Rainbow Dash and the Darkwing Pony

Chapters

Weather or Wonderbolt Pony?
Picking the Best Leader
The Mystery Begins
The Late Night Fight
The Origin of Darkwing Pony
Can't Fight Them Alone
Battle at the Castle
Watch Out for the Inferno
Hanging By A Thread
Carrying On

Weather or Wonderbolt Pony?

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Rainbow Dash and the Darkwing Pony
(Inspired by the Disney Television Series 'Darkwing Duck')
Written by: ThomasZoey3000

Chapter 1: Weather or Wonderbolt Pony?

Luna's moon was just setting for another night, and it wouldn't be long before Celestia's sun signalled the beginning of a new day, and ponies could go about doing what they usually do. At the big house in the sky above Ponyville, one pony was going to get up long before anypony else. Ms Rainbow Dash, a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane was tossing and turning in her sleep, and more often than not, she rolled close to the edge of her bed. Finally though, she rolled a little too far and with a yelp, she fell onto the floor.

The fall had woken up Tank, her little pet tortoise, who looked over to her with a concerned look on his face.

"Oh hello, that's a real wake-up call," Rainbow groaned. "Sweet Celestia, I haven't fallen out of bed in years, so why now?" She then noticed Tank's concerned look, "I'm okay Tank, nothing's broken. See?" She extended her wings and flapped them a few times to show she was alright.

That was more than enough prove to Tank, he gave her a little nod as if to say, 'glad you're not hurt.'

"Well since we're up anyways, we might as well have breakfast. Come on Tank."

She picked up her little tortoise and brought him over to the kitchen. There, she gave him a small bowl of leaves with some vegatables sprinkled on top. For herself, she just brought out some Apple Juice and filled a bowl with Hay Oats Cereal.

However, she didn't eat at first. Her focus was enterily on something that happened yesterday...

It was nearing the end of the day, and Rainbow Dash was flying over Ponyville after completing some drills with the Wonderbolts. She figured for tonight she could clear some clouds before going home to see Tank, and get some rest. However, as she neared the first cloud, she heard a pony call from down below. Rainbow looked and saw Mayor Mare, looking rather serious.

"Hello Mayor, what's going on?" Rainbow asked as she flew down.

"Rainbow Dash, it has come to my attention, that you have recently become a Wonderbolt."

"That's correct, full time Wonderbolt, that's me." Rainbow loved admitting that she was a Wonderbolt, it had been a dream of her's for years to be part of their team, and only recently did they invite her to join them.

"It's also come to my attention that your training takes up a large portion of your day."

The smile on Rainbow's face quickly went away, "well yes it does, but I do try to get back here as soon as possible."

The mayor shook her head, "I'm afraid we can't wait around forever for you to finish your training runs. Three times this month we've been needing rain showers, but without you, our town isn't getting all the rain it needs."

A look of concern came to Rainbow's face, "so what are you saying?"

"I'm saying you need to make a choice Rainbow Dash, you're either going to be a weather pony full time, or you're a wonderbolt. You can't do both."

"But I was a Wonderbolt reverse before, and I was still able to work on the weather with other ponies."

"Perhaps, but you weren't needed as often as you do now. I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but it's one or the other. If you chose to stay as a Wonderbolt, then we'll hire another pony to take over as leader of the weather team. Take your time, and think on it."

The mayor turned and walked away.

That conversation had been on Rainbow's mind all night, and she still didn't know what to do. She could easily show the mayor she could do both, but then she'd run the risk of upsetting the Mayor and Spitfire, leader of the Wonderbolts. This left her with the decision of which job she wanted most. She had been a weather pony ever since moving to Ponyville and loved every aspect of the job. On the other hoof, she had been dreaming about being in the Wonderbolts since she was a filly.

"What do you think Tank? Should I keep the job I've had for many years, or stick to my dream?"

Tank tilted his head to the left, which was his way of picking the second option. Although he was a tortoise, he understood perfectly of Rainbow's dream of being a Wonderbolt, and now that she was, he didn't want to see her lose that dream.

"Thanks Tank, I'll stick as a Wonderbolt. As soon as I'm done here, I'll tell the mayor of my decision. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without you little buddy."

Tank shook his head. He couldn't imagine either.

The Mayor was just walking up to the town hall when she saw something flying down towards her. The something turned out to be Rainbow Dash, with an almost disappointed look on her face.

"Good morning Rainbow Dash, have you made a decision yet?"

"What? The look on my face isn't a giveaway?" She sighed and said; "that's to say, yes I have. I've decided that since I've been wanting to be a Wonderbolt for as long as I can remember, I can't give that job up. So I'm here to say I can no longer be lead Weather pony."

The mayor nodded, "I respect your decision Rainbow Dash, and we will give the job to another pony to take over."

"But make sure whoever does take over for me has the skill and know-how on how to be a leader, cause if that pony doesn't know what they're doing, you could end up with a few twisters in Ponyville."

"Don't worry, we'll be giving each weather pony a trail to see if they got what it takes."

Rainbow nodded, then asked one more question, "will I still be able to smack a few clouds from time to time?"

"I see no reason why not, you just can't work with the weather team."

The mayor turned and walked into Town Hall to make the arrangements. Rainbow was sad as she flew away, she was going to miss being a weather pony. However, the thought of being a Wonderbolt quickly brought a smile to her face, and she picked up the pace as she flew to Headquarters.

Spitfire was just coming out of the office when she saw Rainbow Dash coming in for a landing on the runway.

"You're early today Rainbow Dash," she said as she walked over. "I thought you'd be late what with your weather job."

"Well that won't be happening again, I just gave up my job as a weather pony."

"Oh? Well I'm sorry to hear that, but I am glad you're sticking with us." She then stared Rainbow firmly in the face. Rainbow fell into line like a soldier, "now listen Newbie, we have some intense training runs today, and we need you at your best. So get your uniform on and get out to join the rest of the bolts!"

"Yes Ma'am!" saluted Rainbow Dash and flew to the change rooms.

She quickly got into her uniform and walked outside to join the others. She stopped at the side of the runway, and cringed a bit. On her first day as a Wonderbolt, she had forgotten to look both ways, thus forcing her to jump and end up crashing into a garbage can. After that day, she had been called 'Rainbow Crash' and while by now, she was getting used to having the nickname, she did not want to end up in a garbage can again. She checked both ways, and when she was sure it was safe, she flew over to join the rest of the group.

"Alright Wonderbolts, listen up!" Spitfire said firmly. "The city of Vanhoover is going to have an air show, and we have been asked to perform for the crowds there. This is a special treat for the Wonderbolts as we have not been asked to visit them in seven years, not sure why though. Anyways, we will be practising to make sure we don't delay our turns, spin out or tumble to the ground...or splash into a mountain of cotten candy again..."

Rainbow groaned and smacked her forehead. She knew Spitfire was talking about the first airshow she had been in, and after her own stunts went wrong, she crashed into a mountain of cotten candy that had been ordered by Pinkie Pie.

"So remember, pay attention to the instructions and no goofing off up there, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Ma'am, perfectly clear," all the Wonderbolts said in unison.

"Good, now get onto the runway and let's get up there!"

Spitfire flew over to the front of the runway, and the other bolts followed. Fleetfoot and Rainbow Dash were the last ones on the runway, and right away, Rainbow could tell all was not well with her partner.

"Hey Fleetfoot, are you feeling alright?" she asked worringly.

"Oh yeah, nothing I can't handle Crash."

Rainbow smirked, "alright then, just don't go landing on Spitfire's hoof again."

But even though they were joking around, Rainbow was still concerned for her team-mate's health.

Still, they took off into the sky and started practising all the tricks and stunts that would be shown at the Vanhoover Air Show. All was going well, and Rainbow Dash was finding it easy to keep up with them. However, she couldn't stop worrying about Fleetfoot's health. She seemed to be getting worse the longer they flew.

Rainbow was so busy worrying about her that she accidently flew into a cloud.

