Rainbow Dash was practicing. She zipped through the air, Rainbows trailing her as water vapor that gathered around her reflected the light of the sun. She linked a series of loop-de-loops, before continuing. She was hoping that she would catch the Wonderbolt’s attention with her one-of-a-kind moves. It had been her life-long goal, and she would finally achieve it. Her new trick was to create several Rainbooms until she reached the ground. This idea was farfetched to many ponies, who argued that the speeds would pulp her organs. Furthermore, they argued, the impact would render her unrecognizable. Twilight had put this across much more kindly, but the idea was the same. Rainbow Dash never took no for an answer. It was not how she built her name. Besides, telling her something was not possible was tantamount to a dare. Rainbow Dash did not turn down dares.

Pulling out of another series of spins and loops, Rainbow grinned. She lived for this. She lived for the speed, the exhilaration of flight. She flew several miles into the air. She stopped. Looking down, the buildings of Ponyville were like ants, impossible small. In the distance, the indomitable Everfree looked almost peaceful, and shared none of the menace it had from the ground. Green, verdant fields stretched for miles on end. It was beautiful.
She hoped that she had gone high enough for her purposes. She stopped admiring the landscape and turned back towards the ground. She pushed, and her wings continually pumped faster. The air formed a glowing cocoon around her, bright and tingling. Goggles protected rainbow’s eyes, but she still squinted as a precaution. She broke the sound barrier, sending rings of prismatic light out parallel to the ground. She continued. There were still many miles to go. She continued straining. Sounds were blotted and distant. There was only the wind in her mane and against her wings. She continued to her sped up plummet. More air cocooned around her. This was faster than she had ever gone before. Everything seemed to blur. Another multi-colored explosion appeared. She was now close enough to the ground to see individual ponies pointing up at the spectacle.

Her goggle straps were unable to take the force of the wind. They snapped with shocking finality, and Rainbow found that her eyes were almost unprotected from the wind. She shut her lids tightly to avoid having her eyes torn from their sockets. That would not be a pleasant way to die. He speed continued to breathe. Despite the fact that pegasi were designed to breathe at asphyxiating speeds, Rainbow Dash found herself incapable of taking in more life-giving air. She refused to panic, and continued, trying hard not to exhale. If she breathed out, she would have to call the whole thing off and she would have to start all over again. She did not want that to happen. Rainbow feared nothing but failure.

She smiled widely as a third prismatic ring blossomed behind her. But, something was wrong. Her momentum was decreasing. Why? If anything, she should be gaining speed, right? She heard screams of alarm emanating from the ponies below her. They were pointing past her, towards the third ring. Puzzled, Rainbow looked back. What looked like a portal had opened behind her. She did not know how that science stuff worked, but she assumed that if she got sucked through, the results would not be pleasant. She strained herself, trying to escape the hole. Even if it failed to kill her, it would seriously mess up her performance for the Wonderbolts.

All attempts to escape were for naught. The portals suction became harder. It seemed as though it was intent on taking Rainbow Dash above everything else, since the other ponies did not seem to be feeling its effects. How did that work? She knew that portals were not supposed to be intelligent or self-aware. She screamed in agony as one of her wings snapped under the pressure exerted. She spiraled out of control. No longer able to resist the suction, Rainbow went through the portal. It was like a long, winding tunnel of blackness. Rainbow felt like she was falling. She hated that sensation, it made her feel helpless.

She hit the ground hard, grunting as she did so. She opened her eyes, blinking away spots. She tried to move her right wing, and nearly cried out in agony as pain shot through it. Yes, it was definitely broken. She looked around nervously, trying to get a bearing on her surroundings. She was in a street of some sort. She was surrounded on both sides by shattered buildings. Walls made of a strange, smooth material laid smashed and pulverized against the ground, and destroyed wood beams lay rotting and forgotten. The air was still and quiet. This was not peaceful silence, though. This was the nerve racking, dreaded silence of death. The air smelled of copper. Rainbow’s eyes spun in her head, trying to find any signs of life. There were none.

