> Bioshock : Equestria > by Bright Light > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter One > --------------------------------------------------------------------------         The carriage shook back and forth lightly. Rainbow Dash sat close to the window, the sounds of the ocean and the oncoming storm rang in her ear. Out in the ocean it is free ground for anything to happen, pegasi don’t need to take care of clouds that are away from the coasts. The carriage she was in was white with golden complements. Two pegasi soldiers pulled the carriage in the air oversea. Across from Dash was an elite pegasus guard , whose face looked aged and had gray fur with a golden mane and tail. A couple of feet away from Dash was the door to exit the carriage, it had a small window on it that shed some light in. Behind Dash’s head was another window to see out of the back, where the last glances of Vanhoover could've been seen. “So, what’s this island even like?” Dash asked the guard. “Didn’t your friend tell you? She never sent you a postcard about it?”  The guard jested.  Rainbow Dash sighed “We haven’t really talked since she left. I only got a few letters on what she has done so far but, other than that, nothing.” The guard thinks carefully of what his next words will be so he does not alarm Dash. “Things...have changed from what you’ve read in those letters.” Dash cocks her head slightly at the guard. “How?” “Well...” The guard replied “The people are a bit more hostile and power hungry.” Rainbow Dash looked more puzzled than before. “But why? Twilight was a good leader. How would that ever happen?” The guard looked at the floor for a moment before looking back at Dash. “So much power can make one act different...All you need to worry about is getting in there and trying to convince her to leave the island and get back to Canterlot. ”  Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes “I know, you told me this the first time.”         There was an awkward silence between the two for a long time. Rainbow Dash went back to looking out the window at the horizon, beyond the ocean, watching the lightning strike down sending the sounds of thunder across the sea. She could distinctly hear the two soldiers who pulled the chariot over the ocean nickering and panting. Through the back window she saw many other soldiers following. Dash looked back to the guard. “So uhh...What’s your name?” she asked. “I’m not allowed to tell you.” He responded almost immediately, looking up from the floor at her. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes again but this time added a sigh. “...On that island...” The guard starts “It’s all messed up...” Rainbow dash turns back to the guard. “It’s what your friend found on that island that started the whole mess...That da-” The guard was cut off by the shouting soldiers. They both looked at each other puzzled. “What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash questioned with a look of confusion. Large explosions were heard from ocean underneath them. Dash’s eyes widen slightly and gripped the seat as the carriage started to rock violently. The guard leaped out of his seat and staggered his way toward the door, trying to keep his balance as the ride took abrupt turns. The carriage jerked sideways and the guard was flung out of the carriage, crashing the door off of its hinges. In the opening, Rainbow Dash looked to see the chaos unfolding outside the carriage. Hundreds of cannonballs being fired from below were bombarding the soldiers. The surviving fighters tried to fly around the round-shots only for many of them to be struck down instantaneously before they could even react. In a quick reflex the guard's wings expanded out trying to maintain a glide through the snarl, only to be struck on the wing. He fell down thrashing then disappeared from Rainbow Dash’s sight. She felt the carriage blast upward in the front. The ride started to go downward and Dash felt her heart drop as the sudden realization kicked in. She looked towards the door in a panicked state, trying to figure out which scenario would be more survivable, riding out the crash or going into the storm of solid shots. Before she could even act, a cannonball blasted through the floor beneath her, barely missing her. She jolted backwards into her seat. Dash stood up and hastened to the opening where the door used to be. The carriage was shook sideways from another hit and Dash was sent flying backwards to the opposite side of the door. She slammed into the wall with a great thud and slumped down to the floor. The last thing she heard before the carriage smashed into the ocean was the silence. No cries of pain or orders from the head soldier. No cannon fire. Just complete and utter silence. Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened slowly, she saw that she was on a wooden dock, but what was strange is that it was a dock that lead to nowhere, just stranded in the middle of the ocean. She grunted as she tried to push herself up off of the wooden boards to stand up straight. Her forearm and shoulder muscles struggled and twitched from fatigue. She squinted her eyes as her vision blurred. She stood up, sagging to one side, looking down at the ground. She sighed and slightly coughed before looking up to the other end of the dock. A shiny object caught Rainbow Dash’s eye in the distance. She tried to expand her wings out, thinking that she could maybe fly over to the object. A sharp pain traveled through her right wing. The shock of pain extended from the tip of the wing to her spine. She cried out in pain loudly and slowly put her wing back into place. “G-Guess I’m not gonna be flying for now...” Rainbow Dash murmured to herself out loud. She slowly lumbered toward the shining object in the distance. As she walked she saw white lettering on the planks as she goes.  “GLORY TO HER”           “ SHE IS THE FOUNDATION FOR OUR UTOPIA” At the last few planks it read “WITH HER WE WILL LIVE FOREVER” Rainbow Dash finally reached the shining object on the right of the dock. It appeared to be a golden box with a small handle. It stood upon a very well made, hand crafted, marble pedestal. Dash lifted her hoof up and pulled on the little handle. The door on the golden box opened to reveal inside a silver lever. Rainbow Dash stared at the silver lever for a moment. She looked back behind her at the other end of the dock then looked back at the lever. She lifted her hoof up and brought it over to the lever. Her hoof went onto of the tip of the lever and she pushed down. An audible clicking-grinding sound could be heard from the box. Dash removed her hoof from the lever and places it back onto the wood surface of the dock. A green light glowed out of the box from behind the lever. She felt the wooden surface start to vibrate from underneath her. Rainbow Dash saw something starting to surface out of the water. The golden box next to Rainbow Dash started to speak. “FIREFLY ARRIVAL IN 5...4...” The object underwater proceeded to get closer and closer to the dock. Dash started to step back away. “...3...2...” The object was nearly at the surface and almost touching the top of the sea. “1” At the top of the ocean the item bursted out of the ocean and the dock was sprayed with water. Dash, who was a safe distance away, saw that the water form to steam as it hit the wooden surface. The object that was before dash was something that resembled the looks of a thick torpedo. Only this one being bronze and with a small window and door on the front. “ YOUR FIREFLY TO EQUUS HAS ARRIVED. PLEASE BOARD WITH CAUTION. THANK YOU.”         Rainbow Dash had the look of confusion on her face. She slowly limped to the FireFly. She saw no other option than to step inside and see where it would take her. As Dash advanced toward the torpedo object the small door on the front opened for her automatically. She paused for a moment before entering. Inside the cramp pod the interior was a gray hue and there was a chair sideways to the entrance. Next to the chair was something implanted into the wall that looked like a furnace. By it was a pulley system that was putting coal into the mini furnace, Dash noticed that the coal was being pulled out from underneath the seat. In front of the chair, mounted onto the wall, was a small television screen. Dash climbed into the chair and sat down. The door of the Firefly closed shut and a safety harness that was hidden behind the chair lowered down on top of Rainbow Dash. She grunted slightly as the harness made her body push down onto her wings. The television in front of her extended outward, toward her. Static was the only thing that came on screen. Dash felt the Firefly move and start to descend downward into the ocean. An image pop up on the screen of a cartoonish looking stallion with a bowler hat on pointing at the text next to him in a tongue-in-cheek way. The text read  “Please Stand By” > Chapter Two > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash heard the putter of the small propeller behind her on the back of the FireFly. A picture of Twilight surrounded by doves with a heavenly glow around her and wrapped in thick robes with a large jewel encrusted crown appeared on the screen before Dash. “This message is provided