//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Visions Of The Past... // Story: Silent Ponyville: Duet Of Sorrow // by KillerSteel //------------------------------// “Leave me alone!” Rainbow shouts at three Hemorans, blocking the hall in front of her. “I’ve got a meeting to get to with the Lieutenant!” “Yeah, I’m sure y’do.” The center Hemoran says, walking forward, “So what makes you so important, eh? What’s it been, a month you’ve spent at a status less than the sand here?” “What makes me so important is that I’ve got a mission and you don’t. Now stand aside!” “Stupid little Equestrian, don’t you know where you stand here?! You’re worth less than shit! A petty little Private!” The left Hemoran shouts, stepping forward, now two towering shadows looking down on her. “You know full well what I’m capable of, and you still wanna mess with me?” Rainbow looks over at the left Hemoran, a blue hedgehog with white stripes along his arms, wearing a simple camo jacket and black shirt. He leans down and looks her dead in the face. “Considering we’re all capable of killing five of you, with you guys being armed and us not, I think you haven’t got a lot of shove here.” He smiles before spitting in her face. “Go get strangled, bitch.” The Hemoran on the right laughs with an irritatingly high pitch. Rainbow just lets the fury in her go and she spins around, giving a mighty kick into the chest of the Hemoran on the left, then uses the recoil to spin herself around and kick the one in the center into the wall. She makes one more spin on her right front leg before stopping, running down the hall. “HEY! GET HER! She assaulted us!” One of the Hemorans behind her shouts, and Rainbow sprints like never before. A month in her own personal Hell, where no one could stand being around her, and everyone just wanted her to go out in the desert and starve to death. Thoughts of home broke into her mind, and a twinge of sadness pulls at her heart. The sounds of heavy boots clanging against the metal walkway fill the hall, a whole force behind her now racing down the hall towards her. She picks up her pace, quickly widening the gap between the mob and her, and quickly runs down a left hall, hiding, and a short wait later, thirty soldiers run past the hall, none of them turning to check the alleys, much to her relief. She lets go of her held breath, quickly panting, looking around the dark green halls for where she needs to go. “Lieutenant Stroa…Lieutenant Stroa…ohh, where is she?” Rainbow thinks, looking at all the plaques on the doors marking the living quarters for the National Guard’s commissioned officers. “Stroa…Stroa…ah, here we go.” She stops before a solid metal door, the silver plaque nailed into the wall next to it saying “[LIEUTENANT STROA, M.]” with “QUARTERMASTER” printed under it. Rainbow takes a deep breath before putting her hoof on the door, pushing it open. “Private Rainbow Dash, reporting for duty, ma’am.” Rainbow says with a quick salute, the door swinging open to reveal the Lieutenant, dressed in the typical uniform of a camo jacket and cargo pants with the legs tucked into heavy boots. “Come in.” She says, adjusting her glasses, writing on papers at her desk, a small lamp lighting the area. The moon shines outside, hanging high in the sky, three strips of light coming through the viewing ports cut into the metal walls. “You said you had a mission for me?” Dash asks, walking inside and taking a seat next to the door. “Not quite. You’ve been working hard for the last month, so Captain Darksol came by and personally requested you receive some leave. The request went to Colonel Bravo and General Trek, and they both agreed, so you have the next two days to yourself. I assume you know protocol when it comes to off-duty actions on base?” “Yes, ma’am. When off-duty, you are permitted to use the lounge and bar area, but are restricted from the armory, training area, and shooting range. You are also restricted from proceeding further than three hundred meters from base, unless given express permission from both the Police and Command to visit Metropolis…and, the Cerberus gates are…off-limits…” Rainbow lowers her gaze, feeling home is even further away now. When allowed to go on patrol, she could often see through the opened Cerberus Gate, the familiar rolling hills and grasslands a paradise compared to the desert heat and sands. To her, Cloudsdale was a simple skip, hop, and jump through the gate… “You, as a Private, are also restricted from visiting the barracks while off-duty. You are allowed to your own room, but that’s as far as you go. Now that you understand, leave, I have paperwork to do and you’ve already bothered my schedule enough as it is.” The red-haired hedgehog doesn’t even look up from her desk, but the venom in her voice is all too apparent, all too familiar from every other interaction Rainbow’s had from the soldiers. “Yes ma’am…” Rainbow salutes, then heads out. She walks down the hall, heading straight for the bar. For whatever reason, a drink seemed like the best solution for whatever was bringing her down right now. Few soldiers walk past her, all holding the same demeanor and posture of respected commanders, not even throwing a gaze at her as she walks by. No one seems to question her presence, but none of them seem to want her there either. She turns down a hallway, then takes a left down some stairs, the dark stair well making it near impossible to go down without moving very slowly. Rainbow slowly climbs down, moving sideways so her body doesn’t shove her forward into a face plant on the metal steps. As she begins to round the corner, a leg lashes out at her and strikes her dead in the face. She stumbles backwards into the wall, holding her nose. “AHHHHH!” She screams out of pain, “W-who did that?! Watch where you’re walking!” She looks up, tears already starting to flow, before she spots the Hemoran she ran into before, the one she threw into the wall. His eyes seem to