A New Dawn Chapter 7

Rainbow Dash never thought she'd be doing what she was doing right now. She, Derpy and a multitude of other pegasus were pulled from their regular jobs to ferry small airboats to and from the mainland to the Equus Fortis which had docked. It had been revealed to them that they were visiting a bustling metropolis called Wyndia, the capital of the griffon empire. Rainbow Dash had seen a few griffons back from her days in flight school but now she was surrounded by them, and battalions of armored battle ready Griffon solider flew into the Equus Fortis. That was a surprise but what really got her was who the pegasus were tasked with bringing on board. Wolves, angry looking and armed to the teeth wolves. Bigger than the diamond dogs back in Equestria and clearly far more advanced the timber wolves of the Everfree Forest; the pegasus hauled them up to the ship in groups of twenty per air boat.  There were dozens and dozens of teams loading them up and Rainbow Dash must have made the trip back and five or six times.

There was no time to rest after they were done loading up all the wolves on the ship as they were all called down to their respective compartments for a major briefing on what was happening. Rainbow Dash had mixed feelings about this; on one hoof she was hoping the brief would finally give her some answers, but on the other, she also hoped to talk with some of the griffons or wolves if they knew what was going on as well as talk military and see just what these troops they loaded on were made of.

As she made her way to her seat in their compartment, Derpy sat next to her and exchanged a hoof-bump, "So what do you make of today Dash?"

"Freaking crazy! Did you get a load of the Wolves?! They look like they could eat us for breakfast!"

"Yeah they look kind of tough, but I think our armored cavalry can take them! Those stallions are tough! Besides we can fly and they can't."

"You know what? You're right; maybe they're not as tough as they look."

"Alright can it!" their sergeant bellowed, hushing all the voices in the room. "1st Lieutenant's coming so look sharp." With that he peered his head out the door and began to look out and around for the Officer. After a moment he snapped back in popped to attention yelling out "Attention on deck!" This brought everypony to attention.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe it but she almost lost it when Soarin' trotted in and gave the order for everypony to relax. She had no idea what he was doing here, but as long as he had some answers she supposed it didn't really matter.

"So I bet you guys have a bunch of questions," he began. "Hear me out and hopefully I'll be able to answer most of them. So first let's put a rumor to rest, Equestria as a nation has now entered the world stage, and now we're joining with the other races to help boost trade, economy, and all that good stuff. However, it seems that in exchange for all these things, we need to help the other races of this world. Well that's exactly what we are going to do. The griffons have been at war for a while, a war where they're getting their butts kicked. The wolves have joined them to help turn the tide but it's not enough. That's where we come in. Princess Celestia had this ship commissioned for this very job. We're gonna deliver fresh troops to the front, provide aerial support, a forward mobile base and retrieve wounded from the battlefield and bring them here for medical attention. I will stress this to you, we will be mainly playing a support role, but if the word comes down from the top, we are prepared to commit to this. I am honored to be able to command you fine mares and stallions of Air Rescue as well as serve my duties with the Wonderbolts. I know all of you will give your all and make our Princess proud. Alright I would like to draw your attention to the film screen, the Griffons have provided us with some intel on what we're dealing with, I suggest we all pay attention." With that he dimmed the lights and an old style projection fired up and began to play off information about the lands and the enemy that was plaguing it. Soarin' shuffled his way to the back of the compartment as it played, and took a seat next to Rainbow Dash.

All of the ponies in the room were all stunned and murmured as they learned about fallen troops returning to the battle to fight against them and swell the enemy ranks. They all cringed at the news of the blue monster and the video managed to hit home by it declaring if they were unable to stop the enemy here there would be no way to stop them. It would be a matter of time before it reached Equestria. Rainbow Dash tried her best to ignore Soarin' sitting next to her, until she couldn't stand it and leaned over and whispered to him.

"Hey, you and me, we need to talk," she spoke as inaudibly as she could. "Sir."

"Huh? What about?" he whispered back.

"How about why you're my boss while your crazy girlfriend, Spitfire, wants to put my head on a spike for even talking to you."

