The Fall

by Writer12577

Chapter Three: The Surprise

”Okay Dash. You ready?”

”As always, Twi!”

”And you know what you’re supposed to do?”

“Uhh… No.”

“Ugh. I’ll shoot. When I have shot, you go there and see what the bullet did to the target. If possible, bring both the bullet and the target back. Okay?”

“All right!”

Twilight used her magic to slowly lift the gun to the level of her eyes so she could aim better.

“I’m firing in three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

*BANG*

Suddenly there were chips of wood everywhere. A big cloud of smoke and dust filled the room, setting visibility to zero.

“Dash! What happened?”

“Uh, Twi? Take a look at this…”

The cloud was starting to vanish. And when it did so, Twilight saw the target.

“What caused that? Did you crash into it?”

“No, the bullet did it!”

“What!?”

“Yes. The bullet did it.”

“Oh dear Celestia…”

“…”

The target was in millions and millions of tiny pieces. The whole 30cm circle. With the power of a single, badly controlled shot.

“Dash?”

“Yeah?”

“Go hide this thing.”

Twilight handed the gun over to Rainbow.

“Why?”

“You saw what it just did. Imagine if someone would shoot ponies instead of targets. We need to hide it. You need to hide it.”

“Okay, I’ll do it Twi.”

“Make sure that nopony finds it. And be careful!”

Rainbow dashed off, leaving a worried Twilight after her. The world was going into a darker direction.

----»«----

Rainbow woke up. It was clearly morning. The birds were singing, the sun was casting its beams over the room and the banging headache was reminding Rainbow about the dangers of drinking.

Rainbow tried to lift her head. Bad idea. Her own mixture was heavenly, but it gave a hellish hangover.

It felt like she had just drunk three whole barrels of the worst version of the one and only straight Stalliongrad vodka from the years before the union served by that one certain bartender that loved to “spice” your drink up with a mouthful of smoke-ash-saliva mixture.

In clear English, she was about to throw up.

But she wouldn’t. The last time she threw up was when Applejack had had the little private chug-out party and Twilight had drunk a bit too much. Let's just say that the sight had not been pretty.

All of a sudden the headache was starting to vanish. Yet another great effect of her mixture. Hangovers weren’t longer than a couple of hours. But the couple of hours were total hell if you were awake.

She tried rising up again, with a better success this time. She was able to crawl out of the bed and keep her balance on the unnecessarily smooth floor. A huge accomplishment, considering the fact she still was a bit dizzy after the good night sleep.

Rainbow took a quick glance around. Nothing had moved, save for the small beam of light that was now going past her, hitting the wall behind the couch.

The time was exactly breakfast.

Rainbow licked her lips. The thought of digging deep into that huge pile of goodies was taking her mind over, ordering her legs to take her to the kitchen.

But when she heard some noises come from the door, she froze on her tracks, letting the thought of the breakfast escape her mind.

She perked her ears up and tried to make out even some of the words.

“So, Jay, what’s the deal with this place?”

“I dunno Mike. But it looks fancy. It must have something to steal!”

“Didn’t Sarge say that we shouldn’t be robbing stuff? We are fighting for the workers after all.”

“Oh shut up John. You aint getting nowhere with that attitude. Without the Rebellion, you’d be frikken dead!”

“Besides, haven’t you seen Sarge’s personal stash? That’s fucking tons of stolen stuff from doorknobs to booze and weed. He’s just trying to save something for himself to steal!”

“Good point, Mike. So, your options are to come with us and take stuff or die.”

Rainbow could hear a familiar click. A cheapo was loaded.

“Okay, okay, sheesh. Imma come with you guys.”

“Wise decision, kid. We’re not afraid to shoot ya!”

Suddenly there was a loud bang. At first Rainbow thought that someone had got shot, but after another bang she realized that it was coming from the door. They were trying to break it even though it was clearly open. Either really stupid or really wannabe-macho.

She was too dizzy to run and she had not enough time to find a hiding place. She’d have to get her hooves dirty.

