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Flight 19

by Goldenarbiter

Chapter 5: Chapter 2: A New Dawn

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Chapter 2: A New Dawn


Twilight paced anxiously around her library as she waited for the return letter from the princess.

Spike watched her, his eyes bleary and bloodshot from lack of sleep. “Twilight, you’re gonna wear a hole into the floor if you keep up this—” He paused, hiccuped, and then emitted a belch that shook the books on their shelves. A gust of green-yellow fire burst from his mouth, a carefully bundled scroll riding its edge. Spike grabbed the letter between coughs and handed it to Twilight. “I hate this system, you know?”

“I know, Spike, but it’s the fastest way for communication between myself and the Princesses.” Twilight opened the letter.

Dear Twilight Sparkle.

A contingent of Royal Guard are en-route to Ponyville. The Captain will brief you on the coming assignment. I want you to have the Elements of Harmony ready for action, just in case. Best of luck,

Princess Celestia of Equestria.

Twilight looked out the window at the steadily increasing glow in the eastern sky. “If the Princesses received the letter and acted upon it immediately, which I know they would have, then that means that the Guard would have been readied one hour afterwards... on an hour flight from Canterlot... That means that I only have thirty minutes to gather the other Elements!” She dropped the letter to the floor, her eyes widening.

“But...” Spike looked lost. “If they just sent this letter, won’t it take them an hour to get here? If they left right before she sent the letter?”

“Spiiiike, we can’t just wait until they get here to get everyone! I need time to form a checklist!” Twilight stamped her forehooves on the floor rapidly. “Oh no, where’s my quill?”

Spike was bent over, reading over the letter where it lay on the floor. “Checklist for what? There’s nothing to do until they get here and tell you what’s going on, right?”

Twilight looked at the clock and grimaced. “Look, we’ll talk about this later, okay? Make a reminder on my calendar. I need to go get Rainbow Dash and get her to help me gather the others.”

“Um... reminder. Right, no problem.” The baby dragon trotted over to where Twilight’s calendar lay open on the desk and made busy scribbling motions without actually writing anything. Sometimes there were advantages to being Twilight’s assistant, and omitting lectures Spike really didn’t want to endure was one of them.

“Spike, watch the library!” Twilight yelled as she galloped out the front door. She tore down the avenue, skidding to a stop at the intersection near Sugarcube Corner and hooking down a side street, the details on the houses and shops becoming more distinct as the sun started to poke over the horizon. Her mind was thrumming rapidly as she ran, working out the calculations that would most efficiently accomplish her task. Rainbow lives four minutes away from the library. If I can get to Rainbow Dash, she can fly to Sweet Apple Acres and get AJ while I get Pinkie Pie. She lives seven minutes away from the library. So if I—

Twilight pulled up short, staring at the empty space ahead where Rainbow’s house had been floating yesterday afternoon. “Oh no... oh no no no, tell me she didn’t move it again…” She glanced around frantically, then spied a white tuft peeking out from behind the edge of a nearby house. Her forelegs trembled as she bounded forward again, relief flooding her system.

A cyan blur swooped into Twilight’s vision, closing rapidly, and by the time she noticed, she was already entangled in a jumble of hooves, manes and multicoloured tails. Rolling to a stop, she shook her head and saw Rainbow lying beside her, the pegasus busily spitting out dust and dirt.

“Hey, Twilight, watch where you’re goin’!”

“Rainbow, thank goodness!” Twilight disentangled herself and stood up. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Practicing.” The cyan pegasus stood up as well and shook herself thoroughly. “Some of us have to audition for the Wonderbolts.”

“No time for practice, Rainbow!” Twilight almost danced in place with impatience. “Princess Celestia needs us to gather the Elements. Go get Applejack while I... Oh no. I didn’t finish the calculations!” The unicorn began to feel sweat beading on her brow.

“Twilight, what are you worryin’ about now? It can’t be that important.” Rainbow’s reply was blunt and like always, drew a confused glance out of Twilight.

“Not important?” Twilight could feel her voice rising. “If I don’t map out the fastest route to each of our friends’ homes, we won’t be making the most efficient use of the time we need to prepare for the—” Rainbow’s forehoof thumped gently against her mouth and effectively stopped Twilight’s ranting.

“Twilight, I’ll just go get Applejack and Fluttershy, because they live the furthest away, then you can get Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Easy as that.” Rainbow slowly removed her hoof from Twilight’s muzzle and the purple coated mare took a deep breath.

