> Rising From The Shadows
>  by Aurora Steel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

“Hey! Thief get back ‘ere!” An angry shopkeeper yelled. 

Aurora groaned in annoyance as she looked behind her, catching a glimpse of a scrawny, dirty looking child running away from an old looking fruit shop, arms full of what looked like overripe and borderline rotten apples. The shopkeeper had started yelling very colourful language at the poor child as he attempted to chase after him but failing as he was too overweight to catch up. Her frown changed into a bemused smirk as she watched the scene unfold behind her. It was really amusing to see an overweight, overly angry, grown man unsuccessfully chase after a small boy just for stealing a few apples. 

She quickly focused her mind back on the street in front of her as she adjusted her heavy sports bag on her shoulder, pulling her greyscale plat over her red jacket cut off at the start of her waist with the sleeves rolled up to her nonexistent biceps. She wore the aforementioned red jacket over a black flowing tank top secured to her torso with a simple brown belt. Underneath her top, her legs were covered with dark blue jeans with black shin high boots over the top. It was a simple but comfortable outfit that got worn a lot. 

Currently she was heading over to the Canterlot Royal Library to research wing injuries and replacement but it looked like today the world just wanted to stop her from doing so. On her walk to the library she'd been stopped by several people including guards for pieces of rubble to be cleared or arrests to be made. She'd also stopped in at a bakery but was immediately ordered out as it was a Skyborn only bakery which made absolutely no sense as the shop was based in a Mage centred city. 

After she'd failed to go to the bakery, she tried a back alley to cut her walk in half but had only ended up running back out from where she had entered with a group of Earth Dwellers chasing after her. Apparently that route involved a gang hangout spot. 

"People..." She breathed, looking over at an arguing couple, sitting under an umbrella as it was an unusually hot day for spring. She couldn't quite make out what they were arguing about but it wasn't good by the tone. 

Eventually Aurora arrived at the library, looking up at the huge building about three times her size. The building itself was about the size of a large mansion with two rooms jutting out of the main building to make it into a ‘C’ shape of sorts. Each wall to the spiralling tower behind it were covered in windows from the cream coloured base all the way up to the deep mahogany tiled roof. The windows at the front of the building were brightly coloured in stained glass with pictures of famous Mages casting spells and reading ancient books, two males on the outer windows and two females on the inner ones. Wedged between the jutting walls was the entrance with ten or so steps leading up to the white pillar framing and mahogany doors. At the end of the steps and on the little platforms were four figures, two lower wall posts were two female unicorns reaching up whilst their manes and tails were flowing backward to give the effect of the unicorn casting a powerful spell. On the two pillars pressed against the wall, framing the huge doors stood two male unicorns standing as if they were walking forward, their beards, hats and coats lined with bells were carved in such a way that it gave the effect of striding forward in fierce winds. It was odd to have Unicorns on the pillars when they could’ve easily had famous Mages from history but it was their choice and the statues somehow seemed like they fit in and belonged there.  





Walking up the ancient looking steps to the entrance, she guided her hand along one of the walls, her fingers brushing over the cracks and holes accumulated from time and weather. Once at the top of the steps, she walked over to the huge doors, pushing one of them open as soon as she was close enough. The familiar sound of the door creaking open graced her ears, reminding her that the owner desperately needed to oil the hinges as just about everyone in the library could hear the sound no matter how far they were away from the door. Letting the door close behind her with a soft bang the smell of ink and old parchment paper wafted into her nose making her smile contently as it always did when she ventured into the building. She looked around to see a few people reading books of all shapes and sizes. Unsurprisingly almost all of them were mages and one or two of them were glaring at her for so foolishly disturbing their precious studies which she was sure were oh so important to furthering the library’s already vast collection of scrolls, books and pieces of parchment collected over many years. 

The inside of the Library was set up in a manner where the Librarian sat at the front of the room then behind it the people could sit in the front half of the spacious room, using the natural light pouring into the room from the huge windows to their advantage. From the tables they could easily walk down to the many rows of shelves squished into the room, going all the way to the back to search for just about any book they wanted. At the end of the ginormous room was a set of double doors centred in the middle of the long walls which lead to the restricted section where only official Mages were allowed to enter as the tower connected to the library. The spiralling room was filled with books upon books upon books of spells, some of which were illegal but hadn’t been confiscated yet. 

The old librarian at the round table at the front of the main room looking up at her, a smile gracing her lips as she watched Aurora walk over to her. “May I help you love?” She asked as if she were reciting those words for the thousandth time which she had done. 

“Hello. I’m looking for a book on wing injuries and replacement.” Aurora answered as politely as she could. 

The woman chuckled, “Any particular reason?” 

“Oh, just for a friend. She broke her wing.” She lied, trying to sound as confident as possible, trying not to sound completely nervous at all. 

The woman looked at her for a moment before eventually nodding, “Alright dearie. Back in a moment.” 

As the librarian walked off, Aurora sighed in relief, slouching as she’d gotten away with the lie for once. she would come in sometimes asking for some of the weirdest books and the librarian usually didn’t believe her lie so it was a big surprise to her that she’d believed it for once. She was terrible at lying and she knew it. 

The woman returned a few minutes later with a small stack of books in varying sizes and colours, hopefully all of which were related to her desired subject. 

“Alright. This is all we have on your particular subject. If its not what you’re looking for, you could always try the castle archives love.” She placed the books down on the counter before sitting back down on her chair. 

“Thank you.” Aurora thanked gratefully. Somehow she had a feeling that she’d end up having to search the archives and that was if she even got permission to do so from the guards. She picked up the books from the counter, bending down slightly from the weight from all of the books combined. How the old librarian managed to carry stacks larger than this each day was baffling to her. 

She headed off to one of the small rooms to the right of her, away from the long tables lined up the length of the room, filled with books for the Mages and occasional Skyborn. She always opted for the secluded rooms away from the tables as she always got glares from the Mages for doing the slightest thing like coughing or turning the damn page. Some of the Mages in the library were some of the most stuck up people you could meet, they were just so full of themselves. 

Pushing one of the smaller doors open with her back, she entered the left room at the front of the library, finding only one other person in the room and thankfully they were an Earth Dweller not some stuck up, snobbish Mage who would only glare at her the entire time. The man looked up briefly before looking back down at his book, clearly not interested in who was entering the quiet sanctum. Her small smile grew as she placed the books gently down on the opposite table in the room. There were only two tables in the room with a few bookshelves lining the walls in-between the windows and under the light fixtures. 

She placed her bag on the chair next to her as she sat down in her own chair, flexing her shoulder back and forth from the relieved weight having been lifted. She hadn’t noticed how heavy her bag was until her shoulder ached from not having the weight on her shoulder anymore. But then again she was used to it. Reaching for the first book on top of the pile she dove into it, effectively starting her research. 

— — — Three Hours Later — — — 

Aurora pushed open the heavy entrance doors once more with a single book in hand. Out of all of the books she had read and skimmed, the smallest book in the pile was the one she was looking for as it was focused on the different types of injuries with mention in several pages of people loosing their wings. It was very summed up in some parts so she’d have to visit the Archives to get the information she ultimately wanted. The small book just wasn’t enough. 

The blinding light of the afternoon sun filled her vision, causing her to shield her eyes with her free arm as she slowly walked back down the steps, clutching the book tightly incase she fell. Eventually her eyes adjusted to the sun as she continued down the street she was walking down a few hours ago. Along the way to the upper plaza in the city, she stashed the book away in her bag which was a challenge as it was already pretty full. Getting closer and closer to the upper plaza, the houses and shops started getting fancier and larger with every step she took. But that wasn’t the only thing. Wanted posters started appearing on lamp posts, sides of buildings and even shop windows. They all seemed to be about one or two people. One was a woman with long windswept midnight hair surrounding her, pointed purple goggles over her eyes, concealing her identity and what looked like a dark grey vest with hints of yellow covering her which hinted to some form of uniform. The other poster was of another woman in the exact same get up but this time her hair was a deep blue with what looked like electricity cracking and jumping all over it. A cult of some sort maybe? 

As weird as it was, she focused back on the road ahead of her, mainly looking at the Mages and Skyborn walking around her with their noses high in the air. Snobs. But then again, that was expected of Canterlot. 

Turning the corner, she cut across the street and up a flight of stairs between houses which as luck would have it came out onto the upper plaza. Right where she wanted to be. The plaza was beautiful as it was one giant, round clearing paved with cobble stone. The finest and most expensive cafés and shops lined the plaza with the café reaching their tables all the way to the centre where a huge fountain with a water nymph holding a water pot was placed to be the focal point of the place. Here in Canterlot, the plaza was one of the only places where Mages, Skyborn and Earth Dweller alike could get along and work side by side as no one race controlled it. Though it was a beautiful place to go and visit, it was rather annoying as it was the only way to the castle where the Archives were. One way in, one way out. Completely annoying. 

“Miss! Come visit our café!” A woman, presumably a waiter shouted in her direction. 

She looked to the woman, shaking her head. “No thanks.” She waved, walking faster than before to get away from her. It wasn’t that she was trying to be rude, she had a goal and wanted to complete it as soon as possible. Maybe on her way back she’d stop in if she got the chance and it was still open. 

She walked up to the fountain, letting her hand be dragged across the smooth surface of the wall. Cool to the touch but not too cold thanks to the sun. She heard giggling coming from the other side of the fountain causing her to look over and see a little girl using her magic to play with the water coming from the top of the nymphs’ water pot. Her gentle smile returned to her lips as she didn’t notice it had disappeared. 

‘So innocent.’ She thought, her pace slowing to a very slow walk as she was fixated on the girl playing so carelessly. ‘So clueless.'

Shaking her head violently, she picked her pace up again, trying not to look like a kidnapper for focusing on the girl for so long. 

“WATCH OUT!!” Someone screamed from behind her. She snapped her head around to see the same waitress from before pointing up at the sky, shear terror clearly present on her face. 