glow slightly out of rage. “Oh, I was watching EXACTLY where I was going. My foot went right where I wanted it to, and it’s gonna keep going there till you ain’t moving no more!” He shouts, stepping towards Rainbow, bringing his leg back and kicking her in the chest. All the air escapes her lungs, the force of the kick tremendous, and another one finds its way into her stomach shortly after. She curls up into a ball, protecting her vital areas as the kicks keep coming, smashing away at her skeleton and flesh. She hears a single step beside her, and the kicks stop. “So, Sergeant…mind letting me in on the fun here?” A voice rings out behind her, and she can hear a whimper come from the soldier who was assaulting her. “C-C-C-C…” he stutters, stepping away. Rainbow opens her left eye, her chest and belly like an inferno from the attack. The soldier has a look of terror on his face, and he slides his foot back again, it running into Loki’s hand. “Oh, no, you aren’t going anywhere.” Sehn says, finally stepping into Rainbow’s view. He grabs the soldier by the shirt and stares him dead in the eyes, Loki running over to check on Rainbow. “Now what do you think you’re doing?” “N-N-Nothing s-sir! Nothing at all!” He stutters, following with a nervous chuckle. “Nothing at all, eh…then how did this Private end up so injured? And I could’ve sworn I saw you kick her at least three times from the corner before me and Loki interrupted you…” Sehn hisses, his back turned to Rainbow. A reflection of purple shows in the Sergeant’s eye, and he starts sweating, sputtering, unable to come up with a coherent sentence in front of the Captain. Sehn sighs, putting the Sergeant down, and turns to walk away. The Sergeant sighs from relief, holding his chest, his hand moving slightly from his racing heart… As Sehn’s fist flies straight into his face, throwing him right into the wall. “You know what I really hate, Loki?” He asks. “What’s that?” She asks, feeling along Rainbow’s side for any external injuries that may be threatening. “This. Someone picking on Rainbow because she’s some kind of killer. I’ll treat her with the same vigor when I find out she had intent to do that…but no one was expecting what came then.” He says to the wall, looking down at the Sergeant. “Oh, and you…I know exactly what you were doing, and now I’ll be watching for it. Do it again, and I’m hanging your head from my wall, and throwing your corpse off the top of the tower. You understand?” The Sergeant quickly nods, his hand on his cheek, and he spits out some blood while standing up. He quickly salutes Sehn, and bows to Rainbow. “I’m sorry!” He exclaims before running away, stumbling a bit on the stairs as he throws a glance back to Sehn. “How he got promoted, I’ll never know…bloody useless.” Sehn hisses, turning around to Rainbow and kneeling down. “You alright, kid?” “No, I’m not…I just had the stuffing kicked out of me…ow…” Rainbow wheezes, holding her side. Loki looks up worriedly at Sehn, who returns the gaze, looking over at Rainbow. “Can you walk? We’ll head for the sickbay, have Doc and Jen fix you up.” “Don’t let Doc anywhere near me…” Rainbow grunts through the pain, trying to stand before collapsing onto her stomach again, crying out in pain from the impact. Sehn sighs, putting his arms under her and picking her up, holding her over his shoulder. “Alright, I’ll carry you in that case. Can’t guarantee how far we’ll go…you’re ungodly heavy for someone your size.” “Just walk, please…your shoulder is stabbing into me.” Rainbow wheezes, Loki jumping up to Sehn’s other shoulder and looking over at her. “I’m sorry we didn’t stop him earlier…” “It’s fine…I’m still alive, aren’t I? Had worse things happen to me when I messed stunts up back home…” Rainbow chuckles, wincing slightly from her wounds. She stops moving, simply pivoting her head to try and dull the strain on her body. “…How’d you find me, anyway?” “You can thank Loki for that.” Sehn answers, Rainbow looking behind her to the back of his head. “She’s a natural sensor, picks up feelings of hate from all over the base. Her senses are too rough to ID anything, and my senses have to target someone…but at least we know the direction to go in.” He chuckles, walking down another flight of steps. Rainbow shakes slightly, squeaking in pain, “Don’t step so hard…” “Right, sorry, really injured…” Sehn says, slowing his walk down the steps to as soft as he can manage. He finally hits the bottom of the steps and turns left towards the Sick bay. He knocks on the door, it quickly opening into his face. “HELLO?” Doc shouts into the hall, looking around. “WELL, it seems I’ve been ding dong DITCHED!” He raises his eyebrows, shouting at the wall. “HILARIOUS!” He finally exclaims, laughing and slamming the door. Sehn rubs his nose where he got slammed with the door, leaning forward. “Awwww, that HURT…” “How do you think I feel? I just got a door slammed into my butt…I feel like my whole skeleton just shifted forward a couple inches…” Both Sehn and Rainbow groan in pain. “What’s wrong with you two? I feel fine!” Loki brightly exclaims, both Rainbow and Sehn looking over with eyes half-closed. “Be quiet, kid…can you go get Jen? I don’t think my nose can handle another encounter with Doc…” “On it!” Loki shouts, letting go of Sehn’s shoulder and dropping to the floor. She runs over to the door, leaping up and turning the door knob, pushing the door open. “Doctor Fresten! Patients for you!” The cry echoes out into the hall, the familiar hedgehog coming out of the sickbay to find Sehn holding Rainbow over his shoulder. “So, which one of you has the worse injury?” “I got my nose smashed in.” Sehn replies to Jen, rubbing his face still. “I got my spine shoved an inch or so up…” Rainbow turns and says, teeth gritting in pain. “Alright, I’ll take care of you both. Sehn, do be careful this time…” Jen heads back into the sickbay, Sehn following close behind, easing himself through the door so he doesn’t get