Duskfall

by Celestial Swordsman

Pela Haxi

Chapter 23: Pela Haxi

Three warrior pegasi waited atop a cloud over Canterlot. As the cloud drifted along lazily, the dusk horizon lit it from below so that they were concealed in the dark puffs. Captain Dash slid a rough spike out of her flight jacket and rolled it over in her hooves. She flipped the meteorite weapon in the air, caught it, and slashed through a puff of cloud. It was almost impossible to deflect with magic since it was not connected to this world. Such tools had rarely been in her arsenal, although she was trained to use them.

The private recited prayers to Celestia. He requested, not protection, but the resolve and power to complete his duty at any cost. Each line was punctuated by the phrase, “Morsa mors, Pela haxi.” That was the motto of the Solar Scouts: “From death to death, for Her we fight.” What he lacked in experience he made up for in fervor. For his part, Major Snaps just didn’t give a shit. Not much of a shit, anyway, but he was more than crazy enough to be a Solar Scout.

While the others were prepared to die, Captain Dash didn’t even consider it. She had dodged death enough to convince herself that she would somehow make it through anything.

“Gonna be an interesting target,” Zeze commented. The captain nodded but looked away.

It was a dangerous target, but that wasn’t what was on her mind. She privately recounted the shocking facts from the emergency briefing: “Starcatch is an impostor planted by the Lunars. Doctor Sparkle was part of a plot to place their puppet on the throne. When they were discovered, Sparkle escaped with the spy.”

If she expected her personal feelings to make her incompetent to complete the mission, she should have alerted her superiors so that she could be replaced. She hadn’t. Rainbow Dash would stand with the light against all darkness. She couldn’t be friends with a nightsider. When she parted ways with Applejack and Pinkie Pie, she was clear that the condition for their survival was to never meet her on the battlefield. In martial arts practice, the gun range, and bitter nightmares she had prepared herself to kill them.

Rarity and Fluttershy were good ponies, but they couldn’t really be her friends since they lacked the conviction to hold up the cause. She used to doubt herself, but it was Twilight’s devotion and the company of her new blood-brothers pointed her to her true absolute. Celestia’s wisdom had taught her to live in the eternal light of this narrow path. What could Twilight be thinking? Dash didn’t know what she would do, but she knew she had to be the one to do it. She had a better chance than anyone of bringing her wayward friend back alive.

She moved to the edge of the cloud and looked down on the Jewel of the Empire. The white towers of the palace still watched over the city. Wherever Celestia had gone, she was surely with them in spirit, and Dash could still look toward the throne for her direction. Or could she? She had heard chatter from army units moving to forcibly replace the Royal Guard. Personally, she had always thought that it would be better to have the General calling the shots than leave it to a bunch of politicians, but the move and the timing weren’t right. And that was some kind of cold to issue orders like that about his own sister. Did she dare doubt his motives? “Hell, is there anything I wouldn’t dare do?” she wondered.

The radio on Dash’s vest squawked, “Suspect crossed the south checkpoint five minutes ago. White sky carriage, bridle number CL 379. Targets presumed to be on board. Highly dangerous; eliminate with extreme prejudice. Scouts, you’re up.”
The squad lined up behind her and opened their wings.

“Let’s stick a witch,” Zeze smirked.

“By the book,” the captain insisted. “We fly Talon and execute a Catch-22 on my mark.”

The commandoes dove from their perch into the southern sky and closed with terrific speed on the estimated trajectory of their quarry. They were not far off; unaware it had been compromised, the carriage had maintained a standard course away from the city.

In the vehicle, Rarity sat with serenity. Her grey flowing blouse rolled like smoke in the wind. Ponies thought her art was shallow; it was for her to know that the grey was for acceptance and blue was for freedom. After they left Canterlot, Twilight and Dusk had emerged from the cases and rare fabrics the designer had brought along. The two pegasi who pulled the shuttle were not happy about the extra passengers, but additional bits changed their minds. Dusk lay on the floor, still groggy from ill health and ill transformations. Doctor Sparkle gave a parting glance to her home city, and spotted three figures racing after them.

“Damn, they found us,” she alerted. “Take us to the treetops and head west,” she yelled to the drivers.

“What? You said we were going to Phillydelphia,” the senior driver protested.

The magician motioned behind them and shot back, “Now we’re going to stay alive! If they catch us you’re dead too.”

“Faster, we have gems,” Rarity added. The alarmed colts did as they were told.

“I’m sorry, Rarity, but we have to ditch this stuff to lose weight,” Twilight asserted apologetically. To her surprise, her friend was throwing a case overboard before she finished speaking.

Dusk rose up, swiped Rarity’s packs of cigarettes, and shoved them out the back with a pile of fabrics. “A small kindness,” she muttered to herself. She flopped back to the floor in real exhaustion.

