//------------------------------// // Chapter Eleven: The Fall // Story: The Fall // by Writer12577 //------------------------------// Rainbow had been sitting under the same tree for good five minutes by now. She was nervous, craving for action. But she knew that she couldn’t do anything until she got direct orders from Base. So she was doomed to wait till they would get the connections up and functional. Once again there was no fear of getting spotted. The traditional black camo she was wearing merged perfectly into the dark shadow, showing only the eyes and a frightening white grin when she wanted to. “This is base, system functional. Testing lines, how copy?” “This is Dash, good copy. Lines seem to be functional. How copy?” “Solid. Lines up just as planned. Sparkle, great job once again.” Rainbow smiled a little. Whilst Twilight wasn’t a mare of action, she sure was useful on the base camp, operating all the technical equipment the team had. “Okay Dash, listen up. Balconies are crowded, one guard on each. Sneak up from behind and take ‘em down. Move on as fast as possible. How copy?” “Solid copy, Base. Waiting for your call.” “Dash, you’re on. Good luck.” “Thank you Base, Dash out.” Rainbow shut the mic down and started proceeding towards the wall the first balcony was located in. It was about twenty meters straight up from the wall, but still being a pegasus, Rainbow should have no problem flying up. As she reached the wall, she immediately killed the pace and hugged it. She could just have stopped without doing any extra safety measures, but being a professional she knew that it was better to make sure than to die. When she was completely sure that nopony had seen her, she silently unfurled her wings and started slowly floating upwards. Soon enough she was near the edge of the balcony. She took a quick peek from the edge to see which direction the guard was facing. Luckily for her, he was looking into the very opposite direction, possibly admiring the darkness that was around them. It was the perfect chance for Rainbow. She quickly floated to the level of the floor of the balcony but didn’t quite touch the floor with her hooves as it was easier for her to go towards her target whilst still up in the air. She pulled the sharp combat knife she always carried with her out of her bag. It was self-made and professionally decorated. She was very proud of it, though due to the decorations nopony else was allowed to see it. Not until she would be ready to tell Applejack. Maybe after the mission? Rainbow quickly dismissed such thoughts. She needed to concentrate on the mission and the mission only. She professionally spun the knife in her hoof so the blade was facing the guard. It was a stallion. Rainbow could easily see it from the way he was standing. This would be even easier. Stallions were clumsy and slow. She walked over to the stallion, stopping just behind him. She took a one final look at him to make sure everything was in order, flung her both hooves forward and put the left one in front of his mouth whilst stabbing him into the throat with the right one. Everything the guard managed to do was to let out a quiet, surprised noise that was effectively blocked by Rainbow’s hoof. It was a silent kill. She let the limp body slowly slide to the floor, pulling her knife out and wiping it to the rug that was possibly supposed to serve as an armor the guard had been wearing. One down, two to go. The next balcony was just around the corner. Rainbow hopped up in the air and unfurled her wings. She silently began moving towards the next target. When she had reached the corner, she took a quick look behind it. The balcony was just there, but she wasn’t sure where the guard was. She’d have to go further. She dropped down a little bit. Approaching from below the balcony would be easier. She slowly started to move closer to the bottom of the balcony, making sure that the shadows were still providing some cover. It was even more important now that she didn’t know where the guard was. When she had reached the bottom, she took a little break to try and listen where the guard was. But it was no use. The only thing she could hear was the soft breathing sound the guard was making. He or she was up there, but Rainbow still had no idea in what part of the balcony. The only way was to go to the upper edge and look. She hated taking such risks, but it had to be done. As Sarge had said, they couldn’t afford any delays. She moved over to the lower edge and slowly floated up. As soon as she reached the upper edge, she could see that the guard was facing the field. Rainbow could sneak behind him and quietly take him out. She quickly flew up to the level of the head of the guard so he couldn’t see her. She brought the knife closer to her body and prepared to strike. And just when she was ready to stab, the guard turned around. Rainbow wasted no time. As soon as the guard was facing her, a surprised look on his face, she rammed the knife directly into his throat. Due to the fact that the somewhat-large knife was blade-deep in his throat, he was unable to make sounds beyond coughing a little. Soon the stallion fell to the ground, a large open cut in his throat that went all the way through to the neck, spraying blood everywhere. It sure was not Rainbow’s cleanest kill. But it had been silent and that was enough. That’s all she needed. She wiped the knife clean and started concentrating on the next target. Which, by the way, was just next to the balcony she was standing on. She immediately dashed to the other balcony, hoping that she still could take the guard out without him alerting every single pony in the building about the unwanted quest. But as she could see the guard, she let out a sigh of relief. The guard was well asleep, even snoring loudly while lying on the floor in an awkward-looking pose. Rainbow just walked over and silently sliced the throat open, ending the life of the stallion fast. That’s what you get for sleeping on duty. Her first objective was done. Three guards dead, not a single alert. The mission has started off just as planned. She put her hoof to the mic, telling it that she had something to say. The mic took it’s time of a couple of seconds to boot up, due to Twilight’s little “improvement”, and blinked a dim green light to indicate that it was ready. “Base, this is Dash. Objective one complete, the route is clear. Waiting for orders, over.” There was a few seconds of static before Base found the proper words to reply with. “Dash, this is Base, good job. Go in and take cover. Shards are going to