Rainbow and Rarity’s route to Applejack and Twilight’s location was going smoothly. They reached the third floor, and poked their noses out of the stairwell door. They emerged next to the elevator and a heavy steel security door barring any further access to the rest of the floor. Applejack was camped out next to a small, dog sized hatch on the wall next to the elevator. Experience told Rainbow a dormant security drone was inside waiting to be activated. Twilight was standing next to the security door’s access terminal. She was using a strip of metal in her magic to act as a crowbar to pry the panels off below the terminal. The smoking ruins of a security camera left an acrid stench in the air. Outside of that, there was no furniture or windows. The only light source was Twilight’s magic, giving the place a purple glow.
“Bout time you two got here,” Applejack chided. “The rookie’s liable to trigger an alarm at this rate.” Applejack tapped her rifle against the robot’s door.
“I know what I’m doing,” Twilight fussed. She grunted hard as her magic strained the covering next to the door.
Rainbow and Rarity stepped in. “Uh, Twiggles, why don’t you let Diamond have a crack at that terminal over your head? This is kinda her thing.”
To the sound of groaning steel, Twilight’s impromptu crowbar bent and snapped the panel off, exposing the wires within. “I may not be a decker, but I know electronics.” Twilight all but shoved her face in the panel as her magic started tugging at the cables and computer chips, moving them around so she could see brand labels. “This is a Bulwark Tech Magdoor X-7 series. They were built with Grinder Computer’s circuit boards. You might be interested to know I toyed with a lot of them back in the … well, back home. The GCs were really common back home until Queen caught me sneaking into - um - somewhere I shouldn’t, and she had all the GCs replaced.”
Rainbow groaned at the lecture that was taking place. “That’s great an all, but can you at least tell me if you can get this door open any faster than Diamond?”
Twilight continued to rattle away, completely oblivious to Rainbow’s objections. “As anypony who cares knows, GCs are highly resistant to EMP, and built to look impressive, but are actually painfully simplistic. Which, honestly, is perfect for doors which really only need two settings: open and closed, right? So all I need is some of these conveniently provided wires,” Twilight chimed happily as scanned the wiring to find a good match for her needs. “I can trigger it to open.”
Rainbow Dash gave off a fed up snort, but was stopped by Rarity placing a gentle hoof on her back.
Rarity arched a surprised eyebrow and scanned the door as a whole. Sure, there were small differences, but she was no expert on the make and model of security doors, only on how to hack into them. “How can you tell the door’s make and model? In all my years, I have never seen a label on these things.”
Twilight got her ‘crowbar’ back up and started yanking at two red wires. “The floorplans we were given were quite detailed. I researched this particular door model on our way from the airport. I suspected if this particular chipset was common back home, the same contractor might have been used here too. And, naturally, I was correct.”
“That sort of thing would be highly classified wouldn’t it?” Rainbow asked, mildly impressed.
A wistful giggle escaped Twilight. She allowed herself to imagine she was back in her palace tower tinkering with another project. “You’d be surprised just how much I was able to get away with being the top student.” The wires came loose with no alarm going off, giving Twilight the reassurance to keep meddling. “I wanted so badly to be a sanctioned decker ever since I was just a filly.” A mild frown crossed her lips, one of healed disappointment. “But I’m glad my… parents refused to let me get a datajack. They rightly valued my spellcraft too much to let me damage my essence by getting one. So if I can’t compete in that sense, I figured I would have to settle for physical ‘hacking.’”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and waggled her burnt hoof to make sure the painkillers were still working. They’re about the only ones who value your spellcasting.
Twilight shielded her eyes with a foreleg as electric sparks flew out of the panel. With a wall-shuddering click, the mag locks disengaged. Twilight stood up triumphantly. “See, Farmer? I told you I knew what I was doing.”
Applejack took a long weary look at the robot hatch before pulling away from it. “Word of advice, Twiggles, the next time you start talkin’ about your personal life on a job where there could be listenin’ devices, I’mma tape your mouth shut. Ya hear me?”
