//------------------------------// // Sacrifice. // Story: There Are Always Alternatives // by thecyanidefairy //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash dragged her body over to her fallen comrade, ignoring the screams and sounds of magical blasts around them that threatened to deafen her. Her mind was strangely calm at the sight of the dark still form. Corporal Limestone Pie was always serious and stern, but it was only now that her eyes were glassy and empty that Rainbow realised how full of life and laughter they had been. Rainbow closed the eyes of the mare who had saved her life, and hardened the pain gnawing at her heart. She wanted to howl her grief, crying at the loss of a dear friend, but now was not the time. As one of the Captains of the Royal Guard, the burden fell to her to find Lime’s sisters and deliver the news. She rose to her hooves once more and looked around her, drinking in the repugnant vision that was now her reality. Ponies struck out against ponies, hooves connecting with soul wrenching cracks. Magic raged with loud booms, lighting up the field in a grotesque parody of a festival. The stench of sweat and fear hung over the land like a mist, ever present and burning her nose. Her body ached, stinging where enemy strikes had been scored into her body. Her wings trembled, the once glistening and straight feathers now dull and messy with lack of care. One of her wings ached, a deep biting sting that told Rainbow she had cracked the bone at some point when Lime had fallen on her, saving her from a volley of magic. Her hooves sank into the muddy ground, churned and dampened red with the suffering of the masses. And for what? So some stupid pony could call himself King of Equestria? Anger bubbled, threatening to break her calm expression. Rainbow gritted her teeth, scanning the battlefield once again, the sight of the fierce attacks breaking her heart. Celestia tried, but damn her, they were losing this war! A pink blur caught her vision, Pinkie was brawling against a platoon of ponies with Maud at her side shielding another downed pony, a coat as white as snow. Celestia! Panic gripped Rainbow and adrenaline gushed through her veins, she had to reach them, but they were so far away. Pinkie couldn’t keep her strange teleportation up forever, and if Celestia fell than the cause was lost and Lime had died for nothing. That was unacceptable! Anger boiled now, and Rainbow steeled herself, launching roughly into the air, ignoring the pain in her wing. There was only one way to clear the field fast enough for her to reach the Pie sisters and the Princess. A sonic rainboom, aimed directly at the churning masses beneath her. Higher and higher she rose, becoming a blue speck against the cloudy sky. The wind roared in her ears, her eyes streamed with tears and her breath came out in ragged gasps, the throb in her wing was beyond an ache and now was like a great beast was chewing upon the bone. Briefly, Rainbow Dash hovered in the air. If she did this, her wing may never allow her to fly again. Uncertainty. She wavered. A scream reached her ears, and she saw the tiny dot of Maud rip into a crystal soldier that was standing over Pinkie, who had collapsed. The anger of Maud Pie knocked the slave across the ground, and Rainbow felt her stomach drop as she watched her friend beat a pony to death with her hooves. This was their home, their Equestria. This battle field had once grown flowers and been a place for foals to play. Everypony had so much taken from them, if Celestia fell here, if the Pie sisters fell here, what was the point? A wing meant nothing in the face of what would be lost if they lost this day. She closed her wings and dropped, a bullet raining from the sky. Her wings flapped harder and harder, spurring on her descent to the earth. The stab in her side intensifed and she felt a wet tearing begin, but she did not relent, the barrier of the sonic rainboom had formed around her hooves. If she faltered now she would lose more than a wing. Faster. Faster. More. CRACK. The shock-wave shattered across the combat zone, flattening the crystal soldiers and knocking them back on their hooves. Sparkling rainbow light lit up the dark clouds above, and for a brief moment there was stillness. The Equestrian Army, equipped with armor that grounded them against the sonic rainboom, attacked the fallen soldiers knocked senseless by the fallout. Rainbow closed her eyes against the destruction, instead skidding to a halt before her friends and the Princess. “Pinkie..” she gasped, falling to the ground, her side was light, and her mind was dizzy. Blearily, she looked down, her numbed consciousness fading as it took in the stump that had been the price of saving this day. Pinkie cupped Rainbow’s face in her hooves, worry etched upon her face. Her mouth was moving, but strangely Rainbow could only hear ringing. Rainbow fought against the closing darkness to croak out the message that had to be delivered. “Limestone’s dead.” She felt Pinkie release her and she hit the fouled mud beside Celestia. She could laugh at the thought of dying here next to the pony who had sent her into battle, but instead she rolled onto her back and stared up at the murky, overcast sky, burning ash swirling above her head, allowing the cold heavy black to roll over her mind. The sisters would survive. The unit their army had been fighting was decimated. All for the price of a single wing. Her sacrifice.