//------------------------------//
// The Prodigal Daughter: Part 1 
// Story: Clone Wars: Equestrian Wars 
// by Pun System 
//------------------------------//


Arc 1: The Prodigal Daughter


A world ridden with crime! Captain Rainbow Dash and her first mate, Night Glider, are making a routine smuggling run to the planet of Nar Shaddaa. Unbeknownst to them, this shipment of illegally modified blaster rifles destined for pirates in the outer rim is about to become far more trouble than it’s worth!
 



 
 	An XS Stock Light Freighter descended towards the urban skyline of the crime-ridden city-planet of Nar Shaddaa. Its roughly diamond-shaped durasteel hull was painted with two sky blue stripes running from bow to stern, a series of thinner stripes between them comprising a rainbow. The Rainboom’s top-mounted turret and side-mounted cannon stood idle as she came to a hover over the landing pad. Her landing gear deployed and she touched down gracefully as the soft blue glow from its engines faded away.
 
 	A loading ramp descended, and a pair of humanoids in flight suits emerged from the freighter. Both had long hair, tails, pointed ears, large eyes, and perhaps most predominantly, a pair of feathered wings on their backs.

 	The first, a female, had navy fur and white hair which had been brushed into a swept back style, giving her blue eyes a full range of vision. A blaster pistol was holstered on the outside of her right leg.
 
 	The second was a female whose fur was light blue, and whose hair contained every color in the visible spectrum. She was armed with a pair of blaster pistols, one holstered on each leg. Her brow furrowed as her magenta eyes scanned the docks. She stood at the foot of the ramp and crossed her arms. “Well, where are they?”
 
 	“They’ll be here, Rainbow. Give them time.”
 
 	“Really? ‘Give them time’? We’ve already rescheduled this shipment, what, three times? I’m beginning to think there won’t be a shipment!”
 
 	“They want to get paid as much as we do. They’ll be here any moment, I’m sure.” She had barely finished speaking when a door opened on the side of the dock and three figures began making their way towards the ship. “See? What’d I tell you? C’mon.” The pair began walking out onto the long platform towards the dock to meet the three walking towards them.
 
 	“Captain Rainbow Dash, I presume?” said the smooth-talking figure in front, a male human.
 
 	“That’s me. Now where’s my shipment?”
 
 	“Woah woah woah, easy there, Miss. We haven’t been paid yet.”
 
 	“That wasn’t our agreement!” Rainbow shouted, flaring her wings. “Shipment first, or you won’t get anything.”
 
 	A Rodian standing beside the human spoke up next. “Cho ba, doshi mawa lakotee. Noshawa b’gana.”
 
 	Rainbow stepped forward with her right foot. “I said—”
 
 	Night Glider pushed her aside. “Ten percent. No more than that.”
 
 	The three figures in front of her exchanged glances. “We’ll take it.”
 
 	Night Glider reached into her pocket and counted out the number of credits they had agreed upon before dumping them into the man’s waiting hand. “Appreciate your business,” he said with a smile. “Come with me and I’ll show you to your shipment.”

 	As the three turned to walk away, Rainbow punched Night Glider in the arm. She returned Rainbow’s glare with a roll of her eyes. The man led them back into a warehouse. Once their shipment was unloaded from the racks, Rainbow knelt down by one of the crates.
 
 	“And if you’ll just pay for the rest and put your name right here,” the man said, “Then you can be on your way.”
 
 	“I want to see the shipment first,” Rainbow protested.
 
 	“What? It’s all here, isn’t it? Twelve crates of blaster rifles. Specially ordered just for the Captain,” he said with a smile and a wink.
 
 	“I said I want to check inside the boxes,” she repeated, rising to her feet.
 
 	“Look, you want the merchandise or not? I don’t have to deactivate the sensors on those crates! You won’t even make it out of the atmosphere before security shoots down your ship!”
 
 	“Listen. I know when I’m getting scammed! Open these boxes, now!”
 
 	“Behind you!” shouted Night Glider. With superhuman reflexes, Rainbow jumped out of the way, just barely missing a blaster bolt. She turned and landed a high kick on the Rodian’s arm, following with a second kick to his head. She used her wings to readjust her trajectory in midair, landing on both feet. She threw her fists up, blocking a pair of punches from the man in front of her. She returned with a swift and powerful punch of her own, knocking him to the ground. Behind her, Rainbow heard a stun blast go off. She whirled around and drew her blaster only to see Night Glider standing over the second human, blaster drawn.
 
