The jetpack had run out of fuel, and her suit was damaged. Bluefyre looked around her, but all she saw was more trees. She was trapped deep in the Everfree forest, with nothing but the bow built into the armor on her left arm and a standard infantry rifle. Something inside the Everfree was interfering with her HUD- and could well be a signal scrambler. Either that, or just the mysterious magical properties of the Everfree- and she couldn't tell which one was more likely after having a quick look around.
There was the howl of a timber wolf to her right, and she raised the rifle. All she could hear after that was her own breathing, and each crunch her hooves made as they stepped on the fallen twigs.
It was only evening, yet down here it was as dark as mid-night. All she could see was within the range of the weak flashlight mounted on her helmet- and it didn't do much to light up things.
She had lost Anvil when they fell from the barricade- and she has no idea as to where Magnum or Storm went. Nopony was marked on her HUD.
More howls, and barks. Then some distinct bangs that could only be made by one weapon- Magnum's pistol.
Bluefyre started jogging. Running through the thick woods, she slipped past all the trees- she was alert to even the smallest noise. A fallen twig, followed by the crunch as something stepped on it. She kept running- she could hear the struggle now. More bangs, followed by the whimpers of the timber wolves. Then that was followed by a final really loud bang, and everything fell silent.
Bluefyre stopped, seeing the sudden flash in front of her. Magnum must be right there. She walked over there with her rifle raised, making sure no more timber wolves had made it into the area. She almost tripped over the root of a tree, but stumbled back on balance and kept going.
There was a small clearing up ahead, seemingly made by debris that fell from the barricade. Trees were uprooted or completely broken down, shreds of wood littering the forest floor and the ground torn and dented.
Bluefyre looked around herself frantically, but saw no sign of Magnum nor anypony else. She saw where the conflict was- a bunch of dead timber wolves lying on the ground, their thick luminescent green blood slowly leaking out of lethal pistol wounds. Then there was more blood on the dirt floor. Red blood, not that of the timber wolves.
At first Bluefyre didn't want to believe it. Then she spotted a silver object, catching the glint of the evening sun and sparkling. She went to pick it up, and stared at the blood stained object for a very long time.
It was Magnum's dog tag. The chain was broken in pieces, hanging loosely from the tags themselves.
She sighed, placing them in a socket in her armor. By the looks of it Magnum must've lost a lot of blood- and was most likely dead somewhere. Probably dragged away by a lone timber wolf.
"Bucking hell..." she muttered, then slumped back onto the damp dirt. She felt awfully vulnerable in the clearing, even if she did have a weapon and extra ammo.
There was a loud howl behind her, and her jaws clenched. She stood up, slinging her rifle across her back. She held out her left hoof, and with a small gesture two ends of an advanced combat longbow popped out of the armor on her left arm. She pulled out an arrow and loaded it, testing the tension on the string.
She had no idea where she would go. She had no idea what to do. So she'll do whatever she had to.
*
Rainbow pulled a large piece of concrete out of the way, small pieces of it crumbling off and clattering to the ground. They were in the one of the cabins of the train, crushed by debris.
"Let's hope our precious cargo hasn't been destroyed by all this bull crap." Silver said, ducking under the small opening.
"It should be in the next cabin." Rainbow sighed, taking a moment to catch her breath. Then she nodded at Octavia, who moved up and took one side of the door leading to the next cabin. Rainbow took the other side, cleaver handle in hand and ready to be deployed. The door had a rusted coat of red paint over it, peeling over time. It might've been a bright color when it was new, belonging to a long lost reality.
"Go." she nodded, and Octavia kicked down the door.
They swung into a larger cabin, a big object with a sheet over it in the middle of the small space. Shelves lined the sides, filled with all kinds of tools and random equipment.
Rainbow pocketed the cleaver, and sighed. "This could take a while to search through."
"Yeah. Problem is we have no idea what we're looking for." Silver said, walking to one side of the room.
"Found it." Octavia said.
