Feathertop Row was a typical fliers’ residential district in Canterlot that ringed Canterhorn Mountain. The row upon row of cloud homes which made up the edge of the seventh platform were more akin to houseboats tethered to a dock rather than permanent buildings. The concrete streets served not only flightless pedestrians, but the power and sewer lines.
Rainbow Dash led Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle along the curving main street. Daybreak was just upon them, illuminating the web of power lines that further pulled the cloud homes closer to the city. For the most part, the cloud homes were rather cookie cutter, the only meaningful difference between them being the postal numbers labeled near the front doors.
The mountain wind was blowing harsh, cold air this time of year, causing the homes to jostle and bump into each other a little, but their design offered lasting resistance to collision damage. The same could not be said for the power lines. A number of homes had snapped lines, due to vandalism or revenge to the homeowner, making the two fliers have to guide Twilight around live wires.
There were a few ponies going to and fro. Typically, one look from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy earned little more than a nod or wave of acknowledgement before the trio were ignored. Twilight couldn’t help but to glance fearfully at everybody they passed, pony or not. She leaned in a bit to Rainbow Dash. “Is it really a good idea for us to be walking out in the open? What if somepony recognizes me?”
Rainbow tilted her head towards the feathered unicorn, speaking with a slightly hushed tone. “As much as it may surprise you, Twiggles, you may have been hot stuff in the palace, but down here, nopony’s going to look twice at a purple unicorn.”
“They might if they notice my feathers,” Twilight hissed quietly. “All it would take is some gang trying to foalnap me. Sure, it might take a few dozen, but I know I’d be worth a princess’s ransom.”
Rainbow’s only response was to jerk her head at a pony camped out on the front porch of his cloud home. He possessed cat-like eyes like Rainbow’s, a few reptilian scales on his neck, and his body shimmered ever so slightly wherever he touched a part of the cloud house. Twilight couldn’t repress a gag before looking away, fearful she might draw the strange earth stallion’s attention. “Ugh, why would somepony think that looks good? Talk about perverted fashion.”
“Point is,” Rainbow cut in, “feathers on a unicorn are not the weirdest thing around here.”
“They are kind of pretty though,” Fluttershy offered meekly. “I don’t think I’ve seen the elites go so far as to add feathers to themselves for fashion, though.”
Twilight reddened from indignation and threw her nose up. “It’s not fashion. I couldn’t give a tart what any of those prissy foals say about colors and seasons. If you must know, I was born this way.”
Fluttershy gave a long sigh and muttered. “Just trying to make conversation. Way to bite my head off.”
For her part, Rainbow Dash gave a tight-lipped smirk. “Don’t let Diamond hear you say that. She might educate you on the importance of fashion.”
A few minutes later, they at last came upon the final house on the street. One of the upper platform’s massive support pillars served not just as a divider, but also an excuse for the occupants of that house to make some add-ons that hung on precariously thin support cables. The home’s ground floor was actually a steel plate supported by the nearby city-pillar. It allowed for a three-car garage with a dark neon sign that said “Butterball Mechanist. You break it, we fix it.” planted on the street. The rest of the house was a crude, yet ultimately effective, merger of a cloud home sitting on top of the garage below. The living area above made the house a narrow, four-story dwelling, but several balconies helped add more space.
The cloudcrete construction of the outer walls had been decorated with childish chalk drawings and a buckball bucket. Like most of the other homes, the windows were tinted so pedestrians could only see black glass. Still, it was home. Rainbow Dash allowed herself a bigger smile and turned to Twilight. “Well, here we are. Home, sweet home.”
“I think my bathroom was bigger than this place,” Twilight remarked absently. In the hours it took to get here, Twilight’s vision had returned to normal, so she got to see all the grime and squalor on the way over.
Fluttershy furrowed her brow in frustrated anger. Without saying a word, she gave a miserable, exhausted huff and flew over to the garage.
Rainbow, on the other hand, gave a derisive chuckle while signing a cloudwalking spell. “Oh yeah? Well, tell you what.” She slapped a silver glowing hoof on Twilight’s withers to transfer the spell, then got behind Twilight and started shoving her towards the spiral stairs. “You can sleep in the shower instead of the floor. That sound good to you, your highness?”
Twilight dragged her hooves, fearful of the sheer drop onto the next city platform well over sixty meters down. She gathered enough wits to push ahead of Rainbow and started climbing the stairs on her own. “I’m not royalty. I’m just the…” Twilight glanced at the next house over with a paranoid eye. “I’m a student. Nothing more.”
“So you say.”
Rainbow pushed past Twilight when they reached the second floor door. Fishing out a blocky plastic key, Rainbow waved the thing over the doorknob, resulting in a loud click. She then repeated the act at the top and bottom of the door, earning two more clicks.
“A decent enough security implement,” Twilight offered in what she thought was a compliment. “I suppose getting anything better would blow your cover.”
If only that were true. “Come on. We need you settled in and up to speed before we make our next move.”
“That actual trouble you mentioned?” Twilight shivered.
Rainbow only nodded before pushing the door open.
The room beyond was a narrow kitchen with barely enough room for a refrigerator, sink, and some cabinets. The smell of reheated soy meals saturated the walls, but what stood out most to Twilight was the unmistakable scent of cooked meat.
Yet there was some intangible quality Twilight couldn’t help but notice. There was a sort of homeliness that expressed itself with a few decorative knickknacks and a few crayon drawings on the walls or refrigerator. There was even a miniature cactus sitting on the windowsill.
Twilight took a long sniff, causing her stomach to growl. “Oh, wow. I didn’t think I’d actually smell something good down here. I almost forgot you thestrals are more omnivores than herbivores. Ah - no offense or anything.”
“Tsh, why should I care what you think about our diet?” Rainbow rolled her eyes as she removed her robe and began emptying all of her pockets. A single grenade, two healing potions, a bag of bits, and a small wallet of the newer credsticks were all placed in a drawer with a duct tape label that read “open this and you’re grounded.” Lastly, she pulled out her crescent moon talisman.
Twilight shut the door behind them and watched Rainbow hold the moon to her forehead with her eyes closed, muttering a prayer too quiet for her to hear. When she finished, Rainbow moved over to a small mirror magnetically stuck to the refrigerator and used it to help braid the medallion to her mane and allow the string to run down the back of her left ear so the moon would rest in the same place as an earring. “Angel will probably be taking the first shower, so you’ll have to wait a bit.” Rainbow bundled up her now empty robes and dropped them in a chute next to the stove. “Help yourself to whatever you can stomach, I guess.”
“You don’t happen to have…” Twilight looked around, trying to sniff something out. “Any bacon by chance, do you?”
“As a matter of fact, we do actually—” Rainbow did a double take. “Wait, why would you want bacon? All the other tribes are grass eaters. Except for Celestia, I guess.”
