Chapter 1: A World Ruled by Shadows

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The sun was shining. A warm breeze softened the chill of the mid-morning air. Everything was shaping up to be a perfect day in Ponyville. And in the skies above said small town Rainbow Dash was bored out of her mind.

The pegasus mare’s sky-blue coat was the perfect camouflage as she glided slowly along. Her prismatic mane and tail, not so much. Although, from this height ponies on the ground would only see her rainbow tail fluttering behind her, and if they were far enough off to the side maybe they’d catch a glimpse of her cutie mark. Though again, at this altitude the small symbol of a white cloud with a red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt on her flank would be little more than a colorful speck to any ground-bound observer.

Dash’s magenta eyes gave the ground another quick scan before returning to searching the airspace around her. And she couldn’t help but groan as her mind comprehended what her eyes had seen. Namely the fact that the clock tower said that it was only 8:15. Why was she even awake at this ungodly early hour?

Okay, sure normal ponies usually started work around eight, but that was exactly why she hated mornings, because everypony else was busy with work or school. That thought made her give an annoyed sigh. It had taken her all of two minutes to shuffle the clouds around to the perfect places, and the weather schedule called for partly cloudy all day, so her day’s work was done.

Another glance at the sky confirmed that the clouds were exactly where they needed to be to give all of Ponyville’s favorite hangout spots much needed shade when the heat of they day rolled around. Yes, Rainbow Dash had done everything in her power to earn her bits as a weather pony today… Pity that that didn’t change the fact that noon, and any chance of real interaction with a friendly face, was four hours away.

Normally having the day to herself wasn’t a problem for the ace flyer. But today her usual standby time-killer just didn’t seem to be working. Folding her wings slightly, she went into a shallow dive. With the surge of speed and the rush of wind on her face she felt… nothing. Then she did a quick roll into an immediate loop-d-loop. Nope, still nothing. Dang, why couldn’t she get in the mood to practice her stunt flying today?

Leveling back out she tossed a glance toward the town below. If she wasn’t too bored to react, she might have died at the realization that the clock tower still said 8:15. She hadn’t even burned a full minute since she’d last checked the time! What in creation was she going to do until her friends were done with their work and she could be with them again?

Nothing, unless she decided to help them at work.

First her eyes fell on a rather over-decorated building roughly the shape of a carousel. She quickly shook that idea from her head. No, helping Rarity work was just a different form of boredom.

Next the pegasus cast her gaze to the apple orchard on the south west edge of town. Sweet Apple Acres was the home of the friend most like herself. Strong, athletic and competitive, Applejack was certainly more fun to hang out with in Rainbow Dash’s mind. She pondered the idea for a moment, but from the looks of it, the tanish farm pony was in the middle of a harvest. And while a few hours of hard labor might tire her out enough to take a nap and kill the rest of the morning, kicking trees and hulling loads of apples too heavy to fly with wasn’t exactly the weather pegasus’ cup of cider.

Dash’s gaze soon found its way to the building in the market part of town that looked like a life-sized gingerbread house. The faint glimmer in her eye was quickly snuffed out by the frown on her face. She knew she wasn’t much of a baker and if there was one thing Rainbow Dash hated more than being bored, it was being useless. She was too awesome to ever want to be seen stumbling around like an apprentice, being overshadowed by everypony else in the room. So helping Pinkie Pie was out. Maybe she’d stop by Sugar Cube Corner later, as a customer.

A cottage at the south edge of town with a green thatch roof soon became the focus of the high-flyer’s thoughts. Home of her long-time friend Fluttershy. Despite their completely different personalities it wasn’t that hard to have a good time with the friend she’d grown up with. Yet when Fluttershy was tending her animals was pretty much the one time the shy yellow pegasus was willing to brush off or otherwise ignore Rainbow Dash. Maybe in an hour or so, once she was done with her morning routine, at least Flutters job didn’t have the strict time lines of most jobs.

Actually tending animals was something Flutters did on her own dime. Not that it mattered, the pet care services that she did get paid for didn’t have any perceivable pattern to them either. But for the time being Dash could think of more exciting ways to kill time than watching animals get fed.

Rapidly running out of alternate candidates a large tree in the middle of town became the target of the flyer’s pondering. Said tree seemed to be sprouting a balcony amongst its branches, and its trunk held windows and a door because it was in fact the town library, and current residence of Twilight Sparkle. Technically the unicorn in question also held a job with a flexible work schedule, that job being student of magic and prized pupil of Princess Celestia. Of course none of that stopped Twilight from scheduling every second of every day weeks in advance anyway.

And Dash was fairly sure that her next scheduled hang out time with Twilight wasn’t for another three days. Or was it a lunch meeting? Oh well, whatever it was Twilight was smart enough to schedule a same day reminder about an hour before any meeting with Rainbow Dash, so she’d find out what it was when it actually mattered. Which really worked well for Dash, seeing as she preferred to life her life more freeform.

Fixed schedules were fine for other ponies, but they just got in the way of being there for your friends when they needed you most. Not something a super awesome spirit of loyalty like Rainbow Dash was about to tolerate in her life. Not any more than she had to anyway.

That thought aside, thinking of her librarian friend did being an idea to mind, at least until Dash explored the idea and realized that she still remembered everything about every Daring Do book that there was. ‘So much for rereading one of those,‘ she thought to herself.

Fresh out of ideas she hung her head and conceded herself to her fate of a boring morning.

By now her aimless flying had taken her to the north edge of town, where lush green rolling hills stretched out ever northward. In the distance, above those rolling hills was a city in the sky. The pride of pegasus cities, the city made of clouds was a sight to behold. Up close anyway, from this distance too many details were lost and little more than a few rainbow falls flowing over the edges differentiated it from any other large white cloud field in the sky. Well, that and the distinctly building-like shapes the top half of the cloud-city was crafted into.

For a brief moment she considered flying to the city she’d grown up in. But unless the Wonder Bolts were putting on some stunt show she’d forgotten about there wasn’t really anything exciting for her to do there. And even if they were putting on an air show it didn’t matter seeing as the Wonder Bolts were the most popular flying team ever, so shows were usually sold out well before the day of the show.

With a slight turn of her head Rainbow Dash sighted the Canterlot Mountains and the capital city of Equestria that they were named after. A magnificent city of alabaster stone and gold construction hugged the side of the mountain. A fair portion of it hung in the air as half the city had been built on a massive balcony on the side of the mountain rather on the mountain itself. Certainly a city that any adventurous soul should visit at least once.

A pity that she had been there several times by now, and to date Canterlot had been the only city she knew of that had found a way to make parties boring. Unicorn high-society’s idea of ‘fun’ certainly didn’t mesh with her own.

A whole day to herself and wings that could carry her anywhere and somehow she had never felt more trapped then she did right now.

Almost as if it were an answer to an unspoken prayer, a cry for help reached her ears.

Quickly scanning the skies, she caught sight of a white pegasus mare with a light-blue mane. More importantly said mare was flapping her wings, trying to fight against the black rope that had snared her midsection and was pulling the unfortunate pegasus toward a… hole in the sky?

The magical sight that she found herself diving toward looked like a ring of fiery orange energy.

But more importantly the ensnared mare’s wing beats seemed to be weakening with each flap of her wings. By now she’d been dragged halfway through the mysterious portal. In a last desperate bid the mare surged her wings trying to tug back at the rope tugging her through the portal. As she did so, the white pegasus caught a glimpse of the prismatic motion blur diving her way. A glimmer of hope flashed in the mare’s desperate eyes just before her strength gave out. Whatever was on the other end of the black rope won the tug-of-war and she vanished through the portal.

Now that the portal was clear of obstructions Rainbow Dash could see through it. Although, at the angle she was diving at the portal, all she could see was that the ground on the other side was several hundred feet below the portal. (Just as it was on this end.) That and that the sliver of ground she could see seemed to be some brown hill.

Of course ever since the target of her rescue had vanished through the portal, Dash has started flapping her wings to add her thrust and to dive faster than gravity alone would allow. Pulling out of her dive at the last second she shot straight through the portal at lightning speed.

In the next fraction of a second many things happened in rapid succession.

First, Rainbow Dash passed through the portal as seamlessly as she might just flying through an open window and the world around her changed completely.

Second, she spotted the white pegasus was no longer flying and was now just hanging limply from the rope that had captured her.

Next, Dash traced the rope up to a shadowy pegasus as black and featureless as the shadows that haunt your nightmares. As a side note, she also took notice that the pegasus holding the rope was also between two more dark pegasi.

Finally, she adjusted her aim, focused her mind and spirit on duplicating the meteor-strike technique she’d used to demolish Applejack’s barn not too long ago. And then she clobbered the dark pegasus holding the white mare captive.

The next second wasn’t exactly any less action packed.

Unsurprisingly an airborne pegasus had a lot more give than the ground, so when Rainbow Dash struck her target she sent the dark pegasus tumbling through the air. Naturally he dropped his end of the rope. And judging from his size and the shape of its muzzle Dash could safely guess that her first target was in fact a stallion.

Not that that fact registered in her mind at the time, no, at that moment the only thing on her mind was following through with part two of the plan she’d just come up with the instant she came through the portal. And that plan was simply this, now that she’d imparted all of her momentum on the dark stallion formerly holding the rope, she had come to a halt right between the other two dark pegasi. So with little more than a twisted flap of her wings she rotated herself to face one and lashed out with all of her hooves at once. Her front two striking the dark pegasus now in front of her, while her hind legs struck the one behind her.

The two shadowy pegasi rolled away and quickly recovered from the surprise attack, Allowing Dash a moment to glance down at the falling white mare.

Now that the rope was no longer held taut, the white and blue mare was loosening the friction knot that had previously held her fast. Despite her clear progress in freeing herself, the falling mare’s movements seemed sluggish and on top of that she seemed so focused on freeing herself from the rope’s noose that she wasn’t even bothering to flap her wings.

At first the two shadowy figures seemed hopelessly confused by the sudden interference of the sky-blue pegasus, then they seemed to dive at their former captive as if by instinct. As they dove one of them pulled out their own black rope and began to swing it around readying itself to lasso the white mare again.

Dash was quick to dive down and with a powerful flap of her wings sent out a gust of wind that knocked the second rope astray as soon as it was thrown.

Another glance at the white mare showed that she had finally freed herself from the first dark rope and was starting to flap her wings to stop her fall.

Rainbow Dash brought herself to a hover in the space between the shadow pegasi and the white mare. For the first time the softly glowing purple dots that seemed to pass for the shadowy pegasi’s eyes seemed to truly notice the pegasus with the rainbow mane, and their owners also came to a hover.

With a creepy uniformity to their actions the dark mare-like pegasi turned to look at the stallion-like one who had been launched by Dash’s opening attack. By now even he had recovered from the forced tailspin, although he was a few thousand feet away now, yet he too came to a hover, gazing at Rainbow Dash. Then he looked up and slightly to the side, and with no visible signal or spoken command all three dark pegasi turned in unison and began to fly away.

With the enemy retreating, Rainbow Dash looked to the same place that the shadowy stallion did, knowing what was there. The glance rewarded her with the knowledge that the portal was shrinking. Looking down to the white mare she’d just freed, she saw that even though the mare was now flying back upward she was ascending too slowly.

With one last look at the collapsing portal Rainbow Dash ran the numbers in her head. Which to her played out more like watching two movies of alternate time lines in the back of her mind. But the result was the same as running numbers, that being she realized that if she bolted for the portal now she might be able to make it back through before it got too small to use. But if she took the time to dive down, grab the mare she was trying to rescue, and rush back up there was no way the portal would still be big enough to use by the time they got there.

The ace flyer had a split second to make her choice.

Dash held her hover and waited for the white mare to join her.

“They-They’re letting us go?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head, and motioned a hoof toward the shrinking portal. “No, they know we’re stuck on their turf. They’re probably going to get their friends and get ready to ambush us.”

“Ambush us?” the mare with the light-blue mane asked, her eyes growing wide at both Rainbow’s choice of words and the sight of the ring of orange magic collapsing on itself and disappearing entirely.

Dash gestured to the world around them. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been here before. So unless you know where in the world we are we’re going to have to find a map before we’ll know what way to fly ourselves out of here without that portal. But I bet they know what way we’ll have to go, so they’ll have all the time in the world to get an intercept team in place.”

Both pegasi took a moment to look at their surroundings. Between the drought stricken rolling hills beneath them and the jagged mountains to the east and west it was a safe bet that they weren’t in Equestria anymore.

With a sigh and a slight shake of her head the white mare said, “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I’m not much of a world traveler. I’ve never seen this place before.”

Dash gave a nod and turned her attention to the mare. Aside from the white coat and light blue mane the only other thing that seemed noteworthy was her cutie mark of a gray cloud and a yellow lightning bolt.

“You’re one of the weather team reserve ponies, right? Gale or something?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying to place from where exactly around town she knew this pony.

“Yes, I’m Storm Gale. I’m one of the ones that help out on the really big weather jobs.” After a moment of silence Gale added, “So what do we do now?”

“Well I’ve flown all over Equestria, but as much as I hate to admit it I haven’t really spent much time beyond Equestria.” Seeing a sad frown on Gale’s face, Dash was quick to add, “But it’s no biggie. We just need to get a look around and build a mental map of our own and then find a map to match that up with and bam! Just like that we’ll know where we are and how to get back home!”

Even as she stated everything she remembered from her foalhood navigation class, Rainbow Dash began rotating herself in a slow circle, taking note of every major terrain marker she could see. Every mountain peak, city, town, forest, major road and riverbed made their way into the map she was building in her mind. And with every marker she added to this mental map an eyebrow rose slightly more at the realization that this new mental map matched one of her old ones perfectly.

“I… I think I know where we are,” Dash muttered, in a less than enthusiastic tone.

“Really! Where?”

“It’s just like Daring Do and the Shadow Mirror!”

The only answer Gale could give was a dumbfounded, “What?”

“Daring Do and the… You’ve never read the Daring Do books have you? Okay, short version. In the book, Daring finds this shadow mirror that takes her to an alternate world where everything looked the same but all the ponies who were good guys were now bad guys, and all the ponies who were bad guys were now good guys.”

After a look around Dash smiled sheepishly and added, “Okay, this isn’t like that at all. But it’s like the world itself is the opposite of our Equestria.”

Gale looked about, clearly not seeing what the rainbow-maned one saw.

“Don’t you see?” Then pointing a hoof to the north and a massive, dark storm cloud, she said, “Cloudsdale.”

Shifting her hoof to point to the northeast and a strange ziggurat, surrounded by a ruined city, halfway up the craggy mountains. “Canterlot.”

Then pointing to the west, to a creepy marsh-like forest that reminded her of the Everfree forest. “White Tail Woods”

To the southeast she pointed out the healthy green forest that reminded her of White Tail Woods and the seemingly well-maintained castle with in it, and said, “The Everfree Forest.”

Turning to the small town below them Rainbow Dash continued. “And if we assume that military command-center-like thing is the town hall.” She moved her hood out to point to a large burnout tree that clearly used to be a building, and said, “Golden Oaks Library.”

Shifting to a building that, between the iron madden and cat-o-nine-tails, she could only hope was a nightmare night themed party supply store. “Sugar Cube Corner.”

Moving her hoof to point out what looked like an overly ornate blacksmith’s shop. “Carousel Boutique.”

Finally she shifted her hoof to the southwest edge of the town. The massive graveyard there had a tombstone where every apple tree should have been and a mausoleum in place of every barn, house, and shed. There was even a small watchtower where the crusader’s clubhouse should have been. “Sweet Apple Acres,” Dash finished in a somber tone, as she beheld this deathly version of her friend’s farm.

By now Storm Gale’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Slowly tilting her head as she looked at the town below, she muttered, “You’re right. The building are different, but the roads match Ponyville perfectly!”

Honestly Rainbow Dash hadn’t paid any attention to the streets of the small town below them. But now that they had been pointed out to her, she saw that they did indeed match the streets of Ponyville, just as all the major terrain markers around them did.

A hint of fear flashed in Gale’s eyes. “But if we really are in another world, how do we get back home?”

Raising a hoof to her chin, Dash said, “Yeah… that could be a problem. Obviously we need another portal. And since neither of us are unicorns, we’re going to need help. And we should probably find it soon. I don’t want to still be hovering up here in plain sight when those guys come back with their friends.”

“Yes, but if this is like your book, who do we turn to? Everypony I know in Ponyville is a good pony!”

Looking to an empty field Rainbow Dash frowned.

“I would say, I’m too awesome to be evil in any world, but this world doesn’t seem to have a Rainbow Dash. I mean I don’t even see my mailbox down there!”

“Should we even try the town?” Gale asked, nervously glancing between the distinguishable buildings.

While many of the buildings were the same simple wood construction and thatch roofs as the Ponyville they knew, almost all of the standout buildings seemed darker, almost evil, by comparison. Whether it was the way the ground around what should have been Sugar Cube Corner had a distinctly rust stained color to it. Or the array of weapons displayed in the windows of the blacksmith’s shop where Rarity’s home should have been. Ultimately every standout building in town seemed to have something creepy about it. So much so that the fact that Fluttershy’s place looked exactly the same, with the exception of having a withered bluish-grayish thatch instead of healthy green, that it creepped out Rainbow Dash all the more.

Considering their options she looked to the more distant destinations. While the massive storm cloud to the north had the mass of Cloudsdale there was no evidence that anypony had bothered to craft so much as a single building, let alone an entire cloud city, out of it.

The city where Canterlot should have been was in ruins. And while the ziggurat seemed to be in good repair, (maybe even rebuilt from the ruins of the city around it,) and showed signs of life, if what Dash knew about shadow worlds was right this world’s ruler was probably the last pony they should be seeking help from.

Unsurprisingly enough the castle where the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters should have been seemed like the most welcoming place around.

But what if I’m wrong? Dash thought, rattling her confidence slightly. Not to mention in her world that was where the elements of harmony were found. Did that mean that in this world a powerful dark magic could be found there instead?

Storm Gale was waiting, looking to Rainbow Dash like… well a weather pony waiting for the lead weather pony to give her some directions. And why shouldn’t she? Rainbow was the lead weather pony, and one of the heroes who’d defeated Nightmare Moon, and Discord, and fought off a changeling invasion, and personally save the lives of several Wonder Bolts. So of course she’d look to Rainbow to call the shots.

Not that Dash minded, but her record of decision making wasn’t exactly spotless. Which begged the question, was she really going to base her decision entirely on a book?

Looking back to the small town below them she saw a few earth ponies and even the occasional unicorn walking about. They seemed to move swiftly but also timidly, moving from one building to another before quickly going inside. It was almost like they were afraid to linger outdoors. Of course if those dark pegasi were harassing everypony that made since. Also of note were the colors of the ponies below. There were blues, greens, reds, yellows, browns and most any other shade of fur and mane, just like the ponies of the Ponyville she knew.

Putting a hoof to her chin she consulted her own experiences in strange or far away places. Then she answered.

“Everywhere I’ve ever gone. I’ve found the ponies in small towns are always nicer and more helpful then the ones in big cities. So I’d say we should try the town first…” Then looking to spikes that decorated what should have been the town hall Rainbow Dash added, “Let’s just avoid the creepy looking places. But first we need to lay low for a while to shake those jerks that attacked us, so any ideas?”

Storm Gale frowned slightly and said, “My house looks smaller than it should, but it’s still there. We could try that.”

With a nod Dash approved the plan. And while she dove first, she slowed herself so that Gale could easily overtake her and lead the way to the normal looking house in question.

They landed near the plain wooden door at the front of the house. After a short pause Gale knocked on door.

No response came.

Reaching up to the handle Storm Gale gave a tug but it didn’t budge.

“That’s odd I don’t normally lock my door, but when I do…” her words trailed off as she flapped her wings and hovered her way up to the rafters of the overhang above the door. Poking her head in the small space, she pulled her muzzle back out with a key in her mouth.

After unlocking the door and returning the key to it’s hiding place Gale pushed the door open.

Inside they found a normal looking living room for a small house. A table, a couch, a record player, pictures on the walls, and that sort of thing. A counter and some hanging cabinets marked the back right corner as the kitchen. The left wall had two open doors in it. One clearly led to the bathroom, and judging from the bed it was a safe bet that the other one was the bedroom.

The silence within the home made it clear that no pony was here to greet the two guests. Although that didn’t stop them from asking the wind if anypony was home anyway.

Once they were sure they were alone Gale locked the door behind them. And that was the moment the Rainbow Dash asked about an observation that had been bothering her since the fight with the shadowy pegasi.

“You okay?”

“I think so. Why?”

“It’s just when I first came through the portal you looked like you were about to pass out. But now you seem wide awake. Why is that?”

A shiver ran down Storm Gale’s spine. “It was the rope… The instant they first snagged me with it, there was this weird pain. It felt like it was ripping the energy right out of me.” Gale paused long enough to fall to a sitting position and shift her gaze into the blue tail curled to her side before continuing. “It didn’t hurt as much once you’d knocked the other end of the rope free from that dark pegasus… And once I was free from it, not touching it anymore, it felt like some of my energy came back to me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I have to fight those guys again.” Then looking around the room Dash asked, “So is this what your place is like?”

Looking slowly around the room, Gale answered, “A lot is missing, but what is here is the same. There should be another hallway just to the left of the kitchen nook, that leads to my son’s room, the guest bedroom and the other bathroom.”

After slowly making her way over to the record player and hoofing through the records she added, “Only my records are here, I don’t see any of my husband’s.”

As the two mares looked around the bedroom, Gale shook her head slightly and said, “same thing here. I see my stuff, but nothing from my family.”

As she looked over the rather bland wooden dresser in the room, Rainbow Dash said, “Well, here’s hoping that being single is the only difference between this world’s you and you. I’m kinda banking on whoever is living her being a nice pony, who will tell us what’s what in this world.” Somewhere in the back of her mind she was also banking on whoever living here being too startled by seeing another of herself to notice the fact that the two mares had entered their home without permission.

Just as they returned to the living room the sound of a key being turned on the front door made the two freeze in their tracks.

The door opened, and a dark-gray mare with an orange mane and wearing a dull brown cloak entered. Even with the cloak keeping them hidden, the subtle bulge on the mare’s sides confirmed that she was a pegasus.

Every minute line of the face and even the slightly fluffy mane style of the dark-gray mare matched Storm Gale. If not for the fact that both had blue eyes, Rainbow Dash could have sworn that the two were each other’s photo negative. And judging from the stunned silence that was an observation shared by Gale and the other mare as well.

Orange Mane was the first to move since the odd stare off had begun. Slowly her eyes turned to the wings of the two strangers in her home, giving off a flicker as if the realization that the two uninvited guests were pegasi was of grand importance. Then her gaze shifted from Rainbow Dash’s wings to her rainbow tail. Then finally taking notice of the tri-colored lighting bolt on her cutie mark.

Eyes wide and shimmering with hope, the dark-gray mare asked, “Are you Lighting Dash?”

“My name is Rainbow Dash,” she answered hardly above a mutter, possibly being the first time in her life that she hadn’t given an enthusiastic introduction of herself.

Instead her mind had turned inward. Lightning Dash. She knew that name. She’d heard it somewhere before, but where?

The hope in the Dark-Gray’s eyes shattered in and instant. Looking to the floor she said, “Right, how silly of me. Those stories are three hundred years old. Of course he’d have died of old age by now.”

Another red flag went up in Dash’s mind. Three hundred years, Lighting Dash, Those thoughts definitely belonged together, but why? Then when the pieces finally fell into place her eyes lit up and she practically shouted, “The Dash family mystery!”

“The what?” the other two mares asked together.

Lowering her voice slightly, Rainbow explained, “The Dash family mystery! Okay! Long story short, when I was a just a little filly my parents would take me to the Dash family reunions every few years. And if you’ve ever been a filly at a family reunion you know those things are boring! A bunch of adults standing around, talking about stuff you aren’t old enough to care about, yeah, no fun.”

“Anyway.” Dash shook her head slightly before continuing. “There was one thing that saved those reunions for me though, Grandpa Dash. He had taken it on himself to collect all the awesome stories from the Dash family and he would tell them to us fillies and colts. And one of those stories was the Dash family mystery!”

Sitting down so that she could use her front hooves to help, Dash got into her storyteller’s stance. “So it goes like this. Three hundred years ago my great, great… however many greats grandpa, Lightning Dash disappeared three times throughout his life.”

“This first time was when he was just a blank flank colt. He disappeared for a month, and when her reappeared he had his cutie mark. Grandpa Dash would always read us the journal entry from Lightning’s mom, talking about how Lightning had seemed to grow up so much when he’d returned.”

“The second time was like ten years later, when he was a young adult, and he disappeared for a full year. Thing is before he disappeared he was a racer. But when he came back, he gave up racing, and got into farming of all things, got married, raised a family and all that stuff.”

“And the last time, when Lighting was getting really old he disappeared, and was never heard from again. After a few years they just decided he wouldn’t be coming back. His widow had his tombstone made, but there’s never been anypony in that grave.”

Rainbow Dash paused for a moment to let the story sink in. Once the pause had used up its dramatic potential, she finished the story.

“The thing is, the two times he disappeared and came back, no pony, not even Princess Celestia, could get him to say where he went or what he did. That’s the Dash family mystery.”

Hope returned to the eyes of the dark gray mare. “That matches our legends perfectly!” Pausing with a slight blush on her cheeks, she added, “Well, from the other side anyway.”

“What do you mean? What legend?”

After clearing her throat, Orange Mane said, “The legend of Lightning Dash is comprised of three stories. When the Shadow pegasi first appeared, with their ability to drain the magic and energy from normal pegasi, no pony knew how to stop them. But then a pegasus colt claming to be from another world appeared. In his quest to find his way home he found a set of silver wing blades, that glowed with a holy light. And wielding them, he fought and defeated the shadow pegasi. Then as mysteriously as he appeared, he just vanished. Seeing as the first story came only from the city of Cloudhaven, at the time many thought the story had been made up entirely, and it was quickly forgotten.”

“However, a few years later the shadow pegasi returned. They were merciless, hunting natural pegasi to near extinction. And with every pegasus that fell victim to those cursed black ropes the shadow pegasi grew in numbers, eventually becoming an army capable of challenging the throne itself. That was when ponies began to remember the first stories. And as if by fate, in the tenth year since that first story, Lightning Dash returned. The young stallion once more took up the sacred wing blades and fought a yearlong campaign. This time he not only defeated the shadow pegasi but also discovered the source, the first Dark Summoner. When the dust of the final battle settled the Dark Summoner was dead. Lighting Dash emerged from the ruins that been his foe’s fortress to the cheers of his friends and allies. He took his place among them as if to give a victory speech and they hushed themselves, eager to hear it. Instead, he shed the sacred wing blades and said only, ‘learn to defend yourselves.’ And with that he flew away.”

As the story was being told, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the mention of the ‘first’ Dark Summoner.

Not bothering to pause to answer questions, the dark-gray mare quickly moved on to telling the last of the tales she had to tell.

“With the parting words of Lightning Dash the order of the Sky Knights was created. And with the tactics and gift of the sacred wing blades he had left them, the Sky Knights were able to keep the forces of darkness at bay. So the world knew peace, for a time. Unfortunately it turned out that the unicorn who had invented the shadow pegasus spell had an apprentice. And after thirty years or so that apprentice decided the time was right to finish what their master had started. Although the Sky Knights tried to hunt down the second Dark Summoner, he always managed to slip away before they could confront him in force.”

“For many years the Sky Knights kept the second Dark Summoner on the run, hiding in the shadows. But one day the Dark Summoner found new minions to bolster his shadow pegasi. When he made his stand the Dark Summoner was able to best the Sky Knights, and take control of the land. Yet when all hope seemed lost and the pegasi thought they were doomed, once again the legendary pegasus returned. Once more Lightning Dash took up the mantle of the paladin of the sacred wing blades, and once more he vanquished the evil plaguing our world. The final battle ended with a massive explosion. The survivors searched the ruins, but when they found the sacred wing blades they could find no trace of Lightning Dash. Ever since then the legend lived on, saying that whenever our world was in true peril the hero pegasus with the rainbow mane would return to save us.”

As the mare had told the story her eyes had become unfocused, as if distracted by a daydream. But now that she had finished her eyes came back into focus on the two pegasi before her, and she added, “I’m sorry it’s just that a while ago some other unicorn must have discovered the shadow pegasus spell. And while the Sky Knights have been doing there best, about five years ago this new Dark Summoner took over. Then about a month or so ago there started to be rumors of pegasi claming to be from another world. And now, just like that, a pegasus with a rainbow mane just shows up in front of me and well… I couldn’t help but think of that the old legend was true and that you were here to save us.”

A smile was growing on Rainbow Dash’s face at the thought that nothing more than the color of her mane would make the ponies around here look up to her as a hero.

NO!

The shout turned Dash’s smile into a frown. At first she looked about for the source of the shout, but then it hit her that the voice had been her own. And judging from the lack of reaction to it from the other mares in the room the shout had only been in her head.

The image of a pony in a costume of light and dark shades of purple flashed in her mind. ‘That’s right, I refuse to repeat the mistakes of the mare-do-well incident,’ she thought to herself. Twilight had told her that she had a hero complex, which meant she tried too hard to be a hero, or got too caught up in the glory of being a hero, or something. What was it that her friends had tried to teach her when they punished her for trying too hard to be a hero? …Something like a real hero just gets the job done and leaves it at that. That sounded right. So what was her heroic job at the moment?

Dash’s gaze came to the mare she’d just rescued, yes, that was it.

Finally stepping forward, Rainbow Dash said, “Look I’ll help you if I can. But right now, what I’m trying to do is get Gale here back to Equestria. I don’t suppose those legends of your mention how Lightning Dash did that?”

The dark gray pegasus, lowered her head in contemplation for a moment. When she looked back up, she shook her head and said, “I’m not exactly the scholarly type. So I only know the street version of the legend. The only ponies who might know details like that are the Sky Knights.”

“Great!” Dash beamed. “So, uh… Wait, what was your name?”

“I’m sorry, I got so caught up in the story of Lightning Dash that I never introduced myself. I’m Tempest Wind. You’re Rainbow Dash and she’s… Gale was it?”

“Storm Gale to be exact.”

For a moment Gale and Wind looked at each other, as if suddenly remembering the odd resemblance they shared.

Of the two it was Wind to put the thoughts to words. “How strange. You look like me but different, and even your name is like mine but different.”

“Yeah we’ve been noticing that trend. A lot of things around here seem like the Equestria we know but different,” Dash said, choosing to leave off the part about things usually being differing in a creepy, scary, evil kind of way. Making her way toward the door she added, “So, Tempest Wind, where do we find these Sky Knight guys?”

Tempest Wind’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Wait! Don’t go out there! It’s not safe for pegasi to be outside in Ponyton anymore. Especially not in rush hour, somepony might see you!”

Once Dash had stopped moving Wind calmed down some and said, “I’ll take you to the Sky Knights, but after the streets are clear.”

“What about you? Aren’t you a pegasus?”

Opening her wings wide enough to poke out from under her cloak for the first time, she nodded. “Yes, but I hide my wings for a reason.” Looking over her guests she motioned to Gale and added, “She could probably get away with a cloak too. But your rainbow tail would get us reported to the overlords in no time…” A visible shiver ran down Tempest Wind’s spine when she uttered the word ‘overlords.’

Dash and Gale exchanged a glance, as if asking one another if they intended to trust this pony. A slight nod from Rainbow Dash seemed to say, ‘she’s been helpful so far, so I’ll give her a chance.’

By now Tempest Wind had seemed to clear her mind of troubling thoughts enough to continue. “Look, we can slip out of town at noon, when everypony is inside eating lunch. If you just wait here until then, I’ll take you to Liberty Castle.”

Dash raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, that’s the castle to the southeast, isn’t it?”

A nod answered her question.

Taking a moment to think, Rainbow Dash considered her options. First, now that she knew the destination there was nothing stopping her and Gale from trying to get there on their own. Maybe it was the fear in Wind’s eyes. Maybe it was because the element of loyalty had bound itself to her for a reason, and right now Dash’s instinct’s demanded that she give this pony the chance to prove she was worthy of some measure of loyalty.

When she finally answered, Rainbow Dash said, “Alright. We’ll lay low here for awhile. Until you think we can get out of here in one piece.”

* * * * * * *

An orange pegasus filly buzzed her way through the streets of Ponyville, her violate tail waving in the wind behind her. Unlike her fellow pegasi she wasn’t flying overhead, instead she flew through town riding on a scooter with a blue baseboard and red wheels. And while the average observer might have said that the filly was blitzing through town, anypony who knew her understood that she was moving quite slowly by her standards.

The more astute observer would have found the reason for that by noticing that her purple eyes scanned the every low cloud or window. Or that her wings paused every time she caught line of sight of any remotely light-blue pony, just long enough for her to realized who she was looking at before kicking her wings back into action and moving on. Yes, to the keen observer the filly was definitely searching for someone.

Perhaps it was because she was looking for something that she noticed four pieces of paper attached to the newspaper stand today. The papers in question weren’t newspapers, but missing pony posters. And as the filly coasted past her eyes went from one to the next and in doing so she couldn’t help but notice that all of the missing ponies happened to be pegasi. Although the names meant nothing to her, and the faces were little more than locals she’d passed on the street enough times to seem slightly familiar. Regardless none of the posters mentioned the one pony she was looking for.

That thought got a chuckle out of the filly. Rainbow Dash was too awesome to go missing. No, if she couldn’t be found it was because she didn’t want to be found. Though that did beg the question, where was she today?

Ultimately the filly shrugged it off. And as the afternoon shadows were growing a bit long, as she decided she’d find out tomorrow. After all there was no way the spirit of loyalty would miss the second planed hang-out day with her honorary sister.

* * * * * * *

Much to Rainbow Dash’s surprise their host had stayed with them the entire time they were laying low. Never even trying to leave her guests alone and instead seemed to be just as ‘in hiding’ that they were, despite being in her own home. Once the appointed hour had come the three of them slipped out of town easily enough. Avoiding the only road to the forest, they had actually entered the forest from the north rather than the northwest edge.

Much to Dash’s dismay, even after they reached the forest their guide insisted they continue on hoof. While this was hardly the first time she’d slowed herself down for the sake of staying with others, that usually meant her friends. And as nice as Storm Gale was, she wasn’t really what Dash would call a friend, acquaintance and general nice pony sure, but she wasn’t really at that level worthy of all the things Rainbow Dash would do for those she granted the title ‘friend.’ And yet Storm Gale was the closest thing to a friend she had in this place, and so stay with her she did.

While she could understand being cautious within reason, what she couldn’t get was how it was reasonable to trudge through a forest for hours when all they had to do was fly over the forest and they’d get to the castle in like five minutes. But Tempest Wind insisted that the most dangerous thing they could run into in the forest was a shadow pegasus patrol flying overhead, so they had to stay below the canopy. And so the trio trudged on. Well, two of them trudged, Rainbow Dash gave that up after ten minutes and settled for hovering at a walking speed about seven feet off the ground, more than low enough to stay below the tree cover.

To Wind’s credit the most dangerous things they saw below the tree line were a bear and mountain lion, and neither of those seemed to pay the ponies more than a casual glance. Fluttershy would have been at home in this place, though Rainbow Dash preferred not to turn her back on creatures with claws when said animal caretaker wasn’t around to keep such animals in check.

The shadows were growing long by the time they emerged into a clearing before an oddly familiar looking ravine. A rope bridge crossed that ravine and judging from the bright color of the wood, it was so new that it had seen maybe a winter or two. Certainly a stark contrast to the ancient one Dash had repaired back home but otherwise it too had an aura of familiarity to it.

Taking note of how low the sun had gotten on their trek through the forest, Tempest Wind said, “We should hurry.”

“So now you want to pick up the pace,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes.

“Why?” Storm Gale asked.

“Short version. Because when the shadow pegasi attack Liberty Castle, they always do it at twilight.”

Even as she had said it Wind had started running across the bridge, even opening her wings as she ran. Gale quickly followed suit. And since Rainbow Dash was already flying she merely flew faster, darting at the front gate and quickly taking the lead.

Dash coiled the muscles in her front legs, getting ready to knock, rather harshly if needed, to get the attention of whoever was manning the gate. A precaution that proved unnecessary as a slit in the door opened up and a set of eyes looked out. The instant the gate guard saw three approaching pegasi one of the massive wooden double doors swung open. The guard even beat Dash to the punch in calling out for the three to get inside.

Rainbow Dash landed, coming to a sliding stop just past the guard. The sudden stop causing her own tailwind to make her rainbow mane and tail wave dramatically in the short-lived breeze.

The dark brown stallion with a light brown mane, who happened to be the gate guard, stared at the mare with his mouth agape. “Are you…”

Anticipating the rest of the question she answered before the awestruck stallion even finished asking it. “Lightning Dash? No, I’m his descendant Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh… Okay.”

The quick conversation allowed the other two mares to join them inside the walls of Castle Liberty, and seeing the two dart past him seemed to be enough to wake the guard back up. After giving one last look outside he then closed and barred the gate.

“Welcome back, Wind. Has something happened in town?” he asked. Then nodding toward the two new faces he added, “Aside from the obvious?”

With a shake of her head, Tempest Wind said, “No, just them. They’d like to talk to the elder about the legends.”

The guard took a quick look at the shadows coming off of the stone work buildings around him. “She’d be in the main hall with some of the other non-combatants about now.”

With that Wind thanked the guard and led the way, taking the group through the main yard. Aside from the walls and towers of the castle’s outer wall there were four other stonework structures to the castle. The large fancy one with towers of its own was clearly the castle keep.

A three story square-like one that looked like a mini castle of its own reminded Rainbow Dash of basic barracks design she’d seen at the Wonder Bolt Academy.

Two two-story rectangular buildings with angled wooden roofs finished the building count. Between the normal roof and the spacing of the normal looking windows, they looked like they might be hotels. Although they had probably been servants quarters when the castle had been built. Even a few windows in the roof hinted that the attic level was used as a third floor.

And unlike the gray outer walls, all of the structures inside the castle seemed to have had the stonework bleached to a dull white. If not for the weathered roughness of the stones and the lack of gold or otherwise ornate trimmings the place might have seemed like Canterlot.

The one seemingly frivolous feature of the castle yard was a curricular fountain, with a small raised pool, that marked the yard’s center. Yet as they walked by Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but notice that the water in the fountain seemed to have an odd sheen to it, that caused her to make a mental note to not drink from said fountain until she knew why.

As they approached the keep it was impossible not to notice the larger-than-life statue of a pegasus stallion that separated the twin staircases that led up to the entrance. Okay, so make that two ornate features to the castle. Aside from the rainbow mane and tail the bulk of the statue was pained a pure snow white. On the statue’s flank was painted the cutie mark of three lightning bolts, one red, one yellow, and one blue.