"Come on Crash, stay in line!" Spitfire called firmly.

"Sorry Ma'am!" she called back.

She was about to take flight once more, when suddenly she heard; "Fleetfoot!" coming from Soarin'. She looked and saw Fleetfoot falling towards the ground down below.

"Here I go again," Rainbow thought to herself.

She took off after her team-mate, but that was easier said than done. Fleetfoot was out cold, and her hooves were tucked in, making her go even faster. For a normal pegasus, that would've been a problem, but not Rainbow Dash. She kept putting on the speed, even as she felt the sound barrier getting harder. She pushed through, creating a Sonic Rainboom, and giving her the speed she needed to catch Fleetfoot.

"Huh? Wha...what's going on?" she groaned weakily.

"I'll explain when we get back to Headquarters, just don't go throwing up on me."

They reached Wonderbolts Headquarters safely, much to the relief of the other Wonderbolts. Spitfire walked up to Rainbow, "nice flying newbie," she smiled. She turned her attention to Fleetfoot, "what happened up there?"

"I don't know, I was just flying along, then everything...went black, then I found myself being carried on Crash's back."

Spitfire checked her temperature, "yikes, you got a high fever, you're in no shape to fly. Not now, and certainly not when we're to go to Vanhoover. Fleetfoot, I want you to go to the medical office and rest there. Go aganist my orders, and you will be dealt with. Understood?"

"Perfectly Ma'am."

"Good, now Crash, get her to the office."

"Yes Ma'am," saluted Rainbow Dash. She turned, and with Fleetfoot still on her back, headed to the office.

Rainbow was glad when the end of the day finally arrived. Spitfire was able to bring in a Reserve to act in Fleetfoot's place, but due to the Reserve not knowing everything about the stunts of the Bolts meant they had to sit through lectures, and go through more practise runs than normal. Still, that was behind them and hopefully the Reserve Pony would do better when it came time to perform in Vanhoover.

Before heading home, Rainbow Dash decided to go to Ponyville and see how the weather team was doing without her as leader.

"Hope the new pony is doing a good job," she thought to herself.

As she was coming in for a landing, she saw a long line of ponies heading towards her. She had to flap her wings to get off the ground and out of the way as all the ponies ran past her.

"The horror, the horror!" cried Daisy, one of the Flower fillies.

"All is lost!" added Lily Valley.

"What? What in Celestia's name is going..." but Rainbow soon got her answer. A giant twister was heading straight for her, and inside it were several ponies, crying out for help. "You have got to be kidding me. I leave the job one day and they create a Tornado? Right, let's see if these wings have enough juice in them to keep going."

She flew towards the Twister and started spinning the other way. However, the Tornado was fast, making it feel like it wanted to pull Rainbow Dash into it, trapping her with the other ponies. There was only thing she could do. She picked up the pace once more, gathering speed as she did and with another groan, she broke the sound barrier once more, creating a second Sonic Rainboom and giving the speed she needed to stop the Tornado.

It worked, it weakened, allowing the ponies to fall back to the ground and the twister to disappear.

With it gone, Rainbow could finally land on the ground and sigh with relief, "whew, two rainbooms in one day takes alot out of a pony."

The residants of Ponyville started cheering, and the Mayor, who had been taking shelter, came up to her, "thank you once again Rainbow Dash, you truely are this town's greatest hero."

"No, just a pony doing her job," she panted.

The new leader of the weather team flew down towads them. It was Thunderlane, a black pegasus, "sorry about that, I thought it would clear the clouds away, not the whole town."

"Well it was the other way round till Rainbow Dash came in and saved us once more," the Mayor said angerily.

"Sorry."

The Mayor shook her head, "you're definetly not the right pony for the job. I'll have to find some other pony to take charge."

"Excuse me Mayor," interupted Rainbow Dash, "but maybe I should be the one to pick out the next leader of the weather team. I can pick one that will make the right decisions."

"I don't know, you're not a weather pony anymore."

"True, but I do know what our town needs in a leader. Besides," she added and pointed a hoof to the crowd, "I think everypony around here agrees with my idea."

Everypony who was nearby nodded their heads angerily.

"Very well then, you do know what it means to be a leader, so you pick out the next leader."

"Thank you." She then turned to the weather pegasi, "for those of you who wish to become leader, meet me at the track tomorrow morning at five. There, I will give you tests to see how good you'll be, then I will decide who is best for the role. Do I make myself clear on that?!" she asked, trying to sound a bit like Spitfire.

"Yes Rainbow Dash Ma'am!" they all said and saluted.

Rainbow saluted them all and watched as they flew off for a night's rest. Thunderlane walked up towards her, "I'm sorry about that Rainbow, it's just that it was getting late and we spent most of the afternoon dealing with rain clouds."

"Hey, everypony can make mistakes, but rash decisions like that will only cause trouble, as you have just seen. It's better to be safe than sorry. Geez, now I'm starting to sound like Twilight."

With the crisis now over, Rainbow Dash was more than ready to go home and get some rest.

Tank was waiting at the door for her. Fluttershy had come by earlier and made sure Tank was looked after, it was something she promised to do when Rainbow Dash was brought into the Wonderbolts. He smiled at her.

"Hey Tank, it's good to see you too. I'm afraid I can't talk much right now though, I'm pooped."

She picked up Tank, and together they went back to Rainbow's bedroom. She gently placed him in his little bed, and removed his propeller. Then she went back to her bed.

"What a day, saving a team-mate when they started falling from the sky, and when I go visit Ponyville to see how the weather team is doing, I end up dealing with Thundelane's Tornado. ARGH!" she groaned as she leaned back onto her bed. "Oh well, once the new weather team's leader is found, my life should become much easier. What do you think Tank?" and she looked over to her Tortoise.

He nodded his head before lowering it to his pillow and falling asleep. Rainbow Dash soon followed, and before long, they were both in dreamland.

The town of Ponyville soon became quiet. There was hardly a sound to be heard. That was until...

"Come on," whispered a voice. Two stallions were sneaking around Ponyville, and heading for a jewelery store. The window display showed plenty of jewels and other sparkly items, but the door was locked. "Get that lock picked."

"Why is it always me? You can do that too," said the second stallion.

"Because the boss wanted you to open the door, not me. You wouldn't want to go aganist his orders now would you?"

The second stallion sighed and went straight to work. The first one stood around, looking for sighs of any ponies walking around. All was going well for them, but not for long.

Shadows blocked the view of the second stallion, "hey, do you mind, I'm trying to work here."

"That's not my shadow, I'm right beside you," said the first stallion.

The second stallion looked down at the shadow and followed it across the path, and up to it's source. Both of them gasped as they saw a pony on the rooftops, but it was no ordinary pony as this one had a big floppy hat on, a scrap around it's neck, wore a jump suit and had a long flappy cape on it's back. The pony's wings extended and it looked down to the two stallions.

"You punks picked the wrong night to rob this town."

The mysterious pony jumped down to the ground, where the sounds of hoof punches could be heard. Then it was silent, and the mysterious pony disappeared into the night.

Picking the Best Leader

Author's Note

Please note that there are some references to the G.M. Berrow book 'Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare'.

Picking the Best Leader

Chapter 2: Picking the Best Leader

Rainbow Dash flew down towards Ponyville the following next morning. She was tired, but knew she'd get plenty of sleep once she had picked out a proper pegasus to be in charge of the Ponyville Weather Team, leaving her to be a full time Wonderbolt and that alone. Well except for when the map at Twilight's castle calls on her for an adventure, whenever that will be.

As she flew over the town though, she could see a crowd of ponies down below looking around one shop.

"Must be having a sale today," she thought to herself.

She had seen many ponies line up outside of stores before when there was a big sale, or something was to released. She chuckled, thinking back to when the Daring Do book 'The Volcano of Destiny' came out, she'd spent all day outside the book store waiting for it to open so she could get one of the first copies.

