The Paladin of Prismatic Light

by Keeper of time RD

Chapter 2: The Waters of Night and Day

Given that they had arrived at the castle just before dusk, the sleeping arrangements for Rainbow Dash and Gale had been unsurprisingly last second. Namely being assigned to sleep in the civilian bunkhouse, seeing as there were open beds there.

The bunkhouse had been one of the two rectangular buildings they’d seen when they first entered the castle. The inside actually reminded Dash of the wonder bolt academy. Maybe because the bedrooms were long rooms with rows of beds spaced just far enough apart for two ponies to squeeze by each other. A few of the beds sported a footlocker or storage chest nearby that one would assume held the belongings of whoever was assigned to that bed, but most did not.

The two newcomers had been given beds on the third floor, with only one other bed separating the two. Dash didn’t really mind sharing a common room with something like fifteen other ponies. Maybe because even before her stay of the academy she was accustom to taking naps in public places. Be it a low-lying cloud or the branches of a tree, she usually felt that if the sun was up she need be someplace the ponies of Ponyville could find and wake her if they needed an odd weather job done here or there. And of course, she wasn’t about to sit around in an office all day just for that, so her habit taking naps in earshot of busy places was born.

And so thanks to the talents that had earned her a reputation for being lazy despite being one of the best athletes in Ponyville and the late hour, Dash had barely flopped down on her new bed before she found the sweet embrace of sleep…

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The ring of the castle bell tower roused one very groggy Rainbow Dash from her sleep as it announced the morning. At lease she’d assumed it was announcing morning, but one look out the window showed only the darkness of night outside.

“What… the… hay… Even the wonder bolts don’t get up before sunrise…” she snarled as she buried her head under her pillow.

That lasted all of two seconds before she realized that the rhythm bell was that of an alarm. That thought woke her mind up in a hurry. Shooting a few quick glances around the room only managed to confuse her even more, as most everypony in the room seemed to be getting up and trotting to the stairs with little sense of urgency.

“What’s going on?” she asked of the next mare to walk past her bed.

The mint green pegasus mare yawned and said, “Morning alarm. Dawn will start in a few minutes, so every pony needs to get to their battle positions or safety areas.” And with that she casually trotted off toward the exit.

Storm Gale and Rainbow Dash looked at each other, sharing the same worried look on their faces.

Eyeing one of the armored ponies, Dash said, “Guess we should go see where they want us.”

Gale only nodded and watched as Dash opened her wings and flew over to the guard pony that seemed the least occupied. After exchanging a few words with the mare in the armor, Rainbow Dash came back and said, “She said you could follow her to a safety area.”

“What about you?”

“Seems I need to find that paladin guy again.”

The two Ponyville pegasi parted ways down on the first floor. While Gale followed down into the basement, Rainbow Dash darted out the door, into the main courtyard.

Even in the pre-dawn darkness the courtyard was easy to see in, thanks in no small part to the torches and just about every building and walkway being white. A fair number of ponies were gathering around the fountain, though she paid them no mind as she flew to the keep.

Her mind fully awake now, Rainbow Dash was quick to fly through the halls of the keep and soon she found the paladin in the main hall with the elder.

Landing opposite the two, she saluted and said, “Rainbow Dash reporting for duty! What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t suppose you can do that thing you did last night again?”

Rainbow stretched her wings and frowned. “Maybe, but my wings are still a little sore from last night. Performing the sonic rainboom really takes it out of you. So I really should go easy on my wings for a little bit.”

“So how often can you do the sonic rainboom?”

“Well I know I can do it at least once a day for a few days… If you don’t mind the part were I needed to lay on the couch for like a week straight after that.”

The paladin shook his head. “Hmm… no point running yourself into the ground even before you’ve really started. Line guard by the fountain is an easy post, and it’d be a good way to ease you into Sky Knight duty. Go help them.”

Back outside Rainbow Dash found herself hovering over the fountain in the main courtyard. The fountain itself was a large main basin with an island in the middle. The island had five small pillars that help aloft a smaller upper basin. Neither of the basins were more than knee-deep. In the middle of the upper basin was a small fountain that shot straight up, and causing the water to come back down in a dome-like ribbon. From there the upper basin drained into the lower basin in a ring of thin waterfalls.

