Luna and Twilight had been walking across the dunes at a decent pace for hours now. The only equine who ever made a journey anywhere near the distance of Ponyville to Cloudsdale were pegasi! The reason for that was the land between Ponyville and Cloudsdale was a barren waste. No water, food, or life for miles in every direction. Twilight's legs were aching, the pain was unbearable but Princess Luna kept on going somehow. She stopped, she was at her physical limit. Luna looked back to check on her. Twilight's vision blurred. She looked at her hooves only to find they were bruised, blistered, and bloody. Twilight barely managed to put her hooves back on the sand before she collapsed onto it.

Luna saw this and wasn't surprised. This journey was a training exercise in itself. The objective was to see how long Twilight could keep going, and for a pony of her age and physical activity, she had done quite well; but for a Specialist, she had a very long journey yet. She picked Twilight up using a levitation spell and placed her on her back. Luna spread her large wings, and flew the rest of the way to Cloudsdale.

The ground was very fluffy. Twilight's vision focused again. There were no clouds in the sky. If anything there were daytime stars instead, like she was so high up you could see past the exosphere. Luna was beside her.

"Good. You're awake. We're here." Twilight was confused.

"What do you mean 'here'?" Luna found this a silly question.

"Look around Twilight." She sat up straight. There were pegasi flying around everywhere, the buildings were made of clouds. Of course! They were in Cloudsdale! Hold on a minute. Then why wasn't she falling through the clouds? Twilight panicked.

"Princess Luna what in the pits of Tartarus is this? Am I dreaming? Are we a still walking here? Or is this an illusion spell? How the hell am I walking on these clouds?"

"No. No. No. And I cast a spell that allows earth ponies and unicorns to walk on clouds." Twilight began to calm down now. Apparently Luna's 'explanation' had answered all her questions.

"Oh. Ok then. I guess that all makes sense. Tell me, why are we here again?" Luna admitted to herself that her previous explanation wasn't very detailed, so she explained more thoroughly.

"I said before that we were here to see an old friend of yours. Do you have any idea who they might be?" Twilight thought about it for a while. Eventually she answered 'no'.

"She's proud and competitive," Again, a no.

"Helped defeat Nightmare Moon," Twilight still didn't know who Luna was talking about.

"Apparently the 'fastest pony in Equestria'..." Twilight's hesitation really got to Luna.

"Oh come on! I'm practically spelling it out for you!!" Twilight still didn't clock who Luna was talking about. Then she heard quite faint whistling sound that was rapidly getting louder and closer. Luna had honestly given up. She put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Just look at the practice circuit." Twilight turned her head towards the track. It was still for a while.

"Look up." Then a rainbow streak raced across the sky! It made Twilight flinch a bit.

"Is that-"

Luna replied swiftly, "Yup." Shortly after, four streams of smoke, each different shades of grey, followed suit.

"Are those-"

"Uh huh." Twilight was astounded. She had actually done it! Rainbow Dash had really become faster than all the Wonderbolts!! Even Spitfire!! She raced he into a cloud formation, and waited on one for the Wonderbolts. Spitfire dropped behind the rest for around three seconds, then soared up to double her previous speed. The other three landed on different clouds, surrounding Rainbow Dash. What were they doing?? Twilight didn't know. Princess Luna, with her magic, teleported to a nearby cloud and constructed a see-through shield all around them. Twilight was still confused. Within a tenth of a second Spitfire landed on a slow moving cloud, and waited... The silence that followed was haunting. A wind current passed, Rainbow's left wing twitched. Spitfire readied herself. She planted her feet firmly in the cloud she was on. Rainbow Dash spread her wings fully. This was apparently an opening for Spitfire. She rushed at Rainbow Dash, and attempted a turning kick in mid air. Rather than dodge the hit, Rainbow dropped back slightly, and took the decision to block. When their two limbs connected, a shockwave tore through the atmosphere! It was even visible! Of course!! They were sparring!

Spitfire quickly withdrew and let the other Wonderbolts spar with Rainbow Dash. The first one, a male pegasus with blue fur and a black mane, threw a straight jab at her face, which was swiftly followed up by a back kick aimed at Rainbow's stomach. She dodged the jab and caught the kick, she then spun the stallion around and threw him toward the ground. The second stallion, whose name was Soarin, opened with a chop kick followed shortly by a barrage of midsection punches. Rainbow blocked all of these with ease. She crouched on the cloud, then she flew up like a firework! Her lift off had actually destroyed the the cloud! Spitfire and Soarin followed Rainbow, not letting up one bit. Eventually Rainbow landed on a massive cloud at least 9,000 feet in the sky! Twilight felt odd again, and the sparring pegasi were below them. Luna had moved them again with a teleportation spell, she had even used a transparency spell, so that the pegasi wouldn't spot them. Twilight looked down and saw the blue stallion racing up toward Rainbow Dash. He drew back his right hoof and, just as he came up through the cloud, attempted to uppercut her. Twilight then remembered something,

"All equine races have magic, right Princess?"