to you by our glorious leader, Twilight Sparkle.” The image made Rainbow Dash raise an eyebrow. A memory flashed into her head of when Twilight first became a princess and how she would always promise that it would never get to her head. A film countdown started on the screen. Dash groaned slightly as the g-force started to press down on top of her. The countdown ended and the text “Living in Equus for New Folk” appeared on the screen. Over the top preppy music started to play and a sweet mare’s voice started to speak. “Greetings visitor or soon-to-be citizen of Equus! I’m sure you are wondering: What exactly is life on Equus like?” The cartoonish stallion in a bowler hat was shown again from the first picture Dash saw on the screen. That time he was scratching his head underneath his bowler hat. “Well I’m gonna tell you how it is!” The Stallion turned to the viewer with a stupid grin of excitement. Dash rolled her eyes knowing that this was going to be painful to watch. The screen changed to a picture of a bird’s eye view of a large city.The streets below the buildings were made from cobblestone which had bits of copper in it that made the stones shine and shimmer in the light. The building that were closest to the foreground were the smallest built and deeper into the city the buildings got larger and more structured. Near the center of the city, the tallest object notable in the picture, was a shining monument of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark supported by silver chains. The sunlight that struck the back of it made a rapturous glow around it. The structures were built with what seemed to be cleanly cut marble and fine, sparkling, rubies that were in every nook and cranny of the architecture. At the very top of the much larger and thicker buildings were what seemed to be grassy parks and neighborhoods, complete with artificial infinite-rivers and waterfalls. Bridges connected these buildings together forming paths between each other. Balconies stood out on the sides of the buildings and connected to small shops that stood outside them. “When first built, only the best and perfect were chosen by our glorious leader to construct this great city from scrap.” As the announcer said this, the portraits of ponies and their names were shown. Rainbow Dash recognized a few. Flim, Flam and Zecora. Dash tried to wrap her head around why Twilight would invite Flim and Flam to the island after what they did to Applejack. And she thought how could Twilight convince Zecora to leave her home in the Everfree Forest. The pictures switched back to the animation of the cartoonish stallion only that time he was with what appeared to be his family. An overly-peppy wife and two children, one a filly and one a colt, were with him. The younger colt wore a small bowler hat the same as his father’s, the filly was wearing a small dress and lastly the wife was wearing a very expensive looking saddle. "But, as beautiful as our grand city looks, is it safe for your family?"The image of a large army of guards was shown. They wore large heavy lavender colored armor with a familiar emblem on the chest plates. It occurred to Dash that each guard was either a unicorn or a pegasus, there were no earth ponies. "Of course it is! Our army has been given the most state of the art training and technology to keep all citizens safe from trouble-makers!" A close up of the two toon foals was shown. "And don't worry parents! There's plenty of jazzin' entertainment for your kids so they have a keen time! As well as a top of the line school to keep their brains well oiled!" The two foals smiled joyfully. The film cut to the picture of a shop. The stallion in a bowler hat was shown walking inside. " And one last thing! As courtesy of the Flim Flam Brothers and Zecora, when you arrive and go to the nearest Potion Shop to receive a free sample of any potion on the house!" The photograph of the city was shown again. "Enjoy your stay at our fantastic city! All ruled by the glorious leader; Twilight Sparkle!" The film ends and the television screen backs away from Dash's face. The presentation ends and the screen shows a photo of Twilight in her royal outfit. Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell if traveling underwater at over 100 MPH was making her sick or because of how over-sentimental the film was. Dash felt the g-force lighten up and her wings were in less pain. Her body shifted to the left towards the furnace as the FireFly made a sharp turn. Dash tried to pull her body in the opposite direction, the fire was inches away from her hock. “Wha-! Jeez!” She felt a force hastily pull her forward. Her chest pushed against the safety harness. Dash laid back in the seat and sighed. “YOU HAVE ARRIVED. WELCOME TO EQUUS.” The hatch opened gently with a slight squeak. The safety harness lifted up off of her. Rainbow Dash shielded her eyes from the light. She climbed out of her seat and carefully scooted out of the Firefly. Her eyes adjust to the sunlight as she slowly stepped out and landed on the ground. She grunted and pushed herself up right to stand up straight. “TO ENTER THE CITY ALL FOREIGNERS MUST PURCHASE A REGISTRATION CARD AT THE REGISTRATION DESK, THANK YOU AND ENJOY YOUR DAY.” Dash’s eyes fully adjusted and she looked around at her surroundings. She saw that she was on a beach. Behind her the Firefly ported itself onto a shining metal pad that was implanted into the sand. Dash looked over to her left and saw a golden box, the same exact type of golden box that she saw on the docks, complete with the same hand-crafted marble pedestal. She looked to the front of her in the distance and saw an elegantly carved brick path leading to a booth with a glass window. The top of the booth read “REGISTRATION”. Next to the booth was a giant pair of gorgeous brass gates. Dash started to limp forward to the desk flinching with each step. “Hey, is anyone there?” Dash called out. The ocean’s waves were the only response she received. “...I’m badly hurt...Please? Can I get some water or something?” She continued to walk forward, passing some empty benches and a tipped over trash can. A few abandoned newspapers flew by in a small gust of wind. Dash approached the booth. As she got closer to the booth a pungent stench whiffed by her nose, which made her neck jerk back in disgust. Dash squinted her eyes trying to see if anyone was there as a light inside flickered. She saw a chair with a figure of a stallion slumping in it. Rainbow Dash knocked on the glass. "Hello....Sir?" The light stopped flickering long enough for Dash to see the stallion she was trying to get the attention of was an old rotting corpse whose neck was sliced open. His skin was wrinkled up and the eyes were already sunken deep into the skull, little to no hair remained on his scalp. Blood that once was streaming out of the stallion’s neck was smeared on the desk and the chair he was sitting in. Dash back away slowly wide-eyed. She opened her mouth to say something but no words could exit. Dash looked over to the brass gates and limped quickly towards them. She tugged on the gate and tried to open it but the brass refused to budge. Rainbow Dash looked over at something in the corner of her eye. A large metallic cube standing out of the ground with a slit carved across the top was next to the gates. Dash approached the cube. A plaque that was posted onto the cube read. “PLEASE SLIDE REGISTRATION CARD THROUGH SLIT TO ENTER THE CITY” Rainbow Dash stared at the plaque for a moment then limped away from the gates and passed by the booth. She peaked inside again and looked across the blood stained desk. A stack of small papers was seen on the desk, most of them were spilled onto the floor. Dash pushed her face slightly into the glass and blocked the glare from the sun. The cards were titled “CITIZEN REGISTRATION”. Dash looked back at the decomposing carcass. She looked at the ground for a moment and sighed. She slowly walked around to the back of the booth. The door on the back wall of the booth seemed to be made of steel and had no door handle. A small object on the wall next to the door caught Dash's eye. She saw a lever sticking out of the wall and pulled down on it. The grinding of gears were heard and and the door slid open. The overwhelming stench of decay blasted into her nose. Rainbow Dash backed up and dry heaved into her hoof. The light inside flickered like mad. She stood to the side for a moment before entering. Dash moved forward, inching closer to the pony’s corpse. Her hoof nudged something on the ground. She lifted up her hoof and saw a knife that was covered with blood on the floor. She looked back at the body and continued to move towards, avoiding stepping on the knife. As she got to the desk, she was right next to the corpse. Dash heard the flies buzzing around enjoying their meal. On the desk is what Dash can make out to be an ham radio. Next to it was a large sheet with city-states in Equestria followed by numbers. Canterlot : 23 15 21 12 4 Ponyville : 25 15 21 Cloudsdale: 11 9 14 4 12 25 Dash thought to herself that she would be able to use the amature radio to contact Celestia and request help, but these hopes were shattered when she examined the radio closer and saw that it