• Published 12th Jun 2018
  • 2,926 Views, 290 Comments

Shadowrunner: Equestria - law abiding pony



Rainbow Dash and her crew are an elite class of criminals called Shadowrunners. A simple job reveals a power play that reaches as far as the moon itself.

  • ...
12
 290
 2,926

2: The Hangar

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t have to sprint far to find Atlas and iByte, along with the uncomfortably familiar crack of gunfire not far ahead of them. By the time the two mares caught up with the others, iByte was propped against an open door frame and had her cyberdeck in front of her. Dim lighting and the not-so-distant pop of gunfire could be heard echoing from beyond.

“Glad you could make it,” iByte said with a smirk. She was in the process of setting herself up for a local matrix dive by attaching the cables between her neck and the cyberdeck. “This place feels ancient, but it’s obviously still in use. I’m going to see if they still have a wireless network.”

“Anything’s possible, but I wouldn’t count on it.” Rainbow Dash waited just long enough to see Fluttershy take the other side of the door frame and let her robots leave the saddlebag. The seven parasprites were joined by Carrots. The little rabbit unfolded wheels under its paws and sped into the next room. Not wanting to be an open target, Rainbow Dash spotted a cargo crate just beyond the doorframe and ducked behind it to survey the room ahead of her.

What she saw gave her pause. Instead of being some hole in the ground, the chamber beyond was in fact a massive airship hangar much larger than required for a commercial airliner. Airships had long since abandoned the use of actual gasbags in lieu of antigravity repulsors. But this required far more structural support dockside while the ship was powered down. This led to the hangar having numerous support arms and struts to keep the airship in place.

Rainbow Dash’s entry point was high on the topmost catwalk on the south side. The flat-top deck of the airship below was split into two main sections, a frontal command superstructure, and a long flatbed covered in shipping containers. The gloom of the hangar was poorly lit by only a few dim lights that did little more than reveal their location, rather than give any meaningful illumination.

Situated a few stories below her sat the main bridge, whereas the rest of the deck sat even further down. It didn’t take a genius to see that both the bridge and the deck were lit up by constant gunfire between two opposing groups. The first group occupied the command tower, with a heavy machine gun mounted on a shattered bridge window. Several other figures scattered along the superstructure either fired guns or spells towards the open cargo section where the other group was bunkered down. Rainbow could see a difference right away. The ones near the bridge were far more numerous, but were so careless they nearly gave Rainbow an aneurysm out of sheer stupidity. Some stood out of cover, while a few didn’t even bother trying to aim properly. The second group wore all black, making them difficult to distinguish, even to her well adapted eyes. The only way she could see them for any length of time was from the muzzle flashes of their weapons or spellwork.

Spellfire brought her attention up to a four person firefight going down on the opposite side of the hangar where the dock’s control center was located. The open-air control platform had two figures firing sporadically at two exposed magi on the connecting catwalk. The two mages were pushing forward behind a wall of smoke that blanketed the catwalk between them and the gunners.

Rainbow pushed herself up against the crate and tried to process everything she saw. Okay, Rainbow, gotta play it cool. First rule of asymmetric combat is stealth is your friend. I hope Atlas knows that. Reminding herself of his existence, Rainbow scanned the catwalks around her level for any sign of him. She managed to spot the hulking minotaur easily enough due to his size. Atlas was making his way to the magi assaulting the command platform. Worse yet, he was ignoring any pretense of stealth as his metallic hooves banged noisily as he thundered his way towards his target. “Stupid idiot! At least he picked the right place to hit first.”

From under her robes, Rainbow grabbed a commlink and jammed it into her right ear before sprinting after Atlas. However, she made sure to keep low and used the softer edges of her boots to mask her hooffalls. With only Fluttershy as part of her usual team, the commlink would only connect to her friend, rather than the other runners. “Angel, I’m going after that drekhead. Maybe even take one of these yakkos alive long enough to know what in Tartarus is going on.”

“This is way bigger than just some hit job, Flash.” Fluttershy’s voice had a faint emotional warble to it. “My bugs are showing me the group hiding in the cargo area have uniform solid black armor. I think they could be black ops.”

By now, Rainbow had nearly caught up with Atlas. The minotaur had paused near some crates after noticing Rainbow was following after him. The whole situation was starting to unsettle Rainbow Dash enough to contact Fluttershy, speaking as quietly as she could. “Of all the - this is not what we signed up for. Angel. And the money’s not good enough to go hoof to hoof against spec ops. The first chance you get, make your way down to the lower levels. I’m going to see if I can open the hangar doors. Get out of here any way you can.”

“I’m not leaving you here, Flash!” Fluttershy insisted with fear tinting her voice. “You better be right behind me.”

“Just be ready to move when the doors open,” was all Rainbow Dash would answer. She sprinted the rest of the way to the crate Atlas was hiding behind. “And here I thought you didn’t believe in cover.”

“Cute,” Atlas huffed aggressively. “You don’t happen to have any invisibility or smoke spells do you?”

Rainbow sweated a bit, grateful her hood hid her anxiety. “No. But I can try to stun one of them. Maybe if you geek the mages, you can trick the guys in the control center. You’re on their side so you can get in close.”

He sneered at her. “Some mage you are. Just keep one of them out of my way.”

Ignoring his ire, Rainbow Dash signed an electric ball into existence.

Atlas vaulted the crate in one motion and charged the mage on the right while Rainbow threw her spell at the one on the left. Neither mage missed his thunderous arrival, so they instantly turned to face him as soon as he jumped out of cover. The lightning ball flew parallel to the hulking minotaur, illuminating him in an unsettling light.

The mages hesitated upon seeing Rainbow’s spell and were sloppy trying to weave counterspells. Given a free hand due to Atlas’ distraction, the gunners behind the mages took several ineffective potshots at them, scoring a number of direct hits on the mages’ armor.

