//------------------------------// // Chapter 37: Applejack // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// Rainbow had fallen asleep too, Dainty still snoring on her lap and in her arms. Octavia felt a little tired, however not sleepy. It must've been quite a big day for Rainbow, despite everything else. It isn't everyday that you find everything you vowed to protect stolen from you- but then again, neither is it everyday that you find yourself in a different reality. Soon Octavia could hear Daring and Lily snoring a bit too. Babs had her eyes closed, breathing softly. Only Octavia and Silver remained wide awake. "You can go to sleep if you want. I know the way." EDI said to Octavia. "I'm fine, thanks EDI." Octavia sighed. "But there's someone I have to keep an eye on." She said, somewhat loudly so that Silver could hear. Their eyes met in the rear view mirror, both ignorant of each other. Rainbow yawned loudly, and seemed to open her eyes a little. "Sleep, Rainbow." Octavia said quietly. "It's been a long day. You deserve some." "I already got myself some." She stretched, then immediately became careful as she remembered Dainty was still curled up on her lap. "Plus, the dreams I'm having don't exactly make me want to go back to them." "Nightmares, eh." Octavia nodded slowly. "No, just dreams." Rainbow sighed, and looked tiredly out the window at the bright orange evening sun. "Just happy memories, is all." She yawned. Octavia didn't say anything. She knew what Rainbow was talking about. Happy memories of a long lost reality, coming to haunt you as you know you'll never reach them again. Just more empty bait that hope is casting. "Shuck... What happened here?" Rainbow frowned, looking at something outside. "What is it?" Octavia asked. "There must've been survivors here..." Rainbow shook her head. "It's one of the trains that used to pull ponies around Equestria." Octavia looked past Rainbow. "A supply carriage..." "Could be worth a look." Rainbow noted. "Just one look around- shouldn't take long." "EDI, stand guard." Octavia stopped the car. "Identify and neutralize all targets that approach. Rainbow and I are going for a quick look-see." She said, and opened the door. Then she leaned close so only EDI could hear her: "Watch Silver Dash for any suspicious behavior. The moment she shows signs of aggression- do whatever it takes to protect the others. Do you understand?" "Acknowledged." EDI said through Octavia's comms instead of the speakers. Octavia slammed the door shut and straightened her coat as she stood up, placing her hat over her head and casting a quick gaze around the empty wasteland. Nothing was visible in miles, except a small shade in the distance that was Ponyville. Rainbow took a pistol with her just in case, with a few clips of ammo. Usually the cleaver should be enough, but there wasn't exactly a lot of space in the damn train to wield it. She nodded to Octavia, who nodded back- and they started walking towards the train. All was silent. The normal noises of the wasteland, such as the cooing of mutated birds and creeping whooshing of the wind, was not currently present. Simple silence was settled over the scene, except the occasional crow's cry which echoed across the vast plains. "Ain't liking this." Rainbow tutted, scanning the area. Pollution shielded things that were further away, but it didn't matter much. The two had fast enough reaction times to catch a bullet. Only the reaction time though- not that they actually could. "Me neither." Octavia muttered, keeping her pistol dangling by her side and ready for action. They strode closer and closer towards the train, and it was becoming clearer and clearer. The fallout was thinning, and now they could see the tracks too. The train had completely derailed and flipped on its side, the rails cracked and split all over the place. Twisted metal lay scattered about, along with other bits and pieces of material. Rainbow heard a light shuffle behind her, but ignored it. Then she noticed Octavia had stopped walking, and turned around. "Tavi, you alright?" She raised an eyebrow. Octavia was kneeling on the ground, clutching her side with a hoof while the other struggled to hold onto the pistol. She had beads of sweat dripping down her face, which was contorted in pain. "Bucking anti-matter poisoning." She groaned through gritted teeth. "Acting up again." "Crap..." Rainbow muttered, jogging to her side. She dug an arm under hers, and hoisted her up. "Can you walk?" "I think I can handle it for now. Grrr... God that hurts." She bent over, breathing heavily and squeezing her side with a hoof. "Let it pass..." After a minute or so the pain faded, and at least she was able to straighten up again. She still stumbled a bit though, so Rainbow helped her along. "You sure you don't want to just go back to EDI and rest?" "And leave you out here?" Octavia chuckled weakly. "No thanks." She said with a light groan. Finally they got to the train, and Rainbow took a peek in the abandoned carriage via a small crack in the wooden roof. "Can't see anything. Hold on." She grabbed onto the piece of wood, and yanked. The rotted material cracked almost instantly, and a second yank broke it free. It tumbled down on the ground, a small ash cloud rolling out of the carriage with it. A grin spread across Rainbow's face as she scanned their salvage. "Hey! Got some medical equipment. See if EDI can use that