Never Again

“Rainbow Dash, are you alright?”

Rainbow Dash awoke from her unconsciousness, her head still hurting from earlier. She took a second to stand up and look around, finding herself still in the alleyway with the soldier. When she realized he wasn’t moving, she felt both guilt and relief at her actions from earlier.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy once again called from the portable radio on her friend's shoulder. “You okay? Where are you,”

“I’m fine Flutter-” She stopped speaking as she heard her voice. Looking back to see her rainbow mane and tail replaced by a red and orange one. Scootaloo wasn’t joking, none of the ponies she had heard about this from was joking. Her entire body had changed from that of a cyan blue pegasus with rainbow mane and tail, to a red unicorn with. orange and red hair.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said, realizing the change in her friend’s voice. “If that is really you, speak the password we agreed on,”

After a few seconds, Rainbow brought herself to speak again. “The password was “Never Again”, because we vowed to never turn back on our mission to find our friends after leaving them during the flood,”

She heard a gasp over the radio. She couldn’t see it, but Rainbow could take a good guess about how Fluttershy was reacting to this. Rainbow was reacting in a much different way, she was scared. Not because she is in Old Canterlot, but because she no longer had the ability to fly, which would make it harder to move around the city. That, and no one would believe who she is anymore except for Fluttershy and those she was searching for. She had betrayed her very country going into this city, and she was beginning to realize just how alone she really was.

“Rainbow, what happened?” Fluttershy asked, Rainbow could tell she was trying to hold back tears. “I thought you were dead for a second,”

“I’m not,” Rainbow reassured her friend “But another pony wasn’t so lucky, they probably know I’m here now,”

“I see,” Fluttershy sighed, “Guess this was about as bad of an idea as expected, but we can’t wait. The storms going to pick up an about an hour and we need to get you someplace safe before that happens,”

An hour! When they arrived they estimated it would be six hours before the storm would pick back up. It’s true that she would be harder to spot in that weather, but she would also be completely blind from the snow. Rainbow Dash looked at the soldier on the ground, checking to see if he had anything on him. Resources would be scarce, so she would need to pick up everything she could. Other than a water canister, which was ice cold, she found nothing that would be of use, not even a gun. It seemed like she would need to use stealth in order to get past the guards, something she wasn’t very good at.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash talked into the radio. “Is their anywhere near me that is safe, and in walking distance,”

“Give me a second,” After short time, Fluttershy replied. “Hey Rainbow, remember that old donut shop we use to hang out at,”

“Yes,”

“I think it’s right around the block,”

“You think?” Rainbow said frustrated,

“Look, Rainbow,” Fluttershy replied, “I can only carry you so far due to the storms interference. In other words, after tonight, you are probably going to be all alone in their. Sorry,”

Rainbow Dash should have known how bad the storm would impact this, even with communication Fluttershy could only carry her so far. It wouldn’t be long until the storm completely cut them off. Even with her radio, Rainbow Dash was completely isolated from any help in the outside world.

“It’s okay Fluttershy,” Rainbow assured her friend. “I’m going to turn off the radio. I know this is a big risk, but it seems like I’m going to end up being alone no matter what happens. Fluttershy, please stay safe,”

Before Fluttershy had a chance to respond Rainbow turned off the radio. She felt bad for doing it, but this was her mission now, and she wasn’t turning back. Not needing it anymore, she tossed it into the snow. It was up to her to survive now, and her first matter of business was finding a place to sleep tonight. She took one look to see if she had missed anything on the pony, but came up with nothing. His radio, which would have been useful to predict the movement of soldiers, was completely destroyed under his body, covered in blood from the dead pony.

She walked out of the alleyway, being greeted by a familiar, yet at the same time unfamiliar, snow and ice covered old canterlot. A thick layer of ice covered most objects around her, including doors, windows, and even unfortunate ponies that had been trapped in the flood many years ago. They were lifeless now, nothing more than dead bodies frozen in ice, stuck in the cold forever. Rainbow Dash had to wonder how many ponies actually escaped the city, and how many families had died in an attempt to escape. All she could do was hope the safe fate didn’t come to her.