“Actually, Flash, ponies can be classified as omnivores, it’s just mostly unhealthy and culturally repressed. But, well,” Twilight couldn’t stop herself from salivating as she found that delectable scent. “I’ve tried to emulate the Princess, and you could say my body’s more adaptable than most.”
“Uh huh.” Rainbow ultimately shrugged. She moved over to the fridge and pulled out a plate with a paper towel on top. She placed it on the counter and removed the paper to reveal the chilled strips of pork. “Help yourself.” Rainbow withdrew a carton of orange juice and started chugging straight from it. “But stay away from the steaks. I mean it.”
Twilight used her magic to pull off a strip of bacon and to reheat it to perfection. She bit it in half, crunching the fatty meat, and shivered with joy. “Oh wow, it’s been too long. The cooks won’t make this for anypony but her. A crime, I tell you. Could use some brown sugar though.”
“You’re lucky; we can’t afford real bacon.” Rainbow commented between sips of juice. “There was a firefight in an open market a few days ago, and some butcher got brained. So I helped myself to all the bacon she had in stock, plus some choice ribeyes and few kabobs. We ate like kings that night,” Rainbow chuckled as the memories of that lavish dinner echoed on her tongue.
“You robbed the dead?” Twilight accused. She gave the bacon a sour look, and returned it to the refrigerator when Rainbow wasn’t looking.
“I like to think of it as early bird archaeology,” Rainbow shrugged, uncaring about Twilight’s judgmental glower.
A loud thud was heard from above followed by the rapid pitter patter of small hooves on cloudcrete. “Mommy’s home!!” squealed two voices from above. Rainbow Dash quickly screwed the cap back on the carton and all but threw it back in the fridge.
Storming down the outside stairs, two little balls of fur barreled through the kitchen door and glomped onto Rainbow Dash, cackling all the while. “Mommy, mommy!”
Belting out a raspy laugh of her own, Rainbow laid down on her back so her two little thestrals, no more than five years old, could pony pile her. Both of them shared their mother’s mane pattern and colors, but the little colt was a dark navy blue while the filly was purple a shade darker than Twilight. The filly had brilliant, amber eyes, while the colt possessed pale yellow ones. Rainbow fuzzed up her son’s mane while giving her daughter a kiss on the nose. “How are my two bloodsuckers today?”
“Dad showed me how to make beer dogs!” the colt chirped happily. “The key is not to drink the beer first.”
“I got to play with Mr. Boar!” the filly said proudly while puffing out her chest. “He was mean until I showed him who’s boss.”
“Is that so?” Rainbow playfully scowled at her kids. “Where’s your deadbeat dad?”
“Asleep,” the colt answered enthusiastically. “He said to wake him if you came home today, but I forgot.”
“I tried to tell him to wait and wake daddy up,” the filly lied through her teeth. “But Sparks wanted to race to hug you first.”
Rainbow gave the two scamps a tight, squeezing hug before pushing them off so she could stand up. Not that the kids needed any prodding after realizing a stranger was present. The two ducked behind their mother and pressed their wings against their barrels in an attempt to make them unnoticeable.
Through the whole exchange, Twilight was dumbfounded at seeing them and had to sit down to keep from falling over.
Rainbow cleared her throat and covered each child with a wing. “So, Amber Lotus, Sparks, this is a new friend of mine: Twiggles.”
“What kinda name is Twiggles?” Sparks snarked as he carefully slid away from under his mother’s wing. “Are you sure we can let her see us?”
“I’m ahhh,” Twilight shook her head a bit. “Ah, of course you can!” Twilight bent down to get a little more eye level with the brave colt. “I know all about thestrals and how brave you all are. Your secret is safe with me.”
“All about us?” Amber asked after wiggling to stand between Rainbow’s forelegs. “How do you know about us?”
“Alright you two,” Rainbow cut in before Twilight could say anything. “It’s been a long night and momma’s pretty zonked. Why don’t you get your father down here so he and I can talk with Twiggles before I get some shut eye? If you do, I’ll share the story about the run I just finished.”
“You mean it this time?” Sparks cheered, his wings buzzing with sheer excitement.
“As honest as Aunty Apple,” Rainbow claimed with a raised hoof and a fang filled smile, the first real happy grin she had all night.
“Deal!” Amber half-yelled before racing to the door. “Last one upstairs has to eat cereal!”
“No way I’m losing to you, then!”
Both children raced upstairs, leaving the mares alone. “There, that should buy us a few minutes.” Rainbow Dash indicated the room behind Twilight with a hoof wave. “We can sit down over there.”
“Oh, okay.”
Rainbow led the way into the only other room on the floor. It was a den with a few chairs, and a plushy sofa that looked too expensive to have been acquired legally. A coffee table sat in between it all with stained coffee cups, TV dinner trays, and a few empty soda cans scattered about. Nestled under a few strips of paper on the table was a circular holovision with a few matrix goggles scattered about the room. Lastly, there were a dozen or so cheap and well-worn children’s toys along with some introductory school books off in the corner.
Rainbow Dash kicked off her boots and wandered over to the couch and flopped heavily on it, allowing herself to sink into its luxurious cushions. Sleep begged her to just let go and close her eyes, but present company forced her to stay awake. With effort, she pushed herself up. Ugh, I forgot about that stasis gunk. At least it’s dry now, so it shouldn’t stain the cushions. She blinked slowly, trying to keep sleep at bay.
Twilight had scanned the room for the least dirty chair, but didn’t find any to her liking. She eventually opted to stand. Not that she could sit down right now anyway with barely contained excitement making her bounce a little. “Are those two really your foals?”
“They are,” Rainbow answered with a mix of pride and wariness. “Was it the manes that gave it away?”
Twilight pressed her face into Rainbow’s own. “You’re actually a fertile thestral mare?!”
Rainbow arched her back to pull a small toy ball off the couch and tossed it away. “Last I checked,” Rainbow pulled away from the manic unicorn and dragged a heavy hoof across her face. Here it comes.
“You hide your face everywhere you go, don’t you?”
The off-tangent question made Rainbow crack an eye open to give Twilight a bewildered look. “Yeah. What of it?”
“So you homeschool them or something?” Twilight walked over to the school books and found stacks of paper with childish mouthwriting. “I don’t need to tell you a good education is critically important.”
“Ya don’t say?” Rainbow replied with enough sarcasm that even a deaf person could hear it. “Yes, Winter homeschools them. Plus, some of my crew have younger sisters my kids hang out with, so they have that much at least.”
“You really think enough ponies won’t notice?” Twilight slumped out of concern. “You can’t exactly teach them to fly while covered in robes now can you?”
“Dumb ponies can’t tell the difference between bats and thestrals, and smart ponies know not to ask questions. Why do you think we live in this neighborhood?” Rainbow yawned and had to resist the urge to sleep. She didn’t trust Twilight enough to leave her unwatched. “Besides, the Nightborne never made my… escape,” she chose with a slight wave of a hoof, “public. So it’s not like my undercover work is common knowledge.”