Aurora turned around to where the waitress was pointing just in time to see a figure crash into the tall fountain, pieces of the statue and water flying in every direction possible, hitting a few people as a result. As a result of the figure hitting the fountain at such a fast speed, a shock wave from the impact caused everyone around including herself to go flying backward a few feet. 

What was once such a nice spring day had turned into utter chaos in the span of a few seconds, all around her she heard people screaming and shouting along with the sounds of sirens blasting throughout the courtyard along with the sound of people stampeding to get out of the plaza as fast as possible. 

“What the hell?” She muttered to herself as she slowly got up, holding her head in hopes to make the headache she’d accumulated from the crash to go away. She looked around to see nothing but debris and hurt or unconscious people lying around the place. Had this much damage happened from something smashing into the fountain?


It couldn’t be real, none of this. Nothing like this could happen so deep into Canterlot, next to the Palace of all places. She was just walking through the plaza looking at a kid playing in the water. 

“Wait! The kid!” She shouted out loud. The girl had been playing in the fountain when the thing hit it. Without another thought, Aurora ran over to the fountain, looking for any signs of the small girl at all. She had to be alive! She just had to!

She searched all over the fountain for the girl, not finding anything but rubble and dirty white feathers. She hadn’t checked under the rubble and chunks of the fountain from where the girl was playing so she started pushing the pieces away with all of her little strength she had, chucking the pieces behind her or letting them roll away. With each piece of rubble she moved, the harder and harder it got to move the next piece. Thankfully her adrenaline had already kicked in allowing her to move a lot more than she would’ve been able to regularly. 

Suddenly she remembered she still had her bag on her shoulders so she ditched it next to her, allowing her more movement to find the little girl. Slowly she started hearing wheezing coming from somewhere and the smell of what she could only assume was blood started becoming more and more noticeable the further she dug. ‘Come on!’ She screamed in her head, forcing her muscles to move against their will.  

Throwing a large chunk away, she spotted part of a face covered in blood. It wasn’t a pretty sight in the least but it gave her hope. A few pieces of rubble removed a few minutes later she could make out the slightly crushed face of the small girl, blood and cuts just everywhere on the girl. She sighed heavily in relief for the second time that day as she could at least see the girl alive. Granted she looked a complete mess, her once curly cream hair was now stained red and grey and what she could see of the light blue dress she’d been wearing, it was completely torn up. It was just horrible but she had to keep going and get her out. 

Careful not to cause anymore damage, she slowly moved the heaviest looking boulders off the girl and set about pulling her out of the hole which proved a lot more difficult than she thought it would’ve been, she very slowly managed to wiggle the girl free but one of her legs was trapped between some rubble which she had no chance in hell of moving. 

“Ace!” Another voice shouted from behind her once more as a loud thump was also heard coming from the same direction. This was becoming annoyingly regular and she didn’t like it one bit. 

She slowing and painfully turned her head to see a tall man standing a bit back from her, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked around in annoyance. The man himself was absolutely huge with giant dark grey wings about two thirds of his body wrapped around him very loosely as if he was protecting himself. He adorned the same goggles as the women from the posters which drew her to his flaming hair, a complete sunset with the outer tips a dark red and the hair closest to the shaved sides and back were a very light yellow, hence why it looked like flames. His hair stood out even more thanks to the dark grey colour of the shaved part of his hair. He wore a very similar outfit like the posters, a long vest going down to his hips, a simple yellow belt underneath and baggy pants tucked into his shin high boots. the whole outfit consisted of three colours; medium purple, dark grey and bright yellow. The top of the vest, pants and skin tight shirt under the vest were all coloured dark grey then on each item of clothing were lighting bolts in a ‘v’ shape and below that was the medium purple. The boots were a very similar colour scheme consisting of the tops being bright yellow, the material from his shins down to his ankles were the same dark grey and from the ankles down were the medium purple. It was a very odd outfit choice but it all seemed to fit together well. Maybe these people in the posters and in front of her were more than just a colt, maybe it was something bigger. 

“Ace ya arse!” The mysterious man shouted again as he started walking toward the destroyed fountain. His accent clearly indicated that he was from Cloudsdale but the lower, poorer part of Cloudsdale. The slums you could say. 

Obviously the man was oblivious to Aurora and the little girl in need of immediate help so she bent down, picking up a very small piece of what looked like part of the water pot and proceeded to throw it at the man. 

Fortunately for her it hit him but unfortunately it hit him in the side of her head, leaving a nasty cut where the strap of his goggles were. The man was knocked off his course, whipping his head around to see who threw the rubble at him. 

“Hey!” Aurora shouted, gaining the attention of the now furious man. It was hard to see how furious he was as the yellow tint from the goggles covered his eyes but she knew he was pretty angry as his wings were flared out as far as they would reach as he turned to her. 

“What the hell woman?!” He roared back, stomping over to her. 

“Help me!” She indicated to the small girl in her arms who looked even worse by the moment. 

“Why should I?” The man asked, standing up to his full height once more, his arms returning to being crossed over his chest. 

“Because she’s injured!” She argued in hopes of getting the man to help. 

“No.” He flat out stated. 

“Why not?!”

“I don’t feel like it.” He shrugged, walking away as he tucked his wings back to his sides.

She couldn’t believe her ears. This towering, muscular man wouldn’t help a little girl because he didn’t feel like it?!

She sunk to the ground, shaking in anger, her bag a few feet also shaking. She just could not believe this man. He would deny a badly injured little kid the help she desperately needed just because he couldn’t be bothered. He was the lowest of the low. He wasn’t worth being a Skyborn let alone a man. 

“So you’re just going to walk away when this little girl could be dying?!” She tried to reason as she watched the man climb up the rubble to the top to look into the hole created by the figure from earlier. 

“Yeah. Do ya have any idea how many people die each day? As if saving a little brat would do anything to lower that number. Just look around ya now greyscale. I bet ya half the people ‘ere are dead or near it. Nothing is gonna change if a few people die right now.” He replied, dropping into the long hole. 

There was truth in his words but she just couldn’t let a life die in front of her. That wasn’t what she stood by. 

“It doesn’t matter how old or young or how big or small someone is!” She shouted, looking at the little girls’ unconscious form. “You have to try no matter how close someone is close to death! It doesn’t matter how many people die each day, it matters saving one now!” 

The man stood in the crater, looking at something. He wasn’t moving or talking but thinking. He looked very frightening as he just stared at the thing in the hole, he looked like he was concentrating hard before he reached out to a feather on top of the rubble. A moment later he crushed the feather in the palm of his hand, chucking it behind him as he moved forward once more. At the end of the hole which went up to his waist. He looked at Aurora, shaking his head before bending down and picking up the figure in the hole. 

“No.”
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Chapter 2

“No.” 

The man dragged the figure out of the hole, resting him on the cobble pavement a few feet away from the crash sight. The figure was barely recognisable but it was clear the figure was a Skyborn and a huge one at that. She could make out a very dirty pair of giant wings that made the flame haired mans’ wings look like baby wings in comparison. Along with the extremely dirty white wings she could just about make out warm blue hair with very faint speckles of gold or yellow or orange. It was hard to tell as the figure was completely covered in dirt, blood and torn material which looked almost exactly the same as the flame heads’ but much larger. 

Aurora shook her head once again in disbelief as she got into a crouching position to give one final pull to free the small girl. She clenched her teeth, tears welling up in her eyes. “YOU ARE THE WORST PERSON ALIVE!” She yelled, pulling the girl with all of her might. She managed to free her but was sent tumbling backward as a result of the lack of tension. 

“No. That’s Prince Blueblood. Pompous prick he is.” The flame head simply replied, glancing over to her as he bent down, trying to find a pulse on the unconscious figure. 

Groaning, Aurora slowly got to her feet again, brushing the dirt and dust off of her clothing as she felt her face throbbing. Especially part of her lip and the side of her face. 

“You-“ 

“There they are!” Someone shouted from above them causing both of them to look up to see three more figures hovering far above them in what appeared to be the exact opposite of what the flame head and the unconscious man were wearing. Well it wasn’t completely opposite as they were very similar apart from the baggy pants looked more like spandex pants or leggings, it was again hard to tell. The uniforms weren’t purple, grey and yellow, they were a solid medium blue with light yellow lightening bolts in the exact same places they were on the other outfits. 

“What’re the Wonderbolts doing here?” Aurora asked herself, completely unaware that she’d just said it out loud. 

“Ah shit.” The man groaned, picking up his unconscious comrade as best as he could manage. 

She looked back and forth between the flame head, Wonderbolts and the little girl, debating on what to do. She could protect the little girl from any further harm or danger from anything or anyone, she could get the Wonderbolts’ attention and explain what happened or she could even help the flame head even though she would never choose that option. Deciding to go to the little girl, she slowly walked over to her, sighing in relief when she saw the girls’ chest very slowly rise and fall. 

“Step away from the kid!” One of the Wonderbolts shouted, swooping down in front her. 

The Wonderbolt standing in between her and the girl was none other than the imfamous Soarin’ Skies. His icy blue wings were flared out as far as they could reach, intimidating the hell out of her even more than he already had with his towering height alone. He was just taller than the flame head, his hair and skin contrasting greatly against him. While the flame head was very tanned, Soarin’ was very pale with midnight blue hair. 

“I was just trying to help the little girl!” Aurora tried to argue no matter how scared of the man she was. 

“Yeah right. I bet you’re with the Shadowbolts over there!” Soarin’ shouted back angrily.

“What even are the Shadowbolts?” She asked, not knowing what the hell was going on. 

“Look behind you!” He pointed to the flame head slowly trying to sneak off. “They are Shadowbolts! How do you not recognise your own?!” 

“Because I have no idea what’s going on!” She tried to manoeuvre around the ‘Bolt but to little avail as he simply stepped one way or another, his wings blocking her from the girl completely. 

