Chapter Twenty Six: Raid.

***

Infantry barracks, Leeds Royal Armouries, March 12th, 2030, 06:43 hours.

Twilight Sparkle groaned slightly. Her eyes slowly opened as she became aware of a droning, groaning sound. Initially, she thought it was just the remnants of sleep clinging to her, but then she found Pinkie Pie above her, shaking her heavily.

"Twi! Wake up! Wake up!" Pinkie was yelling, though her voice sounded distant. Twilight shook her head, trying to clear it.

"Wake up!" Pinkie yelled again. Her voice suddenly snapped into focus, and suddenly Twilight was aware that the droning, groaning noise wasn't merely in her head, but actually a blaring siren that was ringing through the entire barracks building.

"Pinkie?" Twilight asked, eyes wide. "What's going on?!"

"Silly filly, there's an alarm going off!" Pinkie said, looking remarkably serious. "At first I thought 'well it's either an attack alarm or a party alarm', but then I realised that everypony looked really serious and then I realised that why would you have an alarm for parties when you could just tell ponies and humans about it and save the bother and confusion...?"

"Pinkie!" Twilight cut her off. "We're under attack?"

"Darn tootin' we're under attack!" the voice of Applejack yelled. Twilight looked up to see her friend pulling her uniform shirt on and grabbing her bayonet. She briefly caught fleeting glimpses of Rarity and True Grit racing out of the room. "Don't know what's goin' on yet, but we'd better high tail it out of here and help!"

With that, she raced outside. Pinkie turned back to Twilight and shrugged. Twilight sighed, quickly put her uniform on and grabbed her bayonet, and then she too ran out, Pinkie hot on her heels.

***

Outside, unicorns and Earth Ponies were lining up. A stern looking human drill sergeant was assigning them to positions. The newcomer ponies were the last to be sorted, having arrived from different barracks, but the drill sergeant still had assignments for them.

"Applejack!" he called out. "Ground defence, follow Corporal Jennings."

Another human - this one in full gas mask and rubber suit - was waiting nearby. Other ponies were already standing with him, all of them Earth Ponies.

"Pinkie Pie, same!" the sergeant continued. "Twilight Sparkle, True Grit, Lyra Heartstrings, Rarity, you're on battery defence with me."

"Yes sir," Twilight said, saluting. With that, the drill sergeant ran off towards a nearby line of defensive turrets, the unicorns jogging after him, leaving Jennings with the Earth Ponies.

As they jogged, Twilight caught sight of Sapphire Steel, who had been assigned to base defence here - she gave her a quick grin, which the pony returned nervously. Then she jogged up to the sergeant, intending to clarify what she would be doing.

"What's the plan, sir?!" she asked the sergeant as she and the others jogged up to the turret line.

"We have to hold the line against the raid," the sergeant replied shortly. "The turrets will thin their ranks before air defence goes up, or they'll be overwhelmed."

"Are offensive spells part of the turret defence?" Twilight asked as they jogged.

"Partially," the sergeant replied, "but you're more defence for the turrets themselves: you'll shoot down any Pegasus who gets too close to the turrets and defend the operators as well."

"Understood, sir," Twilight said. Behind her, True Grit, Rarity and Lyra murmured their acknowledgement too.

A moment later, they reached the turrets. The sergeant pulled on a gas mask and rubber suit, before moving to a position to co-ordinate the turrets' fire. Twilight and her friends were directed to stand by a turret each. Twilight's turret operators didn't so much as acknowledge her, and, sighing slightly as she turned her eyes to look at the sky, she prepared herself for the inevitable.

***

Preparing for a fight was a little bit like a party, Pinkie Pie mused, as she and the other Earth Ponies of the group assembled around Jennings. There were a lot of new ponies here, as well as Applejack and - to her mixed happiness and consternation - Desert Wind. She like Desert Wind well enough, but he was a bit of a meanie-pants on occasion and it frankly bothered her.

"Right!" Jennings said, his voice young and nervous. "Follow me, we need to distribute you ponies to various defence points."

"What's that mean?" Pinkie asked, her voice chirpy.

"It means shut your trap and get ready for a fight," Desert Wind cut her off. "That's what it bucking means!"

