“Tommy? What’s happening?” Helen’s tone of voice catches Lightning Dust’s attention, she hops off the couch and trots over to her wife.

“Something wrong, love?”

Helen looks at the phone, “I was on the phone with Tommy, one of your senior apprentices. He was going to check on the CMC at their clubhouse.”

Dust perks her ears forward, then flattens them back at the look on Helen’s face, Helen gulps slightly, “I couldn’t understand everything, but I think something’s wrong.”

Dust doesn’t need any more than that, she turns and gallops towards the back door out of the kitchen, the clatter of her hooves attracting attention of the other ponies as she slams through the big French doors and takes flight, Irony walks up to Helen, “What’s going on.”

Helen looks at Velvet, “I think there’s trouble.”

Irony growls as Velvet stands up, Irony turns to her, “I’ll give you a ride.”

Velvet holds her emotions in check, barely, those foals are her responsibility, “Get emergency services coming, right now. I’d rather explain a hasty reaction to them than wait even longer for them to arrive. I don’t need a ride.” She turns and begins to charge her horn, but Mindy squeaks and taps her horn.

Blinking Velvet puts her hoof to her horn and looks sourly at Mindy, “Velvet, we will do this together, Dust is ahead of us, let’s take a minute to get everypony ready, okay?”

Nodding Velvet slowly turns to look at the open French doors.

Lightning Dust powers through the air, she’s not been back in the air very long since her ordeal in South America, she’s calling on all the speed she can, but she can feel the ache in her wings. Luckily the clubhouse is close to the farm, and Dust’s house is about a fifteen-minute drive from the farm. Less than a minute of flight for Lightning Dust. Quickly she’s backpedaling her wings to slow down. Her sharp eyes see the form on the ground, and she streaks to him.

“Oh, Tommy.” She moans as she sees his body, he moves slightly, “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll get you taken care of.” She reaches for the stylus so she can dial her phone, only to have a muted flash of light show the teleportation of several unicorns.

Moon Shadow comes up, “Dust, what can I do to help?”

Dust looks over at the idling pickup, “Pull the first aid kit, he’s bleeding.”

A bright globe of light forms and rises above the scene, lighting the area nearly as bright as day. Mindy hops over, “Oh, Dustie, this is bad. Don’t move him.”

Blood drips from Tommy’s mouth and down his cheek, falling in small drops onto the snow.

Dust looks at Mindy and continues to check on the prone human. Blood is dripping slowly from his chin, “He’s bitten his tongue, I hope that’s all. Look at the snow.”

Mindy looks back and forth, “What am I seeing, Dustie?”

“The only hoof marks are mine, he was thrown into the tree, and landed here. Tommy isn’t the biggest of guys, but he’s solidly built, it would take a pretty good hit to knock him over thirty feet.”

Fleur comes down from the clubhouse and walks over, her phone comes out and she dials, “Hello, I need a rapid response team to the pony settlement in Montana.” She huffs at the response, “Well, get the plane moving now. I’ll secure the crime scene and start gathering evidence. Emergency response is on its way, so I’ll try to get as much as possible before there’s too much contamination.” She listens, “Alright.” She hangs up and looks at Velvet, “I’ve got to take pictures, we will find who did this, Velvet.” She trots off, the flash from her camera phone going off every few seconds.

Dust growls as Moon Shadow comes up with the first aid kit, Dust opens it and starts to work, only to be gently pushed aside by Moon Shadow as she uses her magic. Several crackles from nearby trees announce her magic being used there. Several large branches head towards Moon Shadow, the glow around them intensifies and a serviceable backboard appears in their place. Her magic envelopes the human gently and the backboard is slid underneath him.

A series of thumps announce a team from the town, Winter Storm steps up, “Ambulance is almost thirty minutes out. Anything we can do?”

Dust sighs, “Secure the area. Just a perimeter right now. Let Fleur gather her evidence.”

A phone floats towards Dust in an orange aura, Mindy’s voice is serious, her mane and tail are flat, “Dust…” She sighs, “you need to see this.”