 	“Let’s see what these goons were trying to hide,” she said as she re-holstered her pistol. She opened the lid on the first crate and scoffed. “That’s what I thought,” she said, pulling a mouse droid out of the crate. “Where is my shipment?” asked Rainbow.
 
The man was lying on the ground, holding his head with one hand while bracing himself upright with the other. “I—I don’t know.”
 
 	“Where is it!?” she shouted.
 
 	“I don’t know, I swear!”
 
 	“If you don’t tell me inside of ten seconds fla—”
 
 	“Rainbow, he doesn’t know!” Night Glider said.
 
 	“It’s true,” the man replied. “They’re gone. I have no idea where they are by now.”
 
 	“You don’t have it here?” He shook his head. Rainbow knelt down next to the man. “Who did you give our shipment to?”
 
 	“I don’t know. She gave me some sort of code name. Didn’t even make sense.”
 
 	“Then describe her.”
 
 	The man looked up at Rainbow. “She looked—kinda like you. With the ears and the eyes. Not so much the wings. But she had a horn in the middle of her head and—ugh, I don’t know… Just said she’d pay double whatever you’d pay for the modified blasters.”
 
 	Night Glider knelt down on the other side of him. “We’ve still got ninety percent of our payment. You’ve already paid her for those blasters once. We’ll pay you a second time if you help us track down those blasters.”
 
 	“You still trust him?” blurted Rainbow.
 
 	“You want to get paid or not?”
 
 	“We’re already wasting our time here! I don’t want to waste our money, too!”
 
 	“I—I think I can help you out,” the man replied. “You ladies got another ten percent for me?”
 
 	“Five!” shouted Rainbow.
 
 	The man stared at her for a second. “Deal.”
 




 	Rainbow stood on a platform in one of the shadier parts of town.  Not to say that the other parts weren’t also shady; this just happened to be one of the worse parts of the undercity. On one side was the building the man had brought the fake shipment from, and on the opposite side was a sharp dropoff to the planet’s surface miles below. “So this is where you last saw her?”
 
 	“Yes, ma’am,” he said, a slight drawl in his speech.

 	“And when was that?”
 
 	“About three hours ago…”
 
 	“Oh, well that’s not so bad.”
 
 	“…this time last week.”
 
 	“What!?” Dash screamed. “She could be literally anywhere by now! She might not even be in this system!”
 
 	“Look, you asked me to take you here. Now you’re here.”
 
 	“No, we asked you to help us track down that shipment. I don’t see our shipment anywhere. Do you?”
 
 	Night Glider spoke up. “What else do you know about this shipment and this pony?”
 
 	“She came here with about a dozen others. I had a good dozen of my own workers here to deliver the crates. Had some sort of uniform deal going on. Armor, helmets, the whole shebang.”
 
 	“Were they ponies too?”
 
 	“Some were, some weren’t. Curious thing, too. Don’t normally see too many of your kind this little corner of the galaxy,” he said, shifting his weight and squinting at them.

 	“What was the code name she gave you?”
 
 	“You ready for this?” he asked, taking a step closer. “Masked Equality.” While the pegasi exchanged confused glances, the man backed up a few steps and began laughing. “Ain’t that the most ridiculous name you could imagine? Ha ha! I told you it didn’t make any sense!”
 
 	“Let’s get out of here, Rainbow Dash. This guy isn’t any help.”
 
 	Rainbow glared at the man. “Alright, mister, we asked you to find our crates. Does eighty-five percent mean anything to you?”
 
 	“Does five more percent mean anything to you?” the man asked. He grinned and uncrossed his arms to stretch out a hand. Rainbow shook her head and glanced at Night Glider just in time to catch her rolling her eyes. “No? That’s too bad. How about zero percent?” he snarled, his tone suddenly shifting. “Because that’s how much of your shipment you’re getting without me.”

