Dash, Dog of War
Rainbow Dash, picked from birth by a high tech advanced military outpost run by Luna, was shaped into the perfect soldier. After over two decades of combat experience, she's become the greatest dog of war in Luna's army, until Celestia brings in her 'new generation' soldiers, genetically enhanced and supposedly better in every way. What will Dash do when she's cast aside like a relic?
Incase you were wondering, this is just a little side project I decided to do one night when watching an old movie called 'soldier' and I'm talking like, VHS type old.
Anywho, this is a pony-tized version of 'soldier' with RD as the main character.
Some notes, all ponies are Earth Ponies for the sake of the story; either get over it or stop reading, the choice is yours.
Also, ponies are anthro i.e. walking on two hooves with humanoid hands and fingers but still retaining pony features, coat, mane, tail, face, eyes, ears, etc.
Rated M for some very gory bits and depictions of graphic warfare.
I do not own mlp fim or Soldier, nor do I have any aphiliations to their creators.
Enjoy.
Chapter One, Your Dogs are Obsolete
-On top and ready for action, can one every truly handle what it takes to be great? To be truly great? Wheather yes or no... remember that there is always another being greater than you- excerpt from the secret book of Bemnal the Fallen
year 1996- age zero.
A series of foals cried out within a nursery, many fillies and colts wailed as they sat within the delivery room.
A Lt. carefully examined each one whilst looking down at a chart filled with the foal's health information, checking for any weaknesses or health defults.
Then the Lt. came accross a little cyan filly with the smallest whisps of rainbow collored mane; looking down at the chart, the Lt. read off the health report, *no complications during delivery, no stunted growth, vitals normal, brain development normal, diseases physical: none, diseases mental: none.
The Lt. placed a black plastic card on the glass side of the filly's container, the slide adorned with A1.
A nurse frowned as she looked upon the little filly, knowing that she'd be required to face her parents and lie to their faces, SIDS was the common bullshit story that they often employed.
A few other cards were placed in several other healthy baby's containers as more Lt. cycled through the room.
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"A soldeir does not speak unless spoken to by a superior officer" rang out the voice of an automated speaker system.
Age 5, Acedemic Program.
The small cyan filly, five years of age along with several other young fillies and colts stood in military camp outfits side by side in filed lines, the room they stood within was adorned with a cold white metalic grey.
The young ones stood upon a sereis of metalic bleachers over looking two large animal cages connected by a long tunnel cage.
"A soldeir shows no mercy, mercy is weakness, weakness is death." the voice of the automated system rang out coldly yet matter of factly.
Dog barks from starving K-9s rang throughout the room and echoed off the walls from inside one of the cages while in the other cage, sat a wild boar. The boar's squeels sounded out in fear and a pathetic plea for help as the dogs pawed against the walls of the other cage, wanting oh so bad to get a taste of the meat before them.
The little cyan filly's military outfit was adorned with a name tag now. The name read simply, Dash.
The dogs got more and more aggressive as the ponies walked around the cage to open a side exit, allowing them entry through the caged tunnel into the boar's own prison.
The cage was opened an the dogs charged on straight into the boar's conainer, teeth and claws ripped into the pig's flesh, blood splattered onto the glass coverings surrounding the cage.
Dash instinctively turned her head away in a mixture of disgust and fear, but a baton of a nearby guard touched her maw and turned it back, forcing her 5 year old eyes to stare blankly at the carnage unfolding before her as the dogs tore the boar to pieces.
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Age 8.
Several of the young 'soon to be' soldiers were filing together bits and pieces of metal tectiles to form a single structure, a simple but effective test of cognative and and problem solving skills.
Dash quickly fitted the pieces into their correct places and before the surrounding guards knew it, she'd solved the puzzle long before anypony else.
An observing scientest looked down at ther sheet, a sheet baring Dash's name, down on the check mark boxes she scribled two lines in the 'excellent' box.
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Age Twelve.
The young training fillies and colts were running through an out door desert area nearby the military base, the sun blazed down, their bodies were drenched in sweas as was their grey shirts and black gym shorts.
