Piercing the Heavens

by Calm Wind

Chapter 81: One Step Ahead

MLP: FiM
Piercing the Heavens
By: Calm Wind

Chapter 81:

“Wow… they’re still out there… how long have we been in here?” Storm asked as he looked back towards squad Foxtrot.

“Exactly forty-one minutes…” Matteo grumbled as he laid on his stomach in the center of the penthouse and repeatedly tapped a talon on the floor.

“Better in here than out there…” Dash sighed as she stepped away from the door and walked past Storm. “You should’ve left with squad seven, they headed back ten minutes before the reporters showed up,” Dash nudged him as she passed.

“I prefer being stuck with you guys… Dex, Savage, and Lead Runner are an odd mix. Without Autumn Rain there anymore, the balance of reason to weird has gone right out the window,” Storm chuckled. “For all I know, they were caught by reporters on their way back, so I might be lucky, who knows?”

Squad Foxtrot and Storm were stuck in the penthouse box. The lead squad was right outside, being swarmed by reporters. Dash, Storm, and the rest had all quickly backed up and closed the door behind them in the penthouse in order to avoid it all. Dash felt bad that Soarin was stuck out there, but it was part of his job, he was probably handling it much better than she would. They would have been able to leave through the balcony and just glide down to the tunnel at the bottom of the arena, but the custodians had already shut and locked the glass doors. So they were all stuck in the box with the cleaning crew, picking up all the uneaten food. They all just had to get comfy until the coast was clear.

“Why are you still sitting over here?” Star’s voice caught Dash’s attention. Dash looked over and saw Star approaching Squall in his corner.

“Ngh…” Squall replied the usual way.

“You’re not fooling me when you do that you know…” Star pouted and put her hooves on her hips as she floated up in the air a couple of yards away.

“Nnnnnnnnnnnggggghhhhhhhh…” Squall held the grunt longer while averting his eyes.

“Squall!” Star grumpily huffed as she closed the distance between them and hovered less than a yard away. “Say something besides that!”

“NNNNNYYYAAAAAHHHHHHHHH…” Squall changed up the groan slightly to add a different tone to it as he shifted all the way around to face the wall.

“Oh, come on!” Little Star threw her hooves up as Squall stared directly into the corner of the wall. “Stop being so weird!”

“Nyah…” Squall answered simply, earning a frustrated grunt from Star.

“Uh…” Storm lifted an eyebrow as he watched them. “What’s up with the barrel of sunshine over there?” he asked Dash. Dash turned and glanced over at Squall as Star latched to his back and tried to pull him away from the wall.

“Oh,” Dash snickered. She said she wouldn’t tell anypony but… she beckoned for Storm to lean in and listen as she whispered into his ear. “He’s totally into Star,” she whispered. Storm instantly pulled his head back and blinked with wide eyes.

“Excuse me, WHAT?!” he said with an expression of amused disbelief. Dash chuckled and shook her head.

“At least I think. You saw him react on the blimp when he thought she was lost. Then earlier, he almost protested when I didn’t put him and Star on the same patrol team. Then, while we were flying I asked a question about Star, and he flipped out before I could even get to the point! So… he either holds her in very high regard and trust… or…” Dash bounced her eyebrows. “He has a thing for little mares.”

“I’m sorry, I’m having trouble hearing you over how hard I’m laughing on the inside,” Storm snickered.

“Hey!” Dash gave him a light push. “Don’t go making fun of him, okay? He’s in a vulnerable spot right now. He’s never had friends before, or at least I’m sure he hasn’t. He didn’t take my light teasing too well either… even after I explained it. As his captain and his friend, I want him to feel comfortable around us,” she paused and glared at him. “Knowing your record with him, I’d say it would just end with hooves flying anyway.”

“Can’t deny that…” Storm admitted with a shrug. Dash didn’t like how the two kept getting into fights, but at least Storm acknowledged that they had that habit. “So…” Storm spoke up. “How was your first day as a Wonderbolt?” he asked curiously.

Dash looked up as she thought about how to answer… where did she even start?

“Gosh…” Dash said with a grin. “I didn’t even do anything and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. Walking down the tunnel, getting announced, flying as a squad with the crowd cheering… I can’t even begin to describe how awesome it was,” she smiled down at Storm.

“Heh,” Storm closed his eyes and nodded once. “I wish my first experience was like that,” he said as he opened his eyes and looked towards the balcony that overlooked the arena. “You’re getting eased into the experience. I was taken out of the freezer and shoved directly into the oven.”

“Hey,” Dash placed a hoof on his shoulder. “I better not hear you bash your success again. I swear I’ll knock you senseless,” Dash threatened comically, earning a chuckle from Storm.

“I’m not,” he said with a sigh. “It’s just a difficult position. I can’t afford to take lumps and learn from mistakes like you guys can. I’m part of elite squad seven and I was put there by Spitfire herself. You’ve gotta understand my pressure to perform,” he shook his head. “But that’s enough about me, I want to hear more. My first show ended with me throwing my goggles and trudging away. How did it feel after your fly-by?” he asked Dash.

“I felt like I had been sniffing the vats at a rainbow factory for a whole day,” Dash said while snickering.

“Smelling rainbows or seeing rainbows?” Storm chuckled along with her. “Or both?”

“Definitely both,” Dash said as she let loose some laughter. “I had so much adrenaline pumping I thought my head was gonna explode,” Dash poked her head. “And I probably wouldn’t have cared because it felt so damn awesome.”

“That sounds gruesome, yet believable,” Storm shook his head while grinning. “And… I wish I could’ve flown out there with you guys…” Storm suddenly said with a sigh as he looked towards the balcony again.

Dash kept her eyes on Storm as he stared out. The more and more time she spent with him, the less and less she felt envious of him. He had earned in days what took most Wonderbolts years. Up front it seemed like the greatest honor and pleasure an aspiring Wonderbolt could achieve. But as Dash went through the training and all the other slow processes, she kept seeing exactly what Storm was missing. He went from the bottom, to nearly the top, but he missed all the experiences in between. He had spilled tears to her during the recruit banquet over it, adding to the many important things in his life that he felt he was being denied. Dash was beginning to really feel bad for him the more she experienced these amazing things that he never would.

She reached towards him again, but her view was suddenly blocked by green and blue.

“Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst…” Twister had leapt in front of Dash and leaned into Storm while narrowing his eyes and shifting his gaze back and forth. Storm snickered and lifted an eyebrow.

“Yes, Twister?”

“SHHH!” Twister shushed Storm and put a hoof on his mouth. He slowly reached behind him, pulled out one of the turkey sandwiches from the tables being cleaned up, stuck it in Storm’s mouth, and then lowered himself to the ground.

Storm snorted, removed the sandwich from his mouth, and sat his plot down on Twister’s back before her could slither away.

“Gotcha!” Storm chuckled as he played along with Twister’s antics. Twister tried to pull himself free, but was stuck. He looked up at Dash from beneath Storm and sneered.

“Apparently I’ve been on a butt trend lately!” Twister said while bouncing his eyebrows. Dash let her ears flop down and gave Twister a flat look.

“How long have you been saving up that one?” Dash said as she shook her head.

“A few chapters,” Twister said as his pupils began spinning around his eyes.

Dash didn’t even bother asking about whatever kind of nonsense he was getting at. But… as usual, Twister managed to take a less than happy situation and turn it around with something ridiculous. Storm was laughing as Twister tried to negotiate his way out from beneath Storm’s plot. Twister could easily get out doing something that was physically impossible, as Storm was well aware, but he was enjoying hearing Twister’s ‘terms of release.’ One of which included a rubber chicken catapult latched to a bear wearing flippers.

Dash smiled and shook her head, glad that Storm was getting involved with them again. She looked around, her eyes first landing on Star and Squall. Squall was still in the corner, facing the wall. Star was on the floor, Squall’s tail in her mouth and her little hooves slipping and sliding on the floor as she tugged on it.

Then she turned her head further and saw Matteo, still resting on the floor, sphinx style, and clearly pondering something. He always had a serious look on his face, but Dash couldn’t help but wonder if Matteo had a similar feeling she had when their searching turned up dry. He had a tremendous sense of duty after all. With her curiosity piqued and the others all occupied, Dash turned and approached Matteo.

“You’ve always got a pleasant look on your face,” Dash joked as she approached. Matteo glanced at her and lifted his brow. “But for some reason it looks extra pleasant… whatcha thinking about over here, big guy?”

“Our mission,” Matteo replied. Dash nodded and pointed up at him as she stopped in front of him.

“Bingo,” she said, earning a curious look from Matteo. “I had a hunch that’s what it was,” she said as she sat down. Matteo grunted as he looked towards the balcony.

“Does something seem… off to you?” Matteo suddenly spoke up. Dash tipped her head.

“How… so?” she quickly asked. Matteo shook his head and looked back at Dash.

“Why would they trust us with such an assignment?” he said while looking directly at Dash. Dash thought it over, remembering what Spitfire had said.

