Contact: Apple Harvest

by ty500600

First published 1st of November, 2012

The future is not what is expected

Space is a prison with no bars. It is a place which many seem to escape, but are held back by the simple things in life which hinder their movement. Some though, seek shelter in such an unforgiving place as space. Many have made space their homes, homes with no boundaries to define them. No boundaries, however, leads to problems. Violence, crime, strife, and war are just a few to be listed. No boundaries means no structure, no familiarities, anything and everything is possible. War looms on the horizon, but the citizens are ready for it. For what comes from beyond the veil of the stars, however, they are not.

June 2nd, 2307, SET. Apple Harvest Colony

“Whoa, Rainbow Dash! First Lieutenant? Way to go!” Applejack yelled as she slapped her friend on the flank. “Ya look mighty fancy in that uniform I might add. So, what brings you around these parts anyhow?” They were in Applejack’s office in the middle of town of Apple Harvest. There were pictures hung up all over the wall. They varied from old pictures of Applejack and Rainbow together with the rest of the crew to Applejack holding a large flag in the town square.

“Thanks Applejack, you’re not doing to bad around here yourself, what with having to manage this new colony and stuff. I bet your family would be very proud of what you’ve done!” Rainbow returned the flank spank. “Anyways, I’m here with my squadron and the Dauntless.” Rainbow pointed out of the window up towards the sky at the small New Equestrian Navy Ship Dauntless. “Our job is to escort some Equestrian Space Intelligence spook and his science vessel around the system. Stupid escort duty, it’s so boring. Between you and me, I don’t trust the ESI. Not since they went from a science division to a branch of the military. All those upper class, high ranking officers in one room? Sounds like a load of horse apples if you ask me.”

“I hear ya, but I know you Rainbow, you won’t let anyone down. You’re too loyal,” Applejack said with a grin, poking her friend in the chest. “How long you here for anyhow? I’m sure the gals would love to see their old friend, don’t ya think?”

“Sure thing! I’ve got a little bit of shore leave so we won’t be heading out for a few more hours.” Applejack nodded and led Rainbow out onto the streets. “So where is everypony?” Rainbow asked, walking next to her old friend. She had left her friends five years ago to join the New Equestrian Navy, and now she was looking to make up as much lost time as she could.

“Well, and this should come as no surprise, Twilight headed up the research center in the middle o’ town. I’ll bet Rarity is in her office as requisitions officer; you have no idea how excited she was to have the job managing all the supplies n’ stuff of the colony. Fluttershy is probably tending to the animals, ya know how she is, and as for Pinkie Pie...” Applejack swung her head around, as if looking for something. “Your guess is as good as mine. You never know with that one,” she finished.

“Well, lets find her later, who is the close--” Rainbow was cut off in mid-sentence by a large gasp from behind her.

“Dashie!” shrieked a voice. Rainbow knew what was coming next and relaxed her body, waiting for the inevitable tackle. A flying pink blur smashed into her at full speed, sending them tumbling several feet away from where Rainbow was standing not moments ago.

“Hey, Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow yelled, wrapping her hooves around the mare who was lying on top of her, embracing her in a hug. “It’s great to see you, but you should really get off. I don’t wanna know what my squadron leader would do if she saw my uniform all dirty,” she said with a chuckle. Pinkie elevated herself off her old friend, allowing Rainbow to rise to her hooves. She didn’t offer much reprieve however, and quickly held her cyan friend again.

“Oh my gosh, it’s been so long! Like a bazillion years too long! How was the naval academy? Are you a pilot? Have you fought any aliens? Are there aliens? What’s it like flying your ship? What’s—” An orange hoof stifled Pinkie Pie’s never-ending stream of questions.

“C’mon Pinkie Pie, lets go find the others. I’m sure they’ll have questions for Rainbow too,” Applejack said with a grin, prying Pinkie off of Rainbow.

“Oh my gosh! We need to throw Rainbow a good ol’ fashioned welcome party! Rainbow how long are you here for? Please say a long time?” Pinkie pleaded.

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but I’m only here for a few hours and I—” Rainbow couldn’t finish her sentence. Pinkie had, again, cut her off.

“Only a few hours! Then we need to have a quick party! Come to the warehouse in an hour! I’ll have everything set up! Bring everypony!” Pinkie yelled before bolting off into the distance.

“Just like old times, eh Rainbow?” Applejack laughed.

“Just like old times AJ. Now, as I was saying, who is closest?”

“Well, Twilight’s research center is right in the middle of town and...”

The two ponies walked through town, discussing past events and swapping stories. The first pony they picked up was Twilight. After pounding on the metal door to the building for a full minute, a loud crashing of metallic objects responded and the door flung open. A pony in a shiny silver suit walked out and stared at the two ponies before taking the helmet off. “Applejack, I told you not to... Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled in surprise, flinging her helmet back into the building behind her.

“Hey Twilight, long time no see,” Rainbow said with a smile, drawing her friend into a tight embrace.

They broke the hug. Twilight said, “Oh Rainbow Dash, it’s been so long! How long are you in town for?”

“Well I’ll be in system for a while, but I’m only here for a few hours. Pinkie Pie bolted away a few minutes ago, she went to set up a welcome party. You wanna go?” Rainbow asked.

“Sure thing, let me go inside real quick and get out of this suit, I’ll only be a minute,” Twilight replied. She turned around and disappeared inside. The sound of metal scrapping metal erupted from the dark room, “Uh... two minutes,” came a voice. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other and smiled.

“Old times?” Rainbow asked.

“Old times,” Applejack said.

///PASSWORD?
///************
///LOGGING IN...
///WELCOME GOVERNOR APPLEJACK
///ONE NEW MESSAGE
////DO YOU WISH TO PLAY?
>>PLAY MESSAGE

January 1st, 2303, SET.
Second Lieutenant R. Dash
Private Audio Log

Happy new years guys! Sorry its been so long since the last message. I would have sent one on Hearth’s Warming Eve but the time we had off was spent doing extended duties on patrol. I know I’m a pilot but they needed a small recon team and I couldn’t help but volunteer. I knew I would have a break over the rest of the holidays and I only got back two days ago. But, anyway, I’m fine, almost two years now of flight school. I should be getting my metal wings soon! I’ll do you guys proud. Spending the holidays without you all was... hard, to say the least. I knew it was going to be difficult being without you for so long but... I miss you all. I’m sorry that you can’t reply to these messages. I don’t even know if I should be sending them to you, what with the strict rules and all. I guess it’s whatever though, I hope you guys all had a great holiday season. I love you!

///END OF MESSAGE

The group of three friends started walking towards the outskirts of town while Twilight and Rainbow talked about life. They approached a field of grass with several cows grazing here and there and a barn off to the side.

“Still love them old barns, eh’ Applejack?” Rainbow teased her orange friend.

“My ancestors used barns, so I’m gonna’ use barns,” Applejack shot back with a smirk.

“Okay, Applejack, you keep telling yourself that. Where’s Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked. They had reached the barn doors and they pushed their way through.

“Fluttershy, come down here! We have a guest!” Applejack yelled into the balconies of the barn.

A “shhhhh” was the response from above. Fluttershy poked her head over the edge. “The newborn kittens are trying to... Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy squeaked.

Applejack leaned into Rainbow’s ear and whispered, “That's the loudest I’ve heard her yell in a while.”

Rainbow responded with an elbow to the side. She turned to her yellow friend. “Hey ‘Shy, come down here and give me a hug!” The yellow pegasus leapt from her perch, landing softly in front of Rainbow, then slowly embraced her friend.

“Oh, Rainbow, it’s been so long, I had hoped you hadn’t forgotten about me,” Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy, I would never forget you!” Rainbow replied and tightened her embrace.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t offend you,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Fluttershy, it’s okay, you would never offend me. Now, Pinkie Pie is throwing me a welcome party, but I’m only on the ground for a few more hours, wanna come?” Rainbow asked, splitting the hug.

“Of course, I would never miss a Pinkie party, let me just make sure the animals have enough food and water...”

The group of four turned back towards town, enjoying each others company. They reached a large building that looked like a storage facility. As the group went inside, Rarity’s influence was obvious; forms and documents lined the walls everywhere and couches and chairs were spread out, very much organized. “This must be it, nopony else could design this,” Rainbow said, laughing. The group proceeded through the building, passing an occasional employee who nodded at the passing friends. In the back of the building stood a large purple door with a sign that said “Manager.”

Applejack began rapping on the door, “Rarity, get your flank out here!”

“Applejack, I told you once, I’ll tell you again, I won’t have your order until next week!” shouted a voice from behind the door. The door cracked open to reveal Rarity. “And furthermore, I don’t appreciate you bringing everypony here just to tell me that you want your order.” Rarity opened the door fully. Her eyes widened as she noticed Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow! Oh I’m so sorry my dear, I didn’t know you were coming! I would have tidied up a bit.” She paused and shot a small glare at Applejack. “Now tell me, how have you been? How long are you in town for?”

“Well I’ve been great, I’m a First Lieutenant and fly with a great group of pilots. But I’m not here on of my free will to be honest; I’m here with a small task unit. While we will be in the Apple Harvest system for a while, I’ll be spending most of my time up there,” Rainbow said, raising a hoof towards the ceiling. “But Pinkie Pie is holding a welcome party for me at the warehouse. Would you like to come?”

“Oh Rainbow I would love to but I’m really behind on an order and I—”

“Rarity come now, I’ll give ya a break on that order, come on and let’s be with Rainbow. It ain’t everyday you get to see an old friend, right?” Applejack interjected.

“Yes, you’re right, very well, let me get my things...”

///PASSWORD?
///************
///LOGGING IN...
///WELCOME GOVERNOR APPLEJACK
///ONE NEW MESSAGE
////DO YOU WISH TO PLAY?
>>PLAY MESSAGE

April 17th, 2303
Second Lieutenant R. Dash.
Private Audio Log

Hey girls, it’s me. I’m sorry but this will probably be my last message I can send from flight school. Complications have put the flight academy in a bind. We are moving to Eclipse, an operation base that isn’t far from Apple Harvest, but I will be out of contact. I don’t know much of the details, we are due for briefing in a few hours. Don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me for a while. I’m sorry, this isn’t what you all wanted to hear, I’m sure, But chin up! I’ll be home in no time, don’t you worry! I... I gotta go. I love you all, and I miss you so much. I’m sorry we won’t be able to talk again for a while. Sniff... sorry.

///END OF MESSAGE
///NO NEW MESSAGES

The five friends trotted through town, stopping and saying hello to a few ponies who were in the streets. They were almost to the base of the hill that the warehouse rested on when Rainbow saw two more familiar faces, her two wingponies.

“Hey Spectre, hey Ace!” Rainbow yelled. The two ponies trotted over to Rainbow who began to introduce them to her friends. “Everypony this is Spectre,” she began, pointing to the pegasus stallion of the group, “we all call each other by our callsigns, just easier that way.” Spectre was rather small for a male pegasus, standing as tall as Rainbow Dash. He had a brown coat and a short black mane which was somewhat hidden under his cap. His gentle blue eyes shifted back and forth among Rainbow’s friends.

“Pleased to meet you all,” he said with a bow, removing his cap as he did.

“And this is Ace, our squad leader,” Rainbow said proudly. Ace was taller than the average mare, especially for a unicorn. She had a white coat, a billowing silver mane, and brilliant emerald eyes. She stood there with a smile on her face and shook all of Rainbow’s friends’ hooves.

“How do you all do? Rainbow has told us a lot about you,” she said with a grin. “You’re... Applejack,” she began, “and you’re, Fluttershy, Rarity and Twilight. Wasn’t there another one though? Pinkie Pie I think her name was?”

“Oh yeah, Pinkie Pie! I almost forgot, she was throwing me a welcome party at the warehouse up there.” Rainbow pointed at the metal building. “You guys wanna come? Pinkie always likes meeting new people.”

“Oh Bolt, we’d love to, but Spectre and I were only here to pick up some supplies for the break room, ain’t that right Spectre?” Ace said, shooting a look at Spectre. Upon hearing his name, he blushed a little. “He ate all the food and drank the rest of the cider. Well, we’ll see you later. Don't forget Bolt, last shuttle up to the Dauntless leaves in three hours, so have fun but be quick,” Ace said, slowly trotting off towards the landing pad, Spectre close in tow.

“Alright I’ll see you later!” Rainbow yelled towards her squadron leader.

“Bolt? How did ya’ get that moniker?” Applejack asked, chuckling.

“I set the record speed time for the challenge course on Solstice, first try.” Rainbow said, “Beat the old record by a full second. I wanted to try again, but my drill sergeants were too worried about me showing up the other recruits. It was awesome.”

“Sounds like ya. I’m gonna keep calling ya Dash though,” Applejack laughed.

The group had reached the top of the hill when Rainbow turned around for a moment to take in the scenery. It was beautiful. She had never lived in Old Equestria, but she imagined that it looked a lot like this: the small town below, with ponies going about their day to day business. The grass plains around the town went on for miles, as far as the eye could see, endlessly rolling in the slight breeze. The sun was glinting off of the metallic buildings in town, while wooden buildings glowed in the light they were absorbing. Off to the west, several miles away, stood a small mountain range. Its red-hued gravel was brighter in the brilliance of the sun, while its white peaks glinted like a gem. To the east of the village, a small path cut through the grass fields into a forest. The green aura given off by the trees filled Rainbow’s vision in that direction.

So many colors... this is beautiful, she thought to herself.

“Rainbow, what ya lookin’ at?” Applejack asked her friend.

“This place... it’s wonderful,” Rainbow said quietly, letting out a small sigh of happiness. “The most colorful thing on the Dauntless is either my tail or my ship, it’s all boring and grey otherwise. But this... this is simply amazing. I can’t wait to get back here after we run our sorties.”

“Yeah, it’s great ain’t it? I’m so glad I joined the colonist division, and I’m even gladder that I was picked to start here, Apple Harvest is...” Applejack struggled to find the right word. When she found it, she turned to her blue friend and said with a smile, “home.”

“And I’ll tell you what Rainbow, we can’t wait for ya to get out of the military and come live with us again. It just ain’t the same without ya, having one less pony to compete against,” Applejack started.

“One less pony to study and do science with,” Twilight added.

“One less pony to share my animals with,” Fluttershy whispered.

“One less pony to give my fashioned makeovers to,” Rarity continued.

“One less pony to party with!” Pinkie Pie shouted, literally appearing out of nowhere.

Rainbow turned around, tears in her eyes. “I missed you girls so much, I can’t wait to come back here permanently. I love you all,” Rainbow said, wrapping her friends up with her wings and her legs, embracing them tightly, as if to never let them go.

“We all love you too, but now let’s go party!” Pinkie yelled, shattering the embrace. A chorus of cheers was the answer, and they all trotted towards the warehouse. As the door slowly slid open, Rainbow’s smile widened even more. There were party decorations everywhere and in the middle of the room stood a large cake. They were about to enter when a chorus of yells came from behind them. Running up the hill were the Cutie Mark Crusaders with Scootaloo in the front of the pack, flying.

“Rainbow Dash! Look what I can do!” she yelled, flapping her wings furiously. She slammed into Rainbow, wrapping her neck into a huge hug.

“Hey Squirt, how’ve you been?! Look at that, you can fly now! I bet you’ll be ready to fly with me in the Navy soon, won’t you?” Rainbow said, laughing and hugging the almost fully grown filly. “It’s good to see the rest of you too!” she added, drawing the other two into the hug.

“Yeah I know Rainbow! Another year then I can apply for flight training. I have a good feeling that’s where I’ll get my cutie mark!” Scootaloo replied, a huge grin on her face.

“Rainbow, tell us about what you’ve been doing!” the other two yelled over each other, trying to get her attention.

“How about you guys join us in the party, I’ll be sure to tell you everything!” Rainbow said. Three large smiles was their response, and they quickly bolted into the warehouse, waiting to hear the stories Rainbow was going to share.

“They grow up so fast...” Applejack said, smiling.

“Yes they do. C’mon AJ. Let’s have a party.”

Laughter and loud music was all that was heard from the warehouse. Everypony gathered around Rainbow Dash as she relayed her travels among the stars and her epic feats. They all listened intently, all wanting to hear what she had to say. When the time came, however, Rainbow went around to her friends and gave them each a hug before saying goodbye. She left the warehouse with a large group of ponies behind her, waving as she left. She had no idea when she would be back, but she hoped soon. She missed her friends too much and she wanted to be with them. Rainbow boarded the shuttle up to the Dauntless, a single tear in her eye.

///CONFIRM ID
///****-876-09
///ID CONFIRMED
///WELCOME CAPTAIN H. MUSTANG
///ONE NEW MESSAGE
////DO YOU WISH TO PLAY?
>>PLAY MESSAGE
Captain Mustang, this is Sky Marshal Starblink. With this message is an attachment including the dossier on your new squadron member, Lieutenant R. Dash. You may have heard of her, one of the few survivors of the Shadow Syndicate ambush on the Eclipse Fleet Academy graduation ceremony. She held her own in that slaughter-fest and came out on top, that’s why I’m assigning her to your unit. Along with her will be First Lieutenant C. Sidewinder, another survivor. He too held his own and is good friends with Lieutenant Dash. There is a dossier on him as well. I hope these will supplement your losses after that battle. Keep fighting the good fight Captain, Starblink out.

///END OF MESSAGE
///TWO ATTACHMENTS VERIFIED, DO YOU WISH TO OPEN?
///NEGATIVE, SAVING FOR FUTURE TIME
///LOGGING OFF

2. Destiny's Way

June 3rd, 2307 SET. Apple Harvest Orbit, Dauntless Frigate-Apple Harvest System

Rainbow sat in her assigned briefing chair, still remembering the party that happened only a few hours ago. She was thinking how Applejack was telling a story about how they were first establishing the colony when the pounding of hooves on a table snapped her out of her trance.

“Hey, Bolt! You alive?” came a distant voice. It took a moment for Rainbow to realize that it was Spectre. She shook her head, trying to snap herself back into real time. Around the room sat several other ponies, the pilots from the other squadrons. They were talking amongst themselves about their business and discussing the up-and-coming mission.

