Intro - It happened so suddenly... The wonderbolts are known internationally as the undeniable elite amongst pegasi fliers, civilian, military, and otherwise, and were even royally endorsed as defenders of Equestria during Crises... Nopony had actively 'challenged' them before... until now.

The Blazing Streams, they appeared out of nowhere right in the middle of a wonderbolts show smack in the middle of canterlot... Nopony got hurt, though their demonstration, and subsequent show of unnatural control, of firey abilities in the midst of an aerial show caused all kinds of unexpected disruption for the Bolts, and drew ample suspicion... Then they dissapeared in blasts of vision distorting heat before anypony could focus an effort to detain the 'show crashers'.

So... now what?

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Prologue - The Party Crashers

It was as impressive a show as ever, The wonderbolts demonstrated yet again their ever present expertise in flight and showy manuevers, zipping through the air above the public Canterlot gardens... Though a lot of the annoyingly posh little bluebloods, including the 'actual' blue blood as well, spent the length of the show cycling between watching for a few seconds and then critiquing the performance with their nearest peer.

Amongst them Sat Equestria's Prime Diarchs, observing with seemingly endless interest... of course, they'd seen the shows many times before, and after so many time, aside from the occasional new tricks, they came to be enjoyed more as an escape from the repetative daily duties of a Princess, and a chance to have the snobby nobles focused on somepony else, which was not hard to believe as the dozen or so flight suited ponies roared through the air over the crowd of rich ponies, the line of contrails following them quickly spreading into many different colors as the central multi-colored trail bled into all the rest.

Most ponies thought of the wonderbolts as a royally sponsored team of showy celebreties, though the Princesses knew that every bit of 'showy skill' they had could also be turned into a scalpel like tool for incapacitating threats to equestria... So it came as quite a surprise when, as they arched up into the air above the crowd to break formation, They hit a barrier... Not a physical barrier, and it didn't seem to hurt, but all at once their flight seemed to just 'stop' and they fell a short way before catching on the air again.

All at once the entertaining show turned into a worrisome phenomena, Most of the on-lookers just chattered curiously at this change while the princesses started to observe things 'closer', and the Bolts themelves began to zip about the still fliable air, searching for a place to get around the mysterious 'no fly zone'. The scattered about the invisible 'cieling' and repeated tried going up, only to fall back into the fliable air.

then all at once things changes.

Streaks of fire launched out of an oddly large cloud nearby, unnoticed previously due to the show taking place, and arched straight towards the crowd, breaking up straight into the unflyable air without a hinderance and coming close enough to reveal ponies at the heads of these trails. These ponies were clad in unique flight suits of their own with varied combinations of Firey colors and patterns as well as white Streaks on occasion.

Something more surprising happened next as the Heat Distortion of their Firey trails Disrupted the flight-less zone, seemingly scattering whatever cut it off about as if it had been suspended water, causing the wonderbolts flying below to become eratic. They wavered in the air at random, every second finding and then losing fliable bits of air, and it spread steadily until they were forced to land... A Gasp spread across the crowd at this, somepony even spoke aloud "The wonderbolts have been 'grounded'!?"

The Firey Fliers in the air, half a dozen in number, spread out suddenly then, as if pulling the same manuever the bolt's had been planning to carry out, Arching up into the air in a wide fanned out movement. The flaming trails behind them much shorter compared to the Contrails of the wonderbolts, but creating noticeable distortion funnels of heated air that left behind oddly varied color patterns, one that even appeared to be a zigzag of green and fiery orange, a strangely familiar pattern that was not lost on a certain colorful pegasus who was absolutely furious at being grounded.

Before long several of the Fliers circled around themselves, gaining enough speed to nearly lick their own fire trail, but never quite enough to actually touch it... with the repeatedly cycling air flow it began to spread, gathering more of the fire within the ring and daring closer to becoming a disc, until the remaining fliers zipped clean through the center of the circles, bringing a powerful spreading trail with them that was immediately joined by the 3 who'd formed the gathered fire in the first place.