Twilight was taken a back and nodded dumbly. “S-sorry.”
Nodding, Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash. “Good. ‘nd besides, watch that ego of yours. We get enough of that from Flash.”
Rainbow gave a superior huff and watched as Rarity and Twilight used their magic to slide the doors open. “I’ll have you know my skull’s plenty big for both my ego and my brains.” Rainbow was the first to study the room ahead. Inside was a massive two story chamber that housed numerous miniature biomes. The mares walked inside, gaping at the closest one. It looked like a fish tank with only water in it, but Twilight’s and Rainbow’s eyes could see the shifting, formless masses of at least two elementals swimming within.
Propped up along the west side was a glass room of fire, smoke and charred wood. The raging inferno within housed seven fire elementals that bickered and fought between each other. The far side of the chamber housed an enclosure that looked like a massive geode with one side cut out. The green crystal of the geode supported a number of earth elementals, the only type Applejack and Rarity could see. Lastly, on the far side was a realm of sickly green slime and tar. A chamber of poison that was large enough to kill a small town. Within it, oozing pony-esque elementals of decay and poison lurked back and forth, looking hungrily at the earth elementals.
Nestled center stage of it all was a single ordinary looking sphere of stone. It rested within the grips of a floor and ceiling mounted cradle that bristled with instruments and sensors. Scattered around in organized rows were terminals and control panels for the scientists. Empty coffee cups littered the desks and wastebaskets. A few whiteboards displayed complex geometric formulas and diagrams with ink smudges around every corner. The lighting of the whole research lab was the sole work of the fire elementals, casting everything in sharp brightness and dark, dancing shadows.
“We should be fine from here on out,” Twilight explained as she marveled at the positive chi flow that the position of the elemental chambers created. Yet what really set her heart aflutter was a single dragon line that bisected one of the empty workstations. “Anything more than security cameras in an elemental research lab would cause too many false alarms to be worth installing.”
Applejack snorted. “All Ah’m hear’n is ‘look out for cameras.’”
Rainbow scanned the walls and ceilings, as did every other mare. Two more flanked the stone in the center. The cameras were quite out in the open and were easy to keep an eye on. However, there didn’t seem to be any watching the runners’ approach. “Okay, first up, Diamond, see if you can power on a terminal to get that relic out of that cage thing it’s in.” She turned to the other two mares as Rarity scampered off to the closest terminal that was still on. “Farmer, keep watch. Even if what Twiggles says is common sense or not, it doesn’t mean somepony didn’t put in some security measure they shouldn’t.”
“Sounds good ta me.”
Rainbow Dash stepped beside Twilight while keeping her gaze on the prize. The relic Celestia wanted sat right in the middle of an arcane containment field supported by the twin machines above and below it. The machines were easily ten meters square, utterly dominating the center of the chamber. The flames gave it a dangerous look. “So you’re sure that thing is safe to handle with bare hooves?”
“If Queen says so, then it is.” Twilight scrutinized the machinery while trying to act casual as she walked over to the dragon line. “She’s not the kind of pony to needlessly risk our lives.” Twilight paused for a moment, glancing at the other runners. “Or my life at least,” she added humbly.
That sounds about right. Rainbow clenched her jaw, unsure how she felt about that. Even if I’m the only thestral who’s foaled, the Princess still sees me as a traitor. She cast a forlorn look at Twilight. But she’s giving me a second chance.
Applejack whistled to get Twilight’s attention. “Keep it up, rookie, and I’ll make sure to add minotaur glue to that tape.”
Pealing feminine laughter erupted from Rarity’s cyberdeck, drawing everyone’s attention. With the mare brain-deep in the local matrix, she could only talk through the deck’s speakers. “As always, network security is so lax from the inside. There’s some interesting data bits worth copying. Blackmail is ever so much fun when supposed ‘good’ ponies are being naughty. Should supplement our income quite nicely.”
