A New Rainbow
By Silvertie
01 - A Dash of Change
Rainbow Dash sat alone in a familiar place. Sun shone through the windows, and the faint sound of chirping birds could be heard. There was a scent of birdseed in the air, and the room radiated a sense of homely comfort, tranquility. Rainbow took a deep breath, and let it out with a sigh.
Fluttershy's house. Rainbow Dash was sitting on her couch for some reason, elbows hooked over the back of the couch. It was incredibly relaxing, and Rainbow could feel the couch's familiar cushioning. You could say what you liked about Fluttershy, but there was no denying that she knew comfortable when she saw it.
Speaking of, where was she? Rainbow got up, confused. This was Fluttershy's house, but it was lacking in Fluttershy, in the most literal sense possible. As she contemplated whether to check the front or back field first, the faint sound of an explosion tickled her eardrums.
Rainbow looked towards the front door, and ran for it. Her friends were in danger! With every step she took, the sounds of combat grew louder; the sibilant hissing and screaming grew more intense, and yet, Rainbow Dash seemed to be unable to close the gap between her and the door.
She grit her teeth and poured on the speed. She was the fastest pony in Equestria, and simply running to the door shouldn't be so hard! And yet, it was like she was running in place, the six steps between her and the door stretching to eternity, as the screaming reached a crescendo, and then-
"Rainbow Dash!"
Today... today was a bright new day, as every day seemed to be these days in Canterlot. It stirred the soul, inspired that rarest of things, hope. Hope that today, nothing would go wrong, nopony would need to be buried.
It was something that was lost on Rainbow Dash, sitting upright in bed, sunlight lancing through the windows as she cupped her face in her hooves and hunched over, exhaling shakily, a cold sweat running down her tense jaw, teeth gritted in impotent frustration.
That dream again. She could never remember it exactly, but every morning, she woke up with her heart pounding, and a sense of dread that just didn't quit. Rainbow ran her hooves down her face, and opened her eyes lethargically, her cerise eyes adjusting to the light quickly and keenly, despite the slight bags under her eyes. No matter how hard she tried, it always seemed like something conspired to keep her from a peaceful night's sleep.
Then again, she thought, as she looked around the barracks where ponies further from the window managed to evade the waking world for a few more minutes; a pony that slept soundly these days was a rare thing indeed, perhaps even cause for alarm in certain mental health circles. She wiped her face with the back of her hoof, and rolled a shoulder as she flexed her wings to quiet pops and clicks. Guard beds were passable, but they were military beds. More functional than comfortable. She missed her old cloud bed. A thought briefly crossed her mind. Was it still intact, perhaps? Somewhere, out there in a sunken cloud-house, lay a bed awaiting it's mistress' return?
She shook her head, and swung her hooves off the edge of the bed. The movement was far from silent, and ears twitched throughout the room as ponies prepared for what came next.
"UP AND AT THEM, COLTS!" Rainbow bellowed. The shout roused the insensate, and startled the slow into full wakefulness, and amidst a haze of grumbling and mumbled greetings, Rainbow Dash watched her company return to the world of the living.
She got up, and despite an internal voice condemning her and her need to lead by example, did just that, shunning the welcoming bed that, by means of rank, nobody could really deny her for another five minutes of shuteye if she really pushed it. Once, in easier times, she might have readily abused her privilege.
Not in Canterlot, though, and not these times. As she stumbled from sleeping quarters to locker room, her traitorous mind moved on from complaining about lack of bed to lack of shower. Today was not a shower day, and while showers every other day weren't ideal, with the current water rationing, it was mandatory. After all, keeping a quarter of a million ponies watered proper did take priority.
Canvas rustled as Rainbow Dash pulled her pale mauve uniform jacket out of her locker and onto herself, and smoothed out the well-worn garment, her hoof running over the two silver bars that adorned her breast. Captain. Rainbow Dash stared at her reflection in the small mirror in her locker door for a moment. Even the small, plaintive voice in her head didn't have anything to say on the matter.
Even looking as worn as she did, she still cut a fairly impressive figure; ponies often said Rainbow Dash cleaned up well, or at least looked good in uniform. Rainbow Dash, despite not being fashionably inclined, was still inclined to agree. She made an effort to always look every part the rank she now held; she felt she owed it to all the friends she'd survived, and those she now led in these dangerous times. It was the very least she could do.
She reached up with a hoof, and decisively pushed the locker shut, ending the self introspection. She had a job to do, ponies to organize.
The rest of her company began to amble into the locker room to kit up and face the day as she made her way out past them, nodding greetings as she went. Each one of them was a proud member of the Canterlot Defense Force's R Company. Just under two hundred ponies who contributed to the constant, twenty-four hour watch that kept the ponies of Canterlot safe, each one of them her personal responsibility.
She wasn't sure if it was just luck or an actual reflection of her leadership skills (as much as she'd like to instantly claim the latter), but R Company seemed to be blessed with slightly better morale and survivability numbers than other companies, like G or O. Or poor E Company, who got to take the brunt of a rush attempt by the changelings to take another district of Canterlot. The E ponies that survived that particular incident were disturbing ponies to work or associate with nowadays, maintaining a stony silence and often staring into the distance, twitching.
