//------------------------------//
// 23 - Saviors Come In All Flavors 
// Story: Without You 
// by Dustchu 
//------------------------------//

The medical college of Raccoon City was a sight to behold, perhaps the last bastion of hope the city had. The majority of the city had fallen into ruin as the streets were clogged building to building with undead monsters, tens of thousands upon thousands of them so densely packed together. What few survivors there were in the north were forced south, and as more closed in from the west, they would head east, and if they were in the south, north... all of these surviving people had gone through hell and back.

Fires burned and cut off many paths, cars packed bumper to bumper and turned over, acting as barricades, cutting off many from heading the way they wanted or needed to survive. Despite it all, they fought tooth and nail to head towards the college nearby, as it would prove to be their only escape from this hellish nightmare they've been trapped in, as thousands upon thousands descend upon them all.

Many of them would not make it, but the few who would, found themselves at the medical college, their last chance to escape from the city.

Even fewer would already be there...






West Wing of the Medical College, 2nd Floor






I was fucking exhausted, and it showed. I leaned against the wall as I chased after the man in black, breathing heavily as outside, fires burned and I heard gunshots, more of Umbrella's goons had arrived to secure the building, to outnumber us and take me and Rainbow away somewhere. The idea made me angrier by the second; they knew about Rainbow, they knew about me, and what we had talked about because of those stupid cameras around the city.

I chased down and tracked the blood that Black was leaving in his wake, past doors and through the sparsely decorated halls. I could see a lot of the doors had been busted down and some had been blocked off entirely by junk. He hadn't gone into any of those rooms, he was headed towards the farthest side of the college for some reason, and his blood trail told me that.

It was hard to tell considering that most of the blood was mixed in with the blood of others, but this was fresh and I wasn't stupid, I was able to track him. Also helped I could hear him running ahead of me over the gunfire around me, slamming through doors and trying to get away from me.

"You think you can escape me!?" I shouted and burst through the door and spotted him. I quickly aimed and fired two shots at him, but I missed and nailed the wall next to him while the other grazed his leg. "Irons thought he could escape me, and so did his lackeys! They're all dead, and you're fucking next on my list, Black!"

I fired again as he exited through a door, and I cursed.

Fucking asshole.

I collected myself and moved as fast as my dying body would allow.

Slamming through the next door after him, I saw him approaching some stairs heading up and he started running. His injuries should have slowed him down a bit, but desperation can make a weakling strong and fast.

"Yeah, you better keep running, you bastard!" I am going to kill this guy, I swear to god.

I ended up stopping for a moment to rest. My heart was beating way too fast and every throb was like a dagger in my chest, twisting it deeper. Sweat was pouring down from my head and somehow making the heat inside the damn building even worse. My body felt saggy and my vision was starting to blur again, it even felt like my blood was hot, boiling in my veins.

I ended up falling against the side of the stairs going up and struggled to breathe in what air I could.

Shit, how am I even still going.

The way up the stairs seemed like a journey; long and daunting of a task, but there were only three floors to this building, and a momentary glimpse through my memory of what was at the top of these stairs came to mind; he was headed to the laboratory where the Daylight was created, if I wasn't mistaken, the place that made the cure for the damn virus that caused this whole mess.

Why head there? None of us had any of the necessary components needed for it, so why head there?

A last stand? I reached up and grabbed onto the railing. I pulled on it to hoist myself back up onto my feet and start moving up; one step at a time. I was still gripping my handgun, just barely aiming it towards the hall above. No, why head up there, it was a dead-end unless he knows how to get out of there.

I managed to force my way to the top of the stairs and the halls; empty and devoid of any people or undead, and the blood trail led to the door at the end. That had to be the laboratory, where Daylight could be made, where my salvation awaited me, as soon as the components were found, which I didn't even know the progress on.

We needed three things, and I hadn't even seen them yet, not a single one.

Too busy dying.

I walked down the hallway and avoided the doors on my left. The windows to my right let me look out onto the front of the college campus below; the tall concrete walls surrounding the building still stood tall, and a few vehicles blocked the entrance. I looked at the gates that marked the official entrance; I wasn't surprised to see the horde of undead slamming against it and tearing it down. I saw hundreds, if not thousands of undead freaks down there, all of them pushing against one another to try and get inside the place.

Even beyond that, what little I could make out showed the majority of undead had found their way down here and were trying to get in, overrun the few survivors that still survived this chaotic time.

I swear I even saw a few survivors outside, but it could have just been running zombies or something.

I looked back towards the door at the end and approached it, gun raised and ready for action, and placed my hand on the handle. With a deep breath, I pushed it open and looked inside the room.

I spotted the man in black standing in the room, one hand around his wound and the other holding his gun up and towards me.

He pointed his gun at me, and I had no choice but to carefully enter the room as he spoke, "How about we have a chat before we start shooting at one another, hmm?"

A chat? I had half a mind to blow his fucking brains out right here and now, but he had the gun aimed right at me and any move I made, could spell my end, and all this work for nothing. He had the upper hand here, and I was too weak and fucked up to try and make funny moves; I couldn't do anything except listen to him talk out of his ass.

I entered the room and allowed the door to close behind me. Outside, I could still hear helicopters buzzing around, flying by the buildings; for what reason I didn't know, maybe Umbrella getting ready to extract what remained of their people before bugging out. "W-what do you even want?"

The man smiled and stepped over to the door leading to the laboratory itself. "What do you hope to get out of struggling, fighting?" He asked me. "You and that horse you have with you, you want to go home? What if I could make that happen."

I stared at him. "Make what happen...?" I had a sneaking suspicion about what he was leading on about, but I needed to hear it for myself.

He just smiled. "I can send you back home, but you have to let me have the one you call Rainbow Dash."






Saviors Come In All Flavors






"R-Rainbow, I don't know about this."

"Come on, Shy! It'll be fun, just trust me."

We were flying around the pool near my house, I think, in the park. Fluttershy was so scared of it, scared of her own shadow most of the time, and trying to get her to practice flying with me was like trying to get my parents to stop worshipping me; it was impossible.

"W-what if I fall in the water?"

"If you do, I'll be there to save ya!"

I didn't expect the roles to be reversed; she soared right over the small pool we had at the park near my house, landing in a heap on the other side. It was a big success for her! I was so proud of her. But when I flew over?

I didn't expect the wind to suddenly change and blow me so far off course, or to make me hit a branch of one of the trees.

I was the one falling into the pool that day, right into the water.

I was small, I barely had much muscle in me to help keep me afloat. I remember Fluttershy screaming for help, everything flashing before my eyes; my short little life as a reckless kid.

I forget who saved me that day, some stallion... he was big, saved my life that day.

I still remember seeing his shadow as I lost my strength and fell under the surface, and everything started going black.

I swear I saw his shadow again as I fell under the water. My leg burned from the mutant chomping down on it, I swear I thought I felt something give. The lights above flickered and everything grew darker, and I felt pain as my lungs burned; I needed to breathe but I couldn't.

I can't move.

I thought I saw a shadow in the water above me, someone diving in, but I wasn't sure if I was seeing things or not.

M-move! Come on, move!

I tried to kick the monster who was dragging me down, but my hits were dampened by the water and how slow and weak I was.

I felt something wrap around my upper body; long appendages, strong ones too, was something else trying to eat me?

The water rippled next to me and the mutant grabbing my foot let go all of a sudden, and whatever was holding onto me was dragging me up? I couldn't focus on what it was.

Everything was turning black.

When we emerged from the water and air hit me, I took in a huge breath of air. My eyes snapped open, and I realized I was free from the monster!

Someone screamed, "hur-! ----erywhere!"

Gunshots sounded in the air, violent ringing that reverberated in my ears and made me dizzy, really loud noises that echoed in the room. I heard the splashing of the cold water, more gunshots, and people shouting. I managed to open my eyes and I felt I was being held by someone; being dragged through the water.

"Claire!" I heard the voice closest to me shout.

Some grunting and someone grabbed onto my arm, and yelled, "I got her!"

I felt myself being pulled up by someone now as more shots filled the air.

I was out of the water, and the little bit of strength I had left, I used to clamber up the ladder I found myself near and up back to where I was before I got dragged under.

I gasped for air and got as far away from the water and the edge as I could. Everything burned, I was sucking in air like I was going to lose it again, and with how things have gone for me so far? I believed it.

"Leon!" A voice behind me shouted.

"I'm alright!" Another cried, followed by a groan. "I'm just wet."

I gasped and sat down, before shaking my head around to get the water out of my mane and ears. My leg was still burning and a quick look at it revealed a really nasty bite mark around my hip and knee, and it was bleeding. I felt sick looking at it; my stomach churned at the sight of the blood staining my pale cyan coat and the bandages I had around older wounds.

"Is... is that a pony?" I heard a younger voice speak up, and it drew my attention from my leg for a second.

Looking away from my gnarled leg and at the humans surrounding me; I saw one was dressed kind of like Dee was, with the RPD armor, but it had seen better days and was torn in a few places, and he was wrapped in bandages. There was a girl too, in a red jacket and pants, with red hair and carrying a big gun. Another smaller human was behind her, a human foal? Or kid? I'm not sure what they called their young.

"I... guess?" The redhead muttered and looked to the other human, in the armor, "why'd we save her again?"

The man looked me up and down, before turning back to her, "Umbrella wants her for some reason, back in the NEST I saw they were planning to get their hands on her, I'm not sure why."

I looked over to where Yoko was and I saw she had made her way over to where we were. She looked even worse than before. "She's trying to help us, my group," Yoko told them, "we're trying to gather things needed to create a cure, f-for the virus."

The two adults' eyes lit up. "A cure? You mean there's something else?" The woman asked.

Yoko nodded. "Yes, b-but the last thing we need is across that bridge, P-Base; it's the final component we need to create Daylight," I remembered the bag I was carrying and unzipped it, and checked the containers I had inside.

They weren't damaged as far as I could tell, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "I have two of them here, but the last one we need."

The two looked at one another and I could see the gears turning in their heads, they were working something out.

"A cure for the virus, you know what this means, Leon?"

The man; Leon, nodded. "It means we have a fighting shot at taking down Umbrella." He turned to me and down to the bag, then to Yoko, "just one more component, and we can make this cure or whatever?"

"Yes." Yoko groaned and held her wounds. "We get it and head back to the college, there's a laboratory on the third floor we can use to synthesize a cure, once it's done we can all get out of here!"

Leon nodded and messed with the big gun he had, racking the slide back and turning around. "Claire, you stay here and keep an eye out... no idea if Birkin followed us, hopefully not."

I swallowed as Leon started across the bridge towards where the P-Base probably was. I just rested; he would have better luck, and he was actually armed and didn't look too worse for wear. I was more worried about what they had said; about Birkin? Who was that? I bet Dee would know, but he's not here...

I hope he was okay.

Just hang on a little longer.

"W-wait, Birkin?" Yoko stuttered. "William Birkin? Why would he be following us?"

Claire turned around to face us; I had seen human faces change a lot with how they felt about certain things, mostly Dee's, and I had seen Claire's change into an expression he had not too long ago.

Fear.

"He's... turned into some kind of monster," Claire muttered, "Leon told me he injected himself with something called the G-Virus and it's changed him into a huge monster..."

The little human next to her whimpered, I could only guess why.

I didn't know there were more viruses, but with how this world was, Dee probably didn't tell me because it was just more bullshit to add onto the pile we already had to deal with. This G-Virus sounded bad if it scared this human that bad, and with all of the other monsters we had to deal with, I couldn't even begin to imagine what it looked like.