stuck holding Rainbow, and so he doesn’t hit her on the door frame. He lays her down on one of the operating tables in the room, taking a seat on the table next to her, holding his face. Jen walks back with some medical supplies in hand, along with a bottle of painkillers and an ice cube. “Captain, hold this ice cube on your nose and lean your head back. Keep the pose until I say you can stop.” She says, handing the ice to Sehn. “Yes, ma’am.” He simply replies, holding the cube to his nose and leaning his head back, the bleeding stopping. “As for you, kiddo. Had another bad run in with the troops, I see…” Jen says, leaning over Rainbow. “Take off the coat please, I’ll need to get a good inspection of your injuries.” She moves over to the end of the table, taking the clipboard off the end, as Sehn gets up and heads over to the main area by Doc. “That’s my cue to stop watching. You ladies do your work, I’ll be here breathing my own blood through my nose.” He says with a nasally voice, sitting down as Doc quickly flies around the sickbay, taking random chemicals from a nearby cabinet before running back over to an Equestrian corpse. Rainbow looks over, seeing the body, her eyes widening. “Don’t worry, it’s not a recent death. Doc’s expedition team found the poor soul’s corpse out in the desert, his armor still intact. We nailed down the cause of death as starvation and thirst…the desert can be a cruel place, even with a name as peaceful as Mira…” Jen says, preparing her supplies as Rainbow removes her camo jacket and pulls up the shirt under it, revealing purple swelling all along her sides. “This hurts way worse than how it looks.” She hisses out, laying back down on her belly, flat on the table. “I’m sure it does. I’ll be keeping you here overnight, and I assume the Captain won’t be leaving you alone.” Jen raises an eyebrow, looking over at Sehn, him having turned his head to the side so he can watch Doc do his work. She raises her voice, “I ASSUME the CAPTAIN won’t be leaving you ALONE?” Sehn shifts his attention, turning his head to the left so he can see Jen and Rainbow. “Of course I won’t leave her alone. She is one of my soldiers after all.” He says in his same nasally tone, inciting a giggle from Rainbow. “What’s so funny?” “I…ow…I don’t know…you just sound funny.” She smiles, feeling a little better. “I guess laughter can be a medicine. Now hold still, I’m going to start getting this swelling down…” Jen says, moving the curtain over behind her as she works, Sehn turning his focus back over to Doc. Loud snoring is the first thing that greets Rainbow as she wakes up, still drowsy from the painkillers applied to her last night. She looks behind her, seeing red bandages wrapped around her wounds. “Must’ve…broke the skin or something…” she thinks, moving her head back over to the front of the table, and trying to fall asleep again. Her breathing reveals a weight on her back, and she slowly looks over, seeing Loki sleeping on her back. “Guess neither of them could leave me alone…” Rainbow smiles, blinking slightly before rubbing her eye, and lets out a big yawn. She looks up at a clock on the other side of the clinic, the hands pointed at the 7 twice. “Seven hundred fourty five hours…quarter before eight, eh…?” She whispers, still blinking slowly. She sees the top of a grey spike of hair in front of her, and it slowly rises up to reveal Doc’s face. “Good evening…” He whispers, staring her dead in the face. It takes a bit for Rainbow to register what’s in front of her before she screams, Sehn jumping with a yelp and Loki flying off Rainbow’s back onto the floor. She smacks Doc in the face with her hoof, shoving away to the other side of the bed before falling off. “What the hell?!” Sehn shouts, looking around, “Are we under attack!?” “Darn it, Doc! Don’t creep up on ponies like that!” Rainbow shouts from the other side of the table, lying on the ground next to Loki who seems to be dazed from her flight through the air. “Whuzz-ah-wha jus’ happen?” She says in a slur, eyes spinning in their sockets. “I was havin’ good dream ‘bout flyin’…then I’m here on my head…” She flops over onto her stomach. Doc just laughs, “OPERATION SCARE THE PEGASUS IS A SUCCESS! Back to work!” He exclaims before running off to the other side of the clinic, quickly slapping a band-aid on the red swell on his face before continuing his rather long-going dissection of the Equestrian corpse. Rainbow just groans, rubbing her side before getting up and looking over at Loki. She picks her up and puts her on her back, walking around the table to Sehn. “He even got you, eh, Sehn?” She asks with a smile, looking down at the silver hedgehog on the ground. He just rolls over with a groan, facing her. “I’m built for terrifying combat scenarios, and I get freaked out by you screaming in your sleep…jeeze.” He sighs, getting to his feet and looks over at Loki. “Got her, too…” “I think that might’ve been my fault, actually.” Rainbow says, looking off to the side with a slight smirk and an apologetic look. “Doc! Where’s Jen?” Sehn shouts, looking over at the crazy doctor working away at the corpse. “I think she headed out with an expedition team! Those bodies aren’t going to find themselves, you know!” He shouts, not breaking his work flow. Sehn rolls his eyes and walks out of the sickbay, Rainbow in close following with Loki bouncing to each step on her back. “It’s night time, isn’t it?” She asks. “Yeah, you’ve been out a long time.” Sehn answers, looking back, “How do you feel?” “Better, much better. Side still kind of burns, but that’s about it.” Rainbow says with a smile, twitching slightly with some pain. Sehn smirks, turning back. “How’s about we hit the bar, eh?” “Been wanting to do that since yesterday.” A good thirty minute walk later lands the pair at a dimmer lit section of the base, using red lights instead of the typical white. The walls have an ugly yellow color to them in the light, and the doors are all made from