//------------------------------//
// 8: ...I Work For A Living 
// Story: A Pegasus Salute 
// by Winged Cat 
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Rainbow Dash never ran from a challenge, so far as Twilight Sparkle had seen.  Fights, athletic contests, grand acts of weathercraft - anything that most ponies might shrink from, Rainbow took on without hesitation (and sometimes without forethought, to the regret of her friends).  And why would anypony run away from good news?

Rainbow had been gliding slowly next to Scootaloo, talking as they passed through town, Scootaloo rolling along on her scooter just fast enough that Rainbow's wings gave her all the lift she needed.  When Twilight approached, flanked by the two griffons, Rainbow had glanced her way and waved.  But then Twilight saw a flash of recognition on Rainbow's face; a few words too soft for Twilight to catch, and Rainbow and Scootaloo picked up the pace.  Twilight gave the griffons a confused look, but they had already started running after, so Twilight followed.

Had it been an aerial chase, Rainbow would have gotten away, no question.  Rainbow Dash held the air speed record for any living pegasus.  But Scootaloo's wings were not yet big enough to let her fly, and apparently neither were Bertha's; neither Rainbow nor Beatrix were willing to abandon their younger companion, instead just flying above like motherly balloons and urging their respective companion to greater speed.  Both of the youngsters had adopted the trick of extending their wings to improve balance at high land speeds.  Even so, Bertha's legs were no match for Scootaloo's scooter's wheels on flat ground, and as the parties being chased, Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo were able to keep things to the open expanses of dirt and short grass that formed Ponyville's roads.

Of course, just outrunning in a straight line was not enough to shake pursuit.  Twilight Sparkle thought she knew Ponyville after living in it for a few years, but Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash had lived there for longer.  Time and again they rounded a corner and just seemed to vanish.  Fortunately, the griffons did not tire - physically or emotionally - quickly.  Unfortunately, Twilight did not have their endurance.

So it was that, about an hour later, when an exhausted and grumpy Twilight finally spied the two pegasi again coming out of Sugarcube Corner, she simply teleported in front of them.  Or tried to; instead she found herself across town, having misjudged the amount of power to pour into the spell.  Muttering a quick apology - she had popped into the middle of a meeting, judging by the circle of ponies giving her dirty looks - she applied her will to dial it back just a touch and tried again, this time finding herself next to the pegasi, for just a moment as they breezed by.  There was no way she was going to catch them on hoof or on wing, so she leaned in the direction they had gone and began teleporting very short distances, staying in one place just long enough to get a word in.

"Rainbow."  Her eyes barely had time to adjust before she popped out of reality and back in again.  It was like trying to watch a movie where seven out of every eight frames were blacked out, and the effort made her eyes water.  "Dash."  Though she easily recognized Sugarcube Corner: a large pink building she knew well, even if she only saw a pink blur just now.  "What."  One more teleport, and it was a house-length further away.  Twilight fixed her gaze on it to help measure her travel.  "Is."  Her effort was almost immediately thwarted, as the cyan smear that was Rainbow Dash began to round a corner.  "Going."  Sure enough, after the next teleport, Sugarcube Corner was out of sight behind another house.  "On."  Not that it mattered: the flying cyan blur and smaller, ground-bound orange blur stood out well enough.  "Here?"

Another teleport, and they were not where she expected them to be.  Her head snapped back the way she had come; Rainbow and Scootaloo had stopped for some reason.  Her mind had already queued up three more teleports, and she could feel the magic within her forcing itself into the spell matricies at the merest thought of using them.  She angled her teleports in a rough circle, finally coming to a stop next to them five teleports later - and having to clamp down on her magic hard to make it a full stop: part of her wanted to just keep skipping across reality.  Twilight squeezed her eyes shut to regain balance; when she opened them again, vision had returned enough to recognize the two pegasi staring at her: Scootaloo with wide-open eyes, Rainbow with concern.

"That was cool!  I didn't know you could do that."  Scootaloo slowly dismounted her scooter.  "Can you teach Sweetie Belle?  You were just, blinking from place to place!"

"It's called 'chain teleportation', and a certain somepony swore it was impossible, even for an alicorn."  Rainbow fluttered to a stop over Scootaloo, hindquarters hanging down.  "You said four in a row was nearly enough to knock you out, and you'd never heard of anypony doing six except in legend."

"Well...yes?"  Twilight did not bother to hide her confusion.

"Then how did you do thirteen just now?"  Rainbow gestured in an arc, tracing Twilight's recent appearances.  "And you're not even tired."

"I was.  I'm feeling better now, though."  Twilight vaguely recognized something off with that.  Had she not been panting for breath mere minutes ago?  Yet now she felt like going for a run, or another flight training session with Rainbow.  Or maybe it was more like she had just been through one; for some reason she was feeling really good, almost like a high from endorphins resulting from a good workout.  She brushed such thoughts aside in the face of the more immediate question.  "Why do you keep running away?"

Rainbow frowned at the change of topic, but she knew how stubborn Twilight could be.  She resolved to press Twilight about her magic later.  "Because I recognize the mother: she's one of those Oxfeathers.  I got tired of their holy this and sacred that.  I came back to Equestria to get away from that."

Twilight had suspected as much, but tried to hide a smile of triumph.  "She suggested it was because you missed Fluttershy."

"Yeah, well, th-that too.  I did kinda owe her an apology."  Rainbow knew almost no one bought her excuses on this sort of thing, but she had to try.  Always doing things because you wanted to do them, rather than just because you had an obligation to somepony, even if that somepony happened to be your best friend - that was cool, was it not?  "But what are THEY doing HERE?"