Who could blame them? The Guard had done what they could to train them, but the fact remained that a vast majority of the Canterlot Defense Force were drafted ponies, ponies who were selected on the merit of panicking the least, ponies who'd never had to pick up a weapon before in their life. And here they were, dealing with foes that career guardsponies had trouble dealing with.
Yes... R Company was probably lucky, Rainbow mused, as she ambled into the mess hall and picked up one of the dishes of food being set out on the counter by the servers. Injuries were uncommon and mostly of a mundane, physical variety, and incidents on their watch were rarely big, barely warranting the attention of the entire company. Not like J Company's most recent incident, which had warranted a Code Yellow - a total of ten additional companies. Almost a full half of Canterlot's defense forces.
As Rainbow spooned oatmeal into her mouth, staring at a salt-shaker, she heard a familiar clip of hooves on stone among the growing sounds of the company on it's way to breakfast. She smiled as it came to a halt just behind her, and turned around.
Scootaloo stood there, orange hoof in a salute, before she rummaged in her CDF-messenger-emblazoned saddlebags and fished out a folded piece of paper sealed with wax.
"Morning, Dash," she mumbled around the paper in her mouth. "Today's forecast."
"Thanks, Scoots," Rainbow acknowledged, taking it and popping the seal as she unfolded it, speed-reading the day's orders. "What's the word on the street today?"
"The usual," Scootaloo said. "The ponies on Starswirl Lane seem to be doing much better lately. Things are a bit quiet down Trottenheimer, though, very somber atmosphere. Haven't heard of any water or food shortages, though, and everypony I've seen this morning seems fairly cheerful for once, it must be something in the air. Today's going to be a quiet one, thankfully."
"Quiet is good," Rainbow agreed. Ponies weren't naturally inclined to starting riots in the streets out of the blue; but as the last few years had shown, tighter belts and an ongoing siege did wonders for a pony's predilection for recklessness and chaos. The ponies that usually dealt with threats from the outside sometimes had to turn their attention inwards to restore order. Rainbow didn't like having to do that. She shook her head and tried to focus on the positive. "How're you and the Crusaders doing?"
Scootaloo smiled, nodding. "We're doing alright," she said. "Sweetie Belle finally got over that cold of hers. AB's keeping busy, the reconstruction crew in Canterlot Heights finally let her do her thing."
"No panic attacks?"
Scootaloo shook her head slightly. "Now that 'Bloom's got something to do, it seems to be helping her keep her mind off it."
Rainbow nodded slowly. "Thanks, Scoots. Keep an eye on her for me."
"Naturally," Scootaloo said.
"You guys know you can always come to me if you need help, right?" Rainbow said, placing a hoof on Scootaloo's head and ruffling her purple mane.
"We know, sheesh!" Scootaloo exclaimed, squirming out from under the ruffling and patting her mane flat with a hoof, a smile on her face. "You be careful out there, Rainbow," she said, before the smile slipped off her face, replaced with a serious expression. "Sweetie's got a bad feeling about something."
Rainbow Dash's expression fell flat, too. While Sweetie Belle was no Pinkie Pie with how often she predicted the immediate future, Rainbow and the Crusaders had often found that Sweetie's hunches were more often than not correct, and when Sweetie was feeling something...
"Any ideas?" Rainbow asked.
"It feels like a big one, but really vague," Scootaloo said. "She just can't shake this feeling of change, and given how quiet everything seems to be lately..." Scootaloo's ears flicked irritably. "I don't like it."
"Neither," Rainbow agreed. "You stay safe, too, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Scootaloo perked up a little, and threw a short salute. "Catch you later, RD. Why not stop by for dinner or something later?"
Rainbow returned the salute, smiling. "I'll see how it goes, bring a plate."
Scootaloo turned and trotted out of the mess hall, weaving past members of R Company going the other way, and in no time at all, the orange pegasus was gone. Rainbow Dash stared at the doorway for a moment, before looking back at the orders, and putting them face-down on the table as she went back to her breakfast.
The squeaking of chairs on the floor filled the room as R Company filed into the theatre. At the forefront of the room, Rainbow Dash stood behind a lectern, hooves resting on the top, tail flicking anxiously as Scootaloo's tips bounced around her head. In particular, Sweetie's hunch.
Big and vague was not a good portent. How could she prepare for something like that? Other tips that she picked up from Scootaloo, like what neighborhoods were sounding unhappy - those could easily be dealt with, as the Canterlot Defense Force companies could just keep a squad or two nearby to try and deal with problems before they got out of hoof. But vague and immediate predictions of impending trouble...
Rainbow shook her head to dispel the thoughts, and turned her attention to R Company and the more definite plan at hoof - their orders.
"Good morning, gentlecolts," she began. "Once again, it falls to us to keep Canterlot safe for another eight hours; we've held the lives of ponykind in our hooves before, and we haven't let them down once - let's not change that today, eh?" Rainbow shifted some paper around on her lectern as she cleared her throat and began to read out the orders.
"It's more of the same today," she said. "Squads one through twenty, I believe it's your turn for you guys to be on city patrol - squad six, I want you guys to hang around Trottenheimer, tarry a little. They could use a little picking up."