However, it wasn't a sale that had brought the ponies there. Instead, it had more a less to do with a damaged lock, and reports of what sounded like ponies being punched and kicked in the middle of the night.

"Are you sure you didn't see who did this?" asked one of the Ponyville police officers.

"I'm quite sure," said Plumsweet, a local pegasus in Ponyville. "I was just sleeping when all the sudden, I heard a scream, followed by a thumping sound and by the time I got to the window, the two ponies were knocked down and the attacker had gone."

"Huh. Well that's not alot to go on. Thank you anyways Miss Plumsweet, you may go."

Plumsweet extended her wings and took off into the sky.

The police chief; Silver Badge looked to the officer, "you know, this sounds awfully familar, like this kind of thing has happened once or twice around Equestria. I'm going to send a few letters to our contacts in other towns and cities, and see if any of them have anything that might help us find out who did this last night."

"Very good Sir, but if I may say Sir, I think this pony did us a favour. These two were going to rob the place."

"Perhaps, but why not stick around to tell us what they did? Something in this Applesauce smells funny, and I don't like it."

Rainbow Dash soon reached the field where many of the pegasus ponies could found talking to one another, some were boasting that they could take on Rainbow's old job with great ease. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash had her whistle and blew it loud and long to get their attention, "alright ponies listen up!" she called out loud. They all stopped talking and looked to her, "Ponyville needs a lead weather pony, and as shown last night, not every pony is up to the task of being in charge."

Thunderlane was there too, and hearing that, he looked down with a shamed look on his face.

"I know Thunderlane tried his best, but a Tornado is not the best solution to the problem. That's why you are all here, I will decide on which of you has what it takes to lead a team, know what kind of weather to bring in without thinking for too long, and know when it is the time for a twister. Also, speed helps too. That's why we're starting today off with a race around the track."

"Uh, why do we need to have a race?" asked Flitter.

"To see who can jump into action when something unusual happens, that's why."

Flitter and four other pegasus ponies got onto the track and prepared themselves for the race ahead. Rainbow Dash had a stop watch on hoof, so she could time them all.

"Remember, speed helps. Now go!" and she blew on the whistle.

The ponies took off within seconds, and started racing around the track. Some were very fast, but others were not as fast. Rainbow could only shake her head, "This might be harder than I thought," she thought only to herself.

She watched the races for quite a while, and each time, wrote down different numbers for each pegasus.

As the sun began rising over Ponyville, the pegasi gathered around Rainbow Dash, "you all did good in your races, many of you being fast, but the rest...well, I say good effort, but it's not enough to be leader of the team."

"Oh nuts and shoes," groaned Thunderlane, "guess I'm not getting the job back."

"Sorry Thunderlane, but don't worry, you're still a weather pony no matter what."

That cheered Thunderlane up right away.

"The top five ponies who made it to the top of the list, and has the best chance to become leader are as follows; Flitter, Blossomforth, Plumsweet, Helia and Cloud Chaser. You five ponies, step forward." They all did and saluted Rainbow Dash, all the while trying to keep from cheering right away. "Congrats Ponies, you five did great, but there are still tests to be performed before I can give the mayor my report on who is perfect for the job of leader. Now, I have to go to Wonderbolt Headquarters, but make sure you come back later today for the next stage of your tests."

"Yes Ma'am!" they all saluted.

"Good." Then a smirk came to Rainbow Dash's face, "okay, now you can cheer."

And they did, they cheered loudly and even high-hooved each other. Rainbow smiled and took off for Wonderbolts Headquarters.

When she arrived, she found Spitfire talking with a police officer. Spitfire also had some papers and gave them to the officer. He thanked her for the papers, then flew away.

"What was that all about?" Rainbow asked. "You're not in trouble with the police are you?" she asked with a sly grin.

"Of course not," giggled Spitfire. "No, that officer just wanted some records of past crime waves in Cloudsdale."

"Crime waves? I don't remember hearing anything about crime waves in Cloudsdale. I often fly into the town, and nopony ever mentioned it to me before."

"Well they didn't really last too long, and the criminals were actually stopped by an unknown pony."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "an unknown pony?"

"Yeah, from what witnesses say, a pony in some kind of costume knocked these criminals down before they can commit their crimes, then disappear into the night."

"Geez, that sounds like something from a Power Ponies comic book."

"I know, but it's all true. However, we're not here to talk about crime waves or heroes in the middle of the night, we have training to do, so..." she paused and shouted; "GET INTO YOUR UNIFORM!"

"Yes Ma'am, on it!"

Rainbow hurried off to the locker room. In ten seconds flat, she was in her uniform and joining the rest of the Wonderbolts outside. One of them looked nervous, and that pony was the reserve to take Fleetfoot's place while she was out.

"You nervous?" Rainbow whispered.

"What do you think? My legs are shaking, and my knees are banging into each other."

Rainbow looked down. Sure enough, the ponies' legs were shaking, and her knees were banging aganist each other.

"Okay uh, what's your name?"

"Lightning Strike."

"Lightning Strike, almost sounds like..." she shook her head, "anyways, listen to me Lightning Strike, you need to calm yourself down. After all, this is just a practise run, and if you make mistakes, you can learn from them and become a better wonderbolt. Okay? Now take in deep breaths and calm yourself down."

Lightning Strike took Rainbow's advice, took in breaths and did her best to calm herself down. It worked as her legs stopped shaking.

"Thanks Ms..."

"Rainbow Dash."

"Well thanks, Rainbow Dash."

Spitfire came over, "alright Lightning Strike, I know you're new here, so we'll take it easy with you until you can get all the moves down perfectly. Now, please join Soarin' over there and we'll send you two up first."

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am," Lighting Strike saluted. She trotted over towards Soarin', and within seconds, the two had taken off into the sky.

Spitfire looked to Rainbow Dash, "good pep talk by the way." She looked back to the two ponies in the sky, and called out instructions to them.

The day went by rather quickly, and happily Lightning Strike learned everything quickly. She was doing just as well, if not better than Rainbow Dash, though Rainbow would never admit it.

"At least one Lightning knows better than to create dangerous weather," Rainbow thought to herself.

She was of course thinking about the other Lightning she knew; 'Lightning Dust'. Rainbow often wondered what had happened to that pony, but soon her thoughts were moved aside as she was flying back towards the race track. The five pegasus ponies were all there, waiting for her. Also waiting there was Scootaloo. She had heard Rainbow Dash was doing trail runs for lead weather pony for Ponyville, and wanted to see this for herself.

"Sorry I'm late ponies," Rainbow panted, "training went on for a while. Now, we're going to move onto the next phase of testing; know what weather to bring in."

Plumsweet raised a hoof, "but doesn't Cloudsdale usually give us schedules on weather patterns?"

"Sometimes, but there are times when Ponyville needs weather that isn't on the schedule, like say if there is a heat wave, or ponies have had enough rain, or if a pony sleeps when there's a small need for rain." She rubbed the back of her head nervously, remembering more than a few times when she slept when she was suppose to bring in the weather. "Now I will quiz you, and if you can give me a correct answer, you'll move onto the next stage of your testing."

"And what would that be?" asked Flitter.

"You'll find out when we get there. Now let's get onto the questions."

The five ponies listened as Rainbow Dash gave them all different scenerios of different weather patterns, and asked what should they do. A few times they got wrong answers, but for the most part, they were giving out good answers. In the end, only Plumsweet failed the test.

"You gave some good answers, but I'm afraid they're not what we're looking for. Sorry," said Rainbow Dash.

"That's okay, I had fun trying anyways."

The other four pegasi at least got over ninty percent, so they moved onto the next phase of the test, which took place in the sky. Not wanting her biggest fan, and sister by choice to miss out on the fun, Rainbow brought Scootaloo up to a cloud where she could see everything.

"This is so awesome," Scootaloo smiled, but she didn't say it too loudly as she didn't want to distrub Rainbow Dash.