Twilight climbed up onto the table and immersed herself in the dragon line. The surge of power it brought elated the feathered unicorn. Yet her good mood was deeply soured by Rarity’s comment. “And just how much fabricated blackmail are you going to make, hmm?”
Rainbow rubbed her forehead in exasperation. “Save the cat fighting for later. That’s all well and good, Diamond, but we’re on a timer here. Can you shut down the containment field?”
“Oh, I found that command ages ago. I’m just making sure there are no precautionary alarms tied to the shutdown. This whole setup doesn’t look like one that is brought down very often.”
Applejack had to split her attention between watching the exit and observing the fire elementals. The burning spirits were occupied by fighting each other. “I hope takin’ that thing ain’t gunna release these beasties.” The sheer damage the fire elementals could cause, should they be released by some security trap, almost terrified the mare to the bone, and she found her attention centered more of the enclosure than the exit.
Rainbow’s ears wilted at the prospect of fighting so many. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Diamond, make sure you’re thorough in there.”
Twilight wanted to close in on her team, but was hesitant to leave the dragon line. “We should be perfectly fine. It would be rather silly if removing the stone actually broke the geometric barriers.”
“All done!” Rarity sang from within her deck. “I’m going to see what I can do about arranging our quiet escape. Ta ta!”
The dull, omnipresent hum of electricity suddenly spooled down as the stone artifact’s containment shields faded. Both Applejack and Rainbow eyed the elementals’ cages worriedly, as if expecting them to bust open at any moment.
When the field collapsed, the stone came to a rest on a small pedestal, easy pickings for Twilight’s magic. She snatched it up in her magic and pulled it over for study. It was an unusually smooth sphere. Twilight rolled it in her hoof, and noticed a trio of diamond shaped indentations on the side. Were it not for Rarity’s penchant for clothing or had Twilight been more familiar with her team, she might have recognized the marks. Fearing time was against them, she forsook taking a longer look and pocketed the stone in her satchel. “We got what we came for, we should get—”
“Ah ha!” cried a high-pitched voice from above the exit.
Applejack was struck dumb as ball of pink scrambled out of the air vent above the security door, yet was quick to level her rifle at her and fired a warning shot. “Stupid rules. Ah should just be able to shoot her,” she grumbled to herself. She hastily replacing her anti-armor ammo for a magazine of rubber bullets.
The pink pony flopped on the ground, completely ignoring getting shot at, and was quick to stand back up. She was wearing an unhooded robe. She had a rubber chicken on a string hanging from her mane, a cupcake wrapper necklace, and the smuggest grin that ever existed. The balloon elemental had passed through the vents with her and was now interposing itself between its summoner and the Shadowbolts. “So it was the element you were after. That’ll save me the trouble of prying that information out of you during your interrogation.” The pink mare pulled out a submachine gun from her robe and aimed at Rarity, the closest pony. “Oh by the way, you’re all under arrest.”
Applejack’s brain had difficulty making sense of the shaman as she ever so slowly pulled her hoof back from priming the bolt now that Rarity was being threatened. “What kinda cylon crawls around in her own air vents?”
The shaman leered at Applejack and gave her a taunting eyebrow wiggle. “The kind you don’t see coming.”
Applejack blinked slowly at that before lowering her rifle as a sign of submission. “Can’t argue with that.”
Rainbow was grateful she had been on the ground, and subtly slid her wings back inside the robe. “Pretty stupid of you to show yourself like this, wage-mage.” Thanks to her robes and the brief conversation buying her time, Rainbow was able to slowly form a spell sign without revealing the act. “We have eyes outside, so we’d know if you had called for backup. You really think you can take all four of us on?”
“Quite the edgerunner that one, eh Gummy?” The shaman quipped with a smirk at the balloon shaped air elemental. “And I know I can. I’ve got authorization to pull any of the elementals in this room to help me. I don’t need to be able to control them either. I just need to give them enough juice to stay in meatspace long enough to zero the lot of you in a rampage. Provided you don’t surrender first.”
