Chapter Twenty - Anger and Rage

Royal Castle, Canterlot, Equestria

July 15th, 2170

Riley hesitated just outside the door, taking in a deep shuddering breath. She didn't know what she was going to do.

"Take the Alicorn first," the leader said, practically growling out the words. "I've heard they're a bitch to kill."

There was no time left. She had to act now.

Rage built up inside of Riley, and she burst out of the shadows.

"NO!" She screamed, bursting through the twisted remains of the doorway. If she had been looking in a mirror, she would have found that her her eyes were tinged blue, glowing from within.

In a single heartbeat, Riley took in the entire scene. Everything and everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion and she was able to count the soldiers in the room, all twelve of them with their weapons pointed directly at the cowering ponies on the floor before them. Riley focused on Rainbow, and the expression of sheer terror on her little sister's face struck right at her heart.

The soldiers were just barely starting to react, turning around to face her as pure rage roared to life inside of Riley. She wasn't going to be that hurt little girl anymore. She felt strong.

She felt powerful.

It just so happened that she was also a latent biotic.

Reaching the first mercenary before he had even lifted his rifle, Shepard punched.

Her fist struck the man with all the force of a speeding M35 Mako. His heavy armor crumpled like tissue paper, and physics jumped into play. embedding his body in the opposite wall.

Even as the soldiers opened fire on her, Shepard was already on the move.

She was too fast for them, already moving onto her next target.

"That's her!" The lead soldier tried to level his rifle on the girl, but he was just half a second too slow. "Take her down!"

"Don't you dare take your guns off the unicorns!" The soldier pointed at two of the guards furthest from the door. "They so much as move, kill them!"

Grabbing the next soldier's neck, Riley pulled him in front of her, using him as a bullet shield.

The soldiers had no hesitation on firing on their comrade, and his armor was shredded quickly under the hail of armor piercing ammunition. Shepard tossed him aside as she subconsciously threw up a biotic barrier, charging at two of the soldiers behind the couch.

"Stop trying to shoot her, and shoot her!" The leader shouted rather unhelpfully, even as he failed to do the same.

Leaping into the air, Riley slammed her fist into the ground. Her biotic barrier exploded, shredding the couch and the two soldiers into pieces, sending a wave of gore and cotton across the room.

Before Riley could leap after her next victim, the leader shout out. "Enough!"

In the corner of her eye, Riley watched as the soldier lifted up Rainbow Dash, his pistol at her forehead.

"One more move and she won't have a head anymore!" He grinned, sure in his victory.

Riley froze, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Her biotic barrier had snapped back into place on a reflex the moment she had stopped moving.

A sense of false calm fell over the room, and Cadance draped her body protectively over Spike, Twilight, and Shining Armor.

"Let me go!" Rainbow Dash cried out, squirming uncomfortably in the soldier's grasp. His hand around her neck, she struggled to catch her breath.

"You'll be fine, Rainbow." Riley tried to reassure her sister, glaring at the soldier. "Don't worry."

Standing still, Riley turned her head first to the right then to the left, taking in the sight of all of the soldiers in the room, tensing herself for a fight.

"Kill her!" The soldier shouted.

Neurons firing at element zero enhanced speeds, Riley reacted before anyone else in the room. She charged forward, appearing in the same space that the leader was occupying. She body-checked him at near relativistic speeds, and he was sent flying. Riley grabbed Rainbow from his grasp, covering her little sister protectively with her body as a hail of bullets crash against her barrier.

Tossing Rainbow away from the hail of death, Riley spun and threw out her hand. A shimmering ball of blue energy whisks out, pulling three soldiers into a spinning ball of energy that literally pulled them apart atom by atom. They didn't even have a chance to scream.

The rest of the four soldiers panicked. They threw down their rifles as they tried to escape the room, but Riley charged after them. With a roar, Riley curled up on herself, energy drawing in before it exploded out , snapping their necks with the simple acceleration.

Standing, Riley turned back to where the leader had fallen. Fist glowing cherenkov blue, she raised it to smash his head to pieces, but Cadance rushed forward, restraining the girl.

"No!" Cadance pleaded. "Don't!"

Riley, still in the middle of a battle fog, looked at Cadance in confusion. The mare wasn't even sure that the girl recognized her.

"He should die," Riley said, her voice emotionless.

"No." Cadance shook her head, willing her to come back down to reality. "There's been enough death. Keeping him alive will help us far more than killing him."

Riley stared at Cadance, trying to understand why, but the Alicorn did't back down. She had a spine of steel and was unwilling to bend, not wanting to see the girl slip further into bloodlust.

For a single, heart stopping moment, Cadance wasn't sure that Riley was going to listen to her. She wasn't sure that there was anyway she could stop her if Riley decided not to listen to her.

Riley's biotics flared out, and she dropped to her knees, having exhausted nearly every ounce of energy that she had within her.

"Riley!" Rainbow cried out, bounding up to her big sister, nuzzling her worriedly and thankfully.

"Hey." Riley smiled at her tiredly. She scratched Rainbow's mane, struggling to keep her eyes open.

Desperately, the soldier tried to crawl for his gun, but Cadance restrained him in a magical field.

"Summon the guard," Cadance said, catching eyes with Dancing Star.

Dancing Star never heard Cadance. Instead, stunned, she threw up at the sight of all of the gore that Riley had caused so quickly. She had never seen anything like it before, and she wasn't sure if she was going to be okay.

"Oh Celestia…" She murmured, leaning into Cherry's side.

"Dancing Star!" Cadance shouted.

Dancing Star looked over at her, her eyes only half focusing. She was going into shock, but a Princess giving her an order was more than enough to get her moving.

"Yes, Princess?" She murmured.

"Go and summon the Guard." Cadance spoke slowly, wanting to make sure that Dancing Star heard everything that she said. "Inform Solar Ace. The Princesses need to know what has happened here."

"Yes, Princess." Nodding, she got up on shaky legs. Cherry followed after, just as stunned as the other mare. They gingerly picked their way through the bodies until they get to the doorway, galloping down the stairs as fast as they possibly could, needing to get away from all of the death and destruction.

"Riley." Twilight asked timidly.

Riley looked over to see that Twilight had crawled up to her, eying Riley like she was an entirely new beast, something to approached with caution and fear.

"It's alright, Twilight," Riley did her best to reassure the filly. The edges of her vision were tinged with black, and her head was spinning. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Twilight looked completely unconvinced.

"My big sister would never hurt any of us!" Rainbow looked at Riley with hero worship. The death and destruction hadn't fazed her, all because her big sister saved her life. To prove her point, Rainbow jumped up on Riley's lap and pulled her into the biggest possible hug that she could. Riley gave it right back, starting to cry herself as all of the adrenaline started leaving her body. All she had left were her emotions.

She fell back against the ground, and Rainbow snuggled up next to her.

Seeing that Rainbow was unharmed Twilight darted forward and embraced Riley.

"Thank you for saving us," the filly whispered into Riley's ear.

"No problem…." Riley passed out mid-sentence, the entire ordeal too much for her to handle anymore.