Bounty Hunters 2: Awakening

by Jasper77W

Chapter 9: Son of a-

There was so much noise that it was quiet. Rainbow couldn't hear a thing, nor see a thing. Her eyes were squinted shut, and she cowered behind the car door, waiting for the shockwave to ripple across the sky and tear her apart.
And then it did. It hit the car door, and she felt a sudden increase in velocity as the shockwave pushed the door with her behind it out from the center of the explosion. The speed was familiar, just like when she enters sonic speed. Everything was a bright light yellow all around her, and she could also see flaming pieces of metal and debris flying out with her.
Something hit the side of the door, and at her current speed it was easy to tip her off balance. She was forced to let go, and the door went spinning out of control. The glass on it had already cracked, and the pieces flew by Rainbow; glittering in the light.
Smoke trailed around her as she busted through the ash cloud. The world around her was a blur as she spun through the air. White and blue as she faced the sky, the sun a ball of light in the far distance. Green and blue as she spun towards the ground, the seas and forests of Equestria covering the surface. There were occasional patches of grey or dirt brown, where settlements like Manehatten or Ponyville are located.
The explosion had created a giant mushroom cloud in the sky, and was falling slowly; collapsing in on itself.
Rainbow couldn't think. Her mind was blank, and she could barely hear the wind batting at her mane. Nothing was in focus. Not her vision, not her mind. Every time she spun around, the ground was closer and the clouds above further away.
"You're an idiot." she imagined Octavia face-hoofing. Little did she know that Octavia actually did.
There was a flash of orange and purple, and she felt two hooves dig into her shoulders and grab her coat. She wasn't falling anymore, she was kind of flying. She wasn't doing anything though.
Her hooves grazed the tree tops below, a strong gust of wind disrupting the tips and scattering the green leaves.
"Scoots..." she mumbled, looking up weakly.
Scootaloo grinned down, her wings beating against the air as she lifted the both of them back up into the sky.
"You can thank me later." she said.
Rainbow lowered her head. She was so tired she could just fall asleep right now- the only thing keeping her from doing so was her own will power. Scootaloo noticed, and smiled.
"Just rest, Rainbow." she said. "You've saved a lot of lives today."
"Thanks for... Saving me..." Rainbow mumbled, barely awake enough to talk.
"Very little compared to what you did back there." Scootaloo said.
Cloudsdale was just up ahead, the sun shining through the clouds. The nuke had taken out a small chunk off the side though.
So I still didn't save everypony, huh.... Rainbow thought.
Scootaloo seemed to know what she was thinking as they neared the devastation. Several buildings were missing, but it was only a very small fraction of what could've been destroyed. Royal military were guarding the area and keeping ponies out of the radio-active zone, while the air force patrolled the skies for any signs of another attack.
Scootaloo set Rainbow gently down on the ground, and she collapsed onto the pavement.
"Rainbow! You alright? Hell- I'm surprised you actually made it." Halcyon kneeled down beside the blue pegasus, who looked like she could faint at any moment.
"Sis!" Dainty hugged Rainbow tightly around the neck.
"Daint..." Rainbow patted her back. "Sorry... I was just being stupid..."
"No you weren't." Dainty said defiantly. "I couldn't be more proud. You saved the lives of thousands here on Cloudsdale."
"Thousands... But not all... Right?"
"You've done enough, Rainbow." Halcyon laid a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. "I'm sure you among many others understand that not all things go perfectly everytime. And you couldn't have done anything more- that I can tell you."
"But I will." Rainbow said, then groaned and clutched her head.
"She really needs some rest. Should probably get her home." Blaze said.
Then Rainbow remembered something.
"Tell... Shining... Armor....." but before she could finish, she fell asleep.