Apparently, Tommy had the presence of mind to activate the camera on the device. Though the glass of the phone is cracked, the list of pictures shows a unicorn walking out of the clubhouse, then he walks off with the three foals held in his magic. Among the pictures is one where the pony is illuminated in moonlight, “That son of a bitch.” Dust breathes. The turquois pegasus looks around at those working. She shakes her head and grumbles as she walks away from the scene.

Velvet step forward, and Mindy reluctantly shows her the photo as well. She looks in shock at first before she draws herself into a ball, the tears starting to form, “If I hadn't been so involved in the wedding, worrying about it, this wouldn't have happened. It’s all my fault"

A bright flash and a peal of thunder comes from nearer to the lake. Mindy wraps her hooves around Velvet as another bright flash lights up the night, accompanies by a pained scream.

“I don’t think I want to be him when Dust finds him.” Mindy says, her ears flattening back from the loud cursing and random lightning bolts from the enraged Wonderbolt. With one final massive blast into the sky, Dust stalks back, her eyes faintly glowing, and electricity crackling among her feathers.

Dust looks around, “Winter Storm!” She shouts. The pegasus leaps before her, tossing off a quick salute, Dust growls, “It’s going to be too long before the ambulance gets here. I want you and one other pegasus to pick him up, and carefully take him to town.” She looks at Moon Shadow, “Is he stable enough for transport?”

Moon Shadow nods tightly, “At least two pegasi should carry him, I’ll put a spell to stabilize him, but I don’t think teleportation is a good idea right now, he’s got a severe concussion, at least a couple broken ribs, and the impact caused his teeth to snap closed on his tongue, he nearly severed it. I don’t have enough medical knowledge to heal him. But we have doctors and pony healers at the hospital.”

Twilight Velvet reaches out and touches the young man as the two pegasi take on their burden, a murmured “Thank you.” And they are off.

Turning, she flinches and takes a few steps back, Dust is right there, in her face, “I’m sorry, Dust. This is my fault.”

“Buck that nonsense, Velvet! The safety of these ponies is MY responsibility. I’m the ranking Royal Guard here. I’m sorry for not having enough security, he had to come in and get out by teleportation. Which means we need to address the lack of wards for teleportation into the town.” She sighs and the glow starts to leave both her wings and eyes, “We will get them back. No matter what it takes. You have me, and every team we’ve made here to help ponies. We will get your foals back to you, no matter what.”

Velvet looks around at the ponies, the determination in their faces is clear as day. She looks back to Dust, “I’m going to help where I can.”

Dust nods tightly, “I know.” She growls, “We’ll get him, and he will regret tonight.”

***

The S-21’s Missile Approach Warning system detected the heat blooms, two missiles are instantly identified and warning alarms go off in the cockpit.

In response, the pilot throws the throttle to full and clicks the afterburner button to get speed and altitude as fast as he can. Rolling the plane slightly the flare package instantly begins firing, creating an angel wing appearance as the flares spread out from the back of the aircraft. At the same time, a pair of belly mounted lasers attempt to lock onto the missiles, the hopes being that the lasers could blind the seeker heads causing the missiles to lose their lock.

“Bozhe moy!” The pilot swears as he tries his best to climb and bank the sluggish airplane.

“What’s going on!” Spike yells from his seat.

“Someone fired missiles at us.” The pilot calls back, “I don’t know if I can evade them. Ten seconds to impact! You might want to consider exiting with the princess.”

A moment later the MAW system screams out another alert as it detects two more launches, a total of four missiles in the air as the corporate jet struggles to climb out and turn.

“Princess, I need you to teleport clear.” Spitfire demands of Cadance.

“But what about you and the others?” Cadance says, looking at the other passengers.

“You’re our first priority! You’re a princess.” Spike says sternly.

“But…” Cadance looks at Spike with tears in her eyes.

“No time! GO!” Spike shouts.

