Night Shade zoomed through the air, her laser pistol gripped firmly between her teeth. Behind her, she could hear her pursuers firing at her with their own laser weapons. Normally, she would be able to easily overpower them, but these were no ordinary ponies.

These were Grand Pegasus Enclave soldiers, who were just as skilled as herself. Not only that, but they were her former allies, her squadmates. They knew her strengths and her weaknesses.

Night felt a searing bolt of pure magical energy zip right above her head. If she didn't do something immediately, she'd surely get fried. With this in mind, she managed to twist around in mid-air, now face-to-face with her attackers. She fired at them in rapid succession, managing to strike one in the wing and knock him out of the air. That left three well-trained and furious troops still chasing her. She flipped back around, but not before she was struck in the leg by a well-placed shot. She cried out, but managed to stay aloft.

"Shoot her down!" called one of the soldiers to his allies. "We can't let her escape!" Knowing that they would kill her any second, she folded her wings and dive-bombed towards the rocky and uninviting ground below her. Two of them hesitated, but the third followed after her, eager to claim the prize on her head.

Night, seeing the soldier on her tail, tucked even closer and sped up her fall. When the other pegasus attempted that, he began to fall even faster than her. Seeing his error, he spread his wings to their full length.

It was the last mistake he would ever make. The wind resistance was so strong that his wings snapped. He screamed all the way down.

Still falling to the ground with alarming speed, Night opened her own wings to slow her descent, albeit at a slower pace. However, she miscalculated how fast she was going. At that speed, the only thing she accomplished was straining her wings to the point of agony. She felt the muscles in her wings pull out of place, and she lost control. She was a thousand feet above the ground and in a freefall.

Above her, the Enclave agents watched. "The target is down," reported one on his radio. "I repeat, target is down."

"Wait!" scolded a boyish pegasus mare. "She's not dead yet."

Night Shade struggled to regain her balance, but might as well have been a stalled aeroplane. She was spiraling to her doom. With one final push, she attempted to spread her damaged wings. Miraculously, she recovered her control and began to descend at a much slower pace. Still, her wings were throbbing with pain. She wouldn't be able to stay airborne forever.

Below her were the ruins of a small town. She smiled. Perfect. Just like in the training exercises.

Glancing behind her, she saw the soldiers continuing the chase. Thankfully, they were far behind her. She had time to land and take cover behind a burnt-out wall before the troops approached and began to search for her.

"Spread out," the other mare ordered the stallion. "If you see the target, shoot to kill." With that, they began combing the ruins for her. Night knew a thing or two about stealth, though. When one soldier began to search the area around her, she dove behind another building. Scooping up a pebble from the dirt, she threw it towards another building.

The clattering sound alerted both of the Enclave troops. They approached the area where they'd heard the noise, their backs turned to the hidden Night. She saw her opportunity and lined up a shot. She held her breath to steady her aim; when she was sure that her aim was true, she pulled the mouth-operated trigger.

The laser beam drilled through both of the soldiers' heads. They collapsed in a vaporized heap.

Night Shade sighed. It was over. She stepped out of cover and proceeded to the most painful part of combat: patching up her wounds. Studying her injured leg, she found that it had only been grazed. Her Enclave armor was well-protected against lasers, so she only had a minor burn. This was fixed with a short length of bandage and a bit of the rapidly-depleting stash of burn ointment she had.

She flexed her wings and winced. Clearly, she would not be doing any flying for a while. However, it would heal in good time. And it's not like she needed to fly anywhere. The only items of interest in the sky were the Enclave bases, and she sure as hell wasn't going back there.

Even from the beginning, she had despised what the Enclave stood for. But she had been born into the Enclave, and once you're in, there's no way out.

Unless, of course, you didn't mind having your cutie mark branded.

Night, against all odds, had found another way. She had simply deserted her squad in the middle of training. Or, tried to. They'd followed her pretty far.

Speaking of far... She pulled a small paper map from her saddlebag and studied it. She had been traveling north for a few miles to try to shake her ex-comrades, but that obviously hadn't helped much. She figured that she was just in the outskirts of Ponyville, a raider-controlled town. It had long-since been looted dry, so there was no point in exploring. However, the nearest settlement, New Appleloosa, was a few hours away...

...as the pegasus flies, which she couldn't do. She cursed. That meant she would have to fight her way through Ponyville's colorful assortment of murderers and rapists just to find sanctuary.

Well, nopony ever said that deserting your faction was easy. She would have to manage. After reloading her pistol, she silently began to creep through the ruins.

Author's Note

Revised 6/8/14.