They roared through the air like a spear of flame, following sharp twists and turns in the air until it became apparent that the extended trail was spelling something, and message burned in the air, each word vanishing after a few seconds.

wonderbolts - Burned Out - Blazing - Streaks - Rule the sky

One could practically taste the indignation and insult from the wonderbolts stuck on the ground, though the apparent display of dangerous 'fire power' inspired a more direct action from the present princesses, and both quickly took flight... only to quickly land back on their hooves on the ground, looking momentarily bewilered before their horns glowed.

Somepony with sharp ears could potentially hear one of the fliers calling out 'Time to bail!', at least one such pony was definitely present and was already acting on circumventing the blocking air.

The Sky lit up suddenly as the six 'Blazing Streaks' lined back up close to eachother, nearly touching their wings as they began to whirl in a circle, not unlike when some pegasi work to create a tornado of their own... before long it appeared as if the fire was coming from their wings as the heat built up in the circle, and before long the frightful sight of a burning tornado before apparent in mid-air, disrupting the air with enough force and heat that the Princesses 'corrections' were disrupted and delayed until the next moment they tried to change it.

Then all at once the Tornado burst, before even coming close to the ground, sending a wave of scalding but harmless heat in all directions, Filling the air with blinding waves of heat that made it impossible to see where the party crashing pegasi had suddenly vanished off to, clearly having stopped leaving their trails.

It would take a fair bit of time before anypony would notice that the wonderbolt who'd been given her first chance to 'officially' lead the show was now missing.

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when she'd heard the apparent hint that the intruders intended to 'bail out', Rainbow dash had launched herself away from the area, flying low, close to the ground, for a while, where the natural effect of the earth could dispel enough of the heated disturbance to leave normal flight possible.

She'd been a weather pony for years before becoming a wonderbolt, She was very well acquainted with the effects of Rapid temperature change in the air, and it was liable Canterlot was about to experience a troublesome storm that would distract most of the wonderbolts with breaking it up before it could cause any damage. She was also aware that unexpected drastic temperature changes in the air could completely disrupt a fliers quality of flight... and naturally she also knew that it meant there had to be an edge of it... 'THERE!'

She felt the dissapearance of the heat above herself just as she past the dozenth block worth of Canterlot street, and arched straight up into the air, punching high into the sky and easily catching sight of the late stages of the laming tornado... a fearful display for certain, but when it exploded it was all too obvious that it was meant as a distraction.

Never considering how dangerous somepony could be if they used a 'flaming tornado' as a 'distraction' could be if caught, She launched off high into the sky, aiming high enough to avoid the heat-wave and sweeping her attention through the air, sharp eyes trained over the years scouring the sky for... 'GOTCHA!'

As she broke the layer of the highest clouds, enough that the air chilled and the heat from below did not break the cover, she caught the sight of the party crashers flying along, keeping their pace slow enough not to create enough disturbance to disrupt the clouds, but keeping a brisk pace to make sure they get away before the air below the clouds becomes fliable enough to be followed, and more so they even appeared distorted, as if they had their own aura of heat waves, and oddly comforting thing that helped stave off her own chills from flying so high.

Now, a lot of ponies who didn't know Rainbow Dash, and some who did, wouldn't know that recent years of being a wonderbolt had taught her a lot of useful lessons, lessons few would expect a mare like 'her' to use... Stealth flying for one, learning the important of occasional discretion another... it'd be funny honestly, didn't anypon know she liked 'spy stuff'? Sneaking around was one of the most fun things to do next to flying, napping, and reading daring do.

So now she coasted low, with a speed just barely capable of keeping up with the flyers in the distance... with her position shifting closer to the sun without being directly in-front of it, and the rich blue of the sky, her flight suit kept her mostly invisible, and the glare of the sun would make it near impossible to see the colors of her mane... of course, they seemed distracted enough with the 'success' of their show crashing not to even bother looking back except on rare occasions, though they were too far and kept their voices too low to be heard, though there was apparent snickering motions as thunder was heard in the distance behind them.