I heard gunshots from across the bridge, and I saw lights flashing from the hallway.

Claire looked towards them before turning to the smaller human. "Listen, Sherry, stay here with uh..." She looked at me and Yoko, and I swallowed.

I pointed to myself, "I'm Rainbow Dash," I told the girl, and pointed to the human behind me and said, "that's Yoko."

Claire nodded in thanks and said, "stay with them, I have to go help Leon, alright?"

Sherry nodded and ran over to me as Claire ran off, slapping the side of her gun before running off down the bridge. We were left alone as those two humans fought against mutants and zombies nearby, and I sighed before running a hoof through my mane. This whole thing had turned out to become such a hassle, a fight for survival against things I didn't even know existed until now.

It was insane.

Dee, just hang on... please.

I heard more gunshots, a few shouts, and nothing else after a bout of silence. I licked my dry lips and hoped they would find the last thing we needed, I wanted to get out of here, back to the college with the others, and finally get out of this stupid place once and for all.

I heard a rumbling noise from nearby, thumping sounds that made my heart beat faster; I thought, oh please, don't let it be who I think it is.

I didn't have the energy left in me to run after that, and I had Yoko injured nearby and a human foal next to me, plus those other two humans! Too many people and I had no idea if that was going to be enough to fight that thing.

Leon and Claire eventually came running back and I saw something in the human male's hand, it looked an awful lot like the container in Yoko's pack; that was it! I dared to let a smile pop up on my face as my wings spread out.

"You found it!" I couldn't believe it! We had all three of the pieces! "Now we can finally-"

I shouldn't have said anything.

I shouldn't have fucking said anything.

The wall behind them near the rooms on the far end exploded, sending chunks of concrete flying away. The ground shook and my ears rang from the roar I heard screeching through the smoke and dust that blew our way. I could only make out one word from it, from the garbled mess that came rushing forth.

"Sheeeeeeeerrrrrrrrry!"






X Gon' Give It To Ya






I stared at the man in black for the longest time, rolling around the words in my head.

I'll send you home, but only if I give him Rainbow Dash.

He apparently had that power? I had no idea who this guy was, but I knew he had to belong to Umbrella. He knew everything about what Dash and I talked about, our worlds, but how could he have that power, that kind of ability?

"Bullshit." I spat out; my vision was starting to bounce between blurry and clear, and given my eyesight already sucked there wasn't much difference except it made it more difficult to focus on Black. "There's no way you could have something like that just lying around, ready to use." I know Umbrella didn't have anything like that, they were biological warfare, not alternate dimensional travel or any of that bullshit. Even if they knew about Dash and me when we first got here, there's no way they would have had time to construct or even test prototype tech to teleport people.

Black chuckled. "You never know, what could it hurt." 

I narrowed my eyes and kept my gun aimed at him. "No dice, buddy... even if you were telling the truth, I wouldn't take it. Rainbow's my friend, and you don't ditch friends, not like you'd know anything about that." I grumbled as gunshots sounded nearby. Someone's closing in. "You were probably the loner kid in school weren't ya, no friends and bullied; you look like the type to be pushed around you fucking toad-"

The flash from his gun nearly blinded me, but I was more worried about the intense pain that shot up from my leg as the bullet made contact.

It made my leg wobble and give way, and I fell onto my knee with a shout, "fuck!"

Black glared at me with a still-smoking gun. "You could have made things a whole lot easier, it's always fools like yourself that insist on making everything difficult!"

I dropped my gun as I felt my second wind leave me. I was out of gas, and no matter how hard I struggled to get myself moving again, something told me I wasn't getting any more chances to be fighting this guy off. I need... Daylight or I'm done for, for real this time. I looked up at Black as he pulled back the hammer on his gun and took aim at my head. Shit.

"If you won't cooperate, I'll just end this little game here-"

The door nearby slammed open, as did most of the wall it was connected to. Chunks of the wall showered the two of us and even caused him to stumble back, which I took the opportunity to fall over and crawl away, gun in hand. Once I managed to drag myself out of the way and over to one of the desks, I looked at who entered the room and felt my heart drop.

It was one of the many Tyrants that had been set loose to fuck shit up in the city for bio-weapons testing, but this one was dressed in a long black coat and wearing a fedora atop his head.

Mr. X had decided to show up, it seemed.

Damn it, does that mean Leon and Claire are dead? Shit had changed so much in this universe, that most of the heroes are either dead or turned into fucking zombies. I looked down at my handgun and pulled back the slide a bit, and saw the brass-colored round inside. I still had ammo left, but no strength left in me to really fight.

Mr. X stomped into the room and zeroed in on Black, who fired his handgun at him and it did about a well as you'd expect; rounds bounced off his bulletproof coat as he stomped towards Black, forcing him to run towards the exit we had both used to enter the room, and making Mr. X chase after him with a grumble, completely avoiding me entirely.

Maybe he knew I was on my last legs and that I wasn't worth the effort?

I didn't know, I just watched them leave until I was all alone, only the gunshots and explosions outside kept me company. The gunshot wound I suffered was a dull burn in my leg, and I felt pale and faint to the point I couldn't hold up my handgun anymore. My limbs were shaking and for a bit there I figured I was about to go into shock, as my body started to shut down.

I heard footsteps through to my far right, from the other door that led to the next room. I heard murmuring, a woman's voice and I thought the woman in White had decided to follow after me after getting plowed by Thanatos.

I managed a bit of energy to look up at who approached me, I half expected a zombie.

I saw someone I thought had been killed.

"Shit... he's wounded badly, Carlos, come over here and give me a hand."

Carlos crouched next to her, and said, "Jill, I think this guy is done for."

Jill and Carlos are alive? I thought...

"This is the guy Umbrella's trying to get their hands on," Jill said and pulled something out from behind her, a small white container. "We have to make sure this guy survives, he can probably help us."

As she aimed the container at me and hit a button, I felt relief hit some of my wounds; first aid spray I guess.

Maybe we have a fighting chance after all...

"H-hey, hey! Keep your eyes open!" Jill shouted and I felt her hand slap my cheeks a few times. "Don't... hey!"

Shit...






Too Late






Second wind, third wind, I don't know which wind I was on but I was thankful I had so many! Pegasi magic for the win!

After we had gotten the final thing we needed, a monster called Birkin appeared, and no one explained what it was before we started running. With Yoko and me being injured, it made it harder for us to actually move, but Leon and Claire were able to hold off Birkin while we ran for it.

As good as we could anyway, I wasn't able to walk so I had to fly using my beat-up wings.

Sherry was the human foal's name and she was riding on my back as I flew alongside Yoko, but mostly kept up and away from the battle. I didn't like letting anyone ride on my back, but I didn't care in this kind of situation.

That Birkin thing wasn't going down even with all of the bullets being thrown at it; I saw bullets tearing chunks off of it, ripping its clothes to shreds and it just roared and charged, just barely missing the two humans who ducked and rolled out of the way, jumping away before resuming the fight. It was a huge monster, swinging around its huge arm and crushing the ground beneath it, the cars it got near, and didn't let up as it chased us towards the main building.

This is insane. I felt the girl on my back hold onto me as we flew, and I made sure to keep an eye on the battle below as Yoko limped her way to the main building. I had given her the backpack to carry so I could carry the kid; Claire begged me to and in the heat of the moment, I accepted. Watching this Birkin stomping around and swinging his massive arm was making me nervous, we already had that Thanatos thing, now Birkin?

What else was there left that we had to fight off!?

I turned my head and looked out into the city, and I got a better look at the flames raging around the buildings; some had crumbled and even more caught on fire. The fire spread as a hoard of those undead monsters wandered through the flames, spreading the fire even further and choking the sky in blackened smoke. I didn't hear many gunshots anymore, no more sirens, none of that, it was silent except for the moaning of the dead that took over the city.

I swear I saw survivors, but it could have just been my eyes... I wasn't sure.

"T-there are so many of them!" Sherry whimpered on my back, and I craned my head to look at her.

I frowned and looked away. She was just a kid, and she had to deal with this whole thing, where were her parents at?

"C-come on, inside!" Yoko yelled as she reached the door inside, and Leon and Claire ran for the door. They had managed to down Birkin, but he was starting to get back up and he looked angry, really angry.

I was going to fly down before the building nearby rumbled; the wall exploded and who appeared? Thanatos, that Tyrant that had been chasing us around. He ran into the open and spotted Birkin, who likewise locked eyes, and for a second I thought we were about to have both of them chasing after us.

I watched as Birkin roared out something, I couldn't make out what he said but his big eye was staring up at us, but why? I saw Birkin get tackled by Thanatos and the two fell into a heap as the mutant started beating him up. He swung hard and knocked Birkin to the side and I saw blood fly, heard bones crunching and snapping under the impact of each hit. Birkin roared and swung back, knocking Thanatos off of him and jumping up, then swinging his clawed arm right into Thanatos' body and sending him flying.

"Let's run while they're fighting!" Leon shouted, and I took the opportunity to listen for once.

I zipped down and landed beside the other humans, pausing so Claire could grab Sherry and we all ran inside as the two monsters outside fought.

Inside the college gave me a feeling of relief, especially once I was around a bunch of survivors who weren't trying to kill or turn me into some kind of monster. I smiled, we finally had everything we needed to make the Daylight cure, and that meant we could finally get out of this stupid place!

We rushed down the halls and some tight corners until we made it to the door that led into the main hall where everyone else was before I zipped off to find the other components.

Leon was ahead of us and slammed through the door, out into the main hall with Claire and me right behind him and Yoko closing in on the rear. We entered the main hall and I expected to find George and the others, and aside from the bodies of humans in black clothing, and a lot of those shell casings, I didn't see any of the other survivors in here.

Leon and Claire looked around and I shouted, "George! Dee?" I waited as everyone looked around, but I didn't see anyone or anything. A lot of the windows had been blown open letting in the air, and the sounds from outside. The front door had been busted down by something, and on the front campus, I saw a few zombies wandering around. "Where is everyone, they were right here!"

Were they attacked? All of these bodies, the shell casings, and the blood everywhere.

I watched Leon examine the bodies and he spoke up, "Looks like something attacked these guys, Umbrella's USS." Leon looked around, and he checked his gun. "Where were you supposed to go to make Daylight?"

"Third floor, there's a laboratory up there we can use to synthesize Daylight and cure the virus," Yoko spoke up, and we heard gunfire from the second floor.

"George, run!" I heard one of those other female humans yell, I think her name was Cindy?

"Let's go, now!" Leon shouted and ran for the stairs and we all followed him upstairs, and we found a few of those USS guys had turned into zombies.

I flapped my wings and flew ahead as one of them closed in on Claire from a blind spot, and even though I was in pain, I still swung around and kicked the zombie towards the railing and knocked him over and onto the first floor. 

The hit stung and made me rethink fighting for a second as everyone kept running, heading for the west wing of the college where I heard all of the commotion, namely gunshots and shouts.

When we made our way into the west wing, I saw the whole crew Dee and I met were in there. The West Wing's first and second floors were swarming with zombies and everyone was fighting them off and trying to get away. Leon and Clare jumped into action and quickly open-fired on the undead filling the room; near the stairs, Kevin and Mark were taking potshots at the undead near the base of the second set of stairs and trying to get the others up top. Down below I saw David was protecting Cindy and Jim; the latter was fending off who he could with an iron pipe.

