Chapter 15
Dusk looked back at the blasted and burning town. The repurposed stage wagon carried her and its cargo of refugees away from danger. At the prompting of a noble soldier, she had helped save a few lives, for a while. However, she had failed to stop the destruction, even with honesty. “Come on, wasn’t that the moral of the story?” she thought. Why didn’t they believe her? She realized now that a better question would be “Why would they believe me?” The dispossessed ruler’s only idea to save Equestria was to appeal to her still-powerful sister. Now that had fallen flat, and hope for the future seemed vain.
The doldrums of Dusk’s mind were sharply interrupted when another wisp of green magic floated out of the night in front of her. She quickly willed it away, and it obediently swirled into itself and disappeared. That was little consolation though; it had still found her. She looked at the soldier. Pearl had seen it, and quizzed her curiously, “Girl, are you charmed? I never got my own shooting star thing before.” Dusk was uncertain how to answer, but shook her head. “What’s wrong?” Pearl asked, but looked up from the conversation at the sound of flapping wings.
Two pegasus warriors were flying by to the left. They had flown quietly and were quite close already as they swooped by to investigate. The private hailed, “Hey, flyboys! What took you so long? We could have used the help a few minutes ago.”
They could now make out the fliers’ glowing green night-vision goggles and flack vests. The colorful mane and tail of the nearest pegasus stood out most of all. For half a second, orange light from the Ponyville inferno reflected across a glistening emblem on her vest. It was a golden circle hemmed with swirling arms: the blazing sun. With a start, Dusk realized that she recognized the pony: it was Captain Rainbow Dash.
Pearl’s kindly demeanor evaporated into shock. “Solars!” she gasped, and hastily slung her rifle in front of her. She hunched over her long weapon, leaning her eye that was unobstructed by hair against the barrel. Dusk hunkered down as the private took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. Their ears rang and startled screams came from the back of the wagon.
Dash dodged about in the air, and the bullet was lost in the night. Pearl stammered, “Omygoshomygosh, work, stupid thing,” as she took cover and strained on the bolt of the rifle. Trixie disappeared in a pile of her things. Captain Dash flew straight and level, keeping pace with them, presenting a clear target. Pearl successfully chambered the round and got up to take another shot.
Dusk looked up from where she was hiding and saw a ripple of flashes from the other side of the road. There was a low clatter and Pearl gave weak sigh instead of a cry. Dusk’s gray coat was painted with red that burst out of her protector’s side from a dozen holes. The private flopped down in front of her, staring with empty eyes.
Looking over the body she saw a third Solar Scout holding a sub machine gun whose silencer vented a thin trail of smoke. He had snuck up from the other direction, and he flashed a smile for having fooled the enemy. He was orange with a black mane that melted into the night. The colt hefted his clip and frowned at it; there weren’t enough bullets to finish the job. He swooped to the side and blasted the remaining rounds haphazardly into the workings of the rickety vehicle. It clanged and huffed, but kept moving. He let himself lag behind while he fitted the next clip.
Dusk knew what was going to happen; they were only here for one reason. They were here for her, and they would leave no one to tell the tale. What could she do? She couldn’t save the others even if she gave herself up. She looked to Trixie for direction, but the unicorn performer seemed to have abandoned her. “All her tough talk was an act,” Dusk thought, feeling betrayed and alone. She grabbed the rifle in front of her and struggled to pull it out from under the fallen pony. Gripping it desperately, she raised herself up to face the coming attack.
They were already there. Rainbow Dash grabbed Dusk in one hoof and the rifle in the other. The two other commandoes pushed their automatic weapons past Dusk to keep her out of their field of fire while they took care of anything else that moved.
A strange assortment of pops, bangs, and whines that couldn’t have been gunshots filled the air. The Solar Scouts were lit in neon colors in front of her for a split second before she was swallowed up by a wave of sparks, smoke, and fiery projectiles. They retreated from the bizarre explosion, coughing and cursing. Dash let go of Dusk but took the rifle with her and let it drop onto the road behind them. When the wind blew the smoke out of the window, Dusk saw Trixie standing resolute with an empty and burning box of firecrackers. The reluctant heroine tossed the flaming package overboard and snatched up a small pouch.
“Trixie is going to do a magic trick,” she announced. “Do what Trixie says, and she will make you disappear.” She rushed to the back of the wagon and motioned for the huddled passengers to join her. “When Trixie tells you, jump off, fall off, or get thrown off. It’ll hurt but you’ll live.” She took a small black ball from the sack and ordered to Dusk, “Make sure they get off.”
Dash’s squad realized the threat was phony and returned to finish the job. Before they caught up, Trixie threw down the little black smoke bomb and shouted, “Now!” She swirled around and tossed a crying filly into a clump of bushes by the road. Dusk and the others looked at her.
“What happened?” she demanded. “Ugh, just be ready this time,” she said, already taking out another ball from the sack. At the next obscuring explosion, an old gentlecolt fell clumsily over the low rail. Dusk said, “Sorry,” and tossed the apple vendor’s daughter to the roadside.
The pursuers watched unimpressed as the wagon vanished into a puff of smoke and reappeared on the other side. “Lame,” Dash jeered, before thinking again. “Is she still on?”
The second Solar flier held up a scope which tracked Celestia’s signal and reported “Yes, Captain.”
“Let’s finish them,” the grizzled, black-maned soldier urged, brandishing his weapon.