Twilight was aghast, but held firm on top of her table. “That could destroy the whole room.”
“But not the artifact you stole,” the shaman shot back, her grin never faltering. “That thing’s tougher than diamonds. So I’m giving you one more chance, surrender or get a face full of super mad elementals. You’re not leaving with that artifact.”
“Yes we are!” Twilight challenged as she empowered her horn. The shaman started firing her submachine gun at Rarity’s cyberdeck without a second’s notice.
With the decker still brain-deep in the matrix, the sudden destruction of her deck forced her consciousness to slam back into her skull. She cried out in stunned pain and collapsed in a heap.
“Diamond!” Rainbow Dash cried before throwing her stun spell.
Applejack fired off a few pot shots at the air elemental to distract it from Rainbow’s spell. The elemental’s balloons whipped up a frenzied gust of air in an attempt to blast both bullet and spell off course.
The rubber bullet went right through and struck the shaman in the ribs, making her stagger for a moment. “Have it your way!” The shaman dropped her weapon and empowered her right hoof with a quick sign. With the elemental keeping the Shadowbolt’s magic and firepower at bay, the shaman had time to drag a more complicated sigil on the ground. Yet before she could activate it, a pair of earthen claws, encased in a lavender glow, manifested around her guardian elemental.
“No matter how the wind howls!” Twilight chanted as her claws slammed into the air elemental, banishing both it and the claws in a flash of magefire. “The mountain cannot bow to it!”
“Then how about the sea?” The shaman slammed her hoof on the sigil, ignoring the warning shots Applejack fired.
Blue mana rippled from the shaman, and shot out along the floor and walls, breaking the numerous wards built within the lab itself. The shaman scrambled towards the exit as the pocket of the water plane exploded outward and began flooding the entire laboratory. With the water throwing the Shadowbolts off balance, the shaman had time to pull an earth elemental through a plane-portal and commanded it to form a wall of stone in front of the exit.
Rainbow Dash scrambled into the air to buy herself time to think. “Ahh – erm – Farmer! Get Diamond out of the water before she drowns!” Rainbow was already weaving new signs to empower her speed and hooves. “I’ll keep you covered!”
Applejack waded through the knee deep and rising water. “Ah’m on it!”
Rainbow turned to find Twilight was surrounded by orbiting science equipment. Several pieces were being transmuted into lumps of metal or rock before being thrown at the water elements assaulting her. She’ll have to hang tight a bit.
Rainbow flew down towards Applejack after spotting an elemental slipping through the water towards the earth pony. Belting out a warcry, Rainbow charged in and slammed into the elemental a mere two feet from Applejack, spraying water everywhere. “Go, I got this!” Rainbow commanded Applejack as the enraged elemental slipped around to encircle her. Rainbow leapt back into the air before the water could crash back into her. All of this elemental water can’t exist here for very long. The distracting thought slowed Rainbow a bit too much to catch the elemental’s attack as its amorphous body shot up and completely encased her in a cocoon of water. Rainbow dropped onto a desk clenching her jaw shut as the elemental tried to force itself down her throat and nostrils. With her hooves still empowered, and no time to think, Rainbow battered both herself and the elemental with a flurry of punches. Each hit was painful enough to almost force her to gasp for air, but she kept her jaw locked shut. Punch after punch felt like a sledgehammer, but for each one, the elemental entombing her writhed and churned. Yet even with her efforts, the elemental remained stubborn, until at last a desperately hard jab at her own chest cracked one of Rainbow’s ribs. The elemental had suffered enough to release her and melt back into the rushing waters.
Rainbow rolled onto her belly gasping for air. “There’s - there’s got to be a better way to do that.” With air filling her lungs again, Rainbow’s head cleared enough for her to look out for Rarity. Applejack had already shimmied the stricken unicorn onto her back, leaving the broken cyberdeck behind. “Farmer, how’s she doing?”
