Catalyst ch 16: Cyan Revenant (complete)

>You wriggled.  The suit still felt odd atop you, akin to a squishy skin.  Prodding yourself after it's worthlessly quick introduction to it's use, you could feel little.  Dulled to the world outside through it, inside you felt like an introverted turtle. No wind, nor temperature had actually made it through.
>Yet it moved with you like a thick skin.  You had taken a computer hour to denote it's specifications to yourself, committing them to an AR memory.  A mesh layer adhered to your body, sectioned off with interlinking ablative plates atop a layer of something your human side called kevlar. Sandwiched between, a non-newtonian solid that absorbed impacts.  They'd shown you the hard way, literally gunning you down without warning as part of the training.
>You'd crouched, cowered, covered your head.  Terror had overtaken you, as you had layed still, waiting for one of those rounds to hit home. And when you opened your eyes, looked upon yourself.
>Bullet holes had littered your body.  The white plates exposed beneath torn, violet tinted covers, were filled with pockmarks the size of golf balls and cradling hollow point rounds.  Other parts of you bled, the orange fluid oozing out of ruptures as squashed rounds tumbled to the floor.
>As you stood, shivering, not a single bullet had wounded you.  The fluid inside had dissipated impact with such perfection it had felt like the suit was merely shuddering around you.  The loud pop of the reports had kicked dust off of you, evaporated with the heat of each shot that formed a cloud which burned of something you could not place on your taste buds.
>they resuited you. Then repeated.  And you stood there, waiting.  The armor atop you, making you look simply fatter, hugged bullets, tossed dust, and bled again.
>You had flinched.  After all that had happened, you deserved a phobia of bullets. But they declared you prepared.
>And each one of those suits, including the pristine third one you were wearing, had cost Twilight something in the seven digit range of DigiBits.
>She was not fucking around. And neither were your ship mates.
>Shining Armor was across you, staring ahead without voice behind his eyes.  He was mumbling under his breath, and what you could glean sounded like some kind of prayer to Celestia, showing faith.
>Mjolna tampered with her electrical hoof accoutrements, and many times on the trip, you heard them audibly whine with an overridden power output.
>Big mac was at the back.  A massive hoist, many moving parts inside, held a pair of massive, six-barreled weapons pointed at the ceiling.  His face, as always, was cool and flat.  He stood, unafraid, at the rear entrance, bobbing with the movement of the ship ever so slightly.
>The ship fell, floating meters off the ground in a sudden, jostling stop. Those aboard, including yourself, held upon what gear they had to ensure it's safety.  Not that you had much- a single pocket of the overclocking eggs, hidden away in a hardened, rectangular flank-pack.
>You might be prepared to take a bullet, but you had no way of sending one out reliably.
>That was their job.
>The countdown started.  Numbers ticked silently, each one blossoming into a new, bloody flower in your mind.
>The hoist fell and hissed. Big Macs guns came to bear as the bay opened, swiveling with his vision as he was finally given room.
>Shining Armor and Mjolna filed out on his sides, crouching, weapons primed.  They stood and looked, several seconds passing, before they motioned you out.
>As you stepped, even the floor beneath you barely registered within the suit. Comfortable, treaded hoof covers kept your pace even and accurate.
>All around you, ivory ships were hovering into place. Emblazoned with the crest of the Celestian military forces, their jaws opened, spilling out squads of white-gold soldiers.  They formed a perimeter, a firing line in the shape of an ellipse.
>The stairs to the Ebon Pegasi tower were swarming with well dressed ponies.  The soldiers were warning them off with a combination of AR pings, and those that could or would not receive them, were told audibly.
>You looked around. Everything was evenly spaced.  Perfectly calibrated, organized, and armed, the small army hustled into position.  As you looked, you noticed. The distance and spread, the organization of the troops were in position and protecting a singular entity.
>You.
>Some of the evacuating ponies understood. Those with the combat badges.  They looked at the ship, your squad.  Some even paused, despite the violent urges by the Celestian guards, to peer at you.
>A flurry of pings blipped, so many that you could hear them from Shining Armor's headset. “Move up.” He said, giving a quick double point.
>So this was what it was like on the soldiers end?  The anticipation, it seemed, was worse than the fighting itself.
