Applejack galloped into the royal courtyard, giving nods to a few guards spread around, and continued toward the castle’s main entrance. Looking up, she mused to herself, “Ah could search for Dash from one of the watchtowers.”
It wasn’t long before she realized that wouldn’t be necessary when a rainbow tail streaked overhead.
“Dash!” she called, causing the pegasus to zag in surprise. The pegasus kept going, however, disappearing behind a tower of a side building.
Applejack rushed after Rainbow, knowing she’d never be able to keep up, but hoping to at least see where she went.
With a groan of being left with no rainbow sighting, Applejack turned back only to be startled by an urgent whisper. “AJ!”
“Gah!” Applejack jumped to the side and saw Rainbow Dash crouched in the shadow of a bush.
“Not so loud!” Rainbow shushed.
Applejack looked around, seeing nothing of note other than a few guards watching them. “What’s going on? You hiding from somepony?”
“Zephyr Breeze!” Rainbow hissed back. “He’s been following me since I got here.”
Applejack could help but chuckle, “That boy just doesn’t know when to let go does he?”
Rainbow grumbled. “He keeps going on and on about being the Royal Manedresser! I can’t believe he’s a royal anything besides royal pain!”
“Ah suppose when you have a skill good enough, you get some leeway for, uh, ‘personality quirks’?”
“Yeah? Well, if he keeps this up, I’m going to quirk his ‘personality’ big time!”
“Careful, he still is Fluttershy’s brother,” Applejack chided her. “Just rain a cloud on his mane or something. That’ll send him back inside for a touch-up.”
“Huh.” Rainbow perked up, coming out from under the bush. “That could work.”
“Why you out here anyway? We have work to do.”
“That’s why I’m here. After we got separated I figured I’d just head over and see if I could nab our ponies, but they’re not here, and the princesses are busy with ambassador stuff. Whatever that means.”
“ ‘Our ponies’?” Applejack’s brow furled.
“Yeah. I don’t know what happened with Pinkie. I chased her all over but she just disappeared. And I still haven’t seen any of the others. I figured I’d see the pony me flying around somewhere but nothing. She’s in the city though. Apparently she slept outside because she didn’t want to be too close to Zephyr. Something I can understand. All the rest of our ponies slept in a suite in the castle. Twi too.”
Applejack quirked an eyebrow. “Say what?”
“What.”
“You know what Ah mean.” Applejack rolled her eyes.
“And you know what I mean. The whole point in coming here was to grab Twi. It’s been hours and all we know is that she’s somewhere in the city. ‘Least we’re in the right one this time. Meanwhile I’m stuck with Zephyr on my tail.” She looked back at her tail, flicking it a few times. “Almost literally.”
“Uh,” Applejack scratched her head, trying to unpack some aspects of what Rainbow was telling her and latched onto the part that made sense. “Ah know where Twi is, or should be.”
“Really?! That’s great!” Rainbow cheered. “Do you also know where pony me is?”
“Okay,” said Applejack, taking a step back, “that’s the part Ah’m not getting—“
“Halt!” demanded a stern voice.
Rainbow and Applejack looked over to see a small collection of guards closing in on them. The sound of flapping wings above came from additional pegasus guards and Wonderbolts.
“Uh, howdy, fellas,” chuckled Applejack nervously. “What can I do y’all for?”
“We’d like you to come in for questioning," answered the closest guard.
“What for?” asked Rainbow.
“Conspiracy to commit foalnapping.”
“Foalnapping?!” Applejack threw back.
“Foals napping?” asked Rainbow. “What’s a foal?”
Applejack gave her a quick, questioning look before turning back to the lead guard. “What makes you think we’re looking to foalnap anypony? What ponies would we even want to—?”
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, among others, by the sounds of it,” accused a Wonderbolt, honing in on Rainbow. “Where’s the real Rainbow Dash?”
All eyes turned toward Rainbow who shrank back. “Um ….” After a thoughtful pause, Rainbow reared onto her hindlegs and threw up her forelegs. “Okay, you got me! I’m not really Rainbow Dash! I’m just a really big fan of hers—because she’s totally awesome—and I wanted to come meet her.”
She looked around, but none of the other ponies seemed to know how to take that confession and it was clear it needed something more. “You like my costume, uh, dye job? And I got the cutie mark right, right? You know? Cosplay?”
