The Lost Element

     Two years after Princess Luna’s return to Equestria, seeing the greed and corruption that dwelled in the hearts of some ponies. Confering with her sister, she found that the guard, while good, were just unable to be in enough places or get into the right circles to root out the corruption, so she founded her own specialist stunt team, the Shadowbolts. Like their counterparts, they were primarily known as a stunt team, and as a group willing to step outside the law to do things, particularly when it meant hurting the sun princess’ team. What nopony outside a chosen few -- primarily consisting of the two stunt teams, the princesses and the elements of harmony -- knew was that most of what they thought was going on between the Wonderbolts and the Shadowbolts was a complete sham. Both teams worked closely together at times to discover illegal activities, and often covered one another by switching members.

     One of the Shadowbolts, their leader, a light blue mare with a darker blue mane slunk through the tunnels of a laboratory buried under the streets of Manehatten, hunting for any signs of the drugs or weapons that were rumoured to be in this place. So far all she had seen, beyond the odd few workers on the late shift, were doors leading to nowhere. If she were honest, she would have liked to have had one of the others with her right about now, particularly Stratus for his solid presence, Charger for his glibness and snarky manner or Smoke, the quietest of the males, but the the best at infiltration.

     Ducking into a room as a pair of worker ponies came past, Nightshade closed the door softly behind her and turned around, gasping at the sight of row upon row of tanks, all leading to a green swirling area. She didn’t know much about magic, but the chill in the room was palpable. Making her way along the line of tanks, she found one lowered to the point where she could look into it. Rearing up on her hind legs, she braced her fore hooves against the metal, shivering as the chill became cold, and looked inside, seeing something pony-like, yet not, the semi-transparent blue body of the ‘pony’ seemed to fade in and out as it drifted around the tank, moving neither hooves nor wings. Then it noticed her and swung around to face the area Nightshade was looking into its tank.

     The creature gave her a grin, swirling around in front of her for a moment before its tank started to fill with blood. Yelping, Nightshade pushed away from the tank, beating her wings in an effort to get further away, only to end up toppling herself onto her back as she overbalanced.

     Scrambling back to her hooves, she darted from the room, shuddering as she tried to understand just what she had seen in that tank with the blue pony-thing and the blood and the.... Ducking into another room, she took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She couldn’t afford to be distracted like that, not when the Princesses needed any information she could get on what was going on here. Looking around the room, she sighed in relief, finding herself in what looked like a library or file room. At least this room would make some kind of sense.

     Making her way through the room, she used a lock-pick to break into a sealed cabinet and pulled some of the files out of it, opening them on the floor. What she read was... disturbing. If the report was right, those blue things in the other room had been ghosts, and there were other things being experimented on here as well. Closing the report and picking it up with her teeth, she placed it into her saddlebag, before grabbing several more that looked important and stuffing them in with it, a mouthful, then a second before the alarms finally went off.

     Whipping around, she slammed the cabinet over with a swift buck, scattering reports everywhere. The other cabinets swiftly followed and another mouthful of random reports went into her saddlebags before she bolted from the room, almost running into two of the biggest and meanest looking Earth ponies she had ever seen.

     Turning in the opposite direction as they whinnied at her, she ran for the place she had managed to slip into the laboratory, not even entirely sure where she was going to run to once she reached the streets.

     *****

     Snorting herself awake as the train slowed down again, the blue-maned pegasus blinked, looking around the nearly empty carriage. Yawning, she shifted slightly before rolling herself out of the bed and stretching slowly. Looking out the window, she sighed, seeing that it was still dark outside. Normally she liked the dark, but after what she had seen... a sound caught her attention, making her whip around, her dark blue tail lashing her flank with the speed of her move. Blinking again, she looked at the bed next to the one she had been sleeping in, seeing a yellow head topped by a messy yellow and orange mane that could almost be mistaken for flames in the right light.

     Reaching over, she poked the lump in the bed cautiously, not quite sure whether she wanted to wake the other pony up, still at least talking with her opposite number would be better than sitting in the dark and listening to the train running through the night to Luna knew where. She poked the lump again when Spitfire grumbled and rolled over, managing to catch the other mare on the flank.

