//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Once More unto the Breach // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 7 ‘This is not going to work’, Rainbow Dash said plainly. Applejack said nothing and continued to look the other way. ‘I said... this is not going to work!’ Rainbow Dash cried out again. ‘Ah heard ya tha firs’ time!’ Applejack snapped back at her. ‘Ah don’t see ya’ll comin’ up with any escape plans! May not work, but ‘least we tried! Took me forever ta get these ropes off...’ Applejack’s voice trailed off her face formed into a smile as she raised a tied up foreleg and winked at Rainbow Dash. No later than a minute later did the door burst open and a single cheval with a knife in his teeth ran through. Rainbow Dash turned and planted her hooves in his chest, knocking him out and causing him to instinctively spit the knife out. It clattered on the floor and slid right next to Applejack’s hooves. The earth pony took the knife in her teeth and cut her bonds, quickly moving to cut Rainbow Dash’s. Rainbow Dash grinned, after the last interruption, she had guessed that the prisoners had been listening in on them. How else would the convenient interruption of the last visit make sense? Now the two of them were free. Applejack kept the knife in her teeth, while she was not ordinarily a violent pony, these were not ordinary times these ‘ponies’ were all a band of violent criminals. Murderers, rapists, arsonists, Rainbow Dash had caught several of them staring at her arse sizing her up for the tricks of their trade. If they were to get their way, it would be one party for them that not even Pinkie Pie would want to attend. Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed out the door of the tool shed; they were in the far end of the prisoners’ camp. Which held a number of brick and mortar buildings, clearly, they were inside the actual prison itself. Random buildings scattered throughout the complex. Rainbow Dash and Applejack knew that fighting their way out was out of the question, these were a band of all the wrong sort, Duval de Cheval, the prisoner’s leader and their chief captor had bragged that the prisoners had revolted, killed all the guards and took over the island for themselves. They were going to have to be smart, sneak their way out if this place in one piece. Rainbow Dash and Applejack ducked behind a building, it wasn’t going to be long before the prisoners noticed that they were gone. Somepony had to have heard them escape over whatever listening device had been placed into the tool shed. Rainbow Dash and Applejack ducked into the closest building; to their luck it was abandoned. The only thing in the building at all was a small table with a radio set on it, a microphone and headset lying on the table next to it. ‘Hey!’ Rainbow Dash said with a grin, she trotted over to it and pulled the headset over her ears and began adjusting the dials and switches on the radio until she heard talking. ‘Rainbow! What’re ya doin’?’ Applejack hissed at her. Rainbow Dash raised a hoof to silence her, and listened in. ‘... understood Renault, you just let us know where you need us and where. SINSAC out ’ Rainbow Dash was more than a little confused. ‘Uh... hello?’ she asked. At first there was nothing, and then Rainbow Dash asked again. ‘Who is this!? Cease broadcasting on this channel!’ the voice snapped back at her. ‘No wait! Please! You have to help us!’ Rainbow Dash cried out. ‘My name is Rainbow Dash! I’m an equestrian pony and one of the survivors of the Steamship Canterlot, we were bound for Swan City, South Island when we hit an iceberg in bad weather and the ship went under. We all made it off the ship but me and my friends got separated from the crew! Please you have to help us!’ ‘...where are you?’ the voice asked again. ‘I’m broadcasting from Sainte-Hélène, our lifeboat washed up on the shore... please! You have to help us!’ Rainbow Dash pleaded. ‘Sainte-Hélène?’ the voice questioned. ‘Albert! Start triangulating, I need to confirm that’, A muffled voice in the background acknowledged the order, and in a few seconds gave an affirmation. ‘Who are you?’ Rainbow Dash asked. ‘I told you who I was! Now tell me who you are!’ ‘... this is Lef-tenant Commander Thaddeus Braxton, aboard the HMSIS Sinsac, don’t bother with the name, you can just call me the Op’. ‘Sinsac?’ Rainbow Dash asked. ‘What kind of name is that?’ ‘If you must know... it stands for “South Island and New Seeland Army Corps”, what is that, you might ask? Not important for you right now. You are on Sainte-Hélène, which means that if you have wireless access, that you are not in a safe place. The Sinsac and the cheval battleship Renault are turning and making for the island at flank speed, sit tight Rainbow Dash, the kangaroo cavalry is coming!’ Rainbow Dash turned off the radio and pulled the headset off her head. ‘Can we go?’ Applejack asked. ‘Yeah! Come on! Let’s go!’ Rainbow Dash said. Applejack nodded and the two pushed open the door to the radio room. Only to discover Duval de Cheval and a group of prisoners armed with submachine guns standing outside them. ‘Well this sucks’, Rainbow Dash said. ‘Don’ worry sugarcube, Ah gots a plan’, Applejack said. ‘Run like scared little fillies?’ Rainbow Dash asked. ‘As a matter o’ fact...’ Applejack began; the two ducked in between the building and the one next to it and dashed off around the corner. ‘AFTER THEM!’ Duval shouted. ‘MARCHE! TRÉS RAPIDE!’ Applejack and Rainbow Dash made their way through the maze of buildings, ducking in and out trying to keep Duval and his group from catching them, much to their dismay, the quickly ran out of buildings and found themselves in the open. Another prisoner, this one armed with a light machine gun caught them in the open and opened fire on them. Both ponies were running on pure adrenalin as they ran through the front of the compound and into the jungle, not stopping for several hundred metres. ‘R... Rainbow Dash? Ah think one nicked me’, Applejack said. Rainbow Dash turned around to look at her friend, her eyes widened, Applejack’s flanks were ridden with bullet holes. Applejack collapsed onto the ground. ‘Applejack!’ Rainbow Dash called out to her. Rainbow Dash picked the mare up in her forelegs and held her close. ‘Ah... ah shouldn’t ‘ave left tha farm...’ Applejack said quietly, her voice trailed off and her eyes rolled past Rainbow Dash, and she faded away. ‘A... Applejack?’ Rainbow Dash asked. No answer. ‘Applejack!’ Rainbow Dash said again, this time speaking louder and gently shaking her friend. No answer. ‘APPLEJACK!’ Rainbow Dash cried out hysterically, shaking her friend roughly, trying to get her to wake up. It was futile, however, Applejack was gone, and Rainbow Dash knew it. She set Applejack down on the ground gently, taking off the mare’s hat and resting on her belly, wrapping her forelegs around it. Rainbow Dash slid Applejack’s eyes closed, and couldn’t help but notice how peaceful she looked. She could have been sleeping. Rainbow Dash half expected Applejack to sit back up and stretch out, yawn loudly as she was waking up from a nap. Rainbow Dash waited, and waited for a moment before realising it was a pipe dream. Rainbow Dash lost it. Applejack was dead. She buried her head into Applejack’s body and cried. She cried and cried and cried and cried until no more tears could come. Rainbow Dash’s sadness turned to anger. This was not what Applejack deserved. She knew what she had to do. She was going to kill every last one of the prisoners on the island. Rainbow Dash got up and took a look around at where she was, she would need to remember how to get back here later... so that she could bury Applejack. It hurt Rainbow Dash to know that she couldn’t give her friend the proper burial that she deserved to get. The scum of the planet had taken that away from her, and Rainbow Dash knew at this moment, that there was only one way that this could end, and that was with Duval de Cheval and the rest of his band of marauders lying together as a pile of corpses in an unmarked mass grave somewhere on this island. Rainbow Dash was going to kill them all. She was about to turn and leave when something caught her eye. She could have... no... she was seeing things, her mind was telling her what she wanted to hear... but then she saw it again. Applejack twitched. Once, twice, and then, suddenly without warning, Applejack’s eyes shot open and she let out a huge gasp for air. She sprung to her hooves in confusion, looking around, and then at Rainbow Dash. ‘Rainbow Dash?’ Applejack asked. ‘What the hey just happened?’ Rainbow Dash did not have an answer.