"Keep up the support Bluefyre!" Magnum yelled, a stream of lasers burning past her head.
"They're bucking everywhere!" Bluefyre yelled, frantically tapping away at the buttons on the command console. "I need a spotter- can't keep track of all the bastards!"
"Storm- Anvil- can you manage?" Magnum asked.
"We'll do our best- take down those enemy forces!" Storm yelled, firing a three round burst into the smoky abyss, soon replied to by a surprised scream.
"What we got?" Magnum asked, slinging her rifle across her back and jogging to Bluefyre's side.
The control panels were filled with rows and rows of screens, with joysticks and buttons underneath.
"Can you use the turret there? Use it and help me spot the enemies- can't keep track of all of them with just one camera!" Bluefyre yelled, squeezing the trigger.
"Will do." Magnum said, taking control of one of the turrets.
Suddenly a loud siren went off- and the enemies started retreating. Red light filled the command center, all the screens shutting off and turning into the same flashing message: EVACUATE.
"That's right buckers! Stay back!" Storm yelled, moving behind closer cover and firing bursts at the silhouettes.
"What the hay...?" Magnum raised her hooves and backed away from the screens. "This some kind of override?"
"Not that I know of. Working on it now." Bluefyre said, tapping away at the screen on her arm.
Magnum looked around her, panic slowly setting into her heart. The red flashes from the overhead emergency lights threw their shadows about the dimly lit command center. The siren sounded like that of a nuke warning- loud and with each pulse pounding against their ear drums. She watched, her eyes unfocused as she tried to figure out what was going on- the word on the screens ever haunting her: EVACUATE.
*
Rainbow lurched forward, the sudden gust of wind as she sped up dusting away the ash on the cleaver trailing behind her. The figure raised her blade just in time, however weakly.
The power from Rainbow's strike knocked her clean off her hooves, sending her tumbled back and into the far wall. There was a loud boom as her cleaver flipped behind her, impacting the concrete wall and shattering it to pieces shortly before she then slammed into it. Dust flew from the area, a small ash cloud covering the destruction.
Rainbow strode into ash cloud, her eyes searching the smoke for the figure- but she found none.
Dainty could only watch as her enraged sister disappeared behind the thick ash- she had never seen her like this before. It wasn't the demon virus- it was just Rainbow by herself. It scared her, and she was starting to get afraid of losing the old caring big sis she came to know and love.
"Dainty!" Lily called, and her head snapped over to look at her. "Are you ok? Over here!"
"I-I'm f-fine." Dainty gulped, taking one last look into the ash cloud, watching Rainbow's shadow and the glow of the Element of Loyalty crystal disappear behind the thick ash. She gulped again, then scrambled to her hooves and ran to Lily.
"Where are you, you little bucker?" Rainbow growled, scanning the area around her and the cleaver dangling loosely in a hoof by her side. There was shouting and explosions as the fight raged on between Octavia, Daring, the two survivors and the assault units- but she couldn't care less at the moment. Her old hunter's instinct began taking over again, from when she was still in the darker bounty hunting business- all she cared for was the result, whatever the sacrifice. In fact, she didn't care at all.
She only needed her target taken care of, and that's all that was needed.
There was a scurrying sound to her left, and she quickly turned around. Nothing but settling ash and crumbled concrete with jagged metal wires sticking out of them. Her ears stood standing with their tips pointed to the sky, listening for traces of the figure underneath the mask of the sounds of battle.
Slowly her mind drained away all traces of the background battle, and soon all she could hear were her own hoofsteps and the small brittle concrete pieces that cracked under her weight.
More hoof steps behind her- and without even thinking she whipped out an explosive knife from Nightshade's collection and tossed it behind her. She watched her own shadow stretch before her as the explosion detonated a chain reaction, bringing down more support columns and causing more ash to float into the air. She turned around, her face lit red by the cleaver's crystal.
Slowly, step by step- she walked towards the spot where she last heard the figure's hoofsteps. She reached the spot, but there was no body in sight- however she smirked when she saw the small droplets of blood on the floor, dulled by the ash mixed into it.
"Face me now- or I'll slowly wear you down." she growled at the clouds of dust around her, waiting for the figure to strike- but she didn't. The blood on the floor hadn't been much- thus the injury must be quite minor.