"Roger that," affirmed an extremely photogenic-looking blue pegasus in the front row. Squad Six was a squad that, if you had to describe them with a word, it would be "inspiring". Each one of them could have had a career as a poster-pony for the CDF if they'd so wished; and each of them had an easy, cheerful air about them that extruded confidence, reliability. In short, great for boosting morale, reassuring folks that the CDF was on top of things.
Rainbow turned, and pulled a map of Canterlot down on it's screen, various sectors of the mountainside city marked out in certain colors.
The smallest, somewhat off-center part of Canterlot was gold - the castle itself. Surrounding it, a zone of light blue that marked out the more affluent, well-secured parts of Canterlot, colloquially referred to as "Inner Canterlot". Behind the gold dot, there were vast swathes of dark blue and green deep inside the shaded dark grey that was Canterlot Mountain - the caverns and farm areas respectively, where the hydroponics gardens lived and worked ceaselessly to provide food to Canterlot.
Encircling the green, blue and gold, was a wide ring of rich purple; the Wall. Tall ramparts of magically-reinforced white stone, an internal defense should the city's exterior be overrun. To this day, the Royal Guard that manned it had never had to actually defend against anything; a point of pride for the CDF. Outside this, comprising "Middle Canterlot", there were two distinct stratums of color; touching The Wall, and spreading over most of the immediate area, was yellow. Neighborhoods and city blocks that were at more risk than the safety of the Blue zone, behind The Wall. Covering the rest of the area, running up to a light grey ring, was an area that was distinctly orange - districts that were typically in poorer repair, thanks to the proximity to the outer wall; the most at danger in the event of a breach or incursion.
And then there was the Outer Wall. This wall had no fancy magic; it was a simple matter of engineering, four stories' worth of stone blocks comprising a defense against Vespida's changelings. The one good thing about the new changeling army was the fact that there were so few flying changelings; as the exo-armored suits didn't allow for flight, and the suits were the primary advantage Vespida's troops had over the Royal Guard and CDF, she had to settle for more considered ground assaults. Few and far between, but always cause for alarm. As long as the changelings couldn't get a foothold in Middle Canterlot, Vespida couldn't deploy her armored Juggernauts. They'd come close several times, employing their trademark stealth, but each time, the CDF had managed to repel them in time, cutting off their supply lines and crushing the infiltration attempt with desperate skill.
And, taking up far more of the map than they'd like, from the Outer Wall to the very edge of the city boundaries where the original city walls had once stood, was red. Outer Canterlot. Few had forgotten the level of fighting that had gone on there, as defenders brought time for the civilians to retreat to Middle Canterlot and for the new Outer Wall to be constructed.
A full third of the city lay out there, ruined buildings and rubble-strewn streets now host to Vespida's army, hiding them from the sentries on the Outer Wall. Some optimistic ponies daydreamed about the day when ponykind could one day push back, and retake some of Outer Canterlot. Others clutched their drinks tighter and wondered how many lives it would take.
Beyond Canterlot... nopony knew anything. Intel was non-existant, scouts leaving Canterlot never to return.
Rainbow Dash pulled a pointer out from the lectern, and extended it with a flick of her hoof, pointing at various districts in Middle Canterlot as she assigned each squad to their patrols. Further squads were assigned to various points on the Outer Wall, and smaller two-pony teams were put on skywatch; one pony to fly high and get a bird's-eye view of Outer Canterlot, and one to relay the message back to CDF Headquarters. Others to serve as roving sentries on the wall, others as runners between patrol stations. There were a lot of ponies, but with an ease born of practice, Rainbow sped through the assignments to fulfil the orders she'd received, and every pony was assigned a job. Even she had a job, joining with an existing squad to form a mobile command squad to roam about the outer wall and orange-zones of Middle Canterlot.
"Are there any questions?" Rainbow asked, collapsing the pointer with a snap and dropping it back into it's groove on the lectern.
There was murmur of dissent and head-shaking from the seated R Company, and Rainbow Dash smiled.
"Excellent. Make sure you're at your posts in twenty minutes for the changeover with Q Company." Rainbow closed her folder with a quiet 'thap'. "Company, dismissed!"
R Company got up amidst a torrent of squeaking chairs, and murmuring amongst themselves, moved swiftly to find their squad or partner, and get their equipment on. Rainbow watched them go, before stashing her folder inside the lectern's drawer, and leaving the stage to find her own squad.
There was a saying back in the Officers' crash-course that no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. Rainbow Dash couldn't help but feel that the old adage was about to be tested something fierce.
Four hours into the eight-hour watch, and the sun was starting to slowly inch towards the horizon as Rainbow Dash and her squad whiled away the time on patrol. For the most part, they moved unheeded by the world, surrounded by the sound and noise of ponies going about their daily life; foals playing games as they raced between buildings, ponies gossiping as they leaned on doorways keeping an eye on their spawn, stood at stalls and haggled for goods.