She quickly reached out for the saddleback and dug the still-reloaded pistol and the knife out of it. She then made her way towards the door, hoping to make it there before the Rebels would come through.

But she didn’t quite make it. Soon the door opened and she heard the familiar voices.

“See? I told ya it was open.”

“Oh shut up or I’ll shoot you.”

Rainbow prepared to attack. Three against one. Seemed fair to her.

She let the first one go past her. Luckily for her, he was too busy admiring the sight in front of his eyes.

When the second one came visible, Rainbow jumped.

She landed in front of the cream-colored earth pony stallion that had been admiring the sight just like the first one. And before he could realize anything, Rainbow lifted the pistol up to her eye-level and shot two accurate shots between the eyes of the stallion.

He fell to the floor immediately, not even able to scream. The bullets had made their way through his head and missed the third one by inches, spraying the blood of the second one over him.

The sudden shock made the third one an easy target. He was too concentrated on trying to process what just had happened to react to the cyan mare moving towards him.

Rainbow came face-to-face with the stallion, gave him a frightening glare, placed the pistol beneath his chin, waited for a few seconds for him to finally realize what was going on and pulled the trigger thrice.

The large bullets made their way through the thick skull, impaling the brains of the poor stallion and came out from the top of his head, causing a stream of blood come out of the hole and spray on the floor. Another instant death.

Rainbow knew that the third one was right behind her. He seemed to be the boss of the small group. And bosses deserve special treatment.

Rainbow acted like she was completely unaware of the large stallion behind her. She threw her pistol to the floor and crouched to investigate the two fallen Rebels.

The stallion behind her realized that this was his chance. The enemy was completely unaware of him, giving out a nice view of her back where a knife would fit perfectly.

The stallion slid his pathetic little jackknife out of the small combat-bag he had with him and prepared for a stab.

And just as the stallion raised the knife up, preparing for a stab, Rainbow turned around as quickly as she could. She knew that the stallion was ready to kill her. She knew that she had a huge risk of at least getting wounded. But this was war. Risks had to be taken.

She swung her knife up in a swift motion, dodged the incoming strike and jabbed the sharp blade of her personal combat blade into the throat of the surprised stallion.

After making a nice cut to the arteries of the throat, Rainbow yanked the knife out, causing a stream of blood come out of the now-open throat of the stallion.

The battle had taken only about ten seconds. Yet still there were two dead bodies lying on the ground, one barely living stallion holding his throat standing on the floor and big puddles of blood all across the hall. Rainbow had always been an effective mare.

Soon Rainbow could hear a heavy thud, giving out the fact that the last stallion had fell, leaving Rainbow all alone yet again. She had just killed three soldiers without getting even a slightest scratch herself.

“You kill my friends but you just won’t kill me?” she asked from the roof, receiving no answer.

“Well, I guess I’m late for the breakfast,” she said out loud, trying her best to blame it on the three lifeless stallions lying on the ground.

And so she started walking towards the kitchen, the thought of the sweet, sweet breakfast coming back to her mind, making her mouth water.

----»«----

Rainbow was drooling. A thick string of saliva was hanging from the corner of her mouth, desperately trying to reach the ground.

The sugary pile on the table seemed even more attractive than before. The thought of consuming everything on the table felt heavenly and completely bearable.

But Rainbow had to control herself. She’d either have to clean the bodies and the blood from the hall, or live with them. And either way, her stomach would definitely try to push its contents back up, making the task even harder.

So she was forced to settle for a simple hay-daisy sandwich with some water to drink. Both her brains and her stomach protested loudly, but she knew better.

Eating such a small pile of food was something new for her. She had always liked to eat a bit more than her friends, to say for the least.

But being an athletic mare, it had never been visible, save for the sudden energy-spikes after eating too much extra-sugary-special-Pinkie-Pie-cupcakes. Pinkie always made the best cupcakes…

Rainbow snapped her mind back into the reality. The past, the memories, her friends, it all hurt. And living with a never-ending pain was hard enough without the constant reminders of the past.

Rainbow consumed the tiny breakfast quickly. She had a lot to do today.