Rainbow peered at the debris around her, and started slowly following the trail of blood drops. With the ash cloud, she couldn't see more than three meters in front of her.
Suddenly there was a grey flash as the figure leaped out of the dust cloud and at her again, cleaver catching a glint of sunlight through the ash and gleaming with malice.
Rainbow slashed her cleaver from the side, deflecting the blade elsewhere. She launched a kick at the figure, and felt her hoof dig deep into her stomach.
The figure went tumbling over her, hit the floor with a loud thud and rolled several meters before hitting her back on a concrete column. Rainbow marched towards her, cleaver dragging on the floor and making an eery scraping noise. She could see the blood dripping down from a wound in the figure's shoulder and soaking her coat- clearly something torn by the explosive knife.
But still the figure got up, using the cleaver to help herself as she got to her hooves.
Rainbow swung her cleaved up, the handle sliding forward with a loud click. Some of the ash in the way caught fire as the muzzle flash leaped out from the barrel, pushing the bullet with it.
The figure managed a lucky deflect, using the very edge of the cleaver and slicing the bullet clean in half. There were two heavy thuds behind her as the two halves punched right through the concrete wall behind her.
She charged forth just as Rainbow was about to fire again, launching a kick that took the cleaver off aim in the last second. The bullet went flying into the sky, and when Rainbow looked down again the figure was already swinging the cleaver back around.
She turned around, bringing the cleaver into a vertical position behind her back. She felt the figure's cleaver strike hers, and turned.
By turning around before hoof, she'd get a bigger turn when she turns back around. She twisted the cleaver, shoving the figure's blade away. In the same motion she swirled around, the broad blade striking from the side. The figure leaped back and out of reach, bending her back forwards so that the tip of the blade barely grazed her stomach and the broad side passed inches under her nose. She stepped back, steadying herself and raising the blade in a familiar fashion.
Rainbow's eyes widened when she recognized the pose- and quickly reacted and also brought her body into the same position.
They both swung their blades down, placing all their momentum and transferring all their energy into their blades, making them turn and slice through the air at sonic speed. Both blades began having trails of sonic bubbles traveling behind them, both coated in the shimmering mass.
Then their tips grazed each other as they passed by, abruptly breaking the bubbles. They exploded outwards in two micro sonic booms, one rainbow colored and the other an odd black and white version.
Rainbow was blinded by the sudden flash, and the intensity of the implosion. The shockwave threw both her and her enemy off their hooves, sending them flying off in opposite directions with their tumbling cleavers.
Rainbow plunged through the debris field, then abruptly stopped as her back cracked against a support column. The air was knocked from her lungs, and she gasped for it- but all she had was a gaping open mouth.
Then suddenly her lungs expanded, drawing in a fresh gust of air that knocked her in the face. She shook her head vigorously, trying to clear her blurry vision. She could see her cleaver off about a meter away, lodged in the floor- but what confused her most was how the figure knew her technique of creating a sonic rainbubble.
She crawled across the floor and quickly got up, pulling her cleaver out from the ground.
"Not this again..." she growled as an ever expanding ash cloud slowly swirled around her, shielding all movement that might've been made by the figure.
She heard a loud click to her left, and quickly whipped out a throwing knife and threw it in that direction then ducked down. The bullet from the figure's cleaver hit the knife, throwing it back at Rainbow. It flew over her head, lodging itself deep into the far concrete wall.
Rainbow only just about recovered when the figure struck the cleaver from her hooves with a powerful strike. It went tumbling out of reach, and she quickly whipped out two throwing knives to defend herself.
She crossed the two knives in front of her, the figure's cleaver impacting in the resulting X. Most of the energy was absorbed, but it still forced Rainbow to take a step back. She placed a hoof behind her and kicked off the ground with all her force, pushing the cleaver away.
The two knives were much faster than the cleaver- and it didn't take long for the opposition to figure out the cleaver will never be able to keep up with the two knives in terms of speed- however, it could easily overpower the both of them. Problem is, Rainbow kept dodging the cleaver and slashing the knives dangerously close to the figure.
The figure tucked the cleaver away, engaging Rainbow with her bare hooves. She blocked one of her slashes, pulled her arm in and clamped it under an elbow. She struck a knee into her chest, knocking her back- but she still held onto that arm.