"Okay ponies, you four are very good at speed, and you got many of the questions I asked correct. Now I want to see how well you would do in actual weather conditions. Since we have plenty of clouds up here, we'll use those to recreate a real weather problem. I want to see how you will handle it. Only the pony who can act on the fly will get the job of leader of Ponyville's weather team."

Rainbow flew over towards the first cloud, "okay Blossomforth, pretend this is a Everfree Cloud with lightning strikes shooting out everywhere, and it's heading for town hall, what do you do? Think fast." And she bucked it hard.

Blossomforth watched it come her way, and pretending it was an Everfree cloud, she charged at it and bucked it, making it disappear.

"How was that?"

Rainbow shook her head, "incorrect Blossomforth. If that had been a real Everfree cloud, it would've shocked you and you'd be falling from the sky." Blossomforth flew back to her original spot, "okay Helia, you're up. Think of this cloud as a Tornado out of control and heading straight for Ponyville, what do you do?" And she bucked the cloud.

Helia thought it over quickly, and charged at it. She flew around it, going as fast as she could until the cloud disappeared.

"Correct Helia. If that had been a real twister, you would've made it smaller and eventually disappear, but I saw you slowing down towards the end. Don't slow down until it's completely out."

Helia nodded and flew back into her original spot.

The tests went on for quite a while, and before long it was down to just two ponies; Flitter and Cloud Chaser. Rainbow thanked Helia and Blossomforth for trying, then turned her attention back to the two pegasi.

"You both surprised me today, you passed every single test I gave you, and you acted quickly in those fake situations I made up. I guess now there's only one thing left to do. Have one more race."

"Another race?" asked Flitter in surprise, "but Rainbow, we're both a little tired, we need our rest."

Rainbow shook her head, "a true leader has to work no matter if she or he are tired, and must be able to act within seconds. So, down onto the track and let's see who has what it takes."

They flew down towards the track, and Rainbow Dash brought down plenty of clouds, along with the one Scootaloo was on.

"Why do you need the clouds Rainbow Dash?" she asked curiously.

"I need them to see if they can think on the fly while racing and being tired," she whispered to her young friend. "Whoever succeeds will be in charge of the Ponyville weather team."

Scootaloo nodded and jumped down from the cloud.

"On your marks, get set...and go!" Rainbow shouted. Flitter and Cloud Chaser took off instantly. But they barely made it round the first corner before Rainbow Dash threw a cloud into their path. Cloud Chaser flew ahead and smacked it to nothing. "Impressive," Rainbow thought to herself. She did it again on the next corner, and this time Flitter got it. "Next cloud's a storm cloud, so think fast!"

Of course it wasn't really storm cloud, but still the ponies treated it like a storm cloud, and Flitter made it float away from where they were.

"Not bad."

"This is so cool," cheered Scootaloo.

After much flying around and attacking clouds, and giving responses to Rainbow's questions, a winner was finally decided. It was Cloud Chaser.

"Good work Cloud Chaser, you are definetly what Ponyville is looking for in a leader. You will come with me to the Mayor's office and we'll let her know right away."

"Thanks...Rainbow Dash," he panted.

Rainbow walked over towards Flitter, "you gave it your best shot, you should be proud of yourself."

"Thank you Rainbow."

"Tell you what, if Cloud Chaser ever comes down with the flu or some other illness, you can lead as back-up leader, how's that?"

"Sounds good to me."

They delivered the news to the mayor, who gave her approval. Once that was done, and Cloud Chaser and Flitter went home, Rainbow walked with Scootaloo back to her place.

"That was truely awesome," smiled Scootaloo. "I only wish my wings were strong enough to get me off the ground, then maybe I could've tried out for the job."

"You'd have to be a little older than you are now Scoot," said Rainbow, "But who knows, maybe one day, you'll get that chance."

"Do you think so?"

"I don't think so, I know so. One day, you'll not only be an awesome Cutie Mark Crusader, but a great weather pony. Heck, you might be better than me...almost."

Scootaloo smiled, even when she heard the 'Almost' bit. It was good enough for her.

As they walked along though, they could hear voices in the distance. At first, they thought nothing of it as they usually hear ponies working into the night. It was the next sound they heard that changed everything. There was the sound of glass smashing.

"That's not a sound we normally hear in Ponyville," said Scootaloo.

"No it isn't," said Rainbow Dash. "Either a pony dropped glass by mistake, or we got trouble in town."

Without thinking for a second, Rainbow Dash flew over to where she heard the sound. Scootaloo followed, mostly due to the fact she didn't want to be alone in the streets. They soon reached a street corner and looked around in horror. They could see ponies robbing from a jewelry store.

"Oh you're not robbing from my town," Rainbow said quietly.

She was about to fly over towards them, when she felt some pony grab onto her tail and pull her back. Rainbow rolled her eyes, ponies had a habit of pulling on her tail.

"You can't go after them, they're criminals."

"Oh please Scootaloo, I've faced alot worse, believe me. Sombra, Tirek, Starlight Glimmer when she was evil, and even that evil Zebra; Braze. These guys are nothing compared to them."

"But still..."

But Scootaloo was cut off when she and Rainbow Dash heard a criminal shout; "oh no, it's him again!"

Both pegasi looked and gasped. Standing on the rooftop of a nearby building was a pegasi pony with wings extended, and just like Spitfire said earlier, the pony had a costume on that ressambled that of a super hero. The pony had a big grey floppy hat, a purple jump suit with a mask covering up the entire face, a green scraf wrapped around it's neck and had a belt around it's waist. It actually looked very familar.

"Isn't that the Mysterious Mare Do Well?" Scootaloo asked in surprise.

"It can't be, besides that's not a Mare, that's a Stallion," Rainbow whispered.

The criminals looked to the masked pony in fear, except for one. He stormed up to the front of the group, "you don't scare me, you're just a silly pony playing dress up, so why don't you go home and stay out of our business?!"

The masked pony looked down and said; "this is my business."

He jumped down, and within seconds, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash watched as the pony smacked the criminals down, one by one until they were all out cold. Once he was done, he tied them up and placed the sacks of stolen goods back into the store. As he walked out, he spotted Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo looking around the corner.

"Should we run?" Scootaloo asked worringly.

But they had no need to do that. The pony just tipped his hat, and with wings extended, took off into the night sky.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo stayed for a few seconds after he left, then left for Scootaloo's home. They were quiet as they left, they couldn't believe what they had seen. Rainbow was sure though that her friends were not going to believe her when she told them.

The Mystery Begins

Chapter 3: The Mystery Begins

Celestia's sun had barely risen the next morning when Rainbow Dash flew out of her house and headed straight for Twilight's castle. The image of the masked pony from the night before had been on her mind all night, and as a result, she could hardly sleep at all. During that time too, she also came up with the idea that maybe her friends had come up with this new masked pony. After all, they were the ones that created the Mysterious Mare Do Well some moons back, but if they are responsible for this pony, then why?

Twilight was still sleeping in her room and dreaming of organizing books in a magical library. In her dream, she was about to put away her one hundred millionth book when she heard some banging. It woke her from her slumber, "ohh, just when I was getting to the best part."

She let out a big yawn and got out of bed. The banging had also woken up Spike and Starlight Glimmer.

"Who would be knocking at the door this early?" Starlight groaned as she strecthed her legs. "It's far too early for anypony to be up."

The banging continued, until Spike walked down the hallway and towards the front doors, "hold your horseshoes, I'm coming!" he called sleepily. "This had better be good."

He opened the door and Rainbow Dash zoomed in, "I need to talk with everypony. Please go to the throne room, I'll be right back." And before Twilight could say anything, Rainbow Dash was gone in a flash.

"Alright, let's go to the throne room. Maybe we can get a quick nap before she returns," yawned Twilight.

"Doubt it, with how fast Rainbow Dash can go, she could be back in ten seconds flat."

Twilight rolled her eyes, and still rather sleepy, all three of them made their way to the throne room.

It wasn't just Rainbow Dash who was up bright and early. The police chief was up early too, looking at some of the files he had recieved from the Wonderbolts headquarters, and other police officers from across Equestria.