“How do you know that?” Twilight asked with piqued curiosity.
“That’s classified.”
“Bah! I don’t understand why you choose to live like this.” Twilight waved a hoof at the house. “You should be… wait a second.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she tensed, watching Rainbow for any sudden moves. “I don’t care how much you’d miss your family, nopony would want their foals to be raised in a place like this. Not when your supposed undercover work could have ponies attack your home. You’re an actual criminal!”
And here I was hoping she’d be smart enough to keep her trap shut about that. “A criminal that saved you from being a popsicle for probably forever.” Rainbow grumped with her gaze anywhere but at Twilight. “You're welcome, by the way.”
Twilight’s aggressive stance faltered a bit at the blasé statement. Her mouth was locked shut as she tried to think of what to say. “I’m not… ungrateful to you. Let me make that clear. But Celestia always told me thestrals can be trusted. But if you’re a criminal, then how can I do that?”
It was an argument Rainbow was tired of having, and she couldn’t work up the anger to properly rebuke the purple mare. “Twiggles, lemme ask you something. Do you know who I am, exactly?”
Twilight scowled at the perceived red herring. “…No.”
Rainbow Dash’s tired eyes moved over to the window, only to get a good view of the grey city-support pillar. She gave a longing sigh for the wide blue yonder. “Then you have no right to judge me, especially considering how you’d be public enemy number one if anypony else knew you were still alive.”
“Did I walk in at a bad time?” a wheezy masculine voice sounded from the kitchen. In walked a dark purple thestral stallion with a loving eye for Rainbow, but a cautious one towards Twilight. He had a silver mane and deep, pockmarked scars on his neck from an old, badly-healed shotgun wound. He walked with a limp in his left hind leg and was blinded in one eye, but still managed a weak smile. His medallion was a full moon, and hung from a necklace. “Who’s the company, Sugar Pie?”
Amber and Sparks cowered behind their father’s forelegs due to the angry face on Twilight, but were brave enough to give her scowls of their own.
Rainbow waved a tired hoof at the feathered unicorn. “Winter, meet the infamous Twilight Sparkle. Twiggles, my husband Winter Glen.”
Winter chuckled at his wife, confusing the foals into dropping their aggression. “Right, and I’ll bet the regent’s having tea with Fluttershy downstairs.” Winter eyeballed Twilight, his smile shrinking. “...She does bear a striking resemblance, now that you mention it.”
“I assure you, I am Twilight Sparkle,” the mare stated firmly. Deep, fearful concern furrowed her brow as she kept looking between the older thestrals. “And it looks like I’m in a house of criminals. I bet you’re just saying I’m a wanted mare just to keep me from bringing law enforcement down on top of you.” She glared at Rainbow with the same harsh, judgmental eyes that Rainbow had seen in too many faces.
“Well, isn’t that the addict saying the crackhead has a problem?” Winter barked with equal hostility as he approached Twilight. “Dashie is the most loyal pony I know, and I won’t listen to some stranger—”
“Back off!” Twilight flared her horn dangerously, which caused Rainbow to tense up, but still remain on the couch. “Don’t come any closer! I have enough magic to stun both of you and drag your plots to the Princess.”
Rainbow’s jaw clenched so hard she was afraid she’d chip a tooth. “Kids, why don’t you see what Aunty Shy is up to?”
“But momma,” Sparks began to argue, only to clam up when his mother gave him a stern eye.
“Do it! Both of you.”
“Go on, sprouts,” Winter added as he used a wing to push Sparks back to the kitchen door.
Through it all, Twilight had paused her tirade, unwilling to escalate the issue while the children were present.
Looking over their shoulders, the two foals begrudgingly left the room.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Rainbow gave Twilight a hard glare. If I try to sign a lightning ball, she’ll nail me first. “That’d be the biggest mistake of your life,” Rainbow warned through clenched teeth. “You do that, and you’ve got nopony between you and a bullet to the brain from whoever put you in stasis in the first place.”
“Why should I believe you, you fugitive!” Twilight hissed with fury in her eyes. “Whenever Celestia brought up thestrals, she always said they were forever grateful to the crown for bringing them back from extinction, and that they would stand shoulder to shoulder with the throne. I won’t stand for you two dragging that reputation through the mud any longer!”
“Winter,” Rainbow called out plainly and carefully, her eyes never leaving Twilight’s glowing horn. “Have the TV replay last night’s news broadcast. The one with Sunset’s speech.” Rainbow looked Twilight in the eyes. “Why don’t you see just how much deep drek you’re in before you start burning bridges.”
The stallion looked between the two mares before settling on Twilight. He pointed a hoof at the table near Twilight. “I’ll need the remote next to you.”
Twilight risked a quick glance and spotted the controller. With a flick of her magic, she tossed the thing at Winter, who deftly caught it. “If I don’t like what I see, I’m tasering both of you, and then I’ll call down the whole Royal Guard.”
Rainbow felt her blood boil. “No good deed ever goes unpunished,” she muttered just loud enough for Twilight to hear. “You’re not going to like it one way or the other. But you need to see it all the same.”
Winter switched the holovision on and easily found the right channel. It took just a bit to reverse the feed to the same report Rainbow had seen at the bar. It started with Sunset at the podium in front of reporters.
“Dear citizens of Equestria,” Sunset began with a somber tone. “The crown has officially closed the investigation into the incident. We have determined that a pupil of the Princess, Twilight Sparkle, was caught red-hooved selling defense secrets to a minotaur special agent. The Empire still denies any involvement with the sale of secrets, but sources from the Royal Intelligence Service are taking the matter seriously.
“As for the suspects, they did not surrender quietly, requiring the Royal Guard to gun everypony down. The Princess wishes to share her reassurance that disloyalty, an antithesis to Harmony, will not be tolerated at any level of society. Even the very top.”
What Rainbow had missed the first time was that Sunset’s image was split to the left to allow a security recording of the firefight on the right. It started off with Twilight Sparkle, clear as day, holding a data chip in her magic standing next to a minotaur in diplomatic dress. They were in one of the castle foyers, near the minotaur embassy.
The present Twilight was shocked so badly her horn’s magic vanished and her face went white as a sheet. “Wha - wha - what?!”
The recording of Twilight showed her sharing some words with the minotaur before giving him the chip. Both of them turned to leave when a royal guard rounded the bend and recognized them. Without even hesitating, Twilight levitated a nearby tree planter and smashed the guard's helmet with it. The camera fizzled before switching to the castle hangar for the embassy that held the diplomat’s private helicopter. The aircraft was already spooled up and ready to fly, but several minotaurs and Twilight Sparkle were pinned down behind the steel support beams near the walls. Royal Guards had stormed the place from both the entry way and the exit. A shootout of both guns and spells lasted for a few brief moments before the ponies managed to expertly gun down every last minotaur.
