**Rainbow Dash**
Rainbow Dash regained consciousness with a splitting headache and an extremely discomfiting sensation of deja vu. The sharp, slightly oily scent of metal was in the air, and the ground on which she lay felt hard and uncomfortable. Then she realised that she couldn't just smell metal - she could taste it, too.
"Ow, muh-" she mumbled, before something foreign bumped against her tongue. Snapping awake, she tried to exclaim "What the hay is in my mouth?!"
The sound Rainbow actually made was more of a tongue-tied burble, as a result of the metal rod that had apparently been secured in her mouth by means of a makeshift rope harness around her head. It rested on her tongue uncomfortably, making it difficult to talk, as well as pressing down on her lower jaw in the gap between her front and back teeth. She didn't have time to take in much more detail after that - she had woken up to something weird wrapped around her face, so one hundred percent of Rainbow Dash's time was now being devoted to panicking.
Get it off get it off get it off!
Rainbow's wild rearing and flailing at her muzzle was short-lived however. As soon as she tried to scramble backward from where she had woken up, the whole assembly around her head snapped tight and pulled her up short. The metal bar jerked painfully against her jaw, and Rainbow stumbled forward into something solid. Her eyes focused on a short, dull grey post linking the metal floor to the underside of an awfully familiar mattress-laden shelf, and traced up its length to a tied-off rope. The rope was attached to the contraption fixed around her head, which she was slowly beginning to recognise.
She had been bridled.
Turning her whole self around the post, manoeuvring carefully so as not to pull on the short rope securing her head to it, Rainbow Dash tried to fight down the shame and impotent rage welling up in her chest. Based on the faded daisy patterns on the horribly stained mattress, and the oversized bucket in the corner - still lying on its side after the pigataur fell over onto it during her ill-fated escape attempt - she was back in her cell.
This isn't fair. Her legs started to tremble - whether out of weakness or anger, she couldn't tell.
"THIS ISN'T FAIR!" Rainbow Dash screamed, forcing the words past the bit in her mouth. Then, suddenly, all the aches and pains of the last few hours returned with renewed fury, and she collapsed to the floor. In a barely-audible choked whisper, she asked "Why is this happening to me?"
Just as before, her shout summoned sounds from outside her cell. This time, however, Rainbow Dash found she simply didn't care. She couldn't even muster the effort required to raise her head as she heard the door slide open, and paid no attention to the figures approaching across the cell floor. She was trapped, confused and alone in an unfamiliar world. Her wings weren't working, and she had no idea where any of her friends were - or if she'd ever even see them again.
The thought of her friends stuck in her mind as Rainbow felt something pull her upright by the bridle around her head. As she tried to shut out the nightmare going on around her, a feeling of simple certainty began to grow, a pure faith casting a small but strengthening light in her mind. Something she could hold on to.
Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack... I can't give up on you, and I know you won't give up on me either. Dozens more figures joined the five held in the center of her mind, pony and non-pony alike. Spike, Tank, Scoots... everypony...
As she focused her awareness outward once more, Rainbow Dash realised her bipedal captors seemed to be in the midst of tormenting her for their own amusement. The small furry one was sat on her back, tugging on the bit in her mouth with the attached rope, while the huge pig-thing looked on in obvious amusement. The pair were talking loudly to each other, their harsh words interspersed with laughter.
An absurd image of Spike riding on Twilight's back intruded on Rainbow's mental landscape, before skipping on to the rodeo round of the first of her now annual Iron Pony contests against Applejack. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash knew exactly how to handle this one.
Ah hope yer ready fer a buckin' good time, 'partner', Rainbow thought with a suppressed grin, imagining Applejack's reaction to her mimicking the earth pony's voice. It had proved a pretty reliable way to throw AJ off her game, and doing it almost let her imagine Applejack was here with her. Rainbow could practically hear her friend protesting that she "din't have no ack-sent".
It seemed her two guards weren't particularly bright - or were extremely confident in their position of power. The door to the cell stood open again, and they had untied her from the bedpost so the smaller one could ride her around the cell. Although there was no guarantee the outer door was still ajar. Or, come to think of it, that it even was an outer door. She hadn't had much of an opportunity to see what was on the other side, beyond a vague impression of more dull grey metal walls.
Still, anywhere's better than here. Not like my day can get any worse.
Rainbow allowed herself to be directed around the room for a few moments as she carefully manoeuvred her tongue under the metal bit. When the furry creature on her back slackened the reins for a moment, she quickly pushed the bar up and back. Rainbow Dash fought to suppress a small smile of triumph as she took the bit firmly between her back teeth. Trying to maintain the same aimless, wandering gait she slowly turned until she was facing the pigataur head-on.
Okay, round two. No screw-ups this time.
