Rainbow Dash and the Darkwing Pony

by ThomasZoey3000

The Late Night Fight

Chapter 4: The Late Night Fight

Rainbow followed the criminals as quietly as she could until they stopped outside a little toy shop, "what would they want with toys? They're big ponies after all," Rainbow thought to herself.

One of the shady ponies picked up a nearby rock, "breaking the lock takes too long. You heard the boss, smash, take and get out fast." He took aim and fired, which smashed the window into a hundred or so pieces.

"Not to mention they're bad ponies."

Twilight and Starlight finally reached the scene. They could hardly believe their eyes, but they were more surprised that there were no police officers nearby, "where are the police?" Twilight asked out loud.

"Shh," hushed Rainbow Dash, "you want us to get caught?"

Twilight looked to Starlight, "she tells me to shh it, yet she races over to find out what's going on."

"Shocking I know," Starlight said, trying to hold back another yawn.

The criminals climbed into the store, after clearing away the broken glass from the window frame. Once inside, they started stealing toys, and all the bits from the desk countertop.

"It's no wonder Ponyville relies on you guys to save the day, the police can't do anything right," muttered Starlight.

Down below, the criminals were feeling quite proud, "no cops in sight, and nopony to stop us. The boss was right, Ponyville is an easy target for us. I almost wish it was a little more challenging, cause this is too easy."

"Will you shut up?" snapped another criminal. "You don't want him to come out of nowhere and attack us would you?"

There came a thud from outside. One pony looked out and gasped, "uh guys..."

"Don't tell me, he showed up didn't he?" asked the second thief.

"Good guess, it's him."

The figure was indeed the masked pony. Up above, Twilight could hardly believe what she was seeing, "that pony does have a costume similar to Mysterious Mare Do Well. Only it's a bit darker than ours was."

"Well to be fair, yours was designed for day time use, not night time like this pony," whispered Rainbow.

The three criminals stormed out of the store and prepared themselves to fight. The masked pony looked at them, then shook his head, "honestly, this is the best you can do? I've seen better from your group. I mean, how are you suppose to beat me?"

"I thought you'd say that," said the second thief. He raised his hoof to his mouth and whistled out.

On cue, seven more criminal ponies appeared from the shadows and surronded the masked pony.

"What?" Rainbow exclaimed. "Ten aganist one? That's not a fair fight."

"Keep it down Rainbow," hushed Twilight.

The masked pony looked to all the criminals and a small smirk came to his face, "I was expecting more of a challenge, but I guess this will do. So, who's making the first move?"

The first criminal charged in, prepared to punch the masked pony. But the masked pony waited till he was close enough, then gave him a punch to the underside of his jaw, making him go flying and land in a garbage can. Seeing this, the other criminals charged in. The masked pony jumped up, pulled a small rope out of his belt and swung it, grabbing a nearby garbage can lid. As he came back down, he swung it, smacking it into two ponies' faces hard.

"Captain Equestria, eat your heart out," muttered Twilight from above.

The masked pony fought the rest with normal kicks and punches, knocking them down one after another, but no sooner were they knocked down than they got back up to fight again. One thing was certain, these guys were not willing to lose this time around. One grabbed a two by four and swung it at the masked pony. But he had seen the attack coming and jumped. The pony jumped several more times to avoid the two by four, until the seventh swing. He caught the two by four with his own hooves.

"What's he doing now?" Starlight asked in wonderment.

The masked pony ran with it, spinning the criminal around until he forced the criminal to hit a brick wall.

"Ohh, now that's got to leave a mark," muttered Rainbow Dash.

At that moment, the sounds of whistles could be heard in the distance. The police were finally on the scene. As it turned out, the officers patrolling the area were knocked out cold by the criminals, and hidden from plain sight. Up till now.

"You there, stop what your doing and get your hooves in the air now!" shouted one officer.

The criminals looked to each other, "what do we do? Should we surrender?"

"What? And get the cold shoulder from the boss? We do what we've been taught, take them down."