Applejack was backpedaling towards the wall of stone the shaman had put up, trying to put some distance between herself and any slippery spirits. “She’s breathin’, but she’ll be out of it for a few hours. Might need a replacement jack if the burnt smell is anything ta go by.”
“Alright, we’ll deal with that later.” Rainbow glanced back at Twilight who was getting overwhelmed bit by bit.
Every time she struck at an elemental, two others would close in and strike at her lavender shield. “Can we get going please!” she all but screamed over the noise of the elementals. “I can’t use electricity if the rest of you are going to have a tea party right there in the water!”
“How ‘bout you throw them rocks of yers at that stone wall and make us an exit?” Applejack shot back.
An elemental surged up into a ball and threw itself at Twilight, trying to knock her off the dragon line and into the waist deep water. The mare barely threw a shield up in time, allowing the elemental to split itself against a sharp edge. “I need an opening first! They really don’t like me.”
“Why are ya not movin’ if they’re all over top ah ya then?” Applejack spat, unable to see the dragon line.
Ignoring her friend’s question, Rainbow summoned her strength to get back in the air. “I’m on it, just get ready!” Rainbow weaved a few more signs to bolster her speed and hooves. Once done, she bolted to Twilight’s side to kick another elemental away. Unlike normal water, her impact sent the spirit flying away as a whole. A second tried to wrap itself against Twilight’s neck now that she wasn’t wholly focused on self defense, but Rainbow was able to kick away at the majority of its body as it bundled up to properly entomb the hapless mare.
With a thankful grin, Twilight renewed her efforts and heaved all three stones at the remains of the water enclosure. The stones smashed and broke apart on contact, but so did the fractured enclosure. The steel supports bent, and the powerlines holding the rift into the water plane snapped. The relentless waterfall coming from the rift quickly died into a trickle until stopping almost within moments. With the portal closed the lab’s automated system opened several large drains, lowing the water level at a rapid pace. The feral elementals squirmed and raged, but even they retreated back into the dwindling water.
Twilight stumbled off the desk, and Rainbow caught her at the last moment before she could faceplant into the shallow water. “Thanks.” Rainbow tried to help Twilight back up, but now that she was no longer empowered by the dragon line, it took everything Twilight had to stay conscious.
“Hey, hey, come on, you gotta keep moving.”
“I can’t.” Twilight leaned heavily against Rainbow. “I went a little overboard.”
Rainbow’s ribs protested, but she dragged the waning unicorn on her back. “This is the last run we take where we can’t just shoot the damn cylons.” With the water now only ankle deep, she was able to make her way towards Applejack. “Farmer, we need an exit, and fast.”
“I was afraid you’d ask that,” Applejack muttered more to herself. “Okay, but Ah only got one wall-be-gone.” Applejack set Rarity down, pulled some shaped explosives, and got to work on the wall.
Rainbow kept the two unicorns behind an overturned desk nearby, and raised a hoof to her ear. ~“Angel, come in.”~
Since open comms were a security risk, the pegasus had been out of the loop ever since the team entered the lab. ~“Angel here. We have some serious activity out here.”~
Rainbow grit her teeth as the shaman came to mind. “Yeah well, we ran into a cylon who escaped before we could take her down.”
Fluttershy’s puzzled voice came back. ~“If that’s the case, she must have rang the wrong alarm. From what my parasprites have overheard, all comms coming out of the central office have been silenced. I think the patrollers are following the alpha contingency plan Queen mentioned, and are taking positions near each lab to watch for intruders.”~
~“Namely us,”~ Rainbow replied with a touch of hope. ~“That would explain why Diamond didn’t log out before getting dumped.”~
~“She got dumped?! Oh dear, I hope she’ll be alright.”~
~“She will be if we can get out of here. How’s it look outside of Clover?”~ Rainbow briefly set Twilight down to give her a once over. The purple mare was drenched in more sweat than water, and she was cradling her skull around her horn as though she had an acute headache. Her breathing was ragged and her forelegs were trembling, all signs of significant mana exhaustion. Rainbow was always one to go light on the spellwork, and Twilight’s current state was exactly why. You way overdid it.
