//------------------------------//
// Shadow Bolts 
// Story: Nightmares and Harmony 
// by Starpony999 
//------------------------------//

Later on, the fillies noticed a swish of what appeared to be lightning across the sky.

Then there was another one.

And another one.

They were coming faster now, much more rapidly. It reminded Dawn of shooting stars. Stars which tended to stay in the sky. One of these streaks, however, fell right into the mares' path. Whatever it actually was continued to burn brightly in front of them.  Not wanting to get singed, they all stayed a good 10 hooves (5 ft.) away.  They stood there awkwardly for a few moments, expecting the flame to die out, or something.  Once it had been established that the flame was not going to go out anytime soon, the group began to converse about how they were going to continue on the path.  The fire blocked the entire path, and the forest on either side was grossly entangled.  Rainbow volunteered to make a path, using the argument that she was a big, strong earth pony, but her sister quickly shot that idea down.  

"My sister ain't going to be going through that there woods by herself."

"AaaaaJaaaay"

"There ain't nothing to it."

"So what are we going to do?"  Twilight asked, gesturing to the flame.  

Dawn gazed at the fire as the wheels in her mind began to turn.  "Perhaps we should all try our own measures."

So, each pony attempted her best idea.  Dawn magically summoned water and dumped it over the flames, but the fire resistant.   The water just poured over the flames as if they were crystal and flowed to the surrounding flora, which soaked the water up in an instant and grew even stronger.  Apple attempted to put out the fire with her wings, which Rainbow swore would work.  Twilight took a similar approach, but also blew on it as if it were a gigantic birthday candle.  Fleur, ever the one for the obvious route, simply tried to walk around it with a magical shield around her.  However, the flames launched at her and tore through the shield, forcing her to run back to the safety of her friends.

While all this was going on, Rarity was able to make out a figure in the fire. It was that of a pegasus mare with spiky hair (a sure sign of a fast flyer).  "Is that....a Wonderbolt?" She asked, squinting at the figure in front of her. Whoever it was, she was definitely wearing flight goggles.

"No...." A new female voice croaked, her throat full of smoke. The figure within the fire was speaking, or, well, trying to. She attempted to stand up, but had only been able to make it to her forelegs before quickly collapsing again on the ground.

Still the only one of the travelers to notice this figure, Rarity began to devise a plan to save her.  By the time Rainbow began her complicated plan of using a combination of vines, trees, and other forest materials to launch themselves over the fire, Rarity had to go with her instinct.  The white mare resorted to hitting the highest note she could muster.  Everypony froze, then slowly turned to look at her in astonishment.

"Before you kill yourself," Rarity stated, bucking all of the cyan mare's supply into the woods. "Take notice of the fire itself."

The earth pony seemed to tug on a string on her camouflage before pointing at filly inside. "There is a mare in there, and she needs help."  As an afterthought, she added, "Also, if you'd care to notice, there's no smoke coming out, so the fire is obviously magical."

Wearing her now slightly shinier camouflage, Rarity cantered right into and out of the fire, carrying a night-sky blue pegasus on her back on the way out. The flyer's hair was a royal blue and she wore a full body suit that was midnight black with a single white lightning bolt on her flank. She was coughing up a storm as she was set down away from the fire.

"You poor thing! Are you alright?" The purple-maned mare asked as she began to perform various tasks to help the wounded flyer. She even started singing a soft tune to soothe the pegasus, which was surprising to the Ponyvillians, since Rarity never sang in front of anypony.  As the other mares stood shocked, Dawn nearly face-hoofed. Of course, she should've noticed the magical properties of the fire.  She was the Princess's special student after all.

A few moment's later, Rainbow pointed out,  "Look, up there!  It's the Wonderbolts!"  Sure enough, there were other flyers in the sky who had the same coat and mane colors as the fire-filly and wore the same outfit. The flying group descended slowly in a circle formation around the wounded one. One of the stallions in the group spoke up, breaking formation to help tend to his fellow team member. "Lightning Dust! Are you okay?" He touched her wing, and she winced in pain.

"I'm, I'm alright." Lightning Dust pushed the stallion away and tried to flap her wings. It caused her extreme pain, and while she did not confess, one could see how much it hurt. "I guess I can't fly."

"That would be correct. You should stay off that wing for a few days. Let it heal." Rarity intervened, looking sternly at the injured pegasus. She looked at the other, similar pegasi. "Are you darlings her friends?"

"They're my team. The ShadowBolts." Lightning interjected.

"The ShadowBolts?"  Rainbow muttered.

Rarity raised her eyebrows at Lightning, but let it slide.  She turned to the stallion, "You guys will have to make sure she stays grounded. She could get seriously hurt if she tries to fly."

"Like this isn't serious?" The stallion in the middle asked, angerly gesturing to his leader.

The earth pony turned her gaze to stone hard at the stallion. "If you think this is serious, you haven't seen anything yet."

The stallion stood straighter and saluted, intimated by the camouflaged mare. The rest of the troop followed his example, even Lightning Dust gave a small salute. Rarity nodded her head and got out of their way. The grounded pegasus was then lifted away into the air by her team. As they flew higher in the air, a few commands from Ms. Dust could be heard.

"Take note of this fillies and gentlecolts, this could work for a new formation. The name? Shining Star."

Rarity then trotted along through where the fire had dissipated, leading her own group of friends as they continued their journey. A few minutes later, Dawn trotted alongside the sapphire-eyed mare and questioned her.  "How'd you get out safe? Your clothes could've caught on a fire, and fire protection is like a level 8 1/2 spell! Only the very top of the class at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns could perform that spell. I didn't know a unicorn, let alone an earth pony, seamstress could perform such a spell."

"The camouflage wasn't enchanted." Rarity confessed. "It was enforced with a fire resistant material."

"But even fire resistant material would get a little singed."

Rarity shrugged. "What really matters is that Lighting Dust is safe."

Dawn fell to the back of the group as she contemplated this new development. This mare was willing to risk her life for somepony she never even met.  All this thinking and pondering and understanding was starting to hurt the pink pony's head, but whether she was glad or not about being interrupted was something no one would ever know.

Help!