 	Rainbow and Night Glider looked at each other, then reluctantly handed over more credits to the man. “Excellent! Now. Masked Equality said she was going to take the blasters to a nearby warehouse for storage. See, she didn’t know it at the time, but I was using this to listen in on her,” he said as he turned his head to the side, revealing a previously unseen earpiece. "Pretty clever, yes? Increases my range of hearing by over a hundred meters! A bit of noise cancelling for the up-close stuff, though. Otherwise, a normal conversation would practically burst my eardrum! Ha ha!”
 
 	“Ahem!”
 
 	“Rightrightright. The unicorn said those blasters were going to be very important for… ‘her cause.’”
 
 	“We paid you for useful information,” Rainbow reminded.
 
 	“I’m getting there, now, just hold on! She told the one right next to her that her organization was working out of this planet.”
 
 	“So they’re probably still here,” said Rainbow.
 
 	“That’s a relief,” said Night Glider.
 
 	“Then she said she’d something about getting back to Sublevel 39, in a warehouse a block past the swoop bike track. Then—then! The guy next to her said her name! Out loud! For anyone with a hyper aural-implant to hear!”
 
 	“And?”
 
 	“Her name… was—” The man collapsed on the spot, struck by a blaster bolt.
 
 	“What the—”
 
 	“Sithspit!” Rainbow caught the man on his way down. His head fell limp, having taken the full impact of the shot.
 
 	“Up there!” Night Glider shouted. Rainbow looked in the direction she had pointed just in time to see a humanoid with a jetpack take off.
 
 	Night Glider spread her wings and took to the sky. Rainbow spread her wings too, but paused a moment to rifle through the pockets of the dead man. She recovered her twenty percent, plus some extra “for her trouble.” She smiled and stuffed the credits into her pocket before joining Night Glider in the chase.
 
 	Up ahead, Night Glider drew her blaster and began firing on the person ahead of her. The target rolled onto their back and began to return fire with wrist-mounted blaster gauntlets. After a few seconds of weaving among traffic and descending a few levels, Rainbow heard an explosion, though faint. Directly in front of Night Glider, a moderate puff of reddish smoke appeared. Upon flying through it, veered off course and began rubbing her eyes. “Ah! Celestia! It’s in my eyes!”

Rainbow caught up to her and put an arm over her shoulder. “You alright?” Night Glider’s response was drowned out by a loud horn. She turned and saw a passenger shuttle barreling down on them.
 
 	Rainbow pulled her away and to a nearby platform, where she dropped to her knees and began continued rubbing her eyes. “Did you see where he went?”
 
 	“I—I didn’t. He used some sort of tear gas bomb.”
 
 	Rainbow sighed. “At least we know where he’s going. Sublevel 39, the industrial park just past the swoop bike track.”
 
 	“I’m practically blind. I won’t be able to follow you there.”
 
 	“I’ll find a way. I don’t care if I have to walk there.”
 



 
 	An open-air speeder came to stop in front of the main gate to a swoop bike track. “Thanks,” Rainbow said as she handed some credits to a droid in the pilot’s seat. The pegasi disembarked and the speeder flew away. “How’s your eyes?”
 
 	“Better.”
 
 	“Can you see ok?”
 
 	“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.”
 
 	“We should be close,” Rainbow said as the pair began walking. “The warehouses shouldn’t be too far from here.”
 
 	“How will we know which one is the right one?”
 
 	“I’m guessing it’ll be pretty heavily guarded. They’ll probably be making use of weapons with post-market modifications.”
 
 	“Our weapons.”
 
 	“Exactly.”
 
 	“How are we going to get them back?”
 
 	“With these,” Rainbow said, patting her left blaster pistol.
 
 	“Then what?”
 
 	“Then we pay the second-in-command at the docks. And I think we’ll be getting a twenty percent discount,” she said as she pulled a handful of credits out of her pockets.
 
 	Night Glider smiled. “Smooth. Snagged those from the conman at the dock?”
 
 	“You bet.”
 
 	“Then let’s go get our weapons back.”
 
 	“You said it.”
 



 
From the top of a building, Rainbow looked through her electrobinoculars. “Look over there at the guards in front of that warehouse,” she instructed, passing the binoculars to Night Glider. “Tell me what you think.”
 
 	Night Glider peered through the binoculars. “Could be our target. Those rifles have silencers.”
 
 	“And high-power battery packs.”
 
 	“Hey! Look at that,” Night Glider said, passing the binoculars back.
 