Fluttershy’s delayed reply finally came in. ~“I may be wrong, but I can only see one guard. I guess they want to make the lab seem unimportant to troublemakers. I have Batsy ready to help. Just, um, let me know when you need me.”~
One? Seriously? This place must be sturdy as Tartarus for nopony outside to have noticed a damn thing. ~“Thanks, Angel. We shouldn’t be too much longer. Over and out.”~ Rainbow poked her nose over the desk just in time to watch Applejack race to join them. “We good?”
With a sly grin, Applejack hunkered down and made a show of pressing a detonator on her wrist armor. The rock wall exploded outward into the corridor with a shockwave washing over the team. “Oh yeah, we’re good. That shaman, not so much. Go make sure she’s flatlined; I can carry Diamond and Twiggles out.”
Twilight forced herself, through herculean effort, to get back on her hooves. “We’re not supposed to kill anypony. Queen said so.” Twilight wanted to press the issue further, but it hurt to speak.
Nodding in begrudging acquiescence, Rainbow tucked her wings into her robe and vaulted the desk. There was a nice, big hole in the wall, giving a clear shot to the elevator and stairwell. There was currently no sign of the pink maned shaman, but there were plenty of chunks of stone to be caught under. “We can’t be blamed if she was stupid enough to stand behind the wall.”
Ignoring the pain from her cracked rib, Rainbow moved as quick as a shadow towards the side of the lab’s wall so she could flank the opening Applejack made. Only the splashing of shallow water marked her advance. She didn’t even get to the wall before a pink leg shot out from behind the security doors, a few meters back, with an SMG blindly pointed towards the broken wall. Rainbow hunkered down when gunfire ripped out from the hole.
“Stay back, or I’ll break another seal!” the shaman warned with a growl of frustration. “I don’t know what you jerks did to the comms, but I’m not letting you outta there unless you surrender!”
Keeping her mouth shut, Rainbow poked her nose out to see the shaman was not risking a sniper’s bullet, and was only keeping her gunleg visible. Too bad for you, I’m a ninja. A second blind shot rang out, kicking chips of stone in Rainbow’s face.
The instant the firing stopped, Rainbow slipped through the hole and leveraged every ounce of Winter’s training to approach quietly. She slipped over to hug the wall, correctly anticipating a third burst of blind fire. She’s not used to runners with soft shoes. Rainbow Dash bolted immediately after the firing stopped. Running too fast for her near-silent hooffalls to register to the shaman, Rainbow rounded the corner, catching the curly maned shaman in the middle of reloading. The guard was standing right next to a new runed sigil outlined in chalk on the floor, presumably poised to break the seal on a second enclosure.
The shaman gasped at Rainbow’s surprise arrival and swung her spent SMG like a club, growling in defiance. Rainbow pulled back from the hasty attack and grappled the foreleg. Moving with only the agility that winged ponies possessed, Rainbow slid her body under the shaman, and flipped the earth pony up and over her back, and then slammed her on the tiled floor. The act was more to remove the shaman from the diagram however, as the impact did little to the pink mare.
The shaman lashed out with a punch with her free foreleg, clipping Rainbow’s chin. Rainbow weaved away from a follow up punch, and delivered an empowered uppercut of her own with unexpected speed. The shaman took the hit square on the jaw, and was forced away by the impact.
Keeping up the aggression, Rainbow didn’t give the shaman time to recover and roundhoused the earth pony’s legs out from under her. Keeping her momentum, Rainbow deftly swung her back legs up and over the shaman before stomping back down, only for the shaman to roll out from under her.
The shaman fumbled a hasty lightning bolt that lacked any real power behind it, but it was enough to keep Rainbow back. This distraction was enough to put a momentary pause in the fight.
