She awoke with a start, gasping for air and vomiting blood.  It was difficult for her to get any air in, every time she would try to take a breath in, her stomach would act up and she would vomit again.  It was like torture for her.  Just when she thought she would lose consciousness from no oxygen reaching her brain, her stomach finally settled down and she got a breath in.

For the first time since she woke up, she took a look at her surroundings.  'Where am I?'  It was dark, very dark.  She tried waving her hoof in front of her face and could barely make out the black moving blob.  Small rays of light shone through the trees that surrounded her.  It appeared to be nighttime in a forest. If it could be called that.  It looked more like a swamp.  She stood up on her hooves.

"Augh..."  She let out a quick moan.  The excruciating pain on her back and right side became immediately evident after she stood up along with a small tingling sensation next to the pain. 'Ugh... I feel terrible.'  Her entire body ached.  She looked behind her to try to see what was causing her such pain, but it was too dark to see anything except for the fact that she had wings.  She tried to find a spot with more light by walking around in a circle, but it almost seemed as if the trees were trying to keep whatever it was causing her pain a secret and teasing her by giving her very little light.

She noticed pale light streaming through a small section of trees.  When she began to walk toward it, she started to hear the sound of flowing water.  It grew considerably less dark as she walked in between the trees and the sound of the flowing water grew louder.  After walking for a little bit, she came to an area where there were no trees to cover the moon and a river so long it looked like it spanned all the way through the swamp, cutting it in half.  She walked up to the river and looked into it.

She found a cyan mare with a rainbow mane and magenta eyes staring back at her.  She said out loud, "Is this... me?"  After she had asked that question, her head started to ache and that coupled with the pain on her back and side forced her to finally see what was hurting her.  "Gah... it hurts to remember..."  She stood so that her right side was facing the water.

What she saw nearly caused her to faint.  The first thing she noticed was the terrible condition in which her wing was in.  It looked like nearly half of it was missing entirely, and what was leftover looked horrid.  It looked like it had been burned off, no matter where she looked all she saw was the muscle that wasn't supposed to be exposed, All the flesh was burnt off.  She could see the bones inside of her wings.  Her back was in a similar condition, black edges separated the flesh that had not been touched by whatever had caused the damage to her body.  Her rainbow tail was burnt as well.  "That doesn't look good."

The sound of something rustling in the direction of the bushes she just came from startled her and she quickly turned around.  Another pony came crashing through the bushes.  The horn that was immediately evident after looking at him identified him as a unicorn.  He had on a gas mask and a flak jacket over his fatigues.   He didn't immediately notice the cyan pegasus, he traced the river from left to right with his eyes until he spotted her.

"I've found the target!"  'Huh?'  She looked around.  She didn't see anyone else.  A chill went down her back, which caused her back to hurt more than it already is.  'Am... I the target?'  Her question was answered when she saw the light around his horn signifying that he was using magic and the the glow of telekinesis around an assault rifle.

"Whoa, whoa, wait I'm not who you're loo-"  He pointed it at her and used his magic to pull the trigger.  Her body spasmed for a moment before falling into the water with a large splash.  Not before long, other unicorns with gas masks on came through the brush. attracted by the gunshot.

"Where's the target private?"  the unicorn that was slightly larger than the rest asked, his voice muffled by the gas mask.

The lower ranked unicorn saluted quickly before returning his hoof to the ground.  "She fell in the water when I shot her."

"Alright," he said this loudly to get everyone's attention before continuing, "everyone search the water, the current is slow, it couldn't have drifted far."  They all lined up on the shore.  Their eyes scanned the water, searching for anything that might look like the target.  None of them blinked, as if in fear that they would miss something if they did.  After 60 seconds,  one of them raised their voice.

"Uhh, sir?"  He saw something moving in the water.  "I got something here."  The higher ranked unicorn walked over.

"What is it?  Did you see the target?"

"It look's like something's... moving in the water."  They both moved their faces closer to the water to see if they could discern whatever it was that was moving.  The higher ranked unicorn went pale in the face and his pupils contracted, but before he couldn't warn the others in time.

Suddenly, without any warning, there was a large splash accompanied with a loud splashing noise in the middle of the river.  It was the cyan mare.  She had quite literally jumped out of the water, she was fifteen feet in the air above the water and she was moving towards the side of the river opposite of that of her attackers.  She landed on the shore and immediately started running, which was surprising considering the condition she was in and the fact she was just shot.

The higher ranked unicorn was the first to recover from his surprise.  "That's the target!  Fire!  If she get's out of range, pursue her!  Don't let her escape!"  They all recovered from their stupor after hearing their leader's order.  The Rainbow maned pegasus saw the various colored lights of unicorns using their magic and raising their assorted weapons.  They all started firing at the same time.  She was quickly losing them, but she heard the bullets hitting the ground and trees around her and she heard a bullet whiz past her ear once.  They could still nail her. But that wasn't the biggest worry on the rainbow pegasus' mind.  'Why am I still alive?  While she was thinking this, she failed to notice that her back had regained it's cyan color, her wings were their original color as well, and the wing that was missing part of itself was slowly regaining it's original shape to match the other. Next Chapter: Chapter 1 Estimated time remaining: 16 Minutes