"This is just like those times. Criminal activity happens in the middle of the night, but in many cases, an unknown pony appears on the scene and starts beating down on the criminals."

"And it's definetly happened more than once," said one of the other officers. "Cloudsdale, Baltimare, Manehatten, this has happened everywhere, and nopony has gotten any sighting of the attacker."

"Not quite," said Silver Badge.

He pulled out a photograph from the Dodge Junction file and showed it to the officer. It showed of a masked pony with a big floppy hat and a cape flapping in the breeze of the night.

"Could that be the pony that's been beating down on criminals over the last two nights?"

"Could be," nodded the police chief. "But we won't know for sure until we see this pony for ourselves. We'll have to work late tonight and see if we can spot them."

"Then what do we do? Do we try to arrest them?"

"I suppose, they are beating up on ponies in the middle of the night. On the other hoof," the chief continued, "they are doing us a favour. After all, this pony has caught these crooks twice, and even returned the goods. Plus as you will see in all the files, no police force has ever tried to arrest this pony."

"Except the city of Fillydelphia," corrected the police officer. "They tried to arrest this pony on more than one occassion, but failed everytime. They said and I quote 'nopony takes the law into their own hooves'."

"Perhaps, but look to Princess Twilight and her friends. When trouble comes around, they're always first on the scene, yet we never arrest them. I think the Fillydelphia police chief wanted to arrest this pony just to make a name for himself. I mean, you've met the pony right? He's always craving attention."

"Does he ever?" chuckled the officer and rolled his eyes.

"No, I think if we spot this pony, I just want to talk to them and see why they are sneaking around in the night."

At that moment, another officer walked into the office, "I hate to bother you at this time, but the mayor is asking for answers. She says ponies are starting to get nervous."

Silver Badge sighed, "I'll talk with them once Celestia's sun rises. Tell the mayor to arrange for a meeting outside town hall."

The second officer nodded and walked off. The first officer looked back to the chief, "but Sir, we don't have enough info to give."

"I know, but we got to reassure them that they are safe in this town." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, "that mayor has got such terrible timing."

After ten minutes, Rainbow Dash had managed to get everypony to the map room. They were tired and a little grumpy, except for Pinkie Pie. She was tired, but she was, as always, her cheerful self.

"Why would Dashie call for us this early?" yawned Rarity. "A pony needs her beauty sleep."

"If this is for us to see a new trick of her's, I'm going to buck her in the flank," grumbled Applejack.

Rainbow Dash finally emerged into the room, "I'm sorry for getting you ponies up early. Normally I would wait until the sun has risen and we're all wide awake, but this was too important to keep waiting."

"This better not be for a high flying stunt," said Applejack.

"No, it's not that. Now listen, last night, I was taking Scootaloo back to her place when the two of us came across the sight of some bad ponies stealing from one of the shops here in Ponyville. I was about ready to go in and stop them, when all of the sudden, this other pony showed up and started beating up on them. I mean, you should've seen it, this pony was jumping around all over the place, throwing punches and kicking them hard, it was like watching an action packed movie. Then later, they tied up the criminals, left the goods and disappeared into the night."

The six ponies and one dragon looked to her firmly.

"What?"

"Are you sure you and Scootaloo saw that last night, or were you dreaming of beating up Changelings again?" Applejack asked angerily. "Cause if this was a dream, then we're leaving."

"It was no dream. Just to prove it, I brought along Scootaloo. Tell them Scootaloo."

Rainbow looked over her shoulder, but the little pegasus was asleep.

"I think you were dreaming Rainbow Dash," yawned Twilight.

"No, no, no, it was for real. Scootaloo!" she shouted. Scootaloo woke up with a start, "come on, tell them the truth, did you or did you not see a masked pony beating up on criminals last night?"

Scootaloo yawned, "yeah we did. I had been watching Rainbow Dash pick out the next leader for the weather team, then as she took me home, we saw it all."

Applejack looked to Scootaloo's face. Although she was tired, Applejack could tell Scootaloo was telling the truth.

"Okay, so you did see some pony beating up on criminals last night," said Applejack. "That's nice, but couldn't this have waited till the sun was actually up?"

"Sorry but no, we haven't told you the most important part. This pony was dressed in a similar style to the Mysterious Mare Do Well."

Five of the ponies gasped and looked to each other with shocked looks. Starlight though was confused, "who is the Mysterious Mare Do Well?"

Twilight looked back to Scootaloo, who had fallen asleep, then she whispered the answer.

"The Mysterious Mare Do Well was a masked pony hero that we created many moons ago. You see, Rainbow Dash had done some heroic deeds around Ponyville, but the fame of becoming a hero was going straight to her head."

"Like most things," muttered Applejack.

"Hey, I heard that!" snapped Rainbow Dash, which woke Scootaloo up.

"I'm too tired, can I go home now?" she yawned.

"Of course you can. Spike, why don't you take Scootaloo back home?" suggested Twilight. Spike nodded and walked off with Scootaloo back to her place. Now Twilight could speak with normal volume, "she was going on about being the best, and even having Spike write up a story about her. In the end, we created the Mysterious Mare Do Well to teach her that a real hero doesn't brag."

"Though nowadays we all agree that we should've just pulled her aside and talked with her," said Fluttershy. The other ponies all nodded in agreement with that.

"Hey, I did learn a lesson from that day and I don't brag when I save lives. You do get that, right?" she asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Where are you going with this Rainbow?" Rarity asked.

"I'm asking, are any of you involved with this masked pony I saw just last night?!"

"How could you even ask that?" Rarity asked in complete shock. "We all agreed it wasn't our best decision, and even I didn't like the costumes after we created the hero. It's fine for a comic book world, but not here."

"Besides, we got no reason to do this again," said Fluttershy. "You've matured alot since that time, and you already got the message as you just said."

"So, none of you are connected with this masked pony?"

"Certainly not," they all said in unison.

"Oh. Well then, I feel really stupid for ever suggesting that you guys would do this again. I'm sorry."

"It's okay Rainbow Dash, given how things went the last time, it shouldn't really come as a surprise," said Twilight kindly. "But tell us, what did this pony actually look like?"

"Well the pony had a bigger hat than any of yours, they had a scarf wrapped around their neck, a big floppy cape and had a belt wrapped around their waist."

"Definetly different from our outfits," said Applejack.

"Indeed," nodded Rarity. "I would never even think of adding a scarf to an outfit like that." She shuddered just thinking about it.

"What did your old outfits look like?" Starlight asked curiously. "Can I see them?"

"Afraid not Starlight," answered Fluttershy. "We all give up our outfits to Twilight so she could make sure nopony ever found them."

Using her magic, Twilight lifted a box out off a very tall shelf and brought it down. She opened the lid and pulled out a burnt purple hat, "this is all that is left of the original Mysterious Mare Do Well costumes. But I can tell you, it was purple and had a cape. However, it was just for show, not fighting crime like this pony that Rainbow and Scootaloo saw."

"Maybe somepony got inspired by our work and decided to create their own hero," suggested Fluttershy.

"Perhaps, but who would want to do that?" asked Rarity. But nopony had any answers.

Later on, Rainbow Dash had finished another practise session with the Wonderbolts and was returning back to Ponyville. She was quite worn out, the lack of sleep and flying about made her just want to get something from Sugarcube Corner and then go home to read a Daring Do book.

"Which one should I read tonight? Daring Do and the Trek to the Terrifying Tower? Or Daring Do and the Marked Thief of Mara..." but her thoughts were interupted as she saw a large group of ponies heading for town hall. "Hello, what's going on down there?" She flew off to find out for herself.

When she arrived, she found just about everypony in Ponyville at town hall and shouting.

"Is our town overrun by criminals?!"

"Who is this pony in the middle of the night attacking them?! Are we going to get attacked next?!"

"Why aren't the police force stopping these guys?!"

Rainbow Dash flew down towards Fluttershy, who was with Angel Bunny, "hey guys, what's going on around here?"