     “S-stop it,” Spitfire groaned, blinking her eyes sleepily to try to get them to focus, then blinking again when she saw Nightshade in the carriage lights. “Nightshade?” She asked around a yawn, rubbing her eyes with her hooves. “What in Celestia’s name are you doing here?” She asked, pushing herself up into a sitting position. “Come to that, why are you waking me up at...” She looked out at the moon. “Stupid o’clock at night?”

     Nightshade sighed, moving to flop on the bed. “I woke you up because I needed to talk to somepony, and you’re the only one even on this train.” She said, moving to lay her head down, only to be stopped by Spitfire, who was giving her a worried look. “You know the Shadowbolts alpha team was in Manehatten, right?” She asked, getting a nod in response. Much like their counterparts, the Shadowbolts split their group into three elements of three ponies, which made it easier to switch things around as well. “Well, our investigation for Princess Luna found evidence pointing to a lab hidden in the sewers under the city. I went to investigate it, and barely got out in one piece. I was chased all the way to the train station, pretty much, though I think I lost them in the crowd and jumped on this train....” She twitched her tail, looking up at Spitfire. “You’re the only pony I’ve even seen on this thing, and I really need some advice... I don’t know how to proceed with what I’ve found.”

     Shifting around, now fully awake, Spitfire looked over at Nightshade, thinking for a moment at just how much the other mare had grown since being placed in charge of the Shadowbolts. Spreading a wing, she wrapped it around her counterpart. “What sort of advice do you need? And do you need it as a friend or as your Captain?” She asked, reminding Nightshade that they had once been on the same team.

     Sighing again, Nightshade rested her head on her forehooves. “As a friend,” She said, before looking up at Spitfire. “Spitfire, I left my group behind, I didn’t even tell them I was going into the lab because... well, Blueball Blitz and Starry Skies? They are the worst pair for doing that sort of infiltration, I should have taken Stratus, Charger or Smoke but they were all busy with an investigation of their own in Stalliongrad.” She sighed again. “Anyway, beyond what I’m going to do about them, there’s what I found in that lab... it wasn’t drugs or weapons, it was ghosts. They were doing something with ponies in cages made of some special rock and there was this green glowy thing and all these machines to find ghosts. I...” She trailed off for a moment before looking at Spitfire. “Spitfire, were you ever scared by ghost stories?” She asked meekly, her ears lying back against her head.

     “Not really,” Spitfire replied, watching as Nightshade flinched. “There are some really scary ones around, sure, but... I guess for me I’ve just been more interested in how and why it can happen, or in busting them like those ponies from The Pony Ghostbusters.” She said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s just that I grew up with them around and there’s some comedy to the ghosts in that rather than scare factor. Heck I own a copy of The Spectre Master, got it with me as well.” She added with a grin.

     Nightshade shivered, clamping her wings against her sides. “I... never managed to get past the intro to that, just... ghosts....” She said, shivering again. “And that’s what I found in that lab, ghosts. I grabbed what I could and got out of there, but... the Princesses need to know and I don’t know what to do.”

     Spitfire snorted softly, hugging Nightshade with her wing. She had never seen the other mare like this, though she did remember Nightshade’s reaction the first time she had seen somepony hurt by her actions, and the first time that one of her team had been killed. For all the hardness of the mask, Nightshade was a gentle pony underneath. “Tell you what, we should be getting to Grey Marsh station in a few hours, after that, there’s a walk through the marsh and past the fenland reserve before we reach the town. Once we’re there and we’ve slept properly, since I, at least, always end up lagged, even if I fly out there, we’ll call the hotel your group is staying in and we’ll find a way to get whatever you found to the Princesses. After we’ve done that, we can see if we can find the supposed treasures of Grey Marsh, and see what ghost stories we turn up that sound good to you?” She asked.

     “I... guess.” Nightshade replied, laying her head back down again. She wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about seeing more ghosts, but maybe with Spitfire there.... Considering how much Spitfire had helped her already, at this rate she would never be able to pay the golden mare back for her kindness.

