The Other Side Of The Rainboom
Sonic rainbooms are not fully understood by pony kind. Little research has been done upon this rare phenomenon or the effects that they can have on the user. Researchers theorize that under different climatic conditions the effects can differ drastically. Currently only one pony has the ability to fully perform such a feat.
Chapter 2
Light flooded into Rainbow Dash’s eyes as they shot open. Darkness quickly returned though, as she struggled to keep them open. Her eyelids felt like weights. She once again tried to lift open her eyelids for long enough to see her surroundings. What she did see, before she fell back into unconsciousness, was the same dull world that she had seen from above.
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Michael looked up to see a face staring back at him. The face was of a man no older than twenty five, with short, military style cut, dark blond hair and two piercingly dark blue eyes. Michael had never seen a man in shock before, but now he wasn’t so sure. The face seemed to be staring straight through him, watching something unfold behind Michael. Something that the man would never forget. Some event that he would remember in his sleep and which would come back to haunt him in his dreams. This man had experienced something that he would never be able to run away from, no matter how hard he tried. It would follow him everywhere, always peering over his shoulder. Always somewhere in his thoughts, waiting to pounce. It would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Michael tore his gaze away from his reflection and looked down to his hands. They were shaking. He stared at them. No thoughts going through his mind except those few minutes which kept on repeating themselves in his mind. Over and over. Those moments when he was filled with rage at that small aircraft. How easily he had been overcome with fury. He had been trained to kill and he had. It had been his first taste of combat and during it adrenaline had poured throughout him, feeding his body, urging him on. All that adrenaline had long gone. The feeling of invincibility had been replaced by him realising how vulnerable he had been. If he hadn’t reacted quick enough he may have plummeted to his doom. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps behind him.
“Hey,” Michael didn’t turn to look at the voice, “the Colonel wants a debrief in five minutes.”
Michael heard the footsteps become quieter as the source of the voice walked off. Michael once again looked up at the bathroom mirror in front of him. The face looked back at him. Michael closed his eyes and tried to compose himself. Through the nose; pause, out the mouth. His reflection now showed the same face that he normally saw. The one of a professional pilot. But now it was also the face of a pilot who had faced death and come out victorious. He had fought an enemy of his country and succeeded. He had done his job and he had done it well. He turned to leave the bathroom but as he did so a thought struck him. What or who exactly had been his enemy?
As he walked towards the debrief, his mind once again went over those few harrowing minutes. He analyzed every aspect of what had happened. The explosion, the rainbow, the blue plane itself and also the radiation. When he had landed a group of white clad men and women had come and quickly taken him away, but they had found no sign of any radiation poisoning. They had all been mesmerized as they had sent him on his way.
Before Michael knew it, he was standing in front of the door to the debriefing room. He knocked and was answered by a voice he instantly remembered.
“Come in.”
Michael pushed the door open and stepped inside. He had been inside this room a few times and every time it had been full. This time all he saw was a man in his late thirties sitting at the other end of a table, staring intently at the new occupant. Michael closed the door behind him and stood to attention, staring straight ahead and not making any eye contact. The figure kept on staring at Michael, studying him, searching for an answer to a question that Michael wasn't allowed to know. Michael continued to look ahead, feeling slightly uneasy about this other presence. His stomach tightening had returned. He had heard this voice many times before but he had never seen the source himself. He seemed to be someone who had spent his entire life in the Air Force. Everything about him was no nonsense, to the point. Eventually the man seemed to have found the answer to his question.
“At ease Lieutenant. Please take a seat.”
As soon as Michael sat down the man began to speak.
“I’m Colonel Ambler,” Michael began to give his rank and name but the Colonel had already launched into speech again, “ and you’re flight Lieutenant Michael Wilkinson, 25, unmarried. Studied business at IESE Business school in Madrid, Spain, before joining the air force. Served in the air force for two years and was recently promoted to Flight Lieutenant. No combat experience up until today. Is that what you were about to say Lieutenant?”
Michael sat slightly dumbstruck. They’ve been checking up on me, he thought.
“That is correct sir,” was all that he could think to say in return. The Colonel once again set about searching for another answer that he seemed to be able to get just by looking at Michael. After a few moments the Colonel, seemingly happy with the answer that he had found, began to talk again.