“Yeah, I’m good, don’t worry, just getting into pre-op mode, ya’ know how it is,” Rainbow said with a wink. Spectre looked skeptical, but he let it go.

“Uh huh, well just be ready, you know what happened the last time you weren't,” Spectre shot back.

“Hey, I was very ready, you saw me, I shot down three rebels that day! Not my fault you weren't watching where you were flying,” Rainbow retorted.

Spectre’s face twisted in doubt, “right, well next time, watch my back better.”

“Don’t worry Spectre, I’ll never let you down!” Rainbow replied.

It was then that the door to the briefing room swung open and Ace and another pony walked in, discussing something under hushed tones.

“...Well I still don’t like it, ponies are going to get killed,” Ace said.

“I know you don’t like it, Commander, but this is comes straight from the top, nothing you or I can do about it,” replied the other pony. At the sound of an upper ranking officer, the entire room snapped to attention. “At ease,” the grey mare said hastily.

“Pilots, this is Colonel Ambers, she is the captain of the science vessel we will be escorting on this sortie,” Ace started, but the Colonel cut her off.

“Let’s skip the formalities here and jump right into the briefing. This is no ordinary science mission, as I’m sure you could have figured out,” the Colonel said.

Duh,’Rainbow thought to herself. The Colonel looked at Rainbow as if she heard her thoughts.

“Continuing on, we have received reports about rebel activity in this sector. There is no threat coming directly from the colony below, but we have suspicions that some of the local planets’ moons may be housing small rebel naval bases. We have a detachment of the ‘Fighting Fifth’ fleet waiting just outside of the system, not a twenty minute jump away. If there are rebels in this area, this science screening mission will hopefully draw them out into open engagement, a trap if you will. I’m sorry to say, however, we are the bait,” the Colonel paused. At the sound of the word bait, murmurs started to arise, but were quickly stifled by a grey hoof in the air, “now, the science vessel will be fully controlled from the Dauntless, so there will be no pony on board her. However, we must make it look like we are defending her so vigorously that it will draw their attention towards it. The vessel does have automated weapons, so be careful of where you fly, they’re computers, they’re not perfect. Once they commit a majority of their forces towards our decoy vessel, I will signal the Fifth fleet to jump in system. That leaves us twenty minutes to hold them off while they attack us. Pilots, stay near the Dauntless once they commit against the science vessel, that will be your best hope of survival, her point defence laser turrets will help keep the skies clear. While I doubt they will have anything heavier than an outdated frigate, the Angel bomber squadron will be kept out of combat until something like that rears its ugly head. If that situation does arise,” the Colonel turned to face Ace, “I want your squadron to escort them,” she turned back to face the rest of the pilots. “Any questions? No? Good, saddle up everyone, its gonna’ be a long haul.”

***

June 3rd, 2307 SET. Planet Manestay Asteroid Belt-Apple Harvest System

“This is Lancer wing 2-5-9, call sign Ace, squadron falling into tractor lock behind the science vessel, mark,” Ace’s voice echoed over the radio. Rainbow felt an invisible force grab onto her Lancer, holding her in a tight formation with her two wing ponies. The tractor lock allowed the pilots to relax in their cockpits without worrying about flying. The Lancer-class fighter had a similar design to the older fighter jets the ponies used to use. It had two forward wings and two smaller rear wings and a long fuselage with the cockpit at the front. The only notable difference was the weapons. The lancers had a laser cannon at the end of each wing. The operation had just started with the science vessel slowly weaving in and out of the asteroid belt, as if looking for something. Rainbow Dash had settled into her cockpit and began to rest her eyes. If anything had shown up to challenge the small group, her alarms would let her know. Her mind started to wander, and soon she was dozing off into a light sleep.

***

Ponies had fully achieved the ability to travel to other planets in other solar systems in the year 2143, and as a result, the population of Equestria began to diminish ever so slightly. No pony wanted to be stuck on a boring old planet when they could be out exploring the stars above them. By now, Equestria had gone into open skirmishes with the Gryphons, due to the amount of raids the Gryphonian Legions had launched on the boarders of Equestria. This was another reason for many ponies leaving their homes, they didn’t want to be caught up in a war with a highly trained Gryphon army.

At first, the Gryphon raids were primarily contained to the border regions, until one fateful day, the main force of the Gryphonian King’s army began a march through Equestria, slaughtering all in his path. The ponies were heretics and by the will of the gods, they were to be wiped out. For a gruesome twenty years, the Gryphon armies marched through Equestria, leaving a burning and bloody wake wherever they went. The Gryphonian Legions now set there eyes on Canterlot, the last free pony city in Equestria. For three years they laid siege to the city, attacking any pony brave enough to leave the protective walls. By now, most of the citizens had been evacuated into space, away from their homes to Mares, and from there they were spread out through the collective holdings of the Equestrian regions. On May 17th 2193, the Canterlot fell to the gryphons, but not before evacuating the majority of its citizens.

Most were evacuated, except for an unfortunate few who were left behind. They were left to die in their old homes, they had thought. Left by their Princesses who they long revered as gods and protectors, they swore to get revenge on their leaders. They had found their own ways off planet, and headed towards Mares. They didn’t reveal their plans for many years, slowly building an army and gathering fresh recruits. They named themselves the “Shadow Syndicate,” to show that they would strike at those who had left the syndicate behind in their shadows.

After fifty years of careful planning and expanding, the Shadow Syndicate finally made their first move. The utter destruction and seizing of the colony Mares. Terrorist bombers across the planet launched a full out assault on all major shipping lines, hospitals, air bases, government buildings, major population centers, and many other locations. The colony fell in less than a week to the vicious ponies. A colony of nearly a million ponies fell to an army of no more than a thousand. They then transmitted themselves across all channels of the New Equestrian Expansion. They showed videos of ponies exploding, buildings collapsing, and many other horrors across public access. They then quickly disappeared as quickly as they came, leaving the colony in ruins, but not without an owner. The leaders of the Shadow Syndicate contacted the Gryphon Legions back in Old Equestria, alerting them to the now vacant planet that was not far out of their reach. The Gryphon King quickly managed to build a colonist vessel of his own, quickly claiming the smoldering ruins of Mares.

Since then, the Shadow Syndicate has launched many offensives against the New Equestrian Expansion. While these attacks were not nearly as ferocious and violent as the assault on Mares, they were much more frequent with more modern technology. While never admitting it publicly, it is believed that the Shadow Syndicate has had the backing of the Gryphons since they gave Gryphonia their first colony.

It was after the destruction of Mares and the loss of many other lives due to raids by the Shadow Syndicate, was it determined that the New Equestrian Expanse would begin building a large military presence amongst her colonies. The New Equestrian Space Command was thus formed, as a way to monitor and control a large standing military in the vast reaches of space. After several years in the making, five fleets were trained and ready to defend their worlds. The first fleet to get this chance was the New Equestrian Fifth Fleet.

In the year 2233,a large Shadow Syndicate fleet had appeared in the middle of field test that the Fifth was having. Outnumbered two-to-one, the Fifth fleet held its own against the Shadow Syndicate fleet, forcing a retreat for the first time. It was then that the fleet received the nickname the “Fighting Fifth.” It was used as a moral booster, but at the same time, it was a truly earned name. This was also when the true power of the Shadow Syndicate was brought to full attention. They were well armed with fleets and other fighting forces, no longer just terrorists hiding out on planets, waiting for small prey. They were a clear threat, and every day their numbers were growing. They had begun seizing uncolonized planets, transforming themselves into a full empire, capable of rivaling the New Equestrian Expanse.

***

A loud beeping woke Rainbow Dash from her slumber. She shook her head and took in her surroundings. She saw on her radar two large green blips and several smaller green blips, the Dauntless and the science vessel and her escort fighters. But on the outer edges of her radar screen, small red blips began to appear, the ship’s IFF tagging the unknown ships as rebels. Her intercom flared to life, “Alright every pony, look alive, we got inbound hostiles, looks like eight Stead-class fighter squadrons and three Angel-class bomber wings,” Ace’s voice cracked.

Eight fighter squadrons and three bomber squadrons against a lone frigate and her three escort squadrons? This is gonna’ be a close shave, Rainbow thought to herself. She flicked a series of switches, her fighter coming back under her control. She ran quick preliminary checks to make sure everything was working order. She pulled her ship into a quick somersault and then just as quickly righted herself. Around her, other pilots began doing the same, performing a series of maneuvers that would have been brilliant in a non-combat scenario. To her left, the Dauntless’ laser platforms began rotating, preparing for combat. Rainbow flicked a final switch and the sound of charging laser cannons was the response. Rainbow rolled her fighter in closely behind Ace’s left wing, Spectre followed suite, following closely on Ace’s right. The three got up close to the science vessel and began to orbit slowly around it, giving the look of a quick screening defense.

The two small fleets were no more than 100-km from each other. As the two fleets drew ever closer, the enemy fleet began peppering the New Equestrian fleet with light laser fire, dealing no real damage. The Dauntless was the first to draw blood, as her main weapon, a pulse cannon, opened fire, striking two enemy fighters, vaporizing them instantly. At first, Rainbow felt a pang of regret for those two pilots, they died before they even had a chance to fight back, but then she thought of the innocents the rebels slaughtered on Mares. All remorse was washed away from her mind, and she focused on the nearest fighter to her, putting it right in her reticule. A little closer, little closer, she thought to herself. Gotcha, she pressed her trigger. Bright streams of blue light lanced out of her ship, slamming into the fuselage of the fighter that was flying directly at her. The ship light up into a large ball of flame, bits and pieces spiraling off into the emptiness of space.

“Good shot, Bolt! Let em’ pass, then come around on me, lets tag us some rebel tail,” Ace’s voice leaped out of Rainbow’s intercom. Rainbow clicked her intercom unit, indicating that she understood. The two opposing sides fighters shot past each other at lightning speeds. “Alright, go!” Rainbow pulled her ship into a tight loop, perfectly ending up next to Ace. “Focus the bombers, keep em’ away from the science vessel!” Ace yelled into the mic. Two clicks was the response. A large flash of light and a red blip disappearing on Rainbow’s radar marked another kill for the Dauntless, which was sitting a small distance away from the fight, acting more like pin-point artillery than a warship.

Probably that Colonel’s idea, Rainbow thought, although not much of a thought. She was too focused on the battle to give anymore attention to anything else. Spectre had fallen in behind her, allowing her to lead the way. She tapped a button on her dashboard and six enemy bombers became illuminated through the HUD. Rainbow hit another button which sent the data towards her two squad mates. They clicked their thanks, and they began to systematically pick off the bombers.

All around Rainbow the battle was raging. Fighters were chasing each other down, pinning one another against asteroids and the larger ships alike. Every so often, an unfortunate rebel pilot would fly too close to the Dauntless and would get picked off by the point defense turrets. Amateurs, Rainbow thought, shaking her head. These weren’t experienced pilots by any pony’s means. This guys were barely even trained, she would have bet. Rainbow and her squad had managed to pick of four of the six bombers, and she thought the battle would might have been won, without the help of the Fifth. She was about to mark a victory for herself when an alert began blinking on her HUD. She glanced down at her radar, and what she made her heart sink.

“All craft fall back to the Dauntless, two enemy destroyers have jumped in system! Fall back!” came the voice of clearly surprised Colonel, “we have reinforcements inbound! I repeat, the Fifth fleet is inbound, all craft, hold steady!”

No shit hold steady! Rainbow screamed in her mind. As the pilots began to fall back towards the Dauntless, swarms of enemy fighters began converging on their location. The science vessels automated weapons served them well...for a moment. The ship had shot down its eighth fighter before being hammered by the two destroyers. The ship became still for a moment before going out fighting, taking out two more fighters in the process. A final volley from the destroyers put it out of its misery. In retaliation, the Dauntless fired a well placed shot into the side of one of the destroyers, making it rotate on its axis.

The radio came to life again, “now’s our chance! Bombers launch, hammer that crippled ship! Commander, you and your squadron protect those bombers!” the Colonel yelled through the mic. A solid click was the reply. Three bombers departed the hangar bay of the Dauntless, moving hastily against the darkness of space. The three Lancers dropped in behind the bombers, slowing their pace slightly to maintain the same speed as the bombers. While a majority of the enemy fighters were occupied with the Dauntless and her defenders, several had split off from the main group to engage the bombers.

“Incoming!” Ace’s voice spat through the radio. The three Lancers turned and flew head first into the oncoming fighters, trading laser rounds. While no serious damage was taken, Rainbow’s wing had a acquired some laser burns. She blasted the enemy ship who dared to scratch hers. This dropped the enemy count from five to four. While as powerful as the Lancers, the Stead fighters were no match for the Lancers’ agility, and the enemy pilots were no where near as skilled as the three in Rainbow’s squadron. In a quick one minute skirmish, the other fighters were either dead or retreating.

By now the bombers had reached their target and began their run. A series of flashing lights began to follow in the wake of the bombers against the hull of the stunned destroyer. “Let’s follow em’ in!” Ace said, cueing her crew to switch to the torpedo that all Lancers carried. The Lancers came in low and fast and quickly deployed their heavy ordinance.

One of the torpedoes must have hit something crucial because once the Lancers cleared the husk of the ship, a large explosion rattled across Rainbow’s fighter, shaking the controls slightly. “That’s a hit, that’s a hit, good shooting everyone,” came Ace’s reassuring voice. Rainbow dared a quick peak behind her, and satisfaction rolled across her body at what she saw. The ship had been sheered in two, its pieces being slowly pulled in by the planet in the distance. “Alright, lets guide the bombers in on the second ship.”

The large ship had been ignoring the small fighters, preferring to target the larger threat off in the distance, the Dauntless. The large ship charged its main weapon and launched a shot off towards the frigate, striking it in the side. Even from the distance she was at, Rainbow could see that the side where the blast had hit had been completely torn away. Debris began falling away from the ship, much like it had from the wrecked destroyer. Rainbow could see a series of ruptures in the ship, atmosphere and flames bursting from them. The comm channel roared to life, “Mayday, mayday, this is the Dauntless, we’re hit! Main cannon down, engine power down to sixty percent, all New Equestrian Space Command ships respond!” came a panicked voice over the intercom. The voice paused for a moment, before coming back online with a somber yet terrified tone, “the Colonel is dead, I repeat, the Colonel is dead, and the ESI pulled the reinforcements back, we screwed!”

Ace quickly jumped on the line, “whoever this is get a hold on yourself! Fall back towards the planet now, we will cover your escape!” She closed the channel, giving who ever was talking no chance of replying. “Heavies, you still good to go?” Ace directed the question at the bomber squadron who was flying near by.

“You know it Commander, still got half a payload to deliver!” replied an enthusiastic voice.

“Right, lets buy our friends a little time, follow us in!”

The three Lancers swooped in front of the bombers, drawing as much fire away as they could. They flew full speed at the looming destroyer in front of them, peppering it with as much laser fire as they could before having to pull away. They focused their fire on one location, punching a small hole in the ships armor. “There’s your target, give em’ hell!” Ace shouted.

As the Lancers pulled out of their attack run, the three bombers swooped past them, missiles and bombs hurling at the small crack in the ships armor. As the heavy ordinance began to collide with the ship, the crack became a fracture, which became a rupture, which became a gaping hole. A large blast rocked the ship back and forth, throwing it out of its old position. A series of whoops and cheers erupted through the radio. Rainbow allowed herself to join the celebration for a moment, until one of the voices cut out. “Hawk? Hawk where did you-gah!” another voice cut out. The ship’s point defense lasers had targeted themselves on the new attackers, focusing on the bombers.

“Get out of here! Go now-” the last bomber disappeared into a ball of melting metal and static. The three pilots instinctively whipped their ships around and began to speed away, a barrage of lights flinging past them. Rainbow threw her ship into a spiral, dodging any incoming fire. She looked down at her radar and quickly scanned what was happening. The large blip had turned to face them, determined not to let its attackers go unpunished. The Dauntless was slowly limping away from battle trying to fend off its small attackers with what was left of the squadrons it held and its remaining defensive lasers.

Rainbow looked at the situation with a grim expression, realizing what needed to be done. “We need to buy them more time, otherwise they wont make it,” she said over the radio quietly. She knew she would die, but she would die saving the lives of many ponies on board the Dauntless. Not to mention the ponies on Apple Harvest. The colony was openly aligned with the New Equestrian Expanse. If the small fighting force fell to the rebels now, there would be no telling what they would do to the colonists. Rainbow thought of her smiling friends down below.

“Are you crazy? If we go back we’ll get slaughtered!” Spectre said, the first time saying anything since the battle started.

“Look, if we go back and draw the destroyers attention, the Dauntless will get back towards friendly space with hopefully having time to formulate a defense plan. If we retreat with the Dauntless, we will all be picked off one by one. Either way we die, so at least this way we die saving lives,” Rainbow said, frustrated.

“What could three Lancers who are out of heavy ordinance do against a destroyer other than be a nuisance for a few moments?” Spectre, almost pleading for another way.

“Hey, we’re the best pilots out here remember? And maybe we can take the thing down with us, she’s hurt badly after all,” Rainbow choked out, accepting her fate, “I’m going back, you can come if you want.” Rainbow threw her ship into a loop, heading straight for the bridge of the enemy ship. Ace, who hadn’t said a word, was quick to follow Rainbow’s maneuver.

“Gah!” Spectre yelled in defeat, and he quickly followed the other two. The three fighters rocketed towards the enemy ship, looping and rolling around enemy laser fire. They began to return fire, aiming for the bridge of the ship. The three Lancers sped ever faster at their target, lasers constantly streaming out of their cannons, looping and dodging around incoming fire.

The alarms signaling overheating engines and lasers began to chime. The hull integrity alert came on, warning her of damage. Rainbow closed her eyes, trembling as she flew. She wasn’t mad that she was going to die, she was just disappointed. Disappointed that Scootaloo was looking forward to finally flying with her idol, but would never get the chance. She thought of the rest of her friends on the ground, a single tear formed in her eye, “Goodbye every pony,” she said aloud, waiting for her ship to split apart.

