As Twivine sat outside the tomb, looking at the sky, she contemplated where she had gone wrong. What mistakes she could have avoided making. She was glad Midnight had returned but what she had done to get her here.. it all felt wrong for some reason, especially what she had done and said to Rainbow and the others.. Maybe it was the part of her that was still Twilight, maybe these were her own feelings but regardless.. she hated feeling this way. She should be enjoying this.. but she wasn’t. Should she tell Midnight or should she keep it to herself?
Either decision could possibly end badly. On one hand she had the choice to tell or keep it secret. But if she didn’t tell Midnight and she found out herself through Alicorn empathy, she would most likely punish or kill her for keeping something this important to herself. Now if she just told Midnight the truth, maybe it would go easier on her but Midnight might fake trying to help her while plotting to kill her anyway as soon as she’s not useful to her anymore. Or worse, she’d probably think that torturing her more with dark magic would strengthen Twivine but weaken Twilight and even if it did, she didn’t want to suffer through that. She sighs and holds her head.
“What do I do?” She asks quietly to no one in particular. She was trapped between a rock and a hard place. “This was a mistake.. everything was a mistake.. and it’s too late to fix it all.” She says before she hears footsteps and immediately takes out one of her blades, pins whoever was walking up against a wall and holding the blade close to their throats. She calms down when she sees it’s just Lightning Dust who looks like her normal self again.
“What the hell was that for?!” She yells and Twivine backs off, putting her sword away and walking back to where she was sitting.
“You snuck up on me and we’re caught in a war in case you forgot.” She says and Lightning Dust growls before walking up next to her.
“I haven’t but Midnight sent me to search for you. The Wonderbolts are going to present their new outfits today. She wants me, Short Fuze, and Rolling Thunder to cause some trouble and we might need you to back us up.” She says, holding out her hand for Twivine to take it. “You in or out?” She asks and Twivine stands up by herself but nods. “Good, come on, let’s go.” She says before they both walk back into the tomb to get ready.
Twivine sighs but then remembers that Rainbow Dash is part of the Wonderbolts so she’ll most likely be there. That manages to put a smirk on her face. This was going to be fun..
An hour later, Wonderbolt Show Stadium
There were so many ponies here that showed up just to see the new outfits for the Wonderbolts, it was almost surprising. Rainbow Dash would be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a little nervous. It’s not as bad as it was during the best young flyers competition. She hasn’t been that nervous ever again. “Dash, still with us?” She hears Soarin asks, breaking her out of her thoughts. She shakes her head then nods.
“Good, it’s about to start, finish getting ready newbie.” Spitfire says and she nods and puts on the new goggles. She then lines up with the rest of them after they go over the plan for this presentation. She closes her eyes, breathing in and out then opens them again.
“You’ve got this Dash. You’ve got this.” She thinks to herself which helps to calm her nerves a bit.
“Alright! Look alive Wonderbolts! It’s showtime!” Spitfire yells and they all grow determined looks before running and jumping out and following the routine that was given to them. The stunts they pull really shows off their new armor but then Spitfire does a full loopty-loop around the cloud they’re meant to land on then stops flying, transitioning into a backflip before landing on it, prompting the Wonderbolts to do the same behind her. That gives everyone a proper look at the new armor.
Lightning shaped bronze armor that goes down from their necks and chests to their belts which were also lightning shaped. Their boots were also made from bronze armor. The shoulder guards had the Wonderbolts emblem on them. Their gauntlets looked to be modified and they had a few blue lightning strikes at the end of them. The suits underneath the armor had black as the dominant color with blue in some visible areas. The goggles had yellow lenses that had a feature that could help them see further. The armor was also thin and light but enchanted so it would protect the Wonderbolts against many types of powerful magic. This armor along with the stunts earned “oohs” and “ahs” from the crowd. Rainbow Dash saw her friends cheering for her, including Scootaloo and she gave a quick salute in return.
After a few seconds, Celestia and Luna landed on the podium above everyone else, prompting everyone to cheer again for the two former princesses. Celestia smiles before stepping forward. “Hello my little ponies! I’m sorry that Princess Twilight Sparkle couldn’t be here today!” She says and everyone frowns including her and Luna. For a second she struggled to continue but then Luna nuzzled her and did it for her.
“But it is with great honor and respect that we fill in for her today!” Luna says before gesturing to the Wonderbolts. “Presenting to you.. the new and improved Wonderbolts!” She says prompting the Wonderbolts to give salutes and everyone cheers when they do. Before Celestia or Luna can continue, all the clouds suddenly turn.. dark. More clouds form and start closing in on the stadium.
“The Wonderbolt armor might be new..” Everyone hears a voice say, setting them all on edge as the Wonderbolts get ready to fight. Suddenly the Washouts appear from lightning strikes above everyone. “But we're the improved!” Lightning Dust yells before proceeding to rain down lightning on the stadium. The Wonderbolts fly up to them before being hit by a huge claw made from storm clouds and lightning. Rolling Thunder smirks as she continues using her new ability to beat down the Wonderbolts. On her next strike, Rainbow Dash dodges and lands on the arm, running on it towards her.
