Dash stared flatly at the scene before her. The Arfberta sheriff's station was not an intimidating sight at the best of times, but she’d at least expected a blockade or a few patrols. Instead, all she could see was maybe two guards. And one of them was old Half-ear Hershel. Come to think of it, she could probably run up, clock the other guy, and Half-ear wouldn’t hear a thing. The thought brought a smirk to her face.
A smirk wiped off as the edge of a wing clipped her upside the head.
“Okay okay! I’ll stick to the plan!” She huffed and rubbed her head, glaring at Twilight beside her. Honestly, the plan was too complicated by half, but Twilight seemed to have a better idea what she was doing than Dash did, so it was worth a shot. Taking a deep breath, Dash threw up the hood of her cloak and stumbled out into the open.
“Officers! Officers!” She staggered forward, clutching the cloak they’d ‘borrowed’ close to herself, her paw resting on the pool of bat’s blood they’d soaked into the cloth. “It attacked me! It’s here! It’s...” She did her best exhausted fall, which was certainly helped by her legs getting tangled in the cloak.
“Aw, hell!” She heard the two dogs rushing over to her, paws quickly grabbing her fur and touching her face. “She’s ice cold! Get her inside!” Though a tiny part of Dash winced at the fact she’d had to soil her fur with the icy slop of charcoal and water, she had to admit that so far Twilight’s plan was working. After a moment, they were hefting her up and hauling her inside the station.
“Make some room!” They laid her out across a desk, half a dozen dogs quickly filling the room, probably the entire complement of the station. Perfect.
Dash felt claws grasp at her cloak, and immediately turned her performance up a notch. “My baby! It took my baby! The horrible, purple bat thing! It swept out of the dark, screaming, and ripped her from my arms!” She made sure to flail as wildly as she could, her slippery, soaking fur only helping her struggle from their grasp. She broke free quickly, and started to sprint around the office, doing her level best to make her perpetual escape from the officers looked completely accidental. All the while she screamed and raved, knocking over desks, sending chairs careening about, and at one point even doing a wall run that, while suspicious, was too cool not to try.
This continued for about five minutes, before a bucketful of water splashed straight into her face.
“See, you just gotta soak em’, and it calms...” Half-ear Herschel paused and squinted his milky eyes. “Don’t I know you?”
It was at that moment that Dash realized all the muck had been washed right out of her fur.
“It’s Dash! Get her!” The chase resumed immediately, though ironically no better than before. If anything, knowing it was the dog that had broken into their cell earlier the same day only galvanized the department. The whole place could have set fire and they’d probably kept chasing her. Which, of course, was perfect.
“Oh wow, you guys are really out of shape!” Dash teased, sliding between a pair of legs. “How do you even stop crime? Do the criminals just turn themselves in out of pity?”
“We’ll… show… you…” Even the fit rookie she’d seen from the cell was panting at this point, waving one paw ineffectually while he braced himself on the wall with the other. “Just… you… wait...”
“Sorry, but I don’t wait well!” She actually managed to get to of the dogs two slam into each other, bursting out laughing as she did. She finally pulled to a stop in front of the district stairs. In front of her, the entire department sat or slouched, too out of breath to continue any longer. “Though for you guys, I might just make an exception.”
“Looks like they might need it.” Dash nearly jumped out of her own skin as the voice sounded behind her. She hadn’t heard a thing, not a single step! She whipped around, and felt her jaw simply unhinge.
Behind her was a dog of moderate height, shaggy but fit, with a patch over one eye. And a metal paw too. Her body quickly found itself overwhelmed with the question of which essential function it should lose control of first. “Big Dog,” she whispered.
He gave a simple nod. “You’re pretty good.”
“I am?” Dash asked, certain that her heart had stopped beating, and about 80% sure she’d soiled herself or worse.
She got a nod in response. Followed by two swift jabs to the face and a spin kick that launched her head over heels into a concussion.
It was probably the greatest moment of her life.