While eight of the criminals went on to fight the masked pony, two of them went after the police officers with two by fours. They swung them, and while the officers missed them a few times, it wasn't long till they were knocked out cold. Then the criminals threw them inside garbage cans and had the lids shut on them.

"Argh! I can't stand around watching this anymore, they even attack police," snapped Rainbow Dash. "I'm going in."

"Rainbow wait!" cried Twilight.

It was too late. Rainbow was already charging, and with hooves out, smacked two criminals hard and making them go flying. She flew over to the masked pony and landed right beside him.

"I don't know who you are, but if you are doing the right thing, then the least I can do is help you. Ten aganist one isn't fair."

Instead of getting angry though, the masked pony just smiled, "just watch their tricks, and pay attention to my warnings."

"You got it."

The criminals charged in again, this time fighting two ponies. Rainbow used her hooves to block the punches, while the masked pony jumped into the air and did several spins with his legs extended, thus allowing him to hit more than a few targets at a time. One of the criminals got kicked so hard that he was knocked out cold.

"Great, one down and nine more to go," said Rainbow. She punched another one, and knocked that pony out too. "Correction, make that eight."

"Stay focused girl, these guys don't give up that easily!" shouted the masked pony.

As the fighting progressed, one of the knocked down ponies noticed yet another two by four, and had their sight on Rainbow Dash. She picked up the two by four and prepared to swing it at Rainbow Dash. The masked pony saw this and shouted; "get down!" Rainbow heard and got down. The masked pony jumped over and kicked the two by four, making it swing into the pony's face and knocking that one out too.

"No, that's going to leave a mark, and give them brain injury too," commented Twilight.

Rainbow soon found herself with her back to the masked pony's. The masked pony extended their forelegs and asked Rainbow to do the same. Confused, Rainbow did as she was asked, then noticed their legs wrapping around her forelegs.

"On my mark, start kicking with your legs. Understood?"

Rainbow nodded, "I got it!"

"Good. Now!" He leaned down and started spinning around quickly. As he did this, Rainbow kicked the criminal ponies more than once with her back legs, knocking many of them out. Once seperated, the two ponies finished off the job in no time. The last criminal of the bunch, the one that had wanted more of a challenge, got a kick to the face by the masked pony.

Rainbow looked all around her at the criminals that now layed down on the ground, battered and out cold.

"The police will soon be here, you might want to leave," the masked pony said to Rainbow. They extended their wings and took to the sky, but the pony was barely in the sky when they called out with a little chuckle; "you haven't changed a bit Rainbow Dash!" Then they were gone.

"Wait, he knows my name?"

"Rainbow!" Twilight called down to her. "We got to go now!"

Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts and flew away to rejoin her friends, not leaving anything behind to point out she was there. Not even a feather.

Silver Badge and the rest of the police force arrived and gasped at the sight before them.

"The masked pony strikes again," he commented. There came some rattling noises from close by. Silver Badge looked into the garbage cans and found two officers in there, "what are you guys doing in there?"

"We were trying to stop those criminals, when they attacked us," said the first officer.

"They had already attacked two of our own," added the second officer. "They were also in a fight with the masked pony. Did he win?"

Silver Badge pointed to the knocked down ponies, "oh yeah, I guess he did."

Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow returned to the castle of Friendship without incident. All of which were worn out and tired from the quick dash, and for the fact it was late in the evening. Starlight collapsed as soon as they entered through the front door.

"I guess she's had enough for one day," commented Rainbow. She looked and noticed Twilight glaring at her. "Okay, okay so I jumped in there again. Give me a break, it's part of who I am. I am the element of loyality, remember?"

"Of course I remember. Argh! I should've made you Pinkie Promise not to jump in there."

Using her magic, Twilight lifted Starlight off the floor and began to take her down the hallway.

"The masked pony knows my name." Hearing that stopped Twilight in her tracks. She turned around to face Rainbow, "it's true, but how in the world does he know my name?"

"Maybe he's an old friend of yours from the past," suggested Twilight.

"Perhaps, but I don't recall any of my old friends ever disgusing themselves as a masked hero of justice."