Atlas slammed into his target with both fists clamped together and hammered the unicorn clear off the catwalk. The unicorn’s cry of pain and surprise echoed as he fell, bouncing off the hull of the airship and finally to the steel ground far below.

Rainbow’s spell managed to connect to its target as well, making the unicorn seized briefly. Atlas slowed only a little as he continued towards the control center. He shielded his chest and face with his bulky arms, bouncing the feeble pistol fire now directed at him.

Rainbow Dash had sprinted low and fast after Atlas, but stopped to grapple the stunned mage. With no other attention focused on her, Rainbow planted the unicorn mare to the deck with a hoof on the back of her neck. “Tell me what you your mission is. What’s your outfit? Talk, and I might let you limp out of here alive.”

It took the mare a moment or two to even register what was going on as the stun wore off. She tried to light her horn, but one thwack from Rainbow dissuaded any further attempt. “I ain’t telling you a damn thing. Go ahead and kill me.”

“That eager are you?” Rainbow shifted her restraining hoof to put pressure on the base of the mare’s horn. “How about I just break your horn off instead?” The soldier’s breath hitched. “I don’t care how good cyber implants are, your essence will be too damaged for you to be spec ops material ever again. Best case, you get drummed out into standard infantry; worse, you get booted completely and you’ll end up as some lowlife rent-a-cop for the corporations.”

“Rut you!” the mare screamed, causing Rainbow to gave a bit more pressure to the horn. “Okay, okay! We were sent in to clear you squatters out!”

“Squatters? Do you even have a clue who you’re fighting down here?” Rainbow asked incredulously while easing up. Why would this op be so black that they couldn’t even tell the rank and file?

“Oh, I know who I’m fighting alright.” The unicorn sneered as she finished creating a rune on the floor with her back hooves. “A dead mare!” With a solid kick on the catwalk, the unicorn glowed bright green before dematerializing, and the magic holding her together sped away somewhere far above the hangar.

Rainbow didn’t see where the teleport took her victim. It took her a split second to realize it was not a simple teleport, but a replacement ritual; an active grenade took the mare’s place. On instinct, Rainbow pushed herself far enough away to kick the explosive over the side of the catwalk. She pressed herself as flat as she could against the steel floor. The grenade had just barely slipped below the catwalk before it exploded in a hail of shrapnel. Bits of twisted metal pinged off the railing, with some of it ricocheting and digging into Rainbow’s robes.

“Rut, that smarts!” Several points along Rainbow’s right side were now experiencing burning hot pain. Clenching her jaw, Rainbow forced herself to dig her left hoof into her robes to feel around for some packets. Her hope dwindled upon feeling runny slime coat her hoof. Damn it! She pulled her hoof out to look at it, and saw the bright pink plastic packet with a blue cross on it had been punctured, leaking the healing tonic. “I hope there’s enough left.”

Rainbow slurped the remaining potion through one of the puncture holes and then licked the run off from her hoof. Embedded bits of steel were pushed out and her wounds closed. She checked herself over, and found the former wounds were still oozing blood and some faint pain still lingered. Oh I’m going to feel that in the morning, but that’ll have to do. Stupid things are too expensive to drink a second one. Rapid hooffalls behind Rainbow made her forget to check the status of her other healing potion, and made her look up. Fluttershy and iByte were sprinting over to her, and heavier hooffalls signaling Atlas’ return from the platform.

Climbing back to her hooves, she was almost tackle hugged by Fluttershy, but the pegasus remembered where she was at the last second and skidded to a halt. “Flash, are you okay?!” Her rapid, shallow panting was not just caused by the hard run.

iByte was practically jumping with excitement. “That was crazy. I thought you’d end up as a bunch of red paste.”

“Pays to be fast.” Rainbow was about to grin, but thought better of it for fear of revealing her fangs. Instead she forced a closed-lipped smile instead while adjusting her hood to make sure it was properly placed. Fluttershy helped her to her hooves, eliciting a nod of thanks. “What have you two been doing?” Rainbow asked with a sarcastic eye. “Watching the fireworks?”

iByte rolled her eyes and pushed past Rainbow to meet up with Atlas. “So what if we were? It's not like there’s a lot of room up here for a four person team to fight together.”

Rainbow watched her go. The others shared a few words that Rainbow tuned out so she could pay attention to Fluttershy. She rolled a shoulder and carefully flexed the wing that had been damaged from the grenade a moment ago. Being a thestral has at least one bonus: healing tonics can’t repair feathers. She could see the desperate need for a hug in Fluttershy’s quivering jaw, but the pink maned rigger kept her cool, more or less.

“I’m just glad you’re safe. And I - I,” Fluttershy clamped her eyes shut. “Stop asking me to leave you behind, Flash. I didn’t do it back then, and I won’t do it now. If we have to run, we’re doing it together! You always do this.”

What am I supposed to think when you get all scared like that? Rainbow grit her teeth to keep from saying the thought aloud. “…Sorry.” Not wanting to continue this conversation, Rainbow started slinking her way towards the control platform. “Come on, we better keep up.”

Fluttershy gave a hesitant nod before following after her cloaked friend. The pair found Atlas crouched behind the control console closest to the edge of the platform, looking down at the firefight below. It was noticeably quieter now. The machine gun nest had fallen silent, thick black smoke slowly rising out of the burnt out bridge. The small arms fire was more sporadic, and had shifted towards the front of the ship.

iByte had camped out in the center of the platform with her black and red cyberdeck levitating in front of her while her hooves twitched at a manic pace. Her eyes were glossed over and unfocused, and all it took for Rainbow Dash to know she was performing a full matrix dive were the two cables connecting iByte to her deck and from her deck to a port in the hangar controls.

Of the two so-called “squatters”, one was lying dead near iByte, a ruined cyberdeck was still connected to his neck. The other was a griffin slumped against the wall, a big chunk of her chest bright red, crushed by what could have only been a balled minotaur fist.