With each step, they clacked a little, thanks to their equipment. All six of the ponies in the squad were wearing CDF- standard-issue equipment - charcoal-black body armor over their mauve jackets, designed to be puncture resistant, complete with matching steel-reinforced, rubber-soled boots, simple, padded helmets with room for their ears to poke out, and short knives strapped to their shoulders in case of emergency. Equipment that, prior to the start of the siege, had been practically bleeding edge technology, untested in combat. Many CDF ponies were immeasurably grateful that whoever designed their equipment had gotten it right the first time around.
Khaki packs on their backs held miscellaneous field equipment, and at their sides rode their weapons. The two unicorns in the party had crossbows clipped to their sides along with quivers of bolts; the earth ponies and Rainbow Dash, lacking a way to effectively use projectile weapons, had blades of varying length, according to personal taste. The earth ponies had elected for shortswords, hilts within easy reach of their mouths. Rainbow Dash had gone for a slightly more traditional pegasus weapon, a basket-hilted saber, that could be wielded by a hoof.
Their patrol path brought them up to within a block of the Outer Wall, and as they arrived at the intersection, Rainbow looked at it, uneasy. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened so far, and it was starting to make her antsy.
"Hey, Captain," one of the unicorns asked, eggshell white contrasting against the rich, red dreadlocks that poked out from under his helmet.
"What is it, Tin?" Rainbow asked, pulled out of her reverie.
"You seem kind of jumpy," Tin observed.
"Yeah," agreed the other unicorn, a chartreuse mare, wisps of her short, orange mane barely visible under the helmet. "Like you're expecting something."
"Oh, it's, uh, nothing," Rainbow said.
"I heard about this sort of thing from Coconut, Hyacinth," remarked a light blue earth pony, who helpfully had "Decimal" stencilled across her breast. "She's got like, a sixth sense for trouble sometimes. Is that it?"
"Mmm, yeah," Rainbow admitted in a half-lie. "Something like that."
A midnight blue earth pony nodded his head, making noises of assent. "My aunt had something like that, her knee played up if we told fibs. Supposedly."
"Pfft," snorted a violet stallion. "How can a knee detect lies, Glow?"
Glow huffed. "It just did, Gem. She wasn't ever wrong, after all."
"Well, no offense, Captain," Gem said, "But I bet ten bits that it's not magic. Haven't you seen her talk to that runner before? Why do you think squad six got sent to hang around Trottenheimer Plaza? The only magic our Cap works is a network of informants, I think, and there must have been some other news or something that we can't act on. Am I right?"
There was silence in the squad for a moment.
"That is the most far-fetched idea I've ever heard," Hyacinth dismissed.
"A network of informants?" Tin said, chuckling. "Foal-sized informants? Like some sort of child EIA?"
"I buy it," Decimal voted.
"What do you say, Captain?" Glow asked. "Is Gem on the money?"
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to put the rumors to rest, when a faint sound tickled her ears, and she froze mid-word, listening intently. The rest of the squad stopped messing about, and joined her, trying to find what it was she heard.
"What was it?" Decimal asked.
"A faint explosion," Rainbow said quietly, looking around uneasily. A disturbingly familiar explosion.
"I didn't hear anything, sorry," Tin said. "It's too noisy about."
The squad stood there in the middle of the intersection for a moment, before Rainbow Dash slowly shook her head.
"Musta just been me," she said. "Come on, let's-"
The rest of her sentence was drowned out by a loud, screaming, whistling noise; with a thunderous impact, the sound of smashing stone filled the air, as the Outer Wall exploded, marked by a massive gout of dust and smoke barely half a kilometre away from the squad. They flinched as something ripped through buildings, kicking up a rooster-tail of road materials before ploughing into the side of an apartment block.
All was silent for a moment, then the screaming started, and the squad found themselves being buffeted by ponies running away from the strange object.
"What the hay was that?!" exclaimed Glow.
"Squad! On me!" Rainbow shouted, her voice carrying over the panicking civilians. "To the wall! Ready weapons!"
The five other ponies nodded grimly, and forming a wedge, they ran towards the disturbance, parting the terrified ponies around them like water.
The curved furrow that had been ploughed through the ground was titanic. Rainbow was put in mind of the Ursa Minor, if the star-beast had been inclined to flying along at slightly-sub-terrain altitude and repeating the feat of the large, chitinous projectile that had come to a halt halfway through the apartment block that had finally stopped it, where the other dozen buildings between it and the wall had failed.
"Sweet Celestia..." Tin breathed, looking from the cannonball to the wall, which had a massive hole punched clean through the base of it.
"Squad!" Rainbow called out. "Get to the wall! Secure the breach!"
"What about the civilians?" Decimal asked quickly, her question underscored by the wailing and screaming of the ponies trying to vacate the scene.
Rainbow bit her lip, and shook her head. "Priority is making sure nothing gets in through that hole; backup's on its way, they can help the civvies."
Decimal didn't push the issue, and the squad moved on, sliding into the pony-deep furrow and running along it. Up ahead, the dust was beginning to clear, revealing what was probably the first ground-based view of Outer Canterlot in two years.
Desolate buildings, ruined by neglect and damage from the first time the walls were breached, stretched for kilometres. On the horizon, what was left of the exterior walls was gone, save for the odd section of wall that still stood, the cliff that marked the edge of Canterlot, and... a gigantic cannon.
