//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10-15 
// Story: Shadowbolts: Origins 
// by NightArrow 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 10
The Princess gave CC a concerned stare. “You still have your reservations about this, don’t you?”
“Call me crazy, but I don’t think the best way to get into a world class organization is creating a competing organization...” CC responded.
“Young Cloud Crash, when I saw you staring out at the track this morning, you told me you went there every day, even after your flight school, correct?”
“Mmhmm.” 
“How often did the racers acknowledge you? Had you ever met Spitfire? Or Soaring?”
“--it’s Soarin’ . . . and, well I’ve never met Spitfire...”
“Haha, actually I have seen his file in my sister’s room. His name is Soaring. But he enjoys the nickname. I suppose he believes it makes him seem more like a celebrity.” Luna laughed.
CC didn’t think it was very funny. These were her heroes, and Luna was throwing information as if they were every day ponies.
“Either way, they never once approached you? Just to say encouraging words? Or reassure you that you had a chance to one day join their ranks?” 
CC had met Soarin’ on a few occasions, but they didn’t exactly end well, and she definitely didn’t want to get into that, so she lied, “No... but, well, they’re busy.”
“How much time would it possibly take for the Fastest Flyers in Equestria to zoom over to the front row of the stands just to say hello?”
CC lowered her head.
“CC, we can make a team that responds to the ponies of Equestria! All the young pegasus ponies that want to one day be a member? We can do that!”
CC looked up at Luna, “You really think this can happen, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I’m going to need not only your wings, but your brain and heart.”
“Huh?”
Luna opened up CC’s wings with her hooves, “I need you to be the fastest flyer you can be so we can win races.” She tapped her royal glass horseshoes onto CC’s head, “I need you to personally help me run the background of this little organization. Help me with paperwork, and creating guidelines that will establish an Equestrian Racing Association; make this into a full out sport!” 
“You want me to organize--”
“But most of all,” Luna put her hoof on CC’s chest. “I need your heart.”
CC gave Luna a look of sincere confusion.
“I need you to believe this can happen. Your complete dedication. It can be your legacy, CC. You won’t be just another member of the Wonderbolts. You can be bigger than that, you can be the mare that started an entire sports league.”
CC looked down, contemplating. She did want to make a big impact in Equestria racing. But she had no idea it could be this big. 
“So, are you with me?” Luna asked.
. . .
“I am.” CC said sternly. “Just don’t make me regret this...”
“You won’t, I promise.” Luna said. “We’re going to make Equestrian history.”


Chapter 11
“You do know what city all racing happens in, don’t you?” Arrow said.
“Well, yeah... Canterlot.” Skylight responded. 
“Canterlot! Yes! Exactly!” Arrow exclaimed. “That doesn’t ring a bell, Sky?”
Skylight thought long and hard for a moment. “I... I know I needed to avoid that place... and earlier today, it gave me the heeby-jeebies! But I don’t remember why. . .”
“Skylight! We used to live in Canterlot! We grew up there!” 
“No we didn’t! That’s crazy!” Skylight laughed. “Look at me! Do I look like a fancy smancy Canterlot pony? Hehehe”
Arrow just couldn’t get her to remember. Something happened to her head that night. He knew he just couldn’t go back to the racing circuit. He just couldn’t chance letting his past run into him. Not after all these years.	And if they saw Skylight like this? It was all his fault, and he’d been carrying that blame for years. He vowed to take care of Skylight no matter what, and if this happened, he knew it would be close to impossible to keep that promise.
“No, I guess not.” He responded, defeated. “You look way cooler than a Canterlot pony.”
“Hey, Arrow why are you so sad all of a sudden?” Skylight’s ears went back, and she placed her hoof on his shoulder.
“This is just super complicated, and kind of out of nowhere.” He said.
“What’s so complicated about it?” She said. “Didn’t it feel great to get onto that track and actually race somepony? The thrill of winning? The fear of knowing you may lose? Imagine doing that all the time!!”
“It did feel great racing again.” Arrow cracked a smile. 
“Then what’s the big deal, Baggy-Eyes!?” Skylight laughed. “Don’t you miss seeing the world out there? Canterlot was beautiful! I was staring at the scenery out Luna’s balcony window! I saw like 6 pegasus ponies fly by! That’s more than I had seen in like forever!!”
Arrow knew Skylight was serious about this. It was sort of unfair to her, keeping them both cooped up in this stadium. They knew the forest like the back of their hooves, but place them in the middle of a city, and they’d be lost for days.
Maybe it was time.
Maybe after all these years of avoiding their past, they had to just move on. They couldn’t run forever, and by now, they were all grown up. They made their mistakes, but hey, they were just kids. They deserved whatever was coming to them, but they also deserved to be forgiven;
...I mean, that’s what family does, right?