>And it was so true, when you arrived at the doors to the lobby.
>Lines of Ebon Pegasi stood beyond the glass, encircling even from that distance what you knew to be Rainbow Dash's memorial.  Some were in formal attire. Some were in full gear, their weapons turned upward and inactive. They stood at attention, aware of the arrival.  And yet, they were inert.
>The doors, armored and able to resist varying types of blasts, were quickly approached by demolitions experts utilizing a form of gel charge you had been warned about.
>As the demolitionists began their work of hastily, accurately analyzing the glass, a single stallion stepped forward from the Ebon Pegasi ranks.  His helmet clicked and retracted in sections, revealing his face.  His shoulders glittered with commendations, and his armor was in beautiful condition.
>His voice echoed through comms, the bustle of activity silencing to listen. ”You need not place your charges.  You will be granted entry, and will be met with no resistance.  On one condition.”
>Shining Armor did not move away from your side.  “And what would that be?”
>”That you listen.”
>There was no pause.  The demolitionists resumed, unabated.  Nodes were applied to the glass, as they ran lines from point to point.
>”These are our last words, chosen by soldiers of the Ebon Pegasi.  Die here, we will, and as we intend. but please.  We bid you to hear us.”
>A momentary lapse, gilded with confusion, was followed by Shining Armor sending a hold ping.
>”Thank you.”
>He did not move, nor did he faulter.
>”We were comprised of the finest soldiers the military refused.  The ones with minds and hearts unable to withstand restriction, nor true adherence to a monarch.  In this position we thrived, and proved that minds outside Celestian rule could serve as well, and in many cases, even finer than her troops.”
>”We knew how this would mark us. Wild cards.  We also knew what it would cost us.  So we applied to our regime a code of conduct we saw fit to produce honorable soldiers. Soldiers that the Blue Bitch could be proud of, while remaining loyal and simultaneously free.”
>”We thought such a strict adherence to this honor would grant us respect we felt we deserved.  We did not know it, but we were wrong.”
>Shining Armor looked to Mjolna.  Whom replied in through AR means.  Mjolna: They're citing the code.
>Shining Armor nodded.  “So you admit to your treason?”
>”Yes.  Every one of us is responsible.  But first know, that it is, and was, unintentional.  The road to Tartarus, paved in gold.”
>His wording was refined, precise and brave.  He was damning himself, and the more you heard, the more uneasy you felt.
>”We will not shy from what we accomplished.  And we will not cower under shame.  Deck 87, tactics lab and training area.  You will find the information you want there, as we were and are not privy to it's contents.”
>”There you will also find her prototype.”
>Some of the Celestian guards break rank.  Barks of rage and taunts begin to sound, stifling the air with a cluster of noise so sharp you wished you could bleed it away.
>Shining Armor pinged for silence, and his soldiers followed suit. Barely.  The officer inside waits for the lull, and resumes.
>”She, as you know her, is not here. Her mark is, and is quite physical.  But our ignorance in this matter is our sin.  We did not know what we had created, but now with everything that has come to light, we cannot stand firmly on our legs without one last request.”
>Mjolna yelled it out, despite being on the exact same comms channel. “The only thing you deserve is a slow death!”
>Many of the Celestian soldiers echo her response, as Shining Armor attempts to silence her with a violent, private AR ping.
>”As you say,” the officer gulps for air. “That is our demand.”
>”We ask that upon entry you execute us, as you see fit, for treason and clandestine operations endangering the lives and welfare of the civilians within Equestria.”
>”We will not shame ourselves further for a forsaken reputation.  In this way, we hope we may atone.”
>”Please.  Kill us.  And in doing, forgive us.”
>The doors unlock.  The automated motion detectors kick in, and the glass glides open.  Shining Armor gives an order you refuse to listen to.
>Cautiously, the white Celestian guards file inwards, weapons prepared and carefully aimed.  A path is made as Shining Armor approaches the officer, ordering you to follow.  Big Mac leads you on, while Mjolna takes up the space to your right side. When you reach him, the two officers share stares, while white ponies give orders and point.
>”I remember you.” Shining Armor tells him.
>Ebon Pegasi file in line quietly and calmly in front of you.  To the leftmost side of the lobby, the right side is filled with black-brandishing onlookers.  The memorial separates them, cold, and offline.
