Dash groaned as she slowly returned to consciousness. She could not tell where she was, or how she had gotten there. She was lying on her back with her wings uncomfortably pinned beneath her; her body felt sore, like she had crashed into the ground, hard. Her chest in an exceeding amount of pain, but she could not remember why it hurt so badly. The aching mare focused on her tender breast, forcing the memories into her mind.

Slowly, the memories trickled into her mind. First there was a battle, Dash thought as calmly as she could manage, then I found Helios, and then… Ponyville! I got shot, and then somepony hit me in the head and… The memories brought the strength of anger to her limbs, and she tried to roll to her side and stand. It was then she suddenly realized that thick, heavy chains were holding her limbs to whatever she was on top of, stretching her legs out from her body and making her aches even worse than they should have been. No amount of pulling loosened the tight grip on her limbs, and she became resigned to lay still and wait. For what, she hadn’t the slightest.

The speedster cracked open one eye to take a quick peek at where she was, but almost immediately regretted it. A bright bulb burned in her face and washed out her vision, making everything a blur and driving a spike of pain through her mind. Even though her sight was gone, she could still hear and began to pick out the sounds of someone else in the room with her. She could hear soft foot falls moving unhurriedly around her, the other being not saying a word.

Dash tried to keep her breathing even, willing herself not to panic. She refused to give whoever it was that had chained her up the satisfaction of seeing her distress. However, she could feel her fear growing while she pondered what her captors had planned. Stories of what various nations had done to prisoners of war flooded her mind, and were making it nearly impossible for the athlete to stay calm. Sweat beaded on her face while she waited for the other to make a move for her or say to something; her breathing started to quicken despite her best efforts as the other in the room remained silent.

After several minutes of silence, the footsteps stopped next to her head and a deep, male voice hissed in her ear, “Why don’t you stop pretending so we can get on with it?” The voice seemed dead and uncaring, the voice of someone that enjoyed hurting innocents. It made a shiver run down the mare’s spine when she heard it, and she could not stop shaking.

“Wh-what d’you want with me?” Dash asked, hating the quiver in her voice but unable to stop it, “Where am I? Who’re you? What’s goin’ on?”

A fist suddenly slammed into her stomach; the cyan pony curled up around the pain exploding across her abdomen as much as she could in her restraints, her breath leaving her lungs in a single gasp. Tears poured from her tightly clenched eyes, and her chest heaved to try and draw more air in. Her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, and the only sounds she could make were small gasps.

“I ask, you answer.” the voice barked, “Is that clear?” He waited a moment, but all Dash was able to do was cough and he took that to mean she understood, “Good. Now…” The man began to circle again while the pony recovered from her coughing fit.

“You… jerk…” the pegasus wheezed when she could draw enough air to manage speech.

The voice snickered, “I can tell you’re a tough girl. Good, makes you more fun to break.”

She still hadn’t recovered fully, and rasped, “What… mean… break…?”

She heard the man lean down next to her face and flinched in anticipation of the coming blow, but he only ran a finger firmly around her jaw, “Oh, I can tell you’re going to be a lot of fun.” His hand moved down her neck, pressing firmly to her coat until he reached the joint where her wing connected to her back. She opened her eyes and forced them to stay open and adjust to the bright light in her face.

When she finally was able to see, Dash finally saw the person tormenting her. He was a haggard-looking man in his late forties. Scars covered a face topped with a mat of grayed hair and all the way down the part of his arm she could see. His eyes were covered with glasses that caught and reflected the light from the lamp above, hiding his eyes from sight. He was wearing a cruel smile that sent tremors running down the pegasus’s spine.

He cocked his head at the terrified pony, his chest hitching with his laughter, and whispered almost lovingly, “You could make it easy on yourself, you know. Just answer my questions as I ask them and nothing bad will happen.” His powerful fingers pulled her wing from its safe resting place along her back and extended, making the feathers spread out. His hand traveled along the limb and almost seemed to be massaging it all the way to the end where his fingers wrapped around the last feather. His voice lost its loving tone and became harsh, “Or things like this will happen.”

With a quick yank, he pulled the feather out of her wing before the pegasus could react. Her lungs emptied in a loud scream, and her wing throbbed with pain. Her body instinctively twisted away from the pain; the chains held her in place, however, and did not let her body move much. Sweat slicked her rainbow mane while she silently prayed for the pain to stop. As the pain gradually faded and the pony slowly got her body back under control, her fear turned to rage. She glared up to the grinning human, her nostrils flared and she wanted nothing more than to pummel the cruel being into dust.