“She told us why,” Dash put a hoof to her chest. “The Shadowbolt would be wary of the elites, but disregard us. She also just told me she thought my surveillance plan was well put together,” Dash spilled what she knew.

“Think about that carefully,” Matteo cut in. “Why us? This is a very low key show. There are only two elite squads here. There are plenty of squads available to perform covert surveillance. That’s another thing, why ask us to fly in circles in an area where we can be seen? It’s a terrible plan and I’m not surprised we found nothing, do you follow me?” Matteo looked her in the eyes.

“Uh…” Dash looked down and thought it over. “Actually…” Dash blinked. “That… does sound pretty stupid.”

“I swear, if we are being deceived again…” Matteo growled. “I thought they said the deception was over and done with after the fake dragon attack,” Matteo growled while grinding his beak.

He had a point… a very good point. Dash found no grounds to argue or ignore it. She knew Matteo was paranoid about deception, but he was right. Why them when other, more experienced squads could perform a covert operation? Why have them ‘keep a look out’ in broad daylight where everypony can see them?

“They also ask a lot of us,” Matteo continued. “A single Shadowbolt eluded the lead squad in Manehatten after hiding from view for their whole trip up until the end. If the lead squad was unsuccessful, how did they expect us to do it? Even with my sharp eyes, there was no way I could spot a pony so heavily skilled in stealth.”

“Mmhmm…” Dash agreed as she sat up and crossed her arms. Matteo was making her wonder here… if what Spitfire wanted them to do was truly their purpose for being there. “Seriously,” Dash spoke up while shaking her head. “I mean, the Shadowbolt flew right up to the blimp without being seen! That’s just insane and…”

Dash trialed off as her peripheral vision picked up something grey and brown pass right beside her. Matteo’s eyes widened, as did hers as they both slowly turned and looked towards one of the catering tables that had left to be cleared.

“Mmm! Man, you guys get great food service!”

Dash and Matteo, as well as the other four, all stared in disbelief at the very same grey, brown maned Shadowbolt stallion that they encountered at the blimp. He was leaning against the table and stuffing his face with the little sandwiches as two of the cleaning crew members eyed him curiously. The Shadowbolt glanced at them occasionally to bounce his eyebrows from beneath his red goggles.

Dash was so taken by surprise that it took her a moment to gather her thoughts.

The Shadowbolt just appeared in the penthouse box. The lead squad was outside being hassled by reporters and the rest of squad seven was probably gathering their things all the way back in the waiting room right now. The only possible assistance they had was the lead squad… but it would not be easy to pull them away from the reporters. They risked losing the Shadowbolt immediately if they tried to inform the lead squad directly… so…

Stick to the original plan.

“FOXTROT! GET HIM!” Dash yelled as she reached up and fastened her goggles into place. Star, Squall, Twister, and Matteo all followed, placing their goggles and reading to charge. Storm was the closest to the table, and the moment his goggles were on, he dove across the table, knocking over two pitchers of water and a fruit tray, causing them to crash and clatter on the floor as the Shadowbolt stepped away.

“Whoa! Watch it buddy!” the Shadowbolt chuckled as Storm missed and tumbled to the floor. The Shadowbolt looked up and saw the rest readying to charge and dropped his sandwich. “Welp, time to go!” he shrugged as he began turning back towards the glass doors of the patio, that looked forced open. How he managed to break the lock without making a noise was inconceivable.

“MATTEO!” Dash yelled. “Do the eagle cry!” she ordered. Matteo glanced down at her and nodded. “As loud as you can so the lead squad can hear above the reporters!” she added.

Matteo blinked, and then nodding again.

“COVER YOUR EARS!” Matteo yelled to all of them. They looked up at him in confusion. “NOW!” he repeated. Dash, Squall, Star, and Twister all threw their hooves up and pressed their ears down. Storm quickly did the same from the floor before he had a chance to stand.

Matteo pulled his head back and took a very deep breath, opening his lungs and puffing his chest out. He thrust his head forward, opening his beak and releasing an eagle scream that was INCREDIBLY LOUD.

“AHHH!” The Shadowbolt put his hooves to his ears as he stumbled and fell flat on the floor as the screech resonated across and off every surface in the room.

Dash and the rest all cringed as the noise sent vibrations through them despite them protecting their ears. The cleaning crew all dropped while howling in pain and the glass between the room and the balcony began crackling and splitting… the whole pane the length of the room shattering before Matteo ran out of breath and was forced to stop. He put his arms forward, supporting himself as he leaned forward and caught his breath.

Dash slowly removed her hooves from her ears and turned to look at Matteo, a little terrified. The rest did the same, even Twister looked surprised.

“Rgh!” the Shadowbolt stumbled to his hooves and began wobbling towards the broken glass doors. Dash quickly refocused on the task at hoof, pointing at the Shadowbolt.

“We can talk about how freaky that was later!” she exclaimed as the Shadowbolt made it to the window and spread his wings. Dash glanced over at the door as she heard a scuffle outside along with the reporters. She assumed that meant the lead squad heard it and were trying to get free from the reporters. “After him!” Dash yelled, following her previous orders to the last detail… Pursue until the lead squad could catch up.

Leaving the dazed and confused cleaning crew behind, Dash, Squall, Storm, Twister, Matteo, and Star all sprinted to the balcony and took off, following behind the Shadowbolt as he tried to get away. He was picking up speed and had already cleared the arena, gliding over the Cloudsdale skyline.

“Dash!” Storm yelled from beside her. “With me!” he yelled as he veered towards Matteo. Dash obeyed without question as the two shifted. “Throw us, big guy!” Storm ordered. Matteo looked tired from straining his vocal cords, but he grunted and grabbed the two of them out of the air. He turned up as Star, Twister, and Squall kept in hot pursuit and reared back, locking onto the Shadowbolt in the distance.

“FLY!” Matteo yelled as he spun and launched Dash and Storm. The two shot past their fellow flyers and approached the Shadowbolt, but he was still picking up speed. As strong as Matteo’s throwing arms were, they didn’t have enough speed to catch the Shadowbolt before he was out of their reach for sure.

“Dash!” Storm yelled as they grimaced against the wind battering against them. “Lend me your hooves!” he yelled.

It only took Dash a moment to realize what he wanted. The Surface Tap from this distance would definitely give Storm the boost he needed to catch him.

“You’ve got them!” Dash yelled back as she bent her wings slightly to decrease her speed just enough for Storm to shift in front of her. She reached her arms forward and stuck her hooves out in front. “Go get him, Storm!” Dash encouraged as Storm placed his back hooves on Dash’s.

Dash felt a shock pulse through her that nearly knocked her out of the air as Storm rapidly tapped his hooves against hers and propelled himself forward. He shot towards the Shadowbolt while grinding his teeth and rearing his right hoof back, ready to strike. The added speed was intense, and it felt like the wind was going to press his goggles completely into his face, but if he was going to eventually learn Soarin’s signature move, he’d have to get used to the pressure.

“Huh?” the Shadowbolt looked behind him just in time as Storm’s shadow cast over him from above. “Whoa!” he turned and put up his hooves to block as Storm unloaded a heavy, downward punch. The force of the blow turned them downwards and towards the city below. The Shadowbolt tried knocking Storm away, but Storm latched onto his arm and two began wrestling for control as they slowly decreased speed and descended.

“Damn!” Dash cursed as she regained herself and started up again. “STORM! PULL UP!” she yelled. She didn’t want the chase to fall into the city. As she picked up speed to follow, Squall, Star, and Twister pulled up beside her. Dash looked behind to see Matteo lagging behind, but his eagle cry at full volume clearly had a drawback. “Guys!” Dash yelled to who she had at the ready. “We need to assist Storm, but top priority is making sure this stays out of the city!” Dash glanced around and saw that they were approaching the western district. “We’ve got to keep this up until we’re out of the city boundaries! Then we need to get him on the ground!” she explained. They all nodded in agreement and began their descent towards Storm and the Shadowbolt as they continued to grapple with each other. It was imperative that they keep the confrontation at high altitude until outside Cloudsdale, because as a city of pegasi, 80% of the population was airborne at any time. It would be dangerous for civilians if they fell too far in.

“Hey! I love you too, now LET GO!” the Shadowbolt demanded as he and Storm kept falling.

“RGH!” Storm yelled as the Shadowbolt kept trying to shake him off. He suddenly looked up and saw that they were heading directly for a cloud building. They couldn’t ‘break’ cloud structures, but there were other dangers, such as innocent bystanders within.

It didn’t matter anyway though, because the instant Storm’s focus was elsewhere, the Shadowbolt got leverage on Storm and tossed him upward.

“Ha!” the Shadowbolt yelled triumphantly as he turned to fly deeper into the city, clearly with the intention of losing them among the pegasi flying around below. But right as he turned…

“HEYA BUDDY!” Twister appeared right below the Shadowbolt and pressed his nose against one of his red goggle lenses.

“AHHH!” The Shadowbolt shrieked as he tried to pull his head away, but Twister’s nose remained attached to the goggles. Below, Dash shot forward and caught Storm the best she could, at least to stop his tumbling. She glanced up to see the Shadowbolt whipping his head around with Twisters body limply flailing about because his nose was stuck to the goggles.

