Rainbow had done her signature Sonic Rainboom dozens of times in her life, she had even done it on Hannibal when she had first arrived in this hellscape of a universe. She knew everything about how it felt, how it sounded, even how it smelt. No matter how long she went without doing one, she’d never forget that feeling.
This wasn’t that feeling.
Rainbow shot forward, moving faster than she had ever moved before. She couldn’t see anything, powering forward through the void that she had created. Then suddenly a shape appeared to her left, light beaming outwards from it before it coalesced into a familiar shape.
Once again Rainbow looked at herself in the past, free from augmentations, bearing scars she had gained when she was still a member of the Swooping Hawks. Then another light burst into being, another Rainbow to the left of the first. Younger again, she bore no signs of battle at all, completely unblemished by war. More lights began bursting into being, on the left and the right, stretching as far as Rainbow could see in both directions.
When she looked to the left it was like looking into the past, a million million iterations of her stretching back through the years. She didn’t want to look right, didn’t want to see what the other side would hold for her, and for a moment she resisted, still feeling herself streaking forward, before she caved, her head turning to look to the future.
The first one was close to herself, bearing the same scars, completely covered in the ichor of some Tyranid beast. Then they began to move onwards. She got cleaner, scars began to fade.
Rainbow’s heart leapt. She was going to get through this, she was going to live!
Then the scars reopened, new ones blossomed. Rainbow wanted to look away as she saw moment by moment her body being flayed apart but her eyes were locked on to it.
Rainbow screamed as she felt herself hit something, thick armour and muscle parting before her as she was ripped back to reality.
Rainbow tore through the Swarmlord in the time it took the creature to blink. Its reflexes were fast, but there was no stopping the black shape that had taken the place of the spectral Pegasus. She tore free from the other side, slamming into the ground as the darkness that she had created pulsed outwards. Everything screamed now, Dark Eldar, Tau, Tyranids, all were the same. Synapse creatures were the worst, their blood curdling cries eclipsing all others as blood began to pour from eyes and mouths. Finally, just when they reached a crescendo, the screaming stopped, the synapse creatures collapsing to the floor, dead.
The rest of the swarm fared little better, their movements sluggish as they struggled to regain some of their senses. The Dark Eldar too were suffering, jetbikes careening into the dirt as Raider drivers fought to remain conscious and protect themselves and the lives of those they carried.
Only the Tau seemed to remain unaffected, the few battlesuits that remained rushing to the prone form of Applejack, unleashing all of their rage into the confused swarm. Two Manta’s were approaching even as Rainbow pushed herself up from the crater she had smashed into the ground.
Her head was swimming, the bones in her wings felt like they were powder, and her legs were bent into angles no leg should ever be at. With a cry of pain she pulled herself forward, the grinding of bone against bone digging into her brain even as he own pain pushed the feeling aside, ensuring she was lucid enough to feel everything.
Screaming, Rainbow pulled herself to the prone Equinox battlesuit, roaring in pain as she willed her limbs to work normally. Her muscled bulked as the last of her drug reserves were pumped into them, but all the drugs in the world could not bring her mangled form to bear on the rent metal.
Still screaming, Rainbow slammed her limbs against the cockpit, pain lancing through her body, threatening to knock her out even as that very same pain kept her mind alert. She was in a hell of her own making as she finally flopped over, too tired to move, looking up into the sky.
A huge pair of wings unfurled above her, talons glinting as Gilda landed beside Rainbow. She was covered in blood, her armour scorched by bio-plasma, but she was looking one hell of a lot better than Rainbow was.
“Fuck! Hang on Dash, we’ve getting out of here,” Gilda swore, scooping Rainbow up in her talons.
“N…o…” Rainbow managed, the word coming out in a garge, Rainbow realising for the first-time half her tongue was no longer in her mouth, bitten off in the fight somewhere. “Savvv….Appp…accc.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Gilda scowled, before dropping Rainbow and leaping atop the battlesuit, grasping the hole and pulling. Her muscles bulged, Rainow could almost hear them tearing, but millimetre by millimetre the metal moved. With a final screech the hinges tore, the opening flying open in her talons, just as the Manta’s finally touched down, Fire Warriors spewing forth alongside Exodites to finish the swarm before it recovered. Gilda saw a squad of their elite ‘Honour Guard’ sprinting after Aun’Vesa, the Ethereal heading straight for Applejack’s fallen form.