fly. As soon as the door is open and we flood in, give support from the second floor. All the guards are down here, thanks to you.” “Roger that, Base. Dash out.” She shut the mic down and wiped her knife clean. It was a routine. She wanted to keep her knife clean and prevent it from rusting or staining. The front door was near the middle of the house. A bit to the south from the meeting room. Therefore, the second floor would have an opening that would allow one to see the front door from the second floor as well. She was on the left side of the building. She should be able to find the opening by just going straight on and following the hallway that led to the balcony. She took a quick look at the limp body that had just stopped breathing just to make sure that the kill was confirmed and started running towards the place where the opening was supposed to be. And soon she was standing on the edge of a huge, rectangular open area that had nothing but another, smaller rectangle in the middle of it. Rainbow didn’t even enter the room yet. You never knew where the shards would fly when Applejack was wiring one of her own creations. She had to wait for a minute before the door exploded. The shards flew all over the place, just as she had expected. Good thing was that they had apparently managed to injure at least one of the guards, judging by the painful scream she heard. As soon as the shards had dropped down she ran over to the smaller rectangle and started observing the area below. The others had done a good job. All she saw in the middle was just shards of wood and some small puddles of blood here and there. The guards had retreated to the corner of the room. They were ducked behind a table, all remaining four, occasionally shooting blindly towards the now-empty doorway. The rest of her team had run over to the left wall of the room so they could avoid the bullets. Rainbow had a straight line to the tallest of the guards. He’d be easy to take out. She reached for her bag and pulled out her faithful pistol. Sarge had offered her a “combat pistol”, but Rainbow knew that her own version was better in every way. She lifted the pistol up to the level of her eyes, aimed down the customized iron sight, made sure it was right between the eyes of the guard and fired three accurate shots, killing the guard and injuring the one that was unlucky enough to be behind the taller one. The guards panicked, of course. One of their friends had just gotten shot even though they were behind the table and one of them was now waving his bloody hoof wildly, trying to stop the bleeding by shaking all the blood out, spraying it all over his friends as he did so. The sight was hilarious. Rainbow was just about to lose it when all of a sudden all three remaining ones fell to the floor simultaneously. “No time for things like that, no matter how amusing it looked.” Rainbow could easily notice the voice of Sarge. Killjoy. “Dash, nice work covering for us. It would have been hard to flank them if they wouldn’t have been confused by you. “Okay everypony, take you places. One with me, two on the other side of the door. Move it! “Dash, you proceed according to the plan. Hit the floor and take the shot. When you’re about to do it, tell us and we will ambush the room after five and that’s exactly five seconds. You got five seconds and then we open fire. Got it?” “Yeah. Five seconds. One more than four, one less than six. Got it. Dash out.” Rainbow headed towards the very center. It was basically the room next to the opening but it still was hard to find it in such a big house. The opening was huge and had a ton of hallways leading to different directions. But as her objective was just above the meeting room, she knew what path to take. The room where the weak spot was supposed to be was just across the opening. The door was open, inviting Rainbow in. And a polite pony never turned an invitation down. The room was badly lit. The lamp was not in the best condition, flashing occasionally and casting out only some dim light. But it was the best she had and she had to find the spot with its help. It took a bit longer than she had thought, but eventually she found the small cross on the floor. She stood there for a moment, lifted her pistol up and prepared for the final strike. It was now up to her. It was her shot, it was her kill and it was her responsibility. There was no going back. “Base, this is Dash. Going in in five seconds. Wait for ten instead of five, just for sure. Dash out.” The fate of the world depended on this shot and this shot only. If she missed, the world as they knew it would be gone for good. Absolutely no pressure. She didn’t waste any time, knowing that she had only ten seconds, if even that. She hit the spot with her pistol and the floor crumbled. She rapidly unfurled her wings, aimed down the sights and took the shot. She watched as the bullet travelled through the air and straight into the head of the snake. She had done it. She had killed the snake. But as she looked around the room, she saw something disturbing. First off, all the ponies in the room were near the doors, as in they were expecting for an attack to occur. Secondly, when the bullet should have caused a stream of blood and at least some minor panic, but there was a creeping silence in the room and the white stuff that was coming out of the head of the thing she had shot sure was not blood. And thirdly, under her, just out of the reach of the shot was a chubby, hickish-looking stallion that was pointing a pistol at her. “We were waiting for you,” he said in a mocking tone and shot a single bullet into the right wing of Rainbow. The unbelievable pain of the muscles of the wing being torn to pieces took Rainbow’s body over, causing her to fall on the floor. She was unable to move, she was unable to talk and was just barely conscious. But she still was able to witness the moment when the others rushed in and got ambushed by the guards and high-ranked officers that had been hiding behind the doors. Rainbow could see Sarge putting up a fight and getting shot in the hoof. She could see the terror on the faces of her squad mates, her friends. The last thing she could hear was the laugh of their target before she passed out from all the pain, knowing that they had failed. ----»«---- The sun, the worst enemy of a sleeping pony, was shining through the idiotically-placed window that pointed directly to the sunrise, making it able to annoy the sleeping ponies with its too bright beams. These beams were just the ones that woke Rainbow up. She groaned loudly, knowing