     *****

     “Are you sure this is safe?” Nightshade asked, looking dubiously at the entrance to the cave they were stood in front of. “I mean you said it was safe to take that shortcut you pointed out and look how well that turned out.” She added, indicating her dripping, shivering figure with one wing.

     Spitfire snorted softly. “I said it was safe for those who know how to cross it, not that it was safe for everypony, Nightshade.” She pointed out, flicking an ear in irritation. “As for the cave, the last time I was here it was the only way to get to the town, the mists around here can be even more treacherous than the fens for a pegasus.” She frowned at the cave, drawing out a number of pieces of metal she had collected on the way from her saddlebags and moving to place them on a group of pegs near the cave entrance. “We should be okay during the low tides, as long as we’re careful,” She shot a look at the wet pegasus, who grimaced in response. “Though there’s no way I can get my luggage through this cave and the trains don’t carry passengers through to the town at this time of year.

     Nightshade blinked, shaking out her wings briefly. “If... if trains run to the town, why don’t they carry passengers all the way?” She asked, “Why did we have to get off in the middle of the fens?”

     Shrugging her wings, Spitfire fitted the placard together, rotating the pieces until they fitted, spelling out their warning message. “The last time I asked that, they said it was something to do with the tides in the fens cutting them off, but that could just be because they don’t really want many people coming and going during tourist season.” She replied, stepping back and nodding before moving into the cave, inching her way through the narrow gap at the entranceway. “C’mon, Nightshade, once we’re through this, it’s pretty simple to get to the town and we can get some food from the pub, and find a place to stay.” She added, not taking her eyes off the area in front of her hooves as she made her way through the area.

     Emerging into a cave, she stepped aside to let Nightshade in after her, hearing the other mare’s hooves clopping on the stone. Looking around, she frowned slightly, trying to remember what this cave had been like the last time she had come here. Apart from a few random newspapers -- a quick glance at them told her nothing interesting, but maybe there would be something more interesting in town -- everything seemed to be the same as usual. “The town’s out there,” She said, pointing a hoof at the opening to the cave as Nightshade emerged. “And that’s one of the areas I’ve found things before, I’m not entirely sure what happened, but there seem to be ghosts trapped behind the cage door over there.” She added, pointing out a door very similar to a prison door in the opposite corner of the cave, making Nightshade shudder.

     “That can’t have been pleasant, given I spent maybe a week or two in a cage and I still have nightmares about it, and about what landed me there.” Nightshade said softly. She shook her head and snorted before bumping her shoulder against Spitfire’s. “But then I got picked as Shadowbolt leader and found out what a good friend you were... I don’t think I would’ve made it if you hadn’t been there, Spitfire.”

     Spitfire nodded, nosing Nightshade. “I know, I remember that training,” She snorted softly, walking with her companion out of the cave towards the village. “I thought the training I had received was tough, and that we were letting in Rainbow Dash too early to take your position, up until we started that training routine. I think the first few weeks, we all slept where we dropped.”

     Nightshade nodded, flicking blue tail out. “I know, I don’t know where Luna found that guy, but damn if he wasn’t the worst training sergeant I’ve ever seen... and he made it so bloody reasonable to do things as well.” She commented, flexing her wings as they left the cave.

     “Yeah, of course it works, after all he got your ragtag band of misfits into a decent force in record time.” Spitfire grinned, glancing around to reorient herself before nodding in the direction of the village. “This way, the sooner we get to the tavern, the better I’ll like it.” She said, leading the way up the beach to where there was a set of steps up to the top of the sea wall around the village, even as they reached the top of the steps, they could see the ruins of an old fort dominating a hilltop near the village.

     Following her friend through the streets, Nightshade twitched her tail. After spending nearly a full day on the train or trekking through fenland, she was starting to tire, particularly as she hadn’t had anything to eat for a day and a half. Even so, it wasn’t that late yet and the streets were almost deserted. “Spitfire, is it normally this quiet of an evening around here?” She asked, turning to look at the other mare and almost tripping over a loose cobblestone.