Rainbow was trying to muscle through the pain of her cracked rib, and the shaman’s spell forced her to give more ground than she would have otherwise.
The shaman rolled back to her hooves, still clutching her SMG. However, she didn’t make a move to reload, not with Rainbow so close. Instead she adjusted her cufflink grip so she could use the butt of the weapon as a proper cudgel.
Rainbow started to circle to the left, trying to put the shaman between her and the broken stone wall. “Tell you what, you let us go, and I won’t have to kill you, deal?”
The shaman actually let off a dog-like growl, and tried to maneuver so she wouldn’t have her back to the stone wall, but couldn’t see a way to do that without exposing her flank. “Leave the stone behind, and I’ll consider it.”
This could be a good chance to play dumb. “I got a reputation to uphold, so no can do. Besides, it’s just some dumb rock, that ain’t worth dying over.” Rainbow made sure to keep her hood low over her face, hoping the conversation would keep her opponent’s attention away from any identifying features. Although Rainbow’s ears were muffled by the hood as well, the sound of the shaman’s hooffalls and speech was more than enough to know what she was doing without needing to see all of her.
“If that was just a dumb rock, you ne'er-do-wells wouldn't here here stealing it now would you?”
Rainbow shrugged dismissively, yet she couldn't help but to inwardly wince. Yeah okay, not my best lie. “Hey, I'm told there's a rock a collector wants with no questions asked. Cash is cash.”
“But there's tons of ways to make easier money.” Pinkie's eyes lit up. “Oh! You could do a bake sale! I made over five hundred bits last time selling cookies in front of the stock exchange on Ball Street. It was super fun!”
Rainbow almost went slack jawed at the suggestion. At least it'd be something I could do with the kids. She quickly banished the thought. “Sorry, I can't bake to save my life. But I can steal just fine.”
“Well aren't you little Miss Sticky Hooves. If you had any idea of what you were actually stealing, you’d leave that stone where it belongs. How about this instead, if you put it back, I’ll pretend you didn’t commit assault and battery when you’re brought up on charges.”
Rainbow’s earpiece clicked, letting her know Applejack was in position at the hole with her rifle aimed down range. “Wow, aren’t you a generous one.”
“I have my moments.” The shaman eyed the way Rainbow was breathing irregularly. “Just so you know, Princess Celestia herself visited the lab about a month ago. She told me t hat stone is super duper ultra mega important to her,” the shaman stated with open aggression. She pawed at the ground, and kept stealing glances behind her, knowing full well a shooter was at her back. “I made a Pinkie Promise to keep that stone where it belongs, and I never break a promise.”
Rainbow was impressed enough to actually believe her. Damn, I really wish I could just tell her the truth. Hard to find loyalty like this anymore. Dropping her gruff expression for a more somber one, Rainbow shook her head. “Sorry, chummer, but the collector’s paying good money for this, and a mare’s gotta eat.”
The shaman cast a worried glance backward, yet didn’t take her eyes off Rainbow for more than an instant. “The crown will come after you and your collector friend.” The shaman tried to dart to the side and away from the doors.
Shots rang out from Applejack’s rifle, scoring a trio of hits with rubber bullets, dazing the shaman and dropping her on the ground. Rainbow raced forward with a stun spell of her own and delivered it with a jab in the shaman’s gut.
Between the two hits, the shaman was out of it with plenty of time for Applejack to walk over with one of Rarity’s sedative needles. The farmer sank its contents in the shaman’s neck, ending her as a threat. “Ah don’t like it. She’s gunna report everything she saw of us.”
A bit more on her hooves, Twilight had shuffled after Applejack, worried they might actually kill the shaman. “You can’t kill her,” she tiredly cautioned. “Queen would never allow it. Not these ponies at least.” A deeply troubled, pleading frown was aimed at the two runners.
Rainbow gave the unconscious shaman a long, almost envious frown. At least she can openly serve the Princess. She shook her head and pointed back at the stone wall, assuming Rarity was lying on the other side. “And we’re not going to.” Rainbow shot Applejack a warning scowl. “We can not like it all we want later. Go grab Diamond and let’s get out of here. I’ll keep the path clear.”