More accurately, a giant changeling; it's skin was black and looked rough, a sign of what passed for armor in the changelings. If it were standing next to the wall, Rainbow had no doubt it could lean on it as easily as she leaned on her lectern, and the very thought set her heart aflutter. On it's back, a titanic barrel bobbed about, smoke trailing from the end - doubtless the source of the cannonball.
It was the endgame for the Canterlot Siege. If that got to the wall, there would be no stopping it; the only reason Rainbow Dash still held any hope was the fact that the entire thing was clearly not working properly; the beast bearing the cannon had dipped to one knee, and Rainbow's keen eye could spot black dots flitting about it as it thrashed.
Movement much closer to her got her attention, and along with her squad, she drew her weapon as a quartet of changelings slid into the furrow and ran forwards. Three of them were the now-standard fare that they faced, what the CDF had labelled Juggernaut-class changelings; roughly twice as large as the average pony, sacrificing evasion and the trademark camoflauge ability of changelings for sheer mass, and regarding the world through a quartet of glowing, recessed, beady little eyes, they were clad in thick, rough plates of chitinous armor, they were the face and primary result of Vespida's new army. While similar, natural changelings had been present during the wedding, they were the result of selective breeding and significant investment. Vespida had managed to avoid that, and these new Juggernauts were hollow, brainless shells of muscle and armor, augmenting a smaller, more natural changeling inside the torso. Bobbing over their shoulders were the barrels of the other major military advantage that Vespida boasted - chemical guns, linked by pulsing tubes to the spine of the Juggernaut, they were a weapon that most had never seen before. With incomprehensibly organic operation, thanks to a habit of self-destructing with the death of the host, the weapon coughed and spat a variety of projectiles, from lethal shards of crystalline resin to organic pustles of flesh that extruded obfusicating smoke and eye-watering gasses.
And the fourth... the fourth changeling was not like the others, boasting much less armor. The legs were more slender, at odds with the bulbous torso that supported a hump that looked like a pony was hiding under the skin, and the head was much smaller. This was no hollow shell of flesh, it was something far worse.
"Incubator!" Rainbow called out. "I'll draw it away, you guys take the Juggernauts!"
"Roger!" the squad responded, trace amounts of eagerness audible in their voice. Incubator changelings were uncommon. But the stories that emerged when they did... it was enough to make you wish a Juggernaut got you.
Rainbow split from the squad, taking wing and speeding ahead; the Juggernauts spotted her, and adjusted their gait to take aim with their guns; with puffs of sickly-green gas, shards filled the air, and Rainbow weaved and rolled to avoid the incoming fire, drawing her weapon as she went. She bit her lip as a shard grazed her shoulder, and threw herself into a roll, using her chest armor to catch shards that would have hit her in the leg and wing. It didn't stop her, however, and with a dangerous and daring glint in her eye, she flew straight for the Incubator.
The abomination snarled at Rainbow Dash as she drew near, and the hump on it's back split open, revealing two claw-tipped tentacles that lashed out at her; but the Incubator was too slow, and Rainbow passed by in a flash, blade flashing as she slapped hasty cuts into the creature. It wasn't her best bladework, and a far cry from what some of Celestia's Guard could do with a rapier, but it had the desired effect; as she looked back the Incubator was already turning around, abandoning its Juggernaut escort and pursuing Rainbow Dash. The Incubator was not "piloted" by a regular changeling, and for all their insidious and disturbing capability, they were simple creatures, easily tricked.
Rainbow sheathed her blade once more, and flew a prismatic path down a side road, slowing down as she pulled her backpack off her back and dug through it for what she wanted - a gas mask. She found it, but as she held it aloft, she saw a reflection in the mask's eyepiece of what was behind her, and she ducked her head quickly.
A long, mottled tentacle lashed out, the fanged tip smacking the gasmask out of Rainbow Dash's hoof, and causing her to drop her bag as she rolled to evade the other tentacle that smashed into the ground she'd been hovering over just a moment before. Rainbow got to her hooves, keeping her eyes on the Incubator, who was taking her time, slowly stalking towards Rainbow. To her right, the gasmask lay on the ground, undamaged. There was still hope yet.
The Incubator looked at Rainbow, and as if sensing Rainbow's hope, opened seveal pores on the underside of its torso. Yellowish-green fog began to issue forth in torrents, sending a roiling cloud of the stuff towards Rainbow. The cyan mare held her breath, and drawing her blade, beat her wings, throwing herself towards the gasmask she so needed.
Like lightning, the tentacles struck again, with what would have been deadly precision if it were not for Rainbow's equipment; one slammed home into Rainbow's armored solar plexus, and another into the top of Rainbow's head. As it was, Rainbow felt her breath leave her with a 'whoof', and hit the ground hard, sliding to a halt. She swung her blade reflexively, and felt the blade sever something to a hissing screech from the cloud of gas, even as the other tentacle tried to extract itself from her helmet.
Rainbow then found herself being dragged along for the ride, as the fanged embedded in her helmet could not free itself; the cloud of gas loomed closer, and Rainbow quickly slapped the release tab on her helmet's straps, freeing herself and dropping back to the ground, taking a gasp as she landed, and regretting it. She wasn't in the thick of it, but she could see the wisps of gas on the ground, and knew she'd made a mistake. She scrabbled to her hooves, and tried to run back to the gas mask, abandoning her sword. She didn't want to breathe the gas.