In order to make sure that she would remember every single thing, she had to make a checklist. But luckily for her, she still remembered something about Twilight’s long, somewhat boring lectures about writing a perfect checklist.

She had already grabbed some paper from the living room table. It had some vague markings on it, but it’d have to do.

Rainbow began scribbling down the things she’d have to do.

______

First, eat breakfast. She immediately checked that.

Second, secure the door. No more surprises.

Third, clean the hall. The mess is starting to stink.

Fourth, check the watching-point. Move the window and see what you can do.

Fifth, if you have time, take a look at the folder.

______

Rainbow took a quick look at the list. It would do.

She left it on the table next to the pile of food, made sure that all the windows were closed and walked to the living room in order to get tools from her saddlebag.

----»«----

The beam of light had moved slightly. It was now casting its glow over her saddlebag, making the bullets in the open ammo-bag reflect smaller beams all around the room.

Securing the door would be easy. She’d just need something to block the access through it.

But the problem was that she was in a bit of a weak condition. She wouldn’t be able to move anything heavy. She’d have to find out another way to block the door.

The bag had nothing that could solve this problem. Her pistol was still lying on the floor next to the dead Rebels and her knife was always with her. She wouldn’t need anything else.

So she was forced to go and face the death in order to retrieve her pistol.

Rainbow had no options. She carefully moved the saddlebag out of the light so the foods would stay good and left to the hall.

----»«----

The stench of death was present. It had been a mere half an hour and yet it was already there, reminding her about the little surprise.

And the fact that she’d have to clean the mess up didn’t make looking at it any easier. The puddles of blood had dried up, giving then marble floor a crimson glow in the midday sun that was coming through the many windows of the house.

The bodies of the three Rebels had also dried up. There were patches of dark red blood in their fur. The bullet-holes had gained a deep black color, followed by a streak of a bit brighter red.

The cream-colored one, Mike, had lost an eye. There was only the deep socket of the eyeball left, marks of the accurate shot visible on its side. His skull was badly damaged, two large holes going through it from face to the back of the head. The bullets that had caused the holes were inside the wall next to the large wooden door.

The yellowish, clearly smaller stallion, John, had been the second. He had three big holes in his chin, but only two on the top of his head. One of the bullets was still stuck in the brains of the poor guy. His face had the look of surprise mixed up with a slight wince of pure pain. Rainbow felt sorry for this one. He had clearly been an intelligent one.

The third one, a deep black, muscular stallion, apparently called Jay, had obviously been the leader. He had the Rebellion tattoo on his chest. That meant that he was at least a corporal and most likely the leader of his squad.

But he didn’t look so tough while lying on the floor, throat sliced open by a single mare.

His head was leaning back in a sickly angle. It was stretching his throat, causing the cut to slowly grow bigger and bigger and giving a nice view of his insides. It was only a matter of time when his head would fall to the floor.

The three had no valuables with them. This house had been the first one on their route. The only somewhat useful items were the jackknife and the grenade-looking thing that the leader had had with him. The jackknife was basically worthless due to the fact Rainbow’s own knife was far better.

But the grenade-like thing could come in handy. If it really was a grenade, it would make a great weapon that could be utilized in the future. But Rainbow would investigate it later. She had a door to block.

She grabbed her pistol from the floor and walked to the door.

----»«----

Even the door had some dried-up blood on it. But unlike the patches on the floor, these were small and brighter red, creating a somewhat nice contrast against the dark brown door.

There was no way to block the door. It was too big to be blocked by something like a small table and Rainbow couldn’t move any of the bigger and heavier tables or pillars.

But she had alternative ways.

The lock of the door was simple. It was easily breakable. So simply locking the door was not an option.

The doorknob, on the other hoof, was a bit more complex system. The door would not open if the know was turned even slightly wrong.

That’s when Rainbow got an idea.

She reached out for her knife that was hanging from its temporary sheath she had found.

She hit the knife to a spot just under the doorknob, where the wood of the door should be the weakest. The knife got stuck, just as she had planned.