Dash couldn’t help but pause for a second, as she looked the statue over. The mane and tail reminded her so much of her own father’s. Yet the cutie mark made her glance at her own cutie mark of a white cloud with a single tri-colored lightning bolt of the same red, yellow, and blue colors. For a moment she wondered if this ancestor of hers had also achieved the sonic rainboom.

Storm Gale walking past her was enough to bring Rainbow Dash’s attention back to the task at hoof. She quickly opened her wings and hovered after Gale and Wind.

The main entrance of the keep consisted of a set of large double doors. The doors were simple wooden construction, with steel reinforcements. Wind raised a hoof and pounded on them.

“It’s Tempest Wind, I need to speak with the elder!”

With that, the sound of a heavy metal bar being moved came from inside. A second later one of the doors creaked outward, opening wide enough to allow Wind and those accompanying her into the keep. Though the pony who’d opened the door looked to the new faces warily, seeing wings on the strangers seemed to be enough for the strangers to be allowed to enter the castle keep unchallenged.

The entrance hall was abuzz with activity. Ponies, mostly pegasi, were all about. Some were darting from one side hall to another, while others were quickly making their way down the lines of columns lighting torches to make up for the waning light coming in through the windows. Still others were flying up near the ceiling rolling up the banners and flags on their rods, effectively removing what little color there was from the place and leaving the plain white walls awfully barren. Even the ceiling, which was made of wood, seemed to be of the brightest shade of wood Rainbow Dash had seen.

“These guys really like white, don’t they?”

Tempest Wind responded with, “Shadow pegasi only come in one color. Though you should try coming through here in the middle of the day, it’s kind of nice when the decorations are out.”

With that Wind led the way to the stairs at the back of the entrance hall. A staircase and a lesser hallway later and the group soon found themselves entering the main hall.

Judging from the raised area at the back it wasn’t hard to tell that the main hall had been the throne room when the castle had first been built. Though the current incarnation had a clear lack of any throne. Instead this place was clearly more in the business of being a war room. Tables were all over the place, usually toped with maps. Then there were the chalkboards and message boards with chats and graphs drawn or pined to them.

Like everywhere else on the castle grounds, Rainbow Dash saw at least twenty pegasi for every non-pegasus, probably more. Unlike everywhere else, almost all of the ponies in this room wore some kind of armor, mostly studded cloth, although a few wore chain mail, and the only earth pony in the room was also the only one in the room with a full suit of plate mail.

In the far right corner Dash even spotted two tables with a bunch of fillies and colts gathered around them. At one table the youthful pegasi were clearly doing their best to amuse themselves quietly with things like crayon drawing or playing tic-tac-tow on a small chalkboard. At the other table the fillies and colts seemed to be mimicking the older ponies at the desks by sorting their way through stacks of paper. Whether they were just mimicking the adults for the fun of it or actually doing the same kind of work, Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell from where she stood.

“Wait here,” Tempest Wind said, as she left the two more or less in the middle of the room while she approached the command table.

The two watched as the gray pegasus went over and began to speak to a tan pegasus mare at the command table. What was said couldn’t be heard by Rainbow Dash thanks to being drowned out by the chatter coming from the rest of the room. What she could hear was that the chatter itself was changing, quieting to murmurs. And yet whispered or not, she could hear that all of the whispered conversations mentioned a rainbow mane.

As she looked around, the adults in the room had the decency to look back down and pretend to go back to working on whatever they had been doing. The fillies and colts at the foal’s table, not so much. To their credit they managed to stay quiet, but they stared at the mare with the rainbow mane with a mix of awe and bewilderment as if they were looking at a hero from a storybook.

Rainbow Dash gave a small smile and wave to the fillies and colts in the corner. That seemed to wake the young ponies up enough to realize that the pony they were staring at was staring back. Some blushed and looked back down to their drawings. A few waved back. And a few just kept staring blankly at the rainbow mare, clearly still not believing what they were seeing.

Thankfully Tempest Wind motioned for the two guests in the hall to come forward, giving Dash an excuse to look away from the young ponies in the corner.

As she approached the command table she took in the sight of the mare that seemed to be in charged. Aside from her tan coat, her mane was a half-green, half-red, and her cutie mark was that of two flaming cherries of all things.

“Welcome, I am Elder Cherry Blaze,” the mare introduced herself.

That explains the cutie mark, Rainbow Dash thought to herself. But as far as she could tell the mare before her was only ten, maybe fifteen years her superior, so middle-aged at best.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria. And aren’t you a little young to be calling yourself ‘elder’?”

Cherry closed her eyes for a moment as she answered, “It’s the title that comes with the job. And with those dang shadows hunting us, pegasi around here are lucky if they make it to thirty five.”

“Oh…”

“So, Wind tells me that you are from the other world and are the descendant of Lightning Dash, and even told her the other half of his legend.”

Blushing slightly and unintentionally stroking the mane on the back of her head, Dash said, “That seems to be the case. Anyway, I was kinda hoping you know the part of the legend that mentions how Lightning went back to my world.”

Looking down, Cherry Blaze stared through the table, clearly deep in thought. When she brought herself to look Rainbow Dash in the eyes, she said, “After three hundred years, as you might guess, there are many versions of the story of Lightning Dash. The official versions contain nothing of that mater. But… there are some details that are only in the version shared with the paladins of the Sky Knights. I can not ask you to fight our war for us, but if you were to help us, we may be able to help you.”

A moment of silence followed as Rainbow Dash tried to decipher the request that had just been made. Truthfully she hated indirect questions. If somepony wanted something why couldn’t they just come out and say it?

“So… If I want to know the secret version of the story, you want me to become a paladin?”

“That would be the most helpful thing you could do.”

The fact that the mare with the rainbow mane had mentioned the possibility of becoming the paladin brought a sudden end to any kind of modesty in the room. All eyes fell on Dash, awaiting to hear her answer. Most had a certain glimmer in their eyes, especially the fillies’ and colts’ shimmered with a certain light, the light of hopes and dreams the likes of which Dash normally only saw in Scootaloo’s eyes. These ponies wanted a hero.

For the second time that day Rainbow Dash held herself back, resisting the urge to triumphantly announce that she would give them a hero. She closed her eyes and held herself still as she waited out her desired first response. And when she had felt herself calm she opened her eyes, put on a bold smile and simply said, “Alright, you have a deal.”

“Objection!”

The outburst made Rainbow Dash spin around, only to find the speaker a few feet behind her. Said speaker turned out to be a pegasus stallion with a white coat, blue mane and a silver vest that even included silver wing sheaths. His cutie mark was the image of a light-gray cloud with a silver sword embedded in it, as if it were a blade thrust tip first into the cloud and left to stand like a monument.

As he walked around her, toward Cherry Blaze, his gaze never left the ‘elder’ as he finished his complaint.

“You can not seriously expect me to hand over the sacred wing blades to a total stranger just because she has a rainbow mane!”

Even as he said it his wings flared, further showing the anger that could already be heard in his voice. And allowing Rainbow Dash a chance to admire how insanely sharp the leading edge of his metal-sheathed wings really looked. On top of that, even though they had the sheen of pure metal they flexed and warped with every minor motion of the stallion’s wings, only further drawing Dash’s attention to the odd fact that these ‘wing blades’ lacked joints. Even the tail end of the wing blades looked like a solid piece of metal that just happened to have engravings of feathers, and yet it seemed to move as freely as a naked wing.

“I’m not. I’m asking you to hand over the sacred wing blades and train her to be the paladin, because she has a rainbow mane and she’s the descendent of Lightning Dash and told us the missing half of his legend.”

Cherry’s response only drew a glare from the stallion. Yet she approached him adding, “Come now, I thought you’d be happy to hear that somepony else was willing to take up the sacred wing blades. After all, you’ve been trying to retire from the position of the paladin for what? A year now?”

The stallion only continued to glare at Cherry as she leaned in close to him and started whispering in his ear. While Dash couldn’t hear what she was saying, it didn’t seem to be helping, as his glare of disapproval only seemed to intensify, even to the point where she almost felt sorry for the unfortunate alabaster brick in the floor that happened to be at the end of his gaze.

When Cherry Blaze finished and took a step back, he looked up, gave her one last show of disapproval and said, “If she proves herself to me, I will do as you ask.”

Although the stallion had been looking at Cherry when he’d spoken when both he and Cherry looked to Rainbow Dash, the question on both their faces was clear. Never one to back down from a challenge Dash’s response might as well have been predestine.

“Fine. How?”

“A friendly sparing match. If you have the skill and the guts for it, follow me to the training yard.”

* * * * * * *

If an architect had been there, they might have pointed out that the ‘training yard’ was actually the keep’s inner courtyard. But there wasn’t so that technicality eluded Rainbow Dash. What she did see in the large rectangular area was the doors and windows all along the walls surrounding the enclosed yard and the overhangs sheltering the brick walkways along the parameter. Like elsewhere in the castle the brickwork here was all alabaster or marble bricks. The middle of the area was little more than a grassy field, under the open sky.

Hardly a moment after they’d entered the training yard the stallion, who had so far only been addressed as ‘Paladin’ gave a nod to another pegasus. In response said armor-clad mare turned to a small metal plate in the wall beside her. Opening the plate much like one would open a mail drop box, steam began to flow out of the vent.

Being a weather pegasus herself, there was no way Dash didn’t recognize the subtle ways that the mare by the vent was guiding the steam with her wing and brushing it with her hoof. The telltale signs of stabilizing steam into cloud.

The mare quickly handed off the newly minted cloud to another, who placed it in the yard, while resuming using the steam vent to make more clouds. And before long the training yard was covered in a layer of cloud, or since it was on the ground technically it was fog. A perfect padded mat for pegasi to train on.

Turning to Rainbow Dash, the paladin said, “Body hits only. Heads and wings are off limits.”

As he spoke he was releasing three silver clasps on his silver-mail vest, widening the neck hole enough to pull his armor off over his head. Flaring his wings forward he did just that, and in doing so proved that his armor and weapon were in fact one object.

After handing the sacred wing blades to one of his fellow sky knights the paladin trotted out onto the cloud field, and with a glance he made it clear he expected Rainbow Dash to do the same.

She quickly complied, flying to the opposite side of the training field and once she’d landed she flared her wings and lowered herself into a clear fighting stance.

The stallion widened his stance slightly but otherwise looked like he was still standing casually. After a moment of silence, he said, “First move is all yours, kid.”

That got an angry glare from Rainbow Dash. It also got a sly smile. Her karate teacher had started her first lesson the same way. She had charged, thrown a frontal punch, and found herself flat on her back on the mat in the blink of an eye. A mistake she wasn’t about to repeat here and now.

Dash charged with blinding speed, leaving a rainbow motion blur in her wake as she crossed the training field. Just before she reached her opponent she dug her front hooves into the clouds, swung her body around and lashed out with one of her back legs in a low sweeping kick.

The mare moved with extraordinary speed, the paladin gave her that much. On top of that she apparently wasn’t totally unschooled in the art of combat as her first move was to try and break his stance. Between her speed and choice of target he had no choice but to leap into the air and start flapping his wings.

As her opponent shot up to rooftop level, Dash made a mental note that apparently flying wasn’t out of bound for this contest. Given that her karate instructor had been an earth pony, the lessons hadn’t covered air to air combat. Not that it mattered. Being the best flyer in all of Equestria, she was sure she could improvise, especially in the air.

The mare with the rainbow mane took wing, and the paladin had to admit she was fast as she shot up toward him. Her front left hoof was outstretched, her eyes locked on his chest, making her intent to fly right into him clear.

Sliding to the side, he let her outstretched limb slip into the gap between his body and leg, and tightened his leg back to his side, grasping her leg firmly and twisted himself to throw her.

His plan didn’t quite work out, as she had apparently been ready for that move. The instant she felt his grip on one leg, she’d lashed out with the other to strike the limb that had grasped her and twisted herself in such a fashion as to pull herself free of the hold halfway through the throw. The end result being that she was sent spiraling upwards rather than down at the cloud mat.

As she came out of her tumble Rainbow Dash smiled. She was above her opponent now. Altitude was speed. Speed was power. Those were two of the rules written on the heart and survival instincts of every winged creature ever born. And now that she had that advantage she arched around and dove at her sparing partner.

As she dove at the hovering stallion, he coiled his front legs and tensed his wings. It was clear that he planed to slide to the side, and probably help her dive all the way into the mat below with a blow to her back.

Oh, no you don’t. I’m not giving up the altitude advantage that easy! Dash thought to herself. With a new plan in mind, she angled her dive steeper for a moment and then pulled out to charge at her target straight and level.

With a last second flap of his wings the paladin got to the side of Dash’s would-be tackle and extended his hoof, setting it right in the path of her hoof. The clop of two hoofs clashing rang out as she rushed past. The blow set him spinning like a ballerina, and sent her spinning like a fallen ice-skater.

Both recovered quickly. Both came out of their spins flapping their wings for all they were worth, rocketing upward. Dash angled into an intercept path with the paladin’s ascent, coiling her front legs like a boxer ready to give a few punches and jabs. Once she’d closed the distance she threw her first punch.

The stallion matched her and once again the clash of hoofs rang out. The strike repelled the two from each other, yet they arched around and went at each other again and again, striking and bouncing off of each other with each revolution of their spiral ascent.

They continued higher and higher, matching each other move for move. Once they had several thousand feet on the castle they finally broke into a hover. Both were breathing heavily as they settled into their unspoken truce.

Rainbow Dash wore a small smile on her face. Sure, she hadn’t won yet, but she hadn’t allowed the stallion to land a hit on her either. Holding out this long had to have proven she wasn’t some pushover.

The look on the paladin’s face remained impassive. At least it did until he realized that Rainbow Dash’s form had no shadows. With that his surprise showed quite clearly as he looked to the horizon and confirmed that the sun had indeed set.

Following the stallion’s eyes, Rainbow Dash looked to the skies around them. There amidst the purple twilight skies she too saw the hundreds of black forms flying toward them.

The stallion took one look at his unburdened wings and said, “The light of the sacred wing blades is our best weapon against them!” And with that he dove toward the castle below as quickly as he could.

Somewhere in the back of Rainbow Dash’s mind was a thousand numbers that her waking mind could never hope to comprehend. Fortunately she didn’t have to, as her subconscious was more than happy to give her conscious mind a simplified report that boiled down to three observations. And those observations were something like, approximate time for the shadow pegasi to reach the castle 40 seconds, approximate time for paladin to reach the castle 20 seconds, it takes me about 20 seconds to put on something with wing sleeves.

Then another thought struck her. She’s already seen that the shadows weren’t bothered by normal sunlight. Yet, the paladin’s words seemed to imply that light could be used as a weapon against the shadow pegasi. Did that mean magic light?

A grin found its way onto her face, and she spoke softly to the wind, “Worth a shot. Worst that could happen is I show them the mother of all flash-bangs.” And with that she pumped her wings and shot off even higher into the sky.

The paladin was halfway to the castle before he notice that the mare wasn’t following him to the relative safety of the keep. A glance over his shoulder not only confirmed the lonely feeling but informed him that she was not only not diving for cover but she was ascending even higher into the sky. Although his words were lost in the rushing winds around him he muttered, “Dang mare, what’s she thinking? Dang paladin’s code, I have to protect the innocent. I swear, she’s going to be the death of me.”

As he dove back into the training yard he shouted, “Wing blades! Now!”

There was no hesitation from the pony who had been holding onto the silver vest with bladed wing-sleeves in tossing it into his path. Tucking his head between his front legs, the paladin shot into the opening at the bottom of the vest. Having to fold his wings he also tucked himself into a ball and hit the cloud mat rolling. Even as he rolled across the field he managed to get his front legs and head through the right holes. And despite being made of metal the vest stretched as he moved, aiding him in his attempts to get his wings into the wing sleeves.

It took two seconds of rolling before he was able to bounce back up and open his wings, now clad in the stretchy silver. Kicking down on the clouds he leapt back into the air with enough force to evaporate that corner of the cloud mat.

As he ascended the paladin made two observations. First, the mare was finally diving down toward the castle. Not that it mattered anymore because, second, the forward shadow pegasi were already in castle airspace and the bulk of the enemy forces would be here in time to cut her off before she could ever hope of getting down into the defensible spaces of the castle.

As far as he could foresee the only way that crazy mare survived was if he gave the shadow pegasi an even more tempting target to chase. Fixing his wings as he flew between two of the early arrivals, the wing blades glowed with a soft white light and they cleaved through the two shadows, leaving radiant white scares in their forms. Scars that spread and grew as the two shadows dissolved into specks of light, only for those too to flicker out of existence a moment later.

“Two down… Two hundred to go,” he moaned, fixing his eyes on the approaching ring of enemy forces about to envelop the skies over the castle.

The wind roared its complaint at the mare pushing through it at incredible speed. A roar that Rainbow Dash was all too accustom to, thanks to years of trying to figure out how she’d made the impossible happen. And so she ignored it as she shot through the sky like a falling meteor. The cone of air coming off of her leading hooves had become so compressed that the water vapor in it had become a visible line of super thin cloud.

Below her, many shadow pegasi were rushing upwards to intercept the mare painting a rainbow streak in the sky.

Dash pushed herself even faster. The natural pegasus magic trying to protect her from the rigors of flight fought with the air resistance trying to rip her less than perfectly aerodynamic form apart, causing her normally unseen pegasus shield to manifest as crackles of lightning within the cone of compressed air.

The ring of shadow pegasi was closing beneath her, many readying themselves to toss their dark ropes into her path.

The cone of compressed air around Rainbow closed in even tighter and the sparks of lightning took on a prismatic hue.

At least six shadow pegasi threw their ropes, ready to lasso their target.

Then the sky exploded.

At the center of the phenomenon any shadow pegasus that had been too close to newly born flare evaporated instantly. The shadows further out that got caught in the prismatic shockwave racing across the sky met a fate not too unlike the ones that had be cut by the wing blades, and dissolved into sparkling mists that shimmered for a moment before flickering out. Only the few shadow pegasi far enough away to dodge the shockwave were able to escape, most slipping into the forest or fleeing for distant skies.

The paladin (and most everypony in the castle below) could only stare into the first sonic rainboom their world had ever seen. Even as the radiant flare faded and the prismatic ring of light soon followed he could only hover in place staring at the point that had shown like a miniature sun in the twilight sky only a moment ago.

“Heh, that worked better then I expected. Guess I’m more awesome then I thought!” Rainbow Dash said as she came to a hover beside the paladin.

The mare’s cheer finally snapped the paladin out of his daze. Turning slowly to look at her, he could only manage to ask, “What, was, that?”

Chapter 2: The Waters of Night and Day

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

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

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

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

Dong! Dong! Dong!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What about you?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Okay…” Dash muttered.

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

“Incoming!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What the hay was that?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I know.”

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

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

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

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

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

* * * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gale gave a small smile. “Thank you.”

* * * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

Clouds…

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

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

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

The door was answered by the purple unicorn in question.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 3: Weather Pony

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Another sunrise brought another attack to Liberty Castle. But as nice as a chance to practice a wing-based combat style on real opponents was, the new and dangerous norm to Rainbow Dash’s life wasn’t the interesting thing that happened that day.

That began after her training session with the paladin was over.

“Miss Dash?” Cloud Sword said, as he was helping her back to her hooves.

“Yeah?”

Cloud brushed his hoof along the clouds the way ponies do when they don’t want to say what they are about to say. “As much as we appreciate your willingness to fight by our side, the elder asked me to find something productive for you to do during the day.” Then quickly motioning for Storm Gale to join them, he added, “You too.”

Gale nodded solemnly. And yet the idea of having something to distract herself sparked a small flash of life in her eyes.

Dash raised an eyebrow. What, agreeing to risk her life wasn’t good enough?

Apparently her thoughts showed as Cloud Sword added, “Sky knights do other work between dawn and dusk. And even the foals tend to do what they can to help, usually by helping at the gardens.”

“Fine, what did you want me to do?”

“I’m not sure. What are you good at?”

“Aside from being the most awesome flyer in all of Equestria? Let’s see… I’m a top notch athlete, and I make a pretty good coach.”

“We’re a little too busy trying to stay alive to have sports teams.”

“Right umm… Does being the lead weather pony in Ponyville count?”

“Weather pony?” Cloud said, as if amused by term.

With cheeks flushed, Dash lowered her ears and muttered, “Guess not.”

“Actually that is useful. After the events of Lightning Dash the pegasi who remained had been focused on survival for so long that the ancient art of weather control was basically lost. We’ve been struggling to relearn that lost art ever since.”

Reaching out and pulling Gale to her side, Rainbow Dash said, “Then this is your lucky day! Gale here is also on the weather team! So now you have two pegasi who can help teach you!”

Gale blushed slightly.

“I don’t know. I just do the job. I’ve never taught anypony how to be a weather pony before,” she whispered.

The captain of Ponyville’s weather team kept a clearly forced smile on her face as she whispered back, “Nether have I. But it can’t be all that different from coaching sports. So just follow my lead.”

With a thoughtful nod Cloud Sword said, “Good, then perhaps you can help our other crazy er-… new addition.”

With that Cloud led the two mares away from the training yard. Naturally, as they went through the keep Rainbow Dash had a question for the paladin.

“Why did you say crazy before you interrupted yourself?”

“Ah yes, long story short, ever now and then the opportunity presents itself for us to raid one of the Summoner’s prisons. Having suffered through constant drainings at the hooves of the Summoner’s minions, not all of the ponies we rescue are still sane by the time we get them out. Sadly, it’s relatively common for that insanity to take the form of claming to be from the world of legend, even by those that we know for a fact were born here, in our world.”

The paladin took a moment to pause and breathe a sigh.

“Yes, that makes since. Lately we’ve had a distinct increase in the numbers of rescued ponies who claim to be from Equestria. You’ll have to forgive me, but it only dawned on me as I was speaking that, given your appearance, perhaps that stallion might not be crazy after all.” With a shake of his head he added, “Regardless, he’s proven a great help showing us better ways of making storm clouds… Now if only we had somepony who knew how to use them better.”

A confident grin appeared on Dash’s face as the paladin led them down into the keep’s basement level. Being captain of the weather team and all, she was pretty good as weather work. And by that she meant the best in Ponyville, and given the sorry, unmanaged state of the weather she’d seen around here probably the best this world had ever seen too.

Soon the trio of ponies came to a simple wooden door that looked just like most of the other doors in the keep. However, unlike the other doors, the sound of machinery could be heard behind this one.

Not even bothering to knock, Cloud Sword pushed the door open. Inside was a room with several boilers, pressure valves, water tanks and the like. If not for the stone walls it might have reminded Rainbow Dash of the weather factory rain-cloud room back in Cloudsdale. Aside from the machines there were also four ponies in the room. Two mares and a stallion were lined up in the middle of the room, hanging their heads in shame.

The fourth pony was a stallion with a gray coat and snow-white mane. His cutie mark looked remarkably like a weather map. At the moment he was commenting on the quality of the three’s work rather harshly.

“You call that rain? That’s the sorriest rain I’ve seen in my life! No wonder you’ve got a drought out there!” he shouted, pointing a hoof to a line of three dark rain clouds, one of which could be said to be drizzling while the other two weren’t shedding a drop.

“Mister Weatherright?”

Responding to the name the stallion looked to the rainbow mare who’d spoken it.

“You look familiar, missy. I know you, don’t I?”

“It’s me, Rainbow Dash! The Ponyville weather captain!”

“Well if it isn’t my little rainbow renegade,” he said with a smile. “Actually this is perfect! I’ve been trying to teach these ponies how to set up a respectable weather operation here. They’re catching on to how to make weather clouds okay enough.” With another glance to the storm clouds in the middle of the room he added, “Deploying them, not so much. Perhaps a field weather pony like yourself will have better luck teaching them basic weather manipulation.”

“Sure thing chief! But what are you doing here! How long have you been here?” Dash asked of the current owner and chief of the Cloudsdale weather factory.

At first he placed a hoof on his chin. “I’m not sure, about a month I think, the first few weeks were kind of blurry,” he answered, a shiver running down his spine at that last part.

Dash’s jaw dropped.

“A month! But I didn’t even know you were missing! How does the head of the biggest weather factory in the world go missing for a month, and no pony mention it!”

Weatherright chuckled.

“I’ll let you in on a rather commonly known secret. The key to owning a successful company is to set it up to work with as little input from you as necessary. They really only need me if some major disaster comes up… Well that and payroll. But if there hasn’t been a revolt at the weather factory, that probably means my secretary is forging my signature on the pay checks so everypony can get paid on time despite my absence.”

He shrugged the latter thought off, before finishing, “Well good for her. Anyway if you’re here to whip these sorry excuses for weather ponies into shape, have at it. Trust me, they could use every bit of help you can give them.”

With a nod and a confident smile the mare with the rainbow mane turned to her new recruits.

With her Coach Dash voice, she said, “Listen up! If we’re going to be practicing our rain set ups, then the first thing we’re going to do is take these bad boys outside to the gardens.”

* * * * * * *

“This is terrible!” the yellow pegasus with a pink mane whispered.

“She’s not home is she, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not only is Rainbow Dash not home, but Tank said she didn’t come home the night before last either!”

“Did Rainbow tell Tank where she was going?”

“No!” Fluttershy practically wept. “She didn’t even leave him an extra large bowl of food! The poor guy had to fend for himself for a whole day!” After taking a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes, the yellow pegasus added, “I’m going to take Tank back to my place for now… If that’s okay with everypony.”

“I’m sure Rainbow would appreciate that.”

With that Fluttershy flew back into the cloud house floating over head and soon emerged with the only pet tortoise in town that had a helicopter-pack strapped to its shell. Doing her best to comfort the reptile as she guided him toward her place. Although in truth she was probably more worried about the pet’s owner than the tortoise was.

Back on the ground Twilight Sparkle and the town mayor shared a concerned look.

“This isn’t right,” Twilight said. “In the very first conversation I had with Rainbow Dash, she said she’d never leave Ponyville hanging. She proved herself to be the spirit of loyalty, there’s no way she’d leave her job, Ponyville, and her pet hanging like this.”

The mayor nodded.

“Agreed. She might not be the most punctual pony in the world, but Rainbow Dash always got the job done before. It’s certainly not like her to skip town without arranging for somepony to cover for her. So what exactly are you going to do, Miss Twilight?”

“First I’m going to check with my other friends, and search the town. If I haven’t found her in an hour, I’ll organize search parties to look for her with a broader search area.”

* * * * * * *

Lunchtime found Rainbow Dash sitting with Storm Gale at a small table off to the side of the mess hall. The clatter of cups, plates and bowls constantly being shifted by the ponies eating off of them kept their conversation between the two of them despite the crowed setting.

“…I still can’t believe I’m the second most skilled weather pony in this place,” Gale said. “They really have been running their weather on nothing but raw instinct for a long time haven’t they?”

“Really looks that way.”

After taking another swig of her carrot and potato stew, Dash noticed the look Cloud Sword was giving her from across the room and she quickly added, “Don’t suppose you’re ready to take over the weather lessons?”

“Already?” Gale blinked. “You think I’m ready for that?”

“Of course! Like you said, you’re practically an expert weather pony compared to them.”

With a glance at the scorched tip of her tail, Dash added, “Just promise me you’ll make them practice their aim an hour a day until they can hit the broadside of a barn with their lightning kicks.”

To that Gale laughed, and beamed the first true smile to grace her face since she’d arrived in this castle.

“Sure thing! I won’t let you down!”

Dash gulped down the last of her stew.

“Great! Now if you’ll excuse me, I think sword-guy wants to talk to me.”

Despite her choice of words, Rainbow Dash didn’t actually wait to be excused before getting up and walking away from the table.

With little more than a nod of his head as the mare approached, Cloud Sword led the way out and once the noise of the dinning hall was behind them he spoke.

“You’re a dangerously perceptive one, aren’t you?”

“I kinda got the impression that you meant for me to be doing Sky Knight stuff. And judging from how bad those recruits were at it, I’m guessing Sky Knights don’t fly weather patrol.”

A grim smirk flashed on Cloud’s face for a moment.

“I doubt anypony from around here has truly ‘flown weather patrol’ in over three hundred years. That said, you are correct. I intend you to accompany me on my tasks for the time being.”

“Alright, what are we doing?”

“Have you heard the stories of the waters of night and day?”

“That glowy water in the fountain? Yeah, I’ve heard one story.”

“Well for our purposes, the important part is the bit about the places where the tears of the sun and moon mingled became springs of the waters of night and day.”

Opening a door in the hall Cloud showed his student a storeroom from which he pulled two sets of small barrels connected by saddlebag straps.

“Our fountain is not such a spring. And as you can imagine, having ponies splashing about in it during our twilight battles, we lose a fair amount every day. So it’s up to the Sky Knights to leave the relative safety of the castle and bring back more from the springs.”

With that, Cloud Sword tossed one set to Rainbow Dash, while fastening another set onto himself.

* * * * * * *

Fetching water. The grand and glorious mission of the Sky Knights was fetching water. Magic water that could glow brighter than any floodlight, true, but still it was fetching water. Whatever dreams of adventure and true glory she’d had faded from Rainbow Dash’s mind as they flew northeast, away from Liberty Castle.

Between the wing guards that only copied the major joints of the wing and the gallon-sized barrels right behind her wings to say her flying was uncomfortable and encumbered was an understatement.

“So where are we headed?” she asked, trying to get her mind focused on something else.

Cloud pointed to a mountain range ahead of them, if this had been Equestria they would have been the Foal Mountains, but when he spoke his answer was, “Foal Peaks.”

“Is that really the closest spring?”

“Oh no, it’s far from the closest, but there’s always an ambush waiting at the ones closer to Liberty Castle. The springs out at Foal Peaks only seem to be patrolled by the shadow pegasi from time to time. With any luck we won’t even get noticed while we’re out here.”

They neared the mountains flying low. Truthfully their whole flight had been well below what Rainbow Dash would have considered normal cruising altitude. Regardless, this meant they now had to fly a measured assent as they flew up the sides of the mountains. Cloud clearly wanted to stay more or less fifty feet above the ground.

Soon they came over a ridge and Dash spotted a plateau that had a small lake on it. Sure enough Cloud Sword descended toward the seemingly normal pond. It really wasn’t until they’d landed right next to it that she could see the odd sheen that set this spring apart form a normal pond.

The paladin wasted no time pulling the corks out of his barrels, wading into the waters and then using his wings to push the small kegs down enough to start filling. It didn’t take much longer for Rainbow Dash to follow his example. And soon after the tiny whirlpools faded, signaling that the barrels were full. They quickly returned the corks to their kegs and after a quick shake to get the water off of their wings and coats they left.

Although they’d barely left the spring when they heard a faint, high-pitched noise.

“What that a scream?” Dash asked.

Scanning the ground below, she’d already found a mountain pass not far away. And a little over a thousand feet down that pass she spotted a yellow unicorn and three shadow pegasi.

Seeing as the unicorn was doing her best to scamper away from the dark figures, Rainbow Dash didn’t even think twice about saying, “We have to help her!” and rushing forward to do just that.

“Of course, but… Wait!” Cloud Sword called out. “The trap is for us,” he added grumbling, knowing that at her speed she could only hear the rush of the wind now. “She’s going to be the death of me yet,” he added to the wind before rushing forward himself.

“Why are you doing this…” the yellow unicorn with the faded pink mane whimpered as the dark lasso around her hind legs dragged her back toward the shadow pegasi.

Her words fell on deaf ears. Or rather mute lips, as even she knew that the creatures created by the shadow pegasus spell couldn’t speak. No, they were nothing more than puppets of the Summoner, agents of the Summoner’s will with little or maybe even no ability to think for themselves, let alone engage in something as cognitively challenging as a conversation.

Rainbow Dash’s hoof gave one of the shadow pegasi a new cognitive challenge as it was sent sailing by the flying kick she’d used to announce her presence on the mountain pass.

With the other end of the rope released the unicorn used the slack to free herself from the dark lasso.

At just about that same moment, Cloud Sword caught up, making his presence known by thrusting the wing blades into the back of one of the shadows as he came down hard on it. With the first one dissolving into specks of light, he charged at the one Dash had clobbered.

Rainbow Dash had just ducked under a swing from the remaining shadow and swung back with one of her armor-clad wings.

And that was the moment the other thirty or so shadows stepped out from their hiding places, leaving the three flesh and blood ponies suddenly surrounded.

“Oh wow! That’s a lot!” Dash couldn’t help but say.

Rolling his eyes, Cloud responded, “That’s usually how these traps go.”

Jumping into action, Rainbow Dash charged one way, while Cloud Sword struck out in the other. Both doing what they could to keep the fighting away from the unicorn in the middle of the ring of hostile shadows.

The two pegasus ponies fought valiantly. The paladin cutting down the shadows with the sacred wing blades as quickly as he could. Dash quickly realizing that no matter how hard she kicked and punched the shadow magic given form didn’t have bones to break, so the best she could do was knock them down and leave them dazed for a few seconds.

Although both did what they could to dodge the energy draining snares of the shadow pegasi’s lassos, still outnumbered at least ten-to-one, it was only a matter of time before one snagged Dash’s back left leg.

Even as she gave out a gasp, she tried to fight the sudden feeling of weariness as the energy was ripped out of her body. Despite that effort, the physical yank of the dark rope was able to topple her.

Yet, even as the blue pegasus hit the ground, a rock slammed into the face of the shadowy one on the other end of the rope, causing it to drop said rope.

The instant she felt the slack on her leg, Rainbow Dash curled up so she could bite the infernal rope and pulled it off as quickly as she could. And with the dark rope’s removal she felt some of her energy return to her, leaving her feeling only slightly more tired then she had been before it had touched her in the first place.

Naturally, her first reaction to see why the shadow pegasus had dropped its end of the rope. That led her to follow the gaze of several of the shadows back to the unicorn and the three hoof-sized rocks floating beside her, wrapped in an orange aura.

With little more than an angry glare, the yellow unicorn joined the fight and sent the stones flying at several of her attackers.

It didn’t take more then a second or two of being pelted by rocks before the shadows acted with a strange uniformity, all jumping backwards at once and then the purple glow that passed for their eyes flared all at the same time. With that pules of magic the area was suddenly wrapped in a fog.

To a pegasus moving in a fog was like being underwater, only you didn’t need to worry about breathing. Of course to an athletic pegasus like Rainbow Dash, pushing her way through the ground-level cloud that her natural pegasus magic wanted to treat like a solid object was an easy feat. She even gave a few quick jabs as she attuned her mind to help her body treat the fog as a liquid rather than the solid it usually treated clouds as.

“My magic!”

The cry had come from the unicorn. The once strong glow of her magic now flickered erratically, and the rocks she’d held aloft a second ago had fallen back to the ground.

“The fog is blocking my magic!”

“I guess they didn’t like you throwing rocks,” Cloud Sword said.

Magic… That word lingered in Dash’s mind. Her eyes slowly widened as a wicked and terrifying thought entered her mind. Maybe it was the vicious nature of this world, maybe it was the battles she’d already fought here, and maybe it was getting to her. Whatever the reason, the revelation came in all it simplistic glory.

She was a weather pegasus standing in a cloud.

The implications of that thought struck her to her core, and though her body couldn’t move, her heart trembled at her sudden understanding of what she was. Of what all pegasus ponies could be.

The snare of a shadow pegasus’ rope came flying at her from the side.

Rainbow Dash’s response was to jab a hoof in that direction.

Thunder boomed.

Lightning flashed.

The dark rope and the shadow who’d thrown it evaporated as the lightning bolt tore the both of them in half.

The clatter of hooves and flapping of wings of the battle came to a sudden halt. All eyes turned to the lightning-struck shadow pegasus. Its remnants were evaporating like ribbons of steam above a boiling pot of water.

The fog was thick enough, that Rainbow Dash could only see ten feet tops. But that was enough for her eyes to find a dozen shadow pegasi in the arc of space before her.

While everypony else stood motionless, still trying to figured out where the freak lighting bolt had come from, Dash reared up and began jabbing her front hooves in the air before her.

Thunder roared like a passing freight train, Lightning flashed like the cameras in a packed stadium, and in the span of a second the blue weather pegasus struck down all of the shadows in a thirty degree arc in front of her.

In the next second the revelation spread and the paladin also reared up. Although he only managed to get three shots off before the eyes of the shadow pegasi flared once more and the fog dissipated. Clearly one unicorn throwing rocks was preferable to two pegasi throwing lightning.

But it was too little too late. The damage had been done, in those two fateful seconds the lightning had torn through the majority of the shadows. The few that remained abandon their primary weapon and charged blindly at the paladin. Cloud Sword was more then willing to cut them down with the sacred wing blades.

The dust settled, and only two pegasi and a unicorn remained on the mountain pass. Thanks was given, pleasantries were exchanged and the groups went their separate ways.

On the way back, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but retell the tale of what had just happened in a heroic light, although in truth she was more trying to clam her own mind and justify to herself the first time she’d ever kicked lightning with hostile intent.

So far her smile hide her heart’s inner turmoil. But the stallion, who she figured had a real reason to be happy, only frowned and stared blankly ahead.

“Come on, cheer up! The good guys won, and the bad guys got their flanks kicked! Am I right?”

“That’s just it. I’ve lost seven good knights is battles like that, and not once did it occur to any of us to try to kick lightning in the fog.” Slowly he shook his head. “I let seven good ponies die, because I was too stupid to think I could use something other than the sacred wing blades to fight the shadows. Too stupid to realized that a pegasus among the clouds is a living weapon!”

That was not the response she’d been hoping for. She’d hoped for a pat on the back, a justification that the thought to use lightning aggressively for the first time in her life had made her the hero of the hour. And yet, the paladin’s lament gave her pause and lightened the guilt in her heart with irony. Yes, how ironic was it that she felt guilty because she’d actually thought to use a pegasus’ natural abilities to fight and he was feeling guilty because he hadn’t? Here she was, a pony who’d lived in a peaceful world all her life and she was the one to have such a violent idea spawn in her mind. And there he was, a pony who’d grown up in a world that forced him to fight for survival every day of his life, and he was miserable because he didn’t do the same. Honestly, she wasn’t sure who was the worse pony.

Dash’s eyes fell to scan the ground far below. Brown and gray dominated the rolling foothills below. Maybe a hundred yards or so on either side of a small river was still green in the otherwise drought-stricken land. This was a land of suffering and pain, and it needed hope. Only problem was there weren’t many hopeful things she could think to say. But finally she looked back up and answered.

“It wasn’t all your fault you know. They didn’t think of the way to save themselves either.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind she couldn’t help but think. ‘No wonder the pegasus tribe was a tribe of warriors, among the clouds we ARE living weapons.’

