A New Dawn Chapter 15

Rainbow Dash's eyes watered as she looked over the burning wreckage of the Equestrian flagship. Her mind struggled to process how such a thing could happen. Surrounding the wreckage were bodies of griffons, wolves and even ponies. Rainbow recognized a few of their faces and felt her body freeze up in horror as she overlooked a pegasus wearing the air rescue uniform.

Sonic was zipping around the wreckage checking each body for a pulse before moving onto the next. He sifted through metal paneling and wooden planks in a desperate attempt to find any survivors. Each body he checked looked like it broke is heart over and over again, but still the blue hedgehog refused to give up.

"Hey, give me hand with this Dash!" He called out to her as he struggled to lift a heavy hunk of metal that he was unable to budge. When she gave no response, he looked up to see her grief ridden face and swiftly sped next to her, grabbing her by the shoulders and gently shaking her, trying to snap her out of her trance. "Dash! Dash! Look at me!" Finally her magenta eyes looked at his and he could see she was paying attention to him. "Listen, I know this is a lot for you to take in, I get it. Trust me I know what you're going through, especially if you know some of these ponies, but we can't afford to weep right now! There could be somepony in that nightmare!" He said pointing back at the burning wreckage. "We have to try to save them!"

"Sonic I…" Her voice got caught in her throat. "I've never seen something so horrible, I can't…I can't Sonic!"

"YES YOU CAN!" he yelled at her as he gave her violent shake, snapping her back from her doubts. "I know this is horrible, but if there is any chance that anypony in there is alive, we have to try and save them. I know you can do this! I know you're strong enough! I can see it in you! Now, I need you to shove down whatever it is that is making you weak at the knees and HELP! ME! SAVE! LIVES!" He released her and ran back to the wreckage.

Something in his words or tone reached the cyan pegasus as she furrowed her brow and flew next to him. Looking at the fallen piece of metal, she came up with an idea. "Stand back," she announced before turning around, and with all her might bucked the metal hunk and knocked it free from the spot it was wedged in. She gave it another kick and sent it sliding from its position, exposing the area Sonic wanted to investigate.

"That's a quite a kick!" Sonic gasped, stunned that she was able to do what she did.

"What? You're surprised I kick like a horse?" she replied. "Is there anyone down there?"

"Let's find out," He said as he hopped down in the compartment they had revealed. Rainbow paced back and forth anxiously awaiting his answer but felt her heart sink when he leaped back out of the hole and shook his head indicating no survivors. "Let's check out over here," he said, pointing a partially exposed compartment.

"No good, Sonic, that's solid steel, I can't kick that open," Rainbow Dash informed him sadly.

The hedgehog put his hand on the steel wall and thought for a moment before taking a step back. "Alright, I got this, stand back," he warned.

"What are you doing?"

She got her answer when he crouched down on the ground, and then remarkably rolled himself into a ball and at began to spin in place at remarkable speeds, kicking up and sending dirt into the air as the action created screeching burnout noise. The hedgehog then shot forward into the steel wall, his razor sharp spines sending sparks into the air as they bit into the metal as he buzz sawed his way into the room, in mere moments leaving hole big enough for her to fit through. She was about to enter after  him but the hedgehog quickly leapt back out and blocked her entry.

"Don't go in there," He said sadly. "Trust me."

Rainbow Dash felt her heart sink even lower.






Spitfire's detachment was on its third day of travel which had placed them considerable miles away from Wyndia. Had she been leading a squadron of pegasi they would have perhaps found the missing mare by now, however she deemed their rate of travel acceptable considering the earth ponies, unicorns and wolves. They had traveled in line, with Spitfire upfront, Big Mac in the rear, with Foxtrot and Comet walking alongside the ponies in the middle, with the other wolves scouting ahead and around the traveling crew for any signs of enemy movement. The night was fast approaching, causing the Wonderbolt Captain to begin scouting for areas where they would be able to make camp for the night; however her search was interrupted by Rarity.

"I say Spitfire, your cutie mark is simply fascinating," the white mare announced giddily while pulling up alongside her. "It reminds of Princess Celestia's royal bird Philomena."