The man’s voice took on a mocking tone at the anger in her eyes, “So are you going to be a good girly and answer my questions?”

Dash gave him a defiant stare and panted, “F-fuck you.” She had heard the Marines use the phrase in anger and did not know what it meant, but it seemed to have the desired effect. She could see the man’s forehead furrow in surprise and he drew away a little with shock.

His lips curled in a cruel, thin smile while he mocked, “My word young lady! What language!” He put his elbows into her stomach and leaned over her, robbing her of breath once more while he chuckled, “That was a good answer; for me, not for you.”

The man moved away from her and let her catch her breath while he wheeled a cart laden with instruments of a brutal nature. She could see knives of various sizes and shapes, as well as long spikes, clamps, a long wand with a thick handle with a single red button at its base, and more cold metal instruments she could not even put a name to.

He rummaged through the items on the table, muttering under his breath, “Can’t do any permanent damage, he’ll have my head. So should I use the cattleprod?” He picked up the long rod and touched the button, causing it to crackle with electricity. The man shook his head before setting the wand aside and muttering, “No, save that for later. I know; I’ll use this.” He picked up a scalpel and twirled it around his fingers in an impressive show of dexterity.

The cyan pony’s eyes followed the blade as it moved faster and faster around his tapered fingers. Her breathing and heart rate began to quicken with fear in spite of her best attempts to stay calm. She shook with frightened anticipation; she knew what he planned to do. He smiled wickedly at her obvious dread, and brought the scalpel to brush against her fur while being careful not to cut her.

“From what I understand, you are supposed to be some kind of Element of Loyalty.” the man said, ‘I guess that means you’re supposed to be more loyal than anyone. I wonder how long it will take to break the bonds of allegiance.”

Dash’s eyes widened in shock at hearing him speak of her being one of the Elements, and she whispered, “How did you know I was Loyalty?” A hand, blurred from speed, whipped up towards her face. She tucked her chin to her chest in preparation for the blow, but the hand stopped just short of striking her and instead patted her cheek softly.

“Oh my dear pony, I know much more about you than just that.” He leaned close, and the athlete finally saw his eyes for this first time. They were mechanical, a dull gray with bright red lights in the center for a pupil. More than anything, the lifeless, robotic eyes made her want to scream in horror.

“For instance,” he continued, “I know that your name is Rainbow Dash, you’ve won nearly every flying contest you’ve entered, and that you have been a major player in most of the recent history of this world.” His hand dropped from her cheek down to her chest, right over her pounding heart, “I can also see so much about you. How scared you are, where to make it hurt the worst. Most of all, I know when to stop; it’s what makes me so good at what I do.” He shrugged, beginning to twirl his knife again, and said with a terrifying leer, “But enough chit-chat. Shall we begin?”

The Everfree Forest was as silent as ever; not a single creature could be seen scurrying through its dank darkness. Sunlight shone weakly through where it could pierce the dense foliage, and the shadows seemed alive. At least, seven particular shadows seemed so. Moving silently through the dim woods, the members of the rescue party tracked their fleeing enemy through the woods; a task made easy by the mass of tiny hoof prints from the foals. Each was clad in a suit of shadowy armor that changed color to match the background it was placed before, though it was imperfect and movement distorted the coloration, making them easier to spot.

Jaze inspected his gauntleted hand, marveling at the magical abilities of the unicorn a few paces behind him. Before they had left, Twilight had cast what she called a chameleon spell on each of them; the spell hid their entire body from view, even if a part was not covered with the armor. Even with his enhanced vision, the rest of his team was hard to pick out, but he could just make out where everyone was. Vincent was at the front, glancing at the trail left by the young ponies, while walking a few paces behind him to his left and right were Applejack and Shelby. Behind and between them walked Trixie, clad in light Guard armor with the same enchantments as the rest of the group and a knife on her shoulder within easy reach. The assassin came next, with Dmitri and Twilight bringing up the rear.

The rescue party stopped when Vincent held up a barely-visible, clenched fist, and Jaze moved up to whisper, “What do you have?”

The large soldier pointed to where bright sunlight could be seen between and whispered back, “Looks like a road of some sort. You’ve been living here, any idea where it leads?”

The assassin shook his head, “No, it wasn’t here before.”

“I think we should follow it, because the tracks lead right into it.”

