The Paladin of Prismatic Light

by Keeper of time RD

Chapter 5: The Shadow of Light

The day that Rainbow Dash had passed the wing blade’s test she had been allowed to keep them. To her this proved a mixed blessing. While it felt good to be the one dealing with the attackers during the morning and evening battles, she wouldn’t have minded the reduced pressure of only being one of the Sky Knights who was just stalling for time with the shadows again.

On top of that, now that she wore the wing blades most of the ponies in the castle called her ‘Paladin.’ Not ‘Paladin Rainbow Dash,’ or ‘Paladin Dash,’ just “Paladin.” Almost as if they were accustom to having the title move from one pony to another often enough as to not bother remembering the name that came after the title. Only Cloud Sword and Storm Gale still called her ‘Rainbow Dash’ on a regular basis.

In fact, aside from the day he’d given her the wing blades Cloud hadn’t called her ‘Paladin’ since. Although she figured that was because, despite gaining a new title her training had continued.

Speaking of her training, the combat training had ended after one full week, and since then her morning training sessions had focused on… for the lack of a better term, flying, an obstacle course through the castle keep. Only it wasn’t so much a course as it was a starting point and ending point, and the obstacles weren’t hoops and pylons, instead they were other ponies with cameras. The point was that both she and her mentor would sneak between the two points and whomever had the fewest number of pictures of them snapped along the way won.

So far Rainbow Dash had yet to win.

That was changing today. Or that’s what she wanted to tell herself. But talking while she was crouched up in the rafters might draw the attention of the patrolling pony below, so she kept quiet for now.

Once the guard pony had moved on, she flew silently to just above the archway to the next section of hall. A quick peek showed her that the path was clear, so she darted through the arch and back into the rafters on the other side.

Moving silently with a chain-mail vest on took some work, and to say that she was completely silent would have been a lie. But between the magic nature of the silver vest causing it to fit her form perfectly and stretch and move more like cloth than like true chain mail and the practice of her previous runs she’d become quiet enough that the sound of hoofsteps were loader.

And that was to say nothing of the bladed wing sheaths covering her wings. Now that she had them on she could truly admire the way they warped and flexed to move with her. Compared to the wing guards she’d grown accustom to using, her wings felt completely free within the sacred wing blades. Needless to say that freedom of movement allowed the master flyer to hover silently through the rafters toward her next target.

Dash put herself down softly, spying down on the hallway bellow. The sound of hoofsteps kept her motionless in the rafters above the door in her sights. Further down the hall another guard appeared and walked along, seemingly oblivious to the pretend intruder hidden above.

In a way, she was almost certain that the guard was only pretending to not know she was there because she hadn’t done anything to draw attention to herself yet. Maybe other guards might be that dumb but in a castle full of pegasi you’d think they’d look up once in a while.

To their credit the guards seemed well disciplined in playing this game. They had to know that a pegasus sneaking around the castle would be above, but they never looked up without cause to do so.

Once she’d been busted because a mouse went scurrying along one of the rafters and when the guard looked up to see what was making that noise he spotted Rainbow Dash two rafters over.

No such ill fortune befell her this time.

The guard continued down the hall and out of sight.

With that delay out of the way, Dash darted down and quickly slipped through the door she’d been eyeing.

Inside was an abandon bedroom, or the bedroom of a pony who owned nothing. She wasn’t sure. Either way it always seemed to be empty during these exercises. And more importantly the window of this room was one floor below the window into the storage room that held the finish line. Which, as far as she could tell, was the only way into the storage room that bypassed the guards stationed outside of said room’s only door.

Now if she could only time her quick trip outside so she didn’t get her picture taken by half a dozen guards on the castle walls this time.

At the moment the ace flyer lingered, low to the ground and peaking out through the curtains, watching the guards outside. Most of them looked outwards, away from the keep, so it would only be a matter of time before the few patrolling the walls all had their backs turned as well.

As Dash waited, she passed up three such opportunities. She did this because, thanks to the last few attempts, she was growing familiar with the patrol patterns of the guards on the walls and knew those windows of opportunity were too short. From her past runs she’d come to the conclusion that it took roughly three seconds to open the window, fly up one floor, open that window, and duck inside silently.