"You've got keen eye," Spitfire said dismissively, not making eye contact with her and trying her best to find a campsite.

"Hah," Rarity laughed in a prideful tone as she dropped back trot alongside Twilight. "I told you it was one of those fiery…whatever-you-call-it birds."

Spitfire glanced back at her grumpily, drawing a blush from Twilight as she did not find it amusing that she was subject of a guessing game. However, her stare did not deter the purple unicorn from asking a follow up question.

"Pardon me Captain, "she began hesitantly. "But cutie marks showcase a pony's talent, and since yours is a phoenix… may I ask what your talent is?"

"There are somethings you don't wanna know Twilight Sparkle," The Captain responded coarsely as she turned away from her to resume her search. "Trust me when I say it's a bad day for everpony if I gotta use my talent."







Further back in the line, Pinkie Pie was hopping gleefully alongside Fluttershy and Foxtrot and, for the greater part of their trip so far, had been bombarding the pegasus pony with question after question and occasionally breaking out in random musical numbers about anything from saving Rainbow Dash to pinecones. However, for the first time on her trip she decided now would be a good time to introduce herself to her canine cohort.

"So you're Foxtrot right," She questioned as she bounced closer to him.

"Umm," He responded, caught a little off guard by her cheerfulness. "Yeah, that's what others call me."

"I love your name! it sounds like one of like one of my favorite words! You wanna know what it is?"

"Well I gu-"

"It's cumquat! Cumquat! Cumquat!"

"That's a weird favorite word," he replied smiling back at her, the pony's pleasant attitude causing him to lighten up.

"I know. I just love saying it cuz it makes me laugh! So you're a wolf an all, why do they call Foxtrot? I mean you don't look like a fox, you look like a wolf, a small wolf, why are you so much smaller than the other wolves?

"Ummm…Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy mumbled almost inaudibly. "Twilight said…if you remember that is…that it isn't his name, it's his nickname…that he hasn't earned a real name yet," she revealed, but as normal, Pinkie Pie paid her no mind and Fluttershy hung her head, realizing that she had been unsuccessful in drawing her attention.

"That's right," Comet interrupted their conversation, jumping in-between Fluttershy and Pinkie drawing a small shriek from Fluttershy. "Foxtrot hasn't earned his real name yet!"

"You…you heard me?" Fluttershy stammered at the idea that someone had listened to her.

"Course I heard ya," the larger wolf boasted, pointing to one of his ears. "Wolves have the best hearing out of ALL the races!"

"Ooooh!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as the information sank in before bombarding the younger wolf with a new torrent of questions. "So why did they nickname you Foxtrot? My nickname is Pinkie Pie I think it's cuz I love pink.  Why don't you have a real name yet? My real name is Pinkamena Diane Pie! Is it hard for you to get a real name? It wasn't for me. My parents just gave it to me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, settle down Pinkie," Comet interrupted her. "You wanna know why we call him Foxtrot?" He grinned menacingly at his smaller counterpart, an act that drew a low growl from him. Undaunted he began his tale loud enough so the whole party could hear. "So back home right, little guy over here, try as he might, can't for the life of him acquire some female attention if you know what I mean. All the female wolves wont' give this little fur ball a second look. Knowing he's got no chance of courting a proper female wolf, he goes out and finds himself a-"

Foxtrot roared at him and cut him off midsentence as he sucker punched him as hard as he could in his jaw with a tightly balled fist, sending the larger wolf stumbling back. Comet swiftly responded by grabbing him by the throat, heaving him into the air and slamming him into the ground, applying pressure and dropping his knee into Foxtrot's chest.  As the small wolf gasped for air, the sudden burst of violence sent the mares into an uproar with Rarity and Pinkie Pie yelling uncontrollably, Fluttershy diving under Applejack who, along with Twilight, tried to shout out over the commotion for them to stop and calm down. However, Comet was deaf to their cries as he forced down more and more while Foxtrot clawed at his arms as he gasped for breath.

Thankfully, before the situation could escalate any further, Comet was sent flying through the air from a thunderous blow to his side from a charge by an armored Big Mac. Foxtrot sucked in air as soon as his windpipe would allow him before springing to his feet and launching towards Comet. His travel was cut short quickly however, as a cobalt blue aura surrounded, lifted and suspended him in the air, leaving him floundering before slamming him prostrate on the ground and pinning him.

