The sound of a revving engine made everypony look up just in time to see a dark blue van with tinted windows driving up the street towards them. The passenger window rolled down and a familiar mustached unicorn leaned out, his horn sparking.
“Star Cluster!” Flash gasped.
A sphere, crackling like orange lightning, launched itself from Star Cluster’s horn, racing towards the window.
“Down!” Prowl shouted, grabbing Trace and Bumblebee and diving for the floor. Phillip turned and tackled Flash, shoving him to the ground.
The sphere struck the wall and exploded with a crash of thunder. The window shattered, glass raining down upon the ponies like sharp hail, mixing with the dust of the fracturing wall. A wave of heat and pressure crushed down upon Flash, pushing the air from his lungs; a white light washed over his gaze, and he felt icicles stabbing him through the ears, rupturing his eardrums.
The white light slowly faded away, revealing the world, blurred and shaking before him. The only sound he could hear was a faint, distant ringing; he felt himself gasping, struggling to remember how to breathe.
Phillip was still sprawled across him, eyes closed; was he unconscious? Was he dead?! Flash looked around; Prowl was lying on her side, one wing tucked close to her, cringing in pain. Bumblebee was trying to get up, but his legs didn’t seem to want to work; he wobbled and stumbled like a drunkard, eyes rolling. Trace wasn’t moving, partially covered by wreckage from the tumbling wall.
Flash saw the ceiling start to sag over his head, then quickly rolled out of the way as a shower of plaster and wood rained down upon where he had just been, pulling Phillip’s still form out of the way as well.
As he rolled, he saw movement down the hallway out of the corner of his eye. The front door crashed open—the fact that he could still hear nothing disturbed him deeply—and a pony rushed in, a brass-colored pegasus wearing a bulletproof vest, brown eyes blazing furiously with vengeance, wings spread to carry his weight as he stood on his hind legs. A pump action shotgun was clutched in his hooves. Flash could see two other ponies behind him.
A stab of panic raced up Flash’s spine, his heart rate speeding up. All of his muscles contracted, his mind shuddering to a halt. All he could think about was the flash of a shotgun muzzle, what it would feel like when those metal pellets pierced his skin. He looked around; the others were still unconscious or pinned down. It was just him. Him against three gunponies.
I’m going to die. The thought flashed through Flash’s brain like a bolt of lightning, evaporating his will. He didn’t move. He couldn’t move. The barrel of the shotgun emerged from around the corner, and he gasped, knowing that it would be one of his last breaths...
“Being brave isn’t the same as never being scared.”
The pegasus rounded the corner, shotgun leading the way. And Flash Sentry, terrified, breath heavy, heart pounding, drew his sidearm in a trained motion, raising it up to his eyes.
The pegasus turned towards him, shotgun swinging around to bear, but Flash felt like it was moving in slow motion. The iron sights of his .38 Special settled on the target’s chest.
Flash pressed down on the trigger twice; he saw the flashes of the gunshots, felt the .38 kick against his foreleg, but all he heard was a pair of distant thuds. The brass-colored pegasus stumbled, face twisting into pain, stunned by the shots ramming into his vest.
Flash raised the gun slightly, setting the sights over his target’s forehead and squeezed the trigger again: the Failure ‘Three-Claw Touch’ Drill, a movement that he had practiced hundreds of times in the range. Blood blossomed from underneath the gunpony’s left eye and he fell to the ground.
About this moment, Flash suddenly realized that he was moving forward, gun still raised. The bulky green earth pony behind the pegasus was coming around to bear; Flash saw his lips move, bellowing out a word: a name? Vengeance in the stallion’s eyes, he swung the BAR around to aim at Flash.
Move!
Flash ducked, his left foreleg snapping up and pushing the barrel aside right as his foe opened fire. He felt more than heard the BAR firing, like the rapid, heavy clicks of a giant typewriter pounding the sky, and the heat of the bullets zipping past inches from his head.
The barrel of his .38 pressed against the flesh of the gunpony’s gut, just beneath his vest, and he fired twice again. Flesh and blood, hot and sticky and wet, flooded over his hooves, and the green pony collapsed against him, his stinking breath whooshing out of him.
And then Flash saw him. Right behind the green earth pony, BAR leading the way through the door. Star Cluster.
“No!” he heard his former tormentor scream, a fire lighting in his eyes at the sight of his dead cohorts. Flash shoved the massive weight off him, raising the .38 to aim, but Star Cluster was already opening fire. Flash dived backward, but an anvil punched him in the gut and he tumbled to the ground with a wheeze, his last shot going into the ceiling.
