The Lunar Apprentice

by NightmareDash

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 43229

Why should Celestia be the only one with a student?

Discord, for a master of chaos, was actually a very good planner. Despite the confidence that he would bring Equestria to its knees in mayhem, several millennia of experience had taught him to have a back-up, no matter what. And after watching from the sidelines as Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon, he knew he had found an ace in the hole. Despite his defeat, Discord's greatest trick was still to come.

You know what this means: Equestria's greatest Nightmare is back. And this time, she's not alone.

Edit: Featured 9-27-2013, first time I've had a featured story. Thanks to everyone who's stuck by this story in spite of admittedly slow updates!

Published 2012-05-31 08:24:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-22 00:22:21 UTC

The Offer

Gliding over the Everfree Forest, Rainbow Dash ducked in and out of clouds. With the threat of Discord eliminated, she finally had the chance to do some flying. Twilight had commissioned her to gather some data on Everfree climate patterns, and it was simple enough work to keep her out of Twilight's Egghead Zone. Basic observations, like cloud movement, rainstorm severity and frequency, and air temperatures. For this, Dash wore a set of thermometers and assorted weather-gauging equipment, and checked them periodically. All in all, it was mundane work, but she was getting paid, so she couldn't complain. But her night was about to take a radical turn.

As Dash climbed upward for high-altitude observation, the dark monochrome of the evening was broken by a bright glow in the clouds. She turned from her instruments to the colorful lights imprinted in the sky. They made a familiar shape: her cutie mark. Power-diving below the cloudline, she found a disturbing source for the image. She could see a colorful fire, burning below her, looking exactly like her cutie mark. Her curiousity piqued, Dash descended even further to investigate. The fire did not appear to be consuming the trees, and it wasn't spreading at all. She couldn't feel heat coming off of it either. Even more mysterious, a black-cloaked pony was standing in a clearing, at the tip of the lightning bolt.

Dash dropped into the clearing, suspiciously eyeing the cloaked figure. She was a regularly sized pony, but her coat was a tone darker than Dash had seen in anypony. But somehow she looked familiar. Shrugging her hood off, she instantly became recognizable: Princess Luna.

"Princess Luna? What are you doing here? What is this?"

"I discovered you were in the area, and needed a way to signal you. I'm glad to see it worked."

"But setting a fire in the Everfree Forest? Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Be calm, Rainbow Dash. There was no risk to anypony. Observe."

Luna dropped her cloak and spread her wings. Her horn began to glow, and a second later, she released a radial burst of energy. It felt like a wind blast to Dash, and it quickly snuffed out the large blaze. She then heard a series of cracks, and looked to her side to see her instruments broken, frozen at their present readings. All she could see now was nondescript forest; no trace of the previous fires.

"Cool tricks."

"Thank you. They came to be useful during celebrations before my absence. They complemented my stunt flying very well."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You used to be a trick flyer?"

"Indeed. 'The Angel of the Night' they called me. Celestia may have been older and stronger in magic, but I could always outclass her in the air. I'm sure you would have loved to see me during one of my flights."

"Are you kidding? One of the princesses of Equestria, doing stunt flying? I would die to see that."

"I will not ask so much, friend."

Luna leapt up in the air, and cruised skyward. She spiraled horizontally, leaving a twisted column of dark energy behind her. She pulled upward, bringing herself back around and turning the column into a loop. She then pulled out, and with a sparkle of her horn, the entire loop vanished in a neon blue flash of light. Luna returned to cruising, but broke from the path, quickly angling herself straight upward. She accelerated, forming a bullet-like mach cone in the sky. A second later, the air around her exploded in a blast of luminescent blue light. Dash followed Luna's expected path with her eyes, but saw nothing. She scanned the air, but still could not spot her.

"Impressed?"

Dash whirled around, frightened by the voice behind her. Luna had arrived without any kind of sound or signal.

"Holy... how did you get there?"

"One of my best tricks, Rainbow Dash. I could use the darkness of the night, in tandem with my speed and a touch of magic, to seemingly disappear. What you just saw was called my 'Darkblast'. It's very similar to your Sonic Rainboom, only with darkness instead of color."

"Very cool."

"I could probably teach you how to do it."

"Disappear? I thought you said you needed magic to do it."

"Yes, regular magic does help. But there's something even you don't know about your flying: when you do a Sonic Rainboom, or I do a Darkblast, we are actually channeling magical energy."

"Magic? But I'm not a unicorn, I don't have any magic."

"Rainbow Dash, everypony has an amount of magical energy within them. The only difference is that unicorns have horns to focus that energy. Earth ponies, though they don't know it, can use that energy to become stronger or faster when working. And pegasi, like you, can channel it through their speed. As an alicorn, I have access to all three forms. But I can teach you to use your speed to create magic that a unicorn could never match."

"No way. That is so buckin' cool."

"I could teach you how to concentrate your Sonic Rainboom into a single force, capable of vaporizing steel through pure energy. Or how to phase through objects at high speeds. Or, as you just saw, the disappearing trick."

"You could? So I'd be, like, your apprentice?"

"Yes, in a sense. Somewhat like your friend Twilight is to my sister. Except I would actually teach you, rather than leaving you alone, to hopefully discover and figure out for yourself. It would be, how you say, hooves-on training."

"It sounds like a great opportunity, Princess Luna, but I'm not sure I can. I am in charge of Ponyville's weather, after all, and I don't have time for an all-consuming pursuit like Twilight."

"Nonsense. You certainly possess the natural talent, and I'm sure you will learn quickly. And you will train at night, when nopony really cares about the weather. We can work in peace, and I will be able to teach you when I'm at my full potential. But I sense you require further convincing. Come with me."

Luna motioned her deep into the forest, and looking carefully, Dash could see a pathway leading through the woods. Luna led the way, guiding with sure hooves through the trees and brush. After about a minute of walking, Dash spotted an encampment further down the path. It was a group of wooden buildings, surrounded by odd structures and what looked like an obstacle course. The entire area was teeming with ponies, most maneuvering about the course, some doing workouts and exercise drills, and others at target practice with horn-based magic and bucked projectiles. Dash noticed that all of them were wearing the armor of Luna's guards, though only the few in charge had the signature draconic appearance.

"This is Camp Blacklight, the training center for all of my prospective guardsponies. Each one endures rigorous physical and mental challenges before being admitted into our ranks. Here you can see the baracks, armory, and training facilities. Deeper in the woods are other challenge courses, as well as a few other buildings. Camp Blacklight also acts as the headquarters for my guard force as a whole, and we have a command center deep in the forest. Celestia has yet to discover its existence. In fact, you are the first non-guard or guard-prospective to have laid eyes on it."

"Whoa, this is cool. Looks pretty tough."

"Yes, unlike my sister's 'welcome-with-open-arms' approach with her guards, we accept only the best. And anypony that's willing to work for it, we can make the best. We train at night, to be better prepared for stealth operations. We teach paramilitary skills, espionage, field leadership, sabotage, so on so on. The kind of shadowy business Celestia frowns upon. If Equestria, or more specifically I, were to come under threat, this group is the only line of defense we'd ever need."

"Dang, these guys are good. And they're loyal to you?"

"Exactly. Not Equestria, not the princesses in plural, but me, Princess Luna. In fact, when I first became Nightmare Moon, some of them even tried to assassinate my sister. Of course, those few are long gone, but now that I'm back in Equestria, I've wasted no time restarting the program. I've almost raised an army, you might say."

"Assassinate Celestia? You guys are hardcore. One question: why are you showing me all this?"

"Simple, Rainbow Dash. I would like to put you in command of them."

"Whoa whoa whoa, what? You want me to command your army?"

"Yes, if you become my apprentice. You see, as royalty, I often get bogged down in beauracracy and political red-tape. I can't lead my soldiers in the field, or I risk a massive scandal. I've needed somepony for a while who can be in charge directly, somepony with a quick mind and decisive leadership. Somepony like you, Rainbow Dash. Of course, you would learn with the rest of the recruits, and we would teach you all of the skills we teach them. But while they drill and march, you would be with me, and I would show you how to use your inner magic through speed. And you would lead them in battle, in command of the most powerful force in Equestria. And believe me, battle will be coming. And there is one group in particular I would like you to lead."

Luna pointed to the sky, and following her hoof, Dash caught a glimpse of a group of pegasi flying in perfect V-formation. They each left a dark trail of clouds, sparkling with lightning. Their colored flight-suits were all too familiar to her.

"Hang on a buckin' second. You want me to lead the..."

"Yes, Rainbow Dash. I call it the Shadowbolt Program. Over the past few months, I've been training an elite flight team to surpass the Wonderbolts in terms of aerial skill. What you saw when I was Nightmare Moon was my memory of the team from before my exile. They've been around as long as the Wonderbolts, and have always been better. And believe me, you are more than qualified to lead them. You'd even get their uniform. Not your homemade version from Nightmare Night, mind you, but high-quality fabric, enchanted to make you even faster. I mean every word I've said tonight, Rainbow Dash. All of it will be yours, if you become my apprentice. Have you made your decision?"

"Almost, but there's one thing I'm wondering. What will Celestia and Twilight think? And how will this affect our whole "Elements of Harmony" club?"

"With what I can teach you, you would be able to use all the Elements together, even without the others."

"Not even Twilight can do that..."

"Yes, and as for my sister and your friend, think nothing of it: they never have to know."

"Then I'm in, Princess Luna. When do we start?"

"Immediately, if you wish. I will introduce you to the staff at Camp Blacklight. And please, now that we are on a less formal level, call me Luna. I believe we can both benefit very much from this partnership."

Darkness 101

"Hey Dash, you wanna come to Gummy's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate's birthday party tonight? He's an alligator from Hoofisiana, and since he was in town, I decided to host the party a month early! That way he has more time to enjoy his presents! Well, canyacome, canyacome, canya, canya?"

Trotting through Ponyville Central Market, checking preparations for a storm the next day, Rainbow Dash was (once again) taken completely off-guard by the sudden appearance of Pinkie Pie from seemingly out of nowhere. It was the day after her "meeting" with Princess Luna, and she had a lot on her mind. Her first session started tonight, and as was the custom when Pinkie started looking for obscure reasons to party, she made up an easy lie to escape.

"Sorry Pinkie, but you know there's that big storm tomorrow, and I have to be rested up so I can keep it under control. You know I'd love to, but my job has to come first."

In reality, it would take 10 seconds to make that storm, and barely any effort to keep it within Ponyville.

"Eh, it's alright, Dash. The Cakes hold me responsible for my job, and it's probably easier than yours."

Turning her head, she glanced over Dash's left shoulder, almost glaring down a wall.

"But NightmareDash, I don't like playing a partyholic fool all the time. It is true to me, but there are a lot of other parts to my personality that no fanfic authors ever explore. I'll put up with it for now, but you'd better have me kick some flank in Deadliest Pony."

"Pinkie, who are you talking to?"

"Nevermind, Dashie. You wouldn't know him."

Dash flew off in the vague direction of her home, completely confused as to what Pinkie meant. She did it a lot, talking to nopony, but Dash could never get over the creepiness of it. But that was the least of her concerns now. She had stepped into a world much bigger than Ponyville, and being the apprentice of Princess Luna would probably mean some major shifts in her life. For now, she would act like nothing was different, keep the secret from her friends as long as possible. Hopefully she could smooth-talk her way out of any conflicts, like she had just done, but that would only work for so long.

Cruising past her cloud-house, Dash flew for several minutes, deep into the Everfree Forest. She dipped towards the site of last night's fire, spying the clearance where Luna had appeared. After touching down, she scanned her surroundings, barely making out the path from before. She followed it closely, and soon found Camp Blacklight. Despite last night's showing, it was still a very foreign environment. The night was pitch-black around her, but somehow the area seemed to be illuminated by particularly strong moonlight. She trodded hesitantly into the compound, looking for a familiar face.

High above her, Luna broke out of a formation of pegasi and dove towards Rainbow Dash. She decelerated almost effortlessly, and dropped to the ground in front of her.

"Ah, Rainbow Dash! I'm glad to see you could make it on time. Any hold-ups in Ponyville?"

"Only another Pinkie Pie party. I got out of it, of course, and I don't think she suspects anything."

"The pink one? She couldn't suspect something if we came up and showed it to her. But good work anyway; I may have less to teach you than I thought. So, as I said last night, we can begin immediately. You will train with a new class of pegasi guards. Some will become Shadowbolts, but there are many other specializations they can take. For now, they, and you, will all learn standard training. Here is your schedule. You will be with them for all classroom sessions and field work, but for that two-hour block marked "P.T.", you will break from the group. At that point, come to the command center and I will meet you in the lobby. From there I will lead you to our training grounds."

"Sounds good. I'm ready for anything, Prin, err, I mean Luna. Do I need to pick up my armor or a flight suit?"

"In due time, Rainbow Dash. You will recieve your flight suit with the others, at the end of the month, when your training is complete. Just like you, your class is a group of pegasi, each with a normal, daytime life. You may even recognize a few of them. We train throughout the night, then use an energizing spell to remove the need for sleep. You'll never even notice you've been up all night."

"That's a relief. Then I guess I'll see you at P.T."

Invigorated with confidence, Rainbow Dash strode towards her first class. She was ready to face this new opportunity, armed with skill, a map, and a schedule. Her first class was "Black Ops: An Introduction". Finding her classroom, she discovered an open seat and fell into it. Heads were already turning, and whispers began to propagate across the room. Dash only caught snippets of each.

"Is that Rainbow Dash?"

"I saw her at the Best Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale. She saved four other ponies and did a Sonic Rainboom."

"What is she doing here, isn't she already on the Wonderbolts?"

But the gossip was cut off by the slamming of a door, and a fully-armored Lunar Guard stepped in.

"Good morning class. My name is Gunnery Sergeant Coldheart, and I will be in charge of your instruction in this camp for the next thirty-one days. I am responsible for turning each of you into weapons, ready to serve the Princess of the Night. But until that night comes, you are nothing. You are the lowest forms of life in Equestria, and I must make you into something actually useful! I will be hard. Because I am hard, you will not like me. You may even come to hate me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard, but I am fair! There is no racial bigotry here! I do not look down on limp-wings, half-breeds, Canterlot trash or greasers; here you are all equally worthless. Is that understood?"

Day one and she was already having orders barked at her. Dash was becoming less enthusiastic by the second. All her lips could manage was a half-hearted "Sure."

"I don't think I heard you, scumbags! Say it again, and did I tell you that the first and last words out of your mouths at any given time had better be "Sir"? Oops, guess I forgot. You'd better not!"

Anypony in the group who wasn't already scared had a sudden change of heart.

"Sir, yes sir!"

"That's better! Now listen up! This is Technical Sergeant Ghost Writer. He's going to be teaching you a few things about the history of our beloved Lunar Guard, and what we do as Lunar Guards. So pay attention! There's gonna be a quiz about everything he talks about at the end of the session, and whichever ones of you fail it, I'm gonna P.T. until your wings fall off! Get me?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

Ghost Writer, a unicorn, was already in the room, and used his magic to pull down a white screen in front of them. He moved back to the center of the room, and flicked off the lights. His horn glowed, and an image appeared on the screen while he narrated.

"The Lunar Guard was founded in 1009 A.D. , by Princess Luna herself. She realized that the Royal Equestrian Guard, having become a police force, was not sufficient for the military defense of Equestria..."

He was somewhat more pleasant, Dash decided, though still gruff on the outside. Of course, anything would seem pleasant compared to Coldheart over there. She planned to spend the class thinking up some dumb nickname for him, but found that what they were teaching was actually pretty interesting. They were going through each battle the Lunar Guard fought in, the threats they'd eliminated, and even some covert ops work. She could imagine herself in the field, sneaking about Equestria, carrying out secret missions for Princess Luna. But too soon her dreams were interrupted by Coldheart's shouting.

"Alright, dirtbags, I hope you payed attention! Now that we've worked on your minds, let's improve your bodies! Here's the way it's gonna work! Every week we will study three topics: two classroom, and one field-work. L.G. History and Protocol is your first class. Next is your first field class, Basic Hoof-to-Hoof Combat. Then your second class, Explosives. After that is some good, old-fashioned P.T.! You will spend two hours on every class, every day for a week. We will start new classes each Sunday night. Now get up and get marching!"

Rainbow Dash was up quickly, marching in file as best she could. They went out to a large field, barren under the moonlight. The group was met by a burly Lunar Guard, who wore no armor. He circled them up and began showing off some fancy martial arts moves. After some explanation, he showed them a bipedial fighting stance. Getting all of them on their back hooves, he led them in some basic punches, jabs and uppercuts. The chance to work out and show off her physique excited Rainbow Dash. She easily cruised through the simple maneuvers, earning the instructor's praise. Before she knew it, she was already flipping other ponies over her shoulder. But this fantasy-esque experience was once again broken.

"Good work, Private Dash. Now let's get back inside, it's time for another classroom session! Get marching!"

They returned to the building, finding another pony waiting for them in the classroom. As soon as they were all in their seats, Explosives class began. Their attention was called immediately by a series of explosions on the teacher's desk, sequential and increasing in power.

"That, my little recruits, was a demonstration of several of the explosives used by the Lunar Guard. My name is Flashpoint, and I will be instructing you in the wonderful world of explosives. By the end of this week you will know each of these chemicals by sight and touch, know which one to use and when, and even how to make a few of them using household items."

He had Dash at "explosives". She was hanging on his every word, watching him show off the various chemicals. For school, she was loving it already. It was just as much play for her as work, and soon she found it over. Coldheart was already on top of things, barking orders more eagerly than before.

"Thank you, Mr. Flashpoint. Now, class, it's my favorite part of the night: P.T.! For those of you who lack the grey matter to figure that out, it means Physical Training, and you're going to learn to love it! We do two hours a night, every night. Let's get going; it's time for you all to meet Death Row."

The group, now somewhat practiced in efficient marching, stood up and fell in line. This time, Dash waited around the back. As she exited the room, she turned towards Coldheart, about to ask him for instruction. He knew her question before it was asked, and his tone was more withdrawn and quiet.

"Ah, yes, Private Dash. Princess Luna informed me of your, um, special training regiment. Go ahead and leave, she said she gave you instructions."

"Yeah, she did."

"Listen, Private Dash, I know you're different, and I know you'll probably want me to keep it secret from the others. Don't worry, the Princess has ordered me to keep quiet about it. But don't think I'm going to give you any special favors; you want to train with us, you work just as hard as us. Now get going."

"Sir, yes sir."

Surprised at Coldheart's sudden change in attitude, Dash quickly left the building. Was it possible that even mean ol' Coldheart was scared of the Princess? That's all she could figure out. The command center was a few minutes' walk from the classrooms, and as soon as she entered the lobby, she found Luna talking to a guard.

"Rainbow Dash! I'm glad to see you. How has your first day been?"

"Awesome, Luna. I never thought learning could be so fun!"

"Many ponies quite a bit like you have said the exact same thing. Speaking of which... Umbra, give me a second with my student and we can resume our discussion."

"Of course, my lady."

The guard was already off, returning to the inner depths of the command post.

"Now, as I was saying, there are some ponies I would like you to meet."

Luna led Dash back out the doors and around the corner. They stepped onto a small wooden deck, where a group of pegasi were lounging about like it was nopony's business.

"Pegasi Elite Squadron Alpha! Attention!"

Each of them snapped out of their daze and rushed into a V-formation before Luna.

"At ease, recruits. This is Rainbow Dash. You no doubt know her or know of her, and she is the newest addition to our army. I will be taking her under my wings to mentor her, to refine her raw talent into a powerful force. She will be joining us in our training sessions for the first hour, and after that she will work with me personally. I want you to stick with her, be sure no harm comes to her, and teach her as we work. Consider her this squadron's sixth member."

The first one, a blue-maned pony with golden eyes, replied quickly.

"As you wish, Princess Luna."

She turned her eyes to address Rainbow Dash, who was now examining her new team before her.

"Welcome. My name is Nightshade, and I'm the head of Pegasi Elite Squadron Alpha, soon to be Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha."

"Hey, I know you, weren't you a Wonderbolt? I remember seeing you at a show in Cloudsdale once. Then I heard about that thing in Fillydelphia..."

"I don't like to talk about the accident very much, if you'll excuse me."

"Of course, sorry."

Nightshade began motioning to each of her teammates as she named them.

"This is the rest of the Squadron: Stratus, my second in command and hoof-to-hoof combat specialist."

Stratus, as he was called, had a lighter-blue spiked mane and a nasty scar running across his lip, so he looked like Pony Hex. By his voice, he could've beaten Coldheart in a stareoff and gruffness competition.

"Hey."

"Blueball Blitz, our scout and acrobatics expert."

This one's mane seemed to crackle with neon-blue sparks of electricity. Her personality was just about as stable, and her rate of speech could easily rival Pinkie's.

"Hi, I'm Blueball Blitz! I like flying fast, do you like flying fast? Oh I love to fly fast, I mean the wind in my mane, goggles on, adrenaline flowing more than normal..."

"Easy, Blueball! Sorry, she has episodes sometimes."

"I know the type."

"Not like Blueball, you don't. Anyway, next is Charger, our weapons and explosives stallion."

He had a smooth, silver mane and a greyish goatee, which Dash thought gave him swag. His voice reflected it, and unlike the other stallion, he was happy to talk.

"Rainbow Dash! I would've never expected to see you here. Didn't I race you on the Appleloosa Cross-Country Circuit about a year ago?"

"Sorry, I don't really get into racing any more."

"Fresh talent, eh? Perfect. I'll see you on the track, then."

"Time for racing later, Charger. Right now we're Shadowbolts-in-training. But last but not least, Starry Skies. She is our quartermaster..."

"Supply management officer, please!"

"Yeah, that. Whatever you call her, she gets us the stuff we need."

Starry Skies had wisped her purple mane up in a curl, starkly contrasting the military looks of the others. By her look, she belonged in a hooficure salon, not a training camp. Her voice was almost identical to Rarity's, and she sounded just as prissy and stuck-up.

"Yes, yes, you've seen me before. Starry Skies, of the Skies family, from Cloudsdale. Surely you've heard of them?"

"Um, yeah, I think so."

You bet she knew them. Self-entitled snobs, each and every one. Also filthy rich. It was no surprise what she was doing on this team.

"So that's us. I think we'll share a few classes with you, but we'll keep in touch either way. Don't worry, when you fly with us, you'll be flying with the best. And since that's also true the other way around, we should get along pretty well. Anyway, if you need anything, remember Nightshade."

Back from talking with Umbra, Luna reentered the group.

"I take it you've had ample time to be acquainted with each other? Good, since you'll be working together every night. Except tonight; I would like some extra time with Rainbow Dash personally. Nightshade, lead the group in a patrol over the forest. Be sure nopony is snooping around, particularly my sister's type."

"Right away, Princess Luna."

The five of them immediately took to the skies, retaining formation and soaring away from the compound. Luna began walking in the opposite direction, with Dash hurrying to stay next to her.

"They are good, aren't they?"

"Yeah. They're the ones I saw last night, aren't they?"

"Yes."

"But how did they have their flight suits so early?"

"They were testing the enchantments I placed on the suits, being sure they worked. They're our first class of Shadowbolts, actually. I want them to be as fast as possible, and that means the antifriction magic has to be perfect."

"I see. How long have they been here? Are they just starting, like me? They don't sound like it."

"No. They've been doing a week or so of officer training and speed drilling. I knew you had the raw speed already, so that part was not necessary. You are actually part of a 'crash-course', Rainbow Dash. The ponies in your group are going to become reserve guards. They get the same training, and practice with us once a week, but because they don't have the ability to commit their entire lives to the Guard, we hold onto them until a crisis. At that point, they don a uniform and enter service with the others. The pegasi you just met are somewhat like that, but are making a transition to spend even more time on-base. They are a motley crew indeed, but I hand-picked them because they were the best."

"So I saw. Wait, are we already here?"

Rainbow Dash looked around her, to see no buildings, but an open field, surrounded by trees. A fire burned in the center of the clearing, and having been engrossed in conversation, Dash didn't even notice the transition.

"Alright, that's just creepy."

"I wouldn't say creepy, more like magical."

"Oh, I gotcha. You teleported us here, right?"

"Exactly. Only I know its actual location, and this keeps unwanted visitors away."

"Clever."

"I always thought so. This is where I come when I need to get away from Celestia, or just have some time alone. It's peaceful enough for our needs, I know from experience. So, Rainbow Dash, are you ready to begin our first session?"

The First Session

The first thing Rainbow Dash noticed was the fire. It was a tall bonfire, burning a bright orange under the night sky. Unlike the one from before, she could feel the heat coming off this one; it was defintely real. Luna had made her way to the fireside, and was beckoning Dash to follow. She was sprawled on the grass casually, as serene as the world around her.

"Find a comfortable position, Rainbow Dash. We will begin with some meditation before each session."

Dash wiggled into a relaxed pose, but was still unsure of the idea.

"Umm, Luna, how will meditation help me learn to use my magical speed-demon powers?"

"Simple. To gain access to and control of your inner magic, you must learn focus. Great concentration is required, which you do not yet possess, but in time will become natural to you. Trust me."

She reluctantly accepted the slowdown in pace. Not exactly the most enjoyable process after a class on explosives, but Luna was the expert here.