While waiting for a reaction from the group, Rainbow began losing her balance and shot her wings out to counter. However, she was falling backward so the wings didn’t help. “Oof,” she muttered, landing on her back.
She quickly rolled over and tried to turn around to face Applejack and the majority of the guards, who were now surrounding them, but tripped over her hooves and landed on her face.
“Have you been nipping the hard cider again?” asked Applejack as Rainbow stumbled back onto her hooves.
The Wonderbolt members all glanced at each other, one mentioning, “Yeah, that’s really not Crash. Hers are much more dramatic.”
Seeing the continued confused scrutiny, Rainbow decided she needed a different plan. “What’s that?!” she shouted, pointing behind the densest group of winged ponies.
None of the guards turned, though a few Wonderbolts checked their peripheral vision.
Rainbow groaned and jumped for Applejack, hooking her forelegs under hers and launching into the air through the thinnest group of winged ponies.
“Wwwhhhoooaa?!” Applejack yelled. “Dash?! What the hay are you doing?!”
“Flying away!”
“What—where—WHY?! Ah have no idea what’s going on!”
Behind them, the winged guards and Wonderbolts were in close pursuit.
“Put me down, you varmint!” Applejack yelled.
Seeing the courtyard wall ahead, Rainbow flew higher.
"Ah said down! This ain't down!" Applejack shouted.
“And let you get arrested?”
“Yes!”
“What?!” Rainbow shrieked, looking down at her passenger.
“Better than getting my neck broken!”
“I’m not going to break your neck!”
Applejack’s eyes went wide and she yelled in a rush, “Yes-you-will-look-out!”
Rainbow looked forward to see a large building in front of them. Large in both width and height.
Her first instinct was to climb over it.
So she did.
But earth ponies are heavier than pegasus ponies. Especially when carrying them.
She didn’t quite manage the curve as sharply as intended, and they flew close enough to graze the building. Both of them had their forelegs entwined but Applejack instinctively kicked out with her hindlegs to keep them from smacking into it.
Earth ponies are also generally stronger than pegasus ponies. And with self-preservation screaming at her, Applejack used her full strength.
Applejack’s kick was more dramatic than Rainbow was expecting and nearly flipped them over.
Rainbow, now angled at the ground and still flapping her wings in surprise, made their altitude drop faster than gravity would have bothered to do on its own.
She quickly righted herself, swinging Applejack around in the process, and started trying to fly straight up and over the roof of the building.
At some point, dislodged from the earlier flipping, Applejack’s hat came back down to land on Rainbow’s face.
“I can’t see!” Rainbow instinctively reached up to adjust the hat, leaving Applejack to dangle from only Rainbow’s remaining foreleg.
“DASH!” Applejack shouted, clinging to her literal last leg. “Higher! Little higher!”
Hat adjusted and vision secured, Rainbow looked forward to see the chimney of the building they were in the process of trying to avoid. It was just high enough to hit Applejack at center mass with their current altitude. Rainbow quickly inclined and Applejack drew in her rear hooves, just managing to trim a nail off the edge. "DASH!" she complained to her pilot.
Rainbow looked down at her unhappy passenger and put her fears to rest. "I got this!"
The assurance was not well received if Applejack's scowl was anything to judge by.
Rainbow then looked back and caught a glimpse of several winged ponies still behind them and closing in. “Hang on!”
“You think Ah’m not?!”
“Evasive maneuvers!”
“Nope! Don’t you dare!”
“Daring and doing!”
Applejack looked forward, watching as Rainbow weaved between buildings,—"Nope!"—from alley to alley,—"Nope!"—and then began heading for one of the very dark train tunnels leading down the side of the mountain, “Nope! Nope! Nope!”
Rainbow ignored the protests and flew in at high speed. The darkness then forced her to lower her speed closer to something that might resemble just "unsafe" rather than "Ludicrous." Though Rainbow and Applejack's definitions of the words may have differed.
The Wonderbolts behind them kept at their full speed, their goggles starting to glow gently. The pegasus guards repositioned themselves to follow behind.
Just as they could see the light at the end of the tunnel, two of the Wonderbolts grabbed onto Applejack, a third gaining altitude to try and head off Rainbow.
