Rainbow screamed, launching a hoof into the side of the zombies face. She felt its skull crack under the force, and its teeth were ripped from her shoulder. She fell back, breathing hard and unable to believe what had happened.
I've been bitten... I'm going to turn... Shuck... She thought, her vision blurring.
She could see shapes moving, followed by flashes as the group tried to fight off the zombies. She could hear everything relatively clearly, Daring Do yelling and leading the ponies on. She felt somepony drag her behind the frontline, setting her down on a large rock and clearing her face of the murky waters.
Octavia shined a bright torch at her face, inspecting her eyes.
"Shuck! Rainbow's been bitten!" she yelled.
"Son of a parasprite!" Daring cursed, slushing through the sewage waste and crouching next to Rainbow. "Dash! Can you hear me!?"
Rainbow didn't reply- her insides were burning up, and she was barely controlling herself from screaming. Pain came in waves, rippling through her body and splitting her head.
"DASH!" Daring yelled, slapping her across her face.
Rainbow's eyes suddenly widened, and she jerked up; coughing. Blood poured out of her mouth as she tried to get up, drips of the crimson liquid trickling down her nose and out the corners of her mouth.
"Damnit- she's turning!" Octavia steadied her, helping her up.
Rainbow screamed, her spine involuntarily arching back. She collapsed onto the ground, vomiting more blood that mixed into the sewage waste. She was on all fours now, screaming uncontrollably at the ground as her limbs felt like they were going to be torn apart.
"Do it!" Daring yelled.
Rainbow, through the chaos and her own screaming; heard a soft click behind her as Octavia loaded a pistol. But then that dragged on for several minutes, and there was no bang.
"I... I can't do it." Octavia said finally, lowering the gun and letting out a deep breath. How could she pull the trigger on her own friend? Even if she was turning into something else- she still couldn't do it.
"Hurry! Before she turns!" Daring yelled, firing her shotgun at the crowd of mutated ponies.
"I CAN'T!" Octavia yelled, a single tear drifting down her cheek. She slumped back onto a rock, covering her face with her hooves. "I CAN'T BUCKING DO IT!"
Rainbow's inner burning pain had ceased now, and her skin was beginning to split. It hurt even worse. She moaned, trying to contain her screams so Octavia might be able to shoot her. She needed to, or she'll kill everypony here. And that'll be the end of that.
"For hell's sake-" Daring said, storming back from the frontline and pointing her shotgun at Rainbow's head.
"No!" Octavia leaped up, pushing the shotgun barrel away and sending the missed shots into the water, causing a huge splash.
"Get off me! We need to take care of her now!" Daring yelled, shoving Octavia away and taking aim again.
Octavia leaped out from the water, tackling Daring in the side and sending the both of them tumbling into the sewage waste. They splashed around, trying to gain control of the shotgun.
"Octavia- LET GO!!" Rainbow yelled, clutching her head.
"Are you crazy!? I'm not going to let anypony kill you!!" Octavia yelled back.
"It's-" Rainbow screamed mid-sentence, a wave of pain ripping through her skull. "It's for the best damnit! DARING! SHOOT ME!"
"NO!" Octavia yelled, pressing Daring Do firmly against a rock and keeping her there.
Rainbow started crawling through the water, towards Octavia's dropped pistol.
"What are you doing!?" Octavia's eyes widened. "NO! RAINBOW! GET AWAY FROM THAT GUN!!" she tried to stop Rainbow, but was restrained by Daring.
"She'll kill all of us if we don't kill her!!" Daring yelled. "I don't want to either- but we don't have a choice!"
"WE ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE!!" Octavia yelled, tears pouring down her cheeks as she kicked at Daring. "LET GO OF ME!!"
"Stay back, Octavia!" Daring yelled, a tear of her own sliding down her face. "We can't do anything about it!"
"Octavia..." Rainbow said weakly, her hoof on the pistol. "Stop. We don't have a choice and you know it."
"Rainbow!!" Octavia yelled, then was horrified to see Rainbow pick up the pistol and begin to aim it at her temple. "NO! DON'T DO IT!!"
"Get the job done, Octavia. This time I won't be leading you guys." Rainbow said, pressing the barrel of the gun against her temple.