"Heel!" Midnight Tracer spoke confidently as he trotted next to him, his horn aglow with the same deep blue aura as Spitfire galloped in the middle of the group.

"WHAT THE HAY IS GOING ON HERE!" she screamed looking back and forth between the two for answers. She was absolutely stunned at the behavior of what were supposed to be trained soldiers. The wolves on the Equus had their little spats spring up here and there but never in the presence of an officer.

"I believe I can explain," Twilight said, trotting next to her glaring at the two wolves like an upset mother would her foals.

"Huh?" Spitfire sputtered at Twilight as she looked at her with a raised eyebrow as to how the unicorn could explain their actions.

"I happened to brush up on Canine history before we left the airship when I learned we were going to have wolf bodyguards," she began. A collective groan from her friends came out as they realized they were in for a lecture. "Canines have a class ba-"

"You know what, I don't care. I don't care why you two were fighting, and I really don't care to hear Wolf History 101. So, this is what's going to happen, we're going to set up camp, and you two are pulling a double guard duty and that's an order!" Spitfire barked, slamming her hoof against the ground.







Excitement from the early evening had died down as the group formed their campsite as a large crescent moon rose above them. Applejack and Big Mac had taken it upon themselves to create a campfire as Rarity and Twilight erected tents for the mares to sleep in once it came time for bed. Spitfire had propped herself against a tree and kept a close eye on the wolves, her feelings about them worsened when Dixie, Dreyfus, and Milo came in from their long range scouting and, upon hearing the story, all congratulated Comet for putting Foxtrot in his place in the pack. The smaller wolf was dutifully posted on a large rock on the edge of camp since his guard duty was up first. The Captain shook her head in disdain as she dwelt on their barbaric behavior.

Spike walked along the edge of the camp, gathering fallen twigs and sticks for the fire when he heard the familiar sound of trotting coming from outside the camp radius. He turned to the sound and saw Midnight Tracer emerging from the woods.

"And just where have you been?" he asked, placing his free hand on his hip as he asked with an accusatory tone.

"Double checking the perimeter and sound traps the wolves have set up," he responded coolly. "After our little outburst today, I'm not feeling the wolves are the most dedicated group of warriors."

"Humph, that doesn't explain why you've been doing it for the past few days. It seems that every night we camp, you go on your little strolls."

"What can I say, I'm thorough and routine."

"More like predictable."

"I grow weary of your tone little dragon," the stallion sighed as he moved to trot around him, but the small purple dragon intercepted him.

"Fine, but I got my eye on you mister. I don't know what it is, but I don't think your being honest with us."

"Whatever you say," Midnight Tracer grumbled, stepping over him with his long legs.

"And keep your grubby hooves away from Rarity and Twilight!" Spike spouted as he was passed by.







Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were beside Applejack and Big Mac preparing food for them to eat for dinner, which was fairly simple for the ponies as they were able to find creative ways to use hay and apples to spruce up their meals.

"You know what really puts a whole damper on this evening, you know, beside the fact the wolves tried to kill each other?"

"I don't know Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy responded quietly. "I can't think of anything that could make this day worse."

"Are you kidding me? After all that hoopla I STILL don't know why they call him Foxtrot! Can you believe it?" Pinkie Pie grumbled. "Oh, speaking of Foxtrot, can you bring him his dinner?" she said as she gestured to a bag sitting on the ground next to her.

"Oh sure Pinkie," she agreed meekly, picking up the bag and trotting over to the wolf, who, at her arrival, slid down off of his rock to greet her just as she set the bag down on the ground.

"Thank you very much," he spoke, his voice sullen and depressed.

"Oh you're very welcome Mister Wolf," Fluttershy acknowledged, however, the yellow pegasus picked up on is melancholy tone. "Umm…Mister Wolf…is there…if you want to that is…anything you might want to talk about?"

Foxtrot sighed and reached under his armor and pulled out a worn picture and began to stare at it. "Not really, just some choices I made a while ago. Choices that I'm going to have to live with. Here, give this to Pinkie Pie," he said as he handed the photo to Fluttershy. "It'll explain the nickname."