“At 1700 hours Bravo Two Zero came under attack from an unidentified flying object. Bravo Two was downed upon the first assault and managed to bail out. Bravo One returned fire and managed to down the hostile aircraft,” the Colonel paused, waiting for Michael to respond. The silence was deafening.
Once again all Michael could think of to say was, “Correct, sir.” The Colonel’s voice up close made Michael feel even more uneasy. It seemed as if he was always being judged. That every word, every gesture was being recorded by this robotic man in front of him. The Colonel stared deep into Michael's eyes as he delivered his next, carefully chosen words.
“What attacked you Lieutenant?”
Those few words meant three things to Michael. First was that the Colonel and the Air force didn’t know what had attacked him. Second was that they were asking for his help on the matter and third was they made Michael's hands begin to shake once again. The Colonel either didn’t notice or chose to ignore them. Instead he kept staring at Micheal, waiting for an answer. Once again the professionalism kicked in.
Michael began to recount the events that had unfolded during the flight. Beginning with the rapidly increasing radiation levels and the explosion that had nearly felled the two aircraft. During it all the Colonel didn’t give any indication of surprise or emotion. He just kept on staring at Michael, listening intently, registering everything that was said. Finally Michael finished telling his tale and waited in silence for the Colonels response. The Colonel raised himself out of his seat and stood upright at the other end of the table facing his subordinate.
“Well Lieutenant. Bravo Two has already been debriefed but he fell unconscious during his descent and doesn’t remember a thing. So that means that only you and I know what happened today and I would like to keep it that way until we know more about who attacked you.” Michael noted that the Colonel had put extra pressure on the word who. He let these words hang in the air for a few moments before carrying on. “Under no circumstances are you allowed to converse with anyone about what happened today. Do I make myself clear Lieutenant?”
After a few moments of hesitation Michael replied with a short, “ Yes sir.”
Instantly the whole room began to shake as if it was being rocked by some powerful force. He looked up at the Colonel, but he was just standing there, staring down at Michael; no emotion, no sign of any surprise. Nothing in the room was being thrown about, there were no chairs being flung about the room or tables shaking. Nothing. Just him reliving those moments when he had desperately fought for his life in that cramped cockpit high up in the heavens. Quickly Michael began to talk, hoping that the Colonel hadn’t noticed his odd behaviour.
“Sir. What happened to the crashed enemy aircraft?” As he said this he looked down at his shaking hands, willing them to stop.The Colonel didn’t respond. Confused, Michael looked up to see the Colonel grinning. Which to Michael seemed to be one of the most unnatural things that he had ever seen. His stomach punched itself as hard as it could.
“I sent out a recovery squad to salvage what’s left. They should be arriving there soon.”
Michael's hands began to shake even more.
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Rainbow Dash heard her heavy breathing fill the air as she woke up. She slowly opened her eyes to get a grip on her surroundings. As she did so, she felt pain flash across her forehead. Groggily, she put a hoof to her head and felt it go wet. She moved her hoof in front of her and saw that it had blood on it.
Slowly she tried to raise herself to her hooves. Her legs shook as she struggled to get up on all fours. Rainbow Dash cringed with the pain in her head. It felt as if somepony was trying to cut her head with a knife. Ignoring the pain, Rainbow Dash readied herself to fly upwards to get a better view. She tensed her muscles around her wings, took a deep breath, and began to beat them. All she got for her efforts was a wave of nausea that hit her and nearly made her collapse to the ground again. Once again she steadied herself. She was too weak to fly. Most of the area around her was cast into shade by the surrounding trees.
As she looked around the ground near her, she realised that she must have fallen through them, as there were broken branches scattered everywhere. She also noticed a few drops of blood that had dried on the grass where she had been unconscious.
I must have been here for a while, thought Rainbow Dash. Up until now she had been too confused to even think as to why she had found herself unconscious in a forest with blood on her head. Suddenly the thoughts of the grey bird hit her and she looked up, expecting to see it glowering over her, ready to finish her off. Instead she just saw the underside of a green canopy that was beginning to get darker as the night grew closer.
She walked over to the nearest tree and leaned against it. She had to get her head straight. Questions were buzzing around her mind but the most obvious was simply, how did I get here? It must have been the sonic rainboom, thought Rainbow Dash, but it’s never done this before.