"Good. The first thing you must do is forget: forget your friends, forget Ponyville, forget Equestria. Forget anything that would otherwise occupy your mind, and think of nothing but yourself. There is nothing that matters but you."

"Alright, nothing but me. Nothing. Only me. I think I'm there."

Dash was calming down. Luna sounded like she knew what she was talking about, which was reassuring.

"Now, look not with your eyes, but with your mind's eye. Look at yourself when you fly. Imagine the sensation of speed. Imagine the sights, sounds, feelings, every aspect. Feel your speed."

"I'm feeling it. It's just like a race, I'm going faster than ever. So fast..."

"Good. Doesn't it feel like magic? Can't you feel the magic in your speed?"

"Yeah, it does feel magical. Maybe you were right about that whole thing."

"Now remember that feeling. Concentrate on it, and know it. Do you have it?"

"Yeah..."

"Perfect. Now open your eyes. Come back to the real world with me. Feel for that magic inside yourself. Search for the sensation."

"I kinda feel it, somewhere around my gut. It's not as strong as before, but I can feel it there."

"Good. As we work, you will feel it more and more. Soon, you will be able to summon it and control it. But don't try to think through it. You can only feel it."

It felt as though Dash had just been on some kind of mental trip, and was coming down from the ecstasy of the journey. Yesterday she would've called herself crazy, but now she felt a real power inside her. It made her feel strong, and she wanted more.

"What do we do now?"

"Let's start simple. In the past, you've only been able to pull off a Sonic Rainboom with advanced preparation, or in the direst of needs. The Sonic Rainboom is the easiest and most direct way to channel your magic, so the easier it is for you to do that, the stronger connection you will have with that magic. Get airborne, go to the end of the field, then give me a Sonic Rainboom."

Rainbow Dash followed instructions, to the point where she was quickly accelerating and forming the mach cone. She was eager to impress her mentor, and desperately wanted for the rainbow to spark. But her will was not enough, the spark never occurred, and she was forced to pull up at the other end of the field.

"Aaargh, I couldn't get it!"

"It is alright, Rainbow. You should not expect immediate success. You were very close, but you lacked the ultimate desire necessary to complete the process. The first time you performed a Sonic Rainboom, you were motivated by the will to win. Since then, you have used both a desire to save your friends and a desire to impress and please to achieve the feat. That is the kind of determination you must acquire, and this is where our meditation comes in. You must once again forget all that is around you, and focus only on yourself and the Rainboom. You must not ask why you wish to do so, only that you do wish to, and that is the only impulse that matters."

Inspired by the eloquent pep-talk, Dash launched into the sky once more, ready to try again. She began picking up speed, and the mach cone once again formed.

"Remember, there is nothing but you and the Rainboom up there. And you want that. More than anything else in Equestria, you want to Rainboom. Nothing else."

Rainbow Dash focused her thoughts, picturing all three of her previous Sonic Rainbooms. She wanted to do it again, to prove to Luna that she had chosen the right apprentice. That was all that mattered to her. Just to prove herself. Her vision began to cloud, but she could see the haze before her become quickly polychromatic, and her speed broke any kind of limit it had had before. She knew she was doing a Sonic Rainboom.

Luna watched the burst of color before her, knowing the success her student had achieved. A jet of rainbow raced clean over the treeline, out into the forest.

Perfect, Luna thought. She is ruled by passion, unlike Twilight Sparkle's analytical mind. That gives her strength, and she is just now realizing it. If I can win her over to my cause, she will be a force unlike any my sister has ever faced.

Dash was returning now, intensely excited at her own achievement.

"Didja see that, Luna? I did it! Nothing to win, nopony to save, no advanced preparation, and I really pulled off a Sonic Rainboom! I never thought I could!"

"Congratulations are indeed in order. You have passed the first hurdle of your training, But I still have much to teach you, starting with this: do not doubt yourself. As I have said before, you have more raw ability than anypony I have seen in my very long life. If you do as I instruct, there is nothing outside your grasp, and if you understand that, you are that much closer to realizing it."

"I can do anything, I can do anything. I like that mentality, Luna. Makes me feel stronger."

"It makes you stronger, Rainbow Dash. But listen to this; whenever you wish to perform a Sonic Rainboom, or use any kind of speed magic, you must picture your cause. Why do you want to do what you are doing? You will hopefully learn to use the will to execute, or just wishing to do so, to perform speed magic in a pinch. But for normal usage or powerful techniques, you must decide on your cause, and focus on it as a single-minded desire. That is your one and only goal. With such focused determination, you will be able to perform without fail."

"Alright, Luna, I've got it. That's what I was doing up there; I focused on my desire to prove myself to you."

"You need never prove yourself to me. But all the same, this should prove that the concept works. As you begin to use your training in the field, you will find more, should I say, invigorating causes to motivate you. The stronger the cause motivates you, the easier it will be to focus your power and execute the technique. And that leads us into our next lesson: visualization."

"Visualization? I remember that from a book Spitfire wrote. She said that if you picture yourself winning, it's easier to actually win."

"Exactly. And visualization is what will keep every use of speed magic you attempt from ending in a Sonic Rainboom. More simply put, it's how you determine which technique to use, then mentally apply your speed magic to achieve that technique."

"I think I see what you're saying."

"I will teach you a substantial number of abilities, and you must visualize something different to perform each one. But even if you simply wish to perform a Sonic Rainboom, it will make focusing your power a significant degree easier. I suspect you've already been doing it. But attempt it now, and consciously visualize your objective: the Sonic Rainboom. You will find it easier than ever. As for your cause, I would suggest the desire to become stronger and improve. Just remember that practice makes perfect."

"Visualize the Rainboom, and my cause is getting better. Alright, I'm ready to go at it again!"

Dash immediately did as instructed, coasting to the end of the field to prepare for another attempt. She raced away from her starting line, immediately reaching mach speeds. She watched her own Rainboom in her mind, picturing it as it must have been before, in the empty expanse of night air. She also remembered that doing this would bring her closer to the power of her speed, just as Luna had promised. These two thoughts blocked out all else in her mind, becoming all-consuming desires. The cone formed once more, and in less than three seconds, the color was there. She could instantly feel the pulse of energy course through her. The loss of vitality that usually accompanied it was gone, and Dash could hardly notice that she had exerted any effort. Far below, Luna watched on, once again impressed by her student's quick progress. Rainbow Dash had decelerated, and was returning to her.

"Excellent work, Rainbow Dash. You take to my training faster than I could've expected. Tell me, do you feel at all weary?"

"No, I feel just fine. It's wierd, like I didn't even do the Rainboom. Every one I've tried before has left me exhausted at the end, but not this time."

"That is because you are visualizing and are motivated. Between those two, you can focus a wellspring of power within you into a directed force. Thus, those are the cornerstones of everything I shall teach you, and we will practice and improve them every evening. But now it is time for some practice of another kind. Follow me into the sky, and mirror every move I make. I wish to see what level you are at in terms of acrobatics, so I know where I should begin from."

"Okay! That's my kind of training!"

Luna slowly leapt skyward, gracefully gliding across the treeline. Dash was following behind her, patient but by no means graceful. That was no concern of Luna's, though. If she found a need for it, she could easily teach it the next day. But grace would not be necessary for the plans she had for her apprentice.

She is progressing as I had hoped. Soon, she will be a refined weapon. When that is complete, she will be next to unstoppable. And with such power under my command, Celestia will never stand a chance.

Executing a few loops and dives, she turned back to see Rainbow Dash pulling off each move flawlessly.

And when I put her with her team... well, the results will speak for themselves.

The Knot is Tied

As the days progressed, Rainbow Dash continued to train under Princess Luna. Each night, she learned new skills, while improving those from before. The Sonic Rainboom was the first thing they practiced, and eventually Dash could pull it off on-demand, effortlessly. After that, more advanced techniques were readily available for her to master. Luna coached Dash all the way through, developing her student's body and mind. Night after night, they worked together, uncovering the secrets of speed magic.

"Feel the energy. Become it. You are no longer a pegasus. You are speed incarnate. You are energy, and energy transcends solid matter. Obstacles cannot stop you, nothing can block your path, because you are speed."

"The source of your speed is your wings. Speed flows through your wings, making them stronger, giving them power. You must feel that power in them, and bring it out from inside of you. When you do that, it will surround your wings, and because it is energy, they will become like razorblades."

"Remember how, last night, I told you to feel the energy in your wings and bring it out? Tonight is the next step from that. This time, you must feel the energy across your entire body, and bring it out. But you need not attempt to achieve the intensity you did last night. We only need enough energy to bend light, not slice through tree trunks. Picture the energy as a liquid metal, surrounding you, shining in the light. Now separate yourself from it, but leave it in your shape. Place it to the side of you, and give it color. Make it look just like you."

Even though the master/apprentice relationship was very well-established, and the subjects they were focused on were serious and complex, lessons seemed like anything but to Rainbow Dash. It was more like she was working out with a great friend, discovering the subtle nuances necessary to perfect her art. And when said nuances involved tearing apart trees and destroying forestry in every way imaginable, well, this was a school she should've been in a long time ago!

Miraculously, the same could be said of her standard classes. Even Coldheart was warming up to her, strange as it was. Each week brought in a new set of instructors, each with a unique field of military expertise to share. This week's slots were filled by Knife and Blade Training, Stealth and Infiltration, and Fieldcraft and Survival. Explosives still trumped all, though, especially for the day they got to test their own bombs out in the Everfree. That day had resulted in a new manestyle for Dash, her mane being blown straight back in spikes by a misfire blast. But she decided she liked it anyway, and started to spike it back before every night's classes.

But beyond the classrooms and training field, "Dash" (having dropped the front part of her name to better suit her new life) found herself at home with the Shadowbolts. Each one of them connected with her almost immediately. Except Stratus, of course. He mostly just stood around, looked tough, and occasionally grunted. She found it better to follow suit. But that was the one exception; she could hardly get Blueball to leave her alone about racing, Charger would swap stats and tips with her for their fantasy racing teams, and even Starry was opening up to talk about the news from Cloudsdale. And Nightshade, well, what could Dash say about her? She was acting almost like a sister. It turned out she was also an orphan, having to grow up on the streets of Manehatten. And she was one of the few ponies who could match Dash in Wonderbolts trivia. They took turns leading point on flight exercises, Nightshade helping Dash ease into the role of leading a squadron. But Luna did say she had put Dash in a "crash-course", and the team's first taste of real action came sooner than they might have liked.

Having broken off from a series of acrobatic maneuvers, the Shadowbolts ran a patrol around the camp, watching for potential intruders. Far below, they could see the other recruits marching in file and working out on the obstacle course. But on the horizon, three neon-blue-and gold figures were approaching the perimeter at alarming speed. A few seconds later, it became apparent that they were Wonderbolts. Dash, leading the formation, signaled her team to hover, and watched the three pegasi as they flew closer. Based on mane color and style, she could tell Spitfire was definitely at the lead, with Soarin' and Aces High behind.

"Those are Wonderbolts! What are they doing here? If they get any closer, they'll discover our camp!"

Nightshade fluttered to her side, calming Dash's nerves.

"It's alright, Dash. We know what to do. You just hang back and we'll take care of it."

"Wait a sec, Nightshade. I think I have an idea for how to run them off, and since Luna wants me to start being more of a leader..."

"Alright, you take the reins. What do you want us to do, Dash?"

"Good. Here's the thing: two of them know me, and if they see me, they're going to start asking some questions I'd really like not to be answered. But the Wonderbolts already know you five as troublemakers, so one more incident isn't going to set them off. Listen, Blueball, start flying to Canterlot. Tell Luna what's happened and see if you can get her down here."

"Okay, awesome, Dash! Great plan! I'll go faster than ever to get there, like I've never raced before! I can't wait to..."

"Go, Blueball! Okay, Starry, head down to the camp and get all our soldiers into cover. Tell them we have incoming aerial surveillance, red alert, and they need to get out of sight, ASAP."

"Well, as long as I don't have to dirty my hooves fighting those three, I suppose I could do it."

"Alright then, Stratus, Charger, you two are our powerhouses. I want you to be the frontline; make sure the Wonderbolts don't get past you."

"Hmmph."

"You got it, Dash."

"Nightshade, you go below them, cut off any chance of them sneaking under us."

"What about you?"

"Like I said, they can't see me, or my cover's blown clean out of Equestria. I'll take advantage of the natural cloud cover, if you know what I mean. Here's what we do: you three set up to block their path, and we'll see what they do. Whatever happens, don't let them by you. If they don't turn back, I'll drop a thunderbolt on them. The explosion and noise should make them scatter. Then we split up and run them off individually. Charger, you go after Soarin'. That pie-munching fatbody shouldn't be much trouble. Stratus, you've got Aces High. She's a tricky one, agile but not tough. Just stay on her, and bat her around a little if you have to. Nightshade, you and I have Spitfire. She's the leader for a reason, but between the two of us, we'll have her beat."

"Awesome. That lousy backstabber gave the final signature to kick me out, and I've been looking for some payback."

"Don't hurt her. If we beat them too badly, they'll come back, and in force. Just tail them, maybe get in a small hit or two, but get them away from here somehow. I'll stay on Spitfire above the cloudline, so just know that even if you can't see me, I have your back. Alright, we're good to go. Let's get down there and take care of them before they get any closer."

The four of them broke apart, stationing themselves for the ambush. Dash took cover above a thunderhead, and moved it into position just in front of the others. Only yards away, Spitfire saw the three pegasi obstructing her team's path, recognizing one as Nightshade. The two had never been on exactly friendly terms since Fillydelphia, so this chance encounter couldn't mean good news for her.

"What are you doing here, Nightshade?"

"Hey, Spits, just hanging around. Nothing in particular, you?"

"If you really have to know, we are running fire patrol for the Everfree Forest. Now if you'll just let us by, we can get on with our job."

"Oh, now why would I want to let you do that? After all, since you kicked me off the Wonderbolts, I've never had the chance to have some fun with you!"

If that isn't a dead cue for a thunderbolt, thought Dash, I don't know what is.

She gave the cloud a strong kick with her back hooves, and instantly a flash of electricity fell upon the group. The crack followed almost instantaneously, and the combined sensory overload sent the surprised Wonderbolts scattering. Each Shadowbolt broke off to pursue their target; Dash locked on to Spitfire and Nightshade, watching from the clouds.

"What is this, Nightshade? An ambush?"

"What, don't you like hanging out with my new friends? If nothing else, I've found they can at least keep up with us!"

They were darting about each other, until Spitfire suddenly pulled up. She made a tight flip, tighter than any Dash had ever seen her do. It almost seemed to bend her spine, and she came downward right on top of Nightshade, slamming her into a pack of low-hanging clouds. Spitfire broke away from her, hovering above as she pulled herself back into the open air.

"Whoever they are, they're just like you: substanda-"

Before she could even finish the insult, Spitfire was sent spiraling by an imperceptible cyan-blue flash. She flapped furiously to right herself, but as soon as she was stable, the flash appeared again, knocking her to the ground. The bruises told enough: two clean hits, one in the jaw, the other on the forehead. The latter had sent her unconscious, and Dash and Nightshade dropped down beside her corpse-like body.

"Well at least they don't forget who their real friends are. Thanks for the help, Dash."

"I never thought I'd have to knock her out, but now I realize Spitfire wouldn't ever have just given up and flown off."

Turning her eyes skyward, Dash spotted Soarin' scrambling away from Charger, and opposite them, Aces High was struggling to stay airborne as Stratus batted her about.

"Let's get her somewhere else in the forest, before she comes to. There's no way any of them could remember exactly where in the forest they were tonight."

Craning under her neck, Dash helped to lift Spitfire's body onto Nightshade's back, and signalled her to take off. As the two pegasi climbed above the treeline, Dash lifted her right hoof to find it blood-spattered, and a sudden realization occurred to her.

That was Spitfire, captain of the Wonderbolts.

I just hit her out of the sky

I just beat Spitfire.

I just beat the captain of the Wonderbolts.

But even that was not the most startling thought crossing her mind.

And I... liked it!

Silently cracking open the door, Fluttershy poked her head into the library, only to quickly withdraw it again. Less than a second later came the rattle of wood on hinges. Shortly after, Twilight pushed the door open, finding a poorly-concealed Fluttershy cowering behind an irritated Angel. Beside her, Spike, having been plastered to the door's interior, slid to the ground.

"You'd think after all these years I'd be used to being thrown into walls and falling on my face. But nope, it still hurts like the first time."

"Ah, Fluttershy! Sorry if I startled you. Number 63 didn't go exactly like I'd hoped. But come in, I'm glad you could make it!"

"You, umm, uh, wanted to see me?"

"Yes, but only for a second. Actually, I really wanted to ask you about Rainbow Dash."

"Oh, Rainbow Dash? What about her?"

"Do you think she's been acting kind of, maybe a little, weird lately?"

"Weird? Oh, well, um, I... uhh.... YES! OkayIsaidit! I do think she's been acting weird lately!"

"Good, I just wanted be sure it wasn't me. Have you noticed how she's always skipping out on parties and things like that?"

"Um, yeah..."

"And how she seems to be focused on nothing but getting faster, even more so than usual?"

"Mmmhmm..."

"And how she even broke my meteorological data-recording instruments?"

All Fluttershy could do was nod, but with a sudden thought, she changed her mind and shook her head.

"What instruments did she break?"

"I commissioned her a few weeks ago to go fly above the Everfree Forest and collect data about the climate patterns. I had her wear this harness, and the instruments on it would collect data for me as she flew. But a week-and-a-half later, she brought it back to me, every instrument broken. She said she'd hit a bad patch of turbulence, but my data said it should've been a perfectly calm night. And even then, would Rainbow Dash go down just because of turbulence?"

"No, no, I don't think she would."

"Exactly! And here's the funny thing: all of the instruments are frozen where they were when they broke. Why would she'd lie to me just for some broken instruments, and a bad lie at that? I really don't know what to make of it, but I intend to find out."

Bound

"Wait for it. . . wait. . . . . DROP!"

Six pegasi dropped from a single cloud and soared out into a cloudy night sky. Flying as a coordinated team, they maneuvered in almost perfect unison. At the head of the V-formation, Rainbow Dash was enthusiastically instructing her friends in aerobatics.

"Starry, tighten up! Stratus, don't flap so hard; you'll wear yourself out sooner. Just glide."

They operated like a well-oiled machine, each one adjusting themself to maximize speed, agility, and performance. And Rainbow Dash was at the head of it all. A set of five pony mannequins had been set up in a clearing below, leading to the next phase of the exercise.

"Targets below! Blow 'em up!"

On cue, each of her squadron (including Nightshade, behind her) pulled from their belts a small metal orb, no larger than an orange. They then hurled them down towards the dummies. A second later, the balls exploded, blasting the targets about the range. One was even ripped in two. As the group flew past the smoldering debris, Rainbow Dash turned her eyes downrange.

"Nice hit, Shadowbolts, but don't get cocky! We're coming up on another round! Light 'em up!"

This clearing was larger, and the mannequins weren't lined up, but scattered almost randomly. The V-formation of Shadowbolts dipped to mere hooves above the treeline, and each pony pulled out a small, torch-like device. Aiming the wider end of the weapon towards their target, they each gave a solid squeeze on the handle. Five solid blasts of sound followed, and as the Shadowbolts returned to cruising altitude, their targets began to bleed through their buckshot-spray wounds. Dash had to admit, the unicorn engineers and chemists developing these things were geniuses. But, as a joke among the squadron went, these strafe-run practices were as dangerous for the flyers as for those on the ground; often they were half-training, half-testing for the weaponsmiths. And besides, Dash always preferred the personal touch of hoof-to-hoof combat.

"Alright, Shadowbolts, eyes below! We've got one more wave! This time it's two each! Slice and dice!"

In the upcoming clearing, a set of ten targets had been set up, paired and spread out. Each Shadowbolt flicked out twin combat knives from their foreleg belts; a soldier's last resort for self-defense. If there was a weapon each one needed to be deadly proficient in, it was this one. They descended on their targets, breaking apart to take them on individually. Stratus (predictably) rammed a blade into the throat of the first mannequin he could find, then launched over it to land a downward stab in the head of the other. Charger cleverly bucked one over, then slit the throat of the other before returning to stab the first in the gut. Starry somersaulted in midair over her first target, quickly spinning as she landed to stab it in the flank. She then moved into a forward roll, and with a single beat of her wings, launched up over the other mannequin, bringing her second knife into its cheek as she passed over. If that pony had one skill in combat, it was her gymnastics. But Dash's attention had been taken towards Blueball, who always had an interesting way of doing this part of the exercise. As soon as she made it to her first mannequin, her hooves entered into a series of lightning-quick slashes and stabs, and a second later, the target's head literally fell into small pieces on the ground. Second, she leapt to the other and planted her knives in its shoulders, just above the forelegs. Her crackling electrical mane then loosed itself across both of them, showering the field with a blinding neon-blue burst of light. Seconds later, she stepped away, the light ceased, and all that was left in front of her was a pile of smoldering ash. But noticing that Nightshade had just reached her targets, Dash redirected her attention; Nightshade was always the best at this, even better than her. Nightshade launched her left-hooved knife up into the first mannequin's neck, then spun to stab her other knife into its side. Using leverage off that move, the right-hoof knife, removed from its initial wound, was then thrown towards the other target, embedding itself in its skull with unerring accuracy. And now that the last one was down, Dash could clock the exercise; she quickly clicked the stopwatch button and read the time.

"One minute, 19.3 seconds. Nice work, Shadowbolts, six seconds shaved off, time to review. First off, everypony did well with the thunderbombs. Next time we practice, I want us to put some extra work into putting spin on our throws. With the hoof cannons, we still have some room for improvement, but since the tech is unfamiliar, I can understand that. Charger, be sure you point the gun straight at the target until it fires. Your shot went wide because you were trying to pull it out, shoot, and resheath it too fast. Take your time and focus on getting a hit. Let's talk about knives. Everypony got their two kills, but we've got a kink or two to work out. Starry, you're acrobatic, and that's a good skill to have, but when you're in melee combat, focus less on being flashy and more on landing blows. You barely even killed one of them. Blueball, once again your speed and ability to supercharge yourself impresses me. The only thing is that you're lingering too long after the kill is guaranteed; you don't need to literally dice your target's head up or burn them to a crisp, just slash them somewhere vital or give them a second's worth of lethal charge. You'll rack up more kills that way. Other than that, great work, everypony. Nightshade, you want to trade out with me for the next run, you spot, I kill?"

"Sure, Dash. Hey, word of advice, when a spotter pegasus finds enemies at night, they should light them up by dropping a flare. That way other forces can attack, not just the squadron the pony is spotting for."

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgot that. Thanks for the heads up. Now let's go restock the killing fields; I think Unicorn Battery B is due for artillery practice in an hour. Once we're done with that, everypony take two laps on the Timberwolf route to cool down, then we're done for the night."

The six began the long walk to the storage building to get new targets for the range. Stratus, naturally the most athletic of them on his hooves, led the pack, with Charger, Blueball, and Starry following. Nightshade and Dash intentionally strayed behind.

“So, what’s it like being the Princess’s personal apprentice?”

“Actually, it’s really exciting. I don’t know if she told you, but Luna used to be a really great flier. She’s been teaching me all these cool tricks I can do with my speed, and I think it even involves some dark magic.”

“Ooh, living on the edge. Sounds like your kind of life.”

“You know it.”

“But how do you balance it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean balancing being the personal apprentice of Princess Luna, future captain of the Shadowbolts, at night with living in the day as a best friend to 5 of the best-known ponies in Equestria, including Celestia’s apprentice?”

“Well, I guess the recharge spell we get helps a lot.”

“Obviously. . . But be careful. You can’t let either of these lives bleed over to the other. If Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, comes too close to Rainbow Dash, warrior of the night, both will collapse on each other.”

“Yeah, I worry about that sometimes, like if my friends found out what I was doing here, what they would think. But even if they did, we don’t have a lot to worry about; only one of them would actually lift a hoof to fight if they had the choice, two are too naïve to think anything bad about me, and another is too preoccupied with getting her hooves dirty to actually do anything. As for Twilight, she may be Celestia’s personal apprentice, but she’s no fighter. I could take her in my sleep, if I slept anymore.”

“But if there came a time when you had to choose between them and us, could you make that choice? Think about it for a second: would you be willing to leave, even fight against your friends if they came against us?”

The conversation hit a somewhat-natural pause.

“You know… truth be told, that’s a decision I hoped I’d never have to make. And I do care about my old friends. But with them, I feel like I’m always playing second fiddle, like the Elements of Harmony is really the Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle and her five sidekicks.”

“Funny you should mention Trixie; I think we actually recruited her.”

“No kidding. But what I mean is my normal life has kind of hit a dead end. If the Wonderbolts wanted me, they would have told me by now. My career isn’t exactly full of potential, and to Celestia, I’m just one of the necklaces. But with Luna, I lead an army. I’m getting stronger and faster every night. And I have you guys to hang with. There’s so much I can become here. So yes, I know I’d choose you over Twilight Sparkle any night.”

“That’s great to know. Like you said before, the other 5 are weak; the only real threat they pose is when they use the Elements. And how can they use them against one of their own?”