“Alright, but Ah know this is gonna bite us in the end.” Applejack gave the shaman a foreboding grimace before running back to grab Rarity.
It didn’t take Rainbow long to see just how feebly Twilight was standing. The purple mare had a grateful smile. “I can still walk if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Yeah, but I bet you can’t for long. I’ll carry you out. The faster we leave, the faster we can rest, deal?”
Mustering what little strength she had left, Twilight nodded in agreement, and let Rainbow pick her up on her back. By the time Rainbow shifted Twilight around to rest comfortably between her wings, Applejack had returned with Rarity in much the same position. The ruined cyberdeck had been strapped around the unicorn as well.
By now, the decker was awake, but gravely delirious. Rarity rolled her head over towards Rainbow, her eyes blinking a full two seconds apart from each other. “You need more fangs, like fifteen of them all on the nose of the chicken.”
Rolling her eyes, Applejack shifted Rarity she her head wouldn’t get jostled too much when she ran. “If we’re gettin’ we better get now.”
Rainbow ran as fast as she dared towards the exit with Applejack right behind her. “Right, Twiggles, you still got the stone?”
Twilight hummed in acknowledgement. “Safe and secure.”
Falling into silence, Rainbow Dash and Applejack raced through the laboratory. With the shaman out of action, any other elementals she might have had would have returned to their home planes.
By the time they got to the lobby, Rainbow saw the single unicorn guard through the front windows. Barely a few moments later, Fluttershy’s batdrone dive-bombed the pony and tasered him, allowing Rainbow and Applejack a clean break to the nearest shrubs for cover.
Rarity had a stupid grin as she absently stared at the ground. “Why haven’t we made liquid dresses yet? It’s science.”
Any other time of day I’d pay top bits to record her right now. Rainbow settled in between three large bushes and pulled her goggles over her eyes. ~“Angel, I need an overlay of the cylons’ positions.”~
~“That’ll take a minute, please hold on.”~ Fluttershy ordered her parasprites to fly high above the technology park. She sent data to Rainbow’s goggles so they displayed a two dimensional map of their location in simplistic detail. Clusters of red dots huddled around the larger buildings, while only the drones and three patrol cars kept watch over the expansive landscape. ~“Radio chatter is picking back up again, and - oh no - there are three Lone Star transport aircraft en route. They’ll be arriving from the north end gate. You need to get out of there!”~
Rainbow shifted the map to the south where the fewest buildings stood, and by extension, had the fewest guards. ~“South it is then. There aren’t any cameras watching the streets at the point behind the Walnut Cafeteria. But, the motion detectors will be active there, so have the car waiting for us when we arrive.”~
~“You got it, Flash, and please be careful. I’ll have to put my eyes in the sky on standby though, so hopefully they won’t be needed further.”~
~“We’ll be there. Don’t you worry none.”~ Applejack butted in. She ignored Rainbow’s irritation and made ready to run. “Come on now, we’ve dawdled enough as it is.”
With the patrols thinned out so much, the two shadowrunners raced at an almost reckless pace, bounding from cover to cover. Through it all, none of the security measures found them until they got to the south wall. By the time the alert from the wall sensors could be acted upon, the crew were already up and over. The four of them crowded inside Fluttershy’s car and they raced away long before the Lone Star aircraft could spot them.
Rainbow sagged in her front seat, leaving Applejack to rouse Rarity from her stupor. Twilight was guzzling an energy drink she had the foresight to buy ahead of time. The thestral looked back at the technology park, flashes of red and blue filled the air until the car made a turn, leaving them only the streetlights. With the danger dropping away in the distance, Rainbow took the time to pull her crescent moon pendant out of her pocket. She held it against her chest and closed her eyes, imaging Winter was at her side doing the same while Mother Moon watched them from above.