"Where?" Rainbow and Silver both asked at the same time, turning to see Octavia admiring the shielded object in the middle of the cabin.
Rainbow moved to one corner, and ripped the sheet off. What was beneath it made her lost for words, and she just took a step back with her mouth wide open.
"Still a beauty." Octavia said. Of course she recognized it instantly- she was the one who modified it in the other reality.
"How...?" Rainbow frowned. "Applebloom must've remembered. She probably whipped this up in the past day or something."
"Probably." Octavia nodded.
"The hay are you two so excited about?" Silver asked.
"You don't have one of these?" Rainbow smirked, raising an eyebrow.
"We don't have the luxury to have one." Silver said grimly.
"Looks... Familiar." Daring cocked her head to one side and frowned at the object.
"Alright everypony..." Rainbow rubbed her hooves together, admiring the sleek black car that she missed so much since entering this new reality. "Who's driving?"
*
"Agent Dash." a familiar male voice said through the comms.
"Yeah. Who am I speaking to?" Rainbow asked, ignoring the complaints and groans from the six ponies squished in the back row. Octavia was driving, and as usual- she had the front seat.
"Officer Soarin." the voice said, and Rainbow froze. Another Wonderbolt? "Captain Spitfire is currently trying to organize a retaliation strategy against the ATLANTA invasion. She'll be unavailable- and I'll be taking over for now."
"I certainly wouldn't mind- I mean-"
"There's a military checkpoint established by the Science Faction in your way. They're testing a prototype signal jamming device- once they activate it we're in trouble. You need to destroy it- but take it down silently. Make sure nopony finds out until it's too late- you don't want Val chasing after you." Soarin said.
"Val's already chasing me." Rainbow muttered. "Can you mark it on our HUDs?"
"Done." Soarin said, and a small indicator popped up on Rainbow's HUD. It was quite close.
"Tavi- slow down... Think they'll hear us." Rainbow said, and Octavia stopped the car.
Silver hopped out the back, grateful for the sudden expanse of breathing space. The other five ponies tumbled out the door after she left it open, all gasping for air.
"I'll go scout ahead." Silver yawned loudly. "Just check out what we're up against." she said, and flew off towards the marked location. She returned later with wide eyes.
"There's a bunch of them, isn't there?" Rainbow asked.
Silver nodded.
"Let me guess- twenty three officers and no units?" Rainbow smirked.
Silver nodded again.
"Oh, how I love myself." Rainbow sang, trotting towards the marked location.
"Wait- what are you doing? We need to go together!" Silver raised an eyebrow.
"Tavi and I can handle this." Rainbow grinned, and Octavia nodded. "We've lived through worse before. Actually, I lived through worse." she turned to Octavia. "You died."
"Shut up." Octavia muttered. Over time that had become a joke- but it could get annoying at times.
Silver shrugged. Octavia was only assigned as her partner at the start of the mission- so Rainbow probably had more experience.
"We'll be on the sideline... Just in case, you know." Silver smirked. As if those two could take on twenty three other ponies on their own.
"Tsk tsk tsk." Rainbow tutted. "Watch and learn."
They were still in Fillydelphia, the tall buildings seemed worn down into a substance similar to clay- they looked like they could crumble at any second. Rainbow slowly sneaked around one of the buildings, keeping her back to the wall. She peered around the corner, and saw the group of Science Faction ponies. They had light armor on, but were equipped quite well- grenades, pistols, rifles...
There was an antenna in the middle of the clearing, probably the jamming device. There was a slight flutter as Silver flew up onto the roof overhead. Rainbow looked back down at the enemies, keeping note of their locations.
She looked behind her and nodded at Octavia, who nodded back and darted to the building on the other side. The ponies didn't see her.
Rainbow pulled out one of Nightshade's EMP knives, and started slowly creeping around the corner.
The first stallion had his back to her- so she slowly crept up on him. Now she was right behind him, knife in hoof and ready to strike. She reached out and gave him a light tap on the shoulder.
"Wha...?" he turned around, exposing his neck.