"You heard that?"

"Don't you remember? Wolves have good hearing."

Fluttershy took the picture and saw it was a photo of the young wolf with his arm around female dog like himself, except she had brown fur and an oversized bushy tail. "Is, is she a fox?" Fluttershy asked, noting the comparison to the wild foxes back in Equestria. Then noticing writing on the back, she read that it was signed by the fox with the words 'Yours forever, Mitzy' and put two and two together. "Oh I see, so your friends make fun of-"

"They're not my friends," he cut her off curtly as he scrambled his way back on top of the rock and perched himself.

"Oh well...I see…But I don't think I should keep this."

"You can do whatever you want with it."

"But isn't she your-"

"She dumped me."







Spike bit down a ruby angrily as he sat off to the side of the campfire. Twilight and Rarity had insisted that Midnight Tracer sit next to them, and they had been fawning over him ever since. Rarity's flirting with the stallion was driving him crazy, but the fact that Twilight would all but ignore him whenever that unicorn was around was too much for him to handle. Too add to his anger, Spitfire trotted over to him and he could only assume to add fuel to the fire as she continued to tease him about his jealousy.

"Spike, can I ask you something?" Spitfire began.

"If you're gonna ask what I'm gonna do about Midnight Tracer moving in on my one true love and my best friend at the same time, you can forget it," he shot back her angrily.

"Hang on there scales, I was just gonna ask if you could send letters to anyone, or just Princess Celestia?"

"Oh," Spike said, perking up at the opportunity to be useful. "I can send messages to anyone as long as I've met them."

"Good, would you mind sending this report of the mission I've written to Princess Luna?" she said, handing him a rolled parchment.

"Sure, no problem," Spike said, grabbing the roll and breathing fire, on it causing it to burn and sparkle into nothingness. "Good as sent."

"What in world is that?!" Rarity yelled out from across the campsite, drawing their attention.

"It's a letter," Twilight Sparkle pointed out. "Like the ones I send Princess Celestia. Midnight Tracer, you must be as important as you say if you know someone who sends letters via dragons' breath!"

"Oh my, well this is certainly unexpected," Midnight Tracer said nervously.

Spitfire and Spike stared with their mouths open before turning to each other. Spike shook his head in disbelief. "There's no way, gotta be a coincidence."

"I don't believe in coincidences Spike," Spitfire muttered as she grabbed another parchment from her saddle bag and handed it to Spike. "Here, we're gonna send another letter to Princess Luna. Spike can you scribble all over it?"

"Umm…sure." He obeyed as he took a feather quill to the paper and covered it in ink front and back before rolling it up. "Oh! I see what you're doing."

"Good, now Spike, please send this letter to Princess Luna at once."

"Okay, here goes nothing." Spike breathed his dragon breath once more and as soon it disappeared they both stared at Midnight Tracer. Sure enough, the scrawled on Parchment popped into existence right in front of Midnight Tracer.

"Well Spike," Spitfire said placing her foreleg around him with a grin across her face. "Apparently things have gotten worse for you. Not only is the stallion that's stealing your mare and bosom buddy over there more handsome than you, but he's taller than you, and more magical... But it seems he also owns a castle, he rules over all of Equestria and he's a princess."





             

Fluttershy was disappointed that she inadvertently dug up the old wound and felt it was her duty to try and comfort Foxtrot as she fluttered her wings and hovered next to him as he perched.

"I'm terribly sorry Mister Wolf, I had no idea," she began to apologize.

"How could you if I didn't tell you? It's nothing for you to get upset over. It just one of those things, you know."

"Oh, I see, well, I still feel bad that the other wolves make fun of you because she left you."

"That's not really the reason why they, ey, ey, oooh that feels good!" The wolf began, but was startled at comforting tingling sensation start perking up from within him as Fluttershy hovered close to him and started to rub her hoof gently behind his ear. "How, how are you doing that?!" he exclaimed as his right leg twitched uncontrollably.

"Oh that?" Fluttershy giggled at his reaction. "Well, it always makes Winona feel better when I scratch behind her ears."

"Who's Winona? Another wolf?"

