“Wow! You mean this room is all mine?” Lightning Dash asked. He was in a large white room devoid of any personal touches that ponies decors their territory with. But for the bags he had brought in, it had only a small table with a sitting pad for him to write something if needed, a bed and a wardrobe. The windows were wide and covered by blue blinds if he ever felt the need to cover himself from Celestia’s glorious sun. He then turned back to the large door that opened for the corridor, where a small gray unicorn mare was still waiting for him.

“Those were the Princess’s orders,” the mare said with a short bow. “You and your friends were to be given rooms close to hers. I still don’t know why, and sincerely, it’s none of my business.”

“Why so serious? We’re both working for Princess Celestia. I’m sure we could be friends?”

“Do you need anything else, sir Dash?” she asked.

“Geez… No, thank you. I’ll have a little stroll to know better the castle before properly setting in.”

“Before you go then, I shall remind you of a few rules. First…”

A room in the castle instead of the guards’ barracks… I guess it’s a fair price for keeping secrets about being a Knight of Harmony… I mean… It’s exactly what I always wanted to do, to protect other ponies, and being a ghost, as Princess Celestia puts it, let me get away with a lot more than just a common Royal Guard… He thought to himself.

“Have you understood them all, sir Dash?”

“Yeah, yeah, got it… Too much duties too little fun and all…” he said, not really remembering any of the rules, lost in his thoughts.

The maid just sighed. “Just try not getting in too much trouble, please,” she asked before turning around and leaving Lightning Dash alone.

The colt, though, looked around the room and quickly unpacked a few things to fill some of the empty shelves and specially a photograph of her sister to place at the nightstand. He grinned as he looked at the cyan mare looking back at him, her rainbow mane always made her to get a special spotlight in the crowd.

“Here I am, Rainbow. I’m standing for my end of our promise. I’ll write for you soon, dear sister, telling everything I can. I just hope that you forgive me for not telling you absolutely everything, though.”

“Lightning Dash?” the voice of Ice Sapphire called from outside the door.

“Come in,” he answered readily.

He turned just as the door opened to reveal the light blue unicorn still on the same dress she wore at the labyrinth. The mare looked him over, “Aren’t you ready yet?”

“I am. Whatever clothing I have will only be shredded if we have more training like the last one. Those wood dummies weren’t even a challenge, she was just testing us.”

“And it took me a bit too long to notice that,” Ice Sapphire accepted. “I went full out.”

“Me too. Luckily, though, Blaze was there so we could have some decent fighting.”

“You enjoy fighting?”

“Not pointless non-sense fighting, but I do enjoy a little friendly brawl for training. However, I get really serious when somepony is hurting others.”

“That’s what got you there, then?” Ice Sapphire walked towards the nightstand and saw the photo there. “This is that sister you made your promise to?”

Lightning Dash chuckled and walked to her side, “She’s called Rainbow Dash, the second fastest pony of my family, after only me of course.”

Ice Sapphire grinned, “She’s beautiful. Her mane looks gorgeous.”

“She could be a lot more beautiful if she cared just a bit more for her looks. However, she’s more interested in being aerodynamic than beautiful.”

Ice Sapphire chuckled. Then, she turned again to Lightning Dash, “Have you had any success with that armor spell Princess Celestia told us about?”

“I had barely settled in,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t have the time to think about it as yet. However, she did say it drains power from our hearts, right?”

“Something like that,” Ice Sapphire said. “She said, ‘This magic armor you will summon draws power straight from your cutie marks, hence from your heart’ or something like that.”

“You remember your lessons about cutie marks?” Lightning Dash asked Ice Sapphire.

“A cutie mark appears on a pony's flank when he or she finds that certain something that makes them different from every other pony. Everypony with basic schooling knows that. What are you heading me to?” she asked curious.

“If the armor is linked to the cutie mark and the cutie mark is linked to what makes us special and being special is what makes our hearts happy, what do you think is the proper way to get your armor thing?” he asked while opening the large windows from his room.

Ice Sapphire was genuinely puzzled about what he was trying to say, “Can you be clearer?”