>They hadn't even had the heart to let Rainbow watch.
>”Before you die, tell me.  Why leave the guard?”
>The officer replies. “There are some mares whose loyalty allows more freedom.  I could not accomplish that under Celestia, even though I was dedicated to her through proxy.”
>”Fair enough.”
>Weapons ping.  Bodies fall. The smell of blood reaches your nostrils.  Not a single of the Ebon Pegasi cringe.  Rather, they watch, replenishing the firing line with fresh targets.
>”And here we are now.” the officer says.  “I would ask that you do the honors for me personally, but first, a warning.”
>Shining Armor looks to him, and quirks a brow.
>”That thing that's down there.  She can kill you.  Every single one of you.  And she'll do it with a smile.”
>Shining Armor makes no move to show fear, nor hate. “What is she?”
>”Purely herself.  Merely, in the new world.”
>Shining turns to face the officer, and you hear his weapons click to life.
>”Make no mistake.  She will enjoy every moment she has with you. And we made her out of respect.  Killing us was a test- training of sorts, I suppose.”
>The officer inhales sharply, and closes his eyes. “You're going to have to do a lot more of this.  Ponies misled by grandeur, honor, or love. I wasn't around for the Purge, but...  It's a hell of a thing, really, when you realize just what you've done for the sake of self worth.” He gives a nod, and a moment later, a bullet from Shining Armor's right side weapon crisply slaps the inner back of his open helmet.
>After he contracts to the floor and begins to bleed, soundlessly, Shining Armor begins to overlook the thinning crowd.  White clad ponies are already moving bodies out of the way, organizing them lines around the entrance outside.
>From what you could see in your AR, each one already had already primed their digital dog tags, so there was no need to go through the problem of ID'ing them. Many had attached text files, addressed to loved ones or friends.
>As the scene continues, you are forced to ask.
“Why would they DO this?”
>”These guys still have morals, I guess.”  Mjolna says.  “They're honoring their code, it's a pretty big snippet.  What I'm more worried about is how she got them so scared that they'd pull this stunt.  They were talking like they actually saw her. If she's that dangerous, and they're not willing to help us, they must have a goddamn phobia over her.”
>Shining Armor interrupts her. “They did.  They didn't lie, the techs have already picked up another significant pseudo-pony signature down below, right on the floor they mentioned.” He taps one of Big Macs guns, causing him to grunt a response, and then looks to you.  “Whaddya say, huh? Ready to save everyone's flanks?”
>You look back out as the final line is fired upon, ponies tumbling to the ground like dolls. The placement of holes varies in the precise places, but each individual is oozing from a star in their skull.  You look to Rainbow's memorial, the monolith silent and colorless.
“If this is what's going to be left over, I'm not sure.  But who else is going to try?”
–
>The descent was tasteless.  Recirculated, refined air, so lifeless it barely felt worth breathing.  Colors went from black to a brass-gold, textured metal, the need for a reception's formality fading past the 20th' level.
>Two elevators fell, one carrying you, Mjolna and Shining, the other carrying Big Mac.  More were on the way, but the Ebon Pegasi had made sure this particular method was a chokepoint.  It was home turf, they wouldn't have needed to move, and could allow intruders into a kill zone one elevator at a time.
>The ride was another agonizing exercise in fear. Through the emblem-marked glass you could see as empy floors passed you by, through the violet tint of Shining's shielding magic.
>The last of the Pegasi may have made promises. But it was up to them to keep.  You understood, and rightly awaited, the caution.  Opening the doors to a swarm of bullets was not something you were looking forward to.
>Not that getting down to the bottom was in the best interest of your instinct, either.
>You could feel it in your chest.  An ill worry, making you twitch when it spiked.  The monitors in the armor would notice it.  But nop0ny else would. Your own private daydream of violent things that could be.
>It took minutes.  Shining had paused between open floors, keeping his shielding active only at a minimum when he was either certain, or bored, that the elevator's contents were not under scrutiny nor fire.

>when you finally arrived, the air tasted completely different.  A pang of antiseptic, a vanilla flavor you only recognized from the fact that it had permeated the air when you awoke the first time in your pseudo-pony figure.
>A walkway extended forward for quite some meters.  To either side, depressions that held horizontal tubes you also recalled.