Another observation that she found of note was that the upper basin was held just high enough that foals could fit under it. In fact several fillies and colts were currently taking refuge on the fountain’s center island, as if those paper-thin waterfalls offered them some semblance of safety. Which seemed odd to Dash, after all if you were hiding from something that could fly, wasn’t indoors a safer place to be than hiding under a fountain in the middle of an open courtyard?

Aside from the foals there were also several adults gathered near them, some of whom had been from the same civilian bunkhouse that she’d just spent the night in. In addition to the seemingly random assortment of pegasi there were four Sky Knights standing in the lower pool, one at each direction of the compass. Unlike the others who seemed to be gathered as tightly as they could toward the center of the fountain, the Sky Knights stood more toward the rim of the fountain, facing outward. Clearly they seemed to be the last line of defense to the others gathered in the fountain.

Of course all of these little observations and curiosities paled in comparison to the biggest question on Rainbow Dash’s mind. And turning to the Sky Knight hovering beside her she put that question to words. “What’s the deal with this wooden sword?” she asked, holding the sword she’d been given pinned between her front hooves.

After spitting a similar blade out of her mouth, the knight answered, “Their faster and lighter than metal ones, and all we’re trying to do is knock away the lassos any shadow pegasus throws our way. We just need to make sure they don’t snag anypony in the fountain before they can react.” With that the tan and blond mare returned the handle of her wooden sword to her mouth and cast her eyes back to the horizon.

“Okay…” Dash muttered.

While knowing what she was expected to do was nice, she’d expected a bit more. But not wanting to sound as out-of-the-loop as she was, she opted not to press the issue. After all she’d just been told to protect those in the fountain by knocking lassos off course. How hard could that be?

“Incoming!”

The shout came from the rooftops and in response every Sky Knight perched on a rooftop or tower leapt into the air. Many of the Sky Knights were armed with lances, or blades that were attached to a hinge and latch mechanism and could have the blade either lay flat against the side of the pony’s leg or be flipped out to extend from the bottom of the hoof. Dash knew such weapon as pegasus sky swords. But almost as many of the armored pegasi taking flight were armed with small spheres that looked like they were made of some kind of plastic or rubber, and if she didn’t know any better she’d have thought them to be water balloons.

Regardless, she could only watch in awe as the skies above the castle filled with pegasi. Truthfully she’d never even seen the skies above Canterlot Castle as well defended as this place. A random thought passed through her mind, that if they’d had even one-tenth this air cover during the changeling attack on Canterlot she and her friends would’ve reached the elements in time.

Hovering just a dozen or so feet above the fountain, Rainbow Dash wasn’t even high enough to see over the castle walls. From that vantage point all she could see was the Sky Knights flying over head, usually in wings of three. With one noteworthy exception, among all the armored pegasi in the sky, at the highest point of the defensive formations in the sky overhead, the paladin flew alone.

A hush came over the castle, leaving only the soft sounds of flapping wings and the flow of the fountain’s water to fill the void.

And then they appeared. Dark figures against the dark purple sky, the shadow pegasi.

With their arrival, the skies above the castle lit up. Strange flashes of light were erupting here and there, tearing the shadow pegasi into sparkles of magic. Although Rainbow Dash couldn’t quite tell where these flashes were coming from they seemed to always appear near one of the pegasus defenders, maybe even the ones that had the strange spheres.

The shadows pushed deeper into the defender’s airspace and more and more of the Sky Knights broke their tight formations. Soon the sky became the biggest dogfight Dash had ever witnessed.

It took only three seconds before she’d lost track of the paladin. Thirty seconds and she was faced with her first shadow pegasus that had gotten close enough to toss a lasso at her.

Biting down hard on the handle of her wooden sword, she swung it into the path of the incoming lasso. Feeling the reverberation in her jaw she grinned as best she could, as the lasso missed her and by the time it had been yanked shut it snared only the empty air behind her.

Then she heard a splash and suddenly the air around her erupted in ribbons of soft gold, blue, and silver light.