"Oh, yeah that…okay after the presentation come to my office," he muttered as he blushed a little bit at the accusation, then raising his voice to address the whole room since the video had ended, "alright, any questions?"

About seven hooves rose up so he stood up and took his place in the front again and began to answer them. Derpy, who had overheard the mumbling, elbowed Rainbow Dash to get her attention. "Dash you should give the guy a chance. He doesn't seem all that bad"

"I'm not worried about Soarin' Derpy, it's Spitfire that scares me." Rainbow said with sigh.




Rainbow Dash let the door close behind her and spotted four officers in the room with her, all of them Wonderbolts. She had never seen any of them before and assumed they must have been picked up from the contest a few months ago. They were all laughing and joking with each other until one of them noticed her.

"Can we help you?" she said, sounding upset as if Rainbow Dash had interrupted something important.

"Yes I was-"

"Oh wait, is that Private Dash?" another said noticing the name on her uniform, "Yeah that's her, Yo Lieutenant, Private Dash is here!"

"Oh good," He said from the back of the office emerging out from behind a cubical. "Alright guys, out."

"What?" One of them said taken aback by his request.

"I said out, all of you, this is private, so get." He ordered, in a nonchalant but definitely serious tone. With some moderate grumbling, the four other Wonderbolts got up and headed out the door. Once they all left and the door was shut there was a bit of an awkward silence that Soarin' tried to break. "So, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, after that whole circus you guys called a contest, why in the world are you commanding my squad. If Spit, er if the Captain catches wind of this she'll tear me apart, and I didn't even do anything!"

"Yes that, look I'm sorry for what happened at the contest, that day has been bugging me ever since it happened and when I saw you the other day, that you'd joined up. I knew that it was my chance to make it up to you."

Rainbow Dash shook her head, "Look Sir, you don't ne-"

"Soarin', please call me Soarin'"

"I can't do that now, not anymore, Sir, and to be frank unless you can turn back the clock and make me a Wonderbolt by talking some sense into your physco girlfriend, then you can't really help me."

"Listen, Spitfire and I have had a pretty rough on and off relationship. It all started with her ex-husband."

"What?! She was married?"

"Yeah, a while ago, to another Wonderbolt, he's retired now; He sort of treated her pretty rotten. I was new to the Wonderbolts when they were together. He used to pick up new mares left and right at each town that we performed in. But he was the Captain back then, and well, he ran the show. Spitfire just tried to ignore it. When he retired, she became Captain, once that happened he broke it off with her for good. Soon after that we had starting see each other, and everything was good. Then one day I was signing autographs for a pretty filly and she lost it. I've been doing my best to deal with it, I mean she's a good person and all but, she gets a little crazy if I talk to another girl besides her for too long. I tried breaking things off with her once, but it didn't work out so well." He tried to chuckle off the last statement but Rainbow Dash could see that it really bothered him. All of sudden she didn't feel angry towards him anymore. "She's really starting to drive me away, what happened to you wasn't anything new. She's always accusing me of doing things that just aren't happening and it drives me crazy."

"Look, I uh, I didn't realize things were like that," Dash said placing a hoof on his shoulder.

Soarin' perked up a bit at her touch, "That's why I volunteered to take over the responsibilities of the Air Rescue Commanding officer; I'm going to do whatever I can to get you on the Wonderbolts. You're one of the best fliers I've ever seen, and deserve a spot. I don't care what Spitfire thinks, that's one wrong that I gotta right."

Rainbow Dash's eyes watered up a bit at what Soarin' had told her, she tried to thank him but was too choked up say anything until she finally found her voice. "I don't know what to say…Thank you so much."

"As long as you and I can still be friends Private Dash, you don't need to say anything."

"Sure thing Sir, of course we can be friends." Rainbow Dash turned to make her way out of the room, pausing briefly to leave him with one last remark. "But there is something you should know Soarin', my friends just call me by name."



Several days had passed since the briefings and the Equus Fortis had moved forward towards the front. Drills had intensified, the newly brought on griffons and wolves worked with the ponies to help prepare them even more for the oncoming storm. Except now the storm was here. Soarin' had left to perform close air support with the Wonderbolts who were tasked to aid an elite team of griffon commando's with front line combat. Rainbow Dash and Derpy worked tirelessly with the Air rescue team to retrieve wounded and bring the back on board for medical attention and to prevent the enemy from turning them.