"Not exactly, back in Equestria Applejack has pet dog." Then realizing how odd that sounded she quickly tried to explain nervously. "You know a small, tiny, walks on four legs and barks sort of dog…not a walking, talking one like you."

Foxtrot laughed at her fright. "It's okay, and we have wild dogs here too, there separate species, like an eagle is to a griffon. So you're not stepping on any toes, but you know we do still bark, in fact we howl at the full moon."

"Really?"

"Yeah. it's like wolf tradition or something. We've been doing it for like, the last thousand years or something, I don't even know why we do it, but we just do."

"Well the timber wolves in the Everfree Forest back at home howl at it too."

"Maybe it's just something all wolves do then," Foxtrot commented, than realized that he wasn't feeling upset anymore. "I don't know why, but it's really easy to talk to you."

"Well, I've always been really good with all kinds of animals; I guess it works on other races. That and kindness is sort of my thing."

"Is that so?" he said with a smile before his left ear perked up and twitched toward the woods. He instantly snapped his neck in its direction and focused his ears on the trees.

"Umm, Mister wolf?" Fluttershy asked at his odd behavior, but immediately hushed as he raised a hand signaling for silence and stood and began to sniff at the air vigorously.

"Get back to the camp!" he whispered to her urgently as he drew sword out of his scabbard silently and slid down off the rock. "Get back now!"

"I don't understand?" she said, growing frightened at his actions.

Without another word Foxtrot grabbed her hoof and began to pull her roughly back to the camp, drawing a small cry from the Pegasus as he roughly jerked her. The act prompted rustling near them that caused Foxtrot to whirl, putting his sword between him and the noise and yanking the pony behind him. From the darkness of the woods the gleam of Big Mac's armor shined, defying the darkness as his heavy footsteps pounded forward confronting him. Once Foxtrot saw it was him, he lowered his blade.

"Big Mac? What are you doing here?" The wolf asked, still looking around into the woods wildly.

"Watching a good fer nothin' mutt toss around filly I care about like a sack of apples, something I ain't about to stand for ya hear!" he spoke harshly with a threating tone overlaying his thick country drawl.

The amount of words that came from the Stallion shocked the wolf, the words themselves shocking the pegasus. Foxtrot was first overcome with confusion, then realizing what it must have looked like to see him dragging Fluttershy. "No you don't get it, Big Mac, you don't understand!"

"Nothin' to understand 'bout a fella roughin' up one of AJ's friends, 'specially Fluttershy!" he called him out, pounding his hoof on the ground and lowering his head for a fight.

"You don't get it!" he said, releasing his grip on the pegasus, advancing on the stallion so close that his snout pressed against the large red pony's helmeted muzzle. Then his raised his blade and made a sweeping gesture to the woods. "We're surrounded!"







Sonic kicked at a piece of wreckage, upset he hadn't been able to save anypony. Rainbow Dash trotted beside him with her head held low as she stared at the ground.

"This stinks, this really, really stinks!" the mare said, unable to keep her feelings bottled in any longer.

"I'm gonna make him pay for this," Sonic said angrily "First my friends and my whole world, now he's killing on other planets! When I get my hands on that fat, stupid-"

"Fat? The monster I fought isn't fat!"

"What? Not him, Metal is a robot, he's a machine that is controlled by the Doctor. Metal and I go way back, he was created to destroy me and that's all he cares about. If he's doing atrocities like this, then that means the Doctor is pulling his strings! Think about it Dash, do you want the dog? Or the real monster who sic'd him on you?"

"You mean the blue guy who looks like you…he's a machine?"

"Yeah, and trust me, that robot isn't the problem, he's just tool that the Doctor is using," Sonic explained, and then he eased back as he saw Rainbow Dash stricken with fear at his story. "Don't worry," he said, "trying to calm her, I can take care of him."

Rainbow didn't respond, she only raised her hoof and pointed just over his left shoulder as she shook with fear.

"I've never thought I'd see you here," a deep, lifeless robotic voice called out.

Sonic felt his quills rise up as he nervously turned to look at what she was pointing at, only to find himself looking at a familiar steel hide of his old foe, hovering in the air above them.

"My loathsome copy…"