She awoke with a start, gasping for air and vomiting blood. It was difficult for her to get any air in, every time she would try to take a breath in, her stomach would act up and she would vomit again. It was like torture for her. Just when she thought she would lose consciousness from no oxygen reaching her brain, her stomach finally settled down and she got a breath in.
For the first time since she woke up, she took a look at her surroundings. 'Where am I?' It was dark, very dark. She tried waving her hoof in front of her face and could barely make out the black moving blob. Small rays of light shone through the trees that surrounded her. It appeared to be nighttime in a forest. If it could be called that. It looked more like a swamp. She stood up on her hooves.
"Augh..." She let out a quick moan. The excruciating pain on her back and right side became immediately evident after she stood up along with a small tingling sensation next to the pain. 'Ugh... I feel terrible.' Her entire body ached. She looked behind her to try to see what was causing her such pain, but it was too dark to see anything except for the fact that she had wings. She tried to find a spot with more light by walking around in a circle, but it almost seemed as if the trees were trying to keep whatever it was causing her pain a secret and teasing her by giving her very little light.
She noticed pale light streaming through a small section of trees. When she began to walk toward it, she started to hear the sound of flowing water. It grew considerably less dark as she walked in between the trees and the sound of the flowing water grew louder. After walking for a little bit, she came to an area where there were no trees to cover the moon and a river so long it looked like it spanned all the way through the swamp, cutting it in half. She walked up to the river and looked into it.
She found a cyan mare with a rainbow mane and magenta eyes staring back at her. She said out loud, "Is this... me?" After she had asked that question, her head started to ache and that coupled with the pain on her back and side forced her to finally see what was hurting her. "Gah... it hurts to remember..." She stood so that her right side was facing the water.
What she saw nearly caused her to faint. The first thing she noticed was the terrible condition in which her wing was in. It looked like nearly half of it was missing entirely, and what was leftover looked horrid. It looked like it had been burned off, no matter where she looked all she saw was the muscle that wasn't supposed to be exposed, All the flesh was burnt off. She could see the bones inside of her wings. Her back was in a similar condition, black edges separated the flesh that had not been touched by whatever had caused the damage to her body. Her rainbow tail was burnt as well. "That doesn't look good."
The sound of something rustling in the direction of the bushes she just came from startled her and she quickly turned around. Another pony came crashing through the bushes. The horn that was immediately evident after looking at him identified him as a unicorn. He had on a gas mask and a flak jacket over his fatigues. He didn't immediately notice the cyan pegasus, he traced the river from left to right with his eyes until he spotted her.
"I've found the target!" 'Huh?' She looked around. She didn't see anyone else. A chill went down her back, which caused her back to hurt more than it already is. 'Am... I the target?' Her question was answered when she saw the light around his horn signifying that he was using magic and the the glow of telekinesis around an assault rifle.
"Whoa, whoa, wait I'm not who you're loo-" He pointed it at her and used his magic to pull the trigger. Her body spasmed for a moment before falling into the water with a large splash. Not before long, other unicorns with gas masks on came through the brush. attracted by the gunshot.
"Where's the target private?" the unicorn that was slightly larger than the rest asked, his voice muffled by the gas mask.
The lower ranked unicorn saluted quickly before returning his hoof to the ground. "She fell in the water when I shot her."
"Alright," he said this loudly to get everyone's attention before continuing, "everyone search the water, the current is slow, it couldn't have drifted far." They all lined up on the shore. Their eyes scanned the water, searching for anything that might look like the target. None of them blinked, as if in fear that they would miss something if they did. After 60 seconds, one of them raised their voice.
"Uhh, sir?" He saw something moving in the water. "I got something here." The higher ranked unicorn walked over.
"What is it? Did you see the target?"
"It look's like something's... moving in the water." They both moved their faces closer to the water to see if they could discern whatever it was that was moving. The higher ranked unicorn went pale in the face and his pupils contracted, but before he couldn't warn the others in time.
Suddenly, without any warning, there was a large splash accompanied with a loud splashing noise in the middle of the river. It was the cyan mare. She had quite literally jumped out of the water, she was fifteen feet in the air above the water and she was moving towards the side of the river opposite of that of her attackers. She landed on the shore and immediately started running, which was surprising considering the condition she was in and the fact she was just shot.