Over the next coming days the popularity of the Equestrians soared, as the wolves and griffons rejoiced at the return of their wounded comrades to safety. Weary fighters were finally given respite from the war in the massive airship. However the greatest praise was for the Wonderbolts. Smaller than the griffons and not as strong as the wolves, everyone had been skeptical at the sort of fight the pegasus would be able to bring, but fight after fight, battle after battle they showed that they were faster and more agile than the other races. Experienced weapon smiths from the wolves worked paw in hoof with Equestrian metal workers to create superior weapons for them, and almost overnight the word Wonderbolt was synonymous with victory. The war was turning and it was not long until everyone had their thoughts turned from whether they would ever make it home to the stories they would share with their families. Things were looking up and morale had never been higher.

Until the monster struck.

The day had started out like the others as the Air Rescue team leapt off the flight deck and headed towards the designated rescue area. Rainbow Dash noticed they were headed closer to the front lines than normal but paid it no mind as the clouds parted and the ground became visible. As they approached their designated area slowly but surely little specks came into view that Rainbow Dash had taken as wounded fighters. Her hooves touched down lightly with Derpy following a heartbeat later as the moans of wounded animals started to fill their ears. As they came upon the injured, writhing and crawling towards them for help the pegasus teams immediately set about picking them up and air lifting them back.

Dash and Derpy started scanning for injured noticing a lot more bodies than usual,  when suddenly Derpy felt a hand grab hold of her hoof tightly. The sensation caused her to jump initially but she wheeled around to examine who had grabbed her. The shaky outstretched hand belonged to wolf soldier who was half buried under one of the fallen enemies. Rainbow Dash and Derpy quickly moved to shove the body off him, when they did it revealed a nasty stomach wound that made both of them grimace with empathy.

"Is… Is the monster gone?" The wolf stammered out.

Rainbow Dash looked the wolf over and saw him to be smaller than the others, not as fierce looking, and decided he must have been younger than the others she had seen.
"Yeah he's gone," She spoke out to him gently. "You guys totally sent him home crying, I just need you to stay me with me right now. Okay tough guy?"

"Your…your wings…" the wolf choked out, a small trail of blood slipped from his mouth. "You're not a griffon…"

"Nope," Rainbow said checking his pulse at the sight of the blood he spit up; trying her best to not sound worried.

"Were pegasus," Derpy joined in elevating his head, while giving Dash a worried look.

"Pegasus? Like the Wonderbolts?"

"That's right kiddo; we came all the way across the ocean from Equestria to help. So don't you worry about any…" Rainbow was cut short by the young wolf's paw gently feeling her foreleg, staining her cyan coat with his blood.

"Your coat…your coat's so soft…"

Derpy checked his pulse at his neck, and looked up at Dash with a sorrowful look in her eyes as she shook her head. The wolf's breathing began to become more and more labored. Suddenly his grip on her hoof tightened and a pitiful dog whine escaped him.

Rainbow Dash clasped his paw tightly with both hooves "I'm right here little guy, we're right her with you."

Then with one last labored breath, his grip relaxed and he was gone.

"No," Derpy said softly. "No, no no…he was…was..."

"He wasn't alone," Rainbow cut her off. "We were here with him, so he wasn't alone at the end…C'mon; there have got to be others." Rainbow said wiping a tear from her eye as she stared at the wolf's still wet blood on her hoof.

As the two gently laid the wolf down, a bright light flashed in front of their sergeant and a scroll appeared. He quickly read it and then barked out new orders.

"You two," he said pointing at Dash and Derpy since they had no one on a stretcher. "Two clicks north of here we have priority retrieval. There has been a class W casualty, and we need immediate evac of injured personal. You copy that?"

The two swallowed hard at sound of this new information. "Sarge did you say class W?" Derpy quickly sputtered out.

"Rodger that Private, we've got an incapacitated Wonderbolt on the battlefield and we CAN NOT allow them to be turned against us. Now MOVE IT!"