“Whoa now!” Applejack yelled. “Dash! We should stop!”
“No way!” She tugged back, continuing to fly out the tunnel.
The added drag of two Wonderbolts clamped onto Applejack and pulling back with their wings slowed Rainbow down dramatically, and another Wonderbolt passed her. Two royal pegasus guards brought up the rear.
“Halt!” demanded a guard.
The Wonderbolt ahead of Rainbow slowed her flight and set up a blocking position.
Rainbow tried to curve around her, but the drag from Applejack and the other Wonderbolts forced her straight. She collided with the Wonderbolt and the impact separated her from Applejack.
The two Wonderbolts now carrying her slowed and kept their distance from Rainbow.
Applejack wasn’t resisting.
With two of the Wonderbolts in custody of one of their targets, the guards flew up to Rainbow, joining the lead Wonderbolt.
”AJ!” Rainbow shouted. Seeing the other ponies closing in, she groaned and took off, launching through the pegasus blockade. “I’ll get help!” she shouted back, her voice fading as she sped away.
***
***
“P-pinki-e, do we h-have to go-o so f-fast?” stuttered Fluttershy on Pinkie Pie’s back while Pinkie galloped forward.
“Well, I guess not,” Pinkie answered without slowing down. “But if we don’t then it’ll make finding that other Pinkie harder.”
“Ar-re we almost th-there?”
“Yup! Look!”
Fluttershy looked ahead and, in between bounces of her and Pinkie’s pink manes, saw the castle courtyard straight ahead. Looking up, she saw the castle itself tall overhead. “W-wo-ow.”
“I know, right?!”
On they sped into the courtyard, Fluttershy watching the bouncy, blurry buildings as they passed.
Suddenly, they stopped. Or rather, Pinkie stopped. Fluttershy was flung forward, but thankfully held tight onto Pinkie’s mane. Instead of being ejected, she swung up and around Pinkie’s head and came down, literally face-to-face with her.
“We’re here,” Pinkie explained.
Blinking away the swirling confusion, the only response Fluttershy could give was, “Oooh’eh?” right before her grip faltered and she met the ground tail first.
“Yes, ‘really,’ silly!” agreed Pinkie. “Oh look! Here come the guards!”
Enough of the world stopped bouncing to allow Fluttershy to get a few hooves under her, and what appeared to be Pinkie’s mane snaked under and helped her the rest of the way up. She turned and saw at least fifteen guards trotting their way, with nine more in the air. A moment later those numbers became five and three respectively as the blurring ceased.
“Hiya, Pointy Spear! How the foals, Mirror Shield? Did you catch that Buckball game last week, Fleetfoot?” Pinkie called to some of the approaching ponies.
“Pinkie? How do you know their names?” Fluttershy asked, her stance and voice finally becoming steady.
“Easy! Got party-planning files on all of them in the party-planning cavern!”
“Oh, right. Um, what do they want with us?”
“Oh, I’m sure they just want to say hiya!”
“Halt!” a guard demanded.
“Well, I got two letters right,” Pinkie shrugged before calling back to them. “Hay! We’re looking for Twilight or another Pinkie Pie! Have you found any?”
Five minutes later, Fluttershy watched as a guard closed and locked the door on their dungeon cell.
Her head and ears flopped forward, drooping down. “This isn’t going very well.”
“Aw, cheer up, Fluttershy. At least we’re not alone. Hiya, AJ!”
“AJ?” Fluttershy perked up.
“Ah guess they caught you too, eh?” came a familiar southern drawl, getting Fluttershy to turn around.
“Yep,” answered Pinkie Pie. “They caught us two too. But why? What did we do?” She then gasped and peered closely at Applejack. “Or what did you do?”
“Ah didn’t do anything!” Applejack defended. “Ah was just minding my own business, looking for Dash, when I finally find her and the varmint’s acting all weird.”
“Applejack!” popped Fluttershy. “Which Applejack are you?”
‘Yeah, weird like that!” Applejack pointed a hoof at Fluttershy.
“Well, I suppose that is a weird kind of weird,” commented Pinkie.
“Are you pony Applejack?” stressed Fluttershy.
“Of course Ah’m a pony,” Applejack declared. “You’re a pony, Pinkie’s a pony … probably. What are you on about?”