Atlas looked more at Rainbow than Fluttershy with a modicum of respect. “That wagemage say anything useful before she exploded on you?”

Rainbow Dash settled on her belly so she could peak her head over the ledge to watch the fight unfold. She spotted one of Fluttershy’s parasprites ducking inside one of the large air ducts on the airship, but she saw no sign of the rest of them, or of Carrots. “Only that these gooks don’t know or care who they’re killing tonight. Only that they want Tea and his buddies out of here in body bags.” Rainbow initially wanted to mention that the mage had been part of a government team, but decided against it. “I’d say we wait it out and let them kill each other, but that mage is going to send word that somepony else is up here.” She glanced back at Fluttershy who was messaging with iByte. “We can’t stick around.”

“Agreed.” Atlas scanned the surface of the airship looking for something. “Both sides look like they’ve bloodied themselves. We should go in fists first, geek anyone who interferes. There’s no reason to take them all on once we locate Tea’s body.”

Rainbow gave him a lifted eyebrow, not that he could see it. “What makes you think he’s dead?”

“He is dead. Whether or not he realizes that yet is irrelevant.”

Atlas and Rainbow heard hooves coming up behind them. Fluttershy and iByte had pulled out of the matrix. iByte looked rather proud of herself and sashayed at Atlas. “I just set the hangar doors to open in ten minutes. Most of the outside is open air, but there’s a small catwalk on the left side that almost leads directly into Little Griffintown. We can melt back into the shadows from there.”

“Good work,” he replied with the barest hint of an approving smile. “Angel, did you get eyes on the mark?”

Fluttershy nodded a bit too quickly. “Y-yes, briefly. He was the one operating the machine gun nest. Yet when an incendiary grenade was tossed in, he disappeared before it blew. I didn’t see any flash from teleportation.”

“He probably jumped down the stairwell or behind cover,” iByte commented as she resecured her cyberdeck to her back. “We’re probably going to have to go below deck to hunt him down.”

“Right into the middle of all those spec ops goons?” Rainbow asked incredulously. “If we do this, we have to do it quickly and quietly.”

“Do I look like I do quiet?” Atlas scoffed. He pressed his point by gripping the edge of the nearest console and ripping a steel sheet off the side of it. “Go quiet if you have to, I’ll be your distraction.”

Rainbow scrunched her muzzle in disapproval, but ultimately nodded her consent.

Atlas looked to iByte. “I’ll need you on overwatch. Angel, you keep little bugs around and keep eyes on my surroundings so I don’t get flanked by surprise.”

“You got it, boss,” iByte replied while pulling out a submachine gun with her orange glowing magic.

Atlas didn’t even wait for Rainbow or Fluttershy to get up and jumped off the platform. The two friends gasped in astonishment at the sixteen meter jump and raced to see him fall. In reality, he landed on one of the support lines to the airship and was using it as a zip line to race to the deck.

iByte was right behind him and used the strap of her cyberdeck to slide down the steel cable. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but to be impressed and snickered at them. “For a couple of ground pounders, they flew pretty good.”

“You won’t hear me arguing.” Fluttershy gave a recall order to Carrots. “I’m not a very good shot, and Carrots isn’t going to be much help, so I’ll make my way down and secure the exit.”

“Where is Carrots anyway?”

“He umm… the hangar’s really big and the stairs were really out of the way. He’s still trying to double back to the ship.” Fluttershy hung her head. “He should be able to make it back to me at least.”

“Good.” Rainbow started weaving a sign in the air. The lines glowed of silvery moonlight, and her cat eyes glowed faintly as she formed the spell. “I’ll sneak on down and make use of Atlas’ distraction. I’ll keep in touch.”

With a nod, Fluttershy leapt off the side of the platform and angled down to the hangar floor. As for Rainbow, she finished forming her spell and pressed her left hoof on her chest. Her whole body, robe and all, shimmered with silver light for a moment or two. There, as long as I don’t get too close to anypony, I should be overlooked.

With practiced ease, Rainbow used her hooves to slip into the folds of her robes and opened the concealed slits so she could free her wings. After a few flaps to get the blood flowing, she departed the platform and performed a sloping flight path so no one on the deck could see her approach. Rainbow picked the angle that had no portholes on the ship’s walls before slipping back up to the edge of the deck close to where she had seen some stairs. Once back on solid ground, Rainbow scanned to make sure she was alone.

Rainbow had ended up on the stern of the airship, near the cargo area. Shell casings decorated the area, along with a few rappel ropes. A number of cargo containers had shielded her approach, and they would continue to do so as she made her way towards the renewed weapons fire, wrenching metal, and the roaring of an enraged bull.

Rainbow sprinted along the side of the ship as quiet as a ghost, finding little more than blood, casings, and the rare, sooty scorch marks of exploded grenades. The only bodies she saw were of street thugs from a few different gangs.

Weaving her way through the cargo containers, Rainbow spotted Atlas out in the open, charging two spec ops ponies while iByte gave suppressing fire. The two ponies emptied their whole magazines into the minotaur, but iByte’s fire made some of their shots go wide. Those that struck him pinged off his plated arms.

Rainbow Dash was about to leave them to it when she saw a ganger griffin crouching behind some railing between her and the other shadowrunners. The griffin was reloading a pilfered grenade launcher when he saw Rainbow Dash sprint past a shipping container. The short distance between them made the grenade a poor choice, but that didn’t stop the griffin from hastily leveling the weapon at Rainbow.