Rainbow swiped a leg across the floor, knocking out the figure's legs from underneath her. She fell onto the floor, and now Rainbow was the one slamming elbows down on her chest.
The figure raised a leg and kneed Rainbow in the temple, who instinctively rolled off. She fell onto the floor, and through her blurred eyes she saw the figure already scrambling up and deploying the cleaver. She launched a hoof into the figure's stomach, sending her skidding back. The figure dug the cleaver deep into the ground, slowing her to a stop as her momentum dispersed.
Rainbow got up, whipped out a knife and threw it across the room at the figure, who caught it in her hooves. A split second later she noticed the beeping red light, and quickly threw it back.
Rainbow crossed her arms in front of her face, shielding her from the explosion. The explosive knife went off between them, the shockwave sweeping them off their feet- once again they lost visual contact on each other.
Rainbow pulled out another explosive knife, and in her blind rage threw it into the ash cloud. Suddenly somepony leaped from the smoke and diverted the knife elsewhere and off target, a moment later they heard the dull explosion. Rainbow didn't even check who diverted it, and immediately whipped out another one in case the figure escaped.
Dainty grabbed Rainbow's wrist, stopping her from throwing the unarmed explosive knife. Then she placed a hoof behind Rainbow's legs and pushed her backwards, slamming her down on the floor. Rainbow was so shocked to see it was Dainty who had taken her down, that she didn't even do anything to stop it.
Dainty wrenched the knife away from Rainbow's hooves. "Are you bucking out of your mind!!??" she yelled at her face.
"Wha...?"
"Look before you start trying to kill it, will you!?" Dainty yelled, and Rainbow saw the figure walk up behind her.
"Dainty- Look out damnit!!" she pushed the filly away, ready to lash out- but Dainty only got back up and tripped her up again. The figure didn't move, just stood with her hooves raised by her sides to show that she wasn't armed.
"Rainbow- STOP!" Dainty yelled, hugging Rainbow tightly and making sure she wouldn't harm the figure.
"What the hay is going on!?" Rainbow growled.
"Look- I don't know how this happened, and why there are two of you- but I know both of you, and... I might know.. I can't be sure..." Dainty started mumbling, making both Rainbow and the figure even more confused than before- but clearly, they somehow both knew Dainty. "Listen, I think... This here's the Rainbow Dash from this reality."
Rainbow frowned, and raised an eyebrow. She looked at Dainty, to the figure, then back again; processing the info in her head. "But how did she get here...?"
"I was just chasing this random pony that looked like me that turned out to be you through some random white space and you started attacking me!" the figure said in Rainbow's voice.
"Likely story." Rainbow muttered, her hooves not far away from the throwing knives.
"Rainbow- you know how you thought you lost your memories? Well, I have a different theory... I think you may have, well... Split..." Dainty said, addressing the both of them.
"I don't care what happened- I just know I'm back where I came from." the figure said, taking off her hat and revealing an identical face and mane style to Rainbow's- only in black and white and grey.
"What the hell..." Rainbow muttered, taking off her own hat. The other Rainbow seemed to be startled at the sight of a colored version of herself, and flinched at the bright array of colors.
"I'm just going to call you Silver Dash for now." Dainty said to the other Rainbow Dash, who seemed to look like it was offensive or something.
Silver Dash looked up at the sky, and saw the barricade was still up- looks like not much had changed. But then she just put two and two together- if Rainbow has those knives... Then Nightshade...
"You okay?" Dainty asked, while Rainbow tried to clear her mind of all the buck it just received.
"Nightshade... Is she...?" Silver asked, and Dainty opened her mouth to speak- but it was Rainbow who answered.
"She died saving my life. It was my fault." Rainbow said, looking away.
Silver looked down on her colored half, and for a second looked like she was going to strike again- but she let out a deep sigh, and held out a hoof for Rainbow.
Rainbow stared at the hoof, not quite understanding the offer yet- but Silver soon clarified that.
"We caused her death. If we didn't start a fight with each other, she probably would've been fine- and I'm not about to make the same mistake and start another fight with myself again." Silver said, making a small waving gesture with her hoof.
Rainbow clamped her jaws together- now she was feeling bad because she should really be the one apologizing. After all, it was Nightshade's sudden death that caused her to blame somepony else that she attacked in the first place. She took the hoof, and Silver pulled her to her hooves.
