The Chronicles of Swarm: The Equestrian Front

by kildeez

Chapter XXXV: Loyalty

Rainbow Dash shook her head, reeling from the blow her enemy had dealt her. Taking a moment to rest inside her cloud, she gazed out at her “other.” The other Dash swooped about, scouring the skies for her. The original Dash wrapped the cloud around her body in the hopes of hiding, sighing as she watched. “Just what are you?” She mumbled under her breath as the evil version of herself alighted on a cloud below her. “Some kinda messed up version of me?”

“Maybe, but I do have fantastic hearing,” the other Rainbow replied, looking up at her with a sadistic grin on her face.

“Oh shi-“

The dark Dash rocketed up at her, a streak of rainbow in the night sky. Rainbow barely had enough time to dodge as her double punched through her cloud, scattering it as she landed on another. “So what are ya, huh?” The original screamed. “Some kinda clone?”

“Oh please, I’m so much more than a cheap copy,” the double replied. “I’m you as you were meant to be.”

“Then why fight for those jerks, huh?” Rainbow pointed at her Element, shimmering in a cloud over her head. “Why did you attack me when I went for my Element?”

“Oh, it’s easy enough,” her double scoffed. “Let’s just say we have a lot in common, they and I.”

“’They and I?’ Dear sweet Celestia, you’re actually trying to talk like a supervillain in a bad action movie, aren’t you?”

Snarling, her double charged, but in her anger missed the regular Dash by a mile, who replied with a spinning hoof kick to the jaw. Rainbow pounced instantly, her wings slicing through the air like hot knives through butter, only to have her double dodge and clock her against the back of the head with a punch from one of her forelegs.

“You are going to make a magnificent rainbow,” the double cooed as she leapt out of reach of Rainbow’s counter.

“Just what in the hay are you talking about?” Rainbow asked, rubbing at the sore spot on the back of her head.

“Ohhh…remember when that doctor in Canterlot asked you to destroy that formula because it could be used to convert ponies into rainbow energy?”

“I…” Rainbow gasped, surprised at anypony knowing one of her most well-guarded secrets, even her double. “Yeah, alright, I remember. I also remember throwing those notes into the heart of a volcano and helping him trash his lab.”

“Well,” her double grinned. “Let’s just say I managed to find a use for it. After all, that class of pegasi at the Flight Academy had such disappointing test scores, and we were running so very low on rainbow energy that year, weren’t we?”

“Yes…” Rainbow said uneasily, not liking where the conversation was going.

“So I just figured the formula offered a way to kill two birds with one stone.” Her double shrugged.

Rainbow gasped, instantly realizing what her double was implying. The idea had popped into her head while flying to the volcano with the formula in hoof, but she shrugged it off as a cruel joke from her subconscious! But this Dash…this Dash had…had…

“MONSTER!” She screamed, charging.

The doppelganger smirked and dodged, now having the upper hoof Rainbow had possessed just moments ago. “Now, I’m not saying it was easy,” she sighed, pounding her hoof against the cyan pegasus’ face. “Sure, there was opposition to it at first, but a few assassinations later and the rest of Cloudsdale’s government fell in line real quick. Oh, but I’ll never forget the look on Scootaloo’s face when she saw she’d failed her flight exam…”

The original Dash turned to her, eyes widening. “It was such a shame too, she had so much potential.” The doppelganger sighed. “Oh well: she did make quite a beautiful rainbow.”

“RRRAAAGGGHH!” Rainbow charged again, eyes blazing with fury. Her double snickered and rocketed out of the way with a speed the original knew all too well, swooping overhead and bringing her hooves down against Rainbow’s body. The pair plummeted out of the sky, the ground rushing up to meet the original Dash. Thinking quickly, she flapped her wings at the last moment, not enough to spare her completely, but enough to soften the blow.

Rainbow screeched in agony as the hit dislocated her shoulder. She laid there in pain, clutching the injured limb, her wings fanning out behind her body. The double took a few steps back, glaring down at her. “You could’ve been so much more,” she sighed disappointedly.

“Buck you,” Dash hissed. It wasn’t one of her more clever comebacks, but between the pain in her shoulder and the realization that her friends would never be able to use the Elements without her and that they would all probably get butchered without their power, she just couldn’t find anything better.

Without another word, the double pressed a hoof against Rainbow’s throat, slowly squeezing the air from her lungs, her dead eyes gazing into the original’s vibrant pink orbs. Rainbow gasped and choked, struggling to regain some kind of hoofing, but her double anticipated her every move, blocking every strike and dodging every attempt to escape, keeping Dash pinned. They would be equals in battle on the best of days, but now with her shoulder, Dash realized she didn’t stand a chance.

Guys… she thought, tears running from her eyes, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t strong enough.

“Whatsamatter, Dashie?” Her double taunted, the sadistic grin reappearing on her face. “The magic of friendship not enough to save you?”