They'd been running for 7 miles so far. Most of them looked exausted, but at the front of the line, carrying the flag; was Dash. A pure look of determination on the filly's face, Dash led the entire squad through the dirt rodes, over hills and through twists and turns; her body refusing to pause for rest or even give the slightest hint of exaustion, and the whole time her face carried the same blank but hardened eyes from that day in the acemy with the dogs.
That look would never leave her.
Over a ridge, a Lt. used a pair of binoculors to spot the fillies and colts as they dredged through the 12 mile rode, only to spot far off in the distance, a struggling Sunrose.
Sunrose panted and panted as her body shook, her eyes stung with salt filled sweat, her vision blurred as she began to lose sight of Dash and the others far off ahead of her.
The Lt. looked to his subordinate and nodded.
A few minutes pased before a military jeep strolled up behind Sunrose, the filly mentally gulped, she knew this wasn't part of the routine, she knew she must have done something bad...
The exausted filly stopped as the jeep pulled around infront of her, she bent over and threw up from the heat stroke; looking up, she expected perhaps a guard to give her a beating or perhaps a tazer.
But instead, the Lt. himself exited the vehical and pulled out his pistol.
Far ahead, Dash lead the pack of fillies and colts onward, even as a gunshot fired in the distance, her cold empty eyes didn't even flinch.
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Age 16
The soldiers were lain down on their bellies wielding black assult rifles in their hands as clay targets and clay bystandards sifted left and right accross the shooting range.
Dash and Twilight lay next to eachother as they took point and obliterated every hostile they caught sight of, being careful to avoid civilians.
Until a new situation presented itself, a civilian slid by and stoped, then a hostile slid in behind her using her as a shield.
Twilight's eyes widened as she quickly pulled her finger away from the trigger, stopping her reflex to eliminate the target.
The soliers gave eachother quick looks as they processed different solutions to the problem, that is, until gunfire rang out through the range.
Twilight snapped her head to the left to see Dash firing her rifle, blowing through the civilian and hostile both.
Still, she carried those hardened war dog eyes.
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Year 2013, Age 17, end of training.
Dash along with several other ponies sat along extended benches while officers tattoed codes unto their left cheek.
Dash's left cheek was adorned as such, at the vary top near her eye: DASH
two lines below that: 0 - POS
and below that: 3465
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Age 38.
War of the Six Cities.
Dash now stood nearly seven hooves tall, every muscle in her body completely ripped and refined to maximum strength, flexibility, and speed.
The right side of her face carried a long scar stretching from three inches above her right eye and dragged down just to the left of the socket and down to two inches above the jaw line.
Her body was suited up in military fatigues, her arms carying an advanced chain gun armed with two bayonets on the end.
With her were four other soldiers.
They waited until the sound of a bombing dropped upon the land before Dash signiled the forward march, the four of them quickly walked but did not run into the fray of gun fire and screeming.
One of the soldiers behing Dash was hit with a grenade luncher, he went flying back as his torso exploded like a watermellon sending chunks of pony accross the already gorified streets.
Dash walked on calmly almost soulessly as she took aim at anything that moved with only a single short controlled burst got one kill, then two, then three, then four, then five, then six, then seven, any and all enemies that popped up didn't get in a single shot against her as she marched eerilly on into the chaos.
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Moscow Incedent.
Dash and several other soldiers swaddled up on arctic military armor charged through the blistering winter as they took down snipers and front line soldiers that hid around the corners or atop buildings.
Bombs exploded around them as Dash's unit fought on towards the checkpoint, along the way, Dash turned to see an enemy soldier with an arm locked around a screeming mare.
Using her as a shield, he began to take aim, but before his finger found the trigger, Dash blewa streem of bullets through the mare and the soldier both, fountains of blood oozed out of their wounds as they fell to the ground.
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Year 2036 - age forty, The Battle of the Argentine Moons.
Dash turned a corner around a few protruding rockfaces of the moon in her space suit, carrying an SMG in each hand as her squad followed her towards the target point.
