At a glance, it was a surprisingly well-kept, low-rent complex. The grass was short, none of the paint was peeling, and there wasn’t even any graffiti.

But most of the parked cars were green, with some variant of five-sided stars painted on them. And sentries walked the grounds on regular patrols, dressed in varying shades of green, armed with assault rifles and machetes.

Between the complex and Mary Shelley Boulevard, there was a miniature playground. There weren’t any children there, of course; even the Children of Trixie weren’t that reckless. Instead, between it and the street, two green-clad men were tossing a frisbee, machine pistols obvious in the holsters on their hips.

But while casing the place, Twilight and Rainbow Dash had both seen people coming in and out of a few doors who hadn’t been wearing gang colors. And a few times, a small child had met their parents excitedly at the door.

Rainbow Dash frowned from where she crouched, hidden by some bushes across the street.

“Shit,” she said. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.”

“Agreed,” came Twilight’s reply. “I think the full frontal is out.”

Grinning, Rainbow Dash dropped her head, eyes closed. “Yeah, dude, that’s not what that means.”

Peering over the area from her perch on one of the apartment building’s rooftops, Twilight shrugged.

“Well, whatever. The point is that a dramatic frontal assault would be ill-advised. Even if we could be certain of the Children’s desire to keep their families safe, we don’t know about their competence. There’s bound to be crossfire.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “And if they’ve got kids that probably means partners, relatives, you name it.”

“Which we should have expected, and didn’t,” Twilight sighed.

“Yeah, well, the Dazzlings didn’t house whole fucking families.”

“Still.”

After a brief pause, Rainbow asked, “Wanna do this at night?”

“Too risky. More people in the compound, plus any shooters may be firing blind.”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “I thought we were doing this in broad daylight to make a statement.”

“We were. The situation has changed.”

There were several minutes of silence while both women considered the matter.

“Twilight, I hate to say it, but I think we’re back to stealth,” Rainbow sighed.

“That may be our only option. Can you get to his apartment without being seen?”

“Sure. But what about you? Do I carry you in, or…?”

Twilight considered the idea, then sighed.

“No, too many variables,” She said reluctantly. “I’ll be lookout, and long-distance backup if needs be. We have good cloud coverage; I doubt anyone will notice me. I’ll need the rifle, though. Just in case.”

Moving the surrounding foliage as little as possible, Rainbow Dash unlimbered the long stunner and held it vertically beside her.

“Okay, ready,” she said.

There was a moment’s pause, and then the weapon was surrounded in a violet glow, and in an eyeblink it was jerked up into the sky.

“Okay, let me know when you’re ready for the pistol,” Twilight said.

“Hang on a sec, still counting my fingers.”

“Sorry.”

“Joke, Twilight. But yeah, as soon as it looks clear to you, drop it down.”

It took another few minutes until Twilight judged that no one would see. Then the small stunner thrust its way downward into the shrubbery in a streak of purple light, hovering just next to Rainbow Dash.

Across the street, one of the frisbee players turned towards her direction, frowning.

“Okay, I got it!” Rainbow whispered, grabbing the thing. “Leggo!”

Immediately, the glow vanished.

For several seconds, Rainbow Dash barely dared to breathe.

Then, the other player said something to the one who was staring. The second guy said something back. Then, both of them were staring.

“Um, Twilight?”

“Be ready to run,” came the reply.

But then the second guy said something else, and both of them laughed. A few seconds later, their game had started up again, with occasional pauses to do something with their phones.

“I don’t like this,” Rainbow Dash grumbled.

“Neither do I,” Twilight said. “But this may be our only chance to reach him. If Trixie realizes that we were trying to get to Gabby earlier, she may move him, increase security around him, or even just have him killed, depending on just how crazy she’s become.”

Rainbow Dash winced. “And I keep wanting to say, ‘Hey, what are you talking about, this is Trixie,’ but…”

She could hear the regret in Twilight’s voice. “Yes. So do I.”

“You know, you never did tell me what you think got to her.”

“That’s because I’m not certain,” Twilight replied. “If it’s something else, acting on assumptions could lead to mistakes later.”

“Gotcha.”

“Also,” Twilight added quietly, “I’m really hoping I’m wrong.”

Rainbow Dash said nothing. But inwardly, she had to think, yeah, how often does that happen?

The silence lasted several moments. Finally, Twilight said, “Okay, I’m in position.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Okay, on my mark. Three, two…”

Suddenly, there was a squealing of tires as Gabby’s van screeched out of the parking lot, spun, slid sideways onto the street, and then righted itself before peeling out towards the highway at high speed.

“…oh now what the FUCK?!?” Rainbow finished, shouting at the sky.

A variety of Children of Trixie members were exiting various doors, now, most of them jeering, pointing and cursing at the swiftly vanishing van. A few of them fired randomly into the air, shouting and laughing.

“Follow him,” Twilight said. “Keep your distance, avoid being seen if you can.”

By the time she’d finished speaking, the other woman had already vanished in a streak of rainbow-colored light.

“God damned car chases,” Rainbow Dash grumbled to herself.

Following in-town had been the hardest, with so many other cars and cross-streets, plus fucking Gabby driving like he was playing a goddamn video game. She’d ended up climbing up onto the rooftops at high speed, and then bounding across them, trying to keep out of Gabby’s rear view and his peripheral, all while keeping the blue van in view.

“God damned car chases,” she muttered to herself again. “At least the Crow got a cool soundtrack.”

Fortunately, once the city limits were behind them, things had gotten simpler.

With more wide-open spaces available, Rainbow veered far to the right. She kept the van in sight, always staying far enough behind that she wouldn’t be seen but near enough that she could close if she needed. Navigating the rough terrain maybe a hundred feet to the side of the highway while keeping an eye on the idiot she was chasing.

Sure, she could outrun pretty much anything. But the faster she made herself able to go, the slower time seemed to flow around her. Which meant she could make this quick, but exhaust herself by sprinting full out for who knows how long… or, she could keep up at a comfortable jog, treat the chase like the marathon run it was, and stay bored out of her skull for probably hours while idiot-ass Gabby Driver turtled his way across state lines.

Fuck my life, she thought for the thousandth time. In her earpiece, the low and grainy sound of Twilight’s voice continued to vibrate, probably a syllable or two of encouragement that Rainbow didn’t need.

She reached up and switched the damned things off. This was enough of a grind without spending the next several minutes listening to Twilight’s voice turned into a bad Isaac Hayes reverb.

Then, the van started to veer.

Rainbow frowned. What the hell?

Technically, Gabby had been driving recklessly the whole time. But he was also a crack driver, and the van had always been solidly in control. There had been a few times that the blue woman had considered speeding up and helping someone avoid a crash, or even grab them out of their cars, but that hadn’t been necessary thus far.

But this… this seemed different.

The van continued its agonizingly slow drift to the left, relatively sudden and unnecessary, mercifully without any other vehicles nearby.

The chassis gradually rocked side to side on its wheels, showing what in normal time would be a brief shudder as the van started its jerk back to the right.

Rainbow continued to watch carefully.

Yeah, Gabby was definitely out of control.

Rainbow Dash slowed time further, giving herself time to think. She was an okay driver, but if she jumped into the driver’s seat and tried to take over, she’d be as likely to wreck the van as to save it.

On the other hand, if she did nothing, Gabby could die. And maybe not alone.

Fuckity-fuckity-fuck.

Gritting her teeth, Rainbow Dash ran faster. She advanced on the van rapidly, hoping she’d be able to react correctly to whatever was happening when the time came.

Author's Note

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Ending credits: Run Like Hell, by Pink Floyd.