“No idea? Then why in Celestia’s name are you here?!” 

“I was just walking up to the castle archives!” 

“I’m sure you were.” The other two Wonderbolts landed next to him, both easily identified as Fleetfoot and Spitfire, two of the elites in the ‘Bolts. Fleetfoot walked behind soarin’, picking up the little girl gently before flying away presumably to the nearest hospital. 

“I was!” She grabbed her bag, getting her book out. “I was doing research on wings!” She held the book out for both ‘Bolts to see. 

“How do we know that you didn’t steal it?” Spitfire asked, her windswept flaming orange and gold hair swaying as she stomped forward. 

"Wha? I’d never!” She defended herself, putting the book away before swinging her bag back on her back. 

“Yeah, yeah. That’s what they all say.” Spitfire growled, her wings starting to flare out as well with each step she took closer. 

“Greyscale!” The flame head shouted, causing her to whip her head around. “Either way, ya gonna get put in jail! They don’t give a damn what ya say!” 

“He’s not wrong.” Soarin’ said bluntly. “Even though he is a Shadowbolt.” 

“But I’m telling the truth!” She tried to argue once again even thought it was completely pointless. 

“I’m sure.” Soarin’ repeated. 

“Damnit…” She muttered. There was no getting out of this situation without hurting someone or getting hurt herself. It was also a matter of going to jail or running away and she couldn’t do the latter without the flame heads’ help. No way she looked at it there just wasn’t any outcome that would benefit her and everyone around. 

“You’re coming with us.” Spitfire interrupted her thoughts, getting out a pair of handcuffs from one of the pouches on her yellow belt. 

“Ok, ok.” She breathed. “Just let me get something.” She bent down, pretending to search through the rubble. 

Suddenly she chucked a piece of the said rubble at spitfire’s face whilst standing upward, her leg kicking upward into Soarin’s privates, effectively kicking him in the crotch. Knowing there was no going back now, she held onto the strap of her bag tightly as she ran over to the Shadowbolts whilst she had the upper hand. 

The flame head smirked as he took off sprinting as fast as he could with an unconscious giant on his back. Aurora joined him, sprinting at the same pace. 

“What made ya do it?” The flame head asked, hoisting the giant further up his back as he’d begun slipping downward. 

“What else could I do?” She asked back as they turned a corner into an alleyway, trying to find the fastest route out of the city. “It’s not as if any of you gave me much of a choice!” 

The flame head smirked as they exited the alleyway, ran across the large road and into the next alley way. “Who is it you’re carrying?” She asked as they jumped down a set of stairs, the flame head landing roughly. He took a moment to regain his posture and catch up to her. 

“Ya heard me call ‘is name earlier.” He simply replied hoisting the unconscious man up again. 

“Abe?” She asked, trying to remember the name. 

“Hell no. It’s Ace.” 

“Cool name.” 

“Yeah.” 

The two turned onto another large street and instead of running into the next alleyway they ran down the street, thankfully no one was on the street as Ace crashed into the fountain. Everyone must’ve seen it as a terrorist attack and hid in their homes. 

“Where do we go now?” Aurora asked as she simply followed the flame heads’ lead. 

“Who said you were comin’ with me and 'im?” The flame head asked back.

“I don’t exactly have anywhere to go now! You owe me!” 

“Don’t ya have a home or somethin’?” 

“No.” Was all she replied with. 

“Wow. Just wow." He smirked. "So not even an apartment?" 

"This really isn't the time to talk about my living arrangements you ass!" 

They ducked into a small alleyway between two houses as the Wonderbolts flew by, scanning for them. A few tense and nerve wracking moments passed before they were sure the treat to them was gone allowing them to continue running down the winding main road. 

Once they were finally at the bottom of the main road and of Canterlot for that matter, they scanned around to try and find an exit. In front of them was the main gate for entering the city, usually the giant golden gates were open for visitors and the train to pass through but it was now closed thanks to Ace and the flame head’s antics in the upper most plaza. The city was now on a complete lock down meaning guards were posted everywhere around the walls and gates of the city built into the side of a mountain, everyone in their houses or public shelters and the Royal Guard sweeping every road, every plaza, every house for any signs of the perpetrators. It was nearly impossible to escape as they had the Skyborn Guard patrolling the airspace, Mages guarding and casting spells at the gates and the Earth Guard sweeping the streets. 

“What the hell do we do now?!” Aurora practically shouted, pushing the two guys into an alleyway as a squad of Earth Dwellers passed by with spears in hand. 

“I ‘ave someone waiting for us.” The flame head simply replied as he lead her deeper into the alleyway. He lead her down the back road and down to what looked like a hole in the mountain. As they approached the hole, someone walked out of the hole in the same attire as the other two except they were wearing a hood. 

“Songbird quit hiding’ yer face.” He ordered, shrugging off the unconscious Ace onto the dirt street. 

From what Aurora could see, the person or Skyborn more specifically was rather small, measuring up to about the flame heads’ chin if that. She had average size warm purple wings for her height and from what she could see from under the hood, bouncy black hair with streaks of what looked like pink and purple running through it. The other thing she noticed was the fact that she was incredibly skinny, even for someone of her stature. 

“Songbird?” She looked up at the flame head questionably. 

“That’s me!” The female Skyborn shouted back, jumping up in the air which inadvertently caused her hood to fall off her head to reveal a set of onyx black eyes. 

“Wow…” She muttered. Even in Equestria black eyes were one of the more rare colours. 

“Can we get goin’ already?” Flamehead groaned in utter boredom.

“Yep!” Songbird chirped, her wings fluttering slightly as she turned around to re-enter the cave. 

“I swear…” Flamehead muttered as Aurora helped him carry Ace into the partially hidden cave. 

The group moved through the long and eery cave, the light dimming with every step they took. They walked down the narrow and curving path until the point where they could no longer walk as it was too dark to see anything. 

“Songbird.” The Flamehead simply stated to the said girl leading the group down path. 

Suddenly a bright burst of light illuminated the cave before dimming down to a non-blinding brightness. Aurora looked forward to see the ‘Songbird’ carrying a gas powered lantern in front of her. 

"Ok, what are your actual names?" She asked, getting fed up of the nicknames. 

"As if I'm gonna tell ya." The flame head snorted. 

"Well I can't keep calling you 'flamehead'." She tried to argue. 

Sighing, he nodded. “Ember.” 

“And I’m Astral!” Songbird chimed in as she did a flip to accentuate her her reveal. 

Aurora simply nodded, repeating the names in her head to make sure she remembered them. She had a bad habit of forgetting names and she really didn’t want to forget their names as she would most likely need them at some point in the not to distant future. 

Soon the group neared the end of the cave as flight slowly started to flood the cave again. The group collectively shivered as a cold fog encased them. Just because it was getting lighter, it didn’t mean it was getting warmer by any extent. Astral had put out her lantern before hiding it somewhere whilst Aurora wrapped her jacket around her torso as tightly as possible. She was wearing clothing suited for Canterlot’s sunny and warm whether unlike wherever they were heading to. 

“Prepare yerself greyscale. Where we’re goin’ ain’t no paradise.” Said Ember as he hoisted Ace up again for the umpteenth time. 

“Where are we going?” She asked back. 

“We’re heading to the Everfree but we’re cuttin’ through the Canterlot mountain first to get a train to Ponyville.” Ember explained as the group came out of the end of the cave to see a complete white out of a mountain. 

Where they had come out on was toward the base of the mountain itself but the mountain had been scheduled for a blizzard around the east side and now they were at the start of the blizzard. They had two options to get down the mountain; either fly down or scale down. As Ace was too injured and unconscious to fly and Aurora didn’t exactly have wings, their only option now was to scale down the ice covered terrain in the middle of a blizzard unless they found a small cave or hole to hide in to wait out the storm. 

“What now?!” Aurora shouted over the hail and snow slamming into them. 

“We climb down!” Ember shouted back as the two Shadowbolts slipped their goggles back on. “Songbird take Ace!” 

Astral saluted dramatically as the two Shadowbolts carefully exchanged the unconscious man from one holder to the other. 

“Songbird is gonna fly Ace down whilst we climb!” Ember explained further to the confused woman. 

“Can’t you just fly us?” Aurora asked in hopes of not having to scale down what would be her certain death. 

“Scaling down mountains in a white out ain’t exactly my strong suit ok?!” He shouted back as he rummaged through a bank of snow at the mouth of the cave for something. She'd noticed that the whole time they'd been out on the ledge, Ember had his wings around him as if he were trying to warm himself up or protect himself from the wind and sleet. After a few moments he found what he was looking for which turned out to be a backpack with what looked like climbing gear and a glint of a weapon. 

He chucked a harness and a rope over to her as he started putting his own on. She looked over to Astral to see her hugging Ace tightly as she slowly lowered him down using the full extent of her wing power to make sure they were slowly lowered down even though the gale force winds were slamming into them. She looked back down at the harness in her slowly numbing hands, wondering how the hell she was meant to put it on. 

“COME ON GREYSCALE!!” Ember roared, his harness already tightly fastened. 

“I don’t know how to put it on!” The wind was now not only slamming into her but now she was slowly starting to freeze over. 

Ember groaned in annoyance as he quickly walked over to her, snatching the harness from her. He told her how to do it and a few minutes later, they were both in harnesses and ready to scale down the mountain face. 

The two made make shift anchors at the mouth of the cave, using heavy rocks to support their weight on the way down. They stood at the edge of the ledge, teetering over what seemed like an abyss. 

It was truely scary and horrifying for Aurora to even think about leaning backward to abseil down. The highest she'd ever been was in a tower in Canterlot on a field trip and she'd absolutely freaked out when they'd taken the group out onto the balcony. Now she was on the verge of breaking down. She was not ready for this at all. 

"I can't!" She shouted as Ember was leaning back. 