“If you want your armor,” he said, already backing a little and then preparing to take off at full speed.

“Lightning Dash! You aren’t supposed to fly in the castle’s--”

“Try to regain your cutie mark!” and the yellow stallion suddenly was flying, the gust created by the powerful flaps of his wings throwing around a few of the scrolls on his room.

Gaining the sky, Lightning Dash grinned and appreciated the sights below. However, this was not how he gained his cutie mark. He needed more.

“Hey you!” shouting from behind him told Lightning Dash he had been followed by what he judged to be royal guards. He cast a quick glance over his shoulders and confirmed to be white ponies clad in golden armors. “This is a restricted zone! You will land right now or I will be forced to use any means to bring you down!”

Lightning Dash, though, grinned. “Catch me if you can!” he yelled above the sound of wind and went into a spinning dive, increasing his speed immensely. The guard falls just behind him, struggling to follow up with the speed pony.

When he was about fifteen meters above the ground, he began his ascension, causing the rookies below to suffer with a gust of wind. The pegasus instructor quickly cast the rookies a glance and roared a “stay” order, before taking off and following the flying menace, joining the small group of pegasus guards which now were after Lightning Dash.

The yellow stallion looked over his shoulder and counted quickly over ten guards following him and his grin widened. ‘If there is no danger, there is no fun!’ he thought to himself as he began flapping his wings stronger and faster. Purposefully, he flew straight inside a rather large cloud and suddenly changed his direction, flying straight up, spinning as he got up and slowly made an arc back down.

The guards following him though entered the cloud and faced problems to find where he had gone, dividing and looking for him in all directions. The speed flier chuckled and began to spin around the cloud, slowly shaping it into a funnel before darting towards the main tower of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

As the guards recovered after a sudden spin against their will, they took notice of the yellow blur and restarted the chase. Lightning Dash grinned and made a turn at the school’s tower, flying straight against the guards chasing him. With a smile on his face, he kept his course against the guards, which kept shouting for him to stop.

Instead of stopping, though, Lightning Dash showed all his maneuverability by avoiding every single of the guards, dodging with a flap of his wings, barrel rolls or even a few well-planned dives. The guards, startled as they were so easily avoided, crashed between themselves, as they tried to stop and turn. However, one of the things that Lightning Dash pretended was to help ponies and not hurt them, so he made another acute turn towards to the four guards falling that seemed to lost consciousness.

Instead of grabbing the guards, Lightning Dash aimed properly while still falling, placed his hind hooves at the chest of the first armored guard, and then pushed him back towards his companions. That also gave him a bit more of propulsion towards the next and he repeated the maneuver. With the last guard, he wouldn’t have time, so he got him on his hooves and ascended, returning to the guards still holding their fallen comrades. Passing just above them, Lightning Dash gently dropped the last unconscious guard and kept his course, flying at a random direction.

“Phew! That was a close one!” he said to himself, almost shouting over the wind’s sound around his ears.

After almost a full hour of flying at top speed, as he hasn’t done in a very long time, he was returning to the castle when a pink magic blast missed him for very little. Looking down, he found an even larger group of unicorns all clad in their royal guard armors and shooting at him. He then began avoiding the shots with practiced easy, smiling all the while.

Much to his surprise, though, a purple magic blast that he thought had missed him and passed in front of his muzzle quickly condensed into a pony-sized sphere and Lightning Dash was way too close to avoid. Instead, he focused his pegasus magic from his wings to his hooves, what caused some static sparks to form, and then he hit the bubble with that, only to have his whole body sucked in and keeping him comfortably inside.

He began slamming his hooves against the wall trying to break it with all his might, but it was useless. He then noticed he was being pulled down. But he would not give up. Lightning Dash started to spin around himself, closing his eyes and focusing his pegasus magic to accelerate even more. The faster he got, the more the shield flickered. After about a minute like this, his descend stopping so the caster could focus on resisting the sudden newly strain, he managed to break the magic apart and quickly dashed towards Canterlot’s castle.

