Sky was the first to get home, slamming the door behind her and charging up the tower stairs to her room. She struggled to push her mattress up against the wall, fully aware of Shadow’s approaching screams of terror. At the last minute, Sky unbuckled her cloak, pulling it free and spreading it out.

A moment later, Shadow sailed through the window, bouncing off of the mattress and flopping pathetically into Sky’s cloak.

Before her wings could start beating again, Sky wrapped her in the cloak, swaddling the poor filly and keeping her wings effectively strapped to her sides.

“You know, there’s less demeaning ways to do this.” Shadow commented, struggling against the cloak. She was still vibrating a little.

“Yeah, but those ways aren’t as funny.” Sky giggled, kissing her little sister on the forehead. “Now, let’s find out about this Silver Tongue pony, shall we?”

“Let me guess. Library?” Shadow deadpanned.

“Well yeah, I’ve gotta find out what we’re dealing with and fix the mess that somepony made with Penfeather this morning!” Sky glared. “Not naming names.”

Shadow rolled over, giving her sister an innocent little smile.

“You’ve officially lost coffee privileges.” Sky huffed.

The smile disappeared. “You never gave me coffee privileges!”

“Well now consider yourself twice as banned from coffee!” Sky waved her hooves. “Like, so banned that you’ll be lucky if you’re drinking it when you’re thirty!”

“I’ll be lucky if I bloody well live to thirty if we keep doing jobs like that one.” Shadow giggled. “Go on, go see your waifu and beg for her forgiveness.”

“She’s not my waifu!” Sky pouted, pulling out a sleep dart and sinking it into Shadow’s neck. “Now you get some rest and sleep that coffee off. This is probably gonna be a harder job than the ones we’ve done so far, and I don’t need Shadow the Amazing Pony Pinball flying into everything.”

Shadow was probably going to throw an insult at Sky, but the sleep formula worked fast on her little body. She felt incredibly numb for a few seconds, and then her eyes finally flickered shut.

Once the little filly was taken care of, Sky stepped out onto her balcony. The afternoon sun was actually quite present once she got the opportunity to actually stand there and enjoy it. The little white pony found herself spreading her wings, the light filtering through her primaries and the puncture wounds in her right wing.

Sky loved times like this, taking the opportunity to just stand there atop her little tower and enjoy the soft breeze and warm sun on her coat and wings. So much of her life was spent running and jumping and hiding, she never really had a lot of time to just sit out there and enjoy the stillness and consistency that everypony else seemed to take for granted.
Sky took a few deep breaths. Being able to breathe properly, that was the other thing. None of the breath-holding that she had to endure when she was trying to stay hidden, none of that pain that she felt in her lungs as she fled from the crime scene, desperately trying to get some air in her system through short, ragged breathless panting. She’d pushed her body to its limits more times than she cared to count. What did it mean for the simple act of standing still and breathing to be considered a luxury?
Sky already knew the answer to that one, however. Interesting. Sure, she could understand what the likes of Money Bags would see in a stable job and a quiet life, but it was missing something incredibly important. Sky prided herself on having fun, a right sight more than anypony with a normal life could ever hope to have. She looked down from the little balcony in her tower, not pitying them by any means, but not envying them either.

Besides, thought Sky to herself, when I get these assholes off of my back, maybe I can join those ponies down there.

She hadn’t forgotten about the big bag of money sitting in the corner of her room, kept tucked away safely until she was ready to spend it. That cash was going to help her get her wing fixed sooner or later, as soon as she wouldn’t be hauled off to prison for being a terrorist during her recovery period. She wasn’t going to get her wing back just to get locked away in a birdcage.
Sky gave a soft sigh and headed back inside, pulling her cloak back on and setting Shadow down on her bed.
“Sleep well, kid.” Sky whispered, kissing her on the cheek. The little filly rolled over in her slumber, giving a very small smile. Sky never knew how she did it, but Shadow always seemed to know when it was her. The little white pony gave her little sister a nuzzle, grinning ear to ear as Shadow put her small hooves on Sky’s cheeks.
Finally, Sky pulled away, trotting to the balcony and taking one last look at her sleeping sister. That filly was a nightmare sometimes, but Sky loved her very much indeed, from her fluffy ears to her weirdly ticklish hooves.
“Okay, let’s see what info we can get on this Silver Tongue guy.” Sky muttered, spreading her wings and diving off of the balcony.