>Blank, pseudo-pony templates floated within. Without manes and rubbery, the uniform lines that held their manufactured flesh had not had time to develop the tissue to hide them.  Blue halogen illuminated them from outside, the only sound in the area that of an efficient electrical bubbling within.
>Vials of the black fluid you knew as Panacea encircled the opposite side, mechanical arms inside occasionally moving a single IV tube from vial to vial on select containters.
>those creatures below had been you, once.
>Your perusal did not go unnoticed, and Mjolna tapped your side to keep you moving.
>The door opposite the walkway was thick and mobile.  It lifted, locks to either side spinning and spitting some kind of hydraulic exhaust.
>It opened to a security glass viewing hallway, encircling a room.  Massive in size, it was hexagonal, a matrix of the shape in much smaller patterns upon the floor. Each one was white and had a circle of uniform dimples in the center, and some had burn marks or bullet scars.  The hallway was elevated, a ramp leading downwards and lit by small circular lights within the floor near the walls.
>Opposite your own entrance, you could see Big Mac in the distance, making his own safe way down his own ramp. Already past his own hallway, if things were symmetrical like you assumed.

>When the security doors opened to the room, hundreds of pings came to life.  A sea of them lit the floor on your AR, each one centered in one of the hexagons.  You could barely see your hooves past the hovering dots, each one numbered.
>Shining Armor pointed as a doorbell ping came from the far side of the room, to your troupe's left. Mjolna adjusted her position, weapons tracking upwards.
>Looking up, you noticed a window and a small platform.  Lit inside by blue, cobalt wall patterns within, you could see a bed.  A table, a personal computer.  A small armory inside with weapon harnesses.
>The figure inside rolled and stretched, the sound of fluttering wings reaching you thanks to the auditorium style acoustics. It rose and peeked outside, though you could make out not a single detail thanks to distance.
>It disappeared for a moment.  “Be right down.” A voice said, echoing thanks to comms static.
>Pretty, yet scratchy.  And oh so heartbreaking to hear.
>There was some rustling within the personal bunk.  Zippers zipping, some clicks. You saw the form attach one of the weapon harnesses.  She came, clad in armor and guns, to the edge of the platform.  Her steps were agile and almost dainty, even within the suit.
>Mjolna stared. “No way.  No bucking way in hell.”
>Big mac was, as was his usual self, speechless.
>Shining Armor simply glowered, motioning with his hoove to get closer.
>You were locked in place for the epiphany.  So this is what it was? This was what the real, palpable fear that Chrysalis could inspire? This was how she truly did things?

>She had longer hair than the vids gave her credit for.  She shook it out of her eyes and smiled comfortably, before using her wings to float to a careful, practiced stop.
>She was still beautiful.  Decadently colored hair. Wonderful, cyan blue wings that rivaled the sky.
“Rainbow?”
>She smiles.  “The one and only.”
>”That's not her.” Mjolna said. “It can't be.”
>Shining Armor waves a foreleg to form up. “It's just a changeling trick- a prototype they said, remember?”
“No.”
>They all look to you.  You simply tap your own chest.
“She's like me.”
>Rainbow tilts her head, quickly glancing you over. “Don't compare to... That.” she waves off the comment and laughs.
>The punchline and depth of the cruel joke...
>Rainbow hadn't died. Chrysalis knew her war in the physical sense was lost; she'd kept Rainbow's mind on crystal, in tandem with her own. When the technology had finally arrived, she had reunited biology with thought.
>Yet she was just the proof of concept.
>Time.  Time was a hell of a thing to lose.  And if Rainbow's existence was any indication, the entirety of Equestria had run out of it with her rebirth.
>And if the green in her eyes was any indication, Chrysalis had been hard at work in discovering digital means to her sinister feeding while Rainbow had been imprisoned.
>The greatest war hero during Equestria's greatest war was under Changeling control.  And she was staring at the four of you with one of the most war-hungry smiles you had the misfortune of seeing.  To her, the arrival of well armed intruders appeared downright exciting.  Like an opportunity she wasn't about to pass up.
>She never was one to pass up a good fight.

>”Rainbow, think.” Shining says.  “You have to remember us- the things you did.  We're not here to kill you.”