He was aiming towards his room’s window, when suddenly a bright light enveloped him. He closed his eyes, bracing himself to an inevitable contact, only to realize that whatever he had hit was rather soft.

Lightning Dash opened his eyes once again and couldn’t recognize where he was. But he did recognize whom he has hit. And he got terribly embarrassed at that. “Princess Celestia!” he said quickly adding a bow.

Her face wasn’t a happy one as she looked him down. “I had already imagined that your eagerness would give me trouble, but I never thought it would be this soon,” she said. The fact that her voice was still calm and serene only added to his fears instead of soothing him. “I’m sure I ordered the maid that guided each of you to explain the rules of the castle. High on that list was that pegasus are forbidden to fly unless on training grounds or in my presence, which, if I quite remember, none was truth about your room. Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

“Huh… Your guards could be better trained?” he tried to convince her.

Celestia was about to say something else when the door to the room was opened forcible, revealing a young filly maybe just a couple years younger than Lightning Dash. She was a lavender unicorn with a long purple mane and tail, both of which with pink and lavender stripes, and by her looks was very tired. Mostly ignoring Lightning Dash, she ran towards Celestia to give her report.

“Princess Celestia! Some pegasus managed to break through security. She was flying at unbelievable speed and even managed to break my spell!

“Wait! That force field was yours?” Lightning Dash asked curiously.

Now that her attention was dragged to him, the filly’s eyes filled with fury and she pointed her horn at him, “You! Do not attempt anything!”

However, Celestia placed a hoof on her mane and caressed softly. “That’s enough, Twilight. I will take care of him from there, okay?” Celestia commented with her trademark calm smile. Lightning Dash got puzzled by how suddenly she managed to switch that face of hers. “Now, Twilight, return to your studies. I’ll have to talk with you later.”

Twilight seemed ready to retort, but a look into Celestia’s eyes and she knew it would be utterly useless. She just sighed and gave a respectful bow before leaving the room. As the door closed behind the lavender unicorn, Celestia once again turned to Lightning Dash.

“Look, I know I made a mistake but it’s a bit of a bad idea to--”

“You will start your training ten minutes later than the others and I expect you to finish it at least ten minutes earlier than them. I want you to kill at least ten enemies along the path and, as I’ll say later to the others, no flying over the labyrinth and this time, no crossing through the walls. You can break them but not trespass them. Was I clear?”

Lightning Dash looked at her surprised. “What?” he managed to ask after a few seconds. “Just because a fly within the castle’s limits I’ll be punished like this?”

“Flying within restricted zone, evading capture, dangerous maneuvers with clouds, dangerous maneuvers close to public buildings, knocking unconscious three guards and almost killing them with the fall,” Celestia reported. “Did I forget anything?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound come. Then he closed it before downing his head and sighing. “You forgot scaring the hell out of the new recruits. Sorry, Princess.”

“You may have entered this force for its greater opportunities to help other ponies. However, you will also serve as a role model for those which eventually see you or hear about you. Do you want your sister to follow the image of a delinquent?” Lightning Dash just shook his head negatively. “You will return to your room and stay there until you’re told to leave. Understood?”

“Yes, your highness.”

“Anything else you have to add?”

Lightning Dahs thought for a moment. “This is a kinda stupid rule not being able to fly around the Castle, Princess. Easily enough a ward to identify intruders and make them stand out in a crowd could do the job? Like making them glow or something? Just an idea though.”

As he turned to leave Celestia looked at him curiously, “How would that work?”

Lightning Dash stopped and turned to Celestia. “Well… I don’t know that much about magic as yet, but I thought about an invisible non-solid magic sphere which would make any flying beings glow, for example, unless they have the Princess authorization in the form of a badge or infused in their armors somehow? But again, you shall already have heard this idea and decided it would not be one considerable used.”

“Actually, this idea was never shown before me. I’ll have studies done about it.”

He chuckled at the thought. “Then it’s not only your guard that shall be better prepared, but also your advisers, my Princess. To forbid a pegasus from flying seems like restraining your pegasus guards from acting…”

“What are you suggesting?”

