The One Behind it All

Monday

"Da-a-art!" A voice could be heard throughout the Everfree, but it went mostly unnoticed by the pony it was calling for. "Where are you? Team meeting in five! Moon's already waiting for us!"

A few moments later, the owner of the voice, Night Sky, landed near the pony she was looking for, Night Dart.

"Night Dart!" She snapped, trotting up to the stallion and breaking him out of his reverie. "I know you're having very important daydreams of going back to your marefriend, but you're going to miss the team meeting if you don't step it up!"

"Sorry- h-hey, she wasn't- I-I mean she's not my m-marefriend! And I wasn't daydreaming about her!" Night Dart, usually calm and collected, became defensive and blushed in surprise at his sister's claim.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. C'mon, Moony Cloud's waiting for us."

The siblings took off and flew just above the tops of the trees of the Forest. After a moment or two of flying. they arrived at their team's headquarters; a little house in a small clearing. They entered through the window. Moony Clouds, a white Pegasus with a black mane, looked up from her book.

"Finally," she said, snapping her book shut. "[color=sky]I was wondering where you were."

"Night Dart was in La La Land with Diamond Dust, again."

"I wasn't!" snapped Night Dart. It was embarrassing enough that Night Sky thought so, now Moony was going to think he was weird, if she didn't already.

"Whatever. We need to get going. We're the lead ponies in our team, everypony's waiting for us." Moony replied, trotting over to the door. "[color=brightblue]Are you two ready?"

"Yeah," the siblings replied in unison.

The three Pegasi in the gray and purple uniforms entered the room beyond the door. Three other ponies were waiting for them there.

"Alright, as you all know, we've been getting better and better. I want to congratulate everypony on that."

The six ponies applauded themselves.

"In fact, we've gotten so good that we have decided to enter the team races in Windermare in a few days." Moony smiled at the group. "Sky also has something to say, as our team captain."

"Thanks, Moon. Alright everypony. This is the first race our team has ever been in. Since we were inspired by Nightmare Moon's idea a few years ago, we started out as just me and my brother, Night Dart. then Moony Cloud decided to join. Since then, we've found you ponies and we've trained together. Now, I want you all to train hard, but don't strain yourselves. I know we can do this. We can win this race! Let's show Equestria what the Shadowbolts can do!"

Four out of five ponies cheered enthusiastically. The other, who was mute, grinned. Sky beamed at them.

"Meeting adjourned. We set out in the morning, every pony get a good night's sleep!" she said.

Everypony piled out of the common room and towards their respective rooms.  Night Dart was about to leave, but he noticed his sister looking like she was about to fly out the window.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, trotting up to her.

"Just for a quick flight before bed.  Seeya in the morning."

"Alright. Night, sis."

"Night."

Dart gave her a quick brotherly hug before flying up the stairs to his bed. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Night Sky had been flying for half an hour. She had to be more careful at nightt, unlike her brother. She envied him his odd sight but knew she may not be Captain if she was as nearsighted as he was during the day.

Nearing the Crystal Empire, she drifted closer to the ground. Soon enough, she found the little shop she was looking for. She knocked on the door loudly until two mares showed up; a pale cyan Crystal Pegasus with a blue braided mane, and a white Crystal Unicorn with a light purple mane that was in a twist.

"Hi," said Sky, looking between the two. She turned to the white Unicorn. "Are you Diamond Dust?"

"No, I'm Crystal Light, this is Diamond Dust," the mare replied with a perplexed and slightly annoyed look on her face as she gestured to her companion. The annoyance made sense. It was almost the middle of the night.

"What is it?" the Pegasus asked, mimicking Crystal Light's expression.

"I'm Night Dart's sister, Night Sky. I have an offer for you."

"Diamond Dust? Is that... you?"

"Night Dart... Yeah, it's me."

Night Dart's eyes widen in surprise. He can't believe she would come to see him after what had happened.

"I... I wasn't m-"

"i know. I knew something was weird from the way you looked. It's why I punched you." She chuckles. Night Dart grins a little, rubbing the soft spot on his face.

An awkward silence passes between the two. Night Dart stares at his hooves. They're unwashed; he has been in this prison cell for the past three days with no baths.

"I'm not mad at you, you know." Dust is the first to break the silence.

Night Dart looks up at her, surprised all over again.

"But-"

"I know what happened. But I know you weren't you at that time. I can't be mad at you for something you didm't willingly do, even if it has caused pain to ponies."

Night Dart lets out a sigh of relief. He had been afraid she would hate him earlier, but now that fear is gone. He wouldn't be able to stand it if she were to hate him. He knows he should tell her..

"Dust... I have to sa-"

"Time's up," booms a guard.

"I have to go. I'll see you, Night."  The Crystal Pegasus turns around and takes her leave.