 	“What?” Rainbow accepted the binoculars and looked through them to see a third figure where only two had previously stood. The third was a snow-white humanoid with pure white pointed ears, and a white coat visible on his neck and wrists. He also had a tail the same shades of white as his hair beneath his helmet. “What’s another pony doing out here?”
 
 	“That has to be it,” Night Glider said. “Our friend back at the docks said there were other ponies with the group.”
 
 	“That’s right, he did!” Rainbow put the electrobinoculars away and spread her wings. “Come on, let’s go!”
 
 	The two flew across the street onto the top of the warehouse and walked over to a spot just above the door. “On three,” Night Glider said. “One. Two. Three!” The pegasi dropped down onto the guards, knocking them out. They grabbed the limp bodies and weapons and flew back up to the roof. “Now we put their uniforms on and go in through the side door,” Night Glider instructed.
 
 	As Night Glider removed her jacket, a metallic object dropped out of it and clanged on the roof. “I’ve got it,” said Rainbow. She reached her hand out but did a double take when she realized what had just fallen—a lightsaber. “Why do you have that? I thought—”
 
 	“Rainbow, can we talk about this later?”
 
 	Rainbow picked up the lightsaber. “We both know what this means, Night. A lightsaber is a Jedi weapon.”
 
 	Night Glider snatched the lightsaber back. “In my hands, it’s just a tool.”
 
 	“You don’t get to choose what that weapon symbolizes,” Rainbow said as she pulled on the uniform pants.
 
 	Night Glider sighed. “Rainbow, is this really that important to you?”
 
 	“Absolutely!” she replied. “The Jedi showed me purpose, fulfilment, and a reason to believe in something bigger than myself,” she said as she worked her wings through the slits in the uniform top. Lucky this was a pony-friendly operation they were infiltrating. “Then, they took it all away and left me with nothing but lies.”
 
 	“Most of the Jedi mean well, Rainbow. Obviously, I don’t agree with everything they do, but if it means that much to you, then I’ll get rid of it at the next opportunity,” she said as she pulled the helmet over her head.
 
 	“Maybe you’re right about most of the Jedi, but the Council… ugh.”
 
 	“No argument here,” Night said as she stuffed the lightsaber into her uniform jacket.
 
 	With the uniforms on and the weapons in their possession, Rainbow and Night Glider swooped around the block and landed back by the side door. “Who goes there?” asked a unicorn guard.
 
 	“Friendlies,” Night replied.
 
 	“State your names or show me some ID,” said the human next to the pink unicorn mare.
 
 	Rainbow scoffed. “New recruits, eh? Well let me be the first to tell you this. My friend and I go wherever we want, whenever we please. Do you want to be a part of... our cause... or not? Because I’ve got connections up top!”
 
 	“Sorry, ma’am. Y—you can go now.”
 
 	The unicorn guard put in the passcode on the door behind him and allowed the pegasi to enter. They entered and the door closed behind them. “You’re lucky that worked,” Night Glider said.
 
 	“Aren’t I always lucky?”
 
 	“No. In fact, you’re not. You’re overconfident and you don’t think before acting. I had my finger on the trigger the whole time. Remember what happened on Raxus Prime?”
 
 	“That was not my overconfidence! That was an unforeseen circumstance!”
 
 	“That was unlucky.”
 
 	“Fine. Whatever.” Rainbow and Night Glider entered the warehouse racks. Row upon unending row of supply crates stood them. “Woah. That’s a lot of boxes to sort through.”
 
 	“We’ll have to split up. There’s no way we’ll find them in any reasonable amount of time together.”
 
 	“How will we know what to look for?”
 
 	“Rainbow, you’re holding one of our blasters.”
 
 	Rainbow glanced down at the weapon in her hands. “Oh. Right.”
 
 	“Call me if you see anything,” Night said, gesturing to her comlink.
 
 	“Just to be clear, you’ve officially given me permission to… ‘call you’?” Rainbow asked with a smile.
 
 	Night glider smiled back. “Anytime.” She began to back away, only to bump into one of the racks. She chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her head as she began walking down the aisle. Rainbow smiled and shook her head at her as she turned to walk down the next aisle.
 



 
 	“Anything yet?” Rainbow called over the comlink.
 
 	“Nothing.”
 
