//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: A World Ruled by Shadows 
// Story: The Paladin of Prismatic Light 
// by Keeper of time RD 
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	The sun was shining. A warm breeze softened the chill of the mid-morning air. Everything was shaping up to be a perfect day in Ponyville. And in the skies above said small town Rainbow Dash was bored out of her mind.

The pegasus mare’s sky-blue coat was the perfect camouflage as she glided slowly along. Her prismatic mane and tail, not so much. Although, from this height ponies on the ground would only see her rainbow tail fluttering behind her, and if they were far enough off to the side maybe they’d catch a glimpse of her cutie mark. Though again, at this altitude the small symbol of a white cloud with a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt on her flank would be little more than a colorful speck to any ground-bound observer.

Dash’s magenta eyes gave the ground another quick scan before returning to searching the airspace around her. And she couldn’t help but groan as her mind comprehended what her eyes had seen. Namely the fact that the clock tower said that it was only 8:15. Why was she even awake at this ungodly early hour?

Okay, sure normal ponies usually started work around eight, but that was exactly why she hated mornings, because everypony else was busy with work or school. That thought made her give an annoyed sigh. It had taken her all of two minutes to shuffle the clouds around to the perfect places, and the weather schedule called for partly cloudy all day, so her day’s work was done.

Another glance at the sky confirmed that the clouds were exactly where they needed to be to give all of Ponyville’s favorite hangout spots much needed shade when the heat of they day rolled around. Yes, Rainbow Dash had done everything in her power to earn her bits as a weather pony today… Pity that that didn’t change the fact that noon, and any chance of real interaction with a friendly face, was four hours away.

Normally having the day to herself wasn’t a problem for the ace flyer. But today her usual standby time-killer just didn’t seem to be working. Folding her wings slightly, she went into a shallow dive. With the surge of speed and the rush of wind on her face she felt… nothing. Then she did a quick roll into an immediate loop-d-loop. Nope, still nothing. Dang, why couldn’t she get in the mood to practice her stunt flying today?

Leveling back out she tossed a glance toward the town below. If she wasn’t too bored to react, she might have died at the realization that the clock tower still said 8:15. She hadn’t even burned a full minute since she’d last checked the time! What in creation was she going to do until her friends were done with their work and she could be with them again?

Nothing, unless she decided to help them at work.

First her eyes fell on a rather over-decorated building roughly the shape of a carousel. She quickly shook that idea from her head. No, helping Rarity work was just a different form of boredom.

Next the pegasus cast her gaze to the apple orchard on the south west edge of town. Sweet Apple Acres was the home of the friend most like herself. Strong, athletic and competitive, Applejack was certainly more fun to hang out with in Rainbow Dash’s mind. She pondered the idea for a moment, but from the looks of it, the tanish farm pony was in the middle of a harvest. And while a few hours of hard labor might tire her out enough to take a nap and kill the rest of the morning, kicking trees and hulling loads of apples too heavy to fly with wasn’t exactly the weather pegasus’ cup of cider.

Dash’s gaze soon found its way to the building in the market part of town that looked like a life-sized gingerbread house. The faint glimmer in her eye was quickly snuffed out by the frown on her face. She knew she wasn’t much of a baker and if there was one thing Rainbow Dash hated more than being bored, it was being useless. She was too awesome to ever want to be seen stumbling around like an apprentice, being overshadowed by everypony else in the room. So helping Pinkie Pie was out. Maybe she’d stop by Sugar Cube Corner later, as a customer.

A cottage at the south edge of town with a green thatch roof soon became the focus of the high-flyer’s thoughts. Home of her long-time friend Fluttershy. Despite their completely different personalities it wasn’t that hard to have a good time with the friend she’d grown up with. Yet when Fluttershy was tending her animals was pretty much the one time the shy yellow pegasus was willing to brush off or otherwise ignore Rainbow Dash. Maybe in an hour or so, once she was done with her morning routine, at least Flutters job didn’t have the strict time lines of most jobs.

Actually tending animals was something Flutters did on her own dime. Not that it mattered, the pet care services that she did get paid for didn’t have any perceivable pattern to them either. But for the time being Dash could think of more exciting ways to kill time than watching animals get fed.

Rapidly running out of alternate candidates a large tree in the middle of town became the target of the flyer’s pondering. Said tree seemed to be sprouting a balcony amongst its branches, and its trunk held windows and a door because it was in fact the town library, and current residence of Twilight Sparkle. Technically the unicorn in question also held a job with a flexible work schedule, that job being student of magic and prized pupil of Princess Celestia. Of course none of that stopped Twilight from scheduling every second of every day weeks in advance anyway.

And Dash was fairly sure that her next scheduled hang out time with Twilight wasn’t for another three days. Or was it a lunch meeting? Oh well, whatever it was Twilight was smart enough to schedule a same day reminder about an hour before any meeting with Rainbow Dash, so she’d find out what it was when it actually mattered. Which really worked well for Dash, seeing as she preferred to life her life more freeform.

Fixed schedules were fine for other ponies, but they just got in the way of being there for your friends when they needed you most. Not something a super awesome spirit of loyalty like Rainbow Dash was about to tolerate in her life. Not any more than she had to anyway.

That thought aside, thinking of her librarian friend did being an idea to mind, at least until Dash explored the idea and realized that she still remembered everything about every Daring Do book that there was. ‘So much for rereading one of those,‘ she thought to herself.

Fresh out of ideas she hung her head and conceded herself to her fate of a boring morning.

By now her aimless flying had taken her to the north edge of town, where lush green rolling hills stretched out ever northward. In the distance, above those rolling hills was a city in the sky. The pride of pegasus cities, the city made of clouds was a sight to behold. Up close anyway, from this distance too many details were lost and little more than a few rainbow falls flowing over the edges differentiated it from any other large white cloud field in the sky. Well, that and the distinctly building-like shapes the top half of the cloud-city was crafted into.

For a brief moment she considered flying to the city she’d grown up in. But unless the Wonder Bolts were putting on some stunt show she’d forgotten about there wasn’t really anything exciting for her to do there. And even if they were putting on an air show it didn’t matter seeing as the Wonder Bolts were the most popular flying team ever, so shows were usually sold out well before the day of the show.

With a slight turn of her head Rainbow Dash sighted the Canterlot Mountains and the capital city of Equestria that they were named after. A magnificent city of alabaster stone and gold construction hugged the side of the mountain. A fair portion of it hung in the air as half the city had been built on a massive balcony on the side of the mountain rather on the mountain itself. Certainly a city that any adventurous soul should visit at least once.

A pity that she had been there several times by now, and to date Canterlot had been the only city she knew of that had found a way to make parties boring. Unicorn high-society’s idea of ‘fun’ certainly didn’t mesh with her own.

A whole day to herself and wings that could carry her anywhere and somehow she had never felt more trapped then she did right now.

Almost as if it were an answer to an unspoken prayer, a cry for help reached her ears.

Quickly scanning the skies, she caught sight of a white pegasus mare with a light-blue mane. More importantly said mare was flapping her wings, trying to fight against the black rope that had snared her midsection and was pulling the unfortunate pegasus toward a… hole in the sky?

The magical sight that she found herself diving toward looked like a ring of fiery orange energy.