Cloud Sword only nodded. Maybe he even faked a smile for a fraction of a second too.

And with that the two flew on in silence.

Chapter 4: Test of the Blade

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Dawn brought with it another battle and as much as she would hate to admit it, Rainbow Dash found it normal enough that it wouldn’t have even warranted more than a line in her journal. Not that she was keeping a journal, but if she were that morning would have been a lot like a Daring Do line.

There was one thing that had caught her eye though. One of the pegasi who had been manning the fountain that morning was a filly of school-pony age. Her fur was blue. Her mane and tail were a purplish red. (Although a pony like Rarity would have called that color burgundy.) The filly’s eyes were the same rose color as Rainbow Dash’s. But more then that, every lick in the filly mane and tail, every subtle feature of her face reminded her of Scootaloo. And given the apparent nature of this world, she couldn’t help but wonder if that blue filly was this world’s version of her newly christened honorary sister.

However, more important things like breakfast and training with Cloud Sword prevented Dash from investigating the idea further.

Which brought her back to the oddities of the here and now.

Namely the training yard lacked the usual cloud mat for them to spar on this morning. On top of that the only other pony seemed to be Cloud Sword, making this the first time Rainbow Dash could remember having the training yard all to themselves. But the biggest oddity was Cloud’s greeting.

“You won’t need that,” he said, motioning to her armor.

That was new. Removing her armor made her wings flinch, thanks to the lingering soreness of using them as makeshift hooves to punch shadows with during that morning’s battle. Pulling the armored vest over her head and backing out she felt the weight slide off of her wings and torso. And with that sudden loss of weight she realized that she hadn’t taken off the armor since she’d first received it, even sleeping in it.

The sudden loss of twenty pounds of armor tickled her instincts. The call of the air whispered in her ear, tempting her to give in to her athletic side and once again become the fastest thing in the sky, even if only for a minute.

An upward glance reminded her that such innocent and playful ideas were forbidden in THIS sky.

“No mat, no armor. Does that mean my training is finished?”

“Not even close,” Cloud Sword answered with a laugh. “However, given recent events I think it’s time you take the most important test before we continue your training as paladin.”

“Okay, so what kinda test is that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the realization that the paladin was removing the sacred wing blades for only the second time since she’d met him.

“One of the reasons we know the sacred wing blades are a holy artifact is because they can be a little picky about who wares them. Twice during the age of peace that followed Lighting Dash’s adventures thieves tried to steal the wing blades and it was the wing blades themselves that stopped them.”

“The first would-be thief was shocked into submission. The Sky Knights found him twitching on the floor. The wing blades shocking him back into submission every time he tried to get back up, until the Sky Knights had taken them off of him.”

“The second thief turned out to also be a murderer. When she put on the sacred wing blades the lightning that came forth from the wing blades reduced her to ionized ash. Needless to say, after that we all understood that the sacred wing blades don’t like criminally minded ponies.”

At this point in his speech, Cloud gave the wing blades to Rainbow Dash.

“While we’ve never had the wing blades strike down a good pony, every once in a blue moon, a Sky Knight will dawn the sacred wing blades only to find that they withhold their magic from them. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are a good pony, but what I think of you doesn’t matter, only what the sacred wing blades think of you matters,” he added as he walked over to a weapon rack, where he retrieved a short sword.

Rainbow Dash held the folded armor with bladed wings on her hoof. Great, the vary morning after what she considered her greatest moral failing, she was being asked to let a magic artifact judge her heart. And now that she thought about it there was that one time she tried to steal that Daring Do book from the hospital… Did attempted theft count? Of course, she was totally going to sneak the book back into the hospital once she was done reading it.

On the other hoof she was the spirit of loyalty, and if these wing blades couldn’t get along with a spirit of harmony they clearly didn’t deserve to be called ‘sacred.’

Eventually her moment of hesitation came to an end and she pulled the silver vest over her head. As the vest came to her torso she pushed her wings into the bladed sleeves. With that done and no apparent reaction from the wing blades, she finally buckled the clasps on the front. With the wing blades secure, Rainbow Dash waited for some sign…

“So… what now?” she asked, when none came.

“Most of the sacred wing blades’ magics are passive in nature,” Cloud answered. “My apologies up front if this doesn’t work.”

At first she raised an eyebrow in confusion. It wasn’t until she saw the muscles in his neck tense up that she realized what her instructor was planning on doing with that sword in his mouth. And with no time to react he thrust the blade at the cutie mark on her flank.

Just before the blade hit her, a film of blue light appeared, blocking the blade’s path as if a unicorn had cast a shield spell just above Dash’s fur. Although the blade clearly slowed, the wall of light shattered and the blade pushed through, cutting into her flesh. And though the cut was shallow it was enough to draw a yip of pain from mare, who instinctively jumped away from the surprise attack.

“WHAT THE HEY? You didn’t even try to hold back! You could’ve really hurt me!”

“And yet, here you stand with little more than a scratch.”

The stallion’s response instantly deflated Rainbow Dash’s ire.

“You-you knew?”

“Well I wasn’t actually expecting the protective magic to be that strong. But I was expecting that.”

Cloud’s words were accompanied by him pointing to the red line that had formed on the white fur that was the cloud of Dash’s cutie mark.

A solitary drop of blood had escaped the cut. And despite being only seconds old the cut was already pressing itself closed enough to stop the bleeding, quickly becoming little more than a red line in the middle of her cutie mark.

“The healing powers of the sacred wing blades are the most basic magic that they share. Those who become more attuned to the wing blades are often granted other magics, like that protective spell that weakens the force of incoming blows even beyond the reach of the armored vest.” With a smile Cloud Sword added, “The sacred wing blades must really like you if they’re giving you that up front. Took a week before they started doing that for me.”

Dash watched silently as the cut slowly began to shrink in length, allowing Cloud to continue.

“I’ve personally seen broken bones heal in a day thanks to the sacred wing blades. Needless to say, a shallow cut won’t last long.”

True to his words the cut lasted little more then a minute. And once the last of the red line vanished into healthy skin even the droplet of blood staining Rainbow Dash’s fur suddenly dried and crumbled into dust in the span of a few seconds, leaving no trace of the wound that had been inflicted on her flank.

Rubbing a hoof over the former wound Dash felt nothing but the faint memory of pain.

“Cool, so this means I passed the test, right?”

“Indeed it does. Congratulations, Novice Paladin Rainbow Dash.” Then he added, “Now all that remains is to finish your training to the point that I don’t think I’m sending you to your death with no hope of victory.”

* * * * * * *

An orange pegasus filly with the reddish-purple mane (that a pony like Rarity would call violet.) sat fidgeting as she waited for the adults in the room to address her again.

The room in question was the basement in the Ponyville Library. At the moment several sciencey things were pushed to the edges to make room for the magic array that Twilight Sparkle had set up in the middle. Chalk markings on the floor had created a fancy ring with all kinds of runic symbols. Several crystals were positioned around the array. On a table off to the side there were some flasks and beakers filled with liquids of various colors.

As for the adults in the room, they consisted of Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight, who was currently mixing several of the potion-like substances on the worktable.

“Scootaloo, do you have it?”

There was the filly’s cue. Scootaloo pushed her muzzle into her wing. Safely tucked away among her own orange feathers was a single blue feather that was slightly too big to belong to a filly of her age. “Of course!” she said, as she pulled the blue feather out and presented it to Twilight Sparkle.

“And you’re certain that this feather came from Rainbow Dash, and not some other blue pegasus?”

“I saw Rainbow Dash shed it myself, when she was doing stunts over the park. I didn’t even let it hit the ground before I snagged it!”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the overly defensive tone of Scootaloo’s response.

“It’s alright, I believe you. I just wanted to make sure. The reagents for a locator spell of this caliber aren’t exactly easy to come by, and I just don’t want to waste all this effort.”

With that, the purple glow of Twilight’s magic levitated the feather from Scootaloo’s grasp and brought it over to a small mixing bowl. Dropping the feather into the glass bowl, the liquid inside turned from brown to green. And when the unicorn added some black yet glossy pedals, the contents of the bowl turned orange. Finally she added what looked to be red berries of some kind and the liquid began to bubble for a moment before turning pure white.

The purple aura of Twilight’s magic surrounded the bowl and levitated it over to the runic drawing on the floor, where she poured a little bit of the liquid on each of the crystals in the array. In turn each crystal lit up, glowing it’s own color and slowly creating a prismatic light by the time all of the gemstones were aglow.

Twilight poured the last of the liquid on the triangle-shaped crystal in the middle and returned the empty bowl to its table. Taking her place at the edge of the array she focused magic into her horn one more time.

As the light around the unicorn’s horn flared the light from the crystals began flow into the chalk markings, causing the entire array to shine. A beam of white light shot up off the top of the crystal in the middle, stopping a few feet above the floor. That light then opened up, becoming a ring. In the center of that ring more light gathered, as if being pulled in out of the ether, becoming a disc of light. The disc of light pulsed brightly three times and then vanished.

Twilight’s mouth fell agape.

The awestruck observers in the room slowly took their eyes away from the empty space that the light show had occupied. Though it took several seconds before anypony put the growing concern on all their minds to words, Pinkie Pie being the one to do so.

“So… Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

With the ice broken by the earth pony whose fur and mane were as pink as her name implied a mummer of similar responses came from the others.

“I… I don’t understand,” was what Twilight said to answer them.

“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” asked the orangeish-tan earth pony with a blond mane and a brown cowboy hat.

Given Twilight’s lack of a prompt response the white unicorn with a long purple mane spoke up instead.

“Isn’t it obvious, Applejack? The spell didn’t work right. Am I right, darling?”

“That’s just it Rarity. I’ve never seen a locator spell just fizzle out like that. It’s like… It’s like the spell thinks Rainbow Dash is just… gone.”

Twilight’s response brought a gasp and a hush to the room.

“When you say ‘gone,’ ya don’t mean…” Applejack couldn’t even being herself to finish the question.

The purple unicorn at the center of everypony’s attention closed her eyes for a moment.

“No. If she was dead, the spell would have shown us the location of her corpse.”

“It wasn’t a Rainbow Dash feather, was it?” Applejack asked with an accusing look.

“Was too!”

“I’m fairly sure Scootaloo is telling the truth. The spell should have shown us the source of the feather no matter where it came from. So the fact that is showed us nothing tells us that something strange is going on. Needless to say Rainbow Dash’s mysterious absence seems to match that circumstance.”

“What else does nothing mean?” Pinkie Pie’s question brought several odd looks her way. “Well she just said the spell showing us nothing meant it was Rainbow Dash’s feather! So nothing can mean something!”

“That’s… actually correct. Let me think.”

With that Twilight brought a hoof to her chin. And for a moment the master magic user muttered more or less to herself.

“What would cause the spell to fail…hmm…”

After a moment Twilight returned her gaze to her friends.

“Okay, I can only think of two reasons why the locator spell would show us nothing. The first being that the target was out of the range of the spell, however the spell I cast was strong enough that it should have shown us where Rainbow was anywhere in the world. So we can dismiss that possibility outright.”

“The second being that she is behind a magic ward.”

“A magic ward?”

“Yes. Simply put it’s a type of spell that blocks other forms of magic. I remember learning about them because the restricted section of the Canterlot archives have such magic wards to prevent remote sensing spells from viewing what’s inside. Those same wards would block a locator spell from sensing a pony who happened to be in the archive at the time you cast the spell.”

Rarity shook her head slightly.

“All due respect, darling. But I think we all know Rainbow Dash well enough to say she wouldn’t abandon her duties and friends for days on end for a trip to a library.”

“Agreed. But somepony could place a magic ward anywhere. On top of that, if a ward is left up and unchallenged, it can last hundreds of years. So it’s not all that impossible to find a magic ward protecting a place that has long since lost its significance. Add to that places like the Everfree forest that have wild magics that could interfere and there might even be a chance that Rainbow Dash doesn’t even know she’s in a place that magic can’t be used to find her.”

Chapter 5: The Shadow of Light

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

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

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

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

So far Rainbow Dash had yet to win.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No such ill fortune befell her this time.

The guard continued down the hall and out of sight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cloud shook his head slowly.

“Sorry, today was a good run for me.”

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

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

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

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

Rainbow Dash hung her head.

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

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

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

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

* * * * * * *

“It’s time.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Alright, Spike, send it.”

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

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

Chapter 6: Celestia’s Letter

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To my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

I see from your letter that the rash of disappearances of pegasus ponies has not escaped your notice. I find that I should inform you there is less publicly available information that causes this recent turn of events to remind me of a similar event 300 years ago.

Those events were resolved by a pony named Lightning Dash. Remembering that fact caused me to do some research and as you might have guessed this Lightning Dash was in fact one of Rainbow Dash’s ancestors.

Unfortunately, at the conclusion of said events Lightning Dash never told me where he had found the missing pegasi. Out of respect for his decision those rescued chose to remain quiet on the mater as well, so I can not tell you where I suspect Rainbow Dash is.

Please believe me when I say that I have been around long enough to notice that the patterns of history often repeat.

For these reasons I find Rainbow Dash’s disappearance both disturbing and a great relief. As I suspect Rainbow Dash herself will be the key to solving this rash of disappearances.

You no doubt wish to aid your friend. However, with no practical means of doing so, I can only advise that you pray for Rainbow Dash’s wellbeing and safe return.

Finally, the attached document is a copy of my public declaration regarding the matter of the missing pony cases. Please forward it to Ponyville’s mayor as soon as possible.

-Celestia

Chapter 7: Faith and Temptation

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Rainbow Dash darted from one cloud to the next, disappearing into the sky-bound puff of water vapor. At the moment she was above the northwest edge of the Liberty Forest, right on the boundary between the forest and the town.

If somepony had asked her why she was hiding in a cloud she’d have said that it was because her mentor still had her practicing the art of stealth. However, the fearful tremble in her eyes as they searched the skies for any sign that she’d been spotted betrayed the truth.

Of course, if somepony were around to ask her anything she wouldn’t be feeling quite so anxious about the fact that today was the first time she’d been asked to go retrieve the waters of night and day alone.

The weight of the kegs proved her mission was effectively complete, and given how fast she could fly and how close the Liberty Castle was she was effectively home free. But that’s when she spotted a glowing orange hole in the sky and a lone shadow pegasus tugging at its dark rope. The rope was taut from somepony putting up a good struggle on the other end.

From her past encounters with them, Rainbow Dash knew that the pony on the other side of that energy sucking rope wouldn’t win this rigged game of tug-of-war, not unless she unrigged it for them. Or rigged it in their favor.

Bursting forth from her cloudy hiding place she became a prismatic blur shooting across the sky.

By the time the Shadow pegasus noticed the colorful streak barreling down on it, it had just enough time to blink before a silver bladed wing cleaved it in two. It managed to blink a second time as it admired its two halves dissolving into specs of white light before nothing was left of the pegasus-like spell.

With the shadow gone its dark rope also began to evaporate and the sudden slack on it proved that the pony on the other end had pulled free.

Rainbow Dash quickly returned to the edge of the portal.

“Hey! You okay?” she called out as she got there.

No response came. And looking through the portal it wasn’t hard to see why. In the skies beyond the ring of magic Dash could see a brown pegasus hightailing it away from the portal as fast as their wings could carry them. Judging from the wing span said brown pegasus was a stallion, but with the distance he’d gained from the portal, that was about all she could tell about the pony she’d just saved.

Then she looked down and it hit her.

Equestria, Ponyville. They where right there. All she had to do was fly two feet to the other side of the portal and she’d be home.

She made the slightest movement toward her home and then stopped. Her gaze shifting to her silver-clad wings. The wing blades belonged here, to this world. On top of that Storm Gale, Mister Weatherright and heaven knows how many other Equestrian pegasi in this world weren’t with her.

No. She couldn’t leave them behind.

The image of her friends flashed before her eyes. Yes. They would be worried about her. After all she’d been in this world for over a week now. But they were safe in Equestria. It was the ponies here that needed a hero right now. Equestria could afford to wait for her to come back when she could do it along side the others who belong there. She just wished she could send a messaged to her friends to say she was okay.

A glance at the portal left a frown on her face. Although there wasn’t really any surprise seeing that, with the shadow that had made it defeated, the portal was slowly shrinking. And from the looks of it she had maybe two minutes before it collapsed entirely, not exactly enough time to get back the castle, find something to write on and with, come back and toss an actual note through. No, if she was going to send a message it needed to be something on her right now.

But what did she have right now? The wing blades. Nope, those belonged here. So did the small barrels of magic water. Other than that she had… herself.

With an idea flashing in her mind, she quickly undid the clasp of the wing blade’s vest. Pulling it half off she freed one of her wings from the silver sheaths, and with a violent flap of her wings she managed to shake free a lose feather. Taking the feather in her mouth she returned to the shrinking portal, spat out the feather and gave a flap of her wings to make a gust pushing it all the way through the hole in the sky.

Dash smiled as she watched the wind on the other side of the portal take the blue feather toward Ponyville.

Yet when the portal finally collapsed and shattered into a shower of sparks that quickly flickered out of existence, she frowned.

“Really? A feather, that’s the best you could come up with? You’re not the only pegasus in Equestria with blue feathers you know. It’s not like anypony is even going to notice a random feather falling out of the sky,” she muttered to herself.

* * * * * * *

A gentle breeze carried the sent of apples through the orchard clearing where Scootaloo sat alone. Well, as alone as she ever was these days. Ever since Celestia’s decree went out informing everypony of the mysterious disappearances targeting pegasus ponies and strongly encouraging pegasi to never be alone, her friends had become a constant shadow for her.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle where whispering to themselves near the base of their clubhouse ramp, trying to give Scootaloo some semblance of space, even if they refused to let her out of their sight. On top of that Big Macintosh was apple bucking not far in another direction. If anything today would be the last day the three friends would be able to use their clubhouse for a while, seeing as the adults where running out of threes with apples to harvest in line of sight of it.

Why was Scootaloo sitting alone? Long story short, Sweetie Belle’s attempt to cheer up her pegasus friend had backfired and only made the sting of Rainbow Dash’s absence all the worse.

It probably didn’t help that today was suppose to be a meeting of the Rainbow Dash fan club, but Scootaloo had to cancel it. It’s a little hard to hold a meeting to talk about all the awesome things Rainbow Dash had done since the last meeting when nopony had seen Rainbow Dash since the last meting.

Or that they’d called off the search parties looking for Rainbow Dash the other day.

Yeah, that was definitely the big one. Scootaloo had finally gained the attention of her hero and even got her to agree to be her honorary big sister at a recent camping trip, and now just like that she was sisterless again.

It just wasn’t fair.

Although to be fair it wasn’t Sweetie’s fault that Rainbow Dash was missing. Or that Scootaloo had sacrificed her entire Rainbow Dash feather collection to Twilight’s spells only to be rewarded with absolutely nothing. Not that anypony else knew that. She hadn’t bothered to mention that Twilight’s last attempt before giving up on the locator spells had also consumed the last of her collection.

If only she could have a sign that her honorary big sister was all right.

Then a blue feather came floating down, landing right on Scootaloo’s muzzle. A blue pegasus feather.

With the flick of her neck she grasped the feather in her mouth and looked skyward.

Nothing, there was no pony there.

In the blink of an eye the orange filly shot past her friends and darted up the ramp. The filly’s sprint didn’t come to an end until she’d made it all the way up to the observation tower. Which was basically the small room with the telescope in it that was above the foliage of the tree that the rest of the clubhouse was in.

“Scootaloo! Are you okay?”

Naturally her friends had followed her.

“Is there something up there?”

The obvious question once they saw how Scootaloo was leaning out the window, scanning the sky. It was with a broad smile that the young pegasus answered them.

“No, there’s absolutely nothing up there.”

“What’s that?”

Another obvious question that was asked as soon as her friends saw the feather grasped in Scootaloo’s mouth.

“It’s a Rainbow Dash feather! It just fell from the sky,” Scootaloo said, looking happy for the first time in days.

“But didn’t you just said nothing’s up there?”

“What makes ya so sure it’s a Rainbow Dash feather?”

The first question came from Sweetie Belle. The latter came from Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo pushed out her jaw and curled her upper lip, causing the feather the stand up and cover her nose. Through which she took a deep breath. Then she let her mouth settle, sticking the feather straight out again.

Taking the hint, Apple Bloom stepped forward and took a whiff of the feather. After pausing for a moment, the yellow farm filly pushed her muzzle to Scootaloo’s side and took a whiff of Scootaloo’s wings.

“Ah don’t know. Pegasus feathers all smell the same to me.”

“Then trust me. It’s a Rainbow Dash feather.”

Apple Bloom was about to open her mouth again when Sweetie pulled her aside and whispered in her ear.

“Does it really matter if it’s really from Rainbow Dash or not? This is the first time I’ve seen Scoot happy since the disappearance. And I don’t know about you, but I want the old, happy Scootaloo back. So if letting her believe that that feather came from Rainbow Dash makes her happy, does it really matter if it did or not?”

Apple Bloom hesitated for a moment and then spoke with a tone that tried to be encouraging, but it still carried a hint of her doubt.

“So, Scootaloo, if that’s from Rainbow Dash, where do you think she is?”

“I don’t know. But at least I know she didn’t forget about me.”

Chapter 8: The Warrior Who Seeks Truth

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Philosophy, it had to be philosophy.

It had taken Rainbow Dash the better part of a week to find the secret entrance in the roof of the storeroom, and using that she finally managed to complete the stealth training exercise in an acceptable enough fashion to move on.

But it turned out the last set of lessons Cloud Sword insisted on was philosophy.

While Dash didn’t mind reading the book her ancestor had written the first time, rereading it wasn’t helping. Mainly because it didn’t include anything about how he’d gotten back to Equestria. That and she really had no interest in the philosophies of her however-many-greats-great-grandpa. And his adventures weren’t in his book of teaching the ways of the paladin. Only a few bits of tactical advise mixed in with a bunch of philosophical sayings.

It didn’t help that philosophical saying were usually written in cryptic ways that needed to be translated into normal speech just to make sense. Like who cares how much time it takes a river to flow? Or whatever the heck that saying was suppose to be about.

Then a hoof came slamming down right in front of Dash’s glazed-over eyes.

“Care to repeat what I just said?”

“Is ‘no’ an option?”

“No.”

“Something about water and time and it being a fancy way of saying patterns repeat.”

Cloud Sword blinked at the blue mare for a moment.

“Well at least you caught the meaning.”

“Why couldn’t you have just said things repeat and been done with it?”

“Because knowledge is what you have learned from others, understanding comes from learning how to figuring it out yourself. That is how wisdom is found. And without wisdom, there is no difference between a paladin and a warrior.”

“And you’ve said that enough times that I know that speech word for word.”

“And yet you still lack the wisdom not to ask questions to which that speech is the answer.”

Dash planted her face firmly on her desk. That comeback was new. And annoyingly enough she had no retort. Not that this was debate class. It was philosophy class. Not that she would sign up for that willingly either.

As mush as she tried to tell herself that this was for the sake of bringing all those Equestria ponies home and becoming the big hero both here and back home she just couldn’t get her mind to make the connection between funny sayings and fighting shadow pegasi.

Cloud gave a deep sigh. What was he suppose to do with this mare? She was unlike anypony who he’d trained to take the position of paladin before. She didn’t even have the basic foundation to work with. At least all of his past students understood that aspiring to be the paladin meant needing to be philosopher enough to be a good leader. But Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to care about that at all, it was like all she wanted to do was be a hero, not a leader…

Come to think of it, wasn’t the only reason she was doing this to learn how her ancestor had gone home?

“Hmm… perhaps I’m going about this all wrong. You only care about defeating the evils that plague our land and going home, right?”

“You are the wisest stallion in the world,” Dash answered, mostly sarcastically.

Cloud Sword nodded, ignoring the smirk from his student.

“Then perhaps your past complaints hold some merit. Let me think. What are the relevant understandings needed for the combat side of a paladin?” he said, the last part being more along the lines of thinking out loud.

After a moment of tapping his chin Cloud looked up and said, “I suppose the two things are to understand philosophy well enough to be a seeker of truth, to find what is right. And the devotion to do what is right, no matter what hardships must be overcome to do so… Why are you smiling?”

“Devotion, in other words, loyalty. Pretty sure I’ve got that one licked already. So that just leaves how do I be a seeker of truth?”

“Yes, how do you do that, I wonder?”

* * * * * * *

Two days later, the lessons had moved out of the classroom and into the training yard. Cloud wasn’t sure why, but for some reason Rainbow Dash seemed to actually listen to boring things if she was kept physically active. And, odd and difficult as it was, if trying to hold a quiz while swinging hooves at each other was the way to get the mare to learn, then that’s what he was going to do.

It probably didn’t hurt that brawling helped mask his frustration too.

What little progress they’d made had once again hit a stone wall. If Dash had had the mindset of a philosopher from the get go, she’d probably be rather good at it. She was rather good a seeing the simple truths for what they were. The problem came from her preference for the simple truths of life being so strong that she couldn’t see past the surface when the truth wasn’t the easy observation to make.

“What is the nature of truth?” He asked, as they locked their front legs together, turning the brawl into a pushing fight with their hind legs instead.

“The truth is absolute and unchanging.”

Dash gave the answer he’d taught her. But that was just the problem, these were just words. The understanding behind them still eluded her voice, her eyes. It was knowing that two plus two equaled four, but not knowing why two plus two equaled four.

“Do your eyes always tell you the truth?”

“Well, yeah.”

Once again a reflex answer with no thought behind it.

“What if a unicorn casts an illusion spell, are your eyes telling you the truth then?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened and for a moment she forgot to put her weight into the pushing match they were having, causing her hind legs to buckle and the two to tumble to the mat.

“Well… no. I guess not.”

Dash planted a hoof on her own forehead. In hindsight that was rather obvious, between Discord making her see a small puff of cloud as all of Cloudsdale and a changeling queen masquerading as Princess Cadence, she was quite familiar to seeing things that weren’t true.

Sitting up Dash wore a rare thoughtful look.

“So, if you can’t trust your senses, how do you find the truth?”

“Challenge with boldness even your most sacred ideas. For only the truth can withstand infinite scrutiny. Try to break your own ideas, find the flaws in them and revise the idea until you can’t find a way to break it anymore. And when you discover something new, see if you can use that to break the idea. When you have exhausted all other options, only the truth remains.”

“That sounds like an awful lot to do in the middle of a fight.”

“Yes, it is. We’re still on the theory side of learning to be a seeker of truth, not the practical application of it. Ideally you should already know the truth before you’re in a fight as it is a bit hard to gather evidence in the middle of one. Namely you should have taken the time to pass fair judgment on your opponent before you choose to fight them. You know, make sure that they are the bad guy rather then just some big misunderstanding going on.”

The sudden loss of focus in her eyes made it clear that the wheels were turning in her mind, but she needed another push.

“Look around you, this is not your world, and you’ve only been here for what, almost three weeks now? Surely there must be some assumptions you’ve made of this place that you haven’t truly put to the test.”

First Rainbow Dash looked at the floor. But when she looked back up there was a suspicious look in her eyes.

“How do I know you and your Sky Knights are the good guys here? How do I know that this whole war of yours isn’t because you took this castle from them and they are only trying to get it back?”

“Finally!” Cloud rejoiced. “You’re dead wrong, of course, as that doesn’t explain why they’d come after pegasi from another world. But that’s the kind of question a seeker of truth would ask. Now come.”

“Come where?”

“To put that idea to the test and further prove that the Dark Summoner and her shadow puppets are the bad guys here.”

* * * * * * *

Several hours of sneaky flying later and Rainbow Dash and her mentor arrived in the bushes near a remote building west of the town that should’ve been Ponyville but wasn’t.

Sneaking their way down into a ditch they found a unicorn mare with a faded orange coat and faded yellow mane waiting for them. On top of that, she had on a slightly bolder orange cape and wizard hat, both decorated with yellow stars. A soft golden glow surrounded her horn, almost matching the color of her eyes.

“Is it enough to peek?”

Cloud Sword’s whispered question was answered with a silent nod and a cautious gesture of a hoof.

A few feet away a golden glow was forming an arch seemingly in an empty space by a bush. Cloud motioned toward the magic and whispered.

“Don’t touch the edges, that’s the hole in the protection spell we’re going to use to get close to the building without tripping the alarm.”

Once they were on the other side, Dash couldn’t help but whisper a question.

“Who was that?”

“The unicorn? They call her Trixie the Wise, she’s probably the most skilled unicorn to defy the Dark Summoner and help us Sky Knights. Personally I’ve found her to be the kindest, more selfless pony I’ve ever met.”

“Definitely opposite land… In some ways at least…” Dash muttered to herself too quietly to be heard.

Cloud Sword put hoof to his lips to signal for silence as they crept up toward the smooth, gray side of the building. The walls weren’t even painted and the cut granite blocks were clearly seen. Small windows with thick iron bars left little to guess about the nature of the building.

Using a particularly polished tip of his wing guards as a mirror, Cloud peeked through one of the windows. Content that there were no guards looking back he poked his head up and looked through the window directly. Then he shook his head and moved on.

When Dash looked through for herself she found both the cell below the window and the one across the hall were empty.

From the next window over, Cloud actualy motioned for the rainbow-tailed mare to look in. She quickly joined her instructor and did so.

While the cell below the window was also empty, the one across the hall had a pegasus colt lying on the floor. Judging from his size he had to still be in the school-pony age range. The child’s coat was purple and his mane was white. Iron shackles connected his back left leg to the wall opposite the door of his cell, but they had enough slack that he wouldn’t have been hindered in reaching most of it, just the last foot or two before the door would’ve been out of his reach. Finally, around his waist was a lasso of the shadow pegasi, the line went out of his cell through the bars before being hung from the ceiling by a series of hooks going down the hall and out of sight.

The ears of both intruders perked up as the sound of hoofsteps echoed on the cold stone floors inside. They quickly ducked out of sight and listened, as the sound grew closer. The hoofsteps came to a stop before the young pegasus’ cell. Then, following a ceramic clink, came a mare’s voice.

“Meal time.”

Daring to peek back in the window, Dash and Cloud saw that the speaker, who currently had her back to the two spies, was a green unicorn with a darker green mane. The ceramic noise proved to be a bowl of what looked like oatmeal, now placed on the floor just in front of the child, well within his reach.

At first there was a clear hunger in the child’s eyes. He even began to reach forward with one hoof as if to move the bowl closer. But then despair overtook his eyes and he covered his muzzle with his leg, as if to shield his nose from the sent of the food.

“No,” he managed to say in a weak voice.

There was a hint of remorse in the unicorn’s voice when she responded.

“Sorry kid, but I can’t let you starve. A corpse doesn’t make spirit energy for the master to use.”

With her words, a pink glow emitted from the unicorn’s horn and a similar glow surrounded the colt and the oatmeal. Held within the magic, the young pegasus was lifted into the air slightly and it quickly became clear that it was only the unicorn’s magic that was making him chew and swallow his meal.

Tears began to flow from the child’s eyes, and between mouthfuls he whimpered.

“No… Please… let… me… die…”

Rainbow Dash would have gasped in horror if she wasn’t too horrified to gasp. What evil could being a child to begging for death? No, she didn’t want to know the answer to that. Even in her lowest hour nothing in Equestria could’ve brought her to do that. Curl up in a ball and cry herself to sleep. Sure. But beg for death? Never.

Cloud placed his hoof on Dash’s forehead and gently pushed her down, until she was out of sight of those inside the prison. Her hind legs buckled and she fell to a sitting position.

Thankfully the unicorn prison staff member had long since finished her work and left before Rainbow Dash recovered enough to speak.

“We have to help him!” she said, perhaps a little too loudly.

A hoof being jammed in her mouth and a quick reminder that they were behind enemy lines silenced her. A few tense seconds of waiting yet failing to hear an alarm brought a touch of relief to the two trespassers. Though that didn’t stop Dash from insisting that they help.

With that Cloud sighed in defeat and poked his head back up into the window.

“Pisst! Hey kid!” The child’s eyes darted around until they found the stallion speaking to him. “I know how bad it can feel to have those lassos tied to you for days, trust me. But you can’t give up. The Sky Knights will raid this place once we have everything in place and we’ll bust you out of there. Just hold out for a few weeks and you’ll be free, I promise.”

With a flicker of hope restored to the colt’s eyes, Cloud Sword ducked back down.

“A few WEEKS? We can’t leave him hanging in there that long!”

“We don’t have a choice. The logistics aren’t in place to raid this pace now. Just look at him, the prisoners aren’t ever in a condition to travel. And they found the last of our hideouts after the last time we raided this place. And as long the Dark Summoner’s overlords run Ponyton we can’t just run them straight to Liberty Castle. And besides there’s going to be more than just him in there, so are you really going to have the heart to leave all the others behind for the two we can carry out on our own?”

That thought gave Rainbow Dash pause.

“Please just wait for a proper raid to be ready, when we can get them all out with a good chance of not just being recaptured right away.”

“Fine! But I don’t like it.” Dash yielded.

* * * * * * *

They had barely returned to Liberty Castle when Dash asked, “You said that the overlords in Ponyton were the reason that you can’t bust into that prison?”

“Yes. It would be suicide to cause a ruckus at the prison and then try to go through the middle of town while it’s still an enemy stronghold. Why?” Cloud Sword said. Not sure what to make of the look in the mare’s eyes.

“And these overlords are the only reason the town is in under the control of the Dark Summoner?”

“The Dark Summoner rules through fear and force. Without her agents there, the shadow pegasi could be pushed out of town and the town’s ponies have no love for the Summoner. Nor do the unicorn and earth ponies of Ponyton hate normal pegasi. So I doubt they’d try to stop us from bringing those we rescue from the prison through town without the fear of the overlords hanging over their heads.”

Cloud might have continued his explanation of how the ponies of Ponyton were good ponies, but he saw something in Rainbow Dash’s eyes that stopped him. Something important was going on in the mare’s mind, something that he knew better than to interrupt. And when the eyes of sky-blue mare came back into focus the playful athlete that once shown in them was gone. Now those eyes burned with the fire of a righteous hero determined to shatter the darkness.

“I’m going to stop them, and you’re going to tell me how.”

“As you wish, Paladin Rainbow Dash.”

Chapter 9: The Bloodsmith

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You might think that somepony sneaking around in a silver vest and silver-clad wings would be easy to spot in the middle of the afternoon. And yet Rainbow Dash peeked out from behind a crate in an alleyway, in the middle of Ponyton and she had yet to be seen on her way there.

It probably didn’t hurt that actual ponies only seemed to grace the streets of Ponyton maybe once a minute, if that. Needless to say, finding gaps that she could move unseen in was much easier out here than it ever had been during the exercises at Liberty Castle.

Even when she did make a move her speed allowed her to blitz across open spaces as little more than a glint before she was once again hidden from sight. Like right now, as she darted to the alleyway on the other side of the street. Moving in short bursts, slipping from behind one garbage can to the next, she made it to a hiding spot by a large wooden box and looked out at her target.

The space before her had a dried up riverbed, a bridge that currently served no purpose, and beyond those was the Ponyton’s blacksmith’s shop that stood where Ponyville’s Carousel Boutique would’ve been.

The first part of the blacksmith shop was an earthen dome with a chimney and a wide wooden door, which was clearly the actual smithy part. Attached to the side of that was a square, wooden structure that looked more like it was the house part. Both parts were decorated with gemstones, (mostly rubies,) and ribbons.

Somewhere in the back of Dash’s mind a part of the briefing she’d received that morning played out.

* * * * * * *

“From what I can tell, when she’s vulnerable, the Bloodsmith is the weakest of the overlords,” Cloud Sword had said.

“When she’s vulnerable?”

“She crafts the enchanted weapons used by the Summoner’s non-shadow servants. But she also sticks to a predictable schedule. Once a week she sends off the shipment of weapons. As you can probably imagine, attacking a unicorn that’s surrounded by a cart’s worth of swords and spears isn’t terribly wise. But once the shipment heads out she’ll only have a few things to throw at you. Although I know for a fact that she keeps at least one sword with her at all times.”

“So what about you? What are you going to be doing?”

“I will be waiting at the edge of the forest with a team of sky knights. Should your battle gain the attention of the shadows we will keep them off of you as long as we can. That and do our best to ensure you have a means of escape should it become wiser to cut and run rather than stand and die…”

“…Oh one more thing. Watch out for the couch.”

“Couch?”

“Yeah, she has a large couch that she doesn’t seem to mind swinging around along with her weapons. Not sure why she uses that rather than something without cushions, but watch out for the frame, it has spikes.”

* * * * * * *

Refocusing her eyes, Rainbow Dash brought her mind back to the blacksmith shop just across the way. Content that no pony was watching, she became that silver and prismatic blur once again, and in the blink of an eye she was slinking along the side of the house.

There was no way that she was going to go in using the front door, or the door on the work area, or the second level windows or roof access door for that matter. The obvious doors were avoided for the obvious reasons, the high up stuff because the enemy knew that a paladin of the sacred wing blades had to be a pegasus pony.

Crouched low to the ground, Rainbow Dash made her way to the back door, where she held her ear to the door and waited. Hearing nothing, she reached up and opened the door… Or she would have if the door wasn’t locked. A nearby window became the next target of her attention. Bongo! It was open.

Slipping inside she found an almost average looking dinning room. Yet something about the room felt off. The dust was a fine layer, maybe a few days worth since the last dusting, so well within what even Rarity would have accepted. The tablecloth was clean enough, chairs placed exactly were they should be, even a small decorative vase graced the table. Unable to pin down what felt wrong with the room Dash shook off the feeling and moved on leaving her hoofprints as the first, and only set, to disturb the dust.

A short hall separated her from the main room of the house. And from her vantage point she could see that gems and ribbons were the preferred style for the décor. And just like outside rubies seemed to be the preferred gemstone. Aside from the pointless pretty looking stuff there were racks along the edges of the room, weapon racks to be more exact. And from the looks of it they were built mainly to hold swords and spears with their gem studded prongs. Almost as if the front room of the house was a showroom just like Rarity’s home, only this one was for weapons instead of dresses.

The room was, however, currently devoid of ponies. Although Rainbow Dash had never seen the overlord that was her target, or even a picture of her, if the patterns of this world’s similarities were any guide she was looking for a unicorn with an odd resemblance to her world’s Rarity. Regardless, an empty room clearly didn’t contain who she was looking for.

That left the question where to look now? Try the door opposite the hallway, which probably led to the forge area? Or go up the stairs to the second floor of the home portion of the house?

Either way she needed to cross the room, in part or in full. And it was when she was halfway across the room that Rarity’s voice came from the top of the stairs.

“You know, darling, it is rather impolite to sneak into somepony else’s home unannounced.”