Pinkie frowned slightly. Yup, Desert Wind was definitely a mean pony. All the same, she was sure there was a reason for it - if ever there was a place where ponies had a reason to be mean to anypony, it was here, especially given that she was supposedly the spitting image of a pony who had been especially mean.

She wondered briefly why the other Pinkie Pie had decided to be so mean and cause so much pain: it was certainly a question, wasn't it? How far was she capable of becoming like that pony? How great a gap was there between her road and the road her counterpart had chosen to take...?

Before she could finish that somewhat uncharacteristically philosophical thought, her attention was distracted by a lot of yelling. Ponies were racing up and down, accompanied by human soldiers. A lot of those soldiers were aiming at the sky, crouching or kneeling to get a better shot. Pinkie looked up - she could see the small shapes of Pegasi in the air, flying straight at them.

"Private Pie, Private Applejack, and Private Wind" Jennings said, "with me! The rest of you head to the launch area and keep our flyers safe!"

"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie Pie said, smiling as she followed the corporal. As they ran, he threw a glance back in her direction.

"What does Thor have to do with this?" he asked, sounding faintly amused.

"Well, we could use the hammer," Pinkie replied, winking at him. The corporal didn't reply, instead turning his attention back to where he was going with a shake of the head.

***

"That doesn't look like Royal Guard," one of Lyra's gunners said, her voice filled with trepidation. Lyra turned her head to look at the turret operator, who was busy loading up the weapon, though she kept throwing nervous glances up at the sky every so often.

"What do you mean?" the Unicorn asked, frowning in confusion.

"Look at the uniforms!" the other turret operator said, gesturing with his arm as he readied himself to aim at the Pegasi. "That's no armoured Guard Pegasi brigade!"

"What are they then?" Lyra asked. She looked back up to the sky, her eyes narrowing, and then she realised what she was looking at.

They were in blue jumpsuits, goggles and masks covering their faces. They were flying in a loose, adaptable formation. The most prominent thing about them, however, was the symbol of a large, yellow lightning bolt that ran down the centre of their uniforms.

"Wonderbolts?" Lyra said, her eyes widening. And then she was yelling. "They're Wonderbolts!"

***

The cry was take up across the base. Ponies were suddenly more on edge, humans gripped their guns tighter. It was Wonderbolts who had taken down Grey Squadron at Manchester, Wonderbolts who had killed King Charles and sunk his ship. They were the best flyers Equestria had, and fighting them was... well. Suicide.

Errant Flight apparently felt pretty suicidal. He looked determined, angry, and not in the least bit concerned about the fact that his comparatively inexperienced squadron was about to go up against the most deadly aerial force in the Equestrian army.

"Alright!" he said to everypony in Grey once they were assembled. "We're up against Wonderbolts. Traditional line-breaker tactics don't work on these buckers - they fly like us." He looked at everypony with a grim, determined look on his face. "But they're not us! They are not Grey Squadron! We're the damn best. These buckers died just like every bucker else when I fought them at Manchester - and they had a Rainbow Dash on their side." He gave Rainbow a glance. "Now we do. They don't stand a chance. Go all out, and give the buckers Tartarus!"

"Yes sir!" everypony yelled.

"We go when the turrets finish their barrage," Errant continued. "Brace yourselves!"

Rainbow Dash looked up. She had always wanted to be a Wonderbolt, and yet now here she was, about to go into battle against them and probably kill some. Fate, it seemed, had an unpleasant sense of irony. She wondered briefly why Errant Flight seemed so angry, but then she remembered what Errant had just said: it had been this world's Rainbow Dash who fought Grey Squadron at their last flight, and she no doubt would have flown with Wonderbolts.

Double irony, Dash thought to herself grimly. This must have been her lucky day.

***

"All turrets, fire fire fire!" the sergeant yelled. At the same time, unicorns started firing spells up at the incoming Wonderbolts, and the sky filled with purples, greens, reds and blues. It was almost beautiful, except that whenever a bolt of magic reached a pony, it would impact them. Some burst into flames, some exploded, and some lost limbs, falling of the sky with blood streaming from gaping stumps where legs and wings used to be.