Rainbow clamped a hoof over his mouth and slashed the knife across his neck, severing his adam's apple. Blood splattered onto the floor, accompanied by his muffled scream. She spun him around and held him as a meat shield- by now they have already been spotted, and the others were turning around.
No way they're getting out of this without having a whole army on their tails. Silver thought from the roof.
Rainbow pulled the pin and threw the EMP knife, and it lodged itself deep inside a stallion's throat before exploding with a blue wave of energy.
"COLOSSUS! COLOSSUS!! DO YOU READ ME!?" one of the stallions yelled into a radio. "SHUCK! OUR COMMS ARE DOWN!"
Octavia came out from behind the corner and moved up behind Rainbow, both of them using the dead stallion as a shield. Octavia took his rifle, and started firing short bursts at the others before they even flicked off their safeties.
Rainbow pulled out the pistol from its holster on the stallion's leg, and picked off six different officers with its full clip. By this time only about seven of the enemy officers remained.
Rainbow pushed the dead stallion forward, slowly advancing towards the enemy officers while they tried to back away. Bullets landed all around them, lifting up dirt into the air in small clouds. Octavia's rifle clicked empty, and she dropped it in the dirt.
Rainbow reached around the stallion, and pulled the pin on three different grenades. She let go, and kicked the body with the grenades still attached to it towards the remaining few officers. The grenades went off, and they disappeared behind a huge flash and a wall of dirt.
"Done, and done." Rainbow said, dusting her coat of the brown dust and striding towards the antenna.
Sliver stared at the field of dead bodies with wide eyes, her mouth gaping wide with awe. "That... Was incredible." she finally managed.
"Now to disable this thing..." Rainbow said, walking up to the jammer.
"You have twenty seconds to get all your hidden friends out here in the open, before I blow you to pieces with the pack of C4 under that jammer." a voice boomed throughout the clearing, through remotely controlled speakers hidden in the buildings- it was impossible to pinpoint its location.
"Shuck..." Rainbow muttered, checking under the jammer- and as the voice had said, a pack of C4 was there, the LED indicator flashing gently.
"Uh-uh. Don't touch that, or I'll pull the trigger." the voice said, then chuckled. "Ten seconds left."
"Stay hidden, Silver. He doesn't know there's two of us yet." Rainbow whispered out of the corner of her mouth, her lips barely making a twitch.
"Copy." Silver Dash whispered a second later, and crawled behind cover on the roof.
Slowly, Dainty, Lily, Daring, and the two survivors strode into view. Rainbow held her breath, waiting for the mysterious stallion to point out Silver was missing- but he didn't.
"Yes, yes. Gather round." the voice said, and Rainbow let out a mental sigh of relief.
"Can you find him?" she whispered slowly.
"Not yet." Silver whispered back.
The clearing was dead silent, the dust-brown buildings rising all around them seemingly gaping at them with their hollow windows. A slight breeze blew, the sand on the ground shifting slowly. The evening sun was dropping behind the horizon, casting long shadows across the still battlefield.
"Hooves raised, ladies." the voice boomed, and everypony started slowly raising their hooves.
Everypony but one of the survivors, who was a little hesitant.
There was a loud crack, and a distinct zipping noise before a high-calibre bullet busted through her skull and caused her head to cave in. Her headless body fell back onto the floor, her blood splattering over the floor and mixing with the sand.
Daring had her mouth firmly clamped shut, and was struggling to breath through her nostrils. She didn't look down at the pony she once knew, and she could still feel the warmth of some splatters of her blood on her face. She was standing next to her once second, and gone the next.
"Don't." Rainbow warned her out of the corner of her mouth.
Daring finally let out that breath she was holding, slowly and cautiously. She blinked away the tears, and was dying to wipe the blood off her face.
"Did you get him?" Rainbow whispered.
"Got his general location." Silver whispered back.
"Don't make a move until you have a visual." Rainbow's lips twitched.
"Now I want all your little secrets. Give me all the names of the sabotaged ships. Come on, you know what I'm talking about- with your little spies in Science." the shooter said.
