The City of Pitsburgh

"What are you doing?" screamed her idol. "Dash, run!"

"Not a chance!" Rainbow replied, hauling the black-garbed pegasus to her hooves. "I'm not leaving you here to-"

Above them, there was a crashing of wood, and a burning billboard toppled down through the smoke-filled air, hurtling straight towards them. Rainbow Dash stood paralysed with horror, but her protector reacted quickly, shoving her forward. The push managed to get her numbed legs moving, and the two of them galloped for the end of the alley, as the sign smashed into the concrete behind them. A flaming fragment of wood landed dangerously close to the other mare's black-dyed tail, but they made it out into the relative safety of the main street unharmed by debris or flame.

"Are you alright?" Spitfire gasped, tearing off her mask as they made for the other side of the road. Her coat was matted and filthy after spending weeks on end under the black disguise, and her mane, also dyed black, was greasy and stank of smoke. Her green eyes were watering from the fumes in the air.

"Put it back on!" Rainbow hissed, glancing around in fear. "They'll, hah, they'll see you! - ack, I-" she broke out into a coughing fit.

"Come on, kid," Spitfire insisted, pushing her down the next side street, "we have to get out of the city." Behind them, the fire began to leap dangerously from the burning tower block, spreading to the surrounding buildings and lighting them up too. She had been lucky to get out of there alive. Very lucky.

She had awoken to Spitfire, garbed in black, breaking down her door and clamping her hoof over her mouth, insisting that they leave, now. She had been shocked on leaving the dingy room to see two unconscious unicorns in the corridor, one bleeding profusely from the mouth where her idol had kicked their teeth loose. Not taking any chances, they had set a slow fire on the top floor before coming down for Rainbow, not expecting her to have protection.

In all fairness, neither did she.

Spitfire had practically dragged her from the condemned block of flats where she had been hiding, only unveiling her identity when they escaped into the streets. The fire had continued to burn unchecked, however, and Rainbow's sanctuary had exploded when a falling piece of brick had broken a gas pipe, the fire catching on to the next building, and the next, and the next...

Pitsburgh was beginning to burn. The fire crews, arriving to a lost cause, had practically given up and fled with the screaming civilians after taking one look at the inferno. The proud old mining town was collapsing, street by street. All because I wasn't smart enough to run, thought Rainbow.

The two arsonists had followed her into town and hadn't left her tail. At first she thought they must just have been going her way, but after an hour of walking she had doubled back on herself, once, twice, three times, and they had matched her every time. It was pretty clear what they were after - and they weren't the first to come for it.

The Element of Loyalty was secreted in her saddlebag, the magical glow of its ruby lightning gemstone no longer as bright as it had once been. It was her duty - her sacred task, entrusted to her by Princess Celestia herself - to take it to the place of its creation and protect its unimaginable power from those who would seek to control it.

"Did you come alone?" she gasped, as they ran for the city walls.

"No," Spitfire replied, black mask covering her face once more, her black-dyed mane streaking out of the back. "Wing Commander Soarin is here as well, he's tracking one of the bastards behind this."

"Soarin?" Rainbow exclaimed. "I mean, wait, there are more of them?"

"Yeah, they didn't all come to your place. It was a smart move hiding there kid, but they had a watch on every gate, and on your magic too. They knew you hadn't left the city."

"Damn it."

They were beginning to outpace the blaze, but they were two highly fit athletes. Behind them, ponies were starting to lag. Rainbow glanced back, horrified, as a teenage colt who had been on their tail for blocks began to slow down, coughing and wheezing.

"I... Spitfire, shouldn't we - I mean, we gotta-"

"No, Rainbow," Spitfire cut her off. "We gotta get you outta the city."

She had been going for six months now, across the countryside from Canterlot. Staying on the ground on the Princesses' orders, she had been losing pursuers over mountains and in forests for months already, seriously slowing her progress. If she had been able to fly, then she could have been at Port Bridle by now. Heck, she could have crossed the ocean on the day she set off, but Celestia had been insistent. Stay on the ground.

What the Princess hadn't told Rainbow was that she was having her tailed - by two of her heroes, no less. Spitfire and Soarin, the two highest-ranking Pegasi in the Equestrian Air Guard's display team, the Wonderbolts, had been following her from a distance, instructed to only step in if Dash was in serious trouble - and she had been.

I would've burned to death in there, she realised, gulping, as they continued to sprint away from the blaze. And... Oh Winds, this is... This is my fault... She started to slow down, coughing and hacking from the smoke. Tears, independent of the fire, began to pool in her eyes.