“Hold on Zeze, we’ll take them down when we can see,” Dash ordered. “They’ll run out soon.”
A few smokes later and the mad little operation was almost complete. At the next obscuring puff, Trixie assisted a confused Granny Smith into a nasty tumble. Trixie and Dusk winced. The unicorn returned to the controls and steered around the turn in the road. The wagon creaked and clanged louder as the damaged machine choked on its own parts. Trixie held up another black firecracker and indicated, “Last one. Your turn.”
“What about you?” Dusk begged. “Why would you do that for me?”
“This is bigger than Trixie, isn’t it?” the unicorn said with acceptance. “Go!”
Another pop behind the wagon, and Trixie shoved Dusk out the back. The tiny alicorn thudded painfully to the ground, but she turned to see her friend leave. Trixie bowed as her crippled vehicle limped a few hundred yards down the road and stalled. The soldiers swooped in for the kill.
Dusk mustered herself to her hooves, determined to keep Trixie from sacrificing herself. She ran out from behind the smoke and into view, shouting, “Hey, over here!” The squad paused in the air and studied the reappeared pony. She reared up and barked, “I’m fucking Celestia and I order you to chase me!” She darted off the road and tried to lose herself in the wilderness.
“That’s her! Get her now!” Dash commanded and streaked after her target.
Dusk rushed into a forest to evade them like she had the apple vendor. She scraped through the undergrowth and strained her eyes into her dark new environment to pick out the best path. Her large eyes adjusted and guided her through. When she found the space she flapped her wings to gain speed. She wondered at her impulsive deed, thinking, “Why did I do that? I can’t let them take me. They’ll take me back to the ponies I put in power, ponies who want me back the way I was.” She had changed, not completely, but enough to know that she couldn’t bear to be that way again. That was why she had kept her secret in Canterlot.
She almost thought she was safe when she caught sight of Rainbow Dash running behind her, tracking her with those green night vision goggles. The racing champion-turned-soldier easily overtook her, and came up beside her and to grab her or knock her over. Dusk dodged away to put trees in between them when she could. When she looked again beside her, she saw nothing.
Captain Dash abruptly loomed up ahead of her, steadied and ready to stop her dead in her tracks. Dusk turned sharply and sprinted through difficult tangles with desperate abandon. The rainbow flier cut her off again, and once again she veered away. The dogged blue pegasus blocked her path a third time. Dusk turned to run but stopped when she saw that her good soldier wasn’t moving. She welcomed the chance to regain her breath, but couldn’t fathom what her pursuer was doing.
Rainbow Dash flipped up her night vision goggles to stare at Dusk with her own eyes, revealing a menacing scar on her face. She growled, “I don’t have time for this.” She slid a serrated combat knife out of its sheath on her vest. She planted the blade in the ground and stepped back several paces until she was just as far away from it as Dusk was. It was a fair competition, a winner-takes-all, five-yard race.
The diminutive grey pony studied the forest and then the knife, calculating her best move. She was obviously not outrunning Rainbow Dash. Perhaps the champion racer and elite soldier had grown overconfident. Perhaps she didn’t realize that Dusk had regained some magic ability. Dusk tried to remember all of Celestia’s fights over the years, but realized she may have lost the knack along with some other parts of her old self.
She sprang for the weapon at the same time that she drew it towards herself with her limited magical power, thus beating Dash for control of the blade. The only problem with that assessment was that Dash stood unflinching. She didn’t even try to get the knife.
Dusk charged headlong at her and stabbed at her forcefully. Captain Dash dodged sideways, putting her hooves up to deflect the strike and twist Dusk’s foreleg. Dusk was overcome by a painful spasm that caused her to unwittingly drop the blade. In the same smooth movement, Dash pulled Dusk past herself, using Dusk’s momentum to hurl her onto her side. The uncompromising warrior kicked with her back leg, pounding her hoof up from under Dusk’s rib cage to fully incapacitate her. The martial arts of the elite Solar Scouts dictated that at this point Dash should snap the neck of a knife-wielding attacker. Dash stood over her and held her down, consciously omitting this last step.
Sensing her captive go limp in surrender, Dash let her breathe and called the other soldiers to their position. Major Zeze Snaps dropped lightly to the ground beside them. Some moments later the other scout arrived. His shouldered weapon caught in a bramble but he forced through it, dragging the plant behind him onto the scene. He stood panting and gawked at Dusk, wondering if she could really be such a high-level target. Zeze cut him a sideways glance before refocusing intensely on Rainbow Dash.
The air captain put up a hoof and gestured to return to base. “We have what we came here for, let’s go,” she ordered.
“We didn’t finish our objectives,” Zeze contended. “We should hunt down those ponies back there. Every pony with the target is also a target.”
Dash repeated sternly, “I said, let’s go. There was only one soldier, the rest looked like civilians. They probably don’t know anything.”
“Rainbow Dash,” Zeze argued, intentionally ignoring rank, “Are you getting sentimental? We don’t shirk orders.”
Captain Dash glared straight through her subordinate’s goggles and declared conclusively, “WE GO, Major. This one’s our priority. We already made a lot of noise, and Lunar troops are bound to react. If we don’t take her back now we might not meet ANY objectives.” Dash grabbed her knife and sheathed it forcefully. “Don’t question me again.” They collected Dusk and carried her away just above the treetops. They headed back east, toward Canterlot.