Prologue: The Flames of War

That day...

Oh, how she still thought of that day...

When it first started out, it seemed as though it would go as normally as any other.

Rainbow Dash, despite her usual sluggishness in the morning, had decided to rise with the sun that day, and take full advantage of it. The Pegasi Weather Team had a beautiful one lined up, with strong thermal winds and not a cloud in the sky. In fact, because it was such a nice day, and because their previous airshow had gone down so well, Spitfire had decided to give her Wonderbolts the day off in order to enjoy themselves; she'd figured they'd earned it. Little would she know that it would be the last day off they would enjoy for quite some time.

Rainbow rushed out of her open window as soon as her alarm clock rang, leaving her reptilian friend Tank to warm up in the strengthening sunbeams. She gave her silent thanks to Celestia as she swung low over the cumulus streets of Cloudsdale, using the momentum to launch herself high into the still crisp morning air. She let out a deep breath, watching it steam up in front of her and dissipate into the upper atmosphere. She smiled. The chilly air above the city made her fur stand on end, and she shivered and chuckled at the sensation. Her smile stayed around; she was ready to feel like a filly again.

Flipping backwards, Dash folded in her wings, cutting all power and allowing herself to divebomb between two drifting clouds that supported the city. Closing her eyes, she felt the wind rush past her as though she were a comet, as quickly she descended towards the forest below. Soon, she encountered a front of much warmer air: the thermals, beginning to rise. Dash popped her wings open, slowing her slightly, like a parachute. With a laugh and a cheer, she pulled up just before she could touch the forest canopy; using the momentum to go high again, she soared on the breeze, barely having to flap at all. She executed tight aileron rolls followed by wide, sweeping barrels, her wingtips seeming to cut through the air as they left a trail behind her. Her rainbow-patterned mane and tail fluttered wildly, the light casting off them giving the impression of a rainbow wake behind the cyan Pegasus. Rainbow Dash laughed gleefully as she playfully mimicked her Wonderbolt exercises, putting her own unique spins on them. Endorphins flooded her brain as her body and spirit alike soared.

She could keep this up forever, she thought.

It was truly shaping up to be a great day.

…

Then the news started coming in.

As she stopped by a little café in Ponyville to grab breakfast, she noticed a large crowd of ponies gathered in the town square. The Mayor was standing onstage alongside Twilight Sparkle, and she could also make out several of her other friends among the crowd. Rarity, glancing back over the crowd, caught sight of her and motioned for her to join them. She seemed rather urgent.

"Huh?" thought Rainbow "What the hay is going on? Some kind of... public announcement?"

She hovered over to where her five friends were standing; the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't far away. Scootaloo came to her, equally confused as to the goings-on. Rainbow's surrogate sister hopped into her forelegs, being lifted above the crowd by blue wings. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle hopped up on their respective sister's heads for a better view of the stage.

"What do you think it could be?" Sweetie could be heard to say.

"Who knows?" Apple Bloom replied. "Maybe we're gonna have some kind o' festival!"

"What do you think it could be, Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo asked, her big childlike eyes looking up at her in excitement.

"Well, I dunno Scoots." Rainbow replied. "Whatever it is, it must be pretty important for every pony in town to be here."

From the stage below, Spike could be seen setting up a large projector screen behind Twilight, whilst Mayor Mare took up the microphone at her podium.

"All right, everypony, settle down!" The crowd quickly silenced as the old mare's voice came over the speakers. Scootaloo propped her chin up on her hooves in anticipation.

"Princess Twilight and I have gathered you here for an urgent announcement..."

"...a message directly from Princess Celestia in Canterlot; a mandatory broadcast to the entire nation." Twilight finished the sentence. There was a wave of murmurs from the crowd as Twilight turned to face the screen. Levitating a small jewel to the tip of her horn, she cast a magical beam through it, casting the image onscreen of the palace doorstep in Canterlot, which was being captured in real time by another unicorn doing the same thing there. Celestia stood at a small podium, while Luna stood off to her right by another projector screen.

"Dear Citizens of Equestria," the Sun Princess began in a solemn, yet amplified voice. "My sister and I come to you today with... unfortunate news. You all probably remember several years ago the wedding of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor here in Canterlot, an event which was marred by an assault on the capital by Queen Chrysalis and her changelings. They were stopped, fortunately, but Chrysalis was not defeated. Some years later, she attempted yet another conquest of our great nation, which, again, was halted by some of Equestria's bravest."

Discord could be seen in the stonework behind the princess, waving happily.

"Their intervention resulted in the reformation of the changeling capital, and the crowning of King Thorax. However, when Chrysalis was offered reformation, she refused, and once again crept away into hiding."

Celestia sighed deeply. She didn't want to deliver this news, but she had to.

"Unfortunately, just a week ago, we heard rumors coming from the Changeling Empire that unreformed changelings had been spotted near the borders. At first, both King Thorax and I regarded these as mere pranks or a case of mistaken identity, but soon enough... well..."

She motioned towards Luna with her head. The Moon Princess raised the jewel to her own horn, casting an image the changelings had sent onto the projector screen.

"After the disappearance of several changeling civilians from the capital city, this mark was found burned into the rear wall of the royal palace." Said mark, though roughly designed, somewhat resembled Chrysalis' face, hair, and twisted horn, complete with gaping eyes.

"It was accompanied by a message that the 'Rightful Queen' would return, as well as the message '3 days.' Well, at the start of yesterday, being the third day, the sun rose to reveal..."

Celestia paused. She took a steady breath.

"Before we go on, I must warn that what you're about to see is... disturbing. If anypony watching has small foals, you might wish to send them away." She hardened her visage into solemnity. Luna cast her eyes towards the ground in dismay. Meanwhile, various ponies attempted to shield the eyes of their youth; even the Crusaders were barred from viewing the rest, though Scootaloo tried her hardest to get around Rainbow's hoof.

"The sun rose to reveal this outside the city limits... Ahem, Luna..."

Luna swapped the jewel at her horn's tip for another, casting a new image upon the screen.

The four changelings who had gone missing had been "returned."

Pikes were run through their bodies, entering in the crook of their hindlegs and exiting out of their necks, or out of the skull in one case. In their decaying forms, one could make out the chitinous plates that covered their bodies, which, other than on the abdomen, appeared smooth on living changelings; the pikes had been inserted almost surgically, by beings who clearly knew where the weak points were. The hostages' once vibrant eyes were now pale and lifeless. Each of them appeared to have had one wing ripped off, and one of them had been gutted across the abdomen, allowing its complex insectoid innards to spill onto the ground while still rooted inside the body. Horns were shattered, legs were broken in several places, and green blood was smeared everywhere. Below the grisly display was a message scrawled on the ground in black paint: "FRIENDS TO THE END"

An audible gasp and perhaps a scream or two could be heard from both the Canterlot and Ponyville crowds. The mothers, fathers, and elder siblings of the throngs clutched their young ponies tightly, shielding their faces as their own wrenched in horror. Applejack shoved her hat over Apple Bloom's face, putting her other hoof to her mouth to hold back breakfast. Rarity nearly fainted, staggering on her hooves as blindfolded Sweetie Belle tried in vain to support her. Fluttershy's face paled and she hid behind her hair. Pinkie was completely static with horror. Ocellus, standing with her friends, broke into tears with a heart-wrenching "NO!"; Silverstream pulled her close, and she buried her face in her feathers as she sobbed.

"I KNEW THEM!! I KNEW THOSE CHANGELINGS!!"

Princess Celestia continued with her grave announcement after encouraging Luna to show the horror as little as possible.

"King Thorax shortly thereafter received a letter at his door, supposedly written by Chrysalis, saying that this act was a harsh but necessary one. It goes on to denounce Thorax and his changelings as traitors to their kind and an eternal dishonor to the 'true' changeling brood, as well as touting her 'newly-formed army,' before ending in a declaration of war."

Celestia closed her eyes, her head looking downward and seemingly within herself. This wasn't the first time she'd delivered grave news in her multi-millennial reign, though it was the first time in quite a while. Nerves newly steeled, she looked back to the crowd.

"Given our... close bond of friendship with Thorax and the Changeling Empire... after much deliberation, we have decided it best to support our friends in any way possible. At Thorax's request..." a slight pause to fight back her disbelief "...Equestria has declared war on Chrysalis' Remnant and will be entering the conflict shortly."

Another loud gasp came up from the crowd. Even Twilight was agape with sheer shock.

"I have issued an order for urgent mobilization of the Equestrian Army and the Wonderbolts. All E.U.P. Guards not currently assigned elsewhere are to report to the Canterlot Barracks for reassignment, and all Wonderbolt squadrons are to report to their Academy for immediate briefing and deployment."

Scootaloo's jaw dropped. She slowly craned her head up to look at Rainbow Dash, whose jaw was equally limp.

"R-Rainbow?" The orange filly asked as she started to shake. "What does this mean?"

The Element of Loyalty hovered there for a moment in stunned silence.

"I can't believe it." She said under her breath. "I'm going to war."

Chapter I: Free No Longer

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Scootaloo followed Rainbow Dash as she zipped back and forth throughout her humble abode in the clouds, trying to carry on a conversation as she gathered countless things into her saddlebags.

"But you could be gone for a long time... a-and what if you get hurt? I don't want you to get hurt, Rainbow Dash..."

"Scootaloo, listen. I want to stay here as much as you want me to, but I just can't. When the Wonderbolts are needed to protect Equestria, I'm obligated to as well. You never got worried when I was off with Twilight and the others saving Equestria, did you?"

Scootaloo hesitated in her response; she wanted to sound tough, but she already knew that she could level with Rainbow Dash how she felt.

"Well... yeah, kinda. I mean, I believe in you, and I believe you can figure a way out of any mess, but... I can't say I'm never worried, Rainbow Dash. There was the time Cozy Glow trapped you all in Tartarus, the time the Storm King invaded and threw me and everypony else in cages, that time you guys got captured by Tirek, or Discord, or Chrysalis, or..."

Rainbow stuffed a hoof into Scoots' minute muzzle.

"I get it, kid."

She tested her flight goggles to make sure they still fit, before taking them off and placing them and her bags on the couch. Sitting down, she patted the empty cushion next to her with a hoof, and the pint-sized Pegasus hopped up next to her.

"Well, if I came out of all those other scrapes just fine, who's to say I won't come back home again this time?"

"This time is different, Rainbow Dash..." Scootaloo averted her eyes to the floor. "I... I saw what they did to those changelings."

Rainbow's face washed with concern. She went to put her forehooves around Scootaloo.

"Aw now, Scoots, I--"

"I don't want them to kill you!" She buried her face in Rainbow's fluffy chest. "You're my only sister... you're my family..."

The two put their hooves around each other and closed their eyes, Rainbow's rapid, daredevil heartbeat pounding in Scootaloo's ear. Rainbow ran a hoof through her sister's messy purple mane and sighed.

"Scootaloo, I... I know this is dangerous, but... you're just gonna have to trust me. You're just gonna have to have faith that I'll get home to you safe. Faith in me, faith in my commanders, faith in... well, whoever's up there... it doesn't matter who."

She pulled back and locked eyes with the filly.

"If you can show me a little bit of that faith, mixed with that Scootaloo-brand toughness, then I swear to Celestia herself that I'll come home once this is all over and give you a huge hug. Okay?"

Scootaloo managed a smile and a quiet "Okay."

Rainbow Dash wiped a tear from the filly's eye and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Love you, squirt."

"I love you, too."

It had been a little over a month since Rainbow had shipped out. She, along with Spitfire and the rest of her squadron, as well as a few others from across the nation, were stationed at a forward operating base somewhere in northern Equestria. It was summer, and while it didn't get too hot at the northern latitudes, the mosquitoes were just about everywhere. Rainbow and the other Wonderbolts would often complain about mosquitoes "being the only bugs they got to squash", but internally, they were almost glad not to have to do anything.

By this point in the war, there had been sporadic fighting amongst the warring factions, mostly between the two changeling clans; Spitfire, who occasionally attended meetings between much higher-ranking military officials and the princesses themselves, was glad that Equestrian forces hadn't been very necessary, though she feared that they may become so soon. Strategic intelligence pointed towards a larger mass of changelings than what Chrysalis had brought to bear so far, though their location was as-of-yet unknown.