that there was no going back to the sweet slumber. Cursing the sun in her mind, she slowly sat up to take a look around. She hadn’t seen much last night when she had arrived and was eager to have a good look at the place she was staying in. What she saw didn’t impress her. The room she was in was bare. It had no furniture, no decorations, only the wooden floor that had a thick layer of dust on it. When she saw the dust she immediately jumped up. It wouldn’t be good for her side. She had patched it up as well as she could, but it was still extremely sensitive. And the last thing she wanted was a bleeding side on the day of her mission. The thought of her mission reminded about the fact that she had not planned ahead. She had no idea what she would do, where she would go, when she would start the attack or anything. She’d have to start planning soon if she’d still want to execute the mission today. She was just about to grab her bag and dig up something to eat when she heard a loud thump come from the door. She immediately froze to listen. But when she heard nothing, she decided that she should go and see what had caused it. She dug her knife up, just to be sure, and headed for the weak-looking door. It was a surprise that this house was still up. When she reached the door, she carefully placed a hoof on the door, preparing to open it. She made sure that her knife was ready and pushed the door as hard as she could, trying to surprise the possible invader. But when the door swung open and she could see the alley, she saw nopony. Nothing moved and the scenery was the same than it had been on the late night hours. But one thing had changed. There was a small newspaper lying in front of the door. It had no label, but it looked a lot like the old Canterlot Times. Out of curiosity, Rainbow picked it up. Either it was meant to be distributed to every house of the town, or she had received some help. But who would help her? Rainbow pushed such silly thoughts back. She was alone. It had just been a coincidence. She took a last look around the alley, just to make sure that she really was alone and shut the door. The newspaper was thin. Not much news nowadays. The Rebellion had banned almost every newspaper in Equestria after Rob had seen the articles they had written. The ones that were still allowed to publish were forced to keep the content so it would support the propaganda. That’s why the newspapers weren’t as big as they had been before. After a quick scroll through, Rainbow found out that the newspaper had only a single article printed into a total of four pages. Must be something real important. And it sure was. The Leader of the Rebellion speaks today! The Beloved Leader has announced that there will be a little speech this afternoon. All the high-class Rebels are invited to the headquarters to discuss about some important things. We don’t know what those things are, but knowing The Beloved Leader, the world is going to a better direction. Every Rebel should be there when the speech begins. The Beloved Leader speaks from the highest balcony of the castle, so that every single comrade can hear the words of wisdom. The event starts at 4:00 PM and should last for about half an hour. Those who don’t show up shall be punished. The starting time was circled with a bright red color. Rainbow didn’t know if they had printed that on purpose or if somepony actually had helped her. But either way, this was a jackpot. Rob would be out of the castle, in the middle of the crowd. He’d be an easy target. She’d just have to get to the castle, pass a couple of Rebel guards and take the shot she failed when she had had the first chance. But what about the life-gun? If she’d go there, she’d have a huge chance of getting shot, maybe even in a deadly way. She had no time to do both. If she’d go get the gun, she’d miss her best shot. If she’d take the chance, she’d not be able to get the gun in time. It was only a matter of days when one of the Rebels would remember the gun Plasma Cannon had had and go look for it, if one of them hadn’t already fetched it. She had a hard decision to make. She could end this all, save the world and avenge her friends. On the other hoof, she could go and bring her friends back and forget about the world for once. But what if the gun didn’t work? What if it was broken? What if somepony had already found it? And what if Rob had planned all this? What if somepony knew that Rainbow was still alive? What if this was just a trap? She was meant to save the world. It was her destiny. It was her fate. But a pony could change his or her fate. It had happened before and it could happen again. Rainbow looked out of the window. The castle was shining as a golden glow, high above the regular wooden buildings in front of it. Whilst the castle was in a tip-top shape, the regular houses were torn to pieces. She could see some ponies in the distance. Their heads hung low and Rainbow could easily guess that their life had been a lot better before. That’s when she realized it. She’d have to stop thinking about herself. She had done all this for herself. She had told herself that she was going to save Applejack, but the main purpose behind it had been relieving the pain she felt. She had told herself that the Rebels were all bad. But she had been the bad guy, blaming the others. They had no chance to say anything against their leader. They were machines, but they had a mind of their own. It just needed a little boost. And she had been killing them, destroying lives of innocent ponies that were forced to work. Sure some of the Rebels were outright bad, but not even nearly everypony. She still could remember the poor guy who had surprised her. He had been under the effects of the propaganda. He had snapped out of it when Rainbow had shot him. He had turned back, he had become the good pony he probably had been again. And she had killed him in a brutal way. She had crushed his head to the stairs. She had killed him right after telling him that she was going to help. She’d have to think about the others. She might be in a bad situation, but at least she was free. There were ponies that had no rights. They were slaves, begging for a savior. She could let the life-gun go. It had been a bad idea. She’d save the world. She’d be a hero. She’d meet her friends eventually, when the time would come. She walked away from the window. She had a plan to do. In the distance, she could hear a filly scream. She had no supplies to start scribbling her ideas down. She’d have to memorize the plan. But that was not a problem. She started