“Noir... Noir?!” Rainbow Dash winced, crawling across the paved street which was littered all around her with the smoldering ruins of the exploded warehouse. “Noir, say something! Move! Do the cha-cha!” She shook the sarosian stallion, her voice cracking. “Anything!”
“Mmmnngh...” He stirred slightly, his eyes clenched as his muzzle grimaced. “Guh... invaders, Y-your Majesty...”
“Ah jeez...” Rainbow clenched her teeth. “This is totally not good.” She gulped. “Or else, if I actually am Princess Luna, then I've lost a buck-ton of weight.”
Her ears twitched. She heard the wind splitting from afar. She turned to look through the smoke and haze. Rainbow saw the glint of razor sharp talons, followed by a single reflective eye.
“Dr. Crudenstein!” She sneered, holding Noir close as she pressed the two of them to the concrete. “How in the name of saddle sores did that creep find me?!” She gulped. “Of course. He's been here before. Shoot!... he blew up Noir's HQ to get at me!”
Romulus glided closer on ghostly feathers. He was close enough to smell. Thinking quick, Rainbow dragged herself and Noir into a tiny niche under a fallen clump of rubble. She inadvertently rubbed one of Noir's bruises the wrong way, and the stallion groaned in pain. She immediately slapped a fetlock over his mouth to silence him.
“...!” Romulus' feathery head spun like an owl's. His one good eye darted left... then right. “... ... ...” He turned forward and hovered over the rubble, peering into the still-burning mess.
Rainbow Dash was sweating from the heat and suffocating smoke. Slowly, she scuffled backwards on her rear haunches, dragging Noir along with her. All of the sudden, she heard an alarming crack!. Looking straight above, she spotted a fissure having formed down the thick of the structure resting directly overhead. The chunk of rubble began buckling.
“Hnntt!” Rainbow gripped Noir and flapped her wings hard. Together, the two barreled out into the open—
CRKKK! The piece of the warehouse collapsed.
Chiiiing! Dual daggers unsheathed, Romulus spun and squinted at the source of the noise. He saw a plume of ashen dust rising up, joining with the smoke. His beak clattered as he leaned forward. As the dust settled, he saw a clean swath of air cut through the smoke, heading straight towards the river.
“Why, that damned horse!” Romulus sneered and flew after the trail, his wings slicing through the air with a menacing whistle.
Several yards ahead, Rainbow Dash panted, coasting over the murky river at a low altitude. She gripped Noir's body tightly beneath her, struggling to maintain both their weight and fly evenly at the same time. After half a minute, her limbs wobbled. Noir slipped a bit, his lower body breaking the river current and sending a spray of water in opposite directions.
“Crud muffins!” Rainbow hissed, flapping her wings harder and lifting until the both of them were dry. “Just keep going, Rainbow. Just keep going. You're the fastest pony alive.” She gulped and took a daring glance behind her. “You can definitely outrun a murderous death griffon—”
P-Pow! Pow! Muzzle flashes lit up across the river, sending bullets whizzing past Rainbow's ears.
“Gaaah! But not bullets!” She seathed, weaving left and right while Noir swayed in her grip. “Friggin' mafia stallions! He's working with them, isn't he?! Dang it!”
Behind her, Romulus growled, twirling to avoid the lead shot. He spun, flying backwards and hollering, “Stop shooting, you idots! I've got her!”
“What did that bird-brain say?!” one hitstallion grunted to another as they reloaded their rifles along the riverfront.
“Beats the Tartarus out of me. Keep firing! He can fish her body out of the river for all I care!”
“Let her have it!” Pow!
Pow! P-Pow!
Romulus flew up high, grumbling. “Amateurs. I'll just have to get the air advantage.” Straightening his feathers, he performed a steady glide, staring down with one good hawkeye. His expert vision detected the pegasus' movement, singling it apart from the constant ripple of moonlight against the dark waters of the Fillydelphia river. The mare was moving fast, but not fast enough. The weight of the body in her grasp was slowing her down, even as she approached a line of factories on the opposite bank.
“Hmmm... so the bat-pony survived as well...” Romulus licked his beak. “Not for long...” He flapped, flapped some more, then angled his body forty-five degrees to sea level like a living arrowhead. The wind howled around him as he sliced his way earthward, dive bombing toward the exhausted pony.
Even in his high velocity plunge, he could see the mare ascending, then flying over a patch of smoldering smokestacks.
“I have you now...” He grinned under his beak. Schiiing! He unsheathed his daggers once more and sharpened his angle of descent, plummeting like a razor-sharp anvil through the smoke...
...only to come bursting through empty-talon'd on the other side. There was no pony flesh to be shredded apart, and Romulus had to pull up within milliseconds to avoid turning into a splatter of poultry against the factory rooftop. He barreled sideways, grunting, and hovered upright. Breathless, the griffon looked all around. His one eye widened.
“Where is she?!”
The mare was gone.
“Where in the Hell did she fly off to?!” He snarled louder and louder, kicking at a factory window with his talon, sending shards of glass falling to the floor. “Grnnnngh! This is absurd! What's that damned pony made of?!”
As his angry breaths simmered down, he heard the distant sound of police sirens. Hovering higher, he peered across the river to see flashing lights gathering around the smoldering remains of Noir's warehouse. From afar, Romulus could make out the shadowed figures of Don Canter's stallions rushing off into the shadows and making themselves scarce.
“Hrmmmm...” Romulus spun about, glancing towards the northwest section of the industrial district. “She has to be around here somewhere! I'm not giving up on this one. She's dead meat!” He soared off with a burst of air.
High above, the smog from the nearby factory's smokestacks lifted up, up, up into the air. The smoldery columns collected to form a dark-black cloudbed that drifted miserably over the industrial district. It was here—with a high-pitched gasp—that Rainbow Dash finally emerged, having slowly ridden the vertical column of smoke to freedom.
She had barely caught her breath when she reached deep into the smog and pulled Noir's upper body out from the depths of the black, black haze. He sputtered and wheezed for clean air.
“Good,” she stammered. “At least we know you're breathing.” Resting her pegasus body back against the smoke bed, she floated with Noir, blending effortlessly with the dark gloss of night. “Let's j-just chill here for a while.” She gulped. “Sorry for the fumes, buddy, but it was the only way to throw that buzzard off.” She glanced over the river at the police wagons gathering around the exploded warehouse. “What are the odds that Don Canter has half of this stinkin' city in his bit bag?”
“Gnngh... New Saros...” Noir wheezed. “The shards... I-I... I couldn't...”
“Shhhh... easy,” Rainbow said, squeezing his shoulders. “Rest up. You ain't the Gary Stu of this story.” She gazed up at the stars, shivering slightly. “I gotta get you someplace safe... and then healed up. But where? And more importantly, who?” She clenched her eyes shut. “Come on, Dash, think... think.”
A beat.
Rainbow's eyes reopened, and her ears folded. “Unnnnnngh... It could work. But the sucky part is just how how well it could work.” A deep sigh. “Still, it's the safest thing to do...”
Rainbow held Noir tightly. After fifteen minutes and no sign of Romulus, she braved a leap off the smog cloud. Flying as quickly as her wings could carry the two of them, she shot her way southwest, leaving Fillydelphia proper and darting dangerously into the country...