Author: sorry these chapters aren't coming in as fast as they often do. There are some scenes in this chapter which I wanted to test out, so please let me know if you like them. Thanks for your support! And here's chapter 5...
Val lunged, and Rainbow quickly hopped back. She yanked open the fridge door, hitting Val in the face. Val was quick to recover, and kicked the door. It flew back into Rainbow, who stumbled back with a bleeding nose. She quickly wiped away the blood, and threw the pizza cutter at Val. Val caught it between her metal fingers, and at that moment Rainbow wished she had a hand too.
She quickly stabbed forth with her knife, but Val simply knocked it aside.
Val lashed out, and Rainbow grabbed her hand, the knife tip stopping inches away from her nose. She then forced the knife into the kitchen cupboard, the metal lodging itself firmly in the wood.
Rainbow swung her knife around, and stabbed it right between Val's eyes. She felt her bones crunch as the knife crushed through her skull, and squish into her brain. Val's body fell limp, and Rainbow let go. It crumbled onto the ground, the biological eye rolling back into the head.
Rainbow sighed, looking at the blood splattered onto her. Her wing still hurt, and she was doing whatever she could to ignore the pain. She stepped over Val's body and was about to exit the kitchen when she heard a soft giggle behind her.
She swirled around, looking down at the body. Val was getting up, laughing quietly.
"You should see the look on your face." she said, grinning, her tongue flicking at her own blood trickling down her face. She closed her fingers around the handle of the knife still sticking out of her head, and yanked it out. Blood and bits of her own brain splattered over her clothes, and she dropped the bloodied knife onto the ground.
Shining white pixels began appearing around her, then closed around her fatal wound. When the glow was gone, so was the wound- leaving no evidence of it ever being there.
"I never knew my own blood actually tastes pretty good." she said jokingly, licking her right hand clean. Her left hand reached into the fridge beside her, and took a frozen fish out of it.
Before Rainbow had even recovered from shock, she already took a fish to the face. She hit the wall, and fell onto the ground. She quickly backed away from Val, heading out of the kitchen. Val marched after her.
Where's my cleaver... Rainbow thought. Where is it, where is it, where is it....
She scrambled up to her hooves, but fell down again as she had to block the frozen fish from hitting her face. She swiped her legs sideways, sweeping away Val's hooves. She fell down hard on the floor, the frozen fish sliding away.
Rainbow quickly scrambled up, and was about to get her cleaver. She stopped as she remembered. The research on the revival machine was in there too- and she mustn't let Val find it.
She quickly changed direction, grabbing car keys that she hadn't picked up in a whole year. She kicked down the door of her own house, although she wasn't sure why, it was open already.
She sprinted to the black car, cared for and polished but never used. She got in and jammed the keys into the socket, then twisted, listening to the familiar purring of the engine. She quickly swung the car out of the drive way, catching a glimpse of Val exiting the house as she stomped on the acceleration.
Rainbow let out a sigh of relief. Now to contact Vinyl and Dainty...
She quickly turned on the systems in the car, and the screen blinked. It turned on fully a moment later, and Rainbow quickly connected it to her other sports car.
"Hello?" Vinyl asked. "Does this thing even work?"
"Vinyl! It's Rainbow. Listen, there's an emergency. I got bucking shot by some maniac that stormed the house after you left. Make sure Dainty is alright, OK? Make sure she's safe."
"You what-? Where?"
"In my wing. How bucking surprising." Rainbow wove through the traffic.
"Sis!" Dainty squealed.
"I'm fine, Daint." Rainbow was glad she could hear Dainty. "Just stay safe, alright?"
"Damnit. Are you safe now?" Vinyl asked
"Yeah... Bleeding the crap outta myself though." Rainbow cursed.
"I'll meet up with you at the intersection between Logger Street and Rivermen Avenue. Sounds like you need medical attention." Vinyl said.
"Hell yeah." Rainbow laughed.
Vinyl hung up, and Rainbow lost her enthusiasm.
"Where's Octavia when you need her?" she muttered to herself.
She quickly programmed the two road names into the GPS, and was glad to see the light orange line trace the streets and lead to an intersection. It was relatively close to the mall, she reasoned.
Suddenly the car beside her exploded, and flew high up into the air.
"What the buck!?" Rainbow yelled, peering out of the window. "Not this crap again..." she muttered as she saw a helicopter send streams of bullets her way.