Her eyes glow and more clouds form around her, being held together by magic and lightning. These clouds are used to form a giant monster which glares down at Rainbow. She dodges when it tries to swat her off it’s arm. She continues dodging it’s attacks before returning some of her own. Her attacks only seem to anger it though. She charges up her most powerful blast but before she can unleash all that built up power, Short Fuse tackles her and kicks her into the stands. Luckily the crowd had evacuated in time, unluckily for her, that did hurt. She quickly gets up just as he lands in front of her, his eyes glow red and clones of himself appear by him that are made of red lightning.
“As if today could get any worse..” Rainbow Dash says before the clones start attacking her. She manages to hold her own against them but then she gets hit in the back with lightning and goes through the cloud that she and the Wonderbolts landed on. She quickly stops herself, only to get kicked by Lightning Dust. She grabs her foot and swings her around before throwing her towards the ground. She quickly recovers though and teleports behind Rainbow, punching her then teleporting and punching her again and again. This goes on for a full minute before Rainbow is suddenly struck to the ground by lightning and more and more strikes all clash against her at once nonstop, causing her to scream in pain.
She then gets an idea and tries to absorb it all. It doesn’t work and she continues trying to think until she sees Short Fuse and Rolling Thunder cornering the Wonderbolts, most of them being hurt while the rest are trying to defend them. Spitfire was one of the ones who were hurt. Seeing this does something to Rainbow and her eyes glow red and she tries once again to absorb the lightning. She can do this.. she has to do this. She slowly stands up as it starts working.. but something else is happening to her. She continues standing up as her body starts to glow more and more. Twivine is getting a bit concerned as she sees this, watching the fight from afar. Rainbow suddenly curls up before screaming and unleashing all the energy she had absorbed.
This knocks Lightning Dust into the other Washouts and almost blows Twivine away as well. Once she opens her eyes, she sees something.. unexpected. Rainbow Dash.. she was different. Her fur was white, her eyes were red, her mane and tail were flowing, the cloud in her cutie mark was black instead of white, there was Rainbow colored fire surrounding her from what she did and rainbow colored lightning radiating off of her. Dash looks at herself before smirking and looking at the villains. “Sweet..” She says, her eyes glowing more as she does.
She raises her hand up, lightning immediately striking into it and forming into a transparent, multicolored lightning bolt. She quickly throws it at the cloud monster that Rolling Thunder had formed, immediately destroying it and injuring all the Washouts with the resulting explosion. She then flys to the Wonderbolts and manages to grab atleast 5 of them, including Spitfire and Soarin before Twivine stepped in and pushed her back with a wave of magic. Rainbow Dash crashes with them but quickly gets up, glaring at Twivine who glares back. “Retreat! We got most of them, that’s all that matters!” Twivine yells and Rolling Thunder starts to make a storm form to cover their escape.
Rainbow flys to them, reaching for Twivine. She failed to save Twilight once, she wasn’t going to again.. or so she thought. Twivine notices her at the last second and they clash, causing a shockwave from how strong they both are. “Twilight come on! I know you’re still in there! You’re really gonna let this wannabe version of you boss you around?!” Rainbow yells and Twivine continues struggling before giggling evilly and responding.
“Twilight’s not home right now, but Twivine sure is free to play.” She says, much to Rainbow’s annoyance. “But not for very long soooo could you do me a favor and stay out of my way?!?!” Twivine screams angrily before headbutting and blasting Rainbow Dash back to the stands. This stuns her long enough for the villains to escape. Rainbow Dash tries to get back to them but it’s too late. After a few seconds she screams in anger, causing rainbow colored lightning to strike through the clouds and thunder to boom as it does. She looks at the remainder of her downed teammates and frowns as she sees Spitfire starting to wake up. She lands by them and checks on them. “Are you all ok?” She asks.
Half of them nod and the others shake their heads to say no. Spitfire doesn’t answer and Rainbow Dash sighs. “Come on.. we have to get you all to a hospital, then I’ll go make sure the citizens are ok.” She says and they all nod before Soarin helps Spitfire up and they start to make their way to the hospital.. it was going to be very hard to recover from something like this though..
As the rest of the Wonderbolts wake up, they come to realize that where they are.. might be the most terrifying place any of them have ever seen. They hear footsteps and look to see a terrifying alicorn as black as night.
“Welcome Wonderbolts.. to the tomb of Alicorns. I am Midnight Starkiller and before you ask, no I’m not going to kill any of you.” She says and they all sigh in relief until she says something that sends chills down their spines. “But you are going to serve me and fight for me now.. you will no longer be Wonderbolts.. you’ll be something much.. darker.” She says before looking at Twivine. “Twivine.. would you do the honors?” She asks and Twivine hesitantly walks over, not seeming to be happy about it but Midnight pays no mind to her reaction.
When Twivine is in front of them, readying her magic, her eyes turn normal for a second and Twilight comes out long enough to mumble something to the captured and scared Wonderbolts. “I’m sorry..” She says before Twivine takes back control and begins the slow and painful transformation. No longer would they be the Wonderbolts.
No.. from now on.. the world would know them as.. the Deathbolts.