Twilight, for her part, was sending a standard stunner up. Though she had practiced more dangerous spells, she couldn't bring herself to use any, and she reasoned stunners would achieve the desired effect. She tried not to think about what impact at that height and speed would do to the Pegasi she hit.

Near her, Rarity was firing her own bolts up into the air. Rarity had chosen to use a civilised killing spell - on impact, it stopped all vital signs, essentially shutting down the body. It was the most civilised way to kill known to pony-kind. Unfortunately, it was also tricky - Rarity's rate of fire was comparatively slow.

Lyra, on the other side of Twilight, was firing fire spells up, a look of fury on her face. Twilight couldn't be sure, but she reasoned that her friend was most likely attempting to use the same spell that had killed her counterpart, it was certainly an interesting way to get revenge.

True Grit was firing standard destructive spells up, the greenish energy exploding on impact, blowing ponies to pieces. His jaw was grim set, and he looked determined more than anything else.

And then, after a moment that lasted an eternity, the turrets finally fired.

Tracer fire roared into the air, slicing some ponies to pieces. Explosions ripped into the air, showering the defenders with pieces of pony, some still stuck to charred pieces of blue uniform.

And yet... for everypony hit, there seemed to be five more. Twilight didn't know much about the Wonderbolts - that was Rainbow Dash's specialty - but she figured there must be more here than there used to be. Probably a result of increased militarisation. As it was, there looked to be several hundred present.

"All turrets, cease fire!" the call went out. The turrets stopped, and so did the unicorns.

"What now?" Twilight asked her gunner.

"Now?" the human replied. "It's the Pegasi defence squadrons turn."

***

The minute the turrets stopped, Errant Flight was yelling.

"Everypony fly, fly!" he screamed, launching into the air at the Wonderbolts. Rainbow Dash was right behind him, the rest of the squadron shortly behind her. All around them, other squadrons took off as well.

"All flight leaders, this is Leeds Air Command," a soft voice said through their earpieces. "Sound off by squadron."

"Green Squadron is in the air," a brash sounding voice said. Rainbow saw Swift Strike fidget faintly as they flew - he missed his old post.

"Eagle Squadron, on station," a slightly calmer voice spoke.

"Grey Squadron is a go," Errant Flight said.

"Confirmed, flight leaders," Command said. "Switch to local channels and being sound off procedure."

"Switching," Errant said. "All flyers, sound off."

"Grey Two, standing by", Dream Flyer said. She sounded calm, but then she was one of the most experienced ponies in the squadron.

"Grey Three, here," White Blossom said, her voice trembling slightly. She was clearly less sanguine about things than Dream Flyer had managed.

"Grey Four, bring them to me!" Dark Wing said, sounding far too eager for real action.

"Grey Five, in the air," Bright Wonder said, surprisingly tersely for her.

"Grey Six, my wings are yours," Silver Spire said, using what was by now his customary sounding off phrase. He sounded a tiny bit less calm than he usually did, but only just so.

"Grey Seven, I'm on," Swift Strike said quickly, clearly tense.

"Grey Eight, I'm here," Ditzy said softly.

"This is Grey Nine," Solid Hoof said tersely.

"Grey Ten, ready," True Blue said, his voice wavering slightly. He sounded worried.

"Grey Eleven, standing by," Rainbow Dash said, trying her best to sound confident.

"Grey Twelve," Fluttershy said from behind her. A slight gulp was audible through the earpiece. "I'm here."

Rainbow worried about her friend. This was their first taste of real action: could Fluttershy handle it...?

"Command, Grey Squadron is at one hundred percent," she heard Errant say, his voice cutting her thoughts off. "Permission to engage."

"Permission granted," Command replied quickly. "Good hunting, all squadrons."

"Alright everypony," Errant's voice came through the earpiece. "Keep it together and fly like I know you can."

A chorus of affirmatives came through.

A moment later, they clashed with the Wonderbolts.

***

Pinkie gazed up at the sky as Jennings started firing his rifle into the air. His rifle seemed to be less of an automatic rifle and more a semi-automatic, judging by the slower rate of fire. To be honest, Pinkie had never kept up with that stuff, even though knowing the different rates of fire was supposed to be ppretty important.