She took the pistol to her hoof, raised it up and hit the knife with the grip of the pistol. The knife dug deeper into the wood.

After a few successful hits, the knife came through on the other side. Rainbow pulled the knife out. There was a now a small hole just under the doorknob.

She repeated the process, first on the left of the doorknob, then on the right of it and finally just above it. The knob was now surrounded by small holes.

Rainbow pulled the knife out and put it back into the sheath. It had done well.

She turned around, lifted both her rear hooves up to the air and accurately bucked the knob which immediately broke loose of the door and fell to the ground on the other side of it. There was now a huge hole on the spot where the doorknob had been.

Rainbow took a quick look at the hole and tried to push the door open. It was stuck, just as she had suspected.

The lock-system that held the door in spot while the door was shut could not be controlled anymore. This made it much harder to open. In order to get in, one would have to either skillfully remove the lock-system from the door or just use brute force to buck the door in. And either way was hard.

The door had been a success. The house was now a bit more secure, easing Rainbow’s mind just a bit. No more surprises.

Rainbow checked the second task of the small list. She was making good process.

The next thing was to clean the hall. Rainbow would have done anything to avoid cleaning the mess, but she knew that the stench would attract Rebels. They knew that three of them were missing and they sure would start to look for them.

So she was forced to enter the hall yet again and drag three dead, stinking stallions to just some place where they wouldn’t be found from. Plus she’d have to clean the dried-up puddles of blood that were taking the marble floor over.

Knowing that she had no way to avoid the task, Rainbow admitted her defeat and went looking for some cleaning equipment.

----»«----

For some strange reason the cleaning equipment of the house were in the basement.

And for some even stranger reason the basement had a huge hole on its floor with the stench of rotting rising up from the depths.

But it was just good for Rainbow’s plan. She had found the equipment she needed to get rid of those puddles of blood and she had found a perfect place where she could dump the dead corpses. The task would be a lot faster than she had thought.

Things were starting to look good.

----»«----

Rainbow dipped the mop into the bucket of water-soap mixture, lifted it up soaking wet and began swiping the floor with it. The dried-up blood was starting to turn back into a liquid form, making it easier for the mop to absorb them.

But the mop wouldn’t be able to absorb every smallest drop of the blood. That’s why Rainbow had also grabbed some towels from the basement. Whenever a patch of blood turned back into the liquid form, Rainbow threw a towel over it and wiped the floor all clean.

Whenever a patch had been completely cleaned, Rainbow would throw the towel away, take a new one from the pile she had next to her, dip the mop back into the bucket and move on to the next patch.

The pattern was simple yet effective.

After a good while almost the whole floor was clean. The only marks hinting about the recent battle were the three dead corpses that were lying on the floor, all piled up.

Rainbow put the mop back into the bucket. It had done all it was supposed to do.

The very next thing was to drag the dead stallions all the way to the basement door, down the narrow stairs and into the dark and stale atmosphere of the ground-floored basement. One by one.

And there she’d have to dump them down to the mysterious hole and just hope that it was deep enough to hold the secret.

But this was the best way that had come to her mind. Therefore it was well worth trying.

She grabbed the smallest one first. Despite being about her size, the stallion was three times heavier. And the fact that Rainbow’s wing was still extremely sensitive didn’t make the task any easier.

So she was forced to bite her teeth into the left forehoof of the yellowish stallion and drag him down the long hallway towards the small door that led into the basement.

The taste of death was trying to take Rainbow’s tongue over, making her gag every now and then. She’d have to wash it away with some wine later on.

After an eternity, she finally reached the door. She immediately let go of the hoof of the stallion and quickly opened the door. She wanted to do this as fast as possible.

She didn’t want to taste the hoof of the stallion again, so she positioned herself behind the stallion and began pushing him forward. When she reached the stairs, she just simple pushed the stallion down, causing him to stumble down with a series of sickly cracks. Rainbow could literally hear the spine of the poor stallion snap into two.

