A/N: here it is, the next chapter for this story, this will be one of the last chapters, after this, there will probably be about…two or three more chapters, and then it will be finished, hope you enjoy.
Faith in the Past: chapter 8: return to base
After they walked the long two miles, they found themselves on the outskirts of the city, in what seemed to be the farming area, Faith told them about the base being under an old abandoned storage warehouse, and that it was not far, despite the long walk, the only two complaining, were Night Gale and Star Dust, who whined the entire time.
"how much longer, even in school they didn't make us walk this much" Night Gale groaned, Flame chuckled, he had endured much more than a simple two mile walk, "I have barely broken a sweat, now stop your complaining" he said as Faith stopped them, "were here" she said pointing off the road, the followed to where she was pointing, and saw a large warehouse, a couple yards off the road, they started walking across the small field, and up to the building.
Faith was right, it really was old, the widows were boarded up, and it seemed in bad condition, they walked up to the large set of doors, much to Faith's confusion, the door was slightly open, and she slowly pushed it open, and they all walked inside, much to their surprise, despite it being rundown, the power was still on, they looked around, "um, Faith, are you sure this is the right place, all I see are large boxes and crates everywhere" he said, and he was right, it looked like any ordinary warehouse, large stacks of boxes all the way to the back of the main building.
They started making their way to the middle of the room, to their confusion, Faith kept looking around, as if looking for somepony, when they came to a small clearing in the middle of the room, they saw nothing but boxes all around them, "okay, I think you got the wrong warehouse, there plenty that look like this all across the area, let's go" Flame said as him and his family began to turn around, but Faith said nothing, and just as they turned around, out of nowhere, a large amount of ponies, hoped over the boxes, came from the small paths, or just flew or teleported, all forming a large circle around them, causing Flame and his family to back up.
"why do I always end up being wrong" Flame asked himself as they all backed into a corner, even faith didn't seem to know what was going on, just as they did, they saw a young female pony walk up to them, "who are you and what are you doing here, this is a restricted place" she said, she had a mask on, making it hard to see her face, but Faith recognized her voice, she looked at all of them, and then turned back to the female pony staring at her.
"Summer, it's me, Faith" she said taking down her hood, all the ponies gasped, the leader gasped and took off her mask, revealing a young Pegasus, "Faith, it really is you" she said as she ran up to her and threw her hooves around Faith, Faith did the same, "I'm so happy you're alright, what happened, where did you go?" she started asking, Faith merely chuckled, "I'll explain later, let's get back to the base" she said as they all started walking, but a group of ponies surrounded Flame and his family.
"um, Faith, mind telling your friends were with you" Flame said in a nervous tone, she turned to him and smiled, "it's okay guys, they're with me, their friends to us, they mean no harm, they are here to help" she said, all the ponies around them lowered their weapons, and began to walk with them, Faith got between the Pegasus and Flame, "Flame, this is Summer, Dawn's younger sister, and my sister-in-law, she takes over when the both of us are gone, a gifted leader, and very honorable" she said, Summer blushed, as she walked up to Flame, and they shook hooves, "nice to meet you, sorry about that, any friend of Faith's is welcome here" she said as they all walked to the far end of the room, where she walked up to a small box on the wall, she lifted the lid to reveal a small scanner of sorts.
She brought her hoof up and placed it on the screen, it scanned her hoof, and then a loud mechanical wiring happened, and to their amazement, the wall next to it began to slid open, revealing an elevator, that only seemed to go down, they watched as Faith and Summer got on and turned to them, "aren't you coming?" Summer asked, giving Flame a sly wink, making him uneasy, but they got on, and the door closed and the elevator hummed as it slowly went down, all of them standing there in an awkward silence, it took a few minutes, but the elevator stopped and the door opened.
Revealing a long hallway, Faith and Summer started walking down, Flame and his family soon followed, there was nothing in the hallway, aside from the lamps that lighted the way, it wasn't very long, but they eventually came up to a door, Faith looked at Summer and they both pushed open the door, they all walked in, and were amazed at what they saw.
It was a large room, filled with computers; ponies were walking around, doing their jobs, Faith turned to Flame and his family, a bright smile on her face.
"welcome, to the Nightfall Fighters headquarters" she said with a smile as they walked up to the main console, where another pony was working with others, on trying to get them back online, "well, hurry up, we need these things running" he said to the others, Summer took a step forward, and cleared her throat.
The stallion turned and smiled at her, "Summer, glad to see your back" he said walking up to her, Summer moved to the side, "look who I found" she said with a smile, the stallion glanced at Faith, and a wide smile appeared, he walked up to her and threw his hooves around her neck, "thank Celestia your safe, we thought we lost you, too" he said with relief, just as he glanced back at Flame, a serious look came on his face.