"We need everypony we can get- and now, I have all of me in this damn war." Silver said, grinning and gripping Rainbow's hoof tighter.
"Hey, just keep in mind you're MY clone- not the other way around." Rainbow grinned too, nose to nose with herself.
"Huh. It's interesting that a minute ago you two were trying to rip each other's throats out." Dainty pointed out.
"And it's all because of you that both of us are still alive." both of them said, both giving Dainty a light ruffle in the mane. Dainty grinned- now she was getting twice the love.
"Rainbow! We need support- they're swarming us!!" Octavia yelled, running back into the building with an empty rifle and with Daring- then they both stopped dead as they spotted the two Rainbows. "What the hay!?"
"Hey, Octavia." Silver said.
"You like my clone?" Rainbow pointed to Silver.
"Hey, we can argue about who is who's clone all day buddy." Silver said.
"Great, the annoyance has been doubled." Octavia said, because two Rainbow Dashes was just not important enough, considering there was a whole bucking army waiting outside.
Rainbow looked at Silver, who shrugged with her.
"I've seen waaaaaaay weirder." Daring said- well, of course she has before. "We need to push forward down the train! It's been disabled, but our secret package is just ten meters away from our location!"
"Right. And we're out of ammo?" Rainbow asked, catching the cleaver handle Dainty picked up and threw at her.
"Almost." Daring said, punching a spread of buck-shot rounds into an assault unit.
The subway station had collapsed completely, daylight pouring in through the barricade. Debris littered the fields, and the buildings of Fillydelphia could be seen from here as there was no ceiling left. They rose high into the sky, the age old materials on the peak of collapse. The train was parked in the middle of the tracks, with the Science Faction units on one side while Rainbow and her team were on the other.
"Get onto the train! Go!" Daring yelled, hauling herself onto the ceiling of the train and firing her shotgun.
"Have some knives, arseholes!" Rainbow yelled, flying up onto the roof with Silver. She threw an explosive knife into the center of a group of assault units, tearing them apart.
"Come on you two." Octavia got onto the roof, and hauled the two fillies up as well.
Silver took out the cleaver, threw it as a javelin and sent it sliding through an assault unit's chest. She flew up to it, pulled the cleaver out, and threw its anti-matter rifle to Octavia.
"Buck- reinforcements! WALKERS!!" Daring yelled, ducking behind a large chunk of concrete as two streams of bullets from two mini guns tore through the flimsy roof of the train.
Suddenly three missiles fired from the barricade struck the assault walkers, reducing them to flaming metal scraps.
"Ha! Looks like the guys on the barricade are holding off nicely!" Rainbow grinned as more missiles rained down on the enemy units.
*
Bluefyre got the systems working again, overriding the emergency order while Magnum went to investigate what had caused the alarm in the first place. She didn't like what she found.
"Some portions of the local power plant have been damaged beyond repair!" she yelled, searching through the barricade's unsecured section of the database.
"Wait- what?" Storm asked. "Which sections are cut off?"
"Primary lighting, auto turrets, interior defense systems, electronic gates, monitoring systems, and-" Magnum stopped as she saw the enemy's plan clear as day. She slowly backed away from the screen, a terrified expression on her face.
"What is it!?" Storm asked.
"Bluefyre- abandon objective- I repeat! ABANDON OBJECTIVE!" Magnum yelled, waving towards the open doorway. Bluefyre pulled away from the screen, and followed the squad as they raced out of the command center.
"Magnum- what is it?" Anvil asked as they sprinted down a corridor. "What else did they shut down?"
Magnum bared her teeth at whoever came up with the plan. "Cooling systems to the nuclear engines."
It took a moment for the message to sink in, but when it did- it struck panic deep into the squad's heart.
Storm turned to his comms. "All teams- abandon mission! We have a red alert- repeat- abandon the mission and proceed straight to extraction!"
Magnum took a right turn and faced a door, then with one heavy kick took it down. It was the door to an elevator shaft, the elevator disabled and hanging about ten meters up above their heads. The doors tumbled down the length, making loud thunks as they impacted the hollow metal sides.
"Elevator shaft. We need to get to those drop pods ASAP." Magnum said, grabbing onto a cable and swinging into the darkness below. The rest of her squad followed, their armor making loud grinding noises against the cable as they slid down the elevator shaft.