different materials, from mahogany and oak, to steel cells and heavy vault doors. The pair stops in front of a rather stately oak door, the sign above it reading “The Liver Killer”. “I still think they should change the name on this thing…” Sehn says, walking in through the door, a massive explosion of shouting and singing flying through the door frame at him and Rainbow. This rouses Loki from her sleep, and she jumps from Rainbow’s back to her head, looking inside. “Awww, why’re we here again?” She complains, looking over at Sehn. “Oh yeah, I forgot, you’re still a kid, aren’t you? Usual?” Sehn says with a mocking smile, raising his left eyebrow as he looks back at her. “Yeah, sure…” Loki says, folding her arms, as both Sehn and Rainbow walk in. A mug flies across the room, hitting the wall, two soldiers getting into a bar fight, their friends trying to stop the two drunks from killing each other and tearing up the bar. “I’lls teach you to talks about mah momma that way!” One shouts out, “Oh yeah?! Well hows about this one! Your girlfriend is UGLY!” The other shouts back in a slur, the words descending into roars at each other. Sehn sits down at the counter, Rainbow taking up her own spot on the stool, as Loki jumps from her head over to Sehn’s shoulder, holding on. The bartender, a rather posh looking blue hedgehog, wearing a striped jacket and simple black tie, a moustache and small round glasses on his face, the grey eyes looking aged and full of wisdom, slides over to them and bows slightly. “And what can I get for the fine ladies and gentleman today?” He says as he rises back up to look at his customers, his voice matching his posh exterior. “Heavy whiskey on the rocks for me, beer for the Private and milk for the kid.” Sehn says, leaning on his hand, elbow on the counter, tapping the counter with his other hand. The bartender quickly slides away, reaching for two glasses under the counter before taking out two bottles of alcohol, pouring the drinks. “Mark’s on the ball today.” Rainbow says with a smile, looking over the counter. “He always is, kid…he does run this place as a business. Only bar within 400 miles, sadly. Don’t you Equestrians have drunkards?” Sehn asks, looking over. “I dunno. I’ve never seen anyone stumbling through Cloudsdale with that stupid look on their face, hiccupping and stumbling along before they eventually face plant on the street.” Rainbow turns, seeing one of the Corporals do exactly as she described, slamming his face into the floor, though no beer flies out of the bottle in his right hand. “Like that, I never see that.” Rainbow says, pointing at him. Sehn smirks, turning back to look at the counter, Mark sliding back over. “Your drinks, sir and madams…” He says with a bow, placing the short glass of whiskey and ice in front of Sehn, the bottle of beer in front of Rainbow, and the glass of milk just beside the whiskey for Loki. Sehn picks up the milk and hands it to Loki, who’s climbed up to his head, and she begins chugging away at it. Sehn takes a sip of his own drink, Rainbow joining in. “So, what’re you gonna do with your time off, kid?” Sehn asks, looking over at Rainbow, the movement of his head knocking Loki slightly off balance, but she quickly stabilizes herself and finishes half the glass of milk, letting out a mighty sigh of satisfaction. “I dunno…maybe practice my flying. Not sure about the air restrictions around the base though.” She says, sipping her beer. “Only ones who can actually fly are in the DRAGON Unit, so air restrictions are pretty much non-existant. You’re wearing the uniform, so you’re not gonna be seen as an enemy. Want a partner? Got most of the day off from patrols tomorrow.” He asks, taking another sip of his whiskey. “Sure. Wanna make a race of it?” Rainbow says with a smile. “You’re on.” A mug flies past Sehn’s head and into the wall of bottles in front of him, and he turns around to see a Lieutenant, completely smashed, looking angrily at him. “SssssEHN…you bashtard...!” He shouts, stumbling over to the counter. He grabs Sehn by the collar and looks him dead in the face, his eyes shifting from a sleepy look to someone who just came out of a sugar factory after eating all its stock. “I know you know that I know…that HE KNOWS…that…YOU, have something…something…uh…” He stutters, stroking his chin. “S-something thhhat starts wif a ‘g’…g…giiii…girl…girlfin…griffin…A GRIFFIN. Yeah, that’s it, you has a GRIFFIN.” He sputters with an accusing point at Loki, staring at her. She stares back, her cup of milk nearly empty, a dumbfounded look on her face. “Wait, I’m down here, bozo.” Sehn says, the Lieutenant shifting his gaze downwards. “Ohhh, there y’are, thought you could run away from me, uh? Well I’ll teach you a lesson you will forget…uh…I-I mean WON’T…won’t REMEMBER…um…ahhh screw it.” He says as he raises his left fist up and throws it at Sehn, missing completely and smashing into the corner of the counter. He looks at the fist, moving it back into his sight. “Ow.” “Wow.” Sehn says, raising his eyebrows. “Mark, cut this guy off, I think he’s had twenty drinks too much!” Sehn shouts over to the bartender, Rainbow laughing hard at the whole thing. Loki joins in the laugh as Sehn turns back, smiling to the Lieutenant. “Aright buddy, you’ve had a lot to drink tonight, back to your room with ya.” “It ishn’t my bed time though!” The Lieutenant exclaims, complaining like a child. He slouches down and pouts as hard as he can, before turning around and walking towards the door, the whole bar exploding into laughter. Rainbow turns back around, finishing off her beer and laying her head on the counter. She closes her eyes and dozes off with a smile on her face. Tearing wind greets her ears next, the sound all consuming, the darkness around her having eaten all the light in the world. She tries to right herself, but every movement sends her into a harder and harder roll through the air. She tries to move her hoof in front of her face, and