“Goodbye? Why, we’re just gettin’ started!” Came a familiar voice. Rainbow wrenched her eyes open and shot a look at her radar. New contacts had appeared, but with green IFF tags. A rag-tag group of fighters had appeared out of nowhere behind the enemy destroyer, dropping bombs and strafing it with laser fire. The ship began to turn to face this new threat, until another wave of old fighters dropped in behind it and smashed it with weapons from the opposite side. A huge explosion shook the ship, shaking loose chunks of debris. A final pass from the first wave of fighters finished the ship, bombs shattering the hull. The ship stopped moving as all lights on it died. It sat there for a moment, dead as a rock. Then, it exploded into pieces, showering the yellow world below with bits and pieces. Rainbow had been so focused on what had just happened that she didn’t see the bit of debris in front of her. The radio came to life, “Rainbow!”

She looked ahead, shaken from her trance-like state. She threw her fighter into an uncontrolled spin, missing the piece of ship by a mere meters. At first she couldn’t wrestle her ship under her control due to the damage, but she managed to pull it into a straight line. She looked around again, although keeping an eye out in front of her. The enemy fighters had retreated back beyond the planet, presumably towards a hidden base or a transport ship. No way they were going to get out of the system otherwise. The Dauntless was now being escorted by one of the squadrons that had entered the battle moments ago, while the other squadron had formed up around Rainbow and her squad. One of the old ships had swung up near her and she could see into its cockpit, and leading the squadron of old Stead and out other dated fighters was none other than Applejack.

3. Blood & Scars

June 4th, 2307 SET. Apple Harvest Colony-Apple Harvest System

“Now this might hurt for just a sec’” the nurse said to Rainbow, before slowly pushing a needle into her forward leg. Rainbow winced for a moment, but the pain quickly subsided and the machine began to chug, slowly drawing a dark red substance from her. Being O+, Rainbow’s blood was very valuable to the small medic crew who were busily working on the survivors of the Dauntless. As the blood began to circulate through the machine, Rainbow’s thoughts jumped back to flight school.

‘The Pegusi-class frigate is a small task-force vessel that spans 300 meters. It it 100 meters tall and 75 meters wide. It has a standard operating crew of 71. This number might vary based on the mission, however, and a skeleton crew of 46 is needed to pilot the ship efficiently...’ she remembered the automated voice of the computer in her head clear as day. “Humph,” Rainbow grunted out loud, More than seventy ponies on the Dauntless, and only twenty-seven survivors, counting us pilots, she thought to herself. Not to mention that half of that number isn’t fit to go anywhere, and we might lose some after that. At the last thought, she glanced around the makeshift hospital. It was a sight of grim horror, and the screams of hurt and dying ponies made her stomach churn a little.

The nearest bed held a dark blue mare who was sleeping in stable condition. She was, however, missing a rear leg, and in its place was a stump wrapped in bloody bandages. ‘At least she is sleeping,’ Rainbow thought to herself, a little sick. The majority of the room wasn’t so lucky, however. Across from the sleeping amputee was a horrid sight: a purple pony was kicking and screaming as two doctors tried to hold her down to remove a piece of shrapnel from her stomach. One of the doctors had seen Rainbow staring and quickly jerked the curtain shut, slightly muffling the screams.

A pony with a bandage wrapped around his head covering his left eye approached her, saluting gently as he drew closer. “ Lieutenant Dash? I’m Ensign Portside, one of the helms ponies on the Dauntless; I just wanted to thank you for saving us from that destroyer. If you hadn’t gone back... I dunno’ where I would be, anyways, thanks for your act of bravery. If it wasn’t for you, I would probably be worse off than missing an eye,” the red stallion said, still slightly tipsy from his wound.

“Don’t mention it, I was just doing my job, I only regret not doing it faster,” Rainbow muffled, dipping her head slightly.

“Well you saved us,” he said, casting a hoof across the hospital behind him, “we are all in your debt. You, and your friends from the colony,” the stallion ended, a small smile on his face. He gave a quick nod before walking off slowly towards the barracks.

He wasn’t the first pony to thank Rainbow either. Throughout the time that Rainbow was sitting at the machine, many ponies that were leaving the hospital had stopped to give their thanks, all of which were wearing some form of bandaging. Rainbow began to wonder why they were thanking her, they were all clearly injured in some way, shape, or form. She thought that, had she had been quicker, she could have saved them all of their troubles and fifty ponies’ lives. Rainbow sat there, growing ever sadder as ponies passed their appreciations towards her.

The blue mare who was missing a leg had woken up and she quickly glanced around. She tried waving at the doctors around her but none of them paid her much attention. She looked around hopelessly; she called out to a passing nurse who shot her a glance before retreating back towards another operating table. Rainbow saw this as the machine beeped, indicating that she had completed her donation cycle. She gently bit down on the tube that was connected to the needle and slowly withdrew the point from her arm. She quickly bandaged herself up then trotted over to the blue mare who was still lying in bed waiting for someone to help her. “Hey, I can help, what do you need?” Rainbow asked quietly.

The mare coughed on a dry throat, then gasped out, “water.” Rainbow nodded and grabbed a small glass on the bedside table and set off to find a sink. Rainbow filled the glass and brought it back to the young pony, who she helped into a more comfortable position. Rainbow then handed the water to the mare, who drank the whole glass of water with haste. Once the blue pony had finished the glass, she reclined a bit and sighed deeply. She turned to Rainbow, “thanks, I was hella’ thirsty,” she started, “I’m Lieutenant Stall, but my callsign is just Stall, so you can call me that if you want,” the pony was about to finish until she noticed Rainbow’s rank on her flight suit, “err... Ma’am.”

Rainbow let out a small smile, “we’re not on duty, and I hate being called ma’am, so don’t. Also, I’m First Lieutenant Dash, callsign Bolt.” Rainbow pulled up a small stool under the medical bed and sat down. She was looking for a good conversation.

At the sound of Rainbow’s name, the blue pony’s eyes widened, “you’re Bolt? The pony who beat the record obstacle course at Solstice on her first attempt? And the one who just saved my and many others lives?”

Rainbow’s eyes grew sad upon hearing the words “saved lives.” She looked the pony in front of her in the eyes, “well, yeah, that’s me, but I wasn’t the only one. My squad followed me in, and not to mention the colonist pilots that came to help. They were the ones who destroyed the enemy ship,” Rainbow said soberly.

“Well yeah, but your distraction in the first place allowed rescue ponies the time needed to pull me and a couple other pilots from space before retreating,” the blue mare said ecstatically. Her eyes shifted to her leg, and winced. “I was shot down when the two reb’ destroyers jumped in-system. I had pulled my eject leaver, but only most of me ejected. The pain was so immense that I passed out almost immediately, thank Celestia for those EV suites eh? Sealed shut around my leg, kept me nice and warm...and alive. I woke up to the sight of a rescue pony dragging me slowly towards a wrecked Dauntless and you and your crew giving that destroyer a run for its money all on your own. As far as anyone is concerned, you saved the Dauntless and her crew,” Stall said confidently. She began to yawn, and looked meaningfully at Rainbow, “sorry to say, I’m still pretty drugged up with painkillers, sorry to fall asleep on you but...” her head began to bob, and she slid back down under the covers. She was soon sleeping soundly again, and Rainbow sat there for a moment, looking at the blue mare.

I saved her, and the rest of them, she thought to herself, and a small but satisfying smile came to her mouth.

***

Rainbow picked up her hat and trotted out of the hospital. The sun was just starting to rise over the mountains, casting a shadow that spanned all the way to the towns edge. ‘Not only did we save the Dauntless and her crew, we saved this,’ Rainbow thought, glancing around the town. The ponies on Apple Harvest went about their daily business like nothing had happened. Rainbow had guessed that most of them probably weren’t even aware that a space battle had occurred in their system. Ignorance is bliss, she thought. She had decided to walk for a while and let her feet guide her. After at what she had guessed were fifteen minutes of walking, she was at Applejack’s office. Anger swelled up inside of Rainbow all of a sudden, and she busted into the small room. A startled Applejack reeled out of her seat, taken back by her friend’s expression.

“Rainbow, what’s wrong?” Applejack asked cautiously.

“Why didn’t you offer your support earlier? We could have used more fighters!” Rainbow yelled.

“Rainbow, ya’ll told me that you ponies were on a science mission and that you were just an escort, not an attack group,” Applejack said calmly, watching her friend closely.

Rainbow paused for a moment, considering what her friend had said for a moment and then pressed on, “Well you would have had to see that we were engaged in open conflict, how come you didn’t help us then?”

“We’re colonist ponies Rainbow, not trained pilots. It takes us a little longer to gather our forces, not to mention that we don’t have real trainin’ like you. In an open dogfight we would have been slaughtered. We had to strike when we could, otherwise we would have been no more use to you then we were on the ground,” said a reserved Applejack. She had clearly been ready for this confrontation by the way she replied. She knew that rainbow was going to be brash about something. She stared her friend in the face, “look, I’m sorry we couldnta’ helped ya’ll sooner, truly I am, but we had to hit them when they weren’t lookin’. Many ponies died out there, but if we would’a done somethin’ differently, many more would be. Besides, you’re a hero now! The only thing us colony ponies did was made sure ya’ lived to see it,” Applejack ended confidently.

Rainbow stared at her friend for a moment. She knew that Applejack was right; there was no other way that the battle could have gone over. She should be thanking her friend for saving her life even, but all she could do was stand and stare. “You’re right Applejack,” she sighed in defeat, “you helped when you could, and that’s all anyone could have asked for. I just can’t help but feel that I could have saved more ponies. I mean the Dauntless had a crew of around seventy ponies, and now, she is down to twenty-seven. I don’t even know if that’s enough to fly her back to more friendly space, and I feel that it’s my fault, I let more than a hundred and fifty ponies die!”

Applejack stared at her friend in bewilderment, “Rainbow, how can you blame yourself for that. You didn’t let any pony die, you saved twenty-seven lives! As far as I’m concerned that makes you better than any pony out there!”

“But Applejack, why do people keep saying I did it? Ace and Spectre followed me in, and you and your pilots are the ones who finished the destroyer off. When I was in the hospital, I was talking to a blue mare who had a leg torn off when she tried to eject, and she thanked me for it. In fact, tons of ponies thanked me! All of whom were hurt, but they still thanked me! Why would they thank me? They’re all clearly injured and it’s because I wasn’t good enough or fast enough,” Rainbow said. Her legs were trembling and her tail was quivering.

“Couple o’ things sugar cube: One, sit down, you look like you’re about to pass out,” Applejack started, kicking a stool towards Rainbow who slumped down on it as it hit her hooves. Applejack turned to bare down on her friend, “and two, stop it. Stop it now. When you said that ponies thanked ya’, you were quick to point out that my pilots and your wing ponies were there to help, but when you look to cast blame, ya’ only look towards yourself. It’s either you weren’t fast enough to save them all but you were fast enough to save some, or it’s we weren't fast enough to save them all but we were fast enough to save some,” Applejack finished, slamming a hoof down as she did.

The slam made Rainbow jump a bit, she looked up into her friends eyes, defeat in her own “but Applejack-”

“No buts Rainbow, its either you or we. My ponies are humble and don’t care that ya’ are gettin’ the credit, and I’m sure your other friends think the same thing. You’re a hero now and rightfully so. I know what your plan was too, with that destroyer I mean. I know a collision course when I see one, and that brings up a question. Would that have made things better? If ya’ would have died saving those other ponies? Cause all that would have done is taken the life of another one, another name to the casualty list. Not to mention what that would have meant to us down here. I’m not trying to make you feel bad Rainbow, that would have been about at as selfless as it gets. I guess what I am trying to say is that this way was better. Not only were the others saved, you are still alive. My best friend is still alive!” Applejack said, a tear forming in her eye. She turned away from Rainbow and wiped the tear away.

Rainbow bolted up out of her seat and threw her legs around Applejack, “I’m sorry Applejack, and I truly am. I was going to do it for you and everyone else down here. I wanted to make sure you were all safe, and,” Rainbow paused for a moment to let go of the embrace, “thank you, for saving me.”

Applejack wrapped her friend in a tight hug again, “no problem friend, always remember that you have friends here who will fight by your side,” she said, she pulled away and looked her friend in the eyes, “that reminds me, you might want to go talk to Scootaloo, she snagged a pilot’s uniform and jumped into the empty seat behind me. She really wanted to be up there with you Rainbow, so I let her,” Applejack said with a grin.

Rainbow at first was shocked but then her expression quickly turned to a smile as well, “I’m not surprised, Scoots as always wanted to fly with me, depending how long I’m here, maybe I’ll teach her a few things,” Rainbow said looking out the window, almost to herself more than Applejack.

“I bet she would like that but-” Applejack was cut off by the intercom on her desk.

“Ms. Applejack? An Equestrian Space Intelligence vessel is requesting clearance to land, says they have some high ranking official here to talk to the you and Dauntless crew.

“Alright, tell them to land at pad three, and let them know I’ll meet them there,” Applejack said, flicking a switch on her desk. She turned to Rainbow, “well, let’s go make some new friends.”

4. Soon to Be

June 4th, 2307 SET. Apple Harvest Colony-Apple Harvest System

Rainbow Dash and Applejack had left the office and started towards the third and final landing pad. Around them ponies were moving to and fro, going about their business. “Good thing it ain’t harvest season yet, otherwise there would be no way we could help ya’ll with the Dauntless,” Applejack said, watching her colonists carry different materials towards the landing pads. From there, shuttles would ferry the supplies to the damaged ship that was in low orbit. She tracked one of the shuttles all the way up into the hangar of the Dauntless. “Ya’ know for only being in dock for a day, she looks much better than she did before,” Applejack said, “Your engineer crews are really good at what they do, wish mah’ ponies were as good as yours.”

“Well, maybe I can talk to the new XO of the Dauntless and see if they can’t spare some ponies to help you down here, since you guys are helping us up there,” Rainbow replied, pointing towards the sky.

Applejack stared at her friend for a moment with a quizzical expression, “a what now? An ecks-ohh?”

“Oh right, an XO is an executive officer, the pony who is in charge of the ship when the captain is relieved of duty. I don’t know who it is now though, since the Colonel was KIA as was most of the bridge crew,” Rainbow replied softly. While Applejack had talked some sense into her about how it wasn’t her fault, she was still upset about the loses.

“KIA? Rainbow Ah don’t know your fancy acronyms,” Applejack chuckled.

“Killed in action,” Rainbow replied softly.

“Oh...Well, who do ya’ think it would be? Wasn’t your squadron leader, Ace Ah’ think her name was, the commander of the Lancer wings? Would that put her into the captain's chair?” Applejack asked. As if on cue, Ace and Spectre trotted over from the landing pad that a shuttle had just recently landed on. “Guess we’ll get to find out won’t we?”

As Ace approached, Rainbow flashed a quick salute. “At ease, no need for protocol right now Bolt, we have more pressing matters to deal with. An ESI ship contacted the Dauntless a little while ago, requesting to meet with the highest ranking officer and the Wing Commander,” she paused for a moment and looked around, almost desperately, “and that means me and somepony else,” Ace moaned, clearly not thrilled by the idea of having to talk to an ESI officer.

“Doesn’t that make you the acting captain of the Dauntless too, Ace?” Rainbow asked.

“No, thankfully it doesn’t. I already hate being the Lancer wing commander, can’t imagine what it would be like being a captain of an entire ship...” Ace trailed off before shaking her head and facing her comrades. “From what I understand, the spook that’s here was sent to carry out the orders of the ESI. If ESI is digging their hooves into our operation, then you can bet something interesting is bound to happen,” Ace finished with a sigh.

The four ponies stood there silently for a moment until a dull roar was heard over head. The ponies angled their heads high and saw another ship, slightly smaller then the Dauntless descend into low orbit before halting.

“What kind o’ ship is that? Ah ain’t ever seen one like that before,” Applejack asked, her eyes fixed on the shining new object in the sky.

“That would be an ESI prowler, Midnight-class. She's quick and stealthy, being able to accelerate to around 24 kilometers per second, and has a mean bite to her too. The stealth field it creates is actually a combination of Unicorn magic and refraction technology. The Midnight-class is about ten meters shorter than a Pegusi-frigate, and has a crew of about fifty,” Rainbow said, eyes gazing up above. The other three turned to her, confused looks on their faces. She looked around her, “What? I can know stuff!” she said, coming off as slightly offended.

“Maybe this spook can answer a few questions, like why in the name of Celestia our reinforcements were held back?” Spectre chimed in, breaking the awkward silence.

“Yeah, good question Spec’,” Ace said, her eyes focused back on the sky. “Here comes the shuttle, suppose we should go meet this ESI agent, eh?” The other three nodded their heads in agreement and set off in the direction of the distant landing platform.

“Ah’ gots a question as well, how did the Shadow Syndicate get those two destroyers in system without anypony noticing? Ships that big don’t have a cloaking device do they?” Applejack asked, curiosity and concern spread across her face.

“No, at least, none of our ships of that size can cloak. Even the Pegusi-class Frigate can’t cloak, the Midnight-class prowler is the largest ship in the NESC armory that can. Even then, the cloak is still in the early field runs, very new technology...” Rainbow muttered, her face contorted in thought.

“Rainbow, where did you get this freaky amount of knowledge about ships n’ such? It’s almost as freaky as Fluttershy’s knowledge about sewing,” Applejack teased.

Rainbow turned to her friend, “In flight school, we had to sit through countless hours of history and tech sessions. I didn’t care about the history, that's boring, but when the technical info about ships started flowing, I started listening. I like ships; ships are cool,” she finished, adjusting the collar on her flight jacket. Rainbow cast a glance over the small settlement, losing herself in thought again. “Applejack, you openly attacked a Shadow Syndicate task force, aren’t you worried that they will come after you?”

Applejack’s face turned solemn, “Well, to be honest Rainbow, this wasn’t the first time we had to deal with the rebels, although they never really flat out attacked us.”

It was Rainbow’s turn to stare at her friend in shock, “You mean to tell me that you have had contact with the rebels before, and you didn’t bother to contact the NESC or the NEX headquarters?”