The higher ranked unicorn was the first to recover from his surprise. "That's the target! Fire! If she get's out of range, pursue her! Don't let her escape!" They all recovered from their stupor after hearing their leader's order. The Rainbow maned pegasus saw the various colored lights of unicorns using their magic and raising their assorted weapons. They all started firing at the same time. She was quickly losing them, but she heard the bullets hitting the ground and trees around her and she heard a bullet whiz past her ear once. They could still nail her. But that wasn't the biggest worry on the rainbow pegasus' mind. 'Why am I still alive? While she was thinking this, she failed to notice that her back had regained it's cyan color, her wings were their original color as well, and the wing that was missing part of itself was slowly regaining it's original shape to match the other.
'Are they still following me?' The rainbow maned pegasus looked behind her. Sure enough, the unknown assailants with gas masks on were still behind her and were trying their hardest to kill her. She turned her head back just in time to sidestep a tree. Her head hurt. She was still having trouble believing what had happened just a few minutes ago. She had been shot and survived, had literally jumped 15 feet out of the water, and at some point the ghastly wound on her back and right wing had at some point disappeared while she wasn't looking. And she swore she had gotten shot on more than one occasion when she was running away because she felt the pain, but the wounds were nowhere to be found. She wondered if she was just going insane from this crazy situation, but the pain definitely felt real. 'This has to be some kind of crazy dream. Definitely.'
Suddenly, she heard the gunfire stop. She stopped and turned around to look behind her. They were nowhere to be seen. 'Did those guys finally give up?' She sighed with relief. The cyan pegasus turned back around in the direction she was originally traveling to see if she could figure out if she was even going anywhere. There were twin bluffs that she would've had to go in-between if she had kept running, but no matter where she looked it was trees. Trees, trees everywhere. The bluffs were about 20 feet apart. She decided to rest when she had the chance. She lay against the cold, hard surface of one of the bluffs.
She was thankful for this moment of peace. She had woken up in this strange place with no idea who she was or how she got there and there were ponies out to get her. Strange things had been happening one after another. She needed to some time to think. But as if some unknown cosmic force didn't want to give her any respite from her crazy situation, she suddenly heard a loud sound above her. She looked up.
A large metal beast. It was somehow flying, even though it's wings didn't look large enough to keep itself in the air. Something that looked like a double sided sword was spinning around on top of it, making a loud whirring sound. She saw that it had machines that looked like they served the same purpose as the ponies on foot's weapons underneath it's wings. Also underneath the wings were cylindrical objects with a pointy end that was a different color than the rest of it next to those. The cyan pegasus didn't think it was here to save her. It flew over her and turned around to face her. It was a bit difficult to see, but she noticed that there were ponies inside through the transparent face of the beast. 'Are they controlling that?'
Suddenly a smaller noise came from the metal beast. She saw one of the cylindrical objects leave it's spot underneath the wing and go towards her. 'Oh crap, that doesn't look good. She braced herself for impact, but when she noticed that based on it's trajectory, it wasn't actually going to hit her, but above her she relaxed. "Are you guys even trying? That was way off!" She didn't know what compelled her to yell that at her enemies, but it felt good to do so.
She heard a loud crack above her. She turned around to look at the face of the rock she had been standing next to. There were large cracks in the rock, and one big peace particularly large piece stood out from the rest. The rock face crumbled after a few seconds. Her eyes contracted and she felt another chill go down her back at the prospect of this rock that was more than just a few times larger than her getting closer. She fell down on her butt. She just sat there frozen in place. By the time she broke out of her trance, the rock was already too close to move out of the way. She shut her eyes closed tight, and she raised her front legs up in a futile attempt to protect herself. Or so she thought.
When the pain didn't come, she opened her legs and was surprised with what she saw. She had stopped the rock from hitting her, by putting her hooves out and catching it. She barely felt any strain on her legs. When she looked closer she realized that small red tendrils were coming out of her hooves and the area around them, piercing the rock, allowing her to hold onto it even when gravity was working against her rather than with her when she had originally caught it. A very large smile crept onto her face. She just had a great idea.