processing all the information she knew. That’s how all the best plans were born. The castle would have a load of guards. She’d have to be silent and sneak in from the side. As the speech was held in daytime, she wouldn’t have the advantage of a good camo. She was forced to be extra careful. But she could do that. If not, she’d always have her gun and her knife. She’d have to go in from the side. The front door was guarded extra well, she guessed, and the back had no doors. She’d have to use the windows. Good thing that they were still a bit loose, thanks to Discord. His little show had managed to get some of the windows fall down a couple of days after the show. Breaking in would be easy. Navigating around the castle would be easy, too. She knew the castle pretty well due to the fact princess Luna herself had given her a special little tour. Being a part of the Royal Army, Rainbow had seen things and rooms not many knew about. She basically could memorize the route to the “speaking balcony”, as Luna had called it. She was sure to encounter some guards on the way. But as she had the pistol, she’d be safe. Getting to the balcony would be an easy job. But then would come the hard part. The balcony doors were either open, so the guards could see what was going on in the hallway, or closed, so the speaker would be safe. If they were closed, it would need some power to get them open. Rainbow had no idea what to do if they were closed, as she was not an expert with explosives, but she’d cross that bridge when she’d have to. Then would come the trickiest part. Killing the snake. Rob always had at least four guards with him. That would mean five bullets in a second to take everypony out. Rainbow knew that she wouldn’t be capable of doing that. She had to do desperate things. She’d go in, take the shot, hopefully kill the snake and fly out as fast as she could. She knew that her wing wasn’t supposed to be able to carry her weight. She knew that he injured side would eventually start bleeding because the wing would constantly be hitting it. She knew that she couldn’t make it far. But it was worth trying. She was prepared. She had a plan, she had the tools and she had time to concentrate. She didn’t know the exact time, but she could easily tell when the speech was going to start. Ponies would start flooding into the courtyard of the castle about an hour before the speech would start. When the courtyard would be full, she’d get on move. Judging by the position of the sun, she had about an hour of free time before she should start to prepare. She’d probably eat something and just think, concentrate, fill the gaps and make sure everything seemed flawless. But food first. She had not eaten a thing since last night and she sure would need some energy for the mission. She dug the foil-wrapped ball of food from her bag. She wasn’t really in the mood of eating a whole sandwich, so she opened the foil and grabbed the box of cookies. The box was sealed tight. Rainbow didn’t know why she kept it in the ball of foil. Maybe she was hoping that the smell and taste of the cookies would affect the smells and tastes of the other foods. She tore the box open, revealing the already-open bag full of chocolate-y cookies. She immediately grabbed a hoofful of the delicious treats and started chomping them down. But cookies have a nasty way of leaving your mouth all dry. But luckily for her, she had just the cure. She dug out a bottle of water, knowing that getting drunk before going to kill somepony was never a good idea. She removed the cork of the bottle and started drinking the refreshing, surprisingly cold liquid. It didn’t take long until a half of the contents of the bottle had disappeared down Rainbow’s throat. The hoofful of cookies had managed to do something about the hunger, so Rainbow could start slowing the pace. She took only a single cookie this time and tried to enjoy the taste and the feeling of sugar against her tongue. But after a few seconds she had already chomped the cookie down. She just wasn’t a slow eater. This went on for a five more cookies until she shut the box and put the cork back to the bottle. Those should keep her alive for the mission. A quick look out of the window told that the sun had only moved a little. She still had a fairly good amount of time before she’d have to go. She had done everything she needed to do for now, so she finally could just relax and think. She sat down to the floor and let her thoughts wander. ----»«---- Rainbow slowly tried to force her eyes open. It felt horrible, but after a good effort she was able to see something. A quick look around told her that she was under a rubble of stone and cement that had crumbled down from the roof. While this had possibly saved her from being executed, it had its downsides; her wing was crushed under a heavy chunk of the roof, causing a horrifying pain to spread all over her body now as she was able to feel it. Her wing was lost, that was sure. First it had got shot, the bullet effectively ripping a fourth of it off and now it was crushed under a huge chuck that had broken a load of bones, if not all of them. She would be flightless for the rest of her life. When the realization hit her, she felt a tear drop down her cheek. One of the things she loved the most, flight, was cruelly taken away from her. She’d never feel the wind in her mane again. She’d never be able to feel the bounds of gravity letting go of her again. She’d be unable to gain the sudden boost of adrenalin when she was performing one of her amazing tricks. The mixture of pain, sorrow, rage and despair was taking her over, causing more tears to flow. She just wanted to cry it off, she just wanted to heal the wing by letting all the feelings out. She was desperate. The voice of a pony walking got her attention. The hoofsteps were getting closer, towards the rubble she was under. All of a sudden, the chunks above her started moving and the light of the huge lamp that was on the roof of the room could get into the insides of the rubble. Over the rubble was standing a stallion, throwing the chucks away. Rainbow knew that it was only a matter of time when he would notice her. But she had nowhere to go. Soon enough the stallion looked directly at her, immediately noticing the cyan pegasus that was lying there, under the pile of rubbish. “Hey, we got a live one here!” he shouted, apparently trying to get the attention of other ponies that were digging through the room. Either they were friendlies, looking for survivors or Rebels, planning to kill everypony who had taken part on