Shifting her weight forward, Rainbow Dash pulled her back legs slightly off the floor. Then, just as she had practised for her rodeo performance, she began to rapidly bounce her hind legs up and down. The creature on her back gave a startled yelp as the pony beneath it shook violently, throwing it forward and back at a furious pace. Rainbow bit down harder on the metal between her teeth as her passenger frantically pulled on the attached reins. Then, Rainbow Dash felt its weight shift back a little as it lost its balance, and the vicious grin she had been hiding broke free as its grip on the reins faltered.
Gotcha.
On the next bounce Rainbow let her hind legs collapse, dropping almost completely down onto her rump, before kicking out as hard as she could. One final, violent upward jolt pitched her passenger forward through the air over her head, breaking its grip on the reins entirely. The foul-smelling furry thing smashed into its larger companion's belly with a wheezing screech, sending both tumbling into a thrashing heap on the cell floor.
As Rainbow Dash began her second run for the door, something shiny and red flew out of the smaller biped's jacket and bounced across the ground in front of her with a ringing chime of crystal on metal. Her first thought was to simply ignore whatever it was and run before her captors recovered, but there was something oddly compelling about the strange artefact. It wasn't just the nagging, vaguely unsettling feeling that she'd seen it somewhere before, either. Her eyes seemed drawn to what she realised was a hoof-sized chunk of red crystal as it bounced to a halt against one wall. The crystal seemed somehow more real than the rest of the world around it. More colourful, more alive.
Without really pausing to consider the possible consequences of grabbing an unknown alien object in her mouth, Rainbow scooped up the crystal on her way past the flailing pile of limbs between her and the door. Rather than being cool and uncomfortable against her teeth as she had expected, she found it was surprisingly warm - and it only got warmer the longer she held on to it. That strange, comforting, coming-home feeling that had briefly affected her earlier returned, and the whole world grew just a touch more lively and colourful. Before she could really spend too much thought on the problem, Rainbow was through the cell door and back into the outer room once more. At that point, something else took precedence in her mind.
The door she had tried to get through on her last attempt was firmly shut, and reaching the handle to shove it open without using her wings was going to be a real challenge. Frantically she swung her head back and forth, trying to ignore the odd dragging sensation of the heavy rope reins hanging off her makeshift bridle.
Come on, come on, got to be something I can use... Argh, this gem thing is getting really warm. The hay did I even pick this up for?
Just as Rainbow was about to spit out the offending crystal, her attention was captured by an obviously angry challenge from the cell behind her. While she obviously didn't speak freaky alien language, she'd heard enough angry guards shouting "Stop!" in her lifetime to recognise what was being said. Glancing backward almost on reflex, she saw the hulking pig creature raising one arm to point at her, pudgy fist wrapped around a boxy grey object.
Rainbow Dash flinched as a series of half-remembered images flickered across her vision. A tan pegasus at the head of a huge thunderstorm. Her friends racing to activate the Elements. A bipedal equine figure, half-shrouded in metal and far larger than any pony she had ever seen, bearing a strange tubular weapon. A raging blast of crimson energy smashing a pony from the sky.
Without even thinking, Rainbow Dash dodged. With a practised ease born of countless near misses, she snapped her wings down and hopped into the air as a lance of crimson fire leapt from the tube on the front of the metal box, accompanied by a high-pitched screech. The blast left a blackened scorch mark on the floor beneath her as she hovered in place.
Whoa, that was close- Wait.
Every moment of joyous freedom and rushing adrenaline Rainbow Dash had ever felt in the air crashed into her at once. She was flying. She hadn't realised how much of a devastating effect her inability to use her wings had been having on her mood until that moment, and now she never wanted to touch the ground again. She didn't even care how it had happened - her wings had chosen the absolute best time to start working again. A flash of colour at the edge of her vision drew Rainbow's eyes to a stray bit of mane - the vibrant, saturated red-orange of her forelock almost looked normal again, and her coat was back to its usual hue.
She stared at the pig-creature. It seemed to be as surprised as she was for a moment, then it started to move its arm to point the weapon at her again.
Oh yeah. Escaping.
Rainbow's wings blurred as she spun away and dove straight for the door handle. With the bit and strange red crystal in her teeth, she cast any hope of finesse aside and simply threw herself bodily at the vertical grip. Another blast of red energy caromed off the door's surface in front of her muzzle as she forced it open - somehow much more easily than before - and then she was through. Reversing the opening procedure on the handle on the opposite side, Rainbow Dash slammed the door shut before swooping down to the floor. The faint squeaking sound of the heavy metal door sliding on its inset rails had given her an idea.
Quickly spinning around and planting her forelegs on the ground, Rainbow delivered a powerful buck to the base of the door. The metal panel bent inwards with a harsh squeal of protest.
Try opening that if you can.
Rainbow's efforts at door sabotage were almost immediately rewarded - the damaged portal shuddered and jerked as something pulled on the other side, but the bent metal at its base prevented it from sliding open.