Rainbow's jaw was clenched- she couldn't quite see a safe way out of this situation yet, and Silver finding the shooter was their only hope of salvation.
"Wait- I see him. Left building, fifth to top floor." Silver said. "Don't look at him, dumbarse." she whispered as Rainbow's head twitched.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh, and a rocket came flying out of nowhere and hit the fifth to top floor. The entire top part of the building collapsed, and the huge speakers started pumping out static.
"What the hay!?" Silver traced the trail of smoke left behind by the rocket and back to the black car. "How...?"
"Voice control." Rainbow grinned, lowering her hooves to her sides. "Honk honk." she said, and the car beeped twice in return.
"I feel extremely left out." Silver said, then spotted something in the distance. "Shuck! He's getting away!"
It turns out their shooter was a pegasus pony- and was flying away right this moment.
"You son of a mule-" Daring Do growled, and flew after him, leaving behind a small dust cloud as her wings disrupted the air.
"Silver- make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." Rainbow said, walking towards the car with Octavia. She felt a small weight on her waist, and looked down at a quivering Dainty.
"That mare's head... It just..." she trembled, her voice uneven.
Rainbow's heart sank. Dainty must've been seen the pony being taken down- and it was her fault, because she put her and Lily behind everypony else for her to be safe. And speaking of Lily...
Rainbow rubbed Dainty's shoulders, and cast a worried look at the other filly. She gave a gentle tap on Dainty's back, then pointed at Lily; who was sitting alone by herself and staring at the ground.
"You know what to do, right?" Rainbow asked, and Dainty nodded. She shook off the tears, and as much as she didn't want to- left Rainbow to go sit with Lily.
"Hey Lily." Dainty said rather awkwardly, taking a seat next to Lily on the rock.
Lily chuckled. "You sound so casual."
"I... Was just trying to not think about it too much." Dainty said.
"Yeah. Easy for you to do." Lily said, still staring at the ground and not meeting Dainty's gaze. "I mean, you've got Rainbow and all, you know everypony... And... Well... I have no-one."
"You know me." Dainty grinned. "Come on Lils. Surely we can get through this together, right?" she said, pulling her friend into a big hug.
"Sure, why not." Lily said, a dim smile leaking onto her face as she hugged her back. "I guess."
"Come on. As long as we stay together, we could get through anything." Dainty said, then the grin faded off her face. "Promise you won't leave me behind though?"
"Ha! The only one who's going to get left behind is me." Lily laughed, then the both of them made a pinkie promise. Stick together. Stay together.
Rainbow couldn't help but smile when she spotted the two fillies making a pinkie promise out of the corner of her eye. She also couldn't help but follow the two fillies and mouth those words- 'Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.'
Then her smile slowly faded- she had no idea where Pinkie or any of her friends might be, or even if they were alive. No, she wasn't quite ready to admit they were dead yet. That just wasn't going to happen- they had to be alive. They just had to be. After all, how many life-threatening situations have they escaped and eluded? Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis and her changelings, even an evil king of shadows? The list goes on... And it should keep going, like it always has.
"Rainbow." Octavia stopped as she realized Rainbow had stopped walking.
"Right, right." Rainbow said, then whistled really loudly. "Blow the jammer!"
The car let out an eery screeching noise, trying to find the correct frequency. Then suddenly the pack of C4 under the jamming device exploded. Rainbow flinched, shielding her eyes; then whistled loudly to the car.
The car drove up to the small group, engine purring.
"In ya go, you two." Rainbow said, opening the passenger door and hopping in the front. The two fillies got in, still giggling at something.
"Chase after the damn bastard. Shoot him down if you need to." Rainbow said to Octavia, and did not expect a response from the car.
"Affirmative." a robotic female voice said, and Rainbow almost jumped out of her seat.
"Oh great. It can talk too? What did Applebloom do?" Rainbow said, looking around the car and half expecting some crazy robot face to pop up.
"She created me." the car's AI said.
"Right, right." Rainbow waved.