“WOOOO!!!!” Twister yelled as the Shadowbolt finally threw him off. Twister began tumbling through the air, but arced around like a boomerang and flew back towards the Shadowbolt while flailing like a ragdoll. The Shadowbolt ducked and Twister flew right over his head. He turned to move down again, but Little Star had gotten in his path and was hovering in place. The Shadowbolt lifted an eyebrow and scoffed.

“Oh, get real, little filly…” he snickered as he reached forward to grab Star. She shifted quickly to avoid his grasp and lurched forward, headbutting him in the chest.

“DON’T YOU PATRONIZE ME, DICKWAD!” Star exploded at him while going in for another headbutt. The Shadowbolt growled and reached for her again. She used her skillful hovering to shift again and aimed all four hooves at his face, but right before she landed the blow, the Shadowbolt reached up his other hoof and grabbed her by the neck of her suit. “AH!” Star gasped as her suit tightened around her neck.

“You little piece of shit!” the Shadowbolt growled. He pulled back and readied to throw her straight down as hard as he could. “Get out of my—”

“HOOOORYAAAAA!!!!!!” Squall shot up from below and delivered a rapid, double uppercut with both hooves to the Shadowbolt’s chin. The Shadowbolt’s head whipped back and he flung upward. His grip on Star loosened, dropping her. Squall shifted and caught Star before she could hit the cloud structure of the tower beside them. Star blinked and looked up at Squall.

“Thanks,” she said with a wink before taking flight from his arm. Squall snorted, but said nothing as Dash and Storm shot upward after the Shadowbolt. Star followed them and Squall shortly after.

“You guys SUCK!” the Shadowbolt whined as he leveled out and rubbed his chin. He looked up to see Dash and Storm floating in his way with Twister, Squall, and Star approaching from below. He looked behind him and saw Matteo approaching. “Heh… Not bad… for a bunch of third rate recruits of a third rate force…” he sneered. “Toodles!” He yelled while firing towards Storm and Dash.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Dash yelled as she and Storm readied to stop him. The Shadowbolt was heading right for the gap between them. The two closed the space up, but kept just enough space so that he wouldn’t be able to get around them easily either. There was no way he was getting through.

“Hmmmmm, oh, yes I do!” the Shadowbolt taunted as he tucked his arms and legs in tight to his body, shifted, and passed right through the small space between Dash and Storm, even as they reacted and tried to close it, running into each other.

“No way!” Storm blinked as he and Dash looked behind them and watched the Shadowbolt unfold and keep going. It was the same thing he did to elude Spitfire during the blimp incident to fit between the reporters.

“SO LONG! SUCKE—”

Suddenly four blurry streaks shot right past Dash and Storm. The wake left behind them was so strong they were almost knocked out of the air.

“HURK!” the Shadowbolt grunted as Dash and Storm looked back up. Soarin, Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and Air Mach had arrived, goggles down and ready for action, except for Soarin who had given his goggles to Gale not long ago. They floated side by side with Soarin holding the Shadowbolt by the neck.

“Not this time,” Spitfire said with a growl as she floated beside Soarin. Fleetfoot and Air Mach flanked them, all looking in at the Shadowbolt.

“Aw… shoot…” the Shadowbolt sighed. “Ladies! Some help please!” he yelled.

“What?” Spitfire blinked.

Fleetfoot and Air Mach suddenly grunted in surprise as they got shoved roughly. Fleetfoot from the right, Air Mach from the left. They were forced inward, sandwiching Soarin and Spitfire between them.

“GRH!” Soarin grunted as Spitfire’s head awkwardly struck his arm, causing him to lose his grip on the Shadowbolt. The four members of the lead squad found themselves tangled and tumbling downward.

After falling a few yards, Soarin managed to rip free and catch Fleetfoot’s hoof, pulling her free as well. Spitfire was able to detach herself from Air Mach easily after that and all four of them looked up.

“I knew it…” Spitfire hissed. Two Shadowbolt mares were floating while holding up the stallion. One was pink with a smooth, yellow mane. The other was yellow with a pink, frizzy mane. They wore the same red headband and goggles, but they were also both wearing small saddlebags.

“YOU IDIOT!” the pink one yelled at the stallion. “Do you EVER follow orders?”

“Aw, give it a rest…” the stallion scoffed. The yellow mare shook her head

“We’ll let the captain punch him later, let’s get out of here!” she exclaimed.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Spitfire yelled as she, Soarin, Fleetfoot, and Air Mach surrounded them.

“There’s ten of us and three of you. Give it up,” Soarin pointed at them as squad Foxtrot and Storm hovered up to join them. Dash set up beside Soarin, the two exchanging a brief glance before focusing on the Shadowbolts. Squall, Storm, and Star fixed themselves up above and Twister and Matteo were below. The Wonderbolts had effectively cut off all avenues of escape. The three Shadowbolts glanced around. After a moment, the two mares looked at each other.

“Cloud bombs?” the yellow one asked.

“Cloud bombs,” the pink one replied as they reached into their saddle bags and both pulled out a small white sphere that looked similar to ping pong balls. The Wonderbolts had no time to realize what was happening. The mares reached towards each other and bumped hooves, smashing the spheres between them. There was a loud POP followed by a cloud exploding outward from the spheres. It grew rapidly engulfing all of them in less than a second.

Dash flinched as the cloud passed over them, but readied to navigate out before the Shadowbolts could escape. But then something rushed against her… a blast of water had splashed against the lenses of her goggles and all over her body and wings, thoroughly drenching her.

“Uh oh…” Dash mumbled as her wings suddenly felt very heavy. Her feathers were completely soaked. “Argh!” she grunted as she struggled to maintain flight. She started to fall slowly and eventually fell out the bottom of the cloud. As she did, she looked left and right. She, the rest of squad Foxtrot, and Storm were all slowly losing altitude as they desperately flapped their drenched wings, whipping droplets of water everywhere as they grunted and struggled.

There was a method to shed water instantly from the wings that Wave Chill had shown them… but none of them had mastered it. Fortunately, the lead squad had.

“Where are they?!” Spitfire yelled as she, Soarin, Fleetfoot and Air Mach all burst out of the top of the cloud.

Soarin quickly threw his wings out and shimmied them while giving one hard flap, tossing all the water droplets clean before shifting back. He glanced around as the other three did the same.

They were in the open air, Cloudsdale was below, but the Shadowbolts would have hit the recruits and Storm had they gone down. Soarin quickly turned towards the western edge of the city and saw the Shadowbolts flying away at high speeds, passing the border of Cloudsdale before dipping down towards the ground.

“There!” Soarin yelled while pointing. Spitfire followed his hoof and spotted them as well.

“Get after them! Cloud-Blastoff maneuver! Air Mach, NOW!”

“Yes ma’am!” Air Mach whipped around, gathering up the mist shredded from their wings and packing it into a cloud.

“Fleetfoot! Start chasing! If we slow them down, you’ll catch up in no time!” Spitfire ordered.

“Got it!” Fleetfoot turned and started pumping her wings as hard as she could, quickly picking up speed.

“Air Mach, you better be right behind us!” Spitfire ordered as she hovered over, landed on Soarin’s back and held onto his neck. “Where’s that packed cloud?!” she yelled from Soarin’s back.

“Fresh out of the oven!” Air Mach tossed a densely packed cloud over to them, just big enough for Soarin to stand on.

“Ready?” Soarin asked.

“GO! GO! GO!” Spitfire yelled while clutching Soarin’s shoulders.

With Spitfire on his back, Soarin quickly stepped through the motions of the Sonic Blastoff, firing from the cloud and shooting right through an air cone with a loud BANG. Spitfire held on as tight as she could as she and Soarin shot through the air at tremendous speeds, passing Fleetfoot quickly despite how much natural speed she had built up. Soarin had to squint heavily since he didn’t have his goggles, but he could still see the Shadowbolts up ahead. They were moving incredibly fast, themselves. But as Soarin felt his speed from the Sonic Blastoff begin to fade, he realized the Shadowbolts would outrun them for sure. He had to do something.

“Spitfire! Brace yourself!” Soarin suddenly ordered. Spitfire didn’t ask. She knew what was coming as she felt Soarin reach up and turn to grab her around the waist. She put her hooves forward as she felt Soarin grip her. “GO!” Soarin yelled as he turned and flung Spitfire forward, adding to her speed and giving her just enough to catch up to the Shadowbolts.

Spitfire grabbed one of the mares by the back hoof, causing them to slow down.

“HEY!” the pink mare yelled as Spitfire held tight to her. The other two turned about to help rip the pink mare free, but they were in for a surprise.

Soarin kept his eyes locked on target, a soft glow rising from the horn. He had his sights on the male Shadowbolt who was about to reach for Spitfire. He was the biggest target of the three and his angle posed the least possibility of him hitting Spitfire by accident. He had come a long way since the Manehatten chase. He had learned much better control over his magic and wasn’t afraid to use it. Discord wanted proof he could handle it? He’d prove it right here! Soarin gritted his teeth and channeled his intense emotions as the magic gathered harshly into the horn, making it shine incredibly bright.