She felt a warm sensation at the back of her neck, and stumbled slightly as she was startled by a phantom stroking sensation running down her spine; a panicked glance behind her revealed nothing; just the Incubator hiding within the billowing clouds of neurotoxin.
What are you doing? a faint voice whispered inside her mind, as the world slowly went a pale shade of yellow.
Rainbow ignored it as best as she could, now staggering towards the gasmask. All she had to do was get it on, and the link would be broken-
You don't need that, the voice whispered, louder now. Rainbow felt her hooves stop moving, and she gritted her teeth as she willed them to move, tears of frustration starting to form around her eyes.
That armor looks so uncomfortable, the voice wheedled. Why don't you take it off?
Why don't I take it off? Rainbow asked herself, feeling incredibly warm in the brain as she reached for her sides, and undid the latches on her armored vest. She didn't need silly things like armor.
I think you look better out of uniform, murmured the voice silkily, and Rainbow found her head nodding in agreement.
Uniforms didn't really do "the Dash" justice, she mused, as she shucked her mauve jacket and kicked her shoes off, feeling the cobblestones on her hooves, adrift in a sea of yellow fog.
Come here, give mama a kiss, the voice said, the command worming it's way right into Rainbow Dash's memories and twisting. Rainbow heard the Incubator, but she felt...
"Mama," Rainbow slurred, as she lurched around, and somewhat dazedly stumbled back towards the centre of the cloud. Why wouldn't she? Her mother was in there, waiting for her with a hug and a kiss, like she always was. Right?
There was a skitter of steel as Rainbow's hoof bumped into something, and she looked down before anything could suggest otherwise. A sturdy saber lay there, the grip worn by months of practice and use. And halfway along the blade, a splash of green ichor. Blood from something. A changeling. Why would there be changeling blood-
Rainbow's mind cleared, and she became aware of herself. What the hay was she doing, unarmored? The Incubator! She looked ahead, and saw the silhouette of the Incubator standing just within sight, glowing blue eyes disturbing Rainbow greatly. Rainbow looked back down at her sabre, and without hesitating, grabbed it, spinning as she flapped her wings and spun forward, landing back on the cobbles and lunging hard.
The saber made a faint 'shunk' as it found a home, and the Incubator screamed an unearthly cry of pain as it sagged. Rainbow pulled the blade out and her mind felt clearer still, as the influence of the Incubator faded. All around her, the fog disappated, the main source going from a gushing geyser to a trickle of gas. She looked down, and the Incubator looked back at her with rapidly dimming eyes, lifeblood seeping from the wound in it's breast and the corner of its fanged jaw, alien, horse-like snout unreadable.
Rainbow shook her head as it began to tingle, and keeping a hold on her sword, ran on her other three legs over to the end of the street to see what her squad was doing.
Between the five of them, they were doing well; two of the Juggernauts were down, crossbow bolts embedded in their eyes and clutching wounds located between their armor plates, and the third was about to join them, a number of bolts festooning the neck and torso as Decimal, Glow and Gem encircled it, slashing at exposed muscle around the armor plates and bringing it down to it's knees in a distorted roar of pain. The back shifted, and with a crack, the spinal armor split apart, allowing a smaller changeling to pull itself free and raise a plaintive, holy hoof.
It didn't get a chance to beg for mercy, and none was given as it got two crossbow bolts from Tin and Hyacinth in the heart, which easily punched through the changeling's paper-thin chitin coat and ended its life. Rainbow felt a mixture of shame and pride at that. Pride in her troops for the textbook victory, but it always got to her how there was never any mercy given. To be fair, ponies never got any from the changelings, and often suffered where possible, but... shouldn't the CDF be taking the high ground and at least taking prisoners for questioning if they surrendered like that changeling was trying to do?
Rainbow resolved to bring the issue up with HQ the next time she could and lifted a hoof to take a step towards her team. And paused when she felt something larger beat her to it. She looked to the source of the groundshaking thump, and her jaw dropped.
Extracting itself from the ruin of the apartment building and striding forward, the "cannonball" was apparently anything but, proving to be a shell containing a changeling of titanic proportions. Not quite as large as the Rainbow guessed the cannon-changeling to be, it still towered over the whole squad, who stood around the titan's slain brethren. At a sunlight-blocking one and a half stories tall, and with a pair of almost comically undersized chemical guns embedded in it's overdeveloped shoulders, Rainbow doubted that anypony had ever seen such a large changeling.
Everypony was broken out of their reverie when the beast roared, and raised a colossal hoof. Almost everypony. Struck dumb with fear, Numbers didn't even move as it swung at her, and connected without even trying. The light blue earth pony went flying like a meteor, away from Rainbow Dash and into a solid wall. It wasn't even a contest, and poor Numbers became a meatsack of blood and broken calcium in a heartbeat.
"NUMBERS!" Gem screamed, breaking the spell and galvanizing the squad into action, as they spread out and tried to surround the monster, applying Juggernaut tactics to this larger relative. Rainbow Dash leapt into the air, aiming to join them when something lashed past her and, like lightning, wrapped around her neck, pulling her back to the ground and causing the saber to fall from her hoof.