Some time later, Shadow squeaked as she felt something bumping against her cheek. She stirred, cracking her eyes open and raising a hoof to visit her fury on whatever unfortunate creature had decided to wake her up in the middle of a filly-nap.

“Fuck off, whatever you are…” She mumbled, waving her hoof at the offending pony.

“It’s me, stupid.” Sky pulled away, cocking her head. “Come on, get up. We’ve got another job to do.”

“Just ten more hours…”

Sky rolled her eyes, picking Shadow up in her mouth by the scruff of her neck. The little filly’s wings started flapping by reflex.

“OI! PUT ME DOWN! PISS OFF!” Shadow yelped in protest, kicking her hooves wildly. “I’M UP! I’M UP!”

“Damn straight.” Sky chuckled, putting her back down on the floor and slinging her bow over her back. “Now come on, get your things.”

“We’re hitting Silver Tongue’s place already?” She groaned sleepily, rubbing her eyes and blinking up at her big sister.

“Yep. We’re gonna see if we can get anything out of that little facility of ours.” Sky chuckled confidently.

“Well, why the hell not?” Shadow shrugged, pulling on her own cloak. “So how’d things go with Penfeather?”

“Oh, they went...okay…” Sky froze, looking down at her hooves and going a little pink.

“That bad, huh?”

“I said they went okay…”

“How bad, sis? Come on, tell me!” Shadow tapped her hoof, unconvinced. She’d lived with her sister long enough to know when she was hiding something.

“I...might’ve gotten nervous…”

“Wow, there’s a surprise…” Shadow rolled her eyes. “Then what happened?”

“I...erm...threw up all over myself and had to run off…” Sky whimpered, ears splaying back.

“Pfft...hang on...sorry…” Shadow apologised, trying to fight the massive grin playing around her mouth. “That...sounds...terrible...oh Luna…”

“It’s not funny! She was all creeped out!” Sky said defensively. “No...not that I saw her...I was kinda...running...for my life…”

“Wow, you really blew it this time, didn’t you?” Shadow rolled her eyes. “You didn’t even need me to tag along this time!”

“Look, can we talk about something else?” Sky asked pleadingly, pulling her face wrap up around her muzzle.

Shadow got in a little more giggling before finally softening up and nudging Sky’s foreleg. “Don’t worry sis, you’ll stop embarrassing yourself someday.”

“You don’t mean that.” Sky deadpanned at her.

“Sure don’t!” Shadow gave a cheeky little squee, flapping her wings with self-satisfaction.

“Come on you.” Sky growled back, flicking her little sister in the nose with her tail. “Let’s get going already, so I can shoot you with a blue dart when we get back for being so cheeky.”

“Awww, sis! Don’t turn me into a colt!” Shadow whined, as the two of them stepped out onto their little balcony, spreading their wings.

With one last glance at one another, the two sisters leapt down onto street level, disappearing into a nearby alley.

Silver Tongue’s facility was something to behold, certainly. It was as grandiose and beautiful as every other building in the city centre, clearly designed to blend into its surroundings. Its ornate form made it nigh indistinguishable from every other building in the city, and as Sky stood on a nearby rooftop, she grinned at it.
It’s so cute when they try to hide buildings in plain sight!
“Ready for this?” Shadow asked, stepping up next to her sister and glancing across at her.
“There’s really only one way to find out just how ready we are, isn’t there?”Sky chuckled.

She took a run-up, hooves clattering against the tiles as she picked up speed. Finally, Sky leapt, spreading her wings and gliding across the road. She latched onto a windowsill with her padded hooves, hanging about ten storeys over the ground.

“So far so good.” Shadow commented, hovering next to her.