"Seems everypony in town is getting nervous about the previous two evening's attempted robberies, and the pony you were telling us about this morning. They want answers."

The Mayor stepped out of Town Hall, followed by the police chief.

"Alright everypony, please calm down!" the Mayor called out firmly to them. But some were still talking. Thankfully, Twilight Sparkle was there and using her magic, was able to help the mayor's voice be heard. This silenced the ponies, "good, now our own Police Chief, Silver Badge will answer any questions you have."

"Thank Miss Mayor," said Silver Badge. "Well in answer to the first question, we can say for sure we are not being overrun by criminals. If we were, would any of you ponies even be standing out here?"

All the ponies had to admit that Silver Badge had a point.

"As for the pony in the middle of the night, we are a hundred percent sure they are not going to attack innocent ponies. We have gone through reports from other cities and towns, and they all speak of similar events to these, and none mentions innocent ponies getting hurt. For the fourth question asked, we are trying to talk with the criminals to learn why they are here in Ponyville, but they seem to have taken a vow of silence. We will however be working late into the night to make sure none of your homes or businesses get robbed or attacked again." He looked back to the mayor and nodded.

"And to make sure of that, Ponyville will now have a curfew. Everypony must be back in their homes by nine thirty, no exceptions."

"But what about late night deliveries?" asked Mrs Cake, "We do get those sometimes."

"Yeah, and some construction work has to get done in the middle of the night too!" called Hard Hat, a male construction pony.

"You'll just have to get your work done before nine thirty," answered the mayor. "As for deliveries, you'll have to talk with suppliers and get them delivered before then. It's for your own good, we wouldn't want any of you to get hurt in the middle of the night, now would we?"

"No I guess not, that's a good point," many of the ponies said to each other.

"Anypony that is caught out in the middle of the night," went on Silver Badge. "Will either be given a warning, or taken to the station."

Night time soon arrived. By Nine thirty, all the ponies in town were in their homes and waiting for the next day to arrive. The only ones that were out were the police officers, "alright everypony, keep your eyes open at all times. We do not want these criminals to get away with any crimes, and I still want to talk with this masked pony."

"Yes Sir," they all said.

They split up, with two officers patrolling each street. What none of them realised was that above them on a house roof were Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer.

"Remind me, how in the name of Celestia we got talked into this?" Starlight whispered to Twilight.

"It's because you guys are just as curious as I am," Rainbow answered before Twilight could say a single word.

"Yes, but we're going to get into trouble if we're caught. I think we should just go back to the castle and stay there for the night."

"Will you keep it down? With you talking so much, we are going to get caught," Rainbow whispered.

Twilight spoke with a whisper to Starlight, "we're just tagging along to make sure Rainbow doesn't get into too much trouble. Plus, she is right, I am curious to see who would dress up in a similar style to the Mysterious Mare Do Well.."

"Okay, if you're sure about this."

They waited and waited, and then waited some more. However, the only activity they saw was from police officers having conversions about the Wonderbolts show in Vanhoover.

"I wish they were doing another one here," said one officer, "it would be awesome to see them."

"Yeah, but we get to see them all the time. The ponies of Vanhoover don't."

"True. Oh well, at least I'll get to see them during my vacation."

"You mean if you go on vacation. Silver Badge may keep you working until this matter is sorted out."

As Midnight approached, there was no activity whatsoever. Starlight was falling asleep, and more than once, she nearly slid off the roof. Twilight let out a big yawn, "okay, I think that will do it for tonight. We should really get back to our homes and rest up, especially Rainbow. You do have that show coming up."

Rainbow sighed, "yeah I guess you're right. Okay let's..." but she was interupted by the sounds of hoofsteps. She looked down to the streets and saw three shady characters walking along. "Follow them."

"Whoa Rainbow Dash, hold up there." Rainbow was about to take flight, but Twilight grabbed hold of her tail and pulled her back.

"Will everypony stop grabbing my tail?!" she said angerily. Twilight placed a hoof over Rainbow's mouth.

The shady characters looked around, but could see nothing, so they carried on. "Rainbow Dash, we're only here to watch, not take part in the action."

Rainbow smacked Twilight's hoof away, "I know that, I just want to see if the masked pony will show up at...wherever they're going."

Before Twilight could stop her, Rainbow Dash had already taken off. She sighed and looked back to Starlight, "guess we better follow her."

"Guess so," yawned Starlight. "But after this, can we please go back to the castle?"

"Of course we can." Twilight nodded, then let out a big yawn. "Believe me, I'm tired too."

Since using her magic would only alert everypony of them spying, Starlight climbed onto Twilight's back and silently, they took off into the sky and after Rainbow Dash.

The Late Night Fight

Chapter 4: The Late Night Fight

Rainbow followed the criminals as quietly as she could until they stopped outside a little toy shop, "what would they want with toys? They're big ponies after all," Rainbow thought to herself.

One of the shady ponies picked up a nearby rock, "breaking the lock takes too long. You heard the boss, smash, take and get out fast." He took aim and fired, which smashed the window into a hundred or so pieces.

"Not to mention they're bad ponies."

Twilight and Starlight finally reached the scene. They could hardly believe their eyes, but they were more surprised that there were no police officers nearby, "where are the police?" Twilight asked out loud.

"Shh," hushed Rainbow Dash, "you want us to get caught?"

Twilight looked to Starlight, "she tells me to shh it, yet she races over to find out what's going on."

"Shocking I know," Starlight said, trying to hold back another yawn.

The criminals climbed into the store, after clearing away the broken glass from the window frame. Once inside, they started stealing toys, and all the bits from the desk countertop.

"It's no wonder Ponyville relies on you guys to save the day, the police can't do anything right," muttered Starlight.

Down below, the criminals were feeling quite proud, "no cops in sight, and nopony to stop us. The boss was right, Ponyville is an easy target for us. I almost wish it was a little more challenging, cause this is too easy."

"Will you shut up?" snapped another criminal. "You don't want him to come out of nowhere and attack us would you?"

There came a thud from outside. One pony looked out and gasped, "uh guys..."

"Don't tell me, he showed up didn't he?" asked the second thief.

"Good guess, it's him."

The figure was indeed the masked pony. Up above, Twilight could hardly believe what she was seeing, "that pony does have a costume similar to Mysterious Mare Do Well. Only it's a bit darker than ours was."

"Well to be fair, yours was designed for day time use, not night time like this pony," whispered Rainbow.

The three criminals stormed out of the store and prepared themselves to fight. The masked pony looked at them, then shook his head, "honestly, this is the best you can do? I've seen better from your group. I mean, how are you suppose to beat me?"

"I thought you'd say that," said the second thief. He raised his hoof to his mouth and whistled out.

On cue, seven more criminal ponies appeared from the shadows and surronded the masked pony.

"What?" Rainbow exclaimed. "Ten aganist one? That's not a fair fight."

"Keep it down Rainbow," hushed Twilight.

The masked pony looked to all the criminals and a small smirk came to his face, "I was expecting more of a challenge, but I guess this will do. So, who's making the first move?"

The first criminal charged in, prepared to punch the masked pony. But the masked pony waited till he was close enough, then gave him a punch to the underside of his jaw, making him go flying and land in a garbage can. Seeing this, the other criminals charged in. The masked pony jumped up, pulled a small rope out of his belt and swung it, grabbing a nearby garbage can lid. As he came back down, he swung it, smacking it into two ponies' faces hard.

"Captain Equestria, eat your heart out," muttered Twilight from above.

The masked pony fought the rest with normal kicks and punches, knocking them down one after another, but no sooner were they knocked down than they got back up to fight again. One thing was certain, these guys were not willing to lose this time around. One grabbed a two by four and swung it at the masked pony. But he had seen the attack coming and jumped. The pony jumped several more times to avoid the two by four, until the seventh swing. He caught the two by four with his own hooves.

"What's he doing now?" Starlight asked in wonderment.