     “Always has been,” Spitfire replied, catching Nightshade. “I always figured it was because there wasn’t much to do around here so most ponies simply turned in or spent the evening with their families.” She said with a shrug of her wings. “’Course, I’m often wandering around at night so I tend to nap during the evenings myself, makes it easier to stay up all night.” She added as they reached the tavern.

     Nightshade flicked her tail as the two mares entered, glancing up at the sign above the door. ‘The Gryphon Rampant’, it was certainly an interesting name, if nothing else. Stepping inside, the first thing she noticed was how much quieter it was than the places she frequented, there was talk from various groups of ponies around the large room, but music was simply a few ponies with classical instruments on the stage near the fire. It actually gave the place a more welcoming atmosphere. “I’ll have to remember that with my own team.”

     Nodding, Spitfire made her way through to the bar. “Hey, Heathwarmer, you got any rooms for two available?” She asked, flicking her tail out behind her. “Along with a couple of plates of your special and some mulled wine.” She added, reaching into her saddlebag to pull out a purse full of bits and dropping some on the counter.

     The rich brown unicorn flicked his mane out of his eyes to look at Spitfire for a moment. “The food and drinks I can do no problem, Miss Spitfire, the room however... I’m afraid all I have is the cottage by the harbour, and that is only set for one.” He said sadly.

     Nightshade snorted softly, looking over at Spitfire. “I don’t mind sharing with a friend, do you?” She asked.

     “No,” Spitfire replied before turning to Hearthwarmer. “We’ll take it,” She said, before glancing around and spotting a table near the fire. “Can you bring our food to the table by the fire?” She asked.

     “’Course I can,” Hearthwarmer replied, taking the coins and heading around the bar to pour them the wine, fetch the key to the cottage and get the cooks to start preparing their meal. Putting both wine and key on the counter, he leaned against it. “So what are you up to, Miss Spitfire, still trying to find the ghosts?” He asked.

     “I will be, but not for a couple of days.” Spitfire replied, taking her drink and the key before leading Nightshade over to the table she had picked out.

     *****

     Flopping into a chair in the rented property, Spitfire sighed, then frowned, seeing a paper on the table as Nightshade headed off upstairs to have a look at the bedroom. Running a hoof through her mane, she sighed, picking up the paper and leafing through it. If she were honest, she couldn’t blame Nightshade for being tired, even with sleeping on the train. After a day like that, she would have been tired. Turning a page, she paused, frowning as the headline caught her attention. “Treasure hunters...?” She murmured to herself, flexing her wings as they started to ache from being held in place for so long. “What are they looking for...? Hrr...?”

     Reading through the article, she frowned, then smiled slightly. This might just be the thing to get Nightshade interested in things, a good old fashioned treasure hunt, even if she didn’t intend on moving the treasure once it was found since they made more than enough money for being captains of their teams. The question was, what the treasure was. Frowning, she continued reading through the paper as Nightshade returned, wrapped in a blanket, to flop on the other chair, closer to the fire they had started when they had first arrived. “Well... on the good side, it seems there’s enough fuel for both the lamps and the fire to last us a while,” Nightshade said, leaning her head on her hooves. “On the bad side, there’s no food or water, and there is only one bed, so unless one of us tries sleeping on the floor, without anything on them, we’re stuck sharing.”

     “We can probably buy something tomorrow so we’ve at least got a camp bed if we need it, along with more bedding.” Spitfire said, frowning at the paper. Crowns? There were supposed to be pony crowns around here somewhere shaped like the Elements of Harmony? That made some sense, since it was possible that if someone could wield the power of an Element of Harmony, they could possibly have more power than most around here, the fact that there were supposed to be seven though... that made no sense. Everypony knew there were only six Elements. “I think we’ve got something we can do as well, well, beyond getting some ponies to lend Starry Skies and Blueball Blitz a hoof with what they’re doing and getting whatever information you’ve got to the Princesses so they can stop whatever you saw.” She added, turning the paper around with her hooves and pushing it over to Nightshade, “Take a look at that article.”