“Exactly. I was thinking it over after that field strategy class a week ago, and those five are no threat at all, especially if we disable Twilight. Since she’s the natural leader, her absence will keep the others disorganized and confused. But if she alerts Celestia once she finds out what we’re doing, we’ve got a whole different battle on our hooves.”

"So the soldiers aren't Equestria's?"

In the halls of the Royal Palace in Canterlot, a report had given way to discussion between Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia. The atmosphere was fraught with fearful tension.

"No, there are no Equestrian military bases anywhere near the Everfree Forest. The only official presence there is in the few lookout posts we've set up to watch for fires. You said this wasn't a tower?"

"No, none of the buildings were more than a few stories high. Everything was below the treeline; from the air, you couldn't tell anything was there."

"Interesting. And a group of Wonderbolts reported being ambushed by criminals while on fire patrol in the same area, only a week ago. How did you say you found this base?"

"Well, I had been studying weather patterns in the Everfree Forest, to try and develop some idea of the area's climate. Since nature practically runs itself there, the concept of predicting weather fascinated me. But I needed atmospheric data, and I can't fly, so about two months ago I commissioned Rainbow Dash to gather it. I gave her a set of instruments to wear as she flew around the Everfree, and for a few weeks she turned in data, no problem. But one day she brought the instruments back in; every one had been damaged. She said a patch of turbulence made her crash, but that didn't add up to me. So I took the geo-locator crystal, a tool I had enchanted to record where the instruments were collecting their data, to the last place it marked. That was a meadow in the western quarter of the Everfree, and I decided to venture out there with my friends. I tried to get Rainbow Dash to come along, but she said she was too busy working out. We get to the meadow, and things look perfectly normal, but Pinkie says she's spotted something. We follow her, and she's apparently found an unmarked trail. It's late in the evening by now, almost completely dark. At the end of the trail is where we found the base. It was full of ponies of all kinds doing military drills, weapons practice, and hoof-to-hoof combat. We spied around for a minute or so, then made a quick exit. When we got back to Ponyville, I told the others to keep quiet about it and teleported here to report to you."

"That's more than enough information, Twilight, and I'm glad you brought this to me so quickly. Any army in Equestria that isn't my Guard can't have good intentions. I leave Luna's forces alone, but I've never known her to keep more than a personal guard team. But your story tells me one thing: whatever is happening, Rainbow Dash has a part to play in it. Don't tell her about what you've seen. Tomorrow at dawn, I'll begin mobilizing Guards to raid the compound. It should take only a few days before we have enough force to attack. If this army has anything worse than a decimal out of place on its tax returns, we'll find out and shut them down. Once we know the whole truth, we can deal with Rainbow Dash in regards to her role in this conspiracy. But whatever it is, we will stamp it out before it can gain an inch of ground."

Having made her way to the training field, Rainbow Dash searched for her mentor after finishing cooldown with the Shadowbolts. The traditional bonfire burned less intensely than before, casting an ominous glow across the forest clearing. She called out into the darkness, mindful of the likelihood she simply could not see the princess in the shadows.

"Luna?... Princess Luna? You wanted to see me?"

Before her, however, a completely different figure dropped from the night sky. Her black body and ethereal blue mane triggered an almost primal fear in Rainbow Dash.

"Ahh, Rainbow Dash! It is good to see you! How is your squadron progressing?"

The deepened voice confirmed it for the cyan pegasus; there was no mistaking who she had come face-to-face with. She dropped back into a fighting stance: hooves spread out, wings flared, and eyes on her enemy.

"Nightmare Moon! What have you done with Princess Luna? Wherever you came from, I'm gonna send you back!"

A glare of confusion, followed by a subtle bemusement, came across the villain's face. She closed her wings, and her mane began to expand and swirl around her, like a cloud with a mind of its own. The swirling motion began to slow after a few seconds, and as it shrunk back to normal size, it revealed Princess Luna beneath. Rainbow Dash was unsurprisingly startled.

"Luna? I thought you weren't Nightmare Moon anymore."

Luna chuckled softly.

"Oh, Rainbow Dash, only in a technical sense. I'm not sure what my sister told you after you 'defeated' me, but Nightmare Moon and I were always one and the same. I only adopted the new form to better match my sister physically, as well as in presence. In another world, I might never have used it like I did, and Nightmare Moon would simply be Princess Luna in a stronger body. I was in complete control of myself the entire time we fought, though my thousand years on the moon were no great help to my psychological stability."

"But... the Elements... they turned you back to normal, didn't they? If they didn't take care of Nightmare Moon's influence over you, what did they...?"

"Merely weakened me to the point where I could no longer hold that form. Don't let Celestia fool you, that's all the Elements are: weapons disguised as jewelry. Sometimes they throw in a showy touch, like turning Discord to stone, or sending me to the moon. But they have no use beyond attacking an enemy. At least, that's the only use she lets them have."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, that's a long story, going back to the beginnings of our rule. After we brought down Discord, Celestia, being the oldest, naturally took to politics. Technically I was her equal in authority, but we both knew she was the dominant one. While she ran Equestria, I was given time to pursue other interests, like science, foreign culture, and the arts. I took particular interest in studying magical artifacts, including the Elements of Harmony. What I found was that when combined and channeled by powerful magic, the Elements were a wellspring of limitless power. With them, you could not only vanquish an enemy, but also accelerate the growth of crops, manipulate the weather on a massive scale, or even change a pony's species."

"You mean like giving a pony wings, or a horn?"

"Exactly. I shared this with Celestia immediately; I made all sorts of plans to use the power of the Elements to turn Equestria into a paradise. But she soon told me to throw them all out; the Elements would remain locked in the vault until a time of national crisis."

"What? Why?"

"According to her, Equestria wasn't ready for that kind of power. She said it was too risky to attempt. But I knew it was just because she feared such reform would loosen her grip on power. I threatened to take my finding public, and around that time, according to prevailing history, I grew jealous of the attention Celestia was getting. You know the rest, I trust."

"You mean you got banished to the moon for trying to improve Equestria?"

"Well, there were other things. There is some truth in the 'jealousy' story; I was upset about the lack of attention my night recieved, but there was never a plan for 'eternal night'."

"But when you came back, didn't you say...?"

"Like I said, I was partially insane at the time. But that is unimportant. All I did was mention the possibility of reversing night and day during the winter and fall, so that ponies would be active during the night, and sleep in the day. But with the power of the Elements, it wouldn't have meant end of the world; crops would gain strength from moonlight, not sunlight; ponies would become naturally nocturnal, et cetera. In short, nothing would've changed, except that ponies would live their daily lives under the beautiful starlit skies instead of a single blazing sun."

"That doesn't sound so wrong..."

"There was another issue. Remember how I said I studied foreign cultures while Celestia ruled? Well, when I was studying Gryffanian culture, I came across a concept called democracy. It's a style of government where common ponies vote for their leaders instead of them being appointed. Complete democracies elect every position from national executive to local sheriff. But by allowing the ponies to choose their own leaders through voting, it ensures that the government works for them, not against them. My idea was that while Celestia and I would remain supreme rulers of Equestria, lesser positions, such as ministers, ambassadors, and parliamentary representatives would be filled by popular vote."

"What are parliamentary representatives?"

"Oh yes, you wouldn't know about Parliament. The way it used to work was that Celestia would appoint representatives from the population centers of Equestria to work together in a large group called the Parliament, each representative trying to advance the interests of their region. Things such as new taxes, foreign treaties, and declarations of war could only go through with a successful vote in Parliament. Of course, Celestia disbanded the Parliament just before my banishment."

"And I take it she didn't like the idea of democracy, either?"

"Not in the least. She dreaded the possibility of losing power once she had it, including the power of appointing government officials. For all her great qualities, I was never sure whether she was simply that attached to her power as monarch or if she had a pathological inability to trust other ponies. I now understand it is a mixture of the two."

"So let me get this straight: because you're the younger sister, Celestia ruled Equestria practically without you. Because you never got to be involved in running the country, you found not only ways to use the Elements to improve Equestria, but also a better and more fair style of government. When you tried to do something with your discoveries, Celestia shot you down every time, and when you asked for a chance to be appreciated, she took the opportunity to send you to the moon."

"The end is a little more complicated than you make it out to be. That fateful evening was the occasion I threatened Celestia that I would share my findings about the Elements with the public if she would not let me use them. Celestia knew this could incite rebellion if it was discovered she had intentionally withheld such potential greatness from them. She told me I would be imprisoned for treason if I opened my mouth about the issue. She threatened me not as a sister, not as a friend, but as a common criminal. All she saw in me was a threat to her continuing reign over ponykind. And that was the last straw. In the minutes that followed, I became Nightmare Moon and we engaged in an epic battle across Canterlot. In the end, she got her hooves on the Elements of Harmony and banished me to the moon."

Everything Rainbow Dash thought she knew about Equestrian history had just been turned on its head.

"Oh my... I never thought Celestia could be such a tyrant! And that ponies still worship her today, even though she grabbed power that never should've been hers! But there are two things I still don't get. One, why are you telling all this to me? Two, why were you just Nightmare Moon?"

"Well, the second question will be easiest to answer. Simply put, I love being Nightmare Moon. In addition to the numerous physical advantages, it also improves the strength of my magic. It is in every aspect superior to this meek form; I enjoyed every minute of being Nightmare Moon."

"But when we hit you with the Elements of Harmony and you turned back to normal Luna, you ran to Celestia and begged for her to forgive you. You weren't mad about being depowered, so..."

"Clever acting on my part, Rainbow Dash. I believe I've lost the ability to love my sister, but in any era ponies eat up that kind of mushy apology. But as for why I'm telling you this... how to phrase it? When I fought Celestia the first time, I was being impulsive. I charged her head-on, hoping to overpower her through pure force. I see now how foolish that approach was."

"Wait, you mean you're..."

"Tell me, Rainbow Dash, do you vote for the ponies who run the government?"

"Well, sure. I vote for the mayor, and...um... I vote for the..."

"Exactly. Celestia instituted democracy on the smallest scale possible because she knew other ponies would eventually come to the same conclusions I did. But anything beyond the local level is an appointment by royal authority. Is that true democracy?"

"Well, no. No, it isn't!"

"There's my point. A thousand years or so may have passed, but the same problems that I tried to fix still exist today. The Elements still have as much potential as they did before, if not more, now that they are wielded by true bearers. But no matter the age, Celestia will oppose any attempt to use that potential. Do you remember when you first began as my apprentice, I told you war was coming? This is what I meant; the time has come to bring down my sister, for the good of the nation."

"Wait, overthrow Celestia? Hold on a second, I can't be a part of that!"

"Why not? Can you think of some justification for her abuses of power, something that I could not? Believe me, Rainbow Dash, I tried. I once loved my sister more than life itself; I probed every possibility to find a way to persuade myself that she was doing what was right. But I found nothing. Infinite power has corrupted her, and she must be removed from the throne if there is any hope of redeeming her or advancing Equestria."

"But I'm the Element of Loyalty! I can't revolt against my own Princess!"

"Ah, yes, I was expecting this conflict to come up eventually. What you must decide, as the Element of Loyalty, is what are you loyal to? What is it? Is it your Princess? Your friends? Yourself? Ideally, you'd be loyal to all of these things, but what happens when you must decide between one or another?"

"Gee, I guess I haven't had to make a lot of those decisions..."

"I'd think Discord at least exposed you to the possibility when he force you to choose between your friends and Cloudsdale. You thought that Cloudsdale would crumble if you stayed with them, so you left to 'save' your home. Overall, I would commend the decision, based on what you thought were the facts. But the thing about your friends, Cloudsdale, any of those things, is that they all fall away."

"What?"

"Very little in this world lasts. Entire nations fall, governments become corrupt, ponies die or abandon you, even your own body will weaken over time. I've seen it all in my long life. There is little that deserves your true loyalty. You commit yourself to your friends, a city, or even an entire country, you'll die and be forgotten. You are merely another pony."

"So what should I be loyal to?"

Luna paused for a second, to ponder the best way to put what she would say next.

"As I said, if your true loyalty goes to yourself, institutions, or other ponies, it will fail you in the end; you will still be an ordinary pony, Element of Loyalty or not. But... if you make yourself more than just a pony, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if nothing can stop you...then you become something else entirely."

"Which is..."

"A legend, Rainbow Dash."

"A legend?"

"Yes. You could be the one who brought justice to Equestria, who ended the reign of a tyrant and ushered in a new age of democracy and prosperity. That could be your legend. So I'll ask simply: will you stand with me against Celestia?"

Rainbow Dash took a pause of her own, to think on the weighty decision she was about to make.

"I've stood to defend Celestia plenty of times. But after what you've told me, I'm the one she'll need defense from. I'm in."

"Then welcome to the Army of the New Lunar Republic, Rainbow Dash. Let us return to Camp Blacklight; we must plan our strategy for the coming revolution."

Dusk

The bonfire was built unusually high that night, though Rainbow Dash supposed the nature of the evening justified it. Her squadron wasn't getting the flashy, grandiose graduation ceremony like the others, but she didn't mind. Luna had chosen to conduct theirs personally, and more privately, given their covert nature as Shadowbolts. Dash was lined up with the others, facing Luna and the fire beyond. They were lined up in their chain of command; to her right was Nightshade, then Stratus, Charger, Starry, and Blueball. A hush fell over all of them as Princess Luna began the ceremony.

"Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence. If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and lose it quickly. Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and—in the eventuality of war—as the devastating force to destroy an enemy’s potential and fatally undermine her will to wage war. These are the opinions of only a few of Equestria's great minds on the value of airpower. As you know, power in the air is power over land and sea. Pegasi have the unique ability to strike with not only speed, but also stealth, power, and versatility. You six have proven yourselves consistently as the best wielders of that gift. You are the airborne spearheads of the Army of the New Lunar Republic. The responsibility is not one I give you lightly. You have each endured weeks of demanding physical, mental, and tactical training to complement your already-potent abilities. Over that time, you have developed true camaraderie with each other, and a sense of pride in yourselves, your squadron, and the Army. What you have gained from these experiences will serve you well. The challenges you face will only grow in magnitude and number, now that you are prepared to enter field service. I will send you on missions I could not trust an entire battalion of ordinary Lunar Guards to complete. You will be placed in situations where the future of Equestria is dependent on your success. I trust you to do what is necessary to advance the aims of our Army and our Republic."

From beside the bonfire, Luna telekinetically brought to her side a dark, oaken case, about the size of a large book. It was one from a stack of similar cases. She walked to the far right of the line, bringing the case with her and facing Blueball.

"Blueball Blitz, you have overcome remarkable adversity to become an extremely gifted aerobat. Your astounding speed and agility does credit to your team. But in days to come, it shall be tested at levels you have never seen before. To meet these tests, you will need to go beyond what you believe your limits are, and only through total self-confidence and willpower can you do so. Therefore, do you solemnly pledge to faithfully serve your unit as the Element of Spirit?"

For once in her life, Blueball lacked her common, toothy grin. But it was not completely gone; she had consciously reduced it to a subtly confident smile.

"I do."

"Then as Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, I hereby charge you as Scout of Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha, and bestow upon you this."

Luna placed the case at her feet, then reached out for another as she moved on.

"Starry Skies, in your time with this team, you have demonstrated amazing cleverness and calm under pressure. Your acting abilities complement that to give you a veritable mastery of the art of deception. You must be prepared to use that mastery creatively to achieve your goals in increasingly difficult circumstances. This team cannot succeed without the proper tools for each mission; your role is no less vital than that of a warrior on the frontlines.Therefore, do you solemnly pledge to faithfully serve your unit as the Element of Resourcefulness?"

Starry had no doubt been involved in more than her fair share of these events, but there was no false sincerity in her voice.

"I do."

"Then as Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, I hereby charge you as Quartermaster of Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha, and bestow upon you this."

The process repeated itself; Luna moved on with a new case to the next pony in line.

"Charger, you turned from your life of crime to a higher purpose as a Guard, and through that have discovered your unique talent for handling technology. But just as valuable a talent is your cool and collected nature. You do not simply ignore pressure; you use it to bring out the best in your efforts. The challenges you will face in the future shall place you under far greater pressure, and you must continue to use that skill to rise to the occasion if you hope to succeed. Therefore, do you solemnly pledge to faithfully serve your unit as the Element of Composure?"

Charger was already doing a great job at showing it; Princess Luna had just laid a grand challenge at his hooves, and one could tell he relished being able to accept it.

"I do."

"Then as Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, I hereby charge you as Armorer of Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha, and bestow upon you this."

Luna was getting closer with every charge. Dash truly was proud of the team, and how far they'd gotten together, but a part of her worried that Luna would make her part too extravegant, and the others would be pissed off about it.

"Stratus, you are to be commended many times over for your relentless devotion to your duty as a Guard. Though a stallion of few words, your actions consistently demonstrate that unflinching committment. Your spirit of determination shall become all the more vital to your team as you find yourselves staring down seemingly-impossible odds on a nightly basis. Therefore, do you solemnly pledge to faithfully serve your unit as the Element of Willpower?"

He had locked eyes with Luna, and the words that came next almost seemed practiced. Dash guessed that even though this was the first time Stratus had recieved that exact charge, he was merely reafffirming a personal oath to duty and excellence. Strong silent types always had personal honor codes.

"I do."

"Then as Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, I hereby charge you as Flight Lieutenant of Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha, and bestow upon you this."

Luna laid the fourth case at his hooves. Well, I doubt she can give me a better tribute than that, Dash mused.

"Nightshade, you have proven yourself a capable leader since placement in the Shadowbolt Program. You show a unique talent for strategy, a talent enhanced by your adaptability in the field. Decisive and mindful of details, you can be trusted to consider every possibilty before making a decision. As a leader and a friend to your fellow Shadowbolts, you are not only likable, but respected. This is a balance few achieve. But in trials to come, you will find leadership to be a difficult burden to shoulder. Your patience will be tried, your confidence challenged, and your cunning stretched to its end. You must soldier onward, impossible as it may seem, and inspire those beneath and around you to do the same. Therefore, do you solemnly pledge to faithfully serve your unit as the Element of Leadership?"

She was amazingly stoic about Luna's commendation, though she wore a toothless smile of achievement. Dash prayed there was no hint of jealousy in the words that followed; she had always been concerned that Nightshade would feel upstaged by her joining the team. But the two words, simple as they were, allayed Dash's fears and reminded her of the bond of camaraderie she and Nightshade had formed. They were spoken with contained excitement, almost joy, and complete confidence.

"I do."

"Then as Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, I hereby charge you as Squadron Leader of Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha, and bestow upon you this."

Another box set down, and now Luna had grabbed the last one in the pile. As she walked towards Rainbow Dash, she gained a subtle degree of enthusiasm, though the officious Luna knew better than to let it show.

"Rainbow Dash, my loyal apprentice. In our time together, I have challenged you to become more than you ever thought possible, and you have excelled in every aspect of it. You stepped boldly into a world so much larger than yourself, without hesitation or fear. You have mastered an arcane and complex form of magic, almost unseen in Equestria for centuries on end. And in the course of your training, your deepest convictions about the nature of loyalty have been shaken to the core. On your own you are a powerful force for justice and freedom; with the amazing team of ponies who now stand beside you, you are nigh-unstoppable. You should be proud to call them your teammates and your friends, as they are no doubt proud of you and each other. Your role is a unique one; you are a full member of the squadron, but have purpose related to the entire Army. You must be prepared not only to charge into a fray, wings spread wide, but also to stand back, study an enemy, and decide how best to defeat them, even days before the battle comes. But as with your teammates, I have total confidence in you. Therefore, do you solemnly pledge to faithfully serve your unit and the Army of the New Lunar Republic as the Element of Loyalty?"

So, she was still Loyalty. But it was a new kind of loyalty. Not the shallow, "stick by your friends" loyalty she used to believe in, but passionate devotion to ideals. To justice, and freedom, and equality. To the things she knew were right, pursued with the passion Luna had always said gave her strength. Because those were the only things that lasted in this world. But the idea of Princess Luna having her own Elements was still kind of cheesy.

"I do."

"Then as Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, I hereby charge you as Royal Designate to Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha and Field Commander of the Army of the New Lunar Republic, and bestow upon you this."

The last box was set at her hooves, and Dash had an almost-certain notion about what was inside. Luna returned to her original position in front of the bonfire, which was now dwindling into a glowing pile of ashes.

"Congratulations to all of you on your achievements, both in the past and those to come. I hereby christen Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha, and charge it as my personal task force for covert military interdiction across Equestria and abroad, until the Night of Faust's Judgement does end our world. This ceremony is adjourned."

With the end of official protocol, everypony quietly loosened their muscles and took a breath. Rainbow Dash's curiosity lead her to slide open the lid on her box, and shortly inspired the rest of the group to follow. Reaching in with her mouth to pull out whatever was inside, she grabbed fabric, and the moonlight revealed to her an iconic Shadowbolt uniform. Beneath it were flight goggles, made of yellow-tinted safety glass. Luna had come forward from the fire, mingling with the squadron.

"How do you all like your new uniforms? Though I suppose I should wait until you test them out to ask."

"It looks awesome, Luna! Just like I remember from my first adventure. Can't wait to see how I look in it!"

"I am glad you approve. The anti-friction enchantments were a great success on the part of our unicorn spell-makers."

Luna and Rainbow Dash walked back towards the fire, leaving the rest of the group to speak privately.

"But Luna, calling us your Elements? I mean, seriously, what's up with that? It's not like we have our own necklaces, do we?"

"No, Rainbow Dash. But think of it; together, you six represent the qualities that bring out the best in a warrior. Spirit, resourcefulness, composure, willpower, leadership, and loyalty. Those are the keys to your success in battle and in life. While you are not as historical as the Elements of Harmony, I like to think of you as the Elements of Strength, if you don't mind."

"Well, cool concept, when you put it that way."

But with a neon-blue flash of light, their private conversation was interrupted by a panicked, galloping unicorn. Luna recognized him immediately.

"Umbra! What is the problem?"

"Your Majesty, Camp Blacklight is under attack! We've been invaded!"

"By who?"

"The Equestrian Royal Guard! Your sister's forces!"

"My sister's... dear Faust, save us all. We've been discovered, and by the worst threat possible."

The entire squad snapped to attention around their Princess.

"What do we do, Luna?"

"I must return to Canterlot, Rainbow Dash. My sister is no doubt aware of my absence, and she must be dealt with before she can rally Equestria against us. I want you six to follow Umbra back to Camp Blacklight. He is the only one I've entrusted to know the way between here and the base camp. Get to the armoury, then repel the invaders as best you can."

The situation at a boiling point, Rainbow Dash enthusiastically took charge.

"Can do! Alright, mares and stallions, suit up and let's get to Camp Blacklight! We've got some flank to kick, and for real, this time!"

Luna, having transformed into her Nightmare Moon form, took off and flew toward Canterlot. As the others slid into their flight suits, Nightshade grabbed Dash at the wing.

"Hey. Listen, if Celestia knows about us, you know who else knows about us?"

"...My old friends."

"Exactly. This may be that time I told you about before, where you'd have to choose between them or us. Your not going to go soft if they're leading the charge, are you?"

"Never. They may be my friends, but you're my sister in arms, Nightshade. They try to stop us, they won't know what hit them."

"Alpha Company, move in and clear that building! Don't let them bunker down in their foxholes!"

Even the most commanding of the Equestrian Royal Guard colonels found it a struggle to be heard in the chaos of the failed surprise attack. He knew there was a threat out here, but he had never expected a full army base. Should've retreated. Should've waited for reinforcements. Of course, when a pegasus scout hidden in an overcast thunderhead sounded the alarm, he really didn't have much choice but to engage. But that was the eventual plan, right? He figured, since it was just before sunset when they made their raid, most of the camp would already be asleep, off guard. They had the camp surrounded, too; even with advanced warning, a whole army shouldn't have been able to resist for long. So why were his stallions being slaughtered?

Two earth ponies tumbled from a top-floor window of Barrack B, plunging head-first to the earth below. From the twin cracks resonating from their impact, neither Lunar nor Royal Guard had survived the fall.

A shadow descended upon a pegasus Royal Guard trying to survey his enemies' movements from above. A second later, the Lunar Guard, spying a gap in his target's gilded armor, drove a cyanide-coated combat knife towards its mark, then bucked him downwards. The poisoned stallion tried to recover from the ambush, but found each wingflap increasingly more difficult to pull off. Weakness creeping through his body, he lost consciousness, and entered what his fellow aviators knew as "the death spiral".

A pair of unicorn Guards were grappling on the ground, until the Lunar Guard seemingly gained a pin. But the Royal Guard telekinetically drew his sword and slashed it towards his opponent's bare throat. The Lunar Guard responded with his own magical force; auras of purple and yellow battled for control of the handle. The sword quivered between the two of them, until the Royal Guard summoned the last of his will to force the blade at his foe and slit his throat. But the dead pony slumped over and collapsed on him, pinning the weakened Guard just as effectively in death as he had alive.