Suddenly, a roar off to the side caught the double’s attention, a pair of headlights appearing nearby, blinding her. The screech of tires filled the air as the Humvee shot forward, making its way towards the pair. The double made a break for it, trying to dodge, but one of the original’s hooves wrapped around her tail, tugging her right into the path of the oncoming vehicle’s grill. Rainbow kept herself low, allowing the Humvee to pass right over her while a dull, sickening thud sounded just a few feet away. The car screeched to a stop just a few feet after passing Dash by, leaving her lying there, stunned. She looked up at the sound of one of the Humvee’s doors opening and slamming shut, a familiar human running up to her in a panic, trailed by three ponies.

“Rainbow!” Ramirez screamed, grabbing her. “Oh my God, I killed Rainbow Dash! I killed the most awesome pegasus ever!”

“Momentarily stunned the most awesome pegasus ever,” she corrected him with a wink. “And thanks.”

“Oh,” he gasped as Twilight pulled her friend in for a hug. “Oh thank God. Oh man, that would’ve been so awkward to explain at Trot-Con…”

“Watch the shoulder, watch the shoulder!” She winced. “I think I dislocated it!”

“Heavens above!” Rarity said.

“What’re we s’posed t’do?” Applejack said.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied, pulling out of her friend’s grip and limping over to the Humvee. Before anyone could react, she started slamming her shoulder against one of the doors, only stopping at the sound of a loud crack. “There we go!” She said happily, flexing the muscle.

The four looked at her, eyes wide. “I-I could’ve just used my magic…” Twilight said.

“Like I said, don’t worry ‘bout it. I popped that same shoulder out of place third year of Flight School,” she shrugged.

Ramirez grinned, rubbing at the back of his head. “Holy crap, Equestria’s most awesome pegasus found a way to become 120% cooler.”

Amidst their reunion, somepony coughed. All five turned to see the doppelganger trying to pick herself up, only to collapse onto the ground with every attempt. Without thinking, they rushed to her side, looking her over. “Is she…” Rarity started.

“She’s hurt real bad,” the SEAL sighed, calling upon what little triage training he had. “Especially in the left wing.”

Dash looked the pegasus over and cringed. As bumped up and bruised as the rest of her body was, the wing was obviously the worst off. Small, splintered fragments of bone poked out of the blood-soaked mass of feathers, which hung limply over her body like a blanket. “Her wing must have taken the full force of the blow,” Twilight said, studying the pegasus dutifully.

“Can ya fix ‘er, Twi?” AJ asked.

“Why bother?” Dash said coldly. The other ponies turned to her. “What? I’m just saying: she’s the one who attacked me! And she said some things, too. Some…really bad things.” The pegasus shivered.

“Dash, we are well aware of the whole ‘clone’ problem we’re having,” Rarity said, wincing slightly. “We’ve all had to deal with our own…darker halves.”

“Well, Ah had t’deal with a weird snake thing what sorta looked like me. That maght be different,” AJ shrugged.

“I think what Rarity’s trying to say is that we’ve all had to face some terrible sides of ourselves tonight,” Twilight interrupted. “But we can’t let that get to us. After all: isn’t that what makes us better than them?”

Rainbow grumbled as she took off into the sky to retrieve her Element. “Whatever. I’ll meetcha guys back at the Humvee.”

Twilight sighed and turned to the broken pegasus at her hooves. “There isn’t much I can do for her anyway, except make her a bit more comfortable.” Her horn glowed as she spoke, the pegasus sighing with relief as a bit of the pain was magically lifted away. “But even if I did have more medical training, I think it’d be easy to say the wing might never heal right.”

The pegasus in her grasp tried to lift her head, only to let it come crashing back down again. “No,” she whimpered, curling up into a little, bloody mess of blood and feathers. “No…”

“C’mon girls, we can’t do anything here,” Twilight added, levitating the pegasus into a little corner of the alley as Ramirez rushed back to the Humvee for an emergency blanket. “She should be alright here for now: it looks like most of the bleeding has stopped, and as it is, I don’t want to move her more than we have to. She should be safe until this is all over. We can decide what to do with her then.”

The other mares nodded as Ramirez wrapped the bundle into a blanket and left it on the curb. With a last, concerned look over their shoulders, the group joined their friend in the Humvee and took off; ready to confront whatever dangers remained. Shivering against the cold night, the owner of the Rainbow Factory peered up at the moon, eyes filling with tears. “Can’t fly…weakling…” she mumbled before sobbing into her blanket.

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Mars watched the crying pegasus from his perch, his hands tensing over the wine glass. He stopped just as a hairline fracture appeared in its surface. Sighing, he traced a finger over the fracture, watching it reseal itself into a perfectly cohesive piece of glass.

“Five down, one to go,” he mumbled, then grinned as he blinked. A little yellow splotch appeared before him, bobbing about in a darkened room. Cursing himself for not adding some sort of IR vision to the satellite, he settled in his chair, one leg crossed over the other. “Aw well: I’m sure this little pony won’t fail. Her opponent is such a little weakling, after all.”

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Rainbow Dash's evil persona: "The Rainbow Factory," by AuroraDawn.