Never Again

Guilt, sorrow, disbelief, shock, these were some of the things that Rainbow had felt in the past few minutes, or at least the outside of her felt. The longer she was in this body, the more she changed. The more she changed, the harder it was for her to stay on task. She felt as if she was becoming other than Rainbow Dash, and she was starting to think she was. This new mind wasn’t hers, and she should have been able to tell that from the very beginning.

Why had she completely given up hope in Fluttershy? That was the main thing that seemed to show her change. After that, her mind told her tell kill without hesitation, which she even tried to fight. Even then, her plan of choking the guard to death failed her, and she had blood stained onto her hoof. Who, or what was she becoming?

She left the other guard to live, took the revolver, and anything that would weigh her down, and ran. She wanted to get out, but she new that wouldn’t fix anything. Once you have come under the effects of the spell, it couldn’t be reversed. She would end up unrecognizable to not only those outside the city, but those in it as well. She wanted to cry, but even that had now become unthinkable in her new mind.

She headed inside the old donut shop, which was cold due to a broken generator, and put the stuff on the stuff she had taken on the ground. She wanted to hide, or at least some of it wanted to. Hide and never come back out, that’s what remained of the old her said, but the new Rainbow thought differently.

“Why the hell should I care what the old me thinks,” She blurted out, not realizing how much of her had become lost. “Why should I care about what she came her to do, it doesn’t matter to me,”

Rainbow tried her best to cover up her mouth, unable to stand what she was saying, but couldn’t. Every second the old her, the one that came here to find her lost friends, the one who had been the element of loyalty, was fading away. That part of her couldn’t even control her own body anymore, watching as she took the revolver in her hand and loaded it while humming a tune. It was hard, really hard to keep herself the way she was when things like this happened.

Getting up, Rainbow Dash walked into the back of the shop and looked around. If anything moved, she would shoot it. Didn’t matter what it was anymore, she just would. She looked around at the food, most of it had gotten bad, and was ice cold from sitting in there for so long. Not finding anything useful, she headed back to the front of the shop.

Were there other survivors too, part of her wondered. The only thing both minds agreed on is that they had to find Scootaloo, but each mind thought different ways about how to do it, as well as what to do when it happened.

“To bad the storm is picking up soon,” Rainbow muttered, “Even if the old me says to stay here it would be stupid to head outside in that,”

Her radio suddenly turned on without warning, as if it was possessed. “Glad to hear you still have some of your sanity,”

Rainbow was caught off guard by this. How did they manage to turn her radio on? She was almost ready to shoot the it, but decided it was best to see exactly what they had wanted, or if they knew where Scootaloo and the others were.

“Who are you?” Rainbow spoke, “How did you turn this on? What do you wa-”

“Calm down Rainbow,” the voice said, somehow knowing who she was. “I’m here to help you. As for who I am, just call me Rover for now. As for how I turned this on, let's just say I got access to every means of electricity inside the city. Just glad I found you before you became one of them”

One of “them”? What exactly was them? “Could you explain to me what you are trying to say,”

“You know how the spell transforms ponies into different ponies right,” Rover said over the radio. “Well, as if you couldn’t tell, there's more to the spell then just physical changes,”

“No shit,” Rainbow said, “I felt like I was going crazy earlier,”

“That’s the part of the spell you have to worry about,” Rover explained, “It changes your mind, turns you into a lunatic. I’ve seen it happen to others before you, they enter the city, and before I could do anything to help them, they go crazy. All they want to do is kill to survive, anything that moves they shoot. I’ve come to terms that they aren’t really ponies anymore, considering that normal ponies don’t kill unless necessary,”

“So their mindless?” Rainbow said, summing up what he was saying. “And you are saying the same thing is going to happen to me?”

“If you want to call them that, then yes,” Rover answered, “but it can be stopped,”

“How can I do that,” Rainbow asked, the thought of being mindless scared her.

“You got to combine the two different versions of your mind,” Rover explained, “Survival is important, but the same thing goes with making allies. If you don’t ally with survivors, then you aren’t going to survive in here,”

It was true, if she was going to make it to Scootaloo she would have to make some allies. After a couple seconds, she realized something strange about this pony. How did he know she was in the city if he wasn’t… oh.

