The shadows stay on our tail for better than a week.

We keep ahead of them, but barely. The hot sun of the Mojave keeps them at bay during the day, and my speed gives us a considerable lead on them, but Lightning and I both know that’s only going to last for as long as we’re on the Mother Road.

That and I can’t keep running forever.

The metaphorical ‘engine’ that runs my magic is a pretty damn efficient one, but I need to sleep eventually. Unfortunately, between running all day and only catching a few hours of downtime at night, by the end of the week I’m running on fumes.

“C’mon, Rainbabe, just a little further,” Lightning says.

We’re close to the official end of the route and about six days from Canterlot on foot assuming I could find time to recharge, but therein lay the rub.

“Can’t… stop…” I gasp as Lightning Dust pulls me into an alley.

We’d passed into the limits of Yokelahoma City fifteen minutes ago, now we're downtown and my whole body is starting to go numb. Worse, it’s closing in on the evening and once night falls fully the Hellshades will be right on our asses again just like they have been all week.

“Not your choice, Rainbabe,” Lightning says. “You’re on the edge of redlining, and that’s not an option.”

“We… we can’t…” My vision doubles as I collapse back against the wall of the alley and slide down it until I’m sitting on the ground. “They’re right… on our heels…”

I’m heaving every word out between dragging air into my abused lungs. I want to keep running. I have to keep running, but my body is at its limit. The tattoos crawling across my sweat-stained skin like ivy are an ugly bruise-purple, and I know if I try to push further they’ll dive into angry scarlet.

Damn it.

“Let’s go babe,” Lightning gets herself under me, pulls one of my arms over her shoulder, and starts dragging me out to the sidewalk.

The sun is setting, and the city streetlights are only just now beginning to flicker on one by one. Even through my haze of exhaustion I'm straining to listen for the sound of the Hellshades approach. It’s subtle, just an aura of faint whispers. Imagine suddenly being in a large room full of people where everyone is keeping their conversations to a polite volume, except you’ll hear it coming from the walls and the air and the sky above.

“Where are we going?” I gulp in another drink of air and look up at Lightning who’s scanning the skyline of the city.

She doesn’t answer for several minutes, and by now I’m smart and patient enough not to repeat myself. I know she heard me, and the only reason she hasn’t answered is because she’s coming up with a plan. That’s how we work.

She plans and I execute.

Lightning is my shot-caller, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The Mareiott.” Lightning looks over at me with a renewed grin. “We’re going to the Mareiott.”

“Isn’t the vacation supposed t’be after we finish the mission?” I ask with a laugh.

“Shut up,” Lightning pulls me closer so she can support me with one arm while pulling out her phone and dialing with the other. “We need a place that’s well lit.”

“Isn’t that everywhere?” I look around the city. We're downtown, so all the businesses are restaurants and bars catering the city's substantial nightlife. “Why the Mareiott?”

Lightning doesn’t answer. She’s holding the phone up to her ear, and it only rings once before I hear Sunny Flare’s muffled voice answer on the other line.

//Dusty? Are you okay?// Sunny’s tone is one of immediate worry. Unlike Zee, she’s kind of a worrywart in general, although I guess that’s probably to do with Zee’s condition.

“Could be better, Flares, we’re in a bind.”

Lightning gives her the low down on the Hellshades and the conjurer, what little we know of him, including the Spark’s Notes regarding my week-long marathon.

“Anyway, now we’re in Yokelahoma City and Dashie is the next best thing to redlining,” Lightning finishes, and I hear Sunny make a sharp noise of disapproval. “I have a plan, but we need to get the penthouse at the Courtyard Mareiott, can you and Zee swing that?”

There’s a brief pause, then Sunny chuckles quietly over the phone.

//Ah, I get it… yeah, we can do it, and if it’s occupied Zee can always hack their servers and make a few changes to the reservation logs. Just start heading over, it’ll be ready under your name in a minute or two.//

“Thanks, Sunny,” Lightning says, and gets a wordless hum by way of response before the line goes dead.