“Alright, Sky’,” Arrow smiled. “we’ll do it.”
Skylight’s eyes lit up, “WE WILL!?” 
“Yeah, we will.”



Chapter 12
Arrow and Skylight walked back over to Luna and CC.
“Alright, we’re in.” Arrow said.
“That is good news! I assure you, this will be very successful.” Luna smiled.
“And Princess Luna said I’m in charge!” CC exclaimed.
“Wha--?” Skylight stepped back.
“--Welp, it was good while it lasted, but I’m gonna have to retire from this nameless little flight team we had here.” Arrow responded quickly, with his trademark sarcastic smirk. “Good luck with everything, and I hope it all works out.” He began to walk away.
“Night Arrow, wait.” Luna said. “I did not place CC in charge of this team. As of now, I am still your only leader.”
Arrow stopped and looked skeptically at the princess.
“You didn’t?” CC looked up at her. “What was all that you were going on about me changing the face of Equestria Racing history??”
“From behind the scenes, Cloud Crash.” Luna said. “Look, can we please just go back to my office? We will figure everything out when we get back there.” 
“Fine.” Arrow sat down.
“Are you gonna magic us over there again??” Skylight asked excitedly. “Your magic makes me feel all tingly!”
“If you’d like,” Luna smiled. “tell all your wings to enjoy the rest though, after we get this rolling, you will all be flying as fast as you can, as often as you can.” 

In a flash, they were all sitting in the Royal Lunar Office.
“Can’t say I’m a fan of freaky unicorn transportation.” Arrow said. “I think from now on, I’ll just fly.”
“I am never getting used to suddenly just being somewhere else.” CC said, looking a bit sick. “It throws off my equilibrium.” 
“Alright, I’ll stop doing that then. I just figured this would be easier for everypony.” Luna said.
“Nooooo!” Skylight cried, hugging herself. “It’s so TINGLY!”
CC was looking a bit more green than usual. “Please *burp* excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” She said, holding her mouth.
“Down the hall, last door on the left.” Luna said, as CC ran out.
Arrow took this CC-less opportunity to ask a few questions. “So Princess, what can you tell me about the Wonderbolts?
“Shouldn’t we wait for CC to return before discussing business?” Luna responded.
“I’m just curious to how things have been here in the racing industry since I was last in Canterlot...” Arrow leaned back in his chair.
Luna was not a stupid pony; she was over a thousand years old. She knew when someone was fishing for information.
“Well Mr. Arrow,” she smiled coyly. “about how long ago has it been since you were last in Canterlot?”
Arrow knew he had given his motive away. It was a dumb move to try to trick an immortal. Skylight was just sitting quietly, surveying the room, completely uninterested in their conversation. 
“Alright, look.” He sat up. “what gets said right now stays between us. I don’t want Cloud Crash knowing any of our business...”
“CC is the only other member of this team, Arrow.” Luna said. “If we start keeping secrets before we even have a first practice, this is a house built on sand.” 
“I know, I know...” He said, trying to get answers before CC came back. “But look, I just have one question: Who is the coach for the Wonderbolts?”
Luna was confused. Here Arrow was sitting in front of a pony that had access to confidential information about the Wonderbolts, and really all of Canterlot that nopony else had, and he asked a trivial question that he could just read in the newspaper? Something wasn’t adding up.
“Bright Speed.” She said. “He has been the coach since before I made my return to Equestria from my banishment.”
“Oh.” Arrow said. Clearly, this was not the answer he was expecting. He almost seemed disappointed. But before Luna could pry deeper into this strange behavior, CC reappeared in the doorway.