Under orders to clear out all buildings in the kill zone, a rookie Royal Guard flung open the front door to a smaller building towards the edge of the camp... and was promptly blasted back, face covered in blood and embedded with buckshot. Charger had just redeemed his hoof cannon marksmanship scores. The building the tyro had found was the armory, and inside, Shadowbolt Squadron Alpha was preparing to turn the tide and take back the momentum in the first battle of their revolutionary war. Rainbow Dash pulled a map of the camp down from the wall, tossed it on the ground, and started strategizing based on Umbra's report.

"Alright, team, the Royal Guards have Camp Blacklight surrounded, but Umbra said the bulk of their army was here, moving south on the main road through camp. While we're forced to fight on all sides, they can sweep through and take us out from within. So we'll split up into pairs. Starry, Charger, you're our bombers. Take as many explosives as you can, then fly over their main force and blow the crap out of 'em. Take more than a few incendiaries and electroshock grenades, and throw them deep into enemy lines; they'll have more effect and cause confusion. Blueball, Stratus, you've got to break the pincer move. Get out of camp, then move along the outside lines, and take out all the Royals you can. Blueball to the east, Stratus to the west. Any of our soldiers you meet, tell them to go north and counter the advancing army. If you find anti-pegasi gunner unicorns, have them put up suppressive fire against the Royal Guard air forces. I'd suggest short- to medium-size blades and blunt weapons, but remember your targets will probably be engaged with our own forces, so be precise in your attacks. Nightshade and I will give Starry and Charger cover until they get over target area, then go low and raise as much hell as possible. Our goal is to cause chaos in their ranks and make them confused, disorganized, and easily overrun. Shade, I'm going with my katana and some throwing knives, along with a flashbang or two. You?"

"I think I'll take the minimalist approach and lead with the Equinox gauntlets."

The Equinox gauntlets were as much clockwork as they were combat tools. Through a complex series of gears and mechanisms nopony save the inventor quite understood, the gaunlets could each extend a poison-tipped combat dagger from the wrist. Each gauntlet also had a set of three 'hook blades', which could flip out and extend from the outer side. Crescent-shaped, they could be used for slicing, slashing, or parrying, and could snap a blade caught between them with a sharp twist of the forearm. Both were activated and retracted by a concentrated flick of the wrist, each action having a different trigger motion. They were very new developments as far as the technology went.

"Shade, you sure? Those things haven't had a bit of testing, and besides, the blades are so small, there's no way you'll be able to kill with them."

"Hey, Dash, have some confidence! I've been doing some personal training with these things, and it's not the weapon, it's how you use it, right? Besides, I'll keep my short sword and a few smoke bombs if things get ugly."

"If you're sure, Shade. This is basically a small-scale deep battle strategy, along with a scorpion attack. If you run into any heavy armor or artillery, go for the hit-and-run. If anything goes really screwy, this armory is our rally point. No matter what happens, we do not give this building up. Alright, everypony, load up and let's hit the clouds!"

The team split up, each pair scouring the weapons stores for exactly what they needed. Charger dumped tray after tray of grenades into his saddlebags, then tossed in a few incendiaries for good measure. Balancing a flanged mace in his left hoof, Stratus sheathed it confidently in his belt. And Dash carefully threaded blades in between her wing feathers; it was a new technique that allowed her to throw them with all four hooves on the ground and no loss of precision or power. Each one pulled over the hood on their Shadowbolt flight suit, then lowered the goggles onto their eyes. One by one, each took off from the armory doorway into the twilit evening sky.

With the resounding crack of metal on metal, Sun Spot brought his broadsword down on the head of a stunned Lunar Guard. The immediate effects of a skull fracture sinking in, the pegasi dropped from the sky unceremoniously. Guess that helmet wasn't as tough as it looked. Sun Spot scanned around for a new enemy to beat, and noticed a group of dark-colored pegasi flying north in a diamond formation. None of them seemed to be wearing armor, so he knew they couldn't be Royal Guards. Fools. Charging towards them, he singled out the lead pegasus to take his first attack. But as soon as he had decided on her, the pegasus at the rear dropped out of formation and arced towards him. A lone wolf? Even better. Sun Spot could pick out the details of his enemy's appearance now that they were approaching. It was like some Gothic travesty of the Wonderbolts uniform, complete with polarized yellow flight goggles. And the one approaching him seemed to have a... a rainbow mane? How unfitting for a warrior. He'd have to show this princess that she was playing with the big foals now.

Rainbow Dash, bringing up the rear of the diamond, carefully watched her sides and flanks for any kind of surprise attack. Pegasi carrying bombs were easy targets for other flyers, especially ones with explosives of their own. But as she completed a visual sweep of the clouds below, Nightshade called out from in front.

"Dash, we got one up ahead, on the left! I think he's spotted us! You want him?"

"Yeah, I'll deal with him. You keep these two safe 'till I'm done!"

Spiraling out of formation, Dash scanned ahead for the target Nightshade had called out. Sure enough, there was a pegasus Royal Guard, in full armor and with a broadsword to match. He had definitely noticed her, and as they moved in for the head-on sparring match, she began to evaluate and deduce everything she could about him. It was called combat analysis, she remembered from a week before, a crucial component of battle strategy. He was certainly muscular, based on his build and choice of weapon. He couldn't be that bright, either; a smart pegasus would take lighter and faster weapons into air combat. Based on the minor convulsions in his wing-flapping pattern, fatigue was beginning to get to him. And his armor was Royal Guard standard; thick and bulky, but with plenty of weak points. Combined with his bruiser style of fighting... This wouldn't be too hard.

With claymore raised and katana drawn, the two pegasi rushed at each other. Sun Spot led the action with brazen overhead slash to open, but Rainbow Dash ducked away to her right. She launched into a series of fast slashes, keeping her opponent busy parrying and never giving him a chance to break through. The unwieldy broadsword didn't do him any favors; after about the third parry, it couldn't keep up and the horizontally slashing katana made contact with his shoulder armor. This pause gave Sun Spot the chance to counterattack, a chance he made good on by widely swinging his sword at her with his right hoof. Dash was forced to back off, and he took back his two-hoofed grip on the claymore. Drawing back to his right, Sun Spot made a thrust at her, but she jumped up and out of the way. With a flick of her wing, a small dagger shot out and buried its tip in his right forearm. Releasing his grip on the sword, he winced and held the wounded limb close to his chest. Dash made a short dive and slashed at his left hoof with her katana, causing the broadsword to tumble unceremoniously out of the sky.

Drawing back her sword and aiming its point, Rainbow Dash prepared to make the killing blow, but something stayed her. The pony before her was still clutching his wounded hoof, obviously feeling the effects of the throwing knife's poisoned tip. He was beaten; there was no reason to kill him now. But why leave him alive? He was the enemy; he had invaded their home and attacked her! Hold on! Had training changed her so much that she'd lost any sense of mercy? Mercy? What mercy did Princess Luna get? What made this one so worthy of it, and not her? That burning sense of injustice from nights before swelled up inside her, driving her katana tip out and stabbing clean through her enemy's neck.

There's your mercy.

Drawing out and resheathing the blade, she watched Sun Spot plummet to the clouds below. Her first kill. She paused to reflect on reaching this milestone, but quickly moved on to rejoin her formation. The reason for her lack of introspection? She could only make one observation about her actions: her first kill was... exhilerating!

Passing over the assembled Royal Guard invasion force, the four Shadowbolts broke out of formation to attack. Charger spotted a siege catapult hurling fireballs in rear, and opening a side pouch on his saddlebags, tossed a small cylindrical charge at the machine. The projectile bounced once, then erupted into a wave of flaming napalm. The wooden catapult was coated in fire, along with its two operators.

"Haha, hot enough for ya?"

Eye to the ground for a perfect target, Starry loitered in the air until a thrown spear forced her to make an evasive move. Spotting a trio of Royal Guards, she had to dodge two more spears from their direction.

"Jerks! I've got a special present for morons like you!"

She tossed a small metal ball at their hooves, which came to a stop and did nothing. Noticing the device's apparent failure, the three of them broke into mocking laughter. That is, until the ball loosed an electric charge, frying each of them in their armor.

"Oh yeah! Triple kill!"

Nightshade used a power-dive to strengthen her tackle of a Royal Guard, allowing the momentum to drag him across the ground. She extended the wrist dagger from her right Equinox gauntlet and dug it into his throat. Leaping off, she flicked out the other dagger and both sets of hook blades and eyed the group of guards surrounding her. Each was covered in gilded steel armor, but if there was one thing her gauntlets were good at, it was hitting small targets. Wings throwing her toward a guard, she brought her left hoof up to slash his face with the hook blades, then brought it down and slit his throat. Nightshade then rolled to the right, jabbing her right dagger into another guard's chest as she stood. As he started to slump, she stole the spear from his back, then swung the blunt end wide left to hit a guard behind her in the muzzle. Choking back on the weapon, she found a group of guards circling her, swords and maces drawn.

"Oh, darn, looks like you got me!"

Not. Nightshade quickly slid her grip up, to just beneath the metal spearhead. With a flick of her left hoof, she poked the wooden pole backward, tip knocking a small metal canister off her belt as it came back. The canister hit the ground and began venting smoke almost explosively, shrouding the area and allowing Nightshade to take off .

Reverb awoke to the sight of a glinting steel spearhead inches from her neck. Behind it was the wooden shaft of a spear, and attached to that was a shadowy figure wearing the same glinting steel. It was not a pleasant thing to wake up to.

"Eh... wha... what's happening?"

"You will get up and come with me."

"Whoa, easy! I'm just a scientist! I study acoustics, I don't fight!"

Well, acoustic weapons, but he didn't need to know that.

"That doesn't AAGH!"

Another figure had slipped into her room, this one a dull, chalky white, and brought what appeared to be a spiked metal club down on the head of the first one. It fell to the floor, lifeless. Stratus took the mace out of his mouth and turned back to the rudely-awoken aquamarine unicorn.

"Suit up and get to the frontline!"

Down the halls, Blueball flitted about a laboratory, almost imperceptible to the invaders she had found inside. Her words were just as difficult to catch.

"Ooh, the science dorms! So this is what they look like! I've never been to the science dorms before! I bet they've got a ton of cool stuff in here! I bet they've got stuff in here that would explode!"

The leader of the three Royal Guards piped up irritatedely.

"Filly, would you just shut up and sit still so we can arrest you?"

"Oh yeah, y'all are here! I should really do something about you! Now let'sss seeee.... Oh! I know what to do! Look behind you!"

The stallion smirked with condescension.

"Please, like we'd fall for that!"

But in the blink of an eye, Blueball had disappeared. Unnoticed behind the trio, she hollered out at them.

"Shoulda looked!"

Drawing twin short swords and leaping forward, she stabbed them outward and into the two rear guards' flanks. She then catapulted herself head-over-hooves, using the swords for leverage for her momentum. Releasing her blades and landing on the leader, she reached around his neck and put him in a headlock. She then charged herself with electricity, allowing the voltage to flow across her and the Guard she was death-hugging, then arc out to the small lightning rods she had placed in his subordinates.

"Wheeeeeeeeee!"

When all was said and done, the three Guards fell to the floor, and Blueball pulled her swords from their victims, then contently trotted out of the lab.

The Mane 6 minus 1 were following the invasion force, hoping to avoid any serious combat. Once or twice, Twilight had to put up a shield to block an inbound bomb, and the sense of chaos sweeping through the ranks only weakened any sense of security they had. Eyes to the sky, Applejack noticed an almost-familiar glow of color as an enemy pegasus raced overhead.

"Twilight, look up there! Is that...?"

"I see her. Hmmm... yes, that's her. Let's get her down here and figure this out before somepony loses an eye. Unless Fluttershy wants to go up..."

"Oh, up there with all those dark clouds and fire and sharp, pointy weapons? Oh no, I'd rather not, if you don't mind."

"Well, she's too far out and moving too fast for me to grab with my magic. I guess we could... um... any ideas?"

Pinkie Pie, as always, had an idea.

"Here, I know what to do! Inhale dramatically, and... RAINBOW DASH!"

The shrieking cry carried well above the cacophony of battle, catching the ears of the one it was aimed at. Spying her old friends, Rainbow Dash circled downward, raised her flight goggles, and touched down between them and the Royal Guard army surrounding them.

"Well, I figured you'd be here. You had to find out sooner or later, but later would've been my preference."

"Rainbow Dash, what is all this? Why are you wearing a Shadowbolt costume? And what are you doing with that katana on your back?"

"As always, Twilight, you ask a lot of questions. And you're looking for a big explanation. I guess I'll start with the simplest question, "Why am I wearing a Shadowbolt costume?" It's because I am a Shadowbolt. Leader of the Shadowbolts, actually.

"But you always said you wanted to be a Wonderbolt," Rarity questioned. Rainbow Dash was circling the group now, almost prowling. Stalking.

"Yeah, thing with them is, they took too long. I've been front-page news more than a few times since that dream started; if they wanted me, they've had plenty of chances to get me. Besides, they're not all that great, anyway. Spitfire can't fight to save her life."

"That was you?"

"What was... oh, that. Yes, Twilight, they got too close, so we made them turn around. But like I was saying, Luna saw in me what they didn't, so I took her more-than-generous offer."

"What else was in that offer?"

"Oh, well, an apprenticeship for starters."

"An apprenticeship?"

"Yeah, an apprenticeship. Oh, Twilight, don't tell me you're jealous that you're not the only one learning from royalty now."

"But what could Luna teach you? She's been on the Moon for the last millennium!"

"You'd be surprised. For one thing, she taught me a little thing called speed magic."

"Speed magic?... But that's a myth! It's an arcane, dead art!"

"Who better to learn about the arcane from?"

"And that's all she taught you?"

"Hardly. You might say I went to night school here. They taught me all sorts of great stuff, like this!"

Dash's left wing flung out, hurling a throwing dagger at the Mane 5. Twilight snatched it magically and hurled it over their heads to nowhere in particular.

"And Luna taught me a few things about history, too. Like how Celestia's a power-hungry tyrant who's been playing us all for fools!"

"What? How could you? That's completely wrong! That's not Luna, that's Nightmare Moon!"

"Twilight, did you ever notice how puny Luna looks compared to Celestia? Can't say that about Nightmare Moon, can you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Luna and Nightmare Moon are one and the same, Twilight! The only reason Luna became Nightmare Moon was so that she'd stand a chance in a fight when she had to bring down Celestia!"

"But Nightmare Moon is still an enemy of Equestria! Why are you siding with her?"

"You complete foal! For all those book smarts, Twilight, you're still completely blind to the truth, aren't you? But why am I siding with her? I don't know, maybe because thanks to Princess Luna, I'm the Field Commander of the best army in Equestria! Maybe because she's taught me to do things I could never dream of, things that make the Sonic Rainboom look like foal's play! Maybe because she hoof-picked the best fliers in Equestria and gave me them for a team!"

"Rainbow Dash, you already have a team! We're your team! The Elements of Harmony, what happened to that!"

"The Elements! You want to talk about the Elements? Ha! Look at what's right in front of you, Twilight. Your Element is a tiara. The rest of us just have necklaces. What do you think that means?"

"That doesn't mean..."

"It means that as long as I'm playing ball for Celestia's team, I'm never going to get out of your shadow! We weren't really the Elements, we were Twilight & Friends! It was all about you! And I don't care what any ancient prophecies say, I'm not playing second fiddle anymore!"

Rainbow Dash took a second to catch her breath and calm down.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a tyrant to kill."

Ripping a flashbang grenade off her belt, she spiked it towards them, and it exploded when it hit the ground. Twilight, however, reflexively shielded herself when the projectile came out, and with some faculties of sight and hearing, she was able to magically grab Rainbow Dash as she tried to take off.

"Not tonight!"

Dash noticed her restriction, but had an idea. She continued flapping her wings vigorously, pushing against Twilight's magic as hard as she could. It was the pegasi equivalent to spinning one's tires. Luna's lessons came back, and she began the necessary visualization. You are speed. You cannot be stopped. Nothing can stand in your way, because you are speed. The power of speed magic began to take her, until the power-up process was complete. Now intangible, Rainbow Dash was free to escape from Twilight's telekinetic grip. Flying away, she quickly turned back to see Twilight readying another magical attack.

"Nightshade, time to go! Cover me!"

"You got it, Dash!"

Vaulting over a Royal Guard and into the air, Nightshade hurled two smoke grenades at the Mane 5, quickly blanketing the area in obscuring fumes.

"Listen, Nightshade, we've done enough here. Tell the rest of the gang to dump any explosives they have, hit the armory one last time for melee weapons, and head for Canterlot. Luna's gonna need our help to take down Celestia and her guards. I'll meet you there!"

"See you in Canterlot, Dash! Give old Sunbutt a nice thrashing for me!"

With that, Rainbow Dash rocketed into the stratosphere, accelerating up to high speed to make the long trip to Canterlot.

Creating an energy fan to disperse the smoke, Twilight looked up to find Rainbow Dash and Nightshade gone. But another wayward bomb came down in front of her, blasting a crater in the ground and knocking her backward.

"Girls, we need to get out of here! Back to the forest!"

They beat a hasty retreat to the protection of the thick woods. After checking to be sure they weren't followed, Applejack turned to Twilight.

"Twi, I thought you had a grip on Rainbow Dash, how'd she escape?"

"I don't know! I was holding her down, but she kept flapping her wings, then it was just like there was nothing there anymore!"

"Could it have anything to do with that 'speed magic' she mentioned?"

"Probably, Rarity. I don't know a lot about it myself; most scholars regard it as pseudoscience, like astrology. There was never any proof that pegasi had inner magic they could harness, but then again, there was never a pegasus like Rainbow Dash. And if she was learning from Princess Luna herself, and she was able to escape my magic, we have to assume there's some truth behind the idea. But whatever it is, it's dangerous. We don't have any idea what its limits are, and with Rainbow Dash how she is..."

"Yeah, what is wrong with Rainbow Dash? Do ya think she's really off her rocker?"

"Too early to be sure. She could be completely crazy, but Princess Luna's got a millennia or so of experience in persuasion. Whatever she told Rainbow Dash was enough to turn her against us and against Celestia. And now she's said she's going to kill her..."

"So what's our next move?"

"We go to Canterlot and protect the Princess at all costs. We can deal with Rainbow Dash later, but we can't let her get to Celestia. For now, we have to consider her as dangerous as Nightmare Moon, and deal with her as such."

Nightrise

Late-evening guard duty was never Ironhide's favorite activity. Not enough light to see clearly, but more than enough to play tricks on his eyes. And of course, he got stuck on perimeter guard the one time there was some action happening! He should be on that raid, not guarding the castle in the middle of the night. Leave it to the bat-freaks, he wanted to say. Of course decorum wouldn't allow it, but sometimes those creeps really got on his nerves. Whatever Luna did to them, they were freaks of nature. Beneath him. Ironhide's mental racist rant was interrupted by the sight of a single black pegasus approaching the Castle. Probably some drunk. Better call it in.

"We got a bogey inbound, coming from the southwest," he called to a unicorn in the guard booth on the southern wall of the Royal Castle. Sure, he had wings himself, he could take care of the intruder if he felt like it. But today had not really been his day, and thinking about the lesser species put him in a disagreeable mood. His job was to spot; let somepony else deal with it this time. The unicorn used a basic telepathy spell to contact the pegasus barracks and relay the message.

"Bogey spotted to the southwest. Mobilize intercept team."

In the pegasus baracks, Royal Guards were playing poker until the telepathy spell broke their concentration. Each got the message individually, but there was a group groan, both at the mundanity of the report and the use of a telepathy spell. Having their minds invaded didn't sit well with many of them, nor did the migraine that was sure to follow. Firescout, the squad leader, looked around the table.

"Fleetwing, Mac, you take care of it this time."

The two placed their hands facedown on the table and trudged out the door. Fleetwing was a Wonderbolt reject trying to work his way up and try again, and Mac, who's real name was Mackintosh, joined the Guard to escape the family business selling raincoats. Needless to say, neither was very enthused about their job. Strapping on their helmets, they took off to meet the interloper. Ironhide watched them fly over his post, then up to the approaching dark pegasus. But as soon as they confronted her, both turned tail and flew back exactly the way they came.

"That's Fleetwing and Mackintosh, right? Those pansies can't deal with a lousy civvie stumbling into Palace airspace! They're never coming back again if I get my two bits in about it. Scrap it all, I'll do it myself!"

Ironhide reluctantly took to his wings to complete the task the rookie pegasi had failed at, rising to confront the invader. When he came face-to-face with her, he shockedly recognized the pony as Nightmare Moon. Shock then gave way to cynicism.

"What is this, some kinda joke? I know you've got a unicorn somewhere making you look like Nightmare Moon, but it ain't workin', sonny. You ain't the first to try this trick, and you probably won't be the last. Who is it this time, Rhiannon? Gypsy?"

"I suppose my return would be looked upon with skepticism, but this is no deceit; I am the Sister of the Moon in the flesh. Stand aside; I have come to deliver Equestria from a tyrant hiding inside those walls."

"Give it up, foal! Nopony's fooled, you're only making yourself look stupid. Or do you want me to arrest you?"

"I see you will not be convinced, nor will you yield. How very unfortunate."

She spouted a tendril of magical energy from her mane, encircling Ironhide and holding him in the air as he was immobilized. The tendril then spouted smaller tendrils, wrapping themselves around his wings and hooves. A degree of pressure came upon him as two smaller tendrils squeezed on him, causing him to wince in pain as his wing-bones fractured. The large tendril then lifted him up into the air and flung him groundward. He tried to recover, but his wings refused to catch air in their broken state. The unicorn guard back on the southern wall watched his surly partner plummet, and with a telescopic viewing spell spied Nightmare Moon inbound. Taking her appearance more seriously, he urgently sent out a telepathic message to anypony who would listen. Which was just about everypony, since it's hard not to listen to your thoughts.

"All squadrons, scramble immediately! We have Nightmare Moon coming from the southwest, move to intercept! Code Black! Code Black!"

A hundred pegasi got a message signaling probably the worst news they would ever get in their careers. Faithful to their duty, the entire fleet leapt into the skies to fight a foe none thought they would ever see again. Nightmare Moon watched them come against her like a swarm of angry gnats, then decided on a counterattack. She quickly conjured an aerokinetic spell, then launched it as a bolt into the overhanging clouds. Seconds later, they began to dip at the exact point of her spell's impact, growing into a sharper and sharper downward cone. Winds began to swirl around the cone, spinning it into a tornado that sucked up airborne Guards and flung them back out in any which way. As the funnel cloud roared towards the castle, it ripped a gaping hole in the defensive walls, wide enough to drive two battle wagons through. But a small squadron of unicorns had assembled behind the perimeter wall, and were using their own magic to hold back the tornado. Let them, if it occupies them. Lightning bolts cracking across the sky, she soared in towards a stone balcony to infiltrate the Palace.

"Halt! You vicious marauders are now the captives of Second Lieutenant Trixie, and will be tried for crimes against the Princess of the Night!"

The old, irritating voice reached Twilight's ears, and as she turned around, surely enough there stood Trixie, in full navy-blue battle armor, a short sword in her hoof.

"Trixie? What are you doing here?"

"Well if it isn't the illustrious Twilight Sparkle and her oh-so-wonderful friends. Second Lieutenant Trixie is not surprised you would be among those attacking our home. When you destroyed the Great and Powerful Trixie's reputation with your magical trickery, she lost any business she had, and was forced onto the cruel Manehatten streets. But Princess Luna heard Trixie's cries of anguish through her dreams, and offered her a position in the Lunar Guard. Now, Second Lieutenant Trixie is well-fed, has a roof over her head, and is a valuable officer in a powerful army!"

"Valuable officer..?"

"The Great and Powerful Trixie's fireworks have become Second Lieutenant Trixie's signal flares. Second Lieutenant Trixie is the best signal flare maker in the entire army! And now Second Lieutenant Trixie has taken five of the enemy's most powerful soldiers captive! Songs will be sung of..."

And Applejack bucked her clean in the temple. With no helmet to protect her ("What? Cover her amazingly well-brushed silken mane? Second Lieutenant Trixie would never!"), she was an easy target.

"Never liked that stupid magician. Shouldn't we get going to Canterlot, Twi?"

"Right, AJ. Get close, girls, we'll teleport to the Royal Palace."

Twilight started probing the castle remotely for a place to land.

"That's weird... shield's up around the whole building; I can't teleport inside, nopony can. But Rainbow Dash and the Shadowbolts just left, even they're not that fast. So..."

Rarity discovered a possible conclusion.

"Did anypony see Nightmare Moon during the battle?"

"Come to think of it, no. She must've gone to Canterlot while the rest of us fought! She could already be attacking Princess Celestia! Alright, we need to get there now; I'm going to teleport us in as close as I can get, and we can go on hoof from there."

Looking just outside the limits of the magical shield, Twilight created an energy sphere around the five of them, then warped off in a flash of light.

A six-pegasus V-formation raced across the snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Neighvada range, heading northeast towards Canterlot. Nightshade screamed across the V, hoping to be heard above the howling crosswind.

"Blueball, you know this route the best! How far out are we from Canterlot?"

"Maybe 30 miles to the Palace walls! We won't be flying more than two minutes!"

"Good to know! Dash, you know the Palace and our enemies better than anypony. What's our plan of attack?"