With blinding speed, Rainbow kicked off the ground right as the ganger fired. Time seemed to slow for Rainbow as the grenade sailed right through where she had been standing a moment ago. Growling a muted warcry, Rainbow pivoted on her hooves and charged the griffin, her left hoof glowing hot silver. The griffin activated the built-in spell shield on the launcher to deflect Rainbow’s spell, but her hoof passed right through the shield and struck him in the chest with enough force to crush the wind out of him. The griffin was tougher than he looked, however, and swiped his claws at Rainbow’s face. The mare ducked under the swing, but the edge of his claw managed to snag the commlink out of her ear. With her right hoof, Rainbow pulled a combat knife from a holster on her barrel and sunk the blade into the griffin’s neck, silencing him for good. Feeling the missing weight of her commlink, Rainbow looked around and found the item sitting in the middle of an empty part of the deck in two pieces. Well, that’s a hundred bits down the drain.

Not wanting to be caught out in the open, Rainbow pulled the knife free and wiped the blade on the ganger’s dirty shirt before she made to slip away. However, she barely got two steps away when the cargo deck was rocked by the massive cargo bay doors in the floor cracking open. Rainbow wobbled and instinctively tried to fly up, but her robes kept her grounded. She controlled her fall by aiming for the container the griffin had been using as cover and propped up against it.

Atlas’ chromed up augments afforded him greater than normal stability, and he was able to dispatch the two spec ops ponies. He kicked one pony’s gun away and grappled his squadmate, then threw the grappled pony into the other, leaving them in a tangle of limbs. With a sadistic grin, he clasped his fists together and was about to hammer them into the deck when both teleported away mid-swing.

Atlas shifted his weight to recover from the swing and jump to cover, but a loud gunshot like a crack of thunder rang out. Atlas’ right leg crumpled under his weight, and he fell to the ground. A second later, the two grenades left by the teleporting spec ops detonated. Atlas didn’t rise again.

“Atlas!” iByte screamed. A second sniper shot rang out, but this time the jostling movement of the opening cargo bays pulled iByte just far enough for the bullet to graze her face and embed itself in her cyberdeck. The pain caused her to stumble over the edge of the widening bay doors.

Rainbow Dash hunkered down as low as she could. Please don’t see me. Please, by Celestia, please don’t notice me!

It was only now that Rainbow could hear a new high pitched whine arise from the now open bay doors. An aerial cargo shuttle was lifting off with the cockpit pointed slightly in Rainbow’s direction. It was a sizable boxy aircraft that had four large repulsor engines thrumming with power. Sitting at the controls was none other than Jiggy Tea. The aircraft’s bay doors were open, revealing a crew of three gangers wielding rocket launchers.

By the Moon, did they find a damned armory down here?! Rainbow pulled out her phone to get a safer look via Fluttershy’s parasprites. Of the original seven screens, five were now snowy static. One of the remaining ones was fuzzy and on the ground, showing nothing of interest. The seventh however, saw two of the gangers aim at the sniper nest. Two missiles streaked true and blew the bridge to pieces, causing a fire to break out that would threaten to consume the superstructure.

Rainbow watched them reload, praying they didn’t notice her. All three were about to fire on the main hangar doors when it shuddered to life. A look of astonishment crossed all their faces as freedom opened up to them. If there were any surviving spec ops in the area, none of them risked bringing rocket fire on top of them, and Jiggy Tea escaped into the black night.

They’re gone. Cool it, RD. Just keep it nice and cool. Rainbow’s pounding heart slowed a little, but it was not until she sensed a mass of teleport magic collect in over a dozen places and speed away that she was able to truly calm down. Glacier’s not going to like this.

She pulled out her phone to text Fluttershy, still fearful of speaking aloud. <You okay, Angel?>

<Yes, nopony noticed me down here. I can’t believe how fast Atlas and iByte died. They shouldn’t have jumped in like that.> Fluttershy paused a bit before adding, <We need to leave. Any time a spec ops team bugs out like that, there’s a cleaner crew on the way.>

Rainbow Dash gulped the fear down as best she could. <I don’t know if iByte died when she fell. I have to try and save her if she lived.> Rainbow watched the text message window. Her breath slowed, but was still ragged. Damn I hate snipers.

Eventually, Fluttershy gave the answer Rainbow had expected only her close friends were capable of in this situation. <Please be careful. The sooner we leave, the better.>

Rainbow smiled and pocketed her phone. If Flutters and iByte had been reversed, Atlas’d be telling me to abandon her out of hoof. No hesitation. Rainbow went to work freeing her wings again and glided down to the interior heliport. From above, she could see three shipping containers had been broken into. Only one of which appeared to have been pried open with crowbars or a chromed up meathead. The rest had their doors blasted open by ordnance. Either those drekheads are completely insane, or somepony knew government explosives are completely inert until armed. I’m not sure I like either case.

Dozens of wooden boxes and huge wads of packing paper was strewn about the place. A few discarded boxes of ammunition and missiles remained behind. Everything was scattered about from both the hasty exit and the shuttle’s backwash.

The lighting here was much better, and it made finding iByte trivial. Rainbow Dash landed next to her, but ended up shaking her head. The decker had survived the sniper, only for the fall to break her neck. The sight of her body caused Rainbow to angrily kick a nearby shipping container. “Idiots! The first rule of the runners is to stay alive! Charging head first into a spec ops team was the dumbest thing you could have done!”

Having time for nothing else, Rainbow crossed Ibyte’s forelegs before making ready to fly back out. But a hot warmth in her pocket made her hesitate. She fished around for the source of the heat and pulled out her crescent moon talisman. Her eyes dilated as far as they could at the silver glow it was emitting. “Mother?” A feeling, not quite a whisper, but more of a request compelled Rainbow to hold the talisman close to her chest. In that moment, all sound from the burning fires caused by the explosives, and the the wail of the dying outside went utterly silent. For the briefest of moments, Rainbow felt a gentle caress from Mother Moon upon her jaw, pulling her face to the right. Rainbow opened her eyes to see a long shipping container resting against the hull of the ship with the door blasted open. Once she locked eyes on the container, the warmth from the talisman disappeared and the silver light vanished.

A tear dampened her cheek. “It’s been so long since you’ve acknowledged me.” With hope in her heart and a determined grin, Rainbow pocketed the talisman. “I won’t let you down, mother.”