“She’ll be fine, you’re coming with me,” Gilda growled, picking Rainbow up, taking to the skies before Rainbow could voice any objections.
As she flew free from the battlefield, Rainbow’s eyes finally drooped as she sunk into blissfully pain free unconsciousness.
***
The peace didn’t last, it couldn’t last. Rainbow awoke screaming, strapped to an upright table as Eethron stood before her, scalpel in hand.
“I am glad you are back with us, Ms Dash,” he preened, Rainbow not believing his apparently sincerity for an instant.
“’Ere’s…Appleack?” Rainbow managed, surprised by the new tongue that rested in her head, her words still slurred but far better than earlier.
“Appleack?” Eethron mused with a smile. “You friend is being seen to by the Tau. They would not let me take her and save her life, so I do not know where the primitives have taken her. I have had by hands full with you however, Dash. Did you know that you can apparently survive with over ninety percent of your bones shattered, and remain coherent enough to move about? I didn’t, and even with my own modifications to your form, I can only claim perhaps twenty percent of that figure. You never cease to amaze me, you and your kind.”
“What…happened?”
“Well we won, that is obviously what you are referring to in the grand scale. My forces in the void destroyed the Norm Queens, but it was you, Rainbow who struck the final blow. I do not know how you did it, but you disrupted the Hive Mind’s own powers. Just for an instant, your…disruption tapped into the Psychic force of the Tyranids, empowered it. You overloaded the heads of any synapse creature within the nearby vicinity, the rest of the swarm was hardly a threat after that.”
Rainbow didn’t respond as she felt the coldness of a hundred needles pulling free from her spine, the restraints holding her upright disappearing, dropping her to the floor. She stayed there for a minute, panting hard before pushing herself up, unsteady on her hooves and talons for a moment but rapidly finding her balance. Her legs felt stronger now, the bones within had likely been replaced with something by Eethron, but right now she didn’t care, breaking into an awkward gallop out of the Haemonculus’s lab, heading for the webway portals. As much as she was grateful for the work Eethron had done once more, she could not help but thank whatever higher power there was that someone had stopped him from taking Applejack…and that he’d not simply taken her anyway.
Eethron watched her go with a smile on his face before a Wrack appeared in front of him, dropping to his knees and bowing his head.
“My lord, the forward elements of the Saim-Hann defence fleet have just exited the webway at the system’s edge. The rest of the fleet will be coming soon, along with the Craftworld itself.”
“Then we had best be off,” Eethron nodded. “Issue the withdrawal order across the Triumvirate. Any live specimens are to be captured and left alive. You have command of this, Acothyst. Do not allow us to be intercepted by the Craftworlders.”
The Wrack rose, bowing once before running from the room, Eethron moving towards a large crystalline screen. Waving his hand above its surface, the cloudy crystal began to clear, a shape taking form within, cyan fur and a rainbow mane coming into focus.
“Let us see where you run to, Ms Dash.”
***
Rainbow was running as she hit the other side of the webway portal, Gilda catching sight of her and flying to her side, matching her pace for pace.
“Where?” Rainbow snapped, Gilda turning without a word, Rainbow following her moves.
As they ran, Rainbow realised just how costly their victory had been. Wounded Tau and Exodites littered the roads, some of them looking like they would not last the hour, tended to by a host of bone white medical drones or Exodite doctors. No distinction was made between the patients species, enough blood had mingled together in the war for this world that such a separation was meaningless.
The pair finally reached one of the few medical facilities that had been set up, pushing their way inside, ignoring the weak glares thrown their way by those who could muster the strength to do so. Once inside, Rainbow grabbed hold of the first uninjured being she saw, holding the Tau my the shoulder with her talon, careful not to put too much pressure on the Tau, but making it clear she could if she so wished.