Rainbow Dash thought back to the time she'd spent in the Royal Palace. The presence of guards wasn't overwhelming, though she supposed she hadn't been looking for them. But if Princess Luna had already arrived, they would be in a frenzy. And now that Twilight knew their plans, she and the others would be on their way.

"Twilight's gotten good at teleporting; we should expect her and the others to be there when we arrive. There are five of them and five of you; I suggest you pair up to take them out. Even if Princess Luna made a hole in the castle defenses when she got here, the whole place will be swarming with ERG. Once my former friends are out of the picture, do whatever you can to keep them from reaching the far west spire. I'd say two of you should run air interference against other pegasi. The other three need to block off as many passageways as they can to bottleneck the guards and push them back on the ground."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to find Luna. She's going to need backup to fight both Celestia and the ERG, and with my speed magic, I'm the best to do it."

Though concise in wording and gruff in tone, Stratus was easily able to make himself heard to the rest of the squadron.

"The sun's coming out too early."

It was true; though only an hour ago they had defended Camp Blacklight with no more than moonlight to see by, now the sun was almost completely over the horizon.

"Now that Luna's attacked Canterlot, Celestia probably wants to take away any stealth advantage we'd have in the darkness. But there's still enough of it for us to use," Dash shouted back.

As they crossed over the last of the mountains, they spotted Canterlot on the horizon. But against the backdrop of waterfalls and granite rock, they could see it was surrounded by a neon-blue force field. Charger was the first to spot it.

"You guys see that force field?"

"I see it, should've expected that would be Canterlot's first line of defense."

"What do you think, Dash? How do we get past it?"

"I think I have an idea. Nightshade, link up with me."

She grabbed Dash's front left hoof with her own right hoof.

"Now Stratus, grab her back left hoof, and Charger, grab my right!"

They did so, maintaining the V while connecting to each other.

"Now Starry, Blueball, do the same thing!"

All six of them were holding onto each other, with Starry, Stratus, and Nightshade on the left, and Blueball, Charger, and Rainbow Dash on the right. The luminescent barrier was coming up fast, less than a minute away.

"Hold tight!"

They soared towards the force field, as Dash focused herself and began visualizing. This was not readily apparent to her teammates.

"Dash, what are we doing?"

"Trust me, Nightshade! Trust me!"

Seconds later, the two formation leaders made contact with the force field... and effortlessly passed through it. The rest of the squad followed, and they quickly released each other and slowed to a hover in the shadow of an unponied guard tower on the perimeter wall.

"What was that?"

"Speed magic, Starry! Luna told me it's strong enough to beat normal magic, especially since nopony thinks it really exists. But what matters is we're in. You all see if you can find whoever's making this force field; we need it down if we want any kind of reinforcements later on. I've got to get to Luna. Let's move, Shadowbolts!"

At that moment, a shift in the force sphere down at ground level caught Dash's eye. She could see a guard letting in five familiar ponies.

"Hold up!"

Pointing them out to the others, she reevaluated her plan.

"New plan, everypony. Stratus, you've always been good at stealth. I need you to get as close as you can to those six and find out whatever you can about where Celestia is and who's making this force field. Use that oak tree for cover. The rest of us will stay in this tower; it's unoccupied and easy to defend. We'll move in based on what you find out. Now let's move, Shadowbolts!

When the Mane 5 arrived in Canterlot via Twilight's teleport spell, they found themselves facing a massive, luminescent-blue barrier, with the palace grounds on the other side. Twilight reached out and pressed her hoof against it.

"This must be the magical shield keeping us from teleporting inside. Appears physically impermeable as well."

"So howdawe get inside, Twi?"

"These shield enchantments can usually be keyed beforehoof so that only certain unicorns can raise or lower it. In this case, that would be the guards. We just need to find one to let us in."

"Ah, this calls for a feminine touch! Stand aside, everypony. Rarity will demonstrate for you how to get what you want from stallions in this world."

"Umm, Rarity, I think they'll recognize me as Princess Celestia's apprentice."

"Oh, yes, yes, of course! Silly me, why would I even think of that? We should just forget I brought up the topic, right, girls? Right..."

After an awkward stroll around the force field, Twilight was able to catch the attention of a Royal Guard unicorn on patrol, and with a quick blast of neon-green magic, he opened a hole in the barrier large enough for them to walk through.

"Twilight Sparkle! The Princess said to expect you."

"Is Nightmare Moon here?"

"I'm afraid so, but we have no idea where she is. As soon as she attacked our pegasi defense teams with a tornado, she disappeared into the shadows. We sealed the entire palace off, so she's got to still be here. No doubt she's slinking around in the castle, waiting for the right moment to attack the Princess."

"Definitely. Has anypony else arrived, particularly anypony in purple and black Wonderbolts knockoff costumes?"

"No ma'am, nopony's been in or out since we put up the shield, and that was as soon as Nightmare Moon came."

"Good. By any chance, do you know a Guard named Shining Armor?"

"Yes, ma'am. He's the one holding this shield enchantment together, actually."

"He's my brother. Would you happen to know where he is?"

"Well, your family is well-connected here in the Palace. He should be in the Hall of History with Princess Celestia."

"I know where that is, thank you! Come on, girls, we need to meet up with the Princess! Follow me!"

They took off towards the palace doors, unaware that a shadowy figure with a spiked sky-blue mane was watching and listening from the branch of a nearby oak. With valuable information gained, Stratus returned to the other Shadowbolts in the tower.

"Celestia and the Guard making this shield are in the Hall of History, and those five are going there now."

This name did not ring any bells with Rainbow Dash.

"Hall of History? Never heard of that... Nightshade, didn't you say you'd studied layout maps of the Palace?"

"Yeah, Dash, but they were architectural blueprints. All that had was temporary designations, like Hall 2A, or Room 1C. I don't remember a Hall of History either."

"Dang!.. Alright, alright, let's think: where would you find history in the Royal Palace?"

"The Royal Library!" Starry exclaimed.

"It would fit, but a library has too many dark corners and blind spots to be defensible. There's no reason she'd go there. What else?"

Charger had an idea.

"Are there any memorials in the castle, like for battles fought?"

"Hmm, memorials... like tributes.... hang on a second!"

Dash remembered, from not too long ago, in fact, a hall filled with tributes to glories past. Each was immortalized in the form of an image, and that image was made in the form of stained glass.

"I know where it is! There's a hall in the castle lined with stained-glass pictures of Equestrian history. That's got to be it. And the hall leads to Canterlot Tower, where they keep the Elements of Harmony! Where else would Celestia go if Nightmare Moon came back?"

"Stained glass windows shouldn't be too hard to spot. Blueball, run a quick flyaround and find those windows."

"Wait, Nightshade, if the windows are stained glass, shouldn't we get some bleach to clean them off first?"

"Not now, Blueball, just tell us where they are!"

"As you wish. Back in a blitz!"

Blueball launched herself out into the premature dawn and zipped about the castle, examining the windows until she found a set made of colored glass. Darting over the roof, she found another set on the opposite side. She then rushed back to the tower to report.

"Found it! Close to the north end of the castle, leading to the northernmost tower, windows on the east and west sides."

"Perfect. We'll approach from the east, keep that blasted sun out of our eyes. Same formation as before, pair off once we're inside and move on my signal. Safeties off, mares and gentlecolts, this is the real thing."

Skidding towards the entryway, Twilight backpedaled to regain traction and galloped into the Hall of History, with the rest of the Mane 5 close behind. Celestia and Shining Armor were talking, and quickly turned to her.

"Princess Celestia! Shining Armor!"

"Twily!"

The siblings ran to embrace each other, partly from mutual feelings of "long time, no see", and mutual apprehensiveness.

"It is good to see you, my faithful student, particularly in this dark hour."

"Good to see you safe, Princess. Everypony, this is my brother, Shining Armor. He's second-in-command of the Equestrian Royal Guard. Shiny, this is Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie."

"Twilight, how come you never mentioned you had a brother? You know I make it a point to know all my friends' families."

"Guess it never came up, Pinkie."

"What information were you able to gather following our soldiers in the raid?"

"Not much, Princess. Everything was in chaos; the base we were attacking was much better defended than anything we'd expected. The five of us had to retreat while the battle was still happening."

"I see. Combined with Nightmare Moon's return, I worry about what true threat Equestria currently faces. What of Rainbow Dash?"

"I'm afraid she's gone over to Nightmare Moon's side. She attacked us during the battle, wearing a Shadowbolts uniform."

"Not possible. Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty, has become a traitor to Equestria?"

"My thoughts exactly. Nightmare Moon's influence was strong enough to corrupt Princess Luna, but how could it so easily affect a pony selected by the Elements of Harmony to represent Loyalty?"

"Oh, loyalty is a very curious concept, Twilight Sparkle."

A familiar, ethereal voice rang from the shadows about them. Nopony could quite pin down an exact location of the source.

"Being loyal requires not only strength of character, but also the ability to make difficult decisions when loyalties conflict. For example, who is more deserving of your loyalty? Your 'duty'... or your sister?"

Every shadow in the room contracted into a single location, coming together to compose Nightmare Moon. She stood between the seven ponies and the entryway, glaring them down from the opposite end of the Hall of History.

"Nightmare Moon! What are you doing here? Why have you taken over Luna again?"

"Oh, my dear Twilight Sparkle, can you really be so dense? I do not 'take over' Luna..."

Enveloped in neon-blue energy, she instantaneously shifted to the meeker form of Princess Luna, and regained the other form's voice.

"... Luna and Nightmare Moon are one and the same!"

She quickly returned to the body of Nightmare Moon. This revelation rocked almost all of Twilight's beliefs about her enemy, leaving her with too much curiosity to ignore.

"Then why change your body at all?"

"That, my little pony, can be answered by my dear sister. Tell me, Celestia, can you ignore me now? Can you brush me aside? It was so easy with small, weak little Luna, but can you look down upon Nightmare Moon?"

"Sister, whatever I have done to reignite this rage in you, I am truly sorry. But if you have returned to bring eternal night to Equestria, my response shall be no kinder than it was before."

"You think my rage was reignited? The flame never died, sister! I was never sorry for fighting to remove a tyrant from power. Eternal night was never my original intention, regardless of what you've told the masses, but a thousand years alone on a barren, lifeless rock isn't kind to one's sanity. After the psychological damage was undone, I had hoped that in my absence the causes I'd fought for would have progressed over the course of time, but no. Equestria is no closer to democracy than it ever was, and the Elements of Harmony still sit as dusty relics, only a fraction of their power used against enemies of the state. A thousand years, sister, and this is all you've accomplished? If only they knew, you'd be dragged from this castle as you should've been millennia ago."

Every word Nightmare Moon spoke puzzled Twilight all the more.

"What are you talking about? What do you know about the Elements of Harmony?"

"Don't listen to her, Twilight, she'll say anything to get you on her side. She's already taken Rainbow Dash, don't let her take any of you! Since the Element of Loyalty is not present, we cannot vanquish you with the Elements as we have before. But I will not let you corrupt the Elements of Harmony into creatures of shadow!"

The Mane 5 and Shining Armor formed a battle line across the Hall, with Celestia behind them, separating Nightmare Moon from Canterlot Tower and the Elements. Nightmare Moon herself took a fighting stance, ready to face almost-impossible odds. But before the charge both parties knew was imminent, the stained-glass window immediately to Nightmare Moon's left exploded, and through the shower of glass shards, Rainbow Dash rocketed into the Hall. Twisting to face her enemies as she decelerated, she took an immediate four-point landing and skidded to the other end of the floor. Behind her, Nightshade, Stratus, Charger, Starry Skies and Blueball Blitz each made a similar landing, forming their own battle line to protect their Princess in a beautifully synchronized maneuver.

"Miss me?"

"Rainbow Dash! What has Nightmare Moon done to you?"

"What had she done to me, Celestia? I don't know, she's trained me into a disciplined warrior, awakened potential in me I never thought I had, and shown me the truth about how you've lied to the people to cover your own hunger for power and manipulated us to do your bidding against her. She's treated me less like a lapdog and more like a friend. In short, she's done more for me than you ever have. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Shadowbolts, pair up! Twilight Sparkle is mine!"

"I'll take the Guard!" Nightshade called out enthusiastically. "I've always wanted to kill a Lieutenant General."

"Give me the redneck," Charger responded.

Blueball's eyes met Pinkie's, and it was crazy-love at first sight.

"Ooh, ooh, I want the bouncy one! I want the bouncy one! CanIhaveher, canIhaveher, pleeeaaassse?"

Dash nodded in affirmation, grinning wryly at the thought of what a battle that would be.

Stratus merely glared at Fluttershy, then smirked as she retreated in fright.

Seeing Rarity's unenthused look, Starry offered "I guess that leaves us."

"Why not?" she replied bemusedly.

With that business complete, Nightmare Moon sensed that she was in a better position than before to enact her endgame, even if Twilight Sparkle was here to defend Celestia.

"Very well then, you Shadowbolts have fun with this fight; you probably won't get a better challenge for many a moon. But I'm afraid that while four's company, fourteen's a crowd."

She then projected her gaseous blue mane into the air, enveloping herself, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Celestia. With a flash of black and blue, the four of them were gone, leaving the Shadowbolts, the Mane 4 and Shining Armor alone in the Hall of History. Though both commanding officers had left, Nightshade felt confident she had the authority to issue a single command.

"Attack!"

The four of them touched hooves on stonework so weak it seemed to crack beneath their weight. The crumbling masonry about them was is no better condition. Above, the sky was a swirl of amber and indigo as the moon moved into position to eclipse the early-rising sun. Twilight recognized it immediately.

"The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters? Why are we here?"

"Oh, I never enjoyed Canterlot that much, even after sister dearest moved the castle there. Air too thin, climate too chilly, not to mention half the city could fall to its doom if there was the slightest engineering failure. Even now, all those bright city lights made it hard to see the stars. I always came here at nightfall to arrange them. But more to the point, powers such as we deserve privacy when we spar. The words I am about to speak are not meant for everypony's ears."

When they arrived, they had been deposited about a circle, one in each cardinal direction. Celestia to the south, Nightmare Moon to the north, Twilight to the east, and Rainbow Dash to the west.

"Leave these two out of it, Luna. Neither did anything to deserve involvement in our private struggle."

"Come now, Celestia, you know they have earned places at our sides in this moment. My apprentice would stand to lead my armies into battle. Could yours not do the same? Or is it simply because you still wish to hide the truth from her? Like how you've intentionally stifled the progress of democracy in Equestria since we came to power?"

"Democracy? I've studied that, it's when ponies vote for their leaders instead of having them appointed. Princess, you said you tried it, but it never took off. Why do..."

"You are not the first to raise such a question. While your beloved teacher was making speeches or leading the armies to war, I was left to my own devices in the Royal Library. Much like you, that is where I discovered democracy as a form of government. I thought it fair and just to common ponies, so I asked for us to begin implementing it in Equestria. And much as you were, I was given inaction and flimsy excuses in return. But why, Twilight Sparkle? Why would the infallible Princess Celestia refuse to grant some political authority to her little ponies regarding who governs them? The answer is that she'd have to let go of her royal appointing powers, and you don't like to give up power, do you, sister dearest? You'd also have to trust those little ponies to make the right decisions for themselves, and trust isn't something you're very big on, either. Over the course of time, after my exile, common scholars began to come to the same conclusions I did, so you gave them democracy on the smallest scale possible to avoid sending me company. But everypony in government above the local level is placed there by royal decree. Justify that for me, Celestia."

"Luna, I never held contempt for democracy, but ponies weren't ready for it in those days! They were ruled by greed and self-interest; they had no concept of compassion for others. Had we installed total democracy, Equestrian society would've splintered into political interest groups, each one promoting their own benefit at the cost of everypony else. Even if the group supported by the most ponies had won out, many more would be hurt by their decisions than would be helped."

"I never said total! I wanted to experiment with it on the local level, then move upward if there were no problems! That was my proposal, and you still rejected it!"

"I didn't believe ponies would be content with gradual progression. Once the ambitious ones got a taste of power, they would've assembled their coalitions and never stopped pressing until they had more. Equestria was fragile in that era, Luna, the last thing we needed was internal divisions! When I told you the idea wasn't viable at the time, I wasn't dismissing you! I wanted to attempt it later, when we'd settled our external issues and could handle internal dissent if it arose. Maybe I should've tried it sooner than I did, or learned more of your reasoning when you made the proposal. For that, Luna, I'm truly sorry. But from my years as a politician, I learned you can't win a war on both fronts."

"Maybe I would have had foresight like that had I been given a chance to rule, instead of sitting by the wayside while you lead the charge! I tried! I tried to lead us to war, but you'd never let me! I tried to preside over courts and committees, but you kept all but the least important to yourself! We were supposed to be equals!"

"Dear Faust, it was a premonition..."

"What?"

"Luna, when we fought to overthrow Discord's rule, he showed me a vision of the two of us at war. Both of us were too drunk with power to attempt reconciliation, and our war tore Equestria in two. Absolute chaos and destruction followed in our wake. Now I see that that vision was a premonition of things to come. Luna, I kept power from you because I feared you becoming so strong you could make that vision a reality. Now I see all I did was engender enough hatred in your heart to achieve the same result."

"And now that I have come back into power, your thousand years of absolute rule shall be avenged. I shall have my own time of superiority, and I shall make Equestria into the paradise I dreamed of so long ago!"

"Don't delude yourself, sister. Common ponies will see your coup as it is: a simple coup, a revenge gambit against a beloved princess by a reviled enemy. You will have no way of asserting any kind of authority over them, and even if you could, how could you expect to make Equestria a paradise?"

"With the power you have kept locked away for so long, the power of the Elements of Harmony! They have potential far beyond the weapons you take them for, the potential to create a utopia for all ponies!"

"What? How could the Elements do that?"

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, did you not read about it in the reference guide? Of course you didn't; Celestia had that information struck from any record there may have been of it. But leaving me alone in the castle all those times was a mistake more grave than you realize, sister. You took a Princess full of resentment and bitterness and left her alone with access to the greatest supply of knowledge in Equestria. What did you think would come of it? The Elements were a particular curiosity to me at the time. It was simple enough to acquire them; the blood-magic enchantments you made to protect them responded to me as well. Then I simply had to set up the proper tests. What I found was that the Elements were a wellspring of power, begging to be directed and applied. With concentration, I could use them to make crops grow overnight, to make ordinary structures invulnerable to damage, even transmute matter from one element to another. Then I discovered the greatest power the Elements of Harmony could offer: they could alter pony physiology. The original spell I used to give my Guards their fearsome appearance was powered by the Elements. The one experiment I never dared attempt was to change a pony's race; from a unicorn to a pegasus to an earth pony and back. It may even have been possible to create alicorns."

"You mean like you and Celestia?"

"Exactly, Twilight Sparkle. My sister has probably never told you this, but she and I are the last of our kind. During the age of Discord's reign, he recognized the danger immortal and immensely powerful alicorns posed to his rule, so he led a purge of all of them. We were the only survivors. But I thought that would no longer need to be the case. Think of it, Twilight Sparkle, the single greatest act of genocide in the history of Equestria undone. The return of alicorns to Equestria, righting an ancient wrong with the power of the Elements. Would you not do it if you could?"

"I... I..."

"I am afraid my sister speaks the truth about Equestria's history, faithful student. That was truly our darkest hour, and the fact that she and I survived at all is nothing short of a miracle. But the past cannot be undone, Luna, and the alicorn race cannot be restored. What would ponies do if they realized we had the ability to make them so powerful? How many would kill or die to gain that power? And if such a heart drove them to gain it, what would they use that power for when it was theirs? Luna, it would be too great a lure for us to keep it from them and maintain order in Equestria. There is a precious balance between earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns that Faust herself guards; that balance is not for us to tamper with. And even if we did create a new race of alicorns, we could not grant them immortality."

"What? How do you know?"

"I know because I tried, sister. Less than a year after you left, I examined your notes and experiments with the Elements, and thinking much like you did, I tried to gift a trusted unicorn general with wings and immortality. But the spell backfired; instead of gaining wings, he became a living gas, and his heart became blackened with hatred. With the power I gave him, he took over the Crystal Empire. Now the Empire is gone, the crystal ponies are missing, most likely dead, and it's all because of me."

"Impossible! You must have gotten the spell wrong!"

"No, Luna, what happened to Sombra happened because I tried to meddle with powers beyond my control. But a decade ago, I started having dreams that told me another alicorn was needed in Equestria. I worked up the courage to try your spell again, but I knew I could not risk the power corrupting whoever I gave it to. So I selected the daughter of a close advisor. By no means was she an ideal leader or warrior, but her heart was pure and driven by kindness. Your spell worked, Luna, and it gave us Princess Cadence. But while she is an alicorn, she does not possess the gift of immortality; she will age and die like any other pony. But what I learned is that if Faust wants another alicorn to be born, she will cause one to be born. But at any other time, our attempts will only result in disaster."

"But what of the other powers of the Elements? I know they work perfectly, I proved that myself!"

"Luna, you assume too much goodness on the part of common ponies. It is true the Elements could give Equestria great things, but how long would we enjoy those gifts before our eyes turned outward? We would have the power to run roughshod over foreign nations, and how many power-hungry ponies would be all too eager to do so? I have always tried to keep Equestria away from imperialism, but if the true power of the Elements was discovered, the call for conquest would be too great."

"What of the possibilities without military application? What harm would there be to ending hunger in Equestria?"

"History shows that when there is an increase in food supply, the population increases at an equal rate. Even if we made enough to feed everypony in Equestria, we simply don't have the infrastructure to handle that kind of a population boom! The point is that every good thing can be taken to dangerous excess. Luna, ponies have never been as well-meaning and idealistic as you assume and I'd like to assume. They do not work for the common good, they only care about their own interests."

Rainbow Dash had had enough of being silent.

"They might prove you wrong, Celestia, if you'd give them a chance!"

"Stay out of this, Rainbow Dash. The less you interfere, the more inclined I'll be to show mercy when this is all said and done."

"Maybe you won't be the one showing mercy. I know I won't be asking for it. But what neither of you have is the opinion of an average pony. Like it or not, both of you are as far from "average" as it gets, but what you do affects millions of average ponies across Equestria. I think it's time we got our say in."

"Rainbow, do what she..."

"Shut up, Twilight! You've been Celestia's lapdog your whole life, you don't get to call yourself "average". And you definitely don't give me orders."

Though she was smaller in stature than either Princess, Rainbow Dash had found her voice, and that was all she needed to have a commanding presence.

"Now, Celestia, I'm sure we're all very grateful that you saved our ancestors from Discord's rule, and I'm sure Equestria back then was a dangerous place that needed a strong leader to keep order. But that time has come and gone! Yeah, there are trouble spots now and then, but we the ponies can do pretty well for ourselves on a day-to-day basis without royal interference. It's not like you ever help us that much! Every day, you rest your pasty-white flank on a polished golden throne in the nicest building in the nicest part of the nicest city in Equestria, so blissfully unaware of how the rest of us survive. While you sip imported champagne from a silver goblet, ponies across the nation break their back just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head. I should know, my parents lived that life! They were Cloudsdale factory workers from the day I was born, and they were Cloudsdale factory workers until the day they died. It was a leak of overconcentrated fog, not that you'd care."

Rainbow Dash was never the type to bear her soul, but if it gave Celestia a reality check, it was worth it. Besides, it was time somepony knew about this, Twilight especially.

"The work didn't pay too well, but it was enough for the three of us. They were saving to put me through college, but that meant forgoing hot meals once and a while. It wasn't like they were wasting what they made; neither of them had any issues or addictions to feed. They were probably the most honest, hard-working ponies you could've asked for, so explain to me, Celestia, why they had to struggle and sacrifice so much just to give me a chance at a decent future?"

"There have always been problems with the higher edu..."

"Let me stop you there. I never said I went to college, I said they were saving to send me to college. When they died, the factory and the Equestrian Revenue Service made up enough debt in their name to take everything we had. The apartment, the furniture, the life savings, everything! And I was sent off to a state orphanage for ten years. If it wasn't for a family friend who owned a summer house outside of Ponyville, I'd probably still be on the streets today."

"But Rainbow Dash, look at you now! You have a successful career, a good house, a chance with the Wonderbolts, and a town full of friends! What more do you want? You're the Element of Loyalty, for heaven's sake!"

"I never wanted that, Twilight! I never asked to be a part of Equestria's last line of defense when things go bad. I never asked to stick my neck out to fight some of the most dangerous enemies in the world. When you came to Ponyville, I was nice to you because you didn't give me a reason not to be. I went into the Everfree Forest with you because I thought you'd need help. I was right, and everything I did that night, I did because it was the right thing to do, nothing more. I had no idea some ancient artifact would choose me as its user. But if I'd known then what I know now, I would've bugged out the moment I saw you."

That remark stung Twilight Sparkle worse than anything else that was said that night.

"You like to think things out, Twilight, so think this out with me. Aside from forcing me to become the go-to risk-your-life defender of the nation, the Element of Loyalty has also ruined my chances with the Wonderbolts. They don't want me because they know I could be called away at a moment's notice if there's trouble. And being the weather manager of Ponyville isn't a very high-paying job; it's local government work. And since Fluttershy is too much of a sweetheart to charge fairly for her veterinary work, I have to help her pay the bills in addition to my own needs. Where does the money come from, Twilight? I'll tell you, I get it from working the street racing circuits! Ponies pay top dollar to watch fast pegasi race around each other. But even that's starting to fall through, because the Element is making me too visible to keep racing."