“Well...eh, no. I mean, it wasn’t like it was something we couldn’t handle on our own. Ya’ll seen us, we know how to fight, and they didn’t come back to mess with us again until now. And I suppose that ain’t exactly accurate neither, we did let on to NESC that there was rebel commotion out here’. Why do ya’ll think yall’re here in the first place?” Applejack said with a smirk.

“I doubt the rebels would just let you sit here. This planet is part of the NEX after all.” Rainbow chided.

“Well doubt wasn’t a luxury I could afford, so I had to make sure they didn’t attack,” Applejack said slyly.

Ace’s turned to speak, “What do you mean, ‘they didn’t flat out attack you’?”

Applejack tried to answer discretely, “I mean, they didn’t come in here guns blazing.”

“And why not? There must have been some incentive for them to come into a New Equestrian Expanse colony and not start blasting,” Ace pushed on.

Applejack’s face turned dark, “Listen here, I did what I had to to save my colony and her residents, and I ain’t sayin’ I’m proud of it,” she sighed quickly before continuing. “We... had struck a deal with the rebels. Access to our system for access to a few of their ships and they left us in peace. I assume they gave us some ships to help them if the time came, but that didn’t go over well in hindsight did it?”

The three pilots stopped in their tracks, staring in disbelief at the orange mare in front of them. Rainbow’s eye twitched, “You...what?”

“Rainbow I-”

Ace jumped in, “Making a deal with the Shadow Syndicate is treason...”

“I know but I-”

“Not only is it treason, but you betrayed your loyalty to the New Equestrian Expanse and to Celestia and Luna,” Rainbow said disgustedly.

Applejack stomped the ground, demanding attention, “Now listen here, put yourself in my position: A bunch of ponies armed to the teeth come to a small, weaponless colony demanding the use of our system under threat of death. What did you expect me to do? Say no? While ya’ll may be right about betraying my loyalty to the Princesses, I wasn’t about to put my loyalty to a group of ponies who are safe inside their fortress thousands of light years away over the lives of my colonists who are right here!” she grunted, casting a hoof over the town. “If ya’ll gonna’ judge me for what I did, so be it, but do you remember who saved yall’s hide up there?” She said it as more of a statement then a question.

Ace took a step forward, “Is that a challenge?”

“Maybe it is, I’m not a bad pilot myself,” Applejack held her ground.

“Challenge accepted,” Ace sneered, confidence spread across her face. Applejack stepped forward, pressing her forehead against Ace’s, both of them staring each other down. They might have started fighting had Rainbow and Spectre not pried them apart.

“Applejack no, this situation is already bad, don’t make it worse,” Rainbow warned. Applejack replied with a snort, green eyes locked onto Ace.

“Ace, Dash is right, let’s not get into a fight with the locals. We are, after all, receiving their support,” Spectre murmured into his squadron leader’s ear. Her response was a huff, her own emerald eyes not ever loosing sight of the orange pony in front of her.

“Peace?” Applejack said cooly. A swift nod was the response, and Applejack spat onto her hoof and held it out, Ace quickly returning the favor. A dark grin crawled over Applejack’s face, “Never thought any of you fly ponies would know about this hoofshake, ‘cept Rainbow.”

“Same with all of you colony ponies, I mean you all seem so clean and tidy,” Ace shot back.

“I’m an apple bucker, I know plenty of hoofshakes,” Applejack said, proud of herself.

“Uh huh...so you’re a farmer pony, and you think you can beat me in the skies?”

“You betcha’.”

The two ponies knocked heads again, staring each other down. Rainbow face hoofed, “Applejack please, It’s bad enough knowing that you openly made a deal with the rebels.”

Applejack gave a good long stare at Ace before turning to her friend, “listen Rainbow, I’m truly sorry that I betrayed your trust, but I’m hoping to gain it back by being honest here. Ya’ understand where I’m coming from with this right?”

Rainbow sighed before nodding, “I know AJ, none of us will bring this up with the ESI or anyone else,” Rainbow stared at her squad-mates before continuing, “Right?”

“Right,” was the unanimous reply, although begrudgingly from Ace. The walk to the dock was continued in silence as most of the ponies wondered what awaited them. AJ, her colony, and Ace her position.

Upon reaching the landing pad which the shuttle was perched, the large group was greeted by a mysterious looking stallion in a well kept dress uniform, flanked by two equally mysterious looking guards. AJ and Ace approached the small ensemble while the rest of their group stayed behind, loathe to get into the ESI’s business.

His gruff voice rumbled to the two approaching ponies, “Applejack, Mustang and squad come with us.” AJ and Ace complied, fear hidden beneath calm demeanour's. The seven ponies entered the shuttle, and the door closed behind them, the hiss of atmospheric pressurization greeting them.

5. Calm Before the Storm

June 5th, 2307 SET. ESI Prowler-Apple Harvest Orbit

Rainbow Dash sat down on one of the chairs that were in the shuttle, taking in her surroundings. She whistled slightly under her breath, the space craft was very nice. Clearly an officer’s ship, it had all the comforts of a private yacht. It had a refrigerator and above it sat a small cupboard filled will a variety of wine glasses and other types of drinking ware. There was a lamp that was resting atop a small bookshelf which itself sat next to a leather chair that the stallion in the fancy get up was currently sitting in. He had seen Rainbow’s expression and whinnied with pleasure, “Do you like my ship? Had some of the...” he paused a moment before continuing, looking for the right word, “utilities put in for the sake of entertaining guests and diplomats and what not. Also, it is nice to travel in style, is it not?” He looked among the group, as if expecting a response.

“Oh, that wasn’t rhetorical?” Ace asked sharply, clearly not pleased about being on the same ship as an ESI spook.

He shot her a quizzical but threatening look, “Commander Mustang, is there a problem?”

She winced at the sound of her real name, not happy to hear it, “No...Sir, it’s just that we are in the middle of repairing the Dauntless, and all of us are needed to get the ship back to operational status...” She locked her eyes with the grey stallion seated in front of her. His silver eyes scanning her, taking in every detail.

“Well, then let us make this quick shall we?” He said bemused.

It was Applejack’s turn to cut in, “uh...just who the hay are ya’?”

The grey head turned to her, his short, white mane locked in place by the officer’s hat resting on his head. He began observing the colonist pony in front of him, a slight smirk sneaking in on his face, “Ah, where are my manners? You may call me The Diplomat.”

Confusion spread across Applejack’s face, “The...Diplomat? Is that really yur’ name?” She looked to the other three ponies in the shuttle and to her surprise none of them shared her confusion, “Uh, what’s goin’ on?” The Diplomat sat there with a smug grin on his face, clearly proud of the confusion his name stirred up.

Rainbow leaned over and said quietly, “He is an ESI operative, they all have cover names, kinda' like our call-signs.” The Diplomat nodded in agreement.

“Yes, except we will never reveal our true names. I am The Diplomat, that is all,” confidence held his tone firm. He cast his gaze over Rainbow and Spectre, studying them. “Bolt, otherwise known as Rainbow Dash,” he started, “you are the pony that holds the current record on Solstice, no?” Rainbow nodded slowly, she had no idea where he was getting all of this information, although something like that wasn’t a secret. What was a secret however, was Ace’s real name. Rainbow had only heard the name once before and even then Rainbow still always addressed her as Ace. “Also, from the reports I’ve received it sounds like you have made yourself out to be a bit of a hero. What do you have to say to that?” He watched her closely.

Rainbow pressed her ears against the back of her head before saying, “just doing my job sir, nothing else.”

He stared at her for a moment, carefully calculating what she said, “Well, doing your job is good, but doing it well is better and will earn you rewards,” he said as rose out his chair. He approached Rainbow, “First Lieutenant Rainbow Dash, you are here by promoted to the rank of Captain for your valor and bravery in the face of danger.” Rainbow stared in disbelief for a moment and she thought she saw something in his face, a small grin maybe, but if it was there, it wasn’t for long. He held is face firm, waiting for the return salute. Rainbow flicked her fore-hoof up to her head, copying the pony in front of her.

“Thank you sir!” She replied with practiced resolve. She was slightly confused about the honor that was just given to her. She had said she was only doing her job, but Rainbow was also not one to turn down a promotion when it was handed to her. The grey pony in front of her continued on to Spectre.

“Second Lieutenant Sidewinder, you are here by promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant for your valor and bravery in the face of danger,” he said. That time Rainbow did see a small smirk on his face before burying it under a straight face.

“Thank you sir, it’s an honor,” Spectre said with the same resolve as Rainbow, well-practiced. The Diplomat trotted over to a small cabinet and pulled out a small box, levitating it with his magic. Rainbow took note of this; she hadn’t seen his horn for it was hidden under his hat. He proceeded to float out two pins that looked like a pair of wings with a circle branded with the Mark of Celestia in the center. He removed the old pins off of the lapels of the flight uniforms the two pilots were wearing and replaced them with their new ranks. He flashed one more salute and they returned it with pride.

“As for you Commander, being that you are such a high ranking officer, we must do your promotion in according to the traditional ceremony, and that will wait until after the briefing. We must be fast however, complications have arisen during your mission here,” his normally smirking face had turned hard. “If you would all take a seat around the holo-projector, we can get started.” The four other ponies gathered around the large circular table-like object in the center of the ship. He pushed several buttons and the table whirred to life, light pouring out of it. He turned a solemn look upon the ponies that were watching, “We are at war, fillies and gentlecolts. The Shadow Syndicate has openly assaulted a trade convoy en route from Solstice to the planet Eclipse.” He paused for a moment to push a few more buttons. A star map popped up, highlighting the trade route between the two planets. A small green line began to follow the route before being swallowed by red. “This happened about twelve parsecs away from SS controlled territory,” he said as a large area was painted a faint red and was labeled SS space. The convoy was very much distant away from the area that was mapped as Shadow space. “Now, and I’m sorry to say, that the only force within distance that could help was the fifth fleet that was stationed to help you, they were only two parsecs away.” On the map, blue blips had gotten mixed in with the green and red. “I apologize for that, but the trade convoy was carrying military equipment that could not fall into the hands of the Shadow Syndicate. Anyways, the detachment of the fifth had managed to repulse the Shadow Syndicate fleet for a time, but not before sustaining casualties. Currently, two frigates and a destroyer are dead, and another destroyer crippled. Reinforcements are on the way to back them up, but deep contact radar has picked up enemy movement as well. They are coming back for round two. Now, this is why I have brought you here. While the Dauntless is in no condition to fight, her fighters are, and that is why I brought the ship we are currently bellied in. This shuttle will remain on the planet to make room for more fighters, and I will be giving orders from it down on the surface. While I know your pilots are still tired, and you are not up to full strength, I have a small supplement of crew for you to utilize.” He paused for a moment, letting the ponies in front of him take in what he was saying. Ace had maintained a poker face through all of it, deep in thought. Spectre looked rather angry and was ready, whereas Rainbow was thinking deeply.

Applejack broke the silence, “Uh...Mr. The Diplomat? Where do I come in? Why am I involved here?”

He cast a gaze over her, “You have fighters yourselves I understand. While I know you and your ponies are not fully trained pilots, you have experience, which is more than can be said for some of the military. While not a demand, I ask you to let us utilize your pilots. They will provide cover fire only, they will not be sent into direct combat, and by doing this, we can use our pilots for the real fighting, not guard duty. Also, if you do agree, Captain Dash shall remain here to train your pilots until the Dauntless is ready to go. Once that happens you will join us in combat at the battlefield.”

This revelation shocked Rainbow, who quickly turned her gaze at her friend. Applejack thought hard about the proposal. Rainbow voiced a concern, “Well the Dauntless will be ready to go in a couple of weeks but that won’t be soon enough to be of any help.”

The Diplomat thought hard about this predicament, he did not actually know how much damage the Dauntless had taken. “I understand, but Solstice is very far away, it’s going to be a long time until the Second and Third fleet arrives. The remainder of the Fifth is inbound and should be there in a few days, I will have them send another frigate to pick your craft up.”

“A few days? How can I train ponies in only a few days?” Rainbow was shocked.

“Well from my understanding, they already have previous experience, but they will need to learn unit cohesion; especially if they would be used for guard duty,” The Diplomat replied smoothly.

“Unit cohesion isn’t something you just learn...” Rainbow muttered.

“Right, they need to fly together for long periods of time to achieve this. You have several days, make it happen,” he ended. If Rainbow had not known any better, she would have shot him a glare.

Applejack was quick to break the silence, “My pilots don’t need no trainin’, we can fly as well as the rest of ya’ll.”

“Then it will make the training process a whole lot smoother now wont it?” The Diplomat replied, not breaking the stare he held on Rainbow.

Ace stepped in, “Why are you offering us an ESI prowler? Surely there would be better uses for a stealth ship.”

“While normally I would be inclined to agree, an invisible prowler acting as a strike carrier could do serious damage, don’t you think? Also, this is a strategy that is going to be implemented during this battle with several stealth prowlers. If it’s technology they want, its technology they’ll get.” His grin spread back across his face.

6. Pilots

June 6th, SET. Apple Harvest Colony.

Rainbow sat in the makeshift control tower that watched over the converted landing zone for the colonist pilots. The tower was originally meant to be a fire tower, but its speaker phone and broadcasting equipment proved useful for her to communicate with her pilots. It was four in the morning by Apple Harvest standards and the sun had yet to bring itself to light the sky.

Rainbow was staring over the older fighters that resting in the field below, illuminated by bright light posts. ‘What can I do to train these ponies in three days? They know how to fly for themselves, that’s for sure, but you don’t learn teamwork...it is earned through practice’. She remembered her flight instructor telling her that, ‘Earn, not learn.’ A knock on the wooden hatch below pulled Rainbow from her thoughts. She trotted over and pulled up on the handle and swung the hatch open, revealing a tired looking Applejack.

“Permission to come aboard?” Applejack asked, stifling a yawn as she did. The orange mare had feint black bags under her eyes, clearly not used to being up this early.

Rainbow chuckled to herself quietly, “Applejack, two things; one, you are the authoritative figure of an established planet. You outrank me by anypony’s standards and two, you’re my friend, you don’t need to ask permission to do anything.” She threw in a grin with the explanation.

Applejack replied with a meek smile and said, “Well that’s mighty kind of ya’ Rainbow, but...” She paused for a yawn that she couldn’t hold any longer, “I don’ want ya’ treatin’ me any different because I’m yer’ friend. We’re all pilots now and, other than rank, we are all equal. It’s why I asked to come aboard,” Applejack finished with a weak grin. “So, what’s the plan?”

Rainbow looked over her tired friend a moment before starting, “Well, I just got a transmission from the frigate that is en route to pick us up, the Midnight Dream. They said that they were going to be here in three days but...there is a problem.”

“Oh? What might that be?”

“Well, the Dream was actually set to be decommissioned due to its main gun not working properly, so now it is basically an unarmed, undersized carrier.”

“What’s the problem then?”

“The problem, AJ, is that we will be being escorted into combat by a ship with no heavy weapons.”

“Doesn’t seem like a problem to me, considerin’ that we will be pulling guard duty anyways.”

“I somehow doubt that.”

“Why? Isn’t that what The Diplomat said?”

“I never trust what an ESI operative tells me. From what I hear there is always an underlying scheme behind all of their plans. If he wants us on guard duty, then there is a very real possibility that he wants us there for a specific reason. And I also doubt that the fact that we will be being carried by an unarmed frigate is coincidence either. Something else is going on, and I wanted you to know so you can be careful.”

Applejack looked out over the fighters below thoughtfully, tiredness leaving her eyes for a moment before being brought back by another yawn. She resumed looking at her pegasus friend. “Maybe yer’ right Rainbow, but as ya’ said earlier, he is a superior officer. We need to at least do what he says, if not trust him. He has the plan in his scheming head, so let’s let him scheme. It’s what he’s paid to do after all.”

Rainbow’s face became hard for a moment, deep in thought. Her face softened after a moment, “You’re right AJ, but let me tell you one thing I have learned. Up there, in open combat, the life of you and your wingmate’s are priority. Don’t ever leave anypony behind.”

“Ya’ll know me Rainbow; I won’t leave a friend hangin’ anytime, anywhere!” Applejack replied half enthused. She was still having a hard time waking up. Rainbow replied with a large smile and she drew her friend into a tight hug.

“That’s what I like to hear,” she said, releasing the embrace. “Now, the first thing we need to work on is-” She was cut off by the pounding of hooves and a crash as a brown pony came sprinting up the stairs.

“So are we ready to fly!” The stallion asked, his eyes swinging back and forth eagerly between the two mares.

“Discipline I guess...” Rainbow finished. Applejack half nodded in agreement. Rainbow brought herself full bear on the young brown stallion. “What is your name soldier?”

“Ringed Starr...with two ‘r’s at the end!” He replied, a large smile stricken across his face, not threatened by the bright blue pegasus in front of him.

Worst mistake ever, Rainbow thought to herself.

“Oh, I can’t wait to get up there and kick some rebel tail!”

“Can’t you now?” Rainbow scoffed.

“No way! A chance to fly with NESC forces and-” he was cut off by the stomping of a hoof.

“If you are going to fly with NESC pilots, then you need to start acting like one...Starr,” Rainbow sneered. The pony’s silence was enough to make Rainbow smile on the inside. “All NESC pilots go through a very, very long training process. Believe me, I know.” Rainbow paused for a moment, flinging a hoof up to her new rank badge. The pony in front of her gulped, Good, now he’s learning. “You don’t have the luck to go through that life changing training, so all you get to deal with is me!” She raised her voice at the end, making the stallion shy away a bit. “I have three days to turn you colonists into pilots. All the time in the universe wouldn’t be enough, but three days is all I have... So you better be ready. Are you ready, Starr with two ‘r’s?” The question even made Applejack cringe a bit. The pony nodded in fear, sweat starting to drip from the side of his head. “I said, ARE YOU READY?”

“Yes, ma’am!” The pony shouted in shock, flinging a hoof to his head.

“Good, very good. You are going to hate me for these three days of hell you are going to go through, but you will thank me for it when you aren’t sucking space dust through what used to be your helmet! Now get out there and wait for the rest of the pitiful excuses for ponies to arrive!” She slammed her hoof down again, and as fast the brown pony came, he was gone. Rainbow couldn’t help but chuckle slightly after the pony left.