Lightning Dash sighed. “Speaking about the truth, Princess, keep your guard up and make sure you are scouted everywhere you go,” he said. “I know I’m quite unmatchable at my top speed, and that’s not my ego talking. However, with your guards, I wasn’t even half of that. My sister would call me a slowpoke if I raced her at that speed. Someone is manipulating things to let you unprotected. It’s my thought only, of course, but really? Guards that bow when you approaches? I made a joke at that line but that is ridiculous. It takes the attention of the guards from their surroundings, allowing for something else to attack with their guards down.”

Celestia looked at him quite surprised. She would then pick those and little other details also on those respects and had to agree. Something was happening in the background and what Lightning Dash said made sense. Celestia gave him a nod and smiled, “I’ll keep your thoughts at open in case they reflect the truth. I’ll let the guards know you’re free to fly around the Castle’s perimeter. And I’m lifting your punishment, or at least part of it. You can leave your room.”

Instead of bowing, Lightning Dash saluted Celestia, “Yes, Your Highness. Thank you for your kindness.”

“You’re dismissed, Lightning Dash.”

He then turned and left the room through the door and looked through the first window. Thanks to the Princess, he now could fly freely… However, he shook his head and continued walking towards his room.

****

It was dinner time when Celestia called them to eat. Lightning Dash, surprisingly, was seen walking to the dinner room. Scarlet Boulder thought strange that the otherwise animated pony was with his head so low it could easily touch the ground. However, that was what she saw, despite in truth Lightning Dash held his head as high as always, making a quick bow to Celestia. The Princess returned the bow.

“I take it you thought about your actions earlier?” she asked softly. Understanding quickly claimed Ice Sapphire.

“That and I used my afternoon to walk around the city, fresh my head and all,” he answered.

Celestia nodded and Lightning Dash sat in his place. The second seat to Celestia’s right side, a place his mind refused to accept at all. The first, though, nopony knew who would sit in.

“As we have to wait another guess still, anything you want to tell me?” Celestia asked.

Lightning Dash looked at her in the eye. “Yes, my Princess. There’s someone playing games with your guard. Besides vital points of Canterlot are protected as it should be, there are still plenty of blind spots in these defenses. I used the fact I’m still unknown as a Knight of Harmony and made a test of my own. Besides I couldn’t get through the front door, nothing stopped me from actually creating a back door to enter.”

“WHAT?” everypony in the table, but for the Princess and for Blaze, asked in surprise. Celestia, though, just nodded.

“Elaborate, Lightning Dash,” Celestia asked.

“Yes, my Princess. Ice Sapphire, you can project a holographic view of Canterlot’s Public Hall?”

“I’m not sure if--” Ice Sapphire was stopped mid-sentence as Princess Celestia herself projected said hologram.

Lightning Dash looked at Celestia. “Thank you, my Princess. I remembered the guards at early morning, as I came to the castle to join the royal guards, and I checked at them midday and right now before dinner, in their six-hour shifts. At morning, they stood at these points,” he indicated with a hoof the positions of eight guards, which Celestia marked with a green glowing light. “After the first shift, from early morning to midday, they change their configuration to this,” again he pointed and besides a couple ponies kept their position, the other six changed slightly. “From mid-afternoon to early evening, their configuration changes once again,” once more only two stood their actual positions, not being the same as before, as a couple more returned to the previous positions of the guards before. “There’s the fourth shift overnight, which I couldn’t see as yet and won’t be able to as we’ll be training. But if they keep this pattern, this place,” he pointed at an alley behind the building which Celestia quickly make glow red, “is unprotected 24 hours a day. It’s not shown in the hologram, but it has another opening about two meters from this side, where I entered and took a three hours nap completely undisturbed. It was where they place the waste disposal system, but there’s no door from outside and there’s a charm or something that already teleport the waste to the right place or something like that. So, aside from maintenance of said charm, nobody gets in.

“Also, I left and asked the guards if they had seen someone entering the alley in the last couple hours. The two that should watch the sides haven’t seen me, and the others even asked me what alley I was talking about.”

