Her Candidates

by Nyte-Blade

To Smite with Great Vengeance

~Previously~

After saving Mina from the monster, the humans take her back to the Royal Palace, in which Celestia places traumatized Mina to sleep, allowing her to recover from experience the kind of darkness Princess Luna once suffered through.

During this moment of rest, the humans and ponies take the time to discuss and hopefully, piece together why Lightning Dust, a former student and former aquaintance of Rainbow Dash, was working with the Shadowbolts.

As for Lightning Dust herself, she pays a visit to Spitfire...

---

"Maybe I should incorporate capital punishment into school regulations, for ponies like you." Spitfire said.

"Assuming you CAN." Lightning Dust said in a smug manner, giving a delightful smile.

At that moment, several other Wonderbolts, wearing their suits, flew up to Lightning Dust, eventually surrounding her.

"Threatening my superior and friend, huh? You won't get away with this, Lightning Dust." Soarin' glared at the rogue pegasus through his goggles.

"I won't, huh? Come on, guys! Spitfire used to love it when I pushed myself farther than anyone else! Why do you think she made me Lead Pony instead of that wimp Rainbow Dash, huh?! She's smart enough to know just how much better I am than that loser and those 'students'!" Lightning Dust ranted.

"Wonderbolts, let's take her down!" The moment Soarin gave his command, Lightning Dust flew away, the Wonderbolts chasing her at high speed.

Spitfire intended to fly after Lightning Dust herself, but Soarin stops her for a brief moment. "You sure you'll be okay without your suit?!"

"I'm the one she wants, so I'll be the one to take her down!" Spitfire took off flying after Lightning Dust, with Soarin following.

As for Lightning Dust, she's flying through the obstacle course consisting various rings to fly through, high winds, and mass produced storms. Despite the Wonderbolts going after her, she takes the time to show off by completing the obstacles fair and square. The wind hitting her face is unable to break the smile of the crazy Lightning Dust who is clearly enjoying this game of cat and mouse. She looks behind her a brief moment, only to see a bolt of lightning shooting past her, barely missing it's mark.

After narrowly dodging the bolt, she notices that the Wonderbolts are flying above her, sending bolts of lightning, attempting to strike at her exposed wings.

"Looks like they figured out that my suit is lightning proof just like theirs... but I'll do them one better!" Lighting Dust thought, continuing her flying through the storm clouds.

She then started to bounce off of the clouds in an angle so she could flip them over. Due to her pressing a hoof into each cloud, a bolt of lighting fires out of each one, forcing the Wonderbolts chasing her to break their flight formation.

Lightning Dust didn't stop there! Her wings then began to glow in a dark aura first, then she made her side face her persuers and twisted her body in such speed, unleashing two blades of wind, aimed at the Wonderbolts chasing her. The blades quickly came rushing in, but being barely visible, the whirling blades hit two of the Wonderbolts, one on the left wing, and the other on the back-right leg.

"WAVE CHILL! MISTY FLY!!!" Soarin called out to the two Pegasi who were hit. "High Winds, Fleetfoot! Emergency Maneuvers!"

On Soarin's call, High Winds and Fleetfoot helped the injured Wonderbolts land safely.

"HAHAHA!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!! HOW DID YOU BECOME WONDERBOLTS ANYWAY!? I GO-"

"SHUT UP!!!!" Spitfire shouted, flying at Lightning Dust at blazing speed, tackling her as hard as she could, slamming her onto the pavement of the runway.

"AGH!!!" Lightning Dust struggled to get free, but Spitfire pressed her forehoof down on her head and back hooves on her wings, ensuring that Lightning Dust doesn't get away. "YOU!!!!"

"You better hope they don't send your sorry flank to Tartarus after this...!!" Spitfire seethed, angry that Lightning Dust would actually harm other Wonderbolts.

"Hahaha.... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh puh-leaaaaaaaaaaaaaase! Are we really doing this!? Are we really gonna pretend you've won?!" Lightning Dust could barely express her unnatural happiness as her face was pressed firmly to the ground.

But at Lightning Dust's declaration, the whole sky began to darken, the surrounding area engulfed in a mist that resembled a starry sky.

"What's going on here!?" Spitfire only checked around for a brief moment, but focused back on Lightning Dust.

"Looks like my new family has arrived..." Lightning Dust gave a cocky smile, as she knew she'd be able to get away.

As the mist covered the area, the Wonderbolts quickly landed on the runway, getting away from it. Eventually, two pegasi wearing a black and purple version of the Wonderbolts suit, a stallion and a mare, emerged from the mist, walking towards Spitfire, outstretching their wings.

"Yo, Number Twenty-one! Number Twelve!" Lightning Dust called out to the pegasi approaching her. "Nice timing!"

"What the... who are they!?" Spitfire demanded.