“Wow Rainbow, don’t cha’ think that was a bit uh...harsh?” Applejack asked, now fully awake by the chastising her friend had just unleashed.

“Applejack, I was half as ‘harsh’ as they were to us in flight school.” Rainbow replied, a smile still on her face. “Wow, I always wanted to do that.”

“Uh huh...just remember Rainbow, we are colonists, not trained fighter pilots.”

The grin on Rainbow’s face turned into a dark smirk, “No, you’re not...not yet”

***

Rainbow stared down the line of ponies in front of her, there were thirty in all. The ponies came in all shapes and sizes. Some small, some large, some blue, some yellow. They were a mixture of all three types of ponies, although predominately earth ponies. They all stood at attention, which had surprised Rainbow. She expected them all to be like that one pony, Starr, but most of them were disciplined enough to understand and take orders without much question, good, considering where it will be coming from... Her thoughts trailed off towards the ESI shuttle on the other side of town. She shook her head, focusing on the ponies in front of her. It was now five in the morning, thirty minutes later than what she wanted to start. That was something she was going to have to work on though, punctuality.

She opened her mouth to speak, “So you want to fly with us NESC pilots eh? You want fame and glory? Want the rush of your life? If any of these reasons are why you are here then you need to leave. Now. We are not here for fun or to make a name for ourselves, we are here to fight for our lands. We are here to drive the enemy back to the space from which it came.” She started walking down the line, giving her speech as she walked. She paused in front of a light-red mare and averted her attention towards her, “you!” The sudden shout made the young mare squeak in fear, but she held her ground. “Why are you here?”

Her lower lip trembled before starting, “Mah...Mah ancestors were either colonists or pilots. I’m already a colonist, so I figured I would try to fulfill both paths my ancestors took.”

Rainbow stared down her prey for a moment before verbally assaulting her, “Wrong! I just said why you are here! Now, I’ll ask one more time; why are you here?” The mare looked like she was about to cry, but she powered through. ‘I’ll have to remember her, she seems strong...somewhat.’

“To...to defend our homes, to protect our families!” She said. Her voice wavered a bit but she held her ground.

“Very good,” Rainbow pulled away from the verbally beaten mare, who was left panting in fear. She resumed walking and shouting, “I have three days to turn you backwater fly ponies into true pilots. This task is impossible; I went through four years of training to achieve where I’m at today. None of you ponies will have that luxury; instead you will be getting the three day crash course version. And when I say three day, I mean three day. I told all of you to be here at oh-four-thirty, and here we are at oh-five-hundred. You may think that this is oh-dark-stupid, but this is what time we will start every day. You can sleep on the flight to the combat zone. Today, I get to welcome you to hell, and you will not enjoy your stay.” She had reached the end of the line of ponies. She did an about-face and shouted, “Is this understood?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Was the unanimous reply. She smiled on the outside, but on the inside she cringed a bit.

‘I hate being called ma’am...’ She headed out to the front of the line so that everypony could see her clearly. “Applejack step forward.” The orange pony trotted out from around the middle of line and stood at attention. “Your governor, Applejack is in rank with you to show you that I do not treat anypony better than the one next to him or her. She will go through this course just like the rest of you, and she will be a better pilot for it. Fall back into formation, Applejack.” A salute was the reply and the orange mare trotted back into line. “Now, it is my understanding that you all already know where your ships are and who is piloting and who is on com’s and navigation. If this is true then to your left, in that small building is where your flight suits are kept. Is this information incorrect?” There wasn’t a peep from the line. Rainbow knew she was right, she just wanted to see if somepony would challenge her. When nopony did, she pulled a whistle out of her flight jacket’s pocket. FWEEP! The whistle screamed, “Then scramble ponies! We are under attack! Go, go, go! Get your suits on and get to your ships!”

As the line turned into a free-for-all of ponies rushing towards the barracks that held their uniforms, Rainbow nodded to Pinkie Pie who was sitting in the fire tower. Pinkie flicked a switch that started playing audio of gunfire and explosions. She also flicked a timer on showing how long it took every single pony to get their uniforms on and into their ships. In Rainbow’s mind, these ponies may as well have been infants, they were pretty much crawling. She glanced up at the timer, watching it count up to the one minute mark. She glanced back towards the barracks as the first of ponies began to emerge from the building, sprinting to where their fighters were. She waited as the clock got closer to a minute and a half. At the minute and a half mark, around half of the ponies had emerged from the building. She blew on her whistle, drawing everypony to a halt.

“Fall into formation!” She yelled. All the ponies bolted back into the line that they were in not two minutes ago. Once the last pony had reached the line, she had noticed that a majority of them were panting. “That, fillies and gentle-colts is how fast you must be to even qualify to be a true pilot in the NESC. My record is thirty-two seconds, getting my suit on and into my fighter, ready for takeoff. Now, go take your gear off and then fall back into line. You have two minutes, go!” She blew her whistle again, sending ponies sprawling over each other trying to get to the building and back to avoid being orally assaulted by their new Commander. Rainbow chuckled to herself as she saw ponies tripping and falling, trying to be the ones to impress her the most, like I care how they do. As long as they don’t die, I’ll be impressed. That last thought made her frown, but she pushed it from her mind, she needed to focus on the present, not the future.
***

After running the drill for nearly two hours, Rainbow was forced to stop and give the colonists a break. Two of them had passed out from the exercise and had to be brought to the medical tent. Applejack trotted over, panting heavily, “Whew...haven’t had a good exercise like that in ages. Don’t ya’ think that ya’ may have been a little harsh though?”

Rainbow shook her head, “I lied to them, AJ. A minute in a half isn’t what pilots shoot for, a minute is. At least, from a ready position like the line that I keep putting them into. But like I said earlier, you ponies don’t have the luxury of training like I or other pilots do, so I have to make do with what I can.”

“Well ta’ be honest Rainbow, these seems a little pointless, we should be practicing maneuvers n’ such, not a pointless drill.”

“Applejack, you are over stepping your boundaries, you agreed that once we hit the field, I was in control.”

“I know that, it’s just...this seems rather useless in the long run, I mean, we are on guard duty after all.”

Rainbow let out a sigh before continuing, “Applejack listen, and this is the only time I will treat you this way. You ponies want to be pilots, yes?” She paused for a response from Applejack who nodded. “Then you need to actually be flying for that to happen. Saying that you’re a pilot doesn’t make you a pilot, doing the actual flying does. Not to mention that guard duty is rather pointless if the target has been destroyed by the time you get there.”

“Right but-,” Applejack didn’t have time start as Rainbow picked her rant back up.

“Not to mention that I have seen your ponies fly, they don’t need lessons in that. What they need is discipline, but that isn’t something I can drill into them in three days.”

“Alright Rainbow, yer' right. Ya’ need to do what you think is best for us, and we will do it to the best of our capabilities,” Applejack said confidently.

“Thank you Applejack, now, fall back in line." A smirk crawled across her face as she turned to face a map on the wall, "we are going to restart the drill and then...we move to the actual sky.”

7. Goodbyes

June 10th, 2307 SET. Apple Harvest Colony

Rainbow stood in her control tower that overlooked the small field. It had been three long and grueling days of hardcore training, and today was the day they would board the Midnight Dream. She looked at the clock; it was oh-four-hundred. After the three days of training, she had expected her pilots to be late like they were every day. And for that I'm gonna unload a whole can of whoop-. To her surprise however, the ponies had begun to trickle in, thirty minutes early. Huh...maybe they did learn something... As if to answer her question, a pounding had come from under her feet on the wooden door. Standing in the small door way were two ponies, each wearing a winged pin, her squad leaders.

“Sweet Tart reporting for duty as ordered ma’am!” Stated the light red mare who flicked up a salute.

“Cottonball reporting for duty ma’am!” Repeated the off-white unicorn to the left, who also held a salute.

Rainbow eyed her squad leaders, smiling proudly on the inside. She had picked the squad leaders who, while not necessarily the best pilots, held their ground in the face of adversity. Sweet Tart had held her ground against Rainbow’s onslaught of verbal bombs. She also later proved herself by asking Rainbow to practice even after the rest of the ponies had been given the clear to go home. She stayed several hours later then everypony else, practicing the ground drills that Rainbow had the ponies run every day. Rainbow had seen the determination in this pony, and for that she pulled her aside last night and had offered her the position.

Cottonball, while not nearly as self-driven nearly as much as Sweet Tart, was a natural leader. She was the one who got the ponies to finally break the minute-thirty mark on their third day of training. She organized them made them remain calm while still not coming off as bossy. And for that, Rainbow promoted her to be a permanent leader. She would have promoted Applejack to squad leader but Applejack was worried that the pilots would think she was picking favorites, so she just made sure Applejack would be in her squad as her wing pony.

“At ease, take a seat,” Rainbow said, motioning towards a small bench. The ponies relaxed their legs, hooves falling to the ground, and sat next to each other looking at their leader intently.

“Something wrong, ma’am?” Cottonball asked.

“No, actually everything is good. While I expected you two to be here on time, I didn’t expect the rest to be here for another hour,” Rainbow sighed.

“Well you trained us the best you could in three days, the very least we could do is be on time for our first official send off,” Sweet Tart said with a grin.

Rainbow let a soft smile come to her mouth before becoming serious again. “Did you create your squad rosters like I asked?”

“Yes ma’am, Sweets and I threw it together like you asked. Twenty-nine ponies, counting you at the top, ma’am.” Cottonball opened her bag and floated a paper towards Rainbow for her to see. “Fourteen Steads and a Lancer. In my opinion, while not a-hundred percent uniform, it will look cool.”

When she said “cool”, a smile sprawled across Rainbow’s face. “Or radical or awesome. So these groups will function well together?”

“We believe so ma’am. Any pony who didn’t seem to fit as well, we put them in your squad, we figured you could show ‘em a thing or two about teamwork,” Sweet Tart replied, a dark grin appeared on her face.

Rainbow was still scanning the paper, “You know it. Alright, this looks good. I’ll take it from here, thanks girls. Now fall into line, the Dream will be here soon.” The two ponies in front of her flicked up another salute before trotting out towards the field. Rainbow looked back across the paper that was now resting on a small table in the corner. “We are gonna’ need some serious awesomeness to pull this off...” She ran the possible scenarios through her head. Her three squadrons of five fighters each on guard duty. That doesn’t seem too bad I guess. ‘Depending on what we are assigned to guard that is, Rainbow thought to herself. She hadn’t been able to see how they flew against enemies yet, and that put her a little too far on the uncomfortable side of things. I will be fine on my own, but I don’t know about them. Gotta’ make sure they understand the importance of their wing ponies. She rolled the paper up and slid it into a drawer. I’ll have time for that on the trip out, for now... she looked out over the mass of ponies sliding into position, it’s time to rally the troops.

***

She stood in front of the line of ponies, just like she did three days ago. She eyed them all, regarding their newly issued flight suits courtesy of The Diplomat. They were split into pairs, pilot and co-pilot. On the ground next to each pony rested their helmets, each one shining the in the artificial light of the spot lights. They had their inner suit pulled up over their heads just like Rainbow had shown them; the unicorns had special suits with holes for the horns. The pegusi did not, however, and she knew their pain, what with it being as tight inside of a fighter as is without having your wings stuck to you like glue.

They all stood at attention. If Rainbow hadn’t known any better, she would say that they almost looked like trained pilots. They all bore a somber look, although Rainbow could see some of the younger pilots were eager to go and fight. She opened her mouth to speak, “Welcome to the end of it all, ponies. Congratulations, you lived through my three day crash course. You should all give yourselves a pat on the back, but not now. Do that on the ship when you finally get some time to relax. It’s only a small jump from here to the combat area, but, hey, rest is rest, and you are going to want a lot of it, since once the shooting starts, you won’t see much rest anymore. Now I, unfortunately, did not get to see you fly against an opponent cause of our time crunch. I’m going to let you know now that these enemies will not sit still like the dummies. They will fly and fight for their lives, just like you will. If you want to live, stick with your wing ponies. I cannot stress that enough, stick to your friends. Out there, it’s only you and the enemy pilots. Whoever has the most friends will live to see another day. Another thing that we didn’t have time for was unit cohesion. I wanted to try and drill that into as much as I could, but again, our time allowed us very little to work with. Call out your shots. Tell others what you are going to do. You are all too green to try and fly like you know exactly what you are doing. Let your friends know what is happening, that way they can back you up. Don’t be a hero either, that’s my job.” Rainbow halted at the middle of the line, gazing up and down it. “Our transport will be here in two hours. Cottonball, Sweet Tart, file em’ up, get them into their squads.” The two ponies trotted off from both ends of line and surrounded their leader as she turned her back and headed towards her tower.

Behind her, Rainbow heard Cottonball yell, “Alright! In the Commander’s squad will be Applejack, Drop Stick...” She didn’t hear the rest as the sound of her hooves climbing up the wooden staircase drowned it out. She could barely hear that over the sounds of her own thoughts, even though she wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. She was worried of course. She trained these ponies, so she felt that they were her responsibility.

They will be fine, she thought to herself, as long as they stick to their wing ponies, guard duty shouldn’t be too bad. A knocking on the door shook her from the thought. She pulled it open and saw Applejack standing in the hatchway, smiling.

“Whew, ya’ know Rainbow, I never thought I would be so excited to leave this planet for a while!” Applejack said with a grin.

“Yeah, that reminds me, who is gonna’ be the leader while you’re away?”

“I decided to let Rarity and Twilight handle it, what with Rarity’s ability to be perfect and with Twilight’s organization skills, it should be no problem, right?”

“Yeah I suppose you’re right. Ha, a show pony and an egghead running a colony, sounds boring to me. I bet it’s way more fun with you in charge AJ.” Rainbow winked and nudged her friend in the side.

“You know me Rainbow, I do the best I can and try to make it good for everypony. I’m sure Twilight and Rarity will do the same but...” a snicker seeped out the side of her mouth, “Yur' probably right about that being boring’ for a long time though!” She started full out laughing and Rainbow was quick to join.

They sat there, laughing for a while, enjoying each other’s company. After wiping a few tears from her eyes, Rainbow was the first to sober up. “You see? This is why I joined the military, so I could protect times like these. I know there are other ponies that fight, but I just couldn’t sit around knowing that others were getting hurt while I could be out helping.”

“I know, Rainbow. I had never questioned yer’ reasoning to join up with the NESC. I may not have liked it, but I agreed with it. I just want ta’ make sure that you come back okay, that’s why I’m going up there with ya’. Somepony has to watch your flank after all.” Applejack held the smile through the conversation, although her eyes became soft towards the end. Her eyes brightened again as a thought struck her mind, “Ha, just look at me! A pilot! I wish Big Mac could see me now! What with my shinny badge and fancy looking suit! Just think of it Rainbow, I am the first Apple to be a pilot.”

“Huh, so no Apples have been pilots at all?” Rainbow asked.

“Nope, just farmers and colonists, although on the Pear side of the family, I guess they had one or two.” Applejack replied. “But hey, they ain’t Apples, so I’m gonna’ do the family proud!”

“I’m sure you will, just remember what I said earlier, watch your friends’ flanks. They will return the favor too since they won’t be a smoldering pile of space dust,” Rainbow said, throwing in a smirk.

“I know, I know. I hear Cottonball and Sweets sayin’ that constantly, like it’s the word of Celestia herself or somethin’. So, about our carrier, what is it again?” Applejack’s face turned towards a stack of papers, nosing about through them.

“It’s an old Pegusi-cruiser, the Midnight Dream. From what they tell me, she has a hallowed out cargo bay meant to hold all of the ships, since normally fifteen ships wouldn’t fit too well inside one. She doesn’t have a main weapon but, since she is only escorting us into battle, that isn’t too much of a worry. She still has her point defense lasers so that should be fine. I’ll go more into it in the briefing room before we get there, but for now, we need to get this stuff packed up and ready to go,” Rainbow stated, shuffling some papers into her bag. “Gah, as fun and exhilarating it is to be a pilot; the paperwork sure ruins it sometimes.”

“How do ya’ think I feel as the governor? I have mounds of it every day, it’s a royal pain. But its worth it right?” Applejack asked, casting a glance over her friend.

“You know it AJ, a little bit of paper never stopped me from flying!” Said a hurried Rainbow. She kept stuffing papers and other materials into her bag.

“Wow Rainbow, I ain’t ever seen ya’ in such a hurry.”

“I’m as excited as you to fly, always am!”

“Ha, I suppose ya’ are.”

“Yup! I’m just ready to go!”

Applejack paused for a moment and thought. She dared ask the question, “Rainbow, why are you really in such a hurry?”

Rainbow stopped only for a second before continuing packing up her belongings, “what do you mean? I just want to fly!”

“I can see that, but why are ya’ rushing to leave? Is something wrong? Besides, ya’ haven’t even said goodbye to our friends.” Hearing this caused Rainbow to freeze. Seeing this, Applejack pressed on, “ya’ didn’t forget them did ya’?”

Rainbow slowly began shoving the last of her stuff into her bag, “of...of course not, it’s just that...why say goodbye when we will be back in a week or two?”

Worry entered Applejack’s eyes, “Rainbow, there is no guarantee that you are coming back, or that any of us will for that matter.”

A sigh slithered out of Rainbow’s mouth, “I know, but I hate goodbyes. Almost as much as I hate losing. I rather leave with them remembering the times in the barn instead of me saying ‘well I might not comeback so see ya’ later!’”

“Is that why you only left us with a note with a picture of a party when you went off to flight school?”

The question stung Rainbow’s heart, “yes.”

“Rainbow...that only leaves us with worry, not with fun memories. Heck, I didn’t stop worrying about you until that phone call, and that was nearly four months later.” Applejack paused for a breath, “go say goodbye to them, they won’t mind being woken up for something like this. Cottonball, Sweets, and I can handle the final details here.” Applejack gave Rainbow a small kick in the flank, “get goin’!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll be back soon,” Rainbow groaned in defeat.

“No, ya’ take yer’ time. Remember what you said, nothing is more important than yer' friends.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Rainbow said with a small smirk before opening her wings and heading back for town.

