Rainbow was looking into the eyes of the distant pony. The afternoon wind was sending shivers through her body. The other pony was having the same effects, visibly shaking in the sudden breeze.
Suddenly, the other pony took a step closer. As Rainbow realized this, she followed the example. Soon both ponies were running towards each other, eyes still locked into each other’s.
It was only when they could hear each other breathing when they finally stopped. Applejack’s body shapes were easily visible now, though Rainbow kept her concentration on the face of the orange mare.
Applejack was doing the same. They just stood there, looking at each other, not even trying to break the magic of the moment.
And all of a sudden the clouds moved out of the way and let the beams of Celestia’s sun reach the ground.
Those beams reflected from the eyes of Applejack, showcasing the deep green in them, making Rainbow’s sense of reality slip even further away.
The breeze was still present, taking a hold of Applejack’s blonde mane and swinging it in the air. The sight was heavenly.
And just as the moment was reaching its peak, Applejack leaned in and locked her lips with Rainbow’s.
The two ponies stood there, sharing in a passionate kiss, the afternoon sun illuminating their bodies against the small field filled with golden wheat they were standing on.
And the reality faded away as the two mares shared their special moment.
----»«----
A little-out-of-tone chirp of a bird woke Rainbow up from the first happy dream in weeks. She was annoyed by this, of course. She had been living the best moment of her short life again, getting to feel all the emotions that were rolling in her head as the kiss just kept on going.
But this certain bird just had to chirp when she was having the worst of hangovers. The sharp pain was a bit late, but after a good two seconds the feeling of millions of tiny needles penetrating your skull came.
As the pain took over, Rainbow collapsed to the floor. She had apparently tried to get up during her sleep. That was new.
But this wasn’t the best of moments to think about what she had done while she had been asleep. The pain pulsing in her head was a much more important thing.
Rainbow was starting to regret whatever she had done in order to get such pain. She had drunk something, but she was not sure what.
The taste in her mouth reminded of two-weeks-on-the-table cider mixed up with a fresh batch of puke from the floor of the worst pub in the town. In other words, she hadn’t tasted anything even near that bad in months.
Water was the best friend of a drunk. You could drink gallons of straight vodka fresh from Stalliongrad, getting only a ruined liver, a couple of hours of blank in your memory, possible unpleasant memories and a semi-bad hangover if you drank the same amount of water after drinking the alcohol.
But when you had a hangover up and running, there was no way to stop it. You’d have to submit to the fate of living with it for a couple of hours.
But you can make the suffering more tolerable if you just manage to get up from your bed, the floor or wherever you just happen to be lying.
It was brilliant. Go do some chores and BOOM! Hangover gone.
There was only a single problem.
It’s incredibly hard to get up when you have a pistol pressed against the side of your head.
“Rise and shine, dearie!” shouted a somewhat high-pitched voice. It was coming from her side. Rainbow was pretty sure that the source of the voice was holding the pistol.
“How was sleep?” it asked. A regular pony would have answered, but Rainbow knew better.
“Ah, you’re a little smart-ass are ya? Well, let’s see about how smart you are with your brains on the wall!”
Rainbow knew she had no choice. She was slowed down so much by the hangover that she wouldn’t be able to take the stallion down. At least from this position.
“What do you want?” she asked. Better keep the conversation alive. Rebels are simple. If they are speaking, they can’t shoot.
“Oh, I was just having a little walk around the town and saw this nice little building. Well, I don’t fight for free. So, I came in in hopes of some treasures, but found you on the floor instead.
“But, as I’m a good stallion, I didn’t run back to the camp and tell that we had a Princess-loving traitor here. No, I decided to have my own fun with you.
“But, you were out cold. Drinking is dangerous, you know? It might destroy your beautiful body.”
Rainbow was starting to get pissed. She knew exactly what the Rebel meant by “own fun”. But she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
She was a soldier. She knew tricks. The best way to make a stallion completely harmless? A well-aimed kick to the jewels.
“So, what are your plans?” she asked. A distraction was needed in her current condition.
“Are you really that stupid? I’m a stallion and you are a mare. It should be completely obvious that I’m going to-“
Rainbow pressed her forehooves tightly to the floor, used them to rocket herself up, lifted her left hind hoof up and bucked as hard as she could while mid-air. Judging by the sudden stop in the little speech of the Rebel, she had hit her target.
She heard the Rebel collide to the floor. Her plan had succeeded.
The gun was falling freely through the air. With a swift move of her hoof, Rainbow caught it mid-air, spun it around, landed perfectly to the hard floor and aimed at the Rebel.
But the poor stallion was still in such pain that he was unable to do anything. He was just lying on the ground, a painful look on his face. Rainbow could actually see tears forming up in his eyes.
“Not so tough anymore, huh?” she asked. Mocking her victim was always fun, especially after she had surprised him.
The Rebel was only able to form up a small, high-pitched squeal.
“That’s what you get for sneaking around stealing stuff and stalking innocent mares while they are asleep.”
“B-buck you!”
Rainbow was surprised by the fact that the Rebel had managed to form up two complete words.
“What was that? Didn’t quite catch you there,” she said while waving the gun in front of the face of the Rebel.
He got the hint and kept his mouth shut.
“Now, I really don’t like killing ponies. But, I can make an exception with you…” Rainbow said and put on her evil grin.
“No! Please! I’ll do anything!” The Rebel had recovered quickly.
“Anything, eh?” Rainbow asked and placed a hoof on her chin, as if she would be thinking.