“Where’s Applejack?” She asked slowly, making sure to pronounce the words clearly despite her new tongue.
“I am not…” the Tau began, before wincing as Rainbow’s talons broke the skin. “She’s down the corridor…the main recovery room.”
“So she’s alive,” Rainbow spoke quickly this time, her words slurring as she released the Tau.
“I can answer that,” a bonesinger said as she approached, glaring at Rainbow and Gilda as she pointedly removed Rainbow’s Talon from the Tau’s shoulder.
“Go, you are needed elsewhere,” she spoke to the Tau, her melodic voice soothing even in this time, before she turned back to Rainbow and Gilda.
“Applejack is alive, yes, but not without cost. She has suffered greatly to save our home, and we have gifted her much in return, as have the Tau’s greatest minds. We could not save much of her right side, nor her spine. These have been replaced, the Tau did provide their own prosthetics which have been incorporated with my own knowledge of bone crafting. “
Rainbow turned to leave, heading towards the direction the Tau had indicated, but the bonesinger stopped her, laying a hand upon her wing.
“We almost lost her several times, you know. She must have had something worth fighting for. With the darkness I can see in you, I doubt it was yourself, be sure to remember that when you look upon her at something you caused with your weakness.”
With that the bonesinger turned, Gilda snarling as she left.
“Get the fu…” she began, before Rainbow cut her off.
“Leave it, Gilda,” she all but whispered. “She’s…not wrong.”
“She can’t speak to you like that,” Gilda snapped.
“She just did,” Rainbow sighed, before slowly walking down the corridor, pushing aside a transpariplastic sheet that served as a door to a recovery room.
The occupants within were immediately alert, weapons flying into hands and hooves and pointing at Rainbow. Lightning, Spitfire, Scootaloo and Koghad all looked ready to blow her head off, even Aun’Vesa, the only one to not draw a weapon, looking displeased at her presence.
“Shoot me or get those out of my face,” Rainbow murmured, looking at the four guns before moving past them, no one lowering their weapons, but no one firing either.
Rainbow couldn’t care less about their posturing, her eyes focused on the form of Applejack floating in the middle of the room.
A thin field of anti-gravity held Applejack suspended, her eyes shut as an IV pumped something into her veins, most likely a sedative. The bonesinger hadn’t been lying about the damage she had sustained, her right side almost entirely replaced with smooth, polished metal, her foreleg and hindleg included. Her spine too had been strengthened, segmented pieces of metal running along her back and up the back of her head, her mane cropped short to allow the doctors to properly operate and install the cybernetics.
They were sleek, far more so than the Tau bionics Rainbow had seen, and certainly more so than the crude human bionics, and while not the wraithbone replacements she had once worn, they seemed to fit her far better than Eldar replacements would have.
Nobody spoke as Rainbow took in the ruination that had been done to Applejack, tears welling up in her eyes for a split second before the lens slid into place, stopping the outburst of emotion. Without a word, Rainbow turned and left, Gilda snorting and following after her, leaving the others alone with Applejack.
“Is…she…gone?” Applejack asked, her eyes cracking open just a fraction. The sedatives were indeed pumping through her body, but she was conscious enough to see and slurringly speak.
“They’re gone,” Aun’Vesa nodded, coming to her side once more. “You should get some rest, Shas…”
“Leave…rank…out of it,” Applejack smiled. “Ah…quit. Ah’m goin’…home, ya hear?”
“Perfectly,” Aun’Vesa smiled. “Though I will say this, Applejack. You will always be a Shas’O in the Pa’Laa sept. no matter where you are, you will always be one of us, quitting or no quitting. I will leave you with your closer friends, I must go and supervise other matters, but before you leave, do come and find me. I would say my final goodbyes under better circumstances than our last one.”
Bowing deeply, Aun’Vesa swept from the room, the others watching him go, leaving the four ponies and the Demiurg alone in the room. No body really spoke, a few words passed here and there, but for the most part they stayed silent, all of them simply resting in each other’s company. For the first time in years, they all felt at peace, no more wars to fight. The last hurdle had fallen and soon, they’d be going home and all that entailed.