She quickly flicked a switch on the console, and heard the whirring of motors behind her. Time to use that turret again.
She looked into her side mirror, taking in more detail about the copter. She gasped when she recognized it as a military model.
"What the hay..." she muttered, taking a closed look. She couldn't see the pilot because it was dark and the windshield had reflections all over it. Then she suddenly remembered they haven't caught the traitor in the royal military yet. "Damnit!" she cursed, waiting for the turret to warm up.
Another missile landed near her, and the debris from it shattered her driver side window. She covered her head with an arm, shielding it from the glass shards.
"Turret online." the system said in a mono-toned voice.
"Heck yeah." Rainbow said, trying to drive and lock onto the helicopter at the same time. "Do we have any rockets left?"
"Negative." the system said
"Buck." Rainbow muttered, and there was a soft beep as the turret locked on. She slammed the fire button, and heard the mini-gun roar behind her.
There was a cross road up ahead, and the red lights happened to be on for Rainbow. Going through that traffic would be suicide- and stopping would be even worse. She quickly looked around, then-
"Aha." she said, yanking the steering wheel so the car flew onto the empty sidewalks.
There was a construction site up ahead, with a weak-looking plywood ramp leading to a second level.
Rainbow held tight onto the steering wheel as the car hit the ramp. She felt her heart fall into her stomach and then drop with it as she sailed through the air, watching the streams of cars pass underneath.
"Shuck-" she muttered as she saw a large glass building approach up ahead. And she was powerless to stop the car from sailing into it.
Glass shattered and flew in all directions as the car busted through it, skidding to a halt in a large office. Ponies quickly scrambled out of the way as a stream of bullets ripped through the glass walls on the left, sending pieces of paper into the air and knocking computers from desks. The chopper continued its sweep, all guns blazing. It was a scene of chaos that Rainbow wished to never see again.
She stomped on the acceleration, plowing through desks and chairs. Ponies leaped out of the way as she sped on, the turret trading bullets with the chopper.
She yanked the steering wheel, and the car flew out of the office block. It sailed over a number of car before hitting the road. Rainbow cracked her own head against the steering wheel as the suspensions failed to completely equalize the impact.
"Buck this..." she cursed, clicking her seatbelt.
She drove the car past an oil station- uh-oh.
The helicopter fired a missile into the station, and it instantly erupted into a huge fireball that seemed to set the whole sky on fire.
"Crap-" Rainbow yanked the steering wheel to one side, a flying car landing where she was a second before and cracking the gravel road. It too exploded, the fire licking the paint of her car. She'll definitely need to take this chopper down before she meets up with Vinyl and Dainty.
She briefly checked the rear view mirror, and almost completely froze with shock. The explosions were setting off chain reactions, sending cars and trucks alike flying into the sky in flames.
She turned off the turret. It was barely doing anything.
"Hey- Shining Armor!" Rainbow quickly dialed a number, turning the car right and narrowly avoiding collision with a flying truck.
"We've been receiving reports of terrorist attacks on Cloudsdale- if this has anything to do with you-" Shining Armor sounded quite angry. So much for the big softie.
"Sadly, it does. Listen-" Rainbow shielded her eyes from a bright fire ball.
"You listen! I thought you would've left the trouble-"
"Yeah, I tried. I've got a military chopper on my tail, so mind giving me a hoof?"
"A mili-" Shining Armor stopped. "What?"
"I think it's our bucking traitor." Rainbow said, yelping as a car landed right in front of her. She jerked the steering wheel, and the car drifted around the flaming carcass.
"What's going on at your end? I need to know the details." Rainbow heard the captain of the royal guard click a pen.
"I have a bucking military chopper shooting missiles at me! What the buck did you think!" Rainbow yelled.
"You know what, I'll send Blaze and Halcyon." Shining Armor said. "You can explain the situation to them." there was a beep in the background. "Oop. Coffee machine calls. Good luck." he said, then hung up.
Rainbow growled, then rolled her eyes as she remembered the two royal guards who apparently were elite royal bodyguards.
"Hey Dash! How's it going on your end?" Blaze said.
"Great- if you like the possibility of being crushed by falling cars present near you every second." Rainbow said as she heard a loud crunch behind her, followed by a huge boom. "Just fly over here in jets, if you don't mind."
"Why?"
Rainbow growled. Does she really have to explain this to everypony?