“HrrrrRRRAAAAH!” Soarin whipped his head forward and a thick beam of blue light jettisoned from the horn. It shot through the air, sparking and crackling as it approached the target… and was right on target.

“ARGH!” the Shadowbolt stallion cried out as the magic beam struck him in the chest and exploded, knocking him right out of the air and into a tumble as he struggled to regain control.

“YES!” Soarin smirked as his attack hit home. Although it managed to stall the Shadowbolts, it didn’t prevent Spitfire from being shaken off by both of the mares.

Without hesitating, Soarin channeled his magic again. Fleetfoot and Air Mach were still catching up and he could buy them plenty of time. Recalling all of his teachings and putting the pieces together, Soarin repeated the process, but also took a sharp breath and puffed out his cheeks with each magic beam he fired. Every time he did, the magic beam split into a spread of several, much smaller beams that shot outwards and peppered the Shadowbolts. The small beams were not strong enough to knock them around, but they forced the Shadowbolts to stop and shield themselves as if being attacked by a swarm of mosquitos. The stallion lost control of his flight during the barrage after already being off balance from the initial attack.

Soarin’s efforts gave Spitfire plenty of time to recover. She was already heading back towards them and Soarin knew Fleetfoot would be passing by very shortly. But as he let fly his sixth volley spread of magic…

“Ow!” Soarin grunted, the magic ceasing and flowing back into the horn gently. He reached a hoof up to his forehead as a light throbbing sensation began to pulse through his head right around the horn. Fleetfoot shot past him, failing to notice that Soarin was grimacing. Air Mach pulled up when he saw Soarin stationary and hovered beside him.

“You alright, bro?” he asked, clearly eager to keep flying. Soarin shook his head out and nodded.

“I’m fine!” he lied. “Let’s go!” he yelled as he pumped his wings and took off towards Fleetfoot and Spitfire with Air Mach in tow.

The yellow mare turned and faced Fleetfoot as the pink mare assisted the stallion. Fleetfoot was determined to go through her if she had to. She wanted to make sure the stallion stayed disoriented so the rest could catch up, but… as she reached the yellow mare and swung her hoof around to strike, the mare reached up and grabbed Fleetfoot’s arm.

“AIE!” Fleetfoot yelped as the mare swung Fleetfoot all the way around and launched her back in the direction she came, keeping most of her momentum going through the motion.

Soarin stopped his approach and caught Fleetfoot as Air Mach and Spitfire shot by.

“Drop that dolt, I need help here!” the yellow mare yelled back to the pink. The pink mare let go, leaving the stallion to whine as he barely regained flight.

“Double-deck!” Spitfire yelled to Air Mach. Without another word the two broke off and flanked the Shadowbolt mares, charging at them from both sides. The mares went back to back and reached their hooves out. The pink grabbed Spitfire’s outstretched hooves, pushing them down. The yellow grabbed Air Mach’s hooves, pushing them up. The mares remained back to back while smoothly flipping and using the combined motion to divert Spitfire downward and Air Mach upward.

“Whoa!” Air Mach yelled as he thrust his wings out and looked town towards the mares. Spitfire grunted as she rounded out and fired back up. Air Mach sneered and rubbed his right elbow. “Manly Burning Soul Citizen’s Elbow Attack!” he exclaimed as he dropped down, aiming his elbow towards the mares.

The pink mare turned up and shifted, gently grabbing Air Mach by the neck and back. She nudged him slightly and passed him down to the yellow, who turned and tossed him directly into Spitfire.

“OOF!” Spitfire yelled as Air Mach’s body collided with hers and the two were sent right back down.

Fleetfoot tried to get the drop on the mares as their backs were turned, but the stallion shot up, and rammed her in the side, knocking her off course and into the mares’ line of sight.

“Shoot!” Fleetfoot yelled as the mares grabbed her by the arms and began spinning her around.

“Let her go!” Soarin shot into the group. The mares let Fleetfoot go right into Soarin, but unlike Spitfire and Air Mach, Fleetfoot was not large enough to impede Soarin. He caught her, but remained in control, focusing on the Shadowbolts.

Soarin tossed Fleetfoot aside and quickly channeled his magic again.

“I’m NOT letting you get away!” Soarin yelled as the magic poured fiercely into the horn and fired another strong beam of magic. The Shadowbolts were forced to scatter as the beam shot by, now wary of the effects after it nearly knocked one of them right out of the air, but that didn’t discourage Soarin. He channeled the magic fast and hard, feeling the flow through his body and channeling it all to the horn as he began firing rapid bursts of five shots at a time. The Shadowbolts had no avenue to pick up speed, forced to dodge and weave as the bolts of magic shot at them. Fleetfoot and Air Mach had no trouble catching up to them with Soarin’s magic barrage.

“AH!” Soarin grunted in pain, grabbing his head with a hoof again as the throbbing in his head turned into a sharp, brief jolt of pain, but he only let it bother him for a moment. He REFUSED to let the pain hinder him. His magic had made a major difference in this chase so far and he was going to use everything at his disposal. What was a little pain anyway? He had had worse with the horn, and he was still determined to make as much use of it as he could.

Soarin shook his head out and forced his body to move. Soarin’s stubbornness was getting the better of him. Magic had gotten a little harder recently due to Discord’s mental barrier fading… and after Discord taunted him about the magic… no. It was a part of him and he’d use it, especially if it meant they could stop these Shadowbolts and find out what they were planning.

Soarin pitched left as Air Mach fell past him, thrown by the mares again. The mares were now back to back, holding Spitfire and Fleetfoot at bay as the stallion headed for Soarin to stop his advance. Soarin locked onto the stallion and called forth his magic again. If this stallion wanted to charge him, he’d give him a little surprise.

Soarin shifted his mindset from attack, to protect. He thought of defending those close to him as he let the magic flow forth, and with a bright glow from the horn, Soarin was encased in a personal, spherical shield.

“What the?!” The stallion was clearly expecting another shot, but instead bounced off Soarin’s shield and was tossed aside. Soarin quickly released the shield and shifted right back to offensive, powering up his horn and aiming it at the stallion as he tumbled and tried to regain his balance. Soarin fired the beam, holding his breath as it jettisoned to create the energy spread, hoping to smack the stallion downward.

“Heh…” the stallion smirked and suddenly rounded out in an instant, firing up out of the range of the spread and shooting back towards Soarin. Before Soarin could realize he had been duped, the stallion had him by the arm, spun him around, and threw him downward.

Why? Soarin couldn’t figure it out. It didn’t help that his head started pulsating again, but he simply could not put his hoof on it.

Why were the Shadowbolts not fighting back? It made sense back in Manehatten because it was one Shadowbolt running from all of them, but here it was three against four. Much more favorable odds, but they were still were avoiding combat. Every time the Wonderbolts engaged them, the Shadowbolts would either just defend or divert them.

Soarin shook his head as he saw Spitfire and Fleetfoot get thrown… again. What the hell was going on?

“Damn!” Soarin heard Spitfire yell as she tumbled towards him and rounded out beside him, glaring at the Shadowbolts. They were tightly packed together and all focused on Fleetfoot and Air Mach, seemingly ready for anything the Wonderbolts could throw at them.

Soarin was tired of it, and with their backs turned to him, he had time to conjure up something stronger. Soarin closed his eyes and forced himself to concentrate again, uncorking negative emotions to inject as much destructive magical power as possible to his building attack. He hated being toyed with… he hated being left in the dark… hell, he just hated the Shadowbolts, generally speaking. Without going into detail with who was who and who had proven to be good… they were the reason everything had gone from normal to crazy… and he always had a bit of anger towards that. He ground his teeth and began to growl as the magic flowed hard through his body, all the way from the tips of his hooves, the tiny ends of his fur, and the tip of his tail into the center of his body and began rushing like a hurricane towards his head and into the horn. Crackles and pops began to jut and spark around his body, his muscles tensing and flexing as he concentrated.

“SOARIN!” Spitfire yelled in alarm as she turned to him. “Be careful!!” she demanded. As much as she wanted to catch the Shadowbolts, she was well aware of the danger the magic posed to Soarin. She proved earlier that she was willing to risk a few lives to stop and question the Shadowbolts, but she wasn’t going to let Soarin destroy himself in the process.

“SHUT UP!” Soarin suddenly lashed out. Spitfire backed away in surprise as Soarin forced the magic to flow. He was channeling the negative emotions to strengthen the beam. He didn’t mean to yell at her, but it was a side effect of using them to manifest energy. He focused all of it towards the Shadowbolts. “RRRRAAAAAAH!” Soarin roared as he whipped his head forward. The horn sucked all of the light pulsing from it in, sparked and sputtered for a moment, and then then fired a beam that was many times larger than the others, a large BOOM echoing as it fired. Embers of blue light shot and jumped from the base of the horn as the beam flowed and careened towards the Shadowbolts.

