Applejack looked up as the alarm went off.
“Oh, Buck!”
They hadn’t made it more than three steps past the door when the alarm went off and the red warning lights flared. The door slammed shut behind them and both Silver Shot and the Guard he was distracting ran out into the room.
“Run! Go to the observatory tower! We can regroup up there! It’s the top floor of the building! Just keep going up! Keep Starlight safe, I’m going to get Rainbow Dash!” Applejack yelled over the shrill alarm tones. Pinkie Pie bounced Starlight up onto her back and sped off in a pink blur, Fluttershy flying as fast as she could behind them.
“Oh! Wait!” Applejack grabbed Silver’s badge from around his neck.
“Hey!” he protested.
“Take this, it should open any doors on your way!” Applejack tossed the badge to Fluttershy, who caught it and flew off.
“Your code will still work won’t it? You’re General now, right?” She asked Silver quickly. He nodded. It was around this time that the other Guard figured out what was going on. He lunged toward Applejack, and without missing a beat she flipped around and bucked him in the face, hard. He fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
“Do you know which prison block Rainbow is in?” Applejack asked Silver.
He frowned. “I don’t think she’s in any of the usual blocks…”
Applejack paled. “You don’t mean…?”
Silver nodded.
“Damn. This day just keeps getting better.” She bent down and grabbed the badge off of the unconscious Guard laying on the floor.
“That won’t get you in there.” Silver told her.
“Obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “But it will get me closer faster than I can get there on my own.” She started towards the door, Silver moved to follow.
“Oh, no you don’t. Don’t come with me. If this goes badly one of us needs to still be in the Guard, and alive.”
Silver sighed. “Fine.”
“You could go see if you can, I don’t know, create some distractions…” Applejack smirked. Silver grinned back.
“You know, I think I will.” He strode off down the hallway.
Applejack raced down another hallway. A minute later a huge explosion rocked the floor beneath her hooves. She smiled grimly. Silver Shot hadn’t wasted any time.
---
Starlight grabbed ahold of Pinkie’s mane and held on for dear life as Pinkie Pie raced off at top speed. Surely this breaks some fundamental law of physics! There is no way she can be going this fast! Ohmygosh! Starlight thought as they went around a corner and she was nearly spun off.
“Stairs!” Pinkie yelled and took another turn.
“Oh!” Starlight gasped as they nearly flew up the stairs.
“Starlight! Is Fluttershy behind us?” Pinkie asked. Starlight turned, in time to see Fluttershy round the corner and come zooming up the stairs behind them.
“Right here, Pinkie! I have a door pass!” She puffed out, clearly winded.
“Okie Dokie! We’ve got a door coming up on the left at the top of the stairs! It should lead to the next flight!” She yelled back.
“Wow! How did you know that?!” Starlight wondered.
“The sign that we just passed, silly!” Pinkie replied. Starlight looked back, they were moving way too fast for her to be able to make anything out. She shrugged. They came out on a landing and Pinkie whizzed to the door, Fluttershy following behind as best she could. She whipped out the door card and pressed it to the sensor by the door, it clicked and swung open.
The stairway was filled with Guard ponies in uniform, all running towards them.
“Oops! Wrong door!” Pinkie said, and pulled the door closed. She turned and bucked the sensor. Angry shouts came from the other side.
“We should try…uh…that one!” Pinkie yelled, pointing at another, seemingly random door.
“Pinkie! I don’t think…” Fluttershy began, but Pinkie already had the door card to the sensor. The door clicked, revealing a long hallway.
“Let’s go!” Pinkie said and ran. Fluttershy swung the door closed behind them and kicked the sensor.
“Hurry!” She puffed out.
“Stairs, Pinkie! Stairs!” Starlight yelled. Behind them, the door they had just come through slammed open.
“Stop right there!” A loud shout reverberated off the walls towards them. Starlight whipped her head around, horn ablaze and slammed the door back closed with a dark purple blast. Smoke puffed out where the metal had melted. That would hold…she hoped.
“Oo! I found it!” Pinkie yelled, pulling open a door with a sign that said “Stairs” on it. She yanked it open and they raced up the stairs at top speed.
“How many floors does this place have?!” Fluttershy gasped.
“A lot!” Starlight said back.
“Twenty-Four!” Pinkie said, without a moment’s hesitation.
“What?!” Fluttershy huffed.
“TWENTY-FOUR” Pinkie yelled.
“I heard! I meant, how are we going to get there that fast?! There has to be a better--” *huff* “way!”
“Well, have you seen any elevators?! I sure haven’t!” Pinkie responded. Starlight rolled her eyes. They were getting off topic.
“There!” She yelled. They ran up the next flight of stairs and came out in a metal-floored hallway. Pinkie’s hooves clanged loudly on the floor.
“Be quiet!” Fluttershy cried.
“Speed is more important!” Starlight replied and Pinkie nodded.
