//------------------------------// // Chapter 69: Party! // Story: Bounty Hunters 3: Genesis // by Jasper77W //------------------------------// Somepony once asked Rainbow: what would the last thing you want to do be, if you knew you were going to die? At the time, there were many candidates. Do one final lap around the Wonderbolts course. Eat one of Pinkie's cupcakes. Get a date, for the goddess's sakes. Or hang out with your friends, because you care about them. Because they care about you. Because if you don't, you'll die feeling guilty. Because nothing else was more valuable. And that was what this was. She was doing this more for herself than anypony around her, Rainbow realized as she sipped punch through a straw in a corner; watching the festivities around her. She realized she was just as likely to die as almost everyone else in this room. Suddenly the crowd roared, glasses getting raised above helmeted and non-helmeted heads. Rainbow raised an eyebrow, peering over the crowd. Everypony started clapping along with the music, and Rainbow chuckled as she spotted Blaze and Halcyon dancing away in the midst of it. The crowd clapped them on, their fellow soldiers whooping and giving loud hoof stomps. Rainbow laughed as Blaze almost tripped, but was saved by Halcyon who pulled him back on balance. He blushed lightly, aware of the few 'ooh's the soldiers were teasing with. Rainbow continued sipping from her straw. It wasn't great fruit punch- but the chefs did what they could with what they had. They melted snow and mixed it with something else, so it was all still nice and cold. She wasn't going to join in with the festivities- for now. More and more she understood Pinkie- at this point in time, she only wanted others to be happy. If they were happy, then she was happy. She watched Blaze and Halcyon dance for a little longer. Then she cast her gaze on the fillies and colts- the children were all zooming about in the crowd, presumably in a game of tag. She spotted Dainty, but then she disappeared a second later. She was followed by Lily, who looked around cluelessly for a few seconds before creeping on. Rainbow sighed. Tag... ...that used to be a fun game. More and more ponies were joining Blaze and Halcyon on the dance floor- soldiers and their partners, mostly. Rainbow thought she saw Terra and Nightshade for a split second, and blinked as if it were a hallucination. Nope. They were definitely dancing together. Then she spotted a slightly less cheerful sight. Captain Shining Armor took a seat at the bar, smiling sadly behind him at the dancers as he drank from his cup. Rainbow felt herself tense a little, but walked forward to sit beside him anyway. "Nice party." He said, chuckling from his glass. "I learnt from the best." Rainbow laughed. For a second nopony had anything to say. The music changed to something involving a violin and harmonica in some really country tune, reminding Rainbow of something Applejack might listen to. "It's so unreal, isn't it?" Shining Armor finally said. Rainbow considered his question for a moment. "Yeah." "I can barely tell them apart anymore. Two memories in one place..." "Hey, don't think too much about it. We gotta live in the present more than ever nowadays, amiright?" "Doesn't stop me from remembering." Rainbow, to her own surprise; found herself laughing. "No, no it doesn't." Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at her. "What's so funny?" Rainbow shook her head. "Memories, that's what's funny." She coughed, choking a little on her drink. "Normally you wouldn't even try to remember things like these, and sometimes they just get so lost in your mind that you won't even recall them. But now... It feels like everything that was important isn't even important anymore. I'm remembering all this crap all of a sudden for no reason." Shining Armor snickered. "Yeah... Remembering sucks." That led Rainbow straight to the point she wanted to make. "But not remembering is even worse." She said, and Shining Armor looked at her questioningly. "How so? It'll be so much easier to just... Forget." "That isn't the same as moving on, Captain." Rainbow offered a kind smile. "Forgetting will only erase the memories you had. Every bit will contribute to who you are now. Your friends, your family. Everyone. As far as we're concerned those who died no longer exist now- but they'll always be there in our memories. So remembering isn't all that bad- it keeps them alive." Rainbow went past the straw and took a gulp instead. "Memories can hurt. But they are far too beneficial to simply be discarded like trash. If you were the one buried in the ground, would you want Cadence to forget?" It was a gamble on Rainbow's part, bringing up the source of the Captain's pain. She saw him tense a little, the mood changing slightly. "No." Shining Armor finally said. He took a drink from his glass. Rainbow