“No, no. What I mean is, have you been a pony all your life?”
Applejack tilted her head. “Well, yeah, unless you count transforming spells like that time I was a breezie, and Discord’s turned me into an orange a couple of times.”
Fluttershy gasped happily, losing control of her wings and fluttering up in the cell. “We found you! We’ve been looking all over for hours!”
Pinkie cheered with her, “Woo! Woo!”
“We all just had lunch together a little bit ago!” countered Applejack.
That got Fluttershy back to reality and she fumbled her wings, managing to catch herself and control her landing. “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, I need to explain. We actually haven’t met yet, I’m not the Fluttershy you know.”
“Huh? You a changeling in disguise or a come-to-life spell, uh, something?”
“No. The-the portal in Twi’s palace. I’m from the other world!”
“Dun, dun, dunnn!” Pinkie mixed in some sound effects.
“Wait, what?” Applejack waved a hoof to summon a halt. “You’re from the world Sunset Shimmer went to?”
“Yes!” Fluttershy cheered.
“And so was the Rainbow Dash Ah met earlier?”
“Sounds like it, yes.”
“The one that got all of us arrested?”
“Eep.” Fluttershy’s excitement fell away. “Um. Probably, um, yes. Oh dear.”
“Now why didn’t she just come out and say she was the other Dash instead of this cosplayer nonsense?”
Fluttershy blushed. “Um ….” And hid behind her mane.
“Who was she cosplaying as?” asked Pinkie.
“Her other self, apparently.”
“Well that’s a lazy costume. Rarity would be so disappointed.”
“Well, we can come back to that later. For now: why are y’all here? Is it all of y’alls or just you and Dash? Why are y’all split up? The portal’s in Ponyville, why’d y’all come all the way to Canterlot?”
Seeing Fluttershy cringing a little, Applejack reminded herself that the pony in front of her only looked like her friend, Fluttershy, but was a different person. A different person with a personality similar to her shy friend’s.
“Sorry, uh Fluttershy,” she started over more calmly. “My name’s Applejack, and Ah’m pleased as punch to meet you.”
Fluttershy peeked out of her mane with a smile. “I’m pleased to meet you too, Applejack. Um, I'm Fluttershy” she cleared her throat, “We have a lot to talk about.”
“And I’m pleased to have met both of you!” Pinkie cheered, pulling them into a tight hug.
Fluttershy smiled a moment but her expression grew concerned. "I hope we won't be in here long, We need your Twilight's help."
"Ah'm sure it won't be but a mite till things get sorted. Security's high right now and somepony's bound to call Twilight soon."
Pinkie released then and nodded. “I bet it will be just long enough to throw half of a ‘We’re-in-jail-now-but-still-having-fun-together-because-we-just-made-friends-over-interdimentionational-boundaries’ party! And then we'll all get together with Twi and the others and fix everything—I hope I have enough cupcakes in my mane—What could go wrong, right?”
Fluttershy cringed. "I think we've asked that question a lot today."
"Exactly!"
***
***
Private Pointy Spear returned to his post having shut away the strangely-acting Applejack, Fluttershy, and … well, what really counted as “strange” for Pinkie Pie? If ever there was a definition it would have to be updated with every hourly report.
He nodded to his partner, receiving a nod in return, and watched the nearest Wonderbolt squad land for refreshments after pulling another surveillance round.
It was, again, strange to have to lock up such nice ponies, but something was clearly up, and they had all been ordered to be on high alert.
It was going to be a busy week. First the ambassadors needing all that extra security, then the changeling report, and now the Harmony Bearers acting strange. What was next?
“Hiya, Pointy Spear!" an impossibly peppy, yet very familiar, voice cheered in his ear before moving onto his partner and the resting Wonderbolts. "How the foals, Mirror Shield? Did you catch that Buckball game last week, Fleetfoot? And why is your name Fleetfoot if you have no foots?”
“H-halt?” Mirror Shield reacted, apparently just as confused and startled as he was seeing again one of the ponies they had just locked up.
“Well, you got two letters right, but I actually said 'hiya'! not 'halt'!” Pinkie shrugged. “Hey! I'm looking for Twilight or another Pinkie Pie that looks just like me! Have you found any?”
Five minutes later, Pinkie Pie watched as a guard closed and locked the door on her dungeon cell.