But more importantly the ensnared mare’s wing beats seemed to be weakening with each flap of her wings. By now she’d been dragged halfway through the mysterious portal. In a last desperate bid the mare surged her wings trying to tug back at the rope tugging her through the portal. As she did so, the white pegasus caught a glimpse of the prismatic motion blur diving her way. A glimmer of hope flashed in the mare’s desperate eyes just before her strength gave out. Whatever was on the other end of the black rope won the tug-of-war and she vanished through the portal.

Now that the portal was clear of obstructions Rainbow Dash could see through it. Although, at the angle she was diving at the portal, all she could see was that the ground on the other side was several hundred feet below the portal. (Just as it was on this end.) That and that the sliver of ground she could see seemed to be some brown hill.

Of course ever since the target of her rescue had vanished through the portal, Dash has started flapping her wings to add her thrust and to dive faster than gravity alone would allow. Pulling out of her dive at the last second she shot straight through the portal at lightning speed.

In the next fraction of a second many things happened in rapid succession.

First, Rainbow Dash passed through the portal as seamlessly as she might just flying through an open window and the world around her changed completely.

Second, she spotted the white pegasus was no longer flying and was now just hanging limply from the rope that had captured her.

Next, Dash traced the rope up to a shadowy pegasus as black and featureless as the shadows that haunt your nightmares. As a side note, she also took notice that the pegasus holding the rope was also between two more dark pegasi.

Finally, she adjusted her aim, focused her mind and spirit on duplicating the meteor-strike technique she’d used to demolish Applejack’s barn not too long ago. And then she clobbered the dark pegasus holding the white mare captive.

The next second wasn’t exactly any less action packed.

Unsurprisingly an airborne pegasus had a lot more give than the ground, so when Rainbow Dash struck her target she sent the dark pegasus tumbling through the air. Naturally he dropped his end of the rope. And judging from his size and the shape of its muzzle Dash could safely guess that her first target was in fact a stallion.

Not that that fact registered in her mind at the time, no, at that moment the only thing on her mind was following through with part two of the plan she’d just come up with the instant she came through the portal. And that plan was simply this, now that she’d imparted all of her momentum on the dark stallion formerly holding the rope, she had come to a halt right between the other two dark pegasi. So with little more than a twisted flap of her wings she rotated herself to face one and lashed out with all of her hooves at once. Her front two striking the dark pegasus now in front of her, while her hind legs struck the one behind her.

The two shadowy pegasi rolled away and quickly recovered from the surprise attack, Allowing Dash a moment to glance down at the falling white mare.

Now that the rope was no longer held taut, the white and blue mare was loosening the friction knot that had previously held her fast. Despite her clear progress in freeing herself, the falling mare’s movements seemed sluggish and on top of that she seemed so focused on freeing herself from the rope’s noose that she wasn’t even bothering to flap her wings.

At first the two shadowy figures seemed hopelessly confused by the sudden interference of the sky-blue pegasus, then they seemed to dive at their former captive as if by instinct. As they dove one of them pulled out their own black rope and began to swing it around readying itself to lasso the white mare again.

Dash was quick to dive down and with a powerful flap of her wings sent out a gust of wind that knocked the second rope astray as soon as it was thrown.

Another glance at the white mare showed that she had finally freed herself from the first dark rope and was starting to flap her wings to stop her fall.

Rainbow Dash brought herself to a hover in the space between the shadow pegasi and the white mare. For the first time the softly glowing purple dots that seemed to pass for the shadowy pegasi’s eyes seemed to truly notice the pegasus with the rainbow mane, and their owners also came to a hover.

With a creepy uniformity to their actions the dark mare-like pegasi turned to look at the stallion-like one who had been launched by Dash’s opening attack. By now even he had recovered from the forced tailspin, although he was a few thousand feet away now, yet he too came to a hover, gazing at Rainbow Dash. Then he looked up and slightly to the side, and with no visible signal or spoken command all three dark pegasi turned in unison and began to fly away.

With the enemy retreating, Rainbow Dash looked to the same place that the shadowy stallion did, knowing what was there. The glance rewarded her with the knowledge that the portal was shrinking. Looking down to the white mare she’d just freed, she saw that even though the mare was now flying back upward she was ascending too slowly.

With one last look at the collapsing portal Rainbow Dash ran the numbers in her head. Which to her played out more like watching two movies of alternate time lines in the back of her mind. But the result was the same as running numbers, that being she realized that if she bolted for the portal now she might be able to make it back through before it got too small to use. But if she took the time to dive down, grab the mare she was trying to rescue, and rush back up there was no way the portal would still be big enough to use by the time they got there.

The ace flyer had a split second to make her choice.

Dash held her hover and waited for the white mare to join her.

“They-They’re letting us go?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head, and motioned a hoof toward the shrinking portal. “No, they know we’re stuck on their turf. They’re probably going to get their friends and get ready to ambush us.”

“Ambush us?” the mare with the light-blue mane asked, her eyes growing wide at both Rainbow’s choice of words and the sight of the ring of orange magic collapsing on itself and disappearing entirely.

Dash gestured to the world around them. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been here before. So unless you know where in the world we are we’re going to have to find a map before we’ll know what way to fly ourselves out of here without that portal. But I bet they know what way we’ll have to go, so they’ll have all the time in the world to get an intercept team in place.”

Both pegasi took a moment to look at their surroundings. Between the drought stricken rolling hills beneath them and the jagged mountains to the east and west it was a safe bet that they weren’t in Equestria anymore.

With a sigh and a slight shake of her head the white mare said, “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I’m not much of a world traveler. I’ve never seen this place before.”

Dash gave a nod and turned her attention to the mare. Aside from the white coat and light blue mane the only other thing that seemed noteworthy was her cutie mark of a gray cloud and a yellow lightning bolt.

“You’re one of the weather team reserve ponies, right? Gale or something?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to place from where exactly around town she knew this pony.

“Yes, I’m Storm Gale. I’m one of the ones that help out on the really big weather jobs.” After a moment of silence Gale added, “So what do we do now?”

“Well I’ve flown all over Equestria, but as much as I hate to admit it I haven’t really spent much time beyond Equestria.” Seeing a sad frown on Gale’s face, Dash was quick to add, “But it’s no biggie. We just need to get a look around and build a mental map of our own and then find a map to match that up with and bam! Just like that we’ll know where we are and how to get back home!”

Even as she stated everything she remembered from her foalhood navigation class, Rainbow Dash began rotating herself in a slow circle, taking note of every major terrain marker she could see. Every mountain peak, city, town, forest, major road and riverbed made their way into the map she was building in her mind. And with every marker she added to this mental map an eyebrow rose slightly more at the realization that this new mental map matched one of her old ones perfectly.

“I… I think I know where we are,” Dash muttered, in a less than enthusiastic tone.

“Really! Where?”

“It’s just like Daring Do and the Shadow Mirror!”

The only answer Gale could give was a dumbfounded, “What?”

“Daring Do and the… You’ve never read the Daring Do books have you? Okay, short version. In the book, Daring finds this shadow mirror that takes her to an alternate world where everything looked the same but all the ponies who were good guys were now bad guys, and all the ponies who were bad guys were now good guys.”

After a look around Dash smiled sheepishly and added, “Okay, this isn’t like that at all. But it’s like the world itself is the opposite of our Equestria.”

Gale looked about, clearly not seeing what the rainbow-maned one saw.

“Don’t you see?” Then pointing a hoof to the north and a massive, dark storm cloud, she said, “Cloudsdale.”