“It’s okay, Rainbow,” she murmured to herself nervously, “So what if you are in an abandoned city? Your friends are going to come looking-!”

A loud cracking explosion cut her off. It was followed by another, and another. There was a sudden cacophony of noise. Repeated bangs hammered themselves through her head, and her brain began to pulse. There was screaming in the distance, causing Rainbow to jump back in shock. She winced as the movement sent burning pain through her wing. More explosions and more screaming. The noise abruptly cut off as quickly as it started. There were hoofsteps nearby. They were coming around the corner of the destroyed building. Rainbow Dash rushed towards the sound, fear overridden by hope of impending rescue.

“Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthakyou!” She strung the words together. She did not want to stay here much longer.

She rounded the corner to see a shocking sight. There were bipedal creatures, wearing what she assumed to be uniforms. The uniforms were identical and grey. They held boxy objects in their hands. The boxy items had cylinders poking from them. Two, she noticed, were carrying what looked like sticks. The sticks had metal parts on top, and terminated in metal cylinders. It was not so much the creatures that shocked her, though. It was the bodies.

Dozens of bodies were strewn about. Some were old, festering cadavers. They crawled with the larvae of insects. Their eyes had been the first to go, and their empty sockets seemed to stare accusingly at her, despite the fact that Rainbow Dash had just arrived. They were in rags, some of which had already rotted away. Some wore grey, others khaki. Many were still twisted in odd positions. The skin on one had completely decomposed, revealing a leering skeleton. Its neck was quite obviously snapped, and several ribs were broken. Rainbow Dash did not dwell on whether or not the broken bones were a result of violence.

With the rotting corpses were the freshly dead. Their faces were twisted in expressions of agony or surprise. Several of them had been peppered with holes. Blood leaked from the wounds, the ground of the ruined street hungrily absorbing it. Again, some wore khaki, others grey. Sickly, distantly, Rainbow realized that one had been somehow disemboweled, looping intestines wrapped around its legs. To her shock, she realized that the khaki-wearing creature was still breathing. It reached up towards the grey uniformed soldiers. One regarded him, grimacing as it did so. It pointed the cylindrical portion of his boxy tool at the other’s head. Another of the grey soldiers batted the instrument away.

“” she heard the alien say in a harsh tongue.

“” its comrade responded.

Rainbow Dash blinked, not understanding. At this point, her curiosity had overridden her fear. She saw the first soldier nod. The other leveled his implement again. It pulled hinged bar sticking out of it. There was a thunderous explosion, and the creature dressed in khaki jerked back, its head caving in. Blood spread in a pool beneath the creature's head, sinking slowly into the muddy earth. What was it? Was it magic? Rainbow did not want to know at this point. She stumbled back. She tripped over latent rubble. She screamed in agony as she landed on her wing.

The grey creatures wheeled towards the source of the noise, bringing their instruments up to point at her. Rainbow Dash picked herself up against the agony and stumbled back.

“” She heard one mutter. She stared back at the creature with apprehension. For all she knew they were going to flay alive and eat her.

She continued back, but gasped in horror as she felt her back pressed up against a wall. She was cornered. The creature held out a hand. It was likely meant to placate, but Rainbow’s pain-addled mind interpreted it as an action of hostility. She shrank back some more. Normally, she would have fought, but with a broken wing, that was nigh impossible. She decided to go with the next best thing.

“HELP!” she screamed “Sweet merciful Celestia, somepony, anypony, HELP ME!”

The creature lowered its hand, slowly. Rainbow Dash relaxed. Perhaps they weren't going to kill her, after all.

“" it muttered, "”

It cleared its throat. “You can talk?” It asked in heavily accented Equish.

Author's Note

I know how she got there was short and over the top, but everything Rainbow Dash usually is. Please feel free to comment. Your opinion is appreciated. The wall of text syndrome that most of my stories have is now remedied.