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Escaping
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Flying back to the hotel, Alex and Dax worked out a plan of attack on Alpha and were proud of the cleverness. It was going to require some trickery, and some fast and loose actions, but hopefully, they would save everypony, and stop whoever this pony was. But, first thing was first, they had to save Twilight from Alpha, and get her somewhere that she’d be safe while they took care of business. However, this is where the two disagreed.
“Why does she need to be hidden again?” Alex asked, somewhat relaxed by the night air, despite the situation he was presented with.
“Because she’s a girl, Alex,” Dax said, with a ‘no-duh’ tone.
“She can handle herself,” Alex said, “She can help!”
“Look,” Dax said, “She’s a mare! She’s good for having babies!”
“That’s pretty rude,” Alex said, “She’d kill you if she heard that.”
“I’d send her back to the kitchen.” Dax laughed.
“Are you doing this just to annoy me?” Alex asked.
“…Yes.” Dax admitted, “But I’m you, and that means you have these horribly sexist thoughts yourself.”
“Well…” Alex couldn’t really argue, everypony had a racist or sexist thought at some point in their lives. A Broadway show did a song on it, he was pretty sure.
“Thought so!” Dax said, “And it WAS on Broadway.”
Alex frowned. How did he just know that?
He must have been telepathic. He was NOT him.
“We’re almost there, Susan,” Dax said, “Pony up… HA!”
“Shut up…” Alex rolled his eyes.
////
Entering the limits of the station, Alex and Dax immediately felt something wrong with them.
“He’s using that magic dampener.” Dax said, “It feels weaker than it was.”
“I know what you mean,” Alex agreed, “I think I could still squeeze something out.”
“That sounded weird.” Dax said, looking back to him, “But! I think it’s because he’s spread the field so far that it’s so weak.”
“It’s way bigger here than the Wonderbolts stadium was,” Alex said, “And the field is probably much more complex to cast since it blocks out all magic... Not just harmonious stuff.”
“Try to use this to our advantage then,” Dax ordered, “Something tells me we’ll only get a few spells in before they notice and focus it on us directly.”
“Got it,” Alex said, uncomfortable with being bossed around by somepony that looked so much like him.
“Look!” Dax said, pointing to the back entrance to the hotel that faced the courtyard, as a group of armored ponies headed into the hotel, most likely heading for Twilight.
“Let’s go in through the window,” Alex said, flying over to the one he and Dash had been messing around at, when they scared Spike in bed.
“It doesn’t open,” Dax said, looking for a latch to open it.
“Doesn’t need to,” Alex said, smashing it, “Easy peasy.”
“Works for me,” Dax shrugged as they landed in Spike’s room.
Opening the door to the common room, they looked for Twilight since they were sure she would be here in a panic. But, instead, the lights were out, and there wasn’t a thing happening.
“Is Twilight in her room…?” Alex said, walking over to her door, seeing a faint light coming from under the door.
Opening the door, Alex stuck his head in the crack, “Hey Twi—“
“Eeeeek!” She screamed, “Get out-get out! Haven’t you heard of knocking?!”
Pulling out and slamming the door closed, Alex looked at Dax with wide eyes.
“What did you see?!” Dax asked, “I’m you! So for the LOVE of god, tell me!”
“Uh…” Alex said, “I, uh….”
Behind him, the door flew open and Twilight stepped out.
“How dare you just barge in!” Twilight barked, completely flustered, “I was totally… Just…”
Twilight looked at Alex, then to Dax, and froze.
“Masturba—“ Dax began.
“What the buck is going on here?!” She shouted, “A-Alex?”
“That’s me,” He said meekly, “That’s Dax…”
“What?!”
“Look,” Dax said, stepping forward, “Could we go five minutes without talking about your cooch? Your boyfriend is trying to kill us… So, we need to go.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, as somepony started banging on the door loudly.
“Twilight, don’t—“
“Coming!” Twilight called, “Don’t go anywhere! We need to figure you two out!”
Dax rolled his eyes, “Guess it’s that time.”
“So fast?” Alex asked as Dax ran to the door, passing Twilight.
“Hey!” She shouted as Dax knocked her over on the way.
“Eat this!” Dax shouted, Trying his best to shoot a blast of magic at the closed door. Unfortunately, it came out much more like a fizzle, “Shit…”
“We need to get out of here,” Alex said, “Alpha is some kind of… Evil something… Didn’t you hear him on the PA telling everypony to come get you?”