Shifting her hoof to point to the northeast and a strange ziggurat, surrounded by a ruined city, halfway up the craggy mountains. “Canterlot.”

Then pointing to the west, to a creepy marsh-like forest that reminded her of the Everfree forest. “White Tail Woods”

To the southeast she pointed out the healthy green forest that reminded her of White Tail Woods and the seemingly well-maintained castle with in it, and said, “The Everfree Forest.”

Turning to the small town below them Rainbow Dash continued. “And if we assume that military command-center-like thing is the town hall.” She moved her hood out to point to a large burnout tree that clearly used to be a building, and said, “Golden Oaks Library.”

Shifting to a building that, between the iron madden and cat-o-nine-tails, she could only hope was a nightmare night themed party supply store. “Sugar Cube Corner.”

Moving her hoof to point out what looked like an overly ornate blacksmith’s shop. “Carousel Boutique.”

Finally she shifted her hoof to the southwest edge of the town. The massive graveyard there had a tombstone where every apple tree should have been and a mausoleum in place of every barn, house, and shed. There was even a small watchtower where the crusader’s clubhouse should have been. “Sweet Apple Acres,” Dash finished in a somber tone, as she beheld this deathly version of her friend’s farm.

By now Storm Gale’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Slowly tilting her head as she looked at the town below, she muttered, “You’re right. The building are different, but the roads match Ponyville perfectly!”

Honestly Rainbow Dash hadn’t paid any attention to the streets of the small town below them. But now that they had been pointed out to her, she saw that they did indeed match the streets of Ponyville, just as all the major terrain markers around them did.

A hint of fear flashed in Gale’s eyes. “But if we really are in another world, how do we get back home?”

Raising a hoof to her chin, Dash said, “Yeah… that could be a problem. Obviously we need another portal. And since neither of us are unicorns, we’re going to need help. And we should probably find it soon. I don’t want to still be hovering up here in plain sight when those guys come back with their friends.”

“Yes, but if this is like your book, who do we turn to? Everypony I know in Ponyville is a good pony!”

Looking to an empty field Rainbow Dash frowned.

“I would say, I’m too awesome to be evil in any world, but this world doesn’t seem to have a Rainbow Dash. I mean I don’t even see my mailbox down there!”

“Should we even try the town?” Gale asked, nervously glancing between the distinguishable buildings.

While many of the buildings were the same simple wood construction and thatch roofs as the Ponyville they knew, almost all of the standout buildings seemed darker, almost evil, by comparison. Whether it was the way the ground around what should have been Sugar Cube Corner had a distinctly rust stained color to it. Or the array of weapons displayed in the windows of the blacksmith’s shop where Rarity’s home should have been. Ultimately every standout building in town seemed to have something creepy about it. So much so that the fact that Fluttershy’s place looked exactly the same, with the exception of having a withered bluish-grayish thatch instead of healthy green, that it creepped out Rainbow Dash all the more.

Considering their options she looked to the more distant destinations. While the massive storm cloud to the north had the mass of Cloudsdale there was no evidence that anypony had bothered to craft so much as a single building, let alone an entire cloud city, out of it. 

The city where Canterlot should have been was in ruins. And while the ziggurat seemed to be in good repair, (maybe even rebuilt from the ruins of the city around it,) and showed signs of life, if what Dash knew about shadow worlds was right this world’s ruler was probably the last pony they should be seeking help from.

Unsurprisingly enough the castle where the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters should have been seemed like the most welcoming place around.

But what if I’m wrong? Dash thought, rattling her confidence slightly. Not to mention in her world that was where the elements of harmony were found. Did that mean that in this world a powerful dark magic could be found there instead?

Storm Gale was waiting, looking to Rainbow Dash like… well a weather pony waiting for the lead weather pony to give her some directions. And why shouldn’t she? Rainbow was the lead weather pony, and one of the heroes who’d defeated Nightmare Moon, and Discord, and fought off a changeling invasion, and personally save the lives of several Wonder Bolts. So of course she’d look to Rainbow to call the shots.

Not that Dash minded, but her record of decision making wasn’t exactly spotless. Which begged the question, was she really going to base her decision entirely on a book? 

Looking back to the small town below them she saw a few earth ponies and even the occasional unicorn walking about. They seemed to move swiftly but also timidly, moving from one building to another before quickly going inside. It was almost like they were afraid to linger outdoors. Of course if those dark pegasi were harassing everypony that made since. Also of note were the colors of the ponies below. There were blues, greens, reds, yellows, browns and most any other shade of fur and mane, just like the ponies of the Ponyville she knew.

Putting a hoof to her chin she consulted her own experiences in strange or far away places. Then she answered.

“Everywhere I’ve ever gone. I’ve found the ponies in small towns are always nicer and more helpful then the ones in big cities. So I’d say we should try the town first…” Then looking to spikes that decorated what should have been the town hall Rainbow Dash added, “Let’s just avoid the creepy looking places. But first we need to lay low for a while to shake those jerks that attacked us, so any ideas?”

Storm Gale frowned slightly and said, “My house looks smaller than it should, but it’s still there. We could try that.”

With a nod Dash approved the plan. And while she dove first, she slowed herself so that Gale could easily overtake her and lead the way to the normal looking house in question.

They landed near the plain wooden door at the front of the house. After a short pause Gale knocked on door.

No response came.

Reaching up to the handle Storm Gale gave a tug but it didn’t budge.

“That’s odd I don’t normally lock my door, but when I do…” her words trailed off as she flapped her wings and hovered her way up to the rafters of the overhang above the door. Poking her head in the small space, she pulled her muzzle back out with a key in her mouth.

After unlocking the door and returning the key to it’s hiding place Gale pushed the door open.

Inside they found a normal looking living room for a small house. A table, a couch, a record player, pictures on the walls, and that sort of thing. A counter and some hanging cabinets marked the back right corner as the kitchen. The left wall had two open doors in it. One clearly led to the bathroom, and judging from the bed it was a safe bet that the other one was the bedroom.

The silence within the home made it clear that no pony was here to greet the two guests. Although that didn’t stop them from asking the wind if anypony was home anyway.

Once they were sure they were alone Gale locked the door behind them. And that was the moment the Rainbow Dash asked about an observation that had been bothering her since the fight with the shadowy pegasi.

“You okay?”

“I think so. Why?”

“It’s just when I first came through the portal you looked like you were about to pass out. But now you seem wide awake. Why is that?”

A shiver ran down Storm Gale’s spine. “It was the rope… The instant they first snagged me with it, there was this weird pain. It felt like it was ripping the energy right out of me.” Gale paused long enough to fall to a sitting position and shift her gaze into the blue tail curled to her side before continuing. “It didn’t hurt as much once you’d knocked the other end of the rope free from that dark pegasus… And once I was free from it, not touching it anymore, it felt like some of my energy came back to me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I have to fight those guys again.” Then looking around the room Dash asked, “So is this what your place is like?”

Looking slowly around the room, Gale answered, “A lot is missing, but what is here is the same. There should be another hallway just to the left of the kitchen nook, that leads to my son’s room, the guest bedroom and the other bathroom.”

After slowly making her way over to the record player and hoofing through the records she added, “Only my records are here, I don’t see any of my husband’s.”

As the two mares looked around the bedroom, Gale shook her head slightly and said, “same thing here. I see my stuff, but nothing from my family.”