"Bloody hell." He muttered as he flared out wings before forcing them down as fast as he could to force him back upright. "Why not?!" He furthered, taking a step toward her. 

"I hate heights!" She admitted as she brushed her now icy hair out of her face. 

"Ya think I give a damn that ya hate heights?! I could leave ya on this damned mountain and let the guards get ya but I ain't gonna do that this time! Now scale down this damn mountain or I'll drop ya down it!" He barked, pointing over the edge. 

Nodding without another word, she tightened the straps of her bag as she inched closer to the edge. She looked over to see Ember leaning backward, his wings spread out to help keep him stable as he lowered himself into a near horizontal position. Doing the same, she lowered herself into the position without the help of wings. 

She could feel her heart beating faster and faster with each shaky step she took down the almost vertical mountain face. As she descended there were a few times where she'd misplaced her footing or slipped on ice which had resulted in some nasty cuts and bruises on her arms and legs. What made it worse was the fact that she was wearing light and thin clothing with the exception of her jacket as boots. Not clothes suited for mountains at all. 

Ember on the other hand had clothes on suited for just about any climate. The Shadowbolts had made sure to design a uniform for not just one area or climate. Though he was almost overheating thanks to his outfit, he wasn't fond of the freezing cold temperatures or the blizzard. He'd much prefer to be somewhere hot like Sydneigh or Hearth but no. Instead he was freezing his wings off as they were still spread out for stability. 

He looked down to see that they were about a third of the way down compared to Astral being almost double the distance down. 

"Come on!" He shouted to Aurora as he picked up his pace. 

Aurora simply moved closer to the mountain as a large gust of wind almost knocked her off her feet. Her hands were almost frozen over now along with her joints as the blizzard intensified by the minute. 

It was a very slow and painful process for both of them as neither liked the cold or scaling down mountains but they eventually neared to the ground where the storm was less intense, allowing them to thaw a little. 

"Just a little more!" Aurora repeated to herself as she finally felt one foot touch something flat and horizontal. She looked down to finally see the ground underneath her. 

"Congrats greyscale. I thought ya were gonna cap it about five feet down." Ember smirked, taking off his harness to put it back in the bag. 

"Yeah. No thanks to you." She glared back, taking her own harness off with some difficulty. 

"What? I told ya what ta do and ya did it." He shrugged. 

"No you yelled at me." 

"I did not!" He exclaimed, his voice going a few octaves higher. 

"Yes you did!" 

"No I didn't!" 

"Yes!" 

"No!" 

"Yes!" 

"Guys!" Astral cut in, dragging Ace over to them. "We need to get going!" She pointed to the blizzard. 

Ember nodded, shutting up as he took Ace from Astral who took the lead to navigate through the storm. 

The group trekked through the ice covered rocky terrain, slipping every once in a while whilst crossing over a patch of black ice. Aurora still didn't know why they couldn't just fly out of the mountains but the more she studied the group in front of her, the more she noticed Ember shivering as his wings were firmly wrapped around himself and Ace, probably trying to keep both of them warm at the very least. 

She tried to fiddle with her jacket sleeves to pull them down but it was a pointless task as her fingers were just about frozen anyway. All she could do was to wrap her arms around her chest and hope for the best. 

Astral on the other hand was perfectly content with the snow compared to he rest of her group who were slowly turning into blocks of ice. She was mainly avoiding the ice but here was a slip up here or there but that was mainly due to something distracting her. 

Soon they reached the exit of the mountains as the blizzard had turned back into a white out and was slowly turning into nothing more than light snow fall. 

"Over there!" A voice boomed, stoping the group in their tracks. 

They looked up to see a squadron of Skyborn guards heading toward them with what looked like either tridents or spears. 

"Ahh shit." Ember groaned. 

"Time to go!" Astral added, prompting the group to leave.

The group started running down the steep decent to the trees surrounding the mountains as Astral dug through Embers’ backpack until she pulled out a handgun type weapon coloured back with pink and purple accents to probably match her hair. She started firing at the guards who quickly scrambled in different directions to avoid the barrage of bullets aimed at them. 

"How'd they find us?!" Ember exclaimed as he jumped over a boulder despite the extra body weight next to him. 

"They're patrolling all over the mountains! You kinda made an accidental threat to the capital of Equestria, how wouldn’t they find us!" Astral retorted as she reloaded the clip of her gun.

“They crashed into a fountain! How is that a national threat?!” Aurora asked, ducking under a tree branch. 

“We’re Shadowbolts! If we even sneezed at the gate to the city, it’d be an international crime at the highest level!” Astral answered, dodging a spear aimed at her head. 

“What did you do to have something like that happen?”

“Wouldn’t ya like ta know.” Ember chimed in. 

“Yes I would!” 

“That’s a story for another time.” Astral concluded. “Watch out!” She pushed Ember to the side to avoid a second spear. 

“Stop! In the name of Celestia we command you to stop!” One of the guards shouted as the group neared the forrest. 

“What about Luna?!” Astral fired back, flaring her wings out before pushing them down as fast as she could to get airborne. “What about in the name of Luna?!” She asked, pulling out a second gun from seemingly nowhere. 

“Great. She ain’t gonna shut up about this for a while.” Ember sighed as they crossed the last fifty or so feet to the forrest. 

Astral sped toward the guards, unloading the clips at them. “Luna is your Princess too!” 

“We are Princess Celestia’s guard! Princess Luna has her own!” The second guard rebutted, charging at Astral whilst doing his best to weave around the oncoming bullets. 

“The Royal Guard has been loyal to no single Princess for centuries! You are merely a corrupt shadow!” Astral belted out as she shot the guard in the leg and shoulder, making him falter to the ground. 

Next, she aimed for the one of the two guards who were collecting their spears they’d thrown. “Tell Tartarus I said hello.” And with that she shot one of the guys in the head whilst spinning around with her leg extended to kick a guard flying down at her from above in the stomach. 

“Holy shit!” Aurora gasped, one of her hands covering her mouth as she tried not to throw up from seeing blood flying everywhere from the now dead guard. “She killed a guard!” 

“Welcome to real life greyscale! That would be you if she didn’t kill ‘Im.” Ember simply replied as the two stopped to wait for the now rage induced Skyborn. 

“I didn’t think she’d actually kill him!” She had to resist the urge to throw up right then and there. 

“The loserbolts would’ve done the exact same thing. They don’ care about sendin’ us to prison. All they care about is putting a bullet in the head of every single one of us. It’s kill or be killed out ‘ere greyscale, whether ya like it or not.” Ember calmly explained as he watched Astral take down the squadron of guards. 

“But I’m not even a Shadowbolt!” She was almost at a loss for words at this point. 

“As far as they care, ya are. So shut the hell up about it. We kill them, they kill us. It’s as simple as that.” 

Astral soon joined the trio again, various parts of her uniform covered in blood. Not her blood, though the guards had tried. Whilst being taken down of course.

Ember and Aurora simply stared at her. Both wearing completely opposite expressions. Whilst Aurora was completely shocked, Ember was grinning widely.  

Astral smiled innocently as she tucked her guns away, ”Come on ladies. Let’s go home.” And with that, she walked forward into the woods as if nothing had happened. 
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3

Night quickly fell over Equestria as the highly-wanted group travelled through the forest to try and reach the railway unnoticed. The only reason as to why the group were travelling through the forest at all was because of the shear danger forests in Equestria posed to everyone. Most forests were packed full of dangerous beasts from the smallest fire spiders to huge Manticore. There were only a handful of forests that weren’t deadly anyone but unfortunately the forests surrounding the Canterlot mountains weren’t one of them. 

“Songbird!” 

“On it!” 

Ember dropped Ace to the ground, running straight at the Manticore, ducking to the ground to slide under one of the giant clawed paws and under the stomach as Astral whipped out a black with purple edged automatic pistol, firing a barrage at the Manticore causing it to reel back in pain. 

As Astral and Ember dealt with the beast, Aurora was left with the task of dragging Ace behind a bush or a big rock to keep him from sustaining any further injuries, if he could that was. She wasn’t quite sure that he was even still alive but she had been assured by Ember that she’d know if he wasn’t. Whatever that meant. She sat next to Ace, making sure all of his limbs were behind the huge oak tree she’d found in an attempt to hide from the huge beast. 

“Attack it from the left! I got the right!” Ember shouted more commands to Astral who simply nodded as a big smile was plastered on her face. She enjoyed taking on huge beasts as they gave her a challenge unlike the Royal Guard. 

Ember forced his wings out and down as he flipped over the Manticore to do as he had commanded just a few seconds ago. Once over the beast, he took a few steps back to catch his breath and regain his lost strength from the past few hours that had been filled with fighting beasts just like this. It had been a tedious and physically demanding task to say the least. 

From the backpack he was carrying, he pulled out a pair of daggers before charging at the beast which was currently focused on attacking Astral instead of him, giving him the upper hand. He smirked when he saw Astral switching out her pistol for something larger and deadlier. As soon as he saw an opening on the Manticore, he jumped up and down one of the arms of the beast, dragging his daggers down the bristly, coarse fur before flipping off the beast as it tried to swing at him when it realised what he was doing. He immediately ducked under another swing from a huge paw, catching a glimpse of the damage he’d done to it. He’d left two very long and deep cuts down most of the things’ arm that was now covered in a dark red liquid. 

“Ember take cover! Imma kill this thing!” Astral commanded this time with no complaint from the fiery haired Skyborn. He hid behind the tree next to Aurora and Aces’ as he heard several loud shots ring through out the forest then a loud thump and a high pitched laugh.  

He slowly looked around the tree to see Astral standing on the Manticore with her famed black, pink and purple duel shotguns in both hands. One shotgun was completely black with parts like the ball fences and the trigger painted pink whilst the other was the exact same, only the parts painted a different colour were purple. 