Despite having her friend’s voice, the dark-gray unicorn coming down the stairs was clearly not Rarity. From the mare’s crimson mane, or deep-red eyes, every color was wrong. Yet much like Storm Gale and Tempest Wind, the form was the same. This unicorn, whoever she was, carried her red main and tail with the same lavish curls as Rarity’s.

“And yet, you don’t seem bothered,” Dash said, taking note of the mare’s grin. “Why is that?”

“I have my reasons.” The dark unicorn descending the stairs said. Then adding, “Although I am curious as to why you haven’t attacked me yet? Most of your precursors have favored attempting a surprise attack.”

“Because I want to know why! Why are you and your master hunting down innocent pegasus ponies, not only of this world but of mine!?”

“Isn’t it obvious, darling? The pegasi hold the light that can pierce the master’s darkness. Once we eradicate them nothing can stop the master from conquering this world. As for the pegasi of your world? The pegasi of this world have become rather… elusive. So it’s become easier to take them from yours to make more shadow pegasi.” With a bit of a cackle the unicorn added, “Life is rather ironic, isn’t it? The one thing that can defeat the master’s plans is also the fuel needed to make them work in the first place.”

A red flag flashed in Rainbow Dash’s mind, triggering the suspicious side of her nature.

“If you really consider pegasus ponies like me to be your mortal enemy, why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because I earned the title Bloodsmith.”

The Bloodsmith’s answer was accompanied by her horn lighting up with a red glow.

Had Rainbow Dash entered the house through the front door she might have noticed the arch behind her had five swords mounted on it sooner. Or the five sets of severed pegasus wings. Each set adorning one of the blades’ display mounts. Now wrapped in the crimson glow of the Bloodsmith’s magic the five swords with blood-red blades came down into full view.

“If it’s any consolation, darling, thanks to your impending death I’ll finally have my sixth blood-steel sword made from the blood of paladins. And I must say sky-blue is a lovely color for the wings that will frame the mount.”

Once the oddly pleasant threat on Rainbow Dash’s life was delivered, the unicorn sent four of the blades after the paladin, while drawing one of them back to a more defensive position beside herself.

For her part Dash leaped into the air and put her athletic wings to work. However, two quick laps around the room proved that she wasn’t going to be shaking the blades chasing her any time soon. On her next pass, she aimed herself for a flyby of the Bloodsmith.

The sword hovering by the unicorn’s side readied itself, preparing to strike at the incoming pegasus. As the pegasus paladin drew near, the magics holding the sword swung it wide and high, a perfect counterattack to any airborne target.

The unicorn’s defense held only one flaw. Rainbow Dash had stopped flying, tucked herself into a ball and rolled under the blade, only to immediately bounce back up and lash out with her wing blade as she passed by.

A last second sideways jump allowed the Bloodsmith to avoid a mortal wound. But it wasn’t enough to stop the wing blades from drawing blood. A gash opened on her side, black blood spurted out and the instant it touched the air it burst into eerie black flames.

As suddenly as the flurry of action had begun, it paused. Dash came to a hover, dumbstruck at what she was seeing. The swords fell to the ground as the Bloodsmith forgot to continue using her magic to levitate them. And for a brief second both ponies just looked at the wound on the unicorn’s side and the splattering of burning blood on the carpet beside her.

Dark blood continued to ooze from the Bloodsmith’s side. It too burst into dark flames the instant it came into contact with the open air, although her coat seemed to be immune to the black flames licking at it. The carpet wasn’t so lucky. The spilled blood burned black and the flames spread to the fabric, becoming a more natural orange color as it grew around the core of black flames.

“How dare you!” The Bloodsmith yelled, her voice burning with a rage that was matched by the bloodlust in her eyes. “How dare you scar my beautiful image! I swear I’ll gut you alive for that!”

Red light flared up around the Bloodsmith’s horn and the five swords sprang back to life. Along with every thing else in the room that wasn’t nailed down, mostly chairs, a coffee table, and half of the empty weapon rakes. And a sofa that looked oddly like a spiked version of Rarity’s drama couch came flying down the stairs too.

With a powerful flap of her wings, Dash barely cleared the spiked armrest of the weaponized sofa, and kicking down on the cushions she rebounded back into motion with only one thought passing through her mind. Get out!

Glass exploded outward as Rainbow Dash shot out of the nearest window she could find, into the open air.

Five swords followed her out. The drama couch made a valiant attempt but failed to fit through the window frame and subsequently blocked the way for anything else the unicorn might have thought to throw at the escaping pegasus.

On instinct, the ace flyer headed upwards, putting as much distance as possible between herself and her ground-bound adversary. For a moment, the five crimson swords began to lose their way. Then they started to home in on her again.

A faint slam was caught in Rainbow Dash’s ears. A quick glance down revealed that the unicorn with the burning blood had emerged onto the roof of her abode, and was now guiding her bladed projectiles by sight again.

Through loop-d-loops, spirals, spins, and maybe even a filly flash the crimson swords followed the pegasus with the rainbow tail. And if anything, they were gaining on her.

Then a revelation occurred to Rainbow Dash. It was a simple one, born of an observation that had been lost in the panic of the last few seconds, that only now managed to find it’s way to the front of her mind. And with that understanding she did a U-turn so sharp it would have been better described as a V-turn, sending herself into a steep dive.

Now being pulled down by both gravity and rage-fueled magic the blood-steel blades gained on their target even faster. But not fast enough.

Perhaps, in the last tenth of a second the unicorn realized that at those speeds the pegasus would slam into the ground before the blades reached her. Perhaps, she realized that no pegasus would slam into the ground at those speeds. Perhaps, she realized that with all five swords chasing the pegasus she had nothing left to parry with should that pegasus pull out of that dive.

If any of those revelations crossed the Bloodsmith’s mind they failed to register on her eyes before Rainbow Dash had shot past her in a prismatic blur.

It was Dash who gave a pained grunt from the sharp tug on her wing as it passed through the same space as the Bloodsmith. One thing was for sure, whatever that… thing was it was more than just shadow magic, for the wing blades cut through the shadow pegasi with ease, but not this… thing masquerading as a unicorn. Whatever it was, it had substance to it.

Having failed to pull out of their dive, five crimson swords planted their blades into the roof mere feet in front of the dark-gray unicorn. A horizontal ring of dark blood appeared around her body, halfway between the top and bottom of her torso, and even began to catch fire for a second as the top half began to slide off center from the bottom half. Then her entire body exploded in a massive eruption of the mysterious black flames, consuming the building she was standing on, and a nearby tree to boot.

Rainbow Dash was still pulling up from her dive attack when the flames of the sudden and inexplicable funeral pyre began licking at her hindquarters. With a second more of hard wing flapping, she stayed just ahead of the flames long enough for them to start slowing down. And with that she was home free.

For a moment Dash fell into a hover, looking back at the burning blacksmith’s shop, with a million questions running through her mind. Why was its blood black? Why did its blood catch fire? Ponies don’t explode for no reason when they die, so what was that thing anyway?

With no answers, sore wings and a slightly singed rump she abandon her pondering and began to fly off toward the forest castle. And as she left the town behind her, she heard the clock tower strike three in the afternoon.

* * * * * * *

A pencil hung in the air just above a mostly blank drawing board, wrapped in the blue glow of a unicorn’s magic. And there it stayed, leaving the outline of a tailless pony unchanged.

Rarity gave a deep sigh as she withdrew the pencil yet again.

“Come now, I must create! I can’t put my work off any longer. Isn’t that right, Opal?”

Rarity’s pet cat looked up at the sound of her name, but otherwise paid no mind to her owner. Quickly the long-haired, white cat returned her head to the soft caution that was her owner’s bed and curled back up.

The small-town dressmaker returned her gaze to the drawing board.

“Oh… every time I try to think of a new design, all I can see is Rainbow Dash!” she moaned.

Truth be told most of Rainbow Dash’s friends had fallen in to a depression of sorts once the search for her had been called off. And for Rarity it had mostly taken the form of art block.

“I can’t let my life fall apart just because Rainbow is missing. That’s the last thing she would want for her friends.”

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes she once more tried to focus on the job at hoof. And once more failed as the image of the blue flyer with the rainbow mane popped into Rarity’s mind. With a slight grown she tried to work with that anyway. If she couldn’t get her pegasus friend out of her mind then she’d just have to make a pegasus dress.

There was only one rather huge problem with that plan. Rainbow wasn’t exactly a color scheme that played well with other color schemes. Thus everything she imagined on Rainbow Dash would only look good on Rainbow Dash. Not exactly something she could make for some random pegasus pony around town.

What she needed was something more general, something that would look elegant on it’s own, something that could sit in her shop waiting for that first unknown pony who would walk in and see that it was a perfect match for them, something with a customer base bigger than one.

“Oh Opal, it’s not working! What am I going to do!”

The cat gave a sympathetic meow for its master. Or maybe just for itself, knowing that peace and quiet would be a thing of the past for the foreseeable future.

Finally setting down the pencil, Rarity stepped over to the window to gaze out, hoping against hope that some form of inspiration would find her.

The shadows of the world beyond the window crawled along as Rarity lost track of how long she’d been staring out at it.

Then suddenly in her mind’s eye inspiration flashed in a radiant burst. Although the image was once more of Rainbow Dash, this time she imagined her winged friend in a simple, yet shiny silver vest, with matching, sparkling silver wing sleeves. It was the very incarnation of simple elegance. Not really Rarity’s style, but it was something that could work on a pony beside Rainbow Dash. And who knows? Maybe with the right clasp and gemstone embroidery, Rarity could make it more her own.

“Idea!” Rarity chimed, returning to the drawing board and finally putting lines to it.

As she did so, the town clock tower chimed off three in the afternoon.

* * * * * * *

Even the dusk shadow pegasus attack couldn’t stop the inhabitance of Liberty Castle from throwing a dinner party the likes of which had never graced its halls before. Or at lease since the Sky Knights had restored it to working order.

The dinning hall was alive with singing and dancing. A few that knew how played instruments, mostly trumpets and the like, with one pony playing a piano.

Off to one corner Mister Weatherright was laughing heartily with a few others thanks to the bottle of wine he’d found. As tempting as it was to join those ponies, Rainbow Dash was athlete enough to know to avoid alcohol.

Alcohol thins the blood and that reduces the rate that it can deliver oxygen to the body, weakening and slowing you ever so slightly. And the worst part was that it took three days to fully burn it out of your system and get back to peak performance. And that was totally unacceptable for an athlete of her caliber. And apparently the Sky Knights too, as they also seemed keen on avoiding that corner of the room.

In the opposite corner of the room seemed to be the kiddy table. So far Rainbow Dash had yet to see a school age pony sitting anywhere but at that corner table. Although she didn’t truly know any of them, she had caught sight of the blue pegasus filly that she suspected was this world’s Scootaloo. Also catching her eye was a light green unicorn filly with a curly, two-toned green mane and tail, who looked like a minty green version of Sweetie Belle.

The fact that the two fillies looked like friends only furthered Dash’s theory as to the nature of the Scootaloo-like filly. In fact the blue Scootaloo seemed to be the only young pony willing to socialize with Minty Belle, or whatever her name was in this world.

She might have even gone over and learned the names of the two fillies if she didn’t have slightly more important questions she wanted answered. Questions that would likely find their answers from Cloud Sword, and while he was sitting next to her, the moment had yet to feel right to ask.

Returning her attention to her plate. Surprise, surprise, the hero of the day had been given a rather generous helping. Everything from broccoli to grilled carrot slices and potatoes adorned her plate. And to be perfectly honest Rainbow Dash was starting to miss the little things, like seasoning and butter. You know, the things that made the vegetarian diet actually taste good, rather than just… meh. But still, food was food so she shoved another carrot slice in her mouth and kept waiting for the right moment to talk to Cloud.

Finally the moment came when he seemed more interested in what was around him than his dinner. “You know,” he said. “What you’ve accomplished is the first real blow to the Dark Summoner since she came to power. You’ve proven that her lieutenants can be defeated.”

Dash gave a small nod before asking the question that had been plaguing her mind all evening. “What was that thing?”

“What do you mean?” Cloud could only ask in return, with a raised eyebrow.

“When I cut it, it’s blood burst into flames, black flames. When it died, it exploded in the same dark fire. Ponies don’t do that, so what was it?”

Cloud lowered his voice slightly, in the hope that this conversation wouldn’t be heard beyond the Sky Knight’s table. “I see. So the rumors are true then.”

“Rumors?”

“Yes. Ever since they took control of the town in the name of the Dark Summoner there have been rumors that the overlords were more than just ponies using dark magic. Rumors that their endless cruelty was because they were in fact actual demons in pony form. Demons who had taken the place of the ponies who had once lived among us.” Cloud shook his head slightly. “Until now, they were just rumors. But if what you say is true, then that gives us some strong evidence that they are true.”

A short pause follow as Cloud Sword’s eyes turned inward for a moment. Then he nodded and said, “Yes, that would explain the sudden change of behavior.” Seeing a questioning look from the paladin, he added, “I didn’t know them personally before. But, I’ve been told that before they were summoned to meet with the Dark Summoner, before they returned as her overlords, they used to be good ponies. I’ve only known them as the overlords who spark stories or torture, murder and dark magic.”

With a slight nod toward the kiddy table Cloud said, “See that unicorn filly?” Seeing as there was only the one unicorn filly at that table, the one she’d noticed earlier, Rainbow Dash nodded. “She was the little sister of the Bloodsmith. I think that’s why most of the other foals avoid her. But, she was also the first to insist that the pony who came back that day wasn’t her sister, but a demon who had killed her sister and stolen her skin.” After pausing for a moment’s thought he added, “You might want to talk to her. I’m sure she’d be happy to meet the paladin who finally avenged her sister.”

“Isn’t that a bit morbid?” Dash asked. “I mean, ‘Hi I just killed your big sister and it turns out you were right. She was a demon who killed you real big sister all along!’ That doesn’t strike me as something I should be saying to a youngster like that.”

Cloud Sword blinked. Then he blinked again, as if processing a foreign concept.

When he finally spoke he said, “Perhaps in your world. But you do realize that everypony in this castle knows that they live under the specter of death? Everypony here knows that we face a ruthless enemy that will be the doom of them if given the chance. Even the children. I assure you that letting that filly know that she was right will be a net boon to her. Although if your not up to it, I’m sure the gossip will spread quickly enough that she’ll know within a day or two regardless of if you tell her.”

“Fine. I’ll talk to her,” Rainbow Dash said, as she got up from her place at the table.

When she’d agreed it had all been so easy in her mind. Kids liked getting attention from the big important adults, whether it was the local daredevil or the paladin hero who was the reason for the party. All she’d have to do was go over, say ‘hey’, look cool, pass along the news, indulge her curiosity as to the names of the two who reminded her of the crusaders back home, and coolly walk away. Easy as pie.

So why were her muscles tensing up the closer she got to the two fillies that looked like Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle that had gotten into a fight with a vat of dye?

It probably didn’t help that the kiddy table was in the corner, so you had to be going there to get there. Needless to say several of the foals at that table had already begun to stare once it became clear she was coming to their table.

Rainbow Dash did her best to smile in a way that hid her nervousness. No pony who knew her would have bought it, but these fillies and colts didn’t know her.

“Hey,” she said, once she’d approached the green unicorn filly.

“Um… hello, Paladin Rainbow Dash.”

Following the greetings there was a short silence. Maybe she’d hoped for something more, like a question from the filly that she could use to lead into her intended topic. Ultimately Dash had to break the silence herself.

“So… I guess you’ve heard what happened to the Bloodsmith by now, huh?”

The green Sweetie Belle nodded her head. Although the blue Scootaloo jumped in and said, “That’s kinda why they’re throwing this party.” To which the green Sweetie also nodded in agreement.

“Right. Anyway, I just thought you should know, when I fought her I found out that you were right. So yeah…” Rainbow allowed herself to trail off, not knowing how she’d react to being told ‘you were right, your family member had been dead all along and a demon has been impersonating them.’

However, Cloud’s words proved to be true. The green filly looked about the table with a smile that had ‘I told you so!’ written all over it. Most of the other fillies and colts at the table suddenly wore a blush on their cheeks as that gaze found it’s way to them. But when the young unicorn did speak it was directed only to the blue Scootaloo filly next to her.

“Thank you for always believing me.”

By now Rainbow Dash had sit down on the floor right behind the bench, between the two of this world’s crusaders. The two fillies twisted in their seats slightly, to face the adult.

“And thank you,” the unicorn added, with a smile of genuine gratitude.

“So… I take it you two are friends?” Dash asked, placing a hoof on each of the two semi-familiar fillies.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, you two remind of a couple of fillies from my world.”

“Really?”

With a nod Dash confirmed, “Yeah, their voices even sound the same as you two. Only their colors are different. I’ve actually run into several ponies around here like that.”

“Cool!”

“Weird.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile at seeing that the young pegasus was the bolder of two. “I guess you’ve already heard my name, but what are yours?”

“I’m Sweet Chime!” the unicorn filly answered pleasantly.

“Scooter,” the blue pegasus filly said, giving a shrug with her answer.

“Scooter, huh?” Rainbow Dash asked, curious as to how a filly wound up with the male version of the name. Apparently that curiosity showed on her face enough to cause the young pegasus to answer.

“I don’t know my real name…” she said, looking down slightly. “Or if I ever had one. All I know is I was always zipping around on an old scooter I fixed up. And the ponies would call me ‘that scooter filly.’ And somewhere along the line they drop the filly part and just called me ‘Scooter’ instead. That’s what ponies call me, so I guess that’s my name.”

“Well, I think it fits you.” With her praise, Dash ruffled Scooter’s mane. Turning her attention back to both fillies, she asked, “Say, do you two have a third friend around here some place? An earth pony who wares a bow by chance?”

A haunted look entered the two fillies’ eyes as they glanced at each other.

“You knew who Gloom Bloom was?”

“No. Wait, what do you mean ‘was’?”

This time it was Sweet’s eyes to feel the weight of the past, and shift downward. “I tried to warn her that something was wrong with our big sisters… But… she didn’t listen…”

Offering a supportive hoof, Scooter took over the story. “Gloom Bloom’s family used to live at that big graveyard south west of town. Their family has run the mortuary there for generations or something. Being in a family of grave keepers she was a little weird, but she was a good pony. She always had this big black bow in her mane. But more importantly she was willing to talk to us despite… uh… not being the most popular kids in town. So we became friends.”

At those words, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but look at the two’s flanks. Much to her surprise both had cutie marks.

Sweet Chime’s cutie mark was a musical note in the middle of a cross-like four-pointed star, with smaller stars filing in the corners, much like they way hearts filled in the corners of medical crosses back in Equestria.

Scooter’s mark was a lightning bolt, with a four-pointed star at the tip of the lightning bolt.

Taking advantage of the lull in talking, Sweet Chime gave her friend a look that seemed to say ‘I’m ready to finish the story.’ Her friend nodded and closed her mouth instead of continuing on the unicorn’s behalf.

“When the overlords took over the town for the Summoner they killed a lot of ponies,” Sweet Chime said. “But the first to go were their families. I just know that the Bloodsmith would have killed me along with mom and dad if I hadn’t already run away and come here by then.” With the slow shake of her head she added, “But Gloomy didn’t listen, she stayed with her family and trusted her sister… or what she thought was her sister anyway. So when those demons took over they-they…”

Chime’s voice began to choke up and tears began to trickle down her face. And although her eyes were also beginning to fill with tears, Scooter once again finished where her friend left off.

“Gloomy was too good of a pony, so there’s no way she’d stay there after the overlords took over the town and proved they were evil. But she’s not here either. So… she has to be dead by now.”

By the time the two had finished their story Rainbow Dash had wrapped her front legs around them, pulling them close. Whether she did it to comfort them or herself she wasn’t entirely sure. Not that the two were exclusive.

“I’m sorry. I promise, if she’s alive, I’ll rescue her. And if she’s dead, I’ll avenge her.”

No pony said anything more after Dash’s promise. But the two younger ponies did give weak smiles and nod, as if to signal it was okay for the paladin to release them from the one-armed hug and be on her way.

Chapter 10: The Tormenter

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Few things broke the darkness of the mare’s dormitory, glints of moonlight from the windows here, candles far and wide over there. But for the most part the room was darkness as mares and fillies slept in the barracks-style arrangement that the castle dwellers had grown accustom to.

Two recent additions were the two mares who wore the silver armor of the Sky Knights and were standing guard at the foot of Rainbow Dash’s bed. The two had been posted there ever since Rainbow Dash had been given the sacred wing blades.

Actually, once Dash had received the wing blades, she had been offered one of the rooms in the castle keep. But in her attempts to resist her hero complex she’d turned the offer down. And maybe also in a small way because staying in the mare’s dorm allowed her the chance to keep in touch with Storm Gale easily. After all she wasn’t done rescuing Gale until she got her back to Equestria.

All of these concerns currently eluded Rainbow Dash, as she was dead asleep.

“LOOK OUT!”

Between the shout, the clang of metal on metal, and the pony pile right on top of her, Dash opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the blade thrust deep into her pillow just in front of her face. And second thing she saw was that the only reason the blade wasn’t through her skull right now was because of the spear that had been used to parry it.

The two guards and the would-be assassin rolled off of the paladin and her bed one way. As soon as she wasn’t pinned under those three, Dash rolled off the bed the other way, away from the blade right as it was yanked up and fell away with the three brawlers.

As soon as she hit the floor between the beds Rainbow Dash scrambled to her hooves. And even as she did so, she could hear the punching and kicking on the other side of her bed. More screaming and scrambling was heard through the room as other ponies were waking up and realizing that there was a fight going on.

The intruder’s sword came lose, being knocked away by one of the Sky Knight’s spears. More screams came, most from those trying to dodge the flung blade. In the confusion Dash could only hope that the pained yip had come from one of three ponies in the actual melee.

Now that her eyes had attuned to the low light of the room the paladin could more clearly see that the two Sky Knights were tangling with a shadow pegasus. Opening her wings, and crouching into a pounce-ready stance she gave a soft whistle.

On hearing the sound that didn’t belong in a brawl the two Sky Knights spared a glance. Wordlessly they understood what needed to happen. And the first chance they got, they each grabbed a leg of their foe and moved in opposite directions.

With the shadow pegasus held firm and friendly targets now out of the way, Rainbow Dash leapt into the air and swung a bladed wing low as she sailed over the intruder. Sure enough, even though she had only delivered a shallow cut to the intruder’s shoulder, it began to dissolve into specs of light.

While others were still in a commotion Dash and the two Sky Knights huddled together.

“Is that it? Just the one?” the paladin asked.

“I think so.”

“That’s usually how it goes.”

With a raised eyebrow Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but ask, “Wait! This is a normal thing?”

“Assassination attempts on the paladin? Yeah, they do that from time to time. Guess that means we need to get the unicorns to find the new hole in the perimeter alarm spell, again.”

Before Dash could respond to the sudden revelation as to why the paladin had to sleep under guard, more shouts came from across the room.

“Somepony call the healer!”

“And fetch the water!”

Drawn to the new cries, the three ponies in silver armor rushed over.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow Dash asked.

No pony bothered to answer the paladin, nor did they need to. The blade that had been meant for her had found its way into the side of a random mare when it had been knocked away from the actual fight. By now the bloody blade had been removed and was laying on the ground beside the injured pegasus’ bed.

“Keep pressure on the wound until the healer gets here!” Somepony shouted, as others ran out the door.

One of the Sky Knights turned to Rainbow Dash and said, “Paladin, press the flat of the wing blades to the wound, and stay close to her until the healer gets here.” Even as she obeyed, the knight answered the questioning look on Dash’s face. “Even though the wing blades healing magics mostly effect the pony wearing them, those who remain near the paladin have also healed from their wounds more quickly. It might not be a substitute for a proper healing spell but we have to work with what we’ve got.”

It wasn’t long before Sweet Chime, Scooter, and a mare carrying a bucket of the waters of night and day came running into the room. Well, the two fillies ran. The mare flew.

The mare quickly set the bucket down beside the injured pony’s bed and stepped back to allow the fillies room.

Rearing up, Scooter then slammed her front hooves down in the bucket. With that the waters flared to life with a radiant, mostly-silver glow, with bits of gold and blue light about. As soon as she had the waters shining, the young pegasus stepped back, allowing her unicorn friend to step up.

Placing her front hooves in the shimmering waters of night and day, Sweet Chime lit her horn with magic and began to sing. The song she sung had no words, only ‘ah’s and ‘oh’s of varying pitches and tones that turned them into the notes of a song.

And Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but smile when she realized that those notes sounded very much like the notes to a song the crusaders of her world had sung at a school talent show.

As she listened to the filly’s song, a soothing sensation washed over her. And not just her, but everypony nearby the singing filly wore a look of serenity on their face. Every little ache and pain in her body was washed away in the sound of the filly’s voice. Pulling her wing away, she even watched in awe as the gash in the injured pony’s side pulled itself closed. And within seconds the flesh mended, leaving no sign that the mare had been injured at all.

The light coming from the waters of night and day seemed to flow up in ribbons, wrapping themselves around Sweet Chime as she sang, and pulsing off of her to fill the room.

When the light vanished the unicorn filly suddenly stopped singing and quickly pulled her hooves out of the bucket. Also when the silver light vanished, the water in the bucket didn’t just stop glowing but it turned into an aura of darkness that seemed to be consuming what little light was near it.

Although it turned out that Rainbow Dash was alone in taking a startled step, backing away from the suddenly ominous bucket of magic water.

“When a pegasus charges the waters of night and day with light magic, I can use it to sing my healing song,” Sweet Chime explained, on seeing the paladin’s startled reaction. “But unicorn magic makes the waters charge with dark magic. But for a minute or two after a pegasus charges the waters with light magic, it will hold the light alignment no matter what. That’s when I can sing my healing song with it’s light.”

“Right. Just the first time I’ve seen the dark version,” Dash admitted, nodded her head, recalling having heard something like that before.

“Yeah it is kinda creepy!” The comment came from Scooter as she gave the water another jab, causing it to flare back up with light.

By the light of the water checks were made and once it was confirmed that everything in order ponies went back to bed. Whether they got back to sleep or not was debatable, especially in Rainbow Dash’s case.

* * * * * * *

Morning came and went without further incident, or even a normal predawn attack on the castle. For her part, Rainbow Dash had spent the morning learning about the next target in her sights. The overlord that was apparently known as the ‘Tormenter.’

From what she had heard, if the Dark Summoner needed somepony tortured the Tormenter was the one who did it. And apparently, sometimes the Tormenter did her job even when her boss didn’t need anypony in particular tortured.

And although Cloud Sword had openly admitted that he’d only ever fought the Tormenter in fighting retreats, he’d told Rainbow Dash that her fighting style seemed unprofessional at best. And that it was only dangerous because it was erratic, and that she was fast for an earth pony. Of course, now that they knew that the overlords were in fact demon ponies, this one being faster than she looked like she would be hardly seemed odd anymore. Regardless, compared to the rest of the remaining overlords, the Tormenter seemed to be the weakest in his opinion.

Another point of caution that had been given to Dash was the fact that, unlike the Bloodsmith, there was no window of vulnerability to strike at the Tormenter. Things never really seemed to come or go from the Tormenter’s base of operations. They only knew that ponies never went in there willingly, and those that were dragged in never came back out. So obviously whatever the Tormenter needed was always around.

Speaking of that base of operations, it had turned out to be the building with the iron-madden and cat-of-nine-tails decorating the front, the one that stood in this world’s place for Sugar Cube Corner.

Even as she looked out from her hiding place under an abandon market cart, Rainbow Dash had the sneaking suspicion that the demon pony in there was going to look an awful lot like Pinkie Pie. Although, all she knew for certain was that the Tormenter was an earth pony with a red coat, or so she’d been told.

The evidence was all around that this place had once been a market area. But that day had long past. Aside from the cart she was hiding under, several other market carts were around the plaza, many looked like they’d been abandon in a hurry, their former owners having not even bothered to close up the displays or awnings. One even had gold coins sitting on its counter as if it had been abandon mid sale.

A soft gust kicked up some dust and sent a tumbleweed rolling by.

The paladin pegasus didn’t need any further invitation to come out from her hiding place. There obviously weren’t any observers around she needed to avoid. Flapping her wings slowly, she made her way over to the front door.

Perhaps it was because of whom she expected to find that she chose to use the door that no pony in their right mind would use to ‘sneak’ into a building with. Or perhaps it was the fact that the occasional breeze was the only sound to compete with her heartbeat in the last two minutes. This place had been so quiet that her own sigh sounded like thunder. Yes, that was it, if anypony was even here, this place was so quiet that nothing could approach without being heard.

Twisting the handle, she was only slightly surprised to find that the front door wasn’t even locked. The door creaked open with a whisper that might as well have been a stamped.

Inside and to the left there was a staircase, just like in Sugar Cube Corner. That’s where the similarities ended.

Instead of tables for customers to sit and enjoy the local confections, the tables here all had thick leather straps positioned to bind a pony to them. The few chairs in the room were also equipped with restraints. Instead of a counter filled with tasty treats near the back wall, the back wall was lined with racks and shelves loaded with whips, pokers, knives, spikes, branding irons, and several things that Rainbow Dash didn’t know what they were. And considering that everything she could identify was a torture tool, she was fairly sure she didn’t want to know what they were.

The one thing she didn’t find in the main room of the torture house was another pony.

That left two options. The stairs up to what in her world would be the bedrooms. Or the saloon-style door at the back of the room that, guessing from this building’s Equestria equivalent, went to the kitchen. The doorway to the only other room on this floor won.

As the lone pegasus in the building drew near the doorway, she heard soft humming. Pushing the door open she found a pony that looked exactly like Pinkie Pie, if pinkie pie’s fur and mane were bright red anyway.

The presumed Tormenter was currently sitting with her back to the paladin, her attention on the counter top adjacent to the oven.

“I’d offer you cupcakes, but you’re going to be dead before they’re ready.”

Despite the red mare’s greeting proving that it was impossible to sneak up on her, the red pony gave no other reaction to the pegasus’ intrusion. She simply continued to stir the bowl of frosting in front of her.

“I’m guessing you’re the Tormenter then?”

“Yep! Or AAAAHHHHGGG! That’s the other thing my toys seem to call me.”

“Toys? You mean ponies, don’t you?”

With a shrug the red pony answered, “Toys, ponies, same difference. Either way I play with them until they break.” Finally looking up, she added, “It’s a pity that I have to play so rough with you paladins. But those blades of yours are just too dangerous to risk playing with you for long.”

Somewhere in the back of Rainbow Dash’s mind, the words she’d heard from her mentor during one of her many training sessions played out.

“A weapon is a tool. And like any inanimate object it does nothing on it’s own. Only the one wielding it can give the tool purpose.”

“You’re wrong,” Dash said. “The sacred wing blades aren’t dangerous. The only thing I’ve seen them do on their own is heal and protect! It’s only when I strike out with them that they destroy.”

“Which is exactly why I have to kill you quickly. Unless you just want to take them off and strap yourself to one of my tables, that is. Then we could play all day!”

The Tormenter’s words came in an oddly childish tone, as if asking somepony to willingly strap themselves to a torture table was a reasonable request.

Rainbow Dash didn’t answer with words. She narrowed her eyes, flared her wings and shifted her hooves outward a bit, putting herself into a combat stance.

“Fine. Have it your way,” the red mare sighed. Then a giggle came from her. “Besides I kind of wanted to play rough. Now that I don’t have to give ol’bloody her take, I can see what all that fuss over pony blood is about. Now be a good little paladin for me, and BLEED!”

With that last word, the Tormenter finally turned around. And in doing so, she revealed that she’d been stirring the bowl of frosting with a large dagger.

Yet, the dagger hardly even registered in Rainbow Dash’s mind. Instead the thing that made her worry the most was the red mare’s long, slightly darker red mane. Or rather the fact that it was now perfectly straight. Very un-Pinkie-Pie like, yet she’d seen Pinkie like that, once.

The unsettling memories of the pink party pony hosting a party attended by bags of flour and buckets of turnips, among other inanimate objects, flashed in Dash’s mind. There was something truly unnerving about seeing the spirit of laughter like that, something that just couldn’t be put to words. That was the one time she’d ever been even slightly afraid of Pinkie Pie.

She shook the thoughts from her mind. The pony before her wasn’t Pinkie Pie. And this pony probably was worth being afraid of.

With a hop, the Tormenter began the fight. Rather, it took two hops before the distance had been closed and she could take a swing at the paladin with the dagger held in her mouth.

The frontal attack was easily parried with one wing blade and with the other, Dash swung a counterattack.

Said counterattack cleaved nothing but air, as the red earth pony bounded up and over it. Quickly darting behind the kitchen’s island counter, the Tormenter disappeared from sight.

With a jump to the right, Rainbow Dash put herself in the largest open area the kitchen had. Allowing herself a full view of the island counter so that nothing could come out from behind it without being seen.

Wings at the ready she waited… and waited.

Suddenly she heard a sound from the left. A glance caught a red blur lunging at her from an impossible direction. How the red mare had gotten out from behind the counter without being seen was beyond the paladin pegasus.

With not enough time to do anything else, Rainbow Dash parried with her wing. But even that wasn’t enough. The dagger made contact with the skin of her front left leg. Between the blue flash of the wing blade’s protective magic and the parry, the dagger only managed a slight cut before being knocked away completely.

As soon as she’d cartwheeled over Dash’s back, the Tormenter shot out of one of the doors quickly enough to avoid the paladin’s counterattack.

Two doors, one window was the verdict of Rainbow Dash’s search for ways to enter the room. Turning her back to the oven, the only wall that didn’t have a means of entering from outside the room, she kept the two doors in her peripheral vision and the window right in front of her.

The whoosh of something large barreling through the air came from behind. Dash ducked in time to only get her ear nicked as her attacker sailed overhead.

The pattern repeated it self. The demon pony ducking out of sight and then attacking from some place completely different. The paladin dodging and parrying just in time to keep the damage limited to minor nicks and cuts. The attacks were just too erratic, too unconventional to face with the combat training she’d received, too… Pinkie Pie.

The demon ducked behind a counter in front of Dash and to the right. So she abandoned her combat stance, folded one wing, kept her left wing open and angled it back.

A firebomb of pain erupted in Rainbow Dash’s mind as a dagger was plunged into her left flank. But more than that, a sudden weight appeared on, no, around her left wing. And two pained gasps filled the room.

As soon as the shock value of the hit she’d taken wore off, Dash turned her head to look at the other pony.

At first the red pony stood motionless, still holding the dagger in her teeth. Almost as if she took the movement from the paladin as permission to move herself, the Tormenter released the dagger, leaving it embedded in Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. Then the demon pony looked down, almost as if she was only now noticing the wing blade buried in her chest, that she’d impaled herself on while attacking the paladin.

“How?” The demon asked, coughing up bits of black, burning blood. “No pony can predict my attacks-” *Cough “-Not even me!” *Wheeze.

“The way you move is just like my friend Pinkie Pie.”

The demon’s eyes widened, perhaps with a touch of fear or perhaps it was awe. “You really are guided by a destiny…” As weakness appeared on the red mare’s face so did a frown. “Dang, now the cupcakes are going to burn…”

The demon’s burning blood gave Rainbow Dash a reminder what happened to the last demon she’d defeated. With a sudden urgency she pulled her wing free from the demon’s chest and leapt into the air, flaying as fast as she could for the window.

The sound of shattering glass was drown out by the roar of a fiery blast. The cold crisp air on Dash’s face was challenged by the searing hot air blasting her rear end. The blast wave peppered the back of her head with the shattered remains of the window just sundered in her hasty exit.

The searing pain lasted only a second before she’d outpaced the flames licking at her backside. Then the pain of heat was replaced by the pain of cold on her scorched skin. And that was quickly accompanied by the stabbing pain that reminded her that there was still a dagger lodged in her cutie mark.

Coming to a hover, Rainbow Dash paused just long enough to pull the dagger from her flank and let it fall toward the burning torture house before she started to move out. Even with the healing magics of the sacred wing blades doing their best to mend the gash, she would end up leaving a trail of blood all the way from the pyre to the edge of the Liberty Forest. Not that that would last long in the noonday sun.

* * * * * * *

“Are you sure you’re not feeling up to it?” the yellow stallion with an orange mane asked.

“Yeah… sorry…” Pinkie Pie answered in a near lifeless tone truly unbefitting of the prime party planer of Ponyville.

“I hope you feel better soon,” Mr. Cake said. With that he forced a smile and returned to the kitchen of Sugar Cube Corner. As he left, he muttered to himself, “I never realized how much slower things are around here when the town’s in a bad mood.”

Looking around, the double pink pony could count the number of customers in the sweet shop on her hooves. Considering that this was suppose to be the lunch rush, that meant the place was practically dead.

And the gloomy mood of the town could be seen on the few ponies that were scattered about the dinning area. Instead of lively conversations they ate in relative silence. Maybe when they took a bite of their treat they might smile, but those were just moments of contentment, not the big happy smiles of joy that normally infected the visitors to the bakery.

It was all Pinkie Pie’s fault.

And the worst part was she knew it. Ever since they’d called off the search for Rainbow Dash she’d fallen into this funk. And when the spirit of laughter couldn’t laugh Ponyville could maybe last a day or two before they joined her in her melancholy. It killed Pinkie to see the town in such a state. She wanted to spread joy and see them truly smile again. But she couldn’t. How could she spread joy when she couldn’t feel it herself?

You see. Joy is like fire. When it burns brightly enough in your heart you can spread that joy to others. But if it burned out and misery took its place, well just like a fire that has died, you needed something outside yourself to re-ignite that spark of joy.

And try as she might, Pinkie Pie couldn’t find anything to break herself out of her funk so she could get back to spreading joy. Not sugar highs from stuffing her face with baked goods, not trading jokes with her toothless pet alligator, Gummy, and not even trying to plan a party did the trick.

Two birthdays and a reunion had come and gone since the depression had set in, and although the parties had gone off without a hitch, they’d left her feeling as empty as before. So much so that Pinkie had done her best to avoid the guests at said parties for fear of infecting them with her lousy mood. What was the world coming to if a party couldn’t cheer up Pinkie Pie? Yeah, the mood around town was that bad.

The bell jingled as somepony opened the front door.

It turned out to be three fillies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders to be exact. Yet more proof that the town was in a bad way. Pinkie had never seen only three school ponies come in during the lunch break. They usually came in larger groups or not at all. Scootaloo seemed to be in the lead today, followed by Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom lagged behind, looking like she was here simply because of the other two crusaders.

Speaking of Scootaloo she looked worried about something as she approached the counter. That was too bad, as far as Pinkie Pie could tell, the orange and purple filly was one of the few ponies in town who had seemed to be in good spirits of late.