Sprinting through the air, Rainbow approached the container’s ruined door, but stopped short when she heard something. “System failure.” A muffled mechanical voice called out from within the container. “Subject suspension untenable.”

“Subject?” Rainbow’s blood ran cold. Oh rut me. Was this place a black site for bioweapon containment too!? No wonder Mother Moon guided me here. The presence of so much heavy firepower in the cargo bay only heightened Rainbow’s fears.

The smart thing to do would be to run and flee with Fluttershy. Yet Rainbow couldn’t bring herself to just fly away. Not when the Mare in the Moon had beckoned her here. This would explain the spec ops, and a cleaner crew coming. They can take away my good name, but Mother still sees me as her own.

Formulating a quick plan, Rainbow didn’t have to look far for a rocket launcher. She opted to collect a disposable single shot launcher and primed it, following the instructions printed near the trigger. Her first thought was to simply fire at the container right then and there. Actually, if I only damage whatever is contained instead of destroying it outright, I could only make things worse. I better make sure I get a direct hit.

Hefting the launcher with her, Rainbow typed out a status update for Fluttershy. She opted to leave out that her patron spirit had guided her to the threat. Flutters humors me in all the moon stuff, but I know she doesn’t really buy into it. Rainbow refocused on the container. The mechanical warning repeated itself as she poked her nose into the blown out door. Within was a host of machines and a single horizontal glass tube large enough to fit a pony. Everything hummed quietly, save for some damage causing electric sparks to shoot out at random. The recent damage was joined by a bubbling, clear fluid escaping from the components near the ruined door. All of it caused an echo of a memory in Rainbow from years long past. Been a long time since I’ve seen one of these. This doesn’t look like some virus containment machine.

After studying the machinery from the door, Rainbow could see where the flying chunks of door had ruined a few components, with one of the hoses linked to the tube leaking clear fluid. The coy, sterile smell of the fluid was all too familiar. “They couldn’t possibly…”

Curiosity started to override fear. Keeping the launcher slung over her shoulder, Rainbow Dash would rather fire at it point blank if whatever was in the tank snapped awake and attacked her than to risk the bioweapon from escaping. A final service to Equestria, if it came to that. With how cramped the container was due to the thick machines, and the damage done to the pulley system to move the pod itself, Rainbow had to climb onto the glass to see inside.

Within was a sleeping lavender unicorn with two stripes of pink and purple in her dark purple mane. Those colors alone were not unique in Equestria, not with billions of ponies calling it home. There wasn’t a single scar on her body, not even an ear piercing. What set her apart from other unicorns was a plume of feathers along the sides of her forelegs starting at half an inch long just above the knee to three inches long just below the withers.

It took Rainbow a few moments to place a name to the sleeping mare, making her drop the launcher onto the damaged machines. “Twilight Sparkle? The Twilight Sparkle?! But… you were gunned down out of treason. Why are you here?” A clone? But cloning a person is like super illegal.

“Warning, containment failure imminent. Enacting failsafe protocol. Subject termination initiated.”

Rainbow Dash felt the container cool so fast she saw her breath in the air. Ice started to creak and stress as it grew along the glass, slowly obscuring Twilight’s peaceful form.

Her heart started thumping hard in her chest. Rainbow pulled the moon talisman out to look at it. “Come on, can I get another sign here? Do I kill her or release her?!”

The talisman remained inert, earning a moan of frustration. “Ah come on! Why can’t we just give Mother a damn phone! Honestly!” Putting her talisman back, Rainbow heaved a heavy sigh. “Fine, be all secretive.” She looked at Twilight’s face, which was getting increasingly obscured by ice. “I’ll save you, but only so I can get a response that actually makes sense.” Growling as she called upon her magic, Rainbow weaved a hasty sign of power and gathered silvery light into both forelegs. “Let’s see if they used the same manufacturer.” She slammed both hooves on the glass, and shattered a section of it near the face.

“Alert. Pod failure. Pod failure. Discharging.”

With the snapping sound of ice filling the container, the front of the pod thrust out and slid up towards the door. Rainbow Dash acted quickly and rolled to the side so she wasn’t dragged along with it. She plunged both forelegs into the freezing fluid, grabbed a hold of Twilight by the withers, and used every ounce of empowered strength she had to heave Twilight out of the pod and fling her fully outside of the container.

Upon hitting the hard metal floor, Twilight snapped awake and started hacking and coughing up fluid. She sluggishly rolled onto her side to make it easier to free her lungs. There she shivered intensely thanks to the cold fluid clinging to her fur.

Rainbow Dash was quick to depart the ice age forming in the stasis container, and tried feverishly shaking her forelegs to get the clingy freezing fluid off her boots, but it refused to budge much until she scraped the ground to get it off. It took only a few seconds until she felt she could stand without slipping, then she wheeled around so she stood in front of Twilight. Her phone buzzed again, making Rainbow split her focus on watching the purple traitor and reading Fluttershy’s message.

<Is that who I think it is???>

<Maybe,> Rainbow texted back, casting an eye upward and spotting the parasprite. <Could be a clone.>

<I’ll support whatever you want to do about her, but we need to leave, please! The cleaners are never late.>

Rainbow Dash hissed through her teeth trying to decide what she should do. Something is going on around the crown, and Mother decided to drag me into it. Wonderful. So, Rainbow thought as she looked up at the approximate location to where the moon was. Any chance you can just outright tell me to rescue her or did I just free her so the cleaners could find her? Ya know, one light for save her, two for no.

The purple unicorn had not recovered much during Rainbow’s internal debate, and had only rolled just enough to be on her belly. Her horn sputtered with weak magic, but it was enough to add some much needed warmth. “W-wha? Where am I? Come on, Deadlight, can you stop with the stupid stunts for one measly day?” she fumed irritably. “You keep this up and I’ll turn you into a cactus permanently this time!”