Rainbow Dash’s trail of thoughts were suddenly brought to a halt as she heard a noise nearby. It sounded like deep rumbling that was growing closer and closer. She stayed there, leaning against the tree and listening intently to the strange noise as it grew louder. That solitary sound filled the warm air. It reminded Rainbow Dash slightly of a dragon snoring and also of something else that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. The whole forest seemed to be listening to it in silence as it drew closer. It wasn’t until she heard a high pitched squeal did she realise that the source of the noise was just on the other side of the nearby trees. That noise was immediately followed by the sound of footsteps and a harsh, loud voice shouting, but Rainbow Dash didn’t hear any of that. She had already begun to run.
Rainbow Dash crashed through the bushes and any other obstacles in her way. Her exhaustion had been forgotten as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She ran between trees, through bushes, over rotting leaves, everything became a blur to either side of her. She had to get away from whatever had made that noise. She had remembered the last thing that had made a similar noise tried to kill her. She wasn’t going to trust anything here.
Rainbow Dash carried on skillfully running for a few more moments. But her exhaustion soon got the better of her as she failed to notice a rotting log jutting out in front of her. She landed heavily on the other side of it, staring upwards at the dark blue sky above. Her head now felt even worse than before. She felt too weak to run anymore, so she just lay there, hiding. She felt embarrassed with herself that she was hiding from something instead of facing it head on. She had run away with her tail between her legs. She would never admit it to anypony but without her friends she wouldn’t be as brave as everypony thought she was.
Everypony expected her to be the brave one. She always had to be the first to do anything, the first to face any danger. She was the one who always went ahead to face danger so that others didn’t have to. She was the hero of the group.
Rainbow Dash stayed there, lying down on her back behind the rotting log. Thoughts of another world flashing through her mind. Memories of her friends came and went. The great times that they had all been part off. The laughs and journeys that they had all shared together. The adventures that they had all recently experienced would have been enough for most ponies but Rainbow Dash guessed that they there was many more to come in the near future.
Rainbow Dash’s ears suddenly pricked up. Coming towards her was the sound of hoof beats. Dash’s heart leapt for joy. Maybe she wasn’t as far away as she had thought. If ponies were here, they would help her. Rainbow Dash began to get up but something made her hesitate. Something about the sound of the hoof prints didn’t seem right. She stayed lying down on her back, listening to the hoof beats as they drew closer, wondering what felt so odd about them.
Suddenly she realised what was wrong about them but it was too late. The creature was already towering over her hiding place. It stood there for a few moments, looking for something or somepony, thought Rainbow Dash. She stayed there, frozen with fear, looking up with apprehension at the figure above her. It must have been twice as tall as a pony and as wide as a stallion but any more of its features were cloaked in shadows. It slowly moved its head from side to side, scanning the tree line for any sign of her. Hunting for its prey. It was hunting her. She let out a small squeak of fear.
The head snapped to face her. Her eyes opened even wider in fear. All she could see through the mask of darkness, were two eyes glowering at her. Rainbow Dash reacted first. She kicked out with all four of her hooves, straight into the other’s face. She felt a satisfying crunch as they made contact. She saw the monster fall backwards and in the same instant, she began to once again run for her life.
She didn’t care about the pain in her head or the aches throughout her body. All she cared about now was her survival. She felt as if her heart was about to explode, but still she ran as fast as she could. She didn’t look back. She didn’t want to see what was behind her, but hopefully that was the only one of those monsters. It wasn’t. The forest behind her erupted in a chorus of shouts and loud cracks followed by the sound of angry bees shooting past her. All around her she saw the ground being blown apart. She ran between the trees, desperately trying to avoid being hit. Every way she turned to run flew apart in front of her. Every tree that she hid behind exploded in a shower of sharp splinters and bark.
By now fear had completely taken over the brave pony. In a fear-induced lack of judgement, she threw herself into the air, desperately hoping to fly away. Her wings carried her nowhere. Instead, she crumpled to the floor and could only listen in horror as more shouts surrounded her. Like an erupting volcano’s smokey tendrils, they sealed her fate.
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Thanks for making it this far. Any criticism would be great