to patch you up. Got ammo... Ooh, axe." Rainbow was like a kid in a toy shop. "Sshh, you hear that?" Octavia suddenly held up a hoof. There was the distant howling of a wolf, and... Hoof steps. Stumbling, irregular, unbalanced, and probably rotten- hoof steps. Then came the familiar groaning, moaning, thirsty for blood and fresh meat. "Mutations..." Rainbow whispered, looking around. "We should probably go." she said, and started walking out. Suddenly she felt something close around her ankle, and she tripped. She looked down- and there was a mutated unicorn that she disregarded as a dead body earlier. Without thinking, she kicked it away and put a bullet through its head. The gunshot echoed across the plains, and all went silent- for just a moment. Then the ruckus started again, growing louder, louder, louder- and louder. "You're a moron." Octavia face-hoofed. "Shut up." Rainbow muttered, standing up and scanning the area. Shadows and shifting shapes started forming from somewhere to their left, behind the thick clouds of air pollution. There must be a whole horde there, heading towards them. "My god... Call EDI, now!" Rainbow turned to Octavia. "Trying!" Octavia panicked. "Someone's jamming our signals!" "What..?" Rainbow looked around, lost. "But there's no-one here!" Then her eyes widened. "You've gotta be kidding me. We walked right into a death trap? LITERALLY!!??" She quickly turned to run back into the train- whoever was here before must've hid a signal jammer in there. But it was too late. "Look out!" Octavia yelled, shoving Rainbow out of the way with one hoof and smashing the trigger of her pistol with the other. The mutated dog dropped down from mid-leap, officially dead. "Looks like we'll have to fight our way through this muck!" Rainbow growled, tucking away the pistol and whipping out her cleaver. There were several loud clicks as it unfolded, the area being lit red by loyalty. She swung it around, through three zombies at once and halving them cleanly. Blood splattered into the air, thick and infected. Rainbow stepped forward, leaning on her back hoof and sliding the cleaver handle forward. Heavy gunshots echoed across the plains as the high-caliber bullets tore through rotten flesh with all the ease of ripping a sheet of paper. Skulls shattered and bones cracked, blood flew and organs fell. Rainbow slid the handle back down, and swung up at the nearest mutated. It was cut straight up the center, completely in half. She saw something leap into the sky with her peripheral vision, and turned just in time to see a mutated pegasus pony dive at her. She stabbed the cleaver into him, and he stopped dead just before his demented hooves could reach her. She quickly flung him off, and whipped out her pistol because she didn't have time. The infected just kept coming. Rainbow took a step back, and felt her back bump into Octavia's. they glimpsed each other, and immediately twirled around and swapped ends. Octavia whipped out her pistol and busted a zombie's head, while Rainbow cut the legs clean off another by stabbing the cleaver through its knees and into the ground. Octavia ducked down and turned around, firing a bullet into the zombie's head as it fell down. Rainbow kicked the cleaver's fire trigger, sending a huge shockwave through the earth and the cleaver flying out of the ground. The handle struck down an infected wolf by cracking its skull. The blade bounced back and into Rainbow's hooves, who stepped past Octavia and swung it around in a wide arc; taking down several infected all in one swing. They kept watch on each other's and their own ammo count as they fought- this benefited them both, as fluent team work always worked better than anything. The moment Octavia's pistol clicked empty, Rainbow knew what to do. Octavia shook out the empty clip while Rainbow whipped out a fresh one since she barely used her pistol, and flung it over to Octavia. Octavia held up the pistol, and the clip flew straight into place. She loaded it with a click, and continued on with a curt nod. Rainbow flew into the air and dove back down, slamming the cleaver into the ground. The earth shook, and the clumsy infected bodies of the zombies failed to cope. They tripped over one another, tripping more of their friends up as they clawed their way to get back up. Rainbow quickly whipped out her pistol, and started firing. The crowd was thinning- there weren't many left to be dealt with. "Almost there!" Rainbow yelled, which was a bad idea since it temporarily distracted her. Someone leaped out of nowhere and hit her full in the chest, sending her flying back several meters before rolling on the dirt. She recovered and flipped over just in time to stop a zombie's teeth from sinking into her neck, and she could feel its warm feverish breath on her neck. "Well this is mighty disgusting." She muttered as she twisted its neck, thick blood and puss exploding out of a lump in the back of its head. She quickly kicked it away and got up, wiping the disgusting substance away from her coat. She quickly picked up her cleaver again, and rammed her shoulder into another. She slammed the cleaver down into its chest and yanked it out, blood flying into the air as it shook off the cleaver blade. Octavia simply didn't have a fast enough trigger hoof. From the chaos and gunshots an infected unicorn managed to weave through and tackle her down. Octavia pushed its face as far away