watched him carefully for a second, then nodded. "I thought as much." She leant forward and took Shining Armor's glass off of him, then gulped the remaining alcohol in it for herself. She wiped her mouth with a sleeve, then gestured at the bowl of punch a little way away. "Get yourself something that won't simply drown your sorrows. You know you'll need to cope with them on your own." Shining Armor glared at her for a second. Then he sighed, chuckling to himself as he left. "Cheer up, Dashie!" Rainbow thought she heard Pinkie say. "You gotta deal with your own saddy-waddy face too!" She laughed. Great, she was hearing ghosts now too. But ghost Pinkie was right. She gave Shining Armor a theoretical lecture and it didn't even reach her own heart. Deal with her sorrows, eh... Time to remember then. It had been far too long since she willingly remembered. Happy memories from a distant time she almost all but forgot about. Thinking of the Wonderbolt academy days reminded her of Spitfire. She was one hell of a trainer, with all the yelling and what not. Rainbow chuckled grimly, but there was a light tone in it. Spitfire was going to get her grave after this war, she was going to make sure of that. Maybe write something on it to piss her off too. Pinkie's letters... She remembered when she had to be on campus for long periods of time, and Pinkie would send her letters almost every day. It was a bit of an annoyance back then, but thinking about it now made her cry. She laughed to clear up the tears a bit, thinking back to the time the two of them pranked all those ponies. It's been so long... ...Oh wait, this was a party; wasn't it? * Octavia was chatting with Silver and Daring when something went SPLAT against the back of her head, a cold wave washing over her backside. She looked down at her dripping sleeve and the bits of balloon clinging to her coat, sighed, and looked behind her. Rainbow whistled a soft tune to herself in the far corner, staring at the ceiling. Octavia grimly ignored Silver and Daring's barely-contained giggles. A green energy grapple flew across the room and latched onto one of the water balloons Rainbow had prepared in a bucket, and wrenched it away. Octavia swung it back again, making it slam against the side of Rainbow's head. There was a satisfying THUNK and explosion of melted ice as the pegasus cartwheeled over the bar. "Tavi! It was a joke!" Rainbow cried from behind the counter, shakily getting up and soaked in cold water. "You almost killed me!" Octavia pulled the 'whistle and pretend you know nothing' trick, resuming her chat with Silver and Daring. Rainbow, refusing to giving up; launched another projectile. This time Octavia was prepared, and so she stepped aside and let it squish against Daring's face. The famous adventurer's drink dropped from her hoof and splashed onto the ground, followed by bits of balloon and droplets of water. The big chunk of balloon still stuck to her face slowly slid away, revealing the excessively annoyed expression beneath. She stormed over to Rainbow(who was too busy trying not to laugh out loud to notice her), grabbed the entire bucket of balloons and swung it down over Rainbow's head. All Octavia saw was a downward explosion of water from the bucket as all the balloons popped and soaked Rainbow in freezing water. Daring dusted her hooves and walked away. Rainbow threw the bucket aside, grinning as she was about to get Daring in the back. She had another in her pocket- it wasn't filled to the brim, so there would be more painful splat than bone-chilling splash. Daring's ear twitched, and she ducked down just in time. The balloon bounced just a little to the left of Octavia but didn't explode. It went boing and sprang over the crowd. "Oooooh..." The crowd said after a loud splash. Rainbow peered over the ponies, who now were all looking at her. Not with annoyance, but... Pity...? Halcyon growled from the dance floor, the balloon popped on her horn and drenching her dress and mane in water. She pawed at the floor, then her horn started glowing. "Ah, crap." * Vinyl, Frostbite and EDI made it back to Haven. EDI was still making her way to the city when the other two met up along the way, so she gave them a ride. Not that Rainbow would mind, so whatever. They apparently had important intel anyway. When they got to Haven, however; all was not well. "What the hell happened here..." Vinyl gasped at the destroyed buildings all around her as EDI drove them deeper into the city. There were bodies all over the floor, both magic and science; along with many vehicles and whatnot. No civilians, strangely. The science faction must've attacked. And they had either won, or worse. "Hmmm. Terra was here." Frostbite commented, staring out the window at a large stone column. "That dark matter beam we saw must've scored a direct hit on central..." Vinyl said, looking up. The