the attack. Soon there was a group of five stallions looking at Rainbow, trying to think what to do with her. “Are the others still here? Didn’t Rob say that we needed to find this one for them?” “Yeah, I guess he did. Pull her out of there and get her to the rest of the group. They should still be waiting on the lobby.” Rainbow could feel a stallion grabbing her and trying to pull her out. But her wing was still stuck and the pulling certainly wasn’t easing the pain. The only way to make him stop was to scream. And so she did. She screamed as hard as she could, alerting the stallions. “What did you do?” one of the stallions asked. “I just tried to pull her out,” the other answered. “Idiot! Can’t you see that her wing is stuck! Were you trying to rip it off or what?” “Oh, right…” Rainbow could feel the heavy chunk over her wing move and soon enough it was rolled off of her wing, easing the pain a little. “Oh boy, that looks like it hurts,” one of the stallion said, letting out a long whistle. Apparently they had seen her wing. “I bet,” one of them answered. “Now let’s get her out of there and back to the group. Rob wants them all.” One of the stallions grabbed Rainbow again, lifting her up easily. Once she was out of the pile, she was rudely thrown on the floor. “I ain’t gonna carry you all the way. Your hooves are fine, so you’ll walk,” the stallion that had been carrying her said, pushing Rainbow forward. She had just got out of a fucking pile of chunks of roof and now she was forced to walk. Her hooves hurt, but after seeing the guns the stallions carried with them she just submitted to her fate and started walking to the direction the stallion pointed at. When she reached the door, she could see the others. Her whole squad was standing there, stripped of armor and weaponry, guarded by a group of Rebels with guns. Something big was going on. As she got closer she could see the bruises and wounds. Applejack had a huge bruise on her side. She had apparently tried to put up a fight. Sarge was standing on three hooves, his right forehoof having a hole on the other side. Judging by the look of the hole and the painful look on Sarge’s face, the Rebels hadn’t bothered of taking the bullet out. When she finally reached the group, one of the guards spoke up. “Okay, you princess-loving scumbags. You tried to assassinate the leader of the Rebellion among with some of the highest officers of the Rebellion. Due to this, the Beloved Leader of Rebellion wants to see you. You will receive your punishment from him. You will be taken to the Beloved Leader soon.” As he finished, a group of guards started pushing the small group forward, towards the wreck of the front door. Everypony just walked on towards the awaiting doom. They all knew what this meant. They had failed and now they would have to pay the price. When they got outside, the guards motioned them to go towards the small shack that was on the edge of a distant field. The guards didn’t tell them what would be waiting for them there, but everypony in the group already knew. Everypony just walked on quietly, waiting for the horrors that were ahead. ----»«---- Rainbow could hear the distant voices of Rebels packing up to the small area under the highest balcony of the castle. She snapped her attention back to the real world. The memories weren’t beautiful. No matter how hard she tried, they always came back, more and more painful. It was her time. She’d save the world. Not for her, but for the innocent ponies out there. For the ones lost in the war. For her squad. For her friends. She wouldn’t need anything more than the knife and the pistol. One clip would be enough as she would only fire a single shot. Extra clips would require a bag, and the bag would look suspicious. But she had to hide the knife and pistol somewhere. But she had planned this part ahead. She took the knife from the floor where she had left it and walked over to the bag. She took the bag from the ground and sliced its side with the knife. After she had made a nice and big cut, a smaller bag dropped out of the cut, along with some bullets and a small blade. She had always had a small secret pocket that was hidden to the side of the bag. Rarity had made quite a job with it, seeing that the blade had not managed to tear any holes to the side of it. The interesting thing that had been in the pocket was the smaller bag. It was made for bullets, but it would carry a knife and a gun with ease. It was also closeable, so there would be no fear of anypony seeing the contents. She took a single mag from the bigger bag and inserted it into the gun. A loud click indicated that the gun had accepted the mag and was ready to go. She stuffed the gun into the bag and carefully put the knife over the gun, making sure that it could no tear the bag apart. Preparations were done. Now she just had to go and save the world. She took a one last look around the room, making sure that she had taken everything necessary with her. After she was sure, she walked over to the door, opened it and stepped to the streets of Canterlot. ----»«---- The castle was close to the house she had been staying in, but that didn’t mean that getting there was easy. There were Rebels everywhere and guards were keeping an eye on anything suspicious. That’s why Rainbow was navigating down the darkest and smallest of the alleys that led to the castle. She was making progress, getting closer to the borders of the royal garden. She would sneak through the garden because it should be the least-guarded place in the castle area. The houses surrounding her were in a shitty condition. The alleys were covered in dust and chips of wood, making walking a bit harder. The sun wasn’t able to reach the narrowest of the alleys, making them the playground of darkness. Whilst this darkness was good, it also had its downsides; Rainbow had trouble seeing where she stepped, forcing her to be extra careful. After what felt like an eternity of struggling in the darkness, she finally could see the hedge that was surrounding the garden, doing its best to keep intruders out. Usually this worked just fine, guarding the beautiful royal garden from the hooves of the regular ponies, but this time it would have to let one of these regular ponies through. Rainbow quickly crossed the road separating her from the hedge and pushed herself against the leaves. The hedge consisted of soft bushes, magically bound to the shape of a wall. This wasn’t too good for the bushes, but when a princess wanted a hedge, she’d get a hedge. Going through should be easy. Whilst the hedge did