Chapter 3

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" the whole crew said to Dash as she barely got her eyes open.

"You guys…" she said smiling, barely half awake.

"We have presents! And…" began Rarity.

"There ain't no party like a Pinkie Pie party!" sang Pinkie.

"Alright, give me a chance to get up…"

She eventually did, and she sat down while they all gathered around with their presents.

"Who's present do you want to-"

"Twilight's." said a smiling Rainbow. Twilight was famous for giving the best birthday presents.

"I don't know, Rarity might have outdone me this year." said Twilight, returning the smile.

"I most certainly DID!" said Rarity, laughing.

"Alright, alright! Let me open Twilight's!"

She did, and what it was amazed her.

"That is a Fender Stratocaster 50th anniversary guitar. I saved up for two months to get that, and I know how much you love to play the guitar. Look in the box."

She did. It contained many CD's along with a how to play for each one.

"AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Motley Crue, the Foo Fighters, Van Halen…Twi, I love you."

"I know." they both embraced.

"Alright, Fluttershy."

"Okay, it's the best I could find…"

Rainbow opened the package.

"Hey, it's a play place for Tank...thanks, Fluttershy."

"Your Welcome."

'Alright…Pinkie."

"Yay! You're gonna love it!"

Inside of Pinkie's box was two tickets.

"The DJ Pon-3 concert? Pinkie!"

"Hells yeah! Me and you! I've already got leave from Celestia so we can go!"

"Pinkie…" she gave her a hug.

"You didn't give me a hug…" muttered Fluttershy.

"Awww…" said Rainbow, embracing Fluttershy.

"AJ."

"No, I didn't give you another cowboy hat."

"I wear that thing all the time!"

"She actually does." said Rarity.

"Whatever, sugar cube, just open my present."

She did.

"The next Daring Do book? This hasn't even come out yet!"

"Well, I can get stuff."

"Thanks, AJ!" she said, giving her a hug. Applejack gave a wink to Twilight.

"Alright, so that leaves Rarity. Whatcha got?"

"Open it, and try not to explode from awesomeness."

She knew it was a video game due to its size, so she opened it to see which one it was. It wasn't anyone she knew…

"Rainbow Dash: The Video Game. Filled with 40 exciting levels and 4 bosses! It replays your whole entire life! Plus, a multiplayer mode featuring us is available, so when you get really mad at us than you can kill us repetitively!" Rainbow was smiling while looking at the cover.

"How did you get this?"

"I have a tech guy that I used to work with in the Ops. He's also quite the great video game designer. I started that project last year. It came just in time!"

"Rarity…this is awesome…but Twilight still beat you."

"HA!" screamed Twilight, and they all started laughing.

"Thanks so much, Rarity! Come here…" they hugged.

"As much as I wanna stay, I have to get back to my duties."

"I hope you get a tone of birthday wishes at your camp." said Fluttershy.

"Yea, right! I've never gotten a birthday wish down there. I get used to it."

"Well, come down here tonight." said Twilight.

"Will do."

Area 20, 4:30 AM

"ARRAAGGHH!" screamed Rainbow in frustration.

She got more work today than any other in the year and she didn't get one single wish. That was normal, though. She thought she might just fall asleep on the chair.

"Maybe no one will notice like they didn't notice my birthday."

She was beginning to dose off when somepony went into her room.

"General Dash?" Rainbow woke up abruptly.

"Y-y-yea…"

"I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I have a present here."

She shot right up.

"How long have you been here?"

"I got here yesterday." Rainbow let out a chuckle.

"You're the first pony in five years to guess my birthday correctly. I take loyalty very seriously. You just gained yourself a promotion. What's your name?"

"Maverick."

"Got it down in the books. Go bully a private or something."

"Uh, okay…" he walked out of the room as Dash struggled to keep herself awake.

Mane 6 HQ, 10:30 PM

"And then I said, Forth What?"

"Haha! Pinkie, that was hilariwhat the hell happened to you." Said Twilight.

Rainbow's eyes were barely open and she seemed to be having a hard time functioning.

"Wha…" began Rarity.

"I had a long day…3 changeling attacks and 7 rouge pony attacks. I had to deal with them all."

"Lie down for tonight. We can do this mission without you. Seriously, go 'head."

"Thanks, guys…" she walked back to her room and fell asleep.

"Tough break, huh?" said Pinkie.

"Yea…oh well. We can do this. It's not like anything extremely bad is going to happen while were gone." said AJ.

"AJ…" said Rarity.

"Sorry."

"Well, we might as well get going. Goodnight, Dashie." said Twilight as they went out the door.

Unbeknownst to them, two figures watched them leave through the shadows.

Rainbow's room, 10:40 PM

The noise awoke Rainbow just as she was getting to sleep. She took a peek out of her room to see a changeling and another pony looking around the base. Carefully, she hit her distress signal on her patch.

100 feet away from the HQ, 10:40 PM

The crews patches all started ringing.

"That's Rainbow's distress signal!" shouted Twilight.

"She probably rolled over it in her sleep." said AJ.

"She doesn't sleep with it on, we need to hurry back!"

"Alright, let's go." said Rarity, and they all rushed back to the base.

Mane 6 HQ, 10:45 PM

Rainbow slowly put on her hoof gun, looking for any sign of the changeling or the pony. She was looking around when suddenly a figure tackled her to the ground, and she realized with horror that it was a changeling. She punched the changeling in the stomach, at the same time firing off the hoof gun. She got up and turned around…to find 10 more backing her into the wall.

And one by one, they were shot and killed.