As Spitfire sat behind her desk in her makeshift office of the base, a thin, wiry mare, one of the newer recruits from outside her own squadron, came scurrying in. She saluted and took a moment to catch her breath.

"Ma'am," the lanky mare began "I bring a report from the generals' latest meeting with Celestia and Thorax!"

Spitfire's face brightened; though, as a field officer, she often couldn't make (and more often, wasn't invited to) every meeting, she could always count on getting a courier after the fact. She was excited; she knew from her sources in higher command that this particular meeting would yield responses to Celestia's correspondence asking other leaders to join in the conflict against Chrysalis.

"Good!" Spitfire said, casually propping her hindlegs up on her desk. "Who all can we expect to see joining us?"

"Well, of course, Shining Armor was there, and said that he'll be sending a few thousand fresh reinforcements from the Crystal Empire to strengthen the western and southern sectors. As for new allies, King Aspen pledged to contribute 2,000 of his elite stags to guard key points of interest, including Canterlot, Ponyville, and the changeling capital; the kirin don't have a military per se, but Rain Shine made a public declaration of support, and will supplement our regular supply shipments with her own, in addition to contributing a council of kirin mages to help train Thorax's fresh troops in more advanced spells. The breezies… can't... really... do much, but they seem to believe in us anyway, and Queen Novo of the hippogriffs is deploying her finest warriors across our nation by the thousands. Expect to see a contingent stationed at this operating base as well."

"Are the dragons joining in this fight?" Spitfire sat back up and eagerly clopped her forehooves down on the desk, leaning forward.

"Erm, well... Princess Ember is having trouble corralling her subjects into anything resembling an organized military... dragons are just too fiercely independent. So while we may have the support of the Dragonlord herself, I fear that her nation may not back us."

Spitfire sighed and looked down at her desk for a moment.

"Well, what can you do?" She looked back up, managing to smile and act like she wasn't annoyed. She put her forehooves under her chin expectantly, her elbows on the desk. "When can I expect our hippogriff reinforcements?"

"Um..." The Pegasus mare glanced down the hallway to a great ruckus coming from outside. "Now."

Outside, a great deal of talking could be heard, accompanied by thunderous wingbeats and footfalls, as no less than 300 hippogriff warriors made themselves at home, bolstering the already considerable Pegasi garrison of 700, a mixture of Wonderbolts and Royal Guards. Spitfire stepped outside with the messenger mare, both equally surprised at the sudden arrival of reinforcements. Before Spitfire could gather her thoughts to speak, the hippogriff general Seaspray approached her.

"Ah, and you must be Sergeant Spitfire!" the tall, regal hybrid greeted her jovially. "I've heard much about you from Princess Celestia; it's so nice to finally meet you."

"It's captain, actually." said Spitfire, pointing to her officer's insignia. "And it's nice to meet one of Queen Novo's finest."

"Hm." Seaspray nodded succinctly, coming off a little flippant. "I'm quite eager to set up shop here, what with this being the primary protection against invasion from the north--until you reach the Crystal Empire, that is, but that's a bit too far north--but Queen Novo was quite hopeful that--"

"Wait a minute..." Spitfire cut off the eager hippogriff, stepping into his path as he began to walk away. "You didn't think you were just going to come in here and take over my operation, were you?" He may have outranked her, but this was still an Equestrian camp.

"Oh-ho-ho, no, of course not!" Seaspray gave an awkward laugh in response. "How silly would I look blatantly ignoring the values of friendship Equestria holds so dear? I was hoping we could work together!" He sat back on his haunches, drumming his talons together.

"Good." Spitfire replied. "In that case, have a hat."

The fiery Pegasus produced a Wonderbolt-branded ballcap seemingly from nowhere and plonked it down on the general's head. She proceeded to flutter away lightly on her wings; it was approaching eventide, and she was curious what the mess hall had for dinner.

The sun stayed out long after dinnertime had passed. Rainbow Dash, along with several of her fellow Wonderbolts, were sitting around a large bonfire in the courtyard of the camp, getting to know their hippogriff neighbors.

"Wow, I wish we hippogriffs had uniforms like that." A young stallion named Ocean Wake remarked. "They're so sleek and aerodynamic, unlike these feathers."

Rainbow Dash inspected her own form-fitting attire. Though she wouldn't have been caught dead saying it out loud, she liked how it made her look, and had spent long hours posing in the mirror, inspecting her accentuated curves.

"Yeah, I guess they are pretty cool."

Without warning, Spitfire poked her head into the circle of conversationalists, her own orangish mane indistinguishable from the fire before them.

"Dash! We need somepony to do a perimeter sweep five miles out before we hit the hay. You up for the job?"

The cyan mare hopped down from the log she sat upon and saluted.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Good. Bring a friend, there's safety in numbers."

Rainbow turned to Ocean Wake. "Do you wanna come along? We can keep talking."

"Sure." The hippogriff hopped down as well, and they both lowered their flight goggles to their eyes.

The two aerial aces of allied nations took to the sky, the pink sunset lighting their way from behind.

It had been about an hour since the Pegasus mare and hippogriff stallion had started their patrol. The sky was perfect for flight that evening, if a bit chilly, and they were making better time than expected, already having completed a quarter of their circular sweep. The two of them continued their chatting and laughter as if they had still been at the campfire, occasionally challenging each other to aeronautic feats.

Rainbow Dash was in the middle of telling her companion a particularly funny story about her friends when things went wrong.

"So Scootaloo tries to bring Pinkie the bag of flour, but it just busts open onto her head! And then when I come back in and ask what happened, Scootaloo says..." Rainbow glanced back at Ocean Wake; he'd stopped flying, and was hovering, awestruck, in one place. Rainbow made her way back towards him, poking him in the shoulder.

"Uh, Ocean Wake? You okay?"

It didn't take long for Rainbow to follow his line of sight; her eyes grew large in equal parts surprise and shock.

On the ground below them stood three black changelings, who were staring up at them, equally surprised. In their magical aura, they held bows with nocked arrows. Rainbow quickly snapped to and gave Ocean Wake a shove; they both began flying rapidly back the way they came.

"Quick! Shoot them!" cried one of the changelings on the ground. The other two, heeding the party leader, drew back their bows and fired at their enemy. The arrows whiffed hopelessly through Rainbow's aerial wake.

As the two fliers beat their wings for all they were worth, they passed over a patch of coniferous forest; gazing up ahead, as the visibility was quite clear, Rainbow Dash noticed two birds sitting in the top of a spruce that were eyeing them curiously as they approached.

Before she could warn Ocean Wake, the birds leapt into the air, enveloped in green fire. They were changelings.

Ocean Wake performed a hairpin turn on the spot, reversing direction and avoiding the strike of a changeling's hoof. The attack just managed to remove some loose plumage from his wing, and the royal blue feathers slowly plummeted to the forest below. With Rainbow now in the lead, the Wonderbolt and her companion launched into high gear, quickly leaving their treetop pursuers behind, though they were now headed back towards the enemy archers.

Coming back into range, the three bow-equipped changelings on the ground fired again at their quarry.

Their shots missed...

...at least, most of them did.

"I'll lead them away! You circle back to camp and... Ocean?"

Rainbow jerked her head back to look over her shoulder upon hearing a strange noise come from her friend. Instead of seeing him flying at her side, she instead witnessed his limp form plummet like a stone, a wooden shaft sticking from his chest.

"OCEAN!" Rainbow cried with terror. She swung with her momentum into a wide turn, hoping to circle down and catch her falling comrade, but instead, she was met with a searing pain in her right wing.

The changeling scout leader chuckled as a flash of pain crossed the mare's face. His arrow had grazed her.

Rainbow managed a glance at her right wing as she dove uncontrollably towards terra firma. There was a deep gash across the elbow joint, and a fine stream of red fluid trailed into the air behind her like an afterglow. She was too preoccupied by that particular pain to prepare herself for the pain which was to follow.

Rainbow Dash plowed into the earth, tearing up sod as she bounced and rolled along the ground in front of the changelings who'd shot her down. Stray feathers flew, accompanied by droplets of blood and the odd patch of skin or uniform.

Sprawled out in a heap after eating so much dirt, Rainbow somehow found the strength to rise to her knees. She pushed her goggles up onto her forehead as her vision tried to clear itself. She could just make out the crumpled body of Ocean Wake before her. The amount of blood leaking from his wound was grievous; they must've shot him right through the heart, she thought.

Rainbow, though luckier with her arrow wound, didn't have much time to think before a powerful blow came to the back of her head, knocking her almost to the ground again. Her vision blurred as she glanced up at the young hippogriff one last time.

The blow came again, and she passed out cold.

The leader of the changeling scouting party cast down the heavy stone he'd used to bash the Pegasus' skull. He made sure she was still alive; the colonel would be upset if he didn't get someone alive to interrogate. One of the other changelings set down his bow and retreated to a nearby stand of brush, which concealed a small wooden cart. The two changelings that had emerged from the trees arrived about that time as well, and one of them went to help retrieve the cart.

"Get the medical supplies while you're over there!" barked the leader. "If this one dies, I lose my bonus, and I take it out of your hide!"

"What about this one, boss? What do we do with him?" The other changeling archer nudged the corpse of Ocean Wake.

"Eh, just leave the body. Ain't like he coulda told us nothin' if he were alive. The hippogriffs don't know jack-shit about this war, they only just did enter it. Make sure you take your arrows, though; maybe whoever finds him will think it was somethin' else got him... nice shot by the way, rookie."

The changeling archer nodded in thanks as he wrenched his arrow from Ocean Wake's chest cavity, letting loose another red flood.

Meanwhile, the two other changelings had hitched themselves to the cart and brought it out of the brush. The squad leader bandaged the mare with some basic first aid and, with the help of his squadmates, loaded and locked her into a metal cage in the cart.

"Man, I bet this one's full o' love." One changeling remarked. "I can't wait to get my hooves on her..."

"Like hell you will!" Snapped the scout leader. "If you try to drain her now, she could die! You just wait til' we get back to camp; the colonel will be so pleased, I betcha he'll let us drain any prisoner we choose."

"Eh, fine by me." The rebuked changeling replied, reclining in the back of the cart. "I can just watch her sleep for now."

The archer changeling squirmed. "You're weird, dude."

With marching orders issued, the two changelings hooked to the cart magically metamorphosed into oxen, and they began plodding back towards their camp.

It was much later when Rainbow came to inside her cage.

The last vestiges of sunlight had faded from the sky, and storm clouds now gathered overhead to blot out the rising moon. She was initially curious as to why her surroundings were different when she realized she was moving. Shortly thereafter, her sense began putting the situation together: her body ached all over, her uniform had tears in it, and she was covered in bandages. Her right wing still throbbed with pain, and she could feel cold metal all around her.

Then she heard gates opening.

Then she saw torchlit watch towers.

And changelings. Lots of changelings.

It was then she realized she was a prisoner of war.

Rainbow could vaguely recall learning what to do in these types of situations in the classroom portion of Wonderbolt Academy, but frankly, she'd probably slept through it. It wasn't her fault that Spitfire had such a good "story time" voice. Even now, Rainbow felt as though she might pass out again when the door to her cage was unlocked and she was dragged out into the world.

The ground beneath her hooves was hard, grassless, and cold, packed down by hundreds of hooves over time. The changeling guards holding her at sword-point didn't seem too happy to see her, especially this late at night. She was escorted to a small room adjacent to a long brick building, which she gathered to be a row of prison cells.

They took tally of when she'd been captured, by whom, and the circumstances of her capture. They took her goggles from her, the only item she'd been carrying, and, failing to deduce how to remove the skin-tight fabric from her normally, proceeded to cut her out of her uniform. Rainbow was somewhat embarrassed by this; even though she, like most ponies, was accustomed to going around in the buff near-constantly, having these gruff, vicious changelings peel away her clothing with their blades, teeth, and prying eyes felt invasive and perverse.

After stripping her and applying fresh bandages to her wounds, they put her in a grey prison uniform, Number 3307. It was but a simple linen shirt which left the Cutie Mark revealed for ease of identification; they made a crude sketch of her mark in their files under her number, as well as giving her a heavier orange version emblazoned with 3307 for when she was required for manual labor.