Rainbow kicked and struggled to draw breath around the mottled tentacle around her neck, and twisted around to see what was dragging her. The Incubator she'd stabbed and thought dead was apparently not as dead as she thought it was, and the one intact tentacle that had Rainbow in it's grip was steadily pulling her back towards the Incubator, and the hump on it's back which hung open limply, awaiting a pony host.
Incubators didn't just kill ponies, they created the rarest and most disturbing members of Vespida's army - Hybrids. Ponies implanted with invasive parasites that penetrated the spine and brain, irreversably controlling the body and using it as a meat puppet to further the changeling agenda; finding an Incubator that had gone to ground was hard, as the CDF frequently found nothing but the ponies it was using as proxies. Stripped of higher brain function and marked by the hard, chitinous parasite that ran the length of the spine, hybrids would eventually grow to develop patches of spiked chitin that protruded from the skin like growths - nopony knew what happened after that, because no identified hybrid ever lived that long.
Thoughts of hybrids filled Rainbow's mind - the ponies she'd seen, stumbling and lurching towards her squads with blank stares and a childlike lack of guile - it was one thing to put a crossbow bolt in the brain of a changeling, but of something that used to be somepony, even though it was clear there was nothing left? It was something that broke ponies, the cruellest tactic Vespida could bring to bear, and she knew it. No, she just had to desecrate them even further, using their bodies against Equestria in such a dirty, underhoofed tactic.
Rainbow struggled as she got ever closer. She wouldn't ever be used as a weapon against Equestria. She'd rather die. She looked to the side, spotting her armored vest; in particular, the knife on the shoulder. She scrabbled and threw herself to the side, and strained like she'd never strained before, hoof outstretched to try and pull the vest closer to herself...
A stumpy, bleeding tentacle lashed out and slapped it away, before wrapping itself around Rainbow's forelegs, pinning them to her torso along with her wings, and doubling the rate at which she was drawn back. Rainbow screamed a wordless scream of rage at the sky, and kicked even harder, but to no avail.
She felt the warmth of the Incubator behind her, and snarled at the Incubator's head as she passed it; the creature's one visible eye looked at Rainbow weakly, and Rainbow met it's eye ever so briefly, before something wet and dark threw itself over her head and face, and with a firm yank, pulled her into a wet, slimy embrace.
Rainbow Dash sat alone in a familiar place. Sun shone through the windows, and the faint sound of chirping birds could be heard. There was a scent of birdseed in the air, and the room radiated a sense of homely comfort, tranquility. Rainbow took a deep breath, and let it out with a sigh.
Fluttershy's house. Rainbow Dash was sitting on her couch for some reason, elbows hooked over the back of the couch. It was incredibly relaxing, and Rainbow could feel the couch's familiar cushioning. You could say what you liked about Fluttershy, but there was no denying that she knew comfortable when she saw it.
"Would you like some tea?" a familiar voice asked.
The sounds of nature wafted through the air. Only now they were accompanied by the sounds of china, cups on saucers, as Fluttershy moved the tray from her back to the coffee table in front of Rainbow.
"Uh, sure," Rainbow said hesitantly, shifting her elbows and sitting forward. She felt like she was forgetting something, and evidently, it showed when she looked at Fluttershy.
"Are you okay?" the yellow pegasus asked, concern knitting her delicate brow. "You look like something's bothering you." She gasped quietly as she looked at the tea she was pouring. "Is it the tea? I'm sorry, I only had jasmine, and-"
"No, no," Rainbow said, holding up a hoof as she shook her head quickly. "No, it's not the tea. It's... something else."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Fluttershy asked, putting the teapot back down and gently pushing the saucer and cup of tea towards Rainbow, who took it.
"I wish I could," Rainbow said, taking a sip of the tea. "I just can't remember what it is. There's something I really, really need to do, you know?"
"I'm sure you'll remember what it is eventually," Fluttershy said, as she decanted another cup of tea. "Until then, why don't you just forget about it?" She paused. "I mean, worrying about it all day won't do you any good, Rainbow."
"Yeah, you're right," Rainbow nodded, taking another sip of her tea. She couldn't quite remember if she'd had the tea before, but it tasted familiar. Then again, it was tea. All tea tasted the same to Rainbow.
There was a faint thumping sound, and the two pegasi lowered their cups onto saucers in unison with quiet clinks.
"What was that?" Rainbow asked, brow creasing.
"Oh, Angel must be fighting with something," Fluttershy murmured, before looking at Rainbow. "Again. I don't suppose you could go out and... have a word with him?"
Rainbow frowned. "He doesn't really listen to me, though. Wouldn't you have more luck?"
Fluttershy hummed to herself. "Mmm, maybe. I think what Angel needs right now is more... more tough love than anything."
Rainbow's brow refused to unknot as she got up, and stepped towards the door. As she neared the door, the sounds of violence grew louder, more distinct - the sounds of thumping, stone smashing, and screaming.
She stumbled, and she felt a chill run down her neck and spine. The world swam in front of her as she took another step forward, gasping reflexively as breathing suddenly became difficult.