The masked pony ran with it, spinning the criminal around until he forced the criminal to hit a brick wall.

"Ohh, now that's got to leave a mark," muttered Rainbow Dash.

At that moment, the sounds of whistles could be heard in the distance. The police were finally on the scene. As it turned out, the officers patrolling the area were knocked out cold by the criminals, and hidden from plain sight. Up till now.

"You there, stop what your doing and get your hooves in the air now!" shouted one officer.

The criminals looked to each other, "what do we do? Should we surrender?"

"What? And get the cold shoulder from the boss? We do what we've been taught, take them down."

While eight of the criminals went on to fight the masked pony, two of them went after the police officers with two by fours. They swung them, and while the officers missed them a few times, it wasn't long till they were knocked out cold. Then the criminals threw them inside garbage cans and had the lids shut on them.

"Argh! I can't stand around watching this anymore, they even attack police," snapped Rainbow Dash. "I'm going in."

"Rainbow wait!" cried Twilight.

It was too late. Rainbow was already charging, and with hooves out, smacked two criminals hard and making them go flying. She flew over to the masked pony and landed right beside him.

"I don't know who you are, but if you are doing the right thing, then the least I can do is help you. Ten aganist one isn't fair."

Instead of getting angry though, the masked pony just smiled, "just watch their tricks, and pay attention to my warnings."

"You got it."

The criminals charged in again, this time fighting two ponies. Rainbow used her hooves to block the punches, while the masked pony jumped into the air and did several spins with his legs extended, thus allowing him to hit more than a few targets at a time. One of the criminals got kicked so hard that he was knocked out cold.

"Great, one down and nine more to go," said Rainbow. She punched another one, and knocked that pony out too. "Correction, make that eight."

"Stay focused girl, these guys don't give up that easily!" shouted the masked pony.

As the fighting progressed, one of the knocked down ponies noticed yet another two by four, and had their sight on Rainbow Dash. She picked up the two by four and prepared to swing it at Rainbow Dash. The masked pony saw this and shouted; "get down!" Rainbow heard and got down. The masked pony jumped over and kicked the two by four, making it swing into the pony's face and knocking that one out too.

"No, that's going to leave a mark, and give them brain injury too," commented Twilight.

Rainbow soon found herself with her back to the masked pony's. The masked pony extended their forelegs and asked Rainbow to do the same. Confused, Rainbow did as she was asked, then noticed their legs wrapping around her forelegs.

"On my mark, start kicking with your legs. Understood?"

Rainbow nodded, "I got it!"

"Good. Now!" He leaned down and started spinning around quickly. As he did this, Rainbow kicked the criminal ponies more than once with her back legs, knocking many of them out. Once seperated, the two ponies finished off the job in no time. The last criminal of the bunch, the one that had wanted more of a challenge, got a kick to the face by the masked pony.

Rainbow looked all around her at the criminals that now layed down on the ground, battered and out cold.

"The police will soon be here, you might want to leave," the masked pony said to Rainbow. They extended their wings and took to the sky, but the pony was barely in the sky when they called out with a little chuckle; "you haven't changed a bit Rainbow Dash!" Then they were gone.

"Wait, he knows my name?"

"Rainbow!" Twilight called down to her. "We got to go now!"

Rainbow snapped out of her thoughts and flew away to rejoin her friends, not leaving anything behind to point out she was there. Not even a feather.

Silver Badge and the rest of the police force arrived and gasped at the sight before them.

"The masked pony strikes again," he commented. There came some rattling noises from close by. Silver Badge looked into the garbage cans and found two officers in there, "what are you guys doing in there?"

"We were trying to stop those criminals, when they attacked us," said the first officer.

"They had already attacked two of our own," added the second officer. "They were also in a fight with the masked pony. Did he win?"

Silver Badge pointed to the knocked down ponies, "oh yeah, I guess he did."

Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow returned to the castle of Friendship without incident. All of which were worn out and tired from the quick dash, and for the fact it was late in the evening. Starlight collapsed as soon as they entered through the front door.

"I guess she's had enough for one day," commented Rainbow. She looked and noticed Twilight glaring at her. "Okay, okay so I jumped in there again. Give me a break, it's part of who I am. I am the element of loyality, remember?"

"Of course I remember. Argh! I should've made you Pinkie Promise not to jump in there."

Using her magic, Twilight lifted Starlight off the floor and began to take her down the hallway.

"The masked pony knows my name." Hearing that stopped Twilight in her tracks. She turned around to face Rainbow, "it's true, but how in the world does he know my name?"

"Maybe he's an old friend of yours from the past," suggested Twilight.

"Perhaps, but I don't recall any of my old friends ever disgusing themselves as a masked hero of justice."

Twilight was about to say something about that 'masked hero of justice' comment, but decided aganist it. After all, now wasn't really the time to think of cheesy sayings.

"Tomorrow, I'll do some research and see if I can't find anymore info on sightings of the masked pony. Maybe it'll give us some clues into figuring out if it is an old friend of yours. In the meantime, be careful as you go home."

"Uh Twilight, you do remember who you're talking to right? I can get home in ten seconds flat."

"I know, but just be careful," she said with a hint of worry in her voice.

Rainbow sighed, "alright Twilight, I'll be careful."

She walked to the door, closed it and flew off back for her house. Starlight opened her eyes, "what did I miss?"

Far away from Ponyville, in the Everfree Forest, there was a pathway that went away from the usual path ponies took to go to the Castle of the two sisters. This pathway looked over-run, but was instead the pathway leading up to the secret compound of a criminal mastermind. Inside the compound, a pegasus who was larger than Bulk himself, sat in his chair, awaiting reports on tonight's robberies. One pony walked in and bowed before him.

"They failed me, haven't they?" he asked angerily.

"Afraid so master, and it was him again. He knocked them all down."

The big pegasus pony boss snarled and slammed his hooves down on the air rests of his chairs, "everytime we go to a new location, he always shows up and ruins everything. This pony has been getting on my nerves. Cloudsdale, Fillydelphia, Vanhoover, Manehatten, he's all over the place, and none of my stupid lackies can do the jobs I ask them to do, cause they can't seem to stand up to him!"

"If I may add master, tonight wasn't a total loss."

The big pegasus pony looked down to his servant, "ohh? Was any of the bits taken and brought here?"

"Not excatly, but we did send another pony out to see if they could spot anything that could prove to be a weakness to the masked pony. And I think we found one." He lifted out a photo and showed to the boss. It showed the masked pony, along with a pegasus pony with a rainbow mane, "he seems to know her."

"Interesting, so he does have a friend. This could be useful to us. Send some more spies, and see if they make contact. I want to know if they are friends, and if so, see if we can use her to bring him down. Once and for all," and he cackled with sinister laughter.

The following morning, in spite of everything that went on the night before, Rainbow Dash was still ready for another day of practise. Though by now her hooves were a little sore.

"Ow," she muttered as she landed.

She walked off slowly to the locker room, when she heard Spitfire call out to her; "Crash! There's somepony here who wants to talk to you."

Rainbow flew over to where Spitfire was, and found her alongside Silver Badge. Rainbow gulped. She thought for sure she had left no trace at the fight scene.

"Hello Ms Dash, I've been told that you were out and about last night," said Silver Badge. "An earth pony named Green Jewel saw you fighting alongside the masked pony. Care to tell me why?"

"Well..." Rainbow sighed and admitted everything, "I wanted answers too. Like why would these ponies steal from Ponyville and who the masked pony is."

"I see, and did you get any answers?"

"More like more questions."

"Hmm." Silver Badge was silent for a few moments, then spoke again, "alright then, I'll let you off with a warning. No more sneaking around in the middle of the night. There is a curfew going on after all. I will tell you this though," he went on, "if we catch you out there again, we will arrest you and it will go on your record."

Rainbow sighed, "yes Sir."

"Very good, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can get some answers out of our newest guests at the station."