Finally, they escorted Rainbow Dash down the hall, past rows of sleeping mares, both pony and changeling alike, and put her in the very last prison cell, on the corner of the block.

Rainbow watched as her freedom disappeared with the turn of a key.

Now, not only was she a bird with a clipped wing, but a caged one as well.

As that night dragged on, she gazed up out of her window, listening to the thunder and the driving rain.

She cried.

Chapter II: Welcome to Hell

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Spitfire glared uneasily towards the eastern horizon, glancing down at her watch on occasion.

"Why the hell isn't she back by now?" she wondered aloud.

"Is that some sort of academy record?" Thunderlane inquired with only a little bit of sarcasm.

"Not a good one." The captain replied. She turned on her rear hooves to face an assemblage of Wonderbolts and hippogriffs behind her.

"I want two squadrons to do a sweep of the perimeter in search of Rainbow Dash and Ocean Wake. We'll search all night if we have to, but we'll find them. Let me go get suited up and I'll accompany you."

With a collective nod, the air creatures began forming up and preparing to fly out. As Spitfire proceeded in the direction of the barracks and its locker rooms, General Seaspray made his concerns quite plain.

"And what if we don't find them, Captain?"

"I don't want to automatically assume the worst." Spitfire replied. "Dash is resourceful, and loyal to a fault. If she ran into a snafu, she'd do her best to get everycreature home safely. If we don't find them, we'll simply have to keep looking."

Rainbow Dash awoke in her cell that morning just as the sun was rising. Or, rather, she was woken up.

A loud clattering of keys and the creak of a metal door accompanied several grumbling guards. Her eyes popping open at the sensation of several hooves grabbing her, Dash was brought to hers and escorted out of the building, past countless sleeping mares, and through the courtyard of the camp to a small building which appeared to contain several offices. They set her down in a chair in front of a desk and took point at the door.

From across the desk, another chair swiveled to face hers. In it, a slightly larger, more imposing changeling sat, his hooves crossed with a stern look upon his face. He was virtually identical to his kin, except for his celadon eyes and carapace, and the larger, more noticeable spikes on his head and neck. Upon eyeing his newest prisoner, noticeable surprise crept onto his face. He levitated a small clipboard and pen over to himself.

"Name, rank, and serial number?" He said with a smirk.

Rainbow's face went expressionless. "Are you serious?" she thought.

"Judging by the look on your face, you already know who I am."

"Yes, I do." The changeling replied, a subtle insectoid clicking coming from his throat as he spoke. "I just vant to hear you say it."

She sighed in loathing. "Airpony First Class Rainbow Dash, #0922-1010, Wonderbolts." She tilted her head and eyes towards the opposite corner of the room as she continued reciting annoyedly. "Born September 22nd, Equestrian Year--"

The changeling officer held up a hoof, halting her. "Yes, yes, zat's very good, Miss Dash. I have all ze particulars I need."

"Don't you ever call me 'miss' again." She bit her tongue as she held in the thought. She knew that if she wanted to stand any chance of making it out of here, she would--occasionally, at least--have to act civil towards the changelings. That much she remembered from Spitfire's class: when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.

"I am called Colonel Chitin. I've got a few questions for you, and if you cooperate mit me, I can facilitate your return to Eqvestria. Now, vhy don't you tell me vhat you know about zis 'rezistanz' you ponies are putting up, hmm?"

Rainbow Dash straightened herself in her chair, trying to appear noble while not injuring her wing further.

"I'm sorry, sir; I don't know anything about big military plans. I'm simply a Wonderbolt." It was a common tactic, Spitfire had taught in class, to give the bare minimum information to one's captors: if they pressed the issue, either subvert it, or lie through your teeth.

"But you are also a hero of Eqvestria, no?" The changeling responded, leaning forward against the desk. "A bearer of ze Elements of Harmony, and zerefore, of great importance to Princess Celestia? Heh. Believe me, Vonderbolt, Our Glorious Queen Chrysalis taught us plenty about you and your friends in ze officer's program."

Chitin leaned even further forward, spanning the desk to invade Rainbow's personal bubble like Flash Magnus crossing the Rubicolt. The mare leaned back slightly, trying her best not to appear unnerved--or worse, annoyed.

"If I recall, you are ze bearer of ze Element of Loyalty, are you not?" He said, his breath smelling less repulsive than Rainbow had anticipated. "Zat means zat you vould be faithful to your friends, and to your nation, to a fault, yes? Zo naturally, I do not expect to get answers from you easily, Miss Dash, zough I do have my vays."

He shifted back into a more natural sitting position and ruffled some papers on his desk. He gave a shit-eating grin. Rainbow wished she could make him eat literal shit.

"But, for now, I am a very busy changeling, zo I vill give you vone more chance to turn over any information you vish, and ve shall do zis again in a few days, hmm?" He eyed her expectantly, with an obnoxious look that said "Well?"

Rainbow turned her head indignantly to glare at him from the corner of her eye. She would say nothing.

Realizing this, Chitin's grin vanished. He raised a hoof to the guards. "Do it."

The two changelings standing by the door brusquely grabbed Rainbow by the shoulders and lifted her from her chair. She squirmed slightly because of her wing, but no words escaped her pained expression. They brought her outside to the muddy courtyard, where a small, temporary wooden stage had been erected. A row of guards stood in front of it, and two on either side. Facing the stage was a crowd of ponies and reformed changelings, both stallions and mares, all in the same drab uniforms as Rainbow. Some of them gasped audibly as they saw Rainbow being brought on stage.

A changeling captain, big and brawny, stood next to Rainbow as the guards, still restraining her, brought her center stage.

"Well look what we have for you today, you pitiful foals!" He barked, a slight joy in his voice. "Equestria mourns the capture of her flying ace extraordinaire, the one and only Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash!" In a fashion reminiscent of a circus ringleader, he gestured with his hooves to the Wonderbolt, who was held up by her forelegs, one for each guard, while her rear legs were shackled together. The look on her face was indignant, though moments of worry peeked through temporarily.

The captain looked over the new prisoner, her fur and mane slightly ruffled and dirty from her capture yesterday followed by a night in a less-than-spotless cell. After a moment of Rainbow casting angry glances his direction, the changeling noticed her bandaged wing and his eyes widened. With a smile, he shoved the guard to her right aside, taking up her forehoof in a flash of magic; she squirmed in protest, but was still so tired she couldn't do much to break free.

"Looks like this birdie's got a clipped wing, fillies and gents!" The captain said, unfolding Rainbow's injured wing above her at an awkward angle, causing her to wince in pain. "No doubt the work of one of Chrysalis' fine soldiers!" he continued boastfully. Dash grit her teeth angrily as she looked at him over her shoulder.

He locked eyes with her, giving a toothy grin of malice, before wrenching her wing with a quick twist. Rainbow gave a quick vocal outburst and bit her lip, trying to hold back the agony coursing through her body. She didn't think he'd broken it, thankfully, but she did feel the gash in her flesh tear wider and saw the bandage become reddened with fresh blood. Several ponies in the crowd gasped loudly at this; some tried to rush the stage, but the row of guards prevented them from coming to Rainbow's aid.

"Oops! My bad!" The captain said in a playfully coy manner before loosing Dash's wing, which she quickly drew back against her body.

"You've always thought you were hot shit, huh?" Her tormentor continued, walking around to her opposite side as the other guard took hold of her again. "We'll see if that attitude persists long. We'll teach you what kind of shit you really are: the plain kind."

With that, the captain reared back on two hooves and delivered a forceful gut punch, knocking the wind from Rainbow's body with a loud exclamation from her and the crowd. Before she could respond, he snidely called her a bitch before delivering another blow to her cranium. Momentarily dazed, Rainbow nonetheless tried to lash out at her attacker, the two other guards struggling to withhold her.

Reaching off the edge of the stage, the changeling gathered a hoofful of mud and proceeded to rub it into her mane and smear it across her face. She attempted to bite at him, which only warranted a slap across the muzzle. The captain gestured to the two guards, who threw Rainbow backwards off of the stage into the mud before beginning their departure.

Despite the injuries she'd been dealt, Rainbow let her rage guide her to her hooves, wobbly though they were.

"THAT'S IT!" she yelled "YOU'RE GETTING A SONIC RAINBOOM STRAIGHT TO HELL!"

Rainbow began to extend her wings on instinct, only to injure herself further. Looking around, she also noticed she was being targeted by several archers in the guard towers.

"I'm sure." the captain said back over his shoulder. "If anything that isn't a changeling flies higher than ten feet, we turn them into a nice, messy pincushion."

Glancing around her once more, Rainbow Dash cursed under her breath and began to head back towards the building that housed her cell.

"It's okay, Rainbow." she comforted herself internally, biting her lip to contain her pain "This isn't completely hopeless. Sure, you're gonna be here at least until your wing heals, but then, THEN! Then, you'll... you'll...

She stopped and raised her head in thought. She had already made it back to the end of the hall, and stood outside her cell.

"What am I going to do?"

Dash sighed loudly, stepping behind her bars and slamming the door shut. As she leaned on the door's crossbar, she looked across the tight hallway into the cell across from hers. In it sat a frail, scrawny Pegasus mare, mostly legs, with pale pink fur, almost white, and a sun-bleached, mint green mane and tail. From what Rainbow could tell, hers was the kind of coat that once glistened in the sunlight, shimmering like diamonds as she walked past. Now, it was grungy, matted, and falling out in places. The Cutie Mark upon her flank was barely distinguishable, but it looked like fluffy cotton candy on a stick.

The mare noticed Rainbow looking at her, and upon turning her own bright blue eyes towards the newest prisoner, she shrank away towards the rear of her cell nervously.

"No, no, it's fine!" said Rainbow, trying to ignore the gradually strengthening pain in her head. "You don't need to be scared! I know I look a little rough around the edges, but you can thank the guards for that."

The candy-colored mare looked Dash up and down nervously. Rainbow tilted her head to one side, perplexed. Perhaps an introduction would break the ice?

She put a hoof to her chest. "I'm Rainbow Dash. What's your name?"

The mare across from her glanced towards the floor before looking back and responding. "I-I-I'm Fairy Floss..." she whimpered. "Y-You're a Wonderbolt, aren't you?"

"Why, yes." Dash cracked a smile. "How'd you guess?"

"I w-went to a Wonderbolt airshow once..." Fairy Floss continued, now almost shivering. "I think I saw you perform."

"Oh, well cool!" Rainbow replied, leaning casually on the bars now. "I'm your favorite, aren't I?" She gave a winning smile. Fairy's expression didn't change.

"A-Actually, it's Fleetfoot…" she replied meekly "I think she's way underrated..."

"Oh." Rainbow's face lost its expression. In her cell, Fairy Floss began shaking more, and covered herself up with a ratty green blanket from her bed. Rainbow Dash, noticing this, became confused.

"Are you cold?" she asked.

"I have low blood sugar." Fairy replied quietly from across the hall. "When I start to run low, I get cold and shaky..."

"Oh shoot, it's that time again?" came a mare's voice from one cell over. Rainbow turned her attention to the bars adjacent to Fairy's. Out from under the bed covers rolled a dark purple unicorn, her fur short and fuzzy like velvet. Her mane and tail, colored a deep red, were long and billowy, beautifully styled despite her living conditions; indeed, she could've made Rarity jealous. Her Cutie Mark appeared to be a lute with a tankard next to it, overflowing with, presumably, cider.

The unicorn, after checking the hallway for guards, ducked her head beneath her bed and retrieved a small wooden box, held shut with a metal clasp. Contained within were a few personal affectations, among them a comb and mirror, a hoof file, and a small pouch full of sugar cubes. She grabbed two in her mouth before hopping up against the wall, slipping them through the tall, barred window between the cells as best she could. They clattered to the floor, and Fairy Floss scooped them up and quickly ate them. As the unicorn tucked her contraband away into hiding once more, Rainbow got a better look at her face, which sported dazzling brown eyes underneath which sat semi-permanent dark circles. Clearly, this prisoner didn't rest well.

"Why didn't you just use your magic?" Rainbow inquired innocently.

The unicorn sighed disdainfully. "Because ever since my first breakout attempt, these damn bugs reinforced my cage with MAGIC-PROOF IRON!" She yelled down the hall with her forehooves propped up on the door.