-=-=-=-=-=-
When Dash awoke, she immediately decided that anyone who’d described their hangover as ‘splitting their head open’ didn’t know what they were talking about. She groaned and reached up, feeling a dense layer of bandages clinging to her skull. She gave it a cautious press, and immediately winced, pledging never to do that again. Instead, she gradually pulled herself upright, slowly recognizing the cell she’d broken into just this morning. How poetic. No wonder she hated poetry.
“Can a girl get some water here?” She asked. As per her wishes, a giant splash of icy water immediately hit her full body. “Gah! Real funny!”
“Cops get to be funny too,” Half-ear grumbled, sitting back down across from her cell. “Not so fast in a three by three cell, are ya?”
“Not so slow sitting on your butt, are you?” Dash shot back, sticking out her tongue. “Oh wait, you are.”
“You know, sometimes, I feel bad about losing my hearing. Then I lip read one of you young punks, and realize I ain’t missing anything.” He snorted at her sour look, and continued. “Still, I’d hate to be you. You rolled in a lotta’ shit today, young lady.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She felt her head again, wincing. “Was that really Big Dog?”
Hershel chuckled, a deep dry sound. “In the flesh. Half the department nearly asked him for an autograph, cept’ none of em’ had the courage. Still, I’m sure they’ll be tellin’ their pups about today for years.” He grunted and stood up. “Not you though, I doubt you’ll be telling anyone but the dogs in black about anything.”
“Wait, what?” She felt a pit open up in her stomach.
“Oh, you didn’t think this was going to be a little sheriff operation, did you?” He gave a rasping cackle. “No, we were just holding down the fort. Poor sheriff's probably gonna get his hide tanned clean off, but that’s nothing compared to what’s waiting for you. They’re gonna have quite a few questions for you, especially about how your little friend got the best of Big Dog himself.” He slammed the door behind him as he left, long before Dash’s brain had finished processing the information.
“Wait. Wait! She did what?!” She craned her head against the bars, again wincing as her skull brushed the cold steel, but try as she might she couldn’t see down the hallway, much less out the door to the office. “What do you mean she got the best of Big Dog?”
Only silence greeted her question.
She sat back down, dumbfounded. She’d gotten the best of Big Dog, a living legend, the greatest soldier in the world. Twilight Sparkle, a squawking pile of feathers, had gotten the best of him. How? He hadn’t been cut up, had he? She hadn’t really been paying much attention before he (awesomely) cold cocked her. Her claws were pretty big, if kinda dull, but she’d heard Big Dog had once wrestled a tatzlwyrm by himself. Hell, she’d faced down half a dozen dogs by herself, and her first instinct had been to freeze up just in his presence.
But somehow, Twilight Sparkle had done it.
And then escaped.
Without Dash.
Dash felt her heart sink, then shook herself. She’d seen Twilight’s eyes. They were honest eyes. Twilight wouldn’t have bailed on her. She felt it in her bones. She was just getting help, that was it. She’d be back with help. Dash was sure of it.
She relaxed, and eased herself back against the wall. It was just a matter of time. Any minute now. Why, she was so confident, she’d even close her eyes.
The minutes slipped by. She thought she heard talking in the room beside her, but she couldn’t quite be sure. She hadn’t noticed anything before, but then, it occurred to Dash that she didn’t spend much of her time actually just being quiet, naps excepted. It was kind of a strange feeling.
Did she actually spend so much of her life just doing things? Running from place to place? Why? She’d always talked about joining the explorer corps, going out there in the dark like her dad, but she’d never actually sat down and done it. If she was honest, the tests scared her. Tests were never straightforward, you couldn’t perform a test the way you could a competition or a sports game. They were tricky, full to the brim with minutia and useless details, like the word minutia.
But was that really an excuse? Didn’t she boast about how hard she worked, turning her delivery routes into a training routine? But then here she was, just running delivery, and by her age her Dad had charted the Northwest Caverns. What kind of example was she setting for little Scooter?
The door clicked.
Dash muttered a quick thanks to the gods as her eyes snapped open. She sat upright and fought the urge to wag her tail at the prospect of questioning and maybe even torture. Anything was better than being left alone with her thoughts again. Anything but that.
A familiar set of beak and purple eyes poked around the corner.