look like a wall, it was still as weak as a regular bush. A sharp knife could easily make a hole suitable for Rainbow’s needs. She dug the knife out of the bag and started cutting the branches of the hedge. She was making good progress, branches and leaves falling to the ground. The shape of a hole was starting to get recognizable. Of course it would have looked a bit suspicious, a pony cutting a hole to the hedge of the royal garden, but nopony was around to witness it. They all were heading towards the courtyard of the castle, in order to make sure that they found a spot where to listen to their lord. The hedge wasn’t too thick and soon Rainbow’s knife had managed to cut a hole through it. Just a little bit of trimming here and there and she would be able to squeeze through. She put the knife back to her bag. It had done a good job. She made sure that the bag was well closed and squeezed through the small hole, making sure that none of the sharp branches could tear her side open. It took minute of struggling, but eventually she popped out on the other side. She had got in to the garden. The mission was on. The next thing would be to get through the garden and to the side of the castle. It wasn’t a long way; she had picked just the perfect spot to make a hole in. If she would go from cover to cover she would reach the wall in just mere minutes. She took a good look around to make sure that there were no guards and dashed towards the professionally trimmed bush representing a unicorn that was standing on two hooves, striking a glorious pose. Whilst it was a nice looking piece of art, it would serve her better as a cover from the eyes of the Rebels. As soon as she reached the statue she pressed against it. A single bush and a big stone statue to pass and she would be at the wall. She wasted no time and dashed towards the next objective, another perfectly trimmed bush, but with an earth pony as the star this time. The pony was holding a spade in her mouth and was apparently farming the food the country would need during the cold winter. She repeated the safety measures, pushing herself against this one, too. Whilst it would have been faster to just walk to the wall, she was no going to take any extra risks. She had failed once, she wouldn’t fail again. Another quick look around and she was good to go. The next objective was a stone statue. It featured a glorious-looking pegasus, wings unfurled and ready to take off. Her knees were slightly bent to give a little boost and she had a small grin on her face. Rainbow couldn’t help but wonder what had been the source of inspiration that had made the artist make such statue. But it wasn’t time for such questions. She had a mission to accomplish, and no other thoughts were allowed. She once again did the safety measures and took one last look around. Nothing suspicious was moving nearby, so she was good to go. She dashed off for the final time, moving towards the high wall of the castle. Soon she had reached the wall made out of stone, unnoticed and safe. Easy parts were done. Now things would get hard. First off, she’d have to get up the wall and to the windows. Normally a pegasus would just have flown up, but she wasn’t a normal pegasus. Her wing had made sure of that. She’d have to find another way. Luckily, she had thought about this as well. She took both her knife and her pistol from the bag. She flipped the pistol around, so that he bottom was facing her, and located the small notch in the handle. When she found it, she used her knife to pull it. After a while of careful pulling, a sharp blade popped out. She had hidden that to the stock of her pistol, just in the case she’d lose her knife. Now it would prove useful with the wall-climbing. She turned to look at the wall, made sure that both the knife and the pistol were all right and hit both to the wall. The blades got stuck to the stone, giving her something to grab. The blades were too weak to hold her whole weight all on their own, so she unfurled her working wing and started flapping it as fast as she could. It was not quite enough to make her float, but it was enough for the blades to support her weight. When she had managed to get stable, she pulled the knife back from the wall and hit it back to the wall, placing it a bit higher. When she was sure that the knife would hold, she did the same with the pistol. After that she used her wing and forehooves to pull herself up a little bit. After repeating countless times, she was starting to get closer to the windows. At this point her forehooves were aching from all the pulling and her wing was on the edge, almost failing on her. She put all her remaining powers to the one last pull before she could grab a hold of the windowsills. She hung there limply for a few seconds before doing to final pull. She had made it. She had reached the windows. She was a step closer to the destiny. She pulled both the knife and the pistol out of the wall. They had done a great job. She also halted her wing and furled it back to her side, giving it some deserved rest. Now she would have to open the window. That would be easy. She placed a hoof against the decorated glass of the window and pushed gently. Soon the window started moving. Just before the glass fell to the floor, she stopped pushing and inserted her knife to the small hole that was on the side of the glass. The frames of the windows were a bit too big for the windows. When she had positioned the knife to the hole, she started twisting it, carving off some of the weak wood of the frames. Soon she had made a hole big enough for a hoof to hit through. She pulled the knife back and put it back into the bag. After that she carefully pushed her hoof through the hole. It wasn’t too big and she had some trouble in the middle, but after a while of trying her hoof popped out on the other side of the window. She then carefully pushed the window with her left hoof while holding the right one ready to stop the falling window. Soon the window came loose and started falling towards the floor. But when it met Rainbow’s hoof, it stopped its fall. She quickly flung her left forehoof to support the left side of the window. She managed to stop the window from falling with both her hooves. She slowly put it down on the floor, careful not to make any extra sound and climbed into the room hallway through the window. She dropped down on the floor and took a good look around. She was definitely on the main hallway of the third floor, where the balcony would be, too. She just had to find it. Wasting no time she dashed off towards the