I'm going to regret this I bet. I took a deep breath and flew into the fray.

I flew down to the first floor near Jim and Cindy and I shouted over the gunfire, "take my hoof! I'll get you guys up to the second floor!"

Jim and Cindy looked up at me, and Jim shouted, "What the-?!"

"She's a friend!" Cindy cried and took the one hoof of mine, and I kept flapping and held out my other hoof to him.

"I ain't riding on no got damn cotton candy-colored horse!"

"I'm a pony! Now grab on!"

He looked between the zombies and me, and whined loudly, "ooooh goddamn alright!" He grabbed onto my hoof, and with as much power I had left in my wings I lifted them towards the second floor.

"Don't let go!" I cried and struggled, they were both so heavy! But I was strong and I was fast, I'm not going to let these injuries stop me! I pushed up and up, harder and harder until I made it to the second floor. I let them down and they both dropped down, and I had to rest against the railing as I watched David pull out a knife from somewhere.

He moved fast, relentlessly even as he cut through the zombies and made his way to Mark and Kevin nearby.

George was also nearby, near the third-floor stairs. I flapped my wings and rushed over to him and landed on the floor next to the human.

"Where is Dee at? I didn't see him in the main hall!"

He fired his gun at one of the zombies down below and turned to me. "We were attacked by Umbrella, I'm afraid, we got split up when a monster arrived and started attacking all of us."

I froze. "W-where-"

"I don't know, I'm sorry."

I couldn't believe it, or I could, but... damn it! Where was he?!

I had to find him!

I rushed away from the battle and flew upstairs, maybe he ran for the laboratory or something? It was the only place I can think he would actually go! I just hoped he was still kicking, we had everything and we were so close to getting out of this stupid place!

I landed by the door that had been left open, and I saw blood on the floor leading inside. I gulped before pushing the door open and peering inside, all of the torn apart desks, papers, and the glass nearby were forgotten once my eyes set upon Dee laying against the wall, eyes closed.

"Dee!" I rushed into the room as I heard people running after me from behind.

I didn't pay attention to them, I just ran over to Dee.

He was against a desk, eyes half-closed and breathing heavily. He was bleeding all over and his bandages were soaked in brackish ooze, I could even see his veins were super visible around the wounds and spider webbing across his skin. He slowly moved his head up to look at me, and he cracked a smile.

"H-hey."

"What the hell is that thing?" I heard behind me, and I saw a woman and one of those guys I had seen bodies of, UBCS I think?

I looked behind me and saw George rush into the room where he spotted all of us, and he spoke up, "she is an ally of ours." He saw Dee, and I moved aside to let him through. "This is bad, he's in far worse condition than he was before."

I gulped as George checked his wounds, and I winced from the noises made. "C-can we save him?"

Yoko was next to come into the room, and she took off her backpack. "Keep him stable, I'm going to synthesize the cure."

"Wait, cure?" The one UBCS guy asked.

The others eventually entered the room, and it started to get a little cramped. Kevin and David remained near the door. Everyone else spread out in the room, armed, and ready for a fight and to get out of this place.

"I'm going to try and explain things," George started, gathering everyone's attention, "there are a bunch of mutants out there right now, trying to kill us all. I imagine it's the same for you-" he gestured to Leon, Claire, and the other two I didn't know, "it would seem we've led all of them here by coincidence. My group is here to develop the cure for the T-Virus, which is what turned the remainder of Raccoon City into cannibalistic monsters." He looked down at Dee, and sighed, "it would seem our paths have crossed for a reason."

I heard some noises from where Yoko was standing, where she was messing with some big blocky-looking device with flashing lights. I hoped it would be finished soon, Dee needed that cure and fast.

"I d-don't think I'll b-be making it out of t-this one." Dee wheezed and leaned back. His eyes were glazed over and he was covered in sweat, and his breathing was so labored. "Fuck."

I slammed a hoof against the wall beside him. "D-don't say that!" I shouted. "We finally got what we needed to save you! Don't quit now! We're so close!"

"I'm tryin'..." He swallowed hard and he did what he could to focus on me. "K-kinda hard." He was wheezing now, and his eyes kept glazing over like he was trying to keep focus, but he was losing. I tried to keep those thoughts out of my head, I tried so hard but I knew what was happening right in front of me. He was losing the battle against the virus tearing him apart and I couldn't fly in and save him, I couldn't help him fight this thing any longer. "Dying and all, y-you know how it is."

I tried to keep my eyes from tearing up, but they broke free and ran down my cheeks. "D-Dee, come on... we're so close!" I tried to tell him, tried to get him to hang in just a little longer. We were practically there, the machine was right next to us, the vaccine was right there! "J-just a little longer!"

George kept an eye on Dee, and I watched as he shook his head. "I am not sure if the vaccine will help, even now, his condition has worsened... it may be too late."

I swung around and slammed my hoof again into the floor, and I shouted, "no! I-it can't be, everyone was talking about this stupid cure and we've already come so far! It can't be too late!"

Suddenly I heard Yoko yell, "it's done!" I turned around and I saw a vial of glowing white in Yoko's hands, and a weird-looking gun she loaded it into. I flapped my wings and moved out of the way as Yoko stomped over, and she fell to her knees before grabbing Dee's arm. Lifting his arm, she jabbed the needle end of it into his skin before pulling the trigger.

The glowing white liquid in the vial started to disappear into Dee's arm, barely a second passed before it was all gone and inside of him now. That was it, that's all we had to wait for, right?

I went back over to Dee's side and sat down, watching him. "T-that'll fix him, right?" I turned to Yoko, and then to George, both looking away from me. "That's it? Right?"

George sighed. "All we can really do is wait and pray it works, we may be too late. With how far gone he is, it'll be a miracle if he survives this." 

"W-we tried..." Dee whispered finally. I saw one of his eyes open and flick up to mine, a green-hazel orb locked onto my eyes, and his mouth turned into a small smile. "I told y-you I'd try, I d-didn't promise t-that it would w-work."

The look in his eyes caused a weight to settle inside my chest, in my heart. I couldn't stop my lips from quivering as I reached out and placed my hoof on his shoulder, I felt even more tears escape my eyes, I couldn't even hide it anymore. "D-Dee, no... w-we made it, we're almost out of here, you just-"

His hand rose and rested on my hoof, and I felt his grip tighten around it. His smile lingered on his face as something in his eyes began to fade, the color began shifting from the green I was used to, to something duller, greyer even. "Get out of this f-fucking city, Dashie... d-don't end up like me, p-please..."

I heard a long breath leave his lips and his eyelids fluttered close. Dee's grip on my hoof loosened before sliding free and landing in his lap, and then he slumped over against the table.

I stared at him. I...

I felt a hand land on my shoulder and heard a voice, but I barely registered it.

He can't be dead, no... no no on. My wings tightened against my barrel as the voice spoke again.

"We tried." Yoko's voice finally reached me.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared down at Dee, unmoving, just like every other body I had run across in this city. I barely felt anything as the footsteps of the people gathered in the room began to walk out. Why didn't I feel anything?

"So this is it then?" I meant it to come out differently, but it sounded like a rasp coming out of my chapped lips. "This is how it ends?"

"Rainbow, was it?" George was next to me, I almost forgot he was there. "I'm sorry. Losing a friend is never easy, especially in times like these," he told me and I felt his hand squeeze my shoulder. "I know you want to grieve, but we need to escape the city before we're overrun." He stood slowly and backed away, as I heard everyone file out of the room. "Take what little time you have left, and join us... if you wish."

I heard the door open and then close, slowly, until it clicked and I was alone.

More tears rushed down my cheeks and that empty feeling in my chest grew. It felt like a hole had opened up inside of me, and I couldn't close it no matter how hard I tried to.

"We came this far, and we were still too late?" I muttered as the tears fell to the floor. My eyes burned and I felt my body starting to shake. "This is such bullshit!" I choked out and slammed my hoof into the floor, once, twice, and then one more time for good measure, each one echoing through the room. "I was t-too fucking slow! I'm the fastest pegasus alive! I could have saved you!" I shouted at him, at Dee.

He didn't respond, he just... laid there.

I was the fastest flier alive, the fastest pegasus in existence! No one could outmatch my speed, no one!

I thought I was the fastest, that’s what my parents told me, that’s what I told myself! What's the point in being the fastest alive if I can't even save my friend?

I spat onto the ground nearby and stood up, and fought back the sorrow threatening to drown me. I looked down at him, the human... maybe my only friend here. We had gone through so much here in such a short time, even with all of the things we'd gone through, I saw him as a little more than just a random human, I saw him as a friend.

"I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough, Dee." My ears dropped to the sides and I inhaled deep, before letting it out in a shaky sigh. "Maybe if I had been faster..."

I looked down at Dee's hat that fell on the ground, the orange cap he had been wearing the whole time he had been here. I picked it up off of the floor and put it back on his head, where it belonged.

"I'm sorry..."

I turned towards the door and walked towards it. As I made my way out of the room, a tiny part of me hoped Dee would pull something and wake up, make some smart-ass comment about leaving him behind, giving me some relief so that everything wasn't for nothing.

Just sounded like something that he would do.

He didn't get up or say anything.

I left the room and all was silent as I rejoined the others outside the room...

My hopes were crushed.






Our Last Stand






I was useless in a fight.

My body was beaten up and I couldn't even kick without my legs hurting. I could fly, but what good was that when there were close to a dozen humans around me? I could take maybe two of them into the air with me, max, and that was pushing it in my current state.

"So you're telling me there's more of those things?" Leon was talking with Kevin and the others about what we should do, and it was only then that I learned that Thanatos and Birkin weren't the only monsters here.

George nodded. "Nyx, Thanatos, Nemesis, Birkin, and Mr. X, an unusual lineup of names but they are still valid threats."

"Jesus Christ." Claire slammed her palm against her face, and her eyes flickered with something that put me on edge. "How many fucked up monsters does Umbrella have up their sleeves?"

"They seem to have quite the menagerie of creatures, from what I've gathered," George commented.

Jim was pacing around the room we were in, sweat trailing down his brow. "This is a fucking nightmare, yo! I-it was okay with just the one monster, but now you tellin' me there's a whole fucking A-Team of giants out there that wanna kill us?!"

"Pretty much." I felt it was time I threw in something, anything to keep my mind off of earlier. This situation wasn't any better, but it was not Dee, and that helped... a tiny bit. "There are a whole bunch of these monsters that Umbrella has, and they're not gonna stop until we're all dead."

"To make matters worse, that big blob-looking one?" Kevin had taken charge of the group, and he stood nearby. "It... absorbed the one with the minigun-"

"Nemesis." Jill threw in.

"-Yea, Nemesis, and it got even bigger. I can't even begin to wonder what'd happen if it ran into the other three and absorbed them somehow..." Kevin finished and all of us were left with only one thing from the information.

"We're screwed," Claire said what everyone was thinking. "We're completely screwed unless we get out of here."

Mark, the older man, sighed. "I hate to say it, but it's not looking good, folks. We're outgunned and outnumbered."

Cindy decided to speak up next. "There has to be a way out of this, there has to be!"

A shake of his head and Leon said, "we need to get out of the city, as fast as we can, but we're trapped on all sides here." He walked towards one of the windows and peered out of it and into the college grounds below. "Zombies out front, and all of those giants wandering around, killing anything they can get their hands on, and Umbrella goons to top it off."

"What can we do?"