“Yeah, we haven’t set off any alarms yet.” Sky chuckled, pulling out one of her lockpicks and balancing it on her tongue, working it into the window lock. She twiddled it around, taking a moment to find the tumblers before gently pushing them into place. Finally, she slid her tongue into the lock too, twisting it just a little until she heard a satisfying click.

“Sis...are you sure you can’t do that some other way?” Shadow facehoofed.

“No’e!” Sky giggled, pulling the window out and slipping into the tower.

Shadow followed, tucking her big wings in so she could squeeze through the gap like her sister.
The interior was less baroque and fancy than its exterior, looking more like the inside of a hospital than anything else. The rooms were whitewashed, sterile, with what looked like dentists’ chairs lined up along the back wall, surrounded by trolleys full of various tools and instruments that Sky didn’t recognise. Some of them looked unpleasant.

“Keep low, keep quiet. Let’s see if we can find Silver Tongue’s office.” Sky muttered, lowering herself to the floor and beginning to sneak quietly towards the door.

Shadow looked up. There was some sort of brass apparatus, like a planetarium without the planets, hanging over the chairs. An array of focussing lenses of differing sizes hung from it. “Sis...I don’t like the looks of this place…” She said doubtfully.

“You too, huh?” Sky muttered back, opening the door and peering out into the hallway. “Coast’s clear. Come on, we just need to get to the top floor.”

The two of them kept close together as they left the room, neither one noticing the little blinking red light on the window, an indicator that the silent alarm had been activated….

“Sir?”

Silver Tongue glanced up at the security stallion in the doorway irritably. “What is it, Lieutenant? I’ve got a lot of work to do right now and I’d really appreciate…”

“The facility’s been breached, sir. We’re tracking the perpetrator now.” The stallion interrupted, standing to attention. “I’ve got some security measures standing by.”

“What about the Operative? Is he ready?” Silver asked, expression growing more grave by the moment.

“He’s ready and safe.”

“Right.” Silver turned around in his swivel chair, pulling a lever. A magical projection of the security feed from his building’s crystal network displayed itself before him. He raised his eyebrows as he spotted the little pegasus mare, clad in a light grey cloak, creeping down a tenth floor corridor. “Does she know she’s being tracked?”

“No sir. All of the surveillance crystals have been cloaked up.” The stallion replied. “She’s talking to somepony else. I’m assuming that she’s got backup.”

“Right.” Silver nodded. “Give her a zap to draw out her backup and then send the Operative after her. We’re not getting the Guard involved in this matter.”

“What should I say to the Operative, then?”

“Catch her and kill her, and anypony else who’s breached the facility. I think it’s time to test out the little project that my dad’s been working on.”

“Kill her, sir?”

Silver Tongue wasn’t paying attention to the nervous stallion in the doorway anymore, watching the crystal feed of the little intruder approaching the express elevator. This was clearly the pony who’d made life difficult for Red Herring and Money Bags.

“The world won’t miss her.”

Sky looked the elevator doors up and down. “Shit.”

“What’s the matter, sis?” Shadow asked, very nearly bumping into her big sister’s flanks as she halted.

“I don’t see any locks for this thing.” Sky muttered, putting her hoof up to it. There was a console, certainly, but it was locked behind a metal plate. “We might have to take the stairs.”

“The stairs are gonna be loaded with crystals, you realise.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sky sighed, pulling out a little screwdriver and beginning to remove the little screws that held the plate in place. “I guess this is our best option.”

“You know what’s weirding me out?”

“The decor?”

“Well yeah, but the fact that we haven’t run into any security yet. No crystals, no guards, nothing.” Shadow drew closer to her big sister, almost looking frightened.

“Yeah, you’re right…” Sky muttered, “In Money Bags’s place, we’d at least run into somepony by now. This is ridiculous.”

Shadow was about to voice another concern, when she was interrupted by a very quiet sound. It was a mechanical whining, almost like something was charging up.
“Sis…” She whimpered, pulling her bow off of her back and taking off.