“Wow, Rainbow. I guess we could do that.” Twilight exhaled and looked back to her friend, a new passion for the quest filling her eyes. “Go get AJ and Fluttershy, then meet me at the library.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. She clearly had no idea what was going on, but was willing to hold off asking for the moment. “You got it Twi.”

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Royal Guard Captain Golden Sword led his pegasus flight team through the clouds surrounding Ponyville. Rather like the goal of his journey, he was fond of checklists, albeit for a different reason, and was mulling over one in his head now.

Gather forces, check. Equip arms and armour, check. Fly to Ponyville, check. Meet with Twilight Sparkle... maybe I can get one of my subordinates to do it. He quickly cut his train of thought before he decided someone else should do this job for him. Meet Twilight Sparkle, deal with whatever it is she’s complaining about, go home, get dinner. Sounds like a good day to me.

The library was in sight now, so Captain Sword gave the signal for his platoon to start their descent to the ground. Captain Sword noted that not a single pony was in the main roundabout in front of the building. Alighting on the ground smoothly, he trotted to the door, listening to the muffled sounds of his iron shoes on the Ponyville dirt, enjoying the early morning silence. All good things need to end...

The Captain raised his forehoof to knock on the door, closing his eyes to prepare himself for a meeting he did not particularly want to partake in. He did not dislike Twilight Sparkle; she was the titular head of the Elements of Harmony and thus deserving of the utmost respect. But he had heard stories about her... eccentricities. He moved his hoof forward, attempting to rap on the wooden door. It met no resistance, and caught off balance, he kept going forward with the motion until he fell flat on his face. Glancing up from a particularly undignified slump, he saw a pink pony waiting where the door was moments ago. But... The door. I didn’t even hear it op—

Sniggering from Sub-Lieutenant Midnight Arrow stopped his train of thought. “Lieutenant. I know I don’t hear you laughing.” The rumbling of Sword’s voice caused Sub-Lieutenant Arrow’s mouth to shut instantly as the Captain stood up. “Now then, Where is Twiligh—”

The Captain was cut off this time by a diminutive green and purple dragon. “Twilight’s upstairs. I’ll go get her.” The dragon’s tone clearly portrayed his boredom.

Sword clenched his teeth but restrained the retort that rose to his lips. Don’t deck the little bugger. He’s just a kid. Taking a moment to resume his composure, he entered the library, the rest of his troops following behind in single file. The six ponies that stood in the central area, waiting for him, caused several of the guards to murmur in admiration. Known colloquially throughout the land as “The Elements of Harmony,” it was a rare pony indeed who had not at least heard of their names and deeds. True to form, it was also rare to see all six of them together when something was not afoot.

“All right,” Twilight’s voice said, bringing his further thoughts to a halt. “If everypony could just have a seat around the table.” Captain Sword sat at the seat Twilight had motioned to. “I believe the good Captain here has some news for us.” Twilight's scowl belied her pleasant tone; the mare was obviously quite worried.

“Right.” Sword cleared his throat and began. “Yesterday it was reported by Twilight Spark—”

“I saw some unnatural weather phenomena.”

Captain Sword could feel his scowl growing. “Thank you, Miss Sparkle. Now, as I was saying, The Princesses have called us here—”

Rainbow was the first to interrupt this time. “Wait a minute, buddy, who’s ‘us’?”

Captain Sword waited for someone else to point out the obvious, but when nopony did, he started again. “I meant the oth—”

Pinkie’s voice was added to the fray in her usual jovial manner. “He means the other guards silly! Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt you?”

Sword’s eye twitched. As he opened his mouth again to speak, he held his breath, waiting. For two seconds he sat there, mouth askew, waiting for somepony to say something. When none rose to the challenge, he exhaled, readying his speech. “The Princesses have ordered me to escort you all to the location of th—”

“Wait, that’s what the Princess wanted the Elements for? To go into the Everfree Forest?” Fluttershy’s meek voice stopped the captain again. “But... there are scary things in the forest... like dragons... and shadows!”

The Captain did a double take. Did she really just say ‘shadows’? “Um... Yes. We will be going to the Everfree Forest. Yes, you will be under guard, Yes, we will investigate things, No there will be no party.” Before the pink pony could inhale enough air for a retort, the Captain had continued. “You will all follow us, without talking, or asking questions, or any general shenanigans. Let’s go.”

Pinkie leaned to Dash, “Wow, what a big bully. He totally interrupted me.”

Golden Sword gritted his teeth as he rose. Oh how I hate this aspect of my job.

