Blood and Shadows

Operation: One Bad Day

Location: Ponyville

Date and Time: September 23, 2027. 13:25 hours. Day of the Equestrian Takeover.

Subject: Rainbow Dash

Objective: Meet friends at the park for a picnic.

It was a normal, sunny day. The Equestrian army had just set up a military base in Ponyville, and we had just finished lending a hand. Me and my friends, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike, all planned on having a picnic. We picked a spot on top of a nearby hill, overlooking the base, so we could watch the new recruits in training. Fluttershy didn't tag along, because she's terrified of guns. Rarity was afraid people might think she was going 'googly eyed' for the marines. I didn't mind, it just meant they'd miss out on Applejack's delicious apple fritters.

It was probably better that they weren't with us. Maybe they didn't have to witness the horrors I would.

The picnic was going well. Spike served punch and me and AJ got into a chugging contest using a small case of apple cider she brought along. The marines were going through firearms training, and we could see all the action. The drill sergeant called out inaudible things to the recruits, trying to get them to fire their guns straight. One of the recruits noticed us and waved. We waved back and the drill sergeant smacked him on the back of the head and sent him to a line.

We were almost done with the picnic when a large explosion sent a plume of smoke up on the other side of the base. It looked like it came out of Ponyville. We sat in shock until a siren began to wail, snapping us out of our reveries and back into reality. Something was wrong in Ponyville, and we needed to help. The five us stood up and rushed down the hill straight for town. More explosions erupted ahead, and screams and gunfire could be heard.

At the time, I had little experience with guns and firearms. I had taken self defense courses, but that was about it. I tried to rationalize that a training exercise could have gone wrong, but the explosions were still going off. Plus, that was way too much gunfire for an accident. Something was seriously wrong, and we were headed right into it.

We arrived at Ponyville, but it looked like hell.

Buildings had entire portions missing. Rubble was thrown about, scattered across the pavement. Fires roared in destroyed buildings. Babies and full grown adults could be heard crying, and gunshots silenced them. The Elites had invaded.

The Equestrian army set up for an attack, but this was systematic murder. Men and women alike were lined up, and shot. Some were bused off to who-knows-where, and the remaining marines where handcuffed and forced to watch. For a moment, we thought we could run. Turn away and get help, maybe find Rarity and Fluttershy, and use the elements of harmony. Somehow fix all of this.

Then Spike hit the ground.

Instantly, Twilight got to her knees beside him. She lifted his head, asking if he was okay. She shook him violently, trying to wake him up. I thought he passed out. Maybe the sight was too much for him. Then Twilight began to cry, she held Spike and sobbed into him. She held him to close to her chest and cradled his head on her shoulder.

It was then that I noticed the hole in his forehead.

Shock settled in, one of my friends just died in front of me! If I didn't do something, who's to say we weren't next!

"Hands in the air!"

We were next.

We raised our hands, all of us except for Twilight, who held Spike in her arms.

The Elite approached us, gun pointed at Twilight. He had brown fur, and a black mane and tail. He was about a foot taller than me, and he was very muscular. He looked like a slightly smaller version of Iron Will, with a re-color. What scared me most though, was that he had no pupils or irises. His eyes were a stark white, no emotion whatsoever in them.

He spoke again, "Ma'm! Drop the baby!"

Twilight mumbled something, and sobbed again. The Elite reached out and snatched Spike's lifeless body. He threw it to another Elite. Twilight screamed, trying to get to Spike. The Elite who approached us held her back. The one who caught Spike put his body on the ground and put two more rounds in his head. Twilight screamed as if she was stabbed, then the Elite released her. Twilight ran to Spike's body and cradled him in her arms again. The Elite went to restrain us, and the other one held up his gun to Twilight's head.

Applejack screamed, "No! Leave Twilight alone!"

The Elite froze, "Twilight? Twilight Sparkle?" He put his gun away, and restrained Twilight with handcuffs. Then he put a blue band on her horn and dragged her away. Literally dragged her, as she kicked and screamed to get to Spike's body. It was futile, she was dragged away forever. Now it was just me, Pinkie, and AJ.

The Elite took us to town square, where they had lines set up. Kill lines.

A line for men, a line for women, and a line for children. They were split up right in front of town hall, everybody gathered there and was directed to the proper line. I saw people I knew: Bon-Bon, Sugar Sweet, Firefly, Sweetie Bell, even Big Macintosh, though I don't think Applejack noticed him, or if she did, she didn't dare call out for him.

When it was our turn, we learned who was sending the ponies to their deaths. It was the mayor. The mayor had mascara stains all over her face from where she was crying. The Elites were forcing her to send people to their doom. When we stepped up, the mayor froze.

"What's the hold up?" An Elite called out.

The mayor broke down, "I c-can't! I c-can't do it an-nymore!"

