“Are you entirely sure that bringing Pinkie Pie with us is a very good idea? I mean this is supposed to be a rescue mission and no offense to her but… She’s kind of…” I was trying to find a polite way to voice my protest for bringing the obnoxiously pink mare.

“Bat shit insane?” Dash was quick to finish my sentence in a manner that I was trying to avoid it appeared.

“Well, I was going to put it lighter than that, but… Yeah, she’s completely out of her mind, are you sure it’s safe even having her around?” I gave up on not being rude.

Dash laughed lightly and shrugged. “Not sure actually; I definitely feel weary around her at times, but she’s the best shot in Equestria, so I’d rather have her gun protecting this place when I’m asleep than none at all. Though I hear you on the whole not feeling safe with her around; there’s a reason she doesn’t sleep in the house…” Dash turned away at that last part, clearly insinuating that she too had some kind of concern about Pinkie’s condition.

Coming up to her side, I tilted my head at an angle to get another look at Rainbow Dash’s face, hoping to get her attention again. She did as predicted and turned to face me again.

“Has she ever tried anything strange…?” I asked.

“Like I said kid, she was always strange, but I assume you mean strange even for her. One night I was sleeping and for some reason I woke up; I can’t remember why, but there she was standing over me.” Dash explained.

Her pause lead me to believe there was more to that story than that. “What’d she do?” I nudged her verbally to continue.

“Nothing happened per say, but she was just there breathing really heavily. We stared at each other for like five whole minutes. Finally she turned around and walked out the door without saying a word. She returned to her patrol for the night and we never spoke about it.” Rainbow Dash finished.

“Where does she sleep?” I questioned.

“No idea. I’ve never seen her go to sleep actually.” Dash shrugged.

“Speak of the devil.” She pointed to the door.

“So, we’re off on an adventure are we?” Pinkie Pie asked rather loudly.

Her voice was loud enough to wake every savage in the Equestrian ruins and bring them to us. She had a way of speaking that got one’s attention, though not in the way that Rainbow Dash spoke. Dash spoke with a voice that commanded, a voice fit to lead an army.

“Pinkie Pie, we’re going to rescue a pony named Octavia from some savages. I need you to not fuck around here, as this is a delicate operation.” Dash scolded the pink pony.

“No problem, delicate is my middle name… Actually it’s Diane, but that’s beside the point.” Pinkie gave a half assed salute to Dash.

Rainbow Dash sighed and shook her head in a manner that suggested she knew that anything she was saying was going in one ear and out the other for Pinkie Pie. I got the impression that this exact scene had played out several times between the two before.

“I suppose we should head out. Stay close, and try not to get killed.” Dash announced.

Rainbow Dash clearly knew how to keep one at ease, that or she was exercising a crude sense of humor, one that I probably couldn’t appreciate not being a part of the world the war created for very long.

“So… Pinkie Pie… Do you remember at all what happened to your head…?” I tried to make conversation with the delusional pony during our walk.

“My head?” She asked curiously. “Did something happen to it?” She added while taking a glance upwards.

“You know… That scar…?” I hinted.

“What scar?” She turned her attention right back to me.

It was useless; this pony clearly wasn’t even living in reality anymore. It was better not to force her either; who knows; maybe she’d snap and go on a killing spree or something. She didn’t look too stable right now as it is. I still firmly believed that she had good intentions in her heart, but part of me wanted to believe that they could be easily forgotten by her apparent brain damage.

“Hey you two shut the fuck up will you? We’re here.” Dash interrupted.

She gestured a hoof at a cave not one hundred yards from where we were standing. It didn’t look too special, though signs of being inhabited were all about it. Graffiti decorated much that was visible from the outside, and there were droppings of random garbage of possible savages. It wasn’t exactly very well hidden, but judging from the savages I had run into up to this point, I could assume they weren’t exactly the smartest bunch.

“Alright, here’s the plan…” Rainbow Dash gestured for us all to duck down lower while she whispered.

“Pinkie Pie, I want you to go in there and clear out any savages that are keeping guard trying to take care of any intruders. We’ll follow behind, that way I can cover the kid in case things get too… Colorful…” She glanced at me for a brief second as she mentioned that last part, as if she was trying her best not to offend me.

“Oki Doki Loki.” Pinkie agreed almost too quickly and eagerly for comfort.