In the air above them, the Wonderbolts and the Air Defence Squadrons had clashed. Unfortunately, though the Pegasi squadrons had managed to tie up a good chunk of the enemy force, more were on the move and looked to be landing. It almost reminded Pinkie of the Canterlot wedding, where changelings had attacked Canterlot and she and her friends had been forced to fight their way through them. This though, would have less in the way of fun changeling impressions - and probably less opportunities to use Twilight as a Gatling gun.

Jennings took a Wonderbolt down, but as they started landing, he found it difficult to pick targets. One Pegasus charged straight at him, and he only just managed to take it down.

"Hey you guys, I need cover!" he yelled to the Ponies. "Applejack, Wind, Pie!

"Who's Wind Pie?" Pinkie wondered aloud. Possibly a distant relative of hers? Ooh, that was exciting...

She shook her head as more Pegasi landed nearby. Now wasn't the time to think about possible distant relatives - she was under attack!

As soon as the Pegasi landed, Desert Wind charged one of them with a roar, knocking the mare to the ground and crushing her skull under his hooves. Applejack bucked another into a wall, where he slumped to the floor, his head at an odd angle. Pinkie realised that now was the time to bring her training to bear.

Three Pegasi charged in her direction, all of them armed with bladed weapons. She grimaced, then grinned...

... and brought out her party cannon.

"Rule one, everypony," she said to them. "Never bring a knife to a gun fight!"

Her party cannon began firing confectionary at a pretty astonishing rate of fire, considering it was a pre-industrial weapon and she wasn't loading it. Confectionary flew at a good hundred miles and hour, ramming into Pegasi with the force of a brick. She turned the cannon, taking out Pegasus after Pegasus. Realising that she'd given them a chance, Jennings took up a firing position behind her, reloading and firing his rifle at any Pegasus she missed. Desert Wind, meanwhile, managed to pick a Pegasus up and throw him into a group of his fellows, before retreating behind the party cannon. Applejack stayed behind her, keeping her legs ready to buck the first pony who came too close.

As more and more Pegasi were taken down by the cannon, several soldiers started cheering. The Pegasi were being attracted to Pinkie's position like proverbial moths, and yet none of them were reaching her, the cannon taking down attacker after attacker. Some of them were only stunned by the confectionary, only for other soldiers to finish them off.

"Take down that whorse!" somepony yelled from above Pinkie. She looked up briefly, only to see three Wonderbolts coming directly at her...

Only to be blasted away by bolts of green, purple, blue and red light. A moment later, Twilight, Rarity, True Grit and Lyra were jogging up to them.

"The turrets don't need protecting," Twilight said, gasping slightly, "so we thought we'd lend a hoof!"

"Hi Twilight," Pinkie said with a grin. "This is a fun party!"

"Party?!" True Grit said incredulously.

"Yup!" Pinkie said, grinning. "It's a 'first ever real battle' party! Not as fun as some, but pretty fun for a party!"

"Just ignore her," Rarity said to True Grit as she took up a firing position and started shooting spells off. "She's like that."

"Yeah," Lyra added, aiming a spell at a pony Pinkie had missed. "She's probably the most random pony ever."

"I probably should have guessed from training," True Grit muttered under his breath, remembering the oddities Pinkie had come out with.

The small part of Pinkie's mind that was acknowledging the deaths she was causing shunted the thought away, locking it in a box with other sad thoughts. It wasn't what she wanted to think about right now. Right now, she focused on the adrenaline, the same rush she got during a really good party, and hoped it would be enough to carry her through to the end of this fight.

Afterwards, when ponies weren't relying on her, she could think about the bad things.

***

Rainbow dodged past a Wonderbolt who had been charging at her. The pony flew straight into a building, breaking most of his bones in the process. Dash swore.

"Fluttershy, True Blue, stay on my six!" she ordered. "These guys are good!"

She heard her wingmates signal an affirmative, and glanced behind her, noting the two of them flying behind her. She sighed in relief, before following another Wonderbolt, intending on catching him off guard. She flipped her blade out and sliced just as she passed him. Behind her, True Blue added a second slice, and between the two of them they severed one of his wings and sliced oped his side. Bleeding and screaming, he plummeted to the ground.

True Blue was technically in charge of their Flight, but he had long since surrendered authority to Rainbow, who was proving to be - much as she felt slightly sick of the killing - in her element in this fight.