 	“We’ve been at this for hours.”

“You want to get paid?”
 
 	“Well, yeah but—”
 
 	“Then you know what to do.”
 
 	Rainbow sighed and continued down the aisle, inspecting the labels on the crates. She flew up one column and down another, up a third column and down a fourth. She stretched and massaged her aching wings with her hands, preening the feathers as she went. The sound of a distant warehouse droid caught Rainbow’s attention. No, not a droid. Something else.
 
 	“Rainbow, we’ve got trouble!” Night called.
 
 	“What’s up?”
 
 	“My cover’s blown! There’s a firefight in progress over on aisle 110.” Rainbow looked up at the sign at the end of the aisle. She was on aisle 53.
 
 	“On my way!” Rainbow rushed to the aisle only to be nearly run over by a magnalift. “Hey!” she shouted as the vehicle swerved and came to a stop. “Get me to aisle 110!”
 
 	“So then, you’ve already heard?” asked the driver. “Security breach.”
 
 	“You going to go help?” She scanned the man for any weapons, but found none.
 
 	The driver chuckled. “Nah. I’m just trying to catch the action.”
 
 	Rainbow hopped into the cabin of the vehicle. “Well then you’d better step on it if you want to get us there in time.”
 
 	The sounds got louder as Rainbow got closer. By the time they got to aisle 90, the sounds had stopped. “Careful,” the driver said. “The suspect is armed and considered dangerous.” He slowed down his vehicle as Rainbow readied her blaster. As they reached aisle 105, Rainbow saw a pair of uniformed personnel dragging Night Glider between them.
 
 	“Oh, no.”
 
 	“Yeah, looks like we missed it. Bummer that.”
 
 	“Y—you can let me off here then.” The driver stopped and Rainbow hopped off. “Thanks,” she said halfheartedly.
 
 	“Don’t mention it,” he said as he drove off.
 
 	“Believe me, I won’t,” she muttered.
 
 	Rainbow turned down an aisle and glanced over her shoulder. When she found nobody there, she flew up into the racks. She kept an eye on the guards walking down the main aisle, darting through holes where there were no boxes. At length, they came to an open area in the front of the warehouse. Rainbow watched as the uniformed personnel dropped Night Glider in front of them. One of the uniformed individuals, the same white-coated stallion from outside the warehouse, approached an office door and knocked. “Starlight! We have a new ‘friend’ we’d like you to meet!”
 
 	He then backed away and Rainbow saw the door opened by an aqua aura. “A new friend, you say?” asked the lavender unicorn who exited the office. “Well what are we waiting for? Gather ‘round! Everyone, gather ‘round!” Rainbow seized her opportunity. She dropped down out of the racks into the shadows and walked out of the racks, approaching Night Glider along with the others in uniform. Her friend was still breathing; she’d probably been hit by a stun blast.
 
 	Clad in the enemy’s uniform, Rainbow found her place at the front of the encircling crowd as a pair of uniformed personnel hoisted Night Glider up to her knees and Starlight approached her. The unicorn’s horn protruded from a mask, and she bore a sheathed sword on her left hip. “Wake up,” Starlight said, putting her hand underneath Night’s chin. “Come on, wakey wakey.” She gently slapped Night’s cheek with the back of her hand. The personnel around Rainbow chuckled. Night moaned as her eyes fluttered open. She quickly came to and began to struggle against the guards holding her. “Now, now, let’s not be uncooperative, shall we?”
 
 	“You’re in charge here?” Night asked. Starlight’s only response was a smile. “Give them back!”
 
 	“Give what back? I haven’t even taken anything from you yet.”
 
 	“We were supposed to pick up a shipment of blasters. Where are they?”
 
 	Starlight chuckled. “I see. I take it you followed the clues I left behind and ended up here. All you want is to get your cargo and back to get back to your ship. Once you come to… understand our point of view, Captain, you will be free to spread our glorious truth across the galaxy!”
 
 	“Glorious truth?”
 
 	“Surely you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few years? The Sith have returned. What’s more, they’re trying to overthrow the Jedi. But the truth is… they’re both wrong.”
 
 	Night Glider replied with a look of confusion.
 