Celestia herself teleported into the hangar and tried to reason with Twilight, but all the purple mare did in reply was to launch a series of fireballs at her mentor.
The present Twilight stuttered in stunned horror. “No, I’d never do that! Ever!”
When the recorded Twilight expertly deflected multiple attempts to incapacitate her with stun or sleep spells, one of the Guard sharpshooters put a bullet between Twilight’s eyes.
Twilight couldn’t hear anything. The world around her went dark, and the only thing she could see was Celestia’s tearful face as she turned away from Twilight’s supposed corpse. “T-that’s not real! I would never do that! Celestia should know that!”
“Obviously,” Rainbow Dash said casually, cutting through Twilight’s despair. “You’re standing here, alive and well.”
Twilight gave Rainbow a tense look, her eyes going red, and tears staining her fur. “Who would do this to me? None of those bullies could ever pull this off, even if they were heartless enough to try.”
“That would be interesting to know,” Winter added. So as to appear less threatening to the most agitated pony in the room, he sat down on the chair furthest from Twilight. “I think the question is, who was the real Twilight, you or her?”
“I am!” Twilight half screamed.
Winter shrugged. “Got proof? You could be a clone.”
“I do have proof actually,” Twilight shot back, less heatedly than before. “Something only the Princess herself would know.” She steeled her eyes and tensed. “I need to get in direct contact with Celestia. Please, help me.”
“You’ve got proof?” Rainbow scoffed with a shake of her head. “Let’s hear it then. There’s no way that’s a good idea unless you got some solid proof.”
“I’m not supposed to tell anypony,” Twilight replied weakly. She bit her lower lip out of fear, yet the two thestrals remained steadfast. “But I can make it worth your while. If you help me, I can give you a billion bits, no strings attached. You’d never need money again. I can even get the Princess to pardon both of you, maybe even Angel too.”
Winter shared a pensive look with his wife, and eventually whistled in astonishment. “That’s a lot of lunch money. I still want more to go on, though. If you want our help, I want to know what this proof actually is.”
Twilight ground her teeth and scuffed at the cloud carpet. “I - I carry Celestia’s magic… a bit. If I met with her in person, she could tell I’m the real Twilight.”
Rainbow’s eyes widened a bit, but ultimately, she couldn’t claim to be very surprised. “I can see her doing that. To her personal student at least.” She looked at Winter. “Whattaya think? Is it worth the risk?”
Winter sighed heavily and scratched at the scars on his neck. “I don’t know. How did the job go last night? Something tells me bringing the dead student of Celestia back home wasn’t what our fixer had in mind.”
“It was a hit job. Didn’t exactly go as planned.”
“Then we probably have to.” Winter idly rubbed the scars on his neck. “We’re completely broke after paying the electric bill. We have enough food for the next few days, but after that, we’ll have to get creative. I know you don’t like resorting to petty theft, but…”
Rainbow gave Twilight a long, hard look. Her pride warred with the need to provide for her family. As it typically did, the family won out. “Fine. We’ll help, provided we get those pardons and the cash. We can make a good living somewhere else.”
“We’ll need our SINs restored too,” Winter added quickly, keeping Twilight from replying. “Money and a clean slate aren’t worth too much on the right side of the tracks if we’re not considered actual citizens by the system.”
Twilight nodded her assent. “The Princess is more than capable of all of that and more.”
“Alright, so how do you contact Celestia?” Rainbow asked with a bit of a friendly tone.
“I’ll need a sunstone,” Twilight stated plainly. “Some white chalk, and that table,” she added with conviction.
Rainbow climbed off the sofa with a disbelieving frown. “Seriously? Just any old sunstone?”
“Well, that and a ritual only I know, but yes. Any run-of-the-mill sunstone.” Twilight swelled with pride. “I was the one Celestia trusted the most. I can’t let her believe I did all that stuff my evil twin did on the news.”
“Amber has a rock collection,” Winter pointed out. “I bet she nicked a sunstone from somewhere.”
Twilight decided to ignore the thievery of a child and opted to keep a good mood. “That would be perfect. I can perform the ritual right here if you like. At least after I take a shower and - er - you want to as well.”
A shower later, and after a long rest that lasted well into midday, Rainbow Dash arrived back into the kitchen for breakfast. By now, Winter had cleaned up the trash from the den and had breakfast waiting for his famished wife, a bowl of Dadi-oohs cereal. The twins were having lunch instead, the last of the bacon with some of the steak thrown in for good measure. The heavily muffled noise of Fluttershy’s machine shop below spoke of her activities. Twilight Sparkle was dominating the coffee table with the sunstone and a few chalk lines drawn over a freshly cleaned surface.
Passing by the stallion washing dishes in the sink, Rainbow slipped a little kiss on his cheek and winked at him before moving on to the den. With a yawn and a happy smile towards her children, Rainbow Dash flopped down on her favorite spot on the couch, right next to her son and daughter. She spotted her bowl of cereal on a fold-out tray. “Heyya, bongos, what are you two eating?”
Sparks excitedly threw a piece of bacon in the air and caught it in his maw with a ferocious growl. “Arrr, I’m eating a cyberbear and sucking his bloooood!”
Amber possessed slightly better manners and gave some kind of response from a mouth full of food.
Rainbow cackled happily and fussed up Sparks’ mane. “That’s my bloodsucker alright!” Rainbow made sure to squash both little foals and pepper them with kisses. Amber belted out uproarious giggles at the loving attack.
Sparks made a show of trying to escape. “Help! Daddy, mommy’s trying to suck my blood!”
Winter merely glanced at his son with a wiry grin. “Save some blood for me, honey.”
“Nooo!!” Sparks cried out before playing dead.
“Mwahaha!” Now you will rise as my vampony slave!” Rainbow cackled while releasing Amber.
Sparks shot back to life and gave his mother a rigid look, broken by uncontrolled snort-laughing. “What is your bidding, my master?”
Rainbow deadpanned, “Finish your lunch then do your homework.”
Sparks went sullen and limp. “Awww, can we please hear your stories first, mommy?”
A wicked grin cleaved Rainbow’s muzzle. “I thought you’d never ask. But let me eat up first.” Giving Sparks one last kiss on his forehead, Rainbow started scarfing down her cold cereal. Even after five years, Rainbow couldn’t escape the memories of the more filling and tasty meals from her time in the palace district. With renewed ire towards the Nightborne, Rainbow wolfed down the rest of her breakfast and guzzled the milk in one go. Smacking her lips and banging the plastic bowl back down on the tray, Rainbow only now gave Twilight any attention.
The feathered unicorn was intently focused on completing her ritual, allowing Rainbow to feel comfortable leaving only a single eye on her so she could start telling Sparks and Amber all about the run from last night, with extra emphasis on the gory bits. Amber polished her lunch off and nestled under her mother’s wing, while Sparks was propped up on Rainbow’s back. The excitableness of her children gave Rainbow much needed levity. A necessary tactic to steel herself against the urban hell outside her door.