"NO! NO GODDAMNIT!!" Octavia yelled, desperately trying to free herself from Daring.
"Good bye." Rainbow smiled, blood still trickling out the corner of her mouth and a single tear ready to fall from her eye.
"SIS! NO!" the voice of a filly yelled, and she hesitated. Dainty... That's what she regretted about this the most. She can't look after her anymore, after all these years of doing so.
Rainbow grunted frustratedly, and also out of pain. She quickly leveled the pistol against her temple again, and did what she always does in these situations- do it first, say 'whoops' later. Then there was a bright flash as she pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through her own brain.
Whoops- she thought as she fell sideways, her eyes closing and darkness creeping at the corners of her vision. Within seconds she was dead.
*
Magnum slowly proceeded through the hallway, followed close by her teammates.
"What the hay... There's nopony here. It's just abandoned." Storm whispered, and despite this his voice still echoed around the walls. He shined his torch this way and that, as the main lighting systems were off for some reason and the hallway was only lit by dim emergency evacuation lights.
"Turn on your lasers. Don't know where a Ghost might be hiding in all this darkness. Hell, don't know where anything might be hiding in this darkness." Magnum said, aiming her laser pointer around to check for disruptions.
"It's probably nothing. The other teams are probably wreaking havoc through the damn place." Anvil said, peering behind them to make sure nopony comes up behind.
"Storm. Mark the location of the command center on our HUDs." Magnum said, taking front point. There were a series of beeps, and a waypoint was marked out in real-time on her HUD. "Good work." she said.
They continued on, careful around corners. There was a bright light being shone onto the wall and through the other hallway just around the corner. Shadows shifted in the light, slowly growing closer. There was talking, but the heavy footsteps indicated that the ponies were in suits.
Magnum checked her HUD, making sure it wasn't one of her teams. She looked behind her at her team, and gestured for them to back off. She continued on, her back close to the wall. She was at the edge of the corner now, ears pricked for the slightest disturbance.
"Storm.... Pass me an EMP grenade!" she whispered.
There was a soft clink as Strom unclipped an EMP grenade from his belt, and passed it to Magnum. Magnum held onto the grenade with her left hoof, while drawing out her pistol with the other. The ACPW was in pistol form as well, and her left hoof was ready to flash to it the moment the EMP grenade is gone.
She gave herself a mental countdown, then threw the grenade around the corner. The clunking echoed off the walls, soon followed by surprised yelps and yelling. Then there was a bright flash of light blue and a loud BANG and fizz, and everything went dark. The emergency lights were busted, and the only thing that provided some sort of light were the sparks from the fried wires.
Magnum drew the ACPW with her left hoof, and swung around the corner- purely relying on her ears. A series of bangs echoed down the length of the corridors as she started firing her pistols, the darkness lit by nothing other than the muzzle flashes of her lethal shots. In each flash she was always in a different place, rendering it useless for the Science Faction ponies to tell where she was.
Then there was one final bang, and a thud as a body dropped to the ground. Magnum turned on her torch and laser pointer, standing in the middle of a massacre.
"Come on- move it!" She waved at her team, gesturing at them to hurry up. "More'll be on their way. Go!"
They ran through the dark corridors, the light from their flashlights wavering as they galloped. There was a narrow door up ahead, bright blue light flooding into the corridor. Magnum pressed her back against the wall, peering around the corner.
"Buck. Bluefyre, give me a scan of the next room." Magnum said, crouching down and watching the door.
Bluefyre was a pegasus technician, and if anypony knows their equipment down to the nuts and bolts, it'll be her.
"Scanning." she said, making a few taps on the screen on her arm. A small drone ejected from the back of her suit, just about a centimeter wide and hovering silently. She controlled it through her HUD, piloting it into the next room. A bright flash came from the other room as the drone performed an instant 3D scan.
Slowly, the 3D model of the next room began appearing on her HUD.
"What the hell..." she whispered in wonder at the model.
"Bluefyre." Magnum yanked her back to reality.
"Right, sorry." Bluefyre said, tapping the side of her helmet and casting the model into a hologram so the others could see.
"What the buck..?" Magnum frowned at the model. "It's like a freakin ravine!"