She stood up on her hind legs and turned around to face the large metal beast which was still in the same spot. The ponies inside the beast controlling it, probably realizing the danger that they were now in, immediately attempted to turn around. But the cyan rainbow maned pegasus wasn't going to let them get away that easily. "Oh no you don't!" She brought the rock behind her head, the weight pulling her back a bit, but she quickly adjusted. "I've got to teach you idiots," she quickly brought her front legs over her head at a quick speed, willing the tendrils to let go of the rock at the right time, "how to aim!" In her mind she was saying, 'Please work. Please work.' over and over in her mind.
For once since she woke up, something good happened to the cyan pegasus. The tendrils immediately contracted when she willed them to. The rock left her hooves, soaring at a high speed towards the large metal beast that was trying to high-tail it out of here. The rock quickly closed the distance. It bashed into the area right underneath where the tail was connected to the rest of the body. The metal beast begun to spin around, slowly getting closer to the ground. It didn't make it to the ground without exploding first. It fell into the forest an inferno, smoke trailing from it.
The rainbow maned pegasus looked at her hooves, realizing the power that she held. 'I can't believe... what I just did.' She thought. It was incredibly easy for her stand up on her hind hooves. She felt like she could walk around like this all the time if she wanted. It felt a bit awkward to her though. She went back to standing on all four hooves. She wanted to try something else. She walked up to the bluff that hadn't been destroyed by the missile. She put her right hoof onto the surface of the rock and willed the tendrils to come out. They complied. She did the same with the other hoof placing it higher than the other. The same with her hind legs. She trusted her weight to the small tendrils.
They didn't fail her. They were able to carry her weight easily. She willed the tendrils back, raised her hoof, willed them to come out and pierce the rock. She repeated this process with all four of her hooves. It took a bit, as she wasn't used to climbing rocks with little tendrils, but who is? She reached the top with little effort. It didn't tire her out at all doing this. When she reached the top, she sat down. She wasn't physically tired, but she was definitely mentally tired. A lot of weird things had happened today. She looked out into the distance. The sky was a combination of yellow and dark blue making for a weird purplish color. It was almost daytime. She noticed more of the metal beasts coming towards her, probably attracted to the plumes of smoke coming from the crash site of the beast she had taken down earlier.
"Oh great, now I gotta kill them too." She said with little enthusiasm. She looked around for something, anything to throw at the beasts. She looked to the bluff's twin that had crumbled earlier. There were plenty of rocks to be thrown from when it had been destroyed. She figured now was as good as a time as any to test her ability to jump from when she fell into the river as well since she was testing everything out. She figured even if she did fall it wouldn't hurt her too bad considering her massive strength. She got a running start and jumped over the crumbling bluff. As expected, when she tried her hardest to jump, she could jump higher than she should normally be able to. She made it to the other side and stood up on her hind legs in preparation, and waited for the metal beasts to get closer.
It didn't take long for them to find the rainbow maned pegasus. She was standing on top of the bluff waiting for them. She wasn't afraid of them anymore, now that she realized that she can fight back. She picked up one of the larger rocks in the crumbled pile of rocks that used to be a bluff and threw it at the closest beast. It smashed right into the transparent face of the beast killing the ponies inside immediately. It began to spin uncontrollably. It happened to move towards the cyan pegasus' position on the crumbled bluff. However, rather than moving out of the way of it, she was confident that she could catch it in mid flight, and moved her hooves in front of her. When the metal beast's side hit her hooves she was pushed back a couple feet, but sure enough, the tendrils ensured she was able catch it.
With the metal beast in hoof, she turned to a different one. The one the rainbow mane pegasus was looking at launched one of the cylindrical objects underneath it's wing at her. She quickly brought her hooves behind her head with the beast and released it towards the one that fired. The object hit the beast that she had thrown and exploded on it breaking it into two pieces, but it continued to travel towards it's target. The two halves caught the blades that spin on the top of the metal beast, causing them to break off. It began it's plummet to the ground. 'Two down, one to go.' The cyan pegasus looked towards the last one.
This one was different from the others. Rather than staying still and firing the cylindrical objects, it's strategy was to move around and use the machine next to them. The cyan pegasus picked up another large rock and threw it at the moving metal beast. She completely missed. "Dang." 'Looks like I can't hit moving objects.' The machine underneath the beast's wings began to rotate. 'That doesn't sound good.' She started running towards the bluff that wasn't crumbled and when she reached the edge she jumped. This bluff was closer to the metal beast. The machine started making similar noises to the weapons of the foot-ponies and she realized if she didn't move she was going to get seriously screwed up by that.