Her fur tingled and she felt the magic in the air as the wave of light washed past her, heading upward and outward. Any shadow pegasus that had been too close to the fountain dissolved into shimmering specks like a dismissed spell. And being close enough to try to lasso somepony near the fountain counted as ‘too close,’ as she saw her attacker vanish to the light. Even it’s dark lasso shattered into nothingness like a broken spell as it fell.

The light purged the shadows within thirty feet of the fountain, maybe more, but the fighting in the skies above went on uninterrupted.

Even as the awe faded and curiosity took hold, the burst of light was gone. Yet a glow still drew Rainbow Dash’s attention downward. The waters of the fountain were still glowing, though judging from its brightness, the lingering glow was only bright enough to fend off the shadow pegasi within three to four feet of the fountain. If nothing else at least she now understood why the defenders had the kids huddled on the fountain. It really was the safest place to be at the moment.

As the fight went on and she continued to knock aside the shadows’ attacks, she managed to sneak a peak at the fountain to see that the flares of magic light came from the fountain whenever a pegasus in the fountain kicked the surface of the waters. Though as the dawn wore on, the shadows were making it near the fountain more frequently, forcing her to focus on aiding in the fountain’s defense.

Two more lassos came her way. One right at her, one aimed at the pony in the fountain below her. Using her wooden sword she knocked aside the one intended for herself. At the same time she kicked out with one of her back legs to knock the other lasso off course too.

The instant her leg touched the black rope a burning, freezing, crushing, tearing pain shot through her mind. It was almost as if her body didn’t know what kind of pain signal to send so it just sent all of them. Amidst the confusing pain signal there was one feeling that there was no doubt to, a dreadful pulling sensation as if something was being pulled out of her very soul through that point were her leg was touching the shadow’s rope.

Then the instant ended. Thanks to her body locking up from the unexpected pain, Rainbow Dash had stopped flapping her wings and fell away. The light rushed up past her, thanks to somepony triggering the fountain’s magic. Only when she’d splashed down in the water herself did she remember she could still move her own limbs.

The fountain wasn’t quite deep enough to drown in, but she did have to push her head up slightly to get her muzzle above the ripples flowing across the water. Finally sitting up, she reached down and began to rub away the memory of pain that lingered in her back leg.

Through all the action, the ever-brightening sky had eluded her attention. But it finally happened. The sky became blue and the shadows of buildings appeared as the sun peeked over the horizon. And in response the Sky Knights standing in the fountain reared up and slammed their front hooves down into the waters. And with that the magical light flared once again, only this time much brighter than before.

This time the light reached well beyond the courtyard, filling the entire castle and then some.

The few shadow pegasi that had been high enough above the castle to avoid the blast of magic fled, scattering to be anywhere else. And just like that the battle was over. The defenders in the sky came gliding down. Even those gathered in the fountain casually left, returning to their respective buildings. Leaving Rainbow Dash and the Sky Knight she’d splashed down next to as the only two left in the fountain’s waters.

“What the hay was that?”

The Sky Knight smiled and answered, “It’s called The Waters of Night and Day for a reason.”

“I’m kinda new here, so humor me. Why is that?”

“Well the story goes. Long ago the three tribes, the earth ponies, the pegasus ponies, and the unicorns, lived apart. One day a war broke out between the tribes. The reason the war started has long since been forgotten, for it was how the war ended that everypony remembered. During the final battle the sun began to weep. And once everypony noticed the strange water falling from the cloudless sky, they stopped fighting. That night the moon also cried, washing away the blood from the battlefield. Seeing the distress their war was causing the spirits of Day and Night that very night peace was declared.”

The Sky Knight gave the still glowing waters at their hooves a quick glance before continuing. “They say that where the tears of the sun and moon mingled they became springs of the waters of night and day. And it didn’t take long before somepony noticed that if a pegasus uses their magic on the waters of night and day they become charged with light magic. Magic that only a unicorn can harness to do good things. And oddly enough, they found that if a unicorn tried to charge the waters with their magic the waters became charged with dark magic. Magic that was only good for causing pain and suffering. Which only further reinforced the idea that the spirits of Night and Day wanted ponies to work together.”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “What about just now? I didn’t see any unicorns using the fountain.”

The Sky Knight gave the water a tap and said, “What about it? So we’ve got glowing water, what now? As far as us pegasus ponies are concerned that’s the end of the story. Only a unicorn can put this magic charge to use.”