Un-hesitantly she wandered over to the cave in a very nonchalant manner. The way she trotted over to it, it was as if she didn’t even realize that there may be a group of cannibalistic savages waiting for her in that cave.

Sure enough my instinct was correct. Soon a group of filthy colts bolted out of the cave surrounding her as she came only a few feet away from the entrance. Dash and I were using the brush to sneak up carefully while Pinkie Pie stood in a standoff with the group. She was very unmoved by their hostility, and appeared to be as casual as always, I couldn’t tell who I was more afraid of.

“Looks like we got some fresh meat here…” A drooling savage spoke as he gripped an old rusty axe between his teeth.

“Hello, my name is Captain Hamster… No wait… It’s… Pinkie Pie! That’s it! Yes, my name is Pinkie Pie!” She responded gleefully.

Another of the group snarled up a response. “Looks like this one is a few marbles short boss…”

There were six total circling her, all of which armed with some kind of crude melee weapon which they looked plenty experienced with.

“My friends and I would like to pass, as we’re on a mission. So if you’d let us through that would be most excellent!” Pinkie completely ignored their comment.

“Oh good, you brought us more snacks to go with our meal. You’re too kind.” The one with the axe hissed.

Without even a moment’s notice, Pinkie Pie raised her front right hoof and let her gun blast the axe-wielder’s head clean off his shoulders. Not even the slightest hesitation on her part, but looking closer I could see that her expression did a complete 180. The fun loving and lovable idiot Pinkie Pie disappeared within a second. This new face seemed demented and sinister; I was getting the chills just looking at her.

“You shouldn’t talk that way about my friends…” She warned.

With amazing speed she pivoted and shot another right through the neck. He fell choking while the other four lunged at her. She was able to avoid their swings and take out another with a single shot. In the confusion the remaining trio tried to circle around her and attack from all sides, this too was met with failure, as Pinkie was quick enough to squeeze out two shots and fell two more before their attacks could hit her, dodging the final attack proved simple to her.

Pinkie aimed her gun at the last colt, but a clicking sound was all it produced. She tried to fire it several times again, but only received more clicks.

“Looks like you’ve got a jam.” The last colt smiled deviously.

“Y'all ain’t got no more weapons now…” He laughed.

He clearly was mistaken. At those exact words Pinkie lunged her who body at the colt with full force. Tackling him she dug her teeth into his neck bit down and began to tear. The colt screamed and panicked in pain and agony as Pinkie continued shredding the skin right off of his neck and face using only her teeth.

Pinkie kept tearing and shredding at the corpse before her attention was grabbed by Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie, that’s enough, he’s dead already.” She scolded.

Pinkie ceased and a piece of the colts flesh dropped out of her mouth as she looked up to Dash. She smiled happily as if nothing happened and nodded to the blue mare.

“Sorry Dashie, got a little carried away.” She apologized.

“That’s fine, but tone it down a notch, you’re scaring the kid.” Dash instructed as she scouted on ahead with us close behind.

Scared would be an understatement, more like mortified. I had never seen a pony actually cannibalize another pony before. I had been threatened to be eaten myself, and heard plenty about cannibal ponies up to this point, but I had never actually witnessed it happening. The last thing I expected on top of that was the pony who saved me from cannibals to be one herself.

Out of fear I stuck close to Rainbow Dash, I was practically rubbing up against her. Catching onto my fear she glanced back at Pinkie Pie and gave her a quick order.

“Pinkie Pie, wait outside and keep guard. If we need you, we’ll yell.” She told.

Pinkie Pie nodded and pranced back towards the cave entrance happily, with blood still dripping from her jaw.

“I didn’t think she was capable of that…” I admitted.

“Yeah, she’s pretty wild sometimes. Doesn’t like ponies threatening her friends, I’m just glad she remembered I was one of her friends and didn’t try to rip me a new one the first time I came back here.” She said.

“She ate him…” I was very quiet.

“Well, she was more or less trying to kill him and got carried away, but yeah, I’m pretty sure that bullet to her head really fucked her up.” Dash tried to make light of the situation, which was just like her; after all, she had probably seen far worse out here.

“Let’s just look for this Octavia…” I sighed.

“Keep quiet. Lesson one about the ruins, never assume that you’ve killed all in a group, there could still be more of those assholes in this cave…” Dash hushed me.