>”Colt,” she replied. “I've killed a lot of changelings.  Even more of those fake changelings they keep throwin' at me.”  She starts to circle to the side, her smile only broadening as Big Macs guns stoically follower her.
>”Heck, I've even been killed a few times. But they kept bringin' me back. And you know what?” She leaned to one side. Lights near her hoof armor start to glow blue, and you notice one of the AR pings light up in the same hue.  “I've killed you a few times too, right after getting fed the same damn line from every other fake chump they've been training me on.”
>She tapped her hoof on the ground, and one of the hexagons lifted with a hydraulic hiss.  It formed a pillar of the exact same shape, the sides tattooed with burns.  It blocked Big Mac's vision entirely, as well as any shot he'd just had.
>It was then the first rounds panged against Shining's shield, barely brought to bear in time.  She darted upwards and fluttered silently, exuding a bloodthirsty laugh. Mjolna took aim.
>With a single flap, she rose up several feet.  Her wings spread and she split the air above you in a forward aerial rush.  Her her guns strapped below her wings, angled downwards, she strafed a full wave of automatic fire below herself.
>Shining enveloped himself with a fully circular shield, the front-facing violet plate expanding just in time. Bullets hugged the shield, the the sheer force of the shockwave Rainbow had generated in that instant had you sliding backwards.
>You looked up in time to see her wink.
>As you dove, you felt the world where you were erupt in dust and barely-missed munition.  Your suit was smooth enough that it allowed you to skid, your only saving grace, as she reared back mid-flight to try and track you.
>Bullet holes followed you in a pair of lines from where you had started, a cloud of ablative-impact dust rising from a pool of deep gashes in the white plating on the floor.  Her guns clicked empty before could meet her mark.
>Rainbow's armor-clad hooves hit the floor with a heartless, chest-shaking slam.  She laughed again, her wings curling to unbuckled a set of rectangular pockets.  The new magazines spun in the air as the empty mags shot outwards with a click.
>As you started to rise, you heard Big Mac's guns spinning.  Rainbow's wings unfurled, then tightened to her body in a practiced swing.  The new magazines were already replaced, and as she lifted her wings once more, she dragged them along the weapons.  You heard them cock.
>Her wings open, she shoots into the air. A wall of ammunition cuts you off from your intent, and you cover your head as you feel minigun rounds split the air in twain above you.  The wall ruptures in wounds the size of a baseball, dozens opening in the blink of an eye.
>Rainbow was already above and beyond them. The air whistles above the weapon reports while Rainbow dash's in a nimble arc, halfway suspended in the air above the room. Mjolna had naught the time to have turned, let alone get a bead.
>Both Shining and Mjolna hit the floor, and Big Mac follows Rainbow's lead.  Blasts of metal and plating trail her, causing Rainbow to zig and zag mid flight.
>His targeting system confused, Big Mac grumbles as his rounds shred the pillar.  It cracks most of the way through, and as he stops to conserve his ammunition, Rainbow gently passes to the other side.
>”You guys are never good at this killing thing.” she says.  She bucks backwards against the ruined pillar's cap.  A massive chunk crackles, splitting from the main bulk of the pillar.  It slides before it starts to fall, and she's already mobile again when it's on it's way down to meet Shining and Mjolna where they lay.
>They roll apart.  The pillar piece smashes into the floor hard enough to lift you from the ground momentarily, the hexagonal shape thumping to a stop between Shining and Mjolna.
>You move for balance, pulling yourself into a run as you see Rainbow's casual, floating angle.  You arrive behind the pillar piece in time to heart Big Mac's chitin met with dozens of bullets, adrenaline the only thing able to keep you from misinterpreting the gunshots as a single pull of the trigger.
>You see sparks fling from one of Big Mac's ammo barrels. You see Rainbow exposing her underbelly mounted guns as she flys back behind the pillar.  You duck in time to hear the explosion, the sound akin to popcorn, hundreds of bullets in his right gatgun magazine going off nearly at once.
>Pressed against what's left of the armored obstacle, you feel the slap of bullets straight through the material.
>Big Mac stumbles to the side, a smoldered, splintered weapon cradling a cauterized crater on his right flank.
