Rainbow Dash had just finished her day's work as manager of the Cloudsdale weather facilities. She had a lot going on in her life right now, what with the inspection coming up soon, and those freaky letters she kept getting. They all said the same thing, just in different ways, "watch your back". That wasn't the freaky part, the freaky part was that at the end of every letter instead of a signature, there was a picture of a shield.
She decided to fly around, just to clear her thoughts and calm down. She didn't have a destination in mind, she just wanted to relax and forget how stressful the last couple of weeks had been. She stopped at the park and enjoyed the view. It was perfect, really; above her were the dazzling stars in there cosmic beauty, below her was Equestria, in its full nighttime glory. Little lights dotted the country as they grew steadily more clustered the closer to the cities she looked. The cities themselves were the definition of beauty. Tall, amazing, larger than life skyscrapers shone brilliantly as the lights of the other buildings reflected off them.
Scoots would've loved this... Rainbow thought to herself. Then again, she was probably off somewhere with Rumble, she noted, an amused smirk slowly forming, Or maybe she was at home, taking care of her little colt... Man, had time flown, it seemed like just days ago she was trapped in Fluttershy's cottage about to be eaten by a bunch of furballs.
Days that had turned to years...
As much as she hated to admit it, she was getting up there in the age department, and although out of all her friends (well, maybe except for Pinkie) she still had the most youthful energy, it was starting to show. Sweet Celestia, the little filly that had idolized her already had a child of her own! That's not such a bad thing, she thought to herself, taking note of the grayish tint, her once vivid mane had taken to, at least I know that Equestria is gonna be in good hands... She smiled, as she slowly took in the scenery, thinking back to all the great times she and her friends had shared. It was almost a dream...
Almost...
"Hi there!" Rainbow turned and saw a neon green Pegasus looking at her with a large smile on his face. He had an even brighter shade of green mane with neon blue streaks. "My name's Novaglow." He said, the smile never leaving his face. "uh, hi... I'm-" Began Rainbow.
"Oh I know perfectly well who you are!" he said, interrupting her mid sentence.
"You do?" Rainbow replied, unsure of whether to be amused, afraid, or honored...
"Yeah. You're Rainbow Dash! The element of Loyalty!" Continued Novaglow.
Oh, thought Rainbow just another fanboy... "Yeah, that's me." She said, doing her best to fake a smile.
"Yeah we've been keeping track of your awesomeness for awhile now..." Said Nova.
Whoawhoawhoa... thought Rainbow, red lights going off in her head.
"Yeah, and you know what we found?" Continued Novaglow. Rainbow was afraid to ask. "Ambition, in everything you did, you strove to be the best and then some, that's an attitude we could really use." Before she could respond he gave her a business card. "Don't worry about contacting us, we'll come find you." Wait, what was that? thought Rainbow, Did he just hide a smile? "Bye bye." He said, in an almost playful way, before taking off into the night. "Novaglow, huh?" Rainbow muttered to herself. She looked at the card and felt her blood run cold. There were no letters, no names, none of those dumb slogans. Instead, right in the center of the card, was a picture of a shield.
Rainbow stared numbly at the card. No way... she thought to herself, this can't be happening. She suddenly didn't feel very safe flying around alone this late at night. She kept feeling the looks of eyes that weren't there, studying her, waiting to strike. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally flew into her cloud home and quickly shut the door behind her. She quickly went to her bathroom, opened the cabinet, and took a pill. She then went into her room and, with the help of the pills, fell into a light sleep. This is your home, no one can hurt you in it, this is your home, no one can hurt you in it... she kept thinking. It was a minor comfort, but every bit helped.
She heard a noise in the dark.
As she groggily rose from her bed, reminding herself to remember to take off Tank's propeller before she fell asleep next time, she heard another bang. She snapped back to reality, muscles tensing, ready to combat any invader, she silently crept towards the sounds. As she passed her living room, something caught her eye, she wasn't sure if she imagined it, but she could've sworn she saw something silently moving in the dark. She readied herself for whatever was about to happen.
She leapt into the room, switched on the light, and turned to face any trespassers in a single, fluid motion. She scanned the room and relaxed. "See?" she told herself through shaky breaths, "It's nothing." She was about to leave the room when she felt something slam into her side, throwing her to the floor and knocking the wind out of her. She looked up in horror as two pegasi dressed in all black grabbed her by her forelegs and held her up so she has facing the hall. She saw a neon green pegasus slowly walk out of the shadows. "You!" she said, finally catching her breath.
"Me." replied the stallion, with that same damn smile on his face from the last time they spoke.
"I take it these are your 'friends?' "
"A few."
"What do you want?"
"Well it's not what I want..." said the stallion, his voice trailing off.
"It's what I want." Corrected a large black Stallion. She took a good look at him, he was pitch black, wearing a white mask that didn't allow a good view of his eyes and a single smile painted on in... blood? He had a neon red and blue tail, she wasn't sure about his mane as the mask didn't betray that feature either. His wings are what caught her eyes. They weren't normal Pegasus wings, they were metallic, being kept to his body by a mechanism that appeared surgically attached. He noticed her staring at his wings and gave a wicked grin that could scare off his own mother, if anypony could see the grin, that is.
"You know, it's not polite to stare." He said. "Well it's not very polite to sneak into someone's home and knock the wind out of them." She replied.
"Touché"
"Back to my earlier question, what do you want?"
"Easy, I want you out of the picture so that my plans can succeed."
"Plans?"
"Well you're rather chatty."
There little exchange was interrupted by a voice coming from a box on the stallion's chest. "Workshop is ready." said the voice. "Thank you," replied the stallion, "dismissed."
"Workshop?" asked Rainbow. "You'll see." said the stallion, steadily advancing towards her.
"Whoa, what are y-" her sentence was interrupted by a devastating blow from the stallion, followed by darkness.