“What took ya so long?” He asked mockingly, crossing his arms as he walked out into the small clearing the Manticore had created in its’ destructive path toward them. 

“You were hiding behind a tree whilst I had to take this beast on all by myself!” Astral snapped back, looking and sounding offended by the flame heads’ question. 

“Ah knock it off songbird.” Ember laughed as he tapped the beasts’ head to make sure it was dead or at least knocked out. “Ya told me ta hide.” 

“Because you were gonna kill this with a pair of daggers and a bad temper.” She laughed back as she hopped off the Manticore, her shotguns already gone from her hands. 

“I could’ve.” He huffed, watching Aurora drag Ace’s body from behind the tree with great difficulty. 

“And she can carry Ace with her pinkie finger.” She pointed his thumb over to the aforementioned woman.

Their argument went back and forth as Ember walked over to Aurora, taking Ace from her and hoisting him back on to his back much to his screaming muscles annoyance. 

“It’s getting dark.” Said Aurora as she looked up at the quickly darkening skies through the thin canopy of trees. 

“Great observation skills greyscale.” Ember rolled his eyes as the group started walking toward the train station one more. 

“We need to stop somewhere. The forests only get more dangerous at night.” She tried to reason with him. 

“And what would ya know about the forests around ‘ere? Yer nothing more than a poor city Earth Dweller. I bet ya never even seen one of those things before today.” He snorted, walking faster than before. 

“I know that the amount of those ‘things’ you’ve been killing for the past few hours will only double as soon as the sun goes down.” She desperately wanted to correct him about his bold statement about her race but decided against it. 

“She’s right.” Astral added, chiming into the conversation. “We either run to the train station or camp in that cave over there for the night.” She pointed to a cave a little to the left of them. 

“How did you manage to see that? It’s barely visible out here now.” Aurora questioned the smaller Skyborn in slight disbelief. 

“I noticed that it was the Manticore’s home just before it attacked us.” She shrugged. 

“What if there are more of ‘em? What happens then Songbird?” Ember rebutted. 

“They would’ve attacked by now.” She replied with little to no emotion behind her voice.

“I’m pretty sure the Manticore are very territorial.” Aurora added much to the Flame heads’ annoyance.

Both Astral and Aurora fist bumped as they saw Ember visibly sigh in annoyance and nod slightly. 

“Fine. We’ll camp in it then.” He turned to face the cave sharply. “But we leave at dawn. Any later, we’ll get caught.”

Aurora and Astral both happily followed Ember into the cave, sitting down in the largest part as Ember dumped Ace next to them before disappearing outside to get wood for a fire. The two settled their bags down next to Ace and set about doing their own things; Aurora getting her book out of her bag, Astral checking Ace to make sure he was still alive. 

The cave they were in was fairly small, just big enough for two or three manticores with jagged rocks dotted around the uneven, dusty floor from years of being trampled on by giant creatures and beasts alike. The ceiling had a few baby stalactites dotted around near the entrance where the rain from many storms had dared to enter. Where Astral and Aurora were sitting was the most open part of the small cave toward the back where several large scratches adorned the walls along with couple of large stones jutting out next to them, giving them some cover from the entrance to the cave if they were spotted. 

“Whatcha reading?” The smaller Skyborn asked, peering over as she checked Aces’ head for injuries. 

“Wing repairs and replacements.” Aurora stated, showing her the cover. 

“But you’re an Earth Dweller, why are you reading something for my race?” She asked further, moving down to his neck. 

Aurora said nothing but simply looked away, closing her book as she’d started to feel very uncomfortable in the cave which’d started to feel a lot smaller than she’d originally thought it was. 

“Wait! You’re a-“ Astral started but was cut off by a simple nod from her. 

“She’s a what?” Ember asked, walking over to them with a pile of logs and sticks in his arms. 

“Nothing!” The smaller Shadowbolt sang, moving to Aces’ torso. 

“Suuuuuure.” He rolled his eyes, dumping the pile of logs just in front of the women, moving various pieces around to make a better campfire. 

“It’s true.” Aurora nodded. “I’m nothing more than an Earth Dweller reading another races’ book.” She lied, hoping he’d believe it. 
 
"Why bother readin' it when ya could use it for a fire starter." He flashed her an evil grin, shifting closer to her which made her hug the book to her chest in defence. 

“Don’t you dare.” She glared back at him, shuffling back to the wall of the cave. 

“Oh I do.” He stood up, taking a step toward her. 

“Ember!” Astral shouted, chucking a pebble at his head. “Don’t scare… umm…” She trailed off, not knowing Aurora’s name. 

“Aurora.”

“Yeah! Don’t scare Aurora!” 

“I wouldn’t dream of it Songbird.” Ember turned his head to the small Shadowbolt, flashing her a less threatening smile than the one he’d given to Aurora. 

A moment later, Ember sat back down in front of the pile of sticks resembling a campfire, going about starting it. He grabbed a small device from his backpack then clicked what looked like two pieces of metal together. Sparks started to go flying a few moments after he’d started with the metal pieces, which he aimed toward the kindling at the bottom of the campfire in an attempt to start the fire that would keep them warm through the night.


______________________________________several hours later______________________________________


Almost everyone in the cave was asleep, trying to get as much rest as possible for the next leg of the journey to the Everfree Forest. Ember had refused to go to sleep, claiming he didn’t need it and had promptly left the group alone to keep watch at the entrance of the cave for any creatures or the Royal Guard. Astral, on the other hand, had promptly fallen asleep next to Ace once Ember was gone, leaving Aurora to her thoughts.

Aurora grabbed her bag with the intent of using it as a pillow. She placed it down at the wall of the cave before resting her head on it, trying to get comfortable even with the objects in the said bag. Once she had found a remotely comfortable position to fall asleep in, she closed her eyes, trying to get as much sleep as possible. 

She concentrated on the noises around her, the dripping coming from the entrance every few seconds, the very quiet and vague roar of one of the beasts in the distance, the very light snore the smaller Skyborn made a few feet away from her. All of the sounds slowly added up to a very peaceful evening even though most likely half of the Royal Guard was out searching for them and she still didn’t know as to why they were after them in the first place. Sure, Ace had defaced public property by smashing a fountain in the uppermost plaza which, in itself was a crime punishable by imprisonment as it was the upper, elite plaza but she didn’t know what Ember had done to piss off the Royal Guards so badly and she would never likely get the answer either. 

She turned over, repositioning herself into a more relaxed position which was near impossible on the uneven, freezing stone floor. She glanced over to Astral who was literally asleep on Ace, sprawled out over his torso which was easily two thirds of her height. She had to wonder how she managed to just fall asleep so quickly and in such a weird position in a freezing cave and on another person at that. The fire was next to them but she couldn’t feel the warmth coming from the embers at all so the small Skyborn must be at least a bit cold. 

“Greyscale, go ta sleep.” Ember grunted in her direction from the entrance of the cave, sounding mildly annoyed. 

“Easy for you to say…” She muttered, turning onto her back, looking up at the stalactites looming over her. 

“Well it ain’t my fault if ya can’t get ta sleep.” The flamehead shrugged. 

“Yeah it kinda is.” She sighed, sitting up, giving up in attempting to sleep. 

“How is it my fault?” He asked, turning to face her from several feet away. 

“Oh, I don’t know, how about what went down with The Wonderbolts only a few hours ago?” She offered an answer, rolling her eyes in his general direction as she brushed her long, wavy fringe behind her ear. 

“I don’t see how that’s my fault.” He flashed her a smirk, glancing behind him to make sure nothing was coming. 

“If you had just helped me with that little girl instead of being an ignorant ass, I wouldn’t have been caught up in your mess.” She glared at him, clenching her fists in annoyance. 

“What were ya even doin’ there anyway? Ya couldn’t’ve been there just for a stupid book.” He asked, wondering what she was doing there. 

“I was just there for a book.” She affirmed. 

“Must’ve been a pretty bloody special book then.” He rolled his eyes back at her. 

“You could say that.” She muttered once more, looking away. 

“What?” 

“Nothing.” 

“Whatever.” 

The cave turned back to silence, well as silent as it could get with Astral snoring next to Aurora. 

She sat back against the wall of the cave, moving her bag next to her as her gaze wandered to the entrance, watching the nightlife of the forest as she saw no point in going to sleep anymore as they would only be up and moving in an hour or so. She occasionally glanced toward Ember who was hunched over, looking out into the forest, moving his head slightly as his eyes presumably darted around, scanning the area for any signs of anything, his large, dark grey wings twitching every so often as if he wanted to jump up and start flying around. 

She mainly focused on the forest just as he was by listening to the sounds all around them. The beasts from earlier had seemed to calm down to the point where they could no longer hear them roaring at all. There was the faintest sound of someone shouting something but it sounded far off in the distance so that wasn’t really anything to worry about. Nothing seemed to be happening which was good news for the two of them as they didn’t have to start spontaneously running or flying with the giant on one of their backs. 

“Hey Ember?” She found herself asking out of sheer boredom. 

“What?” He asked back, not even turning to look at her this time. 

“Where are you from?” She furthered up her questioning as she’d been slightly intrigued by his accent since she’d first heard it. 

“Sydneigh. Why?” He replied flatly. 

“Just wondering.” She shrugged, going back to silence. 

“It’s my accent, isn’t it?” Now it was his turn to ask the questions. 

“Yeah.” She nodded. “I haven’t heard anyone with your accent before.” 

“I wouldn’t expect ya to.” He let out a sad smirk. “People where I come from don’t generally come over ‘ere. The distance is too far.” 

“Makes sense.” She nodded once more. “But you didn’t just live in Sydneigh right?”

“No, I lived in the lower part of Cloudsdale for a long while.” He shook his head. “Where are ya from? Ya definitely don’t come from Equestria either.”

“I’m from a smallish town near Luna Bay up north. Well it’s in the Crystal Empire but on the outer edge, kinda.” She tried to explain, almost tumbling over her words. 