"They came to see you!  You're their hero!"  On a whim, Twilight began molding a nearby rock into the triple-pointed crown-hat she had once seen in a history book.

Scootaloo looked up at Rainbow, then at Twilight.  "She is?"

Twilight nodded.  "She is.  She saved the younger one's life."

"Whoa!"  If it had been possible for Scootaloo's admiration for Rainbow to increase, it would have.  As it was, she just looked up at Rainbow and called out, "Awesome!"

"Yeah, yeah, that part was awesome but what came after..."  Rainbow looked to the side; sure enough, the conversation had given the griffons time to catch up and prostrate themselves in her direction.  "Look.  Twilight.  To them, when you save a life you're owed double.  'Hero' isn't the right word for it."

Twilight levitated the hat to Rainbow's head.  "I know, their word is 'Sah'.  But it certainly sounded like..."

Rainbow batted the hat away.  "Try 'master'.  I saved their lives so they could live their lives, not give them to me."

Twilight's levitation spell winked out.  The stone hat dropped to the ground and shattered.

"And they don't go away.  Look."  Rainbow turned toward the griffons.  "Okay!  Hi!  You've seen me!  Now your Sah commands you to return home and continue your lives!"

"We would, Sah," Beatrix replied, "but we can not.  Our home and our family have been destroyed.  We are all that remain."

Rainbow shrugged, facing Twilight again.  "See?  Any lame excuse to..."  She blinked, then faced the griffons again.  "Uhh...explain that, please?"

"Ludd returned and took revenge.  My daughter and I were returning from a trip when our family chateau exploded.  There were no survivors, and I knew we would be hunted.  We humbly beg your protection, oh mighty Sah."

Half a minute passed in silence.

"Please, Sah," Beatrix begged.

"I...yiii..."  Rainbow's mind tried to restart itself.  "Umm.  Your Sah...needs to consult with her trusted advisor.  Scootaloo, could you show them around town?"

"Sure thing!"  Getting in motion with a single kick, Scootaloo rode her scooter over to the griffons.  "So you're fans of Rainbow Dash too?"

Before the griffons could answer, Rainbow found herself on a small cloud far above Ponyville, Twilight next to her.  Or rather, half a foot above the cloud: just far enough to be unable to get her hooves in place or wings out before she belly-flopped onto it.  "Oof.  Warn a pony before you teleport them."  She looked up, irritated - but only for a moment, before seeing Twilight's expression.  "Are you okay?"

Twilight smiled, eyes closed, rolling her shoulders and hips as she levitated just above the cloud.  "Mmmh~...oh!"  Her eyes opened.  "Did you say something?"

Rainbow looked at her for a moment, carefully considering the evidence as she pulled herself to a sitting position.  "...yeah.  Yeah I did.  I think you need to lay off the magic for a bit."

"What?  Why?"  Twilight settled to the cloud, but felt a bit chilly this high up, so whipped up a simple thermal aura to keep her warm.

"Because it's making you act weird."  Rainbow reached up to put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, but yanked it away on contact, smoke rising from where she had touched Twilight's aura.  "Yow!  You feel like you're burning up!"

"I feel just fine."  Twilight shook her head: clearly, Rainbow was just being silly.  She was quite certain there was no way a thermal aura could actually burn somepony; it was too weak of a spell.  "So.  You're hosting a pair of refugees, and-"

"Stop changing the subject!"

"This is the subject!"  Twilight frowned.  "But if you don't want my help, fine."  She looked over the cloud's edge.

"Twilight..."  Rainbow started to protest, but Twilight's expression signaled that something had caught her eye.  Looking over the cloud's side herself, she saw a crowd gathering outside the library.  "Huh.  I wonder what's going on.  They don't look too happy."

"I'll ask."

"Wai-"

In her impatience, Twilight had taken part of the surrounding air with her, transposing it with the air around where she arrived.  The pressure difference caused a short breeze directed at her.  One paniced thought crossed her mind, and she looked in the direction Rainbow Dash had been in; fortunately, she had only taken a few hairs from Rainbow's mane along.  For a moment, she considered that she should be more cautious, then wondered why her heart seemed to be saying it was unimportant, and why Fluttershy was waving a hoof in front of her.

"Umm, Twilight?"  Fluttershy, never the bravest of ponies, nervously looked into Twilight's dilated pupils.

Twilight blinked.  Right, time to focus outside of her mind.  She had arrived right in front of the crowd, many of which she recognized from the meeting she had interrupted earlier.  Save for Fluttershy, they were all looking at her from a safe distance.  "Yes?"

Fluttershy flinched away.  "Oh, good, I was worried we were going to have to carry you or something.  Umm.  I, well, th-this is kind of hard to say, but..."

Twilight sighed.  "You too?  Look, I'm fine."

Fluttershy had heard that tone of voice before, far too often.  Most of the time it came from animals unable to form words, but the basics were the same, and there was one solution for it.  In a blink, Fluttershy switched from timid to assertive, leaning her face toward Twilight's.  "You are not fine!  You've been scaring a lot of the town lately.  We'll ask Celestia for help, but you need to leave town until you're better."

"WHAT?!?"  Deep in Twilight's brain, her fight-or-flight response kicked in.  It was apparent to all present, from the sudden flaring of Twilight's aura from thin gentle purple to jagged bright white, not to mention how she dug in her rear hooves and aimed her horn at Fluttershy, that "fight" had won out.

Deciding to take the better part of valor, Fluttershy scrambled behind a nearby rock and peeked out.  "Please?"