Both of the mares turned around at the sound, and one of them tried to get away, the other ran directly into the stallion, causing the other mare to stop and try to assist… but the whole cacophony of reactions ended up making them all tangled. They managed to move slightly off, the beam nicking them instead of hitting them head on. Soarin was ready for that though, and tensed his whole body at once while inhaling sharply and thrusting his head down while grunting loudly. It caused the end of the beam to halt and explode two yards from the Shadowbolts as if it had collided with something behind them. It sent them all flying upward with trails of smoke streaming from them.

Air Mach was already heading towards them as the Shadowbolts shakily recovered. Groaning, coughing, and incredibly disoriented by the strong shock they had just absorbed from the near point-blank explosion. Fleetfoot stopped and looked towards Soarin for a moment.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaagrrrraaaaaaa!” Soarin dropped a few yards down before forcing his wings out and maintaining flight. He clutched and rubbed his forehead with his left hoof as the horn flickered and sparked. He started panting and grabbed his chest with his right hoof as his heart pounded in his chest.

Spitfire dropped down beside him, looking him over with extreme concern. She turned and pointed at Fleetfoot, making a head motion towards the Shadowbolts. Fleetfoot reluctantly nodded before turning and going after them to prevent Air Mach from being ganged up on.

“Soarin! THAT’S ENOUGH!” Spitfire demanded as she grabbed him by the shoulder. Soarin shook her arm off.

“What are you fussing over me for!?” he snapped at her. “Go… AH!” he squinted harder and shivered as the pain erupted in his head. “GO! I’m trying to give you guys openings!”

Spitfire gritted her teeth as she looked between Soarin and the Shadowbolts as Fleetfoot and Air Mach engaged them again. Soarin felt like smacking her across the face. All that talk about doing whatever it takes to catch the Shadowbolts and NOW she was hesitating? He was trying to help her!

Thankfully, Spitfire turned and did as she was told, leaving Soarin to handle his magic as she pursued their goal. Soarin forced his eyes open and saw Spitfire heading towards the scuffle, glancing back at him once.

Soarin had to focus. He had to control it! His magic could be the key to victory here… and after such a long time of having nearly complete control over it, the barrier just had to weaken now. Or was it because he was using offensive magic? It was more intense than any magic he used and the mental drain was extreme. Even with the barrier active he had trouble with it… so now…

“RGH!” Soarin grunted and forced his eyes open. If he was good enough to maintain flight through this pain, then dammit, he could help! He forged forward, pumping his wings despite each beat sending a shock of pain through his head. He was determined to catch the Shadowbolts and he was determined to make use of everything at his disposal. He wouldn’t let the magic hold him down. It was a blessing and a curse, but right now, he needed it to only be a blessing.

But what he couldn’t see as he forced himself towards the others… was that small, blue streams of light were starting to spill from his eyes.

“Will you guys just give it up already?!” the pink mare yelled. “You can’t stop us! You’re just being annoying!” she growled as she grabbed Fleetfoot by the arms and swung her into Air Mach.

“Surrender and land… then we’ll stop!” Spitfire demanded as she grappled with the yellow mare. The mare only sighed and shook her head as the stallion grabbed Spitfire by the shoulders and yanked her back, throwing her over his back and into Fleetfoot and Air Mach before they could recover.

“I’ve gotta…” Soarin pumped his wings. “Gotta catch them!” he encouraged himself as he approached. He had to put an end to the chase. The Shadowbolts weren’t even fighting, they were skillfully eluding. Based on how much his head hurt after the large blast he fired, using his offensive magic seemed like a bad idea… but what about his defensive? Could he use it to stop them? If he could trap them in a shield, they wouldn’t be able to run! But could he do it? If he had thought of it earlier, he would have been fine, but he had already used a great deal of magic, most of it straining, offensive magic. Without the mental barrier, it had caused a tremendous amount of pain, and the best way to describe how he felt in conjunction with the magic right now was completely unstable.

But it was their best bet. If anything he could corral them and hold it long enough for squad Foxtrot and Storm to recover. He wasn’t going to bet on the rest of squad seven making it, since they had yet to show, but with ten of them surrounding the Shadowbolts, now wary of their tricks, it would be easy to subdue them.

Tricks… that was another thing. Cloud bombs? Saddle bags full of possibly similar little baubles and gizmos? Where were the crystals? It would be easy to say that these Shadowbolts were apart from Nightshade, but Soarin remembered that Nightshade was very protective of the crystals and punished those who misused them. Perhaps the system had changed and they would only be given crystals based on their performance? The crystals were addictive after all. It could’ve been a control method. This was all… of course… assuming that Nightshade was somehow still alive.

Whatever the case was, they would never know if they didn’t capture and question these three Shadowbolts. So Soarin focused on the task at hoof, or at least as much as he could with his head throbbing as if it was being repeatedly struck with a sledgehammer.

Soarin flew low underneath as Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and Air Mach continued to struggle against them. In terms of abilities, these Shadowbolts didn’t seem any better, faster, or stronger than them. If it was actually a battle, they would probably be evenly matched, maybe even better than these Shadowbolts. But all they did was toss them aside or divert their movement. It was hard to fight when the opponent was doing nothing but parrying, diverting, and throwing. In fact, it was incredibly annoying and frustrating. Soarin was sure that it was really pissing off Spitfire. She could have easily beaten down these idiots, but she was being careful with the intention of capturing and subduing as opposed to beating them senseless. That small margin of difference though caused her to be eluded just like the rest of them.

Soarin stayed low, and successfully made it to the other side of the struggle, popping up behind the Shadowbolts as they kept pushing the other Wonderbolts away.

“One more time!” Soarin whispered to himself as he focused on the Shadowbolts and relaxed despite the continuous pain in his head. He grimaced and grunted as the magic began flowing again… however it felt much less like a calm river and more like an uneven torrent. It felt like the magic was jumping and thrashing around inside of him. He remained strong though, and as he focused, the magic eventually made its way to his head, despite the flow being sloppy. He channeled thoughts of protection, gritting his teeth and opening his eyes. The horn crackled and popped with blue energy, but glowed to life.

He waited patiently, looking an opportunity to trap the Shadowbolts without locking in his squadmates as well. Air Mach and Fleetfoot were repelled once again, and the moment Spitfire was shoved away, Soarin tipped his head forward and the glow brightened. His head burned as the magic channeled, but he held on, staying focused through sheer force of will.

“WHOA!” Fleetfoot yelped as a large blue sphere suddenly appeared in front of them, encasing the Shadowbolts.

“What the?!” the stallion exclaimed as the three Shadowbolts looked in all directions, trapped.

Fleetfoot looked through the sphere, spotting Soarin as he strained himself. She quickly glided around the sphere and up besides Soarin. She wanted to ask if he was alright, but first, it was obvious he wasn’t. He was clearly in pain. Secondly, she didn’t want to break his concentration. Third? His eyes were glowing blue… and the light was rising from his eyes like flames. He was also grunting, growling, and breathing sharply through his nose. She didn’t know if approaching him was a good idea, so she remained a couple of yards away.

“Shadowbolts!” Spitfire jumped at the opportunity. She was worried about Soarin, but he had made it clear to her he was doing all of it for her benefit. She didn’t want to waste it. “What are you scheming?!” she yelled as she approached the sphere. The three Shadowbolts looked at her and blinked. The pink mare snickered and shortly after they all burst out laughing within the sphere.

Spitfire and Air Mach glanced at each other, both equally confused.

“I’m warning you three…” Spitfire snarled.

“Oh, so scary…” the yellow mare waved a hoof at Spitfire. “Look, you don’t know a damn thing… and honestly, you’re really wasting your time with us.” The pink mare floated up beside her.

“Yeah, seriously,” the pink mare spoke up. It was here for the first time that Spitfire realized they had very similar voices. “So why don’t you let us go? I mean, how long do you think Soarin can hold this? He’s already used his magic much more than he should have,” she pointed back. “Without Discord’s barrier and how hard he’s pushed it… it’s bound to go nuts in a few seconds.”

“What…?” Spitfire’s eyes widened. Not only did the pink mare just casually call Soarin by name, but also mentioned the magic, the barrier that Discord put into his head, and the fact that the barrier had been weakening…

How did they know about all of that?!

“Rgh!!” Soarin suddenly grunted. “Who… Who are you?!” he suddenly yelled.

“Soarin?” Fleetfoot tipped her head in confusion as Soarin slammed his eyes shut and shook his head as the horn flickered brightly.

“What are you doing in my head?!” Soarin yelled as his neck lurched back and forth.

“See?” the pink mare shrugged.

“SOARIN! STOP!” Spitfire yelled from the other side of the barrier.

But Soarin couldn’t hear anything. Because he wasn’t just talking to himself… he was hearing a voice in his head, a voice he had heard in his dreams, specifically the male voice.

Give in… you know it will happen eventually, just let it go…

“No!” Soarin yelled. “NO! I… I won’t! I won’t let go!”

Don’t be a fool… the power… can’t you feel it? Can’t you see its might?