"Dust, I..."

Night Dart reaches out a hoof towards Diamond Dust. She completely exits the room and everything fades to black.

Tuesday morning

Night Dart woke up in a daze. Once he got his bearings, he threw on his Shadowbolts uniform and started downstairs. He had packed his suitcases a few days before; if he hadn't, Moony would be nagging him about it right now.

He couldn't get his dream out of his head. Sure he missed his only friend growing up, whom he had had a huge crush on for years, but why had he dreamt about something that had happened years ago? Granted, he sometimes wished that things had ended differently and he could still be with her in the Crystal Empire, but he was happy with his sister and the other Shadowbolts.

He was the only one awake, of course. It was still dark out, the sun hadn't been raised yet. Honestly, he liked it dark. It meant he could see better.

Dart entered the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal. He started eating, but was so surprised by the sound of hoof steps that he froze mid chew. Somepony was up at this hour? What struck him as really odd was that the pony was well into the kitchen now, but hadn't turned on the lights.

Oh. It should've been obvious.

"Morning, Light," he said, looking up at the black stallion with the messy brown hair and turquoise eyes. The snake-eyed pony grinned and made a series of motions with his now open wings. Wing language. Only Night Dart actually knew it out of all the Shadowbolts, besides Light.

[Morning. What's up?]

"Not much, just woke up early and am now having cereal. Care to join me?"

Light nodded and poured himself a bowl of cereal as well. They sat in silence for a little while.

"Are you nervous?"

[Not really. Why? Are you?] Light signed back.

"Sort of. Maybe it's just nerves because it's out first race, or maybe I'm weirded out by my dream last night. I almost feel like something's gonna happen."

[Weird. Well, we've been practicing a lot lately, I think we can win.]

"Good to know you have faith in the seam. Luna knows my sister does."

Light nodded again and they finished their meal in silence.

"Which way now, Moony?"

"The map says we just follow the river until the fork, then tfollow the right way, and then we should be there. Twenty minutes."

"And here we are." Moony announced as she started into a slow dive for the ground. "We're in Windermare."

The team stomped their hooves on the ground after landing in excitement.

"Alright team! let's show 'em what we got! All together!"

They did their team cheer. Light lip-synced and said it with his wings.

"Alright everypony, our hotel isn't far."

"There will be an exercise room there, and it would be great if you could all train, but don't push yourselves. The race is tomorrow, so we have today to train or sightsee, or whatever. You all go check in, I need to talk with Dart here."

Me? Night Dart thought, looking at his sister in confusion as the rest of the team set off. He listened to the team joke.

"Hey, Dar3, will you be doing the sounds for us? We all know you can't fly for nothin'" one of the faster flyers teased a small grey mare.

"I'm a faster flyer than Moony!" Dar3 snapped.

Night roled his eyes and turned to his sister. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Not exactly. Just... stay here for a bit." Sky replied, before taking to the air and disappearing behind a building. night Dart watched her leave in pure confusion, but fulfilled her request anyway, hoping it wasn't another one of her infamous pranks. Since the two siblings and Light were the pranksters of the group, they weren't supposed to prank each other, but Sky seemed to want to prank everypony.

Soon enough, he figured out why she was acting weird.

"Night Dart?"

The stallion in question turned his head to see the source of the voice, but he couldn't believe his eyes or ears.

"Diamond? "D-Diamond Dust?"

The Crystal Pegasus giggled at his surprise.

"Yep. I'm kind of surprised actually. I thought that mare that showed up at my door that claimed to be your sister was just playing a prank on me or something, but luckily Crystal Light is gullible and convinced me to come. I'm glad, because if she hadn't I wouldn't be here right now. Star also tried to convince me." She smiled at him.

"Y-yeah," was all Night Dart could get out. He shook his head to clear the confusion and shock and broke out into a huge grin. "It's been what, two years now, since we last saw each other? I'm surprised you even remember me. How's the business with Crystal and Icy Stars?" he asked, sitting down on a nearby bench and motioning for her to do the same.

"Three, I think. It's been pretty good, especially since our last shipment of ice and crystals was pretty large. High quality, too. Crystal's running the shop while I'm away."

"Doubt Ice likes not being in charge."

"Ah, well, she'd have to move into Crystal's room. My house and shop, my rules."

Night Dart laughed. It was so nice to be able to talk with her about normal things.

They spent several hours talking and catching up. at the time they each had to leave, both ponies were smiling broadly. They said their goodbyes and left. In the suite reserved for the Shadowbolts, Night apologized to Light for leaving him - As Light was mute and the others didn't understand wing language, he had to painstakingly write everything down in a notepad, which he hated - and went to his room. Once inside, he flopped on the bed and drifted off to sleep

Tomorrow's gonna be a good day...