"I think we've got this!" Blue said with a grin as they kept going.

"Don't get cocky, kid," Rainbow said grimly. "We aren't done yet."

Just then, a panicked yell came through on their earpieces.

"This is Grey Seven! Multiple hostiles on my six!" Swift Strike was yelling. "Ditzy, Solid, where are you?!"

"Tied up, Seven," the terse voice of Solid Hoof spoke grimly. "Can anypony reach him?"

"We're on it, Nine," Rainbow said. "Flutters, True Blue, get on my six."

The three of them quickly headed for Swift Strike's position. He was being chased by at least six Wonderbolts. Snarling, Dash pushed herself to go faster, but before they could reach Swift Strike, one of the Wonderbolts caught up to him, lashing out at his wings and severing part of one of them off.

"I'm hit!" he screamed, his voice filled with pain. "I'm going down...!"

"Oh no..." Fluttershy said softly.

Swift Strike's body plummeted toward the ground, and he landed on a rooftop, where he lay still.

"Seven is down," Rainbow said heavily, before her voice took on a malicious tone. "We're going after the bucker that did it."

"Negative, Eleven," Errant Flight's voice spoke. "I need you three to get on Two Flight's rear, they're being hounded!"

"Gotcha, boss," Rainbow said heavily.

She banked left, checking her HUD to see where Dark Wing's flight was. After a moment, she found them: Bright Wonder was being chased by two ponies, and Dark Wing was busy dogfighting with another couple. The worst off was Silver Spire - he had four or five ponies on his tale.

"Two Flight, this is Grey Eleven, my Flight's coming to assist you," Rainbow said, aiming for the group following Silver Spire.

"Much appreciated, Eleven," Dark Wing's voice said. "These ponies seem to be rather better than I was anticipating." Rainbow Dash could almost hear the smirk in his voice. "It's almost a challenge."

"They're trying to surround me," Silver Spire said, and Dash could see that he was right - the five that were following him were herding him towards another four. "I think it's time for extreme measures."

"What do you mean, Six?" Dark Wing asked, but Silver Spire didn't respond - instead he held out his forelegs and began spinning, performing a corkscrew as he charged the four ponies directly ahead of him. He span faster and faster, and Rainbow could see the danger as she closed in on him.

"Spire, you're going to fast!" she said. "Go counter and stop spinning!"

"I've got it!" Spire replied stubbornly. "I can hold it!"

"Pull up!" Rainbow yelled.

"No, I can hold - argh!" Spire yelled. He had rammed into the ponies charging at him, succeeding in killing all four of them in the process, but in the process his own trajectory had been altered, sending him careening into the side of a building, where he smacked off the masonry and into the ground. He lay there, unmoving.

"Grey Twelve to Grey Leader!" Fluttershy said, sounding panicked, "Grey Six is down - I'm going to assist!" With that, before even hearing permission, she flew towards the downed pony.

"Roger that," Errant Flight said heavily. "Grey's Ten and Eleven, cover her."

"No can do!" True Blue said, sounding as though he was panicking slightly. "I've got a Wonderbolt on my plot! Damn!"

Rainbow turned to look at where True Blue was flying, and sure enough, an orange mare in Wonderbolt uniform was chasing him, a look of determination on her face.

"Damn, she's good!" Blue said with a pant of frustration. "Eleven, I could use a little help!"

"On the way!" Dash said, banking to chase the mare as the two passed by her. She was certainly good - Rainbow had seen some excellent flying in her time (and done far more than she'd seen), and this was definitely excellent flying: the Wonderbolts might have been more numerous than she remembered, but they definitely hadn't slipped in their standards.

"She's good, alright," she said. "Keep dodging her, Bluey."

"You make it sound easy!" True Blue said, sounding frustrated. "She's getting pretty darn close!"

"I'm almost at her!" Rainbow said, pushing herself as close as she could to her limits short of trying for a rainboom.

She was a half second too slow.

The mare caught True Blue's leg, grabbed it, and stopped him. Before he could bring his blades to bear, she had grappled him and was bearing him down. Cursing, Rainbow Dash followed as fast as she could, but she wasn't fast enough to stop the pony from smashing True Blue into the ground. He stirred feebly - and she stamped her forehoof onto his wings, breaking the fragile bones to pieces.