Lighting her horn, Cadance appears outside. The speed difference causes her to tumble and spin in the air out of control for a moment. She spreads her wings and spins a few times before leveling out, it only takes her a few moments to regain her balance and orientation, but by then it is too late. She watches the massive column of fire stretching from the ground up to the sky. Looking over, she hears the two explosions in rapid succession. The fire is almost too bright for her eyes.

“SPIKE!” She cries out, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

***

“Oh hell.” Special Agent Anthony Wilks looks around before hanging up the phone. Standing up, he grabs a file off his desk and runs up the stairs to the director’s office.

“He’s in a meeting.” Angela says at her desk, Angela isn’t an agent, she’s a secretary, but has been with CID now for fifteen years, and with this director for five.

Hammering the door twice with his fist, Anthony opens the door and steps inside.

Blinking, the CID director looks up, as does the NCIS director at the interruption. Reaching over, the director taps a button on his phone, “Angela?”

Calling out from her desk outside the office, “I told him, he didn’t care.”

“This had better be important, something like the White House has been bombed levels of important, or your next job will be guarding tires at Camp Arifjan, in Kuwait.” The director says sternly.

Cringing, Anthony shakes his head. “Sir, there’s been a kidnapping, and I have a bad feeling its got ties to terrorism, domestic and international.”

“Who was kidnapped?” The director asks, leaning back in his chair.

Anthony checks his notes before looking back up, “Three foals, Cotton Candy, Cotton Cloudy, and Feather Pinch.”

“Honestly, how are we even supposed to take them seriously with names like that.” The NCIS director says, shaking his head.

The CID director glances to his associate before back to Anthony. “And what does this have to do with terrorism?”

“They were taken by a pony named Night Light.” Anthony starts, before being interrupted by the NCIS director.

“So this is a pony mater, Lightning Dust and her crew go on about handling things themselves, so why do we need to get involved.” The NCIS Director states as a matter of course.

Continuing, Anthony places a file in front of the director. “This pony is a ghost in the worst sense of the word. We don’t know anything about him prior to his change. He first appeared in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan or FATAs. He is fluent in Punjabi and was part of a caravan that left Pakistan into Afghanistan.”

“He is a strong believer in Sharia law, and unlike other refugees he had a stash of uncut emeralds which points to the North-Eastern parts of Afghanistan,” Anthony went on, dropping a few pictures of uncut emeralds and rubies.

“Taliban controlled territory.” The CID Director said looking at the file, “We’ve had word of them using these gems to finance operations.”

“During the turmoil, he bought passage into the United States. Paid roughly twenty-five thousand dollars.” Anthony says.

“How did he get past ICE?” The CID Director asked, turning pages.

“That’s the thing, we are not sure. We backtracked his travel as best we could when he came on our radar. He apparently chartered travel from Afghanistan to Morocco, then we think we have him chartering a Moroccan freighter for Cuba. We know he never arrived in Cuba however.” Anthony said.

“Excuse me why were you wasting time and resources tracking this pony?” The NCIS director inquires, “If he was never a threat.”

“That’s the thing, we weren’t. He showed up at a pony meeting place to confront a US Ranger trying to claim her as his wife under Islamic law. The ranger had turned into a pony as well, one Twilight Velvet.” Anthony says, “She’s essentially the primary teacher of the Pentagon’s unicorn training program.”

“Oh, the MUTS.” The NCIS Director says with a chuckle.

“She’s deemed a primary asset.” The CID Director said and flipped pages.

“The three foals kidnapped are her adopted wards.” Anthony says, “Now a lot of the research was done by another unicorn, Cipher Splash. Who backtracked Night Light and also suspects him of being involved in attacks against US forces.”

“Oh hell, targeting of a primary asset?” The director nods, “Put out an internal amber alert, base staff only, have the MP’s alerted as well as having ICE on alert. Just what we need, a pissed off mother mare.”

Taking one of the papers, the NCIS Director shakes his head slowly, “A corporal is considered a primary asset? Really?”