She hurried down, just to be greeted by an unpleasant sight. All fours hooves of the stallion were twisted into unnatural positions. His head was tilted far too back, hinting of a broken neck. There were ribs poking out of his left side, allowing a clear view of the insides of the stallion.

Rainbow just quickly ran over and pushed him into the hole. It took five whole seconds before she could hear the thump. At least the hole was deep enough.

She quickly trotted back to the stairs, climbed them up and went to fetch the next dead body.

----»«----

Rainbow repeated the process with the two others. The black one had been a bit tricky, but she had managed to get rid of all three. Now the hall had no visible evidence of the deaths of the three Rebels.

She checked the third task of the list. The hall seemed a lot nicer now when all the blood and dead corpses were gone.

She took a quick look at the window. The beam of light was nowhere to be seen. The time was already over dinner.

She decided to skip dinner. She’d just take a small sip of wine in order to get the bad taste out of her mouth and eat something after she had moved the window in the surveillance room.

She went to the kitchen, drank half-a-bottle of wine and headed upstairs, towards the office that she had oh so cleverly named “The surveillance room”.

----»«----

The beams of light could hardly touch the back wall of the room. The sun was already a quarter behind the horizon, coloring the beams slightly orange. The sight reminded Rainbow about the long summer nights with her friends, just lying down on the long, soft grass and looking at the amazing act where Luna’s moon would slowly replace Celestia’s sun. And sometimes they would meet in the middle of the sky, greeting each other and causing a heavenly beam of bright silver light illuminate the deep night sky.

Rainbow let out a small, sadness-filled sigh. A single tear escaped from her eye and rolled down her check, causing a slight chill run through her spine.

The tear kept going until it reached her chin, spent a few seconds there and dropped down towards the floor.

Rainbow let out a sob ever so slight, and walked over to the window. Now she had yet another thing to avenge for.

The window was just as light as it had been yesterday. Rainbow could easily slide it out of its spot and carefully place it on the floor.

She turned her gaze towards the hole in the wall, knowing that she could not stand the sight.

The glow of the setting sun was now freely getting into the room, casting shades into the wall behind Rainbow. A temporary painting of a Pegasus, standing all alone in the heavenly orange glow of Celestia’s sun was now occupying the wall, bringing up some mixed-up feelings.

The sun was focusing on her and she was focusing on the sun. She just stood there and let the glow paint her fate into the wall, just to destroy it when the one last beam would finally fade away.

And when the one last beam finally faded away, Rainbow lost it. She was crying openly, tears freely streaming down her cheeks.

And when the silver glow of the moon illuminated the room, the tears stopped.

Rainbow fell asleep quietly sobbing into her forehooves, Luna’s moon watching over her, painting a portrait of the lonely little Pegasus into the wall behind her.

Comments

[Writer12577]

This turned out to be a bit longer than I thought. But that's just a good thing, right?

It tried. The "battle" isn't too gore, but it's at least slightly gore (?). The further this story will go, the more gore there will be. So, sorry about the slight gore, more coming in the future.

And if you in any ways could point out the mistakes you saw, It'd be extremely nice of you.

[Silver Moon]

MORE GORE!!!!! Gore =
Yes, I am that odd.
Anyway, the only mistake I have noticed so far is in your comment. You used the wrong rite. You want right, not rite.
Also, the dialog of the Rebels was a bit hard to follow. Perhaps next time you can add what their voices sound like, to make it easier. You could also add their names as they say them. For example, the second line of dialog could have been finished with ..." Said the pony named Jay.
Or something like that.
So, I like this so far. I like how you ask for us to point out mistakes, it shows that you admit you make mistakes and wish to become a better writer.
Waiting for more.

[Writer12577]

1266197

A lot of answering to do, I see!

1. You're not the only odd one

2. Fixed the comment. (Note to self, no more slang!).

3. I was actually trying to make the dialog a bit hard. It's Rainbow who is telling the story after all. And while you're still having a bit of a hangover, you won't be able to make out the voices so clearly.

4. I always want to get better and better as a writer in order to make enjoyable stories for you. And the best way to get better is to learn from your mistakes.

5. Writing more!