"I have a military chopper shooting damn missiles at me! HURRY THE BUCK UP!" Rainbow screamed into the mic.
"Calm down. We're on our way." Blaze said, and the line went dead.
Rainbow felt like tearing everything around her into shreds, but restrained herself from doing so and concentrated on her own survival.
"Oh..." Rainbow looked up, and saw the flaming carcass of a double decker bus soaring through the air.
Rainbow quickly played with a few knobs on the side of the steering wheel, and flicked a switch.
Suddenly the car lifted, falling towards the sky as its gravity was inverted. The bus crashed onto the street, effectively blocking it. The car sailed over it, then disappeared behind a wall of fire as the bus exploded. Dragging flames behind it, the car busted through the fireball.
Rainbow quickly flicked the switch back, and gravity turned back to normal. The car crashed onto the streets wheels down, still going.
"We're in the air." Halcyon said.
"That was fast." Rainbow said.
"We're tracking you now. Should get that chopper down in no-time." Halcyon said, and Rainbow could hear the wink in her voice.
"Thank Celestia." Rainbow muttered, then heard the rotors of the chopper slice through the air behind her.
A bright spotlight temporarily blinded her, then moved away. The chopper had flown up ahead, and was now flying backwards and shooting everything it had at Rainbow.
Rainbow yanked the steering wheel, a missile almost grazing the left side, leaving behind it a trail of smoke.
Rainbow turned into a separate street, away from the helicopter. But soon enough she heard it close behind, and its roaring machine guns.
She looked to her left, and found something that might just help her escape.
"Subway... This is gonna end bad." Rainbow muttered, and aimed the car straight at the subway entrance.
A missile shot overhead and grazed the subway entrance. The helicopter was trying to block Rainbow.
Ponies screamed and scrambled out of the way as the black car sailed over the stairs, sparks flying as the top grazed the ceiling. A missile struck behind the car, sending chunks of concrete tumbling down.
The car crashed onto the bottom of the tunnel, cracking the beautifully polished marble floors. The tires ground against it, sending smoke into the air and launching the car forward.
"Where are you? Our tracker says you're going through a couple of blocks." Halcyon said.
"Subway." Rainbow replied, weaving her way through tall concrete columns that prevented the ceiling from simply crashing down.
"You're kidding..." Halcyon sighed.
There was an explosion behind Rainbow, and she looked in the mirror.
The chopper must be sending missiles through the ground, because the whole place was coming down behind her.
Chunks of practically everything was crumbling down as the whole subway system began collapsing. Cars from the streets above crashed down, accompanied by bits of gravel and traffic lights.
"Don't worry, I think I know where you are." Halcyon said. "I can see the destruction from here."
Rainbow did reply. She drove the car into the subway tunnels, the side slamming against the wall as it landed on the rails. She could see light up ahead- a train was heading straight for her.
She flicked the switch again, and the car flipped in mid-air, landing wheels down on the ceiling. There was a gigantic rush of air and a huge whoosh as the train passed below, the two roofs scraping against each other and lighting up the dark tunnel with sparks.
The entire world seemed to catch fire as the tumbling debris hit the train, detonating it and sending waves of explosions down its length, chasing the black car.
"Shuck shuck shuck..." Rainbow muttered, watching the fire ball grow closer and closer through the rear view mirror.
And then the car flew out into the next station, startling the waiting ponies. A huge fireball followed the car, erupting out the tunnel. Carriages of the train came flying out, tumbling across the huge waiting hall. Rainbow was driving upside down on the ceiling, watching the chaos above her.
She quickly flicked the switch again, and the car came crashing down on the marble floor, sending chunks and pieces flying away. There was a loud cracking noise as the car drove out of the dent in the floor, and sped towards the exit.
Rainbow hit the first set of stairs. Acting as a ramp, they sent the car flying up into the air. Rainbow escaped the fire below, and entered the night.
There was a loud explosion from above, and the sound of failing motors.
The flaming carcass of the helicopter clipped the side of the car, sending it tumbling through the air.
Inside was a total mess- Rainbow's mane flailed all over the place, loose coins in a small box spilled out, shimmering as a fireball lit up the sky. Then the car slammed into the ground, miraculously on its wheels.
There was a loud crash as the flaming remains of the chopper hit the street, bouncing up and tumbling over the gravel, its rotors ripping away and flying into the air. It slammed into the side of a building, and went up in a huge fireball.