“Pinkie Pie, can we hide out here after school today?”

“Rarity had THAT look in her eyes this morning. And she said she would need a pegasus to model for her,” Sweetie Belle explained Scootaloo’s question.

Pinkie gave a deep, understanding, and drawn out “Ooohhhh.” Then a hint of a smile crept onto her face. “Too bad I’m not a pegasus. I wouldn’t mind an excuse to see Rarity if she’s in a good enough mood to be back to designing. Even if all that standing still is super duper boring.”

With a quick look around the room she added, “Things have been slow all day, so I don’t think the Cakes will mind if you hang out after school. Plenty of table space for everypony.”

“Thanks, Pinkie! You’re a life saver!” Scootaloo exclaimed with a happy buzz of her wings. “So what are we going to have, crusaders? My treat today!”

Apple Bloom shrugged. But Sweetie Belle took a deep inhale and a small smile appeared on her face.

“The cinnamon rolls smell really good to me.”

That idea got a round of nods from her fellow crusaders. So Scootaloo put the bits on the counter and Pinkie got them their order, along with three paper bags so they could take them to go. With that the trio of fillies took their sweets and hurried off to get back to school before the lunch break was over.

As she watched them go, Pinkie Pie wanted to smile. She really did. Seeing Scootaloo and the other crusaders had made her feel better. But something still felt missing.

Then a slight pain stabbed in Pinkie’s chest and a tremor made its way up her spine and a vision flashed in her mind. A vision of the most important day in her life, the day she learned to smile. The day she’d first tasted the sweet sweet goodness of joy. A day that she’d since learned she’d owned to none other than Rainbow Dash. That day that she’d seen a prismatic shockwave tear away the gloomy skies over her family’s rock farm had been the original spark of joy in Pinkie Pie’s life.

Remembering that day, the pink pony couldn’t help but smile.

* * * * * * *

Sweet Chime’s song quieted. Then she and her pegasus friend smiled that simple smile of two fillies who’d completed a job well done.

Reaching out and ruffling their manes, Rainbow Dash said, “Thanks, you two. Looks as good as new.”

Brushing a wing over her flank, she examined the skin beneath the fur. Sure enough all signs of the gash were gone, not even a scar remained. Only the memory of pain returned with the touch.

The sacred wing blades had done their best to seal the wound on the way back, but their magic was just too slow for Dash. Hence why she’d asked for Sweet Chime’s healing song. The idea of not being able to sit down without extraordinary pain, for a full day, while she waited for the wing blades to heal her wasn’t something she was going to tolerate. Not when she knew there was a faster solution around anyway.

Cloud Sword thanked the two fillies and sent them on their way. With a more grim expression he turned to the freshly healed paladin.

“What?” she asked, seeing the look on the former paladin’s face.

“Healing magic is nice, but it’s not all powerful.” His words were heavy with concern. “I know you are eager to finish what you started. But I also see the weakness lingering in your eyes. So please, trust me when I say you should give your body time to recover from that wound, even if magic has sealed the flesh. Please, try to rest as much as possible tomorrow.”

Rainbow Dash did a quick back flip and was about to brush off his concern for her. But as soon as she did the flip she was hit by a wave of dizziness. “Fine,” she grumbled. “Rest sounds good.”

Chapter 11: The Spirit Thief

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So far it seemed to be Rainbow Dash’s lucky day. Not only had there been no attack the pervious evening, but this morning’s dawn came without a fight too. It seemed the stars were aligned to allow her a day of rest.

Which only created a new war in her heart, a war of restlessness.

Back in Ponyville, she may have earned a reputation for being lazy at times, but that was because she liked to live life with a good high low mix. And it just so happens that the low part involved lengthy naps on low laying clouds.

But days like today, where she was supposed to forgo her bursts of high activity, made her too restless to sleep through the periods of low activity. And so here she sat, on the corner of the keep roof, her ears focusing on every voice they could find, searching for something to entertain the mind. Her tail flicked every few seconds as she subconsciously rejected yet another boring conversation and turned her unknowing attention elsewhere.

From her perch she could see the main courtyard of the castle. Not that there was much to look at. Just a lone Sky Knight standing guard by the fountain, a few ponies here or there tending the gardens between the buildings, and maybe a pony or two going from one building to another once in a while.

But it was not those tending the wheat, or the carrots, or the lone apple tree, nor the scribes and squires of the Sky Knights darting to or from the keep that captured Rainbow Dash’s attention. It was two knights flying a slow patrol over the west wall that captured her ears.

“Something’s wrong,” the dark blue stallion said.

“Oh? How so?” the green mare asked.

“Three twilights have come and gone without an attack. That’s rare enough on it’s own, but on top of there there’s no signs of shadow pegasus activity gathering nearby either.” He shook his head slowly. “It’s like they don’t plan on attacking us tonight either. That NEVER happens.”

The green pegasus nodded.

“True. But we’ve never had a paladin successfully defeat one of the overlords before, either. Let alone two.”

“That’s what worries me. The shadow pegasi have nothing to do with the overlords, they are just an extension of the Dark Summoner. Killing an overlord doesn’t make the shadow pegasi weaker. It’s almost as if she’s abandoning her own lieutenants by not sending the shadows to help them.” With a grim look on his face, the blue pegasus added, “No, something’s not right. Truthfully, I’d be surprised if something bad didn’t happen before day’s end.”

The mare gave a nod as if to agree. But a wary smile and a spark of hope in her eyes hinted that she wanted to think he was wrong. Either way the stallion’s words had put an end to their small talk.

Not exactly the diversion that she’d hoped for, and the eavesdropping hadn’t passed much time to boot. But it did bring an important question to Rainbow Dash’s mind that she wouldn’t have thought of on her own.

Why hadn’t the shadow pegasi interfered? Sure the first time might have been a surprise, but what about the fight with The Tormenter? Why hadn’t there been at least some shadows patrolling around the town that second day?

There was one place she could get answers, or at least an educated guess. But even as Dash stood up, the sky darkened. With an upward glance she dared to wonder what cloud had dared to get between her and the sun without her permission.

Much to her surprise, there was none. It was as if the sun had simply dimmed for no reason. And if that wasn’t reason enough for a shiver to run down the paladin’s spine, a feeling like being in the dark magic presence of an overlord was.

Amidst the sudden and unnatural gloom that had overtaken the castle, a half dozen spheres of light emerged from the buildings. (Four from the mare’s dorm and two from the stallion’s.) The spheres glowed softly with a bluish light, but they were wrapped in wispy dark tendrils, as if they were being pulled along by dark magic.

Then the screams came.

In a heartbeat, Rainbow Dash was diving for the nearest window in the mare’s dorm, as that’s were the loudest of the screams had come from.

She came skidding to a halt more or less in the middle of the room. Some ponies were lying on their beds. Some were cowering under them. The Sky Knights in the room looked like they were about to take flight out of one of the windows but stopped the instant Rainbow Dash had showed up. But as far as she could tell there were no demon ponies or shadow pegasi around.

“What’s going on?!”

The paladin’s shouted question came a second after she failed to find anything to be afraid of.

“It’s the Spirit Thief, she struck again!”

It had been one of the Sky Knights who aborted their takeoff that had answered her. And even as they did so the darkness over the castle lifted.

For her part, the paladin could only tilt her head slightly and say, “Yeah, this is all new to me so… who’s that?” Even as the words left her mouth she’d already guessed the answer. With a title like that who else could it be?

“One of the overlords,” the knight confirmed. “About once a month she uses her magic to steal the spirits of some of the ponies here at the castle.” With those words her eyes shifted to the three ponies lying in bed.

Dash’s eyes became dots when she realized that one of those ponies was Storm Gale. In a heartbeat she was at the Equestrian pegasus’ side.

“Gale! Wake up!”

Rainbow Dash’s cry went unanswered even as she shook her fellow weather pony’s shoulder.

“That won’t accomplish anything.”

Being first male voice in the room, this new speaker grabbed the attention of most there. Although it took little more than a glance to see that Cloud Sword had arrived. Yet, before he could say anything more the soft yet hurried clatter of small hooves approaching commanded everypony’s attention. It quickly proved to be the blue pegasus filly named Scooter who came rushing out of the hall.

“Paladin! You gotta help! She got Sweet Chime!”

A few dreaded gasps along the lines of ‘Oh no!’ and ‘Not the healer!’ were breathed by many who had heard the filly’s plea.

Dash welcomed the blue filly into a hug, holding her close to her chest. “It’ll be alright.” Turning her heard to the previous paladin, she quickly added, “How do I make this alright?”

“The short version is to return their spirits before their bodies die.”

The mare with the prismatic mane looked down to the seemingly slumbering body of her Ponyville coworker.

“How do I do that? And how long do I have to do it?”

“As you can imagine the Sprit Thief isn’t exactly kind enough to sit down and tell us all the rules of her magic. But from what we’ve been able to figure out on our end, some spirits are strong enough to break free and come back on their own.” With a sigh he added, “Most need to be rescued.”

“The good news is, that as far as we can tell, anypony who survives having their spirit stolen once, their spirit becomes strong enough to becomes immune to repeat attacks. Like this kid,” Cloud added, while ruffling Scooter’s mane. With a sigh even deeper then the last he added, “As long as she’s been left alone by that demon, I was beginning to think that the healer would be the first filly in this castle who’s spirit was strong enough to never get taken… But I guess that was too much to ask for.”

Looking down to the incapacitated mare on the bed, he said, “Most bodies last a day without their spirit. The record is three days. From what we can tell the stronger the pony’s spirit the longer they last. The ones that lasted three days for example, where usually the ones whose spirits returned themselves.”

“You still haven’t told me how to save the ones that need saving,” Rainbow Dash urged.

He placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“I know you are eager to right this wrong, but hear me out on this. The Spirit Thief is the only overlord I’ve ever fought on purpose. And the first thing you need to know is that even though she appears to be an earth pony, she is a master of illusion magic.”

A haunted look entered into Cloud’s eyes as he continued, “And there’s something… wrong, with her words. She’ll talk to you, try to get inside your mind, make you slip up. Something about her words… affect you. That’s why I’ve always kept my battle with her short. Whenever I had to go into that graveyard I’d hit hard and fast, disrupted her dark magics enough to make her lose her hold on the souls she’d stolen. And then I got the heck out of there.”

A shiver ran down the stallion’s spine. Taking the resulting pause to mean he was done talking, Rainbow Dash turned toward the window and spread her wings. But as soon as she did, she felt a hoof press down on her back, keeping her on the floor.

“There’s one more thing you should know. Her dark magic can heal her somehow. She doesn’t even bleed. That’s what scares me the most. I know that a prolonged fight with her is a bad idea, and I’m not sure it’s even possible to take her down quickly. I think that’s why every paladin whose tried to defeat her out right before has died trying. That’s why I’ve always fought her with quick hit and runs.” Pausing for a second he looked her in the eyes and added, “No pony will think ill of you if that’s what you do today.”

With that he finally stepped back, allowing Dash to do as she pleased.

At first she stood still and thought for a moment.

“You said graveyard, you mean the big one southwest of town, right?”

Both Cloud Sword and Scooter nodded, along with half of the ponies in the room.

“I’ll have to defeat the overlords eventually, anyway. Might as well take down this one today,” she said, flashing a bold, heroic smile.

“While that’s true, it might be wiser to face the Spirit Thief on your terms rather then when she knows you’ll be coming.”

Rainbow Dash’s smile lessened slightly.

“I don’t like giving up. But I’ll keep the ‘try again another day’ option in mind.”

And with that she gave her wings a powerful flap and disappeared out the window.

* * * * * * *

Having flown the long way around the town, she approached the graveyard from the north-northwest. Low and fast she zipped over the old, rusty iron fence the lined the massive graveyard. The first target in her sights was the lone watchtower in the north part of the graveyard.

The square, stone spire was maybe a little taller then the average two-story building, though it was also notably slimmer than the average one-room house. As one might expect form a watchtower. A small pyramid-like shelter stood in the middle of roof that would have allowed somepony to stand watch on top of the tower while still being sheltered from the rain.

It was beside that shelter that Rainbow Dash landed, where she took a moment to take note that somepony had placed a small telescope under the rooftop shelter. A telescope not too unlike the one that the Cutie Mark Crusaders of her world kept in the top observation room of their clubhouse.

On one side of the roof she found the hatch that would lead into the tower. Opening it she ignored the ladder and just hovered down into the tower’s only room.

Although she didn’t have to get far before she cringed and breathed a heavy sigh in disappointment.

A filly-sized skeleton lay in the middle of the room. Clumps of faded yellow mane still clung to the black bow resting against the skull. Rusty brown hooves that hinted at the filly’s body color in life now sat in stark contrast to the pale white bones that remained of a filly taken long before her time.

In a way Rainbow Dash knew when she promised to come looking for this filly that the child’s friends had been right, that dark powers had controlled this place far too long to expect this endeavor to end in rescue.

And yet Dash wasn’t done in this small tower room. Beside the fallen filly’s skull was a note written in blue crayon. Leaning down she read the note.

That THING isn’t my sister! It’s killing everyone, granny, big brother are gone… Sweet Chime was right, I should have believed her! Now I’m trapped here. If I go out there it’ll find me and I’ll be a goner for sure.

I know it’s stupid to be hope’n this, but if somepony finds this note, please tell Sweet Chime I’m sorry I didn’t listen to her. Oh and tell Scooter I took the snacks she left here. If I somehow get out of this alive I’ll replace them, honest! And if I don’t, well tell her that I’m sorry I took them without asking… and that I’m sorry I didn’t live long enough to replace them.

Uh oh, it just got dark for no reason… I think this might be-

The note ended in a long blue streak of crayon, as if the pony writing it had suddenly collapsed. And sure enough, between the skull and the note lay a blue crayon.

“Avenge it is,” Dash muttered as she stood back up.

A crate was barricading the door to the stairs that served as the main entrance to the tower. Not that it had been a hindrance to the dark magic that doomed the filly hiding in the tower. Although it was enough to convince the pegasus to leave the same way she came.

Once more flying low and fast, the paladin set her sights on the large mausoleum that stood at the heart of the graveyard, just as the farm house stood at the heart of Sweet Apple Acres in her world.

Landing around the side, she then snuck her way around the building. Finding no other entrance she made her way toward the front. At the front she found a heavy oak door already open, and Cloud’s warning about being expected echoed in her mind.

A rainbow mane and two rose eyes peeked around the corner, into the open doorway. Inside they found a living room much like that of her friend Applejack’s home. If AJ’s home had been made of stone anyway. There was a doorway off to the side and the back of the room, and a stairway that probably went up to the bedrooms. But unlike her friend’s home this place also had a stairway down.

This glaring difference in a world of odd similarities certainly caught Dash’s eye. Sure the Apple family home had a cellar too, but that one had to be accessed from outside. And besides, in this world that liked to twist everything she knew, she could only imagine that horrors would await her in the cellar that should’ve been a treasure trove of sweet, sweet apple cider.

The stairway down was long, straight and dark. Small touches lined the decent providing just enough light that just a few steps would be in complete darkness between them.

At the bottom of the stairway she emerged into a large and mostly empty room. There were two torches on the walls to either side of the entrance. What little light there was seemed to be draining out, like water going down the drain thanks to two large, dark auras in the corners of the room to either side of the entrance. And though it took a moment, Dash realized that those black holes were the waters of night and day charged with dark magic.

At the back of the room was a purple earth pony with a black mane, tail, and cowboy hat.

“See’n as you’re here, Ah reckon that means its time to get this rodeo started. Let’s start by seeing if ya can fight.”

“Let’s.”

Even as she answered, Rainbow Dash lunged. At the same time, the dark vision of Applejack disappeared, leaving the paladin’s wing blades to cleave empty air.

“Right, an illusion,” Dash muttered as she allowed herself to land and take a defensive stance.

“Yep, but there is one illusion that’s as good as the real thing.”

The country voice spoke from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Dash asked, looking for any sign of where the pony casting the illusion really was.

The clop of hooves on the stone floor echoed from everywhere. There could have been six ponies running circles around her and it would have sounded the same to Rainbow Dash. She grit her teeth, knowing she couldn’t tell which set of hoofsteps was real and which ones were the illusion.

The answer came with a flash of blue light and the feeling of a horseshoe slamming into her left shoulder.

“The illusion of invisibility!” The demon’s words came as Dash tumbled across the floor from the blow.

Scrambling back to her hooves, Rainbow Dash swung the wing blades in the direction she’d been hit from. But apparently her unseen attacker hadn’t followed after knocking her down, as she cleaved only air.

Her next instinct was to get airborne and periodically taking a blind kick at the untraceable hoofsteps down below. That lasted all of ten seconds before she felt something grab her tail and use it to throw her to the ground, once more prompting the blue flash of the wing blade’s protective magics.

Getting back up, she then dashed to the middle of the room and spun herself around, lashing out with the wing blades, whenever she heard the hoofsteps drawing close. From the sounds of the hooves, it seemed she was forcing the invisible demon pony to call off her attacks and jump back. As nice as the reprieve was, Rainbow Dash knew she wasn’t going to win like this. But how was she going to beat an enemy she couldn’t see?

If only it wasn’t so dark maybe she could see a flaw in the invisibility spell. But the only two torches in the room where already lit and it was hardly enough to see the far walls of the room. Not that those two pools of the waters of night and day charged with dark magic were helping the matter…

The pools! That was the answer, she’d seen pegasus magic change of the waters of night and day from dark to light magic before!

In the blink of an eye, Dash darted to one of the pools and, landing hard in the waters, slammed her front hooves down as if she was trying to get lightning out of a storm cloud. Mostly golden light erupted from the pool, along with ribbons of silver and blue light.

For a brief moment the paladin caught a glimpse of a transparent version of the demon pony. But as quick as it came the purple demon pony backed away from the now radiant pool and once more disappeared from sight. Judging from the distance, as long as Dash kept the pool charged with light, the magic glow of the waters of night and day could only reveal the invisible demon a few feet from the water’s edge. But that was enough to stop the attacks.

Every now and then she would spot a transparent purple hoof appear and the fact that her eyes instantly locked on to the demon’s attempts to draw near made the demon pony withdraw.

“Ya can’t win, just hide’n in your little sanctuary like that. Why keep fight’n?”

Glaring back at the seemingly empty room, Rainbow Dash answered, “Because my friends are counting on me! They’re waiting for me to being back all the pegasi your boss kidnapped from my world. And I won’t leave them hanging! I will come through for them!”

“Your friends?” The demon asked with a cackle. “You mean the friends who returned your loyalty by betraying you?”

“What? My friends haven’t betrayed me!” Dash replied, stomping her hoof, re-energizing the pool with radiant magic.

“Really? Then what do ya call Pinkie Pie’s tradition of stabbing ya in the back every cider session?”

“Hey! I didn’t really consider her a friend until recently. So it’s not like she owed me any loyalty before.”

“True enough,” the demon answered. “But even after ya became friends that didn’t stop her from trammeling on your feelings, did it?”

With the Spirit Thief’s words a ring of magic opened in air, in the middle of the room, showing an image of Fluttershy flying alongside an angry Rainbow Dash.

“The rush? Don’t you remember what happened last year? Or the year before that? Or pretty much any cider session ever?” Dash’s past self asked.

“Oh, well, uh.”

“Pinkie Pie!” the Rainbow Dash in the illusion answered her own question. “She always ends up ahead of us in line! And then they always run out of cider!”

The image shifted and then showed Pinkie Pie with a dozen mugs of cider, while Rainbow Dash stood in line, scowling.

Another shift and the illusion showed Rainbow Dash next in line for cider only for the dispenser to run dry for the last time that day. Then Applejack saying you couldn’t rush their recipe and that they’d have more tomorrow.

Then it showed Pinkie Pie right in Rainbow Dash’s face saying, “She’s right you know. You can’t rush perfection. And this year's batch was perfection!” Effectively rubbing her crime in Dash’s face.

And she didn’t stop there. “I’ll never forget the cider I just drank. It’s a moment in time that will never exist again,” Pinkie said laying herself across Dash’s back while the blue pegasus growled in frustration.

With that the illusion vanished and the demon who sounded like Applejack spoke again.

“And that was after ya considered her a friend. And didn’t she consider everypony in town to be her friend, anyway? No wonder nothing changed and she kept betraying ya. Just. Like. Before.”

Paladin Rainbow Dash took an unintentional step backward, only to stop herself on feeling the edge of her watery sanctuary.

“And need Ah even mention Applejack’s part in that crime?” The demon asked.

“What are you talking about? AJ has to sell the cider. Her family needs the money, so it’s not like she can just give it to her friends. And besides, she gave me my money back once she realized I hadn’t gotten what I’d paid for.”

“True, but she still saw her so-called friend next in line when she ran out of cider to sell you. And where were you the next day?”

The illusion returned and showed Applejack once again apologizing for running out of cider and asking ponies to come back tomorrow. Then a Rainbow Dash a full hill away from the front of the line shouted, “Oh, come on!”

“Tell me, spirit of loyalty,” the demon continued. “What would loyalty have done, had your roles been reversed, and you seen your friend next in line to buy what you where selling?”

“I-I would’ve made more cider, after I sent the crowd home. Then I’d have invited my friend over for dinner or something, to give them a chance to do some after-hours business.”

“And yet, she did nothing. She saw Pinkie Pie tormenting you and despite having the solution within her hooves, she did nothing. And let’s not forget her claim that she couldn’t make enough cider for everypony. The claim she proved was a lie all along with that contest a few days later. Granted, she needed help, but then she made ya wait in line like everypony else, for the very cider you helped create!”

A tremble traveled through Rainbow Dash’s body, as hear heart sank. The demon was right. That cider session had given Applejack two chances to return even a fraction of Dash’s loyalty, and both times she’d failed miserably.

*Wham!

Two hooves slammed into the paladin pegasus, sending her flying right into the nearest wall.

Scrambling back to her hooves, the paladin realized just how dim she’d allowed the waters of night and day to get. No wonder the demon was able to remain invisible close enough to surprise her. Slashing wildly at the darkness, Dash ran back to the pool and stomped her hooves into its wasters.

The light surged from the waters and once again Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of the Spirit Thief retreating back to where her invisibility spell was fully effective.

“Ah’ll ask again, why are ya fight’n so hard to get back to friends who ain’t loyal back? Who betray ya?”

“Okay, so AJ and Pinkie are bad examples. But Fluttershy’s been with me ever since we were foals! She’s stuck with me for years even though we’re nothing alike! That sounds like loyalty to me!” Yet even as she spoke the name she regretted it, a part of her knowing the retort that was bound to come.

“Your kidd’n, right? Of course she stuck with ya! She’s a coward and ya went and appointed yourself her personal guardian angel. But we both know she’s just use’n ya! Like ya said, ya served her for years, but when you out right asked for her to return a shred of the loyalty to ya, what did she do? She betrayed ya on the spot!”

The illusion magic returned, this time showing Fluttershy’s cottage. The yellow pegasus had her hooves held firm to the frame of her front door, while Rainbow Dash was trying to push her long-time friend out said door.

“Come on, Fluttershy! I watched that boring butterfly migration with you! Now come watch the dragon migration with me! You owe me!”

The memory of pain itched at Rainbow’s chest, gut, and the back of her head, even before the illusion continued.

“NO!” illusion Fluttershy shouted, spinning around and slamming her front hooves into past Rainbow Dash’s chest, knocking the blue pegasus to the ground. And immediately proceeding to slam her hind hooves down on her friend’s gut, before darting out a window and leaving illusion Dash lying on the floor winded, dazed and in pain.

The illusion faded, and the real Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but slide a hoof over her stomach even though the pain she felt now had no real source, the memory of the pain she’d felt that day lingered. And she couldn’t help but remember how she’d had to lie there on the floor for over five minutes before the pain had faded enough for her to get up.

The demon was right. Years of having Fluttershy’s back, boring herself out of her mind watching the butterfly migration, and when she’d dared to ask a favor in return, she’d been throw to the ground and kicked in the gut.

The irony of it all was that even the favor in question was meant for Fluttershy’s benefit. If she’d just grow a backbone, Flutters would see just how amazing she really was. And hiding in a trench watching dragons fly overhead wasn’t exactly an overly bold request of her, especially considering that would also mean sitting next to a unicorn who’s magic was powerful enough to put up a shield if needed.

Not that any of that had mattered, as the illusion had been a perfect replication of Rainbow Dash’s memories of the event. Her yellow friend had indeed openly betrayed her.

“Rarity?”

Truthfully even Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure if she’d said that as a statement or a question. Like Pinkie Pie, Rarity was a recent friend, unlike Pinkie Pie, Dash hadn’t even really known Rarity at all before their mutual friendship with Twilight caused them to become friends. As little time as they spent together and as short as their friendship had been, surely Rarity hadn’t even had time to betray her in any meaningful way. Had she?

“Yes, Rarity,” the demon chuckled. “If ever there was a pony who owed you loyalty it would be her wouldn’t? Ya saved her life twice, after all. Course, the only reason ya had to do that the first time was because she went and decided to compete against ya in the competition she’d supposedly come to help cheer for ya.”

“Rarity already admitted she wasn’t thinking clearly. And besides, if she hadn’t done that I’d have never done the sonic rainboom for the second time. Or saved the Wonderbolts!”

“Ah suppose ‘no harm, no foul’ works there. That little betrayal of hers worked out in your favor after all. Though that wasn’t the only time she’s betrayed ya despite owing ya her life twice over!”

Rainbow first reaction would have been to ask what the heck the demon was talking about, but in truth, she was too afraid to say anything. Not that she had to.

The illusion returned, this time showing a stagecoach and a simple cart. The former being pulled by four stallions, with Applejack and Pinkie riding, and the latter holding Twilight and Rarity while being pulled by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“Well I heard a sorry in there. That’ll have to do for now. I’ll get a real apology later,” illusion Pinkie said. “Raritycatchme!” she quickly added as she jumped off the stagecoach.

Unprepared to do anything of the sort, Pinkie crashed into Rarity and both went tumbling off the back of the simple cart.

The real Rainbow Dash could only tilt her head and raise an eyebrow. That was from the time Applejack had run off and they where trying to convince her to come home. And for the life of her, Dash couldn’t recall Rarity doing anything bad to her on that trip.

The illusion shifted to show only Pinkie Pie and Rarity using a handcart to ride the railroad. Pinkie was chanting “chimicherry or cherrychanga?”

Rarity looked down and snarled, “When I get back, you’re gonna get it, Rainbow Dash!”

Even as a shiver ran down her spine, Rainbow Dash caught something.

“How do I know that’s true! I wasn’t there for that. I don’t know what Rarity and Pinkie said on their way back!”

“Heh, heh, heh,” The demon’s slow laugh seemed sincerely amused. “Ah may be the demon born of honesty’s heart, but Ah’m still the demon of honesty! Besides why should Ah lie when the truth is painful enough on it’s own? Can ya deny that her vengeance didn’t happen when she got back? Ya saved her from her own foolishness, Ya saved her from a dragon’s foolishness, and that’s how she repaired you! A real loyal one, that one.” The demon’s last line having been said dripping with sarcasm.

Another shiver made its way through Rainbow’s body. Rarity’s vengeance had indeed happened. Worse yet, Rarity’s idea was vengeance hadn’t been kind. That unicorn’s idea of vengeance had been to hit where it hurt the most. That was to say, not physical pain, but emotional pain, or in that case embarrassment. Long story short, let’s just say that was the day Rainbow Dash learned to check for hidden cameras whenever Rarity needed her to model for a pegasus dress.

That thought alone prompted another shiver from her.

The feeling of two hooves slamming into her chest and sending her flying into the wall behind reminded her that she’d gotten distracted and allowed her defenses to laps. A quick dash and slashing at her unseen attacker and she got back to the pool. Another lightning kick and she had it shining once more.

“Don’t ya see? All of your friends have betrayed ya. They ain’t worth fighting for, returning too.”

“Twilight is.”

Yet, even as Rainbow Dash said it, she knew the lavender unicorn’s crime. The Mare Do-Well incident all to sharply burned into her memory. But she had a counter argument ready for that.

Sure enough, the illusion returned. Sure enough it showed a masked mare being pinned down and unmasked by her past self. Then, one my one, her friends came out of the woodwork proudly announcing how they’d help make a fool out of her. How they’d betrayed her.

Whether the tear forming in Dash’s eyes was from the pain in her chest from the recent blow or the daggers that watching the illusion was thrusting into her heart by the endless reminders that her friends indeed had no loyalty for her she couldn’t say.

Yet, when the illusion ended, she said, “They only did that to rein me in, to show me how a real hero should act.”

With that she directed a bold grin into the empty room. She’d already forgiven Twilight Sparkle for that crime, and unlike Rarity, Twilight didn’t have a second act of betrayal. Or at least not one that she could think of.

“Ah reckon we both know that’s not how ya really felt about that day. But if ya want to be stubborn about it, what about the time she abandon and replaced ya in a heartbeat?”

The paladin pegasus raised an eyebrow. The ‘what are you talking about?’ look on her face was clear enough that it didn’t need to be said.

The invisible demon laughed and the illusion returned.

This time it showed the interior of Twilight’s library. Though for some reason there was a gapping hole in the side of the hollowed out tree library accompanied by a bolder that was likely the cause of said hole. Beyond the hole, in the world outside the ground had become a double blue checkerboard pattern and several houses were on floating islands.

The final nail in the coffin was that four of Twilight Sparkle’s friends present in the illusion were all grayscale versions of themselves. The only color to be found on the four ponies were the golden necklaces with the brightly colored gem resembling the cutie mark of each of their holders. This must have been when Discord was using Ponyville as his chaos capital of the world.

“Come on everypony, Let’s go!” illusion Twilight said.

At that point the illusion showed Spike run up beside the purple unicorn and say, “But Twilight! Aren’t you missing somepony?”

“Nope! We got the liar, the grump, the hoarder and the brute. That just about covers it.”

“What about Rainbow Dash?”

With hardly a moment’s pause, Twilight used her magic to strap the element of loyalty around the youthful dragon’s neck and said, “Congratulations, Spike, you’re the new Rainbow Dash. Now let’s go!”

“Me!” Spike cried, one more chasing after Twilight. “B-b-but, what if she finds out I’ve been impersonating her?” Slumping down slightly he added, “Uh that won’t end well.”

“Too bad, you’re Rainbow Dash. Now let’s go defeat Discord-”

With that the illusion shifted to outside the library, where Discord stood, casually leaning against a tree, with a pair of sunglasses on and a target hanging from his midsection.

“Rainbow Dash! Get over here!” Twilight commanded.

Reluctantly, Spike responded to the pegasus’ name and went over beside Twilight Sparkle.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.”

After Twilight’s words the illusion went on to show the unicorn power up the elements of harmony, ready to strike out at the spirit of chaos. While the other elements started to glow, unsurprisingly, the element of loyalty failed to react to Spike. The light of the elements fizzled out and the ponies fell unceremoniously to the ground. And with that the illusion ended.

“Ya didn’t really think she could be bothered to find ya on her own, did ya? No, that so-called friend o’ yours only came to find ya because those magic gems gave her no choice.”

Rainbow Dash took a shaky step backward. Had Twilight really replaced her so easily?

“We were all being affected by Discord’s magic,” she said.

“Don’t play dumb! We both know that his magic made ponies lose their color, Twilight hadn’t lost her color, She wasn’t under Discord’s power when she did that and ya know it!”

“That… that can’t be how it happened! I wasn’t there for that! You could show me anything you wanted and I wouldn’t know if it was true or not!”

“Come now, ya know full well it was true. Even if ya didn’t see that happen, ya saw enough afterwards to know something was wrong.”

Dash’s blood froze in her vanes. Spike had been acting weird around her for a week or two after Discord’s defeat. Or out right avoided her when he could in that time. Why had he done that? He had no reason to… Unless the illusion had been true, and he didn’t want her to find out that he went along with replacing her like that.

The paladin’s wings went limp. Not even bothering to fold them to her side, she let their tips splash into the waters of night and day. Her mouth hung open in disbelief. All of her friends had betrayed her one way or another. Her eyes turned an unfocused gaze to the dimming waters below her, its glow would be strong enough for only a little longer, and she didn’t care. Her heart felt numb. The spirit of loyalty had no loyal friends… Did she even have a reason to go on living anymore?

Amidst her ever-numbing heart, Rainbow Dash found one spark still burned.

Her eyes came back into focus. A bold grin appeared on her face and she kicked the waters, returning their light to its peak. She knew her mistake now, she had only been thinking of her adult friends. But she did have one loyal friend.

“Scootaloo.”

At first the declaration was met by silence. Then a hearty laugh.

“That brat who ruined your reputation with the school newspaper? Didn’t it take ya weeks to get folks to forget that hit piece she and her friends printed of ya?”

“No. I watched that pony die. She burned to death in the fires of her own passion right in front of me! And like a phoenix a new Scootaloo rose from her ashes! The Scootaloo who shared her hopes, her dreams, who bore her very soul to me! That Scootaloo would charge into the very depths of Tartarus with me if I asked her to!”

There was no doubt in the paladin’s words and this time it was the demon’s focus that faltered. And the instant the invisibility spell failed, Rainbow Dash attacked.

Dashing forward, she cleaved the demon’s side.

But the demon did not bleed. Instead, the wound glowed with blue light. Then two spheres of blue light emerged and the wound closed in the wake of their exit from the demon’s body. Backing off, the demon started to fade away, restoring the invisibility spell.

Knowing she wouldn’t get another chance like this, Dash kept with her target, continuing to swing the sacred wing blades with all due zeal. Another strike, another gash, and more orbs of soft blue light joined the first two in floating about the room.

The demon started fighting back. But now that the paladin could see her foe, hoof met hoof, and blow with blow.

Through her speed, agility, and the numerical advantage in the number of limbs, Rainbow Dash was able to keep the demon off balance. Slash after slash, wound after self-mending wound, more orbs of light filled the air of the room above the two combatants.

Begging for rest, the muscles in her wings burned and finally forced Dash to let the demon stumble away from her. Both taking the moment to breath heavily and glare at each other.

The demon started to fade away. Yet, the purple demon pony failed to disappear completely. Instead she remained transparent in the blue light of all the floating orbs in the room. The surprise in the demon’s eyes quickly turned into an angry glare at the spheres.

With that the demon charged.

Although the reprieve had been short lived, it was enough for Rainbow Dash’s wings to obey her mind again. Charging in turn, she side stepped the demon at the last second and swung the wing blades once more. Immediately spinning on her hind legs she added a second strike to her attack.

From one of the gashes two more spheres of light joined the multitude of lights floating around the room. From the other a splash of black blood fell, bursting into ghastly black flames in the process. More importantly the bleeding wound didn’t close, but continued to trickle the burning demon blood.

“Ah, shoot!” the Spirit Thief growled.

Almost as soon as the words had left the demon’s mouth, Rainbow Dash plunged the sacred wing blades into its chest.

Coughing up more burning blood, the demon reached out and wrapped its front legs around the paladin. And then she tightened her hold, as if to pull the pegasus into a hug, and plunging the bladed wing even deeper into her own chest.

Naturally, Rainbow’s first response was to give the demon a confused look. Why would a demon make the wound worse by hugging her? Then she remembered what happened to the last two demons when they died. Realizing the hostile nature of the embrace, she kicked the demon back, pulling her wing free of its chest, her eyes darting about the room.

The life faded from the demon’s eyes, as its body hit the floor.

Figuring she didn’t have the time to get out of basement before the inevitable blast, Rainbow Dash dove for the nearest pool of the waters of night and day. Kicking a hoof down as she reached it, its light filled the room. And though the pool wasn’t deep enough to submerge in, she lied down and thrust her face into the water.

Not a second later, she heard the explosion and felt a wave of flames wash over her still exposed torso and the back of her head. Her scream was muffled by waters below and drowned out by the fires above.

The instant she felt the pressure of the blast wave pass by, she rolled over, dousing the flames clinging to her mane, tail and the fur on her rump.

A moan of both pain and pleasure came from the pegasus as her now-hyper-tempter-sensitive skin traded the burning heat of the flames for the sudden chill of the water.

Lying on her back in the shallow pool, Dash waited for the pain from her burned patches to subside. As she did so, she watch the numerous orbs of light begin to exit the room. Most simply floated up, through the ceiling. A few darted off at an angle that had them going through the walls.

Eventually, only two orbs remained. The brighter of the two orbited over the paladin’s head. The dimmer one seemed to be drifting about aimlessly, as if lost.

Then the brighter one went over to the dimmer and began to fly circles, as if trying to coax the wayward one toward Rainbow Dash. And after a moment it seemed to notice the other orb and started following it hesitantly. With that, the brighter one led the other over to the lone pegasus in the room.

When they drew near the paladin the bewildered orb seemed to hop, as if it recognized the mare, and began to fly straight. When the two orbs reached Rainbow Dash they pressed into her chest, disappearing into her.

Instantly Rainbow Dash felt as if she was in the presence of a filly and a mare, despite being the only one in the room. She could feel the mare’s fear, and she could feel that the filly wanted her to help guide the mare home. The words, ‘She doesn’t know the way,’ popped in Dash’s mind, and though no voice had accompanied the idea, she knew it was the filly.

Rising up from the pool, the paladin spread her wings and spoke to the empty room. “Alright you two, one ride back to Liberty Castle coming up!”

* * * * * * *

Orange hooves slammed into the trunk of a tree and obediently the tree relinquished several of its apples to the mare.

“Ah shoot. That’s the tenth time today,” Applejack moaned and frowned, when she saw that she’d hit the tree hard enough to leave an imprint of her horseshoes in the bark.

To make her mood even worse she couldn’t deny the frustration that had found its way into her apple bucking. Like all of Rainbow Dash’s friends, Applejack’s mood had taken a turn for the worse when the official search for their missing friend was called off. Needless to say AJ had been among the volunteers who’d continued searching for the missing pegasus.

But just like everypony else, she could only put her own life on hold so long. Eventually the demands of the family farm forced Applejack to stop spending her days searching far and wide as well. Working the farm over searching for a missing friend was necessary, but that didn’t make it feel right.

A gentle breeze moved through the orchard, causing the leaves of the trees to rustle. With her ears awakened, another sound caught AJ’s attention, the sound of children laughing.

Looking to the source, she was reminded that the crusaders were sticking by her for now. Ever since Celestials decree that pegasus ponies shouldn’t be left alone, Scootaloo had become a near-permanent addition to the Apple family farm. It seemed the filly’s father was too busy investigating the source of the pegasus disappearance to come home most days. Needless to say, Scootaloo’s friends weren’t about to let their friend go home to an empty house when something was targeting pegasi, so Scoots had been on a chain of sleepovers ever since Celestia’s decree went out.