from her own as possible with her front hooves, but was struggling to do so. The zombie was quickly closing in, its foul smelling breath making Octavia crinkle her nose. Then she diverted that energy sideways and flung the zombie onto the ground, and before it could get back up again she put a bullet through its head. She quickly rolled back up, pointing her pistol this way and that, expecting more infected to turn up- but none did. They were all gone. Well, except for one- but Rainbow already had her pistol pointed at its head. Octavia quickly swapped for a full clip and pocketed the pistol. Not much to do here- she straightened her coat and adjusted her hat, and was ready to head back in to retrieve the supplies. "Come on Rainbow. Let's shut down that darn signal jammer and get EDI here- lots of useful crap sitting around." Octavia peered into the train carriage. She waited, but Rainbow didn't reply. She turned around, raising an eyebrow. "Rainbow?" Rainbow was still holding the pistol, although quite visibly her arms were shaking. The zombie was a mere five meters away, slowly limping towards her and making dry moans. "Darn it RD. stop fooling around and get over here! Just shoot it!" Octavia shook her head. She walked over to Rainbow and stood next to her, peering at her face. She found nothing but shock and an unbelieving expression there, the barest hint of a tear forming at the corner of her eye. "Rainbow... What's wrong...?" She turned her attention to the zombie. It was obviously an earth pony mare- blonde mane dirtied with ash and grime, orange skin ripped and covered in dirt. Her eyes probably were an intense green, but now had faded back to a barely visible mint color- almost white. And she seemed to have what looked like three red dots for a cutie mark. Over her head she wore some sort of hat- it was near impossible to tell what it was before, since it had been so torn and ripped. Octavia recognized her as someone who hung out with Rainbow a lot back in the other reality. She saw them together with the Elements of Harmony back at the gala before. Then she realized- this was one of them. The last element that was missing for so long. Instantly her expression saddened as she realized how horrible this must be for Rainbow. Hope- how high those hopes she had must've been. And this is all she gets for all that hope- a somewhat literal rotting mess. "Poor mare..." She muttered, her own voice dry. "Must've starved to death before the infected got to her, by the looks of it." Octavia shook her head. "She must've been quite strong then, to have survived this long from everything else." She cast Rainbow a quick glance, and for a moment all they could hear was the zombie's slow shuffling hoof steps. Octavia sighed, weighing her options. Then she looked up and laid a gentle hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "Can I trust you with this?" She asked softly. Rainbow didn't say anything- only nodded. Octavia could tell she was barely fighting back the tears. She gave Rainbow a soft pat on the back, and turned away to head for the carriage. Rainbow waited until she couldn't hear Octavia's hoof steps anymore, and could no longer hold back her tears. She let them stream down her face, shaking her head in disbelief. "I expected you to be stronger than that, partner." She chuckled sadly. "I hope this isn't you. I really do- but there's no denying it. Why did all of you have to leave me? I... I tried so hard..." She let the gun drop to her side, and she wiped off a bead of water at the corner of her eye, letting out a soft sob. "I thought... Maybe... Just maybe... You'd make it. Looks like I was wrong again." Rainbow sighed. But then her expression hardened, and she leveled the gun once again. "But you know what? I know who caused this. I know why this happened. And I know how I'm gonna take revenge." She said through gritted teeth, but failed to stop the crying. "I DON'T CARE IF VAL IS BEHIND ALL THIS!! THEY CHOSE TO FOLLOW HER, THEN THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE TOO!!" Rainbow screamed, more to herself than anyone else. "AJ... Maybe you can hear me, maybe you can't... But I'll kill them. You hear me? I'LL KILL ALL OF THEM!" She yelled, her voice breaking up into gulps and tears as she struggled to continue on. "I...I'll make sure they pay." She said, and looked back up again. Applejack slowly limped ever closer. There wasn't much to do beyond this point. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry I've been so useless. The one goal I set for myself- to protect my friends- I failed. I'm sorry... It was my fault, and yet you had to pay for it..." She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth in pure heart ache. "Goodbye, old friend. And I'm sorry." And with that, a bright flash exploded through the empty wasteland as the pistol went off. The bang echoed through the plains, continuing on.... Everything seemed so empty. There was a loud tink as the bullet shell hit the ground, followed by a dull thud as Applejack fell to the floor, her dulled eyes finally coming to a close. Rainbow slumped down, dropped the pistol, and buried her face in her hooves. She curled up into a ball, the feeling of loss itching her heart growing ever stronger. She let out a few wails, she didn't care who hears it or doesn't- it didn't matter to her. All she cared about was that all her old friends were dead, and it