Once more, The Peregrine soared across the skies of Anugypt at top speeds. She was running out of time. The sun was starting to come up… she would never be able to find the vampire if the sun was up.
Her thoughts flashed back to the tomb she’d stopped at, and the corpses she’d found inside. That monster had murdered those two guards without a second thought. The researchers she’d met were lucky to have escaped with their lives. It infuriated her. With every creature it drained, the vampire would grow stronger and harder to stop.
And more ponies would die.
She couldn’t let that happen.
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Avianna stared at his sleeping body, watching his belly rise and fall with every labored breath. He was so old… and yet, he was traveling with her. She wasn’t sure how long a mile was, but she’d heard the word tossed around a few times in Tartarus. It was supposed to be really long, she knew that much at least. Roma had once said that Foalexandria was fifty miles away from Tartarus… so…
“I should do something nice for him…” she muttered, turning her gaze to the window. They’d had to strip the beds and hang the sheets as additional curtains so the sun wouldn’t filter in.
Why would anyone curse a pony to burn in the sun like that? It was truly awful. While she agreed with Roma, that the night was far prettier than daytime, she understood that it was a hard life, living only in the dark, only coming out of your hole for short periods of time before you had to retreat. It was a struggle just to live, and that was no way to live at all.
That, she understood well.
Roma stirred, raising his head and looking away from Avianna. Once he’d finished his long, cat-like yawn, he turned and smiled at her. “Good afternoon, my child.”
“I’m not a child anymore, Roma,” she countered. Still, she was happy that he called her that. It meant that he cared.
“You will always be a child to me.”
Avianna offered up a fake pout, barely able to hide her smile as it threatened to overtake her beak.
Her smile was short-lived. As per his typical fashion, Roma was one to cut straight to the matter at claw. “Is dusk nearing?” he asked, nodding towards the red tones the white curtains were taking on.
Avianna stepped over to the curtains and peeked around the edge. The light still hurt her eyes, but that was only a product of living in caves her whole life. “The sun is at the dge of the, um…”
“Sky?”
“Mm. The sun is at the edge of the sky.” Another small smile crossed her beak. “It’s kind of pretty. I like how it turns everything red.”
“Then we should set out again soon,” Roma said with finality. Turning away from the window, Avianna laid her eyes on the set jaw and a furrowed brow she’d come to expect from him as of late. “I’m sure she’s already sent out her dogs to find me.”
She tenderly scratched her left shoulder and looked at the floor. “Is the princess really that bad?” she asked quietly. She did not look up; even as she heard his heavy hooves hit the floor and walk cautiously towards her. “Surely… she would not still be in power if she were so cruel?”
Roma was mostly silent for a while, producing only the steady wheeze that accompanied his labored breathing. It was as the sun began to disappear over the horizon that he finally answered her. “…No,” he muttered, “I have never claimed that Celestia is cruel. She is merely strict… uncompromising in her judgment, if you will.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good way to lead your people…”
“It isn’t. Come, we must depart.”
“Mm-hmm…”
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Sweetie Drops burst into the police department and flashed her badge to the officer that tried to stop her. “Commissioner, now,” she barked, casting a vicious glare at the uniform-clad mare.
“Right away, Ma’am!” she said as she frantically ran towards office in the back.
“She’s a what?!” came a startled scream from said office. “Tell her I’ll be right out!”
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“Hurry. You spent too long at that vender, Avianna. We need to catch the next train out of the city.”
“You still haven’t explained what a train is!”
“It’s like a carriage, but bigger! No more talking; just keep your legs moving, my child!”
“Roma what is going on?!” Avianna screamed, but he didn’t answer; his face was still set in his signature look of mixed anger and determination. “Why did that picture freak you out so much?!”
Ever since they’d been stopped by that pony in the blue uniform earlier that night and they’d seen that picture of the pretty stallion with the red hair, Roma had become increasingly upset. Everything he did, he did so with haste and impatience. If she didn’t know him any better, she would swear that her companion was… actually scared. She felt as though she were betraying him for even entertaining the thought.
“Closing in on the suspect!”
“Confirm ID: white coat, white mane, white beard, griffon companion.”
“Copy that, suspect matches description perfectly.”
“Do not engage! I repeat: Do not engage! You are to wait for the agent!”
“Copy that, sticking to the plan.”
Avianna’s heart sank to her stomach. She didn’t understand most of what the ponies were saying, but she knew what ‘engage’ meant. “Rooommaaa… I can hear ponies talking about us… They don’t sound happy.”
“Then I suppose I don’t have time to keep myself restrained…” Roma hissed. He looked over his shoulder with a fire in his eye that Avianna had never seen before. It was fierce and hot, and the red tinge in his iris seemed to glow, casting shadows over his cheeks. “I need you to keep up with me. Do you understand?”