“Penthouse, huh? Snazzy.” I give Lightning my best grin, wiggling eyebrows included, and earn a flick across my nose in reply.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Rainbabe,” Lightning grumbles as she settles me more comfortably against her as she starts walking. “We need to call a cab, we have to get to the hotel before nightfall.”

“I can run us there,” I say firmly. “I can do that much without redlining.”

“You’re already bruising, Dash.” Lightning’s reply is tight and strained. She’s not angry, I know what angry sounds like. She’s just scared. “We can’t-!”

“-can’t afford to wait for a fuckin’ cab!” I cut her off. “I know my limits, Dusty, I can get us to the Mareiott, okay? Just show me a map, and I’ll get us there!”

She wants to argue with me, but she also knows I’m right. Whatever Lightning’s plan is, it relies on us having as much time as possible to execute it, and calling a cab, waiting on it, and then having to deal with the ride itself through downtown evening traffic meant we’d be an hour poorer on time at best.

Or, I could run, and we’d be there in five minutes.

“Fine!” Lightning snaps as she pulls out her phone and opens up the maps app, punches in the Mareiott hotel address and shows me the directions.

I stare at it hard for a moment, tracing the line in my mind, occasionally looking up to orient myself before looking back down at the little blue line that weaves through the city. After a moment, I’m sure I know how to get there.

Taking a deep breath, I pull in more magic, and my body crackles with hyperkinetic energy. Strength floods my shaking limbs, and the tremors still themselves immediately as I stand up from where I’d been leaning against Lightning Dust, breathe out, then in again, and turn back to Dusty with a grin.

“Ready?” I open my arms, and Lightning steps into my embrace.

I pull her close and as I do she buries her face against my neck and hugs me tight.

“Be careful, baby,” she whispers. “Please don’t push it.”

“I know.” I cradle her gently as I breathe in her calming scent. “I won’t… just hold on tight.”

“Always.”

I nod, then dig my heels into the cement sidewalk, trace the blue line to the Mareiott from where we’re standing one last time in my mind-

-and then I run.

A sheathe of sparkling kinetic energy snaps into place around me as I explode into motion. I keep myself subsonic this time. I’m already setting off car alarms every other step, and if I break the sound barrier I’ll blow out every window in a kilometer radius.

Plus, there are people here… even when the majority of the blowback from my wake is contained by my magic it’s not a fun experience to get bodily tossed around by a speedster. Right now, I barely have enough throughput to get us to the Mareiott safely with nowhere near the extra power to reduce collateral damage.

I have to be very careful.

Lightning is right to be worried. As confident as I made myself sound when I’d told her I could get us to the hotel, I’m not actually one hundred percent sure on that. The angry bruising tattoos of the Seal are pulsing deeper and deeper in color with every passing second. They’re an active track on my magical expenditure and once they hit red I’d be tapping into the most powerful magic in my body.

Dark magic.

It would be like flooding my internal engine with nitrous. I would go from barely standing to being on top of the world. I would be faster than any other being alive.

And I’d be marinating in the same power that corrupted Twilight and Zee.

I’d been forced to redline briefly back in Las Pegasus to get the amulet before another sorcerer, a speedster like me, got their hands one it. The result had been a crazy high that had required Tempest, Summer, and Lightning’s combined effort to pin me down and knock me out of it.

Here it’s just Lightning, and if I redline now…

If I hurt her…

I bite down on my lip and put a lid on those thoughts as I throttle my magic again, slowing us a little but keeping my expenditure to a more efficient clip.

If I ever hurt Lightning Dust because I lost control, I think it would really kill me.

As it is, we make it all the way to the hotel before the splitting pain of the Seal straining to contain the press of my power draw sends me stumbling. Lightning tumbles out of my arms with a yelp of alarm as my legs go out from under me and I hit the cement hard. The remains of the kinetic sheathe keep me from peeling half my face off, but it still hurts like a bitch before I finally come to a stop on my back.

“Rainbow?!” Lightning cries out as she staggers to her feet and runs to my side.

I can barely breathe. I sure as hell can’t stand. Electric pain arcs down my arms and legs. Spasms roll through me as the tattoos of the Seal flash between deep, bloody purple, and a dangerous red. I’m right on the line, not over it, but it would only take a stray breeze to push me the rest of the way.