*

"She's taken some radiation damage- that's why she probably felt so tired, but nothing our magic can't heal. She should be awake... Just about... Now."
Rainbow opened her eyes. Not a single bit of sleepiness in her head nor body. She remembered trying to pass on a message before falling asleep... But what was it again?
She looked to her right.
Oh, she thought to herself. That was fairly obvious.
"Shining Armor-"
"Oh, you're awake." Shining Armor said in a desperate attempt to make Rainbow forget about it. He had no idea how it would work since the item reminding Rainbow was right next to her.
"Don't get off topic. I'm fine."
"You saved Cloudsdale-"
"Get the bucking car out of my house." Rainbow ended his desperate attempts flatly. The civilian car was still stuck in the wall, and it was raining outside. Rainwater was pouring into room, ruining the carpet. It was really hard to miss- it was basically a few tons of metal in Rainbow's bedroom.
"Are you OK sis?" Dainty asked.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." Rainbow smiled. "In fact, I feel ready to go."
"Emotionally?" Blaze asked.
"No!" Rainbow practically screamed that out. "I was ten meters away from a NUKE. You think I'll feel OK after that?"
"Seeing as you've been through worse...." Blaze shrugged.
"Anyway. Where the buck did the nuke come from?" Rainbow asked.
"We... Managed to locate it to within a mile of Manehatten... But we can't pin-point it precisely yet." Shining Armor said. "And no, it's not the warehouse. None of our surveillance picked up anything from there, although we are staging an investigation on that place in particular. Too much is tied up to it."
Rainbow was about to speak, but Shining Armor cut her off.
"You're not going. You've done enough already."
"I am. And I'm not letting anypony stop me. Shining Armor, you need the best fighters in there. Who knows whether or not they have revived Neon? I've defeated her once, I can do it again." Rainbow said.
Shining Armor would've said that Melony was the one to take credit for the defeat of Neon, but he couldn't stage that argument because Dainty was present.
"You need to rest." he said.
"I'll decided that." Rainbow said.
"You're not going."
"I am."
"Not."
"Am."
"Not."
"Not."
"Go."
"No, I don't feel like it."
"You have to- wait, what?" Shining Armor tried to find something to look at that would stabilize his confused mind.
"Oh if you insist-" Rainbow limp-hoofed, and Dainty giggled. Blaze and Halcyon were holding each other's mouths, restraining each other from offending their superior. Vinyl suddenly fled the room and went to the bathroom, and Scootaloo decided it didn't matter and started laughing with Dainty.
Shining Armor growled. "Rainbow, this isn't the time!"
Rainbow folded her arms. "Really, now- what are you going to do about it?"

*

"I didn't say I wanted to find out." Rainbow growled, now sitting on a bed in the Cloudsdale Prison hospital ward. "Come on Halcyon- let me out!"
"No can do." Halcyon said, shaking her head. She and Blaze were standing either side of the only exit, trying not to laugh at the current situation. "Our orders were to keep you inside this room."
"Really?" Rainbow complained.
"Precise words from the captain were 'to baby sit miss try-hard'. But it was close enough." Halcyon said, and Blaze couldn't help but clamp a hoof over his jaw.
Rainbow lay back into the pillow. "I'm not even tired." she muttered.
Neither Blaze nor Halcyon replied. They just stood there like sentinels.
"Would you mind not acting like statues? It's kinda freaky. I might get cabin fever because this feels exactly like I'm alone." Rainbow said, but none of the two guards budged. She narrowed her eyes. "Oooh. I remember this."
The two guards still didn't move- so for the next few hours, all Rainbow did was try at least make them flinch. But before she couldn't even get normal royal guards to budge- let alone now she's trying against two of the princess's royal body guards. Eventually it did work however, but only when she put the heartbeat monitor over her own head and electrocuted herself. Blaze and Halcyon had to perform some first aid on her.
"You could've at least warned me." Rainbow coughed after blacking out briefly.
"We could've." Blaze said, emphasizing the last word.
And then it was back to normal, in which Rainbow didn't do anything but stare at the wall opposite her.
"What do you guys think about, anyway? You don't do anything, you don't move..."
"We enjoy each other's company." Halcyon simply, her head not even moving an inch.
Rainbow moaned, and went back to staring at the wall. After a while it actually seemed interesting- the swirly patterns on the wall and the hoof marks that indicated a recent fight by prisoners.
"That looks like a cloud." she said, pointing at a pattern on the white wall. "And that looks like a pony."
"And that looks like a retard." Blaze pointed at the blue pegasus, who glared at him.
"Sis!" the door crashed open, and Dainty grinned, running in.
"How did you- wha...?" Blaze stared at the open door, the bolts holding it closed and locked from outside had all snapped.
"Stay where you are!" Halcyon whipped out a pistol, pointing it at Dainty. "How did you get in here?"
"Wasn't the door open... Oh wait, whoops." Dainty said. "I... I didn't mean to! I swear!"
Suddenly prison guards busted into the room, rifles loaded.
"Everypony freeze!" one of them yelled.
"It's fine, it's fine." Halcyon said.
"Our sensors detected a sudden outburst of magical energy just outside this ward- what's going on?" one of the prison guards asked.
"I think it's Dainty." Rainbow was practically oozing with enthusiasm at the sudden company. "She probably finally learnt to use magic."
"But our shields prevent magic from-"
"Yeah, but probably can't contain uncontrollable bursts of pure magic, right?" Halcyon asked. That tends to happen on the first time when a unicorn filly uses magic- they can't control it.
"Well... We don't keep little fillies here..." the prison guard shrugged.
"Just a dud! Out ya go! Give the sisters some privacy!" Halcyon ushered the guards out like school children, which annoyed them greatly. But they couldn't do anything about it since Halcyon outranked them by an octave.
"I swear I can see pure joy leaking out of her." Blaze noted, pointing at Rainbow, who was ruffling Dainty's mane lovingly.
"Me too." Halcyon closed the door, and it made a loud scraping noise as the broken bolts scratched the frame. She still managed to force it shut though.
Suddenly her phone rang, and she looked at the number before picking it up.
"Captain?" she asked.
"Halcyon. You two can free Rainbow now, we finished the raid." Shining Armor said.
"What did you find, sir?"
"Nothing but evidence of activity. There's just nothing here." Shining Armor sighed frustratedly.
"Copy. Halcyon out." Halcyon said, and hung up. She turned to Rainbow. "You want the good news first or the bad news first?"
"Bad news."
"Too bad. Good news- you can get out of here now. Bad news- they didn't find anything at all."
"Nothing!? REALLY!?" Rainbow asked incredulously.
"Well, 'evidence of activity'. They must've knew we were coming or something, and ran." Halcyon said.
"Of course they did..." Rainbow mumbled, thinking of the traitor.