One of the stallions behind her was hit and flailed around as his oxygen burst out of his suit, he fell to the ground choking before the vaccumated pressure made his eyes pop out of his head, and his head itself burst forth with a spray of brain matter accross his helmet.
Dash rounded to see the three ambushing soldiers, she turned and launched off a flurry of bullets each perfectly placed upon the soldiers helmets, ripping through the glass and puncturing holes in their skulls; Their brains oozed out into the space filled voide before the small gravity of the moon dragged them down to its surface.
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A computer screen popped up adorning the following:
DASH 3465
SERGEANT 49-5829 58
COMBAT HISTORY***************
WAR OF THE SIX CITIES 03465-35471
CONFIRMED KILLS: 45
UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 75
SAUDI CAMPAIGN IGC-3541 95900
CONFIRMED KILLS: 57
UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 85
BATTLE OF ARGENTINE MOONS 4655-5582
CONFIRMED KILLS: 24
UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 48
BATTLE AT TANNHAUSER 4457-EIC-5547
CONFIRMED KILLS: 29
UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 37
MONTANA INSURRECTION II-44720-2237
CONFIRMED KILLS: 30
UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 35
BATTLE OF SHANGHI-
the list went on and on.
But to the left of the list was a picture of Dash's stone cold face, under the picture were the words: CURRENT STATUS: BETWEEN WARS
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Dash sat on a perfectly made bed, sitting on its side with her knees spred and heands resting upon them, a luggage trunk at the foot of the bed, twenty identicale scenes to the side of her bunk, and the one to the side of that, and the one to the side of that, and the one to the side of the.
Every single soldier sitting back straight and eyes forward, all ripped, all carrying scars, all quiet, and all perfectly disciplined.
A Lt. walked down the stretch of marble carrying a clipboard while examining the soldiers before entering into the Captain's quarters above the maind trainging ground of the inner facility.
"SIR! Colonal Celestia's just come in with the new batch," the Lt. said as he stood at attention.
Luna overlooking the training ground turned with a quirked eyebrow.
"probably want's to show them off sir." the Lt. finished.
Within minutes, all of Luna's soldiers including Dash were standing at attention with their hands clasped behind their backs and standing side by side as they looked on at Celesita's own troops.
Accross from Dash stood and equally large and muscular mare, pink coated with a long straight mane falling down her back, blue eyes met amythest as the two soldiers stared blankly at one another.
Celestia entered in from a line of jeeps as one of Luna's Lt., Night Wing examined Pinkamena before shrugging and looking bat at her fellow Lt. Ghost.
"well... They're pretty..." she said almost mockingly, prompting Luna to chuckle before speaking herself, "what do you find so hot about them?"
"They're improved captain" Celestia said bluntly as she walked up to the darker mare.
Luna turned to face the white pony, where Luna was relaxed slightly informal, Celestia was overly dressed, horseshoe boots far more shined then need be, her pink mane extremely sleek, and not a single thread on her outfit out of place.
Even her face seemed to refuse a single blemesh or even a lip twitch that represented anything less than 'perfect' Luna gave a once over with her eyes as she mentally figured 'self esteem issues...'
Lt. Ghost stepped up next to Luna, "this is Colonal Celestia, she's their Commander."
Luna gave a riged salute which was returned in kind before they both took their hands down.
Luna thought back to what Celestia had said, "improved... how?"
Celestia gave a smug little smirk, "in every way possible" she said with a finality to her voice.
"you see, your old ones are selected at birth, my new ones we're talking recombination, they're practically manufactured using DNA profiling and *shrug* some manipulation."
Celestia turned to her soldiers with pride, "more endurance, quicker reflexes, better hand-eye, improved technical training... it's a whole different standard." she finished with that same satisfied smile that Luna was starting to get sick of.
Luna took a breath, "my daddy was in maintanance," she began, promptin her Lt. to both roll their eyes as they had both heard one too many tails of 'Luna's daddy this and that'.
"and he had a saying, he used to say: if it ain't broke, don't fix it." she finished with a slight glare.
