Rainbow Dash woke up on Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. If anyone else in the house had been awake yet they would have called it a miracle. But she had been tried from a long day of being bored out of her mind, the emotional swing brought on my Rarity’s gift, and excitement for the next day, and had gone to bed straight after dinner. Now she was wide awake and ready to go. Well, not quite ready yet. She need to pack.
She grabbed her backpack and started stuffing anything she thought she might need inside. Her swiss army knife, a flashlight, some glue, her old mask (just in case), and a spare battery pack with a charging cable for her phone. Oh, and better add the phone, too. As awesome as this outfit was, it didn’t have any pockets. She should really talk to Rarity about a utility belt. Then she wouldn’t even need the backpack.
Once she had everything from her bedroom packed, she crept downstairs to the kitchen and made herself a sandwich. Then another, just in case. She took those two, an apple, and two bottles of water and started heading back to her room when her father peeked his head out of her parent’s bedroom door.
“Dashie? What are you doing up so early?”
“Oh, uh, hey dad. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. The, uh, the girls wanted to get an early start today because we missed yesterday. I was just making some snacks.” She held up her sandwiches and water.
“At 6:30? Really?”
“Heh heh, yup! Really early start.” She gave him her best grin.
Her father just stared at her for almost a full minute, and Rainbow felt beads of sweat tickle down the back of her neck.
“Well, all right. Be safe and have fun.” He finally said.
“You got it, dad! Sorry to wake you. Say bye to mom for me.”
Bo just nodded and went back into his bedroom, closing the door behind him. With a sigh of relief, Rainbow continued back up to her room and packed away the food. She picked up the hero outfit to pack it on top, then paused. She hadn’t actually tried it on yet. She quickly stripped out of her street clothes and put the costume on. It was smooth and comfortable, and somehow a perfect fit even though she could have sworn that Rarity hadn’t taken her measurements since the Spring Fling last year. Rainbow stretched and swung her arms and legs around, and found that the fabric moved with her easily without impeding any of her movements. Rarity, Rainbow decided, was a genius. Her talent was wasted on dresses (although she suspected that Rarity would disagree on that point).
She pulled the mask up and over her face and put the hat on, then stepped in front of a mirror. Damn she looked good. Rainbow made a few action poses and had to fight down a squeal of excitement This was the Best. Gift. Ever. She needed to find a way to say thank you to Rarity. A really big thank you.
All of that could wait until after today, though. She took off the hat and pulled the mask down, and was about to strip the rest of the suit off, when she paused. Why even wear her street clothes today? She was planning on doing hero work all day, and she wouldn’t even need to break for lunch. With a grin she tossed her street clothes onto her bed, threw on her backpack, opened up her window, and jumped out.
The sun was just barely up at this hour, and a cool breeze made her shiver as she landed on the grass in the backyard. Hmm, the outfit didn’t have much in the way of insulation. She’d need to talk to Rarity about that, too. Or would that interfere with her movement? Eh, whatever, that was Rarity’s department. Rainbow pulled the stone’s magic into herself while pushing her internal magic out at the same time. The two magics filled her to the brim and she shot up into the air with a powerful flap of her wings. Another flap sent her streaking southward, back towards the construction site. She didn’t want to waste all her internal magic right away, so she angled herself down and hit the ground running only two blocks from home. She relaxed her internal magic until there was just enough to keep her energized and continued onward at a full sprint.
Down the center of the street she ran, weaving around the occasional car out this early. She rounded the corner onto Main Street and saw the construction site ahead, the top of the unfinished building poking out above the skyline around it. She felt her two magics humming within her, distinguishable from one another but harmonized, and she let out a whoop of triumph. This was living. Why her friends didn’t also want to spend every second of the day using their magic she would never know.
In the blink of an eye she was at the ninja hideout. The street was mercifully empty of cars, so rather than working carefully to find a way in without being seen, she just jumped the fence. With the magic empowering her legs she didn’t even need to grow her wings for a jump this high. She just sailed over the fence and landed in a crouch on the other side. It was time to get to work.
The first order of business was to find where the actual hideout was. She had searched the upper stories of the building yesterday, so they clearly weren’t camped out up there. But everyone knew that villains lairs were always underground, anyway. She needed to find the basement.
She still had plenty of time left on her speed magic, so she decided to search the place at superspeed. Rainbow ran around the outside of the building first. She pushed some mulch around in a small greenspace, but didn’t find any doors hidden underneath. She found a group of empty barrels stacked in a corner of the site, but nothing was hidden behind or beneath those, either. There were some pallets of steel beams on the opposite corner from the barrels, but without Applejack and her superstrength she knew she’d never be able to move those around. But it wasn’t like the ninas had superstrength either, right? Right.