“You killed them!” Star Cluster bellowed, stalking forward with his weapon out; his voice seemed distant and muted, as though Flash had cotton stuffed into his ears. “You killed two of my buddies!” He sneered and aimed the gun at Flash’s gut. “So now, after I kill you, I’m gonna kill everypony you love. Say goodnight, punk.”
Gasping for air, staring death right in the face, Flash looked around for something, anything that would get him out alive. His hoof touched something cold and metal; Bumblebee’s shield! In a desperate scramble, he seized the handle and swung the shield up.
The BAR opened up again, and bullets hammered against the shield like a jackhammer, pinging musically off the magically-enhanced steel. Flash scrambled to try to get up, panting. Reload, reload! He fumbled for the gun, trying to pull out the ejection rod with shaking hooves.
Star Cluster ceased firing and Flash felt the electric tingle of magic as he tried to yank the shield aside; looking through the viewport, he could see the BAR staring down at him.
And then something charged over Flash’s head and rammed into Star. A baton appeared with a rapid clicking sound and smashed down onto Star’s foreleg; bone cracked, the gun clattered to the floor, and the unicorn’s scream of pain was cut off by a heavy blow crashing into his jaw.
Phillip Finder, one foreleg still in a sling, covered in dust, blood trickling from several cuts, was pinning the taller unicorn to the wall, slamming into him with his baton, shoulders, head, and elbows, bellowing like a lion. The unicorn was holding his forelegs across his face, desperately trying to block, but the blows were raining down from every direction.
Flash quickly got back to his hooves, grasping the ejector rod to swing out the cylinder, and his heart lifted at the sight of Prowl and Bumblebee both getting up, eyes focusing on their foe.
Star managed to shove Phillip back, then fired off a magical shield that pushed them all away. Phillip rolled as he hit the ground, popping back to his hooves; Flash managed to block most of the shove with the shield, but still stumbled enough to drop his speedloader. Bumblebee was tossed back onto his rear, while Prowl dug her hooves in and skidded back a few feet.
“Thish ishin ovah!” he slurred through a broken jaw, stumbling for the door. He sprinted out across the lawn.
Phillip, Prowl, and Bumblebee all leaped to pursue him, but were forced to fall back when shotgun blasts roared from the window of the dark blue van. Star Cluster dived through the open passenger door, allowing the ponies to catch a brief glimpse of the donkey in the driver’s seat aiming a shotgun out the passenger window. Even before the door shut, the van was peeling away in a screech of tires and smoke, vanishing from sight in moments.
Forgoing pursuit, Phillip leaned against the door’s threshold, panting and rubbing his left shoulder. “Everypony okay?” he asked.
Prowl winced, glancing at her right wing, which was bent at a slightly unnatural angle. “Wing’s broken,” she grunted. “I should be okay.”
“I FEEL FINE!” Bumblebee shouted, shaking his head and coughing. “JUST A HEADACHE!”
“Bee, don’t yell, my head hurts,” Prowl winced.
“I’M NOT YELLING! AM I YELLING?!” Bumblebee asked Phillip. Phillip just nodded. “OH, SORRY!”
Phillip proceeded inside, glancing at the bodies of the two gunponies. The brass pegasus lay on the floor faceup, his cheekbone torn open; the bulky green earth pony was sprawled across the floor, laying in a puddle of his still-wet blood. Flash’s shots had penetrated the abdominal aorta. The thought of what it would’ve been like to bleed out like that made Phillip wince slightly. Behind him, he heard Prowl radioing for an ambulance.
He walked over to Flash, who was now shoving the wreckage off of Trace. Flash bent down next to Trace and felt his neck, then sighed. “He’s alive,” he murmured, more to himself than Phillip, and sat down.
Phillip’s eyes traveled over to the shield, which was covered in dents and ricochets, dented and flattened bullets laying on the floor around it. He walked over to Flash, having to walk around to his left side, and placed his foreleg around the younger stallion’s shoulders. The colt was trembling slightly as the adrenaline washed itself out, breath coming fast and short.
“You did aces, jackaroo,” Phillip said, squeezing Flash to his side, giving him a rock for shelter against the storm of emotions that battered him. “We’re all alive because of you.”
Flash nodded, swallowing, still seemingly overwhelmed.
“Your father would be proud of you,” Phillip stated, giving Flash another gentle squeeze.
Flash looked up at him, eyes wide, then smiled and stood up fully. Trace groaned and his eyes flickered open, scanning the room.
“Oh, hey,” he murmured. “We’re not dead.”
“Ambulance is on the way,” Prowl called from the hallway.