"Rainbow?" called Spitfire, slowing down just ahead of her. "Rainbow, come on-"

"Is this my fault?" she asked weakly, sitting down in the street. The horrible cold of guilt began to claw at her, the fire was her fault, ponies were dying because of her, she couldn't-

"No," gasped her idol, "I - no, no, it isn't Rainbow, it really isn't. It's-"

She cut herself off with a shout as she glanced up, horrified. Rainbow looked up and yelled as a pony came plummeting down from the rooftops, a bitdagger clenched in his mouth. As she rolled out of the way, there was a grunt of exertion and a figure in black leapt over her, back hoof forward as Dash's second protector kicked into the side of the assassin's neck. The attacker fell to the floor, smacking his head onto the concrete, and went out cold. The dagger clattered to the pavement some feet away.

"Come on, girls," grunted Wing Commander Soarin, clad in the same black bodysuit and mask as Spitfire. "We gotta keep moving. I, er, I mean, we should be moving, Captain," he blustered as he realised how he had spoken to his superior.

"Just get going, you lummox," Spitfire laughed, setting off once more for the city's edge. She grabbed the weeping Rainbow roughly and hauled her along, until the pegasus' legs started working again. "Did you get them all?"

"No," grunted Soarin. "There's one more, another unicorn. He slipped away while I was trackin' that grunt with the knife back there."

"Maelstrom," Spitfire swore as they entered a thronging crowd headed for the city's east gate. "Stay close Dash, and keep your eyes peeled. Somepony could easily blend in with the herd and get you."

Panic was evident amongst the rapidly swelling stream of ponies. Glancing around, Rainbow saw mothers herding youngsters towards the gate, patriarchs carrying the important family possessions they had been able to gather quickly on their back, grandchildren helping their infirm grandparents along. The city was being evacuated, every building. There was no way to stop the fires from spreading, there simply wasn't enough time to respond as the blazes spread.

She maintained a vigilant eye as the walls came in sight. It wouldn't do to get complacent, to think they were out of the woods. There was still at least one unicorn out after her, and the invaluable treasure in her bags...

"We made it," gasped an exhausted earth pony mother, walking next to Rainbow with her fearful-eyed filly, dark smoke stains streaking down each of their cream-coloured coats. "Oh, Celestia, we actually made it!"

Rainbow smiled at her neighbor's jubilation, then frowned. A buzzing was starting to become audible above the sounds of the evacuees and the roar of the fires. A low, unhealthy drone that grew ever closer... She turned around to look up at the sky, and gasped in horror.

A zeppelin was barrelling towards them, falling out of the ash-filled sky, its gas bag aflame and smoke streaming from its engines. The fire must have spread to the city's mooring-dock, Rainbow realised. Renewed screams came from the surrounding crowd, louder than ever before as the terrified Pit Ponies noticed the behemoth bearing down on them.

"Guys!" Spitfire yelled, panic beginning to creep into her voice, "we gotta get off the ground! That thing could explode if any more gas sacks rupture when it hits the ground!"

"We can't fly!" Soarin shouted back. The throng around them had become hysterical at the mention of a possible blast, and he had to shove his way between a couple of ponies who managed to get between him and his partners. "The Element - damn it, Spitfire, we got orders!"

"Buck that! We don't have a choice!" bellowed Spitfire. "We're taking too much of a risk by staying down here!" Soarin began to stammer a retort, but the crowd had opened up in front of his Captain. Grabbing Rainbow Dash by the hoof, Spitfire had galloped forwards, using the extra space to build up speed and propel herself into the air, Dash taking wing behind her. With a bellow of aggravation, Soarin followed, scanning the crowd for the remaining aggressor, but the great variation in colour and size and race of the ponies below, and the swirling, blinding smoke descending from above made it impossible to pick out such an indistinct individual.

Grey unicorn, he repeated to himself, brown cloak, white mane, average build. Grey unicorn...

Hundreds of winged ponies had taken to the air, if they hadn't already, at the sight of the zeppelin. Engines screaming, it fell through the air, following a flight path straight to the portal in the wall itself. Amongst the flock, Dash and Spitfire had managed to get a safe distance away from the vessel, but that didn't mean they could put it out of mind.

"Spitfire!" Rainbow screamed, "it's gonna come down right in the crowd! We have to do something - ugh..." Soarin swooped up from beneath her, wrapping a powerful foreleg around her and flying away from the inferno below.