Chapter 13
“I’m back.” CC said, looking back to her greyish-blue hue. “I’m back, we can start the meeting.”
“Yay!” Skylight rose her front hooves into the air. “Okay first things first: our uniforms need capes.”
“No.” Night Arrow said immediately.
“Why not? Capes are awesome! And they’ll look so cool when we’re zooming around the track.”
“Capes would add unnecessary wind resistance, and thus slow us down.” CC said. “They would give us a huge disadvantage.”
“Fine...” Skylight slouched down. “But can they be orange? Oooh, and blue! I love orange and blue!”
“Why don’t we focus on a solid number of members?” Luna finally jumped in. 
“Alright, well, how many are on the Wonderbolts nowadays?” Arrow asked. “Five? Six?” 
“Eighteen.” CC said.
“Eighteen!?” Arrow echoed. “Why so many?”
“They’re their own competition. They have to increase the roster to keep the races interesting.” CC said.
“You sure know a lot about the Wonderbolts.” Skylight said.
“Well, I’m their biggest fan.” CC said matter-of-factly
“You were their biggest fan.” Luna said. “Now, your favorite team is this one.”
“This one doesn’t even have a name yet.” Arrow said. “We can’t keep referring to it as a this current team or our flying project.” 
“Ooh!” Skylight rose her hoof as if in school. “We can be The Super Speeders!!”
“No.” Night Arrow responded quickly yet again.
“Uh, okay... the Fantastic Flyers!”
“No.” Arrow responded just as dryly.
“The Caped Crusaders?” Skylight asked meekly.
“Skylight, we’re not wearing capes!” CC said. “And we’re not superheroes! We’re a racing team!”
“Actually, I already have a name for us.” Princess Luna said. The other three sat quietly in anticipation. “But it’s from back when I was consumed by my Nightmare Moon persona...”
Arrow and Skylight looked at each other, confused. CC remembered that day. She had been in Canterlot celebrating the Summer Sun Celebration, when there was word that not only had Celestia gone missing, but Nightmare Moon was wreaking havoc on a little town called Ponyville, where the Princess was last seen. Apparently, Luna had her fair share of demons.
“Although I hadn’t completely been in control of my actions, I was still very aware of what I was doing.” She continued. “There was a pony who’s dream, like many pegasus ponies, was to join the Wonderbolts. So I tempted her into abandoning her friends to join a team I had fabricated called The Shadowbolts.”
The three ponies looked around at one another.
“I like it.” Arrow spoke first.
“It’s kind of derivative of the Wonderbolts, don’t you think?” CC said, “I mean, it has the same number of syllables, they both end in ‘bolts,’ it just seems like we’re mocking them.”
“If you ask me,” Skylight began, “I think the name kinda says We Wear Capes.”
“Well, we don’t.” Night Arrow said.
“I even have the uniform planned out.” Luna said, pulling out a few sketches from her desk. “I remember it so distinctly. We just need all your measurements and we can send this template and your numbers to the royal seamstress. Then the uniforms and name will be all taken care of-- ah, here it is.”
On the desk was a sketch of a pony wearing a flight suit similar to that of the Wonderbolts, but with completely different color scheme. The lightning pattern on the legs were much higher up, and there was even a larger lightning pattern across the neckline and chest area. These yellow jagged lines separated the suit into two distinct colors: a dark purple on the torso, while the face, neck, and legs of the suit were a pitch black. The talent mark was a pony’s skull with a wing behind it.
“These are actually pretty awesome.” Arrow said, sounding impressed. 
“Yeah, these aren’t bad at all.” CC said.
“Hmm, you know what they’re missing though?” Skylight said.
Arrow sighed heavily, “Skylight, for the last time, we’re not--”
“Relax, I was gonna say goggles.” Skylight smiled. “We can’t have the wind getting in our eyes while we’re racing!


Chapter 14
“Oh! I actually already have a prototype of those made!” Luna said excitedly as she walked over to a cabinet on the other side of the room. “You are all going to really enjoy these.”
“I think we’ve all worn goggles before.” Night Arrow said. “Just how cool can these... possibly. . . ?”
His words trailed off as she pulled out dark purple goggles with yellow tinted lenses. Instead of a normal circle shape for the eyes, these were almost semi-circles, giving the wearer a constant angry, intimidating look.
Arrow smiled broadly.
“Wow, is that a genuine smile?” CC teased. “I thought you only smiled and laughed ironically, or sarcastically. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you actually happy about something.”
Arrow ignored the remark. “Can I please see those?”
“AND a please?” CC continued, “Geeze, who’s this guy and what has he done with Night Arrow?” 
“He loves goggles.” Skylight responded. “He used to wear his old Wonderbolts goggles all the time when we were kids. He had the classic ones, back when the lenses could flap up and down. They were pretty geeky, but he loved ‘em.” 
Luna handed the goggles over to Night Arrow, which he immediately put on. “These are awesome.” He said, almost giggling.
“This is getting creepy.” CC said looking at Night Arrow.
He then moved the goggles from off his eyes, resting them on his head like a headband.
“I’m keeping these.” He said.
“That’s fine.” Luna smiled. “I can have more made. Besides, they seemed like they would be too big for either of these two mares anyway.”
“Awesome.” He said. “I’m literally keeping these forever.”
“You realize he’s never going to take those off now.” Skylight said dryly. “If I know anything about Night Arrow, it’s that once he really likes something, he never lets it go.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a good thing.” Luna said, “Because that means he’ll always be wearing a piece of the Shadowbolt uniform. It will encourage team spirit and pride.” She sat back down at her desk.
“Now that all that is taken care of,” she leaned forward onto her desk. “let’s talk important things. We need to establish numbers, and leadership.”