touches her nose, nothing but darkness showing in her vision. She’s falling fast, far too fast to survive any form of impact with the ground below her…if there was any. How long was she out for? How far was it back to the surface? Gravity seemed to be pulling her from random directions, slowing her down or speeding her up, throwing her to the left or yanking her to the right, the tumble lasting for a long time. She tries opening her wings, them refusing to budge, and she continues speeding up. She feels a burn in her eyes and on her cheeks, marking that she’s been crying. Gravity pulls at her from below her, now feeling like she’s flying down a road at an extremely high speed, the downward fall slow. She taps the ground beneath her, sending her into a mad barrel roll through the air, and she crashes down onto the gravel below her. Four flips, five flips, seven flips, she keeps rolling and rolling until she eventually comes to a stop, a good sixty or seventy feet from her landing zone. She coughs hard, spitting out some blood. “Where…how…?” She whispers, looking around, trying to gather her surroundings. Nothing but darkness, but she can definitely feel jagged rocks under her. She moves her legs under her, trying to stand, before a stabbing anguish from her knee plants her belly back on the ground. She looks at her right hind leg, trying to see the damage. From what she can feel, the knee has been messed up badly, most of the skin on the kneecap and along the shin has been removed, and it’s bleeding profusely. A trickle of light shines down from behind Rainbow, and she turns around, seeing a dim ring of light from above, and just above it, she can see fog cover. “T-the cliff!” Rainbow quickly realises where she’s lying, and looks forward in shock. “I’m on the CLIFFSIDE?!” She shrieks into the darkness, her voice echoing out into the shadows as pain once again shoots up from her knee. She recoils from it, gritting her teeth, the damaged leg twitching as the muscles react to the nerve signals. Her breath exits as a hiss. “How’d…how’d I end up here?” She asks herself quietly, thinking back. The cliff, the Pegasus with the pink mane she was talking to, the kick…that look on her face. “Right…that’s how I ended up here…” Rainbow sighs, looking down. Fluttershy kicked her down here, and now she’s stuck on a jagged Cliffside, her knee too wounded to move properly and her wings glued to her sides, left to bleed out in the darkness…she looks to her right, seeing drips of red fall past her down into the darkness below the cliff. She tries opening her wings again, them twitching but refusing to give her a hand. “C’mon, not now…I’m not going to die, not now, I just need my wings to work for once when I need them!” Rainbow hisses out, another shot of pain hitting her in the back of her mind as her leg twitches. Her wings open fully, all the strength in the world in them, and her spirits skyrocket. “Yes! Alright, now to get out of here, find Fluttershy and Sehn, and finish th-“ A loud buzz from the walkie talkie cries out to Rainbow, and she quickly freezes. A few moments later, a loud, booming laugh echoes out from the shadows, all around Rainbow. “AHAHAHAHAHAA!” The deep voice shouts, snorting between laughs, “I-I’m sorry, so sorry…but you, thinking you can leave…sorry, that’s rich.” “Who’s there?!” Rainbow shouts into the darkness, knowing the answer. “Who? Well…I’m not entirely sure there’s an answer to that question. I can tell you WHAT I am…but as for who, well…I don’t really have an identity.” The darkness replies, seeming to question itself. Rainbow grimaces, the pain from her leg all too big a reason for her not to fight, but the voice sounds too familiar for it to be something in her head. “Why’re you talking to me?” Rainbow shouts into the darkness, fighting off the stabbing pain in her mind, trying to focus on the voice. “I’m not sure. One side of me wants to see how you’re doing, possibly fix your leg...”, The voice shifts to a higher pitch, “Another side of me wants to see you bleed out in agony!” The voice then shifts back to a female voice, regal and commanding, “Another side of me simply wants to see where you’ll go from here…” Finally, the voice shifts to a very familiar, meek voice, “Another side of me wants to see you again…” Rainbow opens her eyes wide at the last voice, looking around. She looks up, back at the light, seeing it has now faded into the shadows, causing the entire cliff side to disappear from sight. Looking around once more, defeat begins to settle into her soul, the pain breaking through her will. She rolls onto her right side, trying to get the leg to ease its twitching. “Ohhh, what’s wrong? Is the poor little girl hurt?” A voice echoes from just above her head, and she looks up, seeing two piercing red eyes staring back at her. “How utterly satisfying…” it continues, the voice sounding like a deep, twisted version of Sehn. “You…” Rainbow hisses back, “Why’re you here, just come to watch me die?” “Heavens no, I’m here to shepherd you away…for you to die here, it just wouldn’t look good.” He says, as the whole world rolls onto its side, gravity beginning its death pull on Rainbow. The shadow stands on the cliff as the whole world begins to move upwards, quickly becoming a blur as she falls into the abyss. Rainbow feels herself lying on something soft, something moving under her. It shapes to her body and supports her like a cloud, and it pushes her up and down, as if trying to find a way to support her just right against gravity. She moves slightly, yawning, all the exhaustion of her travels quickly catching up. A nap at this point would be great, until something rocks the very space around her and forces her to open her eyes. Through the drowsy haze, she can make out the blurs of structures, the street she’s lying on, the red sky above her. A shadow stands in the middle of the street, unmoving, and the world sharpens around it, only it coming through as a clear