"Now, I can barely lift anything more than a couple inches with this horn." She made herself calm down and take a deep breath. She turned a kind gaze upon Rainbow. "The name's Festive Aura."

"Rainbow Dash." The cyan mare replied.

"I think I read about you in the papers." Aura continued. "You're the princess' friend, right? Helped bring down the Storm King?"

"Uh, yeah... that's me." Dash had forgotten just how well-known she and her friends were across Equestria.

"Aw, shoot!" Came yet another mare's voice, this one from the cell right next to Rainbow's, and much deeper, with an accent. "Ah remember ya from the news all the way back when ya defeated Discord!"

Since she couldn't fly, Rainbow Dash couldn't look through the thin, high window to see the pony in the adjoining cell. From the sound of her voice, she seemed to be a farmpony, like Applejack, but definitely bigger.

"Geez, that was a long time ago." Rainbow remarked.

"Ah'm Peach Crumble," the accented voice continued "but you can call me Crumble or Peachy. I come from a peach orchard up near Vanhoover; Ah's a-runnin' supplies to the troops when mah caravan was captured."

"We've all got similar stories." Festive Aura chimed in. "I used to perform in my family's tavern to great reception. When this war broke out, I decided I'd take my show on the road to entertain the troops... aaaaand that's how this happened."

"I-I'm just a confectioner from Las Pegasus." Fairy Floss spoke up, now not shaking as badly under her blanket. "I wanted to go visit my older brother, who's in the E.U.P. Guard. I got lost somehow, and... well... the changelings lured me here with their disguises..."

"Well, I was ordered to scout around the camp." Rainbow Dash added with her own story. "Things didn't go so well... I'm the lucky one though, I guess. My partner, he... he didn't make it."

"Ah'm right sorry to hear that, pardner." Peach Crumble said from behind the brick wall. "Only a few o' the folks from mah caravan survived the attack, either."

"The three of us all wound up here at about the same time." Aura continued. "We've helped keep each other sane for... how long have we been here, Peach?"

Rainbow could hear the soft tap of a hoof on the wall as Peach counted the marks she'd carved into it.

"Little over a month." She replied. "Feels like it's been a lot longer. The days here last forever."

"Keep us sane?" Fairy spoke, more confident now as she rose to a sitting position. "Aura, you've kept me alive."

Aura smiled faintly. "Oh, I know, dear. It's not an issue, really. I don't have much use for sugar anyway. I'm nearly out, though... I'll have to see if somepony has smuggled any more in."

The three mares acquainted themselves with Rainbow, and they talked for most of the day. Come sunset, a changeling guard came strolling down the hallway: unusually though, this one was female.

"Alright, you mares." She snapped in a commanding tone as three other female guards began unlocking cells. "Follow me to the bathhouse."

"We only get to bathe once a week around here." Fairy Floss murmured to Rainbow Dash. "Worse still, it's communal. No privacy at all. I like being clean, but I hate having everypony's eyes on me..."

"We look away, you know." Aura added as she stepped out of her cell. "And we've offered to form a wall around you till you're done."

"Well, yeah..." Fairy squirmed uncomfortably in place "...but then I'd be way too close to your... business… the whole ordeal is already awkward enough."

Aura rolled her eyes.

As Rainbow stepped from her cell, eager to wash the caked mud from her fur, she met eyes for the first time with Peach Crumble. This mare was massive, bigger than any Rainbow had ever seen, and was clearly a workhorse. Muscles rippled beneath her golden coat, the color of ripe peach flesh, and she was a bit stockier than most mares her age, but that didn't eliminate her feminine figure. Her hooves were big and thick, and sat upon them were legs like tree trunks. She had to have been bigger than Big Mac, perhaps even approaching Rockhoof's size. Despite her burliness, she was still beautiful: her ochre-colored mane and tail, though cut short, were clearly well cared for, and her emerald green eyes were bright and cheery, and twinkled in the dimmest light. The Cutie Mark emblazoning her smooth, yet rock-solid, flank was a ripe peach with a peach half laying in front of it.

"...Peach Crumble?" Rainbow asked, awestruck.

"Haha, yep!" The farmpony replied. "Mah parents named me that on account'a when Ah's born, Ah's just so little and so fragile and so sweet! But look at me now! Bigger, stronger, but still just as sweet!"

Rainbow liked to think of herself as a strong and strapping athlete and soldier, even if she were a bit skinny. After standing next to Peach Crumble in the shower block, however, she felt downright petite.

After getting clean, which put Rainbow in a much better mood, despite her injuries and having to reapply bandages, the female guards returned the mares to their cells, and a short time later, male guards came through serving food from a cart. Instead of taking the risk of unlocking cell doors, they simply teleported the food inside, which had the added benefit of warming it up... slightly. Barely. Hardly at all.

"Oh, not this shit again." Aura balked. "Do you see this, you insect?!" She leaned against the bars and ran a hoof up her thinning abdomen. "I can count my fucking ribs!"

The guard scowled at her, clanging the metal dish against the cell bars. "You'll eat this and like it, then!" With a zap of his horn, the plate was on the other side of the iron only changeling magic could affect.

Peach Crumble and Fairy Floss, ever polite, thanked their captors for the food. Their kindness went unreciprocated.

Rainbow looked down at her own plate. It was full of a gross, greenish stew, full of what she assumed were some sort of vegetables, as well as crackers, or maybe hardtack.

"Are these... carrots?" She asked aloud, nudging something orange with her forehoof.

"Ah don't ask questions." Crumble replied. "Ah just eat. Might not wanna know what's in it, anyhow."

"Hey." Rainbow got the attention of a guard, then pointed across at Fairy Floss. "You need to give her something sweet with her meals. She needs the sugar." Fairy facehooved and turned away to hide.

The changeling got up in Dash's face through the bars. "I'm sorry, pony, but have you seen this place?! It's a shithole! We do good enough to get toilet paper this far out in the sticks!"

"You didn't give me toilet paper." said Dash with a hint of sass.

"With that attitude, you won't get any!" The guard barked back. "The prison isn't very high on Chrysalis' list of priorities, so what we get to eat isn't much better. Actually, I take that back..." He glanced at Fairy Floss out of the corner of his eye, who cowered away from his gaze. "...it's not half bad."

Rainbow wanted to sock him, but there was nothing she could do to keep the changelings from siphoning love from anypony they wanted, not even herself.

The guards departed shortly thereafter. One of the more antagonistic ones muttered a "fuck you" back at Festive Aura as he passed.

"You'll have to get me drunk first." She retorted under her breath.

As the sun snuck down below the horizon, the patrol teams found the body of Ocean Wake.

All the squads convened on the location to hold a brief vigil before bearing the corpse back to camp for proper shipment to its family. In the day or so it had lain, it was only slightly worse for wear, and hadn't had a chance to decay much. As it lay on a medical stretcher, another hippogriff soldier, a teal-green mare, hunkered over it, crying her eyes out. Spitfire noticed this, but couldn't get Seaspray to turn his attention away from planning with his officers.

"Well, fine then." she thought "If Seaspray doesn't have the time to comfort one of his own, I do."

The captain of the Wonderbolts softly walked to the mourning soldier and placed a gentle hoof upon her heaving back.

"You're Seafoam Mist, right?"

The mare looked up through teary eyes, nodding.

"He was a good soldier, Seafoam, I'm sure." Spitfire comforted. "You were close to him?"

She sniffed and nodded quietly. "He... he was... my best friend. We... we were..." She tried to hold back sobs as she spoke. "We were... going to be married... after the war... when we could afford it..." Seafoam broke down into tears again as she lowered her head to her beloved's still chest.

Spitfire felt her own heart sink as the sympathy for this mare washed over her. She wiped the corner of her eye and continued to speak, knowing she needed to be strong for her troops.

"Look, I... I can't do anything about this, though I'm sure we all would if we could. You'll get your leave for the funeral, and we'll give him the best one money can buy. And I assure you, I promise you, that come the end of all this, Ocean Wake will not have died in vain."

Spitfire gave the mare one last pat on the back before hovering off to address her troops. Seafoam's beak, with tears streaming down it, met Ocean's in a cold, yet sweet, one-sided kiss.

Spitfire glared at Seaspray when he turned his back on his ended conversation. He glanced at the bereft hippogriff, then back at the yellow Pegasus, cocking an eyebrow as if to ask "What do you want me to do?"

Spitfire gritted her teeth, then went to address her Pegasi.

After a nutritious, if foul-tasting meal, it was soon time for lights out.

Late that night, as Rainbow was beginning to drift off, a changeling came down the hall, quietly carrying a lantern to check on the prisoners. Looking out from beneath her covers, Dash locked eyes with this guard as he looked in at her. To her surprise, they didn't seem angry. As the dual blue shapes stared at her from the darkness, they glistened and glittered in the moonlight, giving off an air of gentleness, non-aggression, and perhaps even pity for her. The two stared silently at each other for a long while before the changeling turned and departed.

Rainbow Dash couldn't help but wonder if, even among Chrysalis' new changeling army, there were those who saw the world differently. As she pondered the world as seen through those glassy, luminescent orbs, her own violet eyes slowly closed, and she fell peacefully asleep.

Chapter III: The Way Things Are

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The sky was a pretty pale blue with the walls and trees standing out in black contrast against it; the sun hadn't yet risen, but would soon. Already, the changeling guards outside could be heard mulling about their business, organizing goods, making patrol rounds, and changing the guards in the towers.

Rainbow's senses stirred her gently awake at this odd hour, and her eyes cracked open just slightly. She hadn't moved from where she laid down the night before, and could see across the hall into Fairy Floss' cell by the pale morning light. The other mare was standing up against the wall, peeking through the high window to speak with Festive Aura, who likewise was reared against the brick. She was trying to reach her hooves through the bars, almost as if to comfort the fragile Pegasus.

"I had the dream again, Aura! It just keeps coming back!" she whispered frantically whilst holding back tears.

"Shh, shh, I know, I know. That's gonna happen, dear, but you just gotta be strong, be brave." Aura said in a motherly tone. "Do it for your brother, Fairy. He's out there fighting to keep you safe..."

Rainbow, her mind still groggy, considered asking what the trouble was, but hesitated from intruding into a potentially very personal matter. Fairy was, she acknowledged to herself with an incorrigible pun, a bit of a flight risk: much like Fluttershy once was, she was tender and easily frightened or flustered. Dash didn't want to upset her any more than she already was by asking her about her nightmares.

Suddenly, from the opposite side of her cell wall, she heard a great clamor; raising up with a start to look out her window, she spotted a changeling in the yard next to a large overturned cart of lumber, wincing at his failure. She noticed from the look in his eyes that it was the same changeling whom she'd locked eyes with the previous night. Before she could mull over the significance of this very far, a window on the office building, far across the yard, swung open. Out of it emerged the upper body of Colonel Chitin, thin spectacles resting on his snout and a grumpy expression on his face. Spotting the toppled cart in the muddy yard, he facehooved with a sigh and called aloud to the guard.

"Gott verdammt, Morphos! Not again! Fix that cart or I'll shove it up your ass!"

"Hehehehe, nice going, Morphos." Rainbow chuckled under her breath. She lowered herself back down, burying her cheek into her musty pillow with a yawn. She wouldn't get but a couple more hours of sleep before the guards came around for roll call.

"Alright, you, get up!" A changeling barked, jabbing Rainbow's sleeping form. "Put on your orange uniform, we've got work to do!"

Rainbow was escorted out of the building along with Peach Crumble and several other mares along their side of the wall; the opposite side was held in reserve. All were garbed in heavy orange prison uniforms, made to withstand hard labor. Out in the main yard, they met up with a group of stallions brought from the opposite cell block; they were given a crude breakfast and taken tally of before being herded outside the walls towards a small work area.

What appeared to be a small limestone quarry, gradually being turned into a hole in the ground, stretched out before the prison's north wall. Small sheds had been built around it, and several wheelbarrows and an oxcart sat unused near them. A wooden pulley crane with a platform for loading stone had also been erected on the edge of the deepest pit.

The changeling at the head of the procession of guards began to brusquely pass out picks and other tools to the prisoners.

"Keep digging away at this lode, you filth." He said in a gruff voice with a quick gesture of his hoof. "If you can get as much moved as you did last time, you might get your break early! And if not-- I'll do some breaking of my own!"