Sky pulled away from the panel, looking around the corridor for the source of the noise.

A few bright blue diamond-shaped crystals had apparently materialised out of thin air, revolving in place up near the ceiling. There were about five of them, all making the same noise, growing increasingly bright.

“Oh bollocks.” Sky mumbled, before galloping off back down the corridor as fast as she could, Shadow in tow. “I think we found the security systems, sis!”

“No shit!” Shadow called back.

To Sky’s credit, she nearly made it halfway down the hallway before the crystals fired. Lightning arced out of them with impressive precision, sending painful, powerful shocks through her body, seizing her nerves up. Sky gave a short shriek before she lost voluntary control of her muscles, collapsing onto the floor and skidding along it in a heap, finally coming to rest a few feet away.

“Sis!” Shadow squeaked, speeding over as fast as her wings would carry her and checking on Sky. “Come on, get up, we’ve gotta get out of here…”

“I’m...I’m okay…” Sky groaned, shakily getting to her hooves and looking around at the crystals. There were scorch marks criss-crossing her white fur, her mane and cloak singed slightly. “Come on, let’s see if we can finish the job…”

They both froze. The crystals were gone, and a big green light was blinking over the elevator door.

“I don’t like this…” Shadow muttered, nocking a sleep arrow and drawing her bowstring back.

“You and me both, sister.” Sky agreed, snapping out her crossbow and loading up a sleep dart.

The elevator doors slid open, revealing a beige unicorn stallion, bulkier than any she’d seen before. He was easily three times Sky’s size, with the kind of body you could only get by spending every waking moment at the gym.

Both sisters fired simultaneously, the twang of Shadow’s bowstring and the snap of Sky’s hoof crossbow echoing through the otherwise empty hallway. The arrow and the dart struck the massive unicorn, the formula within leaking into his bloodstream. Both sisters’ faces fell when he merely grinned at them, stamping his forehoof and beginning to charge.

Sky and Shadow exchanged a glance, trying to dive sideways to get out of his way, but the unicorn’s horn flared, holding both of them in place with his magic as he drew closer. Both of them grunted, beating their wings to try and break free, but it was far too late. The unicorn slammed into both of them, sending them both careening into the doors at the end of the corridor.

Sky was initially blinded and numbed by pain, dropping to the floor again with a grunt. Her whole body ached, and she knew right then that she was going to end up with a hell of a lot of bruises after an impact like that.
“Sha...Shadow...let’s get out of here…” She gasped, trying to get air back into her lungs as she got to her hooves. As she surveyed her immediate surroundings, however, she spotted her little sister, slumped on the ground. She wasn’t getting up.

The unicorn growled at her, stamping again, getting ready to charge her once more. Sky’s eyes darted between her assailant and her little sister, who was laying right in the monster’s path. If he charged again, Shadow would be trampled.
“Back off...buddy…” Sky panted, reloading her crossbow and firing at him again. She already knew it was ineffective, but she had to try nonetheless. The dart struck, draining into the pony’s bloodstream again to no avail.
Sky reloaded once more, firing again as he began to pick up speed again. This time, he stumbled a little, and Sky’s heart lifted.
They’re clearly doing something to him…

She dove forwards as he sped towards her, taking Shadow’s little body between her hooves and holding her close. The unicorn caught her with his hoof as he kept galloping, knocking the two of them aside, but Sky held on for dear life to the little filly, not wanting to let go for all the world. She looked up, raising her hoof crossbow and shooting again and again at his retreating back, reloading as rapidly as the mechanism would allow. Finally, after using every last sleep dart in her bandolier, the unicorn wavered, slumping to the floor and beginning to snore gently.

Sky sighed, shakily getting to her hooves. Her whole body was wracked with pain, beaten purple in places by the impacts she’d suffered, and it felt like she had a couple of bruised ribs. Nonetheless, she rolled Shadow onto her back, looking down at the filly with concern.
“Sis?” Sky whispered, giving her an experimental shake. “Come on sis, we’ve gotta go. Get up…”

Shadow, however, wasn’t budging. Her eyes were closed, and her very small body was covered with bruises too. Her eyes remained closed, and she didn’t react to Sky’s prods and nuzzles at all.