image through the haze. “Awaken, child…” It whispers, the robed figure of an Equestrian with a simple looking emerald around its neck. Rainbow gets to her hooves, standing up, finding no pain coming from her knee. She flexes her legs in a stretch to get the blood flowing, opening her wings and flapping them a few times before looking around herself. The world seems to remain in an unintelligible blur, while the figure beside her is sharp as if she was looking at it in the day time. She looks back at the shadow, not wanting to start a fight, the radio still quiet. “What are you meant to be?” “A questioner, who has existed here for quite some time.” The pony answers, staring back at Rainbow. “…Where are we?” Rainbow asks, looking around, nothing coming into focus for her besides the other pony. “A place created by somepony.” He answers. He sounds very young, not much older than Rainbow Dash. “Not very clear, Mr. Shady.” Rainbow answers with a grimace, keeping her distance from him. “A clear answer would be one without a preceding question, Miss Dash.” “Ok?” “One must find the question for the answer to make sense, correct?” “Wha…?” “Questions await answers, and answers await questions. Without the other, the prior is useless. One without context, the other without explanation.” “Stop talking like that!” Rainbow shouts. “The answer you search for resides within the fog…but to attain it, you must complete your trials. One gate lies open, revealing another, and this requires the key that you will find difficult to provide…” “Within the fog, gate, key, provide? Oh for Celestia’s sake, be straight with me. What are you talking about?” “I speak of you and your continuing hardships here. Must I explain everything?” The pony sighs, shaking his head. “You’re not very good at this whole ‘questioning’ thing, you know that, right?” Rainbow raises an eyebrow, staring at the cloaked pony. “All I’m meant to do is grant to you the answer, and then send you on your way to find the question. The path before you is going to be long and arduous, and this world will be that path until you reach the gate. I shall await you at the end of everything…” The pony nods before turning and walking away, disappearing into the distance. Rainbow simply stares onward, mouth agape. “What the HAY was he talking about?!” She shouts off into the empty street, demanding the air itself give her some form of answer. She groans in frustration and takes a step forward, stomping down on a piece of paper, the crunch of it catching her attention. She looks down at it, raising an eyebrow. “This wasn’t here before…” She thinks, sitting down to look at the note. She stares at it, the road around it blurry to the point of being unrecognizable, but the note being clear as day. The path through life is laden with questions, But the most important ones live without an answer. A search for the answer, a look into the past, Freedom is but a leap of faith in the right direction. The answers you seek are mentions of the spirit, The power you wish for is locked away inside. Find your question, for you have your answer, ‘Five.’ “…I hate this world.” Rainbow mumbles to herself, before picking up the note and placing it in her bag. After taking stock everything and flexing her right hind leg again to make sure it’s not injured, she begins walking through the oily stains of the street. “What kind of question would have such a vague answer? If only Twilight were here…her brain could get around anything.” Rainbow mumbles to herself, looking over the world. Just as the road had been, the buildings, the horizon, even the sky itself seemed to have this foggy look to it, bending and moving as Rainbow walked through the streets. Nothing seemed to come into focus, even her footsteps sounded like a muffled echo from down a long hallway. All she knew about this world was the road she walked on felt soft and plush, bouncing slightly as she stepped on it. Something opens in a building off to her right, causing her to freeze. A squeak of a door’s hinges, echoing from miles away, marks the opening of the wall just feet away from Rainbow. A blur walks out, blue in color and as tall as a Hemoran, and begins moving through the street. The walkie talkie begins to buzz, but it sounds as muffled and distant as the door hinges. The blur seems to look towards Rainbow, the eyes impossible to make out. A wave of black radiates from the ground under it, reaching her hooves in an instant, and she jumps from the feeling it carried shunting itself straight into her heart, a feeling of dire hatred, a sickness from being in simple proximity with the blur. It begins walking away, each footstep leaving behind the same wave, though far smaller. The buzz begins to fade, leaving Rainbow in complete silence, beyond her shallow breathing. “This world just…keeps messing with me.” She thinks, watching the blur fuse with the environment until it disappears, melting into the haze. Rainbow continues her walk down the street, simply wanting out of this crazed world, until a few moments later she comes to another road, sharp in her vision compared to the rest of the world. The road is made of clouds, thunderheads, black in color with sparks running across the valleys in it. The buildings along it are still blurry, however, but share the same color. “Where does this go?” She thinks, using her own voice to keep her company in this quiet world, and she proceeds down the side street. A wind blows past her, a very warm breeze as if it were passing over the open mouth of a volcano, and a newspaper being carried by it flies into Rainbow’s face. It comes suddenly, causing her to jump and flail a bit before she can register that the paper is, in fact, not trying to kill her. She pulls it off her face and looks it over, the writing impossible to make out, but the headline seems important being slightly easier to see than the rest. The words “Eques” and “Hem” can be made out, but the rest seems to