Freeing her wings from her robes, Rainbow flew over to stand beside the confused unicorn, who jumped at her arrival. Twilight blinked constantly to focus her eyes, but Rainbow looked like an odd brown shape in front of her. Rainbow got in her face, spittle joining the fluid clinging to Twilight’s face. “What is the last thing you remember?”

Twilight recoiled sharply, trying to shield her face with her hooves after her horn could do little more than sputter a few sparks. “You don’t sound like Deadlight, or anypony else I know. W-what’s going on? What did you do to me?!”

“Answer the question,” Rainbow hissed menacingly. “And be quick about it! Your life depends on it.” Rainbow pressed the edge of her hoof on Twilight’s neck, cutting off the unicorn’s aggression in a real hurry.

“T-the last ttthing? Ahhh… I was studying for this week’s test on the aftermath of the Fifth Awakening this Thursday. I was with Moondancer. Wwwe had a bunch of little spinach quiches and shirley temples for dinner.” Twilight slipped on the pod fluids after trying to back away from Rainbow. With her magic still refusing to cooperate, and being almost completely blind, Twilight decided to use the slippery fluid to her advantage and kicked at the floor to push herself away from Rainbow Dash. “What did Deadlight pay you to do all this? Was it even Deadlight? Was it Blueblood? Kickback?”

Rainbow Dash gawked at the nonplussed unicorn, and took a step back out of bewilderment. The mare grunted dismissively at the presumed silence and made feeble attempts to stand once the fluids were thin enough that she couldn’t push herself along anymore.

“I don’t know who or what you’re talking about, actually.” Rainbow stated flatly. “We’re in a corporate black site and you were probably going to rot in that stasis pod forever if I hadn’t broken you out. And if we don’t get out of here now, we’re all dead.”

“Neat story,” Twilight replied tersely as she managed to get three hooves under her before slipping again. “It might have even been an interesting book to read... if I wasn’t the star.” Twilight grumbled as she at last got to her hooves. “Well, this was fun. If you would be so kind as to lead me to the door so I can get out of here, I’ll try to forget what you sound like when Celestia asks who did this to me.”

Rainbow barked a laugh, earning a confused eye out of Twilight. “I wasn’t lying, Your Highness. You’re standing in a cargo airship somewhere… mmmm… near the Everfree if I had to guess.” She looked up at the cargo doors, the pressing need to flee gnawing at her mind. “Now hold still so I can fly you out of here.”

Twilight risked tapping her hoof hard on the metal floor, producing the tink of hoof on metal, rather than on the marble she expected. Real fear started to tint her voice. “G-guards! Guards!” she cried out. Twilight tried using magic, but her horn could only spark and fizzle. However, her hearing was just fine, and she noticed Rainbow coming closer. “S-stay away! I’m warning you!” Twilight turned away from Rainbow’s hoofsteps and tried to run, right smack into another shipping container with a resounding gong sound.

Rainbow would have laughed at that, were it not for the threat of the cleaners getting closer. Her phone buzzed with Fluttershy’s text. <I can see three aircraft coming in hot! We need to leave, now!>

“Yeah, I get it. But I don’t want this clown stabbing me with that horn,” Rainbow Dash fumed before racing up to Twilight, who was trying to prop herself up on the side of the shipping container. “If you want to live, do as I say and don’t struggle out of my grip.” Without waiting for a response, Rainbow straddled the prone mare and grabbed hold of her, doing her best to ignore the cold clinging fluid. Twilight was still whimpering and whispering pleas to not harm her, but didn’t resist. Rainbow made sure her hold on Twilight was firm before pushing into the air. The unicorn was denser than she looked, and it took real effort to gain altitude.

Nevertheless, Rainbow cleared the belly of the airship and turned for the hangar doors. She couldn’t see much more than the black expanse of the Everfree Forest beyond. Not like the cleaner team would have running lights on their dropships. Twilight cried in a panic as Rainbow went into a steep dive for Fluttershy’s location. Twilight’s added weight only added to the speed of the dive.

Much to Rainbow’s annoyance, Fluttershy’s last parasprite was actually beating her in the race to get to its master. So not cool.

Rainbow Dash found a long catwalk that ran the width of the hangar. The railing had pulsating white lights that screwed with Rainbow’s night vision. Yet even that couldn’t hide Fluttershy waving them down at the far end. Rainbow leveled off her dive and used the momentum to glide all the way over to her butter yellow friend. At the end of the catwalk near the gate, Rainbow dropped Twilight onto the deck so the flyer could safely decelerate by swinging around. Twilight rolled and tumbled forward. Fluttershy was caught in the way and they both smacked against the steel fence door Fluttershy had been waiting by.

Rainbow Dash came in for a landing with a cringey grin. “Sorry, Angel. I kinda misjudged the distance.” She helped untangle the two ponies and pulled Fluttershy to her hooves. The pegasus made a wilted frown at the fluid clinging to her clothing.

“That’s - that’s okay, but we should hurry.” Fluttershy pulled the chain lock she had sawed through off the door and opened it. “I disabled the alarm, but the cleaners will probably notice it eventually.”

For her part, Twilight made a feeble attempt to climb to her hooves, but her eyes were still unfocused and she was blinking them constantly to try and make them work properly. “Okay, I did what you asked, can you just drop me off at a police station or something?”

Fluttershy gave the supposed high traitor a curious look. “Sorry, but we’re not out of danger just yet.” She gave Rainbow a deeply worried look. “If we’re taking her along, you might want to keep her trap shut. If she says the wrong thing at the wrong place, the whole world could crash down on us.”

“Why would the world crash down?” Twilight asked fearfully. “I’m Celestia’s personal student. If you’re really saving me from something, she’d reward you handsomely.”

“How about we put a rain check on the questions, because we need to be anywhere but here!” Rainbow insisted while dragging Twilight alone by the foreleg. “If you want to survive long enough to see Celestia again, keep your voice down and we’ll see about getting you in contact with her.”