As she looked over the rather bland wooden dresser in the room, Rainbow Dash said, “Well, here’s hoping that being single is the only difference between this world’s you and you. I’m kinda banking on whoever is living her being a nice pony, who will tell us what’s what in this world.” Somewhere in the back of her mind she was also banking on whoever living here being too startled by seeing another of herself to notice the fact that the two mares had entered their home without permission.

Just as they returned to the living room the sound of a key being turned on the front door made the two freeze in their tracks.

The door opened, and a dark-gray mare with an orange mane and wearing a dull brown cloak entered. Even with the cloak keeping them hidden, the subtle bulge on the mare’s sides confirmed that she was a pegasus.

Every minute line of the face and even the slightly fluffy mane style of the dark-gray mare matched Storm Gale. If not for the fact that both had blue eyes, Rainbow Dash could have sworn that the two were each other’s photo negative. And judging from the stunned silence that was an observation shared by Gale and the other mare as well.

Orange Mane was the first to move since the odd stare off had begun. Slowly her eyes turned to the wings of the two strangers in her home, giving off a flicker as if the realization that the two uninvited guests were pegasi was of grand importance. Then her gaze shifted from Rainbow Dash’s wings to her rainbow tail. Then finally taking notice of the tri-colored lighting bolt on her cutie mark.

Eyes wide and shimmering with hope, the dark-gray mare asked, “Are you Lighting Dash?”

“My name is Rainbow Dash,” she answered hardly above a mutter, possibly being the first time in her life that she hadn’t given an enthusiastic introduction of herself.

Instead her mind had turned inward. Lightning Dash. She knew that name. She’d heard it somewhere before, but where?

The hope in the Dark-Gray’s eyes shattered in and instant. Looking to the floor she said, “Right, how silly of me. Those stories are three hundred years old. Of course he’d have died of old age by now.”

Another red flag went up in Dash’s mind. Three hundred years, Lighting Dash, Those thoughts definitely belonged together, but why? Then when the pieces finally fell into place her eyes lit up and she practically shouted, “The Dash family mystery!”

“The what?” the other two mares asked together.

Lowering her voice slightly, Rainbow explained, “The Dash family mystery! Okay! Long story short, when I was a just a little filly my parents would take me to the Dash family reunions every few years. And if you’ve ever been a filly at a family reunion you know those things are boring! A bunch of adults standing around, talking about stuff you aren’t old enough to care about, yeah, no fun.”

“Anyway.” Dash shook her head slightly before continuing. “There was one thing that saved those reunions for me though, Grandpa Dash. He had taken it on himself to collect all the awesome stories from the Dash family and he would tell them to us fillies and colts. And one of those stories was the Dash family mystery!”

Sitting down so that she could use her front hooves to help, Dash got into her storyteller’s stance. “So it goes like this. Three hundred years ago my great, great… however many greats grandpa, Lightning Dash disappeared three times throughout his life.”

“This first time was when he was just a blank flank colt. He disappeared for a month, and when her reappeared he had his cutie mark. Grandpa Dash would always read us the journal entry from Lightning’s mom, talking about how Lightning had seemed to grow up so much when he’d returned.”

“The second time was like ten years later, when he was a young adult, and he disappeared for a full year. Thing is before he disappeared he was a racer. But when he came back, he gave up racing, and got into farming of all things, got married, raised a family and all that stuff.”

“And the last time, when Lighting was getting really old he disappeared, and was never heard from again. After a few years they just decided he wouldn’t be coming back. His widow had his tombstone made, but there’s never been anypony in that grave.”

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment to let the story sink in. Once the pause had used up its dramatic potential, she finished the story.

“The thing is, the two times he disappeared and came back, no pony, not even Princess Celestia, could get him to say where he went or what he did. That’s the Dash family mystery.”

Hope returned to the eyes of the dark gray mare. “That matches our legends perfectly!” Pausing with a slight blush on her cheeks, she added, “Well, from the other side anyway.”

“What do you mean? What legend?”

After clearing her throat, Orange Mane said, “The legend of Lightning Dash is comprised of three stories. When the Shadow pegasi first appeared, with their ability to drain the magic and energy from normal pegasi, no pony knew how to stop them. But then a pegasus colt claming to be from another world appeared. In his quest to find his way home he found a set of silver wing blades, that glowed with a holy light. And wielding them, he fought and defeated the shadow pegasi. Then as mysteriously as he appeared, he just vanished. Seeing as the first story came only from the city of Cloudhaven, at the time many thought the story had been made up entirely, and it was quickly forgotten.”

“However, a few years later the shadow pegasi returned. They were merciless, hunting natural pegasi to near extinction. And with every pegasus that fell victim to those cursed black ropes the shadow pegasi grew in numbers, eventually becoming an army capable of challenging the throne itself. That was when ponies began to remember the first stories. And as if by fate, in the tenth year since that first story, Lightning Dash returned. The young stallion once more took up the sacred wing blades and fought a yearlong campaign. This time he not only defeated the shadow pegasi but also discovered the source, the first Dark Summoner. When the dust of the final battle settled the Dark Summoner was dead. Lighting Dash emerged from the ruins that been his foe’s fortress to the cheers of his friends and allies. He took his place among them as if to give a victory speech and they hushed themselves, eager to hear it. Instead, he shed the sacred wing blades and said only, ‘learn to defend yourselves.’ And with that he flew away.”

As the story was being told, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the mention of the ‘first’ Dark Summoner.

Not bothering to pause to answer questions, the dark-gray mare quickly moved on to telling the last of the tales she had to tell.

“With the parting words of Lightning Dash the order of the Sky Knights was created. And with the tactics and gift of the sacred wing blades he had left them, the Sky Knights were able to keep the forces of darkness at bay. So the world knew peace, for a time. Unfortunately it turned out that the unicorn who had invented the shadow pegasus spell had an apprentice. And after thirty years or so that apprentice decided the time was right to finish what their master had started. Although the Sky Knights tried to hunt down the second Dark Summoner, he always managed to slip away before they could confront him in force.”

“For many years the Sky Knights kept the second Dark Summoner on the run, hiding in the shadows. But one day the Dark Summoner found new minions to bolster his shadow pegasi. When he made his stand the Dark Summoner was able to best the Sky Knights, and take control of the land. Yet when all hope seemed lost and the pegasi thought they were doomed, once again the legendary pegasus returned. Once more Lightning Dash took up the mantle of the paladin of the sacred wing blades, and once more he vanquished the evil plaguing our world. The final battle ended with a massive explosion. The survivors searched the ruins, but when they found the sacred wing blades they could find no trace of Lightning Dash. Ever since then the legend lived on, saying that whenever our world was in true peril the hero pegasus with the rainbow mane would return to save us.”

As the mare had told the story her eyes had become unfocused, as if distracted by a daydream. But now that she had finished her eyes came back into focus on the two pegasi before her, and she added, “I’m sorry it’s just that a while ago some other unicorn must have discovered the shadow pegasus spell. And while the Sky Knights have been doing there best, about five years ago this new Dark Summoner took over. Then about a month or so ago there started to be rumors of pegasi claming to be from another world. And now, just like that, a pegasus with a rainbow mane just shows up in front of me and well… I couldn’t help but think of that the old legend was true and that you were here to save us.”