It wasn't looking good for any of us. We were all tired, injured, and we had just lost one of our own. The fact we were surrounded on all sides by monsters of every shape and size was enough of a blow to our morale that I couldn't even find a reason to keep going. We were all trying to get out of the city, but what could we do against a force this big and unified?

Mark was right, we were outnumbered and outgunned.

"We're not getting out of here alive." David's raspy voice sounded from the rear of the group. I could feel his piercing gaze on all of us, cold and calculating. "We're cornered like rats with no way out, even if we got out of the college we have an entire burning city full of freaks to get through... and even then."

As much as I hated it, he was right. There had to be hundreds of thousands out there right now, bearing down on us; humans and animals, mutants and monsters all wanting to get their bloodied claws on the last survivors in the entire city. We were all that was left in the city, and no help was coming for us as far as I knew.

Dee said the college would be our last chance, but now he's dead and I don't know how we're getting out.

"It appears as if our last hope of getting out of the city has become our last stand instead." George pulled out the handgun he carried around, and I heard him sigh deeply as Jim walked over to a wall, and fell to his knees. "An institution for teaching medicine has become our refuge against the hordes of monsters, and will perhaps become our tomb."

"This can't be it." Jim whimpered out. "This can't be it, man! No fucking way!"

I tore my gaze from Jim and over to Kevin, who was loading up a shotgun, shell after shell sliding inside. "It's only a matter of time before they break into the college." He told everyone, and I could tell he was scared. He was hiding it well, but the way his eyes flickered in the dim lighting told me otherwise. "I don't plan on hiding up here and waiting for them-"

"What are you planning on doing?" Yoko stood, only to regret it a second later. She had been bandaged up and given an antidote; turns out those plants I was carrying were useful after all, and healed up both of our poisoned wounds, thanks to Cindy.

"I'm going down there." He loaded up the last shell he had and stood. "No point in waiting for what we all know is coming." Kevin ran his hands over his gear and nodded.

George turned to face the man as Leon and Jill approached. "It's foolish to head down there, and you know it, Kevin."

Kevin's gaze flicked to the floor and he shook his head. "It was foolish of me to go out drinking instead of being at the station, so I could try and save my buddies from getting slaughtered like fucking animals." He remarked and looked back up to look George in the eye. "Between Leon, Jill, and I, we're the last cops in the whole city. I wasn't able to do anything to save my friends, I was too busy drinking away while the city fell apart around me, and I didn't even know."

His head turned towards the door and he frowned. Outside, I could hear gunshots, and I had to guess it was probably Umbrella.

"What the hell is Protect and Serve supposed to mean in this kind of situation?" Kevin asked and turned to look around at everyone in the room. "I wasn't always the best cop around, but I did my best... but that wasn't enough, and now here we are, trapped like fucking rats waiting for these fucking things to come get us."

He jerked his hand and the shotgun made a loud chik-chik noise.

"It's time I actually made use of this badge while we still have time." He looked at everyone again and spoke a little louder. "Get everything you guys have and get ready."

"What are you planning on doing?" Jill asked finally.

"My duty as a police officer," Kevin replied. "I'll go out there and draw away as many of them as I can, and you all escape while they're drawn to me." The officer turned and walked towards the door. "It's stupid, I know... but if it means giving anyone here a chance at getting out of here alive, I'll do whatever I can."

"You're crazy!" Jim shouted, finally turning from where he was on the floor and facing Kevin.

"You can't face them all alone." Leon held out a hand to Kevin, only for Kevin to just shake his head.

"I don't plan on making it out alive, I'm just going to draw as many of them away as I can." Kevin stared Leon in the eyes before switching his gaze to Jill. "Leon, you were the rookie we were getting, damn shame this had to be your first time on the job. Pretty shitty, I know, but it wasn't bad." He shrugged and added, "I'm not your commanding officer, but I need you to lead everyone out of here. For a rookie to make it this far, you got a good head on your shoulders... I want you, Jill, and Carlos to get everyone out of this damn place."

Was he really serious about staying behind?

Dee would probably have a fit if he was... I shook my head and looked up at the human. "You're really just going to sacrifice yourself so we'll probably have a chance of getting out of here alive?"

He just nodded and gave me a small smile. "We made it this far, and there's no way we're all getting out of here without a fight. I might as well try drawing their attention while you guys get out alive."

Leon looked around at everyone, along with Jill and Carlos. He looked to Claire finally, and the young Sherry, the only child among us. Afterward, he turned to Kevin and held his hand out. "It was an honor serving with you, I wish we could have served under less extreme circumstances."

Kevin looked down at his hand before taking it and giving it a firm shake.

"Maybe in another life, we would have been partners." Kevin chuckled before the handshake ended and he turned towards the door again. "For what it's worth, everyone." He gave everyone one last look and smiled thinly. "It was fun, I'll see you all on the other side." He gave us a salute, and left the room, leaving us all alone.

I could hear his footfalls grow quieter and quieter the further away he got. We were left in silence after he was gone, and it was deafening for the longest time. I didn't dare break it, because of how tense the air had become, how stuffy it was.

I did stand up though, and I made my way towards the door leading out, which had been left open. I peered into the hall, and the windows on the opposite side let anyone see down into the campus grounds, where the hoards of monsters had gathered, waiting to find a hint of survivors anywhere.

"I suggest we take what little time he'll give us and escape this wretched place." George chose to break the silence. I heard the slide of his handgun pull back, before sliding back into place, ready to fire. "Gather up your belongings and let us make haste. Leon, I take it you'll be leading us?"

I turned around to look at the group, Leon looked nervous, but he nodded and pulled out his own shotgun. "I'll take point."

Jim had stood up and wiped away his tears. "What e-exactly is our game plan here? Ju-just run and hope for the best?"

"Maybe not?" Carlos spoke up next, drawing the attention of Leon. "Jill and I found some buses on our way here, just behind the college. They're big enough to fit all of us, don't know if anyone here can hotwire them but if they can, we might be able to use them to drive out of here."

"It's as good a plan as any." Leon nodded and gave a nod to Jill and Carlos. "We'll head there, hotwire one of the buses and drive out... hopefully, the roads aren't too blocked, and we can drive towards the mountain pass out of the city."

"Then it's settled, everyone... let's move."

I stood and watched everyone start to move, armed with their weapons before heading towards the door and leaving. I watched them go, and I tried to gather my thoughts, tried to find the strength to will myself to start moving, and all I could do was think about Dee in the room behind me, how close he was and how far we had come before he died.

I still don't know why I wasn't bawling my eyes out over it. Did I just not care, or was I numb to it all?

Mark was the only one left in the room with me, and he looked really tired of everything. He picked up the big black rifle he was carrying and looked towards me, and then the door.

"It's a whole lot of shit, ain't it." He muttered, I barely caught it. "I fought in a war before all of this, everything I've seen up to this point has only brought back horrible memories... shit I never wanted to experience again." He hefted up his gun and sighed. "I know what it's like losing someone, kid... it leaves you feeling empty, it feels like something was torn out of ya. That kind of pain doesn't ever go away... you just get used to it."

I listened to his words, but I didn't know what to really make of it. I came to that conclusion on my own... the first part, anyway. "I... I know, but-"

"You living on keeps his memory alive," Mark told me and fixed me with a stare. "I've fought with all of these people here, they practically remind me of my old unit... never did like that Kevin kid, what he's doing is stupid... but he's got heart, so I can't fault him for that." Another sigh and he made his way to the door and walked through it. "You feel numb now, but it will hit you... and it'll hit harder than anything you've felt before, and you can't let it get to you now. Keep yourself together until we get out of this damn warzone... then you can grieve."

He left me alone, and I was left to think about what he said.

I looked towards the door where Dee was, and my heart started to beat faster. He said when he was bitten, he was going to turn into one of those zombies and that we should kill him before it happened. No one touched him after he died. Even though we got him the vaccine, I had to wonder if he had turned, or if he was just going to be in there until the city was destroyed.

I frowned, and rose a hoof to my chest, and inhaled. "Goddess damn it all."

I turned towards the door leading out of here and started to leave.

Goodbye, Dee... I'm sorry I couldn't save you.






Our Last Stand






Kevin had already left and I could hear the gunshots outside, along with his shouts and screams; thankfully not bloodcurdling ones. He was fighting just like he said he would, which was drawing the attention of all of the monsters outside to wherever he was.

Leon was leading the battered group through the college, and I was flying above them all. I couldn't do much, but I could at least act as some kind of support. I'd fight to the last if it came down to it, that's what I had to do to keep these people safe, it's what Dee would have done. I know he would have, even now, if he was still injured, he'd be fighting with everything he had left in his body.

He did that anyway, now that I think about it.

"Through the back of the college!" Carlos shouted to Leon, who was at the front. Jill and Carlos were behind everyone, acting as the rear guard, Mark was on the right and David on the left, the two in agreement to protect those in the middle who weren't as good at fighting; namely to protect the girl, Sherry, and Claire, who was with Jim and George and Yoko, the latter still recovering from her wounds from the wasp hive. "The buses are all parked out there!"

"Does anyone know how to hotwire them?" Leon called back as we rushed down the stairs and headed for the halls leading to the back. "I doubt a key is just going to be lying around somewhere!"

I flew above the group, ears up and eyes peeled. I guess they needed some special way to activate, typical human stuff I guess.

"We'll just have to hope we get lucky once we get outside!" Jill added as the gunshots behind us continued.

We kept moving until we reached a hall that led straight out the back, through a service hall full of exposed wires and pipes that hissed steam. It was a tight squeeze and we had to move fast, but thankfully nothing followed us or came out of hiding to attack us. I counted my lucky stars once we approached a door and Leon approached it. He kept his gun up before putting his hand on the knob and twisted the knob, and pushed it open before heading out along with Jill and Carlos.

I flew out after them and quickly scanned the area.

The whole area was empty, thankfully. Just a lot of junk and construction equipment sitting around, some vehicles, and a few footpaths leading around the campus. it was clear, and the sounds outside were louder now that we were outside; all of the moans and gunshots made me shiver. Kevin was probably surrounded by those things, and he was fighting them alone.

Carlos gestured to the east with his hand and kept fanning around with his gun. "They're just up ahead, down the path there."

Leon nodded. "Let's move people, stay tight and keep your eyes peeled."

I kept flying in the air and watched the area ahead. I could see a few long vehicles ahead, the buses we were headed for, but I saw a small group of figures wandering around near them. "I think I see some zombies by the buses," I told Leon down below, and when I tried to get a closer look, I saw one of the zombies was... waving? "Wait-"

"Hey!" I heard shouting from over there, and a few of the others over by the buses were waving too. "Over here!"

I swear I thought they looked familiar. "There are survivors!"

I flew a bit faster as Leon started to run, leading the group closer to the parking lot across the way.

Once I flew closer, I saw there were at least a couple dozen people gathered around the buses on the ground. They looked familiar, and it took until I was flying overhead that I found out how I knew them.

"Good to see you're still alive!" Shouted the police captain from the station, the one Dee and I had saved alongside goddess knows how many others. "We thought you died at the station."

I landed on the ground and smiled. "Honestly, likewise," I told him and looked around, and I saw so many people; police officers, those mercenaries, even some regular people! "There was so much going on, D-Dee and I ran, and the chopper..." Wait, the helicopter! "What happened to the helicopter, I thought you guys..."

He shook his head with a frown. "Someone had sabotaged the fuel line to the chopper, it crashed before it could land... lost a few people in the crash, so now we've been on foot this whole time." He looked at me and then at the others. "We wound up here after being chased, we're hoping to use one of these buses to get out of the city with."