Phillip nodded and leaned against the wall. “Wonder where Daring is…”
Grunting furiously, Rainbow Dash fought against the ropes that still bound her. Every movement made the garbage around her rattle and shift; the smell of rotten food, oil, and a dozen other reeking flavors filled her nostrils as she huffed through the black bag still covering her head. She gripped the razor blade tightly, still sawing at the ropes around her wrists, but her clumsy movements were too slow.
Anger and desperation mixed in her mind, burning like a gasoline fire. She repeatedly kicked the side of the dumpster, every bang echoing loudly and making her already aching head pound; she tried to yell for help through the tape, trying to ignore the crushing realization that it was unlikely anypony was within hearing range. A sharp jab of pain cut into Dash’s foreleg and she grunted in pain. It felt as though a broken bottle had jabbed her.
An idea crossed Rainbow’s mind. She managed to shift over onto her side, the garbage bags she was laying across crinkling and rustling. After some blind fumbling, she managed to grasp the neck of the shattered bottle. She twisted it around and started hacking at her bindings with the broken glass.
Already she could feel the ropes parting, creaking as they strained to hold together. Grinning behind the gag, Rainbow cut once, twice, three more times. Finally, with a snap, the ropes binding her hooves broke.
A shout of victory broke from Rainbow’s throat. After some wriggling around, she managed to untie the ropes around her wings and upper forelegs, then yanked the black hood from her head, tore the tape off her mouth with a soft yelp, then spat out the rag that had been stuffed into her jaws. A moment later, she had freed her hind legs.
She scrambled out of the dumpster, breathing in the sweet, salty air of the river, infinitely preferable to that of the garbage. Panting, she looked around. Where was Daring—?
Her eyes spotted a set of tire tracks, tracing the lines of burnt rubber across the wood of the dock all the way down to the edge. And then she saw the bubbles floating on the languidly lapping water.
Rainbow Dash gasped in horror, freezing for a moment of shock before springing into action. Jumping into the air, she took in a deep breath and dived straight into the water.
The Maresippi embraced her in a cold, crushing embrace, ice chilling her down to the bone. The water was a dark green color, obscuring her vision through a dark haze. Squinting, Rainbow managed to make out the dark shape of a car sinking beneath her. Propelling herself with limbs and wings, she managed to swim down to the car. Grasping the handle of the trunk, she yanked back as hard as she could, but the door refused to budge.
Why won’t it move?! Rainbow thought, using her wings to aid in her attempt to open the door. The hatch still remained determinedly shut, as though something was pushing it down.
Oh, right: the water, Rainbow realized. I can’t open it until the pressure’s equalized.
She continued to tug lightly on the trunk door; with each pull, she begged for the pressure to lessen, to release. Darkness was starting to creep around the edges of her vision, and her lungs burned with the urge to breathe.
Finally, the trunk opened with a creak. Rainbow reached inside and grasped an ice cold foreleg. Daring emerged from the trunk, freed of her bonds. Already she was blue in the face, her mane and tail waving about everywhere.
Rainbow turned and started swimming back up to the surface, struggling towards that distant glimmer of sunlight, dragging Daring behind her. Her lungs felt like they were on fire, her head spinning. Determinedly clamping her jaws shut, Rainbow pushed herself upwards so hard that her already sore muscles screamed in protest. Daring tried to follow her upwards, but Rainbow felt her slipping from her grasp; a stream of bubbles issued past her as Daring’s lungs failed her.
Then a dark shape broke the surface, propelling downward towards them. Rainbow froze in alarm, squinting at the strange object as it swam closer.
Then as it came closer, Rainbow recognized the golden-brown feathered griffon with dark brown eyes. Quickly, Rainbow handed Daring up to the griffon; Daring was holding her throat, convulsing as she fought the instinct to breathe. Mavri seized Daring from behind and started swimming up towards the surface; Daring clung to him in desperation, but he didn’t slow.
Rainbow followed after them both; a buzzing was growing in her ears, head spinning even more. Her mouth opened against her will and her screaming lungs, begging for relief, inhaled a great amount of the river water. She choked and retched, clamping her mouth shut again and pushed one last time…
And finally, she broke the surface of the river. Rainbow gasped in a great lungful of the warm, wonderfully smelling air, then gulped down more of the oxygen, her head slowly ceasing its spinning as she treaded water.
Looking around, Rainbow spotted Mavri a few feet off, trying to backstroke with one foreleg as he held Daring to his chest with the other; Daring was laying on his chest, eyes closed, not moving. The alarmed, desperate look on his face rejuvenated Rainbow’s aching limbs and she swam over.