"You could have just said no!" she called out as they left her alone in the cell block.
***
***
Rarity fretted.
She had lost both her Fluttershy and pony Applejack. She at least knew that pony Applejack was heading for the castle, and it wasn’t that far away. But what about poor Fluttershy? Why had she run off? And out the back door rather than the front.
Rarity had called from the door. She had run out from under the archway and checked the sky for any yellow pegasus ponies. She had run all the way through to the other end of the covered alley and called to the sky there as well.
First Pinkie, now Fluttershy. And they had already split up from Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
It was like one of Rainbow Dash’s horror movies where the protagonists get picked off one by one.
She looked around, seeing all the bright colors and cheerful, magical ponies.
Okay, maybe not just like a horror movie. But she was still alone! And so was Fluttershy!
After a little debating, she ran back to an increasingly confused Sassy—whatever her full name was—told her to have Fluttershy go to the castle if she showed up again, and left back through the rear exit of the boutique. She then took the street that looked to be the most direct route to the castle and sped into a brisk trot while keeping an eye out for yellow wings.
The city seemed to be mostly unicorn ponies so any wings stood out, but only a few were yellow and none were Fluttershy's.
It didn’t take long to reach the castle. If only the train’s map had included Rarity’s boutique, they could have simply gotten off at the castle's station and walked to the boutique from there. It would have been closer. Being such close friends with princesses must be why pony Rarity had chosen that location.
But that was a matter for another time.
For now, Rarity needed Twilight or another princess. She needed her friends back.
From the courtyard to the castle was a short trot.
Very short considering the guards cutting her off with a stern, “Halt!”
Meanwhile, back at the boutique, a discombobulated Sassy Saddles opened a bottle of Sweet Apple Acres hard cider.
***
***
Rarity couldn’t get her blush to dim. Surely Applejack couldn’t be interested in her that way, could she?
She looked over at Applejack fussing with that vintagely adorable hat, stumbling on her other three hooves. Applejack never stumbles like that, she’s always so sure and confident and strong. Is she embarrassed about something and having difficulty concentrating? What is it she wants to tell me about?
And “vintagely” isn’t a word! Is it spreading?
A few steps later, Applejack had put her hoof down and was back to walking on all fours, her gait had evened out but still seemed off and she kept her head down, seemingly watching her hooves.
“So,” Applejack began, startling Rarity into taking a small gasp and looking forward again, “Rarity, uh, ma’am.”
“ ‘Ma’am’?” Rarity looked back in surprise.
“Uh, Ah mean, Miss?”
“ ‘Miss’? Applejack? What—is …,” Rarity blushed a little deeper, “was there something you needed to tell me?”
“Yeah! Yes there is,” Applejack called right back. “Ah’ve been trying to get to this all day.”
“You could have told me at lunch, or when we woke up together.”
Applejack was so startled she jumped slightly with all four legs. “We sleep together?” A blush grew on her cheeks as well.
“Well—we—that is,” Rarity sputtered, “in neighboring beds of course.”
“Oh! Of, of course. Neighboring beds.”
“Though we have shared beds at times. Since we’re such close friends.”
“Oh, right. Yes we have. We’ve had lots of sleepovers. Even had a couple with just you and Ah at your place.”
“Normal for friends to do that.”
“Very normal. Ah mean, it’s not like we’ve ever slept together in the nude.”
Rarity gave Applejack another curious glance. “Of course we have.”
Tripping over her hooves, Applejack crashed to a halt.
“Applejack?” Rarity called, walking up to her. She got a quick look at the shock in Applejack’s eyes before Applejack dropped her head to look at the ground instead. Rarity took a step back. Is she imagining me wearing socks?
“Uh,” was the dull response. Once Rarity jolted back, Applejack picked her head up in surprise and blinked, getting another look at Rarity.
The pony Rarity.
“Oh!” Applejack popped. “Right! Nude, ha.” She glanced down at herself, completely naked aside from her hat, as she had been for the past few hours. “Completely normal here! Nothing strange about that.”
Rarity blinked as Applejack set into a trot and passed her toward the castle. She was, wasn’t she? What styles would she like?
She shook her head. That is not the proper question right now! She chided herself and quickly turned and cantered forward to line up with Applejack.