Her amused chuckle at the angry sounds filtering through the door was cut short by a sudden burst of even more intense heat from the crystal in her mouth.
"Aah!" she squealed, dropping the offending object onto the floor with a clink. "Ow... burned by dongue," she mumbled, scowling down at the crystal, which now glowed cherry red. "Thtupid thing."
Irritated, Rainbow Dash flicked a foreleg at the object. One sharp hissing sound and another pained cry later she was recoiling from it again, and the smell of lightly toasted fetlock filled the air. Before she could really give it a piece of her mind, the red gem let out a loud 'plink' reminiscent of cooling glass and cracked cleanly in two. The halves fell apart onto the floor, a scorched black area in the center of each emitting a tiny curl of smoke. The colour seemed to almost drain out of the crystal, and the odd sensation of closeness and familiarity coming from it faded.
Okay I'm, like, two hundred percent done with this thing. Time to leave.
Turning her back on the damaged door, Rainbow Dash took stock of her surroundings. At first she thought she had emerged into a long, empty room - but after a quick size comparison with the other rooms she had been in, this was obviously a corridor. The ceiling and one wall were the same bare metal as the other two chambers she had occupied, but the right wall and floor looked like unfinished brownish rock. Lots of metal pipes and small bundled cables were attached to the rock wall from floor to ceiling, running along the passage parallel with the ground. A similar single string of cable ran down the middle of the ceiling, with some kind of large glowing light blocks attached at regular intervals. Some distance ahead, the passage split in two - branching off at right angles.
I can't go backwards, and these pipes have gotta go somewhere.
As soon as Rainbow Dash spread her wings to take off down the corridor, she could tell something had gone wrong. Her wings felt strange and useless again, and even before she tried a few experimental flaps she realised whatever effect had restored her to flight had been temporary. A glance backward at her wings also confirmed that the colour was bleeding out of her coat and mane again.
No, no, no! Damnit!
Desperation and correlation conspired in Rainbow's brain, pointing her back at the discarded red crystal on the dusty rock floor. It had made her feel weird, and then she'd been able to fly again. Then it broke, and she was stuck back on the ground.
Scooping up the still-smoking and barely cooled halves of the broken crystal in her hooves, Rainbow Dash crudely mashed them together in the vain hope that the thing might somehow reassemble itself. Unfortunately the miracle she was wishing for did not manifest, and the two scorched pieces stayed resolutely separate.
This was almost worse than not being able to fly in the first place. To have a tiny glimpse of that freedom returned, and then stripped away again a moment later.
Okay okay, it didn't necessarily have to be the gem, right? If it was, and it's broken, then I am completely screwed. Maybe it was the other stuff, the feelings and the memories - that's meant to be important for magic, right?
Rainbow knew that she was grasping at straws, but she made the attempt anyway - trying vainly to recapture the warm, familiar feeling of home from moments before. Although she didn't suddenly regain the power of flight, when she concentrated on those sensations Rainbow Dash noticed something else.
There was a faint echo of that homey, comforting feeling coming from ahead of her, and slightly to the right. How she could sense directionality in it she couldn't adequately explain. Never an egghead around when you actually need one, she thought, annoyance mingling with regret. So, is a direction inspired by warm fuzzy feelings really any better than no direction at all? Rainbow sat on the floor, dismayed and indecisive, looking from the broken fragments of crystal in her hooves to the passage to only-Celestia-knew-where in front of her.
Then the decision was made for her, as the unmistakable sound of an alarm bell sounded from all around her.
I am not going back in that cell.
Rainbow Dash pulled herself upright, dropping the halves of the shattered crystal, and ran.
**BraveStarr**
BraveStarr allowed himself a small satisfied smile as he reached the hidden facility's surprisingly sophisticated generator room. From here it would be easy to shut off the power before attempting to rescue the captured spirit from wherever it was being held. The darkness would shake up the outlaws' co-ordination, and make it easier for him to take them down individually or even bypass them altogether - not to mention the effects a loss of power would have on any electronically-secured doors or traps.
Taking shelter behind a haphazard stack of empty wooden transport crates beside the door, BraveStarr activated the scan visor concealed in his white Stetson. The transparent red screen slid down in front of his eyes and immediately began searching for signs of anything out of the ordinary, overlaying small icons and pieces of text onto objects as he looked around the room.
The steel-walled chamber was approximately thirty feet square, with a profusion of fluid-containment tanks and cabling occupying the back left corner. The mass of pipes and cable bundles attached to a large cylindrical generator, positioned almost like a support pillar in the room's center. The room was almost spotlessly clean, although the carelessly abandoned crates that he now huddled behind suggested that was more a product of recent construction than of any particular amount of care and attention.