“Wait!” Fluttershy called. Neither Pinkie nor Starlight heard her over the racket and kept running.
“WAIT!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. Pinkie skidded to a halt.
“I thought you said to be quiet!” Pinkie fumed as she flipped around to face Fluttershy.
“Shhh!”
“WHAT?!”
“SHHH!” Fluttershy hushed her again. For a second everything was still. Then they all heard it. The sound of hoofsteps, coming up fast, and by the sound of them, there were a lot of ponies coming their way.
Starlight’s eyes widened. “We have to get out of here!” They all looked around, searching for the best way to go. All that was in front of them was more hallway and all that way behind was they stairway they had just come from. They were going to be closed in on both sides. Then, something on the wall caught Starlight’s eye. A tiny crack running up and down the wall where no crack should be. It kinda looked like any other wall panel in the hallway, but there was something…off about it. Like it was the wrong shape or something.
“Hand me the key card.” She asked Fluttershy, who shrugged and tossed it to her. She jumped down off of Pinkie’s back and put the card to the crack in the wall. At first nothing happened, but as she slid it over and then down, the wall split open with an audible swoosh.
“Wowie!” Pinkie said and raced inside, looking around. She gasped. “It’s an elevator!”
“No way!” Fluttershy said.
“Let’s go!” Starlight reminded them and got in and pressed the button for the top floor.
---
Applejack almost tripped as another explosion rocked the floor beneath her. She just hoped that Silver Shot was smart enough not to bring the entire building down. As plaster dust shook from the walls, she turned and went up yet another flight of stairs. She wished she still had her card pass. It was the only way to access the elevators, and most of them were hidden anyway. She knew where they were, but currently, without any access codes, she was unable to get to them.
As it was, it was going to take some fancy maneuvering to get to Iron Flare’s private area of headquarters, which was, if Silver Shot was to be believed, and Applejack’s suspicions were correct; where Rainbow Dash would be. A sick feeling came to Applejack’s stomach. Even if Rainbow Dash was perfectly fine, this rescue would probably get very ugly very fast. Last time she had seen Rainbow Dash…well, it had not been on good terms.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud sounds of pursuit. She swore and turned around as she ran. Nearly an entire squadron was chasing behind her. She ducked into a side hallway and immediately chose the next door at random. Two or three more turns and another hallway and door later, she was somewhat confident she had lost them.
There were very few ponies that knew the ins and outs of the Guard Headquarters better than she did. She even knew places the Council was unfamiliar with. As she caught her breath and listened anxiously to make sure that she really had lost them, she frantically thought how she was going to get to Rainbow Dash. Right now, she was far too noticeable.
“Whoops! Sorry!” said a voice as something ran into her. She whirled around to find herself face to face with a young Guard pony clearly trying to find her way to her post during lockdown. Applejack grinned mischievously. Perfect.
“Hey! Aren’t you…?!” The Guard began but was cut off as Applejack delivered a swift jab to her temple. She would be fine in an hour or so, well, other than the lump that was already forming.
Applejack walked out into the hall, shutting the door behind her with a soft click. It was very weird to be back in uniform, especially the private’s uniform she had just stolen. A squad of Guards ran past, the same ones that had been chasing her earlier. One of them slowed, but Applejack jogged up to him, keeping her stolen hat low over her face.
“I think she went that way, sir!” He nodded and rejoined his squad. She breathed out a sigh in relief. Even with the uniform, nearly every Guard pony knew exactly what she looked like. She just needed to play up the fact that they were looking for the few ponies not in uniform. She smiled and looked down at the card pass in her hoof. She had swiped one off of the private whose uniform she was wearing, but she had upgraded when the squad leader had talked to her. She ran off, knowing exactly where to go, but dreading actually getting there.
--
Dash stared blurrily at the ceiling through the one good eye she had. The other was swollen shut. The little light that illuminated the room came from the flashing red alarm on the wall above the door. She was grateful for it, usually the room was pitch black when Iron Flare left. Dash hated the dark. At least the alarm tones had stopped. They had been really annoying. She blinked and tried to take a deep breath in. Halfway through she stopped and gasped as another wave of pain rushed through her at the tiny amount of movement the deep breath had caused.
Her wing was broken, she was sure of that at least. She closed her eye and tried to drift back into unconsciousness. She was just so tired of the pain. All the pain. Just as she finally was drifting off the door slammed open, along with a crashing noise. She jerked in her restraints. He couldn’t be back so soon, especially not during an attack, if that was truly what was going on. She gasped and tried to turn her head to look at the door.
The figure of a Guard, a female, one she didn’t know, rushed in. She ran over to Rainbow Dash’s table and began pulling off the restraints. Dash tried to get a better look at her, despite the fact that Dash didn’t know any female Guards, there was something familiar about the intruder, and besides that, she was freeing Dash, so she couldn’t be all bad, could she?
“Oh, thank heavens you’re awake. We need to get out of here NOW.”