“So there I was,” Rainbow said dramatically, already half an hour into her tale. “Trapped on the cargo ship with Big Dumb Bull’s guts blown all over the deck, and a sniper ready to geek me the instant I poked my head out.”
“You were too smart for him!” Amber proclaimed with pride.
“I bet you womped that sniper good!” Sparks started punching the air like a martial artist.
“I woulda, but suddenly, the whole ship was blown open by the big bad assassin.” Rainbow made explosion sounds while flailing her hooves in the air. “He flew up on a big ol’ gunship with rocket pods covering it from head to hoof. I, of course, dodged over a dozen of those measly pop guns. When the pilot saw I wasn’t scared, he blasted the hangar open and ran away like a pansy.”
Through it all, Twilight kept shooting concerned glances at Rainbow whenever blood came up around the foals. “Okay, it’s ready,” Twilight called out, glad to be done with the gruesome tale. With the holovision moved aside, the sunstone was now the centerpiece on the table, and sat in the middle of a few simple lines.
Rainbow had to rein in her irritation at being interrupted, but a billion bit payday does a lot to smooth things over. “Alright, get started, but don’t do anything that’ll burn the house down, will ya?”
After pushing the kids off so she could climb to her hooves, Rainbow moved in to get a better look at the sunstone diagram. It was a bit too complicated for Rainbow to discern all of the diagram’s functions, but she saw enough similar lines to a standard, if outdated, communication ritual.
Winter walked over from the kitchen to watch as Twilight closed her eyes and started to glow. From within her chest, a glob of glowing mana akin to a small sun emerged. The mana had lavender tethers wrapped around it, trying to pull it back inside of Twilight. The feathered unicorn was gritting her teeth and a strained warble escaped her lips, but her efforts proved successful, and the miniature sun was at last snapped free and sat motionless in Twilight’s kinesis. The act seemed to make Twilight shrink just barely enough to be noticeable, and some of the feathers along her shoulders withered and fell away. “There we go,” she stated with heavy fatigue. “That - that should be enough.”
Rainbow took a step away from the table, and moved to stand between Twilight and her children. “What did you just do?”
“The ritual also needs part of Celestia’s magic,” Twilight intoned while waggling a hoof at the golden orb. “It acts like a secondary security key to let her know for sure that I’m the one contacting her.” Twilight rubbed a tired eye, and noticed there were no further objections. She forced herself to mutter some words of power before moving the miniature sun into the sunstone. The stone immediately lit up, and the chalk flared into thin lines of fire that started to burn the table.
A new pattern emerged above the sunstone tracing lines that took Rainbow Dash a frightening moment to recognize. “Oh rut! That’s not a communicator, that’s a damn teleport beacon! You hag!”
Winter scrambled to his hooves. “Hide, quick!” He grabbed his son, while Rainbow grabbed Amber. A pressure wave of immense power tore into the den before a wash of heat blasted over the whole floor. There, standing on the bent remains of their coffee table, was the Princess of the Sun, Celestia.
Her very presence felt like being beaten down by a desert sun at noon. Her pastel mane and tail filled the room as the ancient mare looked down upon the one who summoned her. She narrowed her eyes in a puzzled scowl at Twilight, who was standing at rapt attention. The thestrals, on the other hand, cowered out of sight, whispering a few words the panicking foals were trained to obey in complete silence.
Sensing how constrained the room was, Celestia forcibly shrunk her mane and tail to roughly the standard size of a mare of her height. “Twilight Sparkle,” the stern voice that everypony knew instinctively called out. “If that is who you are.”
“I promise that pony on the news wasn’t me!” Twilight cried with tears starting to form. The snobby yet attentive aristocrat Rainbow rescued washed away into a frightened mare. “I just woke up from stasis last night, found out I was framed as some kind of terrorist, and - and I didn’t know what else to do but to call you. So I—”
Twilight was stunned into silence when Celestia climbed off the table and wrapped the unicorn up with a wing. The alicorn expressed no fear, not even concern of an attack from Twilight, such was her power. And yet Celestia looked visibly shaken, and on the verge of tears herself.
“Twilight, dear heart, please let this be real.” Celestia pulled away a bit so she could see Twilight’s face. “If you are my real Twilight, then open yourself to me. I must know you are not a clone.”
“Gladly, Princess.” Twilight stepped back as far as the walls would allow her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rainbow and Winter watching the two of them in silent curiosity and smoldering anger at being played. “I’m ready,” Twilight said as she stood stock still with her eyes open and locked on Celestia’s own.
Celestia’s horn went alight with golden magic that sank into the feathered unicorn. Twilight gasped and was lifted a few centimeters off the ground. A ghostly shadow of herself emerged from her body. It was a spirit that was evenly split straight down the middle with her left half a brilliant gold while the other was dull silver.
“So it really is you!” Celestia ended the spell as quickly as she dared. The ghostly echo of Twilight returned to her body, eliciting a second shuddering gasp from her. She didn’t have time to recover her wits before Celestia roped her into a tight embrace. “I thought I had truly lost you, Twily.”
Twilight was more than happy to return the hug with all the strength she could muster. The two mares stayed like that for several seconds until Twilight gave a shaky laugh. “To think I was antsy about that identification spell.”
Celestia pulled away from Twilight, and took a long breath to calm her nerves. “You mentioned you were in stasis?”
Twilight struggled to keep her eyes open when a heavy wave of fatigue rushed back as her excitement started to ebb. “Yes. The last thing I remember was studying with Moondancer. But apparently I was in a stasis pod until last night when a thestral helped me escape.”
“A thestral?” Celestia was taken aback. “But if you had been saved by the Nightborne, they would have told me immediately after finding you.”
Twilight pointed behind Celestia towards Rainbow Dash who was now staring murderous daggers at Twilight. “You can ask her yourself.”
Celestia followed Twilight’s hoof and laid eyes on Rainbow Dash and Winter Glen. The alicorn gently pushed Twilight away so she could stand up to face them, her oppressive heat becoming scathing once again. “Neophyte Rainbow Dash and Shadow Walker Winter Glen, now isn’t this a surprise?” She glanced about, taking in the impoverished home she had been brought to. “You seem to be doing decently enough… all things considered.”
Having no other choice, both adult thestrals stepped away from each other so they could prostrate themselves before Celestia, and took a moment to shove the foals into the proper gesture of respect as well.
“Princess Celestia,” was all Rainbow said, albeit in a respectful tone. Winter parroted the greeting as well.
The alicorn’s smoldering anger shattered after spotting the children, focusing on their prismatic manes and leathery wings. “You - you foaled?! How—” Celestia composed herself to appear less threatening to the children. “How wonderful.” Celestia used her magic to move the furniture aside so there was a clear path between her and the little ones. She laid down on her belly. “May I see them?”