"what are they doing here, you know Dawn doesn't like outsiders here, take them back" he said, Faith put a hoof on his shoulder, "relax, there with me, they want to help" she said, he gave her a warning look and then shrugged and spoke up, "you've been gone for a few days, come, we'll update you in the briefing room" he said as they all walked down the hall.
(Later…)
After they walked down another hall, they came to a large room, with a long table in it and multiple places to sit, the stallion took a seat the front, Faith and summer took seats across from each other, Flame and his family did the same.
The stallion cleared his throat, "well, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, Dawn was captured during your escape, we believe that he was taken to their headquarters on the other side of the city, we don't know his condition yet, and they haven't sent a message of any kind" he said leaning over the table, Faith looked away sadly, but took a deep breath, "what about Iron Star, did he escape, where is he?" she asked, the stallion turned to Summer with a sad look, she greatly returned it, the stallion then turned back to Faith.
"that's the problem, as painful as it is, Iron Star is a traitor, he betrayed Dawn, and helped them capture him, we don't have any idea why, but he's one of them now" he said with a solemn look, Faith looked at the ground in sadness, she had known Iron Star, he and Dawn had been the best of friends for years, aside from her, Iron Star was the only other one he could trust completely.
The stallion took a deep breath and turned to Faith, "we have been trying to find a way to get him back, but we don't have the numbers, now that you're here again, you need to lead us, and get Dawn back" he said with confidence, she looked away for a minute, and then back at him, "if Iron Star betrayed him, then he betrayed all of us, but how can we get him out, if he's at the Kings' headquarters, it will be highly guarded, we can't just walk in there and break him out" she said with sadness in her eyes.
The entire time Flame and his family listened to the conversation, Flame hated to see his friend in pain, he knew what it felt like to lose a loved one, he wouldn't let her feel that pain, he stood up, catching all of their attention, "wait! I have an idea" he said, they all waited for him to continue, "they haven't sent any message to us, so we send one to them, we send them a peace offering, we go and meet with their leader, and try to negotiate for Dawn's safe return" he said, the stallion gave a slight chuckle.
"well, I see multiple problems with your idea, first why would we do that, it would be like walking into a trap, that's what happened to Dawn's father, he went to the Kings hoping to make peace, and they killed him during a peace meeting, their leader doesn't play fair, the second we go there he will try to kill us" he said, Flame laughed, "not if we have the upper hoof, you may not know it, but Faith and I used to work together, long ago, we have dealt with situations like this, we know the way to trick these guys, I know a nice little spell, that will work" he said.
The stallion gave a unimpressed laugh and turned to Faith, who was looking at Flame, and then turned to look at the table, "the choice is yours, but do you really believe this guy, he's proposing a suicide mission" he said to her, Faith continued to look at the table, she closed her eyes, and then gave a slight chuckle.
"no, he's right, I did work with him before all this, we have pulled things off like this, it's really quite simple, you both know that when Dawn's not here, I'm in charge, and I say we go through with his plan" she said looking up at Flame with a smile.
(Later that day…)
After leaving the briefing room, they returned to the main hall, and went to record a message to the King's, Faith told him exactly what to say, and he typed it in to the machine, when he was done, the pony behind the console, removed the headset and turned to Faith.
"the message has been sent as you asked, they should be receiving it soon" he said, Faith turned to Flame, "I really hope you know what you're doing" she said with concern, Flame gave her a simple smile, "I have a few tricks up my sleeve, you'll see him again, I promise" he said as they all walked out of the room.
(Outskirts of Manehatten, Manehatten King's headquarters)
The leader walked into the main room, and angry look on his face, he had been interrupted from his dinner, when one of his guards told him they had received a message.
"there had better be a good explanation for this" he said walking up to the pony behind the console, the pony turned around, a nervous look on his face, "yes sir it is, we have just received a message from Faith of the Nightfall Fighters" he said, the leader's eyes opened in shock, but they narrowed, "what does it say?" he asked.
"We're not sure it hasn't fully come through" he said as he turned back to the table, as the small machine began to click, as a small piece of paper, came through, only covered in dots, but in a specific order, that only the pony in front of the console could read, he took it and turned to the leader.
His eyes widened as he started reading it to himself, he looked up at the leader who waited patiently, "it's…it's from the Nightfall Fighters, they wish to exchange peace for the safe return of their leader Dawn" he said and looked up at the leader, who had a suspicious look on his face, he turned for a moment and thought.
A minute later he looked up and smiled, his second-in-command walked up to him, "it could be our chance to finish them off, without leadership they will fall apart" he said, the leader smiled and he turned back to the pony at the console.
"Very well, tell them we accept, and that it will be conducted here" he said with a sinister smile, the pony turned back to the console and began responding to the message, the leader turned and walked out of the room, a wide grin on his face.
A/N: well, there you have it, only about two or three more chapters to go, and then the story will be finished, hope you all enjoyed, and see you all next time.