Chapter 15
“To be honest Princess,” CC said “this is a lot to take in for one meeting.” 
“Oh, you’re just bitter since she didn’t name you captain.” Arrow jabbed. “Clearly, I’m the only one well qualified to lead this team.” 
“Actually, Night Arrow, I think we should look for somepony with a little more experience leading and training.” Luna said.
“Well don’t look at us, Princess! We’ve been cooped up in an old abandoned stadium forever!” Skylight said, laying sideways across her seat.
“Fair enough,” Luna said, turning to CC. “Do you have any idea of who would be interested in such a position?” 
“Hmm...” CC thought for a moment. “I might!” 
“And who’s that?” Luna asked.
“Well he’s been a um... good friend of mine since I was younger. The only real Wonderbolt to talk to me on the sidelines when he wasn’t busy...”
“A Wonderbolt?” Arrow laughed. “Why in the wide world of Equestria would somepony who is an established racer in a professional organization give all that up to start all over again for the slim chance that this might become HALF as successful as where he already is!?”
Luna smiled smugly, “You see, Night Arrow? You have no faith in this project. Why would I put you as a captain when you already have expectations for this team to fail?”
Arrow abruptly stopped laughing at CC; Skylight leaned over from her chair to his, pointing her hoof in his face. “Oooooh, BURN!” She laughed.
“But, he does raise a valid point, CC.” Luna continued. “We do need somepony who isn’t tied down to the Wonderbolts. Somepony who is a good flyer, but a great leader and coach.” 
“Wait, aren’t we going to have a captain AND a coach? I mean, that’s what the Wonderbolts have...” CC said.
“No, although I am royalty and have access to the royal funds, I doubt the citizens of Equestria would appreciate me using their tax dollars on a sports team. We need a pony who can act as the team captain, but coach you as well. That’s why they don’t have to be an amazing flyer themselves, just good at teaching.”
CC’s eyes lit up. “Wait, like... a teacher?”
Luna nodded.
“What about the Canterlot Flight School’s best flying coach ever?” CC smiled.
Arrow and Skylight looked at each other, a bit concerned. 
“Oh yes, is Darkstreak still teaching there?” Luna leaned back.
“He should be. I think it’s his last few years!” CC said, excitedly.
“Yes, I’ve seen the pegasus ponies he’s trained. They are very impressive! and I can’t help but think he’d whip the three of you into shape. Go see if he’s interested.”
“Uh, Princess?” Arrow said. “Well, I don’t know about this ‘Darkstreak’ guy, but you had trouble convincing us to take this idea seriously. If he’s an older stallion, he’s gonna need more proof to drop everything and follow a bunch of young pegasus ponies over to Canterlot Castle.”
“Good point, Night Arrow,” Luna said pulling out a quill and ink. “I will write him a letter with the Royal Lunar Seal on the cover. All you have to do is deliver it. CC?” she beckoned her, “come see how this is done, if you’re going to be helping me with all the paperwork and such through this little project we have going, I’m going to need you to know how to properly set up a simple letter. Go grab a dark blue envelope from that cabinet in the corner...”
While CC got up and helped Luna with the stationary, Arrow pulled Skylight aside. “Hey Sky’, I’m gonna split up from you guys when we head out the door, okay?”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because Darkstreak was our old coach too, remember?”
Skylight had a blank, confused look on her face. Night Arrow sighed. “We had him as a teacher back when we lived here in Canterlot. And he’s really good friends with my dad. If he sees me he’ll recognize me and tell my family I’m back! But you look completely different, he’ll never recognize you in a million years! Just try to sabotage this little meeting, and we’ll help them find somepony else for this captain gig.”
Skylight nodded assertively.
“Great, just don’t let Darkstreak know your name and you should be fine; I’ll meet you back at Everfree Stadium.”
“You got it, Arrow!” Skylight saluted.
“Are you guys ready?” CC walked up to them, letter in a royal blue messenger bag with a bright, white moon logo embroidered on the side.
“Actually, I think I’m gonna head back home,” Arrow said, holding his stomach. “I think all that teleporting eventually caught up with me too. I’m starting to feel it.”
“Oh, very well.” Luna said, “In that case, Skylight and CC, deliver that letter on your own, and if Darkstreak agrees, the four of you can meet back here in my office tomorrow morning at 8am. If he doesn’t, then the three of you come back, and we will throw more names around.” 
“Sounds like a plan, Princess!” Skylight saluted, and stretched her wings.
“Oh, and CC, I would like you to come back here after the meeting regardless of it’s outcome. There are quite a few things I would like to show you around the royal office.”
“Of course, Princess.” CC bowed.
“See you mares later!” Arrow said, “Oh, and thanks, Princess.” he bowed towards Luna, and walked out onto the balcony before taking off into the air.
Luna wasn’t sure whether Arrow was bowing genuinely, or being his sarcastic self. But it didn’t matter, she just needed him to be a strong flyer, and win them a few races. He’ll learn respect eventually.
“Good luck ladies.” she nodded at the green and blue mares as they bowed. “Don’t let me down.” 
“Bye!” Skylight yelled as they also exited the royal office through the balcony, and flew into the air, opposite direction as Arrow.