Rainbow had never done a hard day's work in her life... but, she figured, how hard could it be? Surely quarrying stone couldn't be that different from a high-intensity workout, right?

Rainbow Dash was so incredibly wrong.

The taskmasters worked their charges for two hours before giving them a fifteen-minute break. Rainbow felt like her every muscle was going to tear itself apart; her neck ached and burned from pulling ropes and swinging a pickaxe in her teeth, her legs were on the verge from giving out under load-lifting, and even her core was exhausted from climbing in and out of the quarry pit without flight to carry her. It didn't help matters that the sun beat down fiercely that afternoon, causing Rainbow to practically bake inside her heavy work uniform. She wasn't sure she'd ever sweat more in her life.

After quickly eating what food the guards provided, Rainbow went over to talk to Peach Crumble, who was used to hard work like this, and thus wasn't as fatigued as most of the others present.

"I think I'm gonna die here." said Rainbow Dash between heavy breaths. She wiped sweat from her brow with her uninjured wing.

"Just hang in there, pal." The massive farmpony replied. "We just gotta work a little while longer, and then we're on a free period."

"W-What? We actually get free time here?" Rainbow's ears perked up with confusion.

"Not a whole lot, but yeah." Peach replied. "I usually spend mine preparing for whatever we're made do next."

"But... why would they give us free time at all?"

"I 'spose it's to keep us from keeling over with heart attacks." The earth pony said, cracking her neck. "But I wouldn't question it. Just be thankful for little miracles."

"Alright, you scum!" Said a loud voice from across the way. It was the head taskmaster, whip at the ready. "Time's up! Back in the pit, all of you!"

Another hour passed before the prisoners were allowed their rest. Rainbow's knees were shaking by the end of it, and she found herself leaning on Peach Crumble as they headed back towards their cell block. The Wonderbolt was covered in dust and sweat, and her uniform clung to her skin like a wet blanket. She desperately wanted to take a shower, but the building was locked up when not in use. Dash at least found some comfort by dousing herself in water from a communal drinking trough before heading inside for a nap. When she and Peach reached their cells, however, they noticed that Fairy's and Aura's were empty.

"Where did those two go?" Rainbow asked.

"Pretty sure they got called out to work earlier." Peach Crumble replied. "The ones that aren't physically strong get to do more delicate work. I know Fairy repairs uniforms in one of the outbuildings. I'm not sure what they've got Aura doing."

Inside her cell, Dash stripped down and laid upon the cold floor, gaining some relief for her tired body.

"I'm glad they consider me 'physically strong.'" She said with sarcasm. Dash closed her eyes and stretched her legs, taking long, deep breaths and feeling the floor as it cooled her hide. It wasn't long before sleep took her, but she didn't rest long before she felt herself grappled by chitinous hooves.

"Get up!" The guard snapped at her. "And put some clothes on! The colonel wants to see you again!"

Rainbow Dash sighed. Sure enough, it was yet another effort to extract information from her, information she either didn't know or refused to yield. When Chitin grew frustrated enough, the guards took her outside and hit her with sticks.

"Let's give it another day and maybe you'll talk, eh?" The burly changeling who had tortured her previously said, looming over her menacingly.

As Rainbow lifted herself up and turned to retort, she caught one final swing with her face and crumpled to the ground. She woke up sometime later to Festive Aura's hoof reaching to pull her from the mud.

"Sweet Celestia, that's quite the shiner you've got, RD." She said, wincing slightly as she inspected the black eye. "Come on, I've got a little medicine stored in my cell that should help."

"Nghh... thanks, Aura..." Dash said through clenched teeth. She leaned on the dark unicorn as she slowly hobbled back to the cell block.

"Don't thank me." Aura quipped. "I'm not letting you sit out while the rest of us work." Dash attempted to laugh, though she wasn't sure it came out sounding right.

"Are you allowed to have other ponies in your cell?"

"No, so keep quiet."

Aura carefully checked the hallway for guards before letting Rainbow in and retrieving her contraband box from under the bed. Rainbow carefully sat her haunches upon the mattress; due to her limited telekinetic ability inside the cell, Aura had Dash hold a small tube of medicine while she squeezed out bits to dab around her eye.

"I'm sorry to be using your supplies..." Dash said sullenly. "I probably could have made it back on my own."

"Rainbow Dash, I'm the one who's feeling sorry for you here." Aura said in an almost motherly tone. "I've been snapping at the guards on an almost daily basis for a month now, but you're the one getting the shit kicked out of you." Rainbow tried not to wince as a foreign hoof carefully applied medicine to her swelling flesh.

"Yeah, they think I'm gonna tell them something, some insight about the war." Rainbow glanced off to the side. "Even if I knew what they wanted out of me, I wouldn't tell 'em anything. I'm a tough nut to crack."

"Well, I admire your resilience." Aura replied, tucking away her medicine. "But remember that these assholes don't take well to ponies who give them trouble... not that they take well to anypony anyway."

Rainbow chuckled. "You can say that again."

"I get mouthy, sure." Aura continued. "That's just who I am. But I manage to keep my head down and avoid the lash."

The Wonderbolt pondered her situation as Aura checked the hallway once more for guards. Hopefully she'd think of some way to make the beatings stop, or at least lighten. A clever lie, perhaps, though Rainbow wasn't sure what she could tell her tormentors that they would believe. On the inside, she briefly smiled as she thought back to all the ways she managed to hide or dispose of Pinkie Pie's endless barrage of unwanted dessert. Rainbow was crafty; she'd figure out something.

The unicorn signaled the all-clear.

"We're good to go." She said, holding the door open. "If you get some free time... well, free time that doesn't end with an eye swelled shut, come and say hello. They have me doing random things around the compound, but right now I'm on laundry duty. They should be calling me back to work before long."

"I hope they don't need me for a while longer." Dash remarked. As she left, she looked back and thanked Aura, who gave a friendly smile.

Dash spent some time milling about the prison yard, occasionally talking to other prisoners she passed, some of whom recognized her as an Equestrian hero. Several of the prisoners, including many of the reformed changelings, had been there longer than Peach, Aura, and Fairy, and had learned the layout of the compound extensively; Dash used this knowledge to track down the small building where Fairy Floss worked. Peeking inside a dirty old window, she could see several lithe ponies and smaller changelings, mostly mares, sewing or patching worn-out prison uniforms. Fairy sat at a small table in the center, carefully pulling the needle through the fabric with her teeth. Across from her, a changeling stood guard at the door, and another in a corner of the room, watching the inmates work.

The frail Pegasus just happened to glance up and spot Rainbow through the window, giving a tiny, meek wave with her wing before resuming her work; Dash returned the wave and turned on her hooves, returning in the direction she had came as quietly as she could, hoping that the guards wouldn't find her and say she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

On her way back, Rainbow encountered Peach Crumble once more, who began to greet her warmly before noticing her massive black eye.

"Howdy, Rainbo--EGH. What happened to you, sweetheart?"

"It's a long story." She replied with an awkward chuckle. "Aura helped patch me up a little, but my head's still pounding. What're you up to, Peachy?"

"The guards just called me an' some others out for another round o' work." The larger mare replied. "Gonna be out cuttin' firewood til suppertime, probably."

Rainbow cringed a small bit at the thought of more backbreaking labor. "Did, uh... did my name happen to come up at all?"

Peach gave a smile and a wink. "If your name comes up, I'll say that you're still unconscious from... that." She playfully gestured at Dash's injury, eliciting a smile in return. "Now you go and rest your head."

"Thanks, Peach. I will."

Indeed, Rainbow slept rather deeply back in her cell, only being roused awake by the clamor of dinner being served that evening. The food was magically zapped from the pot into her bowl: that night's fare was similar to yesterday's, except that the stew was predominantly orange in color and smelled clearly of carrots... not premium carrots, either. Dash rolled carefully out of bed, taking care not to hurt her wing any more. Her head had stopped pounding, but the flesh around her eye was still swollen and tender. Various other bruises had formed across her body from where the changelings had beat her, one right over her Cutie Mark. Rainbow Dash carefully slipped into the soft cloth uniform shirt that was folded nearby, freshly washed that day. Given the slight chill in the air that evening and the various bruises in need of cradling, it almost felt comfortable.

"You can thank me for that, RD." Aura quipped from across the hall as she daintily ate her stew. "Prison Camp Laundromat: We get it sort of clean, most of the time."

Rainbow managed a half-awake laugh as she sat down to eat. After spending a few moments trying to bite through a piece of hardtack, she finally managed to split it by slamming her hoof down on it.

"Just like the kitchen gets dinner sort of edible all of the time." She mused. The other mares chuckled at this, even Fairy somewhat.

"So, how was everypony's day?" Aura continued, half serious and half sarcastic.

"Y'mean other than bein' forced to labor in a prison camp under threat of armed guard while your nation is bein' torn apart by war that rages around ya? Not bad." Peach Crumble replied. "I got some good work done today, though I'd much rather be buckin' peaches back on the farm. Can't deny, though, I like the soreness in'muh legs when the day's done, and pullin' stone will give ya that."

Fairy looked up from lapping at her soup like a cat. "I got three uniforms done today... the guard wasn't even upset, like last time. I must be getting better." She paused before glancing across into Rainbow's cell. "Thanks for coming to visit, Rainbow Dash. That was nice." Dash gave Fairy a little smile, and Aura gave one to Dash.

"I can definitely say that my day would've been much worse if you ponies hadn't been here." Rainbow said, shifting in place. "I don't know how long I'll have to live here, but I definitely could have worse neighbors. I really wish we could have met under better, happier circumstances, but I'm glad we met anyway. I think... well, I hope, things will start to get better for all of us."

"They won't be getting better anytime soon."

The four mares startled briefly at the approach of a changeling guard. He and a few others were unlocking cells.

"C'mon, the colonel has arranged a little entertainment for tonight in the yard."

"Entertainment for you, no doubt." Aura succinctly responded, exiting her cell with ladylike posture.

"Oh, but that's the best kind!" The guard sarcastically retorted, quickly stifling a grin as Aura's rump went by. Fairy and Rainbow were freed next, and the procession of mares were guided out of the cell block and into the yard.

The air was chilly as the sun set, but a few tall torches had been lit around the yard, illuminating the audience of prisoners that gathered before the small wooden stage that had been reconstructed before them. Atop it sat Colonel Chitin in full military dress, along with a small staff of his subordinate officers to either side. The large, burly changeling captain that had made a show of Rainbow Dash the day before leaned on a chair near the edge of the stage. The dual audiences, one side male, the other female, poured out of their respective cell blocks under the guards' careful watch and sat upon the cold, hard earth.

"What do you think this is going to be?" Rainbow leaned over Fairy's huddled form to ask Aura.

"I don't know," she replied in a hushed tone "but whatever it is, it can't be good. They stage shit like this sometimes to raise their morale and lower ours. It's dumb nationalistic bullshit."

Before Rainbow could curtly remind her that she was a Wonderbolt who got captured trying to keep her nation safe, the changelings upon the stage signaled for silence. Colonel Chitin stepped forward and cleared his throat, his sleek, black, armored skin lit eerily by torchlight, with the green membrane that was his mane seeming almost to glow translucently.

"Wards of Queen Chrysalis' State," he began "enemies of and traitors to changeling-kind... you all know zat I do not tolerate insubordination vitsin my camp." Slowly, he began to pace the stage as he spoke to the crowd.

"But zere are some who do not know vhat is good for zem. Zere are some who do not zink zat my rules apply to zem. Zat zey can subvert Chrysalis' vill, or her ultimate authority. Zose of you who are loyal changelings know zat zis is simply not ze case. You know zat, however unnoticed or inglorious ze vork, vhat you do here is important to our Great Queen's efforts as a whole. Ve are ze cogs in ze machine zat keeps ze Changeling Empire running, and perhaps one day, ve vill be commended as ve deserve."

"Oh jeez." Rainbow muttered to herself.

"And of course, ze vork you do should be praised, especially by zese... lowlifes. And zo, I have taken ze privilege of gazering some of zis scum that chose not to rezpect zeir caretakers or ze laws of zis camp..."

