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.”