“Twilight!” Dash barked, only to receive a hissing shush from the griffon, her head swiveling back behind her before she scurried in the room and shut the door behind her. On her back, she carried a long rod of wood, the tip adorned with a spiraling length of bone tinted a deep shade of violet that no bone should ever be. As Dash watched, Twilight stood on her hind legs and took the staff in her paws, pressing the tip of the staff to the cell lock. “Uh, Twilight, bone isn’t going to drill--”
There was a flash of purple light, and the door came open with a resounding click.
“What was that?!” Dash almost missed the fact the door had opened, still staring at the lock even as the door was slid aside. “How did-- what was-- how?”
A wing upside the head brought her back to reality.
“Owwwwww!” She shot a glare at Twilight, who at least had the good grace to look sheepish as Dash pointed to her bandaged head. “I. Am. Injur-- look out!”
Old half-ear charged through the door, barreling in at Twilight. Twilight turned, took a deep breath, and shrieked. It was a sound like having pickaxes driven right through Dash’s ears, and she had to cover them despite the pressure it put on her skull. Even then, she slumped to her knees as the sound went on and on, bringing tears to her eyes.
And then it died with a wheezing gasp.
Blinking the tears from her eyes, her gaze slowly focused on a Twilight bent nearly double around old Half-ear’s fist, buried solidly beneath her ribs. With a soft, squeaking wheeze, she tipped to the side, and fell to the floor. With little more than a grunt, Half-ear yanked the staff from her grasp, and tossed it back across the room. “Kids, all the same.”
“Twilight...” Dash staggered back to her feet, just in time to see Half-ear slam the door closed, the lock clicking shut again.
So this was it, this was how her story ended.
And then everything caught on fire.
-=-=-=-=-
Foreign voices babbled in Dash’s ears. She tried to sit up and open her eyes, but the blaze of light that greeted them forced them shut again. What was going on? Her fur felt warm, like she was sitting before a flame, but her nose couldn’t smell any smoke. In fact, it smelled more like the gardens, that open earthy scent of growing things.
She shielded her eyes, squinting hard as she could as she cracked her eyes open. It took her almost a solid minute to make out the window she was looking into. Outside, was a light unlike any she’d ever seen. It blazed brighter even than the great gas fire of ‘97. It was so direct, so intense, it hurt to look at, but she couldn’t look away.
There was the rasping of cloth, and a thick sheet fell over the window.
Dash realized it had grown quiet. She turned around, finally noticing the room she was in. The walls were filled with books, shelves reaching the ceiling, built with enough wood to have emptied the city budget of all Arfberta, to say nothing of the gold that traced traced through every curve and carving. Along with them were arms of war, old stuff, spears and swords polished until their shining edges took on the gold of the room. In the center of the room was a grand stone table, rough topped and asymmetrical. It reminded her of her father’s geological charts from when he mapped his caverns, except flat.
“Zmw hl gsv kvg zdzpvmh.” The words came from the creature beside Twilight. Despite standing a hair shorter than Twilight, the griffon shied away from the creature the way one would from an open flame. The comparison was an easy one to make, as the creature was furred in a rich gold that was only accentuated by its hair, colored in a red and yellow so bright Dash wondered if it dyed its hair like she did. All of that on top of a set of heavy gold armor touched with rubies, and there was certainly a look to the ensemble.
By contrast, her turquoise eyes were cold as ice.
“Could you run that by me again?” Dash asked, reaching up to give a scratch to her bandages.
There was a burst of conversation from Twilight, halting as soon as those hard eyes fell on her. With a sigh, the creature turned back to Dash, and it was only then that dash noticed the spiraling horn atop her head, suddenly ablaze with crimson light. Before Dash could so much as move, a shock of heat ran up her spine, and clean through her head, making her gasp.
“Better?” The creature asked, snorting as Dash blinked in surprise. “Good. I am General Sunset Shimmer of her holiness’ royal army.” Her eyes flicked back to Twilight for just an instant, making the griffon flinch again, before settling on Dash even harder than before. “And you had better be worth the inconvenience.”