Tempting fate, Twilight realized, was never a smart idea.
“Do not tempt fate,” Words that should be engraved onto her tombstone as a reminder for her next life, as well as everyone else that would spare it a glance as they took themselves and their loved ones to the cemetary. She’d have to jot that down as soon as possible.
‘How could this day get any worse?’ She repeated that asinine thought in her head as she swung her metal pipe at goon after goon. ‘I just had to – ugh! Why did I ask?!’
“Hey, Princess!”
“What?!”
“Over here!”
Twilight silently cursed her companion as she fought her way to Rainbow’s side, striking down nine, twelve, fifteen of Cheese’s men – nonlethally – as she made her way from the lot to the next block over. How Rainbow got there so fast she had no idea.
“I’m here!” She clubbed her last pursuer, for now, and used the metal pipe for balance as she caught her breath. “What is it?”
Rainbow lifted a finger and pointed at something the next block over. “Those are yours, right?” Rainbow’s own pipe spun in its owner’s hand before landing on Rainbow’s shoulder. “‘Cause if not, uh…”
Twilight blearily followed Rainbow’s finger. ‘What’s she…? Oh, come on!’
One, two, three… fourteen. That wasn’t the number of goons she could see. It was the number of squadrons. Of goons? No. Of cars. Everywhere, down what blocks she could see. Cars all making their way toward her.
“Get back here, Princess!” A voice – the one of the goon she’d been talking too not minutes before, “Come quietly, and nobody’s gonna get hurt!”
“B-but sir, Mr. Cheese says we weren’t–”
“And we’re not! Shut up, Simmers!”
‘Yes, Twilight. Of course it can get worse!’
“Any day now, Pinks,”
“What was that?”
“Nothin,” Rainbow turned away from the landbound fleet and to the building occupying the block. A gargantuan thing, Twilight noted. Ten stories at least, made of concrete. Time hadn’t been particularly kind to it, with it amply discolored, and several of its windows were either broken or missing. “Come on, Pinks!”
As if on cue, a hook was fired from one of the windows, making a beeline for the both of them. Twilight had no time to react – which was probably a good thing – before it pierced the asphalt just behind her, leaving a web of cracks large enough that even a bus couldn’t cover it. Twilight shrieked and leapt back, throwing a hand over her chest to quell the stampede in her chest. A platform was sent down, attached to the wire which Rainbow lept onto and held out her hand.
Rainbow laughed. “About time! Come on!”
“But – Rarity!”
“Don’t worry! Your girlfriend’ll be fine! We’ve got Pinkie on the job!”
‘Pinkie?’
Putting Rarity in a stranger’s hands was… a hard sell. But Twilight wasn’t exactly in a position to help her herself, so begrudgingly she grabbed Rainbow’s hand and stepped onto the platform. The hook began to retract, a bit too fast for Twilight’s liking, and her grip on Rainbow’s hand tightened.
“Easy, Princess. We’ll be fine,”
Twilight looked down. Goodness, the city was in chaos. Everywhere; cars, and goons, and more cars, and more goons, and… and Rarity. She was still holding her own, thank the stars.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Rainbow peered down, following Twilight’s gaze, before she let out a whistle. “That’s your girl?”
“Yeah,”
“Man, she’s a looker. Even from here,” She gave Twilight a smile. “You really know how to pick’em, Princess,”
Twilight didn’t know whether to feel proud or defensive. Fortunately, the indecision was a nice distraction.
* * *
“Dashie!” Twilight’s blissful period of frivolous debating was interrupted when she and Rainbow stepped through a window, and a woman dressed in an offensive amount of pink wrapped both of them in a spine-crushing hug. “And Princess Twilight too! Oh my goodness, you found her!”
‘Wait, she was looking for me?’ Twilight opened her mouth to ask just that, but Rainbow beat her to speaking.
“Sure did!” Rainbow grabbed the binoculars around her neck and spun around to the window. “Getting through Cheese’s goons was easy enough, but Sunset’s still down there. Miss Princess’ girlfriend needs some saving,”
“Mhm! Mhm!” Pinkie said as her head bobbed up and down. Despite what sounded to Twilight like bad news, the large smile plastered on the woman’s face didn;t so much as budge. “Don’t worry, leave this to Pinkie! I’ll find Sunny! Oh, and Princess!”
In a flash, Pinkie was standing next to Twilight, an arm draped around her shoulders. “We’ll get your special somebody back! Don’t worry!” Twilight opened her mouth to let out a very regal, very well composed ‘huh’ but Pinkie was already gone; having grabbed an odd cannon-looking contraption and bolted out a nearby door. Twilight could only stare at the door, before her brain caught up with her.
“Wait, she’s really–”
“Yup. She’s off to save your girl. She’ll be back soon,” Rainbow’s attention had gone back to the outside. “Anyways, there’s far too many of those guys to take the fight to Cheese,” She clicked her tongue and set her binoculars back down.
“So, Princess, are you doing alright?”
Twilight drew in a breath. Was she doing alright? Well, no. It was hard to be ‘alright’ when multiple gangs all had it out for you, apparently. Her girlfriend was down there fighting swaths of goons by herself, and she was sitting up in a building she probably couldn’t leave anytime soon. The only consolation was…
“Well, I have the guard showing up here,” She looked out the window and toward the horizon. “Soon, I hope,”
“The guard?”
Twilight rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s incredulous expression. “Yes, the guard,” She waved her left ring finger at the other woman. “I said I was a princess,”
Rainbow stared at the signet for a moment before she shook her head. “Yeah, you did. Can’t argue with ya there,” She fiddled with her binoculars, and gestured out the window. “They’d certainly help with… this. How can we spot ‘em?”
“Look for the train. Lavender, armored. You can’t miss it,”
“Oh, like that one?”
‘What?’ Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. She spun around and pressed her hands onto the windowsill, leaning as far out as gravity allowed. Sure enough, in the distance, hidden in the orange glow of the sunset, she saw a faintly pink silhouette slowly but surely snaking its way toward her. ‘It’s… it’s the guard. There they are,’
“Sheesh, you really pulled out all the stops for this one, huh, Princess?” Rainbow’s voice snapped her back to reality. “Grab them, kick in Cheese, easy-peasy!”
Rainbow moved to the other side of the room, and to another window on the opposite end, and Twilight raised an eyebrow as she grabbed a rope and tied it to a defunct radiator.
“What are you doing?”
“Well, we gotta get you to those guards, right?” Rainbow took another part of the rope and tied it around her waist. “Come on. There’s nobody between us and that train station. I can get you there easy,”