The Elite pulled out his gun, and ruthlessly splattered the mayor's brains all over the ground. Not with a bullet, but with the butt of his rifle. As if it never happened, the Elite dragged somebody else aside, and put her in the mayor's place. The new lady, held at gunpoint, pointed us to the women's line. These weren't people, these were heartless monsters.

And they were going to kill us...

The wait seemed like forever. We were directed to a line for women to go...who knows where. Judging from the crying and gunshots ahead, probably to die. We all shivered in fear, nothing like this had ever happened before. There was a woman who had managed to hide her baby from the Elites, until one of them noticed. He grabbed the woman and shook the infant from her arms, making them both burst into tears as a result. The Elite held the infant in one hand, and chucked it as if it were a football. I turned away as I heard it hit the pavement, no doubt killing it.

"My baby!" The lady screamed, running out of line. The Elite didn't hesitate to end her life as well. One bullet was all it took, straight to the head. She was lucky. Most of what I'd seen so far was nothing compared to that. Some people got shot in the gut and were left to bleed out. This was a massacre.

Then the worst part of my life began.

Applejack saw it, laying there. It was vacant. Nobody was guarding it, and it wasn't too far away, maybe about five feet away, maximum. I saw her staring at it until we were closer, it was a rifle. Alone and abandoned by some Elite. Applejack, the bravest and strongest of us all, turned to me and said only four words, "I'm going for it."

She jumped out of line and raced for the rifle. It was only five feet away, but it seemed like it was a mile. Applejack picked it up and pointed it at the nearest Elite. He only grinned as he stared down the end of the barrel. It seemed like time itself had slowed down. Like Applejack might get us out of this. Like everything might turn out okay. It was all silent, or it at least seemed that way. For a moment, the entire world went silent as Applejack pulled the trigger.

The only sound that could be heard for miles was the sound of the pin striking an empty magazine.

Applejack froze. She dropped the gun, and looked back at the line, and took a step toward me.

Blam!

Applejack fell to the ground. A fresh bullet hole in the side of her head.

It was over. My friend was dead, and I would soon be too.

Then things got worse. Pinkie Pie stepped out of line to mourn her dead friend. She shook AJ, as if that could somehow bring her back. She screamed, but no sound could be heard.

Blam!

Pinkie Pie fell over beside Applejack. She looked up at me with the utmost remorse in her eyes. She reached her hand out to me, and simply whispered, "I'm sorry, Dashie..."

Her hand fell, and both my friends died before my very eyes.

I turned, and stayed in line. Crying harder than I ever had before.

It was over.

I was alone, I would be alone for the rest of my life, assuming I lived past today.

Then an old friend stopped by to say hello.

Lyra Heartstrings. The most infamous person in all of Equestria. She was in this mess with me.

I wasn't alone.

Lyra had a plan.

It was an incredibly stupid one, but it was a plan. It would take a miracle to work. It turned out, the line we were in was a line to get shot in the face. They lined us up, 10 at a time, took aim, and fired. It was inhumane, cruel, and horrifying. I was done crying, my tears had run dry hours ago. As quick as you might think it was to kill people, it was painstakingly slow. Which gave Lyra plenty of time to get the word around about her plan.

There was about 80 of us here, lined up in front of the base gates to get killed right outside of a place created to protect us. They had lined up the next ten, and were taking aim. It was time for Lyra to doom us all.

Lyra screamed, "NOW!" and jumped out of line.

The ladies lined up to get shot, ducked and tackled the Elites that were seconds away from executing them. The girls in line pounced any nearby Elite and shook the weapons from their hands. Not all were so lucky. Some Elites reacted quickly, and took a few shots. Some of us went down, but me and Lyra ran for the base gates. We ran in the base, full speed. Lyra apparently knew where she was going, she took us straight to the armory.

We could see the men's kill line, unguarded. I grabbed a rifle, and chucked it over the fence. A man looked at it, then at me. I gave a grin, showing much more confidence than I actually had, and threw another one over, and another one, and another one. Then, they started getting out of line to pick them up. Then, they started fighting back.

I grabbed a gun from the armory, a rifle called an "M4." I ran outside, and met with Lyra. I had no way of knowing how to use the gun, but if my life depended on it, then I was certain I'd find out how. Lyra had a similar looking rifle, she ran to the streets.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To help the others escape!" She replied.

Lyra was never like this before. This was a whole new side of her, a heroic one.

Lyra led the way to an intersection. We looked to see chaos all around us. The citizens of Ponyville were fighting back! Everything was falling apart! We were winning! But the fight was far from over.

Bullets whizzed by my head.

"Get down!" Lyra shouted.

I complied, laying behind a street barricade. I shouted out, "What do we do?"

Lyra looked around, then she found an open door to a nearby building. "This way!" she called back.