"That is correct," Luna sounded very serious, the reason for this was that she was assessing Rainbow Dash's fighting capabilities. She continued Twilight's explanation.

"Unicorns are the best at channelling their magic, but pegasi and earth ponies still posses it; pegasi channel it through their wings, and earth ponies relay it through their hooves. However, unlike us unicorns, both of these races can only use a few techniques each." Twilight was intrigued by these facts.

"The earth ponies can focus and control their magic into different parts of their body, which usually results in say, enhanced speed, bursts of strength, and in some cases, even internal and external healing. Pegasi can only summon weapons and use the clone technique, but they can utilise both extremely well. Also, all ponies can use one or two element affinities, but those from the Crystal Empire can use all five of them." As if on cue, Rainbow Dash grabbed the blue stallion and spawned a clone right behind him, which kicked him up into the air. She jumped above him, and kicked him back down to the cloud. She then created two more clones beside her, which kicked him as they came down as well. All of the clones dispersed in a cloud of smoke. Twilight looked closely, and noticed there were markings on the undersides of Rainbow Dash's hooves. She touched the markings, and a shuriken appeared in each hoof. She threw both with great finesse and speed. They twisted and rotated as they headed for Spitfire. She moved out of the way long before they would've slashed her. What she didn't notice was that the two shuriken had interlocked; they ricocheted off of each other, and one was sent flying in Spitfire's direction! She knew she couldn't dodge this time, so she spawned a small log in front of her which took the hit. Both the stump and the shuriken disappeared in a small cloud, but Rainbow Dash was immediately behind it! She went up close to Spitfire and pointed her hoof at Spitfire's chest. Everypony there was confused...

There was a shockwave and during the instant before, that millisecond, Rainbow moved forward, her hoof still in contact with Spitfire's chest and punched as hard as she could! She flew back and doubled over in pain. Soarin came up behind Rainbow Dash, with a kunai in his hoof. He threw it purposefully to the side of Rainbow's head. She caught it and scoffed, as if to say, 'is that it?' She didn't notice it, but there was a piece of paper trailing behind on a thread. Seconds later the paper bomb exploded in the side of Rainbow Dash's face! She was knocked back and hit the cloud. Rainbow then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Spitfire figured it out.

"Crap... A clone!!" A hoof came over Spitfire's face from behind! She was thrown over the pony's shoulder, then put in a pressure lock, with a cold metal kunai pressing into the back of her neck. Rainbow Dash released the lock on Spitfire and put the kunai back in her ranged weapons pouch. Spitfire got up and rubbed her stomach.

"That punch really fuckin' hurt ya know?" She said in a banter-like voice. Soarin was still recovering a little. Spitfire offered that Rainbow join the rest of them at a restaurant as a reward for doing so well in training.

"I'll think about it." Rainbow Dash replied. Soarin came up to Rainbow Dash just as Spitfire flew off back to her training hall. She had teaching to do in an hour or so. Sometimes Rainbow Dash would come and teach along with Spitfire, and she really enjoyed it. Soarin put his hoof on her back.

"Hey, how you doing." To Twilight's surprise, Rainbow seemed embarrassed; she was even blushing slightly.

"Yeah I'm good, Dad's doing well too. His wing healed up ok." Soarin looked relieved.

"Good, I'm glad to hear it."

"What about you? Your little sister, how's she?"

"Oh, um she's fine. She's about to take the secondary school tests though, so she's nervous to say the least. I already go to the college she wants to, so she does have a slight advantage." Twilight could tell that Rainbow Dash and Soarin both liked each other, but had never realised the other's feelings for them. She looked to her right, and Princess Luna was gone! She looked around and saw her on the same cloud as Rainbow Dash and Soarin. She was still cloaked, but not for long. Soarin remembered that he had to pick his little sister up from school.

"Shit! I gotta go pick up my sister! She finishes in five minutes!!" They waved each other off, and he spread his wings.

"Oh and Rainbow," She turned to face him once again. He walked up closer to her.

"Good job today." Without warning he placed his hoof on her hip, and planted a swift, but definitive kiss on Rainbow Dash's lips. She embraced it warmly. It seemed to last longer than it really did. When Soarin withdrew, Rainbow was blushing slightly.

"See ya soon." He said in a deliberately seductive voice. He flew off towards a large group of separated clouds, which was where all the educational facilities were located. Rainbow exhaled a shaky breath, still shocked by what had just taken place. At that moment, Luna deactivated the transparency spell.

"So," An immediate chill went down Rainbow Dash's spine. It was I bit higher than before, but she'd recognise that voice anywhere. She turned around slowly, fearing who, no, what must be behind her.

"You finally got a stallion."

Rainbow froze instantly, as anger and rage built up inside of her. For the eternal mare she saw standing before her was not Princess Luna in her mind, but none other than Nightmare Moon!

Author's Note

Chapter 3 of 5 in my new story: The Price of War.
Chapters 1-5 will be posted all in one go. Feel free to comment below with constructive criticism, i.e. suggestions, tips, corrections, but nothing belligerent towards me or other commenters.
Hope you enjoyed.