"Oh, they're here to get me out of here. I'll probably be scolded later, but I'm sure it'll be understood I wanted to have a little FUN first. Size you up before I really take you all down. But hey... look around you. They're not the only ones here. Looks like Number Five, Number Ten, and Number Sixteen finally freed themselves..." Lightning Dust said, looking at three other strange Pegasi, dressed like the two continually approaching Spitfire, standing on large storm clouds, ready to smite the academy with lightning.

"Numbers?! What are you on about!?" Spitfire asked, commandingly, but each question would go unanswered, as Lightning Dust didn't even bother.

"Lightning Dust isn't done with her task yet. Although her petty grudge has nothing to do with our goals, we still require her assistance and skills for our task. So let her go, and this Academy will be safe. Understood?" The pegasus called 'Number Five' finally spoke, standing on a Storm Cloud, covered in the starry-sky mist.

"So this is what you're going for now, Lightning Dust? Working with these phonies?" Spitfire asked, genuinely disappointed in Lightning Dust.

"The Shadowbolts... they're not phonies. But I can't really talk too much here, now can I? But it's okay. We'll be meeting again, hopefully able to show off whatever's left of Rainbow Dash when I get rid of her." Lightning Dust said.

"Let's stop them!" Soarin and the other Wonderbolts were prepared to fight, but the Shadowbolt on one of the clouds above spoke again.

"If you insist on combat, we won't hesitate to use force and destroy the academy." Number Five said.

"WHO ARE YOU TO DECIDE THAT!?" Spitfire seethed, but suddenly, a Shadowbolt tackles her off of Lightning Dust while the other grabs the rogue pegasus, all with swift precision.

With that, the mist cleared, and the Shadowbolts were long gone, and had already taken Lightning Dust with them.

"The SHADOWBOLTS?! This is stupid!" Spitfire seethed.

"We'll track them down and apprehend Lightning Dust! I have a bad feeling that we'll be in for something huge if we don't stop her..." Soarin said.

"I'm still the one she's after... and she wants revenge on Rainbow Dash too. At this point, she's acting like a sore loser. It kinda hurts to see someone with that much potential become like this." Spitfire sighed, putting a hoof to her forehead.

"I wonder if that's really all... Everlasting Night? That sounded a lot like Nightmare Moon..." Soarin speculated.

"I heard that too. But that can't be right! Nightmare Moon's supposed to be gone!" Spitfire said in disbelief. "But nevermind that. Go to Canterlot and let the royal guard know that we want a warrant for Lightning Dust's arrest.

---

Meanwhile, Lightning Dust, who was being carried off by the other Shadowbolts, is taking several deep breaths and trembling, wearing a grin on her face.

"That... that was close... TOO close... Spitfire... you're an elite afterall, but that's good. Taking you down wouldn't be worth it if you weren't!" Lightning Dust thought to herself, breathing heavily.

Soon, the Shadowbolts stop flying. One of the Shadowbolts turn around to face Lightning Dust.

"You should wait until later to settle your petty grudge. It wasn't wise recklessly flying there to face Spitfire and the Wonderbolts. Our plans still require your skills, so please refrain engaging in a skirmish with them." The Shadowbolt said. "Their numbers are vast and there is a ninety percent chance that they will be more troublesome than the Elements of Harmony."

"Hah, I'm being scolded now, or what?" Lightning Dust asked, still cocky.

"We have no need to scold you, Commander. However..." The Shadowbolt held out a hoof, with a small cloud of starry-sky mist above it, an odd, black and red shaded horn dropped on top of the hoof. "With this, the plan's success will increase by forty percent."

"Oh, it's that horn again..." Lightning Dust said, unsurprised.

"We will put the main plan on hold, and instead, hunt down the other seven humans that came here." The Shadowbolt suggested.

"You mean... we're really doing THAT, huh? We should've done it when we were in Canterlot." Lightning Dust added.

"The Elements of Harmony are a hindrance when they're together. I recommend targeting a human that doesn't have their protection." The Shadowbolt gave the horn to Lightning Dust. "You know what you must do."

"I getcha. So you'll track down these other humans, right? Sounds good to me!" Lightning Dust grew a maniacal smile, as she held the strange black and red horn in her forehoof...

Author's Note:

This is a Wonderbolts vs Shadowbolts chapter.

Well, a prelude to the eventual battle between them... My plans keep shifting, becoming better and better, as i shift around the pieces...

Alas, it normally doesn't take THIS long to post a damn chapter. But I DID get discouraged for a little while. See, I like to have at least 3 chapters already written ahead of time before I go posting a chapter. That way when it's time to go back and post a chapter, I can look it over and see if it's got any errors or inconsistencies. Basically, I'm just proofreading my own stuff.

But I've bounced back and I'm blazing foward :3