“I know the area.” He nodded, turning back around to face her once more, resting his forearms on his knees in the process. “They have those huge trees with all them sharp needle thingies, right?” 

“That’s the place.” She nodded, holding back a laugh as he didn’t know what a pine tree was called. “They’re called pine trees.” She added, making his wings twitch in annoyance.

“I knew that.” He grunted, looking away from her. “I just forgot.” 

“I’m sure.” She challenged, a small smirk making its way onto her lips. 

“You wanna go greyscale?” He asked loudly, rising dramatically to his feet, flaring his wings out just enough to scare her.

“Did you hear something?” 

She rose to her feet, making her way toward the mouth of the cave, completely ignoring the now pissed off Skyborn, moving one of his giant wings to the side to get through. 

“Oi! Don’t ignore me greyscale!” He almost shouted after the Earth Dweller, turning around once more to face her as he retracted his wings back behind his back. 

“Ember, shut up.” She commanded, trying to listen out for the noise again. 

“I think it came from over there!” 

“Don’t tell me to shu-“ 

“We have to go.” She cut him off, rushing back over to her bag.

“No. We don’t.” He stated, crossing his arms firmly over his chest. 

“The Royal Guard are coming. They found us.” She retorted, unzipping her bag, checking everything was still in there then zipped it up once more before swinging it over her shoulders and chest. 

“No they ain’t.” He shook his head, thinking she was just hearing voices in her head. 

“then listen!” She hissed, pointing back to the mouth of the cave. 

“Fine.” He threw his hands in the air, stomping over to the entrance. 

“Tell the commander we found them!”

“Shit.” He breathed, abruptly turning to Astral and Ace upon hearing the voices Aurora was talking about. “Songbird, rise and shine, we’re goin’.” He ordered to the sleeping Shadowbolt.

Astral abruptly opened her eyes, jumping to her feet as if she’d been awake the entire time. “What’s up?” She asked, straightening out her baggy pants before going about lifting Ace up. 

“Royal Guard found us. We gotta go. Now.” He replied, quickly walking over to the smaller Skyborn, taking Ace from her by hoisting him up onto his back, immediately bending forward slightly from the sudden extra amount of weight dumped on him. 

“Are you certain?” She asked as she started kicking any dirt she could onto the small fire, extinguishing the only light source in the room. 

“Yeah.” He nodded, almost running over to the entrance where Aurora was waiting for the two, keeping a look out for any Guards flying or walking by. 

“Alright.” She nodded, fluttering over to the two, debating whether or not to pull out a weapon and which one she would use. 

“We clear?” Ember asked, pulling Ace further over his shoulders to keep him from falling. 

“Wait…” Aurora held her hand out in front of the two Shadowbolts, listening out for any murmur or shout or anything she could associate with the Guard. Hearing nothing, she lowered her hand then nodded, “Go.” 

And with that, the group sprinted out of the cave with Ember in front carrying Ace over his shoulders, Aurora behind him making sure that if Ace fell she would pick him up and Astral at the back, ready to strike back against the Guard if they tried to attack them. Ember was already panting by the they reached the first few trees surrounding the small clearing around the cave. Ace was heavy enough to carry as it was but his muscles were already screaming for him to stop as he was already shaking but he simply pushed through the pain knowing that it was either stop and get arrested or endure the pain and get to the train station. 


______________________________________________________________________________________________


“Captain?” Charger asked, walking up to Nightshade who had her back to him as she looked out of the large and foggy windows positioned behind her desk in her large office. He noticed her spindle blue wings twitching every few seconds meaning she was deep in thought over some issue that was plaguing her mind. 

“What is it Charger?” The tall Skyborn asked, raising a thin eyebrow as she slowly turned to the taller, older Shadowbolt who had a single paper file in his gloved hands. 

“The report on the Canterlot incident.” He stated, handing over the file before turning to leave the room to leave the Captain to her thoughts once more. 

“Wait.” She stopped him, opening the thin file. “What is the status of Team Chrome?” She asked, flipping through the few boring pages making up the report. 

“As far as we know, the team has entered the Canterlot Forest. Chrome was last seen carrying Ace, who has been presumed unconscious or dead. Song was identified with them.” He informed, running a hand through his rough, Jagged Ice coloured fauxhawk. 

“Anything else?” 

“Yes. A female Earth Dweller was spotted to be travelling and co-operating with them. We don’t know who she is but she was seen to be getting involved in the Canterlot Plaza incident.” 

“A possible recruit?” She asked, the possibility of a new recruit peeking her interest. 

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “She did defy the Wonderbolts by, well… kicking Soarin Skies in the balls and she is now wanted as well but I personally don’t think so.” 

“Fine.” She sighed, closing the file before standing at her full height, “Find out Team Chromes’ location. Find Stratus and send him to retrieve the team. I want them back here as soon as possible, I want to know what exactly happened and why they failed such a simple task.” She ordered. “Oh, and prepare a coffin if Ace is, in fact dead.” 

“Yes Captain.” Charger saluted then turned around sharply before quickly walking out of the large office, closing the door quietly behind him. 

He let out a sigh of relief as he turned to the left, walking down the quiet hallway. Even though Nightshade was his team leader, it didn’t make it any easier to give her reports on situations as she was prone to changing moods in the blink of an eye. His team would always play different games to decide who would deliver the reports and this time he’d drawn the short straw thanks to Blueballs’ antics. 

As he neared the end of the hallway, he spotted Arctic Edge and Impact walking past him, quietly discussing something he couldn’t quite hear. “Edge, Impact!” He called out to the two ‘Bolts, making both of them jump, their wings flaring out by accident. 

“Sweet Luna.” Impact breathed, tucking his wings behind his back when he realised it was Charger who’d scared them. 

“Watch your language.” He glared at the smaller Skyborn. 

“Sorry Sir.” Both ‘Bolts stood at attention, saluting him. 

“At ease.” He breathed. “Now, have either one of you seen Stratus recently?” He asked, watching in slight amusement as the two men slowly lowered their arms, relaxing slightly as they were still scared of their superior. 

“I t-think he was in the Mess Hall last S-Sir.” Edge answered shakily. 

“Of course he is…” Charger muttered. “Go and find him and tell him to come to the Operations Centre immediately, it’s urgent.” He commanded just as Nightshade did. 

“Yes Sir.” The two nodded, saluting once more. 

“Good. Dismissed.” He nodded to the two, letting them rush off in the direction they’d come from before heading in the opposite direction to the O.C, hoping to find Team Arrow and Team Shade still working there. He didn’t know why Nightshade wanted them back ASAP but he wasn’t about to question her orders, he would leave that to Stratus when he found the Second in Command. He flared out his wings, bent his knees slightly then forced his wings down as he launched himself forward, making him shoot off toward the O.C as a loud ‘whoooomf’ echoed throughout the corridors thanks to his powerful, regent grey wings propelling him forward. 

“Let’s do this.” He smirked, landing outside the O.C a moment later.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4

Walking into the expansive but dark Operations Centre, Stratus looked around for his teammate, ready to kill the Skyborn for interrupting his lunch. “Charger! Where are you hiding?!” He shouted to the seemingly quiet centre.

“Who said I was hiding?” Charger grinned, walking over to his superior with two mugs of coffee in his hands. “I was just getting your coffee.” He held out the charcoal black mug to the pale ‘Bolt.

“Whatever.” He grumbled, accepting the godly liquid. “Now, what the Tartarus did you want from me? I was enjoying my lunch.” He followed up, taking a huge gulp of the steaming substance.

“Team Chrome messed up their latest assignment.” He replied gloomily, leading the Second in Command over to the centre, large and circular, deep mahogany table in the middle of the room where the Teams Arrow and Shade were working vigorously at countless maps, jotting down various coordinates to try and pin down Team Chromes’ possible location. “And now, we’re trying to find out where they are so you can go and get them.” He gestured to the table covered in paper after and countless empty coffee mugs.

“Who said anything about me going to get that mess of a team?!” Stratus almost spit took, earning several glares from the two teams.

“Nightshade did.”

“Motherbucker…” He hissed. “Why me? Chrome and Song are your problem, not mine.” He pointed at him, his glare getting harsher by the moment.

“I know they are but do you really expect me to argue with Nightshade? She’s scary enough even on a good day.” Charger argued back, walking over a small Nightborn by the name of Cocoa.

“Fine.” He sighed in defeat. As much as he was used to going up against their Captain, he didn’t feel like arguing during his lunch break. “But I’m not making any promises that I’m bringing their arses back alive.”

“Wouldn’t expect any less.” Charger grinned. “Now, where are we on finding Team Chrome?” He asked to the two slightly scared teams.

“With the information we’ve got, we’ve made the assumption that they’re heading to the train station at the edge of the Canterlot forest.” Starry Dusk from Team Shade started.

“From there, we believe they’re going to go to Ponyville where they’ll continue on by foot through to the Everfree.” Red Shade continued.

“And where do I pick the shits up?” Stratus butted in, crossing his arms over his chest.

“…We haven’t figured that out yet, sir.” Dusk replied hesitantly, scared that the Second in Command would explode into anger at any moment.

“Well figure it out!” Stratus shouted, slamming his hands down on the circular table. “I’m not going to pick up a team of useless shits blind!”

“Hey, calm down Stratus.” Charger shook his head, resting his arms on the table. “Even with Mages who specialise in locations,” He gestured to the four Mages. “It’s hard to find a team of Skyborn and an Earth Dweller when they have different magical signatures.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Stratus shook his head, slamming his fist on the table once more. “I’m picking up an Earth Dweller?!”

“Yeah.” Charger nodded, a grin making its way back onto his face. “Your picking up an Earth Dweller.”

“Bucking hell!” Stratus yelled, running a hand through his hair. “I am going to Nightshade about this! And your head is gonna be rolling!” He threatened to Stratus before storming out of the centre, his hawkes blue wings flaring out dramatically to accentuate his point.