Twilight was about to say something about that 'masked hero of justice' comment, but decided aganist it. After all, now wasn't really the time to think of cheesy sayings.

"Tomorrow, I'll do some research and see if I can't find anymore info on sightings of the masked pony. Maybe it'll give us some clues into figuring out if it is an old friend of yours. In the meantime, be careful as you go home."

"Uh Twilight, you do remember who you're talking to right? I can get home in ten seconds flat."

"I know, but just be careful," she said with a hint of worry in her voice.

Rainbow sighed, "alright Twilight, I'll be careful."

She walked to the door, closed it and flew off back for her house. Starlight opened her eyes, "what did I miss?"

Far away from Ponyville, in the Everfree Forest, there was a pathway that went away from the usual path ponies took to go to the Castle of the two sisters. This pathway looked over-run, but was instead the pathway leading up to the secret compound of a criminal mastermind. Inside the compound, a pegasus who was larger than Bulk himself, sat in his chair, awaiting reports on tonight's robberies. One pony walked in and bowed before him.

"They failed me, haven't they?" he asked angerily.

"Afraid so master, and it was him again. He knocked them all down."

The big pegasus pony boss snarled and slammed his hooves down on the air rests of his chairs, "everytime we go to a new location, he always shows up and ruins everything. This pony has been getting on my nerves. Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia, Vanhoover, Manehatten, he's all over the place, and none of my stupid lackies can do the jobs I ask them to do, cause they can't seem to stand up to him!"

"If I may add master, tonight wasn't a total loss."

The big pegasus pony looked down to his servant, "ohh? Was any of the bits taken and brought here?"

"Not excatly, but we did send another pony out to see if they could spot anything that could prove to be a weakness to the masked pony. And I think we found one." He lifted out a photo and showed to the boss. It showed the masked pony, along with a pegasus pony with a rainbow mane, "he seems to know her."

"Interesting, so he does have a friend. This could be useful to us. Send some more spies, and see if they make contact. I want to know if they are friends, and if so, see if we can use her to bring him down. Once and for all," and he cackled with sinister laughter.

The following morning, in spite of everything that went on the night before, Rainbow Dash was still ready for another day of practise. Though by now her hooves were a little sore.

"Ow," she muttered as she landed.

She walked off slowly to the locker room, when she heard Spitfire call out to her; "Crash! There's somepony here who wants to talk to you."

Rainbow flew over to where Spitfire was, and found her alongside Silver Badge. Rainbow gulped. She thought for sure she had left no trace at the fight scene.

"Hello Ms Dash, I've been told that you were out and about last night," said Silver Badge. "An earth pony named Green Jewel saw you fighting alongside the masked pony. Care to tell me why?"

"Well..." Rainbow sighed and admitted everything, "I wanted answers too. Like why would these ponies steal from Ponyville and who the masked pony is."

"I see, and did you get any answers?"

"More like more questions."

"Hmm." Silver Badge was silent for a few moments, then spoke again, "alright then, I'll let you off with a warning. No more sneaking around in the middle of the night. There is a curfew going on after all. I will tell you this though," he went on, "if we catch you out there again, we will arrest you and it will go on your record."

Rainbow sighed, "yes Sir."

"Very good, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can get some answers out of our newest guests at the station."

He turned and walked off. Spitfire looked to Rainbow, but before the Pegasus pony could say anything, Spitfire said; "I would've done the same thing myself if I was in your postion." She looked around and whispered, "just be more careful next time."

Rainbow gasped, "are you actually telling me to ignore what Silver Badge said?"

"Not really, but I know from your past that you sometimes ignore orders to get answers or to help a friend. But don't tell anypony else I said that to you, or all the Wonderbolts will be running wild. You got that?"

"Got it Ma'am, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Very good, now...GET IN UNIFORM!" she shouted.

Rainbow winced at the slight ringing in her ears, "got it ma'am." And on that note, she went to the locker room while Spitfire went back to her charts.

When the training was done for the day, Rainbow flew back towards Twilight's castle to see if she had any answers for her. It would help her in figuring out who the pony was under the mask, cause at this moment, she was drawing a blank.