"Got him." Blaze said.
Rainbow let out a deep breath, covering her face and rubbing her tired eyes. She heard the two jet fighters scream past overhead.
"Thanks guys. Probably would've been dead if you didn't step in." Rainbow said, relaxing into the driver's seat. Right now, she could bet that Octavia made mods on this seat, since she always drives. It was so unbelievably comfortable.
"Ah. You're still alive." Shining Armor said, and Rainbow heard him sip his coffee.
"You, sir. I hate you." Rainbow said, exhausted.
"Need pick up?"
"I got my car, thank you very much." Rainbow growled.
"I knew those two could handle it." Shining Armor said. "And I also trusted that you would stay alive until they save you."
Rainbow chuckled. "Yeah. Thanks a bucking lot."
"One question though. Why is it, that every time somepony tries to kill you, they end up ripping apart half the city?"
Rainbow paused, thinking about it. "Because they're stupid? I don't know. I'll leave that investigation to you." she said, and hung up.
She looked down at the GPS. It was still working, so she followed it.
A moment later she was at the intersection, and saw Vinyl standing there. She quickly parked the car, and stumbled out.
"Hell- you would not believe what happened..." she said, walking towards Vinyl. And then she stopped. "Where's Dainty?"
Vinyl didn't reply. Instead, she grabbed Rainbow by the shoulder and flung her across the walkway and into a narrow alley. Rainbow tumbled across the hard cement floor, tiny pieces of rock jabbing at her flesh.
She scrambled up, her ears ringing. "Vinyl! What the buck..?"
Vinyl's face melted away into pixels, and Val was standing there, blocking Rainbow's way out of the blocked alley.
"What...? What have you done with them?" Rainbow yelled.
"Nothing." Val said. "All I did was tap into the conversation."
"Then where are they?" Rainbow ground her teeth together.
Val tapped her throat, and when she spoke again it was in Vinyl's voice. "I'll meet up with you at the intersection between Logger Street and Rivermen Avenue. Sounds like you need medical attention." she grinned.
Rainbow was in complete shock. She had been tricked.
"All I did was cut into the conversation, that's all. Excuse me for interrupting, by the way." Val flicked her wrist, and a knife popped out from beneath her long sleeved coat.
Rainbow slowly back up against the wall behind her. And then-
She pushed off with all her force, and swung a hoof across and into Val's jaw. Blood splattered onto the both of them, and Val was sent flying to the side; tumbling through the brick wall to her right and crashing into a wooden table behind it. The pony inside screamed and ran outside.
Rainbow stepped through the hole in the wall, her hooves crunching against the crumbled brick.
Val slowly got up, blood soaking her coat. Her jaw was hanging by a thin thread of muscle from the rest of her head, dangling beneath a lolling tongue. Val tried to talk, but only spluttered blood. She quickly grabbed hold of her jaw, which was swinging around; and clicked it back into place. She held it there, waiting for it to heal. Pixels appeared out of thin air, and immediately filled in the missing pieces.
Val opened her jaw, then closed it. "That feels way more comfortable." she said, grinning at Rainbow's horrified expression.
She ducked down, grabbed her knife, and lunged at Rainbow.
Rainbow stepped to the side, letting the knife whistle past then slammed an elbow down on Val's arm. The knife flew from her grasp, and Rainbow caught it.
She spun around and kicked Val in the chest, sending her into the wall again. She didn't slam through this time, but made quite the dent, brick pieces and dust slid off her back as she slowly stood up.
Rainbow raised the knife, ready to cut Val's head clean off and keep it that way.
Suddenly Val's face faded away into pixels, morphing into the face of a grey earth pony, the irises a burst of purple.
Rainbow's eyes widened as Octavia got to her hooves, and hesitated.
But before she knew it, Octavia had already taken the knife and stabbed it into her chest. She felt it crunch through her ribs and rupture half of her lung, then pierce the skin on her back and stick out the other end.
Octavia's face melted away, pixels fading into the air as Val was back again. Rainbow stared emptily into Val's grinning face, feeling blood surge into her right lung.
"You're a silly girl, Dash." Val yanked the knife out, painting the floor with Rainbow's blood. "A silly, silly girl." she said, sliding the knife back under her sleeve, still dripping with blood.
Rainbow collapsed onto the ground, watching Val slowly walk away from her defeated form.