Celestia rose her eye brows slightly, "maintanance?" she looked off to the side a bit with a dismissived 'hmm' look, "I'm afraid I... don't get you're point".
Luna looked over to Dash, "the veterans you see standing here have been through all kinds of heavy shit, and they've always got the job done," she then looked to Pinkamena, "now your new soldiers, these 'hot shots' how much action have they seen? And are they battle tested?" she asked in a condesending tone.
Dash looked traight into Pinkamena's eyes, neither had tore their gaze away from the other the entire time that the two Commanders had conversed.
Celestia's jaw grinded slightly before she put on a false smile, "how about a few tests, just to get you onboard. Make you a believer?"
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One of Celestia's soldiers, Shining lay down in the shooting range at a sniper's distance from a large one hoof diameter metal sphere as he blew round after round from his assult rifle.
A counter next to the range marked off the bullets from the clip's total and calculated the percentage as the bullets pumped over and over into the sphere.
By the time that the bullets were finished, the meter read 99.
Ghost looked over at the meter in disbelief, "ninety nine... percent... that's... very good."
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Inside the gym area, the soldiers lifted twice the max bench of Luna's soldiers, displayed highly enhaced combat in the sparing ring, and showed off their resiliance within a spherical spinning chamber that hurled the soldiers around before launching them out in an attempt to through them off balance.
"Seen enough 'Captain'?" One of Celestia's Lt. asked snidely.
Luna ground her teeth before looking over to the Lt. "what about endurance?"
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Dash sprinted throughout the 50 mile long internal mile run of the facility, fog and mist shrouded the are while warning lights flashed on the ground to the sides of the run way.
Back in the main training area with the rest of the soldeirs lined up, Luna and Celestia stood looking at the two entrances to the mile run from the Captain's quarters in an elevated section of the large room.
Pinkamena was now staring directly at Twilight who stared right back.
Celestia lifted up a watch marking the time before she pressed a speaker button, "Pinkamena - 607"
Pinkamena stepped forward, "SIR!"
"50 miles 607, on the run. You have 60 minutes."
And with that, Pinkamena seemed bulleted past the other soldiers through the left entrance of the mile run.
Celestia held up her watch again, "my mare left exactly... twenty minutes after yours, make a note of that."
minutes passed...
Dash ran diligintly as her stamina began lowering, her heart beat thuding over and over as she heart the thundering of boots from behind her.
Within another minute, Pinkamena passed Dash, her limbs swinging almost robotically as she shot through like a train.
More minutes passed, soon an entire hour had passed, and a few minutes more.
Celestia smiled as she titled her head, she and Luna were now standing before the soldiers infront of the mile run, Luna was pacing back and forth as stress began to build up, there was no way anypony could beat dash in a race right? be it distance or speed... Let alone with a handicap.
"ofcourse age is a factor but the reall difference is the training program," Celesita began, "Psychological, the mind controls the body after all." she said as she turned to face Luna, "and we are doing such, wonderful things with the mind" she said with an almost perverse smile.
After an hour and a half, Dash finally came through the right entrance of the mile run. The cyan mare ran up beside Pinkamena and stood attention, drenched in sweat; she gave a salute to Lt. Ghost, "SIR!"
The Lt. saluted her back.
"at ease soldier."
Luna squinted, "what is the price of all that speed?" Luna asked as she faced Celestia, "is your soldier tired?"
Celestia chuckled with an amused look, "tired?" she asked almost laughingly.
Luna looked towards Dash, "Dash has run the pace she's been taught to run, and she's still strung." she mused as she looked over to her Lt. "put 'em up the chain group"
Ghost nodded before turning to face Dash, "SOLDIER! UP THE CHAIN!"
Dash gave a salute, "SIR!" and with that, she sprinted towards the chains hanging from the 40 hoof high ceiling.
Every few hooves or so, there was a flat disk of an interlock that could be used to stand on as one grasped the chain with their hands.