The room was left silent for a few moments after the Second in Command left until Charger broke out laughing. “I win.” He managed between laughs as he extended his hand out to Spark from Team Arrow who simply groaned and handed over four gold bits.

“How the Luna did you know he’d storm out so quickly?” She asked, glaring at her team who’d started laughing.

“Because I’m amazing.” He smirked at her, grabbing his coffee before taking a sip. “Now, let’s find Team Chrome before Nightshade has our asses on a silver plate.”

“Yes Sir.” Everyone nodded, the Mages’ hands lighting up in a rainbow of hues as the Skyborn started plotting on various maps, trying to get the general direction of where the team was heading.

Meanwhile, Stratus zoomed out of the O.C and down to Nightshades’ office where Charger had just been a half hour ago.

“Nightshade!” He shouted, barging into the room.

“Stratus.” Nightshade nodded, completely unfazed by the Shadowbolts’ explosive anger.

“Why the bucking hell am I picking up an Earth Dweller?!” He demanded to know, slamming his hands down on her wooden desk.

“Because I said so.” She stated. She didn’t even bother to look up from the document she was working on.

“Don’t play games with me! You know I hate Earth Dwellers!” He snapped, slamming his fists on the desk once more to try and get her full attention.

“Well it’s about time you learnt to accept them because whether you like it or not, you are collecting the team and the Earth Dweller and bringing them back to the base.” She explained calmly, furrowing her brows at the document where she’d come to an issue with it.

“I won’t do it.” Stratus shook his head, pushing himself away from his desk, his wings rustling loudly as he tried to contain the last drop of his anger as well as he could.

“Is that so?” She raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“Yes Nightshade, I will get the arse wipe of a team but I refuse to get an Earth Dweller. Send some other shit to get them, because I’m not.” He spat. He would not retrieve an Earth Dweller, he down right refused.

“You will retrieve the Earth Dweller Stratus.” She put her pen down and slowly glared up at him.

“No I-“ He was cut off by Nightshade flinging her fountain pen straight at his head, narrowly missing the right side of his cheek as it sped past him and embedded itself in the dense, deep grey cloud wall. He slowly turned to the fountain pen embedded in the wall then back to his Captain who had a bemused smirk playing on her lips as she reclined back in her dark purple, leather chair.

“What will you do?” She asked calmly. Too calmly for his liking.

“Retrieve the Earth Dweller.” He replied in defeat, knowing he would never win the argument no matter how much he screamed or yelled.

“Good, now go.” She dismissed him with a shoo of her fingers. She picked up a second fountain pen and started to write on the document once more.

“Yes ‘Captain’.” He rolled his eyes as he turned to leave the office as quickly as possible.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” He gulped, mentally slapping himself.

“Good.”

Stratus stormed back out of the room just as he’d entered but less angry rather, more frightened if anything. Nightshade sure knew how to be scary when she needed to be and no one dared anger her even more when she was already angry. Though everyone else feared him on the base, his Captain was the only one who he feared. He would never admit it to anyone but it was true.

“Can it be? Is Stratus scared?”

Starry Skies.

Stratus snapped his head around to see the tall and slender Starry Skies walking over to him, her high heeled boots clacking on the marbled floor as she gracefully strode forward. His mouth contorted into a twitching thin line as his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of his team mate. She adorned her usual ‘uniform’ of skin tight leggings and a long but form-fitting coat that flowed from the hips downward. In his eyes, her uniform was a disgrace to the Shadowbolts as her clothes were made from a different material entirely that was softer, cosier and accentuating than the regular uniforms. Yes, they were the right colours and matched everyone else’s uniforms but she’d altered hers’ to the point where it looked more fashionable than practical.

“Starry.” He growled a form of greeting. He crossed one arm over his tattoo’d arm and planted his feet firmly to the ground.

“Stratus.” She returned the greeting with condescending tone and smile.

“What the Tartarus do you want?” He asked, watching her start to slink around him, judging him from every angle though she was just shorter than him even with her high heels.

“Oh, there are many things I could want in this world but right now, I’m wondering how your ‘meeting’ with our illustrious Captain went.” Her voice was calm and calculated as if she were planning out their conversation three sentences ahead.

“As if I’d tell you.” He snapped, trying to bat her warm purple wings away from him. She’d started brushing her glimmering primary wings over him whilst she circled around him and he didn’t like it one bit.

“You know I will eventually get the information I want anyway so you might as well save me the time and just give me what I want now.” She cooed, making it a point to brush her seemingly gold shimmering feathers over his tattooed upper left arm.

“Then you’ll be looking for the information for a long time Skies.” He stood his ground, forcefully pushing her away from him with his much larger wings.

“You’re no fun.” She sighed. She stopped in front of him and simply stared into his lime green eyes, making his gaze meet hers’. “But alas. What you want to keep private won’t stay private for much longer. I’ll know by dinner.” She shrugged her petite shoulders, her primary feathers brushing under his chin only to aggravate him further.

“How someone hasn’t tried to kill you yet shocks even me.” He spat down at her as he stared straight back at her shallow, royal blue eyes trying to piece his mind.

“People tried. People failed.” She brushed him off, looking away. She pulled away her wings from him.

“Then they need to try harder or I’ll do it myself.” He threatened, visibly clenching his fist in front of her to accentuate his threat. He then stomped past her, shoving her out of the way with his shoulder.

“Is that a threat Stratus?” She raised an eyebrow. She watched him walk away from her with the same bemused smile Nightshade had adorned a few minutes earlier.

“Scared Skies?” His voice rang in the spacious and silent hallway as he marched off back to the O.C to finish planning his retrieval mission.

“Never.” The corners of her mouth curved upward, replacing her bemused smirk with one of a competitive smile she was frequently known to adorn.


_________________________________________________________________


Coming to an abrupt holt, Ember hid himself and Ace behind a large tree in an attempt to hide from the flood of Royal Guards chasing them. He frantically looked around, trying to find his team mate and the Earth Dweller. He watched Astral hop up into a tree with a pistol in each hand whilst Aurora was sprinting ahead to find cover under a large boulder. She was surprisingly fast, he had to give her that.

“Damnit Ace, wake up ya lazy shit.” He grumbled to the sleeping giant on his back. Several guards passed through the trees and past him, seemingly taking no notice of them as they ran and flew with spears clenched tightly in their hands.

“Go to Tartarus!”

He heard Astral behind him along with several muffled gunshots then thuds and branches breaking. He knew exactly what’d happened behind him which gave him a chance to start running forward again, only without the Royal Guard on his ass.

“Greyscale!” He called out as he passed her hiding spot. “We gotta keep movin’!”

“Where is there to move?!” She retorted, springing to her feet.

“Forward! Songbird’s got our arses covered!” He smirked, nodding his head in Astrals’ direction behind them. More gunshots rang through the otherwise quiet forest, making his smirk only grow bigger as he jumped over a low hanging branch.

Aurora nodded as she sprinted to catch up, avoiding rocks, roots and any other foliage that would trip her up. She’d always been light on her feet and now was her chance to put her ‘skills’ to good use. She noticed her ‘companion’ was having trouble keeping up with her speed but she had to give him credit as he was maintaining a pretty decent speed even with another person on his back, crushing his chance at using his wings.

Suddenly a blur shot past them, spiralling like a bullet did in mid-air whilst it barrelled straight forward and into the Guards ahead of them. She then came to a sudden holt by flaring out her wings and dropped to the ground a spit second later, sheathing her purple wings then sprinted forward with a new pistol in her hands. It was a lot larger than the two that’d just been in her hands and was a constant burst fire, making it easier to take out the threats in front of them.

“Oi Songbird!” Ember shouted forward, “Leave some for me!”

“You’re too slow!” She yelled back, leaping upward to a branch with the help of her wings where she pushed forward and off it and into an unsuspecting Guard.

“Yer just too fast!” He tried to pick up his speed to no avail as Ace was a pretty good anchor.

“Why are you arguing with her?” Aurora found herself asking, pivoting over a large root on one hand.

“Who said we were arguing?” He glanced back at her before having to suddenly sidestep out of the way of a large tree directly in front of him. “I didn’t hear no arguing.”

“It sounds like you are.” She shrugged.

“We aren’t!” Astral called back to them, leaping onto another Guard in the process. She pressed the muzzle of her gun against the Guards’ head and pulled the trigger expecting a burst of bullets to pierce his helmet but instead all she got was a click from the barrel. She’d forgotten to change the magazine.

The Guard she was on top of, flipped around and shoved his spear in her direction, clipping her just next to her right deltoid. She fell off of him, holding her shoulder out of agony to try and stop the bleeding as soon as she could manage. She tucked her gun away with her free hand just before she hit the ground with a great ‘THUMP’.

“Songbird! Quit screwin’ around!” Ember barked, catching up to the Shadowbolt with Aurora in tow.

“Fight me Chrome!” She shouted back, barrel rolling out of the way of a dive attack from the Guard. “You don’t have a busted shoulder!”

“Just get on with it!” He ordered gruffly, running straight past her as best as he could manage.

“Ass.” She muttered. She quickly barrel rolled the other way, dodging another attack from the Guard. She didn’t know the best way to deal with the attacker so she simply did what she knew best. Improvise. She kept rolling until she rolled onto her feet then broke out into a run, ducking and jumping over anything she could to confuse the Guard in any which way possible. She pulled a gun from one of the pockets of her baggy pants then fired shot after shot after shot in random directions, hoping to throw off the guys’ sense of where she was or maybe even hit him. Whichever happened first.

To her relief, she shook the Guard off her feathers, allowing her to catch up with Ember and Aurora, though she was displeased with her mistake by allowing the Sun-loving Guard to land a hit on her. She knew that she would never hear the end of it from Ember if they got out of the forest alive, she knew that at least.