She bolted for the door, and I was right behind her. Bullets shot past our heads, one bit through my ear, causing a sharp pain. We dove inside, where I nearly pissed myself. Inside, were two Elites with their guns drawn. I hesitated, but Lyra didn't. She opened fire and gunned down both the Elites in record time, before they could even react.

She bent down over their corpses. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Seeing if they have any equipment we can use." Lyra replied.

"What? You're looting them? That's horrible!" I shouted.

"Yeah, well, this might save our life." Lyra held out what appeared to be a...grenade.

I clammed up, as much as I wanted to say that it was wrong for her to do that, I felt like it was okay because of the evil they had enacted upon us. Was that wrong of me? To think that because they were so ruthless, that they didn't deserve any respect? Even after death? An eye for an eye, right?

Lyra stepped out the back door, leading us into an alleyway. She guided me into Sugarcube Corner, where I nearly pissed myself again.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake had gathered some survivors in here, and they scared the living hell out of me. For a brief moment, I thought we were about to take on a family of Elites. I don't think Lyra's reflexes could manage to deal with that. The Cakes had corralled some survivors in here and holed up. The Elites were just outside the door, keeping them inside.

Sugarcube Corner was on the edge of town, of course they'd guard it well. The bastards didn't want any escapees. It just got worse and worse. Then the Cakes told us how they sent out a man to try and talk to them. When he did, they rolled his head back in through the doorway. I looked, and the severed head still sat there, on the other side of the room. Fury grew in me as I looked for a way to get out of this. I wanted to breakdown and cry, but that was the last thing we needed right now.

"Lyra," I mumbled, "Give me that grenade."

Lyra obeyed, and handed me the device. "Pull the pin. It goes off five seconds afterwards." was all she said.

I walked to the door, and put my finger in the loop for the pin on the grenade. I pulled the pin, and waited three seconds. They were the longest seconds of my life. With each second that passed, I grew to despise the Elites even more. When those three seconds were up, I wasn't throwing the grenade to save my life. I was throwing that grenade to get payback.

I slammed the door shut, and waited.

Boom!

A couple screams, and then everything went quiet.

I peeked outside at the horror I had created. Blood and entrails had been strewn about. They were encamped here. I had thrown the grenade right into the middle of their setup, killing them all.

Well, not all of them. There was one left. He was on the ground, near death. I stepped out, and some of the others followed me. The gawked at the mess I had made. I focused only on the Elite at the ground.

He peeked up at me. I looked away for a second to look at the other bodies, they were all embedded with shrapnel. I looked back at him, he was too. He looked at my M4, "Please," he begged, "have mercy?"

He wanted me to shoot him, put him out of his misery. To have mercy.

He wanted me to have mercy?

Me?

After all he had put me through?

"Never." I said, picking up a sharp piece of glass from the ground. I jabbed it into his hand, and twisted. He screamed and writhed in pain, begging me to stop. I found another piece, and jammed it right next to the first. I twisted both pieces in opposite patterns, causing as much damage and pain as possible. The makeshift blades separated the bones from where they were supposed to be, deforming his hand and making him cry. I wanted him to cry, to feel the pain that I had to. But I couldn't make him hurt the way I did, he killed my closest friends. I abandoned the glass and stepped on his elbow. I grabbed his hand and pulled towards me, forcing his arm to bend in a way it wasn't meant to. A satisfying snap! let me knew that I broke it. The Elite let out a yelp of pain, and passed out.

I didn't realize it, but a crowd had gathered around me. Everybody had watched as I took the pain I had experienced today and relayed it onto him. Why did they look so sad?

I collapsed to my knees. Everything seemed so quiet. Lyra put her hand on my shoulder and said something. I couldn't understand her, it sounded like she was mumbling it from the end of a long tunnel. I went blank, I didn't move or speak, I don't even think I breathed.

I broke down and cried.

At some point, I stopped crying. Mostly everybody had cleared the area, except for Lyra, Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and a young boy. I thought of what Lyra did, and searched the Elite. He had a strange looking knife on him, one with a slight curve to it. I took it, I still carry it with me this very day. I stood up, and walked with Lyra towards the edge of town. The Cakes followed.

I recognized that boy, it was Pinkie Pie's brother. He approached me, "Rainbow Dash, did you happen to see my sister?"

I nodded. The boy continued, "Do you think she's okay?"

I gave a grave look, and the boy broke down crying. The Cakes tried to comfort him, and they all wandered off.

It just me and Lyra, and anybody else walking in the same direction.

There came a point in time when my legs gave out, and I couldn't walk anymore. Lyra lifted me in her magic, and somebody held carried me in their arms. We were in this together.

All the while. Somebody hummed Silent Night.

To this day, I still don't know what happened to Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy. I do know, that Applejack and Pinkie Pie are buried somewhere.

Under the piles of bodies who died with them.