“Good work.” The Colonel waved the rest of the group closer to whisper, “Shadow the road, but stay hidden in the trees. Don’t take any chances; we need to get there alive and undetected.”

The rescue party turned and slipped through the dense forest next to the clear road, following from a few feet away where they could still hide. Vincent was still on point, every sense on high alert for any sign of an enemy. They had been walking for several more minutes before the farmboy held up his hand again.

Vincent pointed at the top of the trees, or more specifically at the soldier manning an observation platform in the canopy above. The large Marine then pointed out two more soldiers moving around underneath the platform. He gave his commander a questioning look, and the Colonel pointed first to himself, then to the man on the platform above, and made a slashing motion across his throat.

Next, Jaze pointed towards Vincent and Shelby and signed for them to neutralize the two on the ground after the first fell. The two soldiers gave quick nods, and the assassin was moving well to the side of the man above. The rest of the party could just make out his outline as he moved silently through the dense foliage. His shape was soon lost to the forest, and the rescuers waited with bated breath for the first man to fall.

The view from the top of the observation post was dull as usual. The middle-aged man standing atop the platform gazed out with boredom etched in his gray-green eyes. He pulled his helmet from his shaved dome and rubbed the top of his head with a hand; no matter how unnecessary he felt these posts were, he knew his orders, and the price for disobeying them.

The sentry leaned on a waist-high safety railing and waved down to the soldiers below, getting a quick wave in return. He chuckled quietly to himself, thinking that at least he was up high where the beasts of the forest could not reach him. Thoughts of what some of the things in the woods were capable of sent shivers down his spine, and suddenly the observation post did not seem so bad.

A momentary blur from the forest below caught the middle aged man’s attention. He peered into the darkness of the forest where he saw… nothing. There was absolutely nothing. The soldier shook his head quickly to clear it, deciding that was the last time he refused to sleep before a shift. Once more, he looked around to try to spot whatever it was that caused the blur and hoping it was a trick of the light. The last thing he needed was invisible monsters.

A furtive movement caught his eye. He rubbed his tired eyes and looked again, and suddenly six blurry shapes were revealed in the foliage below. Three appeared to be humanoid, and three looked similar to the quadrupeds that had passed by on the path not an hour before. The shapes were hidden by the brush from the soldiers below, and they seemed to watching him, waiting. The sentry started to bring his gun up to fire a burst into the nearest of the shapes, but a blurry hand that shifted with the background reached out, grabbed his head and forced it back while a knife was quickly drawn across his throat.

A shove in the middle of his back flipped the sentry over the railing while his life poured from the gaping wound in his neck, and was he plummeted to the forest floor below. As he tumbled over and was looking at where he had been standing, he caught sight of a seventh blurry, nearly invisible figure standing in his place holding a bloodstained knife. Just before he hit the ground, the sentry hazily thought, Huh. Looks like even the spirits want us dead.

The sentry’s body hit the ground with a thump that made the pair of soldiers spin towards the sound. Vincent and Shelby took the opportunity to charge from their hiding place and quietly take their foes down. The large man grabbed his prey from behind and drew his knife in a quick motion across his throat. The woman next to him opted to grab her opponent’s head and give it a quick yank and twist, snapping his neck and sending her quarry to the ground as if his bones were gone.

The skirmish took less than the span of a few heartbeats, and three dead traitors were the only casualties. The farmboy grabbed his victim under the arms and began dragging the corpse into a nearby thicket to keep anyone from finding it. As the large soldier reached the copse of trees, they shook and a blur shot out past him and knocked him to the ground.

The farmboy rolled and realized that a third soldier had been hiding in the undergrowth, and was now making a run for his life. The three humans still standing as well as Twilight pulled up with their SMGs and tried to draw a bead on the running figure, but he was dodging between trees and making it impossible to score a hit. A small, four-legged, nearly invisible blur took off after the fleeing soldier. The pair was soon lost to the woods, and Jaze jumped down from the high platform, breaking his fall with a roll before tearing after the pony and shouting back, “Hide the bodies!”

Vincent nodded and continued dragging the corpse he had been pulling into the thicket. Shelby lifted her fallen foe onto her shoulder and strutted over to where her fiancé was waiting to carefully conceal the body. Twilight and Sands lifted the body of the sentry and carried him over as well. With the three bodies carefully hidden, the farmboy scrubbed the area clean of any blood. With luck, anyone that came across this would not know what happened to the men manning the post.

