Starlight stared in tense anticipation at the elevator door as the numbers slowly but surely clicked up to the twenty-fourth floor. The suspense of the whole thing was excruciating. Pinkie Pie was literally bouncing off the walls waiting for them to get to the top floor. Even though Starlight had hopped off her back when they had gotten in the elevator, it was quite maddening. The tacky music playing in the background wasn’t helping either. Starlight frowned.
Suddenly Pinkie slammed to an abrupt stop in front of the door. She sniffed.
“Do you hear that?” She asked, flipping around to look Starlight dead in the eye.
“Do I… wait, what?” Starlight responded, confused.
“Up! In there!” Pinkie pointed to the escape hatch in the elevator’s ceiling.
“Wha..Why?!” Fluttershy cried.
“No time for questions!” Pinkie Pie commanded. Fluttershy squeaked and opened up the hatch. She picked up Starlight and flew up into the elevator shaft. She deposited Starlight on the roof of the elevator and then bunkered down next to her.
“Don’t you need to go back for Pinkie Pie?” Starlight asked.
“Why? I’m right here silly!” Pinkie Pie chirped into Starlight’s left ear.
“How did you…?”
“I’m made out of springs! Don’t tell any pony, though, it’s a secret!” Pinkie giggled. Starlight just stared at her, unsure of how to respond to that.
“Uh, Pinkie?” Fluttershy whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Aren’t we going to the top floor?”
“Yeppers!”
“Um, won’t we, uh, be, well, squished?!” Fluttershy stammered, looking nervously at the top of the elevator shaft.
“No, silly there’s plenty of room!” Pinkie Pie said with full confidence.
“Pinkie, I don’t think…!” Fluttershy said and trailed off with a squeak as the shaft’s ceiling became dangerously close. Suddenly the sound of the elevator wound down and their ascent slowed. Fluttershy let out a continuous scared squeaky noise as the ceiling hit the top of Pinkie’s fluffy mane. Just as it touched it, as if that had stopped the elevator itself, they came to a halt. Fluttershy let out a nervous breath.
“Pinkie! That was way too close! Why are we even up here?!” She hissed.
“SHHH!” Pinkie scolded, looking Fluttershy in the eye. Below them, in the elevator a bell dinged to signal they had made it to the top floor.
“Let’s go!” Starlight said, and wiggled forward. Pinkie Pie grabbed her from behind as nearly a whole squad of Guards rushed into the elevator.
“What the--?!!” The leader, a buff-looking earth pony yelled. “Where did they GO?!” He hollered at who appeared to be his second in command, who shrugged nervously. “FIND THEM!” He yelled and they all turned to get out of the elevator. It was at that precise moment that Starlight realized what to do. She fired a blast of magic at the elevator panel. The door clanged shut and the whole panel sparked and buzzed.
“What in the name of the council is going on in here?!” The lead Guard bellowed at his subordinates. None of them had an answer.
“Nice thinking Starlight, but how are we going to get out?” Fluttershy whispered. Starlight put her hoof to her forehead.
“Oh no! I didn’t even think of that!” She gasped.
“Don’t worry! I’ve got this one!” Pinkie said, eyeing the cables above them.
“Pinkie!” Fluttershy scolded.
“What?” Pinkie said, turning back towards her. She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Flutters! Not even I’m that crazy!” She said with a laugh. She wiggled over towards one of the gears on the top of the car.
“A little help, Starlight?” She said happily.
“Uh, what do you want me to do?”
“I need this gear,” She pointed at the biggest gear. “To go that,” She pointed to the left. “way!” Starlight nodded and reached out with her magic. She felt the gear turn as her aura enveloped it. The car started to ever so slowly move downwards.
“Perfect! Keep going!” Pinkie encouraged.
“What the hay?! Who in the buck hit the button?!!” The lead Guard roared from bellow them.
Pinkie smiled and turned towards the front of the shaft, where the door to the top floor was slowly rising.
“That’s good! Stop there.” Pinkie said. “Now we just have to break through the door.”
“How are we going to do that?” Fluttershy asked.
“Stand back.” Starlight told them. Pinkie nodded. Fluttershy was about to say something when Starlight turned and forced her magic out towards the door, pulling it open. The metal screeched and groaned as it split apart.
“Go!” Starlight yelled. “I can’t hold it much longer!”
“HEY!! DID YOU HEAR THAT??!!! WHERE ARE THEY?!” The Guard bellowed from below as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie ran through the opening Starlight had made. She gasped and ran after them, the metal of the door screaming as it crimped back together.
“Perfect!” Pinkie said, ruffling the top of Starlight’s mane. They had come out into a little center room with multiple hallways branching off of it. “Seriously, that was some super-duper awesome magic skills!” Pinkie continued.
“I wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t found that gear!” Starlight exclaimed.
“That’s right! That was pretty crazy smart!” Pinkie giggled.
“Let’s go!” Fluttershy reminded them.