A smile was growing on Rainbow Dash’s face at the thought that nothing more than the color of her mane would make the ponies around here look up to her as a hero.

NO!

The shout turned Dash’s smile into a frown. At first she looked about for the source of the shout, but then it hit her that the voice had been her own. And judging from the lack of reaction to it from the other mares in the room the shout had only been in her head.

The image of a pony in a costume of light and dark shades of purple flashed in her mind. ‘That’s right, I refuse to repeat the mistakes of the mare-do-well incident,’ she thought to herself. Twilight had told her that she had a hero complex, which meant she tried too hard to be a hero, or got too caught up in the glory of being a hero, or something. What was it that her friends had tried to teach her when they punished her for trying too hard to be a hero? …Something like a real hero just gets the job done and leaves it at that. That sounded right. So what was her heroic job at the moment?

Dash’s gaze came to the mare she’d just rescued, yes, that was it.

Finally stepping forward, Rainbow Dash said, “Look I’ll help you if I can. But right now, what I’m trying to do is get Gale here back to Equestria. I don’t suppose those legends of your mention how Lightning Dash did that?”

The dark gray pegasus, lowered her head in contemplation for a moment. When she looked back up, she shook her head and said, “I’m not exactly the scholarly type. So I only know the street version of the legend. The only ponies who might know details like that are the Sky Knights.”

“Great!” Dash beamed. “So, uh… Wait, what was your name?”

“I’m sorry, I got so caught up in the story of Lightning Dash that I never introduced myself. I’m Tempest Wind. You’re Rainbow Dash and she’s… Gale was it?”

“Storm Gale to be exact.”

For a moment Gale and Wind looked at each other, as if suddenly remembering the odd resemblance they shared.

Of the two it was Wind to put the thoughts to words. “How strange. You look like me but different, and even your name is like mine but different.”

“Yeah we’ve been noticing that trend. A lot of things around here seem like the Equestria we know but different,” Dash said, choosing to leave off the part about things usually being differing in a creepy, scary, evil kind of way. Making her way toward the door she added, “So, Tempest Wind, where do we find these Sky Knight guys?”

Tempest Wind’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Wait! Don’t go out there! It’s not safe for pegasi to be outside in Ponyton anymore. Especially not in rush hour, somepony might see you!”

Once Dash had stopped moving Wind calmed down some and said, “I’ll take you to the Sky Knights, but after the streets are clear.”

“What about you? Aren’t you a pegasus?”

Opening her wings wide enough to poke out from under her cloak for the first time, she nodded. “Yes, but I hide my wings for a reason.” Looking over her guests she motioned to Gale and added, “She could probably get away with a cloak too. But your rainbow tail would get us reported to the overlords in no time…” A visible shiver ran down Tempest Wind’s spine when she uttered the word ‘overlords.’

Dash and Gale exchanged a glance, as if asking one another if they intended to trust this pony. A slight nod from Rainbow Dash seemed to say, ‘she’s been helpful so far, so I’ll give her a chance.’

By now Tempest Wind had seemed to clear her mind of troubling thoughts enough to continue. “Look, we can slip out of town at noon, when everypony is inside eating lunch. If you just wait here until then, I’ll take you to Liberty Castle.”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, that’s the castle to the southeast, isn’t it?”

A nod answered her question.

Taking a moment to think, Rainbow Dash considered her options. First, now that she knew the destination there was nothing stopping her and Gale from trying to get there on their own. Maybe it was the fear in Wind’s eyes. Maybe it was because the element of loyalty had bound itself to her for a reason, and right now Dash’s instinct’s demanded that she give this pony the chance to prove she was worthy of some measure of loyalty.

When she finally answered, Rainbow Dash said, “Alright. We’ll lay low here for awhile. Until you think we can get out of here in one piece.”


* * * * * * *


An orange pegasus filly buzzed her way through the streets of Ponyville, her violate tail waving in the wind behind her. Unlike her fellow pegasi she wasn’t flying overhead, instead she flew through town riding on a scooter with a blue baseboard and red wheels. And while the average observer might have said that the filly was blitzing through town, anypony who knew her understood that she was moving quite slowly by her standards.

The more astute observer would have found the reason for that by noticing that her purple eyes scanned the every low cloud or window. Or that her wings paused every time she caught line of sight of any remotely light-blue pony, just long enough for her to realized who she was looking at before kicking her wings back into action and moving on. Yes, to the keen observer the filly was definitely searching for someone.

Perhaps it was because she was looking for something that she noticed four pieces of paper attached to the newspaper stand today. The papers in question weren’t newspapers, but missing pony posters. And as the filly coasted past her eyes went from one to the next and in doing so she couldn’t help but notice that all of the missing ponies happened to be pegasi. Although the names meant nothing to her, and the faces were little more than locals she’d passed on the street enough times to seem slightly familiar. Regardless none of the posters mentioned the one pony she was looking for.

That thought got a chuckle out of the filly. Rainbow Dash was too awesome to go missing. No, if she couldn’t be found it was because she didn’t want to be found. Though that did beg the question, where was she today?

Ultimately the filly shrugged it off. And as the afternoon shadows were growing a bit long, as she decided she’d find out tomorrow. After all there was no way the spirit of loyalty would miss the second planed hang-out day with her honorary sister.


* * * * * * *


Much to Rainbow Dash’s surprise their host had stayed with them the entire time they were laying low. Never even trying to leave her guests alone and instead seemed to be just as ‘in hiding’ that they were, despite being in her own home. Once the appointed hour had come the three of them slipped out of town easily enough. Avoiding the only road to the forest, they had actually entered the forest from the north rather than the northwest edge.

Much to Dash’s dismay, even after they reached the forest their guide insisted they continue on hoof. While this was hardly the first time she’d slowed herself down for the sake of staying with others, that usually meant her friends. And as nice as Storm Gale was, she wasn’t really what Dash would call a friend, acquaintance and general nice pony sure, but she wasn’t really at that level worthy of all the things Rainbow Dash would do for those she granted the title ‘friend.’ And yet Storm Gale was the closest thing to a friend she had in this place, and so stay with her she did.

While she could understand being cautious within reason, what she couldn’t get was how it was reasonable to trudge through a forest for hours when all they had to do was fly over the forest and they’d get to the castle in like five minutes. But Tempest Wind insisted that the most dangerous thing they could run into in the forest was a shadow pegasus patrol flying overhead, so they had to stay below the canopy. And so the trio trudged on. Well, two of them trudged, Rainbow Dash gave that up after ten minutes and settled for hovering at a walking speed about seven feet off the ground, more than low enough to stay below the tree cover.

To Wind’s credit the most dangerous things they saw below the tree line were a bear and mountain lion, and neither of those seemed to pay the ponies more than a casual glance. Fluttershy would have been at home in this place, though Rainbow Dash preferred not to turn her back on creatures with claws when said animal caretaker wasn’t around to keep such animals in check.

The shadows were growing long by the time they emerged into a clearing before an oddly familiar looking ravine. A rope bridge crossed that ravine and judging from the bright color of the wood, it was so new that it had seen maybe a winter or two. Certainly a stark contrast to the ancient one Dash had repaired back home but otherwise it too had an aura of familiarity to it.

Taking note of how low the sun had gotten on their trek through the forest, Tempest Wind said, “We should hurry.”

“So now you want to pick up the pace,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes.

“Why?” Storm Gale asked.