Chitin scuttled into the air on his wings as a small procession of guards brought out four prisoners- three ponies and a changeling -from a holding pen nearby, slowly escorting them across the yard and up onto the stage. Their heads were held low, there were manacles on their hooves, and some of them had clearly been beaten. The guards among the crowd had to stifle a small uproar from the males' side, clamoring for the accused to be set free.

The four prisoners stood in a row near the front of the stage, hooves bound, eyes looking bleakly out into the crowd. A female changeling, her bright colors dulled by dirt and mud, a Pegasus and earth pony stallion, and a unicorn mare. Rainbow didn't recognize them; she heard Peach mumble to Aura that the two mares had been removed from the cell block days ago. Rainbow didn't want to think what had happened to them in the meantime.

Chitin hovered above each prisoner as he told of their crimes. The burly changeling cracked his neck and stood up straight.

"Zis putrid excuse for a changeling vas caught trying to smuggle supplies from our storehouse and tools from ze vorkshop."

Chitin buzzed over to the lanky Pegasus stallion.

"Zis pony vas caught digging a tunnel in his sird escape attempt. Not one or two, comrades, but sree times, he tried to escape." Some of the changeling guards spat curses toward the stage and the pony who'd made their jobs harder.

"And zese two," Chitin uncomfortably leaned his head between the unicorn and earth pony "were caught fraternizing behind ze shower block."

"I thought you bugs fed off love, not crushed it!" One mare, a unicorn, angrily called from a few rows in front of Rainbow Dash. The guards had to calm more shouts of protest from both sides as Chitin glared into the audience, signaling one guard to bash the blunt end of his spear against the mare's head.

"I vill have silence vhen I am speaking!" Chitin called out, buzzing high above the crowd. "Zese filszy animals only make life harder for creatures on eiser side of zis equation! More troublemakers means more vork for ze guards and staff, and tighter restrictions on you!"

The colonel lowered his gaze, scanning the audience before seeming to look directly at Rainbow Dash.

His voice took on a lower, deadlier tone.

"It is time to remind you all vhat ve do to troublemakers."

Colonel Chitin flitted back to his seat and nodded to the big changeling, who nodded to the other guards on stage. Some of the guards in the audience began to cheer as they stepped forward towards the prisoners. Rainbow Dash held her breath. Fairy Floss covered her eyes with her wings. The two lovers on the stage shared a mournful glance.

Summarily, the guards proceeded to brutally beat the four prisoners on stage. The captive audience was variously filled with gasps, cries, and angry shouts as more changelings attempted to forcibly pacify them. The big changeling slammed the unicorn's head repeatedly with a wooden club; he was so fierce and full of anger that Rainbow feared he might kill her. Next to them, another changeling knocked the earth pony stallion to the floor and struck him with hooves and a small lash. The Pegasus very likely had his wings broken by one guard, while another smashed his hoof with a small mallet. But the victim receiving the worst treatment by far was the reformed changeling. The guard assailing her used his magic to come at her from all angles with his torture implements: a cat o' nine tails seemed determined to crack the chitin on her legs and flank, a small spike or nail made precision wounds on her wings or the exposed joints of her armor, drawing trickles of green blood, and a metal rod was used to bash her over the head. Her horn was cracked and tilted to the side, and Rainbow could tell there was something wrong with her left eye that wasn't wrong before.

There was a lull in the abuse triggered by Chitin's call. The guards looked briefly back at him before taking a step back.

"Are zere any of you who vish to plead for my forgiveness?"

The prisoners were silent, exchanging glances. The two lovers had tears running down their faces as they attempted to hold each others' hooves. The young Pegasus half cried, half moaned with every breath, his hooves shaking as he examined his shattered wings, waterfalls flowing from his eyes. Finally, the changeling mare stood rigid, her head level, and spoke to the audience.

"When I first reformed," she said "I was doubtful that the metamorphosis would be a good change. Chrysalis' hive was the only life I could have imagined, and I didn't know how a changeling like Thorax could possibly be a good leader." From the row of seats behind her, Chitin raised an inquisitive brow.

"But then I realized something..."

The entire prison was silent as they awaited the mare's revelation.

"...friendship and love changed my life for the better, and Chrysalis be damned, I think tha-"

Chitin shot an infuriated glance at the guard next to the mare, who lunged forward with a hiss and bit off part of her ear.

The crowed took to an uproar again, resulting in the pummeling of several of its members, as the four creatures atop the stage were mercilessly beat again. Rainbow Dash watched in unspoken horror, unable to turn her eyes away. The earth pony stallion was set upon by two changelings and undoubtedly suffered some broken bones, and the changeling mare's injured eye, by the end of it all, seemed to emerge slightly from its socket, its appearance no doubt suggesting it would become blind.

At the end of the night, which only got colder as the moon rose, the prisoners were shuffled off back to bed, and the four torture victims were bound with abrasive rope around their forelegs from the front gate of the prison, where they hung all night, stomachs unfed, injuries untreated, skin or scales exposed to the bitter air, until they would be fished down at morning light and given minimal medical treatment.

As she lay in bed that night, unable to sleep from both her midday nap and the horrific sights she had witnessed, Rainbow Dash watched the moonlight cast itself through her barred window onto the floor of the hall, not quite reaching Fairy's sleeping form. Suddenly, the sound of hoof-falls greeted her ears, accompanied by the sound of a magical aura. From just beyond her cell's walls, she saw a changeling guard emerge, holding a lantern... but Rainbow recognized his eyes.

It was the same guard who she'd seen the night before, and who had upset the cart of lumber this morning. It took her a few moments to remember what Chitin had called him: Morphos. She then realized he wasn't anywhere to be seen during that evening's gruesome ceremony.

As the familiar glassy blue orbs locked eyes with Rainbow Dash again, she decided to try something risky.

She mouthed the name Morphos.

The changeling almost jumped out of his exoskeleton. After his head jolted back in surprise, his eyes quickly shot back and forth before he turned and left without a word. "Oh well" Rainbow thought. Maybe she'd get another chance to see him, and maybe, just maybe, she'd get a chance to earn his trust.

Chapter IV: Hope

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The small room was lit by several lanterns and candles, though an air of darkness still seemed to pervade the space. Spitfire, Seaspray, and a number of both officers' support staff were crowded around a low table, upon which was sprawled a topographic map of the area. Several marks had been drawn upon it in red pencil, indicating the camp where they currently were, the last known trajectory of Wonderbolt Dash, and numerous places they'd unsuccessfully searched for her over the course of the past four months.

"I think just about the last place we can look is near this mountain, several miles north." Spitfire indicated to the map with her hoof. "Our allied Crystal Empire contingent said they would keep their eyes open in our latest correspondence, but I don't think it likely that Dash would've gotten lost that far to the west."

General Seaspray awkwardly cleared his throat. "Quite frankly, Captain, I don't think it likely that Rainbow Dash will be found at all..."

Spitfire raised a domineering eyebrow. "You were there with me, General. If she didn't leave a body, she's still out there. I know Dash, she's capable of surviving."

"Plus," added Soarin "she's literally the Element of Loyalty. Dash wouldn't betray us to the enemy, either."

"That may be so," Seaspray replied "but it may be time to face facts, Captain. It's been four months and we've turned up no signs of your star mare. Even if she is alive, she may well be in the clutches of our enemy, and who knows what kind of information they might extract from her."

Spitfire popped off the ground with a snort from her nostrils, glaring across the table.

"Dash would NOT betray us." She responded. "She's a model Wonderbolt and a good friend. I'd trust her with my life. I'm confident that even under threat of death, she'd stay true to Equestria."

"Captain Spitfire, I merely wish to point out that we have spent a great deal of time and resources searching for a single mare. We are at war. I'm sure there are better pursuits to devote our time to. Friendship may be a core tenet of Equestrian culture, but don't let it cloud your vision and interfere with your duties to my troops and yours."

The other ponies silently turned to look at Spitfire, wondering how she would respond. The yellow mare merely sat across from the hippogriffs, forelegs crossed, her lips silent but her eyes seeming to burn like fire. Seaspray returned a stern countenance, having said all he intended to. The tension was palpable.

"...This meeting is adjourned." Spitfire said after a few moments.

Once the others had all left, Spitfire rolled up the map and returned with it to her quarters in the barracks. Stepping inside, she let a loud sigh as she ignited the lantern on her footlocker and hung it on a hook above her. Shrugging off her officer's jacket, she placed it and her sunglasses neatly on her bed before turning her attention to the trunk at the foot of her bed. She cracked it open and rifled through a few personal possessions before she located what she sought: a framed photograph of herself, Rainbow Dash, and several other Wonderbolts enjoying a few drinks after one of their biggest performances. The usually gruff mare permitted herself a smile as the memories- old and new -came flooding back.

Inevitably, her thoughts drifted to the past few months and the nature of the war. Chrysalis' army had been winning, though the combined efforts of Equestria and Thorax's kingdom had prevented them from taking many important positions. Though Spitfire's unit was positioned far away from the front, they'd been called up a handful of times as reinforcements at minor battles. Unit casualties had been low, and her original Wonderbolt squadron, minus Dash, remained intact, though Fleetfoot had been wounded at their last engagement and Spitfire herself suffered some minor scrapes when she charged a changeling fortification.

Whenever she wasn't required to command or coordinate, Spitfire had spent most of her waking moments searching for her lost comrade, often accompanying the search parties herself. Just as Seaspray had said, every one had turned up empty. She refused to believe that Dash was gone; even though it was 100% possible, the thought hurt her too much. The captain had formed such a bond with her team throughout the years, losing any one of them was unthinkable, but Dash she knew especially well. The two mares had had each others' backs in more than one tight situation and trusted each other deeply... perhaps that was why Spitfire couldn't bear thinking that she'd sent Rainbow to her death.

The captain made herself bite back a tear as she pictured herself telling Rainbow's family that their daughter was dead. She was determined to keep looking, but she knew that the longer they searched, the more likely that dreaded scenario became.

Spitfire set the photo down on her bed and continued digging through her trunk. Down in the bottom, she found a smallish, albeit weighty, bottle of whiskey that had been a Hearth's Warming gift from her mother. She'd kept it in her office back at headquarters for "emergencies"- the occasional overwhelming day -and although she wasn't supposed to have it here at camp, nopony would suspect her if she nipped at it infrequently. Fishing out a shot glass, she pulled the cork with her teeth and poured with her wing. Raising the little glass in her hoof, she glanced at the photo, at the smiling faces, with concern.

"If you're out there, Dash... here's to you."

Back in Ponyville, the citizenry had been abuzz with activity. Indeed, across the nation, Equestria's home front was all too eager to support the fighting mares and stallions in any way possible, seeing as this was their country's first war in well over 1,000 years.

Foals at Cheerliee's school helped make care packages for deployed soldiers. Mayor Mare, Filthy Rich, the Apple Family, and other public figures held various benefit dinners, concerts, shindigs, or other events to raise funds as well as morale. The best of the best from Ponyville General Hospital, including Doctor Horse and Nurse Redheart, were called away to the mobile surgical hospitals near the front. Princess Twilight found herself popping up on more and more posters, serving as a rallying figure to the public as Celestia and Luna took turns leading troops and governing.

And of course, ponies everywhere bought and sold war bonds to generate badly-needed bits for the government. Often, these were advertised publicly by children, especially those who had family in the war... and among Ponyville's herd of younglings, none had sold more bonds than Scootaloo.

Rarity and Fluttershy watched from a café window as she stood on the corner, bundled up from autumn's howling winds in a cap and scarf, using a rock to keep her bonds and receipts from blowing away.

"That poor darling..." Rarity said, holding a warm latte in her hooves. "She's been sitting on that corner from sunup to sundown for months now, selling those bonds."

"Even when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle try to get her to come inside out of the wind, she won't stop until she says she's done enough." Fluttershy replied, concern in her voice.

"I even had to carry her home in her sleep one night!" Rarity added. "It's a good thing you, Applejack, and I have been taking care of her, or else she'd probably catch a cold out there."

"I hope Rainbow Dash is okay, too." continued Fluttershy. "She only replied to Scootaloo's first letter, and that's what brought all this on." The Pegasus sighed and sipped her tea. "I hope we hear from her soon, and maybe Scootaloo will be able to take it easy."

Outside on the corner, she was making out a bond to Caramel. At the end of the day, she'd take her passel of slips to the bank for proper registration, but that would be several hours from now.