The large soldier looked to where Jaze and Applejack had disappeared and muttered, “I hope this doesn’t blow our cover.”

Applejack’s hooves ate up the distance between her fleeing prey and herself. The panicking human tried to dodge between trees to lose his invisible pursuer, but the farmpony found avoiding the trees easier than ducking around the barrels in a rodeo. It did not take long for her to get close enough to hear the panicked breathing of the terrified soldier.

“Stop it!” he screamed at his invisible pursuer while firing a panicked burst from his assault rifle, “Leave me alone!”

The bullets went well above her head, but the orange mare could not help but dip her head a little. Seeing the powerful slugs tear large chunks out of the trees around her made her legs shake with sudden weakness; her efforts to catch to the fleeing man only became more urgent. Her lungs stung from want of air and her breath came in short spurts. The fearful soldier threw his rifle at her legs to try and trip her up, only to catch her leaping over it and continue running.

“Fuck you! What have I done to you?”

“Ya helped them take ma sister!” Applejack bellowed, leaping into the air and drawing her sword in a swift yank. She aimed the blade between his shoulder blades and felt it pass through his body, driven by her weight. The two went down in a heap of legs and fur, rolling several times before they came to a stop with the pony on top.

The farmpony went to pull her sword from the body, but stopped when she saw him shaking. His chest heaved to pull air into his wrecked chest, and blood slowly poured from the wound to pool on the ground below. The fatally wounded man looked to see what was resting on his back.

His eyes widened in shock and his voice came as a harsh rasp, “You, you’re just a pony?” Applejack looked down at her body to see that the spell had faded and she was completely visible. Twilight had warned her that if somepony got too far away she could not keep hiding them.

The orange mare put a hard look on her face and nodded, “Yeah, Ah’m a pony. Whatsit to ya?”

It was her turn to be surprised, as the wounded human began laughing, “I thought you were some kind of spirit or forest creature that would kill me, not just some silly pony with a piece of sharp metal and an attitude.”

The wounded man surprised the pony once again by quickly standing and spinning, tossing her from his back and slamming her into a tree in one motion. She felt her breath explode from her lungs, and they would not fill back up. Tears streamed from her eyes while she worked to breathe again. Her foe stood up, a hole in his chest, and looked at her as if nothing were wrong.

He wore a daunting smirk as he put a foot on the mare’s chest and leaned down to say, “Now I feel stupid, I guess the rest of those things were more of your pony friends. Weren’t they?”

“Not, gonna, say.” she panted. The foot was making catching her breath even more difficult. She looked into the wound in his chest to see how he managed to stay alive. In the man’s body she could see several severed wires and punctured bits of metal mixed in with the flesh and blood of a living being. Her large eyes opened even wider at the sight of the obvious enhancements.

The man must have seen her shock, because his smile grew more twisted and his voice become taunting, “You like it? Sure comes in handy to not have to worry so much about stuff. Like getting impaled by some bitch with a sword, for instance. Still,” He reached down and lifted her by the neck until she was level with his face, “it hurts like hell. I wonder how you would like it?”

His hand squeezed her windpipe until it threatened to swell shut, but she was still able to gather the strength to yell, “Ah don’ wanna find out!”

Applejack’s sword came up and drew across the inside of his arm, making him drop her from the sudden pain. The pony rolled around to his side and drove the blade into his side. It slid between his ribs and bit deeply, but he simply twisted away from the agony and drew a knife from his belt. The man suddenly seemed huge as he barreled in to slash at her neck. He was nowhere near as fast as Rainbow Dash or even Jaze, and she was able duck the wild swing with ease.

She was unprepared, however, for the follow-up kick that caught her square in her already sore chest and sent her stumbling back a few paces. Her cyborg foe was quick to press his advantage, only to find a sword stabbed into his knee. The mare had managed to recover enough to ram her blade into his leg, hoping to bring him down.

To her dismay, he merely stepped back to allow the sword to fall free and lunge forward with another powerful swipe of his knife, this one aimed at her eyes. The pony turned her head and felt the blade bite into her cheek, blood welling in the deep cut to run down her face. She gritted her teeth and spun around to deliver a powerful kick to his stomach.

This seemed to have an effect as he doubled over holding his bruised gut and let his knife slip from his fingers. The farmpony pulled back her sword leg and threw it forward into the spot she had hit with every ounce of force she could muster. Her reward was a grunt of pain and seeing her opponent fall to all fours when the blade nicked his spine.