She found Twilight in the map room, sitting in her chair and looking at some papers. Both Starlight and Spike were buried under mountains of paper.

"When Twilight goes all out on research, she really goes all out," said Starlight.

"And you're just learning that now?" Spike asked. "Honestly, this would be much easier if we had that internet Sunset Shimmer often talks about."

"Yeah speaking of which, when I am going to meet her?" she called out to Twilight.

"One day Starlight." Twilight turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash, "so after looking through all these papers, we have discovered that this masked pony has indeed popped up in other towns, and Cloudsdale was the first."

"Cloudsdale huh? Well that narrows it down."

"And while nopony has ever had an interview with this pony, they do have a name for him. The residants of Cloudsdale had come to call him; Darkwing Pony."

"Darkwing pony? Why would they call him that?"

"Cause he fights in the dark, he has wings and he's a pony. At least, that's what one paper says, but it works."

"It does sound like one of the comic books in Sunset's world," added Spike. "I think one of their comic heroes has that name, but isn't a pony. Now what was it? Darkwing Goose? No, that can't be it. Darkwing Owl? No that's not right."

"Anyways," continued Twilight. "The papers also say that he was in Cloudsdale longer than any other town. He was there for three solid months before one night, he disappeared, right around the same time the criminal activity stopped. Now, is this ringing any bells to you Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow thought hard about all the ponies she knew in her life, but still none of them came into her head.

"Sorry, but no. Nopony is coming to mind, none of them ever wanted to be a crime fighter."

"Hey, I have an idea, why not ask him," suggested Spike from underneath his mountain of papers.

"Yeah right, I doubt he would show me his identity. Thanks anyways guys, if I can think of anypony in my mind, I'll be sure to let you know. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

"Right," Twilight rolled her eyes in disbelief. "You want to rest before sneaking off again?"

"No, not this time. Silver Badge found out from Green Jewel that I was involved in the fight last night, and warned me not to sneak around town during curfew hours again, in spite of some ponies telling me to be more careful."

With a heavy sigh, she flew away.

"I'm sure I know who the other world's Darkwing is. Oh I got it, Darkwing Swam!" cried Spike. Then he groaned, "nope, that's not it."

"Never mind Spike, never mind," sighed Twilight.

Once she got home, Rainbow gave Tank some supper, then collapsed onto her coach. On her living room table were a few yearbooks, which she had looked through earlier in the morning, but still it was a blank.

"If this Darkwing was my friend, I'm pretty sure he would've found me by now and told me who he is," she thought to herself. "Maybe I should just stop my search. After all, if he doesn't want me to know, then it's none of my business."

She closed her eyes and dreamed back to when she was a filly at Flight camp.

"Watch this you guys, I'm going to do five barrel rolls at once!" she called out.

She attempted to do the five barrel rolls, but in the middle of her fourth one, she lost control and smashed into a cloud. The three bullies who gave her the nickname 'Rainbow Crash' laughed rudely at her. Another pony flew up to them angerily, "oh be quiet you stupid morons, it's not like you can do any better. She's twice the pony you'll ever be!"

The other pony then flew up towards Rainbow, "are you alright Dashie?"

"Yeah I'm fine," she answered. "I just need to try again, then I'll show them all of how good I am."

The other pony just smiled, "you haven't changed a bit Rainbow Dash. From the first day here, you're still just as determined as ever."

"Yeah I guess I am..."

"Lightwing!" Rainbow suddenly awoke from her dream. Her sudden shout made Tank jump and go into his shell to hide. "Sorry Tank, didn't mean to scare you!" Rainbow picked up one of her yearbooks and looked threw it, until she found it. A picture of a male pegasus pony with an orange coat and blue mane, he was called Lightwing. At the bottom of the page was his tiny writing from years ago. Rainbow looked closely and saw the message said; you may have grown up since we started, but you still haven't changed a bit Rainbow Dash. This was followed by a little smile.

Rainbow dropped the yearbook, "oh sweet Celestia. My old friend Lightwing is the Darkwing!"