"It's the engine room." Bluefyre said, spinning the model around.
The room was about a kilometer in diameter, a circular expanse that disappeared both up and down as the ends were out of range of the drone's scan. In the center was a large central structure, about three quarters of a kilometer in diameter. Floating platforms and light bridges connected the central structure to the outer wall- the only form of access.
"The primary engine should be down below." Bluefyre pointed at the bottom of the hologram, where everything abruptly ended. "The command center should be at the top... And the center is just the nuclear reactor."
"So we're at the center of all the crap, huh." Magnum said. "Shuck. How the hell are we supposed to get across?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out right now." Bluefyre said, rubbing her chin. "We take the platforms, they shut them down, and we're sitting ducks. Take the light bridges, they turn them off, and we fall to our deaths. Either way we're bucked."
Magnum was silent for a few moments, then she spoke into the comms: "Team 1, do you copy?"
"Affirmative." came the reply.
"Can you make it to the nearest control room? We need you to take over on one of the barricade's light bridges."
"Copy. We'll try."
Magnum hung up, sighing frustratedly. "And now we wait."
"Shuck... Assault units." Bluefyre said, her drone's camera picking up several floating platforms coming their way.
"Move. Stick to the center though- go! Go!" Magnum ushered them on.
*
Octavia just stared as Rainbow fell sideways, her eyes already closing. Then there was a splash as she hit the water, her mane floating around her head and a darkening patch of blood forming in the water next to her.
Octavia stopped struggling, and Daring let her go. She slumped down into the water, eyes wide and unbelieving. Rainbow Dash.... Dead....?
Daring sighed, slumping down onto a rock and running a hoof through her mane. A gunshot went off as one of the survivors shot the last mutated.
Dainty ran to Rainbow's dead body, crying uncontrollably. She yelled at her face, yelled at her to get up- like she always did. She didn't expect her to though- she just blamed Rainbow for what had happened. She cried into that same chest, hoping that those hooves would pat her on the head as gently as they always did when she was upset. She cried until somepony laid a hoof on her shoulder- she turned around, seeing a saddened Lily.
"I know she probably was everything to you." Lily said, eyes lowered.
Dainty wiped a tear off her face, slumping back. "She was."
Octavia slowly slushed through the water, joining the two fillies. "She was a great friend. Always loyal, no matter what." she sniffed, letting out a deep breath. "At least she's going somewhere nice." she chuckled. "Hah, maybe she's watching us grieve right now. You're an arsehole, RD." she said, looking up at the ceiling.
Dainty sighed, laying her head on Rainbow's chest for one last time. She cried, her sister for the better half of her life- gone. Then she froze, feeling something beat against her face.
It was Rainbow's heart- but how?
"Sis...?" Dainty got up, looking at Rainbow's face.
"What the hay...!?" Octavia looked at Rainbow's temple. It was matted with blood- but there was no wound. "Shuck- Dainty! GET AWAY FROM HER!" she yelled, pulling Dainty away.
"Buck-" Daring cursed, getting up and drawing her shotgun as Rainbow slowly got back to her hooves, her body moving oddly- looks like she didn't kill herself in time.
Daring pulled the trigger, sending a spread of buckshot ripping through Rainbow's right shoulder. Her arm was ripped off, and flew with bits of flesh and splashed into the murky waters. Daring fired again, taking Rainbow's head clean off.
Then smoke and steam started emitting from the mutated Rainbow, as if her body had caught on an invisible fire. Then her head grew back, soon followed by her arm. Her head was tilted to one side, her eyes staring down and unwaveringly dead.
"Buck! What do we do now!?" Daring yelled anxiously.
"Wait... I know this." Octavia said, placing a hoof on top of Daring's shotgun and bringing it down gently. "Hey arsehole, you can stop pretending now." she said, the barest hint of a smile creeping onto her face.
"You just had to ruin it." Rainbow said, tilting her head to one side and cracking it loudly. She wiped the blood from her mouth, then spat into the sewage water. "Bucking hell."
"Wha...?" Daring asked incredulously.
"She's been injected with the virus before in the previous reality... She knows how to control it and use it to her own advantage." Octavia said.
"Oh wait... I remember now. Bastard went on a rampage." Daring said.