“No! What’s happening?!”
Roma’s scowl deepened and every ounce of blood in Avianna’s body ran cold when he replied. “The dogs have found us.”
“They have?!” she shouted, drawing the attention of several passersby. “What do we do?”
“I told you Avianna! RUN!” He shouted. Suddenly, Roma took off galloping, and definitely not at the pace an old stallion should move at. He moved as if he were somepony in their prime. Avianna quickly shook her head and started off after him. Though she struggled to even keep pace with him at first, she quickly caught up and stayed on his tail as best as anyone could hope. As he ducked and weaved through the crowd, one thought stayed at the front of her mind: how?
How could anyone his age… a tenth his age move like he was?! It was impossible! But, she realized… Roma’s entire existence was technically impossible. He was immortal… and that, in and of itself, defied reason. Why should his age betray his physical aptitude? The illogicality of it simply dictated that it shouldn’t. Therefore–
“Avianna!”
She snapped back to reality, shaking her head as she did so. She hadn’t realized she was dazing again. Losing herself in thought as she tended to. “What is it?” she asked, receiving an over-the-shoulder glare.
“They’re hot on our tails. We’re ducking into an alleyway ahead.”
Avianna chanced a look behind her. True to what he’d said, there were six ponies in blue uniforms chasing after them. One of them was actually the stallion that had showed them the picture earlier. She looked back towards Roma, who was veering to the right. She followed his lead, slipping into the alley he had mentioned. She’d never been in one before… It was cold and dark, and it reminded her of the caves they’d occupied in Tartarus. She didn’t like that.
But then she saw it. The alley ended with a very tall wall, one that no pony would be able to scale. No normal pony, she reminded herself silently. Roma was currently breaking down all preconceived notions she’d had of him, and there was no way of telling what he was going to do next. For all she knew, he very well could jump clean over the wall.
But he didn’t. Instead, he looked back over his shoulder and nodded at the wall. It was a signal she knew well. It meant to lift him up and fly him over the wall.
Avianna spread her wings and lifted off, grabbing Roma by the shoulders as she did. In just a moment, she’d carried him over the wall, and they were, once more, running down a street. As they ducked and weaved through the pedestrians around them, she kept casting quick glances over her shoulder, checking to see if the uniformed ponies were still chasing. Of course, they were. At points, it even seemed like they were gaining on them, only to lose any progress they’d made.
It made Avianna wonder how accustomed Roma was to doing this. She really knew next to nothing about his past, save that he was very old, and that he’d had a falling out with Princess Celestia. Beyond that, he was an enigma to her.
Maybe that was best.
Faster and faster they ran, trying to outpace the uniformed ponies. It wasn’t working. Avianna’s legs were starting to burn, too. Were Roma’s? It never seemed like it. He didn’t slow down for anything or anyone. He just kept running and running.
Eventually, they came to an open area that was filled with ponies. They were either milling about, or walking away from a strange gap in the pavement. As they drew near to that strange gap, a chain of large metal boxes filled with ponies slid into it. They kept running.
Roma barreled through everyone that stood in his way, knocking them aside like some sort of mad ram. Once they were close enough, Roma suddenly leapt at the lead box, smashing through some sort of clear material. Avianna followed suit, slipping through the jagged hole he’d made. There was a pony in the box with them. Roma shouted something at him, but Avianna didn’t catch what he’d said. She was too distracted by the thought of the ponies in blue catching them.
The pony said something into a box on the wall, and screams sounded from behind her. Avianna looked back to see that everyone was getting out of the boxes behind them. What was Roma planning? She didn’t have to wait long to find out.
The pony left the box, leaving the two of them alone. Avianna turned her attention back to Roma. He was looking at the panel in front of him. Avianna had never seen anything like it. After a few seconds of looking around, he seemed to make a decision and put his hoof against a strange, T-shaped object and pushed forward on it. The box started moving, presumably as a result of his action.
She decided to speak up again. “Are we safe now?” she asked cautiously. She had no idea if they actually were, but it seemed reasonable to assume that the ponies wouldn’t be able to catch them now that they had… a train? It had to be a train.
Roma let loose a labored sigh. He was breathing heavily, just like she was. The run must have been really hard on him… “I think we are,” he muttered as he stepped over to the side of the train box. “They will be hard-pressed to catch us in this.”
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Sweetie Drops growled as she ran back towards the police station to fetch her airship. This was unacceptable. It was such a simple oversight. It would have been so easy to have the train stopped a mile away from the city. But no, she hadn’t accounted for that, and the vampire was now making its way towards the next city.
But that was okay. She’d jumped a few trains in her career, and this one would be no different. She was losing valuable time running, but she would make that time up.
Before too much longer, she was back in the air, heading out of the city. The hunt was back on, and she would catch her prey.
She always did.