That was it for the ground floor. Time to try to find the basement. Luckily the stairs were clearly marked for the construction workers so locating them was no obstacle. The guard posted at the top, however, was. Rainbow skidded to a stop just out of his line of site. He was looking just to the left of the doorway she was peering in through, and she’d have to pass into his line of sight to reach the stairs. If she dropped her speed she could wait for him to turn his head until she had a clear path, but she could only restart it so many times and she knew she might need it again soon. Maybe there was some other path?
Wait, there on the opposite wall where it wasn’t well lit, was that a doorway? Yes, it was. Ok, if she could find a way to that door she would have a clear path behind the guard and down the stairs to the basement. Rainbow retreated back the way she had come and took a left at the first corridor. Unless they were building this place like a maze for some reason it should be as simple as following the left wall from here. And yes, there it was. She stepped into an unlit hall and saw the same room ahead of her, but this time with the guard’s back to her. Rainbow walked carefully and quietly through the room. The guard wouldn’t be able to react in time to stop her or anything, but if she made noise and alerted him he would still be able to raise an alarm eventually. And unless she was able to complete her entire mission at speed there would be plenty of time for him to do so.
Down the stairs and into the basement. First level of the basement, she corrected herself. The stairs continued down at least one more level. Would the hideout be here, or further down? Or maybe the entire basement was a hideout? She paused a moment to consider, then left the stairwell to explore the floor. Better to do this methodically.
She aimed for stealth more than speed now, so it took her longer to search this floor than it had the ground upstairs. But she didn’t want to stumble into any ninjas and give herself away, so taking the extra time was important. Her caution proved justified when she found a room with six ninjas in it. They were all sitting around a folding table with a map spread open before them. Half of them could potentially see her from the doorway, so she wouldn’t be able to go in until she was ready to reveal herself. Was this the time? A map meant a plan, and if she could figure out what they were planning she could stop them.
After a moment, however, she decided against it. This was just the first room. Who knew what else was down here? She could always come back as long as she kept her speed up. And so she left the map room behind, with curiosity burning a hole in her brain. A few rooms down she found what she guessed was some sort of break room. Three ice chests were lined up against a wall (all empty) and two more folding tables with a dozen chairs lined the middle of the room. No ninjas in here. Maybe they weren’t ready for breakfast yet. Or maybe this was for the construction workers’ lunches?
She paused at that thought. How were the construction workers and ninjas related? That map room wasn’t hidden at all if you were just walking around the basement. Maybe the ninjas only used this place after the workers left? Or maybe they had paid the workers off! Rainbow’s eyes glittered at the thought of her name in the newspaper headline, an article about how she had revealed the den of corruption in the heart of the city.
Ok, focus Rainbow. You still have a lot more basement to search. The next room over from the breakroom had a dozen air mattresses on the floor, and a ninja was sleeping in one of them. She crept inside to search it, careful to not wake the ninja, but didn’t find anything else interesting. This meant that they were staying there overnight, though. It also meant that there were a lot more ninjas here than she’d realized.
The rest of the first basement level was empty, so she descended to level two. The stairs kept going down even further, but, peering over the edge, she could see that they stopped on level three. Big basement, she thought to herself. Rainbow carefully stepped into the hallway leading out from the staircase, but then, three steps in, her boot stuck. What? She tugged and pulled her leg, left and right and forward and back, but no matter what she did her boot would not come off of the floor. What was going on? This hallway was dimly lit, so she took off her backpack and pulled out the flashlight. Using it revealed nothing on the ground, though.
Ok, Rainbow, don’t panic. Think this through. You just stepped in some gum or something, right? Some really, really sticky gum. She pulled at her leg again. Yup, Really sticky. Are you going to let some stupid gum defeat you? You’re a superhero! So what can you do? She thought for a moment. Well, if only her boot was stuck, then she just needed to take the boot off and leave it behind. It was a shame to leave some of Rarity’s work abandoned in a ninja lair, but it was better than being stuck here herself. She suddenly wished she’d brought her street clothes with her. She was going to look ridiculous running around with one bare foot. Not to mention the danger of a stray nail or something.