8. Hell

June 10th, 2307 SET. Apple Harvest Colony

Rainbow flew low over the ground, taking in her surroundings. At five o’clock in the morning, the sun was just beginning to light the furthest reaches of sky, creating a contrast of pink and purple. Kinda’ like Twilight’s mane, Rainbow thought to herself. The near silent whisper of her wings against the complete silence of the town, coupled with the near black sky created an almost surreal feeling to her. Apple Harvest’s moon hung lazily over the mountains, guiding her towards the center of town with a dim limelight for her to follow. She found herself starring at the moon, wondering what it must have been like to see the Princess raise the Sun to replace the moon so long ago. I bet it was wonderful... She let the thought hang for a moment, letting herself enjoy a regal moment that was far away from the conflict of today. She imagined what it was like to see Celestia stand on her pedestal, the glowing sun striking her mane and shining colors over her subjects. Not any more...not after old Equestria fell.

She had been lost in the thought for so long that she found herself face to face with the door to Rarity’s home. She took a calming breath before knocking. At first, no pony stirred. After giving the door a slightly harder rapping, she could hear hoofsteps coming from inside. The door creaked open slight and Sweetie Bell stood in the doorway yawning. “Hey Rainbow Dash, what’s going on?”

A warm smile came to Rainbow’s face, “Hey Sweetie Bell, was there a Cutie Mark Crusader Sleepover at Rarity’s place last night?”

“Yeah, there was supposed to be but Scootaloo said she was sick and couldn’t come. We offered to postpone it for her but she said to go on with it...here comes Applebloom,” she said, pulling the door open wider to show another filly.

“Hey Rainbow, you guys are leavin’ soon, ain’t ya?” Applebloom asked, holding back a yawn.

“Uh...yeah, I was just coming to say goodbye. Sweetie Bell, could you get Rarity so I can say goodbye to all of you at once?” Rainbow asked quietly. Sweetie nodded and trotted off slowly.

“I’m so proud of Big Sis’; I mean she’s the first Apple to be a pilot! You’ll take good care of her, right?” Applebloom asked, eyes full of both concern and excitement.

“Of course I will, I won’t let her out of my sight,” Rainbow said confidently. At the sound of this, a big comforting smile laid out across Applebloom’s face. She beamed at Rainbow for a moment, her eyes now filled with only excitement for her sister and her friend.

A yawn from somewhere unseen in the room indicated that Rarity was up and on her way while Sweetie Bell, who was now fully awake, was back in a flash. “Rarity’s coming, she didn’t want to get up though, moaned something about beauty sleep, so I just told her you were here,” she said with a smile.

A voice sounded from off in the darkness, “Oh, Rainbow Dash, good to see you again dear. I had hoped you would say goodbye instead of running off like last time, so glad you are here.” Her voice was layered with drowsiness.

“Yeah...I guess so. Don’t worry about me this time, okay? I can handle myself.”

A yawn was the initial reply. “Oh Rainbow, I know you can handle yourself, but that doesn’t mean I won’t worry. You are my friend and you are going off to fight, of course I am going to worry. Just do come back and see us as soon as you can.” She ended by wrapping her legs around her friend, holding her in a tight embrace. Rainbow returned the hug then turned to the fillies.

“You guys be good while we’re gone, remember, Rarity is the boss of town while AJ and I aren’t here,” she said slyly. She then pulled them into a hug, “I’ll see ya’ guys later.”

“Bye Rainbow, we’ll see you when you get back!” They said in unison.

She smiled at them, and then she headed off towards Twilight’s. She gave a final wave, seeing the door shutting behind the three ponies. She turned back to where she was facing, one down, three to go. She opted to keep her hooves on the ground this time and began walking. Her mind was off on its own now, spitting out random thoughts. After some time she managed to pluck a single thought and concentrate on it; the ships under her command. While they didn’t have the time to do it on the planet, she wanted to change the color of all their ships to something that represented where they were from. She would have to take it up with Applejack since they were her ships, but Rainbow doubted she would object. Dang, we could have had Rarity do that... but that’s something for later. Her short train of thought had dropped her off at the front door of Twilight’s home. She knocked at what she thought was going to be a light knock, but the metal amplified the sound much more than she thought it would.

Rainbow heard the pounding of hooves on stairs and the door swung open and, much to Rainbow’s surprise, stood Pinkie Pie. “Hey Rainbow, come on in!” she said charismatically.

Rainbow stood still for a moment, confused. “Uh...hey Pinkie, why are you at Twilight’s at five in the morning?”

“Oh, I figured that since you were going around saying goodbye to ponies, I would save you some time by grabbing Fluttershy and coming here to wait for you,” she said, bouncing in place.

“Uh, how did you know I was saying goodbye?”

“Hmm? Oh, lucky guess.” She held a smile through the short conversation. Rainbow was going to ask more questions but a voice from the dark building called her in.

“Rainbow, come in and have cider with us!” Twilight yelled from a room out of sight.

Rainbow eyed Pinkie one more time who was still standing there, smiling. She then lurched forward slowly, carefully feeling her way around the big, empty room. Her efforts were rewarded when she trotted into the kitchen where Fluttershy, Twilight, and somehow Pinkie were sitting around the table, sipping on glasses. Spike walked out from behind the counter, carrying a tray with a teapot on it with another cup for Rainbow. “Hey Rainbow! Here, this is for you!” He set the tray down at the table, indicating that she was to sit.

“Hey, thanks Spike!” Rainbow said half-heartily. She approached the table slowly, as if not to disturb her friends. She sat down gently and sipped on the cup. The flavor made her lips curl up at the ends. Nothing like a warm cup of apple cider to start the day...

Twilight was quick to break the silence. “So Rainbow, how long will you be gone?”

“Oh... I don’t know actually. As long as we’re needed I guess.” Rainbow didn’t offer up much since she really had no idea how long they would be gone.

“You’ll be careful right? I mean, no pony wants to see you get hurt, I just wanted to say it, if that’s okay,” Fluttershy said timidly.

“Pshhh... of course I’ll be okay! It’s me remember? I’ll be sure to bring back Applejack in one piece too.” Rainbow added with a grin. A small grin from both Twilight and Fluttershy gave Rainbow some confidence, but Pinkie started crying for no apparent reason. Rainbow tensed up instantly, “Pinkie what’s up? Why are you crying?”

“I don’t want to see you leave again! It was scary the first and second time! I don’t want you to go a third!” she wailed loudly. The crying began to agitate Rainbow.

“Pinkie! I will be back, don’t worry about it! I’m the best flier out there, don’t forget that!” Pinkie stopped momentarily and stared at her cyan friend before almost resuming the water works until Rainbow put a hoof over her mouth. “I Pinkie Pie promise that I will be back, and I will bring Applejack back too, okay?” Pinkie’s eyes still had tears in them but she nodded, and then snatched Rainbow and the other two ponies up into a tight embrace. Rainbow tolerated the hug for a moment before getting claustrophobic and began squirming. It was only after she began to actually try and struggle out did Pinkie let go. “Listen everypony, I will be back. Don’t worry, it’s me after all! Thanks for the cider Twilight and Spike.” She turned and began to leave, “Bye Fluttershy, bye Pinkie! Be back soon!” She trotted out into the open air and flapped her wings, leaving her friends behind once more.

“I know it’s you... that’s what I’m afraid of,” Twilight said sadly.

***

Rainbow landed gently at the top of the staircase that led to her tower. She swung the door open and found Applejack, Cottonball, and Sweet Tart standing around a bit of paper. They were so busy arguing about something they didn’t hear her come in.

“If we make the pilots carry their suits there will be enough room...”

“They won’t have room for their own belongings...”

“This is war; they shouldn’t need personal belongings...”

“I agree with Cotton, they won’t have room for even their own clothes...”

“Gah, fine, ignore what I say then...”

Rainbow still had a slight headache from Pinkie’s crying and she slammed a hoof down for silence. The three ponies turned to her quietly. Applejack was quick to start, “Back so soon? No way ya’ could have gone to all four houses in an hour!”

“I only had to go to two, Rarity’s and Twilight’s. Pinkie somehow magically knew that I was coming to say goodbye so she grabbed Fluttershy and went to Twilight’s place,” she said coolly. “Now, what are you arguing about?”

“Oh we were discussin’ how to bring the flight suits on board comfortably, what with the hangar going to be so full n’ what not,” Applejack said, looking back down at the paper.

“They will have a flight crew room for all uniforms and flight suits to be stored. The barracks will have room for your personal gear,” Rainbow said, her mind finally coming back to focus after the jarring goodbye.

“Oh... that makes sense.” Applejack chuckled. The other two ponies nodded in agreement. “Oh Rainbow, the Dream just radioed in, they will be here in just a few minutes, should we get everyone into their fighters?”

Rainbow nodded her head, “Yeah, we need to get moving as soon as we can. We don’t want to miss any of the action, don’t we?” She was becoming herself again, the goodbyes being pushed to the back of her mind.

Applejack rolled her eyes, “Yeah, which would be a darn shame, wouldn’t it.”

Rainbow smirked at her, then she flicked the radio speaker, “Alright everypony, listen up. This is what you have been training for, suit up and get ready to fly. The Midnight Dream will be here soon, so we will do this systematically and smoothly. Sweet Tart’s squadron will be dispatched first. Just follow the hangar director’s guidelines and this will go smoothly. Second will be Cottonball’s squadron, and third will be mine.” She flicked the switch for the last time, shutting it down. She turned to the other three, a smile on her face. “Well, let’s roll out!”

***
June 13th, 2307 SET. Midnight Dream Bridge, Hyperspace.

Rainbow stood on the bridge next Captain Sharp Eye. He was a large blue earth pony with a striped mane that alternated between a light blue and a blue that matched his coat. His mane was cut short like his tail and the captain’s hat made him look almost stereotypically like a captain out of a picture or something. The only thing that could have made him look any better would be if he had a pipe or a cigar, Rainbow found herself thinking and it almost made her laugh.

After three days of constant checking and maintenance of their ships, the colonist pilots had run out of things to do. Some played cards while others slept. Applejack had opted to take care of some unfinished paper work while Rainbow sat on the bridge, talking with the Captain. She had found out that while the main gunners’ station was now abandoned, it offered an area for the rest of his gunners a chance to run practice and he had assured her that she would not find a better crew suited for this job.

She was not up at the bridge for small talk this time however. There was a concern to be dealt with. Apparently, none of the units that were in the engagement zone were returning hails. While not unheard of, such a large gathering of military units usually demanded communication amongst the ships, especially inbound ones. All it would take would be a pony who was trigger happy to end their trip as soon as they arrived in-system. The main concern, however, was that there was no radar contact, friendly or otherwise. This was unusual, and unusual to Rainbow meant dangerous. The captain had gone from green alert to orange alert. This meant that all ponies were to be at their stations, deck ponies and otherwise. While her pilots needed not to be in their flight suits, they did need to be ready to go. Exactly what we trained for... she let the though trail off. She was much more focused on the large read out of the area in front of her. A large, blank spot covered the area that was supposed to be filled with blue and green blips. The area that overlapped SS space which was normally red was also grey. The Captain looked over towards the com station, “alert the crew, one minute until real space conversion,” he said gruffly. The magenta mare nodded and repeated the statement over the intercom.

Rainbow tapped her personal comm unit, “Cottonball, Sweet Tart, you heard the message. Be ready for anything, if I come running, you get running. Understood?” Two clicks were the response from her radio. Let’s see how fast you can do it under real pressure...

The minute was a slow and silent one, with everypony waiting to see what was going to happen. She watched the counter count down from sixty. As it got closer to zero, it seemed to slow down. As it hit five, she turned her eyes to the view port. Bright lines became blurs which became stars, a small planet off in the distance materialized. At first her eyes picked up nothing strange. A large red light shook her out of her stupor; the speaker started wailing enemy contact warnings. “Red alert! Red alert! Enemy contacts confirmed!” Rainbow shook her head and bolted for the elevator.

She clicked her com as her wings carried her, “go now! Suit up! I’m just leaving the bridge, remember, minute and half. Stay calm but hurry. I’ll be there in sixty seconds.” Two more clicks were the response, and she could only imagine how they were feeling. This was drilled into her, she was ready. They weren't, but she hoped they would do their best. It was all she could hope for.

Unlike the last minute, this one went much quicker. Rainbow was into the flight crew room and into her suit in forty-five seconds, counting the time from the bridge. She then relied on her legs to get her to the hangar in the fifteen seconds she allotted herself. She got there in twelve. She bolted to her ship which had just been fully fueled and armed. The last of the deck ponies had finished filling and arming the rest of the fighters and were beginning to file out as her pilots began to swarm in. Not bad, a little less than a minute and a half. She flicked on the power with her hoof and strapped herself in. She then hit a key and the canopy closed around her.

She plucked her helmet from the control stick and began to run pre-flight diagnostics. “Flight control, this is Lancer 1, callsign Bolt. Comm’s check?”

“Roger Bolt, you’re reading loud and clear, continue with diagnostics, you can take comm checks for your squadron from here on out.” Rainbow clicked her response. She had just finished her pre-flight check list when the ship began to groan and shake.

Her intercom roared to life, “Commander Dash? Captain Sharp, we have inbound fighters. Take off as soon as you can.” The noise died as quick as it came. His voice erupted from the overhead speakers this time, “All batteries return fire!” The small thudding of gunfire stirred Rainbow to move faster. She was ready to go, but her squadron had still yet to check in.

“Squadron Three, anypony out there?” She asked hurriedly.

“Oh, sorry Rainbow, forgot to check in,” buzzed Applejack’s voice, “But Skips and I are good to go!”

“Alright, anypony else-” she was cut off by Cottonball.

“Commander, my squadron is good to go, permission to take off?”

“Yes, cleared for takeoff, defend the Dream; we will be out to assist momentarily!” Rainbow forced. A click was the response as the bay doors below the first squadron dropped open and five fighters fell out of sight.

Fifteen grueling seconds later, the other three fighters for Rainbow’s squadron had checked in, but not until after Sweet Tarts squadron had launched. “Comm’s check, one last time, just click the button.” Four clicks, four ships good to go. She switched over to the all squadron channel, “Alright ponies, you thought I was hell?" The hangar bays below swung open, sucking the ships out into space, "I lied.”

9. Crushed

June 13th, 2307 SET. Planet 2244 FB0 Engagement Zone.

Immediate threat detected, four Stead-class fighters, one o’clock low, Rainbow’s automated target system flashed on the HUD. Rainbow flicked a few switches and pulled her fighter into a tight roll, putting the enemy fighters directly into her sights. She flicked another switch that highlighted the enemy fighters in her view screen and sent the information to the rest of her squadron, “Four tangos at my twelve, follow me in. Don’t let them past us!”

“Roger that, we got yer’ back!” Applejack’s voice boomed through the headset. Rainbow just clicked her response and then sped forward.

The enemies were rather oblivious to the five incoming fighters since they were focused on dodging the Midnight Dream’s deadly barrage. Rainbow’s targeting system tracked the nearest two, only to have one wiped away by the gunning crew. The other three had turned to retreat after seeing their comrade fall, but Rainbow had no intention of letting them escape. She hovered her craft’s targeting piper over the nearest fighter for a split seconded before unleashing her own deadly stream of blue lasers. The lethal light collided with the right wing of the fighter, tearing it to shreds. The pilot had panicked and had thrown the fighter into an uncontrollable roll. A final volley put the ship down.

Warning: New threats detected Angel-class bombers with attack vectors set on Midnight Dream. Tagged as high priority targets. Rainbow stared at the screen and almost spat with disapproval. Lucky bastards, she aimed the thought at the two retreating fighters that were now out of range. She sent the message to the other four ships under her command and pulled the squadron into a loop that had them under the belly of the Midnight Dream. Rainbow’s HUD had three deep red arrows pointing to the left, pinging the inbound bombers. “Pick your target and go, stick to your wingpony,” she said through her headset. The four fighters split off from behind her and went after their target. She had set her eyes on the middle bomber and allowed it to fly directly into her sights. More blue death leapt from the two cannons on the tip of her wings, slamming into the canopy. The bomber’s gunner didn’t have time to focus his gun on her, the ship burst into flames which were quickly extinguished by the oxygen-void space. She eyed her HUD again and the other two bombers were both removed from sight. No immediate threats detected.

Rainbow let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding and she felt her heart pounding in her chest. She looked around and pulled up her squadron’s vital signs. Other than elevated heart rates much like her own, nothing was out of place. “Form up, everyone okay?”

“Skips and I are a’okay!” Applejack cheered. Two of the other pilots had checked in okay as well.

“Uh, Commander? This is Sticks, uh... Tin and I are alright, but our ship took some heat from that bomber,” came an unsure voice.

“What’s wrong, pilot?” Asked Rainbow.

“I’m getting some resistance in the stick; she doesn’t want to turn much.”

“Bring it home then, a crippled pony is a dead one. Let the techs’ have a look at it.”

“Yes ma’am, sorry about this.”

“No need pilot, we’re all okay for now. Mark that up as a victory,” Rainbow added, trying to offer her support.

“Yes ma’am, thank you ma’am!” The pony yelled excitedly about hearing of the small victory. Rainbow watched out the side of the canopy as the fighter flew back up into the belly of the ship. Okay, they’re safe... Rainbow thought coolly. She looked down at her radar to try and get a grasp on what was going on. While at close range, her radar was working properly, anything out past ten. km was a blur. Somethings jamming us. Rainbow looked around her through the canopy. Off in the distance she could see capital ships slugging it out while the smaller craft would move to pick off the fighters.

“Rainbow? What’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked.

“I have no idea, my radar isn’t working,” Rainbow replied fretfully. She pinged her comm unit, opening up a link to the Midnight Dream. “Midnight Dream, this is Bolt, what’s going on?”

At first there was static but then the Captain’s deep voice pierced the noise, “Bolt, this is Midnight Dream. We’ve got no idea what is going on, radar and radio are out. We can only penetrate the static a short range, they’re jamming us.”

I’m aware of that, “Captain, what are our orders?” Rainbow was getting impatient, she wanted to fight.