That last comment made everypony else sigh, even Blaze. Celestia just shook her head and the hologram vanished.

“That was just the Public Hall, the one place I focused most of my attention. I also noticed misplaced guards in other points as Canterlot’s Arcane Science Institute and…” she drew a bit of a breath, working the courage to say. Finally he sighed and looked at Celestia, “Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”

Not a single eye kept inside its sockets so big they grew. Even the Princess lost her royal mask for the briefest of the seconds. “Are you sure?” she asked, already bringing a holographic view of said school.

Understanding the unsaid order, Lightning Dash nodded. “The school is mostly surrounded by avenues. Truly, the three principal Canterlot’s avenues passes at the sides and front of the school,” Celestia signaled them with her magic as Lightning said, “but the back side is just a simple and common street,” said street was glowing now in red as every single eye focused on Lightning Dash. “About halfway into the street, there’s an alley. Not to the side of the school, but across the street, but equally neglected by the guards, and I tested that myself.”

“And where that is a problem?” Golden Breeze asked.

“A group could start an operation in that alley,” Blaze started. “With hologram and other spells, they can hide the whole operation and when anypony approaches, they hide back in the alley.”

“And why would Princess Celestia’s school be a target that important?” Scarlet Boulder asked.

“Image,” Ice Sapphire answered. “If Princess Celestia can’t protect even her own school, how can she protect Equestria? Ponies would start to doubt and things would go downhill from there.”

“You’re thinking only on the long term consequences,” Lightning Dash said. “All these points have something in common: they are places which Princess Celestia and her protégé visit personally with frequency.”

“They are aiming at me or Twilight…” Celestia commented, a bitter taste in her mouth as she said that. “Thank you for your words, Lightning Dash. I think it’s time for a change in the guard… To be more precise, in the captain of the guard, and I have a perfect candidate in mind already, due to your information.”

“I’m only fulfilling my duty as any Equestrian citizen.”

Before anyone could say anything more, the door opened again to reveal another pony, a certain lavender unicorn which Lightning Dash refused to assume, but he already knew.

“Sorry! I’m late!” she said before looking at the table and at Celestia. She was heading to her place, followed by a baby dragon, when she was finally hit by the sight of Lightning Dash to her right side. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?”

“Twilight, calm down,” Celestia’s voice was calm and soft. “Lightning Dash has proven a valuable addition to Equestria. He and his friends will, from now on, live there on the castle. Besides in a different way, they will also be learning from me.”

“SAY WHAT?” Twilight jumped from her seat, looking at Celestia. “But Princess! He clearly has no respect for the rules and represents a menace to--”

“Lightning Dash pointed fails in our defenses, Twilight. So he deserves some respect. And he’s already being punished.”

“You… You’re not somepony infiltrate in Equestria?” the little dragon asked.

“Spike!” Twilight called him out. “You weren’t supposed to say that aloud!”

Celestia just chuckled. Lightning Dash, though, looked at Twilight with pained expression. “The Dash family has been answering under the Royal Princess for longer than your mother has been able to have foals. No Dash would ever raise a hoof to endanger or to hurt Princess Celestia.”

The proud within Lightning Dash’s voice spoke volumes about the seriousness in his action. Celestia only smiled, “Enough of that, my little ponies. It’s time for dinner, not to fight.”

Author's Note

Here's chapter three! Hope you like it! Oh, and there was a little alteration in the title in the last our. I planned to extend this chapter a bit longer but decided otherwise, so you'll have to wait a little longer. And today, our guest is Lightning Dash himself!

"HEY! That little purple filly is Princess Celestia's protégé? How the hell it's possible? She isn't any older than my sister... Well... Now that I thought of it, my sister have some feats of herself as well... Anyway, Now comes the time to face the first challenge and be a step closer to be a Knight. I still have a long way to go, and I know it, not to mention that I kinda started with the wrong hoof with Princess Celestia. The Dash family, though, isn't the most awesome, cool and amazing pegasus family in the whole Equestria for nothing! The next chapter of Knights of Harmony is: The Blinding Thunder"