“Ah! AAAH!” Soarin bent his neck down and grabbed his head as the horn began to blink repeatedly like a beacon. “I… I…”

Worry not, Soarin…

Soarin’s eyes opened as he heard the female voice.

Allow me to handle this… and… I’m sorry…

NO! YOU WILL NOT HOLD ME DOWN! The male voice roared.

Soarin felt a massive, painful shock shoot through his body as if every one single one of his nerve endings had been stabbed with several needles at once. The light retracted violently, shooting back into the horn and disappearing completely for a moment. Soarin stood completely still as his brain registered so much pain at once that took him a moment to feel anything… but then… he did…

“AAAAARRHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Soarin suddenly screamed in pain, his head reared back, and squinted his shut as an erratic blast of blue light exploded from the horn. The blue light squeaked out between his squinted eyes and fired out of his mouth. The pressure of the blast from the horn itself tore his mask apart, exposing his face as he roared in pain. Sparks and streams of blue light jumped off the horn in all directions as it emitted a light so bright that the rest had to cover their eyes. Fleetfoot shrieked and shielded herself as the chain reaction of Soarin’s magic lit up right beside her.

The sphere disappeared and the rest of the lead squad watched in horror as Soarin’s wings gave out and he fell limply towards the ground, the horn leaving behind a streaking trail of blue light as he dropped.

“SOARIN!” Fleetfoot dove after him, getting below him and doing what she could to slow his fall before the two went in for a soft landing.

Spitfire just stared down at Soarin, frozen save for her wings keeping her afloat.

“What did I tell ya?” the pink mare shrugged. “Figures… I WONDER if you WONDERbolts even know what you’re doing…” she jeered. Spitfire averted her eyes from Soarin, calling upon all her restraint to not go to his side as he and Fleetfoot fell into a tree below.

The yellow mare rolled her eyes.

“This is the part where you let us go before you amateurs do more stupid shit,” she spoke up as the Shadowbolts turned and started to leave. But then they all stopped as they ran face first into a large chest of black and white fur and feathers.

“I think not,” Matteo’s deep voice caused them to look up at the griffon as he glared down at them. Dash, Squall, Twister, Storm, and Little Star all flew in.

“Really?” the male Shadowbolt sighed in frustration as Air Mach and Spitfire joined the recruits and Storm. Dash glanced around, but didn’t see Soarin or Fleetfoot. She wanted to ask if they were okay, but since they literally just arrived on the scene and had the Shadowbolts surrounded, it would have to wait.

“Yes, really…” Spitfire growled. “And now that my best friend just got hurt in the process, I’m not stopping until we bring you down and you TALK!” Spitfire snapped, causing Star to edge away slightly in the wake of Spitfire’s anger. Dash’s eyes widened slightly as she heard that. Best friend? Both Soarin and Fleetfoot were not present… that meant one of them…

“That was his own damn fault for being careless,” the male Shadowbolt shook his head before looking between the mares. “What do you guys think? Crazy Spin?” the male Shadowbolt asked.

“Crazy Spin,” they both agreed and nodded casually.

“Crazy wha—?” Air Mach blinked but the Shadowbolts were already up to something.

The mares reached in and grabbed the stallion by the arms. And… he began spinning. Spinning so hard that they quickly turned into a blur.

“Whoa!” Squall and Storm backed away as it edged towards them. The spinning trio shifted around, all the Wonderbolts afraid to touch it, knowing it could easily knock them out.

“NOW!” The stallion yelled, throwing the two mares straight down before diving after them. He clicked his hooves together crushing two small, black spheres he must have grabbed form the mares’ saddle bags as they spun. A large cloud of black smoke exploded behind them, smoke screening all of the Wonderbolts.

“NO!” Spitfire yelled as she coughed. All of them were off balance and disoriented… but Dash had kept her bearings.

She dropped down and fired out from the cloud of smoke, using Twister’s Spiral Turn, followed by Matteo’s Air Burst to gain a boost of speed and shoot after the Shadowbolts. The three evened out, zooming about twenty yards above the grassy plains that extended out below and beyond the Cloudsdale boundaries. The stallion glanced behind him as they moved, confident they had left the Wonderbolts in the dust, but,

“WHAT?!” he exclaimed as he spotted Dash following behind and catching up to them. “GAH! FORGET IT!” he pumped his wings until he was alongside the pink mare and reached into her saddle bag. “I’m tired of this! Screw our orders!” he yelled as he pulled a yellow sphere out of the bag and slowed down.

“HEY!” The pink mare yelled as she and the yellow both looked back in alarm.

“STOP!!!!” They both yelled as they tried to reach the stallion, but it was too late. He crushed the yellow sphere between his hooves and volts of intense electricity began running over them. He pulled his hooves apart to reveal ribbons of lightning fluctuating between them.

Dash’s eyes widened as she saw the lightning in the stallion’s hooves and she immediately put on the breaks. It wasn’t enough though, she couldn’t stop her forward motion. Her pupils shrank, her heartbeat quickened and her breathing became erratic as the stallion pulled back and fired a large stream of lightning towards her. Dash’s body was frozen in fear. Her brain replaying the traumatic painful shock she lived through a year ago. She had been training to control the fear and the lightning… but she wasn’t expecting to deal with it so soon. She was unprepared. She could do nothing.

She was going to get hit.

“MOVE IT, DAMMIT!” A voice yelled out from beside her as something suddenly rammed her in the side. Her head turned from the force towards whoever had hit her and she could made out out dark grey fur, a curly silver-white mane, and a Wonderbolt uniform.

Silver Lining.

“AH!” Dash yelped as she was shoved aside. She watched with wide eyes as the large stream of lightning struck Silver.

“RGH!” He grunted as he was forced backwards by the force of the electricity. But, he was the best lightning handler in the Wonderbolts. “HM!” Silver threw his arms and legs out, forcing the electricity outwards from his body and spinning to collect it out of the air as is shot away from his body.

With all of the lightning now caught and concentrated in his hooves, he spun around and fired it right back at the Shadowbolt… who clearly did not see it coming.

“AAAAAAYAIYAIYAI!!!” The Shadowbolt stallion cried out as he was shocked by his own lightning attack. He fell towards the ground, the two mares diving after him.

“Silver?” Dash blinked. “What…? What are you…?”

“No fear, Dash,” Silver said without looking at her. “No fear,” he repeated with a stern tone in his voice that cut deep. Dash shivered as he said it, but then looked up in surprise as Silver whistled loudly and dropped towards the Shadowbolts.

He slammed to the ground a few yards away and glared at the Shadowbolts as the two mares struggled to get the stallion on his hooves. They all looked up at Silver, but before they could do anything, Blaze, High Winds, and Wave Chill all slammed to the ground around them, surrounding them on all four sides. Dash looked up and saw Misty Fly, Fire Streak, Lightning Streak, and Surprise fly in from above and hover over them.

“SILVER!” Spitfire’s voice came from behind Dash as she and Air Mach flew by her and landed beside Silver Air Mach looked just as confused as she was. Dash looked behind her and saw her squad and Storm approach from behind. Dash shook her head out as she saw the rest looking at the gathering of the highest elites curiously. There was no time to think about it.

“Spread out among squad three! Cut off all possible avenues of escape!” she ordered. Squall, Twister, Matteo, and Star all obeyed as Storm shifted over beside her.

“Like to tell me what’s going on, Storm?” Dash asked. Storm shook his head.

“I have absolutely no idea…” he replied as they both looked down at Spitfire standing beside Silver.

“You were supposed to wait for my signal!” Spitfire growled at Silver, who only shook his head.

“My signal was when my student was put at risk,” he snorted while glancing back at Dash. “Put a reprimand on my record if you must, I wasn’t letting that happen.”

“You’re lucky it still worked out then…” Spitfire huffed as she stepped forward.

The Shadowbolts looked around, completely trapped by the sixteen Wonderbolts surrounding them. From the looks of things, the stallion was having issues with one of his wings. He kept swinging it and shivering in discomfort. They were grounded.

Spitfire smirked, ready to dish back some of the strange verbal abuse they had received.

“Amateurs, huh?” Spitfire said with a hint of a snide tone in her voice. “I was getting tired of hearing you and all your friends say that stuff. “But it looks like these amateurs have outwitted you. I’ve been one step ahead the whole time,” Spitfire glared. “Now… TALK… and if you don’t talk here, we’ll drag you back to the Wonderbolt compound and make you talk there,” she demanded.

But…

To her dismay, the two mares only chuckled and shook their heads as the stallion rose to his hooves.

“Spitfire, Spitfire, Spitfire…” the pink mare spoke up as the Wonderbolts all looked down in confusion. They were trapped and their tricks had been seen. There was no way three of them could elude sixteen Wonderbolts. “One step ahead of us? Please… if you want to be the best… you can’t just be one step ahead…” the pink mare looked directly up. “You have to be two!”

“LOOKOUT!!!!!!” Surprise suddenly yelled out. All the Wonderbolts looked up and a VERY large pegasus was dropping towards the Wonderbolts at an insane speed.