CMC tower wasn't there anymore. It was a sad and demoralizing sight, to see something she had looked up to for protection all her life simply gone. The crumbled wall was already depressing enough. She just hoped Applebloom and the others made it out alright. "Picking up a local frequency. Ours." EDI chirped. "Put us through." Frostbite commanded. There were a few seconds of static, but then a mare's voice popped through. "This is MF Haven, identify yourselves." Frostbite recognized the voice's owner. It was that pegasus CMC, Scootasomething. "Frostbite, Vinyl Scratch and EDI. EDI'll send you verification now." "Mmm... Received. Good to have you guys back. Was starting to think you died... Like everyone else..." Vinyl and Frostbite shared a look at that. "What happened here?" Vinyl asked. "Science faction attacked. Rainbow commanded our troops, repelled them, killed Eclipse, and now she's throwing a party." Scootaloo yawned. "Sorry, come again?" Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Party. Boosting troop morale, blah blah blah." Scootaloo sounded excessively tired. Must be what a long battle does to ponies. "Tunnels. Rainbow'll hate for you guys to miss it." Vinyl frowned, pointing to the mic in her ear and tilting her head at Frostbite. "You getting this?" "Don't disobey a superior's orders." The griffon smirked in return, and Vinyl shook her head in surrender. Frostbite found one of the Tunnel's old entrances. EDI drove off somewhere else to find a different way in. "Soldiers." A guard greeted the pair as they entered the underground shelter. "Officer. Get us up to date." Vinyl said, hoofsteps snapping loudly to a halt. "The SF COLOSSUS fired upon Haven Central via its dark matter cannon. Applebloom was killed in action on the wall and Sweetie Belle was eliminated by Eclipse. Rainbow Dash launched an operation that repelled the science faction forces, minimized casualties and killed Eclipse. The COLOSSUS was taken down by the OASIS on a suicide run. Captain Spitfire died aboard the OASIS. Captain Shining Armor has survived along with several other ships of the fleet, and they have gathered here per Spitfire's last orders. Those orders have also placed Rainbow Dash in charge of this war." The officer replied quickly and simply. Vinyl felt chills run down her spine when she heard all the death reports. Frostbite didn't show any emotion. In a few days, they had lost almost all of their commanding officers. That wasn't the problem as Vinyl saw it though- those officers, she worked closely with them before. They were her friends. She took a deep breath, rubbing her eyes to clear out a stinging feeling. She sighed, and nodded to the officer in acknowledgement. "Rainbow Dash is waiting down that way." The officer said, nodding down the tunnel. The pair continued on silently. Vinyl wasn't exactly surprised at the news of their deaths... But it was still a shock. She walked with her head lowered. Frostbite glanced at her, read her body language, but said nothing and looked onwards again. "Folks are have'n a party, go check it out." The guard standing next to the door said, jabbing a hoof at the door. Colored light was dancing across the floor from the tiny gap between the door and the floor, loud music blasting into the sheet of metal. Then a yell and a scream from inside. Alarmed, Vinyl felt her hoof move towards the pistol holster by her side. She saw Frostbite's claw twitch from the corner of her eye. "Get away! RUN! RUN!" Somepony screamed from inside. The guard responded by sliding his rifle out from behind his back, leveling it against the door. Frostbite gently laid a claw flat on Vinyl's chest and pushed her back. They slowly retreated from the door as the chaos within grew louder and louder. The guard shifted nervously, checking his weapon. Then the door exploded outwards, thumping against the far wall along with something blue and black. A torrent of water ensued, slamming against the two items and washing down the length of the tunnel. "Pffffvvvt!" Vinyl spat water into the air, now completely soaked and sitting in water that came up to her knees. Frostbite hovered in the air from where he flew up and avoided the burst. Halcyon trotted out of the now doorless doorway, oddly attractive in her wet form. The dark blue dress stuck to her skin, her mane was undone and drifted down to her sides. The Warden of Water trotted over to the pile of blue and black like a true Canterlonian mare, hunched down, growled at it like an angry timberwolf, stood back up again with all the finesse in the world; and trotted off past Vinyl. Vinyl followed her with her eyes until she turned a corner and disappeared. "The buck just happened?" Blaze emerged from the party room like a bewildered animal, looking left and right as if a lost tourist on the street. Frostbite jabbed a claw down the way Halcyon went. The Warden of