“It got rid of the shadow pegasi didn’t it?”

The knight shrugged. “True, though I don’t think the shadow pegasus spell existed back then. So I doubt anypony bothered to test if the initial flare up was enough to break that spell. Now come on, the fight’s over. And I don’t know about you but I’m starving, let’s go get some breakfast.”

* * * * * * *

A clang rang out as two wing-guards slammed into one another. The paladin gave a grunt as a hoof slammed into his chain-mail vest. Yet, even as he glared disappointedly at his rival, she snarled at herself, knowing that only strikes with the wing guards counted, but she was unable to restrain her instincts to strike with her hooves.

Backing off for a second, Rainbow Dash reminded herself of the rules of this training session. Not that she’d forgotten them. It was just that fighting wasn’t something to be done on a mental level. No, it was too fast for that and far more suited for muscle memory and reflexes to accomplish, with as little distraction from the mind as possible.

The mare with the rainbow mane came back at him, and the paladin readied himself for another round. Truth be told, he would have preferred to best his opponent with in the first few second of the training match, but the mare was just too fast for that. Every time he saw her make a mistake and counter attacked she was already backing out, never allowing his wing guard more than a light tap on her chain-mail vest.

When the training match was better measured in minutes then seconds, Rainbow Dash finally made a match-ending mistake. She preformed a spin and lashed out with one wing in her idea of a wing-uppercut. The paladin blocked her wing with his hoof, while countering with one of his wings at the same time. His wing met her back with a downward motion, and sent the mare into the cloud mat below.

A soft poomf sounded and a spray of cloud shot up, heralding Dash’s arrival. She let herself lie there, half imbedded in the cloud for a moment, before muttering, “I hate losing.”

“Good,” The paladin said, trying his best to mask his heave breathing. “Losing to a real foe instead of a training partner will get you killed out there.”

“I know.”

Even as she said it, the memory of a very big, very angry red dragon flashed in her mind and a shiver ran down her spine. That was one of the few times in her life that she thought she was about to die. Now that she thought about it, she’d lost to an army of changelings and they had only captured her, Discord had only brainwashed her, and she’d never really thought they’d lose when she’d faced Nightmare Moon. Funny, of all the dangerous things she’d done for Equestria, serving an eviction notice was the one that made her think she might not see the sunrise tomorrow.

Finally getting back on her hooves, she found herself wanting to change the topic. “You know, I still don’t know your name, unless it really is Paladin.”

The stallion raised his eyebrows in surprise. “My name? It’s Cloud Sword.” After taking a moment to think, he added, “Ah right. Despite our best efforts we’ve never been able to make another set of wing blades with magic like the sacred wing blades. With only one sacred wing blades, there can only be one pony with the title ‘paladin’ at a time. So yeah, it’s not too uncommon for the ponies around here to just call the paladin by the title alone.”

“Wait, so what happens when you’re done training me?”

“You will become Paladin Rainbow Dash, and I will once again be Knight Cloud Sword. Although you shouldn’t be surprised if ponies only bother to remember your title,” Cloud added with a grim but knowing look in his eyes.

* * * * * * *

The day went rather well by Rainbow Dash’s standards, ignoring the part about being trapped in another world anyway. A few rounds of training and she was getting better at ignoring her instinctual desire to protect her wings at all costs and using them as weapons instead. Although she still hadn’t beaten Cloud Sword by the time they stopped for lunch.

After that she’d been told to spend the rest of the day taking it easy. She did so by exploring the castle. She had to admit the castle felt much more homely during the day. The banners and flags draped about gave the place all kinds of colors. Most were varying blues and whites though, not too unlike the shades common to pegasus cloud buildings.

The banners mostly depicted the same stallion from the statue out in front of the keep, but some depicted a set of silver wings with a four-pointed star between them. Though it would be days before she learned for sure, it wasn’t hard to guess that said symbol was the insignia of the Sky Knights.

As she continued exploring the castle she found her way surprisingly unhindered. And while her search of the castle might not have been all that thorough, so far the only locked doors she’d found were the ones leading to a pony’s privet quarters. And let’s face it, if you’ve seen one castle guest bedroom you’ve seen them all. While it was true that the ponies in the armory insisted on having a guard accompany her as she looked around, the fact that they let her walk the aisle and admire the arms and armor at all spoke volumes to how trusting these ponies were of her.