"Argh!" True Blue screamed, the feedback on Rainbow's earpiece making her tear the thing out reflexively. Yelling in anger, she swooped down, knocking the Wonderbolt mare away before leaning down to look at True Blue.

"My... my wings," he said, coughing slightly from the dust.

"You'll be ok, kid," Rainbow said, before turning her attention to the Wonderbolt. The orange mare was gaping at her. "Well, come on then you bucker, what are you waiting for?!"

The Wonderbolt didn't move, apparently content to gale at Rainbow Dash.

"What the heck's wrong with you?!" Rainbow asked, scowling. "Never seen a Pegasus as awesome as me before?!"

"Rainbow Dash?" the Wonderbolt said, her voice cracking in shock. Rainbow frowned. Did this pony know her? Still, this seemed an opportunity to exploit her fame, so she took it.

"The one and only," she replied to the Wonderbolt's question, striking a pose and glaring at the mare with a grin. "Whatcha waiting for? Never fought a legend before?"

"No..." the Wonderbolt said, shaking her head slowly.

Rainbow laughed. "That was a rhetorical question, dummy -"

Before she could finish her sentence, the Wonderbolt had slammed into her and was punching out at her.

"No!" the mare screamed as she punched, her mouth frothing in absolute fury. "No! NO!"

***

Inside the main medical complex, Hell Blazer sat next to the unconscious Elliot, quietly listening to the sound of battle outside. Nothing had gotten into the centre yet, but Hell Blazer wasn't taking any chances. He had a quick fireball spell in the forefront of his mind, just in case he needed to use it, and he'd flexed his muscles enough to give himself a mean right hook.

As another explosion rocked the room, he sighed.

"Sounds like you're missing one hell of a fight, mate," he said softly to the unconscious man. "Still, I think you've earned a break. Sit this one out." He smirked at his own joke. "Not that I need to tell you to do that, apparently."

He sighed. His friend seemed entirely unmoved by the noises. Sighing, Hell Blazer lit himself a cigarette and took a puff.

"Don't you know," a soft voice said, sounding groggy but lucid, "that this is a no-smoking hospital?"

Hell Blazer blinked, dropped the cigarette and stamped on it, his eyes widening in shock as he realised who had spoken.

"Elliot...?"

***

The orange mare lashed out, and Rainbow Dash barely managed to block the blow, before dodging backwards as the mare kicked out at her.

"You can't be Rainbow Dash!" the mare screamed. "You just can't!"

"Keep saying it," Rainbow snarled, lashing out with her blade and nicking the mare across her cheek, exposing more orange fur. "Doesn't make it true!"

The mare kicked out, knocking a Rainbow Dash backwards.

"She died!" the mare yelled her voice cracking with emotion as she lashed out at Rainbow yet again. "I was with her at Buckingham palace! I saw her go down! I saw that monster run his knife through her throat, and I followed them when they took her corpse away!" She was starting to sob now as she punched, and her blows were getting sloppier and more predictable. "I risked my life to retrieve it from that pile of bodies they were going to burn! I buried her myself! So don't you dare tell me you're Rainbow Dash, you bucking traitor! I'll kill you myself and I'll wear your fur as a coat!"

Rainbow blocked the last blow and pivoted, throwing the mare over her shoulder and across the courtyard.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, alright," Rainbow said, panting slightly from exertion as she spoke. "Check the cutie mark. I might not be the same Rainbow Dash who did Solamina's grunt work, but I'm the genuine article, born and bred Cloudsdale stock and all!"

The Wonderbolt mare stood up and snarled, but Rainbow ignored her.

"Why does it matter to you anyway?" Rainbow added. "What was your Rainbow Dash to you, like your fillyfriend or something?"

"Fillyfriend?" the mare said, sounding insulted at the thought. "She was my mentor - my guide - my sister!" The mare reached up and pulled her Wonderbolt-issue goggles off, before pulling her hood down. Her mane and eyes were both purple, and her face, though aged, was the spitting image of somepony Rainbow Dash knew very well indeed.

"Scootaloo?!"

Author's Notes:

My thanks to all who've favourited and commented. :-)