Squad three and Foxtrot shifted aside in the air and squad two, Spitfire, and Air Mach leapt back. The three Shadowbolts shifted back, turned and shielded themselves as the huge pony crashed to the ground, driving his body into the grass.

A loud BOOM sounded out at impact and a large eruption of dirt, rocks, and grass kicked up in a shockwave that sent all the Wonderbolts flying in different directions.

“WHOA!” Dash yelped as she was blown backward by the heavy impact. She threw her wings out to stop in midair, but threw her arms up to shield herself from all the debris kicked up. Storm flew back and crashed into her, knocking them both a little further before they split apart and faced the newcomer with the rest of the Wonderbolts.

“That’s…!!!” Storm exclaimed as the dust cleared.

The new pegasus was another Shadowbolt, green with a short, messy black mane. He was incredibly large… bigger than Soarin, maybe even Matteo! Unlike the two of them though, this Shadowbolt was incredibly thick and had lots of body bulk, was very heavy set, and had a very ‘roundish’ face. He looked impossible to move if one were to try, and it wasn’t hard to tell he was incredibly strong and incredibly sturdy. He looked around at all the Wonderbolts and scoffed.

“Weaklings…” he said with a low raspy voice followed by a snort.

“That’s the Shadowbolt we chased in the canyon!” Storm exclaimed as Dash looked at the giant. He did fit the description she overheard when Storm and Dex reported.

“Coming in hot!” another voice came from above. Dash and Storm looked up to see three more Shadowbolts diving in from above. One of them was red stallion with a slicked back, white mane, matching the description that Silver reported. Beside him, the white stallion with the grey mane that Soarin had told her about from Manehatten. She couldn’t make out the Shadowbolt behind them, but she didn’t have time to think.

“SCRAMBLE AND ATTACK!” Spitfire yelled as the Shadowbolts dove in. The Wonderbolts scattered and picked targets.

“AW YEAH!” the red stallion cheered as he suddenly angled his wings backward and started shifting and turning in erratic patterns before shooting down towards squad two at such a sudden incredible speed that the color of his mane left a white streak behind him.

The white stallion smirked, straightening his wings out and holding them steady as he dove into a high speed glide towards squad three.

Storm flew down and joined Air Mach as they dove at the giant green stallion as Spitfire tried to get around him to the two mares, who were tending to the stallion with the hurt wing.

“Foxtrot! Let’s—” Dash was about to give an order to go help with the huge pony, but before she could, the final Shadowbolt dropped down in front of her. Dash’s ears folded back as she looked up.

The last Shadowbolt was a pure white mare… a very large, pure white mare with a long, blonde, wavy mane. She wasn’t the massive size that the green stallion was… but she was definitely bigger than Soarin. She looked incredibly powerful too, very muscular, her chest, shoulders, arms, and legs all about twice the mass of Dash’s… and Dash had been working out quite a bit.

Dash couldn’t see her eyes behind the goggles, but the mare had hard features, mixed with three battle scars, on that went down between her eyes over her nose, and two that crossed on her right cheek.

With little time to think, and more worried about the fact that they were now being swarmed… Dash took the initiative, pulling her hoof back and delivering a hard punch to the mare’s chest.

And immediately regretted it.

“AAAH!!!” Dash yelped as cracking and popping noises came from around her hoof. She pulled it back and clutched it as it throbbed in pain. Dash was pretty much certain she had just punched a brick wall.

“Feh…” the mare scoffed before charging forward. Dash gagged as the mare wrapped one of her powerful arms around her neck and began dragging her along through the air. Dash struggled and shifted, trying to get free, but she couldn’t break the mare’s grip. Two more yelps met Dash’s ears, one of which was followed by Little Star pressing against her. Dash’s eyes squeaked open to see Star gripped in the same arm with her, and Twister caught in the mare’s other arm.

Squall flew up in front and charged at the mare as she dragged his squadmates along, rose upright and put his hooves up. He snarled as they drew close and let out his battle cry.

“HOOOOORYAAAA!!!!” he yelled as he delivered his strongest , rapid strike to the mare… but she didn’t even flinch nor lose any speed. She barreled right into him, and grabbed him in the same arm she was holding Twister in.

She threw her large wings out and came to a halt before spinning around and launching Twister and Squall into the air, followed by a second turn and doing the same with Star and Dash.

“WHOA!!!!” Dash yelped as the four of them careened through the air, struggling to the regain their balance.

Dash managed to find her equilibrium first and rounded out just in time to see Matteo charge the mare. The two clashed, Matteo locking his talons around the mare’s hooves. They lowered to the ground and slammed down, pushing against each other as hard as they could. However, Matteo looked like he was struggling, and the mare was barely breaking a sweat.

“Argh!” Matteo grunted as the Mare threw her hooves up, forcing Matteo to rear back on his lion paws. The mare rushed forward, and grabbed Matteo by the waist.

“No way…” Dash rubbed her eyes and blinked.

“HHHHHHHNNNNNRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!!” the mare growled, her muscles tensing as she anchored her back hooves into the ground… and LIFTED Matteo up over her head.

“WHAT THE DEVIL?!” Matteo exclaimed as he began flailing in her grip.

“MATT!” Dash yelled as she dove towards them to assist, but as she did, the mare tipped backward.

“HRRRRRRRAAAAA!” she roared as she THREW Matteo at Dash.

“AH!” Dash yelled as she tried to pull up, but Matteo’s massive body struck her and carried her with his momentum.

“Hmph… pathetic…” the mare snorted before turning and flying back towards the Shadowbolts.

“Dammit!” Silver yelled as he shifted. The red and white stallion chuckled as he shot past Silver, made several sharp turns before launching back at the rest of his squad.

Something was weird. Silver had seen moves like these before. But he wasn’t quite sure where. He had fought many ponies with interesting abilities in the past, but he had fought so many opponents throughout his life that it was all a blur… could the Shadowbolts have gone on a huge recruitment drive? There were lots of undesirables that would fit their description.

Whatever it was, Silver felt like things were going nowhere. The Shadowbolts were not attacking them, just disorienting them. All this stallion had done was knock them around and prevent them from focusing.

Silver glanced around as he found a brief moment. Squad three was in the same bind. The white stallion gliding around them and staying out of reach while knocking them around. He just saw the large mare completely humiliate Dash’s squad and Storm, Air Mach, and Spitfire were having no luck getting around the giant green stallion as he shielded the two mares and the stallion Silver had knocked down with lightning.

They were buying time. Silver could see it. He was doing nothing useful trying to stop this stallion that was pushing his squad around… so he decided to switch things up.

He dove towards the giant pony below as Air Mach bounced off of him and yelled towards Spitfire.

“Captain! Move it!” he ordered.

Spitfire looked up as she saw Silver diving and pushed off, creating space between her and the giant stallion. Silver slammed down right in front of the stallion, clearly taking him by surprise as he grunted and tried to shift his weight and focus on Silver.

Silver reared his hoof back, twisting his body around. As he launched his attack, he made every subtle shift possible in his punching form to maximize the power as he threw the blow.

“HRRRK!!!!” The giant stallion grunted in pain as Silver’s punch landed directly in his chest and sent a vibration through him that forced him back a few steps.

“Captain! Now!” Silver yelled while pointing towards the two mares and stallion struggling behind the giant.

“Capture those three!” Spitfire yelled as she leapt towards them. Silver, Storm, and Air Mach all followed right behind.

“HHRRGGG!!!” The giant stallion drove his left back hoof hard into the ground and pushed forward while swinging his arms out.

“OOF!”

“ARGH!”

Air Mach and Storm grunted as the stallion’s arms struck them and forced them back in the other direction, but Silver and Spitfire managed to slip by and were heading right for the trio of downed Shadowbolts.

But then…

“Silver! Above!” Spitfire yelled as she looked up. Silver glanced up as well and the two touched down, skidding to a halt as two new Shadowbolts landed in front of them. They put themselves in between Spitfire and Silver and the three trying to gather themselves. “HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THERE?!” Spitfire yelled as she and Silver stared down the two newcomers.

But something was different about these two.

They didn’t say anything, nor did they make a move at them. They stood completely still, staring straight forward with eyes behind the red tinted goggles. It was a mare, and a stallion. The mare was yellow with a very long, straight white mane that flowed down past her shoulders and over her chest. She faced Spitfire. The stallion was red with a heavily blown back orange and yellowish mane. He was staring down Silver.

Neither Spitfire nor Silver bothered to say anything else. They both launched themselves at the newcomers with the intention of going through them to get to their target.

Spitfire reached the mare first made a feint to the left and punched hard with her right hoof. The mare didn’t move as the punch careened right at her face.

At the last possible moment, the mare dipped back and curled her neck down, letting Spitfire’s arm pass right over and brush against the back of her neck. She reached up and grabbed Spitfire’s arm with her opposite hoof and pulled Spitfire up onto her back. With a powerful, yet gentle turn, swing of her arm, and light hop, the mare launched Spitfire upward.

“HUH?!?!” Spitfire blinked in disbelief as she careened upward passing right by squad two and three.