Rather than running away, she ran toward the metal beast in a zig zag fashion in order to avoid getting shot. When she reached the edge she jumped and spread her wings. She directed her body at the beast and gave the hardest flap she could with her wings. The rainbow maned pegasus had just practically launched herself at the beast because of her strength. The beast came close fast. She put all four of her hooves out in front of her. She landed on the transparent section of the beast the tendrils insuring she won't fall. She raised one of her hooves and brought it down on the transparent face of the beast. It cracked. She hit it again. More cracks. She didn't notice the first time, but the ponies inside controlling the beast had apparently risen very high. Before she placed the final hit, she looked around to get an idea of the area. There wasn't much, but she noticed a village just outside the forest. The sun was finally rising over the horizon as well. She mentally noted the location and smashed her hoof against the transparent face.
It finally broke. She climbed inside the beast and stood on the pony's lap, hunched over because there was little space. She used her hoof and punched his face. Or that was she meant to do, but she ended up punching 'through' his face. She shivered. It didn't feel pleasant having your hoof inside somepony's head. She quickly pulled her hoof out. She hopped over the seat to get the pony behind the first. Not wanting to go inside someone again, she settled for smashing him against the side of the beast. The beast began to fall fast. She quickly jumped out. She considered using her wings to break the fall, but she kept them close to her sides. She could hear the wind screaming past her ears, and she couldn't keep her mouth closed, as her face was stretching due to the high speeds.
The cyan pegasus hit the ground fast. There was a large crater where she had fallen. She quickly stood up. "That was... pretty awesome." She couldn't believe that she was smiling after that, but there she was, smiling like an idiot. She remembered the village. She shook her head to try and get the stupid smile off her face. She took off running towards the village. Now that she had a definite destination rather than just running around aimlessly, it felt like she had been running for a short time. She had some excellent stamina. She ran the whole way.
It took a while for the rainbow maned pegasus to reach the outside of the forest, it was very large. When she had reached the edge of the forest, the light of day broke the tops of the trees. She found a cabin covered in vegetation, with a lot of those ponies with gas masks waiting for her. There was also what looked like a house for something very small with a little ramp. She didn't want to fight again, despite her outstanding ability to survive drastic injuries and her incredible strength. It looked like this was an important place. They were walking in some sort of pattern, patrolling the area, making sure to get a full 360 degree look out. She noticed a back window inside of the cabin. There wasn't going to be any getting past the cabin without traveling through it. This of course, was assuming there weren't more of them waiting inside the cabin. The rainbow maned pegasus watched them for a while, attempting to memorize their pattern so she could find a moment where they weren't watching the back entrance to the cabin.
"There." She said under her breath. There was moment where there was no one watching the window and there was another where there was a path to a bush she could hide inside of. She would have to be careful and fast, there was barely a 2-second window for her to be out in the open for both times. She back tracked a little so she could pick up speed when she needed to.
The rainbow maned pegasus started running. One of the guards was about to walk in her path. But she couldn't lose her window. She kept running. She was beginning to have doubts in her observations. Based on the guard's speed of walking and the cyan pegasus' speed they were going to run into each other. 'I can't stop now. She wouldn't be able to make it if she didn't have all of her speed. It almost looked like she was going to run into him. But by some divine intervention, he made it past her just as she left the forest's edge. It was so close, it looked like she had touched him, but she didn't. However, she was moving fast enough that she carried wind with her, and that caused the guard to turn around.
"Huh?" He voiced his confusion when he was met with nothing but air behind him. "Must've been the wind, I guess?" The guard continued his patrolling. The cyan pegasus had been fast enough. She made it inside the bush with no time to spare. Now, she has to wait for the next window to open. She peaked out of the bush. She had to keep herself from gasping. There was a guard pony walking past the bush right as she peaked out. If she had peaked any sooner she would've been seen. This was her window.
There was no time to gain speed this time, so she had to be quick about this. She left the bush rather loudly, which caused the guard that had just walked past her to examine the bush. She ignored him. She was almost there. 'C'mon, just a bit more...' But fate had other plans for this cyan pegasus. Right as she reached the window, one of the guards walked around the corner of the house and saw her. She heard him talk into his radio, "The target is here commander, I repeat, the target is here." He quickly raised his weapon after saying this, but any further actions were stopped by the rainbow maned pegasus.