"Nothing to do, kid. We got a job to do." But Rainbow wriggled free, and shoved the Wonderbolt away.

"Is it really more important?" she choked, hovering. Her eyes, already red from the inferno, were beginning to glisten with horrified tears. "Is it rea-" She was interrupted by the wrenching, smashing crash as the airship collided with the buildings below. It fell, down, down, down, right into the crowd itself...

There was mercifully no explosion, but the gondola lodged itself right between the two gatepost pillars in the wall, smashing the ancient portals off their hinges so that they toppled, varnished wood ablaze, to the road below. The refugees that had been lucky enough to avoid the burning wreck now found themselves trapped between the gate and the oncoming blaze. Rainbow Dash screamed with absolute distress. "No, no!" she yelled. "Not... Not for me..."

"Celestia thinks it is," Soarin said at length, although his words were heavy. "So... We should think so too. Now come on," he said, gritting his teeth. "We really have to go." Grabbing Rainbow once more, her pulled her onwards, away from the vast columns of smoke rising above the once-proud city.

Beneath them, on the ground, the crowd was descending into chaos. They had pressed themselves up against the wall, clawing at it in terror as the fires advanced behind them.

"Please!" shrieked a cream earth pony, rearing, her daughter clutched in two sooty hooves, holding her up to the pegasi taking wing. "Save my baby!" The young filly was wailing openly as the throng panicked around her.

"Stand back," came a gruff voice, pushing his way through. "Back, if you want to live!" His brown cloak was burnt in several places, and his white tail was filthy with black grime. He managed to shove his way to the wall, where he stopped, and concentrating, ignoring his desperate neighbors as a frown crossed his face. He closed his eyes...

...And his horn ignited, the unicorn's distinguishing feature enveloped in a white aura. Eyes springing wide open, he looked upon the wall with utmost hatred as he reared, and great cracks began to appear in the ancient sandstone blocks. With a bellow, he slammed his grey hooves down on the ground as the giant bricks flew outwards. The crowd, ignoring his feat, desperately scrambled for the newly created hole.

"Thank you, sir!" coughed the mother pony as she passed him, still with her beloved child. "Thank you..."

"Thank the master," he growled. "Not me." Without waiting for a response, he began to push through the crowd once more, scrambling through the hole of his own creation and out of the city, breaking into a gallop as he desperately tried to catch up with the flock of pegasi, and the distinctive pull of magic he felt within...

The city rapidly receded behind them as Rainbow and the two stunt-ponies sailed out into the night sky. Away from the fire, the chill of the Winter night began to set in. Dash began to shiver almost as soon as she'd gotten control of her sobbing.

"We should get down on the ground," Soarin shouted to Spitfire. "The flock's starting to thin, we're getting more noticeable by the second." Indeed, many of the pegasi who had flown out were now wheeling back to search for their loved ones, but Spitfire shook her head.

"I want to put some more distance between us and the city. If anypony with their wits about them sees us dressed like this," she said, gesturing to herself, anything not covered by her black uniform apart from her eyes dyed black so she couldn't be recognised, "they're gonna ask questions, especially if we're still headed away from the city." Soarin muttered an angry response, but not loud enough for his commanding officer to hear.

"Since when do stunt fliers get sent on royal missions anyway?" Rainbow Dash shouted, starting to assess the situation now that they were out of the city and no longer as focused on fleeing. "In fact, why should I even trust you guys?" She gasped. "What if you've been playing me this whole time? What if... You knew I would trust you, you guys are my heroes! What if-"

"Celestia knew you would trust us, Rainbow," Spitfire called, "and the Wonderbolts may be stunts-ponies, but we're trained for combat." She frowned. "Don't tell me you've been aching to get into the 'Bolts for years and you didn't know that."

"I, uh..." Rainbow stammered, "I did, I just, I wasn't - I mean I was expecting somepony - uh..."

"Chill it kid," Soarin muttered. "We're on your side. Now, Captain, we've gotta get outta the air! We're -" he stopped, shock on his face. In the distance, galloping towards them from the burning city, was a unicorn in a brown cloak. Magical luminescence pooled around his horn, glowing a burning white as he readied a spell.

"Dive!" yelled Soarin, pushing himself up above Rainbow Dash with one flap of his powerful wings before snapping them shut, landing square on Rainbow's back, and wrapping his hooves around her, ignoring her terrified scream as they plummeted towards the ground like a statue knocked from the deck of a luxury dirigible, Spitfire in their wake.