Amber and Sparks risked looking to their parents for guidance. Of the four, Rainbow Dash was the first to begin sitting normally. She nodded to her children. “Go on, she’s a good pony.” Mostly. “She’s the reason our tribe exists again.”
“Golly.” Amber was the first to cautiously approach Celestia, with her brother following closely after her. Her bright amber cat-like eyes drank in Celestia’s picturesque appearance. “You’re sooooo pretty. Almost as much as mommy.”
“You’re really hot,” Sparks stated with only the bluntness a child could possess, causing a few flushed faces. “Do you burn your pillow at night?”
Celestia giggled behind a hoof and altered her magic to exude less heat and to keep prying eyes from looking at the house. “Is that better?”
“Uh huh. What’s it like in the palace?” Amber asked with wonder painted all over her smile. “Do you have chocolate fountains and cakes as big as our house?”
“Do you have parties all night every night?” Sparks asked while piling over his sister to get his answers first. “With clowns so stupid they keep their noses in the air like they just don’t care?”
Amber shoved him back down. “No fair, I asked first!”
“Yeah, but you have a fat nose, so I get the first questions.”
The two siblings started fussing and pushing each other, but ultimately, no harm was done. They rolled around in their little scuffle, completely ignoring the adults.
Celestia’s grin widened further when she returned her gaze to Rainbow Dash. “They are most definitely your children. You two must be very proud.”
Rainbow allowed herself a snarky yet utterly devoted grin at her children. “Sparks has his father’s brain. We found a tutor who was willing to keep their tribe a secret, and he keeps forcing her to advance the curriculum.”
“And Amber’s got it in her head to be a fighter like her mother,” Winter added with a wiry grin at his wife. “I’ve already got her started on learning how to meditate properly. We’ve kept our… criminal status secret so far.”
“Innocence once lost,” Celestia commented with an approving nod. “They could have a better life in the palace should you—,”
“I’m not giving them up to the Nightborne,” Rainbow rasped as sternly as she dared to Celestia. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
“That goes double for me,” Winter added. “They’d only brainwash our foals against us!”
“Enough,” Celestia interrupted with the calm power her age afforded her. Everyone else in the room felt stifled by the renewed heat wave before Celestia reined it back in. “As miraculous as finding natural born thestrals, it does not give you a free pass against your crimes. Still…” Celestia visibly shook her shoulders to push her anger aside. “I must thank you for returning my student to my side. For that, I… I will forget I saw you.” The ancient mare’s eyes bore deep emotional pain. “Such a pity. You had such a promising future, Rainbow Dash. I had such high hopes for both of you.” Celestia rose to her hooves, only for Twilight to gently tap her mentor’s flank.
“Princess, I made promises to them if they allowed me to contact you. Money and pardons for both of them and a pegasus friend of theirs.”
“Pardons?!” Celestia raged with a brief snarl marring her face. Her ire made Twilight shrink down. Celestia closed her eyes, calmed herself, and wove a sleep spell on the foals. The siblings stopped fighting and slumped over each other. “Rainbow Dash betrayed her tribe through gross negligence, and Winter did the same by helping her flee arrest. Returning you to me…” Celestia paused for a long moment as a thought struck her. She turned fully towards Rainbow Dash and her husband. She noted that Winter had the defiant, stern visage of someone who was unashamed of his actions. By contrast, Rainbow Dash had a silent snarl on her enraged face with angry tears in her eyes. “Is unexpected. Tell me. Was money and a pardon really the only reasons you allowed my student to contact me?”
Rainbow scooted over to scoop up her children, and used the distraction to blink the stinging tears out her eyes. She laid Sparks at her side while holding Amber with a foreleg. Without looking away from Celestia, Rainbow made sure Amber’s wings were folded comfortably and started petting her mane. “I was never negligent in my duties,” Rainbow seethed with burning hatred. “I did everything I could and more to make sure they came back alive.”
“That’s news to me,” Celestia stated coldly. “At this point, it’s your word versus your former superiors. But that’s not the answer I was looking for.”
Rainbow worked her jaw to drag her fury into a little box so she wouldn’t risk angering Celestia into arresting her anyway. “I may not be a Nightborne anymore, but I’ve never forgotten my first loyalty is to my family and Equestria. Plus, technically, Twilight offered the money and pardons first, I didn’t ask for it.”
“It was implied,” Twilight grumbled, but offered no further interruption when Rainbow glared at her.
“Even if Twilight had not promised me a damn thing,” Rainbow continued, hopefully without further interruption. “I’d still have allowed her to talk to you. Besides, a rich mare like her could stand to part with a few zeros, and I’ve got mouths to feed.” Rainbow gave a vulgar wing flick at the purple pony in question. “Provided she had been on the up and up about exactly what that method of contact was.”
Twilight huffed and brushed some dust off her hoof. “You never asked, and I knew you’d stonewall me if I volunteered that information.”
“Yeah, yeah, as if Mother would have pointed me at you…” Rainbow’s world went still as the implications struck home. Is that what Mother wanted? That by rescuing Twilight I would be arrested?
Both Celestia and Winter looked at Rainbow with surprise and a touch of awe. Winter clutched his medallion. “Did Mother actually speak to you?”
Rainbow snapped out of her inner fears and wiggled a hoof and shrugged. “More like guided my nose to the cryostasis chamber. She made me figure everything else out.” Please don’t make this some plan to trick me to going to prison. Don’t do that to me, Mother, I’m begging here.
“Did she now?” Celestia felt a ghost of hope rise, but she dared not show it. “Perhaps this is a sign that your Mother has finished punishing you for invoking her name to profess your innocence all those years ago.”
Winter stiffened, but remained silent, save to give his wife a sympathetic look.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, bristled and risked insult by glaring. “I didn’t—”
“You will be silent,” Celestia commanded with a harder glare of her own. “Do not tempt fate by repeating your slight against the Mare in the Moon.”
Rainbow’s ears wilted, and she turned her head away from Celestia to keep from showing her resentful pain. That resentment was not so much directed at Celestia, but at Flintlock. “Yes… Princess.” When I find that trog, I’m going to make him bleed every last drop of Mother’s blood from his undeserving, lying tongue.
Celestia allowed her face to soften back to normal. “You should be glad you have your Mother’s favor once more.” She looked down at the floor where the moon rested beyond for a long moment.
“Wait, you actually believe her?” Twilight interjected sharply. “Princess, spirits are mischievous being at the best of times. Even if you trust Mother Moon, Rainbow could be lying again—” Twilight wanted to say more, but she noticed the scathing glares the thestrals were boring into her skull, while Celestia turned to fully face her student with a warning frown.
“For all that you know of thestrals, it seems I have utterly failed to teach you about their bond to Mother Moon. When it comes to speaking of Mother Moon, the tenet of honesty is held as absolutely sacrosanct.” Celestia scanned Rainbow Dash for her reaction, and then found that even the foals already had their lunar medallions, Amber with hers hanging around her left ear, while Sparks had his around his neck. “Assuming Rainbow Dash has learned to value honesty in that regard, we can believe her in this, this time.”