The Stalking continued for nearly an hour before finally they started to pick up speed again while arching down... It had not been lost on Rainbow dash that they were now pretty close to Ponyville, which hardly made sense, she was certain one of her friend's would've mentioned 'flaming pegasi' living in ponyville... They didn't go very low though, before long they seemed to just vanish, something that shocked her considerably given her amply sharp eye-sight and complete focus on them, leading her to give a quick look all around to make sure they hadn't somehow tricked her and planned an ambush, then right back where they'd vanished.

It was barely noticeable as she drew closer, but what looked like plain sky was starting 'cover' her vision of the forest in the distance, and it hit her suddenly.

'THEY HAVE A BUCKING SECRET BASE!!!' They had a nearly invisible cloud constructed base above ponyville, colored to match the sky as camouflage, high enough that it'd be quite rare for any pegasi to come close to flying this high, few bothered to brave the colder atmosphere, and it didn't even have any DOORS... Clearly to follow them through the same spot in the wall would reveal her... time for 'hot head dash' to pop up now that she knew where they hid!

All at once She blasted forward at high speed, maybe a bit low for 'her', and shot through the softened cloud barrier that was surprisingly thin and lead to a shockingly small entry room beyond thathadadozenponiesinitandHOLYCRAPTHISISGONNAHURT!!!!

KYAAAAH!FOOMP!

She barrelled straight into 2 of the ponies, tumbling with them straight into the opposite cloud wall, hitting it with a resounding FOOMP as the specially crafted wall dispersed their force and safely dispelled chance of injury.

Then she found herself upside down ontop of a pair of thoroughly stunned Pegasi, looking upside down at 4 more pegasi in those fiery uniforms, one who had already removed her face cover, several more that weren't and 2 ... 'Unicorns!? UP HERE!?' ... 'wait, go back, I recognize that pegasus!'

All in one sudden motion she leapt up, an angry look on her muzzle, though most of it was concealed due to her own mask and goggled, there was no mistaking that rainbow mane, and a look of recognition spread on the other pony's face before a somewhat dangerous 'smirk' followed.

Rainbow of course didn't pay attention to that and started shouting "Lightning Dust!? what the hay do you think you're doing crashing a wonderbolt's show? and looking like kind of fireball too! whu... whut's that look for?" it was quite sudden that the smirk turned into a devious grin, mixed with apparent understanding from her flanking cohorts as they started to move towards Rainbow, the unsuited ponies getting out of the way then.

"Ohhh, Rainbow Dash, sorry, but you can't destroy my efforts to succeed 'this time', hmhm, I've got new skills you can't match and, well, you're going to dissapear for a little while so nopony can trouble us! Mmph, if only you hadn't followed us"

All kinds of things ran through Rainbow's head at hearing this... varying from simple understanding that Dust still held a grudge over being revealed as a dangerous braggart at the academy, to the idea that Lightning Dust might be leading some kind of scary secret group of super villain ponies that can shoot fire out of their butts... but not for a moment did she think 'I'm in trouble'... she was pretty sure she could still take em all just fine.

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak some surely heaven crackingly witty retort, only to have it die in her throat as her mouth hung vastly agape at what she saw next... though at first Lightning dust took this as a sign of victory for herself, she quickly froze up and looked like a filly about to piddle herself, as if she could feel it's presence behind her.

"Lightning Dust." That voice, not quite frightfully deep but certainly very Stallionly, it reverberated in the air with an odd power and a small bit of barely visible heat followed it... That wasn't a questioning call, not a statement, the tone behind her name being spoken was that of a command, and it even made her whimper and shrink in on herself without actually turning to look at the source.

"Oh Fuck!" was barely muttered from her lips before a large hoof pressed on her back, it didn't seem to have enough force to move her at all, but it made her quiver.