had been damaged too harshly to be used. She looked over for a moment at the large gap on the pony’s neck and cringed slightly. Dash took a deep breath in and closed her eyes. She quickly reached out and grabbed a registration card. Dash opened her eyes and looked back at the corpse. She looked at the card then placed it in her teeth while she started to away from the stallion. While backing out of the cramp space between her and the corpse, she bumped into the chair the corpse was sitting in. The carcass fell over onto the floor making a sick, dry thud as it hit the ground. Rainbow Dash backed away wide eyed, with the registration card between her teeth. She quickly left and pushed down the lever next to the door and closed it behind her with a click. She ran to the front of the booth and took a breath. Dash shook her head, she looked at the card and limped over to the gates. “Okay, so how does this thing work?” She looked at the metal box from before. Dash slid the card through the slit at the top and she heard the machinery inside starting to clank. A small red glowing surface popped out of the side and the plack flipped over. “PLEASE PLACE YOUR HOOF ON PAD” She compiled and put her hoof onto the glowing pad. She felt her hoof tingle as if it has fallen asleep. The plaque flipped again and the box spoke. The from inside sounded robotic. “THANK YOU! WELCOME, [INSERT NAME HERE] , TO EQUUS!” “Really?...That’s it?” She questioned. Rainbow Dash heard the machinery inside the box stop moving. The lock on the gates clicked. She heard a new noise of gears from the gates in front of her. The gates twitched trying to open automatically from a broken motor. Dash pushed the gates open herself and walked onto the wide cobble path into the city. She passed by a sign. “WELCOME TO EQUUS!” Below the printed text was something in graffiti “MUD PONIES WILL BE LYNCHED!” Dash felt uneasy. As she entered into the outer rim of the city Dash looked around stunned slightly. Glass was shattered onto the streets from the shops’ windows. The marble on the buildings were cracked and was starting to crumbled. The flags that were at the top of the taller buildings were burnt or ripped to shreds. At the end of the marketplace was a large pile of rubble blocking the path to the rest of the city. Dash walked forward with caution. She passed by a pile of furniture that was set aflame. “What the heck happened here?” She whispered to herself. Dash passed by a medical shop. She stopped in front of it. “I should get myself patched up...” She looked at her wounds on her front hooves. Dash walked inside the medical shop, over the knocked down double doors. The inside was a mess. Almost all of the items on the shelves were either gone or on the floor, the front was mostly brightened by the sunlight peeking in and a few remaining lights that weren’t broken. The back of the shop was covered in darkness. Dash walked past the broken open cash register and made her way through the mess searching for something to help her heal. Her hooves brush past many empty boxes and bottles but she had no luck in finding any sort of painkiller or medication that can help her push through. A loud bang of a door slamming open followed by male voices was heard in the back, the voices seemed to be a distance from one another. “Get off of my meds! I found them and I need to heal!” One voice yelled. “Get your own! My girlfriend needs to after she spliced up too hard and her skin is falling off!” One of the voices hollered at the other. “If she wasn’t such a careless twit that wouldn’t of happened in the first place!” The first voice taunted to the second. “You better watch your mouth!” The second voice shouted at the first. “Or what?” The first voice dared. “Hey,what are you two doing?!” Dash called out to the voices, starting to wander slowly into the darkness. She would soon regret this decision. The two voices were silent. “Hello?” Rainbow Dash called out again to the two male voices. There was no answer as she walked deeper into the darkness. The scraping of metal against tiles was heard coming up behind Dash. She turned around quickly to see who was coming. A figure of a stallion was charging at her, dragging something blunt against the ground causing sparks to erupt from the floor. The sparks made a dim light to see the pony’s face. Dash could see that his face was a mangled mess,his jaw was crooked to the side making his lips hang out exposing his teeth and his eyes were bulging outward and one was blood red. His attire was a dirty, wrinkled tan button down shirt with an undone tie around the collar. The stallion smiled grimly at