"Well this is great. Got more annoying voices in the car." Octavia muttered.
"I have manual control over the driver's ejector seat, in case that is what you were asking for." the AI said, and Rainbow couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Even got a sense of humor, aye." Octavia smirked, then couldn't help but snigger a bit herself. "You got a name?"
"Applebloom calls me EDI. I have no idea why." EDI said.
"Oh, great. An adoption too." Octavia said, and EDI started a count down for the ejector seat. "Okay okay!" she said quickly, and Rainbow and the fillies struggled to contain their laughter.
*
"Come here, you bucking piece of crap." Daring growled, flying after the stallion.
The stallion suddenly folded his wings, and flew threw a window and into a building. Daring followed, making a rough touch down and having her hooves drag across the concrete and sand. They burned a bit, but she didn't care and kept on chasing.
The stallion swung around a corner, and was panicked to hear Daring's scrambling hooves only seconds after his.
Two sets of hooves made loud clanking noises as they sprinted down an empty corridor, the slight breeze brushing away the dust and licking at their legs. Then the stallion leaped out of a window to the side, shattering the age-old glass with all the ease of snapping a twig with a crusher. Daring followed, stretching out her wings and gliding after the pegasus.
She had ditched her shotgun in a hurry to catch the shooter, and was completely unarmed while the shooter appeared to be carrying a knife and pistol- but she didn't care.
The stallion flew into another building, weaving through the different corridors and rooms. Daring followed without missing out a single step- every time she turned a corner she would always see his tail disappear around a different one.
She swung around the corner, and was slightly surprised to see the stallion there.
"You're too persistent, mare-" he said, aiming the pistol at Daring's face.
Daring knocked the pistol away, the shot missing and lodging itself in the ceiling. She yanked the pistol away from his grip, and tackled him to the ground.
"Get off me- you son of a-" Daring slammed a hoof across his face before he could finish.
The stallion retaliated by digging an elbow into Daring's stomach, winding her. He took the opportunity and slammed a hoof into her face, causing her to fall back. He scrambled up, and started running again.
Daring wiped the blood away from her bleeding nose, and reached out. Her hoof caught the stallion's back leg, and tripped him up.
"You persistent- reckless- mule!" he grunted, kicking Daring in the face and forcing her to let go. He scurried up again, and started running.
"You're not getting away." Daring growled, wiping off the blood on her face with an arm. Blood trickled from her nose and slid into her mouth- and she ignored the taste of ion and rust.
They kept running, both a little off balance from the encounter earlier. Then there was another ambush as the stallion swung around the corner, his knife raised high.
He stabbed it down at Daring. "Just die, you little- GAH!!" he screamed as Daring grabbed his hoof from the side and swung his own knife into his prostate. He collapsed onto the ground, Daring falling with him.
The weak concrete ground underneath them crumbled, and they fell onto the next floor. Daring was still on top, and instead of using the knife to kill the stallion she slammed a hoof into his face.
He grunted, and she punched him again. Again and again. The sickening cracks were heard throughout the still settling dust. Still Daring kept slamming her hoof into his skull, slowly caving it in. Blood gushed out as her hoof crushed his flesh, and splattered over one half of her face. His knife wound was causing a lot of blood loss- and it was forming a growing puddle on the floor. Still she kept punching him.
"Who's dying now?" she growled, twisting the knife. He tried to scream, but only gurgled more blood.
Daring kept punching him, for how many times she didn't know. But there was a deep crimson red puddle all around her by now. Then she raised her hoof for one last time, and swung it down from the side. She felt the stallion's skull crunch under her hoof, felt his brain get squashed to mush, then felt his spine snap as his head rotated over one-hundred degrees to one side.
She was breathing hard, and didn't bother do anything to stop it. Her hooves were coated in blood, in fact the whole right half of her body was covered in blood- and most of it wasn't hers. She looked down into the huge puddle of blood, staring at her reflection and into those crazed eyes. Those malevolent eyes. Those vengeful eyes.
Those murderer's eyes.