“Oh no...come on sis, don’t do this to me...we’ve got to get out of here. Come on, get up.” Sky nudged Shadow with her nose, trying to wake her up. Panic set in, the kind of panic that she only really knew from her nightmares. No matter how much Sky tried, Shadow wouldn’t wake up.

So fixated was Sky on the filly’s state of being that she didn’t hear the unicorn beginning to get up at first. His body was peppered with darts, and as he got to his hooves, a bright red glow emanate from his coat. His body was healing itself, rejecting the formula’s effects. Sky’s ears perked as the darts clattered to the floor off of his body, and she looked up at the monstrous unicorn with abject terror.
“Well, that’s bollocks…” She mumbled, glancing back at Shadow and nuzzling her again.
Come on, don’t do this to me...please…

As the unicorn turned to face her, the red light fading from his eyes, Sky realised that she was out of time. She scooped Shadow’s prone form onto her back, letting the filly’s hooves rest in her saddlebags. Giving the monster one last terrified glance, Sky ran for it.

She darted out of the corridor into the lab where she started, spying the open window and making a break for it. The sound of thundering hooves behind her sent her into a panic. Was this guy seriously gaining on her?

Getting up to speed, Sky took a running jump out of the window, spreading her wings to keep her in the air for just a little longer. She landed atop an adjacent building, glancing back at the lab as she started to gallop again.

Somehow, be it through teleportation or the world’s most ridiculous leap, the unicorn was on the rooftop with her.
Oh, fuck me. This isn’t good…
Sky redoubled her efforts, flapping her damaged wings to get some serious speed up. The jet engine whine of her wings against the wind became far more pronounced, and Sky let out a tiny giggle as she finally hit a full gallop. There was no unicorn or earth pony in the whole world who could run faster than her. She had powerful legs and a very light frame, even with another pony on her back.
Nevertheless, she could hear the clattering of heavy hooves against roof tiles, and it was getting closer. A moment later, a chimney exploded next to her, struck by a particularly powerful spell.
“WOULD YOU PISS OFF ALREADY!” Sky bellowed over her shoulder at the rapidly gaining unicorn. “I LEFT YOUR SODDING BUILDING! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The unicorn’s horn flared again, and Sky dropped down onto a lower rooftop, weaving between chimney stacks to break his line of sight, throwing off his aim. The unicorn dove after her, slamming into the roof and crashing through it, not as light as his quarry. Sky didn’t stop even as she saw him disappear into someone’s attic, jumping off the house and dropping down to street level. She kept galloping, passing guard patrols without heed as she picked up speed again. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps as she kept accelerating, her muscles screaming out with pain as she pushed her body to its limits. Even at full speed, she could hear the distant crash of the unicorn bursting out onto the street, hear the rhythmic thudding of his hooves approaching, and his hot breath against her flanks. He’d caught up to her, even galloping at full speed. Nopony had ever done that before.

Sky darted sideways as she spotted a guard patrol almost immediately in front of her, a white unicorn with purple and gold armour at its head. She took off down a back alley, hearing the thudding of the unicorn’s hooves subside as he was distracted by the guards challenging him. She kept going, away from the crashing of hooves against metal.
“Hold on Shadow, we’re nearly out of here…” Sky panted, her whole body numb from pain by now. She stumbled again and again as she misstepped, nearly sending the filly sliding off of her back.
With a few strained leaps and bounds, Sky made her way above street level again, clambering back onto the rooftops and slowing down to a brisk trot, taking deep laboured breaths to try and get some air back in her system.
Over time, pain set back in, breaking through the numbness she was feeling and permeating her whole bruised body. The strain she’d put herself under, the hits she’d taken, all of it came rushing back, and the little pegasus stumbled under both sisters’ combined weight, nearly collapsing.
Ugh...usually I’m down for a little pain and a ton of exercise, but this is ridiculous…
Sky’s ears perked once more as she heard the thundering tread again.
No way…
She looked over her shoulder, almost too terrified to see if it was that same unicorn again.
No way...that’s such horseshit...there’s no way that he’s still coming after me…
The unicorn was galloping towards her, horn flaring once more. This time he himself was pursued by the pony in the purple armour, who was barking commands at him. That thing wasn’t listening, completely fixated on catching Sky.
She gave a very small squeak before taking off again, galloping as fast as her strained legs would carry her. She dropped down onto a balcony with the two stallions in hot pursuit, launching herself off of it.
Sky beat her wings, screaming out in pain as her damaged wing sent electric shocks of pure agony through her body. She gritted her teeth, blinking away tears as she twisted in the air and loaded an explosive dart into her crossbow.