A pause in the conversation was filled with static before she heard the Captain’s voice once more, “We need to move closer to the fleet. If anything large decides to come after us, well, let’s just say we wouldn’t be here for very long.”

“Roger,” Rainbow replied. She keyed over to the inter-squadron channel, “Cottonball, Sweets, gimme’ a sit rep, how you guys holding up?”

Cottonball was first to reply, “We’re all good on our end, got some burn marks but nothing serious.”

“Bubs and Wings took a shot hard to the engines. They’re alive but had to go back to the Dream,” replied a nervous Sweet Tart. Rainbow heard the tension in her voice.

“Sweets, they’re alive, it’s all we can ask for, now pull your squadron together. We’re gonna’ escort the Dream to the rest of the New Equestrian fleet. Form up around her and we’ll take this nice and easy,” Rainbow said as soothingly as she could, which wasn’t much based on the fact that they were in a live combat zone. The three squadrons pulled up close to the Midnight Dream; trying to get as close to her protective lasers as possible.

While Rainbow’s radar wouldn’t work past a short range, she should see the carnage from this distance. The two large fleets were mixed in with each other, turning the combat zone into a free-for-all. She watched an SS destroyer lash out at three Pegasi frigates, only to be swarmed by the frigates’ defenders and mauled by the frigates’ primary weapons. Three pulse cannons fired at the destroyer, each shot dealing more damage than the last. The third shot made the ship explode into tiny fragments, leaving twisted metal where a large ship was not moments ago. In revenge, one of the newer SS capital ships lumbered out of the heat of battle long enough to fire one of its pulse rounds at the three frigates. The shot tore through the hull of one of the ships. The capital ship fired a barrage of missiles at the stricken ship, putting it out for good. The other two frigates had fired their main weapons and had retreated towards friendlier space. While one shot missed completely, the other smashed into the thick hull of the enemy ship, but too little effect. The ship turned back to the fray to trade blows with another challenger. This is chaos!

A large green light appeared behind the NESC fleet as three more ships had appeared out of slipspace. Rainbow’s heart leapt for joy when she saw what they were. Three Luna-class super carriers had just entered the battle. The Luna-class carrier was the biggest ship in the NESC arsenal. It boasted twelve hangar bays, each capable of holding three squadrons of lancer wings each, an astonishing 108 fighters per carrier. The three carriers were quick to display such power as over 300 fighters departed from their monstrous escort and quickly and powerfully disappeared into the raging struggle. Almost as soon as the wall of fighters hit the cluster of ships, explosions could be seen. To complement the Luna carrier’s fighter bays, it also had a single docking bay in the belly, large enough to hold a destroyer. Its purpose was to act as a mobile docking bay for repairs and refitting. The carrier’s weapons were what put the ship over all of the rest. Armed with the latest weaponry, the super carriers were armed with a dual rail cannons, each one capable of launching four-hundred ton projectiles at speeds of twenty km per second. The carrier furthest to the right was quick to demonstrate this power as an enemy frigate had ventured too close to the trio and was split clean in two. Armed with twenty missile bays and a staggering one hundred and twenty point-defense laser turrets scattered across the ship, it was believed that there was nothing that could go head to head with a Luna-class super carrier. Being so big and powerful however, was expensive. There were only six of them in existence, and three of them were always stationed at Solstice. She assumed that three that had just jumped in-system belonged to the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th fleets.

At the sight of the super carriers, a large portion of the SS fleet had begun to move away. Four of the SS capital ships had decided to challenge the new threats. Out for glory, eh? Good luck boys, you’ll need it, Rainbow thought with a smirk on her face. She knew that the design for the Luna carriers was a closely guarded secret and, other than knowing what weapons they boasted, Rainbow guess that the SS had no information on the carriers’ armor. The four enemy ships all opened up at once on the nearest carrier. The gargantuan ship took each blow, not moving or retaliating. Rainbow watched one of the shots from the four capital ships hit the armor, but then bounced off. While the other three managed to land successfully, they were rewarded with nothing but burn marks. The carrier remained immobile for a moment, as if daring them to strike again. The SS ships responded with a heavy volley of missiles, but to no avail. The point defense lasers picked each one off before they got remotely close to hitting the carrier. The carrier turned slightly and unleashed its fury. The dual rounds from the rail cannon smashed into the nearest ship, tearing a hole from one end to the other. It sat there, motionless and lifeless. At the sight of their fallen comrade, the three remaining ships opened up with all they had, but achieved near nothing. The magical armor of the carrier deflected or absorbed most of the energy rounds and the defense turrets destroyed nearly every single missile. While some managed to get through the screen of lasers, they dealt little damage. The carrier turned slightly again and lost two more shots into the next capital ship, except this time the ship erupted into fire and shrapnel. The last two had turned and retreated, but not before taking heat from other NESC ships in the local area.

After witnessing the events unfold, the Midnight Dream and her defenders had almost reached the safe zone near the carriers. They were about a hundred kilometers away when a large swarm of SS fighters engaged them. Rainbow had been so lost in the events that had just occurred that she hadn’t noticed her HUD warn her about the incoming pilots. It was after the alarm sounded did she realize what was happening. “Rainbow, let’s go!” Applejack’s voice buzzed in her ear.

Rainbow shook her head to clear the distractions in her mind and turned to fight. Her targeting system registered twenty enemy fighters. Twenty trained pilots against thirteen somewhat trained pilots and their escort frigate, here we go! Rainbow threw her fighter into a tight roll and found herself trailing two fighters. She let the targeting system track the fighter nearest to her and let the lasers fly. They sliced up the side of the enemy fighter, cutting power to one of the engines. She fired another stream of lasers, ending the ship for good. The other had begun to loop and roll, trying to get away from the ace pilot behind it. Gonna’ have to do better than that! Rainbow waited a moment before unloading on the fighter. The ship looped itself right into the stream of death, exploding on the spot.

Then her ship’s damage alert start wailing. She felt the ship rattle from damage and she quickly spun her head to see what was chasing her. Two fighters had her number and were dead set on getting revenge for their fallen members. Rainbow looped and dodged but she could not shake her pursuers. “Uh... little help!” Rainbow yelled out of desperation.

“Don’t worry Rainbow Dash! I got your back!” Sounded a young feminine voice. The voice sounded familiar to Rainbow, but she couldn’t tell from where. On her short range radar, she watched as a green dot appeared behind the two red ones chasing her. She turned her head to watch with her own eyes; a single ship drop in behind the two enemies. The red laser fire shot forward from the two cannons in the nose of the Stead-class fighter and tore one of the pursuers to pieces. The other quickly rolled out of the way, but the colonist pilot had no issues keeping up with it. The red light winked out on the radar and in its place was the green dot.

“Thanks pilot,” Rainbow panted, letting the fear leave her body. The radar indicated that the ship had belonged to a pony with the callsign of “Crush.” The friendly ship pulled up close to Rainbow and held the formation tight. “I owe you one Crush.”

“Don’t worry about it!” The young voice said. “Looks like we won the battle.”

Rainbow checked her HUD. The enemy fighters that had attacked them not moments ago had their numbers whittled down from twenty to seven in mere minutes. They had turned tail and ran; another victory for Rainbow and her pilots. She had also noted that not a single colonist had been shot down. Two more had to retreat into the Midnight Dream, but there had yet to be casualties. Rainbow let out a sigh of relief when she had seen that statistic. She cast a glance back out across the larger battlefield ahead of her. The two sides had broken off from each other and had fallen back to regroup. Seeing this forced another sigh from Rainbow. Her pilots wouldn’t have to be involved with something like that yet. The radio crackled to life, “Bolt, this is Midnight Dream. All threats have either been neutralized or have retreated, you are clear for docking.”

“Roger that, Sir,” Rainbow replied. She relayed the order to the three squadrons. “All fighters are cleared for docking. Good work everypony, you all fought hard and well, and that's all I could have asked for! I’ll see you on board, and remember this; first rounds of cider is on me!” A chorus of cheers erupted from the radio, and this drew a smile on Rainbow’s face. “Crush, follow me in. I’m gonna’ see to your drink personally.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Replied the enthused voice.

***

As Rainbow crawled out of her cockpit, she pulled the helmet off and took in a deep breath of air. She flung the helmet into her chair in the ship and trotted down the ladder. She was looking forward to getting out of her flight suit to stretch her wings, but not before meeting this Crush. The fighter that Crush had been piloting had sat down next to her and the canopy sprung open. The first pony down the ladder was the navigator, who quickly shot Rainbow a salute before heading do the flight crew’s deck. The pilot jumped out of the pilot with her helmet still on. The young pony hit the deck and held a salute. With the pony’s helmet still polarized, Rainbow couldn’t see through the visor. “Take your helmet off, then salute me,” Rainbow said with a smirk.

“Yes ma’am, sorry ma’am.” The pony reached up and twisted the helmet off. The mare's purple mane fell out and standing in front of a shocked and horrified Rainbow, dressed in a flight suit, stood Scootaloo.

***

As the two factions began to retreat from the battle to lick their wounds, a single ship that held its position on the edge of the battlefield refused to budge in either direction. It might be worth noting that this ship did not have the markings of the NESC nor the SS. She bore a different symbol than the Sun of the Equestrians and the Void of the Shadows. It was an eagle, its talons clutched around a weapon. Its hull was painted a dark blue color, not like that of the capital ships of the NESC; it was a darker blue, almost black. Its design was nothing like that of Pony design. Its design was not like the two-pronged ships of the ponies either. It was shaped more like an elongated triangle instead with no clear display of energy weapons. The ship had very few lights on it, excluding the engines, and the flashing bay doors that were slowly retrieving its compliment of small craft. The most disturbing fact about this ship, however, was its inability to be picked up on radar while still being able to function. For any stealth ship in the pony arsenal, it required a stealth generator along with cloaking and even then it would have to remain motionless. But this ship moved slightly, slowly drifting to retrieve its tiny offspring. Its darkness against the blackness of sky also put it out of view of all but the keenest sighted ponies, and even then they would have had to have been looking for it. The ship had picked up the last of its small vessels and turned away, disappearing as silently as it came, flashing out-system with only a blink of light.

10. Unknown

June 14th, 2307 SET. Planet 2244 FB0, Celestian Expanse Safe Zone.

Rainbow was staring at the engagement map, searching for anything that could give her side an edge. She had two panels pulled up on her data screen: one was a map and the other was the replay footage of the battle captured by the Midnight Dream. She highlighted the area of engagement on the virtual map determining the retreat vectors of the Syndicate fleet. She had the footage on a slight fast forward, trying to get to something she had seen out of the corner of her eye earlier. The thoughts running through her mind weren’t helping her cause.

Scootaloo... How did I not see you before? Rainbow had turned her attention on Applejack for letting the young mare join the pilots, but Applejack denied all knowledge of Scootaloo. All Applejack had said was that she put out an alert to all of her pilots and anypony who was willing to fly to come out. Applejack hadn’t expected that the over-eager filly would take a chance to fly with her idol. Rainbow scoffed a bit when she heard that. How the normally logical Applejack would not have thought that Scoots would have done that was surprising. Even Rainbow could have predicted that. Rainbow had the mind to ground Scootaloo to protect her, but Scootaloo had brought up the point that it would leave Rainbow’s squadron one pilot short, and that she was more than capable of holding her own. Which was true, after all she had saved Rainbow’s tail from the enemy near the end of the battle.

A knocking on her door shook her from her thoughts. “Come in,” Rainbow yelled. The door slid open and an orange pegasus walked in. “Squirt... what can I do for you?”

“Permission to speak freely ma’am?” Scootaloo asked, trying to act disciplined.

“Scoots, you don’t have to ask me that when we’re off duty,” Rainbow said quietly, slightly unnerved by the normally enthusiastic filly-now-mare acting so mature.

“Thank you ma’am—”

“And don’t call me ma’am. I already hate it when the grown ponies—”

“Rainbow Dash, I’m a grown mare. I can fly, both fighters and wings. I saved your tail and have proven myself. So I would ask you to not treat me like a filly anymore,” stated Scootaloo.

“Yes... yes I suppose you are.” Rainbow let the last line roll off of her tongue, realization spinning around in her head. She is, isn’t she? “What can I help you with Scoots?”

“I just wanted to ask you not to ground me. I can fly, you saw me. The squadron needs me, just like they need you or Applejack.”

“Yes, I know. I’m not going to leave you behind Scoots, and I wouldn’t have anypony else as my wingpony. And you’re right about earlier; we need the squad at full strength.”

“Oh... then... those aren’t grounding orders you’re working on?”

“No, I’m going over the footage of the battle. Trying to piece together a battle plan. But there is something else, I thought I had seen something when the battle began to die down, but I don’t know what I’m exactly looking for.”

“Oh, what do you mean, ‘you saw something?

“Like I said Squirt, I don’t know. There was something... off. Something that didn’t seem right to me. Here, wanna help? I got an extra data pad, besides I could use the company.”

The young mare’s eyes winded at the sound of invitation to spend time with Rainbow. “Yeah! I would love to help, although... if you don’t know what you’re looking for, how am I supposed to know?

“Ha, I guess that’s the fun of it, eh?” Rainbow grabbed the lifeless pad on the bedside table and tossed to Scootaloo. “Here, have at it. Just turn it on; it’ll have the footage on it. Fast forward to about the last twenty minutes or so. That’s where I thought I saw something.”

Scootaloo sat down on the bed and eyed the pad. It flickered to life and an almost perfect replica of the battle had opened up before her eyes. Had she had known any better, she would have ducked out of the way of two Shadow fighters that flew past. She pressed a hoof down of the pad, speeding up the virtual time. As the images flashed passed her eyes, she opened her mouth to talk. “So, why does this... thing bother you?”

Hitting the replay button, Rainbow kept her own eyes glued to the screen, “You know, I don’t know. Like I said, something seemed wrong. Something was blocking our long range communications and radar until the end of the battle. If the Shadow Syndicate wanted to keep us in the dark, they wouldn’t have shut off their jammers after the battle was over. No, there was something behind this.

“Uh huh... and you have no idea what it was?” Scoots pulled her eyes away from the screen long enough to see Rainbow shake her head.

“No but... but... wait.” Rainbow pressed down on the pause button. Her face got really close to the screen, her eyes darted back and forth ever so slightly. “Wait... there it is,” she said quietly, pointing at the screen. “Fast forward to 1:32:12 and pause it. Tell me if you see something.”

“Alright, but I still don’t know what I’m looking for,” Scootaloo said skeptically. She slid the progress bar to the exact time and hit pause. She scanned the screen for a minute before noticing something that was out of place. “What is that?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s well hidden. I also have the scanning data from our fighters and the Dream. Whatever it was, I didn’t show up. From the looks of it, I’d say it looks like a ship. Let me pull the data from this video, see what the database has to say about our ghost ship.” Rainbow keyed a button on the other pad she had and words began to scroll across the screen.

>>>RECEIVING DATA

/// SCANNING, PLEASE WAIT...

///IDENITY: UNKNOWN SHIP

///UNKNOWN IFF

///UNKNOWN DESIGN

>>>END DATA STREAM

Rainbow and Scootaloo stared at the data that was presented before them. “Scoots... take these data pads to Applejack. Tell her to get these to the Captain.” Rainbow’s voice was stern, more so than she had tried to be.

“Yes, Rainbow, right away!” Scootaloo said, trying to be calm and collective. She gathered up the pads and slid them into her sack and trotted out the door. Once Scootaloo’s tail had vanished, a wave of tiredness hit Rainbow. She crawled into bed and grabbed the remaining data pad and stared at the ship before her eyes.

“What are you?”

Rainbow threw her ship into a tight dive, following the two ships in front of her. She aligned the first in her reticule and squeezed the trigger. The ships armor held only for a moment before splintering into a million tiny pieces. She allowed herself a moment’s satisfaction before hammering down on the other one. Two more kills for the Princesses. A warning light flashed on Rainbow’s HUD, “LOW FUEL.”

Rainbow eyed the console for a minute before flicking her radio, “AJ, Scoots, I’m low on fuel, I’m going to fall back to the Dream to rearm and refuel. How are you guys holding up?”

“I’m fine, Scoots?” Applejack’s voiced buzzed.

“Better than ever!” Scootaloo sounded off.

Rainbow smirked in her helmet, “Alright, be careful you two, I’ll be back ASAP.”

The two other pilots clicked their comms. Rainbow flipped her ship over and headed towards the small frigate. After a quick flight, Rainbow set her ship down and the deck ponies sprinted over to the lancer and began filling. Hurry up...

Her fighter was almost filled when Fleet Admiral Darklight’s voice filled her headset, “Attention, all ships! This is the Harmony, new contacts jumping in from slipspace, unknown IFF. They are not responding to hails. Do not engage, but be ready for anything.”

Oh great, more stuff to kill, Rainbow thought mildly.

“New contacts are opening fire! All ships return fire, return fire—”

Rainbow felt the Midnight Dream shift on its axis, rumbling with stress as it did. “What the hell was that?!” Rainbow yelled into her turned off headset. She flicked it on and tried again, “Scoots, Applejack, status report!”

“I dunno! The Harmony was there just a minute ago and it’s just... gone!” Applejack’s stunned voice shot through Rainbow’s ears.

“What do you mean ‘gone!’ A Luna carrier doesn’t just disappear!”

“It just did! There was a bright flash and then the Provocation and her escorts were just wiped away!”

Scootaloo’s panicked voice jumped in, “She’s right Rainbow, everything is just gone! Something happened to the Syndicate fleet too! They’re retreating!”

Rainbow’s comms buzzed to life again, “All ships, this is Rear Admiral Heavenset, retreat! Head for friendly space, I repeat, all ships retreat!”

Rainbow’s mind was racing, “All fighters, this is Bolt, fall back to the Midnight Dream! We’re leaving!”

“Roger, on our way— inbound fighters!” Applejack shouted.

Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat; she looked over the edge of the fighter, “Hurry your flanks up! I need to get out there!”

“Ma’am! You can’t go! We need to leave!” One of the deck ponies said.

“Stow it sailor! Get me out there!” She glowered at him. He opened his mouth as if to say something but he thought better of it and pulled the refueling tank away. Rainbow closed the canopy and bolted back out into space.