     Picking up the paper with her hooves, Nightshade frowned as she read over the article in question. “Treasure hunting, Spitfire? Aren’t we a bit old to be running after rumours of treasure like this?” She asked, brushing her blue mane out of the way.

     Spitfire snorted, looking up, amber eyes meeting light yellow ones. “Do you really want to be sitting around here until the heat in Manehatten dies down?” She asked her counterpart dryly, getting a grimace from the other pegasus. “We probably won’t find anything, but we might find something and if we do, we can report that to the Princesses when we get back to somewhere more urban, maybe get some ponies here to study things, like that student of hers.”

     “You mean Rainbow Dash’s girlfriend?” Nightshade asked, arching an eyebrow at Spitfire. “What’s going on with them anyway? The last I heard they were living on your air base, but something was going on with Soarin’.” She said, frowning a little.

     “I think they’re going from a pair to a trio, not really my thing, but if they’re happy with the arrangements, I’m not going to argue.” Spitfire replied, “I’d rather have happy ponies that’ll work under me than ponies that are down in the dumps during a show.” She pointed out, before blinking and sitting up a little. “Oh, speaking of shows, aren’t we supposed to be having a ‘joint show’ around midsummer?” She asked.

     Nightshade nodded. “Yeah, well, we’re supposed to be crashing your show in Canterlot.” She looked over at Spitfire, arching an eyebrow. “I guess we had better decide who we’re using to do what while we’re here then, so we can practice it until we can do it without actually putting the crowd at risk, even if they think they are.” She said dryly. One encounter with stunts going wrong and injuring ponies in the crowd had been enough for her, and it had wound up with her being taken down and locked up for weeks, not an experience she wanted to repeat. “Want it as even odds or do you want to have one side bound to win because of the group they’ve got?” She asked.

     Spitfire frowned, rubbing her jaw with a hoof as she sat in the chair. “I was kind of thinking that we have it as a free-for-all... I mean, it’s the Summer Sun Celebration and the Wonderbolts are supposed to be performing for Princess Celestia, why wouldn’t Princess Luna have her own team there as well?” She asked rhetorically. “Everypony knows we can’t stand one another,” She gave Nightshade a wry grin at that. Considering what they were going to end up doing tonight, if anypony actually saw them now that knew they were parts of different units, it would ruin the rumours completely, and likely spawn an entire slew of new ones.

     Nightshade snorted in amusement, shifting around. “Yeah but you know what Star always says.”

     “People are stupid and often believe anything either because they want it to be true or fear it to be true.” Spitfire responded, “He also says that they jump to conclusions very easily, which is good for us.” She added, mimicking the stallion’s deeper voice before the pair of them burst out into giggles. “That’s kinda why I wanted the free-for-all, I mean Dash against Blitz is a great race because they both end up breaking the sound barrier, but it gets boring if that’s all the crowd sees, same with us, if we keep going after each other, they’ll get bored, spicing it up with say you against Wildfire or Starry against Dash would make things more interesting because while they know the score, it’s a show they haven’t seen before.”

     Nodding slowly, Nightshade flicked an ear as something dripped further into the house or under it, she wasn’t too sure where exactly the sound came from. “True, so we get the squads back together at the Ponyville airfield, then work on things there, right?” She asked, getting a nod from Spitfire. “You know... call me slow, but wouldn’t it be an idea to actually try getting Firefly and Star’s group involved in that lab clean up once we tell them? I mean they have dealt with things like that before.” She said before being cut off by a yawn. “And damn, now I’m tired.”

     Snorting in amusement, Spitfire yawned herself. “You’ve got me started on it, and I did say it was a bit of a trip.” She pointed out, getting to her hooves. “C’mon, Shade, let’s see what we can figure out for sleeping without waking up screaming to find each other there in the middle of the night.” She said wryly.