She wanted to stop. To turn back. Things were wrong. Answers were needed. But, at the same time, Rainbow knew she'd get none if she stopped here.
She threw a hoof onto the door, and pushed. The door resisted, like something soft was trying to hold it shut. She pushed harder, putting some force into it, and the door yielded slightly; Rainbow put two hooves to the door, and with a breathless heave, threw herself forward.
The door swung open with a squelch and sucking sound, and Rainbow fell forward.
Rainbow Dash landed on the cobblestones with a wet thump in a small pool of steaming fluids, and groaned quietly as she struggled to get up. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears, the air tasted a little like copper, and felt something resting on her head and mouth. She weakly reached up to dislodge the thing on her mouth, and felt only the impact of two hard things clacking off each other.
She felt around with her other hoof, and her eyes widened as she felt some sort of... mouthguard thing. Her eyes looked down, and she saw two black things running themselves just below her field of vision, just where she thought her hooves were supposed to be. She pulled her hooves away, and the black things obliged, revealing a disturbing sight.
Her normally-unadorned cyan hooves were now tipped with a hard-looking, chitinous shell, with a slightly ribbed appearance. The hard chitin covered her hooves and went partially up her foreleg at the front, giving way to an organic-looking, widely spaced, green web-like covering; and at the back of her hoof, the webby substance thickened and darkened to a padded, sea-green section of stuff that looked like muscle.
Rainbow's breathing quickened as she pushed and prodded at the webbing, trying to dislodge it. It was fresh-looking, and flexible, but it did not break or yield, staying in place. Rainbow applied more pressure, trying to pick it off, and hissed in pain when she tried - it was fused to her skin. Not completely, it seemed, but enough that unless Rainbow wanted to feel the equivalent of tearing her skin off...
The webbing ran further and further up her leg, exposed patches of her coat mixing with the padded "muscle". Her heartbeat quickened as it ran all the way up to her shoulder, and spread out over her torso, covering her entire lower body with more of the same and supporting more chitinous armor plates on her chest, barrel, back and flank. And it ran upwards, too, and as Rainbow tentatively felt her neck and jaw, it gave way to more chitin plates - the sheer plates covering her mouth and nose.
Her face was clear; she could feel her coat through the chitin horseshoes, but it wasn't long before she ran into another segment of web-muscle on the top of her head, accompanied by two separate plates of chitin that sat on her forehead; they felt more curved and contoured compared to the ones covering her mouth.
She looked back behind her - the hump of the Incubator was split open, the creature dead, a trail of fluid and tubes marking Rainbow's larger-than-expected progress. What had it done to her? As far as she knew, no Hybrid had ever been seen with as many... changes as Rainbow had on her.
Her journey of self-discovery was cut short as a small explosion was heard; she looked around and recalled where she was; the explosion had come from the end of the street, where the Changeling Titan had been engaging-
Rainbow staggered upright, and with unsteady steps, lurched towards the battle. Her squad! What happened to her squad? She pressed on, depite feeling like she wanted to lie down and sleep. Her current body troubles were pressing, but her squad's safety was moreso - hay, there was a hole in the Outer Wall! She could stop fighting for it when she was dead, and while the Incubator's work had changed her quite visibly, she could still walk. Rainbow tried to unfurl her wings, and felt only tight pressure holding them down; a quick glance showed they were almost completely covered by chitin and the webby membrane, pinned down tight. She wasn't flying any time soon. But she could walk. She could run.
Rainbow looked out into the ruined street that the Titan had made a battlefield, and her heart skipped a beat. Numbers was still where she lay, but now there were three more red smears of broken flesh and crumped equipment dotted about the place. Tin Soldier, Gem Lustre, Glow Paint. Only Hyacinth remained, visibly limping as she cradled a broken foreleg, brandishing a shortsword in her magic, which was doing nothing to deter the Titan.
Rainbow stared blankly at the scene, at a loss for words. She knew the Titan was trouble, but... to see it chew through her squad like this? Backup. She needed backup to deal with the Titan alone, never mind the hole in the wall-
Hyacinth ducked under a swing of a hoof almost as large as she was, and stumbled on a piece of rubble. She landed on her bad leg and cried out as she scrabbled to stay upright. A scrabble that took longer than it should have. Rainbow saw it coming, and with a desperate look in her eye, so did Hyacinth, throwing herself sideways to try and avoid the strike. It clipped her, and she flew through the air, crashing clean through a doorway, coming to rest on top of the broken portal. Unmoving.
Rainbow felt her heart thumping, muscles clenching, her teeth gritting. Her eyes glared daggers at the Titan, and as if sensing her building rage, the behemoth turned around and fixed her with a look, daring her to try it.
She tensed up, and like a trap, the plates of chitin on her head moved; pushed by muscles, they swung down and around the front of her face, snapping into place. Rainbow's vision faded, to be replaced with a slightly fish-eyed, rose-tinted view of the world from whatever was on the other side of the face-plates. The plates tightened themselves against her skull, and Rainbow barely felt them lock into place, forming a sturdy carapace.
Rainbow's mind was a seething mass of emotion and incoherent thought, but if you could boil it down to words, it would boil down to just two:
"Fuck backup."