her as he run up closer. Dash’s eyes widened and she backed up trying to escape the attack. The pony lifted his weapon into the air, ready to strike down on Dash. “SHE’S MINE!” Another pony jumped out on top of the stallion with a blade taped to his hoof. The second stallion could barely be seen in the darkness by Dash, only the silhouettes could be made out. “Get off of me!” The first stallion roared at the second. The combination of sounds of stabbing into flesh and the bashing of a blunt object echoed through the store. The pony with the button down whacked the other stallion in the head as he stabbed and sliced at the first pony. Dash backed away quickly from the bloody brawl and hid in the darkness trying to find a way out in the back of store. Her hooves touched the wall as she hoped it would lead her to the door. Her eyes started to adjust to the darkness but before she could find the door she heard a scream of agony from behind where the brawl was taking place. Dash looked back to where she ran from. There was a brief moment of silence. Hoofsteps started to approach Dash. She started to move along the wall faster, trying to find the exit. A hoof with a bloody blade taped to it grabbed onto her shoulder. Rainbow Dash was turned around. The stallion that stood before her was different from the one before. He wore a dirty white button down with a brown vest and stained loose black tie. The stallion’s face was wrapped in bloody gauze, one eye being exposed and another space for his mouth. The stallion’s head was leaking out blood and had a bone sticking out of right hoof. He opened his mouth trying to say something but all that came out was an unsettling groan. Dash, in pure shock, stood frozen as the pony’s body slumped down to the floor and started to form a puddle of blood. Rainbow Dash walked close to the wall, keeping her eyes on the bleeding body. She finally reached the doorway and walked in quickly. Inside the floor was littered with broken glass and papers, on the left side of the room from where Dash had entered was a desk that was flipped over, on the other side of the room was empty cabinets with broken windows. In the center of the room was a very small tin box that read “FIRST AID KIT” a small inscription on the side said “First to aid, last to die.” Rainbow Dash carefully stepped over the broken glass and grabbed the tin box between her teeth. She stepped back out of the room and made her way to the main store area where the brawl ensued before. Dash was shocked to see that the body of the pony who collapsed in front of her was gone. “What the hell is going on?” She stood still for a few moments looking around for signs of other unwanted guests. Dash went to the front of the store and put the first aid kit down on top of the counter. She opened the case. A small slip of folded paper was taped to bottom of the lid. Dash took it off and unfolded it. The paper said. “ One Time Use First Aid Kit Contains; 1 (One) small vial of Fix-All-mini, 3 (Three) band-aids, a small roll of gauzes , 2 (two) painkillers,1 unfoldable wing splint and1 moist towelette Fix-All-mini is a drug that can accelerate the healing of minor injuries such as lacerations, large bruises, dislocated/cracked bones. WILL NOT HEAL WINGS PLEASE USE WITH CAUTION. To take care of crippled wings use foldable splint included in the case and take the two (2) included painkiller included in this kit. ” The paper continues to explain how to use the products inside the case. She placed the paper aside and took out the vial. She looked at in her hoof for a moment thinking it over. She pulled the cork off of the top and a blue mist escaped the bottle. Her lips pressed against the top of the vial and she tilted her head back. The cyan liquid poured down into her esophagus. Dash’s throat burned and her eyes watered, she coughed and dry gagged. She dropped the vial and it shattered on the floor. The taste of the serum was a mixture of the sweet taste of nectar and the extremely vile bitter taste of medicine. She felt the muscles in her back starting to tense up. Dash leaned her head backwards with an expression of intense discomfort. Her wounds and scratches on her legs started to seal up on their own, cracks and snaps was heard in her back before the medication’s effects ceased. Dash leaned foward, looking down at the floor. She lifted her head up and her spine made an audible crunching noise.Rainbow Dash looked down at her hoofs and saw that they were fully healed, she moved one hoof in a circular motion seeing if there was any remaining injuries. She looked to her back and saw that her wings were still