meld together into the same black line. Rainbow sighs, “Is this world taking lessons from Pinkie?”, she thinks, shoving the paper into her bag in the hopes it may reveal more later. Continuing down the road, the sharp path seems to begin to blur immediately, marking the end of the street as it leads into another, just as blurred as the rest of the world. She walks to the end and looks around, before spotting a very sharp area on a wall near to her. It covers a window, the wooden crossbars around the glass look brand new with spots of red across them and the windows. Inside, a shadow can be made out, an Equestrian shape, standing in the room but not moving. In front of it is a blurred image, but holding the same body shape…something seems to be protruding from where its mouth should be. A note hangs next to the window, but it doesn’t grab Rainbow’s attention for some time, her vision locked on the frozen scene in the room. A wave of dread radiates through Rainbow, only for an instant, and she pulls her eyes away from the scene. “I’ve told myself not to question what happens here, but…why do things here feel so ominous?” She blinks a few times, looking to the left of the window, spotting the source of the sharpness. A note hangs by a rusty nail, puncturing the wall of black clouds, sparking occasionally from the electricity running through the walls. She walks up to it, and reads over the note. The number of cities in Equestria. There is a lump under the single line of text, and Rainbow moves the paper up, spotting a small blue medallion, with the shape of a star in the center of it embedded into the thunderhead. She drops the paper back down in front of it, looking at the single line of text. “The number of cities…? Well…there’s Canterlot, that’s one…Manehatten…Cloudsdale…Fillydelphia…I feel like there should be one more, though.” Rainbow thinks hard, tapping her hoof on the ground. “Ahh, can’t think of any others…but what’s the point of this?” She thinks, squinting her eyes at the piece of paper. “…Questions need answers, and answers need questions…then…” She mumbles, turning to her bag and pulling out the note she’d just gotten. “’Five’ is my answer…so I guess this is the wrong question? I guess it wouldn’t make sense for a question like this to have two answers…” She mumbles before sticking the note back in her bag and turning around. She hears a cracking sound come from next to her, and looks over at the note, seeing blue dust fall from behind the note. “…I really hope I didn’t need that…” She thinks with a grimace before walking off, the road that was once sharp now just as blurry as the rest of the world. She turns to the left and looks along the road, seeing the static worsen along the clouds until it becomes a steady flow of lightning far down the street, blocking her way. Two alleys open near the field of static where the bolts can’t seem to reach, both of them blurred. She turns around, looking down the other side of the street, until she spots a door that seems clear of the haze. “Well…the path I could see clearly lead to a note…so maybe this will too?” Rainbow ponders, walking towards the door. She stops, and quickly looks up to a rooftop on a short building to her right, feeling something watching her. Two red dots can be seen just over the ridge of the roof, but seem to blend in with the sky. She furrows her brow and moves on, continuing her stare for a couple steps before turning to the door. The door creaks open, revealing the tall blue Hemoran again, though it seems a bit more defined. Green can be made out on its body, ending in black gloves, and the head seems to run from blue to a blur of color at the tip of the spike. The eyes shift back over to Rainbow, still too blurry to make out, but that same wave of black comes to her and stabs her in the heart. She looks down at the wave at it touches her, and spots her coat lose color for a second. Looking back up, the shape is gone, leaving a small black flame where it was standing. “W..what…?” Rainbow says, stunned by what just happened. Equestrians don’t change physically unless they go under massive mental or emotional change…but usually it’s through something that happens to them, not from some blur staring at you. She looks down at the flame, and it spreads into a small line across the street, cutting off the path forward. The door doesn’t seem to be cut off however. “Like a big neon sign.” She thinks before moving over to the door, looking inside. It seems to be a still shot of a briefing for a squadron, four armed soldiers standing at the far side of the room. They seem to be looking at the door, at Rainbow, waiting for somepony. She steps into the room, and the four soldiers stand at attention and salute her. She simply stares at the four Royal Guard members, all dressed in steel armor with swords at the ready in their scabbards. “Uh…” Rainbow whispers, looking across the four knights, all staring at her in expectance of something. “Um…what are you four doing here?” “Awaiting orders, ma’am.” The one on the left, a brown Pegasus dressed in silver armor answers with a deep voice. “From who?” Rainbow asks, looking at the one on the left. “From our commander.” The one on the right answers, a white Pegasus in the same armor with a feminine, quiet tone. “Where is this?” “Classified, ma’am.” The one on the left answers again, the two in the middle, a green Pegasus in gold armor and a purple unicorn in a royal blue robe nod. “Why?” Rainbow asks, looking at the unicorn. “Citizens aren’t meant to be here, ma’am.” The unicorn answers, sounding like Twilight. “Then why are you here, Twi?” Rainbow asks with a smirk. “I was asked to assist this squad with my magic abilities.” She answers with a matter-of-fact tone, some of her red-streaked mane falling in front of her eyes. She sweeps it away. “Uh huh…um…while you’re waiting, mind if I look around?” Rainbow asks, rubbing the back of her neck and looking around. “You should head