Chaos was everywhere. Her pilots were outmatched three to one. Several of her colonists were already dead, her heart was racing. Rainbow saw her two friends combined with several other colonists fighting for their lives against near black fighters; and they were losing. Rainbow threw herself into the mix and began firing. Instantly one of the enemy fighters burned up and exploded. As quick as she was, two fighters were on her.

After a string of lucky events, the colonists had whittled down the enemy fighters to seven. They had lost two more pilots, but the numbers were almost even now. The enemy fighters began to fall back. “Whew, that was a close one! Now let’s get---” Applejack started. The Midnight Dream erupted into a ball of flame, vaporizing almost instantly. The light blinded Rainbow, burning her eyes. She had to raise her hoof to block the light. The mini-sun faded; there was no more friendly frigate, just dust and echoes. The stunned pilots only had moments before the enemy fighters were on them again. Applejack’s voice shrieked in fear, “I’m hit! Mayday may—”

“Applejack? Applejack!” Rainbow cried into the mic. There was nothing.

“Rainbow,” Scootaloo’s voice whispered through the headset, “help—”

Rainbow was crying, “Scoots! No, no, no. Scoots!” Rainbow’s damage alert began wailing like a siren. The wailing was steadily rising in volume.

Rainbow shout out of bed, panting heavily and sweating. She ran her hooves up and down, she was alive. She was in a bed, on board the still intact Midnight Dream. She had been dreaming... but why had the wailing not stopped. Above her, the red-alert light was spinning.

“All pilots, this is the Captain, get to your ships. Shadow Syndicate fleet is inbound.”

11. Long Night of Solace

June 16th, 2307 SET. Planet 2244 FB0 Engagement Zone.

The two fleets hovered just kilometers away from the killzone. The larger fleet of the Shadow Syndicate had begun to deploy its fighters, each diving into the EZ, eager for blood. The Expanse fleet returned the favor, dumping its fewer but more advanced fighters into the Zone as well, save for a few defenders who buzzed around key targets like wasps defending their home. As the two waves of fighters smashed into each other, the larger ships of the fleets began to make their move.

The first into the hellstorm were several Pegasi frigates from the NESC fleet. Their point defence turrets set the black space alight, bringing down swarms of SS fighters. In response, several destroyers from the Syndicate fleet charged in and unleashed their barrage of weaponry upon the first frigate. The agile frigate nimbly dodged the first volley and let loose its own heavy weapons into the nearest destroyer. The attack slammed into the hull of the lumbering ship, making it stall for a moment. It quickly righted itself and fired again at the frigate, this time striking the smaller craft in the middle, severing it two.

The other two frigates turned to avenge their fallen comrade, and fired their pulse cannons at the offender, who quickly retreated behind its friends. Soon, a wave of bombers struck against the remaining two frigates, crippling them. Only by quick intervention of three Starswirl-Class Destroyers did the frigates survive. The dual pulse cannons on the lead NESC Starswirl destroyer lit up the area in light blue, smashing into the side of the original attacker. The SS ship began to falter and die, venting crew and debris into open space. Upon seeing their teammate perish, the remaining two SS destroyers retreated back to safer space.

Rainbow sat in her cockpit, tapping her console in anticipation for the next attack made by the NESC. For the time being, she had been reunited with her old squadron on board the ESI-prowler Truth of Light. The chrome hangar bay was completely devoid of life, filled to the brim with the metal bodies of fighters and bombers. Rainbow cast her gaze around, noting that Ace was deeply involved with a holo-panel. She couldn’t see Spectre past Ace’s ship. To her left sat three bombers, each with moving heads inside the cockpits. Deliver the package, they’ll take care of the rest. She ran the objective through her mind once more, focusing on the upcoming task.

The Truth of Light sat in the belly of one of the three Luna-class carriers, the Loyalty, along with three other similar stealth prowlers and many other stealth strike craft. The docking bay was full of silence, not wanting to bring any more attention to the Loyalty then was already necessary. The ship, along with several picket ships and her 108 fighters, had began an actionless, yet tense journey around the outskirts of the battlefield. While the two fleets kicked and bashed at each others defences, the Loyalty had skirted most of the combat. Although it did occasionally get savaged by long ranged volleys from enemy ships, they rarely did anything to the hull.

When it did, however, the noise made Rainbow more and more agitated and nervous. The most recent offender must have been a missile salvo, since it sounded more like popcorn then explosions. The noise was enough to force her ears against her head inside of her helmet, since it was more annoying than anything. She also guessed that the Syndicate would be sending fighters to harass the task force since on more than one occasion, the whirr of repeated laser would reverberate all along the structure of the ship. So... annoying... In the middle of her thoughts, a new sound erupted into her ear: her intercom.

“This is Captain Flare, all task force ships, we have reached the drop zone. Remember your orders, do not engage the enemy until the fleet brings the fight to you. The other Luna carriers: The Harmony and the Generosity will attempt to corral the enemy around the planet. Maintain stealth parameters until you see the Honesty engage with her rail guns. Alright everypony. Good luck, good hunting and prepare for the drop.” The intercom cut itself off, leaving silence in its wake.

Rainbow ran the last part of the order through her head. Wait for the giant orange ship to start making little orange suns. Got it. She ran her hooves along the controls, preparing herself for the gratuitous amounts of no flying that were about to be had. More and more sitting around, not moving, not helping. The tension was really getting to Rainbow, and she knew it. I need to relax, a tense pony, is a dead pony. Be alert, not stiff. If I’m stiff, I’ll fly stiff. Easy target there...

The sound of decompression shook her from her thoughts. Her initial response was to almost power up her engines and launch out into space, but the presence of an unmoving door halted her progress. It wasn’t the prowler’s door opening, it was the carrier’s. She felt her ship lurch inside of the belly of the prowler. Bet if this ship was alive, it would be puking all the tiny ships out right now... She couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought, and then chuckle harder at how a craft pouring ships out was like puking.

The sound of a sliding hinge pulled her attention away from her self-induced laughter. She cast a gaze towards the sound, realizing that Ace had pulled her hatch open. Rainbow did the same, a smile still on her face. As the hatch slid back over her head, Ace depolarized her mask and was first to talk. “Whatcha’ laughing at Bolt?”

“Heh, just bored, thought of something funny.” She grinned again. “Can’t imagine how the colonists feel.”

Ace grinned a bit too, and shook her head slightly. “I know how you feel. And we definitely know how they feel. It’s just like flight school all over again, except with the murderous ponies actually shooting back. Speaking of which, the Dauntless is back in action. Shouldn’t Command have sent them back to their homes? I mean, for buck’s sake they’re colonists, not pilots.” The smile had faded into seriousness, the face Rainbow had learned as Ace’s neutral face. It could mean anything, anything at all.

“I hear you. I’ve got friends fighting out there, more than I had originally wanted to bring along. But I’m gonna have to disagree with you on the ‘not pilots’ thing. Between all of them they have over twenty confirmed kills. Not shabby shooting if you ask me,” Rainbow said confidently. “I mean, they knew how to fly before they came here, and they also learned from the best.” Rainbow slid a hoof up to her chest and shot her squad leader a wink. “But remember who I learned that from.”

Ace smiled coolly. “The best of the best,” she turned her head away from Rainbow, “ain’t that right Spectre?”

A voice could be heard from behind the body of Ace’s lancer. “Whatever you say Cap’... Oh, I’ve been thinking—”

“Wow Spectre, are there no ends to your talents,” Rainbow shouted.

“Hah hah, funny Bolt. And... Celestia damn it... I forgot what I was going to say.”

Rainbow let out a small chortle. “Well, when you think of it. You let me know!” Rainbow mocked.

She was still grinning when the familiar sound of a cockpit opening sounded to her left. The nearest Angel bomber canopy had opened revealing a fully suited pony. “I thought that voice sounded familiar, Rainbow Dash.”

“Wait... I know your voice,” Rainbow said, her face scrunched in concentration. The pony tapped the side of her helmet, depolarizing the faceplate. Orange eyes surrounded by yellow fur met Rainbow’s gaze. “No way!” The pony reached up and plucked her helmet off, her fire mane falling out of the helmet. “Spitfire!” Rainbow leapt up out of her chair and landed down on the hangar deck. Spitfire did the same, landing with a thud. They bolted for each other, wrapping themselves in a firm hug.

“Hey Dash, how’ve you been?” Spitfire asked, laughing slightly.

Rainbow broke the hug, leaning back to get a good luck at her old friend. “Great! Well, good enough to not die I guess. So, before the catching up starts, let me ask. Why are you here? I thought the Wonderbolts were only a flight demonstration squadron.”

“C’mon Rainbow, you should know this. We may be a demonstration squadron, but only the greatest pilots can be in the squadron. We fight when we need to. So, you’re apart of the Lancer squadron that’s gonna keep those Syndicate dogs off our tail?” Spitfire asked, eyeing the cyan Lancer.

“You know it. You won’t find a better squadron in the 5th fleet. Hold on, I want you to meet my squadron mates,” Rainbow chatted, turning towards her other friends. As the two pilots passed Rainbow’s ship, Ace’s was first in view. “This is my squadron leader, Ace.” Spitfire flicked a salute towards Ace, who returned the favor.

“Ah, a member of the Wonderbolts. Spitfire right? I’m a huge fan, especially of the Section High Alpha maneuver. It’s amazing that you can do that in an Angel bomber in atmosphere, I can barely do it in a Lancer,” Ace said respectfully.

“Well I appreciate it. I’d be willing to bet that you could do some pretty cool stuff in your own bird though, I’m hoping anyway,” Spitfire replied with a wink.

“Don’t you worry your flaming tail, you got the best squadron in the Expanse backing you up,” Ace returned, her hoof striking the side of the Lancer as she did.

“I’m sure your squadron is the best Ace, what with Rainbow here.”
Rainbow stomped her hoof against the deck too, followed by a thump from further down.

“And that last bang must be the third guy, right?” Spitfire asked, leaning her head around the side.

“Yep, thats Spectre. He and I graduated from flight school together. We’ve been through a lot, ain’t that right buddy?” Rainbow boasted proudly.

“That’s right Bolt, and nice to meet you Spitfire, or should I say ma’am?” He asked smiling, raising his hoof to his head.

“That would be ‘Ma’am Ma’am’ to you soldier, or you could just call me Firebird if you’d like,” She replied, grinning darkly. “Nice to you meet you as well. And I have to say, if you graduated with Rainbow here, then you must be a damn good pilot as well.”

Spectre held his smile through the comment, “Well I’d like to think so, since I get to fly with these two,” he cast his hoof towards the other two, receiving a wink from Rainbow and a nod from Ace. “They’re the best squadmates and friends anypony could ask for.”

“Indeed. I’m sure you’ll do fine, keeping our tails non-burned I mean. You just keep the Shadows off our tail, we’ll take care of the big guns,” Spitfire said to the three pilots.

“You got it. Hey, I never asked, where did you meet Bolt?” Ace asked.

Rainbows eyes sparked at the question, but let Spitfire answer. “I was doing a show on Solstice when I heard about how she broke the record for the course. Since that record had been set by me, I had to go meet the mare who broke it. Went and sought her out, been in touch ever since,” Spitfire claimed. She wrapped a leg around Rainbow and pulled her in close, driving her other into the rainbow mane, shaking vigorously.

Rainbow began laughing, then shoved her friend away. “Knock it off! But in all reality, this is the first time we have ever flown together, what with you being a member of the Second Fleet. This is gonna be so awesome! We’re gonna kick some serious Syndicate tail out there.”

“Damn right we will! Am I right?” Spitfire all of a sudden shouted. When she got no more response from anypony other than a startled glance from Spectre, she shouted again. “AM I RIGHT?”

Rainbow was the first to get the cue, “Hoo-ah!” She belted. She whooped again and again, being joined by her squadmates and Spitfire, whose squadron had heard the commotion and started yelling too. Soon enough, all of the pilots in the bay were screaming and yelling and chanting. At the sound of this, Spitfire bolted up the stairway to the deck control platform. She stood over the railing and began to shout, “These shadow creeps think that they can come into our space, our territory, our land, and push us around? To kill and steal from us? Well they thought wrong, big time. We could roll this puny excuse for a fleet with our willpower alone, forget our ships. But just to add insult to injury, we’re gonna do it anyway! Just to prove how weak they really are, the main fleets will push them our way, and then, the fun begins. Our tiny task force, which has been so cleverly laid right under their noses, will rise out from nowhere and crush each ship that it touches. They call themselves the Shadow Syndicate, when we rise out of their shadows, they will have to no choice but to fall before ours and kiss the ground that they grace, these ‘Shadow’ members, we’re gonna show them the light!” A chorus of cheers erupted from the pilots below, all screaming for blood, war and victory. Rainbow even saw the controller in the tower throw his hoof into the air. “Now be ready my friends, they will crawl away from the power of the Second, Third, and Fifth fleets, right into our laps. And when that happens... the butcher’s work begins.

For twenty minutes, cheers and whoops from the pilots and deck crew reverberated around the ship, causing the Captain to even come down to the hangar and investigate reports of rioting.
When he found out what it was, his scowl stretched into a confident grin. He had slowly approached through a side-access corridor to see what was happening, and once he knew, he decided to make his presence known. He crept up the stairs where Spitfire had been and looked over the crowd below. “Hey! Be quiet!” He screamed. Instantly, all the ponies had silenced themselves and looked up at the Captain, saluting. “Y’all need to stop this yelling! Or else you’re gonna scare the rebs’ away before we even get a chance to kill them!” At the sound of the Captains words, the hangar re-erupted into screams and yells of anticipation.

Rainbow and Spitfire added their cheers into the crowd, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs. This continued on for another five minutes. Once the noise died down, Rainbow leaned towards Spitfire, “So, now that we’re all fired up, how long do you think we will have to wait to kill something?”

Spitfire’s chest was still heaving from all of the excitement, “I dunno... hopefully soon. I got a huge adrenaline kick and I want to use it. Let’s go check out the comms station and find out the progress of the Fleets.” The two mares trotted up the staircase to where two ponies were sitting with headphones on. “Hey, what’s the progress—”

The closest pony flicked a hoof at Spitfire, demanding her silence. His stern expression drew concern from the two pilots, “Something new has appeared on long range scanners. I don’t know what it is, but our Deep Space Detection Radar is pinging incoming.”

“Are they enemy ships?” Rainbow asked, knees bent and ready to run at the first sign of danger.

At first, the only response was silence from the pony, whose face was only inches away from the screen that illuminated his ruby eyes. Finally he replied, “Yes they are ships, but they are not matching any IFF tags. They aren’t NESC, but they aren’t SS either.”

“Who else could it be? Griffons? They haven’t bothered us since they tried that pitiful assault on Solstice,” Spitfire said, a sense of foreboding gripping her.

“They’re not Griffons either. They would have been identified with IFF tags. Who or whatever they are, we’ve never seen them before.”

Rainbow walked up behind the pony, looking at his screen. “Does the Captain know about this? What about the Admiral?”

“We’ve alerted the Captain, but we don’t want to make any connections to the Fleet in case the SS are listening in. If they knew we were here, it wouldn’t take much to wipe us out before we even got a fighting chance,” he said disquietly. “Wait, what?” His eyes shot open wide.

Rainbow and Spitfire both looked at each other, confused as to what was going on. “What do you mean, ‘What’?”

He tossed his hooves towards the screen, his faced riddled with confusion. “The ships just disappeared off the map!” He lurched forward in the chair, the seat groaning its displeasure. He began hitting buttons which seemed to Rainbow more like frantic slapping of the console. None of what the pony did would make the grey dots appear back on the screen. “I don’t like this, I don’t like this one bit.”

“Is it possible that they dropped out of slipspace?” Spitfire asked.

“It’s space. Anything is possible. However, it seems unlikely that a fleet would just drop out of slipspace without knowing where they were, considering that if they did it wrong they could end up smashing into something,” he said, eyeing his console suspiciously.

“How far away were they?” Rainbow asked cautiously.

“Far, at least a day in realspace. That doesn’t make me comfortable in the slightest though,” he mumbled. The ponies sat in silence for a while, waiting for something to happen. Spitfire was first to speak.

“A day in realspace shouldn’t interfere with our operations right now. We should focus on the mission at hand.” She turned towards Rainbow, “I wouldn’t let anypony else know. They have enough on their minds as is.” She swung her head back to the pony at the console. “Let the Captain know about what happened.”

“Roger, also, I would get back to your ships. The fleet is pushing the rebs our way. Won't be long until its go time,” the pony grumbled, never tearing his eyes away from the screen. Spitfire nodded and trotted down the staircase. Rainbow stood for a moment, watching the screen, waiting to see what happened next. After a few moments of silence, she left.

As she climbed back into her ship, she didn’t notice that she was scowling with ears tucked back. “Something wrong?” Came a voice. She looked at the source, noticing that it was Ace.

“No, its nothing. Just impatient is all. The longer away I am from my colonists, the more I worry about them,” Rainbow said. Will that was the case, she still couldn’t free her mind from the commotion from the comms booth.

“I’m sure they’re fine Bolt. Once this is over, we can get you back to them. And, if all goes well, we hopefully won't have to fight the Syndicate anymore. See if we can’t all get some down time, ya know?” Ace said soothingly.

“Yeah, but like thats going to happen...” Rainbow said, pessimism littering her voice.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re the best pilots in the damn fleet. That’s why we’re on this boat. And your friends are way in the back of the fleet, probably flying escort for one of the Luna carriers. And we know that the SS won't go anywhere near those things.” She said cheerfully.

Rainbow looked longingly at her ships radar, hoping for an inclination as to the current status of her friends. After her hopes didn’t come true, she faced Ace. “You’re right. Lets kick us some SS tail!”

Ace nodded, a dark smirk pulled at her face. It was then did the ship shake with commotion. “This is the Captain, we have dropped out of cloak, all ships, clear to launch!”

Rainbow's ears perked up at the news. She swiftly punched a button on her console, shutting the canopy. She pulled her helmet over her head and pulled the visor down, it's HUD syncing with the Lancer. All signs were green. The silence was torn apart by the screaming of depressurization. Here we go again...