Just like with the pilot, she had punched through him. Except rather than through his head, she had punched through his neck, which she noted was just as gross as punching through somepony's head. However, rather than just him falling over dead, his spine broken, when the cyan pegasus pulled her hoof out, she suddenly felt a part of herself reach out towards him. A tendril that was very much thicker and longer than the ones in her hooves reached out towards the pony in a gas mask. It pierced him and pulled him close to her. And she CONSUMED him.
She felt a mixed group of feelings. The largest one apparent was the disgust she felt. It felt like he was becoming a part of her, coming inside of her. She swears she can hear him even though he's supposed to be dead. It wasn't hear hear, like with her ears, but hear inside of her mind. The other feeling was pleasure. It was the type of pleasure you get when you eat your favorite food, or when you eat a large meal. And there was the ridiculousness of the situation which made her want to just laugh and hope it all goes away.
There was no trace of the pony that had discovered her. Clothes and all, the pony was gone. She felt something changing in her body. She was suddenly all tingly over her body. Her wings began to shrink, her body shape changing to that of a colt's. A horn sprouted on her head. She felt just a bit heavier, when she realized that she was now wearing a flak jacket and a gas mask, similar to that of the pony that she had just killed. 'What the...! Her wings had completely disappeared and a horn had grown on her forehead and to top it all off, she now looked just like a colt!
While she was trying to take in the sudden change in her body, a colt that looked like he was head-honcho around here walked around the corner. He walked up to her saying, "Where's the target private?" The (not so much anymore) cyan rainbow maned pegasus just stared at him for a few seconds before realizing that he must be talking to her. She did kill the pony that called his superior officer over.
"I... uh... I..." She couldn't come up with anything to say. So she settled for delivering her message through physical means, rather than verbal. She used her right hoof and punched his throat, this time holding back as to keep from penetrating her target with her hoof this time, and shoved him over. She quickly jumped on top of him. Hitting him repeatedly with her hooves all over his body, breaking his bones, blood spraying from his body every time she landed a hit. She tried to replicate what had just happened with the other, willing her body to consume him. The longer tendril came out again penetrating the colt she had just broken. Since his body was broken he was quickly consumed.
This time was different from when she consumed the other colt. She felt a surge of pain in her head and she fell over on her back, her hooves reaching up to her head trying to do something to ease the pain. She remembered a memory that wasn't hers. Once she remembered this "memory", it played back in her mind like a choppy video.
"This is the target." She said, quickly throwing a folder with classified printed on top of the desk. The colt standing across the desk opposite her wasted no time in opening it up. Inside the folder was various information about the two ponies and pictures of them. One of them was a rainbow maned cyan pegasus. The other, a pegasus as well, was yellow with a long pink mane.
"Rainbow Dash? If I remember correctly, isn't she the one that did the sonic rainboom and saved the Wonderbolts? Isn't she an element of harmony as well? Isn't she a hero to the people?" He was curious as to why, Rainbow Dash, a hero to the people and savior of the Wonderbolts was the target.
"Yes, she is all of those, but she's also a terrorist."
"A terrorist?"
"Yes."
"She did something that is a crime against all of ponykind. That's all you need to know." He shivered. Her tone changed whenever she talked about this "crime" that she committed. He changed the subject.
"So what's with this one uh... Fluttershy?"
"We can't let Rainbow Dash come into contact with any of the other elements of harmony. You're going to take her into custody."
"What if she refuses to come with us?" His superior smiled. She really can look evil sometimes, though her sister claims that she doesn't realize it and doesn't mean any harm.
"I don't care what you do, just make sure Rainbow dash doesn't make contact with her." The lesser pony broke into smile as well.
"I understand, Princess."
After the memory ended the pain stopped. Rainbow Dash realized that she had changed form again, she was now the form of the commander that she had just consumed. She really didn't like looking like someone she wasn't. She closed her eyes and pictured herself. A mare, cyan, with a rainbow mane, messily cut and messily styled. She felt the change happen. The horn shrunk back into her head, her wings sprouted from her back. Her body thinned into that of a mare. The clothes dissolved into her body. Her hair went back to it's original rainbow color and messy fashion. Then she remembered the memory of the commander talking with his superior.
"Fluttershy!" She quickly climbed into the window of Fluttershy's cabin.