crippled. Dash grunted and took out the foldable splint. When she took it out of the case it immediately unfolded itself from a spring activation. She fastened the splint to her injured wing. The brace seemed to be specifically made for wings . “Okay Dash, just keep calm. You just need to contact Celestia and she’ll send help. Find a phone...Call for help.” She repeated the words and nodded to herself, trying to think positive. The splint fit snugly onto her wing, making it fold in a straight position to heal properly. Dash looked at the remaining items in the kit. She figured that she’d save them for later if any other dilemmas occurred. Dash put the tin case under her uninjured wing and walked out of the store cautiously. She trotted slowly along the cracked cobble path of the market center, her eyes glanced at her hooves from time to time to avoid the glass shards on the ground from broken windows. In the distance Dash could make out a sign hanging off of a building in the distance. The sign had a picture of an envelope on it. It seemed to be a post office so that the new ponies can send cards to their loved ones in the mainland. Dash made her way into the post office trying to not attract any more attention. Inside she started to get a sudden sense of claustrophobia, the office was very cramped and had little room inside of it. She jumped over the small gate that was connected to the counter. Behind the counter was a desk with many papers on it, most of them were filled out postcards and work forms. Dash looked under the desk and trying to look for some sort of way to contact Celestia. Her hoof ran over more papers which spilled out onto the floor when she tapped it. Dash looked outside, slightly paranoid that someone might have heard her. She looked back down and continued to search through the piles of papers and spreadsheets. Her hoof finally reached a small rectangular object that was slightly cold to the touch. She quickly brought the object to her face and examined it. The object seemed to be a small walkie talkie of some sort with a golden alloy and chrome lining. A keypad and a few switches were on the front while two buttons were on the side. Dash tried to figure out how to turn the device on. As her hoof touched a switch on it the small device produced the sound of static. Rainbow Dash smiled, with small relief, thinking that this would be the way out. “Wait wait...” Dash thought to herself looking over the keypad. “..The numbers...” The sheet of paper that was on the registration desk, next to the ham radio flashed into her head. “What were the numbers?...” She closed her eyes and put a hoof on her head trying to think hard to herself. “Come on...Come on..” She said to herself as she tapped on her forehead. The image of the numbers were fuzzy in her head. She concentrated. “Uhh...twenty-three....” She bit her lip trying to think. “F-Fourte-...no...Fifteen...Twenty-one...Twelve...Four...” Dash opened her eyes and looked down at the keypad. She entered in the digits. After a moment Dash heard a voice “Canterlot Guard Post twenty-three fifteen twenty-one twelve four, Greetings four five two twenty.” “Yeah-yeah-yeah, put me through to The Circle! ” Dash said eagerly. “...Ma'am The Circle is for highest class personal only, I’m afraid I can’t do tha-” “It’s Rainbow Dash!” She shouted into the small radio. There is a long pause “I’ll put you through now...” The guard responded. There were a few moments of static. Rainbow Dash looked outside of the post office again with the feeling of being watched over. “Mrs. Dash!” The radio erupted from the static “It’s a pleasure to hear that you are alive.” A soft mare’s voice spoke. Dash immediately recognized the voice as Celestia. “How is your progress?” She asked “Greetings your highness. Uhh...Well I have a problem” She tried to think out a way in her head to put it lightly. “Are you okay?” Celestia said with a tone of concern in her voice “Yes-well-no-I mean...” Dash sighs trying to gather her thoughts. “All the guards that you sent with me are...gone...I’m stranded here alone in this place. ” Celestia asked the obvious “What happened to them?” “S-some sort of cannons or something took them all out.” Dash put her hoof to her head trying to slow down the moments of when the carriage was attacked. “What is the state of Eques?” Celestia responded “It’s...not well. The ponies here are crazy and the buildings are falling apart. I got atta-” Dash was cut off by Celestia. “Is there a possibility of Twilight being okay?” “W-Well...maybe. I mean, she smart, she probably went somewhere safe.” Dash replied. “Then your mission still