“Took ya sweet time.” Ember acknowledged her as she caught up to them. She tucked her gun back into her pocket, the pain proving too much for her to take.

“You didn’t make it any easier.” She grumbled as her hand shot back to her bloody and agonising shoulder, clamping over the wound as tightly as she could tolerate.

“What happened?” Aurora asked, pivoting over another high root with both hands this time from the fatigue of running for so long.

“We may or may not have a Guard still chasing us.” She turned back to see the Guard trying to catch up to them from being distracted for so long.

“Damnit Songbird.” Ember groaned in frustration. He then suddenly dumped Ace on the ground and crouched down allowing him to free his giant, deep grey wings and flare them out to their fullest extent. A dark, demented smile creeped its way onto his face before he took off, directly at the Guard with a long, silver dagger gripped in his right hand.

In a matter of seconds, he intercepted the Guard, plunged the dagger through his chest plate then flipped over the Guard and landed on the ground, letting his wings drape over him as the beautiful sound of metal clashing with rocks rang in his ears. He started to stretch his aching wings as he hastily made his way back over to the group, cleaning his dagger by running over the blade with his thumb and forefinger and flicked the blood off when he got to the tip.

“You looked like you were just showing off, Chrome.” Astral teased. She watched him put away his dagger into his slim backpack before hoisting Ace back onto his back, crushing his huge wings once more.

“I was showin’ ya how ta get the job done.” He shot a glare at his teammate.

“Ruthless.” Aurora breathed, breaking into a run once more.

The group ran through the slowly thinning forest, making it to the outer edge where there were noticeably less trees grouped together and they could start to see the morning sky through the thinning, dense canopy. It had taken them a good couple of hours to get through the forest whilst dealing with the Guard and the rough and rocky terrain making it almost impossible to run fast and in one direction for more than a couple of meters. Ember had no remorse for his actions in taking down the Guard and letting Astral deal with the rest as he knew it was better to kill than be killed while Aurora on the other hand silently prayed to anyone listening that the bloodshed would stop. She knew they had no other choice and that they would die if Astral didn’t take care of them but she still felt guilty all the same. Astral had been thankful her shoulder had slowly stopped oozing out such a large amount of blood and was glad when she heard the sound of a train off in the distance, giving her hope that everyone would make it out yet.

They soon broke through the clearing and out onto a wide and expansive field sprawled out over the quiet landscape before them. They turned back to take one last look at the forest they’d just clambered through and took a collective sigh of relief that one of the hardest parts was over. Ember looked to his left to see the dauntingly tall Canterlot mountain looming over them with a gigantic waterfall cascading down the time-smoothened rocks, giving the waterfall a seemingly crystalized effect. He knew from experience that the waterfall was very much deadly, if not lethal though it seemed so peaceful and calm.

“It’s… amazing.” Aurora gaped in awe at the sight of the waterfall. She’d never seen anything so beautiful in all her nineteen years of being moved from city to city, country to country.

“We have ta keep movin’.” Ember sighed, tearing his eyes away from the waterfall himself. He admired such a natural masterpiece just as much as anyone else did but he knew they had to keep moving if they wanted to stay ahead of the Royal Guard.

“I know.” She nodded, not daring to take her eyes away from the waterfall in fear of it disappearing completely. It amazed her to stand at the edge of a forest and an expansive golden field where the wind blew through her hair and tattered clothing, stinging each cut, each scrape, each tear in her clothing. It caressed across her face and sent a shiver down her spine, making her feel more alive than she had ever felt. It made her feel free.

“Let’s go.” Astral added, placing her hand on the Earth Dweller’s bag and gave her a gentle push forward to get her walking like Ember already had. The waterfall was nothing to her compared to the rainbow falls she was accustomed to throughout the massive city of Cloudsdale.

The trio started to walk through the golden grass field as the sun started to make it’s way over the north-eastern mountainous ridge to the right of the Canterlot mountain. The sunlight washed over each one of them, filling them with warmth to forget the freezing temperatures of the mountainside and the Manticore infested forest. Ember and Astral did their best to shield their eyes from the sun by pulling out a pair of tinted goggles from Astrals’ backpack and proceeded to strap them on to provide some relief from the blinding sun.

Aurora couldn’t help but stare at the goggles they donned as they were just so different from any other goggles she’d seen before. The goggles were sharp, drawn-out, cat eye like, raindrop shaped goggles tinted in yellow glass to match the lightning bolts on the uniform with the framing being the same colour as the deep purple clothing with the straps matching to the dark grey. They fit perfectly with the uniform and helped make the Shadowbolts’ look generally more frightening than they already did with the sleek, dark and bold uniforms intentionally mirroring and contrasting the Wonderbolts’ uniforms to make them seem like the bad guy to put it one way. The Wonderbolts’ goggles were large and round with blue tinted goggles to make them seem warm and inviting and that was what they were going for but the Shadowbolts had a completely different agenda, it seemed.

“What are ya lookin’ at Greyscale?” Ember suddenly asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“I- your- nothing.” She stumbled over her words and quickly diverted her eyes away from the goggles to the crystal river they were coming up to.

Fed from the towering, glistening waterfall, the giant river flowed through the golden fields, across the southern train line and down past Ponyville and the Everfree then kept on going until it spilt out into the Southern Luna Ocean. It was the lifeblood for most of Equestria. The river provided clean drinking water and a constant water source for countless towns and cities and without it, the only means of water would be from Cloudsdale. It was said that the Canterlot mountain was sitting over a huge hot spring that pumped the water up through the crystal caverns but it was just a myth. Others said that the water passed though the mountain from the crystal mountains and the Neighagra Falls. It was a common debate about the true source and yet, no one ever seemed to be wrong.

“That’s what I thought.” The corners of his mouth twitched upward as he began to slowly bend toward the ground under the constantly increasing weight on his back.

She looked around them, trying to see if anyone was still coming after them because they all needed a break, especially Ember from carrying Ace for so long. “You need to rest.” She found herself saying after a few moments of studying the area.

“There’s no time.” Astral replied for the flame head. “There will already be a second platoon after us. When no one reported back, they would’ve immediately called for another platoon to take us down.”

“How do you know all of this?” She asked as they came to the edge of the river.

“We’re some of the most wanted criminals in Equestria.” Astral grinned. “We get nothing but the best.” She gave the Earth Dweller a wink before taking to the skies to find a bridge or some type of crossing.

She started to feel very uncomfortable in the presence of the tall, exhausted and brooding Skyborn and took a small step away from him. She knew they were criminals but she didn’t realise they were that wanted. She’d been too relaxed around them. Too comfortable working with them. She wasn’t a criminal, not for a second. She wondered what would happen if she turned against the two Shadowbolts and somehow managed to hand them over to-

“Don’t even think about it.” Ember growled, dropping Ace to the ground beside him to give his wings another chance to stretch before continuing onward. “I might be a criminal but I ain’t dumb.”

“But I-“

“Don’t. I don’t even need ta look at ya ta know what ya are thinkin’.” He cut her off once more. “If I was gonna hurt ya or kill ya, don’t ya think I would’ve done it back in the Plaza ta make even more of a point to the Wonderbolts? Killing a civilian would just further my reputation.” He clamped both of his hands together then stretched as far upward as he could, stretching every muscle in his arms before moving on to his sore wings where he slowly furled and unfurled them until all of the stiffness and soreness was gone then set about stretching them up as far as they could reach just as he’d done with his arms.

“I guess.” She mumbled as she watched his wings stretch, making her instinctively reach for her dirty and torn bag on her back. She could only dream of how it felt to be able to have wings let alone stretch them. It was almost an impossible thought to have an extra pair of limbs attached to her back, interconnected with muscle and bone, all working on instinct.

Astral chose that moment to land with a small thud in between the two of them and furled her wings. “There aren’t any bridges or crossing points as far as I can see.” She informed the small group.

“Looks like we’re swimmin’.” Ember grinned as he finished stretching.

“You are.” She replicated his grin. “I can carry Ace across.”

“Suuuure ya can.” He rolled his eyes. “Because ya don’t ‘ave a shot shoulder at all.”

Her eyes flashed to her shoulder. The bleeding had stopped but it was still pretty bad and deep. It wasn’t the worst injury she’d had by far but it still hindered her none the less. “Piece of cake.” She shrugged her good shoulder and went to pick up Ace.

“Then ya better make Charger proud.” He patted her bad shoulder before stalking forward to the edge of the river to get a sense of the water depth. He crouched down at the edge and dropped a pebble into the almost crystal clear water and proceeded to wait for it to reach the riverbed.

“I always do.” She winked as she set about lifting Ace into the air without making her fresh would much worse.

“Wait.” Aurora chimed into the conversation. “Who’s ‘Charger’?”

“Mine and Ember’s boss.” Astral replied bluntly.

“Not Ace’s as well?” She raised an eyebrow to the two conscious Skyborn.

“Nah.” Ember shook his head whilst his eyes stayed glued to the pebble. “Ace answers ta Blueball Blitz.” He then stood up, nodding to himself when he was happy with his general idea of the water depth.

“I’m so confused…” She shook her head as she walked up to him to get a full view of the river. It was a lot larger and deeper than she’d originally perceived it to be. It was about double the width of the upper plaza and about as deep as the water fountain before it was destroyed by Ace.

“It’s easy.” Astral flared her wings out, crouched down and held Ace tightly by looping her arms under his armpits. “Each Shadowbolt answers to an elite Bolt’. Ember and I just have the same elite.” And with that, she forced her wings down and pulled Ace up, into the sky with all of the strength she possessed. It was a shaky ascent and Aurora could see that she had her jaw clenched as tightly as possible to bite through the immense pain coming from her shoulder wound that started bleeding again.

“She’s fine.” Ember stated as he stepped down, into the freezing cold water. He then motioned for her to follow him, “Come on. We don’t ‘ave long.”