages on the Southern Frontier, the reason being is that most of them have few if any pegasi living there, others being any sort of large area between towns and cities can allow for such weather to occur, and the other is the Everfree Forest,” Rainbow replied.

“Alright, the frontier towns I can sort of get unless something is discovered that causes ponies to flock to the frontier they probably won’t be getting that weather control for awhile. But why the Everfree Forest doesn’t make much sense,” Sapphire mused.

“Sapphire, in Equestria well the Everfree Forest is enigma. It’s so unnatural, the animals who live there involve some of the deadliest predators in all of Equis, not to mention they take care of themselves without help from ponies, and the clouds and weather systems move on their own!” The three Ponyvillians said in a rising tone.

In response Sapphire’s right ear twitched a few times and she had to suppress full blown laughter. “Oh great, the Everfree Forest is probably like Australia where it’s easier to list what can’t kill you then it is to list what can kill you. As for animals taking care of themselves and the clouds and even full blown weather systems moving on their own, well that’s normal back home. Unless of course the animals are in a Zoo or they are pets, but that’s different,” Sapphire said.

“Australia?” Twilight asked confused.

“Name of a continent and a nation back home. Don’t ask me why that’s so but lots of stuff that can kill you and rather effectively live there.” Sapphire shrugged, but her tone of voice said that she was dead serious.

“Well this got very interesting, were we just talking about why Sapphire was struggling to improve in certain areas with her flying to suddenly about various other things,” Fluttershy said in a curious tone.

“Don’t ask me how that happened. Still thanks for everything you’ve done today. It means alot to me,” Sapphire said with a smile.

“You deserve all help you can get, considering what you’ve been through. Just remember we are here for you.” Fluttershy smiled and gave Sapphire a warm look.

Sapphire while grateful was also worried, true today thus far had been one of learning, fun, excitement, as well as painful -hitting a tree at seventy miles per hour was not fun- it had also been rather sad due to thinking about her fallen comrades. One part of her wanted to make friends or at least have acquaintances but another part wished to distance herself from others so that if any of them died she wouldn’t suffer as much, because she’d gone through enough loss already.

On Lightning's Wings

by Seawolf

Prolouge

Action

Reveille

Questions and Answers

Release, Memories, and Ponyville

Phantasms

Flying Lessons