*

Night fell, and Rainbow was in bed; trying to think of a way to catch the traitor. Much to Shining Armor's annoyance, she had forced him to remove the civilian car stuck in the wall of her bedroom. Now there was a big gaping hole there.
She growled quietly and angrily, being unable to think of anything. Then she heard a silent crack outside, barely audible. For it not the hole in the wall, she probably wouldn't have heard it. Curious, she shrugged on her coat and put on her hat, then peered out of the hole.
She reckoned a good walk in the night might just help, she wasn't tired anyway. She slept her dreams out during the day. She walked along the fence in the backyard, until she stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted an odd spot in the wooden planks.
She frowned, moving for a closer look. She tapped it gently, and it fell back with a loud crash.
Somepony had broken in.
"Shuck-" she spun around as she heard Dainty scream, and felt the reassuring metal cylinder in her coat pocket. "Daint! DAINTY!" she yelled, but there was no reply.
She stretched her wings, ignored the pain; and flew up onto Dainty's balcony, just in time to see her tail disappear around the corner of her bedroom door.
"Vinyl! VINYL! WAKE UP DAMNIT!" she yelled, kicking the glass door and sending shattered glass pieces scattering over the floor. She ran in, the cleaver unfolding in her hooves.
"What is it...?" Vinyl leaned on her bedroom door doorframe, her mane all over the place. She looked like she got dragged through her own bed and then fell asleep.
"Grab your combat discs and follow me. I'll explain sometime later." Rainbow said, storming past, the red crystal casting a dangerous glow over the walls of the narrow hallway.
"Sis! RAINBOW! HELP!" she heard Dainty yell, and broke into a run.
Rainbow didn't reply, because it probably will give the kidnapper her location- as much as she wanted to comfort Dainty, it was best if she didn't.
She heard a window smash, and followed the noises into the living room. The kidnapper had already left outside, the cold night air gushing into the warm home and stealing the heat away.
There was a loud crash as the kidnapper slammed through the door of a building, Dainty screaming.
"Son of a-" Rainbow heard a buzzing behind her as Vinyl activated her discs. "Vinyl!"
"Yah." Vinyl said.
"Follow him. I'll go to the roof and intercept." Rainbow said, ignoring the sharp pain in her wing and flying up into the sky.
"Will do." Vinyl sprinted into the building, the door creaking shut behind her.
Rainbow landed with a gentle thud on the roof, disturbing the old layer of dust sitting on the surface. The background was a blur of multi-colored lights, with some shifting as cars moved and lights changed. There was a lot of background noise too, chatting of pedestrians and beeping of horns. The stars glowed down brightly with the moon from the night sky- that's what's good about Cloudsdale. The stars seemed so much closer. The area around Rainbow was tinted red from the glow of the Element of Loyalty crystal as she walked towards the metal door that was an exit for the interior.
Damn, this reminded her of a lot.
Suddenly it burst open, and the kidnapper stumbled out.
"Surprise mother bucker!" Rainbow yelled, scaring the kidnapper so bad that he actually fell sideways onto the concrete roof.
Rainbow was about to kick his face in, when a pair of wings stretched under him and he soared into the air, Dainty still screaming.
"Shuck- a pegasus!" Rainbow growled. But she wasn't too worried about catching the kidnapper- she was worried about Dainty.
The kidnapper landed on another building's roof, and kept on running. Bucker must know Rainbow's a good flier.
Rainbow leaped into the air, gliding over to the roof and following suit. Dainty was making an effort to get away, but was having little success. Se could only hope Rainbow gets there in time.
"Hurry Vinyl!" Rainbow yelled, hearing Vinyl emerge from the hallway behind her.
Then she noticed a dull thud-thud-thud, slowly growing louder and louder; at which point it began pounding against her heart. A bright white spotlight swept over her, and a helicopter flew overhead, swerved around; and trained its guns on her.
"You gotta be bucking kidding me..." Rainbow muttered. Good job guarding the helicopters, Shining Armor.

Comments

[Jaymez24]

5400985

And a putting your hoof down reference ^_^