Silver slammed his hooves down as he approached the stallion, turned his body and made the same subtle motions he used to create the mega punch he delivered to the giant pony a moment ago… only the stallion, from a stationary position, reared back, wound up a punch and met Silver’s attack with his own. Their hooves clashed with a loud CLAK and Silver’s momentum made the stallion’s back hooves skid a little across the ground, but only about a yard before they came to a halt.

Silver threw his other hoof around to follow up, but the stallion met that blow as well.

The two stood on their hind legs, their front hooves locked together and pushing against one another. They growled and grunted as they struggled, but the stallion smirked.

“Not bad… youngster…” the stallion said.

Silver’s eyes widened, but before he could blink, the stallion let up, causing Silver to fly forward. The stallion turned him around and put him in a full nelson.

“Agh!” Silver grunted as he found himself in an unfavorable position. “Shit!” he cursed as he looked up and saw the mare coming towards him.

She grabbed Silver from the stallion and pulled his arm over her body, repeating the same motions she just did to Spitfire, and gently launching Silver skyward. In fact, he flew directly into Spitfire, knocking them both off balance.

“Is he good to go?” the mare asked as she turned to the two mares and the hurt stallion.

“As good as he’s gonna get,” the pink mare nodded. As she poked the hurt stallion roughly in the arm.

“Then it’s time to go,” said the red and white stallion as he looked around at the rest of the Shadowbolts. He took a deep breath and whistled in three different tones. “LET’S MOVE! EXIT MANUEVER ALPHA TWO ONE THREE TWO!” he called out.

“What did he just say?” Dash blinked as she and her squad had finally gotten up and were flying as fast as they could towards the fighting.

Whatever he had said, the Shadowbolts were moving. They all gathered down by the giant stallion and lined up in a strange, circular spiral pattern. They all lifted off and began flying at different speeds, but all in the same circle.

Dash watched in awe as they moved… either it was their numbers, combined skill of the Shadowbolts, or the strange formation… but in seconds the winds around them became intense, spiraling gusts began blowing and less than twenty seconds later they had a small, powerful tornado going.

All the Wonderbolts were being sucked in, and even though Dash and squad Foxtrot had put on the brakes, they had already gotten too close. They were drawn into the tornado as well.

“ARGH!” Dash grunted as she flailed and whipped about. She looked in every direction, her flight goggles allowing her to see inside the tornado. The Wonderbolts were all struggling to regain control, but none of them were being tossed violently about. It was as if the tornado was… gentle? If that was even possible?

Dash forced her body upright and was about to spread out her wings and try to counter fly… but…

The tornado died down very suddenly and completely stopped.

Dash and the rest of the Wonderbolts all regained their balance and floated in place, looking in all directions, dizzy and confused.

“What…just…?” Dash blinked looked all around her… but…

“No… NO!” Spitfire yelled out from nearby. “NO, NO, NO!” she repeated as Dash and the others looked towards her. “DAMMIT! DAMMIT ALL!” Spitfire kept yelling as she hit her hooves together in frustration.

The Shadowbolts were gone. Every single one of them… gone. They were all stuck in the small tornado for at least thirty seconds. That was more than enough time for a group of highly skilled flyers to get out of site. There was no trace and no path to follow, for all they knew, the Shadowbolts had scattered in all directions.

Spitfire lowered to the ground, the rest of the Wonderbolts following while keeping an eye on their captain. Dash looked at squad two and three. Were they there the whole time? Was Matteo right? Were they used as a distraction or a diversion while other operations went on in the background? Did Storm know about it?

“Captain lady…” Air Mach suddenly spoke up as he approached. “What are the other top elites doing here?” he asked while tipping his glasses down and looking about.

That answered her question. In fact, she looked up at Storm and saw that he looked just as confused.

Spitfire briefly examined all of the Wonderbolts and growled.

“Again… they didn’t hurt a single one of us…” she thought out loud, noticing that aside from small scratches or bruises, none of the Wonderbolts had battle damage. Any damage sustained was collateral or through themselves. None of them were physically attacked, just tossed and thrown. “Why? Why are they not fighting us?!” she slammed her hooves down. “What do they want?! Who are they working for?!” she slammed her hooves down too more times.

Storm, squad Foxtrot, and Air Mach all looked at Spitfire. She looked down and remained silent as Silver approached her. He was about to speak, but Spitfire suddenly looked up in alarm and gasped.

“SOARIN!” she exclaimed before looking back and her eyes locking on a collection of trees nearby. Dash’s ears perked up when she heard his name. In the wake of all the confusion she had almost completely forgotten. Soarin and Fleetfoot were not present when she and her squad arrived and Spitfire mentioned ‘one of her friends getting hurt.’ Dash would have been worried if it was Fleetfoot too, but part of her was hoping it wasn’t Soarin… because unlike Fleetfoot, Soarin had more than a few things that could have gone wrong.

Spitfire pushed past Silver and took off, zooming towards the nearby trees. Without a word, Dash lifted off and followed right behind. Silver snorted before looking towards the rest of the Wonderbolts and made a head motion for them to follow before he lifted up and glided towards the trees with the rest in tow.

Dash gasped as they approached.

Soarin was down beneath the trees, his mask was torn, his suit was mangled, and he lay flat with the horn sputtering and flashing brightly. He was groaning in pain, his body twitching each time the horn started glowing. Small blue streams of light were rising from his eyes, squeaking between his closed eyelids. Fleetfoot sat beside him, gently rubbing her hoof on his back and flinching each time the horn flashed, worried that it might lash out at her.

“SOARIN!” Dash exclaimed and shot right past Spitfire, landing in front of him and quickly shielding her eyes as Soarin groaned in pain and a bright flash shone from the horn. Spitfire landed beside her, but remained silent as she looked upon her fallen friend. She removed her goggles, gritted her teeth, and looked away as Dash crouched down beside Soarin draping her wing over him.

Fleetfoot got up and backed away as Dash took over, walking back towards Spitfire. Her ears stood up and she blinked when she saw the rest of the Wonderbolts approaching slowly, complete with squad two and three. She looked at Spitfire and lifted an eyebrow.

“Spitty… why are squad two and three here?” she asked with a little bit of confusion and a hint of frustration, more than certain that Spitfire may have gone ahead and taken things into her own hooves again.

“I’ll explain later…” Spitfire sighed as she looked back at Soarin. “Right now… I’m more worried about him… and if I’m really making the right choices,” she said as she lightly shook her head.

“Soarin?” Dash spoke softly to him. “Soarin, I’m here, it’s alright…” Dash rubbed her wing gently on his back as his labored breathing slightly slowed.

“No…” Soarin mumbled. “No… I won’t give in… no…” he groaned.

“Soarin?” Dash leaned her head towards his.

“I… I… won’t… I… AH!” Soarin suddenly cried out and his head lurched up. A blue light flashed from the horn again, but this time…

A few yellow sparks jumped and cracked from the horn shooting in different directions before dissipating, and for a brief moment, the blue stream rising from his left eye turned yellow… before going back to blue.

“Ah… ahhhhhh…” Soarin cringed as Dash’s eyes widened. She reached down and clutched one of his hooves.

The yellow magic… seeing it again filled her with intense worry.

“We have to get him back to the compound,” Spitfire said as she turned to Fleetfoot. “Wave, Lightning, Blaze, Surprise, High Winds,” she called out as she turned around and faced the approaching group. “We’re going home, I need you five to fly to the Cloudsdale arena and gather up any bags we left in the waiting room while we move Soarin to the station… and while you’re there, find out where the hell the rest of squad seven is,” she ordered. The five Wonderbolts nodded and took off towards Cloudsdale. “Silver! Fire!” she turned and called to the two captains. Silver Lining and Fire Streak approached and stood attention. “When we get back, I’m calling a compound wide captain meeting in the second floor meeting room. As soon as we return, I want you two to inform all the other captains as quickly as possible. I’ll give you the details as we head back.”

“Yes, ma’am!” the two replied. Spitfire sighed and looked towards Soarin.

“Air Mach, help Dash get Soarin to the train station,” she ordered. Air Mach gave a quick salute before trotting over to help.

“Well… now what?” Fleetfoot asked as she stepped up beside Spitfire. “Nothing makes sense… not like it did before…” she huffed. Spitfire shook her head.

“I have no idea Fleet… I really don’t. Once again, they completely eluded us, and in a full blown dogfight got away without hurting any of us…” she turned and looked at Soarin. “All of our damage was our own doing… as if…” Spitfire blinked. “It’s as if that’s what they’re trying to show us… god dammit, I don’t know,” she grunted. “I feel like a child battling a parent. An overzealous child that thinks they have an edge, but never actually does. I thought I was one step ahead of them this time… but they were two steps ahead of me…”

Spitfire turned and started walking away to check on the rest of the Wonderbolts. Fleetfoot watched her leave and then glanced back at Soarin as Dash and Air Mach carefully propped him up on their shoulders and carried him along.

At least now they knew what they were up against… or… did they?

---To Be Continued---