Dash frowned and her eyes widened. On second thought, she most certainly could be all bad.
---
Applejack scrambled to get the restraints of off Rainbow Dash, who looked terrible. Applejack’s heartbeat thudded in her ears as she looked at the extent of Rainbow’s injuries. She had no idea how to give her the medical attention she desperately needed and they needed to get up to the top floor to help Starlight and the others. Looking at Rainbow Dash, it was a wonder she was even alive, much less awake.
Just as she finished getting the last strap off, Rainbow Dash’s back hoof socked her in the face and sent her skidding to the floor on the other side of the room. She blinked, dazed, but not all that surprised.
“Woah! Wait! We need to work together!” She yelled as Rainbow Dash tried to heave herself off the table. She made a lunge for the door and fell. Applejack rushed over to her.
“Don’t you dare touch me.” Rainbow Dash muttered. She weakly tried to twist around to get another shot off at Applejack, but was unable. She winced in another wave of pain. “I would never, ever work with you. Not ever again. Besides, aren’t we on opposite sides?” She said with as much venom as she could muster.
“I defected.” Applejack replied.
“No surprise there. Once a traitor, always a traitor. There is no way in all of Equestria I would ever trust you again. You’ve done things to your friends that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies!” Rainbow Dash spat.
Applejack sighed. She really didn’t have a response to that.
“Just leave. I’ll get out on my own. I don’t want your help.” She tried to push herself up, but fell and landed back on the ground with a weak gasp. Applejack gently pulled Rainbow Dash up and wiggled under her so that Rainbow was now on Applejack’s back. She tried to pull herself off, but when that didn’t work she settled for biting Applejack, hard.
“OW! Would you stop that and listen for a gosh darn second?!”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.”
“Well, then. By all means! Proceed! Tell me some lies to get me on your side, traitor!”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Starlight, Fluttershy and Pinkie are on their way upstairs. They’re going to need our help. Starlight is trying to call on the old unicorn magic source, which was somewhere in the castle before it was torn to the ground and headquarters built on top of it, to fix the sun.”
“What’s wrong with the sun?” Rainbow Dash had several more questions regarding Applejack’s wild story, but that was the first one that popped into her head.
“We really need to get moving. I’ll explain on the way.” Applejack peaked her head out into the hallway. Clear for the moment. “The sun is expanding and will eventually, well in about twenty-four hours, engulf the planet unless some sorta spell is put on it so that it doesn’t. Which is what Starlight needs some powerful magic source for.”
“Wait. Why are you with Starlight?”
“I found her after the camp was raided.” Applejack explained.
“The camp was raided?!”
“Yep, by the same ponies that captured you. I was there trying to stop you from being captured.”
“Why would you do that? You don’t care about any pony but yourself anymore.”
“Let’s move on from that for a second. Long story short, I found Starlight, who wanted to go after you, and of course, I wanted you to be set free also. I had already been fired and basically sentenced to death by the Council myself, which is another long story; so I agreed to help her get you and also get her to where she can fix the sun. Fluttershy and Pinkie came along because they didn’t trust me with Starlight.”
“They shouldn’t have trusted you at all.” Rainbow huffed. They came to a door at the end of the hall. Applejack set Rainbow Dash down and turned around. She calmly bucked down the door and went inside. A few moments later she came out, her pockets bulging. She leaned down and handed something to Rainbow Dash.
Dash could barely believe it. It was her element of harmony.
“Why are you giving this back to me?” She asked, eye narrowed.
“Because you might need it. And could you just for one second believe that I am back on your side?”
“Absolutely not.”
“It was worth a try.” Applejack shrugged. “Do you think you can walk or do I need to carry you the rest of the way?”
“I can walk!” Rainbow retorted and hauled herself up onto her hooves. She teetered unsteadily for a moment and then tried to put her front hoof forward. The movement sent a wave of agony up her middle. She gasped and staggered. Applejack was there in a second.
“Oh.” She said softly, noticing the pin in Rainbow Dash’s wings for the first time.
“It really hurts.” Rainbow Dash murmured.
“We have to take it out.” Applejack said. Rainbow Dash nodded weakly. Applejack walked around and took ahold of the clasp on the pinion. She pulled that out. Now all that was left was to take the metal bar out.
“You have to stay still. Try not to scream. Do you want me to count or just pull?” Applejack told her.
“Just--” Dash was cut off as Applejack swiftly pulled the pin out. A whole new kind of pain ripped through her wings and down into her core. She screamed and fell to the floor, fighting to stay conscious as waves of blackness rippled at the edges of her vision.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s out.” Applejack said quickly. Rainbow Dash slowly moved her wings into a more normal open position. She breathed in relief despite the pain from the broken one. She gingerly pulled the other wing down into its spot next to her body. The broken wing would have to stay open. She pushed herself up off the floor, squared her shoulders and looked at Applejack. She took a few steps forward.
“Okay. Show me where to go.”