“Oh. Yeah!” Pinkie said, running after Fluttershy with Starlight trailing behind her. Suddenly, Starlight stopped.
“Where are we going now? We don’t know where the observatory is!”
“Huh. That’s a good point.” Pinkie said, skidding to a stop.
“Girls.” Fluttershy said.
“I think we should go this way!” Pinkie announced and turned to go down the hallway to the left.
“I think that’s wrong. See the right hallway? It slopes slightly upward!” Starlight countered.
“Girls!”
“Fluttershy, hold on a minute, we’re trying to figure out which way to go. I still think the left, Starlight!” Pinkie said.
“I don’t think so!”
“GIRLS!” Fluttershy yelled.
“What?” Pinkie asked.
Fluttershy pointed to a sign on the wall. ‘Observatory.’
“Oh.” Starlight and Pinkie said in unison.
“On a second, more careful consideration, I believe this is the correct hallway.” Pinkie said and raced down the center hallway, picking up Starlight as she went. Fluttershy rolled her eyes and followed.
---
Applejack and Rainbow Dash skidded around a corner and ducked out of sight.
“Quiet.” Applejack ordered. Dash scowled at her.
“What is the point of you being in Guard uniform if we still have to hide whenever we see a squad of Guards?” She hissed.
“I said be quiet!” Applejack spat.
“And I asked a perfectly normal question! We need to be moving faster!” Dash huffed.
“Now whose fault is the speed issue?” Applejack responded, looking pointedly at Dash’s broken wing.
Dash raised an eyebrow warningly. “Not me.” She said, daring Applejack to continue. Applejack swallowed her comeback. Now was not the time for this. She didn’t even know how Dash could piss her off so easily. She took a deep breath.
“We need to find an elevator is what we need to do.” She said.
“Well, lead the way!” Dash said sarcastically. “Oh, wait! That’s what we’ve been doing! And look! No elevator!” She looked right at Applejack with a frown. Applejack sighed, desperately trying to control the anger that was rising up in her.
“Just stay close, and for the love of Equestria, Shut. Up.”
Dash pointedly stuck her tongue out at Applejack, but stayed quiet.
“There is an elevator that goes all the way to the top floor just down this hallway. If we can get into it, I can use a clearance code to overrun the card we have and take us up.” Applejack said, peering around the corner.
“Got it. Just go.” Dash said, and went to get around Applejack. Applejack’s hoof shot out and stopped her.
“Do you have any sense of patience at all?”
“Jeez. No! I want to get there, I don’t know, sometime TODAY.”
“Will you just look before you go charging down the hallway?”
“No.”
“Fine. Then I will have to do the looking so you don’t get us both killed! There will be a patrol rounding the corner at the end of the hall, right about…now.” Applejack said and ducked behind their corner. Dash didn’t move.
“Yeah. You’re totally right! In fact, I think they have used an invisibility spell! Oh. Wait. That doesn’t make any sense! Gee! I wonder why I can’t see them!” Dash retorted. Applejack leaned around the corner and looked down the empty hall with a frown.
“That’s odd.”
“That’s our opportunity. Stop questioning good timing!” Dash said and ran down the hall. Applejack ran after her. The light above the elevator said that it was somewhere up around the twelfth floor. It stayed there for almost a minute before moving down.
“Why is it going so slow?” Dash asked.
“Maybe someone got in on that floor?” Applejack replied.
“Okay, it’s still going super slow.”
“Just hold on. It’s coming.” Applejack rolled her eyes. Both of them stared as the numbers ever so slowly worked down. When the light for the second floor flashed, the sound of shouting reached their ears.
“What do you think that could be?” Applejack began, but was cut off when the elevator opened, revealing an entire squad of Guards.
“Get down from the gears you lowly bunch of sorry, unintelligent…” the leader, a large brown earth pony roared up the exit hatch in the ceiling of the elevator. He trailed off as the doors opened and he came face to face with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. A very confused look came over his face.
“General…?”
“Um. Hello, uh, Sergeant Hammerbolt. Are you finished with the elevator?” Applejack replied.
“GET THEM!” he roared.
“Run.” Applejack said, but Dash was already halfway down the hallway. Applejack stopped briefly to buck Hammerbolt in the face before running after Dash.
“You know, on second thought, maybe we should take the stairs!” Dash said to Applejack when she had caught up.
“You know, I’m starting to think you just might have had a good idea for once.” Applejack laughed.
“For once?! I have good ideas all the time!” Dash retorted. “It’s you that has all the bad ideas!”
“Oh yeah? Like what?!” Applejack countered, looking backwards to see if they were still being followed. They were.
“What bad ideas?! What bad ideas! Maybe turning traitor and deserting your friends!” Dash spat, suddenly serious.
“Annnnd, we’re back to that.” Applejack sighed.
“GET BACK HERE!” Hammerbolt roared from behind them.
“So, yeah. We should find the stairs!” Dash said as they rounded into another hallway.