I blinked, and a chuckle escaped me. "We actually had the same idea."

When I said that, I heard Leon and the others arrive, and when I looked and saw the surprise on Leon's face, it was nice to see, weirdly.

Leon approached and he looked between the captain and everyone, and I swear I thought I saw relief in his eyes. "I thought I was one of the only cops left alive." He commented before walking over to the man and held out his hand.

The Captain took it and gave it a quick shake, before letting go. "You're the rookie? I heard about you, how'd your first day go?"

"With all due respect, sir?" Leon looked at the burning city in the background, and he nodded slowly. "Could have been worse, I suppose."

"Ha!" The captain chuckled and shook his head, before looking at me and then back to Leon. "I see we all have the same idea, with as many people as we have, we'll need to use two buses maximum to transport everyone." He told Leon as the others filed around. He looked from person to person, and I could tell who he was looking for. "Say, where's the man who was with you?"

Right.

I felt my ears fold back and my gaze dropped to the ground. "He didn't make it..."

A stabbing pain shot through my chest, and I realized that by now, he had probably turned and was wandering around the college, joining the hoards. I wish I could have done something for him, but I couldn't do anything, I was powerless.

When I looked back up to the Captain, his gaze fell and he nodded. "I see, I'm sorry. He was a good man, saved a lot of lives."

"He did..." I murmured and looked around at the group gathered around, most were carrying a weapon of some sort and others were helping tend to the wounded. All of these people were alive thanks to Dee and I, we went above and beyond and risked our lives for them, him especially. I wish he could see this.

"We need to load up these buses right now." Leon turned to the captain again. "We don't have much time."

The Captain nodded as he stepped towards the buses. "I agree, but we don't have any keys on us and no one knows how to hotwire the damn things." He crossed his arms and looked at the large vehicles.

"Shit." Leon shook his head and looked around, and I followed his eyes and looked at the group we were with.

I noticed something after looking at the survivors, I didn't see the gruff looking guy, David, anywhere. Did he run off?

"Where did David go?" I asked and looked at the group. Heads whipped around, looking through the crowd of survivors, but we couldn't find him anywhere.

"Damn it, did he run off like Alyssa?" Mark wondered and looked around, before someone cleared their throat.

In the crowd of the survivors led by the Captain, I saw someone in a red outfit approach. Thankfully not the same one I had fought with Yoko, this was a woman with blonde hair. "I didn't run off, old man." The woman told him and brushed aside her hair. She looked worse for wear, made me wonder what she had been up to. "I decided to do a little investigating, and ran into the cops here."

"But where did David go?" Cindy walked up and looked around, eyes flicking from one head in the crowd to the next. "We can't leave him behin-"

A loud chugging noise followed by a rumbling noise filled my ears and grabbed all of our attention, and we all turned to look at one of the buses. White smoke billowed out from behind it and the frame itself was shaking before the door opened up, and in the driver's seat I saw David was sitting inside.

He grunted and gestured for us to enter.

"Looks like we have our ride." Leon commented.

Something crashed nearby, back where the college was. Our moment of celebration was ruined by the loud monstrous roar from in the distance, followed by another loud crashing noise. I heard the roar grow into an insane shriek, a loud and piercing sound that caused my fur to stand on end and my wings to flare out. Something primal had awoken in my gut that told me to run, and it seemed I wasn't the only one who felt like this, because everyone was starting to look scared.

Leon suddenly shouted, "everyone onto the buses, now!" He told them as he ran towards the path we had come from, and I had to follow.

I zipped into the air to get a better look at the college from where we were, and the amount of zombies roaming around the area nearly gave me a panic attack. There were hundreds upon hundreds crammed together in the campus, some even breaking in through the windows. Except that wasn't what really grabbed my attention, what really did was the huge monster that destroyed the side of the college wall, smashing through solid brick, rebar, and mortar and sending debris flying into the crowd.

I froze in midair as I watched this massive creature escape into the open; it was massive and I could make out the body of Thanatos fused into one side of it, and my eyes caught sight of the forms of Birkin was also inside of the blob. The eyes had spread around the area he was fused into, his limbs dangling as he was ripped apart from the inside. I could hear his screams, the roars of Thanatos, and another large mutant who was half buried in the mass of slowly growing flesh.

Massive tentacle-like appendages sprouted from the back and top of its massive body as it lumbered out of the college on all fours, pulling along its heavily mutated body like some kind of slug with legs. The tendrils swung around, twisting and squirming against its body as a dozen huge bloodied eyes rapidly flicked up, down, left and right, as if looking for something. Its maw was something out of nightmares, like a split maw full of jagged and razor sharp teeth-like protrusions. It rumbled and grumbled like a walking earthquake, the sounds it made like a messed up whale call,

The huge monsters it had absorbed were slowly ripping apart, tearing them limb from limb and absorbing their power like a leech or something. It just... kept mutating from what it took into its body, and it only grew more into a nightmare.

Then its eyes flicked towards me, specifically the survivors.

I had never felt anything like this before, the terror coursing through my veins.

I didn't even know I was screaming until someone else screamed.

"Everyone load up, now! MOVE IT!"

I heard shouts and screams as people loaded up onto the bus, cramming inside of it and another one someone had managed to hotwire; I think it was Alyssa.

The engines rumbled and before long everyone was on board and the buses peeled out of the parking lot. I kept my eyes on the monster as it locked eyes with me, and a roar that shook the ground left it as it turned and began to lumber towards me.

I turned tail and ran, there was no way I was going to be able to fight something that big!

None of us can!

I pumped all of my power into my wings and flew after the buses as they plowed through the streets, ramming through stray undead that blocked the way and whatever cars happened to be there.

This is fucking insane, nothing like that should exist! It shouldn't! How could anyone expect to control something that huge!? I could hear it behind us, tearing through the streets with its ghastly shriek of hunger and desperation chasing after us all. We were the last survivors in this entire city, and it was going to stop at nothing to get its teeth in us, at any cost.

I chanced a look behind me and saw it was moving faster, a lot faster than I hoped it would. It slammed through the walls of the college campus and slid out onto the road with a roar, smashing into some buildings before recovering and slamming its appendages and digging its claws into the ground to pull itself free and pull itself after us. Any undead left in the road were crushed under its weight, and absorbed into its overall body and torn apart quickly. Whatever it sucked up into its body that was flesh just added to its body.

I don't know if we'll survive this. This was beyond any of us, beyond any of our skills! How in the fuck were we supposed to fight this thing, or escape it!? Dee said the city was going to be destroyed, that may have been our only chance of stopping it, but... gods. Dee, fuck! I need you here, I need your help!

I kept following the uses as they turned a sharp corner, slamming into some more undead and a few roadblocks. The bus almost tipped over from the turn, but it kept speeding ahead and down the road. I turned around the corner and flew up higher, and saw the road they were traveling on was clear enough that they wouldn't get stuck.

Ahead of them I saw a big elevated bridge that passed through the city, and it went up and over a huge wall that I noticed surrounded the city to the east. It passed through it and into the forest nearby, and went up into the mountains nearby and a tunnel that had to be the way out of here. We just had to keep moving and make it there, and we’d be alright!

I nodded and let out a breath. "Okay, come on Rainbow." I hit my cheeks and shook my head. "Come on! You got this!" I kicked off of the air and flew ahead towards the bridge, I had to check it and make sure it was clear enough for them to get to!

As I approached I saw a roadblock had been set up on the far left, and a huge snarl of cars had been abandoned there. Leading out of the city, the only way we had out, I noticed there was a huge gate that was closed. The ramp that led up to the bridge and led to the gate was cleared, but the gate looked tough, I don't know if we were going to be able to get through that. I could, but the buses...

I growled and spat. "It's always something." I hovered as I examined the gate, and tried to see if there was a way to open it. It was flanked by towers on either side and a footbridge that ran over the top of it. I didn't see anyone on it, and no undead were around the gate, it must have been abandoned. I flew in closer and looked around either side of it, but I didn't see a lever or any kind of button to open it. I even flew up and into the towers and landed before looking around, but I just saw discarded weapons and junk, nothing that told me about how to open the gate.

"Is there seriously nothing here? Are you kidding me?" I slammed my hoof into a chair, knocking it aside with a, "graaah!"

There was always something trying to stop us! Always something.

Burst.

I blinked as my mind drifted to that word, Burst? I heard it back in the fight with the human in red, with Yoko and the wasp hive, moments before I just... did whatever it was I did. That thing that killed all of the wasps, whatever it was.

"Maybe... wait." I flared out my wings and blasted off from the room I was in, zipping outside and towards the gate on the side where the buses would arrive. I looked at the huge metal gate, it stood tall, it was super thick too. I didn't know how to open it, but maybe if I could do that Burst move I had done a while ago, maybe it could slam it open!

I didn't know how to activate it though.

"Shit..." Just like the Sonic Rainboom I had done when I was a filly, I didn't exactly train enough to achieve it. I just know I had to go super fast.

Super fast.

I blinked and looked behind me at the stretch of bridge that went through the city, it went really far in a straight line, right towards the gate. I saw the fires forming a backdrop across the cityscape, but there was just enough clearance that if I really tried, maybe, just maybe there was a chance I could do it.

Sonic Rainboom or a Burst, I don't know which, but either one will do! I slammed my hind legs into the ground and kicked off before flying down the highway. I flew past burning buildings and hundreds of abandoned cars, bodies, and tried to ignore the moans of undead filling the streets underneath the bridge.

Once I made it to the end where the bridge dipped down and connected with the roads below in an incline, I whirled around and looked back to where the gate was. It was far away, and I locked eyes with it as I heard the road of the monster in the distance—it was closing in on the survivors, and we only had this one way out of the city, this was our last way out, and I had to make sure they got out.

"Okay Rainbow, it's all come to this." I told myself and ran my tongue over dry lips, and swallowed. "Everything, all of your training, all of your power... your parents didn't raise a quitter, they raised a winner, and that's what you are." I landed on the ground and bent forward, and spread my wings wide. I focused on the route ahead of me, and took several deep breaths to calm myself down. I ignored everything happening around me, and I pictured only the gate ahead of me. "You got this, Rainbow... you got this!"

I felt my legs burn the second I started to gallop down the road, and flapped my wings to give me more speed. When I felt I was going fast enough, I kicked off of the ground once more and zipped through the air and started to flap my wings harder, faster gaining speed through the hot smoke filled air.

I could have choked on it, but I pushed through the burning pain in my limbs and kept going as fast as I could. Everything was starting to blur around me as the wind picked up, blowing from the west and pushing me, guiding me through the air. I used it to gain altitude and fly straight up into the air, a straight vertical climb into the sky above. I lost a little bit of speed, but what I was going to do next would ensure I got as much as my body could handle.

I flipped backwards after going as high as I felt I needed, flying upside down and then I dipped backwards and fell down. I let gravity take control for a bit and pumped more power into my wings to help my fall gain more acceleration, and used it to angle myself into a straight line down towards the gate.

Come on, Sonic Rainboom, you got this! No other way to open the gate, so this is for the win!

I felt something familiar in my body as I started to go even faster, a sort of electrifying sensation in my limbs that spread through my body. I could see the air around me distorting and forming a tunnel vision as I reached speeds I only hit once before.

The air felt like it was cracking around me, I saw my vision narrow and focused in on the gate ahead, which was rapidly closing in. I kept my hooves in front of me like a spear head, piercing through the air as a cone formed around the front of my vision. I felt my body straining against the forces, trying to slow me down or push me off course.