“Like Ah was saying,” Applejack spoke again, more confidence in her voice this time, “Ah’ve been trying to get to you to talk to you all day.”
“Yes?” Rarity spoke with a slight quiver.
“We don’t actually know each other.”
“What? But of course we do. You’re my best friend.”
“Aw, shucks, Rare. Thank you.”
“Are you saying you want to be …,” Rarity considered her next word, “closer?”
“Well, yeah, Ah do want to get to know you better.”
“How much better?” Rarity’s blush grew brighter waiting for the answer.
“How about a proper introduction for starters?”
“An intro…? We’ve known each other for years.”
“We’ve known of each other,” Applejack countered, getting some of Rarity’s blush to fade in place of confusion. “Wow, that castle sure is mighty big up close.”
Rarity looked forward, noticing they had reached the courtyard and were just shy of the gateway.
“Halt!” they heard a stern voice call out from within.
This was followed by a startled, “Oh! Dear me, you gave me a fright!” The voice was quite familiar to both of them. “Could you help me, sir? I am looking for Applejack or Fluttershy. Well, actually, if you know where the princesses are or Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie, that would be lovely as well.”
“That’s my voice!” Rarity cried, rushing into the gateway.
Applejack followed her. “Rarity!” she called.
“”Yes, dar—?”” came two replies, both of which were cut off when the two speakers saw each other.
Inside the courtyard was another Rarity wearing a five layer gown with various accessories and a set of saddlebags.
That Rarity looked back at the Rarity in the red dress with wonder for a moment before she brightened. “Pony Rarity!” she cheered before rushing to meet her.
“HALT!” came the stern voice again, much more urgently this time.
The command startled the three ponies who turned and saw the armored guard that spoke as well as several others approaching from all around them.
Applejack looked on and groaned. “That’s what I was trying to get to.”
***
***
A quick glance back told Rainbow that some of those winged ponies were still in pursuit. Looked like five in total.
The three in armor were lagging behind, but the two who were wearing uniforms much like her own soccer uniform back at CHS were managing to keep up.
Rainbow smiled to herself. “If the armor ponies can’t keep up at this speed, wait till they see what I can really do!”
She secured Applejack’s hat more firmly on her head, as she knew her friend wouldn’t want it getting lost in an alien world, then immediately dived down, flapping her wings, to get an instant speed boost, then leveled out and zoomed just above a street on the outskirts of the city.
Her pursuers copied her. The blue uniformed ponies handled the maneuver—poneuver?—expertly, as did two of the armored ponies. The third didn’t manage to pull out of the dive as smoothly and clanked into the walkway, losing a lot of speed in the process.
Rainbow then swerved around a large building, ever increasing her speed.
Again, the armored ponies grew more distant while the blue ponies kept up easily.
A sly smile grew on Rainbow’s face.
Competition!
She decided to first work on her speed, scanning for a direction without obstacles, finding a curved pathway through a park, and recalling what Scootaloo taught her about pegasus wings. Minus the slingshot of course.
It was an exhilarating rush.
The pathway was lined with hedges and the occasional statue.
They all just blurred by.
And so did Applejack’s hat. She would have to come back for it.
She picked up speed, curving with the pathway.
The wind roared around her and through her mane, tail, fur, and feathers.
Then, right in front of her were the three guards.
The curved pathway was a circle. She had lapped them!
She laughed, passing the slowpokes and picking up Applejack’s hat on her way through, this time holding it with her hooves instead of wearing it.
Then she looked back and saw five ponies.
She had lapped the guards but the blue ponies had been keeping up.
Redoubling her efforts, she sped up, easily faster than she had ever gone without wearing her pendant.
The wind began to sting at her eyes and she remembered that the blue ponies were wearing goggles.
Speed alone wouldn’t be the answer if she couldn’t see where she was going.
Instead, she switched to a climb, copying her cloud-hunting test from Ponyville.
Like a rocket, she shot straight up toward a nice patch of clouds, oddly laid out in a pattern almost matching the city walkways.
It didn’t take long to reach them and she burst straight through the center.
Immediately, she changed course, flying just above and along a strip of clouds.
She heard a FOPFF behind her, signaling the arrival of other ponies and she burst down through the clouds again,
She saw the three guards below. They had spread out and kept at a lower altitude, only the blue ponies followed her up to the clouds.