“It makes no since,” Rainbow Dash attention drew to two guards off in the distance, coming towards her. “Why do we have to stuck out here in this cold as hell city looking for a pony we don’t even know is still alive while HQ sits on their asses with hot cocoa everything? I swear, if I survive this entire four year period, I’m quitting the military and finding something else to do,”

“That is if we survive. As far as I know the cold will probably end our lives before even a year has passed,”

Rainbow Dash peeked a look at the two soldiers, they were in the same exact position as she was. If she wasn’t the pony they were looking for, which she knew it was, she would have offered to get them out of here.

That being said, her eyes told her something else, she needed what these ponies had on them. The one on the left carried a radio and a backpack that must have had ammo and food in it as well as a revolver (though she didn’t know what kind it was) while the other pony carried more survival gear like flint to make a fire, a hatchet which was probably used to break ice on doors, and lockpicks as well. She hated to say it, but these ponies had what she needed, and she would have to take that stuff from them if she was to survive.

She creeped behind a rusted motorbike, one of the first in Equestrian from what she could, and thought of a plan of attack. She couldn’t take them from the air anymore, having lost her wings in the transformation, and she didn’t have any idea how to use magic, meaning she would have had to take these two by surprise another way. The storm offered some cover, but not enough where they were totally blind, meaning she had to take each one out separately. That being said, how was she going to take one out without the other noticing. She could take the right pony easily, but she had no chance of surviving the other guard if she didn’t take him by surprise either.

She heard something metallic under her back right hoof, and turned around to examine what it was. It was an old necklace, the back of it unclipped. Strangely enough, Rainbow maybe could have used it as a weapon. If she got up to one of the guards while they were distracted, she might be able to choke them and drag them out of view without trouble. She could then take the next one when they noticed that the earlier guard had disappeared. All she need was to get their attention.

She looked over to the motorcycle next to her, and pushed it a little. When she realized it wasn’t completely frozen to the ground, she realized she could use it to get one of the guards, most likely the armed one, to come over. Nodding to herself she slammed her body with brute force into the bike, just managing to knock it over. She felt exhausted, hadn’t realized that she had lost a lot of her body's muscle in the transformation as well. This was starting to seriously scare her. Could she even take one of those soldiers like she did the one in the alley.

“Hey, did you hear that,”

Well it was to late to turn back from her plan now.

“You wait here, I’ll go and check,”

Rainbow took cover behind a frozen pony nearby, watching as the armed soldier walked towards the motorcycle. She felt uncomfortable in her hiding place, feeling as if the pony frozen inside was still alive, watching everything she did. Managing to keep calm, Rainbow watched as the pony finally reached the knock over motorcycle.

Taking her chance, Rainbow grabbed the necklace in her mouth and rushed towards the guard. He looked up in surprise as Rainbow took the necklace and wrapped it around his neck. Clasping the necklace, she put it back in her mouth and tugged against the guards attempt to free himself. Having to use great force, she tugged the pony onto the ground, realizing the necklace wasn’t choking the guard, and smashed her hoof into his face. Rainbow watched as his body stopped moving, and lifted her hoof to see she had broken his skull.

Blood dripped from the underside of her hoof and she watched as realization hit her. She murder a pony using her own body, yet for some reason something told her it didn’t matter. It was if her mind wanted her to have killed him that way. Every second she was in this new body she was getting more and more unsure. Was she even Rainbow Dash anymore? She wasn’t sure anymore.

Rainbow, feeling all the regret in the world, dragged the dead soldier behind the pony she had hid behind. Looking at it, she felt awful. Frozen an ice, eye’s open, seeing this pony they didn’t recognized kill a pony who had done nothing wrong.

“I’m sorry,” She said, trying to hold back tears “I’m so, so sorry,”