N-no! I'm not going to fail, never again!

My vision turned white, and a loud boom shook my body.

I cleared my eyes and saw ahead of me and how fast I was moving, and I saw I was still flying down the bridge. I quickly angled myself into the air and flew around, and twisted my body to see what I had done.

The gate was completely gone; it was blown open and turned into a pile of scrap metal that was warped outward from the sheer force of my Sonic Rainboom.

The air around the gate was shimmering in rainbows, a solid ring forming around the now open gate and letting the buses speed on through.

I did it.

"Goddess, I did! i fucking did it!" I shouted and threw up my hooves as the trail of rainbows from the ring traveled up to where I was, and quickly began to fade away. "I can't believe it! I can do a Sonic Rainboom! Yeahahaha!"

I can't believe I did it! I can do it! I opened the gate with it, I blew it up!

I felt so happy, but it was brought right back down to reality when I saw the monster still chasing after the buses.

It had turned that sharp corner and slammed into the massive walls surrounding the area, keeping anything from escaping. It roared and shrieked before using its huge mutant claws to tear into the buildings and ground, forcing its way across the ground after everyone.

I watched the buses drive down the highway out of town; which looped through the forest and led up the mountains nearby, where the tunnel was. I watched them go, and flew up to look at the city.

I let my gaze fall to the monster, and reminded myself the fight wasn't over... not by a long shot.

I turned and looked towards the rising sun in the distance before turning towards the buses driving away, and I twisted my body around and blasted off towards them. it wasn't over yet, we still had to escape the monster, we still had to get out of the area before it was destroyed.

I don't remember how Dee said it would happen, but with how he talked about it, something told me it wasn't going to be great if we were caught in the blast.

We're so close to getting out here... I just want this all to be over with! Please! I don't know how much more of this I could take. I was reaching my limit, it was a fight from start to finish and I was so damn tired of it all.

The roads were abandoned and empty, no cars, no undead, but behind us the monster continued to follow us. It was persistent, like a starving dog desperate for its next meal, and it sickened me to my core.

I kept an eye on the buses down below as they sped along the road, pushing the engines to their limits. I wasn't sure how they worked, but they were pushing these vehicles to the limit to escape and go up these hills. Everyone on board was probably panicking, scared, ready to get away from it all, and escape was so close, but a nightmare was chasing all of us down the road.

We needed to stop it, but how?

Come on Rainbow, what do we do, how do we stop it? What do we do? Everyone had weapons, but could they do anything against something that huge? Would bullets even work?

It wasn't until we reached the hill going up that I saw a problem, one I missed during my thinking.

I saw another roadblock made up of barriers, small ones made of stone, concrete, and sandbags and razor wire. Some abandoned jeeps sat nearby and a couple of big trucks, but there was no one around, no soldiers, no police, nothing. The buses pulled to a stop, and it was here I felt anxiety starting to well up in the back of my mind.

"Damn it!" Several people had filed out of the bus now, and the barrier wasn't going to be moved anytime soon, and it would take forever to even try moving them or getting rid of the wire. "Now what do we do!?"

"It's getting closer, oh god, oh god!"

"We have to get away!"

"What do we do!?" "God help us!"

Panic was taking hold of the survivors now, we were cornered again. I whirled around and saw the monster was slowly getting closer, a massive looming threat on the horizon that was hungry for all of us, and wasn't going to stop until it got to sink its teeth into everyone, swallow them whole.

We could get everyone over the barriers, but that would leave us all on foot while this thing chases us. Would it be enough? I looked down at the survivors, and I noticed more than a few who were covered in bandages and incapable of moving fast enough. We weren't running from this thing on foot, we'd be caught before we reached the tunnel. Damn it!

I hovered down towards the ground before landing, wings spread. I stared down the beast as it kept moving. I could hear its rumbling gurgles and rumbles, I could feel the ground trembling with every step it took to reach us. The monsters it absorbed along the way only continued to mutate it further and further into something that was beyond any of our understanding, something that was so alien, it was hard to believe this thing was created by human hands.

I swallowed as its tentacles swung out to either side like wings, twisting and wriggling around to make its already massive size even more imposing somehow.

I felt someone approach from behind and I heard a click from a gun.

"Guess all that running was for nothing." I heard Leon say, and when I looked I saw him holding his handgun and staring straight ahead. "We came this far, and we're so close... and now we're cornered."

"This isn't the end." I told him, and continued glaring at the monster. "We didn't come all this way for nothing."

I heard someone else approach now, and heard Jill's voice, "even on foot, we won't make it far... at least we won't, everyone else might."

"I doubt we can do much against this thing with the way we're equipped." Carlos spoke up next, having joined us. "A few shotguns, handguns and some assault rifles against that thing?"

"It ain't much, I doubt we'll put a dent in it."

I hated this so much. I'm so fucking useless in a fight in this world. I wish I could fight... I wish I had a better way I could help everyone. "I'll stay behind then." I stood as tall as I could manage, with my chest puffed out and wings standing out. "I think I can fight it, just... focus on getting everyone out of here, over that barrier..."

"We've lost enough people today." I heard Leon say next to me, but I shook my head.

I thought back for a moment, and recalled what happened with Umbrella, when they had gotten their hands on me.  "I know what will happen to me if I escape this city." I told him, and turned to look him in the eyes. "Umbrella tried to capture me a while ago. They wanted me for something, I don't know what for, but I know I'm the only one of my kind in this world, if I escaped here, I'd be running for the rest of my life from people who'd want to take me apart and find out how I tick."

I didn't know how true it was, but it made a weird bit of sense now that I thought about it. If Umbrella stopped, why would other people not try and kidnap me? How long could I run away from people and escape horrible situations before I was finally captured and turned into a lab experiment for some eggheads?

"I don't want to keep running all my life in a world with no friends, and no idea who I can trust." I swallowed. I had lost my only friend here, and while these humans were nice to me... I didn't know if I could trust them completely. "I'm all alone here."

I flapped my wings and took off into the air. I hovered above the others as the smoke from the city clouded the skies, and the horizon burned a bright fiery red, forming a nice little background for the gigantic terror that was still approaching us.

"If I'm going to die, I want it to be on my terms, just get everyone out of here... don't let everything Dee, Kevin and the others be in vain."

I blasted off from the air, leaving behind the humans as I flew to face the monster on my own.

I hoped they would listen and get out of here. I wasn't sure how much time I could buy them, if any, but hopefully it would be enough.

"Do you really plan on fighting this thing alone, kid?" That voice from before spoke again, and I frowned.

I don't have any other choice. I covered the distance in a pretty short time, and flew as high as I could so I could quickly avoid any attacks from it. Those tentacles were long, and it could probably use them to grab me if I wasn't careful.

"You've done well so far, kid, but this isn't how your story is going to end."

I blinked as the monster roared and glared up at me with a hundred eyes, each one bubbling and pulsating. It was so unnatural, but what the voice said got my attention the most. It isn't? Just who are you?

This is only the beginning of your story, Rainbow Dash...

An explosion shook the trees nearby and I heard something rumbling through the trees to my left, and it tore my eyes away from the monster just long enough that I noticed something with bright lights was blasting through the forest. I heard another explosion from within the forest followed by a bright flash of orange light, before something flew out past the trees. It was fast and it ripped right through a tentacle, severing it before impacting the side of the monster and exploding in a brilliant shower of fire.

Something exploded from the forest soon after, something huge with six wheels that roared. It was a steel monster, some kind of human vehicle with a cannon on the front that blasted its way through the forest before it drove up to a hill at full speed, and then jumped the gap between it and the bridge. I watched it fly up and over the guard railing, smashing through chain link fencing and landing on the road. The vehicle slid to the side with a screech of its tires before the cannon swung around, and a loud boom shook the barrel as it slid back, and a huge piece of metal was flung from it at speeds that I barely caught.

The shell flew through the air and hit the massive form of the creature, splitting apart flesh and the dozens of bones that made up its form. It roared in pain as blood and goo splashed down its body, and it slammed one of its appendages into the bridge to the side, smashing through the concrete.

I twisted around and flew away from the damn thing before flying up and over the vehicle, and I landed down on top of it as it backed away and fired again, another loud explosion from the barrel sent a shockwave that went back towards me, causing my mane to fly back before the vehicle came to a stop.

I jumped off and landed on the road beside the tank and looked up as someone climbed out of the hatch.

A human with a backwards orange cap stood up and out of the vehicle before standing behind the huge gun mounted on top of it. He turned to look down at me, and flashed me a smile and a thumbs up, before he grabbed onto the gun and shouted as loud and proudly as he could. It was something I didn't expect to hear again, but it made my face break out into a smile.

"Eat lead motherfucker!" Dee bellowed and cackled before he pulled the trigger of the massive gun, and sent a spray of brass rounds flying into the massive creature across from us..

The massive mutant behemoth had destroyed its way from college and rampaged its way here to kill us all, only for Dee to show up out of nowhere somehow with this tank, and fight back. I felt a smile spread across my face, somehow I felt like everything was going to be okay and I nodded.

"Alright!" I flapped my wings and flew up into the air and flipped before hovering above.

Despite everything we've done so far, the monster didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. The bullets were ripping into its body like daggers, tearing apart flesh and bone and splattering blood across its form. Dee maneuvered the gun and peppered its body in heavy bullets, but it didn't seem to be doing much, at least until the cannon fired again with a loud crack-boom. Another shell flew from the barrel and right into the mass of flesh, splitting open a large hole in its body and showing bloodied muscle.

It roared and I saw its muscles contorting inside of its body, rippling across its form like bloodied gore covered waves of mutant flesh. It started to grow even larger as more tendrils exploded from the surface like parasites, sending showers of blood raining down nearby.

This thing was out of control and it wasn't stopping. It had absorbed all of the bodies it crashed through and grew bigger. Its tentacle-covered form was starting to grow even more horrifying to behold, every twitch and spasm it had was causing the bridge to struggle under the immense weight.

"Dee!" I shouted to him and flew up towards the tank. "This thing won't stop, it just... keeps getting bigger!" I told him.

He just kept grinning before the gun ran dry, and it clicked. He spat, but the grin stayed on his face. "This ain't how our story ends, Dashie." He climbed up and out of the tank. He paused and reached down, and someone handed him a big metal tube. "We're gonna win this, and we're gonna win it together." He told me and stood on top of the tank with the tube over his shoulder, and he flicked a button and held it tight. He took a stance and aimed it. "I got a promise to keep, Rainbow... I don't break promises."

Dee clicked a button and the tube suddenly made a loud thunk before a weird tube shot out of the end of it. A blast of fire came from the rear of it and it went flying off like a rocket—it was a rocket! It soared towards the mutant creature before flying right into its mouth, down its throat. It swallowed the rocket and roared, and only a second later did a loud explosion shake the whole creature to its core. The explosion rocked it and caused it to wobble as fire erupted from its mouth like a flaming belch, causing bloody chunks of gore to fly out.

"Kevin, back us up!" Dee shouted and tossed the launcher aside before looking at me, and he nodded. "Let's finish this, Rainbow!" He climbed back down into the tank.

"W-wait, what kind of plan do you have? I don't-"

"A Sonic Rainboom!" He yelled back at me with a wild smile on his face. "I saw you do it earlier, I know it was you... sonic rainboom might be a good way to end this thing once and for all!" He picked up a shell and loaded it into the gun, and he slammed it forward before pulling the trigger again and sending another explosive round into the creature before the wheels on the tank screeched and began backing up. "We got one chance here, and we have to make it count!"