The sorcerer on the flatlands below gave a wordless shout as he unleashed his spell. Focusing on the ground, Soarin never saw the bolt of silver lightning as it rocketed towards him...

The two Wonderbolts shouted in pain as the destructive magic made contact. Rainbow, safe in Soarin's embrace, suddenly found herself falling alone again, and stretched her wings out, desperately trying to slow her descent. She grabbed the flailing Soarin by the scruff of his bodysuit, but watched helplessly as Spitfire spiralled the last sixty feet or so to the ground without moving her wings.

There was a sickening thud as the stunt captain landed, with Dash and Soarin falling heavily just behind her. Rainbow grunted in pain as she toppled muzzle-first onto the grass, unable to make a clean landing whilst supporting the large pegasus.

Now, pegasus magic is a remarkable thing. While on the ground they may seem like light, fragile creatures, once in the air the unique power protecting and strengthening their race keeps them relatively safe from harm. Hence, while Rainbow Dash had suffered many crashes throughout her youth careening through the Ponyville skies, she had only been hospitalised twice. But while Soarin leapt up quickly, Spitfire, her hero, her idol, lay on the ground, whimpering in pain.

"Ow," she moaned, "ow, Tempest, Gods damn it." Teeth gritted, she tried to push herself up without resting any weight on one of her forehooves. "Agh, I think - I think I broke my fetlock, guys, I - ow -" Rainbow leapt towards her, lifting her good foreleg with her own so it rested over her shoulders.

"Can you move like this?" she asked. Spitfire nodded, blinking away tears of pain with gritted teeth. "Right. OK, that goon's gonna be close, we gotta get away."

Soarin pointed east to a copse of trees - the only cover in the entire flat grassland surrounding what was left of Pitsburgh. "Get to there and check out the Captain's hoof, Rainbow. I'll take care of this guy." Without waiting for a response, he sprung back into the air once more, moving to intercept the unicorn who was closing the distance between them.

Slowly, Rainbow began to hobble forwards, moving clumsily as she desperately tried to keep Spitfire upright. Behind them, the sound of a brawl reached their ears as Soarin engaged their attacker. It took them twenty minutes to reach the treeline, but the fight hadn't yet finished as Dash led the injured Wonderbolt into the shade.

"He's taking a while," she muttered, worriedly.

"Don't mind it," Spitfire hissed through a clenched jaw. "That's how he does things - he'll be giving the bastard the runaround, wearing him out. You gotta play it safe with a unicorn whose magic is ready to blow." Rainbow gently helped her down so that she lay on the grass.

"Right," Rainbow grunted, "first aid. She tossed her saddlebags unceremoniously to the ground, where they burst open, supplies scattering. A bag of bits. Food. The golden necklace that was the physical manifestation of the Element of Loyalty, the dim glow of its magical ruby weak, sickly. Grabbing the red-and-white first aid kit, Rainbow opened the box and rummaged around within, until she found what she was looking for - a capped syringe and a sterilising swab. "I've never done this before," she admitted. "Where do I -"

Spitfire cut her off with a grunt, gesturing with her hoof. "Forget the wipe," she grunted, "don't get the suit off. Just do it -" she shut herself up as Rainbow plunged the morphine injection into the top of her foreleg, a little more forceful than necessary in her desperation, causing the injured pony to yell in surprise and pain.

"Sorry!" gasped Rainbow, as she pushed down the plunger with a hoof before grabbing the sharp in her teeth once more and tossing it aside.

"It's OK," Spitfire panted, "it's OK... I'll be fine in a couple of minutes when that takes effect..."

"OK," Dash replied. "Now I gotta take a look at your ankle - how should I - "

"There's a zip at the top of each leg," Spitfire interrupted. "Just get that one off and - I dunno what needs doing, just have a look."

Rainbow whistled as she took off the black sleeve covering the injured limb. "Ah, that doesn't look so bad," she said, and indeed it didn't. A little trickle of blood had stained the sun-yellow hair of Spitfire's fetlock, and while it was clearly knocked a little out of place, her idol had been lucky. It wasn't a bad break, and in her inexpert opinion, it was a clean one too.

"I gotta splint this," she muttered. "I got like a - a kinda hoof-brace thing somewhere, hold on -" She broke off as she began to rummage through her scattered belongings once more. "Here. Now hold on, this might hurt a little -"

Spitfire grunted as the younger pegasus clamped the brace around her hoof and shin, tightening a screw to force the limb into a natural position. A steel band was locked onto her hoof, with bars and hinges on either side connecting it to the main body of her leg, up to a second band on her lower leg.