 	“Oh, poor thing,” Starlight said. “So young and innocent, oblivious to how the world really works. See, the Jedi and the Sith are really only pawns in a bigger game. The Force manipulates both the Jedi and the Sith. They aren’t so much wrong as they are… misguided. But I can correct them,” she said with a smirk. “For I have the power to sever connections to the Living Force!”
 
 	“What?” she shouted in horror.
 
 	“Oh, yes! It’s true! You may not have as much Force Sensitivity as a Sith or Jedi, but you are connected to the Force. I will now do you the favor of disconnecting you from it!” Night Glider struggled as Starlight stepped closer, and Rainbow sprang into action.
 
 	Rainbow surged forward with inhuman speed and kicked Starlight’s hand away. An instant later, she used her wings to laterally curve her trajectory in midair while she grabbed the soldier on the far side of Night Glider. She pulled him away from her and threw him at the other guard before reaching into Night’s jacket and retrieving the lightsaber. She ignited it, and its deep blue blade buzzed with energy. With a single clean sweep, Rainbow severed Night’s binders, dropping into a defensive pose a moment later.
 
 	Weapons cocked all around them as Starlight stared down the business end of the Jedi weapon. “She said give us our blasters back!”
 
 	Starlight collected herself before stepping backwards and raising a fist. The soldiers encircling them lowered their weapons. “So, you are a Jedi.”
 
 	“Let’s—just say, it’s complicated.”
 
“You want your weapons? Then we’ll fight for them.” She reached for the blade at her hip and unsheathed an ornately decorated vibrosword. Golden highlights traced a pair of dotted lines up the blade, forming a number of small equal signs. With the press of a button, the weapon began emitting a low hum. Rainbow placed both hands on her hilt and moved her blade close to her right side. Starlight’s blade, held in both hands, migrated to its starting position above her head.
 
 	“I have a better idea,” Night Glider whispered. “Let’s get out of here!”
 
 	“We need those blasters!” Rainbow replied. “En garde, thief!” Rainbow taunted, lunging forward and leading with a cross-cut. Starlight effortlessly parried, her vibrosword impervious to the lightsaber’s cutting power.
 
 	The look on Rainbow’s face must have made her shock apparent. “Cortosis,” Starlight said. “They don’t make vibroswords like this any more.” She pushed forward, and Rainbow stepped back as their blades disengaged. “This blade is as much a relic as your teachings!”

Despite how much Rainbow might have wanted to agree, her life was on the line. She dodged an overhead blow, then used her wings to evade an incoming leg strike. She lined up a trio of kicks aimed for Starlight’s chest and head, but the unicorn backed away each time. Another lightsaber strike, another parry and lock. Starlight’s horn began to glow aqua, and her whole body joined her horn. Starlight rose into the air, challenging the hovering pegasus and catching her off guard. Starlight’s vertically-held blade began exerting downward pressure on Rainbow, who resisted as best she could.
 
 	“Rainbow Dash, let’s go!” shouted Night Glider.
 
 	Starlight growled. “Don’t let them escape!”
 
     The soldiers encircling the pegasi readied their weapons. Night Glider spread her wings and thrusted her palms down towards the ground. A rush of air blasted her off the ground, aiding her takeoff. Rainbow pulled her legs up and kicked Starlight in the gut before turning to follow Night Glider. The pair evaded multiple stun blasts before making it back to the relative safety of the warehouse racks. They flew into the third row from the ground and rested in an empty spot with boxes on either side. Rainbow turned off the lightsaber and put a finger on her opposite wrist. “T4, can you hear me?” she asked her comlink. A series of beeps and blips answered. “We’re going to need a quick pickup Sublevel 39 in a warehouse near the swoop bike track!” A second set of astromech droid noises responded.
 
 	“Look! Up there!” called troops on the ground. A moment later, stun blasts ripped through the air around them.
 
 	Night Glider called out to Rainbow Dash. “Here. Give me the lightsaber.” Rainbow did as she was asked, and Night stepped forward and began dissipating incoming stun blasts from the soldiers below.
 
 	“Wanna split up?” asked Night Glider.
 
 	“I’m not losing you again.”
 
 	“Then let’s lose the troops on the ground instead.” Rainbow nodded, preparing to step off the opposite side of the rack. Night Glider stepped backwards a moment later, and the two flew into an empty row.
 