“Short version. Because when the shadow pegasi attack Liberty Castle, they always do it at twilight.”

Even as she had said it Wind had started running across the bridge, even opening her wings as she ran. Gale quickly followed suit. And since Rainbow Dash was already flying she merely flew faster, darting at the front gate and quickly taking the lead.

Dash coiled the muscles in her front legs, getting ready to knock, rather harshly if needed, to get the attention of whoever was manning the gate. A precaution that proved unnecessary as a slit in the door opened up and a set of eyes looked out. The instant the gate guard saw three approaching pegasi one of the massive wooden double doors swung open. The guard even beat Dash to the punch in calling out for the three to get inside.

Rainbow Dash landed, coming to a sliding stop just past the guard. The sudden stop causing her own tailwind to make her rainbow mane and tail wave dramatically in the short-lived breeze.

The dark brown stallion with a light brown mane, who happened to be the gate guard, stared at the mare with his mouth agape. “Are you…”

Anticipating the rest of the question she answered before the awestruck stallion even finished asking it. “Lightning Dash? No, I’m his descendant Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh… Okay.”

The quick conversation allowed the other two mares to join them inside the walls of Castle Liberty, and seeing the two dart past him seemed to be enough to wake the guard back up. After giving one last look outside he then closed and barred the gate.

“Welcome back, Wind. Has something happened in town?” he asked. Then nodding toward the two new faces he added, “Aside from the obvious?”

With a shake of her head, Tempest Wind said, “No, just them. They’d like to talk to the elder about the legends.”

The guard took a quick look at the shadows coming off of the stone work buildings around him. “She’d be in the main hall with some of the other non-combatants about now.”

With that Wind thanked the guard and led the way, taking the group through the main yard. Aside from the walls and towers of the castle’s outer wall there were four other stonework structures to the castle. The large fancy one with towers of its own was clearly the castle keep. 

A three story square-like one that looked like a mini castle of its own reminded Rainbow Dash of basic barracks design she’d seen at the Wonder Bolt Academy. 

Two two-story rectangular buildings with angled wooden roofs finished the building count. Between the normal roof and the spacing of the normal looking windows, they looked like they might be hotels. Although they had probably been servants quarters when the castle had been built. Even a few windows in the roof hinted that the attic level was used as a third floor.

And unlike the gray outer walls, all of the structures inside the castle seemed to have had the stonework bleached to a dull white. If not for the weathered roughness of the stones and the lack of gold or otherwise ornate trimmings the place might have seemed like Canterlot.

The one seemingly frivolous feature of the castle yard was a curricular fountain, with a small raised pool, that marked the yard’s center. Yet as they walked by Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but notice that the water in the fountain seemed to have an odd sheen to it, that caused her to make a mental note to not drink from said fountain until she knew why.

As they approached the keep it was impossible not to notice the larger-than-life statue of a pegasus stallion that separated the twin staircases that led up to the entrance. Okay, so make that two ornate features to the castle. Aside from the rainbow mane and tail the bulk of the statue was pained a pure snow white. On the statue’s flank was painted the cutie mark of three lightning bolts, one red, one yellow, and one blue.

Dash couldn’t help but pause for a second, as she looked the statue over. The mane and tail reminded her so much of her own father’s. Yet the cutie mark made her glance at her own cutie mark of a white cloud with a single tri-colored lightning bolt of the same red, yellow, and blue colors. For a moment she wondered if this ancestor of hers had also achieved the sonic rainboom.

Storm Gale walking past her was enough to bring Rainbow Dash’s attention back to the task at hoof. She quickly opened her wings and hovered after Gale and Wind. 

The main entrance of the keep consisted of a set of large double doors. The doors were simple wooden construction, with steel reinforcements. Wind raised a hoof and pounded on them.

“It’s Tempest Wind, I need to speak with the elder!”

With that, the sound of a heavy metal bar being moved came from inside. A second later one of the doors creaked outward, opening wide enough to allow Wind and those accompanying her into the keep. Though the pony who’d opened the door looked to the new faces warily, seeing wings on the strangers seemed to be enough for the strangers to be allowed to enter the castle keep unchallenged.

The entrance hall was abuzz with activity. Ponies, mostly pegasi, were all about. Some were darting from one side hall to another, while others were quickly making their way down the lines of columns lighting torches to make up for the waning light coming in through the windows. Still others were flying up near the ceiling rolling up the banners and flags on their rods, effectively removing what little color there was from the place and leaving the plain white walls awfully barren. Even the ceiling, which was made of wood, seemed to be of the brightest shade of wood Rainbow Dash had seen.

“These guys really like white, don’t they?”

Tempest Wind responded with, “Shadow pegasi only come in one color. Though you should try coming through here in the middle of the day, it’s kind of nice when the decorations are out.”

With that Wind led the way to the stairs at the back of the entrance hall. A staircase and a lesser hallway later and the group soon found themselves entering the main hall.

Judging from the raised area at the back it wasn’t hard to tell that the main hall had been the throne room when the castle had first been built. Though the current incarnation had a clear lack of any throne. Instead this place was clearly more in the business of being a war room. Tables were all over the place, usually toped with maps. Then there were the chalkboards and message boards with chats and graphs drawn or pined to them.

Like everywhere else on the castle grounds, Rainbow Dash saw at least twenty pegasi for every non-pegasus, probably more. Unlike everywhere else, almost all of the ponies in this room wore some kind of armor, mostly studded cloth, although a few wore chain mail, and the only earth pony in the room was also the only one in the room with a full suit of plate mail. 

In the far right corner Dash even spotted two tables with a bunch of fillies and colts gathered around them. At one table the youthful pegasi were clearly doing their best to amuse themselves quietly with things like crayon drawing or playing tic-tac-tow on a small chalkboard. At the other table the fillies and colts seemed to be mimicking the older ponies at the desks by sorting their way through stacks of paper. Whether they were just mimicking the adults for the fun of it or actually doing the same kind of work, Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell from where she stood.

“Wait here,” Tempest Wind said, as she left the two more or less in the middle of the room while she approached the command table.

The two watched as the gray pegasus went over and began to speak to a tan pegasus mare at the command table. What was said couldn’t be heard by Rainbow Dash thanks to being drowned out by the chatter coming from the rest of the room. What she could hear was that the chatter itself was changing, quieting to murmurs. And yet whispered or not, she could hear that all of the whispered conversations mentioned a rainbow mane.

As she looked around, the adults in the room had the decency to look back down and pretend to go back to working on whatever they had been doing. The fillies and colts at the foal’s table, not so much. To their credit they managed to stay quiet, but they stared at the mare with the rainbow mane with a mix of awe and bewilderment as if they were looking at a hero from a storybook.

Rainbow Dash gave a small smile and wave to the fillies and colts in the corner. That seemed to wake the young ponies up enough to realize that the pony they were staring at was staring back. Some blushed and looked back down to their drawings. A few waved back. And a few just kept staring blankly at the rainbow mare, clearly still not believing what they were seeing.

Thankfully Tempest Wind motioned for the two guests in the hall to come forward, giving Dash an excuse to look away from the young ponies in the corner.

As she approached the command table she took in the sight of the mare that seemed to be in charged. Aside from her tan coat, her mane was a half-green, half-red, and her cutie mark was that of two flaming cherries of all things.

“Welcome, I am Elder Cherry Blaze,” the mare introduced herself.