A shame that Celestia’s decree did nothing to answer the question of why pegasi shouldn’t be alone. Not that it really needed to. Pegasus ponies were going missing, and no pony seemed to know why or how or who was behind it. So when the decree went out, it wasn’t hard for the rumor mills to figure out that something was targeting pegasi and whatever it was the authorities didn’t have it under control.

Of course simply being around other fillies didn’t seem good enough, so Applejack had insisted that the Cutie Mark Crusaders stay in line of sight of an adult. Just as a precaution of course, seeing as something might be targeting Scootaloo just because she was a pegasus.

Hence why the trio of friends were currently playing with a ball, tossing it about to each other. Seemed that was one of the few mobile games that would allow them to move with AJ as she harvested, but was also slow enough to keep them from straying too far from said adult.

For a pony living under a mysterious threat for no reason other than being born with wings, Scootaloo seemed to handing this situation well. Or perhaps it was just because she was young enough that ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ was the rule of the day for her.

Although it wasn’t as if the filly was unaware that something was making pegasi go missing. AJ had even asked her why she wasn’t bothered by the implications of the situation. Scootaloo’s answer had been something along the lines of, ‘I’m not worried because we crusaders have a plan, and I don’t mind being the bait for the trap if it means we save Rainbow Dash!’

The thing that scared Applejack the most was that she didn’t doubt for a second that those three fillies probably did have some ‘Cutie Mark Crusader, Rainbow Dash rescuers!’ plan at the ready if anypony tried to foalnap Scootaloo.

It wasn’t right. No pony should have to be in danger just because they were born with wings.

And no pony should have to be in danger just because they were friends with a pegasus. Especially not children. And especially not her little sister. It just wasn’t right.

And don’t get her started on Celestia. When pressed on the matter of the past event that these recent events reminded her of, she gave the kind of answers that had a lot of words without saying anything at all. The kind of answer of somepony who knew more than they wanted to say.

Throw on top of that the fact that Celestia only had the royal guard looking for Rainbow Dash for a week, and AJ wasn’t exactly happy with the princess of the sun. The spirit of loyalty was missing and Princess Celestia called off the official search for her after one measly week! If it weren’t for Scootaloo’s father being in the guard, the farmer would’ve thought no pony was even looking anymore. All the official sources were doing their best to play down the disappearance as much as they could, while telling pegasus ponies to act like something was hunting them. All this acting like everything was normal when there was clearly something wrong, that wasn’t right!

“Uh, Sis, Ah think ya already harvested that one.”

Apple Bloom’s words drew Applejack out of her thoughts enough to realized that she’d just kicked the same tree for about the fifth time, despite the fact that it had relinquished its apples on the first try.

“Yeah, Ah guess Ah did,” Applejack said sheepishly. Then looking to all of the harvest buckets filled with apples around them, she added, “Think ya girls can help me bring this load in?”

Apple Bloom quickly agreed, needless to say the filly was accustomed to receiving chores from her big sister.

Just a quickly Scootaloo agreed. Ever since the forced chain of sleepovers had begun, Scoots had seemed eager to earn her keep at whichever of her friend’s places she was staying at.

And though she said nothing, Sweetie Belle set about the tack along side her friends without complaint.

Before long the four of them had gathered the apples into a wagon. And having hitched herself to that wagon, AJ now led the three fillies on their way to the nearest apple cellar. Along side her, the crusaders walked, talking amongst themselves, casually kicking their ball forward every time they caught up to it.

Looking at them, Applejack saw three friends who were trying to pretend that everything was normal. Trying to pretend that they didn’t notice how most of the parents were taking turns standing guard over the schoolhouse when they were at school. And one young pegasus trying to pretend that she didn’t mind not being able to really cut lose with her scooter anymore, since there weren’t any adults around who could keep up with her and she wasn’t allowed to be alone.

It wasn’t right. Those weren’t burdens that should be carried by ones as young as these three.

Breathing a deep sigh Applejack made up her mind. Respect could only go so far, and her respect for Princess Celestia had reached its limit. She was going to get answers.

* * * * * * *

After handing over watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders to Big Mac, Applejack made her way to Canterlot and soon found herself approaching the gates of the Canterlot Castle.

Of course a pony with nothing but a cowboy hat on drew more than enough glances just walking the streets of the capital city. So one can only imagine the odd glances she drew from passersby when she turned down the path to the castle gate. Despite the scoffing reactions of the well-dressed ponies on the street, the guard looked upon the farm pony with little surprise. If for no other reason than all kinds came to the castle for one reason or another.

“Halt!” He said in a commanding tone. “State your name and business,” he added in a more automatic tone of a rehearsed phrase that he’d likely repeated more times then he wanted to know.

“Applejack. And Ah’d like to have a chat with Princess Celestia.”

The stallion’s first response was to look at a clipboard that was hanging on the wall nearby. But even as he did so, he knew that wasn’t right. For some reason, he knew that name, and he never knew the names of the ponies on the scheduled appointment list.

Poking his head inside the guardhouse, he looked to the wall just beside the door. On that wall was a large glass case with about twenty or so plaques in it. These were the names of ponies who had standing permission to enter the castle at will. And sure enough among those plaques was one that read ‘Applejack, Spirit of Honesty.’

Looking back to the mare in the cowboy hat, he waved her in and said, “Welcome Miss Applejack. Would I be correct in guessing that your visit wasn’t scheduled in advance?”

“That’s right. Ah’m sorry if that’s ah problem.”

“Not at all, Ma’am. If you’ll follow me to the waiting room, I’ll inform Celestia that you’re here.”

With that he led the farm mare into the castle.

The waiting room was a large dead-end room. On one side there were several rows of plush seats with bright red cushions and gold plated frames. On the other was a long table with ornate decorations like gold plated candlesticks and refreshments like a few plates with pastries from the royal kitchen, and a punch bowl.

While most of the chairs were empty, Applejack wasn’t alone. In one place there was a unicorn mare and her son waiting in adjacent chairs. Elsewhere in the room a unicorn stallion with a fancy top hat sat, working out something on a clipboard while he waited. Finally there was a group of three pegasi sitting together enjoying the food, although one of them also wore a somewhat solemn look, while the other two seemed more like they’d only come along to make sure no pegasus was traveling alone.

Taking one of the many open seats, Applejack waited, letting her thoughts broil in her mind, planing her conversation with Celestia. At first she saw herself explaining the plight of ponies like Scootaloo and Fluttershy and asking why the spirit of loyalty had seemingly been abandon by the monarch to whom Rainbow Dash had openly pledged her loyalty.

The farm pony kept playing that conversation out in her mind over and over, with each iteration, her planned speech to the princess becoming more hostile until it was a full on rant.

Then Applejack felt a sudden warmth wash away the troubles in her heart. And for some reason it reminded her of the day the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been going around town asking Twilight and all of her friends about their cutie mark stories. Or more specifically the big group hug that resulted when they’d all been gathered in Sugar Cube Corner and learned that Rainbow Dash had helped all five of them earn their cutie mark when she’d earned her own by performing the sonic rainboom for the first time. That was what Applejack felt, the warmth of all of her friends gathered around Rainbow Dash, showering their appreciation on the ace flying. And the brash pony daring to hug back as best she could.

Reliving that memory brought a sense of calm to AJ. Even as the memory shattered away, leaving only the stubborn earth pony and the blue pegasus alone in a field of white light, shifting it into something she knew hadn’t happened.

The Rainbow Dash of her imagination gave her a hearty smile.

“When have I ever left you hanging, AJ? Have faith in me. I’ll save the day and come back, I promise.”

“Miss Applejack!” The guard’s call snapped the farm pony out of her thoughts. “She’s ready for you now,” he said, motioning for the mare in the cowboy hat to follow.

Even Applejack raised an eyebrow at the realization that she was the most recent addition to the waiting room and yet she was the next one called in. The slight blush that formed on her cheeks disarmed most of the looks coming her way. She truly hadn’t meant to cut in line like that, but how was she to know she’d get the VIP treatment? Although, only the unicorn with the fancy hat still seemed indignant at the clear favoritism that she received by the time she left the room.

She was brought to the throne room. Or she would have been if Celestia hadn’t met her in the hall just outside it.

“Would it be alright if we walk while we talk?”

With a nod Applejack agreed and the two set off down the hall.

“So, what did the spirit of honesty want to talk about?”

“Shoot, princess, just Applejack is fine.”

“Don’t deny me this act of humility, Applejack,” Celestia said. Then leaning in close and covering the back of both of their heads with her wing, she whispered, “I don’t get to do it often. Trust me, most of the ponies I have audiences with aren’t the kind I can pretend to be humble with.”

With that the princess straightened back up, though she now wore a playful smile.

“Right…” Applejack said, her thoughts suddenly drawn to the snooty stallion with the fancy top hat.

“All jests aside. I really am curious as to why you came all the way to Canterlot instead of having Twilight send a letter on your behalf.”

“Honestly princess, Ah was planing on chewing ya out about calling off the search for Rainbow Dash. But when Ah was waiting, the strangest thing happened. Something came over me and Ah felt that Rainbow was just fine, even though Ah got no reason to be thinking that. Ah suppose the only thing that’s still bothering me is that Ah’d like to know what you meant in your letter about ‘non-public stuff’ reminding ya of something that happened in the past. What was that about? And why does it make ya think Rainbow don’t need help?”

“Applejack, can you promise me that what I tell you will remain a secret?”

“Of course, Ya have my word.”

Celestia gave a quick check to ensure that the hallway was empty. Then she answered, “There have been sporadic reports of shadowy pegasus figures and magic portals tied to some the pegasus disappearances. An unusual phenomenon to say the least. And one that has only happened once before, to the best of my knowledge.”

“That thing that happened with Rainbow’s ancestor?”

The princess responded with a nod.

“Ah can see why ya’d think the two events are connected and all. But why call off the search for Rainbow? Just because ya never found out where those portals were going the last time, don’t mean ya can’t figure it out this time.”

“Applejack, it isn’t that I don’t want to find Rainbow Dash, it’s that I don’t believe that I can.” A raised eyebrow and a bit of a glare from the earth pony prompted the alicorn princess to continue. “I know it isn’t common knowledge, but there are worlds and realms beyond our own. Starswirl the Bearded discovered several himself. And many of these realms are beyond the reach of our magic.”

Applejack’s eyebrow remained raised.

“I believe the most commonly known ‘other realm’ would be Tartarus. You are aware of that, correct?”

A nod answered the question.

“For example, my magic can’t locate somepony that I know is in Tartarus unless I actually pass through the gates of Tartarus and cast the spell from within that realm. But what you’re asking, Applejack, isn’t just for me to find a pony who is in another world. What you’re asking of me is to find a pony in a world I don’t know how to find.”

AJ’s eyes became tiny green dots as a look of realization came over her face.

“Do you see now why I kept this a secret? Can you imagine the panic that would come if ponies knew that those who disappear are beyond my help? And that, just like 300 years ago, it will be up to those who are in that other world to find their way back?”

“Hold on a second there, princess. What do ya mean up to them?”

“Like I just said. I don’t know how to find the world that the pegasi seem to be disappearing to, let alone reach it. But it is clear that those in that world know how to cast portal spells that can connect to Equestria. I can only presume that that is how Lighting Dash brought back the missing pegasi back then. By finding the way to open a portal back to Equestria from that world.”

“Ah see. Thank ya for your time, princess. Though Ah wish there was something we could do to help, Ah reckon you’re right to put your faith in Rainbow.”

* * * * * * *

Rainbow Dash returned to the bunkroom where Storm Gale was and found that all of the female ponies who’d been affected had been brought to the same room. Most were now sitting up in their beds, being attended to by friends or family. Sweet Chime and Gale were the only two still asleep. And apparently Sweet Chime had been placed in the bed next to Storm Gale’s.

Even as Dash hovered her way over to the two stricken ponies, the brighter orb of light emerged from her, as if sensing the nearness of its proper place. The orb shot over to Sweet Chime and entered into the unicorn filly.

Almost immediately the filly’s eyes opened. She turned her head to the approaching paladin, smiled and whispered, “Thank you, Paladin Rainbow Dash.”

It wasn’t until the paladin landed beside Storm Gale that the mare’s spirit came out and made the jump back to her body. Like the filly, Gale awoke in mere seconds. Although in her case, the mare’s eyes started darting around the room in a panic until they found Rainbow Dash.

“Am-am I alive?”

“Yes, Gale. You’re alive.”

Looking down the bed she was on, the pegasus mare said, “It was a dream? Oh, Rainbow Dash! I had the worst nightmare! I dreamt that a demon ripped out my soul!”

Rainbow Dash blinked, and then a nervous smile appeared on her face when she said, “Yeah… that’s kinda what happened.”

Chapter 12: The Necromancer

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The morning had been a busy one. Although Rainbow Dash had spent a fair portion of it holding a hoof over a gash she’d acquired fighting off another assassination attempt. And after yesterday’s events she wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of bothering Sweet Chime over a wound that the sacred wing blades would heal in a few hours.

However, at the moment she was looking out the windows, admiring the dark clouds that had moved into the area overnight. The sent of the air threatened rain.

She passed a hoof gently over her front left leg before giving it a glance. That morning’s wound was little more than an extra pink line of newly mended skin, hardly even visible beneath the fur.

The clop of heavy hooves approached the blue mare, and the soft jangle of a chain-mail vest gave her a good idea who it was.

“Well, Rainbow Dash, you’re leg is looking better.”

Cloud Sword’s greeting was soon followed by the stallion sitting down beside the paladin and joining her in staring out the window.

“Yeah.”

“You’re still planning on going after the last overlord today, aren’t you?”

A nod answered him.

“I suppose I should tell you what we know about her, huh?”

“Let me guess. The demon pretends to be a pegasus. She lives at the little cottage near the graveyard. And she can paralyze you if she stares into your eyes.”

Finally turning to look at Dash directly, Cloud found that her gaze hadn’t shifted at all.

“I take it somepony else already told you?”

Dash shook her head.

“No. It’s just the patterns of this world have become too obvious.” At that Cloud raised an eyebrow but allowed the mare to continue. “So far, all of the demons have been like evil versions of my friends back home. In my world Fluttershy lives at that cottage. At this point I’d be more surprised if the Dark Summoner didn’t turn out to be this world’s version of Twilight Sparkle.”

“Who’s Twilight Sparkle?”

“A friend of mine. And the most powerful unicorn I know.”

“Sounds like you might be right. The Dark Summoner is the most powerful unicorn I know of,” Cloud said, with a cynical laugh escaping his lips at the end.

“What’s so funny?”

“Irony. I’ve never been one to put much hope into those old legends. I always figured they were just hopeful stories told to foals. And yet, right here in front of my eyes, all the pieces are falling into place as if somepony saw this day coming hundreds of years ago.”

Rainbow Dash smirked and said, “It probably was a guess.”

With a raised eyebrow Cloud Sword asked, “How do you figure that?”

“Easy! All you have to understand to make that guess is that there are always awesome ponies like me around that will do what’s right. Sooner or latter one of them is bound to save the day. I mean would it really matter if it’s me or you or one of your other Sky Knight? Eventually somepony would have beaten those overlords. And then everypony would be saying the legend is coming true through them, no matter who they were.”

“Perhaps. Baring the parts where I don’t have a rainbow mane and I’m fairly sure I was born in this world, not the world Lightning Dash came from.”

Dash shrugged. “With enough dye, anypony can have a rainbow mane. I mean last I checked you don’t have to be born with one, like me.”

“Yes, Though I think we’re getting sidetracked. And I suppose your larger point is right. It’s just pony nature that some will be righteous souls, willing to fight for what’s right. And given enough time, one of them would have brought us to this point.”

Placing a hoof on the stallion’s shoulder, Rainbow Dash said, “If it hadn’t been me, my bits would have been on you being the paladin to win this.”

With a slow shake of his head, he said, “Kind words. But you’re the paladin now.”

Standing up he added, “Enough, it’s time we get ready. We have a demon to defeat.”

“We?”

Cloud smiled and confirmed the questioning look sent his way.

“We.”

* * * * * * *

A few Sky Knights and the paladin were crouched in the bushes at the edge of the forest. A small clearing away was the cottage that looked eerily like Fluttershy’s.

“Careful. She’s got an army even if the shadow pegasi don’t show.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised,” Rainbow Dash whispered back. “The Flutters I know keeps a bunch of animals around.”

Despite the conversation, there didn’t appear to be anything near the lonely cottage. Neither animals nor the obvious guess for a demon called ‘the Necromancer.’

“So here’s the plan,” Cloud Sword said. “Lure her outside, preferably as close to the forest’s edge as you can. I have a surprise waiting for her. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try to keep her minions off of you.”

She gave a nod. Then in the blink of an eye and a prismatic streak later, Dash was crouched against the wall of the cottage.

On the outside, this cottage only differed from Fluttershy’s by the color of the thatch roof, withered gray-blue instead of green. But peeking in the window, Rainbow Dash found a great many differences. Not a single pet bed or food bowl in sight. No birdhouses, no scratching posts, nothing pet related at all. There was only a lone sofa by the stairs, a sturdy little table with what looked like potion making supplies, and two sets of shelves, one with books and the other holding more alchemy supplies.

Also missing was any sign of the demon that was supposed to reside here.

Finding the front door unlocked, she opened it and looked inside, confirming what she’d seen through the window. Opening her wings, she opted to hover silently across the room. The kitchen looked normal, with the exception of the conspicuous absence of large quantities of pet food anyway.

With the ground floor quickly proving to be empty, Rainbow Dash flew upstairs. Cautiously pocking her head into the master bedroom, she again failed to find the demon. She did, however, find a set of creepy runes carved into the floorboards around the bed. How anything could ‘glow’ black like that she didn’t know, but it made her skin crawl just hovering near them.

Turning her attention to the window she found it was open wide enough that a pegasus (or a demon in the form of a pegasus,) could have easily left through it.

Flying out the window she made her way back into the yard, or the air space above the yard anyway. The ground was mostly dirt, although given the drought conditions most places around here were under, that was kind of to be expected. Even the creek that ran under the small bridge was dry.

Then a stone marker in the side yard caught her eye. The obsidian obelisk stood where Fluttershy would have had her chicken coop.

Touching down nearby, Rainbow Dash landed as softly as she could. The ground was lose, somepony had dug it up recently. Perhaps the obelisk was a recent addition to the yard? On closer inspection she found that the obsidian marker had more of the dark runes she’d seen in the bedroom.

That was enough to get her to back off. The last thing she wanted was to trip some dark magic trap.

But that still left the question, where was the demon? Was it hiding? Dash giggled slightly at that thought. That would fit, wouldn’t it?

Then a heavy thud drew her attention.

“Paladin!”

Dash spun around to face the source of the sound of Fluttershy’s yell.

“You dare to set hoof in my domain!?” the yellow demon pony continued shouting in an enraged tone.

Rainbow Dash stood in stunned silence. The yellow coat, the long flowing pink mane, even the demon’s blue-green eyes failed to differ from Fluttershy’s appearance. And before she could react to the demon, its eyes pulsed with… something, something not so much seen as felt. That feeling was mostly a wave of paralysis coursing through Dash’s body.

As the yellow pegasus demon pony walked boldly up to the paladin the ground rumbled. Through the corners of her unmoving eyes, Dash saw skeletal creatures rise out of the ground. And judging from rumbling behind her, it was more than just the beaver, rabbit and pony skeletons that she could see raising up around her.

Each collection of bones was held in place by a dark glow. Orbs of red light hovered in the empty eye sockets of their skulls.

As disturbing as watching skeletons rise up out of the ground was, more troubling to Rainbow Dash was the realization that only half of these undead creations were the type of animals that she’d seen at her Fluttershy’s cottage. The other half were pony skeletons, and most of those had wings, or wing bones anyway. No feathers to be found anywhere, or fur, or skin.

All the while Demonshy had been glaring ‘the stare’ into Dash’s face, their muzzles mere inches away. But as the skeletons finished pulling themselves out of the ground, the demon stepped back.

Consequently this allowed the paladin to see the undead bear that had risen up behind its master, and was now lumbering toward the paladin pegasus with murder in it’s glowing orb eyes.

Rainbow Dash wanted to run, to fight, to scream, or maybe even to put on a nervous grin and say ‘Oh hey, Hairy.’ But all of those ideas remained trapped in her brain as her body failed to respond to any of them. She’d really blown it.

And while the protective magics of the sacred wing blades were flashing like mad, dulling all the bites and claw swipes from the smaller creatures to little more than everyday cuts, Rainbow Dash seriously doubted that it would stop the bear’s claws and jaws from ending her.

The undead bear stood up on its hind legs and growled. How it could growl with no flesh, let alone voice box, was beyond her, but it didn’t lessen the dread she felt from her impending doom.

The air over head whooshed. Was that a falcon? No it sounded too big, too rough, too un-aerodynamic to be a winged creature. As much as she wanted to look up, to see what was coming down, the paralysis denied her that curiosity.

The bear raised its heavy claws high, ready to strike. She reflexively tried to recoil and shut her eyes, as if not seeing it coming might somehow prevent her doom from coming. But that too was denied her by the paralyzing gaze of the demon.

A crack echoed from overhead, not of lightning from the storm clouds, but a crack that sounded like a hoof smashing through a thin layer of wood. Immediately following the sound, a barrel came crashing down between Dash and the demon. And when it hit the ground it exploded, releasing the radiant flash of gold, silver, and blue light from the glowing waters of night and day.

As the water washed over them, both the demon and paladin let out cries of surprise as they stumbled backwards.

Even as Rainbow Dash was trying to blink the water out of her eyes, Cloud Sword shouted, “Strike now! Before she can recover!”

Even though she wasn’t entirely sure what just happened, Dash leapt forward and swung her wing at the demon’s head. Still trying to blink the glowing waters out of her eyes, the demon didn’t see the attack coming until it was too late. The bladed wing racked across her face, cutting into both of the demon’s eyes along the way.

The demon gave a cry of pain and rage, as the black flames of her own blood consumed her eyes.

Chaos erupted around the paladin. The undead that had been near the center of the radiant-barrel-water-bomb had crumbled away under the light magic flowing from the waters. But further from the center the other Sky Knights had joined the battle, fighting the part of the skeletal menagerie that remained standing. Overhead, Cloud and one other Sky Knight had gotten into an aerial battle with the skeletal birds and undead pegasi.

“INSUGNIFICANT WHELPS!” roared the demon’s first intelligible words since the strike to her eyes.

By now said eyes were completely gone, and only two small orbs of black flames hovered in the eye sockets. Given from the way those flames kept locked on to Rainbow Dash, it was clear that the demon could still see using them.

Yet even as she looked into those eyes, now literally burning with rage, Dash opened her wings, curled her brow into a scowl, and grit her teeth. One thing was clear. Those eyes couldn’t use ‘the stare.’

“I WILL ENJOY WATCHING MY PETS TEAR YOU-”

“How dare you!”

“W-What?” the demon managed to say, startled by the interruption to her rant.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Dash repeated her shout.

The demon took a timid step backwards, and then disappeared to the sound of hoof on flesh. It would take a full second before anypony else would connect that sound to why Rainbow Dash was now standing where the demon had been with her hoof raised to the sky as if she’d finished an uppercut. When they did, they looked up to see Demonshy sailing skyward without flapping her wings.

Flapping her wings, the paladin took off like a rocket and in the blink of an eye she was burying her front hooves into the demon’s gut.

“How dare you mock my friend like that!”

Letting herself slow, to stop her acceleration from pinning the demon to her hooves, Dash came up beside her target and did a roundhouse kick into the demon’s side.

“How dare you ware Fluttershy’s face, while being so weak!”

By now Rainbow Dash was pummeling her target as fast and hard as she could with her front hooves.

“My Fluttershy might be a coward on the outside, but deep inside she’s stronger then even she gives herself credit for! But you… you really are her exact opposite! All your strength is in your mask, but behind it you have nothing! You just hide behind your puppets!”

With the final words of her rant, Rainbow Dash plunged both wing blades into the demon’s chest. For a second they fell together. Then she pushed the demon away, freeing her wings and spreading them she pulled way.

Demonshy hit the ground with a heavy thud. The skeletons collapsed, and a second later the demon’s body exploded in a blast of demon fire.

Then, without the aid or command of any pegasus, it began to rain.

The Sky Knights began to cheer, with the only exceptions being Rainbow Dash and Cloud Sword. In the distance, the ponies of Ponyton could also be heard cheering, although, they cheered for a different reason.

Had Dash or any of the Sky Knights been paying attention as they left, they might have wondered why a tiger’s paw prints were in the dirt despite none of the demon’s minions having been a tiger. But that observation eluded them.

* * * * * * *

A small white rabbit paced back and forth in front of a tortoise. Both wore a look of concern on their face. Well, the rabbit did, but the tortoise was concerned even if moving facial muscles was too much of a hassle to let it show. The latter of the two pets was concerned because his master had gone missing quite some time ago, the former because his master had fallen into a bit of a funk because of it.

Granted, Angel bunny’s concerns had more to do with the increasing difficulty of getting his master to bend to his will that came with her poor mood. Normally he could get his pampered treatment from the timid pegasus, but ever since Celestia’s decree she’d spend her days with one of her friends and only come back home for short visits to feed all the animals that resided at the cottage. Needless to say, with her time at home so short-lived, she wasn’t around long enough to guilt trip into treating him like royalty.

Slow and steady the tortoise, named Tank, gave the rabbit a look, as if to say, ‘Didn’t Opalescence say Rarity needed Fluttershy’s help? Helping her might cheer Fluttershy up.’

For a moment Angel put a paw to his chin and considered the idea. Then he shook his head and went back to slowly hopping around in circles. Soon the bunny’s ears shot up and the glimmer in his eyes, clearly said ‘I know! She’s always feeding me! What if I made lunch for her? That might cheer her up!’

Tank gave the bunny a questioning look as if to say, ‘Aren’t you forgetting that Fluttershy put Hairy in charge of keeping the cottage clean while she’s not here?’

Angel blinked and tilted his head. ‘What’s that got to do with me making lunch?’ the look on his face read.

‘You don’t know how to cook.’

‘So?’

‘Have you already forgotten Gummie’s story of the Cutie Mark Crusaders bakers? I recall the story making it clear that leaning in the kitchen is usually messy.’

Hairy, a brown bear, gave a low growl. ‘Exactly, I’ll get in trouble if you make a mess,’ was his addition to the wordless conversation taking place.

Angel shot a look to the bear as if to say, ‘You know that Fluttershy forgives everyone super easy, right?’ Then he started walking toward the kitchen.

A less civil growl from Hairy stopped the bunny.

Giving the bear an angry glare, Angel made his way out the front of the cottage. Outside he headed over to a small bridge overlooking a stream in the front yard, where he sat down trying to think up another plan to get his master into a more useful mood.

All his planing was for naught, as the sound of hooves coming down the dirt road signaled the return of his master and the fact that he no longer had time to act on any of his ideas. With any luck Tank would be proven right and the problem will have solved itself.

Rarity and Fluttershy came trotting around the corner.

“Thanks again for modeling for me, Fluttershy, darling.”

“It’s no problem.”

The yellow pegasus answered so softly that one might have thought she was whispering. However, the unicorn with her knew her soft-spoken friend better than that. But the bunny watching them approach knew the shy pegasus even better and what he knew told him that his master’s tone was more then just soft-spoken, it meant she was still miserable.

“Well it would seem we’re here,” Rarity announced, as they came to the small bridge where Angel sat. “Did you want any help tending to your animal friends?”

“No thank you,” Fluttershy answered, with a slight shake of her head. “No offense, but the way you move and talk startles most of the animals that haven’t really gotten used to being around ponies other than me. So I think it’s best if I just do this myself… if that’s okay with you.”

“Quite alright, darling. I’ll just keep my distance and say out of your way.”

With that Rarity sat down beside Angel bunny and watched as the yellow pegasus made her way to the various critters in the front yard. The two just sat there watching at first, only getting up and following her around to the back when the time came.

Seeing that Angel was still at her side when she’d found an acceptable spot to watch from, Rarity looked to the bunny and said, “She’d still depressed, isn’t she?”

The rabbit nodded.

“I wish I could help. But honestly, I’m not sure why I feel convinced that Rainbow Dash is all right. I just do.” Giving a sigh, Rarity added, “Needless to say, that’s not a vary convincing argument to get her to stop worrying, is it?”

Once again the bunny wordlessly agreed.

Before long they were all gathered inside. The two ponies were sitting around the table, sipping on tea and Angel bunny was looking at his salad. A plain salad, it had no chives, no herbs, and no cherry on top, just lettuce and sliced carrots. Seeing that his master had returned to looking blankly off into space, he begrudgingly settled for what had been giving to him.

Fluttershy’s vacant stare had also captured Rarity’s attention, Although the unicorn was at a loss as to what to do about it. Her first instinct was to make small talk to distract Flutters from her troubles. But given Rainbow Dash’s position of weather team captain, the old standby of commenting on the lovely weather seemed unwise.

A green hummingbird darted into the room and chirped.

For a moment a glimmer of hope appeared in Fluttershy’s eyes, but it vanished as the bird chirped on.

Even Rarity didn’t need to understand the bird’s words to understand the slow shake of its head and downcast tone.

“It’s okay,” Flutterhy muttered. “Thank them for trying for me.”

“I take it you’re animal friends still haven’t found anything?”

The yellow pegasus shook her head.

“No. I can safely say that Rainbow Dash isn’t anywhere in fifty miles of Ponyville. And it wouldn’t be fair to ask my animal friends to search farther away than that.”

“It was a noble effort. And no pony can fault you for the fact that Rainbow is somewhere beyond the reach of your efforts.”

Looking down, the blank gaze returned to Fluttershy’s face as she stared through her tea. Then suddenly her eyes widened, though still unfocused they gained a look of awe before she closed them and smiled.

“You felt it, didn’t you?” Rarity asked.

“I-I’m not sure. What do you mean?”

“That unexplainable feeling that Rainbow Dash lifted the weight of the world off of your soul. You felt that just now, didn’t you?”

“I think so,” Fluttershy answered with a smile and a nod. Then she gave a laugh. “It’s funny isn’t it? Even when she’s not here she’s still helping me.” Finally with a sigh she added, “I know she doesn’t need my help, but I still wish I could do something more than just pray for her to help her in return.”

“As do I, darling. But the matter seems to be out of our hooves, so what else can we do? Other than making sure we have a hero’s welcome waiting for her when she returns, anyway.”

As Rarity was speaking, Fluttershy noticed the pleading eyes of her pet bunny.

“Oh my goodness! I never got you a cherry, cream, or any fruit slices to go with your salad!”

In a heartbeat the yellow pegasus darted back into the kitchen and returned with the missing ingredients.

Angel Bunny smiled, happy that his master was finally feeling better.

* * * * * * *

“Consider tomorrow your day of rest.”

Cloud Sword’s words had been spoken with him not bothering to look up. His gaze locked on the map table in the command room of Liberty Castle.

“Why?”

The paladin with the prismatic mane looked over the maps herself as she awaited the answer. Apparently the one that had Cloud’s attention was the local map of the nearby town, although his focus seemed to have more to do with the small pony figurines placed on it.

“First, because Trixie needs more time to prepare the prison for our strike. Second, because this isn’t going to be a normal hit and run to free a few prisoners.” Cloud paused for a moment to put on a confident grin. “Now that the overlords are gone, we’re free to make a bigger move. But that kind of move needs more time and planing to get all the pieces into place.”

Chapter 13: Broken Chains

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The shadow pegasi had returned a few times before the Sky Knights were ready for the next move. Although to say they attacked Liberty Castle wouldn’t have been accurate. They had harassed the defenders near the edges, but they never really tried to make a move to take the castle in those recent attacks. It was almost like they were suddenly afraid of taking losses or something.

Although, the first group of Sky Knights that had finished training under Storm Gale as weather ponies, creating a new layer of defense with the ring of storm clouds around the fountain plaza likely helped deter serious attacks, too.

In Equestria Rainbow Dash might have celebrated her enemies' apparent timidity. But she had long ago accepted that this world was ruled by cruelty. So if the shadow pegasi were holding back, it was because they thought they could cause more suffering by doing so. She couldn’t see how, but she was sure that the enemy going easy on the castle couldn’t possibly be a good sign.

Even Cloud Sword had voiced similar concerns when he had shared the observation of the shadows’ new behavior. Although he had seemingly dismissed the thought by adding something along the lines of ‘we’ll see soon enough.’

To some extent Dash could agree with that sentiment. Seeing as the shadows were the puppets of the Dark Summoner and they’d have to face the Summoner sooner or later, they’d no doubt find out why she had changed her tactics with the shadow pegasi then.

Taking a moment to pause her trip through the halls of Liberty Castle, she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. She could worry about that another time. Right now she needed to focus at the task at hoof. And that meant it was time to see what all of Cloud’s fussing over the command room maps had amounted to.

Pushing open the door to said command room, she found him and Elder Cherry Blaze at the central table.

“Paladin Rainbow Dash!” Cloud greeted. “Ready?”

“Ready as I can be, seeing as you haven’t told me the plan yet.”

“The short version is that we will be leading separate strikes. Being the paladin we need you in the strike going against the prison and it’s warden.”

“And you?”

“I’ll be leading the strike in Ponyton proper. If all goes well, by the end of the day Ponyton will be free of the Dark Summoner’s control.”

With a nod and a wave of her hoof, Rainbow Dash let Cloud lead the way out of the command room.

Although, it wasn’t really until they emerged from the keep that Dash realized just how big what was going on really was. The silver-vested ponies were missing from the castle walls, replaced by pegasus ponies that she knew to be civilians. Even the fountain in the middle of the courtyard was manned only by Scooter and two pegasus ponies she had only seen working as cooks before.

In fact, the only Sky Knights she could find were the ten lined up at the steps of the keep, clearly waiting to follow the paladin and former paladin into the field.

“Are we really leaving the castle undefended?” Rainbow Dash asked, as she and the remaining knights took to the sky.

“The fountain will suffice while the sun is up. And we don’t exactly have the numbers to hit two places at once and defend the castle. We’ll just have to be sure we finish our jobs and get back with a enough ponies still in fighting shape before dusk is all.”

Even as he’d said it, Cloud’s tone acknowledged that this was a calculated risk based on making do with what they had.

After his less than reassuring reassurance, they flew on in silence. Along the way Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but notice that the knights who’d all taken off with them had disappeared into the forest below, leaving her and Cloud to continue on alone. And once they’d left Liberty Forest behind, Cloud led her the low and fast, the long way around the town.

By the time they made their way up a gully leading to the prison they were flying so low that they would have been taller just standing on the ground. And when they did set their hooves down and crawled up to a line of bushes, Dash could see the shimmer of silver within those bushes.

Needless to say she wasn’t exactly surprised when Trixie and a few Sky Knights poked out of the bushes and greeted them with silent gestures.

“Trixie will explain the details of this strike. I need to get back to my team,” Cloud whispered before sneaking back the way they had come.

After following the orange-ish unicorn back into the bushes, Rainbow Dash asked for those details.

“You will be going in alone,” the unicorn whispered. “As usual we need the paladin to sneak in and disable the lockdown device,” she added, presenting a backpack to Dash.

Two objects floated out of the pack, held in Trixie’s magic aura. One was a pulsing red crystal and the other was a flare gun. Separating the crystal out and creating an illusionary image of a machine made of black stone and gold pipes, Trixie continued, “Shove this crystal into the regulator, here.” The imaged highlighted an open pipe near the base of the object. “That will cause the machine overload. Once that’s done find a window and fire the flare.”

Rainbow Dash took that as a good time to look over the flare gun. The device was a bright orange and was basically a barrel with a handle and three buttons, a small one on each side of the handle and a large one on the top of the barrel. The intent was clear, the two buttons on the handle could be pressed down together by biting down on the handle and they were to unlock the firing button on top. Or side as the case would be if a pegasus or earth pony held the handle in their mouth.

“Then comes the part that differs from our normal prison breaks.”

With a raised eyebrow, Rainbow Dash interrupted, “You do realize I’ve never been on one of your normal prison breaks, right?”

Trixie looked at the paladin for a moment, a slight blush formed on her cheeks as if she had only now noticed the rainbow mane of the mare before her. A feature that had gone extinct long ago in this world.

“You’re not from our world, are you?”

Dash shook her head.

“Right,” the unicorn whispered. “Well, in that case, we normally bust in, free as many prisoners as we can in a minute or two after the alarm sounds, and then high tail it out of there before a swarm of shadow pegasi show up.” Trixie paused for a moment to toss a glance toward the building above the ditch. “This time, we’re here to end the warden.”

“Okay, why?”

Trixie sighed at the question. “Because our information tells us that he’s the only one in there that’s truly loyal to the Dark Summoner. The rest of the prison staff only works there because of the protections that come with working for the Summoner, but are otherwise good ponies. Without the warden to enforce it, they won’t likely continue to support the cruelty that happens here. Any other questions?” she added with genuine curiosity.

“If we’re fighting to win, why do I have to go in alone?”

“Because only the sacred wing blade’s magic is strong enough to bust through the shield spell if the lockdown mechanism is activated. In short only you can survive a mistake, the rest of us can’t afford to be trapped in there long enough to get overwhelmed when the Summoner sends her puppets to respond to our attack.”

Looking over the backpack, Dash found another question.

“What else is in here?”

“I threw in some enchanted bandages. Use them to speed the healing of your wounds that will take too long for the wing blades to heal, or give them to others as you see fit.”

Seeing the lack of follow up questions, Trixie lit up her horn one more time. She created neon lines that formed a model of the prison building. Then a glow highlighted one spot on the roof.

“Use the access hatch there. That’s the one I disabled the alarm spells on.”

Another glow appeared in the middle of the wire-frame building.

“The lock down device is here.”

One more point of light appeared in the illusion.

“Once that’s dealt with, this is the warden’s office is. Although I can’t promise he’ll be there. If you don’t find him there I’d try the next room over, as that’s where the heart of the magic draining rig is.”

Looking up from the magical diagram, Dash asked, “Anything else I need to know?”

The unicorn shook her head.

“Good luck, we’ll await the signal.”

* * * * * * *

Whatever the building had been made for, prison wasn’t it. Prisons didn’t have hallways with double overheads and rafter that left enough room for a pegasus to stand on between them and the ceiling, but this place did. Clearly it had been converted into a prison later.

It was almost sad. Sneaking around here was virtually identical to sneaking through the halls of Liberty Castle. So far, two sets of guards hadn’t even bothered to look up at the rafters as they patrolled their way underneath her. Although there was one difference, these guards were armed with spears, not cameras. Correction, two differences, these guards were all earth ponies or unicorns, not pegasus ponies.

If she’d read the map Trixie had shown her right, then the T-junction halfway down the hall was the hall that should lead to the lockdown mechanism room.