 	“Everyone fan out!” Starlight called from somewhere behind them. “I want them alive!”
 
 	The pegasi darted through another hole in the racks and into the next aisle over before coming to rest on the top rack. It was here they waited until T4-NK called back over Rainbow’s comlink.
 
 	“Good work. Now, I need you to point the Rainboom’s guns at the warehouse and blow a hole in the roof.”
 
 	“What!? Are you crazy?”
 
 	Rainbow shrugged. “Probably. But we’d be crazier for thinking they’ll just let us walk right out of here.”
 
 	Before Night could reply, a massive explosion shook the building. The pegasi instinctively covered their heads with their wings before looking around and assessing the situation. “There!” shouted Night Glider as she pointed at their new exit a few aisles over. The pegasi took off, but renewed blaster fire from below threatened to cut short their escape.
 
 	“Don’t let them out the roof or I’ll have your heads!” shouted Starlight. The pegasi resumed their course towards the exit, Rainbow returning fire with her blaster rifle and Night using her lightsaber for defense. Rainbow exited the building first, but Starlight teleported up between her and Night Glider. With no time to readjust her trajectory, Night plowed straight through Starlight, knocking her onto her back. Rainbow turned her head and located their ship hovering a few meters away. She began sprinting towards it, but Night Glider tripped behind her. She turned and watched the lightsaber fly out of Night’s hand and land at her feet. When Rainbow looked back at Night’s leg, she discovered what had caused her to fall. An aqua-colored aura held her right foot in place.
 
 	“Night!” Rainbow called out.
 
 	“Rainbow!” she replied as Starlight began to drag her backwards.
 
 	Rainbow stretched her hand forward and formed a loose fist. Night Glider’s momentum ceased. Rainbow pulled her fist towards her body, and Night began sliding towards her and away from Starlight.
 
 	Starlight growled and wrapped her magic around Rainbow’s hand, unclenching her fist. Rainbow reached out with her other hand, resuming the tug-of-war. Starlight responded by magically grabbing Rainbow’s other hand and spreading her arms apart.
 
 	“Rainbow, get help!” Night pleaded as she resumed sliding towards Starlight.
 
 	“We can’t call the police! We just blew a hole in the roof!”
 
 	“No, you’re right. But if this unicorn really can cut people off from the Force, then we’re in way over our heads.”
 
 	“But—but that’ll mean going back!”
 
 	“You have to, Rainbow!”
 
 	“No,” responded Starlight, “there is another option…”
 
 	Rainbow now found herself being pulled towards the opening in the roof as well. She re-clenched her fists and flapped her wings, overcoming Starlight’s magical grip. She grabbed the lightsaber from where it had fallen and leapt onto the boarding ramp of the Rainboom.
 
 	With a final glance over her shoulder, Rainbow watched Starlight and Night Glider begin to glow with aqua auras as they descended into the warehouse. The ramp began to retract as the ship flew away. Rainbow trudged into the cockpit and slumped into the captain’s chair. T4-NK greeted her with an interrogative set of beeps.
 
 	Rainbow stared at the star map in front of her long and hard before eliciting a deep sigh. She uttered a single word to the droid: “Coruscant.” The green-and-white droid—short for an astromech, but outfitted with a repulsorlift—signaled its understanding with a series of short beeps.
 
 	The lightsaber in Rainbow’s hands felt tremendously heavy. She lifted it to her eye level before sighing again. She rose from her seat and began to leave, prompting T4 to ask her where she was going.
 
 	“The dormitory,” she replied. “I—I need some time after what just happened.” T4 beeped his understanding before turning his dome to face out the transparisteel viewport. Rainbow retired to her quarters and collapsed into her bed. She sought sleep, but could not find it. She heard the increased whine of the hyperdrive as the ship entered lightspeed. Not even the drone of the hyperdrive could ease her to sleep. She rolled over, facing her small but familiar cabin.
 
 	As her eyes wandered, they chanced upon a footlocker across the room. Rainbow suddenly became aware of the lightsaber still in her hand. She sighed and crossed the room to open the footlocker. With the locker open, she placed the lightsaber right next to a second, double-bladed lightsaber which sat atop a brown robe and a rainbow-colored Padawan braid.
 
 	Rainbow paused a moment, fully aware of the meanings each item possessed. Then, she closed the locker.