That explains the cutie mark, Rainbow Dash thought to herself. But as far as she could tell the mare before her was only ten, maybe fifteen years her superior, so middle-aged at best.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria. And aren’t you a little young to be calling yourself ‘elder’?”

Cherry closed her eyes for a moment as she answered, “It’s the title that comes with the job. And with those dang shadows hunting us, pegasi around here are lucky if they make it to thirty five.”

“Oh…”

“So, Wind tells me that you are from the other world and are the descendant of Lightning Dash, and even told her the other half of his legend.”

Blushing slightly and unintentionally stroking the mane on the back of her head, Dash said, “That seems to be the case. Anyway, I was kinda hoping you know the part of the legend that mentions how Lightning went back to my world.”

Looking down, Cherry Blaze stared through the table, clearly deep in thought. When she brought herself to look Rainbow Dash in the eyes, she said, “After three hundred years, as you might guess, there are many versions of the story of Lightning Dash. The official versions contain nothing of that mater. But… there are some details that are only in the version shared with the paladins of the Sky Knights. I can not ask you to fight our war for us, but if you were to help us, we may be able to help you.”

A moment of silence followed as Rainbow Dash tried to decipher the request that had just been made. Truthfully she hated indirect questions. If somepony wanted something why couldn’t they just come out and say it?

“So… If I want to know the secret version of the story, you want me to become a paladin?”

“That would be the most helpful thing you could do.”

The fact that the mare with the rainbow mane had mentioned the possibility of becoming the paladin brought a sudden end to any kind of modesty in the room. All eyes fell on Dash, awaiting to hear her answer. Most had a certain glimmer in their eyes, especially the fillies’ and colts’ shimmered with a certain light, the light of hopes and dreams the likes of which Dash normally only saw in Scootaloo’s eyes. These ponies wanted a hero.

For the second time that day Rainbow Dash held herself back, resisting the urge to triumphantly announce that she would give them a hero. She closed her eyes and held herself still as she waited out her desired first response. And when she had felt herself calm she opened her eyes, put on a bold smile and simply said, “Alright, you have a deal.”

“Objection!”

The outburst made Rainbow Dash spin around, only to find the speaker a few feet behind her. Said speaker turned out to be a pegasus stallion with a white coat, blue mane and a silver vest that even included silver wing sheaths. His cutie mark was the image of a light-gray cloud with a silver sword embedded in it, as if it were a blade thrust tip first into the cloud and left to stand like a monument.

As he walked around her, toward Cherry Blaze, his gaze never left the ‘elder’ as he finished his complaint.

“You can not seriously expect me to hand over the sacred wing blades to a total stranger just because she has a rainbow mane!”

Even as he said it his wings flared, further showing the anger that could already be heard in his voice. And allowing Rainbow Dash a chance to admire how insanely sharp the leading edge of his metal-sheathed wings really looked. On top of that, even though they had the sheen of pure metal they flexed and warped with every minor motion of the stallion’s wings, only further drawing Dash’s attention to the odd fact that these ‘wing blades’ lacked joints. Even the tail end of the wing blades looked like a solid piece of metal that just happened to have engravings of feathers, and yet it seemed to move as freely as a naked wing.

“I’m not. I’m asking you to hand over the sacred wing blades and train her to be the paladin, because she has a rainbow mane and she’s the descendent of Lightning Dash and told us the missing half of his legend.”

Cherry’s response only drew a glare from the stallion. Yet she approached him adding, “Come now, I thought you’d be happy to hear that somepony else was willing to take up the sacred wing blades. After all, you’ve been trying to retire from the position of the paladin for what? A year now?”

The stallion only continued to glare at Cherry as she leaned in close to him and started whispering in his ear. While Dash couldn’t hear what she was saying, it didn’t seem to be helping, as his glare of disapproval only seemed to intensify, even to the point where she almost felt sorry for the unfortunate alabaster brick in the floor that happened to be at the end of his gaze.

When Cherry Blaze finished and took a step back, he looked up, gave her one last show of disapproval and said, “If she proves herself to me, I will do as you ask.”

Although the stallion had been looking at Cherry when he’d spoken when both he and Cherry looked to Rainbow Dash, the question on both their faces was clear. Never one to back down from a challenge Dash’s response might as well have been predestine.

“Fine. How?”

“A friendly sparing match. If you have the skill and the guts for it, follow me to the training yard.”


* * * * * * *


If an architect had been there, they might have pointed out that the ‘training yard’ was actually the keep’s inner courtyard. But there wasn’t so that technicality eluded Rainbow Dash. What she did see in the large rectangular area was the doors and windows all along the walls surrounding the enclosed yard and the overhangs sheltering the brick walkways along the parameter. Like elsewhere in the castle the brickwork here was all alabaster or marble bricks. The middle of the area was little more than a grassy field, under the open sky.

Hardly a moment after they’d entered the training yard the stallion, who had so far only been addressed as ‘Paladin’ gave a nod to another pegasus. In response said armor-clad mare turned to a small metal plate in the wall beside her. Opening the plate much like one would open a mail drop box, steam began to flow out of the vent.

Being a weather pegasus herself, there was no way Dash didn’t recognize the subtle ways that the mare by the vent was guiding the steam with her wing and brushing it with her hoof. The telltale signs of stabilizing steam into cloud.

The mare quickly handed off the newly minted cloud to another, who placed it in the yard, while resuming using the steam vent to make more clouds. And before long the training yard was covered in a layer of cloud, or since it was on the ground technically it was fog. A perfect padded mat for pegasi to train on.

Turning to Rainbow Dash, the paladin said, “Body hits only. Heads and wings are off limits.”

As he spoke he was releasing three silver clasps on his silver-mail vest, widening the neck hole enough to pull his armor off over his head. Flaring his wings forward he did just that, and in doing so proved that his armor and weapon were in fact one object.

After handing the sacred wing blades to one of his fellow sky knights the paladin trotted out onto the cloud field, and with a glance he made it clear he expected Rainbow Dash to do the same.

She quickly complied, flying to the opposite side of the training field and once she’d landed she flared her wings and lowered herself into a clear fighting stance. 

The stallion widened his stance slightly but otherwise looked like he was still standing casually. After a moment of silence, he said, “First move is all yours, kid.”

That got an angry glare from Rainbow Dash. It also got a sly smile. Her karate teacher had started her first lesson the same way. She had charged, thrown a frontal punch, and found herself flat on her back on the mat in the blink of an eye. A mistake she wasn’t about to repeat here and now.

Dash charged with blinding speed, leaving a rainbow motion blur in her wake as she crossed the training field. Just before she reached her opponent she dug her front hooves into the clouds, swung her body around and lashed out with one of her back legs in a low sweeping kick.

The mare moved with extraordinary speed, the paladin gave her that much. On top of that she apparently wasn’t totally unschooled in the art of combat as her first move was to try and break his stance. Between her speed and choice of target he had no choice but to leap into the air and start flapping his wings.

As her opponent shot up to rooftop level, Dash made a mental note that apparently flying wasn’t out of bound for this contest. Given that her karate instructor had been an earth pony, the lessons hadn’t covered air to air combat. Not that it mattered. Being the best flyer in all of Equestria, she was sure she could improvise, especially in the air.