The only reason Dash wasn’t moving was because two guards had entered the hall, so she was waiting in the rafters for them to go away. However, unlike the other patrols she’d past, these two had stationed themselves in front of the door just below her and hadn’t bothered to resume their patrol in the past five minutes. Of course they hadn’t bothered to look up and see her yet either.

And so she waited, like a cat ready to pounce, the instant her cover was blown… And she waited… and waited.

After a few more minutes Rainbow Dash was contemplating attempting making a move for the corner despite the two guards. They hadn’t noticed her when they came in, and still hadn’t noticed her sitting above them in what felt like forever, so maybe they wouldn’t notice her flying through the rafters after all, right?

Her thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt when the heat of the sun warped the roof just enough to make the rafters creak. And although the sound was made by the building itself, it was enough get the older looking of the two guards to look up.

At first the stallion who’d looked up wore a casual look, just one of a million times he’d looked up only to find the building creaking. About a second later the wide, rose-colored eyes looking back down at him registered and he jerked his head back and returned the wide-eyed look of surprise back to the pegasus in the rafters.

After all that waiting, Rainbow Dash had forgotten her original plan of attack. Or if she even had one to begin with. And without any ideas queued in the back of her mind to draw from, she acted on the first instinct that jumped into her brain.

Diving down, she used one wing blade to knock away the spear and the other raked the front of the guard. The instant she hit the ground she dashed down the hallway toward her target. The lack of hoofsteps behind proved that the suddenness of her attack had left the other guard too stunned to peruse her in a timely manner.

Then she saw something unexpected. The wing blades were stained red, red with blood. Screeching to a halt, Rainbow Dash looked back at the pony she’d struck.

His armor had guarded his body well, but his front right leg now bore a deep gash, which was bleeding rather badly despite his efforts to put pressure on the wound.

“I am so sorry!” Dash said as she trotted back. “I’ve been fighting shadows and demons so long it slipped my mind that actual ponies could be running this place.”

As soon as she’d finished her apology, she stuck her muzzle into her backpack and pulled out a bandage. “Don’t just sit there, help me get this bandage on!”

The command shook the younger guard from his secondary shock of seeing the intruder who’d just wounded his superior officer turn around and offer medical aid, and so he set his spear aside and helped wrap the bandage around the wounded leg.

Once they’d finished bandaging the elder guard, Rainbow Dash apologized again, turned and started to trot off down the hall only to be stopped when she heard the elder guard say, “What do you think you’re doing?”

At first she turned to answer the question. But then stopped as looking back made it clear the question wasn’t for her, but for the younger guard who’d retrieved his spear and looked like he was about to charge at the paladin pegasus.

“My job,” he answered. “Well meaning intruder or not, she’s still an intruder.”

“You fool,” the elder guard rebuked his younger pier. “Nothing good can come from fighting a paladin.”

“Doing my job keeps me and my family safe. I’d call that good.”

“Every pegasus mare, stallion, and foal lives in danger of the Dark Summoner, yet they have done nothing wrong. How long must you listen to their cries as the shadow pegasi drain them until they beg for death?” Shaking his head slowly, the elder added, “No, cowards like us, who are willing to follow a tyrant like that for the promise of safety, don’t deserve safety.”

The younger guard was left stumbling for words, but before he could answer, the bandaged guard looked to the lone pegasus in the hall and said, “Go, before he does something stupid.”

Rainbow Dash gave a thankful nod, turned around and dashed down the hall.

Much to her relief, she not only rounded the corner but also made it all way to the door at the end of the hall and she still didn’t hear any alarms sounding. The sudden thought that maybe she could keep sneaking her way through the prison allowed her the presence of mind to try the door’s handle quietly.

Much to her surprise it was unlocked.

A fairly large room awaited her as the door creaked open. In the middle was the device she’d come to sabotage. And above that was a skylight with thick bars insuring that said skylight couldn’t be used to enter or leave the building. Other than that the room was a dull stonework room, much like the halls she’d just come from.

Between her and her target however, were twenty shadow pegasi standing in two rows and a lone earth pony sitting next to a table off to the side.

The table held little more than an empty mug and a keg to fill it with. Judging from the stains below the nozzle, it had been used fairly frequently recently.

“What’s the matter?” the brown stallion with a rusty brown mane asked. “Didn’t expect the one thing you paladins always come after to be guarded?”

Actually Rainbow Dash had expected it to be guarded. Maybe not THIS guarded but guarded nonetheless. It was the small tin badge on the stallion’s black armored vest that had given her pause.

“I take it you’re the warden?”

“What, you thought I’d be in my office? Get real! The overlords drop one by one, day after day! I didn’t need a crystal ball to know this place would be next!”

As soon as he’d finished speaking, he drew a sword from its scabbard. The blade of the sword was blood-red steel, leaving little doubt who forged it.

“I’ll give you one chance to surrender peacefully,” Dash answered, flaring her wings and thus presenting her blades.

“You don’t seem to understand,” the warden growled through the handle in his mouth. “I don’t care if the Summoner’s utopia doesn’t have pegasus ponies in it! Once she wins, she’ll bring everypony else the prosperity she’s brought to me!”

A shiver ran down Dash’s spine. What kind of life of luxury did this pony have that he would consider the extermination of an entire tribe of ponies an acceptable price to pay for it? A question that she hoped never to find an answer to, mainly because she could imagine all the wealth of Canterlot and Cloudsdale combined, and that still wouldn’t be enough for her to consider such a price.

It probably didn’t help that she was a spirit of loyalty, so nothing would ever be worth that kind of large-scale betrayal in her mind.

Of course that only served to further boggle her mind as to how twisted this pony had to be to think it was.

The paladin’s thoughts were cut short when the warden waved his sword and shouted, “Attack!” The result of which being the shadow pegasi broke ranks, scattered and threw their lassos at her.

Rolling to the side, she dodged the first wave of lassos. Meeting the warden’s charge, she parried his blade and ran past him. Cutting her way between two of the shadow pegasi, dissolving them into showers of sparkling lights, and finding an opening to take to the air.

Zipping around the room, Rainbow Dash found a moment to shove her muzzle into her backpack and pull out the sabotage crystal. And with three more laps around the room she finally found a good moment to dive-bomb down and jam it into place.

As soon as the red crystal was in place, it pulsed with energy and the machine began to spark. Within seconds, seams in the casing were bursting open to spout jets of steam.

With another lap around the room to dodge the lassos being thrown her way, Dash managed to get back into the air and kick out the skylight window. The bars might have been enough to keep her from flying out, but she’d be able to shoot the flare gun through them… just as soon as she found an opening to get it out of her backpack.

Between diving back to the floor and a quick lunging spin, she defeated four more shadows and managed to put the steaming lockdown device between herself and her enemies just long enough to get the flare gun out of her pack.

It took a bit of fumbling to get the flare gun properly held in her mouth and three passes before she’d cleared the air of enough shadow pegasi to stop in front of the skylight long enough to point the flare gun between the bars and tap the button. But when she did, it fired off a bright orange flare into the sky.

Tossing the flare gun to the side, she now felt free to focus on the fight she was in with the warden and the remaining shadows.

Somewhere in the back of her mind a memory of her training played out, and Cloud Sword’s voice echoed, “Any warrior will tell you, ‘Fight the warrior, not the weapon.’ But a paladin must be more than a warrior, we must be champions of righteousness. This is why we must be better at fighting than those who actually like fighting, so that we can fight the weapon in the hope that the enemy will surrender once disarmed.”

The first weapon that needed be dealt with was the shadow pegasi. While the warden was content to fight a pegasus that he couldn’t even reach now, perhaps he’d lose his confidence once he didn’t have the Summoner’s magic to back him up.

Being the ace flyer that she was, Dash made quick work of the shadows foolish enough to fight her in the air. Things got messier when she moved on to dealing with the ones that stayed on the ground though.

Mainly due to the warden, thanks to his blood-steel sword. Unlike the shadows he could block her attacks and force her to parry his. And the warden’s relentless assaults had her surrendering ground to dodge the shadow pegasi’s lassos. But every so often she found enough space to dash away from the warden and take down another shadow pegasus before she’d be forced to spin around and defend herself from the psychotic earth pony.

Another dash and slash left Rainbow Dash standing amidst the shimmering sparks of dispelling shadow magic. She grinned at the realization that that had been the last of the shadows. That quickly gave way to a frown when she was forced to parry another hard blow from the warden.

Unfazed by his solitude, apparently the blood-steel sword was enough to keep the warden going.

Unfortunately for the paladin, she found she needed to lean into her parries to lock blades with the warden’s sword, leaving her far-side wing unable to reach the warden. With her forehooves matched by his, she couldn’t seem to wrench her foe’s blade away from him.

The echoes of the past returned and once more she remembered Cloud Sword’s voice.

“But always remember, some opponents may be too skilled to be disarmed, and too determined to walk the path of evil to be talked down. It is far better to deny those who have chosen the path of evil the chance at redemption than to deny the innocent the life that the evil would destroy.”

Was this that time?

The shadows were just spells that happened to be in the shape of ponies, so at the end of the day destroying them was no more meaningful than destroying a fireball spell. The demon overlords may have thought and bled, but they had proven that they were evil incarnate. The fact that they bled black burning blood and died in a wholly unnatural way probably also helped drive a wedge in Rainbow Dash’s mind between destroying them and killing.

But the cuts on their legs had proven that this stallion bled the same red blood as she did. He was a pony through and through. A pony who belonged in a prison cell, and not the warden’s office, sure. But a pony nonetheless.

For a moment, she entertained the realization that they were literally three hallways away from actual prison cells. Locking blades with him again, she discarded the thought when it occurred to her that, if she couldn’t even disarm him, there was no way she’d be able to tie him up, so she could throw him in one of them.

Was there really no way to defeat him and spare him at the same time?

Alone the answer was clear. No.

Then the growing sounds of battle coming from the hallway provided hope. Any moment now, somepony would come through that open door. And if it was one of her fellow Sky Knights they could help her pin this fool just by raw numbers. All she had to do was hold out a little longer.

The clang of armored boots announced somepony’s arrival. Both paladin and warden spared a quick glance to see who it was.

The warden grinned.

Dash cursed silently to herself. Stupid hope, if she’d acted sooner she’d have only had to kill one pony, now it looked like she’d have to kill two.

Even as Rainbow Dash continued to push her wing blade against the warden’s sword, she mentally prepared herself to parry the charging prison guard’s spear with her free wing and then breakaway. After that there would be no more fighting weapons.

The charging hoofsteps grew closer, the crimson gleam of the guard’s spear tip danced in the corner of Dash’s eye. The moment came. She lashed out her free wing and parried… nothing.

Blood splattered Dash’s face and she stumbled back in shock. Why was the spear shaft imbedded into the warden’s head?

Slowly she turned to look at the pony wearing the prison guard uniform. Even slower it registered that the stallion holding the spear was the same younger guard who’s been talked down by his partner just minutes ago.

With a smile he said, “Sorry it took me so long to decide to fight for the good guys.”

* * * * * * *

It had taken a long minute before Rainbow Dash had even moved after the warden’s death. Seeing how quickly the remaining prison staff surrendered once word of the warden’s death spread helped. But she didn’t really recover until she was found her way to the cell of the young colt she’d seen almost a week ago.

With the warden’s keys, she opened the cell.

The young pegasus opened his eyes. Barely so, but he opened them.

When Dash cut the dark rope off of him and helped him roll over so he could stop touching it, he even smiled.

“You came back,” he muttered both happily and weakly.

“Just like we said we would,” she answered, as she unlocked the shackle on his leg.

Once she had the child on her, back she tossed the keys to another pegasus, whom continued down the hall freeing all the ponies he found. As for the paladin, she took her passenger toward the main entrance of the prison.

“Paladin! Our time runs short!”

Trixie’s shout had the tone of a formal notice in a nosy place.

Between the Sky Knights and the healthier prisoners helping those unfit to walk on their own, everypony seemed to be ready to go. A couple seconds more and the last of the Sky Knights returned with a few more liberated pegasus ponies.

“That everypony?”

With a salute the stallion answered, “Yes paladin! All teams have returned and this is everypony we found.”

Dash looked to Trixie, a single question on her mind.

“What’s the plan now?”

“We move as quickly as we can toward the center of Ponyton and hope that our retreat path isn’t blocked.”

“You heard her, ponies!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Move out!”

To say that they moved quickly would have been an error. At best the group was moving at a fast walk. Considering the state of the recently freed pegasi this wasn’t all that surprising.

More troubling than the group’s lack of mobility was all the dark figures flying around the air space over the town. Even though it was clear that the shadow pegasi were currently engaged with the Sky Knights over there, Dash didn’t need a fortune teller to tell her that it was only a matter of time before the enemy noticed them walking right into the middle of said fight.

They had made it halfway between the edge of town and the center of it before two of the shadows noticed them. Thankfully, some rather aggressively used firework spells from Trixie dealt with the problem before Dash even had a chance to react.

Of course the commotion drew even more dark pegasi to them. With that Rainbow Dash was just about to hand the kid balanced on her back off to one of the more wounded sky knights when a wall of light washed over them.

The paladin with the prismatic mane asked, “Was that the waters of night and day?”

“See for yourself,” Trixie answered, motioning toward the end of the alleyway they were in.

Stepping out into the main town plaza she found a dozen empty barrels scattered about, and the plaza fountain glowing brightly with the same magic waters that protected the Sky Knight’s castle.

“A shame that the light doesn’t reach the whole town,” Cloud Sword said as he came out of the fountain. “But at least pegasus ponies can use the buildings near the town center and be safe.”

“Are-Are we really safe now?” the colt still clinging to Dash’s back asked.

Looking to the child, Cloud Sword was the first to answer, “For the moment. But we’ll only really be safe once the Dark Summoner has been dealt with.”

* * * * * * *

Back at Liberty Castle, once night had fallen, Rainbow Dash sat atop one of the castle’s towers, admiring the glow coming from the other side of the forest.

“How’d we do today?” she asked of the approaching heavy wing beats, without looking.

“Two at the prison, three in town, so we lost five knights,” Cloud Sword answered. After a short pause he continued. “Tactically speaking five ponies to liberate an entire town is a wild success.” He ended that line with a sigh.

“And yet that’s five lives lost too many,” she said what she knew he wanted to.

“Yeah,” he muttered before sitting down beside her.

For a while the two just sat there, looking to the dome of light on the horizon. Ultimately it was Rainbow Dash who broke the silence.

“Funny isn’t it? This is the hardest I’ve ever worked for a ride home.” With a soft flap of her wings she added, “Of course this is also the first time I couldn’t just fly myself where I wanted to go.”

If her eyes hadn’t been transfixed on the glow coming from Ponyton she might have noticed that the captain of the Sky Knights suddenly found himself unable to look at her face.

“Now that Trixie isn’t needed to bring down the prison, the elder brought our deal with you to her attention. I can’t make any promises but at least you’ve freed up enough of our resources that we can start working on up holding our end of the bargain.”

Rainbow Dash gave a slight nod acknowledging that she’d heard him, but otherwise just continued looking toward the horizon.

Chapter 14: The Paladin of Prismatic Light

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Things where changing in Liberty Castle. A sizable number of Sky Knights were gone, having been moved over to protecting Ponyton. Despite that, the castle was as crowded as ever. Though none of the newcomers wore the silver vests of the Sky Knights.

When she’d looked into the matter, Rainbow Dash discovered that all the new pegasus ponies around the castle were the noncombatant type who were being brought in from other hideouts due to the castle being safer. On top of that when she’d spoken to them directly, she’d run across a few that knew her as the winner of the best young flyers competition in Cloudsdale. Seeing as there was no such place as Cloudsdale in this world, it quickly became apparent that the Sky Knights were bringing the Equestrian pegasi to the castle.

What Dash couldn’t figure out was why? From what she’d heard it still sounded like they were a ways off from being able to send any of them back to their own world. Were they here to keep her company? Keep each other company? Or was it to show that they were trying to uphold their end of the bargain despite having no meaningful way to do so?

“Rainbow Dash!”

The youthful voice shook the paladin from her thoughts. She turned to face the speaker half expecting to see an orange filly, only to be reminded that that voice belonged to a blue filly in this world.

“Cherry Blaze and Cloud Sword wanted to talk to you,” Scooter finished.

“It’s time, isn’t it?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking out the window and taking note that the Knights who were at the castle seemed to be gathering.

“Probably. I mean, you’re going to go kick that Dark Summoner’s butt! And then pegasi like us won’t be hunted just for be pegasi anymore, right?”

Scooter was looking at the paladin with eyes almost like Scootaloo’s. Or rather with the eyes Scootaloo used to look at her with back when she was just a hero to the orange filly. But ever since she’d taken Scootaloo under her wing, there was something more than just a kid looking on somepony they thought was cool, now days there was a true bond in Scootaloo’s eyes, and that was something Scooter’s eyes lacked. Still it was hard to say no to a filly with those cute fan eyes that the blue filly was using at the moment.

“Yeah, I sure hope that’s today’s plan,” Dash answered with a bit of a smile. Ruffling the filly’s mane a bit she added, “I guess I shouldn’t keep them waiting. The sooner I kick the Dark Summoner’s butt the better!”

Rainbow Dash walked slowly to the command room of the castle, and as expected, when she got there she found Elder Cherry Blaze and Captain Cloud Sword waiting. Unexpected, but unsurprising, Trixie was also gathered by the map table and she offered a momentary smile when she saw the paladin approaching.

“Paladin!” the elder greeted, with a cheerful tone.

Cloud Sword gave a nod as if to acknowledge Rainbow Dash’s presence, but otherwise kept the kind of disciplined neutral look that proved he was bothered by something. He kept his troubles to himself though, as the elder resumed speaking.

“While speaking with Trixie the Wise, we have come to a conclusion as how best to get you and your fellow otherworldly pegasi home. Trixie, if you would be so kind?”

The unicorn gave a nod and then spoke up.

“You see the magic of a shadow pegasus isn’t it’s own, but is the magic of the Dark Summoner cast through the shadow. In short the Dark Summoner is the one casting the portals for her shadows to enter your world and abduct your pegasi. Needless to say, I don’t think the Dark Summoner is going to open a portal for you and all the others she went through the trouble of kidnapping in the first place.”

Trixie breathed a heavy sigh before continuing. “However, portal spells aren’t exactly my specialty. And while I may have a workaround for that, what I don’t have a workaround for is the fact that I don’t know how to open a portal, let alone one to another world, and forget one to a specific other world. And seeing as the Dark Summoner isn’t likely to help us with that, our best bet is to raid her headquarters and take her spell books and magic research notes.”

A moment of silence followed Trixie’s words. In that moment Cloud Sword looked away. It was Cherry Blaze who ended the silence and spoke up.

“Of course, if we’re going to commit the resources to invade the Dark Summoner’s stronghold…” the elder said letting her voice trail off at the end.

Rainbow Dash took the hint and finished the clear implication. “We might as well finish the job while we’re there.”

“Exactly!”

Looking down, Elder Cheery Blaze motioned to a crudely drawn map on the table. “Sadly we haven’t been able to get much information out of the Dark Summoner’s stronghold. We tried a few times, even then only the last spy managed to send back any reports before turning up impaled on a spike in the stronghold’s front fence.”

With that Dash looked over the map herself. It consisted of little more than a single room, the entry room. At the back of the room were some lines that showed hallways but those just faded away and were accompanied with marking denoting them as the east or west wing. Just above the words ‘east wing’ was a note that read, ‘to library/living quarters?’ By the west wing the map’s maker had added the note, ‘something evil!’

Raising an eyebrow was all Rainbow Dash had to do to ask her question.

Once again it was the elder who answered. “According to the report that came with the map, our agent observed that the Dark Summoner always retreated to the east wing at the end of the day or to fetch books, but spent most of her time in the west wing. And the report stated that whenever they approached the west wing there was a dark, ominous feeling in the air.”

After a moment of awkward silence the elder said, “Well… I suppose I’ll leave the two of you to make your battle planes.” And with that she left the map table and walked over to another where she pretended to look over some charts that she’d no doubt seen a hundred times.

Cloud Sword looked down, but not really at the map. “I’m not sure what there is to discuss,” He said. “There isn’t enough here for a real plan, just split into two teams. The bulk of the Sky Knights go to the east wing looking for the library, and the team with the paladin goes after the Summoner in the west wing.”

“Planing was never my strongpoint, but yeah, when you put like that, that sounds like the kinda plan I’d come up with.”

Apparently Dash’s fake smile showed too much, as Cloud called her on it.

“Despite your attempt at jest, you seem troubled.”

Rainbow Dash hung her head slightly.

“You remember how I said I expected the Dark Summoner to be your world’s version of my friend Twilight?”

“Yes. Aren’t these similarities what’s given you an edge against the overlords? Why should that trouble you?”

“That’s just it. I’m not sure how I’d beat Twilight. She can just grab me out of the air and all I can do is wait for her to let me go. Back home that’s not a problem because, well you know, my Twilight isn’t evil. But how do I fight a unicorn who can just lock me down at will?”

“A worthy concern. Although I would remind you of the protective magics of the sacred wing blades. I can personally assure you that they will protect you from an unwanted levitation spell grabbing you out of the air.”

“You’ve fought the Summoner before?” Dash asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No. Though I have practiced against Trixie. Not to mention that even our cheep replicas-” He tapped his own armored silver vest. “-that could never hope to match the wing blades’ magic, have strong enough defensive enchantments to ward off unwanted levitation spells. I’m sure all you need to worry about is actual combat magic meant to be used against others with enchanted items.”

“Great… all I have to worry about is a gattling laser then.”

Cloud Sword blinked slowly and deliberately.

“Do I even want to know the context of that?”

“Probably not. But I guess we should humor the elder and start getting ready to head out, huh?”

Looking down at the crud map, Cloud Sword nodded.

* * * * * * *

The afternoon sun shown down on the jagged cliff sides of the mountains north of Liberty Forest, as a few dozen pegasus ponies wove their way through the stone spines that came out of the mountain. Keeping close to the cliff sides they came around another ridge and finally came within sight of the edges of the ruined city.

All that really remained now was shattered obsidian stone, marking foundations of buildings long gone. Maybe a doorway here, two stone blocks still together there. The fitted brick roads had actually faired the best out of all the remnants.

The signs that this ruin had once been this world’s version of Canterlot were there. Mainly in the form of roads abruptly ending with shear drops and the shattered remains of supports reaching out into the nothing beyond as if there had once been an artificial extension to the natural plateau that the city had started on.

“What was this place called?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I don’t know,” Cloud Sword answered, with a slight shake of his head. “It’s always been a ruin in my life time. I think it used to be the capital city before it fell three hundred years ago.” After bring a hoof to his chin and gazing into space thoughtfully for a moment, he added, “The only thing I remember hearing about it was that it when it was still standing it shimmered in the sunlight like a city of black glass. If you want more than that you might try asking Trixie. I think it was supposed to be a unicorn centric city before its destruction.”

A few moments later and Cloud signaled for everypony to follow him. With that they all swooped in low, skimming just above the ground as they zipped over to the last of the ruins on the north end of the fallen city.

Poking their heads out from behind the obsidian stones that marked the ending of yet another long forgotten building, they beheld the one structure that stood. Across the field from them was the Dark Summoner’s stronghold.

A line of obsidian spikes served as a fence. Skulls adorned ten of the spikes. Of those, three still had the rest of the pony they belonged to still attached. The other seven had long since succumbed to erosion, leaving only a pile of bones at the base of the spike.

“You lost ten spies to her?”

Dash’s question got a slow shake of the head from Cloud Sword.

“No, only four. I presume that the other six are the result of the paranoia that allowed her to catch our ponies without fail.”

An additional glance at the bones revealed that these unfortunate souls were all earth ponies or unicorns.

Shifting her gaze beyond the gruesome display at the front gate, the cyan paladin took in the sight of the building beyond the fence.

The whole thing was made of the same obsidian stone as everything else around here. Though looking at it now, it became clear that the reason that there was so little of the ruined city left was likely because the stone to make the stronghold had been taken from the ruins and reshaped to make it.

The central building was the massive ziggurat that could be seen from miles away. To either side were the wings that consisted of simple two-story square buildings attached to the ziggurat by short hallways. Along the lower levels there were plenty of windows but the black-iron double doors at the front of the ziggurat seemed to be the only intended entrance to the structure. The most noticeable detail of the structure was the ribbons of dark purple energy flowing along the stair-stepped sides of the ziggurat.

Rainbow Dash slowly stood up from behind the leg-high debris she’d been crouched behind moments before.

“Shouldn’t there be guards or something out here?” she asked, motioning toward the building.

Standing up, Cloud also started walking toward the unguarded structure.

“Something’s not right.”

“Did it always glow like this?” the paladin asked, as the group crept closer.

She didn’t remember it being like this when she’d seen it from afar. But dark purple on black isn’t a lot of contrast, so she couldn’t rule out the possibility that this was a feature that simply couldn’t be seen from far away.

“No, it didn’t.”

A waved hoof, signaling for some of the Sky Knight’s to take to the air, quickly followed Cloud Sword’s answer. Yet, once they where high enough, shaking heads confirmed that they didn’t see anything laying in wait on the ziggurat’s roof, either.

Another group of knights turned around and walked backwards, keeping their eyes on the ruins behind them as they continued their approach.

They were halfway between the fence of spikes and the front doors when Rainbow Dash felt a chill pass through her very core. The sudden cold made her shiver despite the late day sun on her coat. Seemingly out of nowhere a feeling of dread gripped her heart. And judging from the fact all of the Sky Knights shared a startled look on their faces, it was safe to assume that feeling wasn’t just her.

“I thought that evil feeling was supposed to be inside?”

“Yes,” Cloud Sword answered. “If the dark magic field is reaching all the way out here… I think we may be running out of time.”

The grim prediction was more than enough to get every pegasus on the ground to burst into a gallop, and those in the air to dive toward their target. Most headed for the main doors, although a few aimed for the windows to either side of them.

Leading the pack, Rainbow Dash took note of the doors, mainly the lack of hinges on the outside signaling that they swung inward. Reaching the doors first, she spun on her front legs and kicked hard with her back ones, flinging the doors open just in time for a dozen Sky Knights to rush in at full speed.

Despite being the size of a small stadium, the entry room proved to be quite crowded, filled with an army of shadow pegasi and complemented with a few dozen earth ponies and unicorns, wielding blood-steel weapons.

Now joined by the Sky Knights, to say the room burst into chaos would have been the understatement of the century. Shadowy lassos flew, water balloons exploded with the light of the waters of night and day. Fireballs and icy blasts came from the unicorns, while Sky Knights returned fire by pulling small puffs of cloud from the pouches on their belts and kicking lightning from them. Armored horseshoes clashed with each other as frequently as blood-steel weapons and wing guards.

Within seconds, any semblance of battle lines dissolved as aerial battles found their way to the floor.

“Paladin! We must focus on the goal!” Cloud Sword shouted. Then amidst the flash of the water’s light he added, “Team seven, follow me!”

With that he, Rainbow Dash, and three other sky knights took to the air and shot across the room toward the left hall. As soon as they reached said hall, the three knights spun around and engaged any enemy that attempted to follow.

With the knights holding the choke-point that was the hallway’s entrance, Rainbow Dash and Cloud Sword blitzed down the hall leaving the sounds of battle growing ever fainter behind them.

While the entrance room had been lit with windows and torches, this hallway lacked both, and so charging down it meant charging into ever-darker gloom. The one exception to that gloom being a rectangle of light coming from the window at the end of the hallway.

Halfway down the hall, where it was so dark that they couldn’t really see the walls anymore, they noticed another void. Not one of light, but one of presence, for both paladin and knight captain had expected an ambush here. Yet despite the hallway’s darkness, the place where shadow pegasi would be effectively invisible held no such trap.

For a moment Rainbow Dash considered that it might be a mistake to be rushing down the hall without checking all of the doorways they were passing. But the increasingly potent eerie feeling in the air told her that the source of the dark magic was still ahead.

As they neared the end of the hall, it was bright enough to see two shadow pegasi stationed in front of the last door on the right.

Surging forward Cloud Sword said, “Save your strength for the Summoner, I got this!”

The first of the shadows was destroyed by a blast of lightning. Then Cloud clobbered the second with a dive-bomb landing right on to it’s back. He then reached down the pull the shadow into a hold that would leave it ready for an easy strike from the paladin’s wing blades.

Though before Rainbow Dash could deliver such a strike, the shadow dissolved, not into sparks of light, but into sparks of darkness that seemed to get sucked through the closed door.

Looking at the unassuming wooden door, Cloud Sword said, “She is no doubt just beyond that door.”

“Yeah. Let’s end this!”

A slow shake of the stallion’s head wiped the grin from the paladin’s face.

“No, paladin. You must face the Dark Summoner alone.”

“What! Why?”

“Because hatred clouds one’s judgement. And because she is the one foe I can not face without becoming consumed by rage.”

“What are you talking about? If anypony has that Zen keeping your emotions in check thing down it’s you!”

“If we were talking about any other opponent I’d agree with you,” Cloud said. Shaking his head he quickly added, “But I’ve always known I’d never be able to face the Dark Summoner myself.”

“Why?” Rainbow Dash asked, borderline demanded.

“The Dark Summoner didn’t just appear out of nowhere one day. Long before she attracted the attention of the Sky Knights, she was capturing pegasus ponies to drain for her dark magic. Not many, just one here, one there. Sparse enough that the disappearances could be written off as accidents, ‘probably ran into a dragon or something,’ kind of things.”

Even just talking about it, the embers of rage started to make their way into Cloud’s eyes.

“Well, I was one of her first. Thanks to her I spent the better part of my foalhood in a cage. Every day, being drained to an inch of my life. I lost count of the years I suffered in that cage before she’d finally caught the attention of the Sky Knights.”

Closing his eyes for a moment the stallion purged the anger from his voice.

“Needless to say, once the Sky Knights rescued me I joined them in a heartbeat. I quickly became the paladin. But I realized that the paladin must fight without hatred in their heart to keep the sacred wing blades’ favor, but I could never do that against her. From that day on, I always knew I wouldn’t be the paladin who ended this.”

He shook his head for a moment, then said, “That’s why I’ve always trained others to take my place as paladin. Because I realized that if I ever faced her I’d just get myself and everypony with me killed. I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but I have done all that I can to help you. I’m going to go see if I can help the library strike team.”

With that, he returned down the hall, not even giving the paladin the chance to respond.

Putting her hoof on the door, Rainbow Dash sighed. Once again the spirit of loyalty was going into battle alone.

She closed her eyes to steel herself for the coming fight. Yet, the moment she closed her eye she saw five mares and an orange filly, her best friends. Then one by one the darkness in her mind’s eyes gave way to more ponies. The pegasi of Equestria that she knew were here in this world, the ponies who were counting on her to bring them home safely.

Opening her eyes, she grinned. She may be alone physically, but spiritually she had an army at her back. And that was enough to kick the door open and charge in.

Inside she found she found a large room. Not castle-throne-room large, but more like Ponyville-town-hall’s-main-chamber large, but with only a two-story overhead. There were no windows to be found, but there were some torches burning with eerie purple flames producing some light. In the floor, along the walls to either side, there were three pools on each side wall with the waters of night and day, for a total of six pools sucking the light out of the room. At the back of the room was a raised stage, just a single step up from the rest of the floor.

Among the less permanent looking things in the room, up on that stage, near the back wall, was a large bolder that was maybe six feet tall. Although the odd thing about it was its surface was a bunch of flat faces almost as if a jeweler had cut it, but did so with no sense of symmetry. Also, each facet had glowing red runes carved into them of the same type she’d seen on the obelisk near the necromancer’s cottage. And to top it all off, ribbons of dark magic were flowing from the six pools in the room to the strange artifact at the back of the stage. Oh, and the whole thing was floating a good foot off the ground, that kind of set it apart from a regular obsidian bolder, too.

At the center of the room was a sphere of rapidly spinning, dark purple energy. And it was floating a few feet off the ground, centered over the middle of a circle of glowing, purple runes on the floor.

Just beyond the magic show, near the front of the stage was a unicorn mare. Her coat was bright red, much like Big Mac’s back home. The mare’s mane and tail were a darker shade of red and had a bright red and a yellow stripe. Form and style wise, the mare was a perfect match for Twilight Sparkle, with those same straight edges and simple lines that practically screamed ‘bookworm.’

The feeling of dark magic in the air sent a tingle down Dash’s spine. The kind of tingle you get when you just know you’re in danger.

With a memory of the demon of truth flashing in her mind, Rainbow Dash darted over to one of the pools and slammed down her hooves as if it where a storm cloud. The pool burst into light, filling that corner of the room and creating an odd dance of light and shadows a few feet away from the now luminescent pool.

Yet, as comforting as the feel of light magic around her was, this was also the first time she’d ever really seen the light magic of the wells contained.

“So, you’ve come,” the Dark Summoner said, finally acknowledging the presence of the pegasus. “The Sky Knight’s great paladin.”

Rainbow Dash took a step back, even having been ready for it, the fact that the Summoner’s voice was identical to Twilight’s was just too unnerving.

The crimson unicorn gave an annoyed sigh and continued.

“It’s pathetically ironic, isn’t it? I really thought that those legends were just stories that the pegasi told to comfort themselves in their weakness. Which means, either you’re using a lot of dye, or you really are related to the hero of three hundred years ago.”

Thanks to the Summoner’s voice matching Twilight’s, it was easy for Rainbow Dash to catch the honest curiosity in the unicorn’s question.

“Oh I’m the real deal alright. But you’re the one who was opening portals to my world. So is it really that surprising that I found my way here?”

“Considering that I had my shadows avoiding the capture of any rainbow mane pegasus ponies while they where hunting, it was highly unlikely that any descendant of the hero of legend would end up here.”

“And yet, here I am. And that brings us to the most important question,” Dash said as she stopped a hoof into the shallow pool she was standing in, causing another surge of light magic to dance around her. “Why?”

Tilting her head slightly the unicorn answered, “Why what? You seem to have misplaced the context of your ‘why’.”

“Why are you hunting pegasi in the first place? They haven’t done anything to you! Especially the ones from my world!”

The unicorn approached the very front of the stage and answered, “Perhaps you haven’t noticed, But in THIS world ponykind hasn’t had a functional nation for over three hundred years! Minotaurs, griffins, heck, even the dragons are more organized! For three hundred years every city, town, and community has been nothing more than an independent city-state, only looking out for themselves, and never caring about the rest of ponykind! Care to guess why?!”

“The pegasi! That’s why!”

She wasn’t exactly surprised by the Summoner’s answer to her own question, but all Dash could do was tilt her head and give a confused look.

“How is that the fault of us pegasi?”

“Because ever since their founding, the Sky Knights have been the only group of ponies in a position to unite our shattered kingdom, they even extend their protection to every town that they deem ‘good,’ but they refuse to rule! Don’t you see? The Sky Knight had created the illusion of unity! But we didn’t have a real standing army, only a bunch of volunteer-wannabe-hero pegasi!”

The paladin raised an eyebrow. Despite the condemning tone, the unicorn’s words sounded more like an endorsement of the Sky Knights than a condemnation to her.

Although that did nothing to stop the Summoner’s rant.

“They’re not even professional soldiers! You’re their paladin! Surely you’ve seen how they insist that all their members learn a ‘peacetime’ profession so they can take care of themselves! And that’s their greatest weakness! Unlike a real army, they aren’t even dependent on those they clam to protect!”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“Of course!” the Summoner scoffed. “Don’t you see? Once I had enough shadow puppets to attack, what did they do? They ran and hid in their castles and forts! They abandoned those they clamed to protect because they didn’t truly need them! An army that does nothing but train for war can’t feed itself, they must protect those who feed them or die trying! But your precious Sky Knight had the choice of running and hiding! They left all those towns open to conquest because one little summoner attacked them. Imagine what would have happened if it had been someone who wasn’t interested in capturing the towns and cities who’d attacked, instead of me!”

Dash narrowed her eyes. Getting ponies to work together was fine, but she was forcing others to follow her by force. Not cool.

“You want to know the worst thing about your precious Sky Knights?” the unicorn’s rant continued. “Their worthless traditions of honor!”

The paladin raised an eyebrow and thought. ‘She had a problem with honor now, too? This should be interesting.’

“Case and point, you could have attacked me minutes ago,” The unicorn said with a sinister grin. “But you just stood there, hearing me out, trying to pass ‘fair judgment’ over me, giving me all the time I needed to finish my spell!”

With that, six ribbons of dark magic came from the unicorn’s horn and wound their way to the artifact at the back of the room.

For the first time the Summoner’s horn stopped glowing with dark magic. As the ribbons of magic reached the artifact, it began to pulse with a dark purple light. And with the orb of magic in the middle of the room pulsing in kind, it was clear that the artifact was the key to the magic now taking place.

“Now I’ll have all the power I need to finally wipe out the Sky Knights and claim this realm as my own!”

The orb dropped to the floor and began to spread out, into a circle. At first it looked like a whirlpool of purple magic on the floor. Then the vortex calmed and for the blink of an eye it looked like a dark purple version of the orange portals she’d seen before. Beyond the lens of that portal, pure blackness was all that could be seen. Then the instant passed and a geyser of dark magic erupted upward from the portal and light flowed into the room.

The unicorn finished her rant by saying, “Now do you see how hopeless your quest is, paladin? The darkness you dare to stand against knows no bounds!”

For her part, Rainbow Dash stood staring at geyser of dark magic pouring through the hole in the ceiling, seemingly dumbfounded. Now that the ceiling was done crumbling around it, the gap between the gayer and the edge of the hole it had carved in the roof was just big enough for a pegasus to fly through. The water around her hooves lapped at the skin of her legs, reminding her of the source of the light now cowering in her corner of the room. Putting the sensations together, a plan formed in her mind.

Finally looking down to the unicorn, Dash gave a bold grin and said, “That may be so, but neither does the light that stands with me!”

And with that Rainbow Dash took to the air and in the blink of an eye she shot off through the hole in the roof, into the open sky beyond.

In the few seconds that it had been flowing, the torrent of shadow magic had already grown to over a thousand feet high. At an altitude of perhaps ten thousand feet, by Dash’s best guess, the rising column of shadow magic seemed to reach its peak and stated to spread out, like some kind of high overcast cloud of blackness.

Pulling away from the column of dark magic helped lessen the sense of dread a little. But with a dark cloud of that same dark magic literally hanging over the entire mountainside and growing fast, the feeling that something bad was going to happen clearly wasn’t going anywhere.