Twilight chewed on her cheek a bit, wanting to argue further, but couldn’t find the nerve to do so. “As you say, Princess. Still though, isn’t it obvious that the Mare in the Moon directed Flash to me so I could in turn return her to you?”
“That thought has crossed my mind.” Celestia replied with a controlled expression. “But something tells me that if their Mother’s only desire was to bring Rainbow and Winter to that form of justice, she would have guided the other Nightborne here long ago.”
Rainbow and Winter were stunned not only that the Princess came to their defense, of all ponies, but at the implications of her observation. “Princess, what are you saying? Do you actually believe me?”
“About her guiding you to my student, yes,” Celestia replied sternly to keep the thestrals from getting the wrong idea. “I only have a theory on what she wants, and I will leave it at that. For now, though.” She addressed the two parents with a studious expression. “Answer me true, do you believe your Mother would want you to defy me out of hoof? Are you willing and able to serve the crown once more?”
“Mother’s always pretty vague about everything. Any chance you can do some alicorn mojo to give her a commlink?”
“I see your smart mouth survived your fall from grace,” Celestia remarked with an unamused frown. “But no, that’s not possible.”
“Never hurts to ask,” Rainbow shrugged with short-lived mirth. “Then in that case, she hasn’t said anything about serving you or not. As for me… I never liked being on your drek list.” Rainbow answered meekly, fearful of risking a ‘yes mare’ lie. “Not to mention kids are expensive, a mare’s got to eat. But I would rather die than just walk back to the Nightborne,” Rainbow added both quickly and sternly. “Flintlock made me the fallmare for his stupidity. So outside of that, I’m listening.”
“I can’t fight like I used to,” Winter added with real regret in his words. It stung his pride to show such weakness in front of the Princess, but he pushed on. “Not after my essence was ruined. All I can really do is raise the kids, balance the books, and make sure the lights are on for Rainbow when she gets home.”
“I suppose that will do.” Celestia rubbed her chin, a flash of confusion dancing over her face before settling on the typical gentle warmth of her public face. “As you should have already guessed, there is a conspiracy afoot in the palace. One that wanted my student out of the picture, but apparently not dead or even interrogated for information. Since you have taken it upon yourself to fall into the ranks of the shadowrunners, I suspect you wouldn’t be averse to working for me once again, would you?”
“You - you want to employ me as a shadowrunner?” Rainbow blinked dumbly at her. “I’m surprised you’d even consider it.”
“Not quite as a shadowrunner,” Celestia clarified with a wave of her wing. “The Nightborne are good at their jobs as a rapid response force and matrix defender, but I hear reports of shadowrunner groups still managing to outwit them on numerous occasions. A fact that has been a thorn in my side for some time.
“But you’ve lived their life for these past five years, assuming you became one shortly after fleeing the palace district.”
A guilty look marred Rainbow’s face. “I wasn’t happy with it, but the Don was the only one willing to burn our SINs and still pay us afterwards. It’s not like I could ever take an honest job after all that. But with me being pregnant, Winter stepped out and was the one who did the running for the first four years. I watched over the kids and trained under Winter when he had time between jobs and the kids were asleep.”
Some of Winter's internal scars flashed in irritation. He squinted and hissed at the pain, drawing the attention of everyone else. “This,” he started while motioning a hoof at the shotgun scars on his neck, “was the only parting gift I got from Flintlock when we fled that night. All of my other - injuries are the results of one run or another.”
“Last year,” Rainbow interjected with a quivering lip at seeing her stallion in such pain. “Last year was when I put my hoof down and made him retire. I’ve been the family runner ever since.”
Winter gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “She’s better at it than I ever was. I didn’t get more than three runs in before I was laid out on a hospital bed. And by hospital bed, I mean our couch with Ap - with a friend looking after me.”
Celestia held a contemplative look for a while longer. “Your loyalty to each other is commendable. Admirable, truly.” Celestia’s face soured in distaste, but she swallowed it down. “Here is my offer. I want you to form a new group of shadowrunners you trust enough to want to do what is right for Equestria. Ponies who are willing to fight for crown and country over wealth and power. To cross those lines the law cannot. Can you do that?”
Rainbow’s eyes lit up like she had taken a breath of fresh air after being smothered in smog. “I - yes! I - um - I already know of a few ponies who would do that wholeheartedly.”
“Good. Then they will be the core of your organization. You may, of course, contract runners outside of the organization, and you may operate as you see fit.”
“But Princess,” Twilight interjected by interposing herself between her mentor and rescuer. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Between the loyal Nightborne and the Royal Guard, we’ve more than protected our interests. Surely they can unravel this conspiracy.”
Winter laughed derisively at her, earning a scowl out of Twilight. “You must be seriously naïve if you think the perpetrators haven’t infiltrated those groups. How else could they have extracted you from the palace and put a clone in your place?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out soon enough,” Twilight steamed.
“I’m afraid your investigative skills are rather lackluster outside of the library,” Celestia stated with a slight calculating glint in her warm eyes. “Which is why you will be under Captain Rainbow Dash’s command.”
“A -” Rainbow’s breath shuddered. “A captaincy?” she whispered, scarcely believing her ears. A desperately hopeful smile threatened to break out.
“Me?!” Twilight whimpered as she prostrated herself before Celestia. “What about my studies? I still have so much I have yet to learn!”
“And learn you will,” Celestia replied with a stern smile. “You have been directly targeted by this conspiracy, and bringing you back to the palace, I would tip my hoof too early. You will stay with Rainbow Dash and Winter Glen until this matter is resolved and the guilty are brought into light. Besides, I feel that a more… worldly education would serve you well both for the time being and in the future. I will be expecting weekly letters on what you learn about the underworld. Via Rainbow’s method of secure comms, of course. Expect her to read them, even if you ask her not to.”
Twilight gave her best tearful, puppy-dog eyes, but the ancient alicorn was as unmoving as the mountain itself. Giving up with a sigh, Twilight’s head sunk to the floor. “Yes, Princess.”
“And since you’re legally dead, your SIN will be suppressed, so you get the full criminal experience,” Rainbow Dash added with a fang filled smirk.
“Oh, happy day,” Twilight fumed, giving her an evil eye. She laid down on the floor and faced away from everyone else to pout.
With her student’s new curricular activities laid out, Celestia turned back to the thestrals. “As for the money you were promised, giving you so many bits all at once would draw a lot of attention and questions your way. Is there some other way I could front you some capital to settle your most pressing debts? The last thing I need is my newest captain to… how does it go…? ‘Have your knees broken,’ was it?”
“We could post some bogus data on the matrix for bidding,” Winter offered. “You could easily outbid anypony else. We’d get the money, and nopony will ever know the info was fake.”