Dash began climbing the chain, using her hands to hoist herself up and her legs to assist her by pinching the chain between her hooves and pushing up.
Celestia puased for a minute, "...607 up the chain on the double!" she ordered.
Pinkamena looked to her Commander, "SIR!" she yelled before dashing over to the chains, but when she climbed, she used only her arms as her legs dangled freely; she pulled and pulled with her arms as they hoisted her up with unrealistic ease.
Soon both mares were a very good distance up, but Pinkamena had reached the high point long before Dash who was still extremely winded from the run.
Once both stood on their own perspective chain, Dash stared at Pinkamena with her cold blank eyes, panting through her nose.
Pinkamena didn't even look like her heart rate was up, she calmly breathed as she looked Dash up and down as if to say, 'is this all you got?'
Luna mentally groaned, so far Celestia's troups had surpassed her own in every test they posed, she ran a hand through her turquise mane as she tried to think of something that Celesita's soldiers couldn't best her own at.
"... what about spirit?" Luna asked.
Celestia smirked, "I think you mean AQ Captain? Aggressive Qualities? Much higher, much better." she replied.
Luna took in a breath before letting it out, "... what if, they fought?", it was now or never, Luna figured that if they'd come this far, she might as well throw all her chips in.
Celestia looked slightly taken aback, "you meant up there?" she looked up to the chains.
Luna stared into the Colonal's eyes, "go ahead Ghost, tell Dash to take her-"
"no." Celestia cut in plainly.
Luna turned and tiled her head while still keeping her eyes on Celestia with brows slightly raised, "no?"
Celestia gave a little rock on her hooves, "not fair... no contest. Send two more up their to help her out."
Luna gave an affirmative nod to her Lt.
Ghost turned towards Luna's soldiers, "DUMBELL! SNOWFLAKE! UP THE CHAIN!"
The two soldiers charged up the chains to join Dash, once they were up their, the three soldiers surrounded Pinkamena.
Pinkamena cocked a grow as she looked at the other two soldiers.
Luna and Celesita looked at eachother before bringing their gaze back up towards the soldiers above.
Ghost took in a deep breath, "SICK 'EM COLTS!"
Dash feinted in with her signature dashing speed for a quick strike, but was immedately struck in the face by a quick snap of Pinkamena's fist, the fast 'light' punch nearly sent her flying with the almost inequine strength behind it; A following strike knocked Dash off her stable position on the two chains she'd been standing on, she fell a few hooves before clasping both hands instinctively around a chain.
Dumbell rushed in from Pinkamena's right flank, but was immediately met with a powerful thrust kick to the stomach that sent the stallion surging backwards, luckilly he grabbed hold of a nearby chain before falling.
Snowflake retracted his hulking arm and jabbed at Pinkamena's face, her head sweapt to the side dodging it reflexively, another jab and another dodge followed by Pinkamena lowering down and swinging her left hand down at Snowflake's side; the force obliterated three of his ribs.
But PInkamena didn't stop there, she stood back up, within the same instant that she'd counter attacked, and grabbed hold of Snowflake's arm, yanked it in, and slammed the elbow down on her own forearm.
The folcrum point snapped the joint, breaking Snowflake's arm; Pinkamena then brought her right hand back and with a shout, crashed the hard part of her palm on Snowflake's head.
The stallion dropped backwards.
Just as Dash climbed back up to the battle, Pinkamena hopped onto some chains behind her, grabbed the chains with her hands, lifted her two hooves up, and jutted them out at Dash's back which sent her flying forwards and down about 10 hooves before Dash clamped onto two chains.
Dash shook her head before quickly recovering and began to climb her way back up the chains as Snowflake and Dumbelle tried their best to get in a few quick strikes at Pinkamena which she either dodged, or blocked.
Snowflake attempted to used a double kick like Pinkamena had, but she quickly leaned backwards to dodge it while at the same time smashing the back of her head into Dumbelle's face.
Then, Pinkamena lifted her body sideways in a flying kick position before crashing her hooves into Snowflake's chest, the stallion yelped as he began falling backward while flailing his hands around in a futile attempt to grasp onto a chain.