If her …, not so much a plan so to say, but an on-the-fly idea worked, then those blue ponies would have to find her again. But that would be easy if she kept right below a strip of cloud.
So, she dived again. Finding a patch of taller buildings and aimed for the alley between them.
Flapping her wings for more speed.
Her eyes were stinging now. Those goggles would be useful. Why wasn’t this an issue with her pendant?
She didn’t have time to wonder about that.
Just before she got below the tops of the tall buildings, she heard a guard call out.
One had seen her.
Once leveled out in the alley, she spared a glance up at the clouds. One of the blue ponies had popped under the clouds but seemed to have not heard the guard.
Rainbow veered away. That pony may not have heard the call, but he’d see the guards turning to follow her.
Two more turns through the alleys and Rainbow found herself at a dead end.
No choice but to get some altitude again.
Angling sharply upward, Rainbow praised herself for not losing much of her speed in the process. Her wings were getting easier to control!
Upon reaching the top of the stone wall blocking her, she was able to look around again.
One of the armor ponies was nearby, one of the blue ponies was coming straight for her from above. She couldn’t see the rest.
She zipped over the wall.
Right into the other blue pony!
The blue pony grabbed her around the barrel and angled her wings to force them into a spiral.
Rainbow flapped her own wings, trying to counter but only made the spin worse.
They landed on top of that wall and rolled a few times.
The blue pony pinned Rainbow down, belly up so that her wings were pressed into the stone.
Rainbow struggled, grunting with the effort. She looked to her assailant, her vision blurred slightly by the spin and irritation by the high speed winds.
She blinked away the tears.
The goggles!
Rainbow curled and reached forward, grabbing one lens of the blue pony’s goggles with her teeth, and pulled back.
“Gah!” the blue pony yelled, reaching with her hooves to try and secure them.
Rainbow kicked with her hind legs, pushed with her forelegs, and got the pony off her.
She rolled, plopped her head into Applejack’s hat, and took off again, goggles still in her teeth.
Another dive to start off, getting up to speed quickly by the time she was just above the ground.
She hit a straightaway and fumbled with the goggles, trying to figure out how to get them on her face with hooves. While at high speed. While being pursued.
She managed to get the band up around her head, but that just got the goggles stuck in her mouth like a horse’s riding bit.
Dismayed, she groaned and then yelled, noticing a hay cart passing right in front of her.
Thankfully, with the goggles/bit in her mouth, she didn’t have to spit out any hay after crashing through it.
At least it wasn’t a sofa, she thought.
She risked a look behind her and saw the blue ponies still following close behind. Two of the guards were in the far distance.
Looking forward, she took in her surroundings.
She was near the edge of the city.
Near the cliff.
Maybe now was the time for some high speed distance flying. See how long those ponies could keep up!
Veering south, she aimed for the tiny speck of Twi’s distant palace in Ponyville.
She set her wings.
And launched herself as fast as she could.
She rounded over the cliff edge. The city quickly falling up and away behind her.
The wind picked up again, whipping around her, stinging her eyes.
Movement to her right caught her attention and she turned to see another blue pony matching pace with her.
She was about to veer off, maybe angle down for more speed, when she realized this pony was a lighter blue than the others and there was no yellow lightning strip on her. And … were her mane and tail rainbows?
“Wou! Arr uo ee?” she asked through the goggles in her mouth.
The awesomely radical, very way cool pony flicked her hind hooves to the side, giving Rainbow a tap. “Tag! You’re it!” she shouted with a smirk before flicking her wings back, putting herself in an instant half-loop climb and triple aileron roll.
Rainbow watched her twin shoot back up toward the edge of Canterlot she had just dived off of. Her twin then did a double orbit around two other pegasus ponies and a smaller winged, green and purple creature before stopping into an instant hover beside them.
She tried to gasp, but the goggles in her mouth just wedged themselves in, forcing her mouth open.
The sudden blockage of her airway startled her and she faltered but quickly recovered. A quick re-angling of her wings and she copied the first part of her twin’s stunt. She didn’t quite pull off the rolls as smoothly, but she managed to get up to her twin and noticed one of the ponies was clearly Fluttershy and another closely resembled their princess friend—
Right before Rainbow and her twin were tackled by the ponies in blue uniforms!