“Rainbow, stay with me, baby!” Lightning kneels and pulls my head onto her lap. “Come on! Don’t go over the line! I can’t do this without you!”

It’s so close.

I can taste it. The power… the pure, unbridled speed. For a moment, I can feel it again. That unleashed power I briefly held two years ago during the Battle of Canterlot. It’s right at my fingertips, and if I reach just a little bit further I’ll have it in my grasp again.

Speed that can take me from one side of the world to the other in the span of heartbeats. I could move so fast that nothing could ever touch me again, nothing could hurt me, nothing could even see me. I would be a goddess; everywhere and nowhere all at once, and all I have to do is-

“RAINBOW!”

Lightning’s voice jerks me back from the edge, and I gasp for air. I can’t run from her, I can’t hurt her, and I can’t… I can’t be with her if I let myself get addicted to that power again.

That, more than anything, pulls me back from the red line.

“I’m here!” I gasp the words out, and Lightning sobs with relief.

“Thank God,” Lightning cries as she pulls me up into her arms and hugs me tight. “Can, uhm… can you stand, babe? ‘Cause we gotta move.”

“Y-Yeah, just gimme a sec,” I wheeze before forcing myself to sit up.

My vision doubles and then swims, briefly filling me with vertigo before I manage to tamp down on it and get my head on straight again. My legs manage to feel like lead and rubber at the same time as I stand, but Lightning gets herself under me again and we make our way towards the Mareiott lobby with time to spare.

We get more than a few weird looks from the hotel patrons and staff as we stagger into the hotel. I look like ten miles of bad road, and Lightning isn’t much better.

“Can I help you, ladies?” The concierge looks us up and down like we're scum that got tracked onto the hotel carpets on the heel of someone a lot richer.

He’s a tall, spare man in a nice suit with a receding grey-green hairline and a sallow complexion. His nose is the sort that looks like it was made to be looked down over, and I have to bite back a snarky remark about it.

I remind myself that we need them to not kick us out of here.

“Reservation for two in the Penthouse under the name Dust, Lightning,” Lightning says wearily, and the concierge looks over at the young woman manning the front desk.

They share incredulous stares but she goes to work looking for the reservation anyway, and a moment later her eyebrows shoot up past her generous bangs.

“It’s… here,” she glances up at the concierge who looks equally surprised. “Can uhm… if I could just have your ID’s to confirm?”

The woman holds out a hand, and we both dig out our wallets and pass our ID’s over. Mine is just an ID card while Lightning’s is an actual driver’s license. I don’t have one because, well… why would I? I can outrun a Formula One racer at full chat without breaking a sweat.

Besides, I hate driving. It gives me anxiety.

“Everything is in order,” the woman says, sounding as surprised as the concierge looks. “Full service, too… and, oh wow…”

She gestures violently for the Concierge in a ‘get over here’ motion who moves to her side, and they both read over something. Their demeanors both change instantly, and suddenly the concierge is all smiles and respect.

“I’m so sorry for the confusion,” he says with a bright grin. “Please, follow me!”

I look over at Lightning with a raised eyebrow, and she just chuckles.

“My guess?” She says. “Zee probably left them a pretty substantial tip.”

“Ah…” I nod. That sounded like Zee.

One thing we’d learned from having a benefactor as wealthy as Grizelda Grimfeather bankrolling us is that an alarming number of people are happy to look the other way regarding even the weirdest shit if you just shove enough hundred-dollar bills over their eyes.

That actually ended up explaining a lot about why our world is so fucked up.

The concierge walks us over to the elevators, punches in the penthouse suite, and swipes a card which he hands over to us once he’s done. He wrinkles his overlong nose as Lightning takes the keycard from him, but says nothing, probably because the scent of money chases out the stink of sweat pretty effectively.

The elevator chimes and opens to a large, and lushly appointed room. The furniture is top-class and definitely looks spendier than anything I’ve ever rested my duff on as the concierge leads us out. We move into the room with as much grace as two exhausted women can manage, and I take a deep breath.