"In the meantime, I guess we'll have to support the war effort in any way we can." Fluttershy said. "The animals and I have been making care packages and I'm teaching my chickens to cluck the national anthem... not to mention, Scootaloo sold me a war bond the other day."

"She's very persuasive..." said Rarity from behind her coffee "I've bought three."

In the four months that had passed, Dash's physical condition had greatly improved. Her black eye was gone, and the injured wing that got her captured was almost back to working order, though she wouldn't trust it to carry her just yet. She'd also managed to avoid too many of the guards' beatings by leading Chitin on a wild goose chase: she had him convinced that an Equestrian base was somewhere to the east of their position, and Rainbow had managed to strike a good balance between exaggeration and realism that kept him believing her lies.

She had also continued to improve her relationships with her fellow prisoners. Not only did many of the mares in the cell block know her by name, but Peach, Aura, and Fairy now counted her among their closest confidants. Rainbow had even helped run interference from time to time while Aura and her contacts smuggled contraband -such as the sugar Fairy needed- into and about the prison.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Dash had been slowly but surely bringing down Morphos' walls. Every night as he patrolled the halls, they locked eyes, and every night he lingered just a little longer, as if curiously inspecting her. They hadn't yet spoken, but she got the sense that every time they met at midnight, his guard came down little by little.

Soon, she thought, she'd have to try actually talking to him; with luck, maybe they'd make a connection.

But for now, Rainbow Dash had more pressing matters on her mind: the massive log she was attempting to move, and the whip cracking above her head that urged her to move it faster.

As the autumn progressed swiftly towards winter, the prisoners' labor was largely being directed toward the frantic felling of trees and cutting of firewood. Rainbow was harnessed to a 15-foot log alongside one of the stallions from the camp, both of whom were straining to get it pulled in the direction of the lumber shed for processing.

"Come on, you miserable ponies!" Shouted the big changeling captain. He cracked his whip in the air, just narrowly avoiding Rainbow's noggin. "We're all gonna freeze to death if you don't get these trees moving!"

Dash snorted and huffed from her nostrils as she pulled with all the might her legs could muster. The stallion next to her was sweating and gnashing his teeth, keeping up but threatening to overtake her with every ponderous step. He seemed irritated as well, and if he'd been unchained, he probably would have attacked the guard. Dash decided to try and funnel a little bit of anger herself, clenching her jaw and pulling ever harder on the slowly-moving log.

In fact, it may have worked just a bit too well, as soon, Dash heard a loud snap behind her before falling face-first to the dirt. She'd managed to pull hard enough to break the frayed leather straps of her harness.

"Fucking great." moaned the big changeling. He turned to call across the way to some other guards. "Yo Nyx! We need a new harness over here!"

Rainbow and the stallion took a moment to catch their breath on the cold, trampled earth. The forest's edge wasn't far from the prison camp, and up in the towers they could see the noonday changing of the guard. Already a chill breeze was in the air and the days were shortening; Rainbow figured they could expect snow within a month, but wondered how much of this firewood would actually go to heating the drafty prison cells.

From out of her peripheral vision, the Wonderbolt spotted the stocky Peach Crumble hauling a similarly massive log on her own with little sign of fatigue.

"Howdy, Rainbow." she said, glancing over her shoulder. "How ya holdin' up?"

The blue mare finally caught up with her own breath. "Oh... not bad... could be better... I broke a harness..."

"Eeyup, I did that a bunch too when they first started workin' me." Peach replied. "Poor craftsmareship is what that is. Now they just hook me up with these." The large mare shimmied her shoulders, rattling the shiny metal chains binding her to the log.

"Hey! Who said you could stop?!" A changeling shouted as he approached them. Peach gave a quick nod and a flick of her ear to Rainbow, then continued plodding towards the lumber shed. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash felt the harness swiftly plucked from her shoulders as she was ushered onto her shaky legs.

"No new harnesses, boss. Gonna hafta swap in a pony from one o' the other teams." From behind, two subordinate changelings were bringing in another mare to take Rainbow's place.

"Send this one to the shed then, she can start splitting." The big changeling said, gruffly jutting a hoof in the proper direction. Tossing aside the broken harness with a nod, the changeling called Nyx put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulders and guided her to the processing station.

Inside the temporary setup, numerous prisoners stood with axes, wedges, and hammers, splitting segments of the larger logs into more manageable hunks of firewood. Rainbow was placed at an empty station near the end of the room, and one of the guards provided her a small hatchet and a block of wood, but no instructions. Rainbow couldn't recall ever helping cut firewood before, but figured it couldn't be that difficult, as long as she observed what the others were doing and was careful with the sharp bit.

After nearly letting the axe fly out of her hooves once or twice, Rainbow decided it was better to clench the little handle in her teeth and come at the logs from the side; it was a somewhat awkward manner in which to cut firewood, but one which she made work well enough, as did many other ponies likewise tasked. She would split a log into two or four pieces of roughly the same size, whereupon a changeling came down the aisle to present her with another. Once the pile of wood on her table grew tall enough, another guard would come by with a large cart to collect it. Dash spent a good while repeating this process until she noticed the next changeling approaching with the cart-- it was Morphos.

The mare sat up somewhat awkwardly in her place as she waited for the cart to roll by her station. When it finally did and the stack of wood was lifted and lowered magically into place, the changeling's eyes widened a little as he realized who she was.

"Hi." Rainbow said, trying not to come off as too eager or too uninterested.

Morphos' shiny blue eyes darted back over his shoulder. The other guards were talking idly among themselves, and the other prisoners seemed focused on their work. Cautiously, his head drifted back towards Rainbow, his expression unsure.

"...Hi."

"You know who I am, right?" It was an obvious question, she knew, but it got a nod of confirmation from the changeling.

"A-And you know who I am." he replied in a low register. "How do you know my name?"

"I heard the Colonel yell at you one morning." said Rainbow. Morphos winced.

"Yeah," said the changeling "that happens sometimes. You... you shouldn't call me by my real name. If anypony found out, there could be trouble."

Rainbow nodded. She didn't want to put either of them in hot water.

"Could we talk later then? Maybe tonight?"

Morphos flattened his ears against his head and looked around worriedly. "I really shouldn't be talking to ponies unless I'm reprimanding you... but all that the other changelings want to do is talk about the war or insult me... I'll see what I can do. It would be nice to have somepony to talk to..."

As the cart rolled away, Rainbow returned to her task of splitting wood, albeit with a bit more energy now. She was hopeful that this line of communication would get her a set of eyes on the outside, and perhaps, eventually, a way to get out. She felt like she'd made it to the front porch; now she just hoped Morphos would open the door.

Chapter V: Darkest Hour

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When Morphos came down the hall that night, Rainbow had already drifted into a shallow sleep. At first he was unsure whether to wake her, but decided to muster his confidence and take her up on the offer to chat. The changeling softly buzzed his wings, the skittering sound eliciting an ear twitch from Rainbow, who momentarily opened her eyes and sat up to greet him.

"Hey." she greeted gently.

"Hi..." he replied, trying to ignore the hesitance rising within him.

Dash's head immediately filled with all sorts of questions she could ask him. What did he know about the war? What sorts of things did he overhear from the guards? What did Chitin suspect of her, if anything? All of them felt like perfectly valid questions, but not of the sort she should be asking right now. No, Dash didn't want to frighten him off or make him suspicious of her. Instead, she decided to lead with a question that, while seemingly mundane, would let him know that she wasn't trying to use him.

"So... how have you been?"

Morphos was a little shocked, and his face probably showed it. It was the first time any creature had ever asked him that question, or really showed any sense of interest or concern in his wellbeing. He was used to just being Morphos, that little bug that everyone steps on; he rarely ever thought of himself as an individual deserving of respect. For the first time he could really recall, Morphos took stock of his day-to-day existence and how it made him feel.

"Well..."

He stood idly, poking at the ground with a hoof as the words tried to come to him.

"Not... great?" He glanced up at Rainbow Dash, who quietly urged him on with a hoof.

"I feel... unhappy. Not content. And not proud. It's sort of obvious, given how we live, as to why any changeling wouldn't be happy, but at least the others feel a sense of accomplishment for what they're doing here... I just don't."

Rainbow nodded. "Do you know why?"

Morphos lowered to his flanks. "Well, I know I'm not happy because everyone bullies me. I'm the smallest around here, the weakling, and I'm easy prey. As for pride..." He bit his lip nervously, glancing warily about as he tried to utter aloud his traitorous thoughts.

"...I don't think what we're doing here is right."

Rainbow's ears perked up. Morphos continued.

"I-I was raised from a grub to believe in Chrysalis' power and righteousness, how Equestria wronged her, wronged us, and was deserving of punishment. But I just... I... something... in my mind says no, this isn't right. I've seen what the guards do to you ponies. I don't think anycreature should be put through such trauma... but I can't do anything about it. Not only am I not strong enough to begin with, if I spoke out--and didn't suffer the same fate--the Colonel would send me off to the front lines where I wouldn't last a second."

The mare within the cell shifted off her bed and quietly stepped towards the bars. The forlorn changeling turned his glittering blue eyes upon her.

"It must be hard to keep all that to yourself." she said.

"You have no idea." replied the changeling. "I-I already feel like I've said too much... just finding the words made my brain melt. I already feel like a traitor... if any of the brood finds out, they'll--"

Rainbow gently put a hoof through the bars, which Morphos instinctively backed away from; nonetheless, Dash displayed her empathy on her sleeve, and this seemed to calm him. It was nice to be treated with care, he thought.

"Hey, hey, it's alright..." she tried to soothe him. "I'm here to listen. Anything you want to say, you can say it."

The changeling nervously scanned the hallway again for any signs of activity, ears flat against his head.

"This... feels so wrong..." he said. "Actually talking to a pony. All my life I've been told you were the devil, the enemy. But... you don't seem anything like they say you are..."

"You can trust me, Morphos." said Dash.

Morphos shuddered at hearing his name pass her lips. It sounded so much different coming from her than from an angry superior.

"Can I, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"How do I know you're not trying to use me for something?"

Rainbow ruminated for a moment. Admittedly, she had hoped that endearing herself to a guard could one day facilitate in an escape, but she also knew that she owed him something in return: a friendship he'd never had. She was the Element of Loyalty, after all; backstabbing wasn't her modus operandi. And besides, she thought, if Spike had shown that changelings could change by befriending Thorax, perhaps she could do the same with this generation. She imagined Twilight would be proud of her using what she'd learned about friendship to make the best of a situation like this.

"The way I see it," Dash began "you've never had anyone to listen to your problems or support you. And I'm loyal to all my friends... it's kind of my thing back in Equestria. If I can be your first positive exposure to ponies, I'll gladly listen to anything and everything you have to say. It's what I'd want from a friend if I were in your hooves."

"F-Friend...?" Morphos' face was twisted into nervous, wide-eyed surprise.

Dash winced slightly. "Too strong of a word?"

Morphos shrunk. "It's almost a curse to changeling ears."

"Well... let's put it this way." She cast a genuine smile his way. "I'll promise to keep your secrets and lend you an ear whenever you need it, and you can do the same for me. Deal?"

She once more extended a hoof through the bars. Morphos eyed it awkwardly before glancing up to her face and giving a small smile himself.

"Deal." He said, shaking her hoof. "R-Rainbow Dash... right?"

She nodded happily. "At your service."

The next couple of days passed uneventfully. More firewood was hauled in and processed, and very few prisoners had to be reprimanded. In fact, this disappointed some of the guards, who considered days when business ran smoothly to be 'boring.'

Colonel Chitin had no time to let boredom sink in, however. He'd spent the past week or so poring over a map of the area and arranging scouting parties, trying to determine the location of this alleged Equestrian camp that Rainbow Dash had informed him of.

Crammed into Chitin's modest office space, a group of lower-ranking officers scrutinized said map, which had been pinned to a corkboard and carefully scribbled upon in pencil. Tiny, orderly letters denoted places where they had already searched, marked with date and time, and smaller scraps of paper lined up along the side kept track of new tidbits they learned from interrogating their star prisoner. The colonel himself sat at his desk, a hoof pressed against his temple as his eyes furiously scanned transcripts of the interrogation sessions, with particularly important information underlined in ink. In one corner of the room, his secretary, a small changeling mare with lustrous pink eyes and carapace, as well as small spectacles like those of Chitin himself, sat at a miniscule writing desk clacking away on a typewriter.