The movements weren’t synced, but finally two guards started moving at the same time. Was this her chance?

Weather it was or not, she wasn’t about to sit around for another five minutes knowing that she was in a semi-race with her instructor.

Rainbow Dash made her move. All seemed to be going well until she opened the window to the storage room… That was when a camera flash signaled that she’d been spotted, and several more flashes promptly followed it.

With a scowl on her face she hovered into the storage room.

“I lost count. How many was that?” Cloud Sword asked.

At the moment he was reclined lazily on a crate, with a bit of a smirk on his face and twirling a small wooden pendent on his forehoof.

And yes, the pendant, it was the finish line. Granted reaching it first only really served as a tiebreaker if they had both been caught the same number of times during the run. As for the pendent, it wasn’t really anything special. It was made of oak. Maybe it was oak. Oak is what you made wooden jewelry out of wasn’t it? Well, what ever it was it was wood and it was shaped like a ring with two lines through it. Basically an ‘o’ with a plus sign in the middle. Really, it looked like something that might take a woodcrafter five minutes to make.

Regardless, the hoof-sized pendant swung from the end of the string laced through it, orbiting Cloud Sword’s hoof.

“Six, seven… Maybe eight,” Rainbow Dash said with a sigh. “You?”

Cloud shook his head slowly.

“Sorry, today was a good run for me.”

Dash frowned. ‘A good run’ meant perfection. Truth be told, even the worst run she’d seen from her mentor he’s only been spotted three times. Which begged the question, how in creation was he getting into this room unseen? She’d only blown it at the end and that counted for six plus, and the time she’d tried busting in through the front door, the two guards outside had snapped ten pictures of her, so how was he doing it?

“Why are we even doing this?” Dash snapped. “Isn’t the point of the paladin to fight for what’s right? How does sneaking around like a ninja help me do that!”

Even as the words left her mouth she’d already regretted speaking them and snapped a hoof over her muzzle.

“A paladin fights because they must. But that’s doesn’t change the fact that fighting itself should be avoided whenever possible. Stealth gives us a tool to avoid fighting. And on a more practical note, not all that serve the Summoner are shadows. Some are earth ponies or unicorns who are too afraid to defy her, or seek the protections for themselves or their families that come with serving her. And while I have no qualm cutting shadow magic to ribbons I’d rather not spill the blood of actual ponies, if I can help it. Even if it is the blood of cowards too afraid to stand up for what’s right.”

Rainbow Dash hung her head.

“Sorry. It’s just that we’ve been training so long, and I thought I’d have solved your problems and been home by now, and patience isn’t exactly one of my strong points.”

“And we will keep training until I’m convinced I’m not sending you to your death.”

Dash’s head sank deeper at her mentor’s retort. Yet her mind picked up on something that was new to her.

Up until now the overlords had been the only allies of the Summoner aside from the shadows that she’d heard of. The fact that regular ponies had fallen in line with this summoner character was certainly news to her.

* * * * * * *

“It’s time.”

Twilight Sparkle gave the declaration with a resigned sigh. Yet it was greeted with a relieved sigh from several others.

“Ah’d say it’s a might past time, myself.”

“You’re probably right. I just didn’t want anypony to think I was abusing my position as Celestia’s personal student to call in help that other missing ponies won’t get.”

“All due respect, darling, being one of the ponies linked to the elements of harmony I’d think that finding Rainbow Dash would be considered a priority by more than just her friends.”

“Yes, you’re both right. And with conventional search teams having turned up nothing for a week, I’d agree that it’s absolutely time to call in any favors I can on Rainbow’s behalf.”

With that Twilight looked over the letter on the podium before her one last time. Stepping back she made room for a certain young dragon to step up.

“Alright, Spike, send it.”

With a jet of green flames the scroll was consumed and the resulting puff of green smoke shot out the window of the library, toward Canterlot.

While the ponies, and dragon, gathered in the library built into a tree didn’t necessarily expect an immediate response they couldn’t help but worry when one didn’t come in the first hour. And while they didn’t have to wait a second hour before one came, the response they did get left them stunned and shocked to say the least.