Two thirds of the way between the ziggurat below and the spreading cloud of darkness above, the paladin stopped flapping her wings. As her upward momentum ran out she scanned the ground, smiling when she spotted a herd of colorful figures fleeing the temple. Although from this altitude there wasn’t much she could tell, she could tell a few things. First, the number of ponies was easily triple what the Sky Knights had gone in with. And second, the way the figures were overlapping it looked like most of those galloping away from the ziggurat were carrying the wounded on their backs.

Perhaps there had been a dungeon in there and the Sky Knights had freed the last of the prisoners? Now that she’d thought it, it made since, seeing as the Dark Summoner seemed to drain magic from pegasi to augment her own magic.

Shaking the thought from her mind, Rainbow Dash allowed herself to fall. She could find out who the extra ponies were later. Right now all that mattered was that the Dark Summoner’s fortress was as clear of friendlies as it was going to get. A good thing to know, especially since she had no idea just how destructive her plan would be, if it worked anyway.

Turning her mind back to the task at hoof, she set her eyes on the gap in the ziggurat’s roof around the base of the torrent of dark magic, and flapping her wings she pushed herself into a true dive.

Her plan was a simple one. And maybe not so much a plan as a question based on a simple observation she’d made. Namely, if stronger lightning kicks produced stronger bursts of light magic from the waters of night and day, what would happen if she hit the waters with the most powerful form of pegasus magic she could think of?

As her speed built up she had a moment for doubt to claw its way into her mind.

She’d never attempted her meteor strike technique at sonic rainboom speeds before, and certainly not into a pool of magic water that would have who knows what effect on the outcome.

Was this plan ever survivable?

A glance at the torrent of dark magic raising into the air answered her question with a definite, doesn’t matter, because if this doesn’t work I’m dead anyway.

In the back of her mind, a vision of her friends, five mares and an orange filly, flashed.

“Please let this work,” she whispered her prayer softly to the wind, as she certainly wasn’t loud enough to overcome the roaring air currents wrapping around her.

Then it happened. She passed the threshold and the air around her erupted in prismatic light.

Glancing over her shoulder a chill ran down Dash’s spine thanks to the disturbing sight of three fourths of a rainboom racing across the sky. The fourth that had gone into the pillar of darkness having been washed away in the torrent of dark magic.

Not that she’d expected a mere sonic rainboom to compete with that kind of dark magic, but it was unnerving to see what was supposed to be a ring of rainbow light be only a crescent instead.

Pushing the last of the idle thoughts aside, Rainbow Dash refocused on the last part of her plan, aimed herself toward the hole in the ziggurat’s roof, and prepped her wings for the hard turns that needed to happen as soon as she was back inside.

* * * * * * *

“That can’t be right…” the Dark Summoner muttered to herself. “Those sounded like fighting words, but then she just ran away.”

The unicorn’s eyes returned to the hole in the roof around the flow of dark magic. A spark of understanding flashed in those eyes before a red hoof was gently placed against her forehead.

“Right, pegasus… And I just gave her access to the sky.”

The obvious assumption and most natural combat move of any pegasus was the dive bomb. And while the room might not have been small, when one considered a pegasus moving at over a hundred miles an hour, they would be able to strike anywhere in said room in the blink of an eye.

With only two things in the room that needed to be protected, that was not much of a problem.

Her horn lit up, first glowing purple, and then growing darker until it was pure black. Tapping into her new fount of dark magic, she pulled three streams of energy off of the main torrent. Wrapping two of them around herself and the artifact she formed shield spells. The third stream she compressed into a dense spear of dark magic.

Sure, the paladin’s wing blades were of the counter element to the shields’ magic and would likely break them. But she didn’t need the shield to stop the paladin outright. She just needed to slow the pegasus down enough to perceive which shield had been attacked and use the spear to counterattack.

A shimmer of light disrupted the darkness of the room. Around the edges of the geyser of dark magic something could be seen. Although what was going on outside was hard to tell, the hints of prismatic light bleeding in from above was more than enough for the Dark Summoner to know that the paladin was making her move. Whatever it was, it was going to happen any second now.

In an instant, it happened. A rainbow flashed through the room, taking two sharp turns that made it look like a lightning bolt.

Only it didn’t end at one of the shields. Instead the pegasus at the front of the prismatic trail came crashing down into one of the pools of the waters of night and day.

And the world became light.

* * * * * * *

The light all around Rainbow Dash was so bright that she couldn’t even see her own muzzle. For a moment she even wondered if she hadn’t survived the landing and that this field of infinite whiteness was the afterlife.

Then she noticed the soothing sensation washing away her pain, just as she’d felt when Sweet Chime’s song had healed her. And with her mind turned toward her body, Dash quickly found the feeling of water lapping at her hooves. No, she wasn’t dead. She was definitely still standing in the shallow pool she’d landed in.

A quick review of her options weren’t good. Flying blind was suicidal. And feeling her way around on the ground when there was a portal to a world of darkness wasn’t much better.

With no other choice, Dash stood her ground in the pool, waiting for the light to fade.

After the eternity that was at most a few seconds, the light faded enough for that ever-present blue spot at the bottom of her vision, her muzzle, to come back into sight. And as the light continued to fade the walls came into sight. And that was when she was finally able to see that the light wasn’t fading at all. It was being drawn into the sacred wing blades.

The leading edges of the blades now shone with radiant white light. Strips of colored light flowed across the top of the wings, forming rainbows. And as those colors flowed off the tail edge of the wings, each color separated from the others, becoming like a row of ribbon-like flags, flapping in an unfelt breeze.

Aside from the sacred wing blades, the portal in the middle of the floor and the artifact clearly serving as its anchor were the only other forms of magic left in the room. A fact highlighted most by the sunlight poring in through the now vacant hole in the ceiling.

“This… can’t happen…” the Dark Summoner muttered.

Her shields, the spear, the geyser and the mass of dark magic that had been blotting out the sky, all of it had been dispelled by the radiant flash of light magic.

For an instant Rainbow Dash saw fear in the unicorn’s eyes.

That instant ended as that was also the moment the flow of dark magic resumed and the torrent once more shot out of the portal.

With none of the numbers in her head making any sense, the Summoner acted out of panic and did the only thing she could think of. Filling her horn with magic, she grabbed as much of the dark magic as she could and directed it at the paladin. The end result being that one third of the torrent of dark magic peeled away from the main stream, bent around and came down on the paladin like a waterfall of destruction.

Rainbow Dash’s world became one of darkness. The supercharged magic of the sacred wing blades wrapped themselves around her, doing their best to protect her. But beyond her little ball of safety, all she could see was darkness flowing down around her on all sides.

Even though she couldn’t see it, she could feel the ground beneath her crumble away under the shadow magic’s assault. On reflex she flapped her wings and pulled herself into a hover.

Licks of dark magic tried to push their way into the bubble of prismatic light, only to evaporate between the stands of colored light that marked the edge of her sanctuary. Even though the dark magic wasn’t reaching her, she could feel a stinging crackle in the air whenever a whip of dark magic evaporated near her.

With the attack snapping her mind back into combat mode, Dash decided against lingering to see just how long the sacred wing blade’s magic could hold out against the assault. Flapping her wings hard, she surged forward.

The torrent of dark magic parted like a waterfall as she emerged. In the blink of an eye she shot across the room, fixing her wings as she passed the Dark Summoner, allowing her left wing blade to graze the unicorn as she flew by.

The cut she’d left in the unicorn’s side was shallow, as Rainbow Dash hadn’t really intended to deliver a serious blow. She just needed her foe distracted long enough to strike the one thing that mattered. However, the sacred wing blades seemed to pass a far harsher judgement. Its magic flared from the contact, repelling the Dark Summoner as if somepony had kicked her in the side, sending the unicorn tumbling to the side of the room.

Not quite what she’d intended, but either way it left Rainbow Dash’s foe too distracted to cast any spells that might stop her from reaching her target at the back of the room.

Pulling her head and front hooves up at the last second, she thrust her wings forward and let them plunge into the dark artifact until her chest was pressed against its surface. With the sacred wing blades as deep as they could go, the cracks around the twin impact sites filled with bright white light and began to spread.

By the time the unicorn had pulled herself back to her hooves, the radiant cracks has spread across the entire front of the artifact and were now wrapping their way around toward the back.

“No!” the Summoner cried. “Without the shadow anchor, I can’t control this much dark magic!”

“I was kinda counting on that.”

As she answered, Rainbow Dash pulled her wings apart, through the artifact, shattering it as her wings made their way to a flared position.

As the obsidian stones of the now sundered shadow anchor fell to the ground, the portal on the floor collapsed in the blink of an eye. The mass of shadow magic already in the sky not only stopped growing, but it too began to collapse. Becoming like a vortex, sucking itself down into an orb right where the portal had been.

“You fool! You’ve killed us both!”

The unicorn’s shout was accompanied with a look of dread on her face.

Looking to the sacred wing blades and finding them still shining with prismatic light, the paladin said, “Somehow, I doubt that.”

“Th-then y-you’ve killed me…” the unicorn’s words trembled with despair. Yet holding a hoof over her bleeding side and with the stain of red blood trickling down, the Summoner allowed a pleading look to enter her eyes, as if begging the pegasus to take her to safety.

For the briefest of moments Rainbow Dash took notice of the unicorn’s blood. Red blood, not burning demon blood, or the bloodless sparkle of animated magic shadows, but the blood of a living breathing pony. And yet, the truth itself came into her mind, crushing any hesitation she might have had about leaving the unicorn behind.

“No. I didn’t. I’m just not going to save you from your own dark magic.”

By then most of the dark magic had left the sky and gathered in the growing orb of darkness. And though Dash had faith that the sacred wing blades would protect her from whatever would follow, she decided give them as much distance as she could anyway. Flapping her wings hard, she shot out of the room, leaving a rainbow in her wake.

Once out of the room, rather than going left, back to the main entrance of the ziggurat, she veered to the right, aiming for the window at the end of the hall. Just as she reached the window, the ball of dark magic in the other room exploded, a wave of darkness washed over her, and everything went black.

Truthfully, she wasn’t even sure if she’d made it out the window or not. All she knew now, was that she was being tossed around like a rag doll in a hurricane and she couldn’t see anything past the sheath of prismatic light trying desperately to protect her from the dark magic all around her. Tendrils of darkness licked at her, and yet even as the dark magic was pushed back by the glow of the sacred wing blades, she could feel sings of pain whenever one got too close to her.

Then the sea of black and slightly less black parted and she found herself being launched out into the open sky.

As any ace aviator could tell you, once you’re in a spin as bad as this, your sense of balance becomes worthless. But now that she could see the horizon, Rainbow Dash could finally be sure just how she was tumbling through the sky, and thus what she needed to do to fix it.

With a quick flap of her wings she stopped her left spin. With another flap she stopped her forward roll. This left her sailing through the air upside down and backwards. Which might have bothered her more had it not also given her the first clear view of the dark magic explosion that had sent her flying in the first place.

The explosion of dark magic had become a sphere large enough to not only consume the ziggurat, but the ruined city around it. And was it was still growing, enveloping the mountain side as it raced toward Cloud Sword and the other ponies fleeing down the mountain pass.

Between her momentum and distance, Dash knew there was no way she’d be able to reach any of the ponies on the ground in time to help. Not that she knew how to stop a wave of dark magic even if she could get down there. So all she could do was gasp and hold her breath as she waited to see what would become of the ponies on the mountain pass.

In the eternity of a second the explosion tore away at the mountainside, growing ever closer to the colorful herd. Then just before it reached them, it stopped and faded away.

Even as she allowed herself to breathe again, Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she beheld the void left where the dark magic had been. It was as if someone had taken a bite out of the middle third of the mountain. With it’s sudden lack of support, the top third began to crumble, becoming the mother of all avalanches as it collapsed into the missing half-circle in the side of the mountain.

Another look to the mountain pass and she was able to conclude that Cloud Sword and friends had gotten far enough down the path to avoid the avalanche zone.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Rainbow Dash suddenly became aware of her own surroundings. Namely, that she was surrounded by wagon-sized stones that had also been thrown by the explosion. She also noticed that the sacred wing blades had stopped glowing with prismatic light. The last of whatever power she’d put into them with the waters of night and day had clearly been spent protecting her from the blast.

Opening her wings, she finally righted herself and wove her way upwards until she was clear of the airborne debris field. Then setting herself on course to join up with Cloud Sword and company, she let herself relax and fly as swiftly as she could while also resting her weary body.

* * * * * * *

Once Celestia had suggested it, Twilight Sparkle had organized a daily prayer service in Ponyville. And doing so had proven to be quite the learning experience for Twilight.

The thing was that prayer wasn’t really a unicorn thing. Given the broad nature of unicorn magic, even the ancient unicorn tribe usually attributed the unknown to forms of magic that they just didn’t understand. Inventing gods or divine beings to explain the strange world around them was more like something that the pegasus or earth pony tribes did.

In fact the only article of faith in unicorn culture was ‘the divine right of queens.’ And the more Twilight looked into that, the more she concluded that it was something that had been made up to dissuade young upstart mages from claming the right to rule just because they knew a lot of magic.

Regardless, none of that stopped the ever-book-savvy Twilight Sparkle from finding some old pegasus prayer books and organizing a meeting time to gather and take turns reading from said books. Surprisingly enough Fluttershy volunteered to host the meetings. Although in hindsight it was easy to see that these meetings allowed the shy pegasus to actually be at her own house for a little while, without having to be alone.

“-so we ask your protection and guidance, that your celestial winds might guide the lost home.”

Having finished reading, Scootaloo stepped aside, leaving the podium that had been set up in the front yard of the cottage and rejoining her friends in the audience.

Seeing that no pony was quick to take the filly’s place, Twilight returned to the podium herself. She began skimming through the book, looking for a prayer that hadn’t been read recently. Thing was, very few of the prayers seemed aimed at aiding the lost or missing. Given the old warrior traditions of the pegasus tribe it wasn’t that surprising that most of the prayers seemed to ask for courage or protection in battle. Needless to say, that usually meant the same few prayers were read every time.

Now that the librarian thought about it, the fact that Scootaloo had chosen one of the few guidance prayers seemed odd, as the filly was one of the few who actualy read the protection in battle or adventure ones… why did she read one of the guidance ones today? And that wasn’t the only oddity of Scootaloo’s reading. Somehow it had felt different when Scoots read it compared to the times others had read it. She had used the same words as everypony else, yet there seemed to be something more when the words had come from the orange filly.

Feeling that the seconds had ticked on long enough, the librarian unicorn set that line of pondering aside and stopped flipping the pages of the prayer book at the first general blessing prayer she found. She opened her mouth, ready to read the prayer aloud.

The words never came.

Twilight’s horn flared to life. Bright purple light covered her eyes, and the world around her was gone.

Instead Twilight saw the ruins of the castle of the royal pony sisters, deep within the Everfree Forest. The moon presided over a starry night’s sky. The trees sat quietly in the still night air.

Looking to the moon and stars, Twilight made a mental note that the alignments were what tonight’s night sky should be.

Before she could ponder the meaning of seeing a night’s sky that had not yet come to pass, a rainbow appeared from the courtyard of the ruined castle and shot into the sky. A fuzzy darkness soon followed, surrounding the rainbow as it chased the source of the prismatic light.

As the rainbow arched overhead, toward Ponyville, Twilight could see that Rainbow Dash was the source, creating a rainbow in her wake. Now closer to the rainbow’s light, she could also make out the dark mass, which turned out to be a multitude of pegasi following the prismatic trail through the sky.

“Twilight!”

With the shout, the vision was gone and the unicorn in question found herself siting at a podium in Fluttershy’s yard.

“Twi, ya alright?”

The question from her farmer friend brought her attention to the fact that her friends were no longer with the rest of the prayer group. Instead they were gathered around her and the podium.

“I think so. What actually happened?”

“Yer horn lit up real bright, yer eyes got all glowy and ya just sat there for a bit.”

Closing her eyes, Twilight bowed her head and took a moment to collect herself. The first thing she felt was a sense of peace, all the anxiety over Rainbow Dash’s disappearance was gone.

Logically that made no sense. Seeing as she didn’t conjure it on purpose, a magic induced vision like that could well have been her own imagination playing out her hopes. Throw in the fact that the records of intentional efforts to see the future were of questionable quality at best, and the odds that she’d done so without even trying were astronomically small to say the least.

Yet, even though she couldn’t prove it, she knew that there was something to the vision. Something that she couldn’t explain and yet felt like it gave the vision weight. As if she was almost certain that it had come from outside. But if that was the case, where had it come from?

Then Twilight looked to the prayer book on the podium before her. Reaching up with her hoof, she closed it.

Speaking with her speech voice, she said, “When Princess Celestia first advised us to pray for our missing friends, I had my doubts. But now I think my mentor was right, that Rainbow Dash is the solution to this problem. In fact, thanks to the magic surge I just had, I have the feeling that she’s coming home very soon. And she’ll be bringing the missing pegasi of Equestria with her.”

* * * * * * *

Rainbow Dash and the Sky Knights returned to a hero’s welcome at Liberty Castle. Elder Cherry Blaze had gone all out in assembling the pegasi of Equestria at the castle, and they proved quite the cheering crowd to welcome those responsible for no longer needing to hide in remote safe houses. Sweet Chime sang for the returning injured and, by the time night had fallen what passed for a feast was spread out for all to enjoy.

Being the hero of the hour, once the dinner had formally begun, Dash found herself at the table of honor. And that was the problem.

Having already scarfed down her meal, she now found herself nursing a mug of apple cider that was clearly missing half its spices. While the dull taste helped, the main reason she hadn’t just downed it and left was precisely because it felt like it would be rude for her to leave so soon.

Ironic really, as much as she loved being the talk of the room, she was used to soaking up the praise of others while doing something. Singing autographs, posing for the cameras before heroically flying off into the sunset, attending the Rainbow Dash Fan Club meetings so she could retell her more awesome stories in only slightly exaggerated ways. Any of those would have been preferable to sitting at a table during a seemingly formal dinner like a trophy on display, look but don’t touch.

Sure, most of the room was talking about her, but that was the rest of the room, too far away for her to join in on any of the conversations. Here at the table of honor, she was surrounded by sky knights who’d been there and the Elder. None of whom seemed interested in anything more the quietly eating their dinner.

Dash took another sip of her… spiced apple juice… yeah, that was a more accurate name for this stuff than cider.

“Is something wrong?”

Cloud’s words almost jolted Rainbow Dash from her seat when she realized somepony at her table had spoken.

Once she’d realized that said somepony was the previous paladin, she answered, “Parties like this are too formal for my tastes.”

“I can only imagine what parties in a land of prosperity are like. However, I am too young to remember when prosperity existed in this land.”

“It was glorious,” Cherry Blaze said, with a hauntingly distant look in her eyes. “I remember when food had sugar in it.”

Not the conversation she was hoping for, but the fact that her tablemates were talking felt like enough of an invitation to Rainbow Dash.

“I know it’s only been a few hours, but is there any news on getting us Equestria ponies home?”

“You said it yourself,” Cherry said. “It’s only been a few hours. And in case you didn’t notice the Sky Knights are all pegasi. Trixie is the only unicorn ally we have who can even tell what most of those books say.” With a glance at the otherworldly champion, the elder added, “Unless you know how to read all those ruins and diagrams. Unicorn spell books just look like gibberish to me.”

Dash shook her head.

“Not really. When I help Twilight research, all I’m really doing is reading the titles on the spine. I’ve never even tried to make sense of the pictures in those spell books.”

“On the up side, now that the Dark Summoner has been defeated, it should be easier to find unicorns willing to help us get you home,” Cloud Sword said.

The cyan paladin looked down, at the half-empty mug between her hooves as a thought stirred in the back of her mind.

“You know, you never did tell me how my ancestor got back to Equestria.”

“She’s certainly earned the right to the paladin’s secret archive,” Cloud Sword said quietly enough that his words couldn’t be heard beyond their table.

Elder Cherry Blaze cringed for an instant before forcing a smile and saying, “Yes, of course. Cloud, could you be so kind as to show her?”

“Gladly.”

Yet, even as he got up, Dash couldn’t help but see ‘I told you so’ written all over Cloud’s face. Though she didn’t say anything, she couldn’t help but wonder what that was about as they took wing and he led the way to the nearest exit from the great hall.

“So what is this whole secret history thing, anyway?” Dash asked as soon as they were alone in the hallways of the castle.

“You know that statue of Lightning Dash out front?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Have you ever noticed the space right behind it?”

The sky-blue mare paused. Having just passes it mere hours ago the front of the keep was fresh in her mind. She remembered a statue, stairs to either side of it, and a raised stone work area that was like the front porch of the keep. Yet for the life of her she couldn’t remember any thing between the pegasus statue and the front doors of the keep, just walking space.

“It’s just empty space isn’t it?”

“Exactly.”

Seeing the raised eyebrow on the mare’s face, Cloud smiled. Then he quickly looked down both ways of the hall, and seeing no pony else, he placed a hoof on just another white section of wall. Pushing harder, his hoof suddenly sank into the wall, sending out a ripple as if that part of the wall was a sideways pond.

As the stallion walked into the wall, the ripples spread out, coming to abrupt halts along the edges in a pattern that looked a lot like an arched doorway. And once the last of Cloud Sword had vanished from sight the ripples stopped and the wall once more looked the same as the any other wall in the castle.

Placing her own hoof on the wall, Rainbow Dash let it brush the surface. It felt solid, yet odd. More like running her hoof over one of Twilight’s barrier spells than a stone wall. Pushing a little harder caused her hoof to sink into the wall as well. After quickly withdrawing her hoof and finding it intact, she pushed it through once more, this time walking through the wall entirely.

On the other side she found herself at the top landing of a stairway. The only light was coming from small gems in the shape of four pointed stars, glowing with soft blue light. Considering that they’d been on the ground floor, the stairway could only lead down to a hidden basement.

“You see,” Cloud said from beside her, as he started descending the stairs. “There used to be a second statue right behind the one of Lightning Dash. As you already know, your ancestor came to our world’s aid three times. However, while his second and third adventures were reasonably well documented, his first… not so much. In fact, the tales of a child wielding a holy weapon of great power were largely discounted and rumor and myths by anypony who didn’t see it happen.”

As they reached the bottom of the stairway, the passage opened up into a large room. The walls were lined with bookshelves, although more than half of them were empty. More glowing star-like crystals dotted the ceiling, providing light to the room.

However, in the middle of the room was a statue of an armored tiger. The armor seemed to be primarily of body armor and a helmet, leaving the tiger’s limbs and tail unburdened. The armor seemed too simple, clean lines, sporting only a few sharp angles that would have been more for style than function. If the statue had ever been painted no evidence of that remained now, so the colors of the tiger and its armor could no longer be gleamed by looking at it.

“So who’s this?” Rainbow Dash asked the obvious question.

“If he has a name, no pony knows it,” Cloud Sword said. “He is a creature of myth. Truthfully, no pony is really sure he exists. But as the stories go, the armored white tiger appears only to the righteous, seen only when the lightning flashes. And those who have followed him have always found what they needed to insure that Heaven won the day. Some call him ‘the guardian of heroes,’ others call him ‘the storm guide.’ In even rarer stories he is said to actualy fight beside righteous ponies in open combat, and is given the name, ‘the thunder of the stars.’”

“And this is where Lightning Dash comes in.” Motioning to one of the bookcases with a few books on it, Cloud continued, “Some versions of his first adventure in our land claim that he was aided by the mythical white tiger.” Pulling a white book off the indicated shelf, he opened it and pointed to one of the last pages, and added, “This is the only version that claims it, but it says that the storm guide is who led Lightning to and from our world.”

The sky-blue mare looked down at the book. First she verified that it did indeed say that the mythical, armored white tiger opened the way that the otherworldly pegasus might return to his true home. Then she said, “That’s it?”

The stallion could only look down at his hooves and say, “Why do you think I’ve been at odds with the elder? I knew what she was offering you was little more than a rumor.”

“So you’re telling me that I risked my life for you ponies, and now I have to get my flank back out there and find some magic tiger that may or may not even exist?!”

“She has a point you know.”

The unexpected third voice made both pegasi spin to face its source, which oddly enough wasn’t the stairway. Instead, near the back wall where nothing had been a moment earlier, now stood a white tiger, arrayed in white and blue armor.

Cloud was the first to do a double take between the statue and the tiger.

“You! But if you’re real then wouldn’t that mean-”

“That I’ve had a paw in this chain of events?” The tiger finished before the question could be fully asked. “Yes, it would.” Looking to Rainbow Dash, he continued, “Though I must say that I am pleased at how little my champion needed my help.” Looking back to Cloud Sword he added, “Although it would seem you ponies have promised her a reward that it beyond your ability to give.”

“Wait, are you saying I’m stuck here?!”

Dash’s question drew a slow shake of the tiger’s head.

“No. After all that you have done for me, I will see to your reward. Besides, there are too many ponies here that don’t belong to this world. It would mess up too many timelines if you weren’t returned home.” Directing his attention back to Cloud, the tiger added, “Go, gather Equestria’s pegasi in the courtyard and I will open the path for them once more.”

Cloud Sword opened his mouth, intending to asked the tiger’s name, but the tiger had barely taken a step before lightning arched over his form and he vanished from sight.

* * * * * * *

It didn’t take long to gather Equestria’s pegasi in the moonlit courtyard. Although a few might have looked a little drowsy, the thought that they would finally be going home had most bright eyed and bushy tailed despite the late hour. Even many of the local pegasi were watching from the windows or doorways.

“Is that everypony?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Cloud and a few other sky knights all answered along the lines of ‘Yes, as far as we can tell.’

The crowd gathered in the courtyard consisted of hundreds of pegasi, many hovering or sitting on low clouds and yet even so the ground was packed. As Dash scanned the crowd, she thought she saw the armored tiger sitting in the fountain. But when she did a double take, she found the fountain was one of the few empty places on the ground. Looking a little closer, however, she noticed that the waters of the fountain looked like they were being disturbed even though no pony was there.

Taking that as her cue, she flew slowly out toward the fountain.

As she neared, three bolts of blue lightning flashed out of a cloudless part of night’s sky, striking the edge of the fountain. Side by side, the three bolts almost looked as if a set of claws had raked the air. Yet once they had struck, they did not fade. The lightning continued to arch as the three bolts merged into one column, and then spread, like a sideways, opening eye to form a ring about two stories tall. As the ring opened, looking through it didn’t show the rest of the courtyard. Instead the remnants of a ruined castle surrounded by an eerie forest could be seen.

Those near where the lightning had flashed had gasped and drew back from the magic spectacle. Rainbow Dash and Cloud Sword were the first two to approach the newly formed portal.

Dash’s eyes widened as she realized she knew that place. “The castle of the royal pony sisters,” she whispered. “It’s the Everfree Forest, everypony!” she said aloud.

The announcement drew cheers from most of the crowd. Although, those who knew it as more than just a familiar name on a map of Equestria gasped.

Looking through the portal himself, Cloud said, “Hmm… I thought your world was supposed to be a paradise.”

“It’s is,” Rainbow Dash answered, giving the stallion a pat on the back. “Dangerous places like the Everfree are few and far between in Equestria. Come to think of it, it’s probably one of the few places in Equestria you could open a portal this big without it being noticed.”

Turning her thoughts to the other pegasus ponies gathered around her, she turned to address her fellow Equestrian pegasi.

“Alright ponies! The Everfree Forest can be a dangerous place! So we’re going to gather in the courtyard of the castle ruins, then we fly out, high, and as a group. Stick together until we’re clear of the forest and we’ll all be home by dawn, no problem!”

Dash opened her wings and then stopped when she realized that they were still silver-clad. Reaching a hoof up to her chest, she began releasing the latches on the sacred wing blades’ vest. Pulling it over her head, she allowed the weapon to fall to the ground, landing right in front of Cloud Sword.

“I’m pretty sure these belong here, with you,” she said. “And besides, I pray I never to have to fight like that again.”

“As do I,” he answered, as he tossed them over his back like a set of saddlebags.

Opening her wings once more, Rainbow Dash turned to face the crowd. Simply showing them a bold, brave smile, she took to the air and flew through the portal. And they followed.

Chapter 15: Home

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The plan to return home safely had worked perfectly. Rainbow Dash had led the pegasi toward Ponyville, and once the lights of the small town were below them, many split off in different directions. Most headed for Cloudsdale, many mentioning seeking a hotel before heading to their true homes further away.

Only a few joined Dash in descending toward the sleepy little town on the edge of the dangerous forest. Storm Gale being the most notable among them. She was even the last to breakaway from Rainbow’s side, and saying, “See you at the Pinkie party tomorrow,” before heading off to her own home.

And now the mare with the rainbow mane was standing on her doorstep, looking at her own front door as if it were some surreal dream. She finally found the will to push the door open, half expecting to find the proof that she was dreaming waiting inside. Instead she found the darkened interior of her house as it should be.

Walking through the shadows of her entry room, she made her way to her living room. Even in the moonlight, she could see the pile of paper on her coffee table. A smile graced her face as she guessed that Fluttershy had been bringing her mail in.

Beside the mail was a lone note set off just far enough away to stand out.

Reaching up to the wall Rainbow Dash flicked the light switch on the wall to on.

Nothing happened.

Still bathing only in moonlight, she chuckled. ‘Leave it to Fluttershy to think to bring my mail in, but forget to keep the cloud charged,’ she thought to herself.

Dash gave the floor a harsh stomp. Lightning crackled softly around the impact site and immediately the lights came on.

Returning her attention to the coffee table she found the note was from Fluttershy and basically said that she was caring for Tank, and a few dozen apologies for letting herself in without permission. Maybe she’d even been adding one every day whenever she brought the mail in.

The rest of the mail was mostly weather schedules from work or bills, or notices of suspended service for not paying the last three notices. In short nothing that needed her attention until morning.

Looking toward the stairway in the entry room, she felt the call of her bed. But she couldn’t bring herself to answer it, not yet anyway. For there were two more things that she felt she needed to do before she even tried to get back to life as usual. And so she walked out of her home and once more took to the moonlit skies.

Her first stop was the town library. Seeing as light was coming from some of the windows it was a safe bet that the unicorn librarian who lived there was still awake. Knocking on the door quickly confirmed as much, as the sound of hooves approaching came from inside. When the door opened, the curious look on the purple unicorn’s face was quickly replaced with a smile.

“Hey, I’m back,” Rainbow Dash said, trying to sound as casual as possible about it.

Reaching a hoof up and pulling her pegasus friend into a loose hug, Twilight Sparkle said, “Rainbow, thank Celestia you’re alright!”

“Yeah… you know me, I can take care of myself.”

Despite her words, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but think that ‘alright’ was just about the opposite of how she felt right now. She needed a shoulder to lean on right now, a friend she could offload the stress of the last month around. But the tales of Twilight and the hydra reminded her that this was the friend who found courage by looking up her. No, she couldn’t let Twilight see her weaker side, she had to put on a strong face for Twilight’s sake.

“So, mind if I ask where you went that my magic couldn’t find you?”

Twilight’s question was accompanied by the glow of her magic summoning a scroll and quill to her side.

Although it only lasted a second, Dash managed a genuine smile before answering, “I’ll tell you tomorrow, at the party.”

“What party?” Twilight asked, blinking as she pandered how her pegasus friend would know anypony’s plans when she’d just gotten back.

“Come on, Twi. Be both know there’s no way Pinkie wouldn’t throw a party now that I’m back!”

“Oh, right. I’ll… just be ready to record everything then.”

“Look, I just wanted to let the gang know I was back, and well… you’re the only one who would still be awake this late. I’ll be making the rounds tomorrow, but feel free to tell any of our friends if you run into them first.”

“Will do. Goodnight, then.”

With that the unicorn returned into the library.

Rainbow Dash, however, did not turn for home. Although the odds were lower, she took flight heading for the second pony she was hoping to catch before they went to bed.

Her second stop was the home of the town’s mayor.

Landing quickly, Dash breathed a sigh of relief when she found two windows still aglow with light. Wasting no time she knocked on the door and the light spread to the front room.

When the door opened the mayor gave a dumbfounded blink as she beheld the cyan pegasus on her doorstep. Reaching out she put her hoof on Rainbow’s muzzle and pushed, as if checking to make sure the pegasus was real.

“Hey. I’m back and… well I was kinda wondering if I still had a job?”

It seemed like a reasonable question to Rainbow Dash, after all she may be the most awesome weather pony the town had ever seen, but she’d still been AWOL for a month. Not exactly the behavior of a loyal city employ.

The earth pony who ran the town just stood there still staring blankly at her.

Dash soon found herself unable to look the mayor in the eyes. Pretending to scratch the back of her head gave her an excuse to look away. Why wasn’t the mayor answering? Did that mean she’d been taken off the weather team after all?

“I know I didn’t mean to leave you hanging and all, but I’ve been gone so long I figured you had to replace me on the roster by now. So… now that I’m back, do I still have a place on the weather team?”

Before she could even react, Rainbow Dash found herself tacked to her haunches and wrapped in a tight hug. Honestly, she didn’t think the mayor was even capable of moving that fast.

“You’re back! You’re really back! Oh thank Celestia! Of course you’re the captain of the weather team again!”

“Oh wow. I didn’t expect you to be happier than Twilight to see me,” Dash managed to say as she tried to loosen the mayor’s bear hug.

Suddenly blushing, the mayor released the pegasus and stepped back.

“Oh yes… sorry about that. It’s just it seems it takes three pegasi to keep the weather running on schedule without you. Sorry I suppose the details of running a town probably don’t mean much to you. So let’s just say it’s rather helpful when a job only takes one pony to do instead of three. I trust you’ll be back on the job tomorrow?”

“You know me, I’d never leave Ponyville hanging!”

Truth be told, Dash hadn’t exactly expected to welcomed back on the job, let alone be told she had work the very next morning. But it was a welcome surprise. And with that the two said their goodbyes and goodnights.

With no other lights on at the places where ponies she wanted to talk to resided, Rainbow Dash soon found herself at home. After digging through the pile of mail to find and set aside the most recent weather schedule, she found her way to her bedroom.

Yet she found herself standing in the doorway, looking at her bed as if it were some kind of mirage. Her wings twitched. Muscles tense and ready to lash out at whatever demon was casting this illusion on her.

No.

That world was behind her. Her bones weren’t shouting ‘place of evil!’ at her like they did in the presence of the demons or the Summoner’s dark magic. She really was home. There really was nothing to defend herself from here.

Hesitantly she started walking forward. Every step sapped her energy. She jumped onto her bed. Her legs failed her and she collapsed into the embrace of the blankets. As her body crashed down, her mind surrendered to Luna’s realm even before her head hit the pillow.

* * * * * * *

The light of dawn crept into Rainbow Dash’s bedroom. And she growled when she realized she was awake to notice the shadows on her ceiling rather than the floor. Although, the moan was as much at herself as the light on the ceiling, a month of being awoken before sunrise had clearly messed with her body clock, and she didn’t like it one bit. Waking at sunrise was a job for alarm clocks and not something to be done on your own.

Closing her eyes, she rested. How long she lay there or if the she actually dozed back off before she noticed that the shadows had reached the floor, she wasn’t sure. But eventually she got up.

The sun was still low but at least no pony could call it dawn anymore. And before long the thought that Fluttershy was a morning pony and it was time to get Tank back made a smile grace her face.

A quick check of the day’s planed weather revealed it to be partly cloudy, with scattered showers in the afternoon and a special rain request from the flower shop. Storing this knowledge away for later, she headed out to face her first day back.

* * * * * * *

The day had gone well in Rainbow Dash’s book. Friends had been visited, a pet reclaimed, weather work done in ten seconds flat, naps taken, and once school had let out a Scootaloo borrowed and hung out with.

Scoots seemed to take the extended hang out session as an apology for leaving her hanging for about a month. In a way that’s how it started.

Yet in another way Rainbow Dash had realized that the orange filly was the pony she was looking for the night before. It occurred to her right after she’d come down from another round of stunts, to the praise of her fan-club president. Resting on a low laying cloud with Tank on one side and Scootaloo on the other. That was when she truly felt home for the first time since coming back to her own world.

And the best part of it all was that she never had to tell Scootaloo why she needed the filly’s company right now. Scoots just offered it without complaint or question, no matter how long Dash insisted on being sappy by holding her in a soft hug.

* * * * * * *

The afternoon was spent with stunts and a long overdue flight lesson. But eventually the evening came, and so too the appointed hour of the welcome home party for the formerly missing pegasi.

While Tank had been returned to Rainbow Dash’s house, Scootaloo remained by her side and the two honorary sisters entered the party together.

As one might expect from a Pinkie Pie party, the party had music, party games, a dance floor, and a buffet filled with snacks and treats. There were cookies, cakes, cinnamon rolls, juices, sandwiches and grilled vegetables for those who didn’t want a stomach ache in the morning, and judging from the crumbs on Scootaloo’s face there were brownies around somewhere that Dash hadn’t noticed yet.

As the evening went on, Rainbow Dash eventually found herself standing by the punch bowl when Twilight Sparkle approached.

“You know, Rainbow, you still haven’t told me where you were. And so far everypony else that I’ve asked has told me to get the story from you.”

“Indeed, we too should like to hear this tale.”

The voice from above drew many eyes upward. Among the rafters, two invisibility spells faded, revealing the alicorn princesses of night and day lounging on said rafters, not too unlike a pegasus resting on a tree branch.

Princesses Celestia and Luna downplayed their presence and waved off any questions aimed at them as they came down to join the party proper, keeping their focus on the spirit of loyalty instead.

Looking around, Dash confirmed that she still had Scootaloo at her side. She couldn’t help but giggle when she realized that the filly and the librarian both had the same eyes shimmering with excitement. The only difference being that Twi also held a notebook and quill at the ready.

“Yeah, I guess my version of the story would be the most awesome,” Rainbow Dash said. Quickly regaining her composure, she faced the room and added, “Alright everypony! Listen up because I’m only going to tell this story once!”

* * * * * * *

In the moonlight, high on a ledge, two creatures stood, looking down into the valley that Ponyville calls home. In particular they were gazing toward the building where Rainbow Dash was currently telling the tale of her adventure.

“Thank you for returning her safely to me,” said the dark, slightly transparent pegasus with stars at her major joints. “Your ability to end wars with a single champion continue to amaze.”

The armored white tiger gave a single laugh. “Do not sell yourself short, Pegasus. This world has known relative peace for a thousand years. The worlds under my care are lucky if they know peace for two hundred. Perhaps I wouldn’t be so good at ending wars if I could get the eras of peace to last, like you do.”

A moment of silence followed as the two watched over the small valley town. Yet a glimmer of worry found its way into the celestial pegasus’ eyes.

“You’re not done with her, are you?” she asked.

“The next move is not mine to make. And though it would be foolish to attack her here, the forces of darkness aren’t exactly known for their wisdom.” Shaking his head slightly, he added, “If they come here, I will return as well.”