Behind Lightning dust, Suddenly stood another Pegasus, a Stallion, and a big one at that, shockingly so, he could even potentially be taller than Celestia!, and he was certainly 'bigger' in that he was a Stallion with a considerable ammount of muscled bulk on him, for a pegasus anyway, which ultimately added up to the likes of a Lithe build. He 'looked' larger though as he was exceedingly fluffy, a fact that that did 'not' detract from his imposing presence in this situation, even with huggable fluff he had a presence that, for once, made Rainbow Dash worry that she wasn't all that safe.

She hyper focused for a moment, looking quickly over the huge Stallion's form.

His fur was pure white almost allover, though his Legs faded to a grayish color starting at the shoulders and ending in black fur around his hooves... hooves that had a strange fiery orange color to them instead of the normal colors for a pony.

His mane and tail were very long, mane nearly reaching the floor as it spilled about his shoulder on the right side, and tail even comparable to fluttershy's floor dragger, though both looked very 'smooth' as if blasted by powerful but tamed wind. Both had an odd color combination, Starting at Dark red near the base and fading into black past the half length of the hair.

His wings though... Rainbow hadn't really been Picky about wing sizes, they all tended to have their use, her's were built for agility and speed, big wings tended to be built for heavy lifted and long flights... This pony, who was already big as buck, Had very large wings folded up againt his sides, though she couldn't guess the span on 'him', they were clearly the proportionally largest wings she'd ever seen... more strangely though, while the 'meat' of the wing was white like his fur, the larger primaries had a 'hot' look to them, fiery orange near the base fading to a blazing yellow at their tips... they looked like they could burst into flames at any moment.

Last she came to his muzzle, her was a pony of course, very stallionly in shape... but he couldn't possibly be a normal pony... he had teeth... sharp teeth... Predator teeth... she could see a couple of fangs even with his muzzle closed... and those eyes... Ice blue slitted pupils on black Chornea... Rainbow generally reffered to this as 'monster eye', and she hadn't seen eyes of that sort since Nightmare moon or Chrysalis, not counting dragons since they're supposed to have them like that... but on a pony they had always bothered her, somewhere deep down, like they were a sign that a pony was especially dangerous... and they were staring at her, unwavering, slowly blinking, but never leaving her eyes... She didn't even realize she'd begun to quiver a little... just a little of course, not like she was actually scared, just pony instincts she hadn't had to deal with yet.

As she stayed focus, looking him in the eye, a conversation had started... or perhaps, more of a scolding.

Lightning Dust shook on her hooves, barely staying up-right at how worried she was by him. "Uh.. I...I-I... I can..."

He interupted her stammering there and pressed just slightly on her back, provoking a quiet whimper "No, you can't explain this, can you?... I will do it for you then... You defied my orders for discretion, assaulted a wonderbolts show in front of the 'princesses', Created a small hurricane in the middle of Canterlot, though 'that' is under control at least, and Lead One of the highest profile wonderbolts right back here..."

If Rainbow had been paying attention to anything other than the eyes locked with hers, she might have noticed a very embarassing smell coming from Lightning Dust, who couldn't seem to form more than whimpers and half sylables.

His hoof slid down along one of her shoulders and tugged just a bit, causing a small stumble to ensure she knew his next words were for 'her' unmistakably "One Month."

this earned another small whimper from her along with a nod "Y-yes sir!" and in an instant she vanished through one of door-ways, leaving a wavy trail behind her.

Then he stomped a hoof shortly, earning the attention of the other 5 'associates' in suits, who immediately lined up at attention, though clearly quite worried, they did their best to still appear as stoic as possible... A simple 2 words from him "1 week" They nodded, Saluted, and vanished as well, leaving the remaining 7 ponies with him, 6 of which had been looking on with minimized smiles as the other's got whatever the hell it was he'd just given them.

Then he moved towards Rainbow, who did her absolute best to look 'tough and aggressive' while he stared into her eyes, though the frequent flicking of ears, trempling in her hooves, and occasional twitching eye spoke volumes of her struggle to keep her pride intact by not running away for help... It actually earned a small chuckle from the Big Stallion... Yeah, there went some of the tension, replaced with a fair bit of confusion aimed at him.