It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that Rainbow Dash found herself being directed where to go. As the sun was getting ready to set, she was sitting on the corner of one of the building’s roof. The chain-mail vest glittered in the light with every little movement. The plated wings of her wing guards acted like weak mirrors, rendering it impossible to look at them without getting some glare reflected into her eyes.

The plan was simple. This time she’d been assigned low-altitude sky guard. That basically meant that she was one position further way from the fountain then this morning. It would give her the chance to fight the shadow pegasi with her wing guards but still be close enough to the fountain to enjoy its protection, as long as she stayed below rooftop level like she was supposed to anyway.

The sun was halfway over the horizon, the sky shifted from blue to purple, and the clouds became orange in the light of the setting sun. Rainbow Dash smiled as she beheld the ‘Scootaloo Sunset,’ even giving a small laugh at the thought that she was probably the only pony in this world to use such a term. Then her smile turned into a frown as a twinge of pain shot into her heart. She’s left Scootaloo hanging didn’t she? Not that she meant to, but still, Dash was fairly certain that she’d promised to spent time with her new honorary little sister today. So soon after their camping trip and she’d already let her down. Some spirit of loyalty she was.

A rustle of wings from another pegasus on the roof snapped Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts to look around. The eyes of everypony else on the roof were scanning the skies, not for beauty but for threats. The focused eyes, tight muscles, and occasional uncomfortable shifting all made the tension in air that much thicker.

The sun set, the sky was darkening even faster, and everypony watched the twilight horizons for any sign of impending attack. Soon there was more light coming from below than above. The shadows born of torchlight dance ominously on the faces of anypony sitting at the edges of the roof.

Eventually the moon peaked over the horizon and the stars started coming out. Mere seconds after the first stars came out somepony in the fountain triggered it, and mostly silver light came flowing out to envelop the castle. Most of the castle anyway, there might have been a few corners on the outer wall that weren’t quite in range of the fountain’s magical light, but all of the important stuff was covered before the flare started to recede.

“Looks like we get a break tonight. Let’s go get dinner,” Somepony said, as many a Sky Knight opened their wings and glided off towards the appropriate buildings.

Rainbow Dash just sat and watched as one by one the others on the roof left, until she was the only one still there. Most of those patrolling the skies above glided down, heading inside as well. Those in the fountain left their safe haven, no doubt headed for one of the mess halls too. Soon only Rainbow Dash and the night shift remained outside.

Or so she thought until she heard the flapping of wings approaching her. A glance showed her that the newcomer was Storm Gale. Gale’s wings had a slight tremor to them. A similar unsteadiness showed in how she held herself in a hover just a few feet from Dash.

“Hey,” was all Dash said to greet her.

At first Gale just nodded. Eventually she moved over to the rooftop and landed beside Rainbow Dash. Finally she asked, “How do you do it?”

With a quick check of her mind Dash found her mental list of awesome things she’d done tonight had exactly zero items on it. So all she could do was tilt her head and ask, “Do what?”

“Stay so calm. We’re trapped in another world where everything beyond those castle walls wants to kill us! This one safe haven is under threat twice a day! And even the sky is a dangerous place to be around here!”

Gale paused for a moment to calm her voice, and then added, “And despite all of that here you are, just calm as can be. How do you do that? How do you be so brave?”

A part of Rainbow Dash wondered what was so brave about sitting on a rooftop waiting for an attack that never came or even fighting near a fountain that could protect you on a moment’s notice. A part of her wanted to just say, ‘because I’m awesome!’ But a part of her knew that didn’t feel right, or like the right answer at the moment.

“Because there are ponies counting on me. Ponies counting on me to come home, and ponies counting on me to help them here,” she answered. Then with a smile she added, “That and nothing bad is actually happening right now. And if nothing else I know that the one pony who can help us get home is going to be looking for us soon.”

Gale’s eyebrow raise slightly at that and she asked, “How do you know that? And who can find somepony lost in another world?”

