"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!"
Doing as Twilight pushed her to, and as much as she didn't want to leave her friends there, Rainbow Dash understood how little time she had to escape. Within seconds of her crashing out the window, there were already a trio of Ized-allied pegasi after her.
She spotted them, and noticed their dark coloured uniforms and their skull-themed cutie marks: the Shadow Bolts.
One shot directly at her in an attempt to tackle her out of the sky, but she dodged just in time and swung the staff at the attacker.
A jolt of energy rushed through her hooves and the staff glowed bright yellow and spat out magic waste at the far end as a result of the impact. She felt unusually strong due to the shock and could really feel her heart pounding.
The second one tried a similar approach, but to grab the staff itself.
She reeled up and waited for the moment; she bludgeoned the second attacker right in the face with the weapon, knocking him out cold. Not directly due to Dash herself, the staff then seemed to freeze time and neutralize gravity for a split second as it slammed a blast of energy into the second one and sent him plummeting back to the earth at much faster than terminal velocity.
She wouldn't take any more chances now with the last pursuer still on her.
She dove downwards to gain speed, then pulled back up at the last second.
Using her new-found momentum, she was able to put distance between her and the last Shadowbolt who hadn't dived down after her, but the two were still tracking each other.
She made it out over the plains out of the city and gained some altitude, and continued heading toward the beacon and Applejack's location on the summit of the hill.
With an almighty boom an explosive mortar exploded in the sky right near her, causing her to almost lose all control and crash to the ground, recovering with just seconds to spare.
The Shadowbolt had now broken off so as to avoid being similarly shot down.
More explosions went off mid-air, the shockwaves rattling Rainbow's eardrums hard.
She missed one, and then another, and another, and one more, before finally one did knock her out of the sky and crashing her at the base of the hill.
She'd been out for a solid five minutes before the noise of barking tracking dogs and shouting squad leaders had woken her. She sat up with a start, instantly feeling a jarring pain from her left wing and side of her chest. Quickly realizing this was now no easy escape, she reoriented herself up the hill, equipped the staff under her good wing and started making her way through the flora and rocky terrain. Hopefully she'd find someone friendly soon.
Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had been sitting on the hilltop for a few hours under the shade of trees. These three ponies' mission was two-fold: their main mission was to meet up with Rainbow Dash after retrieving the staff, and the second was for reconnaissance of Canterlot and enemy troop movement.
Fluttershy used new cloaking technology to turn invisible while she flew overhead to take images of Canterlot, the damage it sustained and where the enemy had made their occupation thickest.
Pinkie Pie did the same but on hoof and of sentry posts and patrol routes around the outskirts of the city.
Applejack was to provide and manage a small temporary "base of operations" for the six while they were there, where the images Pinkie and Fluttershy took were beamed directly back to.
Majority of the day had been uneventful. They'd seen Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash off, then Applejack later saw Pinkie and Fluttershy off too.
Eventually, commotion brewed in the distance near the castle itself. It could be heard, very faintly over the quiet sounds of nature, from her location kilometers away four muffled booms in moderate succession. Then, over the fields, she noticed the mortars exploding in the air. They didn't last for long, however; she saw their target, and then said target dropping like a rock out of the sky.
"Pinkie, Fluttershy, return to my position, double time!" Applejack said, breaking the radio silence they established. Until they were back, she'd try to get in contact with Rainbow Dash again.
Within minutes Fluttershy was back, but Pinkie Pie would still take some time to return.
"I'm here Applejack" she called upon arrival.
"Great! I saw Rainbow Dash get shot down as she was coming back with the objective. She crashed further down at the bottom of the hill, and she ain't been responding to any calls"
"Right. I still have some run time in this cloaking unit, about an hour, so I'll see if I can find her from above"
"Alright, I'll stay here and keep an eye on the camp. Hit the ping if you find her"
Fluttershy faded and disappeared into thin air again, carrying out her search.
A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane tends to stand out in stark contrast against a background of brown dirt and rocks and green foliage, and she too had already heard the Ized tracking Rainbow Dash down. It had not been too long until she'd seen the pegasus, and more frighteningly one of the enemies bearing down on here and about to catch her.
Thinking on her hooves, she immediately dove downward, still cloaked, and crashed on top of the pursuer.
Dash spun around to face the yelp of mixed pain and fright nearby behind her that she'd not even noticed was there before. Just as he tried to get back up he was knocked back down; he appeared to be fighting with the air. Then began to reappear Fluttershy, putting Dash's mind at ease. She was kneeling over him, injecting a syringe into him.
"A mixture of a sleep and amnesia potion" she muttered
"Dash, your wing, are you okay?" she asked as she moved toward her concerned
"It's fine, Flutte- ow! Watch it!" she flinched in pain at her hoof meeting her wing, despite how careful Fluttershy was trying to be.
"Sorry"
"Just leave it for now"
"I have some anesthetic for it"
Dash protested and Fluttershy insisted, but the cyan pegasus flatly refused.
"You're seeing a doctor the very first chance we get. Come on, we should hurry, they're getting close."