“She has the greatest understanding of magic, of any unicorn in the service, and is the only one we’ve found so far with practice and experience teaching magic. She has trained dozens of military staff and dependents in the use of their abilities.” The CID Director says, “Including our agent Fleur. She’s a primary asset without question.”

“With permission sir, I’d like to send what we have to the OSI, I’m sure they already know, as well as CGIS, CGIS has a unicorn training with Velvet now as well. Permission, though, to get the FBI involved as well?” Anthony asks.

“With this? Let the 520th know, put it as a full BOLO as well as interagency Amber alert, though keep it off of the LEO’s channels. I doubt they have any ability to deal with anything like this.” The CID Director says.

“I’ll forward it to homeland as well so they know what’s going on. Dust is taking this as an attack against her property.” Anthony finishes.

“Do you want in on this?” The CID Director says, “It might look bad if your agency is the only one not involved.”

With slight grumble the NCIS Director stands up, “I’ll assign a team and forward the information to all offices. We can continue this meeting later.”

***

Closing her eyes, Cadance shakes her head as she descends. She feels the ground under hoof before opening her eyes and slowly looking back to the fire. Things, however, begin happening almost to fast for her to understand.

The S-21 climbs out and away from flame wall. Its afterburners lit for extra thrust as it vectors away from the launch site. The second two missiles still streak towards the corporate jet as it comes into view.

The massive shadow of Kara passes overhead as she climbs and banks to put out another powerful gout of fire between the plane and missiles. Unable to avoid, the missiles fly into the superheated gas cloud. As the skin temperature on the missiles reach critical levels, the fuel detonates, ripping the missiles apart mid flight.

Turning her head, she alters her course to the launch site. The rebels, having expended their missiles, are quick to open fire with their AK’s. But it doesn’t matter. Nothing they can will make any difference.

Kara isn’t a pony. Love and tolerance, living in harmony, is not something she is bound by. She chooses to work with the ponies, because they are harmless. That is HER choice however. She isn’t a griffin who acts out of profit. Her actions are those of a dragon, with the full rage of one of her kind.

A flash of claws and a scream, they are little more than mice, compared to her size. A single claw is like hitting a person with a sharpened telephone pole. While simply stepping on them would likely be just as fatal, she is mad.

This is her territory, these are her friends. They had chosen to visit her, and fell under her protection. These humans had committed a crime against her, and under dragon law, in her territory, there is no forgiveness for such actions. Dropping a gun and running might cause a pony to stop, but a slash of her tail and another cry again shows that she is no pony.

The last of the men begs, pleads, and cries something in another language, a prayer? It doesn’t mater, it doesn’t change the fate, or the sentence. He had attempted to kill a princess, his fate sealed from the moment he fired the first missile. With a flash of white teeth, his sentence is carried out. In their own territory, a dragon is judge, jury and executioner.

Standing in shock, her wings spread wide, Cadance finds herself trembling as she watches, trying hard not to throw up at the sight.

“Princess? Princess? Are you alright?” Spitfire shouts as she touches down beside Cadance, Spike riding on her back.

“I, I’m fine.” Cadence says, then gulps heavily.

Landing on the other side of the princess, Naomi cringes looking at the scene, “Oh boy, what a mess.”

Galina lands beside Naomi, “It could have been worse.”

Cadance blinks, looking over at Galina, “How do you mean?”

“It could have been a lawyer on a toilet. When you gotta go, you gotta go.” Galina says with a light giggle.

Groaning, Naomi covers her beak and eyes with a claw.

Turning, Kara bows her head, “Sorry about this, these… rabble… They still try and cause problems from time to time.” She does a double take, “Spike is that you?”

Spike waves from Spitfire’s back, then all heads turn as they hear a muffled chirping sound. Slowly, Naomi tilts her head from side to side and begins walking to the bodies, listening. Flipping over part of a torso, she picks up and holds up a satellite phone high in the air.

“Found it!” She calls out and opens the phone. “Hello?”

“Well at least it wasn’t buried in a pile of poo.” Galina says, looking at Spitfire.

“Well that was rude, they just hung up without saying a word.” Naomi says.