>He does not scream.  Through your emergency AR, you see his face on a small monitor, the size of an icon, and some bio-feedback monitors. A rage with such purity lights in his face, and after a blip, you hear the useless weapon slap to the floor and begin to roll.
>You and Shining Both peer over the top.  The fog of war reveals Rainbow's sillhouette, flapping genially upward from behind the pillar.  Big Mac's remaining gun slides into an almost turret like position on to his back, the engine from his forsaken gatgun interlocking with the first.
>Maybe now, it would have the speed to track her. But she was still too fast.
>Mjolna sucked in air through her teeth. Looking down, you see one of the bullets from the detonated weapon had popped directly on her side.  Oozing red through shredded armor, she still stands, and you hear her speak.  “When I get a hold of you, I'm going to kick your goddamn flank.”
>Rainbow's shadow vanishes once again behind the pillar.“Bitch, do you even know who you're talking to?” A pair of empty magazines fly out to either side, and before they hit the ground, you hear her guns cocking. “Have you ever even tried to hold onto a rainbow?”
>Another pillar rises. Directly next to the first, it slides to it's brother's original height, unabated by damage. It keeps her shielded from Big Mac, whom is now stomping backwards for a wider cone of fire.
>There was no way to follow Rainbow's movements. You'd need to think faster.
>You hide again, looking down. You were swimming in the AR pings for the pillars.  As you heard Mjolna firing, ineffectually, to keep Rainbow pinned, you tried to access one.
>Okay, cunt. You want to play this game, do you?
>Big Mac, expecting Rainbow to come from the side that Mjolna hadn't locked down with gunfire, turned his firing angle to envelop the side of the fresh pillar.  However, inches above the ground, Rainbow slung herself below the wave of deadly slugs Mjolna had been firing at her first flight height.
>You send bianary pings to each pillar in a line in front of you.  A wall rises before Rainbow can physically clear it. She's forced to stop on a dime, hovering there, while Mjolna, Shining, and Big Mac bring their weapons to bear.
>Rainbow curls off. Pressing herself to the pillar, she bucks off it, both upward and diagonally. Rounds graze her as she leaves, opening glittering gashes in her armor, but nothing more.  She doesn't catch herself in the air until about two seconds later, her wings spreading to slow her descent.
>She lands, mostly undamaged, and looks directly at you.  She squints.
>With a single flap, she lifts several feet almost instantly.  Shining watches her, then turns and tackles you. Mjolna dives near Big Mac.  You hear slugs squashing against Shining's shield, and you watch them stop mid-flight, cracking the hastily cast spell in several places.
>She darts back and forth three more times. Each time, a burst of calculated fire populates the shield with spiderwebs.
>Shining says one thing.  His expression is glassy eyed and wide. “Cover your head.”
>The shield explodes on her fourth pass.  The sound of glass skitters over you and Shining, and you hear the slowed bullets lick the air all around you.  You feel the familiar twang of impact on your armor.
>The tip of Shining Armor's horn chips off and vaporizes.  He screams through clenched teeth, standing in the same instant and letting out the rest of his breath in a gutteral roar.
>Big Mac's weapon starts to fire, punctuated by Mjolna's comparably tinny automatic fire.
>You shove yourself into a standing position, just in time to see it.
>Rainbow dive-bombs toward Big Mac, his gun having missed her entirely.  Mjolna is in mid-air, hopping backwards, as both of Rainbow's rear hooves slam her weight into his skull from above.
>The force is so great, it drives his head into the armor-hardened floor. His helmet distorts between her hooves and the floor, before visibly cracking.  The power behind it is so great, it crumples even his armored figure to the ground.
>Before he has even finished falling, Rainbow slams a forehoof into the blackened meat of his wound.  She gyrates her hoof, inches deep in his flesh, and sends him into instant, shrieking shock.
>Big Mac's biomonitors fade, the warning text quickly shifting from orange to red.
>Rainbow looks at you from her stance atop the massive, near-dead stallion. She yanks her foreleg out of the depths of his wound, slinging blood and wet ash.
>Mjolna starts to fire.
>Rainbow jumps with her usual uncanny grace, letting her armor absorb the rounds. One moment, she is in the air. The next, you hear Mjolna's sudden, pained grunt.  Rainbow lifts her with one smooth upward buck, as Shining Armor drunkenly turns his weapons, then hesitates from the body between him and his target.