Fire looked up with a blank expression, winced at the cold water around his hooves, then trotted after his counterpart. He might as well have been a lingering ghost. Vinyl heard a cough, and turned back around again. The blue and black heap shifted, then spat out a small spurt of water. "That was totally uncalled for." Rainbow Dash muttered, previously unrecognized by Vinyl since she was but a wet blob then. * The party continued, and despite the missing main dancers there were more to fill in. Terra and Nightshade... Rainbow still couldn't get over it. Completely unexpected is what it was. Somepony cast a quick drying spell, so all was nice and clean again- save for several smashed glasses. "I question your choice in music for this party." Vinyl Scratch addressed Rainbow Dash, sipping punch. "Ahem." Octavia cleared her throat loudly from the other side of the table, and Rainbow laughed. "I- oh! Tavi! I didn't mean-" "Nothing new." Octavia sighed, lying face down on the table. "I actually miss those old days..." "We're all in the same boat here buddy." Rainbow spun around in her seat and leant against the table, looking between the two. "God it's been so long..." Vinyl muttered. "I really don't think I'll have any more strength in me after this. I'll be an old mare with a sword she can't lift." Rainbow chuckled. "When this ends, I'll retire from all this. Find myself a stallion. Maybe pass the cleaver on to some other crazy maniac." She sighed, was about to add something, but shook her head to herself and took a drink instead. "You can never get too old for party'n." Vinyl commented. "I guess I'll get back to all that. Pump out a few new albums, make some money with it. It's gonna be just fine." The two waited for Octavia to contribute her plans, but the grey mare said nothing. She just stared down at her cup. "Tavi?" Rainbow raised a concerned eyebrow. "Huh? Oh. I, ah; will probably just go back to composing." She replied, although she still seemed... Disconnected. Suddenly Vinyl stood up and scooped Octavia up with her. Octavia flailed for a second before she realized it was her former roommate holding her up, and relaxed. Whatever she was thinking about left her mind for a second. "C'mon. Let's hit the dance floor!" Vinyl pulled Rainbow up as well. Rainbow pulled away, to Vinyl's surprise; and gulped down the rest of her punch in a messy manner before rejoining them. "Let's do this shiz!" She whooped. * Sometimes everyone just needs to take their mind of things for a while. It's like a holiday, a rest where everyone can take a while off to think of something else and come back later so they can spot their previous mistakes. Like a typical way to work around a mental block, you leave then come back with your mind refreshed and looking for new ways instead of dwelling in old assumptions that probably won't work no matter how you look at them. A little cheer. That's what everyone needed. There would be a time to grieve, but for the moment Rainbow made sure everyone was ready to take on new challenges ahead of them. Physically they were well prepared, all the armaments ready to be put into battle at a siren's notice. The only thing left was to get rid of all the sadness and despair the war had brought the troops, and Rainbow was doing exactly that. In the most typical way possible to make someone happy- a party. "I remember wanting to kill that girl, but can't for the life of me remember why." Valkyrie lingered inside Blithy's head, a voice that spoke all her thoughts aloud. Can't help it when it's a direct neuro input instead of a physical mouth talking. "I still find it funny how I WAS you for a period of time." Blithy replied, her physical form resting against the back of Val's throne while the Empress herself played around with some plushies. Of dead Rainbow Dashs. Blithy glanced over her shoulder at Val, who was boringly cutting at one of the plushies with a plastic cleaver. Valkyrie laughed inside Blithy's head. "Yeah, I remember getting the urge to do that." "You keep your emotions in line surprisingly well." Blithy commented. After all, she didn't actually show Rainbow Dash any hate. She just acted... Normal... "Naw. I don't actually hate her. I'm just... Eh, crazy. Let's go with that. It's hard to explain." Valkyrie shrugged. There was a period of silence where the two thought about nothing and just stared at the fake window behind Val's throne. It was a shot of the sun, probably from one of the science faction cruisers Val sent to it. The screen was dimmed significantly, so Blithy could see all these swirly patterns of churning particles shifting about on the bright orange surface of the star. Her ears drooped a little. "I have to be the loneliest pony in the whole world." She muttered, hugging her cold metal knees. "How so?" "I've been talking to no one but myself for the past week." "...Oh. Yeah, that."