The generator itself took up the center of the room and, combined with the attendant tangle of tubing and canisters that filled the back left corner, was the only furnishing. The main body of the machine was a roughly cylindrical structure stretching from the floor to the ceiling, mostly composed of a pale beige composite material that clashed horribly with the metal structure of the room. BraveStarr took note of the control consoles arrayed around the base of the generator - hopefully one of them would hold the key to shutting it off. The central section of the cylinder was transparent, and a small red Kerium crystal could be seen inside, floating in an invisible containment field. Besides the door through which BraveStarr had entered, there was only one other way into the room - a second door on the right-hand wall, which was currently closed.
BraveStarr blinked in surprise when the scanner confirmed his initial impression of the generator setup - it was small but extremely sophisticated, technologically on par with a larger-scale starship engine or the power station beneath his adopted hometown of Fort Kerium. That meant the crystal inside it wasn't small because the generator was only producing a small amount of power - it was small because it was a piece of X-Kerium; the most volatile, most energetic and above all rarest form of the already scarce and valuable fuel source. X-Kerium was generally found in chunks no more than a couple of inches across, and was a strike that could see a prospector earn the kind of money that would normally take a decade or two's work hunting for regular Kerium deposits. Even if it was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, it could still keep a hyperdrive running for thousands of jumps or power a city for years.
I guess that makes sense if there's another one of those portal things here, can't imagine something like that is light on the power draw, the Marshal thought. There's got to be one here if they're pulling things through from the other side. Maybe after we're done here we can use this thing to send everyone beck where they belong.
BraveStarr began to use his scanner to trace the power lines leaving the generator, hoping to use them to locate the portal chamber. If Stampede had planned this out, there was bound to be some sort of containment cell near there to corral the kidnapped spirit - but given the huge burst of magic that had been released when they did whatever it was they did, the outlaw gang must have known Shaman would have sensed something. They'd be planning on moving their captive elsewhere as soon as possible, to keep it hidden.
Heck, this is probably a trap. Would explain why I got in here so easily.
A half-heard sound made BraveStarr pause to concentrate on his surroundings. A moment later he aborted the scan and deactivated his visor as the distinctive high-pitched screech of laser fire reached his ears.
Sounds like the prisoner isn't co-operating. Maybe it's not quite as helpless as Shaman seemed to think... even so, it's gotta be in trouble. I need to go help out, soonest.
The last time BraveStarr had encountered a spirit in the real world - which had also been the first - four of them had been combined in the form of a frail elderly man. His four animal guardians had stripped him of the powers they provided and then appeared disguised, seeking to test his worth by begging his protection when he could no longer rely on his supernatural abilities. He had assumed a lone spirit would be even less capable of defending itself, but it definitely sounded like everything wasn't going according to plan for the outlaw gang.
His first instinct was to rush towards the gunfire, and try to help wherever he could, but recently he'd become a lot more reluctant to take that risk. Without Thirty-Thirty to back him up, BraveStarr knew he was more vulnerable to being taken down by trickery or weight of numbers. After a moment BraveStarr decided to hold to the original plan of shutting the generator down first, relying on the chaos caused by the sudden loss of power to tip the odds in favour of a successful rescue.
Supposed to be my job to keep people in prison, not break 'em out of it, he thought idly. Right, let's see if we can't get a better idea of what's happenin'. Closing his eyes, BraveStarr called upon one spirit to aid another. Ears of the Wolf.
BraveStarr had learned early on to close his eyes while using this particular ability. The disorienting effect of having his hearing dramatically enhanced was almost overwhelming, and cutting down on other sensory input made it a little more bearable. He focused in the direction from which the shots had come, filtering out everything else - the rising and falling roar of the air moving in and out of his lungs, the pounding of his heart, the resonant hum coming from the nearby generator...
Despite the care he took, BraveStarr lost his grip on the magic almost immediately as an alarm bell rang out, a sonic battering ram impacting against his magically augmented senses. As he huddled behind the packing crates and covered his ringing ears, however, his first thought was not the pain - but disbelief, and fragile hope. Using the crates for assistance, BraveStarr forced himself upright and half-ran, half-staggered to the generator controls. He was no power management expert, but - judging by the open manual lying on top of one of the consoles and the large sticky labels attached to several of the switches - neither was whoever had turned the generator on in the first place. The Marshal began flicking through the manual, trying to discern the fastest way to shut off the power without anything exploding.
E, E, E... Emergency Shutdown, got it!
As quickly as he dared, BraveStarr began working the levers and switches of the generator console, following the instructions in the manual. Intellectually he had known the chances his partner had made it through the return portal were virtually non-existent, but as he had crept into the shadowed outpost he hadn't been able to help himself from holding out a faint hope. He still couldn't quite believe it, but the sound he had caught before the cacophonous roar of the alarm almost deafened him had been unmistakable.
The rhythmic pounding of galloping hooves.