“Are you part of the guard?” Rainbow spoke over the radio, it seemed strange that he knew what about her when she hadn’t met any other survivors yet.

“Ex-guard,” Rover corrected “When I saw what was happening to the ponies in here, I took it into my hooves to help them. I guess you can say I’m your first ally and friend here in the city,”

She didn’t have a choice, if she was going to make it through here Rainbow Dash was going to have to put her faith in this pony. It killed part of her, but that just made her two minds more balanced.

“Okay mister Rover,” Rainbow replied over the radio. “Can you tell me where I should go from here, as well as tell my friend Fluttershy that-”

“She’s already informed,” Rover interrupted. “She said that their was something you might want to hear as well. She sent me an audio file that she recorded by hacking into the troops here in the city,”

Rainbow knew Fluttershy wasn’t a fighter, but ever since they learn Scootaloo was in the city she had been training in the tech field to back up Rainbow Dash. Even when they could reach each other, Rainbow would have some connection to her, and she had to thank Rover for what he had done. As for how he knew about Fluttershy in the first place, he had probably seen them go off the radar before entering.

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash said, “Play the recording,”

She waited a few seconds as she heard the sounds of the room Rover must of been in move around a bit. When the sound faded, she heard a click as he started playing it. She could hear the sound of the snow blowing in the background, and listened to the conversation between the two guards on their radios.

“I got my sights on one of them. Two unicorns fillies, three earth ponies, a pegasus colt and… my god,”

“What is it man, you sounded like you just saw an alicorn,”

“Dude, you won’t believe it, but I need you to look through your scope right now. I just saw something incredible,”

“Okay,”

Rainbow Dash heard as one of the guards must have picked up a gun and looked down at the survivors they were talking about.

“My word, is the a fucking black alicorn?”

“Yep, must have been a survivor as well, but how the hell did they become an alicorn?”

“You don’t think that’s Princess Twilight… Right?”

“Maybe, but wouldn’t the spell have effected her to?”

“I don’t know, as far as I’m concerned these survivors have lucked out. We shot her, we would be dead,”

“Yeah,”

Rainbow waited thinking it had ended before here something over the radio again. It wasn't the sound of the soldiers hooves in the snow, or the blizzard around them. She heard the clicking of what might have been a camera.

“Gotcha,”

With that it ended, was it possible the group they were talking about was Scootaloo’s. Even if it wasn't, it would be great to be among survivors. This must of been the alicorn that the guards were talking about outside the city, and she had to agree that it seemed weird Twilight would stay in alicorn after what had happened to both her and Scootaloo.

“Do you know the survivors they’re talking about,” Rainbow asked Rover.

“I know about everyone who enters the city,” Rover responded, sounding proud of himself. “If I didn’t know who they were, I wouldn’t have been doing my job. The alicorn calls herself Black Ice from what I’ve heard. Whether she is really Twilight, I don’t know,”

“Do you know where I can find them?” Rainbow said,

“She and her little band like to move around,” Rover explained “If you can get here, I can get you on comms with her,”

“And where exactly are you,”

“The old school of gifted unicorns,” He said, “Do you know where that is,”

“No,” Rainbow said “Where should I go,”

“Well you can take chance of going into helicopter area by going up ground,” Rover explained. “Or you can take the subway to it if you don’t mind facing the mindless down there,”

Both options sounded bad, but it was obvious which one sounded worst. The helicopter was used because it was impossible fly, even at the storm’s lowest point, very high. This way they could cover ground around a bigger area during that time. While she didn't like the idea of dealing with mindless ponies who loved killing it would be nice to be able to travel without worrying about the weather at all.

“I’ll take the subway,” Rainbow replies over the radio.

“All right then, give me a second,” Rainbow waited as Rover got some things together. After a minute or so, she got a response “The nearest entrance is two blocks away. Head to the west side of the tracks and follow it to the next stop, that's where you will find the school,”

“Alright then,” Rainbow said, “I’ll leave once the storm slows down again. Wake me up when it does,”

“Alright,” Rover replied “I’ll search the radio channels in the city in case anything interesting happens, I’ll also try and see if I can get in touch with Black Ice as well as forward any messages from Fluttershy to you. Good night,”

“Night,” Rainbow said, keeping the radio on as she drifted to sleep.