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Taylor and Gruebel stood watch outside the makeshift tent area, Gruebel watching the forest carefully. Taylor was ostensibly on watch as well, but his gaze kept straying to the motionless forms lined up to one side, a short distance away from the aircraft, where Gallivan and Grubel had carried and laid them gently in a neat row.

Stivers and Gallivan were asleep inside the tent with Thompson, and were quite obviously not preoccupied with any imminent feeling of danger; their snores wafted out clearly on the air, a competing chorus of malfunctioning buzzsaws. Gallivan tuned the noise out and kept scanning the edge of the treeline for anything, or anyone, that might dare to approach. Nothing had yet, but the Marine could not only see, but feel the eyes of hungry predators lurking in the forest, watching his every move. Waiting.

Thompson had not yet regained consciousness; he lay completely still inside the makeshift shelter and was oblivious to any possible threat. Taylor and Gruebel, however, did not handle it as well. Taylor was a vet with over three thousand flying hours under his belt, but he had never been shot down, never had to endure the smell of cooked, dead flesh. Only because of his experience, training and keen desire not to look a fool in front of the Marines prevented him from pointing his Colt semi-automatic pistol at the shadowy treeline and banging away at anything that moved.

Gruebel showed no such self-restraint. More than once he let loose a shot of in the direction of a howl or the angry glare of the forest’s eyes.

Taylor walked over and sat down near the nervous private. “Hey, listen here. I know this is a bit... odd. And we’re both kinda jumpy. I mean, I’ve never been on the ground behind enemy lines before, so this is as new to me as it is you, but you gotta keep a cool head out here otherwise you won’t survive.”

Gruebel looked at the naval lieutenant balefully. “How do you know I’ve never been on the wrong side of the lines before? Did you find that in my file or something?”

Taylor grinned. “Lucky guess. Look, you can’t keep shooting at anything that moves for two reasons, one being that gunfire is loud and every time you fire, you not only give away our position, you scare the piss out of me.” He followed the last comment up with a half-hearted smile.

Gruebel looked at his flight leader with tired eyes, “And the other reason, sir?”

I’m something that moves,” Taylor held the smirk.

The young trainee pilot stared at his flight leader for a moment before managing a small smile of his own. “Yes sir. Sorry, sir.”

“No problem. Now, holster that pistol. You're still making me nervous waving that thing around. Save your ammo, you never know when you’ll need it. I just wish we could see past those clouds though.” He peered up at the sky for a moment, looking around. “You know, its strange. There are no clouds off that way,” Taylor pointed off to the left towards the moon, “but above us and towards the right, it's thicker than chowder.”

Gruebel nodded dumbly, his face scrunched in thought. “Why haven’t 81 and 3 come back for us, sir?”

“Good question, Gruebel. I assume that they don’t want to be hit by flak, but judging by the lack of anyone hostile in the area so far, I seriously doubt that we are in enemy territory.” Taylor frowned. “Although there’s not supposed to be any enemy territory left. Besides, those explosions... that light storm that hit us, or whatever it was did not look like flak.” Taylor looked to the tent where Stivers was asleep. “Maybe 81 and 3 hit the mountain?”

Gruebel’s face adopted a look of solemn acceptance as he thought about his fellow marines aboard FT-81. “I hope they made it.”

“You were in the Reserves, right Gruebel?”

“Yah. Not enough room in the regular service before the war started. Jumped at the first chance at active duty I got, though.” Gruebel said, looking to the ground.

Noticing the turn of conversation, Taylor decided to steer the conversation to a more recent time. “So, if you’re a Marine, why are you in the air with us flyboys?” Gruebel’s face regained some of its cheer at the topic shift, making Taylor smile inwardly.

“Well, we were all part of a cross field training initiative. You know, find out if any of us were talented at flying. I mostly just operated the radio... It’s what I did in the Marines too, before they taught me how to plug up holes in leaky people. Usually they get Navy corpsmen to do that, but I was some sort of experimental program.” He shrugged. “The flight opportunity came up and I applied... didn’t expect to get accepted, but with the war over, they didn’t need medics as much anymore, I guess. Somebody’s still got to run the radio, though, so here I am.”

“Huh.” Taylor placed his hand on the back of the aspiring pilot. “This your first real flight?” Gruebel’s gaze returned to the ground, giving Taylor his answer. “Well, looks like we did a bang up job on this one, huh?”

“Sir, I’m not sure if—” Gruebel was interrupted by the sound of an approaching growl coming from one of the larger bushes at the near edge of the treeline.

Taylor had a baffled look on his face as he turned to face the creature. “Dear. Sweet. God. What is that?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Staring at Eternity Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 36 Minutes
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