"Twilight, I've got the staff!" Rainbow Dash shouted out downwards as she burst out of a stained glass window of the Canterlot castle halls and dived toward her and Rarity.
"Go! Applejack's out at those hills waiting for you!" she cried back pointing a hoof toward distant mounds in the landscape. "We'll hold them off for you!"
"What about you guys? You ca-"
"Don't tell me what we can't do Dash! We can hold them. We'll meet you back at base. Now go!"
"But-"
"GO!"
With that, Rainbow Dash sped off through the air into the distance, and the first salvo of magic attacks from hostile invaders came raining down on Twilight and Rarity barely a second after they were able to raise a barrier.
"We're seriously not staying here are we Twilight?!" Rarity desperately queried.
"Of course not, but I can't teleport us out of here while there's so much magic and energy flying around the place"
"Then what's the plan?"
"We have to escape on hoof. Watch out!"
A second salvo came battering on their shield strongly, and it began to falter. The enemy unicorns were approaching their location fast.
"We can't keep this up Twi!"
"You don't say? Look, we need to split. You go through the markets and I'll take the residential district. We'll meet back up on the outskirts and head to Applejack's beacon"
"Right. Sounds like a plan"
Another salvo landed. One more would destroy the barrier despite their continuous efforts to reinforce it.
"On the next bombardment we split up"
"Twilight, promise me you will meet me out there"
"I promise Rarity. No pony gets left behind"
She drew a deep breath in.
"Next salvo is coming in... we'll split in three... two... one..."
The pair abandoned their position just moments before the next bombardment impacted. It broke through the last remnants of the shield with ease and impacted with the ground, leaving one big smoking crater.
Twilight made a mad dash away from the crater site as the Izeds approached it, weaving and dashing around corners to lose any potential stalkers.
Canterlot wasn't a small city by any stretch of the imagination, and she still had quite a distance to go before getting to the outskirts to meet back up with her companion.
She'd made it most of the way through the residential area without incident, but just as she was almost on the home run a guard detail had come to a point in their route where it intersected with Twilight's escape.
Working with just seconds to spare before they would've spotted her, she jumped some crates onto a roof. One of the guards heard and lead the group to investigate.
Thinking now was a good time to run for it, she took a running leap from the roof to another one across the narrow street. The detail took notice and casted attacks at her, one going wide and missing, and another hitting only the gutter of the roof she landed on.
Now in a panic, Twilight made hasty moves and jumped another rooftop, the guards being able to still see and pursue her.
She casted a spell to collapse a tall fruit stall in front of her pursuers to give her a chance to escape. It worked, except for one who managed to impressively leap over the tallest part of the pile of fruit and broken wood, just as tall as himself.
The stallion, face and majority of his body covered by armour, jumped another set of crates to get onto the top. The rest of the detail had now been lost except for this one individual still in pursuit.
She paused to look back to see the stallion rapidly approaching her. He jumped toward her and she dived out of the way for him to crash through a large attic window.
She took stride but the stallion was back to his hooves and after her again.
She thought she had lost him but kept up her pace.
As the terrain started to flatten out and become more green, she realized she had made it to the outskirts. Celestia's sun was beginning to set, throwing a beautiful orange haze over the plains.
She slowed and jumped down, finally coming to a stop at that border that defines where the city meets the landscape.
She drew in a deep breath for her exhausted lungs, not knowing what was still right behind her.
He lept off the roof and landed, crashing on top of her and the two rolled forward like a ball.
Shocked he'd still kept up with her, she glanced at him and cut for it further down, though her now exhausted legs protested mightily and the stallion crash tackled her, pinning her to the ground.
"Let go of me!" she screamed angrily in his face "Filth!"
She headbutted him, but he didn't falter.
"Hey! Stop!" he commanded. Something very small and deep within Twilight sparked and cried out for her to settle down, but her survival instincts stayed in control.
Suddenly a white pair of rear legs bucked the armoured stallion off of Twilight. As the hooves met with the ground again a purple tail, now tattered and out of shape, and a mane to match the messiness, fell down behind them.
"Come on!" she shouted. Twilight looked up and saw the coat, the mane, and then the face. It was Rarity. She helped her up and they made off again.
"Twiley, it's me!" the stallion called out as the pair started to gallop off, causing Twilight to stop and turn in surprise. The stallion took off his identity-hiding helmet to reveal himself.
"Shining!" she raced back over to him.
"Oh Celestia, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! What are you doing here, and why are you dressed like that?!"
"I'm part of the infiltration unit Princess Luna organised. I'm more specifically part of the sabotage plans. Didn't I tell you all this already?"
"No, you didn't, actually..." she replied, now very cross with how suddenly and the manner in which she was finding out about her brother's hazardous new assignment.
"Oh... well I was going to! Honest! But between the secrecy of the project and the recent increase in spy infiltration of our own side, we were desperate to keep it on the low down. I couldn't say what was happening, not to you, not to Cadence, heck, I couldn't even discuss it with my own squad mates who were in on it outside of absolutely secure rooms. I should've also just made up some bullshit story right now to cover my mission here"
Rarity made her was back over too.
"Shining Armour, thank heavens. Oh- are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"
"No, I'm fine. I have to admit, these Izeds make fairly tough armour plating"
"It's good to see a friendly face all the way out here for once"
"Likewise, Rarity" he offered, but quickly turned his attention back to his sister.
"But a better question yet is what are you doing out here like this?"
"WE were breaking into Canterlot castle to retrieve one of Celestia's recent creations that they've stolen. She hoof-picked us for this"
"Oh wow, that was you? You really kicked the parasprite nest doing that, you know"
"I know, but it was neither of us that actually went in" she gestured to herself and Rarity "It was Rainbow Dash who broke in and got it herself"
"Where is she now?"
"She went back to meet up with Applejack on top of that hill over there, where you can see that beacon. After that, the plan was to take it back to base in Baltimare. I'm not sure if they made it back"
"Alright. At any rate, as much fun as family reunions are, we can't be seen together here. We're already really pushing our luck right now as it is. You two need to promise me you will not speak a single word of this encounter at all, okay? That's an order, not a request. You breathe a word of any of this to anypony and it can really come back to bite me. Now get out of here right now before you blow my cover. I've got to go back and report my 'failure' and hope that they don't catch on."
"Celestia's strength to you, big brother..." she said as her last goodbye for now.
"And to you too, little sis. I'll be back home soon." he replied, returning his helmet to his head and disappearing back into the residential district.