Snowlfake yelled as he plummeted to the concrete ground, his body slammed into it with a sicking thud, blood splattered out of his mouth and his body twitched a bit before going slack.
Celestia turned to look at Luna a 'I told you so' look while Lun met her gaze with her lip slightly curled.
As Dash tried to recover and climb back up, Pinkamena kicked downward at her face which sent him cascading downard before catching yet another chain.
Dumbelle to the opportunity to use a muay thai flying knee right into Pinkamena's back before grabbing her in a reverse clinch.
What followed was a series of elbow battering spikes into Pinkamena's jugular area.
Pinkamena immediately reacted with a downward strike of an open hand which smacked into Dumbelle's groin causing him to cry out in pain before the hand came back up in a fist to clobber Dumbelle's face.
Dumbelle fell backwards a bit prompting Pinkamena to spin around and Thai kick him in the stomach, then switch stances, and do the same to his back.
Dumbelle fell downwards until was just a few hooves above the ground, at this point his pants cought on a sharpened broken edge of a chain disk; his body did a 180 until he was upside down, the sudden switch in kinetic direction caused the momentum to stretch his spine until it snapped, his back severed as his torso spasmed chaotically; amazingly he was still alive.
Pinkamean's eyes scanned the chains searching for Dash who seeme'd to have dissappeared...
Dash looked down from above with blood running down her nose as Pinkamena scanned the area below.
Without hesitation, Dash dropped down ontop of Pinkamena's back and locked her left arm around the pink mare in a rear naked choke.
Pinkamena struggled, her mouth gaped like a fish as the blood supply to her brain was cut off.
The two wrestled a bit before Pinkamena managed to turne her head just engough to dig her teeth into Dash's biscep.
Dash's lips curled as her head shook with adrenalin from a mixture of pain, anger, frustration, and desperation.
As blood ran down her arm, Dash brough her free hand over Pinkamena's head and dug her index and middle finger into Pinkamena's right eye.
With a heave, Dash gouged Pinkamena's eye right out of her head.
Pinkamena cried out in pain as blood rand from her socked along with the gouge along her right eye's general area formed from Dash's nails.
Luna smiled proudly with a lick of her teeth and a chuckle.
Celestia frowned disapprovingly.
Pinkamena lifted her left arm up and slamed her elbow back into Dash's stomach, the rainbow maned mare fell a few hooves before latching her right arm around Pinkamena's waist and letting loose all of her might on Pinkamena's kidnee, she drew her left fist all the way back in the air and with full smooth archs, slammed swing after powerful swing into PInkamena's side and striking with all the might her large muscles could offer.
Pinkamena retaliated with three very rappid and insanely fast elbow strikes to Dash's face causing the mare's body to go slack from system's shock.
Dash fell.
Dash's arms reached out blindly, caught hold of some chains but not with enough force to stop her decent, the metal burned her palms as fricktion built up when one of the flat discks on each chain caught on her wrists, snapping them both.
Dash's body plummeted to the ground, her frame landed right ontop of Snowflake's, cold empty eyes wide open.
Twilight within the ranks of Luna's other soldiers gave an eye twitch, they weren't allowed much personal intereaction with oneanother but when they were, Twilight and Dash had always been at oneanother's side, they always had eachother's back in every combat situation, they were sisters in arms... or atleast they were...
"get down here..." Celestia said quietly, "get down HERE THIS INSTANT!"
Pinkamena began descending at a rappid pace.
"GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE ON THE DOUBLE! COME ON! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!"
Soon PInkamena was standing before the corpses and stood at atention infront of Celestia, "SIR!"
Celestia's once perfect reserve was now deminishing as her face contorted in anger, her mane disheveled.
Celestia stood infront of PInkamena with a look of disgust on her face, "look at you... do you know how much it cost to breed you, you big moron?" she said looking at Pinkamena's bloodied face, two large gashes along her now missing and gore filled eye pussing with retine jelly and torn eye muscles.