direction where the balcony was supposed to be. ----»«---- As the group got closer to the shack, one of the guards went ahead and opened the door. It revealed the bare wooden insides, decorated only by a single chair and a table. The guards pushed them in. Nopony tried to protest, knowing that the guards weren’t afraid to shoot. As every member of the group had got in, the doors got closed again. They were stuck. They had to stand there, completely still, for a couple of minutes before the door opened again and somepony walked in. The urge to look behind was almost overwhelming, but everypony just looked forward. Nopony wanted to die. The pony that had just entered walked over to the chair and sat down. At this point everypony could easily tell that the one sitting in front of them was their target. Before anypony could do or say anything, he spoke up. “So, an attempted murder, huh? That’s not really nice, you know. I think I’m going to have to punish you,” he said with an innocent-looking smile on his face. It was making Rainbow sick. But Sarge spoke up before she could do anything stupid. “And you are clean, no crimes or anything? We know what you have done. It’s not a murder, it’s a relief to the ponies of this world. You’re a criminal and we are a part of the army; we have our all the rights to kill you, given by the princesses themselves.” Rob just kept the amused look on his face. He knew that he couldn’t lose this fight. “Oh, but I thought that the princesses were dead? I guess I have to check. Hey Don, are the princesses still dead?” he asked form the other pony that had been hiding in the shadows. “Yup, at least the last time I checked,” answered the stallion. “And I don’t think it’s possible to receive messages from the dead, right? It’d take miracles. And there are no miracles, right Sargent Poofy Cloud?” Rainbow could hear Sarge snap. He hated the name his parents had given him. He didn’t like ponies mentioning it. There had been punishments for the ones who spoke about it back in the Royal Army camp. Rainbow had witnessed such punishment once. Three whole weeks doing the dishes and making the food for the whole squad. Luckily the others had helped her. “I’ll rip your fucking head off, you motherbucker!” Sarge shouted, trying to reach out for Rob. But it was no use; as soon as he opened his mouth the guards had already tackled him. He still tried to struggle while on the ground, but it wasn't doing much. The guards had a good grip. “Oh, did I hit a little weak spot? I understand your pain. I’d hate to have such parents as well.” Sarge had managed to calm down a bit, but after hearing the insult he lost it again. He bucked the ground as hard as he could, sending the guards flying, and dashed towards Rob, a murderous look in his eyes. Just when he was about to deliver a mighty powerful punch to the head of the stallion in front of him, Rob pulled out a pistol and shot three accurate rounds straight into the forehead of Sarge. Rainbow could hear the bullets push their way through the brains and come out of the back of Sarge’s head. “Can’t let you do that,” Rob said, putting the pistol away. The body of Sarge was now lying on the ground, blood coming out of its head. “And then the rest of you, what should I do with you…” he said, putting on a contemplative look. “Well, first off I think I should bring in your friends. Don, let them in,” he said to the same stallion that was still hiding in the shadows. He immediately swung the smaller door on the side of the barn open. After a few seconds three more ponies got pushed in. Rainbow let out a silent sigh as she saw the new members of the doomed group. The Rebels had captured Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy. Despite the fact that the guards were pushing them quite roughly, none of them was complaining. They had probably heard the shots. “Ah, now as the whole squad is here, save for your leader, we shall proceed. But not here, the room is quite small. Let us move to a bigger environment,” Rob said, pointing a hoof at the door. The guards immediately opened it and started pushing the group towards it. When Rainbow was walking towards the door, she could hear Rob discussing with the stallion called Don, apparently a pretty close one to Rob. “What’s up with the cyan one? Her wing doesn’t look too good.” “That’s the one you shot, sir.” “But still, it looks a lot worse than it should…” “Well, it was crushed under a chunk of the roof. It was bleeding badly and she is going to suffer from severe blood loss soon.” “Is it so? And this is the one who tried to shoot me?” “Yes, sir.” “Well, spare her. She’ll have a longer death. She deserves it, trying to kill me and all.” “Very well, sir. We won’t shoot her. But what shall we do?” “Keep an eye on her. Don’t let her get loose. I want to see her suffer. “Will do, sir.” Rainbow looked at her wing. Small drops of blood were still dripping down the torn side, coloring the normally cyan feathers red. They were right. She would die to the blood loss. But there was a chance. There was always a chance. Maybe the blood loss wouldn’t be so bad. She had to try to get away. She had to try. But not now, as the guards were keeping an eye on everything. She’d figure something out. She always did. As she got outside she could see the pain on the faces of the others. Sarge had been like a father to the whole squad and now he was gone. It was an emotional punch to the face. When the group was together again, the guards started pushing them towards a location currently unknown. That location was going to be the end of it all. The end of the Royal Army. The end of the world. ----»«---- Rainbow was making progress. The hallways were familiar and she knew exactly where to go. She would reach the balcony just in time. A one more turn to the left and she would reach the “main chamber” of the third floor. There would be a short hallway leading to the balcony. She slowed down the pace. There was going to be a load of guards on duty, keeping an eye on anything suspicious. Most of them would be in the main chamber because that was the place most likely to get assaulted. As she reached the last turn, she took a quick look around the corner. She could see a total of four guards, three of them looking dangerously close to the hallway she was at. She’d have to take the guards out. There was no other way. This was the only way other than flying to get to the balcony. She’d have to be accurate. Even though Rebel guards weren’t the fastest with the weaponry, they still were quite dangerous when they got the pistol positioned