The mare with the rainbow mane took wing, and the paladin had to admit she was fast as she shot up toward him. Her front left hoof was outstretched, her eyes locked on his chest, making her intent to fly right into him clear.

Sliding to the side, he let her outstretched limb slip into the gap between his body and leg, and tightened his leg back to his side, grasping her leg firmly and twisted himself to throw her.

His plan didn’t quite work out, as she had apparently been ready for that move. The instant she felt his grip on one leg, she’d lashed out with the other to strike the limb that had grasped her and twisted herself in such a fashion as to pull herself free of the hold halfway through the throw. The end result being that she was sent spiraling upwards rather than down at the cloud mat.

As she came out of her tumble Rainbow Dash smiled. She was above her opponent now. Altitude was speed. Speed was power. Those were two of the rules written on the heart and survival instincts of every winged creature ever born. And now that she had that advantage she arched around and dove at her sparing partner.

As she dove at the hovering stallion, he coiled his front legs and tensed his wings. It was clear that he planed to slide to the side, and probably help her dive all the way into the mat below with a blow to her back.

Oh, no you don’t. I’m not giving up the altitude advantage that easy! Dash thought to herself. With a new plan in mind, she angled her dive steeper for a moment and then pulled out to charge at her target straight and level.

With a last second flap of his wings the paladin got to the side of Dash’s would-be tackle and extended his hoof, setting it right in the path of her hoof. The clop of two hoofs clashing rang out as she rushed past. The blow set him spinning like a ballerina, and sent her spinning like a fallen ice-skater.

Both recovered quickly. Both came out of their spins flapping their wings for all they were worth, rocketing upward. Dash angled into an intercept path with the paladin’s ascent, coiling her front legs like a boxer ready to give a few punches and jabs. Once she’d closed the distance she threw her first punch.

The stallion matched her and once again the clash of hoofs rang out. The strike repelled the two from each other, yet they arched around and went at each other again and again, striking and bouncing off of each other with each revolution of their spiral ascent.

They continued higher and higher, matching each other move for move. Once they had several thousand feet on the castle they finally broke into a hover. Both were breathing heavily as they settled into their unspoken truce.

Rainbow Dash wore a small smile on her face. Sure, she hadn’t won yet, but she hadn’t allowed the stallion to land a hit on her either. Holding out this long had to have proven she wasn’t some pushover.

The look on the paladin’s face remained impassive. At least it did until he realized that Rainbow Dash’s form had no shadows. With that his surprise showed quite clearly as he looked to the horizon and confirmed that the sun had indeed set.

Following the stallion’s eyes, Rainbow Dash looked to the skies around them. There amidst the purple twilight skies she too saw the hundreds of black forms flying toward them.

The stallion took one look at his unburdened wings and said, “The light of the sacred wing blades is our best weapon against them!” And with that he dove toward the castle below as quickly as he could.

Somewhere in the back of Rainbow Dash’s mind was a thousand numbers that her waking mind could never hope to comprehend. Fortunately she didn’t have to, as her subconscious was more than happy to give her conscious mind a simplified report that boiled down to three observations. And those observations were something like, approximate time for the shadow pegasi to reach the castle 40 seconds, approximate time for paladin to reach the castle 20 seconds, it takes me about 20 seconds to put on something with wing sleeves.

Then another thought struck her. She’s already seen that the shadows weren’t bothered by normal sunlight. Yet, the paladin’s words seemed to imply that light could be used as a weapon against the shadow pegasi. Did that mean magic light?

A grin found its way onto her face, and she spoke softly to the wind, “Worth a shot. Worst that could happen is I show them the mother of all flash-bangs.” And with that she pumped her wings and shot off even higher into the sky.


The paladin was halfway to the castle before he notice that the mare wasn’t following him to the relative safety of the keep. A glance over his shoulder not only confirmed the lonely feeling but informed him that she was not only not diving for cover but she was ascending even higher into the sky. Although his words were lost in the rushing winds around him he muttered, “Dang mare, what’s she thinking? Dang paladin’s code, I have to protect the innocent. I swear, she’s going to be the death of me.”

As he dove back into the training yard he shouted, “Wing blades! Now!”

There was no hesitation from the pony who had been holding onto the silver vest with bladed wing-sleeves in tossing it into his path. Tucking his head between his front legs, the paladin shot into the opening at the bottom of the vest. Having to fold his wings he also tucked himself into a ball and hit the cloud mat rolling. Even as he rolled across the field he managed to get his front legs and head through the right holes. And despite being made of metal the vest stretched as he moved, aiding him in his attempts to get his wings into the wing sleeves.

It took two seconds of rolling before he was able to bounce back up and open his wings, now clad in the stretchy silver. Kicking down on the clouds he leapt back into the air with enough force to evaporate that corner of the cloud mat.

As he ascended the paladin made two observations. First, the mare was finally diving down toward the castle. Not that it mattered anymore because, second, the forward shadow pegasi were already in castle airspace and the bulk of the enemy forces would be here in time to cut her off before she could ever hope of getting down into the defensible spaces of the castle.

As far as he could foresee the only way that crazy mare survived was if he gave the shadow pegasi an even more tempting target to chase. Fixing his wings as he flew between two of the early arrivals, the wing blades glowed with a soft white light and they cleaved through the two shadows, leaving radiant white scares in their forms. Scars that spread and grew as the two shadows dissolved into specks of light, only for those too to flicker out of existence a moment later.

“Two down… Two hundred to go,” he moaned, fixing his eyes on the approaching ring of enemy forces about to envelop the skies over the castle.


The wind roared its complaint at the mare pushing through it at incredible speed. A roar that Rainbow Dash was all too accustom to, thanks to years of trying to figure out how she’d made the impossible happen. And so she ignored it as she shot through the sky like a falling meteor. The cone of air coming off of her leading hooves had become so compressed that the water vapor in it had become a visible line of super thin cloud.

Below her, many shadow pegasi were rushing upwards to intercept the mare painting a rainbow streak in the sky.

Dash pushed herself even faster. The natural pegasus magic trying to protect her from the rigors of flight fought with the air resistance trying to rip her less than perfectly aerodynamic form apart, causing her normally unseen pegasus shield to manifest as crackles of lightning within the cone of compressed air.

The ring of shadow pegasi was closing beneath her, many readying themselves to toss their dark ropes into her path.

The cone of compressed air around Rainbow closed in even tighter and the sparks of lightning took on a prismatic hue.

At least six shadow pegasi threw their ropes, ready to lasso their target.

Then the sky exploded.

At the center of the phenomenon any shadow pegasus that had been too close to newly born flare evaporated instantly. The shadows further out that got caught in the prismatic shockwave racing across the sky met a fate not too unlike the ones that had be cut by the wing blades, and dissolved into sparkling mists that shimmered for a moment before flickering out. Only the few shadow pegasi far enough away to dodge the shockwave were able to escape, most slipping into the forest or fleeing for distant skies.

The paladin (and most everypony in the castle below) could only stare into the first sonic rainboom their world had ever seen. Even as the radiant flare faded and the prismatic ring of light soon followed he could only hover in place staring at the point that had shown like a miniature sun in the twilight sky only a moment ago.

“Heh, that worked better then I expected. Guess I’m more awesome then I thought!” Rainbow Dash said as she came to a hover beside the paladin.

The mare’s cheer finally snapped the paladin out of his daze. Turning slowly to look at her, he could only manage to ask, “What, was, that?”