"Yeah that." Rainbow nodded. "Good times."
"Indeed."
"I bucking hate you!" Dainty cried, punching Rainbow on the leg. Then she broke down into tears, hugging her tightly.
"There there." Rainbow said, because she didn't know what else to say; and patted Dainty on the back.
Dainty was grateful for that pat- she just cried even more. Moments ago she thought she'd never even see Rainbow alive again- and now, here she was- covered in blood, but perfectly fine otherwise. And if mood was anything to go by, even better than before.
"I keep my promises." Rainbow said, hugging Dainty tightly. "I'd never leave you on your own in this wilderness."
Dainty didn't reply- just hugged Rainbow back, grateful that she was here.
"You're such an arse." Octavia said, grinning and lightly punching Rainbow in the shoulder.
"Yeah, no crap." Daring said, also grinning and walking up to the group.
Lily laid a hoof on Dainty's shoulder, smiling- and instantly Dainty felt bad, her stomach sinking. Lily might have memory of this in some way- but her family died in the massacre that followed the Magic Faction's second rebellion attempt. It must be horrible- to be suddenly teleported into a reality where your family has been dead for five years. Dainty couldn't say the same for her own real family- sure, they were all dead too- but they had already died in the previous reality. At least she got to say goodbye, in someway.
*
Spitfire yawned loudly, and everypony on the bridge turned to look at her.
"What!?" she blushed, irritated. "Can't the Captain yawn, after all those sleepless nights of keeping this ship up and running?"
"You mean keeping commander Soarin up and-" a voice somewhere in the crowds of the control consoles said loudly.
Spitfire blushed even more. "Oi!" she yelled, pointing at the stallion that yelled that out. Or so, she thought it was him. "You! Yes, you! No, not the one behind you... Just- YOU!! You're on cleanup duty this afternoon. Four hours." she said, now feeling much better.
She noticed a flashing red light on the holographic console in front of her, and waved a hoof at it to show the message. With a tap, she ordered the computer to read the message. She yawned again, however her ears pricked for the computer voice.
"S.F. Vector Class space shuttle requesting direct docking to OASIS bridge."
Spitfire froze, her mind working at a thousand miles an hour. Why is there a Science Faction ship requesting direct docking all of a sudden? Did they find out?
"Origin?" she asked, suppressing the worry in her voice and keeping it calm for the sake of the crew.
"S.F. COLOSSUS."
Spitfire cursed, running a hoof through her mane.
"Ma'am?" an officer asked her worriedly.
"I'm thinking!" she spat, clutching her head and pacing around in circles. Then she stopped, staring blankly at the ground; her heart pounding against her chest- she realized, they didn't have a choice. Her eyes narrowed- she won't back down because of this ship. They'll do what they have to to keep the Magic Faction a secret. "Grant permission for direct docking." she said to the computer, turning away and heading to the bridge's docking area. She pointed at two soldiers standing guard at the sides of bridge, waving them towards her. "You two- with me."
They strode through a short but wide hallway, lit brightly by white lights in the ceiling. Abruptly they stopped, their hoofsteps coming to a halt. The bridge was in complete silence, its members anticipating the arrival of their sudden and unexpected guest. Spitfire's eyes were narrowed into a frown, and she stood as tall as she could to have a menacing appearance- although she didn't have to stand tall at all to get that air of authority around here.
There was a loud clunk as something outside hit the docking gates- the S.F. ship must've been connected. There was a loud hiss of air as the ship's pressure systems made it safe to step into the OASIS. An echoey click traveled loud and far in the silence as the heavy locks of the docking gates opened. White steam poured through the gaps and onto the floor before Spitfire, drifting past her hooves.
Three silhouettes stood in the gateway, dark shades of grey backlit by the blinding white light coming from behind. Spitfire's heart pounded even faster than before as a robotic leg stepped out from the fog, blue LED indicator lights blinking. A bead of sweat drifted down her face- the tension was rising.
Spitfire's eyes widened in fear as the figure took a step out of the fog, the supreme leader of the Science Faction fleet, and the ruler of all the world.
"I like what you have done with the place..." Val said, walking past a frozen Spitfire, arms folded behind her back. "...captain."