Spike looks at the phone, “Maybe some of our techs back home can track down the calls made on it and such. Find out what’s going on.”

Kara smiles, “For now though, welcome to our family, we have a special feast ready in your honor.”

***

“She’s not in good shape sir.”

The sickbay on the Hobart class of destroyers is much larger and better equipped than those on the Armidale-class patrol boats. Rather than just a single small room, it has an actual doctor’s office, a small lab with some basic tools, and even two beds for recovery.

The ship doesn’t have a proper operating room. However, it isn’t expected to carry out full operations, or long term recovery. Even its pharmaceuticals are limited, instead it is meant to handle and treat small injuries, or stabilize critical cases till they could be flown to a proper medical facility.

“Will she pull through?” The captain asks, looking down at the pink ball of fluff and feathers.

“I’ve been on the coms with vets in Queensland and managed a call to some yank specialists. The best they could suggest is IV saline solutions, monitor her discharge, and try and bring her fluid levels into balance slowly so as not to shock her system.” The Doctor says, “She keeps drifting in and out of consciousness.”

“Has she said anything?” Captain Stevenson asks as he leans over to stroke the foal’s mane softly.

“She only asked where Meadow Flower was.” The doctor says, then he looks at the captain, “So are you going to report her?”

“Pardon?” Captain Stevenson blinks and looks confused.

“Maxine White? The navigator?” The doctor looks up from his file.

Looking confused, the captain shakes his head. “Why would I report her?”

“Standing orders from the Admiralty sir. Any signs of a sailor changing must be reported immediately, whether or not its her twenty-fifth birthday.” The doctor says as a matter of course.

“What? She’s displayed no signs whatsoever.” Captain Stevenson is more than a little annoyed at this suggestion.

“According to the yanks, ponies can, in some way, sense or recognize other ponies prior to the change.” The doctor says firmly, “And the foal did call her Meadow Flower.”

“First, we don’t know how close to change that effect has to be. Next, for all we know, the foal is delirious from dehydration. So no, I’m not going to report it, and I’m not going to put the Nav into a position where other ponies could verify her just to test that.” The captain says sternly.

The doctor nods, adjusting the drip rate in the IV. “So you are not reporting it?”

“No, because we have no confirmation of the signs. And I’m not going to pander to the politicians fears by reporting something that’s not confirmed. This will not become some kind of witch-hunt, where the mere suggestion will end someone’s career.” The Captain looks at the Doctor.

“Don’t look at me, I’m bound by patient doctor confidentiality. Anything that does not directly affect the immediate well being of the ship will not be reported without direct consent of the patient.” The doctor says, “So how well do you know the Nav?”

“She’s from New South Wales, Wagga Wagga I believe.” The captain walks over and sits down in the doctor’s chair, “Do you mind?”

“Nope, go ahead.” The doctor says.

“Yep, her families from Wagga Wagga, their family is somewhat set, her father owns a sunflower farm.” Humming softly the captain chuckles, “Well that’s impressive, her father owns five small multi-roll aircraft, water bomber and crop dusters. They are on contract with he government for brush fires.”

“And she joined the navy?” The doctor inquires.

“Yep, looks like she signed up… oh…three months after her brother died in an accident in a crop duster.” The captain shakes his head.

“Okay, getting as far away from that as she could.” The doctor nods. He looks thoughtful for a moment, “So, where is she?” he asks.

“I ordered her back to station on the bridge. Keep her busy for now so she doesn’t worry.”

***

Pacing back and forth I thrash my tail, not being happy is an understatement. Ears flattened, muzzle in a fixed snarl I keep pacing.

“Calm down, hun.” Blaze says as he sits, watching me.

“He kidnapped foals to get to me. What’s next? Targeting you?” I snarl, storming back and forth.

“If he tries, there won’t be much left of him. Now stop trying to destroy the floor.” Blaze says and grabs my tail, pulling me back a bit.

“I’ve got to figure out where he’s taken them. I have to get them back.” I say and sit down, hard.