She unlaced her boot and held it in place as she pulled her foot up and out. Or she tried to, at least. Instead, however, she found that her foot was stuck inside her boot just as securely as her boot was stuck to the ground. She stopped pulling and stared in disbelief. What was going on? Ok, time to brute force this thing. She grabbed the boot with both hands, planted her other foot behind her and pulled. There was a popping noise and her knee flared in pain. Ow! Fuck! Ow! Rainbow stopped and tried to bring her other leg forward to put the weight off her knee, only to find that it was stuck now, too. Oh no.
Fear and panic began to rise with each throb of pain from her knee. She was stuck in an enemy lair, and she’d just hurt herself so badly that she was going to have trouble walking. What if she’d done permanent damage? What if she’d never run again? What if she couldn’t be a hero any more. Rainbow started breathing faster and faster, and was heading straight into hyperventilation territory when she noticed a leg sticking out behind the doorway to her left.
Ok, that definitely wasn’t there earlier. Someone was walking out of that room. Rainbow Dash had at most five minutes to get out of here or she’d be caught. No, that wasn’t right. She was already caught. Whatever was sticking her to the floor must have been magical. There hadn’t been any glue to stick her other foot, and nothing should have gotten her foot stuck inside her boot. They were expecting her. They had set a trap and she’d fallen right into it.
Rainbow let out a sigh of defeat, and let go of her time magic. Hopefully they’d release the trap to move her and then at least she could take her weight off her knee. The foot in the doorway swing forward as time sped up, and it was soon followed by the rest of the ninja. Wait, that was no ninja.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Sonata Dusk said with a smirk. “Why, I think it’s the little rainbow girl. What did she call herself again? Raptor Laser?”
Rainbow said nothing and just glared at Sonata. Not that she could see the glare under Rainbow’s mask, but it was the thought that counted.
Sonata made a tsking noise and shook her head. “Silly little raptor, did you think we did not expect you?” She put her fingers to her lips and let out a loud whistle. A few seconds later the sound of footsteps on the stairs behind Rainbow preceded a man’s voice.
“Mistress?”
“Bind her, then find her magic stone. Can’t have her using any of her powers.”
Strong hands grabbed Rainbow’s wrists and forced them behind her back where they were quickly tied together. She felt her wristband with the stone slip off her wrist.
“No!” She cried. She reached for the magic in the stone, tried to pull it into herself to fight, but it was already beyond her grasp.
“Oh no, is the little girly sad? What’s wrong, little girly?” Sonata mocked her.
Rainbow bit back tears. That magic was part of her. Taking it away was like… like taking away her legs. But she wouldn’t dignify Sonata with a response.
“Nothing? Very well. Put it with the rest of the artifacts.”
The man left without a word. Sonata smiled again and pulled what looked like a bottle of arts and crafts glue out from behind the wall. It looked perfectly ordinary, except that it was glowing a soft blue. She tapped the bottle against the ground and Rainbow fell forward, her feet unstuck. She pulled her injured knee up to her chest and winced.
“Oh no, what’s this? Is the little birdy hurt?”
Sonata kicked Rainbow’s bad knee and Rainbow let out a cry of pain. Sonata laughed.
“This is going to be even easier than I thought! You have no magic, and now you can’t even run. The Lady is going to put me ahead of Adagio now for sure. Whose scheme was it that bore fruit again? That’s right, it was mine!”
She laughed again, an angelic giggle in all opposition to the cruel woman giving it.
“Come now, my little birdy. Don’t you have anything to say?”
Rainbow turned her head away from Sonata and stayed silent.
“Suit yourself. You, bind her ankles and take her to the cell.”
Another pair of hands grabbed her feet and forced them together, bringing out another cry of pain from Rainbow Dash. Then she was lifted and thrown over the shoulder of the burliest ninja she’d ever seen. He carried her down to the third basement level like she weighed nothing. He took her out into the level propper and down a corridor that dimmed and dimmed. It looked like the only light on this level was at the stairs. She heard the rusty squeak of a door being opened, and then she was unceremoniously tossed into a small room. She turned to look out the doorway and saw Sonata standing there, barely discernible as a silhouette. She was rifling through something.
“Food, water, knife, phone, scarf. Well I can’t let you have the knife or phone, of course, but if you behave you can have the food and water.”
She seemed to be waiting for something, but Rainbow stayed silent.
“Say, ‘Yes, Mistress.’”
Rainbow said nothing.
“Very well, I’ll just keep this for myself, then.”
Sonata slammed the door closed. There was a little window at the top of the door, and Rainbow could see Sonata’s head framed inside it for a few moments longer, but then she turned and left, and Rainbow was all alone.
She let out the tears she had been holding in, and silently wept.