“I swear if you’re pulling me into some terrorist cell and random camera jockey takes a blackmail picture, I’ll crater your whole crew.” Receiving no meaningful response, she went without further protest, and allowed herself to be guided along. Fluttershy took the lead with her parasprite and ran down the long path ahead of them, Rainbow trailing not far behind. The fenced gate led into a rocky tunnel where lights sprang to life as they passed.

Even with fear of the cleaners pushing the two shadowrunners on as fast as Twilight allowed them, it still took close to an hour to reach the end of the tunnel. By the time they reached the sealed door at the end, all three mares were panting heavily. Twilight collapsed from the burn in her legs. Thankfully, Fluttershy was able to use her goggles to command Carrots’ laser weapon to burn through the lock of a complex metal door.

“Who wants to bet the door leads right into a Lone Star barracks?” Rainbow asked with a brave smirk between gasps for air.

Fluttershy looked back at Rainbow and gave her an exasperated frown. “With our luck tonight, I wouldn’t be too surprised.”

“So you are criminals!” Twilight shakily stood up to flee back the way they came, but the thestral was in better shape and was already blocking the unicorn’s path. Twilight glowered at the hooded mare. “I guess yelling for the police is just going to get me knocked out, isn’t it?”

“That would certainly make things easier for us,” Rainbow warned. “Even if you did get to the police, they’d just shoot you on sight.”

“Wwwhy would they do that?!” Twilight cried out in alarm. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Tell them that,” Fluttershy quipped. By the time Carrots had broken the lock, both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had recovered enough strength to grab the steel rods of the door and pull the heavy door open. Still being mostly blind and winded from the run, Twilight had no choice but to stand there waiting. She thought about running away, now that Rainbow wasn’t holding onto her, but the idea of getting shot stayed her hooves.

Once the door was open enough to slip through, Fluttershy sent her last parasprite out to scout. “Oh, thank Celestia!” She heaved a sigh of relief. “This leads into an alleyway. No cameras at the door, so that’s good. Checking for a street name… we’re close to the corner of Eighty-Second Avenue and Banter Street. I know where we are.”

“Cool, got a safehouse nearby?”

“No, but the subway is close, and I can try spoofing the cameras between here and there. After that, we can catch a blue line back home.”

“This is why I love having you around,” Rainbow smirked and winked at Fluttershy, only to make the pegasus giggle. The good humor died as quickly as it came when the gravity of the situation returned.

“Just give me a few minutes to find all the cameras. This place isn’t as…” She glanced nervously at Twilight. “Well, it’s not like home.” Without further preamble, Fluttershy ran off to secure their route. At this late hour, there were only a scant handful of ponies out, so she had to take care her efforts would go unnoticed.

Rainbow didn’t want to stay close to the secret exit, so she pulled Twilight up a fire escape to the roof of a close by three-story office building. The pair ducked behind a large neon advertising sign for cheap business rentals one rooftop hop away.

Through it all, Twilight was dutifully silent. All they were left with was the steady hum of the neon sign and the distant wail of police sirens. After a few minutes of waiting in one spot, Twilight risked speaking up. Her voice quivered from more than just the chill. “The air around here is horrible. We’re really not in the royal district, are we?” When she didn’t get any protest from her captor, Twilight looked at the cloaked figure sitting next to her. “What happened to me? Can I get your name at least? I can put in a good word to Celestia for a promotion… or maybe a pardon would be more useful to you.”

“Heh, yeah, I’d love a pardon actually.” Rainbow watched the unicorn carefully through narrowed eyes. “You know you were in stasis, right?”

“I guessed as much. That would explain the temporary blindness.” Twilight hugged herself to try and stay warm. She had stopped trying to use magic to keep herself warm after realizing she was in real danger, and was now starting to freeze in the late winter air.

Rainbow Dash studied the purple mare. I’ve seen some good acting jobs before, but… she sounds like a rich snob, not a traitor. AJ’s good at sniffing out lies, but for now… Her heart went out to Twilight a little, and she gathered up a portion of the lower part of her robe. “Here. It’s part of my robe, but you can use it to get some of that muck off.”

Twilight’s ears shot up and she looked at Rainbow with something between joy and suspicion. “You are a very odd criminal.” Twilight reached a steady hoof forward to the dry clump Rainbow was offering. She put on the bravest face she could muster.

“Yeah, sure. The fabric’s tough stuff, so it’s not going to stain. Just, don’t pull too hard since, ya know, I’m still wearing it.”

“...Thank you.” Twilight wiped her face and neck as dry as she could. By now, she had enough courage to use what little magic she had to keep herself warm again.

Rainbow inwardly gagged at the new cold dampness that made the robe cling to her back legs. The fact that carrying Twilight earlier had made her underside damp as well wasn’t helping. Gross. I am so taking a hot shower after all this. “So, uh… the name’s Flash.”

A ghost of an uneasy smile wormed its way on Twilight’s face. “Thank you, Flash, for saving me. At least, I think you saved me, right?”

“Psh, oh yeah. If I hadn’t, you’d probably be hamburger by now.”

“That’s… more than I wanted to know.” Twilight twiddled her hooves. “I’d like to introduce myself, but I get the feeling you’d rather I refrain from using my name aloud.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Rainbow sat down in front of Twilight and thought about it for a bit. “Streetlight scanners are the obvious surveillance posts, so it’s the hidden ones we have to be careful for.”

“I see.” By now, Twilight’s vision had improved enough to see a blurry hooded pony in front of her. “Something tells me Flash isn’t your real name, is it?”

“You are a smart one,” Rainbow drawled. “It’s a street name. Angel isn’t her real name either.”

“...Am I in trouble? Like, actual with-the-government kind of trouble?” Twilight asked after working up the courage.