Now, Dash began sidestepping to return to Nightmare Moon's side. Twilight matched her and did the same towards Celestia.

"But not anymore! Under our new Republic, the army will be strong enough to handle any threat. As Field Commander, I'll make sure of that. It's time for me to step out from behind your shadow and make my own name."

"Well said, my trusted apprentice. Now sister, will you yield, or must we remove you by force?"

"You know the answer, Nightmare Moon. This ends tonight."

Twilight, Celestia, and Nightmare Moon each lowered their horn and began channeling magical energy. Dash, lacking such an option, instead drew a katana blade over her right shoulder with her mouth. Weapons readied, both parties charged.

Eclipse

Back in the Hall of History, five servants of Celestia had met their opposite numbers from the Army of the New Lunar Republic. Though they had ditched any heavy weapons before leaving for Canterlot, the Shadowbolts were still armed; combined with their hoof-to-hoof training, it meant Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy would be hard-pressed to win this battle. Shining Armor, however, stood a much better chance in full guard armor, with longsword controlled magically and a short sword ready to be unsheathed. Of course, he was fighting Nightshade, the Shadowbolt Squad Leader, who had advantages of her own to bring against him. When the two charging groups met and drew a battle line, he attacked with a lateral slash to his left. She leapt up and flew over both his slash and him, allowing the sword to instead collide with the Hall's stonework. He quickly turned around to face her, and she flicked her forehooves to deploy her concealed daggers and crescent blades.

"You know, a bunch of ponies tried this same thing about a thousand years ago! It didn't end very well for them."

"Yeah, but the ponies a thousand years ago weren't us."

He brought his sword back around and launched it at her, this time in a thrust. Nightshade easily sidestepped it, and as the sword tip sailed past her, she galloped towards him. Releasing his grip on the sword, Shining Armor telekinetically grabbed her as she leapt at him, holding her in midair.

"Give it up! You're trying to fight an army of the best-trained, best-armed soldiers in Equestria, you can't win!"

"Ha! You call yourself an army? You're an overblown police force, Lieutenant. Peace has cost the Royal Guard its strength. Victory has defeated you! But the Shadowbolts, oh, we train like war's already come to Equestria, because we knew the night would come when it would, and we'd be the ponies leading the charge."

There was a confidence, almost condescension in her voice that took him off-guard, especially given their current situation.

"Tough talk for somepony captured and helpless."

"Well granted, you're an above-average Guard in all respects, and we're engaged in single combat, free of the fog and chaos of war. But my Shadowbolts turned the tide this evening and massacred your invasion force in the Everfree. And there's a real army of our brothers and sisters in the Lunar Guard ready to march on this palace and overrun it once your pesky force field is out of the picture. So regardless of what you say or think, the fact is yes, we can win. And for the record, Shadowbolts are never helpless, because Shadowbolts are never alone. Stratus!"

At that moment, Nightshade's second in command turned his attention from the amusingly intimidated Fluttershy to her, and easily assessed what she was asking for. He was fast enough that Shining Armor barely had a chance to react before being bucked clear across the Hall into a stone column. Without concentration to hold the magic together, Nightshade dropped to the ground.

"You should've aimed for a window."

"Didn't think you were done toying with him."

With a quick nod of thanks to Stratus, she charged at her downed quarry once more.

With that problem cleared up, Stratus returned to the feeble-looking yellow pegasus he had engaged. Well, "engaged" wasn't the best term; more like "frightened into cowering across the battlefield to get away from him". She was still back-pedaling, until her tail reached the far end of the Hall. She was cornered. Really, it was insulting that this was the best they could send against him; he was desperately hoping to expand the night's kill count. But as she crouched and turned her head away in fear, Fluttershy received a spark of inspiration. These were Rainbow Dash's new friends? She had been replaced by this monster? The indignation gave her courage to speak, albeit in hardly more than a whisper.

"Jerks."

So she'd finally said something! If he couldn't get a challenge out of her, at least he'd get a laugh.

"Last words, coward. Better speak up."

Stratus had only stoked the fire. Fluttershy turned up to look her enemy dead in the eyes.

"I said, jerks! You think I'd let a bunch of jerks like you replace us as Rainbow Dash's friends?"

She stood up and faced him, and what happened next was downright unnerving. Stratus had been trained to repel hordes of griffon tribal warriors single-hoofedly. He had been trained to outmaneuver squadrons of pursuing pegasi with one wing tied to his back. But he had no training whatsoever to prepare him for The Stare. Her eyes alone bore into him like drills, causing him to physically recoil. What? How is this possible? Dark magic?

"You don't deserve her, you traitorous piece of scum!"

She was back on her hooves now, and approaching him.

"The six of us are the most powerful ponies in Equestria, and the best of friends, and you think you can just split is up? I don't know what you did to her to make her abandon us, but once we have her back, we'll make you regret it until the day you die."

But Stratus had regained his nerve, and dropped back to his training. When the enemy tries to gain ground against you, they expose themselves to counterattack. Use what they give you against them. Asserting himself, he cut off her advance.

"You stupid little foal. You're throwing around a lot of tough talk and promises in a situation you know nothing about. We didn't kidnap Rainbow Dash, we didn't brainwash her, we didn't force her to do anything. Princess Luna brought her to us, made her an offer, and she accepted. Everything Dash has done tonight has been of her own free will."

"Impossible! You're lying!"

"You wish I was, don't you? Maybe you just don't know your friends as well as you thought you did. After all, what other secrets could you all be hiding if the Element of Kindness has so much hatred in her heart?"

And with that, he stared right back at her. His expression was flat and cold, but had the slight hints of a smirk. She fought to keep up the attack, but his armor-piercing question had hit home. There was nothing she could think of to respond with, nothing at all. Resolve broken, the Stare relented. But out of desperation, Fluttershy loosed an animalistic scream and leapt forward to tackle Stratus. He responded with a punishing right haymaker, which made direct contact with her jaw and sent her spiraling away. She tumbled across the ground for a second, then came to a stop, crumpled and bleeding on the floor.

Applejack, like Shining Armor, had immediately taken an offensive posturing when the battle began. Charger had to constantly sidestep and draw back to avoid her volley of kicks and bucks. With a quick flap of his wings, he made an assisted leap back to put more distance between them.

"Cumm'ere and fight, ya traitor!"

"At least I'm not a traitor to the Equestrian language. This is why I stay out of redneck country; too much muscle, not enough grey matter."

Applejack charged again, but Charger unclipped a small metal disk from the belt on his Shadowbolt uniform. Throwing it like a discus, he banked the device off the ground, and it bounced up to her face. Applejack was forced to skid to a stop, but before she even lost momentum the device exploded with a bright flash of light and a thundering boom. Reeling away, she was caught completely by surprise when Charger attacked her with a soaring right jab. It made direct contact with her jaw, but thankfully was enough of a shock to restore her faculties. As he came back around for a second pass, she turned to face him, then ducked as he swooped over. He landed, then turned back to her.

"Lemme show you how we do things down in redneck country, mister city slicker!"

Pulling her lasso out of hammerspace, Applejack quickly twirled and tossed it high, arcing towards Charger's head. But he quickly brought his left hoof up to eye-level, and as the loop came down, it caught both his head and his hoof, preventing it from tightening around his neck. He then slid the rope down his left foreleg, allowing it to hang from his right shoulder.

"Rule one of city-slicking: expect the unexpected."

And with that warning, Charger turned left and took off towards the broken stained glass window he'd entered the Hall through. Just as the lasso came taught, he dove out into open air, and his weight dragged Applejack along the ground towards the window. She was only able to stop with her front hooves braced against the wall, but still had to deal with unbearable strain on her neck from the rope in her teeth. It was a struggle just to hold on. It would be so easy to let go, ya varmint, but I ain't no killer. But suddenly, the tension disappeared. Applejack regained her hoofing, then started to pull on the rope. After a few seconds, the loop came back over the edge; it was split in two. Maybe the drop was just too much. But there was no time to worry about him. He was the enemy, and there were still four more like him trying to kill her friends.

Blueball was making great use of her aerial superiority against Pinkie Pie, darting and zipping around her too fast for her eyes to follow. Here and there she would throw in a fast punch or kick, adding physical substance to the blue blur she had become. But in the midst of this, Pinkie stood up on her back hoofs, extended her right front hoof as if pointing at something, and declared in a thundering voice,

"Objection!"

In response, a cloud-shaped speech bubble bearing the word appeared above her hoof. With no time to react, Blueball smacked into the bubble, causing it to shudder metallically and plastering herself to its side. With an impulsive jerk, she unstuck herself and dropped her hooves back to the ground as the bubble dissipated.

"Oh, you cheated!"

She unsheathed a short sword, causing Pinkie to turn around and try to run. But as soon as she was facing away, Blueball zipped around her and cut her off. "Hey, I'm the only one who can do that!" Pinkie complained. She turned around again, but rather than run away, she ran up. Her personal gravity had been somehow inverted, and she was ascending an invisible wall. Blueball flitted up to her level, just a few hooves beneath the ceiling.

"Cool trick! Howja do that?"

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention."

Pinkie raised a hoof up to point at the line of white text floating above them.

THIS FIGHT HAS BEEN FORMATTED TO FIT YOUR SCREEN

"Oh... Cool!"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Pinkie leaned forward and stood on her front hooves, then bucked Blueball away from the left edge of your screen. As she fell, she bounced off the right edge of your screen, then hit the floor. "Get a bigger computer monitor, for the love of Luna!" she yelled at you as she stood up and dusted herself off.

"My turn: Hub logo attack!"

Reaching down, Blueball grabbed the Hub logo from the bottom right corner of your screen and hurled it at Pinkie. Flying like a boomerang, the small silver disc rammed into her midsection, knocking her off the edge of your screen and back to the floor. By the time she was back on her hooves, Blueball had flown over and pounced on her.

"Sorry, but breaking the fourth wall is against the Laws of Physics. I'm gonna have to charge you!"

With two thick hoof-fulls of Pinkie's mane held tight, Blueball let loose the electrical power of her own. There was plenty of flash, along with the aroma of burnt cotton candy, but no apparent effect on Pinkie.

"Hmm, my mane's a great insulator. Go figure!"

"Nah, I think I'll just kill you instead."

Releasing her right hoof, Blueball slid down Pinkie's right side while keeping her left hoof's grip on her mane. Latched onto Pinkie's side, she flicked out a stiletto knife, hardly bigger than a surgeon's scalpel, from the wrist of her Shadowbolt costume. In a quick, but fluid motion, she drove the knife into Pinkie's ribcage, drawing blood immediately, and recharged. The electricity surged through Pinkie's body, sending her mane standing on end and her brain into a Spinning Beachball of Death. Suddenly, her mane went slacked. Blueball lost her balance, causing her to fall and the current of electricity to stop. On the ground, she rolled away and stood back up. As Pinkie came to, the first thing she saw was the puddle formed by blood dripping from her knife wound. Her mane stayed loose, hanging limply from the top of her body, and she turned to Blueball with a murderous smile on her face. Reaching back methodically with her right hoof, she yanked the stiletto out of her chest and held it loosely at her side.

"Here's Pinkamena!"

"And so I told her that while our designs were similar, hers was much less elegant. 'Griffons have no concept of elegance', she replied. And do you know what I told her?"

"Do tell."

"'This is obvious'. Her reaction convinced me to hold off on going international. Last time I deal with a griffon, I promise you that."

Far from the heated battles going on about them, Rarity and Starry Skies had decided that physical combat was unbecoming for civilized and cultured mares such as themselves.

"But you must tell me, Starry, what are you doing with a band of war-hawks like this?"

"Simple, really. The Wonderbolts wouldn't take me, even though I'm twice the aerobat compared to brutes like Soarin' and Wild Wind. My family has a reputation about Cloudsdale, and some ponies can be so horribly judgmental towards us. Thankfully Princess Luna was not one of them. But how about you? You're certainly not the fighting type, how did you end up here?"

"Circumstance, I'm afraid. I'm sure you know of Twilight Sparkle, and how she defeated Nightmare Moon several years ago. I joined her in her little quest simply because I believed she would need a local's help to venture into the Everfree Forest. But in the process, I somehow got selected to be the 'Element of Generosity', which I didn't initially resent. But when Equestria's best line of defense became the magic of friendship, it became quite the burden. Being dragged over hill and dale, having to fight the worst of the world's monsters and villains, so on, so on; the entire situation has played havoc on my fashion-design career."

"Mmm, that is unfortunate. I must confess, I didn't have much of a life to be ruined when I joined the Shadowbolts. Of course, I had the money to live comfortably, but without any sort of passion beyond aerobatics, it was a banal existence."

"I could imagine. Starry, I do hate to bring up the dragon in the room, but skin-tight catsuits have never exactly been in style. Not to mention the yellow-on-purple contrast is completely out of season..."

"Form follows function, dear. In a storm or late at night, even the sharpest of eyes would be hard-pressed to see me. And skin-tight means less friction in flight. Besides, you've got to admit we can scare the living daylights out of almost anypony we run into."

"True, but otherwise, it's an aesthetic nightmare."

Having thrown Nightshade away from him after an attempted grapple, Shining Armor noticed the two of them socializing. He was understandably upset.

"Rarity, quit fraternizing with the enemy!"

Starry noticed this directive as readily as its recipient did.

"Dear Luna, does this mean we have to...?"

"I suppose so. It's a true shame, we mares of culture having to come to blows, but as the old phrase goes, duty has no sweethearts."

"Sure..."

Starry reached to her hip to draw a combat knife, but Rarity beat her to the punch, magically holding three sewing needles tight to her neck.

"Uh uh uh, I may not be the sort for acupuncture, but I doubt needles are meant to go there!"

Frustrated, Starry put her right hoof back to the ground.

With wings helping her balance on her back hoofs, Rainbow Dash flicked her katana about in her front hooves, batting away bolt after bolt from a magical barrage. Angling the blade so that its flat side faced Twilight, she blocked the next bolt and reflected it back at her. This forced Twilight to leap away, and gave Dash the break she needed. Instantly she leapt into the air, then spiraling around another energy blast, power-dove and made a ramming thrust at the Element of Magic. In response, Twilight threw up a magical shield, and even though it kept the blade a safe distance from her, it could not prevent a degree of penetration; there was simply too much force behind so keen a tip. Dash regained altitude and came to a stop, then spun around to face Twilight. With a flick of her left wing, she hurled a throwing knife down at her, but Twilight reactivated her shield and the dagger bounced erratically off it.

"Stop this, Rainbow Dash! You're my friend, I don't want to fight you!"

"You call what we had a friendship? I can't count the number of times I had to stick my neck out for you. Because of you, I've had to go head-to-head with a god of chaos, a killer dragon, and a vicious horde of matter-eating insects. Your best idea to help me win the Best Young Flyers Competition was to give Rarity butterfly wings. What did she do with those wings, Twilight? She overshadowed me everywhere we went, then almost got herself killed! And don't even get me started on Mare-Do-Well! Yeah, my ego can get inflated sometimes, but is that an excuse for you to get all my friends to go behind my back and make up a grand scheme to royally humiliate me?"

Descending to hover above ground level, Dash began taking furious lateral hacks at her rival apprentice. Twilight used magical assistance to duck and dive away, until she ended the assault by creating a sword of her own to block the katana. They collided with a metallic crack.

"If it weren't for you, I could've been a Wonderbolt!"

Another slash, another block, another crack.

"I would still have Gilda as a friend!"

This time it was an overhead attack, forcing Twilight to twist her energy sword to protect herself.

"And Equestria would be blanketed in eternal night, thanks to your mentor!"

"It would be so nice if the world was as black-and-white as you see it, Twilight, but we live in shades of grey. Nightmare Moon wouldn't have tried to cause eternal night if Celestia hadn't sent her to the Moon for a thousand years!"

Drawing back her sword, Dash took another forward thrust. Twilight didn't trust any magic barrier to keep her safe from such an attack, so she quickly teleported backwards, well away from the blade's reach. Out of frustration, Dash let out a primal scream.

"Fight me!"

"No, Rainbow Dash. No matter what's happened to you, what's caused you to hate me so much, I will not vindicate that hatred through violence. I still have hope in you, Rainbow Dash, in us!"

"Twilight Sparkle, always the optimist. But if you won't fight me..."

With a surprising burst of speed, Dash entered into a flurry of katana slashes. Creating an energy staff, Twilight struggled to knock back every blow, but when the onslaught ended, she was unscathed. Their weapons were locked against each other, but Dash raised her blade high, forcing both tips to the ground. The katana had pinned the staff to the stone floor, until Twilight allowed it to dissipate. But Dash did not change positions, and instead swept her blade's tip to the right along the ground, flinging loose gravel and dust at her enemy. Twilight recoiled from the surprise attack, and with a target exposed, Dash's left wing snapped forward. A small dagger spiraled with almost-audible sharpness and embedded itself in Twilight's right flank. Her right legs immediately buckled as she screamed out in pain.

"... then take a second to heal yourself, and listen well, egghead."

Dash resheathed her katana, and in the exchange that followed, Twilight for the first time heard her speak with true malice.

"I really hope you realize that you're wasting your hope on me, Twilight. That's the only reason I'm not tearing you apart right now, because I pity you. But you're a logical mare, maybe I can explain to you why you shouldn't bother trying to turn me back to your side. The first thing you ought to know is that honestly, I can't decide whether you should live or die. Practicality says I should kill you, but since Celestia used you even more than she did me, I can't shake the feeling that it would be like killing a stupid animal for being stupid."

This insult was cutting, but Twilight was only listening to Rainbow Dash's tirade with half a heart. Most of her focus was on curing whatever she had been poisoned with by the throwing knife. She continued probing the wound magically, examining the toxin. It was definitely a sedative, deadly given enough time, but it didn't match any known chemical weapon or drug. On the microscopic level, it was producing an almost random assortment of effects, the significance of which she simply could not grasp. And what she couldn't understand, she couldn't cure.

"But either way, you'll be out of my way by the end of this, and that will free me up to help take care of Celestia. I'll let Luna decide her fate, since they have the whole millennia-long feud thing going on. After that, it's back to Canterlot to deal with our four dear friends. They probably won't have to be punished too harshly, unless one of them somehow managed to kill one of the Shadowbolts... I'm betting Applejack would be the one to do it. Oh, and there's your brother, too! I'm betting he would rather die fighting than surrender, and of course, I'd have to oblige him. We'll probably have to raze most of the city to deal with fanatics like him."

Twilight was beginning to understand what she had been poisoned with. It was a combination of several potent sedatives, each one amplifying the others' effects and canceling out their vulnerabilities. It was a complex jigsaw puzzle; any one approach to neutralizing one of the agents could easily be blocked out by another, but by successfully disabling one, she could weaken the others in turn. But medical magic was a delicate business, even for Twilight. It would take time. She just had to keep Rainbow Dash ranting. And that meant refusing to respond emotionally, no matter how wounding the insult or frightening the threat.

"But I'm getting away from the point at hoof: what will happen to you? Well, as Celestia's star student, you're part of what I like to call the "old guard". That means you, Celestia, the Elements of Harmony, everypony that had power in the way things used to be. Luna and I would be part of the old guard, too, if we hadn't decided there was a better way. And so now that we're taking charge, the old guard has to be, ehh, how should I put it? Swept away. You know, like spring cleaning or something. We're not just making a few small fixes, we're overhauling Equestria's entire system of government. We're going to show the public how greatness was being kept just out of their hooves, then give it to them ourselves. And when we do, you're going to be worse than dead, Twilight. You're going to be despised. I'll personally make sure you're recorded in the history books as a willing agent of Celestia's despotic regime. Ponies will hate your name as fiercely as they did 'Nightmare Moon' only years ago."

The first layer of the toxic compound had been broken down, and now the others were beginning to unravel. It was a modified chloroform, and Twilight had been able to magically break it down at the atomic level. She then began probing the weaknesses of the next layer, apparently chloral hydrate. But the remaining toxin was beginning to take effect, robbing her of energy and making magic more difficult. She needed to solve this puzzle fast.

"And while we're on the subject of poetic justice, I think I have an idea of what to do with the two of you. Celestia forced Luna to endure a thousand years of bitter cold and isolation on the Moon. I don't get to pass final judgement on her, but I think she deserves a long stay in Tartarus for that. And I'd imagine the surface of the Sun is just about 20% hotter. But of course, the two of you couldn't go together. You'd could keep each other company, and that's a luxury Luna never had. Maybe I'll lock you in the dungeon of our new castle, let you watch as the Equestria you knew vanishes, show you just how spectacularly you've failed, kick you around whenever I need a laugh. But then you might get out and come kill me... I think I know what I'll do with you. I'll just tie you up, stick you up on top of that tree you call home where all of Ponyville can see, then burn you at the stake. A grand bonfire in celebration of the successful revolution."

The chloral hydrate had broken down, as had the two layers after it. With only one chemical left, Twilight's faculties were beginning to restore themselves. She quickly discovered it was a potent type of diazepam, but with no other agents to protect it, she could use a simple neutralizing spell. The puzzle was solved; the poison was cured.

"And just to rub it in, I think I'll make Spike start the fire, then toss him in right after you!"

Telekinetically removing the knife, then applying tissue-healing and painkilling spells to the wound, Twilight was back in fighting shape. Now she could afford to get a word in.

"Rainbow Dash, if you want to threaten me, go right ahead. If it satisfies your personal vendetta, then do whatever you will with me. You can even throw the Princess in with me, if you really believe everything you've accused her of. But you will not threaten my friends, my family, or my home! And especially not Spike!"

Finally, a reaction! Dash was starting to have fun with this, and her mocking tone showed it.

"Ooh, I did strike a nerve there! Do you still think I can be 'saved' by the almighty magic of friendship?"

"I'll tell you what I think: I think this isn't Rainbow Dash talking!"

And with that, Twilight created an energy net and cast it upon Rainbow Dash. The Shadowbolt tried to escape by flying away, but the net easily entangled her and somehow gained tremendous weight at the same time. Grounded, she was forced flat on her stomach, caught between the floor and the magical construct. She was well and truly stuck; as Twilight walked over to her, she realized she was at her enemy's mercy. Twilight craned her neck down, and with her horn pulled Dash's reflective yellow flight goggles up and off of her eyes. She then touched the tip of her horn to Rainbow Dash's forehead, and activated a memory spell. This should have flooded Rainbow Dash's mind with memories of the great friendship she shared with the other Elements, freeing her from whatever influence was corrupting her mind. The last time it was used, Rainbow Dash's eyes went wide and she snapped back to reality as if from a dream; Twilight expected the same result this time. But nothing happened. Rainbow Dash only snorted and cracked a smug grin. Dumbstruck, Twilight backed away, allowing the energy net to dissipate. Dash stood back up and pulled her flight goggles back down. Pitiful.

"Still hoping, Twilight?"

"I... how... you're you!"

"Yep, no easy way out this time, Twi. No demons, no chaos magic, no obvious evil source to rationalize me away with. I am Rainbow Dash, nopony else, I am completely sane and in control, and I mean every word I say. You're going to have to fight me, because I'm here and I'm not backing down."

"No, Rainbow Dash, no matter what, no matter who you've become, I will not fight you."

"Don't you get it? Even if you play perfect defense the entire time, there's no way you can outlast me. You'll get tired, you'll get sloppy, and I'll get lucky. And then what's standing between me and the rest of Equestria?"

For all the love and cheerfulness she used to know in Rainbow Dash, Twilight didn't doubt she meant to make good on every threat, especially if Twilight survived to watch her do so.

"If anypony I've threatened tonight means anything to you, fight for them. If Canterlot or Ponyville mean anything to you, fight to protect your home. If your brother means anything to you, fight to give him a chance to live. But your only real hope of beating me is by striking back. So fight me, for whatever reason, or watch as everything you care about suffers and dies because of your weakness!"

She was right. Twilight realized that constantly defending herself was a losing battle. Every option she thought she had now only ended in her complete and total failure. Except fighting back. The line she promised herself she would never cross, and she was being pushed over it. But there wasn't a choice: could she really put so many lives at risk just for an old friend who had already betrayed her and tried to kill her? No. But the fact that she was being forced to cross that line gave her solace; she knew Rainbow Dash would never do that to her. This wasn't Rainbow Dash she was about to fight, it was a monster who had taken her place.

"Rainbow Dash, you used to be my best friend. I loved you like a sister. But if this is what you've become, if this is the path you choose to follow, then I must stand against you."

"About time. Now hit me with your best shot!"

Charging up a beam of magical energy, Twilight prepared to do just that.

Celestia and Nightmare Moon took far less time to come to blows, perhaps simply out of previous experience. Immediately locking horns, they struggled against each other both physically and magically.

"Luna, stop this madness!"

They pushed off each other, retreating. Nightmare Moon seethed with rage, and it was causing her to regress into her more natural archaic dialect.

"You think this madness, sister? You do not know the meaning of the term!"

Dropping back in stance, she took several shots at Celestia with magical pulse bolts. With an arcing charge, Celestia evaded them all, then leapt out at her sister, meaning to tackle and subdue her. But Nightmare Moon was too fast to be beaten so easily; magically crafting a claw of shadows, she immediately snatched Celestia from flight and halted her advance, then brought her down to eye-level.