>Rainbow curls under Mjolna's left foreleg. Putting most of her torso beneath it, she grabs Mjolna's hoof, and pulls.  Her strong wing pushes vertically, and after some effort it fully rises, allowing you to hear Mjolna's foreleg leave the socket.
>Mjolna gurgles as Rainbow slides out from beneath her, keeping herself shielded with Mjolna between herself and Shining.  Mjolna, stubborn as she is, manages to stand on three limbs in dawning surprise. She looks at her limp foreleg, and despite her condition, curls her lips to show her teeth.  She pushes off her functioning forehoof, Rainbow unprepared and brow angrily quirked.
>Mjolna angles her head. The weight behind her meets with Rainbow's face. Even from the distance, you hear her nose break, and see several teeth scatter from her lips.
>It stuns Rainbow only briefly. Mjolna tries to bring her weapons to aim true, but it only takes a moment for the cyan soldier to lift her wings.  She uses the air to shove her full wing power into the brown mare's wounded form, shoulder-shoving her several feet.
>Shining Armor is already on the move, charging.  By the time Mjolna stops, Rainbow has met Shining Armor's charge. As if grappling, the two shove and push against each other, keeping one another still.
>You move to help Mjolna.  She rolls off her back and you're able to lift her, and once she regains her balance, she heaves her weight away and limps toward the two.
“Don't- Don't!”
>It's all you can say as you see Rainbow push herself away with her wings.  The gust is enough to kick Shining onto his back hooves.
>Rainbow uses the momentum and exposure to fire at point blank range. Bullets carve a path around Shining's rear hooves, the only ones on the ground.  One connects, ripping through bone and flesh, kicking him to the floor and leaving a stump where his right rear hoof used to be.
>She lands, pushing a forehoof onto his chipped horn. It pins him to the floor, threatening to drive the horn right through his skull from above.
>”You, BITCH.” Mjolna snarls.  It's the last words you ever hear from the brown mare.
>Rainbow looks up to see Mjolna coming down atop her.  She moves to dodge, but Mjolna's weight catches her before her wings can lift her.
>From behind, you see Mjolna's head hear Rainbow's side.  Rainbow's eyes go wide, and she tries to pummel the mare away. She starts to scream.
>You hear it.  Flesh, tearing.  Bone, snapping. Mjolna's head rocks side to side, weakly at first, but quickly turning violent as you see a spray of blood.
>Mjolna's head whips to the side, and you see it. Her face, covered in blood and ripped feathers. Rainbows severed wing sails away with a juicy wrenching sound, tendrils of gooey flesh and gray, glistening bone perfectly visible before it lands with an unceremonious flop.
>Rainbow, completely unphased thanks to rage and pain, hooks her teeth into the rear neckguard of Mjolna's armor.  She flaps her remaining wing, using the force to yank Mjolna from the ground.  She spirals in mid-air, her weight crashing to the floor.
>Rainbow steps forward over her. Putting a rear hoof to Mjolna's chin, she gives a firm, long kick. Mjolna's head snaps to the side, and you hear the vertibrae crack.  The monitoring blip on your AR goes gray.
>Shining Armor makes no sound besides a pained groan.  He rolls to his back, legs curled tight to his body. Upside down on the floor, Rainbow has one last glance before he fires.
>Bullets tear the air around her. Then, into her. Through her. He doesn't stop firing until his weapons repeatedly click, and the cyan mare tumbles back, full of wide, bloody, holes and reeking of blood.
>Even with all the wounds you witness, she starts to crawl away.  You can hear a distinctive sucking noise as she breathes, something you were all too familiar with.
>Shining Armor pants, his hair clinging to his face. “Finish it.” he pleads.
>You?
>What the hell were you supposed to do?
>You walk toward her. Incapable, you merely do as you are told.  You walk alongside the trail of blood she leaves while Rainbow limps along the ground.
>The elevators finally arrive, full of other Celestian guards, and you hear some acknowledgement chime through the auditorium. You hear marching hooves, seeing white clad ponies roll down the entrance to the auditorium.
>The entire fight had only lasted a few minutes.
“I don't even have a gun, I can't just-”
>”No.  She'll just get a new body.”  Shining was breathing harder and harder, and despite his white coat, you could swear he was getting pale. The warning monitor hovered above Big Mac's, the signature fading from orange to red.