This place even smells expensive.

“Room service was ordered ahead of you, ladies, and will be up directly,” he says cheerily, all of the vitriol in his voice was gone since he’d seen the depth of Zee’s pocketbook. “If you have any other needs, please don’t hesitate to ring the front desk.”

“Thanks, Jeeves, we’ll do that,” Lightning replies.

If he took offense to the moniker, he was professional, or greedy, enough to not show it. He swept a small bow and returned to the elevator as Lightning dragged me towards the bathroom.

“You gonna tell me why we’re here, Dusty?” I ask as the elevator door closes.

“Light,” is her only answer.

I collapse onto the toilet seat and shed my seal-chains as she runs a hot shower. The shower alone is as big as my bedroom back at my dad’s place, and the bathroom itself is probably the size of our living room. If I were less tired I would probably be staring at the gold fittings and the polished marble, but as it is I can barely keep my eyes open.

“If we’re lucky, we’ll get a few hours of sleep before the shit hits the fan.” Lightning sweeps her hand under the water a few times before nodding and turning to me. “You need sleep, Rainbabe.”

“Still haven’t explained,” I say groggily. “Light against the shades, I get that, but they’ll short out the mains like they always do. City infrastructure is dogshit.”

“Right,” Lightning agrees. “Except high-class places like the Mareiott have back generators that kick in if the mains go out, and those backups have backups for things like the kitchen freezers and the really expensive suites.”

“Like the penthouse,” I say, my eyes widening as I start to laugh.

Like I said, Lightning is the smart one.

Lightning Dust carefully strips my sweat-stained clothing off of me, then lifts me into the shower. I let her guide me mostly because I’m not entirely sure my legs are going to support me if I try to do it on my own. If it were anyone but Lightning Dust, I’d probably be putting up more of an argument, but Dusty has seen me at a lot lower than this.

She’s probably the only one I trust to take care of me when I’m this weak.

I’m barely in the shower when the front bell rings.

“That’ll be room service.” Lightning stands and dries off her arms where the shower had splashed. “Just relax, babe, and try not to fall over and drown.”

“If I go out like that I’ll deserve it,” I mutter.

I lean back into the flow of hot water, relishing the way it sluices the sweat off of me. At one point I glance down and see the water running a deep, dirty brown as it swirls into the drain. I must have dragged a quarter of the Mojave into the lobby with us.

Hm… maybe Jeeves had a point when he looked at us. We must have looked like a couple of vagrants.

“Got some food, Rainbabe.” Lightning hip-checks the door open and drags in the entire serving cart.

It’s piled high with carbs, meat, fruit, and three pitchers of ice water that make my mouth go dry just looking at. Up to now we’d been living off of gas station food in between crashing at the shittiest types of roadside motels for what little rest our pursuers would give us, and my stomach has decided that enough is enough.

The smell of steak and potatoes hits me like a Mack truck and my stomach lets out a deafening rumble.

Lightning Dust laughs as she slips in beside me, pulling her clothes off as she does, and starts helping me wash. My limbs have gotten a little feeling into them by now and between the two of us and brand new loofah we manage to get me feeling at least human-adjacent again, rather than like day-old roadkill.

“Here, Zee did us another solid,” Lightning says as she helps me out of the shower and passes me a towel.

She kneels down as I dry myself off, and pulls a bag out with some sports company logo on it I don’t recognise, probably something local, and pulls out two full sets of clean clothes, one in my size, and one in Lightning’s.

God bless that crippled Braytish lesbian.

Once I’m dry I pull on the form-fitting sports top and shorts, and Lightning starts to do the same, but something makes her jerk to a stop as I finish tugging the top straight.

“No fucking way.” Lightning says, and I turn to her.

“What?”

Lightning Dust sighs heavily as she holds up the sports top she was gifted with the back of it facing her and glares at it for a moment before flipping it around so I can see it too.

I can’t help it. I start laughing.

The back of her shirt, and mine, has the image of a skull split in half by a lightning bolt, and just below that is the word ‘HELLIONS’ written in a sharp font like the letters had been scarred into the shirt with a carving knife.