"I... That looks like it'll be alright." Rainbow sat down of the grass, panting, next to her broken hero. She suddenly felt exhausted - they hadn't stopped moving until now since Spitfire had hauled her from the burning tenement. "Oh, um, one more thing," she said, as she reached for a silver capsule in the grass.

Spitfire watched, interested, as Rainbow Dash took the magical flare in her mouth and flung it upwards. For a moment she thought it might be about to give them away, but as it sailed towards the leafless treetops it vanished in a burst of rainbow fire, sucked through the ether to Canterlot Palace.

"Gotta let the Princess know we're alright," she explained. "I bet she knew we were in town at least."

"Yeah," Spitfire agreed, "and yeah, she did know. I sent her a report myself as soon as we lost you."

"You lost me?" Rainbow gasped, surprised. "Wow. I musta done a pretty good job hiding."

Spitfire grinned. "You did, Rainbow, you did... You've been doing a great job, ever since you left Canterlot. This is the first real incident we've had."

"Yeah, I - yeah... Thanks," said Rainbow Dash, quietly. She paused for a moment. Slowly, pensively, she began to talk once more. "But am I?" she asked. "This - if I'd been going a little quicker, if I'd been a little smarter, I wouldn't have been in town tonight. This wouldn't have happened." Her voice began to choke as she looked back in the direction of the town. "None of this would have happened," she went on, gesturing at Spitfire's bound hoof. The pony in black took the moment to reach up with her good hoof and pull her mask back off, revealing a small, sad smile underneath.

"No, Rainbow," she said. "What happens, happens. It's not your fault that those Piners found you in the Penneighns. You weren't to know they were after the Element. Or those two guys back in the forests around Hoofbridge, that wasn't your fault either. You were just... Here, now. It's not your fault."

"Yeah," Dash said sadly. "I guess."

"So come on, then," Spitfire said, cheerfully now, gesturing with her uninjured forehoof. "How come you brought that along?"

Rainbow followed her pointing, through the piles of her supplies, to where there lay a small plastic figurine of a mare, with sun-yellow wings and a fiery mane and tail, dressed in goggles and a distinctive blue uniform, the lighting bolts adorning in completing the famous image. She blushed.

"I, uh," she stammered, "well..." She picked up a second item. A flat wooden box with the cloud and lightning bolt of her signature mark carved on the front. "The same reason I brought this along." She flipped the slats open, to reveal two bright photos of her closest friends. The six of them at home in Ponyville, grinning at the camera, and again in a small café in Canterlot - clad in magnificently crafted, totally ruined dresses and with the pure-white figure of Princess Celestia herself towering over them all with her benevolent smile.

Spitfire smiled. "I didn't want to forget you guys," Dash admitted. "I didn't know how long I was gonna be gone for... I didn't want to - I wanted to remember you all. To remind me why I'm doing this. I'm doing this for my friends, and for anyone who's a friend of anypony. Not even Celestia knows what'll happen if we don't make it. But it's taken so long already..."

Spitfire nodded. "And it's probably going to take a while longer now," she said, with a sad gesture at her injured hoof. "But we'll make it, Dash, I promise. We'll make it together. And we won't drop back again and leave you alone, we'll stick with you now. You don't have to be so alone any more." She picked up the Wonderbolt action figure and held it up next to her face, smiling.

"Yeah... I... Thanks, um, Spitfire," Rainbow said, finally. "I... I think I would be totally freaking out about this if it weren't for... How bad I feel about everything that's happened tonight."

"Don't worry about it, kid," Spitfire replied in a comforting tone. Behind them, they finally began to hear the hooffalls of Soarin's approach. "Just... Don't worry about it. We're gonna get going again tomorrow - you should get some sleep. I don't know how long we'll be walking for."

Rainbow nodded, and lay down on the ground. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice told her, man, this is cool. The Princess sent Spitfire to protect you. And now I'm gonna get to be with the Wonderbolts every day! Finally smiling, Rainbow shut her eyes, the horrors of the evening beginning to recede with her newfound hope, and, despite everything, the gnawing, empty despair that had been growing within her since she had set off began to recede.

She hadn't seen her friends in months. She'd only said a proper goodbye to one of them, and only because Twilight had been one of the group asking her to leave - but she felt close to them that night, remembering them as she marvelled at the identity of her travelling companions and the sheer relief of having escaped alive.

But not everypony could live to see the new day - in the morning, when they set off once more, the sky behind them was still stained with rising smoke, as the city burned.