Her being the veteran, I decided to just shut my mouth and obey. I followed behind her silently as she lowered her body close to the ground and crept through the cave. Moving the way she was, I noticed she was completely silent with her steps. It must have taken years to master such a method of movement that would eliminate her sound entirely. I did my best to mimic her, though I wasn’t half as good as she was.

Dash extended her blade and angled it around a corner as she glanced at it. She must have been using it to see around the corner. Pulling her blade back, she gave a glance over to me and a gesture that I interpreted as “wait here.” With haste she tip toed around the corner while I inched towards her direction to get a better view.

I was only able to catch a quick glimpse, but just enough to see Rainbow Dash sneak up behind a mare and slit her throat with her blade. She didn’t even wait for the body to stop moving before tossing it aside. Blood spurted out of the new opening on the mare’s body.

Dash ignoring the suffering of her fresh kill gestured for me to follow her. Still moving as stealthily as she was earlier we could see the flicker of some kind of fire up ahead. Once again she instructed me to wait as she cautiously inched ahead.

“Don’t move!” A voice called out from up ahead. I recognized right away that it didn’t belong to Rainbow Dash, which caused me to dart towards her direction.

A brown mare stood holding Dash at gunpoint. Her jet black mane looked like it normally was well kept, but had gone several days without being maintained. She looked tired and haggard, probably been awake for several days.

“Wait… Rainbow Dash?” She said lowering her weapon.

“The one and only.” I replied for Dash.

The mare let out a sigh of relief and approached us both carefully.

“Thank Celestia, this gun isn’t even loaded.” She said.

“I apologize for my rudeness, I’ve been held up here for a while now and I couldn’t take any chances. You can’t imagine how relieved I was when I heard the famous Rainbow Dash was coming to my rescue.” The brown mare complimented.

Dash sighed with annoyance. “We cleared out the cave, getting back to Canterlot manor shouldn’t be too difficult now. We’ll stock you up with some ammunition and food and get you on your way.”

“Miss Dash, I must say I am very thankful for your assistance, Twilight Sparkle and Luna speak very highly of you. After seeing you myself, I must say that their words clearly are the truth; won’t you return to Canterlot with me?” Octavia bowed her head.

Dash seemed to get angry at the request. “Like I said before, we could only help you out of this cave, getting back to Canterlot if your problem. You can tell Twilight that Rainbow Dash has no interest in playing soldier anymore.” She hissed.

After hiking back to the old library where Dash was staying she sacrificed some of her ammunition and rations to Octavia. Before she was sent on her way, she begged Dash to return with her to Canterlot one more time. Dash of course refused and Octavia took her leave with a look of disappointment on her face.

“Thanks again Pinkie, you’re a true friend.” Dash patted her on the back.

“No problem Dashie! Always glad to be of any help to my friends!” Pinkie replied.

“Can you do us a favor and resume patrolling outside? I want to catch some rest; I’m not as agile as I used to be…” Dash yawned.

Pinkie Pie gave another of her awkward salutes and rushed back outside without another word. A part of me still felt awkward about entrusting her with protecting us, but then again I was already aware of what she was willing to do to anypony who tried to cause harm to her friends.

Dash planted her rear onto the floor and let out an exhausted sounding sigh. She pulled a glass off of a shelf and filled it with the flask left on the table. All in the same motion she took a big gulp of the drink.

“You seem pretty worn out…” I said as I approached her.

“I’ve been worn out for years, kid.” She replied.

“I thought you were the fastest in Equestria?” I asked.

“I was, but that’s just the thing, I was the fastest in Equestria, the years have not been good to me that’s for sure.” She took another gulp.

“You could earn your title back with ease. You already have the mark to prove it.” I gestured towards her flank.

She laughed heartily, and lifted part of her cloak revealing her flank followed by the word, “Where?”

It was completely empty. No cutie mark whatsoever. I had seen her mark before on posters; a cloud with a multi-colored lightning bolt coming out of it. Sure enough though, no such mark existed on her body.

“What happened to your cutie mark!?” I exclaimed.

“I told you, I’m not the fastest in Equestria anymore.” She sighed, letting her cloak fall back over her flank.

“So your cutie mark just…?” I started.

“Disappeared. Yup, I found out that can happen. Apparently if a pony loses their talent, then their mark goes with it. Now I’m just a worthless good for nothing waiting for the end.” She sighed.

I said nothing. I couldn’t find any words that I thought would add anything to the situation. Rainbow Dash had sacrificed more than I originally thought for this war.