“What you’re in is beyond ‘real’ trouble…” Rainbow offered bluntly. “But tell me this, what is the last thing you remember? Oh right, the studying. Okay.” Rainbow tapped her skull trying to think of a solution. “What about something public? That ponies outside of the royal district might know.”

“Outside the district?” Twilight blinked hard again. “Umm… I was at the Grand Galloping Gala a few weeks ago.”

“The Gala?” Rainbow’s eyes widened. “That was like,” Rainbow caught herself and thought better of giving the truth. Better to do it when we’re somewhere she can freak out in privacy. “A while ago.”

“H-how long is ‘a while ago’ exactly?” Twilight asked nervously. “What’s happened since I’ve been gone?!” She pulled in close to Rainbow, making the thestral a bit nervous about what kind of magic might get thrown in her face. “Please.”

“How about this? Once we get somewhere safe, I can give you the whole story. I promise you’re safe so long as you stick with me.” Rainbow tried to inject some confidence in her tone.

“I - I don’t want to sound unappreciative.” Twilight risked meekly. “But how do I know you’re being honest with me? For all I know, you could be tricking me while I’m cold, mostly magicless, and blinded.”

“What? Is pulling your plot out of the freezer, and then out of the fire not enough goodwill?” Rainbow asked heatedly. “I could have gotten away a lot easier if I had just left you there.”

Twilight scowled and stood firm. “I didn’t mean any offense. I just —” Twilight averted her eyes with a pensive furrowed brow. “I have a lot of wannabe bullies that can’t take a hint I’m not going to play their game. But they’re not entirely brainless. And since I still can’t see real well, this could all be some elaborate prank or worse.”

Rainbow gave an incredulous snort. “Are you for real? You have bullies that would go through all the trouble of putting you in stasis?”

Twilight rubbed a foreleg trying to warm up a bit faster. “We all live in the royal district; money is no object.”

“Ah.” Rainbow could feel her temper flaring. Bullies or not, I can’t see some thugs pulling off some kind of fake betrayal or whatever it is they did. “Okay. I guess being paranoid is fair enough.” Rainbow surveyed her surroundings. The back of the neon light billboard had plenty of deep shadows, hiding them from any camera or passing fliers. If I’m going to take her in, she’s going to find out what I am soon enough anyway. “I can give you proof you can trust me.” Rainbow stretched a wing out and used a hoof to guide one of Twilight’s forelegs to touch it. “That’s my wing.”

“Your wing?” Twilight carefully touched the wing in multiple places and kept her eyes wide in a vain effort to see better. “It - it doesn’t have feathers!” Her shocked face betrayed a ray of hope, but it was rapidly replaced with caution. “If - if you are what I think you are, can I please hold your talisman? I promise to be careful with it.”

Withdrawing her wing, Rainbow fished out her crescent moon talisman, but struggled to part with it, even for a moment. Breathing in a long, slow breath, she eventually placed it in Twilight’s hoof.

With the utmost forbearance and care, Twilight traced the edge of her hoof along the moon, feeling how it was smooth in many places from loving cleaning and gentle use. The crescent moon started to glow a faint silver light as it rested in Twilight’s hoof.

It wasn’t as strong as it had been when Mother Moon had directed Rainbow Dash to Twilight’s cage, but the glow was there all the same. Rainbow couldn’t believe what she was seeing and gazed up at the Mare in the Moon. Yet the moon made no indication of what it wanted, merely looking as bright as it always did on full moons. She looked back down at Twilight, whose eyes were now focused and attentive.

A sad, yet hopeful, smile crossed Twilight’s face and offered the talisman back to its owner. Rainbow dumbly accepted it and put it back in its place. The instant she did, Twilight hugged Rainbow tightly, surprising the thestral. “Thank you, Flash. I knew if I was ever in danger, one of you thestrals would probably be the one to save me. I wasn’t aware any of you were undercover in the criminal world. I’ll be sure Celestia makes note of your sacrifice to save me.”

Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words for several moments, and had only returned the hug out of reflex. This is just getting too weird. What are you trying to tell me, Mother? In the end, though, Rainbow Dash found a wiry grin inch its way onto her face. “You’re welcome… mmmm… Twiggles! That should be good.”

“Twiggles?” Twilight sat upright, her eyes focusing normally.

“Yeah, you need a code name for the time being. At least while we figure things out.”

“If I must. But I don’t really like Twiggles.” Twilight muttered firmly and giving Rainbow a hard stare. “Can I be something else?”

“Like what?” Rainbow Dash felt her good humor bubbling up. This was a distraction from the failed job she felt she needed right now. I can worry about Glacier yelling at me later.

“What about Smarty Pants?” Twilight’s ears perked up in feeble excitement. “I’ll have you know I aced every test I was ever given.” Her good humor died a bit. “So far at least.”

“Too much of a mouthful to say in a hurry. We’re not going for a matrix handle here.” Rainbow couldn’t help but to be mildly amused by Twilight’s mounting annoyance. “Besides, you need a name that’s going to give your enemies pause out of intimidation, not laughter.”

“Oh, and they wouldn’t laugh at Twiggles?” Twilight grumbled fiercely.

“Not as much at Smarty Pants,” Rainbow countered with a smug toothy grin. “And who here knows the street better? Me or you?”

Twilight scowled and kicked a rock. “I know I can come up with a better nickname.”

Any thought into coming up with that name was interrupted by Fluttershy flying up to them from the street. “Good thinking, Flash. The station cameras were easy enough to bypass, but the lamp post scanners are a bit too much for me.”

Rainbow was confused for a moment until she realized Fluttershy had mistaken her original reason for coming up on the roof. “Oh yeah. Well you know me, always coming up with great ideas.” She wiggled her eyebrows and elbowed Twilight. “Right, Twiggles?”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m not going with Twiggles!” She scowled at the ground, but couldn’t protest further.

“Uh huh…” Fluttershy gently coughed. “The cleaners will find our exit point soon if they haven’t already. We better make ourselves scarce.”