“Up here!” Applejack said and pulled open a door that lead to a stairway. She rushed inside. "Dash?!" She gasped and looked around.
"Damn it! Get off of me!" Dash yelled.
"Shit." Applejack swore and ran back into the hallway to see Dash desperately trying to fend off the squad of Guards, well, failing to fend them off. Applejack ran up and bucked Sergeant Hammerbolt in the face. He dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Applejack turned around to find her next target. As far as she could tell they would have to fight their way out of this one.
A shrill scream made her ears ring. She turned around just in time to see Dash get flung up against the wall and pass out. She amended her earlier assessment. She would have to fight their way out.
She jumped and came down hard on the Guard who had hit Dash. She spun and positioned herself between Dash and the squad of Guards.
"Alright! Who's next?" She yelled at them. None of them moved. They were all fully aware of who she was and seemed stunned to be in this situation. One of them was looking nervously back and forth between Commander Hammerbolt and the Guard Applejack had landed on.
"Really? No pony? Wow." Applejack rolled her eyes. She had trained her Guard better than this. Of course, that might have been the very problem. Another explosion rocked the floor underneath them. Applejack looked down, and during that half second one of the apparently more brave Guard ponies, a young green pegasus, leaped at her. Barely even looking up, she spun and his face connect squarely with her back hooves as she bucked. He hit the wall with a thud and slumped to the floor.
"Anybody else want to be a hero? No? Alright then. I'm just gonna leave now." Applejack turned and picked up Dash, who swore and rolled to her feet. She swayed a little.
"What happened?" She asked drunkenly.
"Just follow me, we're kind of in a situation."
Dash turned around to face what was left of the squad of Guards facing them down.
"Heh. All too scared I'd put the smack-down on all of you. Yeah. I'd be standing there pissing my feathers too. Yeah. I could take all you right now! Right. Now. Yeah!" Dash told them woozily. She blinked and swayed again.
"Oh my god, Dash. Come on." Applejack grabbed a hold of her and steered her down the hallway. The Guards just stared at them, confused. Applejack eyed them menacingly before opening the door to the stairway. She pulled Dash inside and flipped the lock. She let out a breath and faced Dash, who was blinking.
"What the hell happened?" She asked, this time though, she seemed fully aware of what was going on.
"You...I think you hit your head or something." Applejack shrugged.
"What?! But did they catch us? The squad that was following us?! How'd we get in here?"
"You passed out for a bit there...and uh...hit your head." Applejack decided not to tell Dash anymore than that.
"Oh. Okay." She nodded and looked up the stairs. "Let's go, then."
"Yeah." Applejack nodded and they started up the stairs at a run. Dash turned back to look at Applejack.
"You saved my butt back there, didn't you?" She asked with a frown.
"Yeah, I guess." Applejack shrugged.
"Well. Thanks. Don't make it a habit, but, uh, thanks."
"Whoa. I mean, uh, no problem. Don't worry about it." Applejack replied.
"Oh, I wont." Dash assured her. "And by the way, don't think this changes anything!" Dash finished with what Applejack guessed was supposed to be a fierce look.
Below them, the door shook violently.
"I think they followed us. Nice job getting rid of them." Dash said sarcastically.
“Oh yeah?! Because you were such a big help!" Applejack replied. "We should probably get moving though." She continued.
They ran up the stairs. Luckily, the door stayed shut. They reached the top and slammed that door behind them too. Dash looked at the floor level and swore. Only floor fifteen. They still had so far to go.
“There aren't any other elevators?!” Dash asked as they ran down the hallway towards another staircase.
“Not any that we can get into with this card pass!” Applejack answered.
“Well, shit.” Dash swore again.
---
Both of them were winded and breathing heavily.
“Only four more floors!” Applejack said encouragingly as they came to the top of yet another staircase.
“Oh, joy.”
“Only problem is that we’re going to need a new card pass. Regular access only goes up to the twentieth floor.” Applejack admitted.
“What.” Dash said flatly.
“However, this floor also has Silver Shot’s office, so we should be able to get one of his card keys.” Applejack said and pointed to a closed door about halfway down the hall. She ran to the door and tried pulling it open. It was locked.
“What now, genius?” Dash asked.
“Oh, will you lay off for one second and just trust me?” Applejack asked and pressed her hoof into the door frame. A small keypad slid out of the side of the door and beeped at them.
“No.” Dash replied, fully serious. Applejack rolled her eyes and typed a sequence of numbers into the keypad.
“It’s my full access code. Works anywhere in the building…well anywhere where there is a keypad rather than a door swipe. Best part is that the Council never knew I had a master code, so they won’t have changed it.” She explained. The door lock clicked and they went inside. Applejack ran over to the desk and started riffling through the drawers.
“Got it! Let’s go!” She said and held up the door card.
“Where are we going?” A voice said from the doorway.
“Shit.” Dash swore.
“I just wouldn’t want to miss all the fun, you know.” Iron Flare said gleefully as he came into the room.