There was a loud thunk as Magnum hit the bottom floor, and shot open the door. The resulting muzzle flash lit up the shadows, leaving a ghostly after image on Magnum's eyes. The red flashes from emergency lights greeted her, and she heard several more thunks as her squad landed behind her.
Suddenly there was a loud snap as the cables broke, and they could hear the elevator above sliding down the shaft- they could even see the sparks it created when its sides brushed against the walls.
"Hurry! Go! GO!" Magnum yelled, hauling her teammates through before jumping through herself.
The elevator crashed on the bottom with a loud bang, and kept on going until it compressed itself into a small pancake.
"Lucky dodge." Magnum said, as she could've been easily caught underneath it.
There were a few beeps on Bluefyre's HUD as they continued sprinting, and her heart dropped when she read the message. "Somepony just shot off all the drop pods! We don't have any left!"
"DAMNIT!!" Magnum yelled, clutching her head.
"The hay do we do now?" Anvil asked.
"Think... Think.. Think..." Magnum banged a hoof on her helmet. She looked around at anything that might give her an idea. "Aha! They've got some spare jetpacks! Use those! Bluefyre, Anvil- there're two right there in the pod loading area-" she pointed at two jetpacks lying on the floor in a pod room. "Storm and I will look for more."
The pod loading area was a small room, each one with a pod ready to be deployed- but in this case, there were none- there were only the gaping holes in the floors that led directly to the surface, and where the last pods had been remotely deployed to prevent their escape.
"Good luck you two." Bluefyre saluted, and followed Anvil into the pod loading area.
"Come on Storm- there's gotta be another one in the next few rooms!" Magnum said, running down the corridor and searching each and every loading room next to it- but no other jetpacks were found.
"Over there!" Storm yelled as he found a jetpack lying in the last pod loading room. They both ran into the room, but froze soon after.
There was only one jetpack- and only one of them was getting out alive.
"Take it." Magnum said without hesitation and before Storm could say anything- also before she could have uncertainty set into her heart.
"No- you're my squad leader, a higher ranking officer- it's my duty to see you out of this alive, ma'am." Storm said, taking the jetpack and shoving it into Magnum's arms.
"Don't force it Storm... I don't want this."
"And neither do I, ma'am- if that's a valid excuse."
"Take it- that's an order Lieutenant!" Magnum hissed, and instead of shoving the jetpack into Storm, she handed it over as an offering.
Storm looked at the jetpack, at first refusing to take it.
"Please.... Storm. Just take it. I've got nothing left to lose." Magnum smiled lightly.
Storm looked away, a heavy frown on his face. He squinted his eyes shut- was he making the decision of choosing whether he lives or one of his friends live?
"Just take it, Lieutenant. Or we'll both end up dead here. That's an order." Magnum said.
"I... I can't." Storm slumped down onto the floor, the hefty load of the decision overwhelming him. Now he was the one who had to decide who lives.
"Don't worry- I won't blame you, if that's what you're scared of." Magnum said, her face lit up through the visor by the bright sunlight that poured in through the hole in the ground, where the drop pod would've been deployed. Wind gusted in through the gaping hole in the barricade, among many others that were used to shoot the pods to the surface. "We're losing time."
Storm shook his head vigorously to clear his mind, and looked up again.
"Do my squad proud, soldier." Magnum said, seeing the opportunity and gently pushing the jetpack into Storm's arms.
Storm looked down at his only chance of survival, and certain death for Magnum. Finally he looked up, eyes watering.
"Sorry, Magnum." he said, shaking his head slowly. "I'm so sorry."
*
Rainbow and the others were still engaging assault units when suddenly the entire earth shook. They stumbled, almost falling over and searching for the source of the explosion. Then Lily pointed up at the sky.
One portion of the barricade had disappeared behind a huge ball of fire, completely engulfed in the inferno. Bits and pieces that somehow survived the huge nuclear explosion drifted down towards earth, leaving behind them thick trails of smoke.
Rainbow slowly got up, watching the pieces fall with her dropping stomach.
"Spitfire..." she whispered. "Who did you say you sent on the barricade again?"
Spitfire didn't reply, and Rainbow could tell she was there because there was background chatter going on in the distance.
"Spitfire! Answer me!" Rainbow growled, still staring at the sudden gaping hole in the barricade- but still the captain didn't reply. "SPITFIRE!!"