"to train you... feed you!..." Celestia finished with agitation clear in her voice, she turned and walked along the concrete floor, "what good is this mare now?... she's got no depth perception... all she can do now is walk point... and take the first hit!..." she shouted out while looked along both her own and Luna's soldiers.
Night Wing looked with a sad frown at the three dead soldeirs under the chains, "what do we do about them?"
"waste disposal" Celestia answered as she walked back over to Pinkamena and looked her in the eye, "...fall in..."
"SIR!"
Pinkamena jogged back over to her spot in Celestia's ranks.
Celestia looked on with a twitching furious eye.
Dash's body was dragged off of the heap.
Luna stood next to Celestia with a melancholy sigh, "Dash was our best soldier..." she said absentmindedly.
Celestia turned her head to Luna with an 'are you kiding me?' look, "you still don't get it do you Captain?" she said before drawing her revolver and pointing it at Dumble's upsidedown head.
A bang sounded as Dumbelle's head jerked back from the force of the bullet, his body swayed slightly on the chaing he was haning from.
Celestia looked back towards Luna, "your dogs," she began an airy calm, "are obsolete."
Luna turned her head in shame and defeat.
"we'll write this up as a training accident," Celestia started, "make sure the bodies get dumped a long way from here, we don't wanna have any unnesessary questions.
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Deep in the outer reaches of space...
P376 Waste Disposal Ship.
Inside the dump space ship, amidst trash and other rubbish, were three bodies, one of them Dash's her body motionless with eyes close until...
A sudden gasp of breath, Dash's eyes snapped open, she sat up instantly, then immediately regretted it with the pain in her broken bones.
"ugh... hnnn..." she turned her head around to see the dead bodies of Snowflake and Dumbelle.
"..."
Dash looked around her perimeter but was given no time to adapt as a loud sired sounded, the entire area shook as yellow lights flashed around the room.
Immediately combat instincts kicked in, Dash's mind ran through the situation as a battle zone, she searched quickly for cover but instead found the ground beneath her start to shake and fall apart.
Dash hopped up and grabbed onto a neaby pipe as the botom of the garbage container opened downward like a blooming flower, the trash along with the two soldier's corpses fell through.
Rubish fell past her, her holding gave out and before she knew it, she fell through as well.
As she fell, her eyes zipped around the alien planet, alien to her, a soldier who knew nothing other than how to kill and avoid dying in the process.
But to others, this was known as Arcadia 234 Waste Disposal Planet, a far off distant world used as a dump site for landfill.
Dash fell long and fast but thankfully landed amidst a large pile of garbage which broke her fall.
She rose up and held her side while panting, she looked up to see the garbaghe ship take up, marooning her on this waste land of garbage hills with two suns and thundering clouds.
But her soldier training refused to let her panick, she scouted the area looking for any threats or possible non hostiles.
Gazing down, she caught a glimps of four ponies making their way through a dusty sandstorm along the wasteland of the planet's surface.
The stench of old rotted garbage and bacteria perfumed the entire dump site.
Dash made a decision and steathilly climbed down the garbage mountain o the sandy flat lands, she looked around trying to regain sight of the four ponies when a strange whistling noise filled her equine ears which twitched at the ghostly wail.
Dash's head whiped around at the sound, searching for the source, it seemed to come from every direction; all of her warrior instincts told her that enemies were about to close in, but she had now weapon, and she was badly wounded with what was likely internal bleeding, bone fractures, possibly a few organs ruptured, there was no way to be sure without a medic.
Then she saw it, Dash's eyes widened as they locked on the source of the sound, a giant twenty hoof high typhoon of dust and sand came stampeting like a herd of bulls towards her.
Looking forward, time seemed to slow as adrenalin kicked in, she quickly spoted a minute meter impailed into the desert wastes just a few hooves infront of her; Dash made a mad sprint forward and clamped her hands around it just before the sandstorm crashed into her like a hurricane.
The sheer strength of the gale was terrifying, but Dash held on for dear life, the minute meter began spliting, her grasping palms began slicing themselves on the sharp metal yet still there was no way in Tartarus that she was letting go.