I watched him back up and then turned to the creature as Dee fired another round at it.

A Sonic Rainboom, huh. I looked up into the clear blue skies as the sun started to rise further. I think I can manage that.






Supersonic






I don't know how I survived, but I was sure I was done for.

Yet here I was, fighting off a nightmare with Nyx at the fucking controls. I never thought I'd end up being the lucky son of a bitch to encounter Thanatos, let alone actually end up fighting not only his mutant form, but the combined mutant forms of Mr. X, Birkin, Nemesis and Nyx all crammed into one, like some kind of fucked up toxic burrito.

I wasn't built for this kind of fight, but goddamn it, after everything Dash went through for me; like hell I was going to let this son of a bitch be the end of everything we've fought for!

I slammed another 37mm shell into the Greyhound's main anti-tank gun, I primed it and aimed at the mutant's mass as Rainbow took to the skies above. I watched her for a moment and once I was sure she was clear, I fired another shell and sent it right into one of Nyx's eyeballs. It hit home, and caused the eyeball to warp before expanding outwards, and splitting down the middle and sides into a fantastic show of gore.

Nyx reared up and back before letting out a bellow of a cry, and it made me realize I had done some real damage there.

"Come on you fat fucking bastard, I know you got a weakness." I muttered and reached for another shell.

"We're running out of rounds down here," Kevin told me as he drove the M8 backwards, avoiding the tentacles that Nyx sent flying towards us. It was angry now and using the 'features' it stole from the other tyrants against us. They slammed into the ground near us, expanding outward like springs and hitting the road. "We gotta take it down quick!"

"I know! I'm trying to find a way to do that." I told him and growled. There had to be some weakness here we could exploit, some way to take him down or weaken him!

That Sonic Rainboom I told Rainbow about doing, it might help... somehow.

Birkin, X, Nemesis and even Thanatos all had weaknesses, Nyx was just to slam as much damage against it as you could and hope for the best. But with all of the biomass it absorbed on the way it, it made me wonder just how much we had to attack before it finally fell and died.

Fucking Umbrella.

The M8 spun around to avoid a tendril that came crashing down, a much smaller one that nearly clipped us. Kevin slammed the armored car into a different gear and sent us flying forward towards the buses as Nyx tried to move towards us. I had used up most of the M8's armaments firing on Nyx, but nothing had done much except for the cannon and rocket launcher, but we didn't have any more of the latter and the former was running low.

I turned my gaze upward and spotted Rainbow flying straight up into the air, barely a bright blue speck on the horizon. She had to climb up for her Rainboom to work right, to gain as much speed as she could before reaching supersonic speeds to break the sound barrier, and thus, create the rainboom.

I don't think it was like a regular sonic boom, it was more powerful and had magic behind it. I hoped and prayed it would do some damage to show us a weakness, or at least damage him enough.

Come on Dashie, you got this. I looked back towards Nyx and watched him slam a huge meaty claw into the concrete, splitting it open and pulling its mass towards us with a roar. We were faster then he was thank Christ, but we didn't have much space left between him and the buses full of survivors.

I heard gunfire from in front of us and I turned, and I saw Leon with the others open firing on Nyx from their position. Rifles, shotguns and pistols all firing at the massive blob of mutant flesh, I doubt it would do much but as much as we threw at it as possible, the better our chances.

I saw we only had a few shells left so I grabbed one and loaded it up, and primed the gun before spinning the turret around. I ducked down and aimed down the sights, and I centered in the sights on the thing's massive arm. I pulled back on the trigger and heard the loud boom to my right as the shell flew into its arm, slamming into it hard enough to knock a big chunk of flesh off and shatter the bones within. It stumbled with a shriek, and I grinned.

Let's see how you like not having an arm anymore. I quickly loaded up another shell as Kevin slowed the car down, before stopping. It was then I realized we were near the buses.

After loading up the other shell, I centered the sights and fired again, and then I loaded up the last shell and fired once again. Both of them soared right into Nyx's arm, tearing through its arm and severing it. The arm broke apart and it fell forward with a shout and it tried to stabilize itself, but its massive weight made it difficult before it fell right into the ground, hard, causing the whole bridge to shake and tremble under its weight.

I swear I could hear the support columns below struggling to withstand this torment, and it wouldn't be long before it suddenly gave way.

I climbed up and out of the tank, armed with my carbine before leaping out. "Leon!" I yelled, grabbing the rookie officer's attention. "get everyone through the barrier! Now!" I told him before slamming my fist against the car, and that told Kevin to do what we planned.

I figured there would be a barricade this far out, but with this car's armor and how heavy it was...

Kevin backed the truck up, before he angled it to the left a bit and slammed on the accelerator and sped forward. The speed it had gone on the road was pretty decent, and I heard the sound of it slamming through the barricade and opening up a path. It cleared a big enough path for the buses to go through, and that would give everyone a chance to get moving.

"Everyone get moving! Now!" I shouted and aimed my carbine at Nyx, before pulling the trigger. A burst of 5.56 was sent flying, and I'm sure I hit some of Nyx' eyeballs, because I saw some of them pop. My goal was to blind this fucker as much as I could, because once Rainbow was ready, she would need the advantage. "Rainbow and I have this!"

I watched Leon and the others rush into the buses, they didn't fight us on this. This was their chance, their final chance of getting the hell out of this fucking nightmare, and I was giving it to them.

We had no time for fucking up here.

I emptied my magazine into Nyx and focused on all of his eyes, splattering and popping them like zits. It was fucking disgusting, but with every eye I took out, the less he was able to see in every direction. The bigger ones I had to focus on more, and I had to dump a magazine before loading in a fresh one, and pulling the trigger again.

"Come on you fuck!" I shouted, the bark of the carbine getting to my ears and making them ring. "I'm right here! I'M RIGHT HERE! COME AND FUCKING FIGHT ME!" I roared and approached him, step by step, I fired another bullet into its eyeballed speckled face.

I heard a crack boom from above and followed where the sound was, and looked straight up above, maybe a mile or so into the sky. I saw a blue speck rapidly approaching like a missile sent from heaven, across the red colored skies she was gaining more and more speed, second by second. I swear I heard her crack the sound barrier already but I didn't see any rainboom.

Not until she fell even faster, her small form shrieking like a banshee through the morning air. I saw a contrails leaving her form as she dropped from the highest point she could reach, a streak of lightning accompanied her form before another crack filled the sky like a gunshot.

Rainbow blasted down towards Nyx with an explosion of Rainbows billowing out from her form into a circle, growing wider and wider, with a trail of color following her form. If she was screaming, I didn't hear it over the jet plane-like shriek she was making with her speed.

Nyx didn't stand a chance.

Only seconds later did Rainbow's form curve at an angle above me and pull up slightly, and she slammed right into Nyx's mutant form. He tried to hold up one of his arms to block it, but she blasted right through it with such intense speed, his arm practically disintegrated into little more than a fine brackish-red mist of bone and gore. She impacted his body, blasting right through his corestraight into the bridge's concrete structure. I was blown back by the sheer force of it as a plume of magical energy shot upward into a cloud, and the bridge trembled violently, like an earthquake.

I landed not soon after being blown back several feet, and I was able to luckily land on my feet in time to see the sharp angle that bounced right back up through the rest of Nyx's form and into the sky, where Rainbow was flying up. She just fucking ricocheted right through him, and caused his form to explode from the force of it.

Nyx roared in pain, having been torn asunder as his inner core was no doubt fucking destroyed.

I didn't decide to let up either, as I ran with my carbine and with a shout, I mashed the trigger of my gun down and fired every round I had left in the gun towards his open wounds, towards anything that looked important through the hole Rainbow had made. When my carbine clicked dry, I reached towards my belt and produced a grenade, several, and pulled the pins on all of them before charging.

"Bite this and fucking die!" I screamed before curling back my arm and coming to a stop from my sprint, and slamming my left foot down, I brought my arm up and around and threw the grenades as hard as i could across the hole in the bridge Rainbow had made, sending the grenades - one incendiary - right towards Nyx's open wounds.

As blood and gore rained down from the holes, the grenades landed in his sensitive wound and exploded violently; shrapnel and flames joined together into a cacophony of bright lights and fire that began assaulting his form.

He was still moving through all of that, but with the opening Rainbow had given me, I knew it was time.

I reached into my side pouch and pulled out a capsule shooter and slammed a large white vial into it, one filled with the same drug that had saved me from the T-Virus; Daylight, this would for sure kill him, if nothing else. I loaded up the Capsule Shooter and made sure it was primed before rushing up closer, I only had a few shots of this to use, and I had to make them count!

I leapt over the chasm created by the destruction caused by both Rainbow and Nyx before aiming my gun, and I fired it right into Nyx' open wounds. The gun formed a capsule made up of Daylight and flew right into the bloodied wound, and almost immediately I swear I saw it taking effect. The flesh started to turn white and pulsate, and its body trembled from top to bottom. It growled and roared as bile exploded from its mouth, splashing onto the ground below as the Daylight made its way into its system.

I cackled and loaded up another, and I aimed and fired the second shot right into another part of the open hole, causing the Daylight to grow even worse in his body. It was starting to tear him apart from the inside out. The massive amount of T-Virus in his body was being attacked brutally by the Daylight, which was tearing a path through his body and killing him. The way vaccines were meant to be, and it was glorious to behold.

I still wasn't done as his form began to disintegrate before my eyes, his strength being taken from him as his power dwindled to little more than nothing.

I pulled out the Samurai Edge that Kendo had given me, his last gift before he had hopefully escaped the city.

Nyx's form began falling apart, flesh and bone and muscle from the hundreds of bodies it absorbed coming apart like melted butter. The mangled bodies and gore gave way to show Thanatos, the only still intact Tyrant monster we were originally going to fight, slowly rose from the melting flesh, covered in blood from head to toe. It had been heavily damaged from the process of Nyx breaking apart and absorbing his power, but he was still alive. Nemesis, Birkin, and X were beyond dead, just torn apart bodies with no life left in them.

I screamed wildly as I leapt over the hole and towards the mountain of flesh where Thanatos stood at the top, the god of death.

I swear I heard a noise in the air, of something flying, but I couldn't focus on it.

I only focused on landing on the remains of Nyx and running up his form to Thanatos, who was trying to get up.

Still screaming at the top of my lungs, I ran to the top and leapt across a large hole, and bounced off of a mangled piece of flesh and launched myself right at Thanatos.

"FUCK-"

I pulled back my fist as far as I could get it, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Rainbow had quickly joined me. She looped back around and joined me on my other side, pulling back her own hoof.

"-YOU!"

We both shouted and slammed our fist and hoof right into Thanatos' face as hard as we could, with all of our energy, our fury, our might combined into a single hit.

Thanatos's head snapped back with enough force I could have sworn it cracked.

He fell backwards, and I grabbed onto his mangled heart and the tubes connected to it, bringing me with him. I jammed the barrel of my Samurai Edge into his eye, I broke through the grey of it and shoved it into his skull before pulling the trigger.

"RAAAAAAH!" I fired every round I had in that gun into his skull, blood splattered onto my shirt, my face, but I stared him down as I mag dumped right into his fucking skull.