She let fly at the exact moment that the armoured unicorn caught up with his quarry, tackling him onto the balcony. The explosive dart went off, collapsing the balcony underneath both of them and sending them tumbling down three storeys. They both landed in a heap, covered in fallen masonry.
Sky dropped down to the ground a moment later, taking only a few seconds to scream and stretch her wing out. She was shaking with pain now, the dull aching of her muscles and bruised body overridden by the stabbing agony of her wing. She hadn’t wanted to use that thing in the first place, and it provided all the lift of a colander with all those puncture wounds through it, but she was desperate. She looked around at Shadow, who was still passed out on her back.
“It’s okay, Shadow. I’ll get you safe.” She whispered. “It’ll be okay. Just hold on…”
And with one final nuzzle, Sky was gone, galloping off back towards her tower.

The unicorn struggled to his hooves, groaning as the red light enveloped his body once again. Bones started knitting back together, bruises healed over, and his horn fixed itself. Within a few minutes, the damage that he had sustained from the fall was completely repaired, and he was just as he had been before.

Stronghooves was up first, eyes shining bright blue as he advanced on the stallion sternly, shoving him back to the ground with his forehoof. His purple helmet and breastplate was dented and damaged by the explosion and the fall, and he was furious beyond reason.

“What did you want with Sky Runner?” He growled, eyes narrowing as he regarded the other unicorn with cold malice.

“Silver...told me...kill her…” The unicorn responded in kind, launching himself at Stronghooves and pinning him to the ground. He snorted in Stronghooves’s face, baring his teeth.

“Over my dead body you’ll kill her.” Stronghooves whispered back, pulling back his hind legs and kicking his assailant right in the bollocks.
The unicorn went down, wheezing, giving Stronghooves the opportunity to pick his sword up again.

“You and I...are gonna end up...equally matched…” The stallion spat, getting up again and barrelling into him. He knocked Stronghooves onto his back once more, rearing up on his hind legs and bringing them down onto his head. The captain’s helmet bent like a tin can under the heavy hooves, and he gave out a grunt of pain.

“I dunno...I do have one edge over you.” He growled softly, kicking the stallion’s hind legs out from under him. Scrambling away, he got back up in tandem with his opponent, picking his sword up and letting it float in the air in front of him.
The two of them circled each other, snorting and stamping their heavy hooves.

“What’s that, then?” Silver’s operative growled, before charging at a fairly obvious opening that Stronghooves had left. As the sword came flashing through the air, he realised too late that Stronghooves had purposefully left himself open.

“Well…” He grinned, leaning in at the surprised stallion, twisting the blade in his chest a little. “The big enchanted sword helps, I find.”

Stronghooves stepped away from the stallion as he collapsed, looking down the street again. Sky was nowhere to be seen. She likely didn’t even know that he’d just saved her from a very dangerous pony. He gave a soft sigh, sitting down and pulling his damaged helmet off of his head.
We’ll see each other again soon, Sky. I promise you.
He bowed his head, letting his ears splay back as he played with a loose cobblestone for a while, lost in contemplation. Finally, he arose again, pulling his sword free and grabbing the unicorn by his horn.
“I think it’s about time we had a talk with Silver about the way we do things in my city.”