stands to get Twilight back here, use any means necessary to get her. We’ll send in reinforcements as soon as possible.” Celestia said almost instantly after Dash finished. “N-No! Y-You don’t understand! They’re armed!...Hello?...Hello!” The walkie talkie didn’t respond. “Princess!” Dash yelled into the mic of the radio. There was no response. She took the speaker away from her ear. Dash quickly tried to re-enter the number to the Canterlot guard post. She put the speaker back up to her ear. There was no answer on the other end. She tried hard to remember the other numbers that were listed at the registration desk but it was to no avail. Dash squeezed the radio tightly in her hoof, rage starting to overcome her. She stopped, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Rainbow Dash reasoned with herself. “Calm down, Dash. Don’t waste your energy. You have to keep focused...” She placed the radio on the desk knowing that she has nowhere to store it. Dash jumped over the gate connected to the counter and made her way out of the post office and back into the street. Her hooves tread over the shattered glass of post office’s shattered window. She looked up at the large structure of Twilight’s cutie-mark towering over the city. Her eyes traveled down to the large pile of rubble blocking the way to the rest of the city. She moved forward toward the rubble. Dash searched around the rubble for a gap or an opening to fit through. In the rubble a small plumbing pipe stuck out. Dash thought to herself that she needed a weapon in case she ran into any other hostile citizens. She reached out and tugged on the pipe. It seemed to slide right out of the space it was being held in. Dash examined it for a moment thinking to herself about the guards Celestia was sending over and how they’d meet an end just as the guards that accompanied Dash before. Her ears perked up as she heard a dripping noise from her left. Rainbow Dash saw that there was an alleyway, inside it was littered with junk and old newspapers, the left side of the wall on the ally was equipped with a fire escape for residents and workers in the building it was attached to. Dash walked slowly with the pipe ready in her hoof. The alley seemed slightly darker than outside and smelled rotten but there was a light copper scent to the air. The dripping noise was louder than before as Dash went deeper into the alley. Her hoof touched something wet. She lifted her hoof up and saw it was smeared with a thick red liquid. Blood. A drip came down from above Dash and disturbed the puddle of blood, causing a ripple. Dash slowly looked up, dreading what she was about to see. A figure that was too fast to make out jumped on top of Rainbow Dash and pinned her to the ground. The pipe flew out of Dash’s hoof and landed a few feet away from her. “Hello again, sweetheart.” The figure spoke out in a sinister tone. Dash got a good look at the figure’s face. It was the pony whose face was wrapped in gauze and attacked her in the medical shop. The knife that was attached to his hoof pressed firmly against Dash’s neck. The pony giggled as his wounds started to smear blood onto Dash. “Oh you’re a pretty one. I’m sure this is gonna be fun!” He crackled breathing uneasy. Dash reached her hoof out, straining to reach for the pipe. The pony started to put a hoof on Dash’s stomach, moving down. Dash’s hoof finally reached the pipe. She held it tightly and slammed it with all her might against the temple of the pony in gauze. The pony staggered backwards releasing Dash from his grip. “AH! You bitch!” He roared as he held his head, blood oozing down to the ground. Dash quickly got up and stood on her hind legs, clenching the pipe in both hooves. The pony in gauze recovered surprisingly quickly and lunged at Dash. Rainbow Dash swung the pipe again this time in a downward thrust and slammed the stallion directly on the head making a sickening thud. Specs of blood splattered onto Dash. The pony in gauze was knocked to the ground. He started to get up again. Dash acted quickly and hit the pony in the head again with a great force. The hit made more blood splattered onto Rainbow Dash. Even after the hit the stallion still moved and tried to get up again, groaning in pain. In the heat of the moment and the adrenaline pumping through her veins, Dash closed her eyes and whacked the stallion repeatedly, over and over, making blood splatter onto her coat. After a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity, Dash stopped hitting what used to be a pony’s face. She dropped the pipe out of her hooves and stared at the corpse. Rainbow Dash rubbed her head.