“We’re like the lamest motorcycle gang,” Lightning grumbles as she pulls the shirt on.

“Aw c’mon! It’s awesome!” I stand and look at my back in the mirror. “That is rad as fuck!”

“You are such a loser.” Lightning laughs but she stands as she does, pulls me close, and kisses me.

There’s a subtle curve to her lips that I like. Now, I’m not what you’d call experienced. Actually, Lightning is the only person, girl or otherwise, I’ve ever kissed. That said, I know what I like, and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I like the way Lightning Dust kisses.

“We’re gonna make it out of this, Dusty,” I say quietly as we part. “And we’re getting Twi’ back this time.”

Lightning sighs as she rests her head against my shoulder.

“That’s what we thought last time,” She replies with a hard touch to her voice, “and all did was piss off a Prench Warlock by stopping that fake anti-curse bullshit he was peddling.”

“Yeah, but punching him in his stupid face when we found out felt pretty good,” I say.

She laughs again. It’s the little things like that that keep me above water.

What we did- what I did- hurt so many people, and nearly hurt orders of magnitude more, that I can’t think too hard about it or I’ll start drowning in guilt. Instead I focus on what I can do to make it right.

Part of that is making her laugh. I tell myself that so long as I can make Lightning laugh, I can live with myself. So long as I can help, and try to make up for some of the damage I’d caused under Storm King, I can keep on going.

“We’ll make it work this time, Dusty,” I say again, running my hands over her soft, windblown hair. “And if it doesn’t, we’ll try again, and again, and again, until all of us are together again, okay?”

“Yeah,” she nods, “okay.”

“Now let’s get to that grub, because I smell steak,” I turn to the platters of food and start grabbing, and I can feel Lightning’s eyes on me the same way I can hear her laughter.

“Just don’t stuff yourself, I need you awake in a few hours, not in a food coma,” Lightning calls as she walks out of the bathroom. “I’m gonna go sketch up a ward on the door.”

“Hang a sock on it too, wouldja!?” I reply through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

“Babe, no,” she yells from the living room.

I chuckle as I take a bite of juicy steak, chew, and swallow, washing it down with ice water. My magic takes a ton of energy out of me, and not all of it comes from my wellspring. What I do is a cousin to hyperkinetic fighting, which means that the acceleration also burns a load more calories. Not one-for-one, obviously, otherwise I’d burn myself up, most of the extra power comes out of my magic, but the rest?

Yup, good old fashioned meat and potatoes.

One of our Master’s first and simplest lessons when it came to taking full control of our magic back while we were dreaming in Equestria was this:

‘Don’t. Skip. Meals.’

With that in mind, I swallowed the last few bites of my steak before making up a plate to take out to Lightning. I filled it mostly with finger food, things she could pick at while she sketched the design. She would need to eat a full meal too, but at this point she needed everything she could get.

“Hey,” I say as I step out of the bathroom, dragging the serving cart behind me, “here, you should eat a little while you work.”

I hold the tray I’d filled with fruits, olives, and salmon nigiri up to Lightning as she drew the chalk along the wall and door. She’s going slow to make sure the matches up all the lines, but her free hand grabs one of the nigiri and stuffs it, whole, into her mouth.

“Fanks babe,” she mumbles around the mouthful of fish and rice, then swallows, and pulls back as she finishes a section. “I oughta finish this first though.”

“Not unless you want me to rat you out to the master for skipping meals,” I say with a grin, and Lightning winces, but smiles back.

“Ugh, fine…” she takes a few pieces of fruit. “That dude was harsh.”

“You know what he’d say to that?” I laugh as I take another bite of potatoes.

“Doi,” Lightning pops a grape into her mouth, bites down, swallows, then, in her best impression of Master Sombra, says: “I am a King, not a dude.”

Author's Note

Yes, my unfinished garbage fire 'King & Shy' is canon to Featherfall.

Maybe I'll finish it one day, maybe not. But the idea of Fluttershy and Sombra still kicking around in the shadows of Equestria amuses me to no end.