"You wish to know madness? Then look into mine eyes."

Immobilized and helpless, Celestia obeyed. Far from capitulation, she hoped it would give her some new understanding of Luna's descent back into a Nightmare. In an age gone by, this was how a mind-meld was initiated, allowing a magical creature to see into the thoughts, feelings and memories of another. Of course, it fell into disuse after privacy became a concern... Celestia was probably one of the only ponies in Equestria who remembered it. And Nightmare Moon knew that. Reluctantly, Celestia began the mind-meld, staring into her sister's turquoise cat-eyes, and in her mind's eye, she saw it. No, felt it, even. The cold. The fear. The loneliness. But at the same time, the hope. She could see Earth up above her, with a perfect view of the Equestrian continent. It was like a gem, the sunlight shining down into a dungeon, beckoning her to come home. But somehow, implicitly, she understood that she could never return. The orb of hope in the sky was impossible, but it was there all the same. And then Celestia realized that that impossible hope was the true nature of despair. This was an environment perfectly conditioned to nurture desperation and hatred. This was the prison her sister had been locked in for the past millennium. The prison she had locked her in.

"Do you feel it, Celestia? Do you understand now the frozen hell you damned me to?"

Perhaps, for the first time in her life, she did.

"Luna, I... I don't... I'm sorry, dear Faust, I'm so sorry, Luna. I failed you as a sister, and as a sister all I can do is ask your forgiveness."

Nightmare Moon's heart, for probably the last time in her life, softened.

"Join me, sister. Stand beside me, not against me. We can lead Equestria into a new age of democracy and prosperity, together! Our armies will stand united against any threat, the Elements of Harmony alongside the Shadowbolts."

And at that moment, even if only faintly, even if only for a second, Celestia thought she saw the old Luna in her sister's eyes again.

"Please, Celestia, think of it. More than a millennia of hatred and war, ended right now. You and I, sisters again, champions of a new age of greatness. I can order my Guard to stay their hooves this minute, but I need you as my ally."

The offer was heart-rending. Every fiber of Celestia's being wanted to accept, to reunite with her long-lost Luna and stay the bloody civil war that would otherwise result. She had been waiting to accept such an offer for a thousand years. But principle held her back. She thought of all the strife her sister's revolution could bring among ponies, as Equestrian society stratified all the more between the "haves" and the "have-nots", and class war inevitably followed. She thought of the suffering of other races as an imperialist Equestria, powered by the Elements, ran roughshod over its neighbors in violent conquest. And she thought of the brave Guards and civilians who had already died because of this revolution, and the many more who would surely perish rather than accept it. As deeply as it pained her, she knew what her answer had to be.

"Luna, you have always been my sister, and although I've failed you so greatly, I've always loved you as a sister, and I always will. But I've seen the end of the road you wish to travel, and in the name of harmony, I cannot walk it with you."

Then, just as the stained-glass windows depicted such a long time ago, the younger sister turned away from the elder, head hung low.

"So be it. Although my offer was in earnest, I expected such a response from you. And if you will not stand with me, then you oppose me."

"As it has been across the ages, so it is now," Celestia reflected in a tone almost mournful.

"Very well then. Expect no mercy."

Nightmare Moon's response was not a threat, but stated like a fact, even an antebellum courtesy to her enemy. And with that, she collapsed into a low-hanging cloud of night-blue gas, spreading across the cobblestone floor as easily as a bank of fog. As the gas dissipated, it seeped into the numerous cracks in the stonework, effectively disappearing. The final battle had begun.

Having engaged Applejack after both had lost their original sparring partners, Stratus slowly began working towards Nightshade. He discombobulated his opponent with a hammer-swing blow to the head, giving him time to report to her.

"Ponies are dropping, Shade. I took out one of theirs, but they've got Starry, and I haven't seen Charger in a while."

"He can handle it, whatever it is. But we do need to regroup. Form up on the yellow one; we can use her as leverage against them."

Both immediately took off, causing a sword slash from Shining Armor to whiff through empty air. Touching down a few hooves from Fluttershy, she called out "Shadowbolts, form up!" Blueball did so eagerly, narrowly avoiding Pinkamena's downward stab attack with her stolen knife. The three of them stood behind their captured enemy, and with nopony fighting, the Elements and Shining Armor did the same, Rarity forcing Starry Skies to go with them. Nightshade and Shining, the two groups' natural leaders, began parley.

"It appears we've both taken prisoners of war. Perhaps it's time for an exchange?"

"Is Fluttershy still alive?"

"Oh, sure, just a little shaken up. Stratus has a nasty right hook, if you haven't found out already."

"Um, Nightshade, I do appreciate the witticism and all, but I don't exactly like sewing needles in my throat!" Starry interrupted unapologetically.

"Fair enough, Starry. So is it a deal, Starry for Fluttershy?"

"Yes, deal."

Stratus pushed Fluttershy's limp body towards the enemy party and Shining Armor did the rest, dragging her back to their side of the battle line then casting an energy spell to help her get back on her hooves. In return, Rarity dropped her sewing needles, allowing Starry to gallop back to her fellow Shadowbolts.

"Thank Luna. I was starting to worry about that pink one."

"Come on, why so serious? Let's put a smile on that face!"

Blueball shuddered visibly at the suggestion, an effect no doubt related to the numerous cuts in her flight suit. Disregarding this, Shining Armor spoke up.

"There, we've both got our ponies back. Now surrender!"

Nightshade shot him a mockingly confused look, cocking an eyebrow and begging an explanation.

"You're outnumbered, five against four. If you couldn't beat us one on one, there's no way you can win one pony down."

Nightshade noticed that Charger had not joined in the formation. She couldn't find him anywhere in the hall.

"Where's Charger?" she implored. Applejack, saddled with some guilt, felt obligated to answer.

"I had him caught with my lasso, but he jumped out that window. I tried to hold onto him, believe me, I did, but the rope snapped. I didn't kill him, he didn't kill himself, the rope just wasn't strong enough to hold him. I'm sorry."

"Dammit..."

But almost on cue, Charger flew back into the Hall through the broken window. Touching down with the rest of the Shadowbolts, he was welcomed by looks of shock and surprise.

"Like I said, cowgirl, expect the unexpected. Sorry to scare you, Nightshade, just had some rigging to do."

"But the rope snapped!"

"No, I cut it, sugarcube. With this."

He flicked a stiletto knife into his front hoof, similar to the one Blueball had stabbed Pinkie with. Holding it up long enough to display, he then let it slide back into its compartment on his wrist. Based on the cursory report he had just given her, Nightshade smiled with wry confidence; a trump card had just been dealt into her hoof.

"What've you rigged up for us?"

In response, Charger launched into a smug mock-report to everypony in the room. It was as much taunting his enemies as it was informing his allies.

"Glad you asked! Right now I have Canterlot Tower completely wired to collapse in on itself, burying the Elements of Harmony in rubble. And once it crumbles, this hall will fall off the side of the palace, taking you five with it. Your only pegasus is in no condition to save herself, much less carry anypony."

"You're bluffing! I saw you before the battle, you weren't carrying near enough for a blast that big," Shining Armor retorted.

"Really? I'm almost insulted you think so little of Lunar Guard engineering! Do you remember the carriage bombing outside the Coltlumbian Embassy about 6 months ago?"

"What are you implying?"

"That blast was caused by a charge the size of a hoofball. It was a test of our new magic-based explosive, and as you can see, it was a great success."

"You mean you tried to blow up an embassy as a test?"

"Relax, we set it up to keep damage to a minimum, and didn't set it off until there was nopony in the blast zone. Besides, that embassy needed better security anyway; we were honestly doing you a favor. But I'm wandering. Maybe you didn't notice, but I did have a flight belt strapped on and charges strapped to my back legs when we arrived. Where are they now?"

Shining Armor observed that none of the explosive charges were on his body at the moment. The implication was obvious, and Charger loved it.

"So think of two belts' worth of that much explosives, spread about Canterlot Tower by the best demo-stallion in the Lunar Guard, and all ready to be blown by the squeeze of my hoof."

Charger gestured with the detonator in his right hoof. A piece of magitech, it was enchanted to activate detonation spells in the explosive charges when squeezed. Shining Armor truly realized the danger he and the Elements were in. He had been outmaneuvered.

"What are your demands?"

"Well, we can start with the obvious 'drop your weapons.'"

Two swords, a stolen knife and what was left of a lasso clattered to the floor.

"Alright, now, mmm... I'm out of ideas. Shade, you got anything?"

"Yeah, drop the shield around the palace!"

"Forget it, there's no way I'm opening the front door for your invasion force!"

"Your call."

And at that moment, grinning sadistically, Charger pressed down on the detonator lever. Immediately the floor behind the Elements exploded, throwing them forward. The entire Hall thundered and shook in sudden jerks as more charges went off around Canterlot Tower. As predicted, it could not stand with its structural integrity compromised, and it began to topple away from the palace. Along with it, the Hall of History was seemingly ripped away from the rest of the castle. Inside, the Elements could feel the floor drop beneath them, as they began to slide towards an oblivion of shifting debris and rubble. The Shadowbolts quickly leapt up and flew out the higher end of the Hall, remorseless as they left their enemies to be crushed.

Recovering from the shell shock of the first explosion, Shining Armor snapped back to consciousness as the ground beneath his hooves rocked violently backward. He was losing traction rapidly, and, as he could see, so were the others. Applejack was practically clawing into the stone flooring, while Fluttershy ineffectually flapped her wings to try and escape. He knew what was coming next: whatever hold the structure still had on the rest of the castle was failing fast, and that meant a sudden drop that none of them could expect to survive. But as he saw the Shadowbolts escape out the top, his front hooves were pulled loose of the flooring, sending him tumbling downward. Bouncing down the floor like a steep stone slide, there was no way for him to focus on anything, and all Shining could do was wonder whether he would die by what he fell on, or what fell on him.

Author's Note

In case you're wondering, this whole extended battle takes place just before where "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000" would be in the timeline.
I suck at describing voices, so for the Shadowbolts, here's some voice casting that may help you out.
Nightshade- Nicole Sullivan
Stratus- Lance Legault
Blueball Blitz- Pauley Perrette
Charger- John Barrowman
Starry Skies- Claudia Black

Darkest Hour

Tipped off by the sound of cracking stone, Celestia threw herself forward to avoid a column collapsing on top of her. No doubt the sentient gas her sister had become had weakened it just for that purpose. But there was no way she could win this fight if she was fighting a cloud of smoke. She needed a way to strike back, but how? Unfortunately, she was not given a chance to answer that question, as Nightmare Moon materialized and dropped down from above her. Celestia nearly buckled under her sister's weight, but was able to throw her off with some effort. She then turned around to face her.

"Last chance, Luna. End this now and all is forgiven."

"Took you any hint from the phrase 'no mercy'?"

They charged at each other, and again sparred with horns. As soon as they would lock against each other, they would back off, then swing again and reconnect. Soon Celestia fired a beam of pure sunlight at Nightmare Moon, who evaded by a wing-assisted jump. She responded with her own magical beam attack, and Celestia took to the sky to pursue. The two of them swirled around each other, and so did the beams, forming a light show in the twilit sky that could easily have caused seizures. But Nightmare Moon saw the futility in this and flung herself upward in a forward roll, then reextended pointing straight down to Celestia. Magically turning her wings as hard as steel, she dove rapidly and slammed her sister with a flyby attack. Sent reeling from the attack, Celestia plummeted downward, only for her gut to meet Nightmare Moon's hoof extended in an uppercut. She crashed into the stone floor and Nightmare Moon touched down beside her, then jabbed her front left hoof into her sister's back, just between the wings. Celestia was already splayed against the ground, and realizing she was pinned, looked for any other way out. Nothing up, forward, back, or to the sides, so that just left... down.

With what effort she could muster, Celestia charged the ground with magic in the form of heat and kinetic energy, causing the ancient masonry to crumble and collapse. The two alicorns plunged into an oblivion, only to shortly meet its end in another, far more solid floor. The hidden chamber was illuminated by the light of the eclipse, and stepping up onto her hooves, Celestia began to make sense of where in the old castle they were. The tables, the stacks of books and papers, the science equipment of a bygone age... It was all beginning to come together. These chambers must've been where Luna did her "tests" on the Elements of Harmony. Of all the places in the castle to survive...

"Down once more, Celestia?"

Each word sounded like it had bounced about the room a thousand times before reaching her ear, a reverberating echo so strong it sounded like the entire room was talking to her. But as the voice disappeared, it was replaced by a low hum of magic in use. Suddenly, Nightmare Moon leapt from the shadows, slashing with a blade from her horn made of pure dark energy. It was almost completely luck that Celestia spotted her and was able to jump away. But as she turned to face her, Nightmare Moon quickly sublimated back into the shadows. The voice from everywhere returned.

"That was actually quite clever, destroying the floor beneath us. It appears fighting me has taught you some measure of ingenuity."

Then came another hum, followed by three otherworldly bursts of sound. Throwing up a magical shield, Celestia deflected three bolts of shadow coursing towards her from behind. She spun around again, but Nightmare Moon was nowhere to be seen.

"But you are still a fool, descending further into darkness. You should've cherished what light you had."

A fog was beginning to materialize in the laboratory, no doubt magically created. Nightmare Moon always did have a taste for the theatrical. But practically speaking, it was more dangerous than it seemed. With visibility reduced all the more, it was only a matter of time before Celestia missed an incoming attack. And one opening was all Nightmare Moon needed.

"Sunlight may be your domain, but the shadows belong to me!"

Celestia had to act fast. An attack would be coming soon, and the odds favored its success. But her sister's talk of sunlight and shadows had inspired her...

"Then I must banish the shadows once more..."

Pointing her horn straight up, Celestia launched from it a small magical flare, which exploded with the blinding radiance of an artificial sun. In that enclosed space, nothing could protect Nightmare Moon from the sheer brightness of it, and having been caught off-guard, she screamed out, blinded.

"...with the light of harmony."

The flare dissipated into a small orb of light, just enough to illuminate the room, and Celestia found her sister with ebony wings covering her face as she hoped to regain sight. But even disabled, Nightmare Moon was crafty, and had thrown up a magical force field of her own almost by instinct. It would protect her from any attack until her sight returned, but that didn't mean it would protect her from everything...

Leaping away from an airborne slash attack, Twilight formed a magical chain from her horn and whipped it at Rainbow Dash. The chain caught around her back hoof and Twilight pulled her to the ground, but Dash rolled on her back as she fell and flung a throwing knife. Twilight was barely able to deflect it with telekinetic magic. She needed to do something about all those blades. Disengaging the spell that created the chain, she cast another, and suddenly Dash's knives began to pull away from their threading in her wings. She felt tension in her midsection as well, as the unseen force tugged at the remaining flashbang grenade on her belt.

"Not even you can escape magnetism, Rainbow!"

Dash struggled to keep her katana in hoof, until she realized that fighting Twilight's spell was the wrong approach. Reaching down to her waist, she unhooked her last flashbang from her belt and let it hurtle towards Twilight's head. This next move would be tricky. The magnetic force will affect the throw; just treat it like a cross-wind headed towards her. With some intentional bank in her throw, Dash hurled the knife closest to her in her right wing, then flipped her left wing so the blades were pointed away from Twilight, and her magnetic spell drew them back securely into their threading. At the same time the knife spiraled through the air and embedded itself in the flashbang, piercing the thin metal canister and bypassing the fuse to cause an instantaneous chemical reaction. Realizing what was about to happen, Twilight tried to create a force field around the grenade, but the muffled blast was enough to send her reeling. With her focus lost, the magnetic spell faded, and it was lucky for her, too: Dash's throw had caused the remaining two knives in her right wing to come loose and fly at Twilight. Now they tumbled back to the ground, and as Dash jumped back up on her hooves, Twilight struggled to recover from the shell-shock.

"Neither can you. But let me show you my brand of magic."

Twilight had managed to stagger to her hooves when Dash took off, flying in a low circle around her. As Dash rocketed around this tight orbit, she drew the wind to follow her and began gaining altitude, forming a localized tornado. By the time Twilight had regained focus, she felt her hooves being picked up off the ground, and she began to spiral up into a funnel of dust and debris. The world spun about her, and she was battered by flying rocks and clods of dirt.

Can't... focus... Too much... happening... Stupid... backstabbing... traitor!

Suddenly, Twilight's magic exploded through sheer rage, releasing a radial blast of energy that knocked Rainbow Dash out of her holding pattern and flung her into a tall stone column, which proceeded to topple from the impact. Levitating to the ground, Twilight ripped her from the rubble telekinetically, and held her aloft as she approached. With a few more telekinetic grabs, she stripped Dash of her remaining throwing knives and the combat dagger on her belt. The katana sheathed on her back, however, would not budge.

"Hmm, enchanted to resist any and all magic. Very nice work, whoever did it for you."

"You gonna do it, Twilight? Gonna finish me off once and for all this time?"

"The old me would've said no. But if I'm the only thing that stands between you and Celestia, and Equestria after that, then you force my hoof. You had every chance to turn back from this path of murder and chaos, and you've spurned every one. So yes, I'm going to end this madness now."

"Good..."

Twilight could feel Dash start to vibrate across her body. No matter how tight she held her, she was still vibrating, putting increasing pressure on Twilight to keep her contained. Every molecule of Dash's body was quivering, fighting to break free. It was difficult, but Twilight could contain it, until Dash suddenly lit up with polychromatic energy and loosed a massive wave of power, breaking the spell and knocking Twilight back.

"...then this is a real fight!"

Dash drew her sword and made a one-hooved slash at her enemy, her every move leaving a contrail of color behind. Twilight tried to create a sword of her own to counter with, but on impact it simply shattered out of existence. Several more magical constructs stood no better against Dash's volley of hacks and lunges. It was only a matter of time before one broke through, a downward slash that cut into Twilight along the right side of her muzzle, just below her eye. That would leave a mark. Shocked and angered, she reacted almost instinctively and teleported to the opposite side of the Shadowbolt, then fired a magical energy blast. The sound gave it away, though, and Dash spun on her back hooves just in time to swat the projectile away. Focusing her energy, she darted about Twilight from one place to another, leaving a series of afterimages resembling her perfectly. Twilight was now surrounded by eight Shadowbolt Rainbow Dashes, each leering at her menacingly.

"So you'd kill me once, Twilight? How about eight times over?"

The eight Dashes simultaneously pounced on her with katanas stabbing downward, forcing Twilight to teleport back to her original location. She then fired a laser beam at the group, sweeping from left to right to attack them all. Seven duplicates vanished from the disruption of their form, but the real Rainbow Dash was thrown backwards as the beam hit her. Quickly back on her hooves, she resheathed her blade and started revving her wings; another Rainboom would give her back the momentum. She launched herself at Twilight, full speed, until she saw she had anticipated this and put up a force field around herself. Dash changed plans and started visualizing, just like Luna had taught her.

Speed is energy, not matter. Speed cannot be stopped, it cannot be obstructed. Nothing can get in its way. Speed is unstoppable, and I am speed.

As Twilight braced for the impact of a Sonic Rainboom, she instead felt a strange tingling, and a chill up her spine. Opening her eyes, she saw a silhouette of her enemy's rainbow-colored tail pass through her. She had just been phased through. Dash ended the intangibility effect and climbed into the sky. OK, that roadblock's avoided, what's my follow-up? Suddenly, a searing bolt of purple energy whizzed by on her left, then another on her right. Twilight must be trying to put up anti-air fire on me. Can't give her the chance to make a hit. But Luna taught me one more trick, and she can't hit what she can't see. Back on the ground, Twilight was rattling off bolt after bolt of magical energy, hoping just one would reach its target. But as she kept firing, she watched Rainbow Dash climb almost vertically upward, then seemingly disappear. Too exhausted and desperate to think clearly, she kept firing at the last spot she'd seen the Shadowbolt. But rationality took over again, and she gave up her barrage, taking the opportunity to catch her breath. There was no way of knowing what Dash's next trick would be, all she could do was watch and-

SQUICK

A screaming pain shot through her right flank, accompanied by a sort of numbness in the leg below it. Overwhelmed, Twilight buckled and fell as though forced over. She twisted her head back to see a glinting dark-grey blade jutting out of her right flank, blood seeping out from the entry wound. Around the katana's handle was wrapped a pair of black-gloved hooves, and Twilight's eyes followed up the purple-and-yellow bodysuit to the head. All she could see there was a pair of goggles that looked like cat's eyes, above a cyan-blue muzzle. This was enough to cast out any disbelief she held onto; Rainbow Dash had just stabbed her in the flank.

"Gotcha."

"I guess you did... Was it worth it?"

"Oh, Twilight, you know I hate to twist the knife..."

Applying torque to the handle of the katana, she did just that, eliciting a muted scream from Twilight.

"...but in a word, yes. The high and mighty Twilight Sparkle, chosen by Celestia herself, Equestria's messiah! Look at you now, messiah! What happened to your mile-wide self-righteous streak? Shouldn't you be lecturing me about all my failures as a pony right now?"

Finally assured in her triumph, Rainbow Dash loosed every scathing remark she had left.

"Oh yeah, you were always so high on yourself before, little Miss Personal Student of the Princess. Like you were a class above our whole freaking town. But who's on top now? For how smart you are, for how great you think you are, you're still so devoted to Princess Celestia that it's blinded you to how corrupt an autocrat she's become! Heh, blinded by the sun. I like that."

The bipolar shift in Dash's attitude from serious to snarky caught Twilight off-guard. If she had any sanity left, it was slipping fast. With a quick but powerful tug, Dash pulled her sword from Twilight's flank. Now that the blade was out, she could start applying healing magic. But a wound like that, fatal if not treated promptly, would take time to repair, and there was no way she could survive another. Leering down at her target, Dash reared back and prepared to make a killing downward slash. But suddenly, a flash of light erupted from a chasm in the floor behind her, accompanied by a scream she recognized as Princess Luna's. Whirling around, she locked onto the white glow radiating out of the pit, and quickly resheathed her katana on her back.

"Princess Luna!"

Dash leapt up into the air, rushing over to figure out what had happened to her mentor. This gave Twilight the precious seconds she needed to finish an adequate healing spell. Rolling back to her hooves, she followed her enemy, only to see her power-dive into the chasm. No way Celestia could handle both of them at once. She started to a gallop, then made a leap of faith over the edge. What precious details she could observe during her descent were these: Nightmare Moon surrounded by a moon-blue force field, wings covering her face like a weeping angel. Rainbow Dash standing in an aggressive pose in front of her, looking ready to pounce. Princess Celestia opposite both of them, horn lit up to cast a spell. But before she hit the ground, another flash of light enveloped her and the others; all she could see in that moment was yellow light.

Eyes daring to open, Shining Armor found himself in a sort of sea-blue twilight zone. Around him he could see a bubble of magic holding back a mountain of stones and debris, even though he couldn't remember casting the spell for it. Throwing up a force field subconsciously? He was good. At his hooves, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were starting to come to.

"Are we... dead?"

"Not quite, Fluttershy. It looks like I instinctively cast a force field spell to protect us when Canterlot Tower collapsed."

"We may not be dead, but I reckon we're trapped as a rabbit in a snare. What do we do when you can't keep the shield up anymore?"

"Yeah, about that...hmm... Rarity, could you start digging us out?"

"Ooh, well... See, I usually leave the heavy-lifting magic to Twilight or any stallions I'm in the company of; I'm more of a precision kind of girl. But given the circumstances, I'll see what I can do."

With noticeable effort, Rarity started telekinetically pushing at a large chunk of stonework. Several second later, it fell away from the force field, letting in a large beam of dull eclipse-light.

"Uggh! Dear me, that was far too difficult."

"Not... helping!" Shining Armor replied under strain.

"Oh, yes! One second, darling."

Grabbing another large rock on top of them, Rarity flung it away, widening the opening. She continued chipping away like this until there was no more rubble overhead to pose a threat to them.

"There, done!"

Shining Armor dropped his shield in relief, then leapt out of the small pit of debris around them. What he saw made him wish he'd stayed buried. All around him were the sounds of blades colliding and ponies dying. Blurs of metallic yellow and black threw themselves at each other over and over until one invariably fell and the other moved on to find a new enemy. And it looked like the black ones were winning.

"Celestia..."

"What is it?"

"Rarity, I think when Canterlot Tower collapsed, I put up a force field subconsciously to protect us. But that meant I couldn't focus on keeping the shield around Canterlot in place. Nightshade wasn't bluffing: the Lunar Guard has invaded the city. And I'm not sure we're strong enough to beat them back."

Raking her hook blades through the throat of an armored Equestrian Royal Guard, Nightshade took off to search for another target, only to see Shining Armor and the Mane 4 emerge from the rubble. She called out to the other Shadowbolts to form up, and they each brought similarly curt ends to their fights and followed her. The group touched down together in front of Shining Armor, ready to finish the job.

"You're a hard pony to kill, Lieutenant. Dropping Canterlot Tower on you didn't work, so I guess we'll have to take the more down-to-earth approach."