The three aviators turned after them, keeping their formation. The major and private flew ahead and to each side, maintaining spread from Dash in the center. Speed was an entrance requirement for the commandoes, and they easily closed the gap. The captain drew her meteorite weapon and her subordinates drew a bead with their sub-machine guns.

As they attacked in this arrangement, a magician would face a terrible dilemma. The warriors were far enough apart that it would be difficult to hit them all with a single spell, and that move would leave the defender vulnerable to bullets. Raising a deflection spell would protect the target from the guns, but it would be useless against the incoming space spike. Teleportation could allow escape, or the magician might be shot before it could be finished.

Twilight Sparkle failed to decide on a course of action.

Rainbow Dash failed to initiate the maneuver.

They stared at each other for a critical split second.

“Stand down!” Captain Dash barked. The private either obeyed or merely hesitated in confusion. Zeze moved to take the shot anyway. Dash anticipated his insubordination and in an instant was beside him, deflecting the muzzle of his gun. “Stand down, bastard,” Dash growled, emphasizing with her pistol.

“You finally broke orders!” Zeze condemned, “I thought I smelled a traitor in you.”

Dash retorted, “A traitor? That’s Celestia’s best student. You’re following traitor’s orders!”

The major spun around and kicked his superior away. The pistol tumbled to the ground and Captain Dash pulled up to regain the cloud layer. Zeze emptied his clip into the milky vapors above, guessing her location.

“What are you doing!?” the private demanded, his loyalties torn between the combatants.

Dash did not reappear. Had the rainbow flier crashed on the clouds? Sometimes dead pegasi fall through and sometimes they don’t.

A bolt of lightning answered their doubts as the shaft of plasma cut them off from the carriage. More flashes rumbled out of the cloud bank and forced them to fall behind a considerable distance.

The course of the chase broke into open skies. Out of cumulus ammo, Dash powered ahead, shooting past the carriage. The two gunners moved to press the attack.

The yellow and red of the pegasus’ mane and tail stood out starkly as she ascended high into empty space. A smile crossed her face as she spun the world around her, rolling over into a sharp dive straight toward the carriage. The other scouts were closing fast behind the vehicle.

The two unicorn passengers looked nervously in front and behind at the approaching threats. Rainbow Dash was picking up alarming speed and began to glow faintly as she streaked into what was going to be the biggest sonic rainboom ever. Although the shockwave of such an explosion was a gentle gust to a faraway observer, it was very violent at the epicenter. The scouts stopped trying to gain a bead with their weapons, rushing to calculate their estranged leader’s intentions.

“She wouldn’t,” the private gaped in astonishment.

Zeze cautioned, “It IS Captain Dash…” The two exchanged wide eyed looks.

Rarity, as closely as was ladylike, yelled “Oh, please do something!” Twilight struggled to understand the situation and fixed her gaze on her old friend out in the sky.

“No, keep going straight!” Twilight shouted to the drivers. “I don’t know if I can trust any pony in this messed up world anymore,” she declared, “but if there’s one pony I trust it’s our Dashie.” Rarity simply stared in shock. Twilight gulped. “Right?”

The sonic comet approached critical mass as she neared her target. The Solar Scouts would not usually back down from a threat, but coming from one of their own? They broke off the chase and sprinted through the air to escape the coming tie-dye apocalypse.

Dash aborted at the last minute, shooting over her friends and turning into a skid. She bled off airspeed until she was hovering comfortably. “It’s over, brothers!” she called defiantly. “MORSA MORS!” she boomed, and hurled the meteorite stake.

The private followed it as it arced towards the earth. Its weight drove it into the ground vertically. The private perched on the blunt end of the little obelisk and bowed in a statuesque posture. He reverently finished, “Pela haxi.”

Zeze swooped down and knocked him off of the prized tool, saying, “Don’t be an idiot.” He motioned for his subordinate to follow, explaining, “I didn’t hear a peep from that magician, she must be worn out from however she went rogue. The two of us can take Dash and complete the mission.”

The private regained his hooves. He marched to the spike, removed it from the ground, and sheathed it in his own vest. He met the major’s hot stare resolutely before he turned and walked away.

“You’ve got to be shitting me!” Zeze hollered after him. The frustrated major, faced with the prospect of two or perhaps three respectable foes, took wing back to base to report the deserters.

Rainbow Dash watched them leave before she let herself look to her old friends. “For her we fight,” she repeated, and marveled that “her” did not mean the same thing anymore. The brazen aviator turned her back on the Solar Empire and went after her friends. Alighting on the front rail of the carriage, she looked Twilight in the eyes and demanded, “How the HELL did you get in so much trouble?”

Rarity had recovered her composure, and joined in, “Do tell.”

“By Celestia… I think,” she replied flatly, pointing to the feeble gray passenger who lay on the carriage floor. The others stared in continued incomprehension. This might be a long ride.