     Nightshade snorted at her, getting to her hooves and following Spitfire towards the single bedroom, yawning again as she went. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

     *****

     She woke up feeling uncomfortable. Shifting slightly, Spitfire groaned as she found herself trapped under Nightshade’s body, if it had happened any other time, she would have been embarrassed at the position they were in, since she was belly up under Nightshade, who was lying across her, belly down. Fortunately Spitfire had found herself in this situation a few times after a particularly depressing high society gathering.

     Pulling her hooves under her, she pushed Nightshade up, rolling them so the other mare ended up sliding down to lie next to her instead of across her. Managing to get herself back onto her own stomach, Spitfire spread a wing over Nightshade’s back and sighed, resting her head on her hooves. If she knew the other mare at all, then Nightshade would probably be having nightmares about what might be happening to the rest of the Shadowbolts while the pair of them were here. She flicked her tail, frowning into the night darkened room. If she remembered right, there was another place to eat on one of the main roads leading out of the village, which they would need to buy food at in the morning... unless they could get hold of some food to store and cook themselves, something that would mean figuring out just what worked in this place.

     There was also a phone up there, near the castle gatehouse on the edge of the village and a post office near the harbour that had a second public phone. Either of those would be a good place to take Nightshade once they had eaten, so she could call her wingmates in Manehatten and the pair of them could arrange something to continue things without them there. The post office would probably be better because they could get copies of whatever Nightshade had brought with her to the Princesses. Hearing Nightshade take a deep breath and shift so she was leaning against her side, Spitfire rolled her eyes and nosed the other mare gently before hooking her head over Nightshade’s neck, enjoying the feel of having another pony there that wasn’t all hooves and wings for a change.

     Closing her eyes again, Spitfire returned to her planning, trying to decide just where to take Nightshade in the morning. The restaurant definitely, the post office also definitely, they needed to talk to the other Shadowbolts and Wonderbolts both along with the Princesses. After that... the train station in town, they would need to gather her things, particularly since she had a number of sets of clothes that would suit them both, some light armour just in case they headed for a more dangerous area of the countryside and her ghost hunting gear, she needed that, particularly if she was going to teach Nightshade what ghost hunting was supposed to be about.

     They would need to bring the trunks back to the cottage after collecting them though, and by that time it would probably be time to eat again so... from there.... Spitfire frowned as Nightshade stirred a little, mumbling something incomprehensible.

     “S-Spitfire?” Nightshade mumbled, her head rising to look around.

     “Easy, Nightshade,” Spitfire said, shifting her head to look her in the eye. “What woke you up?” She asked gently.

     Nightshade yawned, blinking sleepily. “A dream, I guess.” She replied, twitching her tail before stretching the wing not on Spitfire’s side and pulling it back in. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

     Shaking her head, Spitfire smiled slightly in the darkness. “No, I was already awake, just thinking about where we need to go once it’s day again.” She said gently, shifting a little to stretch her own wings out. “I figure we’ve got the morning gathering my stuff and talking to our squads and the Princesses, but the afternoon we can do other things with. Would you rather we tried to get some food to keep us for a while or go exploring the area?”

     “Actually... I was kinda hoping we could spend a bit of time to talk about things before we did stuff, but we will need food.” Nightshade admitted, settling herself more comfortably against Spitfire. “And you’re really comfortable to lean on, you know that, right?” She asked, blushing under her fur.

     Spitfire felt her face heat as blood rushed to her cheeks. “Th-thank you,” She said, shifting to accommodate Nightshade’s position before resting her head on the other pony’s shoulders. “Your shoulders make a nice pillow as well.” She admitted. So food it was, well... she knew a few places, though they would have to see what they could use to store it and cook things in before they went out. “After we get back from the station, we’ll have to see where we can put things and what we can use for eating off of and cooking with, since I haven’t been in here before and we were both pretty tired earlier.”

     Nightshade nodded, shifting to rest her head on Spitfire’s knees. “I’m still tired, just woke up for a dream.” She admitted before yawning. “We should sleep.” She added, closing her eyes again, only to hear Spitfire’s breathing start to deepen into a sleep pattern. Settling herself, she soon drifted off to sleep.