Dash gave a confident grin. “My friend Twilight Sparkle, she’s the most powerful unicorn I know. And seeing as I’m in charge of Ponyville’s weather there’s no way they haven’t noticed that I’m gone by now.”

Seeing a hint of doubt in Gale’s eyes, Rainbow added, “If I remember correctly, yesterday’s weather schedule called for partly cloudy skies. And I did that, but today’s schedule called for clear skies. And well I’ve been here all day so there’s still going to be a bunch of clouds hanging around that shouldn’t be.”

Giving Gale a soft pat on the shoulder, she smiled and said, “Trust me. One thing will have led to another and by now I’m sure my friends are looking for me. And when Twilight figures out where we are, she’ll figure out how to get us home.”

Opening her wings and hopping into a hover, Dash added, “I’m also sure the lines in the mess hall should be short by now, so what do you say we head on down for some dinner ourselves?”

Gale gave a small smile. “Thank you.”

* * * * * * *

Something had been bothering Mayor Mare, the mayor of Ponyville, all evening. The worst part was that she couldn’t put a hoof on what it was.

“Everything’s fine. The council meeting went well. Potholes got fixed, water and electricity still work. Even the crusaders didn’t cause any trouble today. Everything is fine,” she assured herself.

And yet the nagging feeling forbid that last part from feeling right. No, something was definitely wrong. With thoughts of the town yielding no answers, Mayor Mare turned her thoughts to a smaller scale. Was something wrong in her home?

Dinner had tasted fine. Looking down at the tan hooves and coat of her front legs, and more importantly the dish she was currently washing, she found no cracks or anything else wrong with said dish. The counters were clean, so she hadn’t left anything out from cooking.

Once again at a loss, she sighed and looked out the window nearest her sink. It was actually a nice night out. Beyond the reflection of her own gray mane, the moon gave the clouds a silverish glow.

Clouds…

Abandoning the kitchen the mayor made her way to the study, where she shuffled her way through several piles of paper on the desk until she found the one she was looking for.

“That can’t be right,” she muttered, before marching out the door and into the night.

The trek through the streets of Ponyville came to an end at the town library. By the time she’d reached her destination the lights of Ponyville had mostly gone out. The town was going to sleep. Yet the pony who resided at the library was one of the few who could be counted on to still be awake at this hour. Granted she didn’t have anything to do with managing the weather, but she was friends with the mare who did. And if anypony was in the know as to why Rainbow Dash wasn’t doing her job it would be Twilight Sparkle.

The door was answered by the purple unicorn in question.

“Oh, hello mayor! What brings you here at this time of night?”

“There are some weather jobs that seem to have been left unfulfilled, but I couldn’t find Rainbow Dash anywhere. Have you seen her today?”

“No, I can’t say that I have…” Twilight answered, tapping a hoof on her chin. “Now that I think about it, Scootaloo came by looking for Rainbow Dash today too. And she looked a little distraught when I told her I hadn’t seen her. Wait, did you say she didn’t do all of her weather work? That doesn’t sound like something she would do.”

The mayor nodded. “I know. I am well accustom to Rainbow Dash working at her own pace, but she’s never let a day end without fulfilling the weather schedule before. And shouting from her field didn’t get a response.”

“From her field?” Twilight asked, then slapped herself on the forehead with her hoof. “Right, no wings. Maybe we could get Fluttershy to check on her?”

“That would be nice. Although I was hoping that you would have answers for me right now, I suppose it can wait until morning. A few leftover clouds is no big deal, but we do need to get the bottom of this before there is some serious weather work on the schedule.”

Twilight looked up at the moon high in the sky. “Right. I guess it is a bit late to go barging in on anypony. I’ll have Fluttershy look into it first thing in the morning, and get back to you as soon as I know what’s up with Rainbow.”

Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

I wonder what happened to the mirror world's alicorns.

[Revan]

I wonder when in the timeline this is set, seeing as how Twilight's still a unicorn.

[Keeper of time RD]

7841645

I had two theories as to them but here's the clue from the story that hints at one of the answers "eventually becoming an army capable of challenging the throne itself."

As for the timeline it would have to be late session 3, after sleepless in ponyville as proven by Scoots but before the end of session 3 when twi becomes an alicorn.