was because that she was too weak to do anything about it. She heard some light hoof steps behind her- familiar, easily recognizable. Then she felt Octavia's hoof on her shoulder, gentle and light. She turned around and threw her arms around the grey earth pony, crying louder and harder than ever as she struggled to hold onto what little was left. She felt Octavia hug her back, and squeezed. She didn't want to let go- in fear that once she did, she might just slip away and be gone forever. There was the sound of grinding tires as EDI pulled up, and a faint click as the door opened. A light thud as Dainty jumped out, a worried expression on her face. Rainbow quickly picked her up and squeezed her tight. "Dainty... I'm gonna use every last ounce of my strength to make sure you get out of this safe and sound, alright? I'm not letting you go. I won't." She cried into her shoulder. "Sis..." Dainty started, but turned to Octavia instead- Rainbow didn't look too stable. She raised a worried eyebrow, ruffling Rainbow's mane. "What happened?" "Long story. She found another one of her friends." Octavia sighed. "Oh..." Dainty rested her head down on Rainbow's shoulder, a sudden heaviness resting on her heart. Her sister probably lost just about everything by now... "Dainty... I...I'm so... So scared... To lose you guys...." Rainbow sobbed. "I...I don't know what to do anymore... I'm so... Scared..." Dainty hugged her tightly, nuzzling her gently. "Stop, sis. You did a great job of protecting us so far. You've done more than any pony else." She grinned. "And I think that's what counts." Rainbow didn't talk for a moment, and just stared emptily and sadly at the ground. "I... I just feel so weak." Rainbow shook her head, eyes lowered. "You're just thinking of who you've lost, not who you've got left." Dainty smiled gently, lifting Rainbow's chin lightly with a hoof. And at that moment Rainbow saw everyone else as she looked up. Her other friends, Octavia, Magnum, Daring, Silver, Lily and even Babs- standing and ready to continue on with her- if only she were to stand up. "I'm still here." Dainty noted, then gestured at everyone else. "WE'RE still here." Rainbow couldn't help but smile, and wiped a small tear off the corner of her eye. She nodded, confidence building up once again. Confidence, not hope. She was simply confident that they could accomplish this- not hope that they would win. And these were just the friends that she had in sight. Vinyl, Blithy, Spitfire- there were many more out there waiting. It was up to her to deliver the speech- and they'd be a go. While there were many losses, there were wins too- and they mustn't be forgotten. "From here on." Rainbow stood up, keeping a firm and reassuring hoof on Dainty's shoulder. "From here on out... We watch each other's backs. We get through this together." She looked around at her grinning friends, smiling back at them. "I've already lost too many. WE'VE already lost too many. Let's not let that ever happen again... We stick together, and we'll be fine." She said, and gestured at EDI. "Back in the car everypony! We've still got a whole lot to do!" She said. EDI opened the doors, and everyone climbed back in- except Rainbow, who took one last look behind her at Applejack's dead body. She sighed, sadness stirring inside her once again. But she shook her head as hard as she could, and ground her teeth together. She cast her dead friend one last gaze. "Rest, partner. We'll handle the rest." She said, and was about to turn away when she noticed that there was something taped to AJ's left hoof. Rainbow frowned, and started walking towards the object. It was a small black stick, just a few centimeters long. A faint blue light pulsed on one side- it was some sort of device, and it was obvious that AJ must've taped it to herself before she died. Rainbow reached down and removed the small device, the pulsing blue light slightly mesmerizing as she stared at it. Then she looked down again, squinting as the bright evening sun was in her eyes. "What were you trying to tell us, AJ?" She muttered, then turned away to head to the car, dropping the device into her pocket. "We're gonna hit some rough roads up ahead." Octavia said as Rainbow slammed the door shut. "There's a canyon just before Canterlot. If we want the fastest route, we'll be driving alongside that. Trouble is, night is falling and we're all darn tired. We'll probably drive up to the canyon and cross it tomorrow- call it a night. Set up camp in a small bush somewhere, hopefully no one'll find us." "I won't agree any less." Rainbow yawned. "I could drive." EDI noted. "And wake us up by crashing off the cliff? Why not." Octavia sighed. "Sarcasm?" EDI would've raised an eyebrow if it had one. "Correct." "I do admit that my auto-driving programming is still in the testing stages, and has been confirmed to be 40% reliable, but-" "I think we've heard enough." Octavia sighed. "As you wish." EDI said. As Octavia had said, night fell rather quickly. They set up a small camp out in a small piece of forest near the cliff, with a few make-shift sleeping bags so everyone wasn't crammed in the car and a small camp fire set up outside. Everyone had fallen asleep except for Rainbow, who sat wide awake in the car with her back hooves dangling out the side. She looked up at the night sky with its shimmering stars and sighed- Princess Luna, where are you to bring dreams now?