When my gun ran dry I ejected it and slammed another one into it. I grabbed onto tubes in his heart and ripped one free, before slamming my gun right into the meaty and doing the exact same thing. I pulled the trigger again and again, sending round after round of 9mm straight into his heart, blasting apart his one vital organ meant to keep him alive.

I could feel it starting to die, I felt Thanatos' life leave him as swiftly as it had begun.

My Samurai Edge clicked empty again, and Thanatos didn't move, didn't so much as twitch as I finished my attack.

I stumbled back with a heavy breath as my gun hand shook. I turned to look towards Rainbow, and I gave her a smile and a nod. "Rainbow... let's get the fuck out of here."

I stepped down from the mountain of flesh and jogged away from it, and jumped over the hole in the highway before running across the road. I felt Rainbow beside me, gliding along without a word. Ahead of us was the barricade, blasted apart by Kevin and waiting for us, escape was right at our fingertips and I was so close to letting relief flood me.

As we approached the barricade, I heard an engine approaching from behind us. I paused to turn and look, and I spotted a Chevy Blazer approach from the city. It drove past the carnage we left behind and drove over the still intact part of the road before screeching to a halt beside us, and the door opened.

I saw a familiar face inside, the man who helped us out a little bit. "You two look like you could use a ride." Kendo's form sat in the driver's seat and he gestured for us to climb in. "Let's get out of here."

I let myself relax just a bit before I climbed in first, and Rainbow in next. It was a tight fit, but we both decided to get into the back seat for more room. Once we were in the truck and the door closed, Kendo put the truck back into gear and drove down the road past the barricade, and we drove up the road towards the tunnel where everyone had already escaped.

Kendo didn't waste time putting the truck into gear after gear, speeding down the highway as I leaned back in the seat with Rainbow next to me. I felt so lightheaded, so goddamn tired, but now it is finally over...

It was finally fucking over with.

I found myself getting lost in the trees as we drove on, my mind wandered as I ran over the events in my head. We finally defeated that giant fucking mutant with our combined might, we managed to save everyone and get them out in one piece. We had changed so many events by just being here, and we saved so many people.

It had been maybe a few minutes since our last combined attack against Nyx and then Thanatos, one of the few big bad bosses of Raccoon City that stood in our way alongside Birkin, X and Nemesis. Between the force of the Sonic Rainboom she unleashed with the force of a hurricane, and impacts from the rocket launcher I had found by chance, they were far behind us down the road in a smoking pile of twisted and mutilated flesh and bone, never to escape this city.

My armor was completely devastated from the fights leading up to now, ripped up a bit and suffering a bit but otherwise holding up. My body, damaged as it was from the constant fights and shit, still going strong somehow. My energy was slowly restored thanks to the Daylight, and I wondered how Rainbow managed it all, I'd have to ask her.

It was thanks to her and the others I survived, and that we defeated the monsters.

I just sat in the truck as we drove up the road, and eventually into the tunnel. My line of sight changed from the trees and burning city, to that of the concrete tunnel full of dull orange lights.

All it took was a rocket launcher, all of the amo in the M8 Greyhound, and a lot of perseverance to finally end this fight, once and for all.

Rainbow was still next to me, practically leaning her whole body up against my own. The way her eyelids drooped and how heavily she was breathing, I wasn't surprised she was finally starting to wind down after everything that's happened so far. Between the constant fighting, the near death experiences, and almost losing people she cared about? I'd be tired as fuck too... I was honestly too damn tired.

I heard her sigh and she laid her head on my shoulder.

Silly horse.

"We did it." Rainbow muttered and I felt her shaking against me. I raised my arm and reached it around her, and pulled her closer. Didn't fight me on it, and accepted the physical contact. "We finally escaped."

"We did." I let out a sigh of my own as we left the tunnel at last and drove through a heavily forested road. I saw the sky begin to grow brighter, second by second. "We got real fucking lucky, heh." I couldn't believe we actually did it either. We fucking beat them all, after... god knows how long of a fight. "Damn, I didn't know you could pull off a Rainboom that good, pretty impressive."

She actually managed a chuckle before she looked up at me with slightly beaming eyes. "I'm the fastest pegasus alive, dummy, and I'm totally awesome to boot, so of course I can do that~" Rainbow winked and stuck her tongue out.

Silly cute horse. Even as tired as she was, she was still super damn cute.

The truck we were in eventually pulled out to an overlook nearby, and it was there I saw the two buses with the other survivors. We pulled into the parking lot there, and Rainbow and I separated before climbing out to greet the others.

I saw Leon, Jill, Carlos, Claire and even Sherry, as well as the Outbreak crew, on top of the captain from the police station. Everyone here had survive by some stroke of luck, 

We just laid there on the concrete for a while, basking in the victory of our battle. I was fucking tired, my energy was all but gone and I wasn't sure I could summon much more energy to fight if something were to happen. Nearby, I could hear Jim jumping for joy as Kevin wrangled together the rest of the Outbreak crew. I saw everyone was finally resting after such a long fucking time, and people were really excited to see us.

All of the words they said passed over me and I found it hard to really focus as my line of sight drifted to the city of Raccoon City.

I looked just in time to witness four large missiles drop down from the sky and impact the city center. I had seen explosions on TV and games, but seeing one in person?

It was nothing short of insane.

I watched the missiles impact the city and watched three to four separate fireballs suddenly explode into existence, engulf every square inch of the city, block by city block the fireballs grew to such a massive size and took out everything. The loud boom that sounded was distant, yet still loud enough to reach us from miles away in the mountains, and the shockwave managed to reach us after a minute of passing through the forest.

Raccoon City had been destroyed, engulfed in an inferno that burned away every single trace of the viral outbreak that would send this world spiraling into a state of global bio-terrorism and warfare.

I stepped away from the scene and collapsed onto a bench nearby as everyone started to do the same, and relax, finally letting themselves let go. The nightmare was over at long last, and everyone was deciding to celebrate. I let myself relax after so long. I put my hands to my face, and leaned forward as the warm wind blew over the area from the north. I felt so tired, dirty, I just wanted to sleep, rest, and finally go home, or something.

Rainbow approached me and jumped onto the bench, and I felt her nose me like a curious puppy. I had to hide the chuckle before pulling my hands away, and I looked at her with a smile. "We're safe now, Rainbow... how's it feel?"

The mare smiled at me, before she reached over and hugged me. An action I didn't quite expect from the character I knew and loved, but it wasn't unwelcome, and I was quick to return it with a hug of my own. It was something we both needed after such a long and stressful time, and I was more than happy to receive some kind of affection after all of this bullshit.

"It feels great..." She spoke softly into my ear and pulled back for a moment to lock eyes with me. Bloodied and banged up as she was, her smile was still the brightest thing I had ever seen, and I loved it. "It's a lot better than I was hoping it would be."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? How so?"

Her eyes softened and so did her smile, and her light blue cheeks grew a sort of red tint. I noticed her wings shuffling on either side and she said, "you survived and escaped with me, that's why it's better." She leaned forward and buried her face in the nape of my neck, and I felt myself heat up from the contact. "You really scared me, Dee, but... you survived, somehow, and you kept your promise."

I felt my heart starting to beat faster, but I tried to ignore it and calm myself down. "I keep my promises, Dashie. I do whatever I can to not break them."

"I know." She pulled away and I felt her fur tickle my skin. A tense second passed as I felt her breath on my cheek, and only a second later did I feel her lips press against my skin.

It was the briefest contact I've ever had like that, but god...

It felt like an eternity passed, and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

She eventually pulled away and I saw her eyes staring into mine, and that cute little smile of hers lingered. Her smile turned into a tiny grin and she chuckled, "did I break you?"

I pursed my lips and felt a lot of things rushing through me, confusion, anxiety, and maybe... a little something more.

"M-maybe a little bit, actually." I admitted and she chuckled again.

She leaned against the bench's backrest, and kept looking at me. "I guess I'm not known for doing that from that uh... cartoon?"

I shook my head and found myself smiling a little. It took me until now to realize my hand was on my cheek, how long had I touched that spot? "N-no, actually... you're a really headstrong character, stubborn, really self-confident, but you're also brash and mischievous, maybe a bit over-confident sometimes."

Rainbow blinked and brushed her mane aside. "Really?" When I nodded, she looked away for a moment, and made a grunt. "Huh..." She shrugged and smiled regardless, and looked back towards me. "I am pretty cool, but... after all of this, everything that's happened?" She glanced beyond me and towards the burning ruins of the city. Her smile faded into a frown. "I'm not as strong as I thought I was, or as fast... or as brave, I wasn't fast enough to save yo-"

I quickly put my hand over her muzzle, and caught her eyes glaring at me all of a sudden. "Don't go there, Dash." I let the words settle in her mind, and I let my hand drift to her cheek. "Don't let that kind of thinking consume you, okay? It doesn't matter... none of it matters now, because I'm here, alive, thanks to you and the others, and we're both here. We're both alive." I stared her dead in the eyes and let a smile grow. "You're alive, I'm alive... focus on that, and let's be happy, yeah?"

Rainbow's eyes misted up and her ears folded back. "B-but..."

"No buts, silly pony." I pulled my hand away and stuck a finger out, and booped it against her snoot. "We got out of there alive, and I'm gonna survive because you risked it all to save my life." I pulled my hand away and leaned back, and let my eyes drift up into the trees above. "We survived hell on earth." I let my gaze fall back to Rainbow and she was still looking towards me with those bright eyes of hers. "You're still one hell of a girl, and I'm glad you were the one I got stuck here with."

Rainbow's cheeks took on a reddish hue, and she fluttered her wings a bit before looking away. "Yeah, we-well..." She ran a hoof through her mane, ruffling it up a bit. "You're not so bad yourself."

"Pfft, that's it? I'm not so bad? Come on!" I blew a raspberry. "I just said you were one hell of a girl, and complimented you on top of it and that's the best you got? Sheesh."

"Oh whatever." Rainbow stuck out her tongue. "You know what I mean!"

"Not really, why don't you spell it out for me a little, help me understand."

She scoffed. "Are you that dense?"

"I'm like you, Dashie, I'm hard headed~" I stuck my own tongue out at her. "Sometimes it's hard to get stuff through my head." I accentuated that and rapped my knuckles against my head.

"No wonder you survived so long, I guess that thick skull of yours is good for something after all."

"That's not all that's thick."

I saw her blush grow brighter and she nearly spat. "O-oh bite me you weirdo!"

"Hey now, don't be threatening' me with a good time."

"P-pfft! I, w-what? I don't-" Rainbow's face was so red, and I don't know why but that was so fucking funny.

I couldn't help it and I started to laugh.

Probably the only really joy - aside from the kiss - I've felt since I arrived in this fucking hellhole. Rainbow paused in her stuttering, but she lightened up and ended up joining me for a laugh. We both shared that laugh together, just some banter between friends... and it felt so fucking nice.

The laughter died down before I turned towards the burning ruins of the city, of which I had a front row seat to it with Rainbow. I watched the burning pyres collapse building after building, and I had to wonder how many poor souls had been left behind. It wasn't my problem anymore, I rescued who I could, but now?

"Hey Dee." I felt her move across the bench, and she scooted closer to me.

I tore my gaze from the city and looked at her. "What's up?"

She was looking out towards the city as well, and I could see the fires flickering in her eyes like candlelights. "Now that we're free... what do we do now?"

As the sun rose high into the sky and shone down on all of us, I let another smile grace my face before looking up. I felt Rainbow follow my gaze, and I could only think of one thing we could do.

"You wanna get drunk and take a shower with me?"





To Be Continued