“NO!” Blaze says firmly, “You are NOT going to run off and try and do this on your own. Don’t you dare try and pull a Twilight Sparkle.”

“But…” I start, but the look in Blaze’s eyes tells me to stop, “Rainbow,” I find myself whining softly.

“You are a lot like your daughter. Back in Equestria you’d rush off on your own, rather than risking friends or family. You’d try and do things on your own. But you don’t have to.” Turning me so he can look into my eyes, Blaze smiles.

“Yeah, here I have a unit, I have friends to back me up. I have family and community.” I sigh softly, “I just…”

“You don’t have anything to prove.” Blaze says, poking my muzzle with his hoof. “Cipher is working with the Army Cyber Intelligence; all the investigative branches have their eyes open. Once we find them, and we will, then everypony, 520th, Dust, us, the unicorn club, will all teach Night Light to leave you alone.”

“I just feel I have to do something. Now.” I say, stomping my front legs in rapid succession while I sit.

“Nope. Think of this as a military operation. We gather intelligence, locate the enemy, fix them, and then when ready, go in with a plan.” Blaze says gently.

With a sigh, I nod, “Then throw the plan away, and make it up on the go as no plan ever survives the first encounter with the enemy. Rules of ranger school. I remember.”

“Yep. But we need as much information as we can before we can organize. We don’t want to be picked off one by one.” Blaze says firmly.

I nod slowly. “The waiting is always the hardest part though.”

***

XO Cruz walks over, looking down at the maps. The ship had covered only about half of the debris area and the storm is closing in fast. At least they know the area where the plane went down. This meant they could concentrate searches for the black boxes after the storm passes.

“We are drifting to the west.” The XO says, looking over at helm.

“I’m on the course the nav set, debris is drifting to the east, so we wanted to stay at the edge. Captain okayed it.” The helm officer calls back

Looking up from her charts, the nav smiles, “The RIBS and Patrol boats are running on the east side for debris, since they don’t have sonar.”

“How are you holding up?” The XO asks as he looks at the map.

“Oh fine, I like this ship, its exciting.” She says, smiling.

“It can take some time to adapt to a new ship. If you have problems, my office is always open.” The XO says.

“Yes sir.”

“XO, I’ve got a faint ping at bearing two seven four.” The sonar operator calls out.

Shoving some papers away, the Nav marks their position on the map and then draws a quick line.

“Sir request we change course to three five zed and hold course for as long as we can, so we don’t get out of range.” The nav says.

“Helm, hold three five zed, drop speed to nine knots. Sonar, call out each bearing as you get them.” The XO looks around the bridge and smiles, ‘A well oiled machine’.

***

The room is dimly lit, with brick walls and a concrete floor. A single drain in the floor can be seen with dark stains around it. The smell of dirt and oil fills the air, as well as an ever-present, slow, dripping sound.

Putting her muzzle against the cage door, Feather tries her best to see where she is, or to even see the others. She is in some sort of plastic dog carrying case. The door to it is metal, with a mesh over the window. The size of the cage prevents her from standing up, let alone turning around.

Putting her hoof against the door, she gives it a push, but it won’t move. “Candy? Cloudy?” She calls out. Cringing at the fear in her voice.

“We’re here.” Cloudy replies meekly. “Feather, I’m scared.”

“What are we going to do?” Asks Candy.

“Do? You are going to die like the abominations you are.” A mans voice says cheerfully, “And as to fear. Fear is a good thing. Fear reminds you that you are in danger, it tells you that you shouldn’t be doing something or shouldn’t be somewhere. Fear is what you should feel every single day.”

As he steps out in front of the cages, the man kneels to look at the foals, “You and every pony should live in fear, until you return to your world. Or die.”

“But…” Feather starts, then she stops quickly as he looks at her coldly.

“But nothing, you survived us once. This time, however, when we are ready, your death will be very public. We will slowly take each and every one of your feathers out, one by one. Before cutting your throat and hanging you upside down to die like the animal you are.” Standing up, the man starts walking away. “Pleasant dreams young ones.”