"Hahah... Rainbow Dash, I'm impressed, though for one of the youngest wonderbolts to rise through the rank's as you have, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to managed to track Dusty back here." It was a complete 180, from the intimidating 'glare monster' that had entered the room, to being relaxed and chatty and just... there... His expression softened into a mild smile and his posture relaxed greatly, his wings even loosened up a bit.

Rainbow's reaction was about as perfectly expected as it could ever be, a shocked face and a beffudled "whu-Huh!?" earning another verbose chuckle.

"Heheh, I suppose this is to be expected as well... I'm sure Dust's little 'show' inspired plenty of suspicion... I bet you dove in here expecting some sort of 'evil genius lair in the sky' didn't you?" His small smile turned into a cocky smirk at the unintentional blush that was barely visible from the slight change of color behind her blue mask. "Technically it could perfectly qualify for the likes of that, but no evil here... Just a new Flier group practicing their methods in private."

She perked up instantly at a certain part of what he said, ears sharply raised and eyes glaring into his in a sudden display of furious passion "wait! 'New Flier Group'? ... Are you saying... The wonderbolts actually have COMPETITION!? AND THEY CAN SHOOT FIRE?!"

He Laughed Heartily at this 'Hahah, just like I planned it!' "Indeed they do! I had a feeling you'd appreciate that, I 'had' heard that you thrive in competition!"

"Are you kidding? this is the BEST! I... I was actually worrying recently that I was getting 'too' good, I mean, being 'the best' is cool and all, but if you don't have anything to over-come then all that hard-work starts to feel stale because there's no challenge to it... I always wondered why nopony else ever tried to Challenge the wonderbolts, of course, not much competition when everypony wants to 'be' a wonderbolt."

"Ya know, I thought the same thing myself, S'why i found the 'Blazing Streams' actually, Competition breeds excellence I always say, as long as it's 'good' competition and doesn't become obssessive or needlessly spiteful. what better way to make Equestria's 'bests' better, than by giving them somepony even better to compete with, at worst you get '2' Elite teams of Fliers to protect Equestria."

"Streams? but that's not... wait, founder? Oh.. Hah...HAHAHHAAH!, that means Dust mispelled it! She called you guys the Streakers of something when writing in the sky with fire!... And, hrm, 'why' exactly was she crashing our show? Aside from embarasing, suddenly showing up spewing fire every which way is kinda dangerous... and why did she look absolutely 'terrified' of you? I have expected you to eat her or something!"

"She... ugh, seriously?... I'm going to have a talk with her later about accepting things set by her superiors! She's been ignoring our actual name and saying 'streaks' for ages now... And Honestly, I think she did it specifically because I told her 'not' to... word got around that 'Rainbow Dash' was leading the next wonderbolt show in canterlot, and I was aware of her grudge against you, so I tried to head it off and tell her to keep away... but she never listens when her mind is set on something... 'sometimes' that can be a good thing... as for the fear, that's just my 'teaching method'... It's more of an instinct thing than actual malicious intent, I look scary, sure, but I don't actually intend to 'harm' them unless they turn violent first... fire is dangerous afterall, i rather have them afraid to use it aggressively." There was a slightly scary tone behind that last part, but it faded quickly.

"So, that was basically her showboating and being an ass, huh? Ya know, it's incredibly rude to 'ground' a pegasus, even more to do it to all the wonderbolts at once 'and' the princesses! I mean, I'm not sure what I'm 'expected' to do with this, but I get the feeling i'm supposed to report it or something."

"Heh, by all means, I was intending a much 'better' show of my own in a week or so, but, well, if you have history with her I imagine you already know how Lightning Dust can be, right? She at least didn't hurt anypony right?"

"Nah, not as far as i can tell, just some bruised egos."

"Hmmm, I suppose I'm going to have to explain this to the princesses now... I can't have her getting us labeled as criminals before I even make the big reveal."

Author's Note

Mildly Incomplete prologue at the moment.