Firefly laughed as she and Skylark buzzed after each other in the streets of Manehatten. Her wings fluttered fast in the dying sunlight as the two fillies chased. Ponies milled around, most wearing a cap and a simple shirt and vest. Others wore suits and the like, somewhat standing out from others. As for the two little fillies, they refused to wear any clothes as they always itched and were never too good for flying.
Firefly still wasn’t good enough at flying just yet though, only able to manage an altitude of a couple feet off the ground. Watching as her friend continued to outrace her, Firefly narrowed her eyes and she pushed forward with all her might. She wouldn’t lose to her best friend! Firefly cried out in determination. “You’re a goner, Sky!”
Skylark turned her head around and blew a raspberry, causing Firefly to frown. Of course her best friend would. She was going to play it that way? Firefly would show her! With a burst of her wings, Firefly shot forward, straining her pegasus magic to push faster and farther. In less than five seconds, or an eternity for the likes of a pegasus, Firefly pulled ahead. Skylark could only widen her eyes in surprise.
“Haha!” shouted Firefly triumphantly.
Now ahead by half a filly’s body, it was Firefly’s turn to blow a raspberry. Just as she was about to, however, several things happened. Firstly, Firefly bumped into a pony she hadn’t noticed. The collision practically knocked the air out of her lungs, and she wheezed. Secondly, she spiralled out of control, hitting a trash can and rolling into a nearby alley. Finally, Skylark gasped, immediately taking off after her fallen friend and opponent. Rushing to Firefly’s side, Sky fretted.
“Are you okay?!” Sky asked, shaking Firefly vigorously. Fortunately, Firefly responded with a groan. “Oh, good! You’re still conscious.”
Unfortunately, Firefly now had a sore head and a slight headache. The shaking only made her head hurt that much more. Her breath caught in gasps, her chest feeling like it had been crushed by a cinderblock. Only one response was appropriate to Firefly in this situation.
A very dignified and wheezy “Oww!”
Sky stepped away from her friend as Firefly brushed her aside. “You know, you probably shouldn’t be moving so much after you just got hit like that.”
“I’ll… do… what I want…” pushed out Firefly, her breaths still coming in gasps. “Just… a little… bruised…!”
Getting up to her hooves, Firefly could feel the blood rush to her head. Her vision went curvy as she wobbled precariously on her hooves. Sky, seeing Firefly’s dizziness sidled up beside her. As the world careened around her, Firefly blinked oowlishly.
“W-wow,” Firefly mumbled. “Maybe I took a harder hit than I thought.”
“I told you so.” Sky rolled her eyes.
As Firefly painfully shook the stars from her head, she found the world tilting ever so slightly to the right. Knowing it was just her own disorientation, she didn’t pay it too much of her mind. What really concerned her now were the ponies that had started walking down the alley she had crashed into.
“Uh, Sky?” Firefly whispered, punching the ground with her hoof so she could have something to focus on.
“Y-eah?” Sky muttered back. She had begun watching the same four ponies that Firefly had spotted.
“You know how I bumped into that pony?” Firefly said.
“Uh-huh.” Sky nodded, and the two fillies started to back away from the advancing threats.
“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to play in the heart of Manehatten.”
Sky turned to Firefly with a face that screamed “You don’t say?” Firefly could only smack Sky in the foreleg for the attitude her friend was giving her. “Eeyah,” Sky finally said in agreement. They both looked behind them as they found that they had run out of alley to back up in.
“Little fillies like you shouldn’t be running around when it’s getting dark.” The stallion she had bumped into smirked, his words coming off of him with a sharpened edge.
“Bad things happen to foals who play around at night.” Another pony, a mare, said beside the groomed stallion.
“Playtime’s over, girls.” The stallion grinned as he motioned for the two thugs that surrounded him and his partner. The two mares that had flanked the two ponies now moved from behind them, and they began to advance on the two fillies.
“Together ‘til the end?” Firefly gulped, pawing on of her forelegs on the ground as she made eye contact with Sky.
“And ‘til the end will we fight!” Sky nodded, and the two fillies braced themselves.
The two thugs pounced, and so did the two fillies. Screaming a shout of battle, Sky and Firefly closed their eyes as they were about to collide in time to see a bright white blur intersect between the two groups of ponies. In that instant, they felt themselves get blown backwards into the end of the alley. Both fillies winced from the impact. As they fell to the ground, Firefly was the first to recover.
Groaning flat on her stomach, Firefly cracked open her eyes only to shut them again from the blazing plethora of colours in front of her. The next time she opened them, she squinted.
Standing in front of them, heaving with exhaustion and with black curls of some sort of smoke weaving in and out of her body was the one and only Rainbow Dash. The ground underneath her had cracked from the force of impact. Quickly getting adjusted to the amount of weather magic imbued into Rainbow at that moment, she opened her eyes fully.
Lightning crackled at Rainbow’s hooves, and an aura of pure energy surrounded her. With as much awesome power Rainbow emanated, she could tell Rainbow was on the verge of collapse. Her body sagged, and her muscles twitched from overexhaustion.
Not willing to take her gaze off of the pony standing between her and her attackers, she could see a rainbow contrail coming from Rainbow and shooting into the sky; presumably her trajectory of a dive. A steep angle that made Firefly question just how good of a flyer Rainbow actually was. Seeing Sky stir beside her, she scooted over to her, hugging her in anticipation and uncertain fear.
Rainbow’s voice barely came out as a tired whisper, but the tone she gave might as well have been thunder. “Don’t you dare touch them,” she said. What scared Firefly the most was the odd reverb that Rainbow’s voice seemed to have.
The stallion growled, and the mare narrowed her eyes. “Deed! Grind! Attack her!” the mare shouted, and the two thugs reluctantly squared up.
Rainbow Dash quietly stretched into a form ready to pounce. Firefly almost yelled for Rainbow to stop, seeing how bad of a condition Rainbow was really in, but the words caught in her throat. As the two mares, lunged for Rainbow, all Firefly saw was a rainbow blur.
One gust of wind later, and Rainbow’s hooves hit the ground with four soft taps. The mares that had attempted an attack stood perfectly still. The stallion growled even lower than his cooperative, a new tone of fear having creeped into his voice and movements. “What are you doing standing there!? Beat her to a pulp!”
The response was a deathly silence for one quick instant before the two mares toppled fell to the side like flimsy cardboard.
Firefly could feel Sky shiver at the sight of the now unconscious mares before them. Firefly just couldn’t believe how quick Rainbow had disposed of them. But even now, she could see Rainbow’s power waning, her fur looking paler and paler, her mane and tail greying from an unknown factor.
With what little strength she had left, Rainbow leveled her gaze to those who had tried to attack Firefly. As Rainbow stared at them through her cracked goggles, she whispered one more word.
“Go.”
The two ponies did the only logical thing. They fainted alongside their thugs.
Firefly, seeing that the danger had now disappeared, watched as Rainbow faltered to her knees. The aura surrounding Rainbow had now dissipated, and the tendrils of black smoke were sucked into Rainbow’s body. Too scared to move, Sky and Firefly could do nothing but watch.
They watched as she cried out in pain before getting back to all four hooves. With her back faced to the fillies, she shakily put her goggles up, and turned around.
For the first time in three days, Firefly looked into Rainbow’s eyes. For the first time in her life, she saw true desperation, anger, shock, and relief.
“How’s it going small fry?” Rainbow managed to scratch out.
A small smile donned Rainbow's face before her eyes rolled into her head and she crumpled to the ground.