She approached the five of them with a menacing grin, with the other Shadowbolts following close behind. Charger flicked out his hidden knife and started twirling it in his hoof, with obvious implications. Shining Armor only then realized just how desperate their situation was. Unarmed, bruised and battered, against blade-wielding enemies who have no complications about brutal and coldblooded murder. We'll be lucky to survive, much less beat them. But Shining Armor still had some measure of hope, and that hope seemed to take on physical form before him. As Nightshade prepared to charge, a large orb of yellow light materialized between her and her enemy, blocking her path. The other soldiers noticed this as well, and soon battles were prematurely ended as Guards from both sides circled around to observe the phenomenon. But as quickly as it had appeared, the orb of yellow shattered with a blast of wind, revealing four ponies inside. Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle stood in front of Shining Armor and the Mane 4, opposite Nightmare Moon (with sight restored) and the Shadowbolts. Celestia's teleportation spell had brought them back together.

"Ah, Celestia, always a people pony. What, are you too weak to defeat me one on one?"

"No, Nightmare Moon. I want you to see all the destruction and bloodshed your revolution has already caused. Look about, do you see the bodies lying on the ground in your name, the chaos you have brought to our home?"

"This was never my home! No, our last battle destroyed my home; now it is my turn to return the favor. And these soldiers have shown me more devotion and love than you ever did! Yes, they have made the ultimate sacrifice, and the New Lunar Republic will honor them eternally for this. The only pity is that so many foalishly threw their lives away for your sake."

"This isn't about Equestria anymore, Nightmare Moon, all you want is revenge."

"Don't I deserve it? You saw it, you know what you put me through, tell me I shouldn't want revenge. Tell me!"

"...I cannot. Yes, Luna, what I did to you a thousand years ago was wrong, and a day hasn't passed where I don't regret it. You do deserve revenge, but these ponies don't deserve to suffer because of it. No matter what you deserve, I will defend myself and my kingdom."

"Pretty words as always, sister. But for once I agree with you; enough have perished tonight because of us. Let our soldiers withdraw to our sides. We and our lieutenants shall decide the fate of Equestria."

"Lieutenants?"

"My Shadowbolts against your Elements of Harmony, at least the five you have left. Your Guard captain may join as well, if you'd like."

"So be it."

Both Princesses called their soldiers back from the battlefield, until a clear battle line was drawn between the two factions. Weapons were sheathed, wounds were tended, and the bodies of the fallen were returned to their comrades. All eyes not busied with these tasks were on the fourteen ponies standing at the center of the battlefield; their actions would decide the future of Equestria and the world beyond. Nightmare Moon was the first to end the silent stalemate.

"Are you prepared to negotiate the terms of surrender, Celestia?"

"After all this, all the sacrifice and bloodshed, you think I'm about to surrender now?"

"Only if you wish to avoid further sacrifice and bloodshed. Look at the battlefield. Your casualties far outnumber mine. Nightshade has informed me that my Shadowbolts managed to bring down Canterlot Tower on top of your Elements of Harmony, burying the Elements themselves in rubble. Even then, they could never work, for the Element of Loyalty stands with me. You and I may be evenly matched, as may your apprentice and mine, but with my Shadowbolts at my side, you will fall eventually. Do you realize how hopeless your position is?"

"It may be hopeless, Nightmare Moon, but we will not give in. I would sooner die than leave Equestria to the likes of you."

Twilight was hit with a spark of inspiration that she couldn't repress.

"Rainbow Dash, don't you hear this? This isn't about democracy or improving Equestria, Nightmare Moon only wants revenge on Celestia for sending her to the Moon a thousand years ago! You aren't serving some high and noble cause, you're only playing a part in her scheme, to keep us from using the Elements of Harmony against her by splitting us up!"

"Are we still doing this, Twilight? I don't care what this is "about". Even if it's nothing more than revenge, I'll stand by Princess Luna, because she's been kicked around for the better part of the past three millennia, and the one time she stood up and said "Enough!", she was banished to a barren, frozen Tartarus. Something in me says she deserves her revenge. Of course you wouldn't know about being kicked around, would you, Twilight? Life's pulled out all the stops to make itself pretty much a cakewalk for you. No, you don't know how it feels to be lonely, rejected, despised. You don't know what it's like to hate, because your sugar-coated life hasn't given you much reason to hate anypony. Well I do. And this revolution, it's about those of us who keep getting kicked around getting back on our hooves and deciding to quit being victims. We're changing the system, not fighting it. If revenge is step 1, so be it."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing..."

Celestia looked to her apprentice, knowing the two of them were facing similar struggles.

"The time for repentance has passed, Twilight. Now is the time to act."

The soft words were little reconciliation. Twilight was certain what her teacher had truly meant: the time for hope has passed. Any glimmer of the Rainbow Dash she once knew had just been snuffed out by the black. But while coming to terms with this finality, Twilight was caught in a sudden updraft of attitude as Celestia turned to her sister and shouted.

"This ends now, Nightmare Moon!"

Lurching her head forward, she shot a solid beam of golden solar magic at Nightmare Moon and the Shadowbolts. Only slightly surprised, Nightmare Moon countered it with a dark blue magical beam of her own. The two attacks collided with an ethereal shriek, and neither princess willing to give up, the beams remained locked against each other.

"Hardly! You are no stronger than me, sister!"

The remainder of the exchange was shouted under the strain of continuing their attacks.

"Perhaps. But even without the Elements, you cannot hope to defeat the power of Harmony! Twilight, Shining, assist me!"

The two galloped to either side of Celestia and channeled their own magical force into her beam, expanding it in diameter so that Nightmare Moon was forced to convert her beam into a shield to protect herself and the Shadowbolts. However, that shield was gradually being forced back, unable to withstand the sheer power directed against it. Inspired, Rainbow Dash suddenly leapt skyward.

"Princess, when I tell you, duck and drop the shield!"

Wasting no time to get a response, she quickly made a steep vertical climb, followed by a backwards loop. Back on the ground, Celestia considered it nothing short of a dark miracle Nightmare Moon had resisted the combined beam so long. Her shield was even beginning to advance.

"Fall, damn you, fall!"

"You underestimate the power of my hate, sister!"

Suddenly, the beam's intensity spiked and the shield launched backwards, against all of Nightmare Moon's efforts.

"No! Hatred will never triumph over harmony!"

The shield continued to be forced back, faster than before, until it was mere hooves away from Nightmare Moon. But at that moment, a blur of rainbow light streaked down from the sky, screaming into the wind.

"Princess! Duck and drop it!"

With few options left, Nightmare Moon did so, allowing Rainbow Dash to soar over her. She charged straight into the path of the beam, almost like she wanted to hit it, but she hadn't been killed yet. Through the glare of pure energy, everypony could see why: the beam was suddenly divided in two by Dash's enchanted katana as she raced towards Celestia. Her wings were blurs, but the silhouette of her body floated immobile in the beam. The polychromatic blast of a Rainboom built up behind her, then erupted, knocking back everypony around. But when Celestia stood back up and opened her eyes, there was no Rainbow Dash to be seen. All that was left was her katana, smoking and lying peacefully on the ground.

"Where'd she go?" a dumbstruck Twilight almost begged of anypony who could answer. Nopony truly could, but Celestia was the first to offer an idea.

"Between the magical energy beam and the Sonic Rainboom, I think the sheer power of it was just too much for her to withstand."

"Then she was..?"

"Vaporized," Nightmare Moon interrupted coldly, denying her sister the chance to word-mince. "I'd imagine it was painful, but only for a split-second." It was a wounding statement to hear. Everypony present had loved or at least cared about Rainbow Dash at one time or another.

Nightshade only stared at the katana, fighting to remain composed. Stratus, on the other hoof, had locked a glare of pure fury on Celestia, although she seemed not to notice. Starry had forelegs locked around Charger, sobbing, and for once in his life he was okay with it. He'd lost many a friend on the streets, but few had actually sacrificed themselves to save him. Blueball was frowning, while her mane depowered and went limp, both firsts for her as far as anypony else was aware.

Twilight and Shining Armor both had forearms around each other; Shining knew his little sister needed as much support and comfort as he could provide. Pinkie and Fluttershy were sharing a death-grip bear hug, bawling into each other's shoulders. Applejack removed her hat, with a look somewhere between solemn and angry. Rarity could only stand by and try not to cry, a world away from her usual melodramatics.

Both sides were adding this to their lists of reasons to hate the other.

Nightmare Moon's cold exterior was beginning to melt. "I loved her like a daughter, Celestia. She was so passionate, so full of life, so loyal... and you've taken her from me."

"You brought this upon yourself, Nightmare Moon."

"No! This is your doing!" Her speech was growing in pitch and tempo, sounding almost spat out or hissed. "I tell you this, sister, my hatred was almost enough to overpower you before, but I did not even know the meaning of the word! You have assaulted my body and my mind, but now your hooves tear at my heart, and you will certainly live to regret doing so. I will avenge my fallen apprentice, do not doubt it. But not in another showy campaign of military might, waving banners of justice and freedom. No, this time my revenge will be protracted, silent, remorseless. You will not see an army marching on the horizon. But you will know me as I take my revenge. You will know me by your fear, your anger, your sorrow. And one very ordinary evening, you will look over your shoulder to find a blade in your back, and you will know that my revenge is complete."

Celestia was visibly stunned by the vivid threat, and responded in the only way she could think of: by the book.

"Guards, arrest them for acts of treason!"

"Lunar Guard, retreat pattern Omega!"

Those last three words were ones every Lunar Guard hoped they'd never hear. It meant not only had they lost the battle, but they had lost the war as well. Omega. The end. Suddenly, a hail of metallic canisters began to rain down on the Equestrian Royal Guards from the ranks of the Lunar Guard. These canisters fell innocently to the ground, but soon began to explode, some in massive clouds of smoke, some with a blinding flash and deafening bang, and others simply exploding with fire and fury. This sudden volley of grenades caught them off-guard, throwing the ranks into confusion and chaos. If anypony wasn't running for their lives, they were certainly not focused on arresting the Lunar Guards. Not that they could, anyhow. In the midst of the chaos, five well-placed smoke grenades had created an opaque black cloud between the armies, allowing the Lunar Guard to escape unhampered. Before retreating with the rest of the army, Nightmare Moon reached down to pick up her fallen apprentice's sword, but suddenly a magical yellow cuff grabbed at her hoof. Celestia approached, horn aglow in the same color.

"You will not threaten Equestria again, Nightmare Moon."

"Try and stop me."

With those words, Nightmare Moon and the katana collapsed into a dark blue cloud of fog, which quickly dissipated into the air. As the smoke cleared, nothing remained of the Lunar Guard but spent grenades and scorched earth.

Epilogue

The individual Lunar Guards, persecuted and leaderless, reintegrated into Equestrian society as though they had never left. The majority of them were reservists, with families and day jobs the return to. The unusually long absence was explained any number of ways, and the news of Nightmare Moon's return was as much a shock to them as it was to anypony else. But they held onto their armor, hidden but ready, in case that call for justice ever rose again.

The full-timers, even Luna's personal guards who were familiar faces around the castle, knew they needed to disappear as well. Most simply created new lives for themselves, finding new jobs, some even starting families. A small group of those who worked at Camp Blacklight were able to forge new identities and join the Equestrian Royal Guard. Though unconnected in this new environment, their superiors all noted how quickly they adapted to military life, and their remarkable all-around proficiency. Promotions were recommended in almost all cases.

The dead presented a more difficult problem, especially where reservists with families were concerned. The Lunar Guard leaders agreed that their fallen comrades deserved full military rites, but secrecy still had to be maintained. Because Camp Blacklight had been discovered, it would not be safe to bury them there, in case their graves were discovered and their identities with them. Instead, the surviving Guards found a clearing deep in the Everfree Forest during their return, mustered as best they could, and held a mass military funeral. The fallen were buried in their armor, hooves across their chests and weapons at their sides, following Guard tradition. Their families were not notified, to protect both the survivors from discovery and the families themselves from the shame and suspicion that would follow if the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths were made public. There was speculation, of course, but little more came of it. However, one week later, every fallen Lunar Guard's family received a moon-blue rose on their doorstep.

"Alright, stallions, let's start pulling this place apart!"

In the wake of Nightmare Moon's unsuccessful revolution, one of the first orders of business was the investigation, then destruction of Camp Blacklight. Well-built as it was, it was an enemy military installation, and too remote to be useful to the Equestrian Royal Guard. Any records or documents would be recovered and sent to Military Intelligence in Canterlot, and any useful equipment would be salvaged by the Corps of Engineers. The rest was to be brought down and sold for scrap. Leading the operation was First Lieutenant Wild Card, a pegasus with a penchant for gambling. He hadn't seen any action five days ago in the Battle of Canterlot, but this was the next best thing: knocking down the enemy's fort! But before he got to start wrecking things, those egghead MI ponies and engineers had to grab anything they thought was useful. And here came one now, what did she want?

"Sir, the, uh, door on the command center won't open."

"What?"

"We've tried forcing it, but it just won't move. We think it's locked."

"Of course it's locked, you civvie! This is a frickin' military base! Let me show you how we handle locked doors around here."

With a huff of irritation, he marched her over to the command center door, stepped up to it, then turned away.

"Watch. You raise one hoof, then... buck!"

With a sharp kick, Wild Card did indeed force the door to open. However, in the split-second he had to be proud of himself, he did not realize that forcing the door open had triggered an enchantment on it, though he momentarily discovered what the enchantment was connected to. Before his hoof even hit the ground, a blast of fire roared out of the building, engulfing him instantly. Several more jets of fire shot out the windows, accompanying the sound of a ground-shaking explosion. The ground shook once more alongside another boom as the side wings of the command center burst out in flames. The roar and tremors continued as other buildings across the camp exploded, flinging shrapnel-like splinters and flaming logs everywhere. The Guard's salvage team was trapped in the middle of Tartarus, and more ponies fell with every blast. By the time the sequence of explosions had ended, every building in Camp Blacklight had either been blown up, burnt down or crushed by flaming debris. There were no survivors.

Weary from at least three days without sleep, Celestia struggled to contain the damage done by she and her sister's last confrontation. First she had to tend to the wounded and dead Royal Guards, then try and round up the escaped Lunar Guards who participated in the rebellion. Wonderbolts would need to be posted around the Everfree to spot escapees and guard Luna's hidden base from civilian eyes. Then there was repairing the damage to the Palace, completely rebuilding Canterlot Tower and recovering the Elements of Harmony. Twilight and her friends would need counseling, Twilight especially, and then there was Nightmare Moon's revenge threat to worry about. It was a difficult and taxing situation, and there did not appear to be an end in sight yet. Presently she was engaged in a discussion with Penstroke, her chief Royal Correspondent.

"The news media wants an answer, Princess!" There's too much for us to pretend it never happened, and if we don't give them something, they'll start speculating, and then..."

"Yes, yes, Penstroke, I know. But there are so many details woven together that we have to figure out what we can say without contradicting the obvious or ourselves. We should at least get something on paper, to work off of and improve. Take a draft: Two days ago, the city of Canterlot was attacked by Princess Luna, who had taken the form of Nightmare Moon once more. She was aided by a paramilitary group which she had amassed and been training at an unknown location. Fortunately, the Equestrian Royal Guard was able to rout them and repel Nightmare Moon. We are currently seeking out members of the paramilitary group so that they may stand trial for their crimes. However, we must also report that in her first act of terror, Nightmare Moon was able to deceive and kill Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty."

"So we're covering up Rainbow Dash's actions in all of this?"

"What else can we do? I do not know if Rainbow Dash was acting of her own free will or how Nightmare Moon influenced her, but she served Equestria faithfully several times over. She does not deserve a legacy of ignominy and treason. And if the public hears that the Element of Loyalty could be convinced to betray me, how long before somepony else discovers Luna's subversive philosophy and agrees with it? No, in this case, the truth serves nopony, so we lie for the good of everypony."

"So be it. What will we say about..."

"Your Majesty!"

At that moment, a Royal Guard burst through the chamber doors; it was Marathon, Celestia's personal messenger.

"One second. What news, Marathon?"

"Quite a bit, your Majesty, and little of it good. First, Camp Blacklight was destroyed."

"You mean we demolished it?"

"No, it was destroyed. Somehow, our salvage team triggered a series of explosions that leveled the camp. Wonderbolts spotted and were able to contain the fire, but none of the salvage team survived, nor could we recover any documents or hardware. We believe at this time it was some sort of self-destruct system."

"I understand. What else?"

"Second, a reconnaissance post in the deserts out west reported a horde of changelings was moving towards Canterlot. We don't know for certain what their intentions are, but they're almost undoubtedly hostile. We'll need a shield around the city."

"Shining Armor is still in recovery, but I will let him know."

"With all due respect, your Majesty, we will need the Elements of Harmony to stand a chance at repelling them. What will we do now that the Element of Loyalty is dead?"

"I'm not sure, Marathon. I don't know if the Element will choose a new bearer, and if so, how we may find that bearer. It was luck that we discovered Rainbow Dash in the first place, and we still know very little about how the Elements function. I will let you know when we have a definite answer."

"Thank you, your Majesty. The last news I have to report is that a convoy from the Federal Mint carrying new bits to the Reserve in Appleloosa was attacked last night."

"By whom?"

"We don't know. All of the cargo was stolen, and both Guards and the driver were incapacitated. The convoy was discovered by a hiker passing through the area and the investigation began overnight. But we do have one clue: one of the Guards told us that before he blacked out, he could see a group of ponies 'with coats as dark as the night sky and frightening yellow eyes' offloading the bits."

"The Shadowbolts."

"Mmm. The driver said something similar, but what he noticed about the pony who attacked him was that in addition to a dark coat and yellow eyes, her mane sported 'all the colors of the rainbow.'"

Back home in Ponyville, Twilight rolled out of bed, only to wince as her back right hoof hit the floor. The wound had received proper treatment after the battle, but doctors said it was so severe that it might affect her gait for the rest of her life. They could not do anything about the scar left on her muzzle, either. Maybe that was Rainbow Dash's way of ensuring I wouldn't forget about her. Limping down the stairs, she found Spike boiling a kettle of water for tea. He would get an explanation when the time was right.

"Urghh, what time is it?"

"Little past eleven in the morning, Twilight. You've been practically dead in your room since that Guard brought you home yesterday. Heh, you were so out he had to carry you up to your bed! By the way, how'd you get that nasty-looking scar on your face?"

"Wrong topic. Did anything important happen while I was gone?"

"No, not really. No visitors, as usual, all junk mail, no messages; just three normal days in Ponyville! Except for that extra-long eclipse, that was weird. Do you know what was up with that?"

"Once again, wrong topic. Have we opened up for the day?"

"No, I didn't want to without you."

"Well, we probably ought to do that, then."

Twilight stumbled towards the front door to flip the sign in the window, when she saw a piece of paper that had been slid under the door. It was an annoying form of advertisement, one Twilight was all too used to. Note to self: tell the Mayor there ought to be a law. But when she picked it up and read it, she realized it was no ordinary ad. It was black lettering on white paper, nothing fancy, but in big bold words it said:

E.D.D.
Equestrians Demanding Democracy
First meeting tonight at Sugarcube Corner, 7 p.m.
No more tyranny!

At the bottom of the page appeared to be some sort of crest or seal, composed of a griffon's claw crossed with a lion's paw.

Author's Note

It. Is. Finished.

Also, there's a sequel up called Night Terrors. Enjoy.

Prologue: Corruption or Liberation?

Author's Note

Disclaimer (10/14/2015)

Wow, I just realized how long a runner this story has become. It's been more than three years since I published this prologue; as you could imagine, my storytelling and prosaic style has evolved and improved quite a bit since then. I say that to ask that you not judge Lunar Apprentice or its sequel, Night Terrors, by these first few chapters. Believe me, it gets better. Thanks for reading!

Prologue: Corruption or Liberation?

Princess Luna, being the princess of the night, was nonsurprisingly nocturnal. As Celestia managed the day's activities and royal duties, Luna slept in peace, in a majestic bedroom kept in perpetual darkness through magic. Her dark brand of magic had always made her sister wary, occasionally she might say frightened her, even before her original transformation. It was what made her guards so fearsome, and now was blocking any kind of light from her quarters. But it did not block out visitors, and Luna awoke to see a strange, bipedial figure in the shadows, leaning at the foot of her bed. He raised a griffon's claw and snapped once, loosing light all across the room.

"Nice perpetual-darkness spell, Luna. You've improved since last time."

"Discord! What are you doing here? Be gone, now!"

"Ah, I see you've dropped that archaic dialect as well. How pleasant. I don't mean to cause you any trouble, only to chat. I've been dying for some decent conversation. Why, just yesterday I was stone-dead for lack of it. And of course your sister wasn't any good for talking."

"What have you done to Celestia?"

"Nothing! Only sent her on a wild goose chase, perfectly harmless. Geez, when did you get so uptight?"

By now, Luna was out of bed, had her royal armor on, and was eyeing Discord as she paced across the room.

"I've had some, um, unpleasant experiences since last we met."

"So I've seen. There's actually a pretty good view of just about anything from the garden. You know, I remember that day pretty well. The day she banished you, I mean. And from all I've seen of her in the past millennium, she hasn't changed a bit. Still stiff, still single-minded, still a control-freak. But from the little I've seen you, dear Luna, you've changed quite a bit. You're still very withdrawn, I'll give you that, but you're changing. I think even becoming more like her."

At the idea, Luna was thrust into rage.

"How dare you! I am nothing like Celestia!"

Discord's voice was becoming less mocking and more down-to-earth. It almost sounded like he sympathized with her.

"I don't believe that, Luna, and I don't think you do either. At least, not entirely. You're becoming more like her every day; now that she doesn't consider you a threat, she's grooming you in her own image. But all you are to her is an example: when you became too powerful for her tastes, she essentially destroyed you, to show what happens to those who oppose her. Then, after a thousand years, she lets you come back and become the great threat she knew you would be. But after letting six ordinary mares take you down with elements they never deserved to wield, she showed mercy to the greatest enemy Equestria had seen in centuries. Just like the benevolent Celestia we all know and love, always kind and compassionate, infallible in every way. Nopony ever saw her ambition like you did. Every time you look at her, you try and see the perfect ruler everypony else sees, the perfect sister, but somehow you always find the ambition. You see the passion, the rage, the determination. You see every part of her that you saw the split-second before she banished you to the moon."

Luna began to drop her guard, slowly opening up to her old foe.

"It's true that the ability to wield the Elements of Harmony was intended as a royal birthright. How she decided to violate that and entrust them to six common ponies has eluded me since my return. But you are right: she used me as an example. It's no surprise that after I disappeared, Equestria remained in almost unbroken peace under her rule. And now that she's forgiven me in front of the whole country, her public image has been on the upturn. And you're right about looking at her: the picture from that fateful night haunts me. In my dreams, in the daylight, whenever I see her. It's been haunting me for so long..."

Luna almost broke down, sobbing.

"Sh, sh, I know. It's alright, Luna. You've been through so much, you feel betrayed, and for more than a thousand years you've been looking for a shoulder to cry on. You feel alone, isolated, like nopony that ever was could understand your situation. Well, I understand. If you remember, I too have been victimized by Celestia, and she even dragged you along to help."

"Yes, and come to think of it, she never told me exactly why you were such a threat."

"It's because I wasn't, Luna. Except to her control, of course. She couldn't control me, just like she couldn't control you, of course, and now look where we are. We've fallen through the cracks, beyond the facade of perfection Celestia created."

"You and I have more in common than I would have thought, Discord."

"Indeed. I'll need to leave soon, so listen carefully. Night and day were intended to be like yin and yang: opposite, but equal. Do you feel like Celestia's equal?"

"Not at all."

"Nor should you. For the past millennium, daylight has upset the balance, overshadowing the night. For equality to be restored, darkness must have its own time of superiority. You alone have the power to make that possible."

"You are right, Discord; I know what I must do. And I never thought I'd say this, but thank you. For listening, and for inspiring me."

"All in a day's work, my dear Luna. No thanks is necessary. I'm just doing my job. But before I leave, a word of advice: the day has the night. Light has darkness, the sun has the moon. Everything of importance has an equal opposite. Celestia has you, and her guards have yours. But she has Twilight Sparkle. Who do you have?"

With that, Discord dissolved into nothingness, vanishing from the foot of Luna's bed. A moment later, two of her draconic guards pushed open a door to see Luna alone.

"My lady, a thousand apologies. We thought we heard voices from inside, and wanted to be sure you were safe. Please, forgive us for the intrusion."

But behind the shadow guard's formality, he was shocked at what he saw: Luna was cloaked in blue energy, growing in every dimension. Her wings, horn, height, everything. Her skin was also changing to a darker shade, and her armor along with it. And in her reply, he could discern a great deepening in her voice.

"Do not apologize, Blackout. Your decision was a wise one, unintentional as it might have been, for I have need for you now. Gather all of my personal guards and send them to me. Take orders to our training camp in the Everfree Forest to accelerate the Shadowbolt Program as much as possible. We need to build an army. The time has come to restore balance to Equestria, and for night to come into the power it has been owed for the past millennium. Begin preparing for war."

"As you wish, my lady."

Peeking inside from a window, Discord watched and listened as the conversation unfolded. Perfect, he thought. His backup plan had been set in motion.