“Uh, no!” She answered, “Why would he do that? And where is everypony?”
“He has them!” Alex said, “The spa is some kind of… Brainwashing place or something… You didn’t go, did you?”
“No,” Twilight said, “In fact, Alpha told me to stay away from it!”
“Why would he do that, really?” Alex asked.
“Open the door, or we’ll break it down!” A pony called through the door.
Alex raised his eyebrows.
“Okay…” Twilight said, “Let’s go, but I want a FULL explanation!”
“Deal,” Alex said, “Come on, Dax!”
Turning around from the door, Dax followed the two of them to the broken window.
“You didn’t hear us get inside?” Alex asked.
“I was… Busy…” She giggled nervously.
“Nice.” Dax said, earning a scowl from Twilight.
“Hop on my back,” Alex said, “I’ll fly us out of here.”
“I can use magic!” Twilight said, trying to cast a spell, but failing, “What…?”
“There’s some kind of anti-magic barrier,” Alex explained, looking down, hoping he didn’t fall from the added weight of Twilight, “Now hop on!”
Complying, she climbed on to his back and braced herself. She always hated riding a flying pony. The only time she felt safe doing it, was when Princess Celestia would fly her around the kingdom, to different places to teach her various lessons. However, that hadn’t been for quite a few years now.
Hearing the door break open, Alex and Dax leapt out the window, lowering to the ground, where they could let Twilight off.
“At least it’s empty out here,” Dax said, “I just hope nopony else gets hurt by these armed ponies.”
Twilight was surprised to hear him express concern at all.
“Where to next?” Alex asked.
“We need a place to hide,” Dax said, “Let’s go look for somewhere in the mall.”
All nodding, the three ran to the now dark mall, and once again, broke some glass to get inside.
“We can use the darkness to our advantage here,” Dax said as they ran down one of the many large hallways housed within the building, “Hopefully they’ll walk right past us.”
“I don’t think you thought this through very well…” Twilight said.
“Why?” Alex asked, “I don’t see anything wrong with the plan.”
The lights turned on.
“Well, color be embarrassed.” Dax said, “Doesn’t mean we can’t keep running!”
Surprisingly, the armed guard was already on them. They were clearly pegasi as they had caught up in almost no time at all. The chase was long as the mall had too many enclosed hallways to run through, for them to fly after them properly.
“Dax!” Alex called, seeing that he had fallen quite behind him and Twilight, “Behind you!”
Taking a second to look behind him, Dax was immediately pounced on by one of them, sending them both tumbling into a glasses stand, where Dax was able to escape in the confusion of flying glasses and fancy contacts.
“You guys!” Twilight called, “We’re almost at a dead end!”
Looking forward, they both saw that they had arrived at the movie theater, a place with exits, but were no doubt covered by guards.
“What do we do?” Twilight asked.
“Uh… Inside here!” Dax instructed, turning into the arcade, which was still lit up, and crowded with teenagers, “I guess this place closes later than the mall.”
“Movie theaters always do,” Alex called to him, over the noise of the people inside.
“Act natural,” Alex whispered to Twilight as they hid behind a thick group of boys surrounding some arcade game or another. Twilight lost contact with Dax and Alex for a few seconds but found them quickly.
“Code six!” The leader of the armed ponies shouted as the entire arcade suddenly went silent, and everypony looked toward them, assuming a straight stance, and serious look.
At this point, Alex, Dax and Twillight looked very obvious.
“Nice job getting us stuck.” Dax growled at Alex.
“My fault?” He growled back, “You told us to run in here!”
“Well, I AM you, so it’s YOUR fault!” Dax shouted, "Well, except that I have green eyes."
“Stand down,” The leader of the team said, “You three are coming with us to see Alpha.”
“You know what?” Dax said, angrily, “I’m out of here!”
“What?!” Twilight shouted, “Don’t you dare!”
“Dude,” Alex asked, giving him an odd look, “This is NOT the plan.”
“Sorry man, but it ain’t worth it… Maybe I’ll come back for you guys.” Dax laughed, focusing every ounce of energy he had as he vanished in a beam of light.
“You ass!” Twilight shouted, hitting Alex in the arm.
“What?!” He asked, offended, “I’m still here!”
“He IS you!” Twilight growled, “And that means YOU abandoned us!”
“Get moving!” The guard said, “Alpha wants to see you.”
“Oh, BELIEVE ME,” Twilight said, her eyes narrowed, “I want to see him too.”
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