The mare wrenched the blade from his stomach and watched her foe fall to the ground with a loud thump. When he failed to move for several moments, Applejack let out a breath she did not know she had been holding and turned away. She went to sheathe her blade when a ruckus from the forest made her jump. Her green eyes scanned the foliage for the source of the disturbance.

From the darkness of the forest came Jaze, making a dead sprint for where she and her fallen opponent. His face was set in a worried glare, but he seemed to be looking behind her. Before the mare could utter a word, the assassin yelled out in panic, “He’s not dead! Hit him in the head, he won’t die unless you get his head!”

Confusion had not even begun to register in her face before a powerful hand closed painfully on her leg. She twisted around to see the cyborg glaring death at her while he tried to claw his way up her body to her throat. The farmpony drew back the hoof not held in a death grip and fired a kick powered by fear, anger, and all her years bucking apples on her farm.

The result was immediate and gratifying as his grip fell from her leg and he slumped to the ground once more. The mare kicked the last vestiges of his grip from her leg and turned around, bringing her sword up in one fluid motion before dropping it on the top of his head.

She expected the heavy blade to pass all the way through his skull, and was prepared for the spray of blood that was sure to follow. What she was not prepared for was the broadsword to stop, stuck between his eyes. She looked down at her vanquished opponent, noting how his eyes had dulled and he was absolutely still. The honest mare shook her head sadly and tugged at her sword.

“Here,” Jaze’s voice suddenly sounded from next to her, “let me help you.”

The assassin moved to help, but Applejack shook her head and said, “Naw, don’t ya worry ‘bout it. Ah c’n do it.” She placed a back-hoof on the dead cyborg’s shoulder and yanked, popping the blade free of its gruesome prison. The pony used the corpse’s shirt to clean up the red smear on her sword before returning it to its sheath with a smile, “See? Ah c’n handle m’self.”

His hand went to her shoulder as he asked, “Are you sure you’re okay? I know that’s a hard thing to do.”

The farmpony merely shrugged, “What’s hard ‘bout it? He woulda tried to hurt me, m’ friends, and m’ family if he got the chance. Ah did what Ah had t’ do.” Her hoof wiped away the blood running down her cheek and she pushed past the assassin, “C’mon, we gotta get going and find those foals.”

“How’d they build something like that so fast?” Dmitri asked as he pointed to a low, sprawling structure hidden underneath OD green camouflage netting. Guards circled the compound at regular intervals, although there was no fence to keep anyone out. It was impossible to see how far back the complex went from where they we hiding in the trees, but they could tell it was massive.

The rest of the trek had been uneventful at first, but they started running in to more patrols the further they moved into the forest. At first they had tried to eliminate the patrolling soldiers, but all too soon they had to stay hidden using Twilight’s spell and let the large groups pass. It had been nerve-wracking and ended with the rescue party hunkered down at the tree line next to a large clearing with the camouflage netting and the enemy base staring them down.

“Robots are hard workers.” Vincent mused, “And they’ve had quite awhile to build. Who knows just how big it is?”

“That has to be where they took those kids.” Shelby added.

Twilight nodded her agreement, “It would make sense that the enemy would have a base. Otherwise where would they house their troops?”

“I would say that is far more than just a base.” Trixie called out quietly, “It is so big that they must have some other purpose for it.”

“But what?” Sands shot back, “And what are we going to do?”

Applejack glared at the building, knowing that her sister was somewhere inside. She fixed her friends with a determined look and said, “We’re gonna do the only thing we can. We’re going to go in there, rescue them fillies and colts, and not gonna let anythin’ git in our way.” She looked to Jaze with passion burning in her eyes, “Ain’t that right Jaze?”

The assassin watched the traitorous soldiers moving around the compound’s perimeter. A quick count showed more than fifty of the defectors, with more probably inside. Too many to kill quietly, he thought, but we can’t let them catch us while we are protecting the foals either. His face steadily grew darker as he surveyed the scene, and his mind boiled with ideas and counter-ideas while he tried to find the best way to get everyone out alive.

“What are we going to do, Colonel?” Vincent asked quietly after several minutes of silence from his friend.

“The only thing we can. Like Applejack said, we are going to save those foals.” The silver-eyed man checked the load of his submachine gun, and made sure Sairugi was clear in its sheath before saying, “But before that, we are going to kill every, last, traitor in that building, and anyone or anything that stands in our way.”