Chitin was beginning to get frustrated. Despite thoroughly scouring the countryside with every keen-eyed ranger he could muster, he hadn't found any sign of the enemy, and fewer of Dash's new claims seemed to hold any water either. He began to suspect that the Pegasus had taken advantage of his zeal to misdirect him, for which he mentally lauded her craftiness. Nonetheless, Chitin didn't like being lied to, especially by a creature so profoundly beneath him.

Looking up from a hoof-full of papers, he resolved that the next lie the Wonderbolt told him would be the last.

The colonel's ear twitched as the clacking of the typewriter and the squabbling voices of his underlings overwhelmed his patience. Abruptly standing up from his desk, he slammed his hooves to the wooden surface, sending papers in various directions and startling everyone in the room.

"SILENCE!" he yelled. There was a pause before he gestured for his subordinates to take their seats on the opposite side of the room. Afterwards, he slowly stood, looking back at the map and around at the other changelings. He adjusted his glasses and calmly began speaking.

"My comrades... have we located any sign of ze enemy vitsin zis area?"

The officers silently shook their heads. The secretary sat perfectly still in her corner.

"Vhy do you sink zat might be?"

The three of them shared glances between each other, ears swiveling about as if they were using a sign language. After a moment, none of them was able to come up with a satisfactory answer. One of them casually shrugged, and he was lucky that Chitin didn't reprimand him for it.

"Ze vay I see it," the colonel continued "zere are two logical conclusions." He glanced over at his secretary, then back to the trio. "Eiser ze mighty changeling army--Queen Chrysalis' best, most vell-trained soldiers--are a bunch of drooling, incompetent children..."

One of the changeling officers who lacked a horn to write with slowly and carefully removed the pencil from his mouth.

"...or," said Chitin "zis Eqvestrian heroine has been taking us for fools. Sinking she can deceive us vit lies and trickery. Vell, we shall vaste no more time or resources on her 'intelligence', shall ve?"

Quickly realizing it was their cue, the three officers nodded.

"Ze Vonderbolt has tricked us vonce, but it shall not happen again..."

Chitin turned to his secretary and told her to cancel all upcoming reconnaissance missions, as well as to prepare a new report for the higher-ups. After that, he barked out a call for one of the guards from outside, and the large, burly changeling stepped in.

"Yes, sir?"

"At oh-two-hundred hours, I vant you to bring me Prisoner #3307. Zis time... she vill tell us vhat ve vant to know..."

That night, Dash had feigned sleep so she could talk to Morphos when he came by on his shift. Their chat wasn't as long as it had been on previous nights, but Morphos got to let out his day's frustrations to a sympathetic ear, and Dash reassured him of his importance, trying to nurture his repressed sense of individuality. After ending their heart-to-heart, Rainbow Dash managed to curl up and get a couple good hours of sleep, during which she dreamed of herself and the other prisoners being free and wandering the land together. Morphos was there too, smiling, and everycreature seemed happy.

Unfortunately, her springtime idyll was not to last. Some time later, Rainbow heard her cell door unlock and felt several pairs of hooves grabbing her and yanking her from the bed, somehow doing so quietly enough to avoid waking the neighboring inmates. She struggled at first, instinctually, but quickly decided that it wasn't worth the effort or the possible injury; if the colonel wanted to see her, she couldn't prevent him from seeing her. But why so early?

The guards brought Rainbow to the front door of Chitin's office, where the green-accented changeling was locking up. He promptly turned on his hooves and gave a sly smile.

"Good morning, Miss Rainbow Dash." he sneered. "I trust you slept vell?"

"Chitin, what in the fresh hell do you want at this hour?" Rainbow snapped back, graciously ignoring his use of "miss" as she wiped sleep from her eye.

"I have come to ze conclusion, my dear," Chitin said, his wings chittering under his carapace "zat you have been lying to me to avoid exposing your allies' location."

Rainbow Dash took on a dramatically fake show of offense.

"Why, I have no idea what you could be talking about!" She put a hoof to her chest and a frown on her face, though she smirked internally as she channeled her inner Rarity. "I don't know why I would feel the need to lie to such a noble changeling who's made my stay here so wonderfully comfortable. Why, this little stalag has practically become my home away from home. Everyone here is so nice, at this rate I may not want to go back to Equestria!"

Chitin leveled his eyebrows and frowned.

"Enough of zis nonsense, Rainbow Dash, I vill not be having it."

"Aww, c'mon Click-Clack, I thought you and I were friends!" She gave her best fusion of a child's pout and her characteristic smirk. Chitin immediately snapped forward, his eyes blazing.

"DON'T say that vord!"

One of the guards punched Rainbow in the shoulder and she scoffed. Chitin regained his composure and his domineering smile returned; he almost looked like a snake coiled up in Dash's path.

"Come," he said "zere is somesing I vant to show you."

Chitin led the guards, with Dash in tow, through the complex of buildings set behind the small office complex. This was where Fairy had been put to work mending uniforms, and where Aura had worked on cleaning them. There were storage sheds for food and supplies, a kitchen and guard's mess, a series of outhouses that prisoners were allowed to use if away from their cell, and even a smithy to repair weapons, tools, and horseshoes. They were all clustered fairly close together, some no more than two ponies apart, which made moving through them feel like navigating a maze. But Chitin knew it like the back of his hoof, and the guards did too. By the time they reached their destination, thunder could be heard rolling overhead in the cloudy night sky, and the first faint drops of rain began to fall.

They had escorted Rainbow to a large, squarish building near the back wall of the camp; like the cell blocks, it had sturdy stone walls, but its door was massive and heavy, made of rusted iron. It had no windows except near the very top of the structure, and they too were barred. Chitin used his magic to rap the door with the sturdy iron ring that served as both handle and knocker; from inside, the large, muscular changeling taskmaster shoved aside the door with minimal effort and guided them all in with a lit torch.

The creaking door slammed shut behind them; Rainbow felt a chill run up her spine, and got the immediate sense that she was in some sort of dungeon. There were at least a couple of different rooms--or perhaps cells, she thought. The floor was cold and unwelcoming beneath her hooves, a sensation that seemed to spread throughout the structure. From somewhere far off in the place, Rainbow thought she heard a rat scurrying around.

"Zis is an imposing structure, don't you sink?" said Chitin, glancing over his shoulder as the big changeling led them towards a large room in the back.

"It's lovely." Dash remarked dryly, barely able to see in what felt like unnatural darkness. "And just what are we doing here, pray tell?"

"Our previous messods of interrogation have not been effective in securing ze information we need." The colonel plainly replied, his eyes turned forward as the brutish bug at the head of the party led them into a large, expansive chamber lit by moonlight from the narrow windows.

"But..." he skittered over to one side of the room, his voice echoing about the great chamber "I figured if ve could not draw out your secrets vit physical coercion... perhaps somesing more psychological vill help."

At the center of the room stood a large, flat slab of wood, situated atop some system of gears so that it might be tilted and rotated. It had four manacles attached to it, in the perfect positions to hold down four hooves. The burly changeling set his torch in a wall sconce and now stood by a series of levers, grinning evilly. The thunder boomed dramatically outside and a deluge of rain could be hear on the roof.

"Now Colonel," Dash began "don't you think there are more sophisticated ways of--"

But she was cut off by the guards escorting her, who slipped a large bag over her head and tightened the drawstring around her neck. Dash was awkwardly walked over to the table, her senses obscured by the burlap. She could feel herself being lifted in magical aura and the cuffs being fitted around her hooves, but had trouble telling what else was going on, the faint light outside the sack not making things any easier. She could hear Chitin talking though, as he was standing close enough, and he told the guard to tilt the table back. Rainbow felt herself slide headfirst towards the floor ever slightly, as the manacles held her in place; it was a slight angle, but she could still feel blood begin to travel towards her head. From somewhere on her right side, Chitin spoke up.

"You see, Miss Dash, ze reason ve are up at such an early hour has everysing to do vit zis little experiment." Rainbow could picture his grin vividly in her mind's eye. "Our veazer team detected a nice, big sunderstorm making its vay here at about zis hour." His voice got tauntingly closer.

"If ve changelings cannot extract your secrets from you... perhaps the rain vill."

Rainbow heard the clank of a lever, and some mechanical movement far above her. In a moment, she felt the driving water pelt her face, and she felt as though she were drowning. Instinctively, she tried to move and be free of her confines, but the irons she was bound with wouldn't have it. She gasped for air and thrashed her head, trying to avoid the ceaseless downpour; her lungs hacked and coughed, trying to expel water that she hadn't inhaled. Fear surged through Dash's veins as she fought for her life. The torture barely lasted a minute, but it had been the longest minute of her life. As the mechanicals closed the ceiling to block the rain, Chitin magically lifted the drenched bag enough to look Rainbow in the face, her eyes wide with adrenaline.

"Perhaps now you vill tell me vhere your friends are hiding?"

Rainbow mustered a scowl and angrily spit in Chitin's face. "Fuck you!"

Slowly, the colonel wiped his face clean with a hoof before yanking the bag back over her snout.

"Again." he said.

Another clank from the lever, more creaking from the gears, and another downpour battered Rainbow Dash. She sputtered, barely finding opportunities for short, panicked breaths. She'd never had trouble with water before, and didn't know what it was like to drown, but that was surely what was happening now. Some small, logical part of her mind told her that the bag wasn't actually filling up with water and that her breathless reactions posed more of a threat than the rain, but her survival instinct easily overwhelmed it. At the end of another minute or so, the rain stopped, Chitin lifted the bag, and probed her for information. Rainbow tried to keep a defiant face, in spite of her windedness and the strands of her mane wetly stuck to her forehead. She wouldn't sell out her friends, ever.

But Chitin was willing to wait. And the big changeling enjoyed watching her struggle.

They subjected her to the waterboard three or four more times until the rain stopped, not wanting to waste the camp's reserves of potable water. To Rainbow, it all flowed together into one horrid experience that would haunt her for months to come. They let her rest right-side-up again while Chitin mulled over what the next steps should be. Rainbow's chest visibly rose and fell as she caught her breath, her lithe body shaking slightly as she lay bound to the wooden slab.

"I am sinking zat some ozer interrogation techniques are in order." said the colonel, coming around the table to regard his prisoner. "But, I am nosing if not a gracious host. For now, ve are done here. I vill be placing you in solitary confinement for vone veek... to give you some time to sink. If, perhaps, you should decide to cooperate at ze end of ze veek, it vill save you from more drastic measures."

The room was silent for a moment as the two regarded each other, Rainbow's breathing finally beginning to calm.

"Vould you like anysing before you leave? ...A glass of vater, perhaps?"

Rainbow simply glared at him. Chitin chuckled.

The bed in solitary was even less comfortable than the one in her own cell, though that may have been less because of its make and more because of the claustrophobic dimensions of the room. It was only about five feet square, and the only light in the cell came from a narrow slit in the door, though there was also a hatch at the bottom that could open from the outside to convey food or a chamber pot.

Rainbow slept soundly and tried not to think about her ordeal, though it did invade her dreams somewhat. Come morning, she found herself being awakened by the noise of the door hatch presenting her with breakfast: a measly serving of hardtack and warm vegetable broth, as well as a glass of milk. Where they changelings might have gotten milk, she had no idea, but fortunately it smelled and tasted unspoiled, and, perhaps more comfortingly, like that of a cow. As she ate, she began to realize she was being watched through the slit in the door; looking up, she spotted a familiar pair of dazzling blue eyes.

It was Morphos.

"I'm sorry to hear what happened." he whispered, his voice amplified enough by the cell so Rainbow could perceive it. "I swear, I had no idea what Chitin was planning. I'm not exactly a high-ranking guard. But I did manage to get myself assigned to watch over solitary, so... at least you'll have someone to talk to."

His eyes conveyed a smile, which Rainbow bounced back at him. Perhaps she wouldn't go completely insane.

Rainbow Dash: Prisoner of War

by The Mountaineer Brony

Prologue: The Flames of War

Chapter I: Free No Longer

Chapter II: Welcome to Hell

Chapter III: The Way Things Are

Chapter IV: Hope

Chapter V: Darkest Hour