well. She’d be in a real trouble if she wasted time and bullets. She dug the pistol out of the bag. She rolled it around in her hoof and made sure it was loaded. She took the one last deep breath and charged. She immediately shot four bullets towards the first two guards. The first one got two hits into his chest and the other one got one bullet into his throat. Two down, two to go. She quickly spun around and aimed at the leftmost one of the guards. He was already digging his pistol from the holster he had, but it was too late. Rainbow fired three shots to be sure, one hitting the chest of the guard and the two others missing by just inches. The fourth one was on the right side of the room. Rainbow spun around and tried to aim at the guard, but found it rather hard when the guard was ducking behind a table. He had managed to find cover and was now able to take a breath. But Rainbow couldn’t allow that. She shot four rounds at the table, the bullets easily going through the weak wood. She could hear a slight scream when at least one of the bullets hit its target. She had no time to go confirm the kill. If somepony had heard the shots, the room would be full of guards in no time. She quickly located the hallway leading to the balcony and started running towards the final objective. The hallway was short. Not long after leaving the main chamber she arrived at the large decorated door that led to the balcony. She could hear Rob speaking. She was just meters away from her target. But there was a door separating her from the target. She’d have to get through that first. Unfortunately, she had no idea how. She had not planned ahead. She had thought that there would be something to aid her. But now as she was there, nothing seemed helpful enough. She tried the most desperate of ways: leaning to the door and hoping that it would open. And for her huge surprise, it did. The door moved a little, making Rob’s voice sound a bit louder. She had done it. She had sneaked in, she had made it to the door and she had opened it. Now was time for the most important part. The part that would define the fate of the world. The part that she had failed earlier. She readied her pistol, concentrated only on the shot and pushed the heavy door open. ----»«---- The group was being herded towards a small stone building on the further edge of the field. It seemed so cold and emotionless, even for a building. As they reached it, the guards opened the door. The insides were even emptier than the wooden shack had been. There was nothing inside. Only the walls, the windows and the floor. Not even a lamp. The others were put on a line formation in the middle of the room. When Rainbow tried to join the formation, the guard just pushed her aside. She was forced to stand on the corner and look at her friends during their final moments. She could see the tears, she could see the fear, she could see the pain, she could see the hate. She felt a horrible amount of guilty while standing there. She had missed the shot. They were there due to her. She watched as the guards took their formation, one guard facing one pony. They stood there, emotionless against the suffering ponies. The leader of the group, Don, walked behind the line of guards, stood there for a few seconds and gave the command. “Guards, aim!” All the guards brought their pistols close to their faces, allowing a more accurate shot. Everypony was silent, waiting for the command that would end it all. The guards aiming at the innocent ponies. The innocent ponies, the friends of Rainbow, tears rolling down their cheeks, still proudly standing in a formation, supporting each other. And then there was Rainbow, trying to hold the tears back, unable to do anything. “Fire!” All the guards fired simultaneously. Five shots. Rainbow could see her friends fall to the floor. She could see to blood spraying out. She could see the faces twisted from the pain. She could see the tears still rolling down their cheeks. As the final one of the five, Applejack, hit the floor with a thud, Rainbow felt her knees fail on her. She fell to the floor, the tears freely forming up in her eyes. When the mixture of pain, realization and just pure sadness hit her, she felt everything fade into total darkness. ----»«---- Rainbow positioned the pistol close to her head, aimed down the sight and pulled the trigger just when the sight was in the middle of the head of the leader of the Rebellion. She had done it. Click Nothing came out of the barrel. She pulled the trigger once more, but the realization was slowly reaching her. Her mag was empty. She cursed everything in the world. She cursed her luck, she cursed the small magazines and most importantly, she cursed herself. She had failed again. And just then, she realized it. Saving the world would take sacrifices. Without a second thought she dashed towards the chubby stallion in front of her, before the guards could dig their guns out form their holsters. Her hooves drummed the floor of the balcony as she got closer and closer to Rob, who had turned to face her. She could see a surprised look form up on Rob’s face as he realized what was going on. Without hesitating even for a second Rainbow tackled Rob, wrapping her forehooves around him so he couldn’t get away and slammed against the wooden fence that was surrounding the balcony. As she hit it with full power, it gave up and broke into millions of pieces, just like she had suspected. She fell down from the edge of the balcony, taking Rob with her. As she was on the air, she spun around and let Rob fall freely. She looked as the stallion fell, faster than her, and hit the ground with a sickening thud and a series of loud cracks. She watched as the skull of the stallion shattered into pieces, killing him instantly. She watched as the blood of the cruel tyrant flowed onto the courtyard of the castle, indicating that he had been nothing else than a mortal. Rainbow let a small smile form up on her face. She had done it. She had saved the world. As she finally hit the ground, the tough paving breaking her bones, she smiled the biggest smile she had smiled since the days before the war. She had done it. She had accomplished the task given to her. She was free. In the distance she could see her friends, cheering at the brave little pegasus, welcoming her back, celebrating the victory. And as the life escaped from the cyan body, the six friends reunited yet again, welcoming the hero among them. The life is a gift, Beautiful yet so fragile, You should enjoy yours, Live through it honorably, Make sure the end is worthy.