upstairs until someone comes to take you back.” The gold armored Pegasus answers with an aged tone, a short white beard on his chin. Rainbow nods slowly, looking at the four, and starts walking to the steps. She looks back, seeing them fading back into a hazy state, becoming four blurred shapes, Twilight still slightly recognizable. Rainbow shakes her head and walks up the steps, each one clearer than the last. She rounds the corner, walking up the last few steps before being presented with a hallway, two doors on either side of her and a note at the end of the hall. She walks up to the note and looks it over. The number of souls in the room below. “Well, that’s easy…it’s four, isn’t it?” Rainbow asks, tilting her head. “But…what about that blur?” She asks herself, rubbing her chin before a sound echoing up from the stair well grabs her attention. “Alright, troops, this is the game plan. We’re currently in enemy territory, in a forward base they set up, and we’ve infiltrated without as much as a whisper. This is going to continue until we find and capture her. Twilight, you’re taking Robertson to the southern end of the cloud, while me and Sarah are heading North. Jacob, you’re holding position here and evaccing all civilians still in the Red Zone. Is that understood, Thunderstrike? “Yes, sir!” The four voices reverberate back through the hall, and footsteps can be heard moving. “Wait, it’s five!” Rainbow quickly spins around to the note and raises it, grabbing the blue medallion under it. This one has the design of two wings within a hollow circle, and seems to have a hole for something to be inserted into it at the bottom where the two wing roots touch. The note bursts into green flame, and the sounds of somepony climbing up the steps can be heard. Rainbow quickly stuffs the medallion into her bag and blows out the green flame, turning around to see the brown Pegasus. “Civilian, we’re leaving. Do you live here?” He asks. “I-uh-um…I-I don’t know, where are we?” Rainbow says with a shrug and a look of confusion. “As was said, that’s classified. Now come on, I’ll assume you don’t live here. I’ll take you to the edge of the cloud and you can fly off.” He says with a tone demanding no questions, and turns around to walk away. “Wait! I-I heard someone downstairs say ‘Thunderstrike Unit’…is-“ “That is the name of our squadron, yes. Miss Sparkle is a soldier sent under express order by the Princess, as she will be invaluable to this. Now come along, we don’t have much time.” He cuts her off, and begins trotting off to the stair well. Rainbow follows close behind before the two doors on the sides of the hallway immediately open up, cutting off her path. A few seconds later they close, and the guardsman is gone. “Oh, shoot!” Rainbow exclaims, running for the steps and heading down them, not feeling the gaze of the entity standing at the end of the hall behind her. She skids to a stop at the bottom of the steps, absolute terror entering her from the scene of the room. Blood is splattered all across the walls, and three bodies are grouped together on the floor, another body lying against the wall. One of the bodies moves, the white Pegasus, and she rolls onto her gut, coughing hard. Rainbow sprints over to her, looking over her armor. It’s full of slashes, cuts and dents…the poor mare was caught in a three on one fight. “A-Are you OK?!” Rainbow shouts, going for the medkit in her bag. She pulls it out as the Pegasus puts a hoof to her face. “Don’t waste that on me…” She wheezes, looking at the floor, blood slowly trickling out of her mouth. She looks to her two fallen allies, then to the body on the wall, spotting that it’s still moving. She growls at it, getting slowly to her feet, revealing a disastrous wound on her belly, spilling blood and revealing some intestine, all of it still being held inside by her armor. She drags herself over to the body on the wall, taking a sword out of the floor, lethal intent in her eyes. “Oh no…” Rainbow mutters, looking at the corpse on the wall. It’s a green-colored Hemoran, impaled against the wall on a short sword, his camos nearly completely coated in newly-spilled blood, though he himself doesn’t seem wounded beyond the sword stuck through his lower stomach. He looks up at the approaching Pegasus and smiles, “This has been a long time coming…” “Silence, monster…” She hisses through the sword, wincing under the inferno of pain in her legs. She begins to fall slightly, but Rainbow sprints over quickly and supports her using a wing, lifting her and her heavy armor back up. “I need to treat you, ma’am, please, let me help y-“ “I don’t need help!” The mare shouts into Rainbow’s face, turning quickly and hacking up a cloud of bloody mist, collapsing under her own weight. Rainbow falls with her, yanking out her wing before it’s crushed under the armor. “I…I’m already too far gone…” She whispers, staring at the Hemoran with a blood thirst that radiates off her. She hears the drawing of a knife, Rainbow stepping into her view. “What happened here?!” She hisses through the knife, staring into the Hemoran’s eyes. He opens them wide, shocked, then slides his right hand over to a small knife on the floor. Rainbow follows it as it brings the blade up towards her, and goes to step back… As the blade flies past her and straight into the Hemoran’s forehead, a sickening crunch sounding out as it easily splits his skull and enters his brain, killing him instantly. He dies with a permanently shocked look, as if he was about to scream… Rainbow drops her knife, mouth agape at what just happened. She turns to the Pegasus, who also seems to have died…but with a smile on her face, happy that at least the killer of her friends was dead being the only guess Rainbow can come up with. She sits down, looking around at the room, numb to her own emotions. When did this fight occur, and why didn’t she hear it when she could hear the discussion so clearly? That all aside…where was Twilight?