“I don’t think she’s breathing!” Mavri grunted, struggling towards the shore, so close and yet so far away.
“Wait, hold on!” Rainbow cried. She floated next to the two, bending her ear next to Daring’s mouth. A chill ran down her spine as she realized that she couldn’t feel her breath.
CPR! She’d learned CPR as part of weather pony training! She could save her! Her own breath erratic, Rainbow tilted Daring’s neck back. That was the first step, right? Clear the airways? Right! And now she bent in close to Daring’s open mouth. Right before their lips touched, Rainbow took in a breath…
And was rewarded with a mouthful of vomit and river water. Daring spasmed, coughing and retching up the contents of her lungs and stomach. Recognizing that she was being held, she struggled feebly against Mavri’s hold.
“Easy, now, it’s just me,” Mavri grunted, swimming back towards shore.
“I think she’s breathing,” Rainbow grinned breathlessly, following them to the dock.
As the two of them reached the shallows, they heaved Daring, who was still coughing and gasping, onto the shore. She sprawled across the ground, shivering.
“H-how?” she managed to stutter to Mavri.
“I was fishing down the river from here, saw the car go over the dock,” Mavri explained. “I was just gonna call the police, but then I saw your friend dive in. Thought she might need some help.”
Daring sat up and managed to smile through chattering teeth at her rescuers. “Th-th-thank you.”
“See, nothing to worry about,” Rainbow puffed her chest out, pride dispelling any cold she felt. Daring rolled her eyes, but her smile didn’t waver.
Mavri limped a short distance away to shake himself off. “I’m calling an ambulance, you two wait here,” he grunted, limping up the hill in search for a gamewell.
“I don’t need an am—” Daring’s protest was cut off by a massive dizzy spell that sent her stumbling to the ground, retching again. She forced herself to breathe deeply until her head’s spinning slowed again. “Okay, fine,” she mumbled to Mavri’s retreating back.
Rainbow looked back at the water’s surface, head cocked slightly. “I’ll be right back,” she told Daring, then flew up into the air.
“Dash!” Daring cried in alarm as the pegasus dived back beneath the surface of the river. Daring ran down to the shore, stumbling as she splashed into the shallow regions, then stared at the rippling water, mouth open as she panted.
But a moment later, the surface of the river burst and Rainbow flew back up, clutching several wet items in her forelegs. She landed next to Daring and tossed them down with a grin; Daring’s shirt, her pith helmet, and the aluminum cigar tube.
“You just can’t be Daring Do without your gear,” Rainbow declared. “It’d be like Batmare without her utility belt.”
Daring stared at the clothes for a moment, then let out a soft laugh. “You’re something, kid,” she admitted, walking back to shore. She sat down in a sunny spot. “Okay, kid, we need to find a phone. Tell the police the address of the hideout. You remember it?”
“Two-thirty Lilac Street,” Rainbow stated.
Daring had to think for a moment, then nodded. “Right, right. Go! There might still be some evidence left.”
“Got it!” Rainbow saluted and zipped off. Daring tried to fly after her, but as soon as her hooves left the ground, the entire world seemed to flip on its side and she tumbled to the ground.
“Okay, okay, I’m gonna wait here for the ambulance,” she muttered, laying down in a warm spot. The sun gently beat down upon her, drying her coat as she shivered.
“I hope Phil’s having better luck than me,” she said to herself.
A river of thoughts ran through her mind: Bright Sparks snarling into her ear. The close tunnel. The orange ward over the house. The crates of equipment—guns? Explosives? Plans? The rack of clothes…
The clothes…
The white shirt and apron. With the baguette and bowl of soup. She’d seen that before. Where, where…?
“Gear, you’d best get ready for tonight,” Bright Sparks’ voice echoed in her ear, followed by a rattling of a clothes hanger…
“The Mayor!” Daring gasped. She scrambled back to her hooves and raced back up to the curb, her vision blurring.
“Whoa, whoa,” a voice she barely recognized as Mavri’s cried and she felt strong arms grasping her shoulders, steadying her. She turned to look at Mavri, trying to force her eyes to work right.
“Take it easy,” Mavri said, trying to force her to sit down. “Your friend’s already calling for an ambulance.”
Daring squinted across the street and spotted Rainbow Dash standing at a curb, talking into a payphone.
“No, no,” Daring grunted, trying to stumble towards her. “I have to tell them!”
“Tell them what?” Mavri protested.
“He’s going to kill the Mayor!” Daring shouted, shoving Mavri off her and racing towards the phone booth.