“Didn’t Diamond and the others finish a run last night too?” Rainbow asked her husband. “She’s a wiz with a deck, and nopony’s going to give it a second thought if she found something really hot.”
“How much do you trust this Diamond?” Celestia inquired with concern.
“She’s the one who cancelled her plans to open a fashion store or something so she could front the cash for our place,” Rainbow answered with gratitude tinting her voice.
“She didn’t even call it a favor,” Winter added with disbelief coloring his words even after all this time. “No strings attached except for letting her design Rainbow’s robes.”
“She’s a great friend of ours,” Rainbow continued, “and she knows what we are. Without her, we would’ve been living on the street after fleeing the Nightborne.”
“That is quite the sacrifice for a stranger.” Celestia mused over the information for a long moment. “I will have to meet this Diamond in person one day.” Celestia’s magic flared, and a scroll and pen materialized and levitated towards Winter. “Jot down how I might be able to contact her discreetly, and how to bid for this fake data. I’ll even throw in a little more for her troubles. Once we have secure communication with one another, I will forward some tasks I have for you. And before you ask, you will of course be compensated. If, for nothing else, than to ensure your foals have a better childhood.”
Winter could barely contain himself as he furiously wrote down the information requested of him. “T-thank you, Princess. We always thought if you found us, we’d be dragged back to the Nightborne for sure.”
Rainbow got up as well, and laid both of her sleeping children on her back. “Just how long is this little under-the-table venture going to last, exactly?”
Celestia averted her eyes, and thought carefully of her answer. “Less than a year, to be sure. Potentially as soon as this conspiracy is ended, or perhaps a little longer than that. Once all is said and done, we will discuss those pardons you requested.” She gave the two thestrals a warmer smile than they thought would ever be directed at them. “However, it would be suspicious to suddenly remove the ‘capture on sight’ order for you two. So, do not get the wrong impression that you can leverage your new position to protect yourselves. If you are careless and get spotted, I will not stop the Nightborne from sending a retrieval team.”
Rainbow wilted a bit and looked to Winter. “I guess that means we can forget sending the kids to an actual school.”
“Eh, I teach them actually useful stuff anyway.”
“The subpar public schools aside,” Celestia interrupted with a hint of sorrow behind the neutral mask she wore in public. “There is only one other matter I would like to address. Call it an old habit of mine, but I would like to give your little troop a name. After all, you have to be a captain of something, do you not? Would you like the honors?”
“You’re letting me name it?” Rainbow felt a feral grin cleave her muzzle. “In that case, what about the Shadowbolts?”
Winter groaned and gave her an embarrassed, reddened face. Celestia, on the other hand, couldn’t help but to chuckle. “I did poach you from the Wonderbolts, after all.”
“Well, sure, there’s that,” Rainbow Dash admitted with a sheepish grin. “But I was always planning on naming my Nightborne squad that. At least when I was still on track to get one.”
“Very well then.” Celestia took on a formal posture. “Then I dub thee, Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Shadowbolts.”
Rainbow stood at sharp attention, the ghost of long forgotten pride beaming from her eyes while her foals jostled on her back “Thank you, Princess. I’ll round up the crew immediately. But umm…” Rainbow inwardly kicked herself for forgetting one little yet critical problem. “I have an issue with the mob at the moment.”
Celestia frowned at her, distaste coloring her voice. “I trust some additional money is needed?”
“Erm, not quite.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. “The job I was on when I discovered Twilight was to kill off some thug that managed to kill the Don’s brother. He wants the assassin’s head on a platter by the end of the week, literally.” Twilight went a little green in the face. “And he escaped last night when a spec ops team tried to take him out first. My guess is that he stumbled on their black site, and they wanted him dead for it.”
“Curious.” Celestia hummed as she searched her memory for any teams that were sent out last night. “This could very well be relevant information if you indeed found my student there. Were they aligned with the government or one of the megacorporations?”
“Don’t know,” Rainbow answered truthfully with a shake of her head. “I caught one to get some answers, but she teleported out from under me and left a grenade as a parting gift.” Rainbow absently rubbed a sore spot on her barrel. “She didn’t wear any unit patches either. Buuut, I’m sure I can have Angel forward the location of the black site.”
Giving an approving nod, Celestia gave a grim smile to her new captain. “I’ll investigate this little detail in my own way. I will still be forwarding this assignment to you. Chances are, they might be related.”
Rainbow released a tensed breath once she realized Celestia was placated enough to seemingly forgive not being able to address whatever task she had first. “We’ll be ready tomorrow night after sundown.”
“Excellent. Assuming Diamond is prompt, you will have your first assignment and up-front capital by then.” Celestia turned around to find her student. It was obvious she had been silently listening to the whole thing while still fuming over her new lot in life. “I have not forgotten you, my faithful student.” Twilight’s ears, then her head, perked up at the attention. “I’ll make sure you have what you need,” Celestia stated as she levitated the sunstone between them. “Don’t think of this as a punishment for a crime you did not commit, but an opportunity. And to make sure you take that to heart, I want you to have this.”
Celestia’s horn glowed a magnificent gold, and made the sunstone do the same. The stone glowed with ever increasing brilliance until it looked like a miniature sun. She then levitated it over to Twilight, who took it in her own magic. “Look after yourself, Twilight. You know how to defend yourself, but practical application is just as important as theory.”
“Thank you, Princess!” Twilight hugged the stone close to her chest, a warm smile gracing her face. Her body started to glow the same golden light. The feathers she had lost regrew anew, and a few new ones started to develop, starting from the plume near her withers, and started migrating towards her midsection.
“Not too much,” Celestia warned sternly.
Twilight immediately pulled the much dimmer stone away from her chest, and her ears wilted. “I’m sorry, I was just…” Twilight looked like she wanted to say more, but thought better of it.
Through it all, Rainbow and Winter gave the two a confused look, but kept their mouths tactfully shut.
With an understanding yet still annoyed face, Celestia used her magic to give the stone a bit more luminosity, but not nearly as much as it had been before Twilight got ahold of it. “While I give you permission to use this if the situation demands it, you will have to ration that magic, understand?” Twilight nodded with a stiff upper lip. “I expect your discretion on the matter until such a situation presents itself. Shield the stone from scrying as best you can.”
Twilight stole a glance at Rainbow in particular before nodding again. “Of course, Princess.”
“Excellent.” Celestia saw that Winter had finished the scroll with Diamond’s contact information, and that it was sitting on the ground next to him. She claimed it in her magic and tucked it under a wing. “I must leave or my absence will be noticed. You didn’t exactly contact me at an opportune moment, my faithful student.” She turned to the thestrals. “Do whatever you need to prepare. I will have orders for you by tomorrow night.”
“Your will be done,” both Rainbow and Winter answered in the old Nightborne manner.
“May your Mother smile upon you.” Celestia’s horn brightened, and she teleported away.