Dangerous debris flew past her at terrifying speeds but luckilly none of it was in her direct trajectory.
At last the winds past, Dash stood up with her bleeding hands and clutched one of them over her injured stomach, she drowsilly limped along the sandy wastes, nearly falling over from sheer exaustion as she still had not had a single bit of respite since the mile run and... The fight with that other soldier...
Memories of Pinkamena idly flashed through Dash's mind as she limped on ever forwards.
Certain questions demanded her attention, why was she here? Was this some sort of training excercise? Was it a rehabilitation as punishment for losing? Was this a new war zone that required as much stealth as possible? Perhaps that's why they sent her in with two corpses, maybe those four ponies she saw earlier were part of the enemy forces.
Maybe that's why she was ordered to fight against Pinkamena, to bloody her up and make it look like she was dead, perhaps to pass some sort of security check on that drop ship.
Although that was a pretty messy drop ship, not to mention she'd never seen a military vessele like that before, a new model?
Dash could only wonder, it wasn't her place to verbalize her concerns or ponderings, it was her place to point and shoot.
Although it would be nice to have some official orders... And a gun.
Either way, first priority, find shelter to mend wounds. Second priority, get a weapon. Third priority, establish a base camp. Fourth priority, identify and observe hostile targets. Fith priority, neutralize hostile force. Sixth priority, get in contact with HQ. Seventh priority, randevouze with evac for extraction.
Once she'd layed out the plan in her mind, she nodded; as far as she was concerned, she was still on the job and this was a hostile territory in which she needed to watch her ass.
After several mintues, she found her way into a makeshift graveyard filled with crosses made from metal debris, golf clubs, iron pipes, crowbars, whatever could be found Dash guessed.
Further exploration from her to a hill and a slew of ropes almost like a bridge support, she seemd to be entering some sort of crudely build city, words painted on a large metal sheet read: PONYVILLE.
The place looked retro-post-apacolyptic in design, but Dash had little time to admire the architecture as she spotted a few more ponies down below the rafter she was on, she immediately tensed up and crouched down low.
Prepared for anything, she watched the ponies covered in tattered clothing with scarves and goggles on their faces walk along the lower sections before she herself walked through and opening in the higher area.
As she moved, she saw torches set up along stone walls, stairs seemed to be carved into them with ponies walking by wielding hand torches as they went.
Dashe snapped her head to the right as she saw some doors open below the stairwell that she had snuck into, she quickly went prone ontop of the stairs and watched vigilantly as two ponies walked through a large double door of improvised metal sheets.
But as the doors opened and the ponies walked through, the same sandstorm gale from earlier tore through and knocked Dash off her tactical spot, she flew through the air for a bit until gravity yanked her down into the middle of the stairs, the angled stone steps bit inot her back causing her to grunt in pain as she rolled down the rest of the flight.
At the bottom she landed on her stomach with another grunt.
Hooves clambered down the steps, Dash weekily looked up as blood trailed down her lips and into the sand below, soaking into it and staining it red.
As she looked up, she saw the most bizaar sight, a sight she hadn't seen for thirty years.
Looking up... she saw three foals, a colt and two fillies.
Dash's face twisted and contorted in confusion, she'd never been faced with foals before... her addled mind crashed onto her, she felt weak and tired, her body broken and exausted beyond all measure, and that last bit of the stairs did her in.
But before she fell unconcious, her eyes met something that she wholeheartedly did not expect; her cold blank eyes locked with another pair of the exact same cold empty eyes.
The small orange coated and purple maned filly peered right into Dash's empty eyes, the eyes of a natural born killer; and Dash stared right into this orange filly's eyes, the eyes of one one who'd seen terrible things, one who would enevitably one day become, a dog of war.
Just like her.
And with that, Dash blacked out, letting sweet, sweet rest over take her body as she fell into an abyss of darkness and sleep.
A mare's hands grabbed hold of Dash's unconcious body and carried her off into the depths of Ponyville city.
End of Chapter One.