>With a whistling inhalation, she laughed.  Then, quickly regretted it as she vomited blood.  “He's... Right...” She said. She looked back to you, standing above her.  She was smiling. “Gonna... come back... and kill every... one of you... so very hard...” She grins at you. “You... you bucked up my flightplan... gonna... get you... first...”
>She wheezed.
>The Celestian guards start to work at the locked security doors, cramming behind them and pointing. Muffled orders sound through glass.
>”You... think... they'll really... let ME go?”
>Then, you see it.
>She has a connection node on her back. Physical only, some kind of wired uplink hooked to her spine and brain.
>Just a construct.
>You reach back to your flank-pack, taking out the high-speed fiber optic cable.
>Just a file.
>You hold your breath as you link the cable to the node in the back of your head.
>Just a fucking file.
>She really was just like you.
>”JUST DO IT!”
–
>You stood at the memorial again.  It's unlit face was blank.  Soulless.
>Around you seemed immaterial.  Devoid of any significance, you walked around it. Touched it, without AR response.
>First, Shining armor passed you by. Some kind of gurney, he was holding back screams while he was wheeled away.
>You pressed your hoof to the pattern, like before, when you'd visited with Rarity.  God, would she ever forgive you?
>Big Mac was wheeled by. Much slower, the gurney had been too small for him. Several other ponies helped, donning medical garb and facemasks, using a second gurney strapped alongside the first.  His helmet had been stripped, his swollen face and open, black wound in plain view.
>Nothing. What Rainbow had been, on display for the world, was no longer there.  What made you really ill, though, was that you knew why. The data you pulled from the combat monitors, Twilight had already analyzed. So deep down in the structure, you'd been amazed at how quickly she'd been able to download from you directly.
>That monolith. It hadn't been a memorial. It had been a tomb.
>Her body had been full encased inside, or, what had been left by the changelings to find.  The Ebon Pegasi, unashamed at using the biological data to reconstruct their most worshipped soldier, had taken to robbing graves.
>Mjolna's body bag was carried by, and tossed into line.
>You rear up, and punch the switch that should have transmitted the AR images.
>You hit it again and again, eventually just shaking your head and holding your hoof there, not a pang of even digital life within.
>Rainbow's body went by.
>The Celestian guards were slow, rather careless.  Devices bleeped a heartbeat, some sort of breath mask kept her alive.  Patches of Panacea had already been injected, leaving fleshtone marks to replace the bullet-sized gaps in her armor.
>You looked over her, the soldiers stopping to let you see your handiwork.  Twilight had ordered it, but they'd tried to pass you by anyway. When you called for them to stop, they did so, perhaps out of pity.
>She didn't move.  Her eyes were wide open, and dry, not having blinked since you'd removed the wire.  They stared blankly off into the distance, pupils perfectly dialated and white.
>As long as she had been able to think and act, been aware, she could have just been copied. But the “data shredder” that Twilight had given you had done it's job.  Done it quite well.
>Just a file, after all.
>One you destroyed, and in doing, would need to cleanse yourself of. The smell of singed feathers and blood just didn't want to leave.
>A message ping entered your AR.
>Seeing whom it was from, you took a long time to answer it, unsure of what was to be said.  From yourself, mostly.
>Moniker: We know where she is.  Negotiation teams are en route.
>Anonymous2: Negotiation?  Just melt the goddamn place.
>Moniker: We can't.  It's necessary.  And it belongs to a friend. We want to give her a chance.
>Anonymous: I know what a changeling can do now, Twilight.  First hand.  Burn it to the ground. It doesn't matter who they are, they're probably too far gone.
>Moniker: I wish I could.  But I can't bring myself to do it.  Nor can Celestia just yet. Not until we know if it's really a lost cause.
>Anonymous2: Where the hell is it. I'll let you target me if you need to.
>There is a ping that Twilight is typing. But it takes a long time, and you can see her erasing things, though the text has not been sent.
>Moniker: Butterfly Bio-Magic, dome 2.  Fluttershy's experiment garden.
>Moniker: It's already locked down.  She's panicking, because we know. She says she wants to explain herself.
>Moniker: Please, don't make this harder than it already is.
--