“Yes! Anything!” The Rebel was starting to sound desperate.
“Okay then. First off, you’re going to answer some questions. How did you get in? The door was supposed to be secured.”
“Duh, a house has windows!”
Rainbow skillfully spun the gun in her hoof and pulled the trigger. The bullet missed the head of the Rebel just by inches.
“Oh just how did I miss like that? Well, I’ll probably be more accurate next time…” Rainbow said to the now-shocked Rebel.
Seeing that the Rebel realized to keep his mouth shut, she continued the little quiz.
“Secondly, what are the plans of the Rebellion?”
All of a sudden the Rebel got all serious.
“I’m not letting the Rebellion down, motherbucker!”
Rainbow had got enough of this. She lifted the gun up and shot again. The bullet hit right where it was supposed to hit; to the left forehoof of the stallion.
“Aah!” Was all the stallion could say. He winced in pain and collapsed on the floor, holding his now-injured hoof.
“I repeat. What are the plans of the Rebellion?” Rainbow said while pressing the gun against the right hind hoof of the defenseless stallion.
“Okay, okay! I’ll tell!” He shouted in panic, knowing that he had no option.
“Well?” Rainbow asked. “I’m not a very patient mare, you know.”
“The lead is finally going to take Canterlot over. They should have no resistance now when the princesses are gone. Right for those namby-pamby “love everyone”-bitches.”
Rainbow shot another bullet, into the right hind hoof this time.
“Aaagh!”
Rainbow could see the tears that were forming up in the eyes of the Rebel. ‘Not so tough’, she thought to herself.
“So, any more info? Or should I try your left hind leg?”
“They will take the palace as the command center! They will live there until the war is officially over! The great and almighty leader loves hayrolls! What do you want to know!?”
“I guess that was enough. Now come on and I will take you to the cellar in order to get you something for those hooves.” Rainbow said. She certainly wasn’t going to clean any more Rebel-blood from the floors.
“Oh thank you, thank you!” said the Rebel, a small glimpse of hope lighting up in his eyes.
“Okay. Grab my shoulder.” Rainbow instructed after making sure that he had no hidden weapons.
The stallion obeyed. He grabbed Rainbow’s shoulder and she began escorting him towards the awaiting doom.
----»«----
As they reached the cellar door, the stallion’s normally green fur was soaked in blood and sweat. Yet he was still conscious and doing his best trying to keep steady, trying to ease Rainbow’s job.
She almost felt bad for what she was going to do.
Almost.
“Okay, you go first. The door tends to shut a bit fast and we don’t want you to stumble, do we?” she said.
“Well, at least I don’t,” the stallion answered happily. He waited aside as Rainbow forced the heavy door open.
“It tends to get stuck every now and then,” Rainbow explained. The stallion suspected nothing. He just happily smiled at her as he walked through the doorway and started walking down the stairs.
Rainbow moved to the door, swung the pistol up, made sure it was loaded and aimed at the back of the head of the Rebel.
For a second, she hesitated. The stallion seemed really nice to her.
But when she recalled the earlier events, she decided that this was the best solution.
She shot three accurate shots into the back of his head. He fell forward on the steps, nastily hitting his forehead to one of the hard stone steps. Rainbow could hear the skull crack.
She trotted down as fast as she could. The faster the body would be dumped into the hole, the faster she would be able to forget.
As she reached the body she could easily see half of the brains of the stallion sticking out of the huge hole he had in his skull. The bullets had made their way through forming up three round holes, weakening the skull. When he had hit his head to the step, the weakened skull had cracked. The result was messy.
The cerebrospinal fluids were flowing through the hole, diluting the blood and causing a pinkish puddle form up. This managed to make Rainbow feel sick.
She quickly pushed the stallion with her front hooves. The hole was getting closer and closer.
After a good minute of pushing and gagging, the Rebel finally fell to the depths of the hole. A sickly thud and a series of loud cracks could be heard.
Rainbow 4, Rebels 0.
But she wasn’t too happy about it. Two of the four had been good in some level. This was why she hated war.
‘Oh how I hate the sound of the broken pieces,’ she thought to herself, the cracks still haunting her mind.
She trotted back to the cellar door, took a one final look back and shut the door for good.
----»«----
The sun was already setting. The same old and boring beams casted shadows on the wall behind the window. The sight was starting to bore Rainbow. It would have been a great moment to share with someone, but when she was all alone, everything felt so dull and gray.
She used the small hammer to hit the one last nail, causing it to sink deeper into the hard wooden plank she had found from the upstairs. Why did the owner hide wooden planks into his house?
But Rainbow didn’t care. All the windows were now blocked and no-one could get in. She could sleep safely.
But it wasn’t sleepy-time yet. It would take good two hours for her to fall asleep and the thought of waiting those two hours with all kinds of memories running in her head, constantly trying to hurt her wasn’t too tempting.
She’d need something to do. Something to keep the thoughts away.
Food or drinks were no option. Rainbow still remembered the hellish headache she had had after killing the Rebel.
She was also pretty full from that half-a-sandwich she had eaten before blocking the windows.
But the answer to her problem was lying on the floor, next to her saddlebag.
The mysterious folder she had found from observation room. A good read would make time pass easily.
Rainbow trotted over to the folder, picked it up and threw it to the couch. After making sure that everything was well blocked and that she was in good enough condition, she followed.
She made a few adjustments to her position, opened the folder and started to read.