He turned and walked off. Spitfire looked to Rainbow, but before the Pegasus pony could say anything, Spitfire said; "I would've done the same thing myself if I was in your postion." She looked around and whispered, "just be more careful next time."

Rainbow gasped, "are you actually telling me to ignore what Silver Badge said?"

"Not really, but I know from your past that you sometimes ignore orders to get answers or to help a friend. But don't tell anypony else I said that to you, or all the Wonderbolts will be running wild. You got that?"

"Got it Ma'am, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Very good, now...GET IN UNIFORM!" she shouted.

Rainbow winced at the slight ringing in her ears, "got it ma'am." And on that note, she went to the locker room while Spitfire went back to her charts.

When the training was done for the day, Rainbow flew back towards Twilight's castle to see if she had any answers for her. It would help her in figuring out who the pony was under the mask, cause at this moment, she was drawing a blank.

She found Twilight in the map room, sitting in her chair and looking at some papers. Both Starlight and Spike were buried under mountains of paper.

"When Twilight goes all out on research, she really goes all out," said Starlight.

"And you're just learning that now?" Spike asked. "Honestly, this would be much easier if we had that internet Sunset Shimmer often talks about."

"Yeah speaking of which, when I am going to meet her?" she called out to Twilight.

"One day Starlight." Twilight turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash, "so after looking through all these papers, we have discovered that this masked pony has indeed popped up in other towns, and Cloudsdale was the first."

"Cloudsdale huh? Well that narrows it down."

"And while nopony has ever had an interview with this pony, they do have a name for him. The residants of Cloudsdale had come to call him; Darkwing Pony."

"Darkwing pony? Why would they call him that?"

"Cause he fights in the dark, he has wings and he's a pony. At least, that's what one paper says, but it works."

"It does sound like one of the comic books in Sunset's world," added Spike. "I think one of their comic heroes has that name, but isn't a pony. Now what was it? Darkwing Goose? No, that can't be it. Darkwing Owl? No that's not right."

"Anyways," continued Twilight. "The papers also say that he was in Cloudsdale longer than any other town. He was there for three solid months before one night, he disappeared, right around the same time the criminal activity stopped. Now, is this ringing any bells to you Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow thought hard about all the ponies she knew in her life, but still none of them came into her head.

"Sorry, but no. Nopony is coming to mind, none of them ever wanted to be a crime fighter."

"Hey, I have an idea, why not ask him," suggested Spike from underneath his mountain of papers.

"Yeah right, I doubt he would show me his identity. Thanks anyways guys, if I can think of anypony in my mind, I'll be sure to let you know. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going home."

"Right," Twilight rolled her eyes in disbelief. "You want to rest before sneaking off again?"

"No, not this time. Silver Badge found out from Green Jewel that I was involved in the fight last night, and warned me not to sneak around town during curfew hours again, in spite of some ponies telling me to be more careful."

With a heavy sigh, she flew away.

"I'm sure I know who the other world's Darkwing is. Oh I got it, Darkwing Swam!" cried Spike. Then he groaned, "nope, that's not it."

"Never mind Spike, never mind," sighed Twilight.

Once she got home, Rainbow gave Tank some supper, then collapsed onto her coach. On her living room table were a few yearbooks, which she had looked through earlier in the morning, but still it was a blank.

"If this Darkwing was my friend, I'm pretty sure he would've found me by now and told me who he is," she thought to herself. "Maybe I should just stop my search. After all, if he doesn't want me to know, then it's none of my business."

She closed her eyes and dreamed back to when she was a filly at Flight camp.

"Watch this you guys, I'm going to do five barrel rolls at once!" she called out.

She attempted to do the five barrel rolls, but in the middle of her fourth one, she lost control and smashed into a cloud. The three bullies who gave her the nickname 'Rainbow Crash' laughed rudely at her. Another pony flew up to them angerily, "oh be quiet you stupid morons, it's not like you can do any better. She's twice the pony you'll ever be!"

The other pony then flew up towards Rainbow, "are you alright Dashie?"

"Yeah I'm fine," she answered. "I just need to try again, then I'll show them all of how good I am."

The other pony just smiled, "you haven't changed a bit Rainbow Dash. From the first day here, you're still just as determined as ever."

"Yeah I guess I am..."

"Lightwing!" Rainbow suddenly awoke from her dream. Her sudden shout made Tank jump and go into his shell to hide. "Sorry Tank, didn't mean to scare you!" Rainbow picked up one of her yearbooks and looked threw it, until she found it. A picture of a male pegasus pony with an orange coat and blue mane, he was called Lightwing. At the bottom of the page was his tiny writing from years ago. Rainbow looked closely and saw the message said; you may have grown up since we started, but you still haven't changed a bit Rainbow Dash. This was followed by a little smile.

Rainbow dropped the yearbook, "oh sweet Celestia. My old friend Lightwing is the Darkwing!"

The Origin of Darkwing Pony

Chapter 5: The Origin of Darkwing Pony

As ponies began making their way to their homes for the night, and the Ponyville police force were getting themselves ready for increased secruity work that evening, the masked pony known as Darkwing was flying about, looking for any kind of criminal activity. Even suspicious looking ponies would not go unnoticed. Though as he flew, he was thinking back to the previous night, "I wonder if she's figured it out by now."

His thoughts were soon interupted when he saw a group of ponies walking out of the Everfree Forest.

"More of them? Geez, he's really not taking any chances tonight." Then he noticed two of the ponies looked more suspicious than usual. He flew down and hid in one of the nearby trees to listen as they talked.

"Remember you two, your job is to find that pegasus pony from last night and see if she has a connection with the Darkwing," said one of the Earth ponies in the group.

"We're aware of our jobs you idiot, the boss did tell us earlier of what we have to do," said one of the two pegasi. "At least we can do our job with ease, unlike you losers. You can't even commit a robbery without getting your flanks whooped by him again."

"Hey, I told you, he took me by surprise back in Vanhoover."

"Yeah, and the boss had to break you out, risking our position in Vanhoover. If you ask me, he should've..."

"Shut you you fools!" snapped the second pegasus. "You keep yelling like that, and we'll be letting all of Ponyville know we're out and about. Now, let's just get out there and do our jobs, and this time, don't fail. The boss is already peeved enough over the stupidity of those idiots in jail."

On that note, the ponies split up. Ten went into town while the two pegasi flew off into the air.

"So you're going to try and go after Rainbow huh? We'll see about that, I just hope the police can handle the criminals without my help for a little while." He extended his wings and took off from the tree, chasing after the pegasi without them even knowing he was there.

In town, Silver Badge was giving one last talk to his officers, "remember boys and girls, we've been letting Ponyville down for three nights in a row with three failed robberies. Tonight, if you spot any suspicious activity, try and put a stop to it, but if they are already going ahead with their robbery, do your best to stop them."

"Is that why we're in teams of four?" asked one officer.

"That's correct. If it comes to that, three of you are to engage the criminals while the fourth one goes for back-up. I do not want a repeat performance of last night, am I clear on this one?" All the other officers nodded, "good. I want to assure the ponies of this town that we can protect them, and maybe get the mayor off our backs."

"Sir, what about Darkwing?" asked a second officer, "what if he shows up and fights the criminals?"

"I still want to question him, as do many officers around Equestria, so see if you can, get him to go with you to the station."

"And if not?"

"Then arrest him too, cause that's going to be considered resisting arrest."

"As you wish Sir."

"Now let's get out there officers, and let's show these criminals that you don't mess with our town!" And on that note, the officers split up into groups of four.

Despite the warning she had gotten from Silver Badge, Rainbow Dash flew out of her house and headed over to Ponyville. This time however, she wasn't going to sit on rooftops waiting for Darkwing to show up, she brought along a cloud to rest on.

"I just have to know what could've caused my cheerful and loyal friend to go from the life he had, to the life he has now," she thought to herself. "And more importantly, why he would dress up like Mare Do Well's brother."

Not too far off, the pegasus spies were scanning the skies for any sign of another pegasus.

"She's got to be out here tonight, right?" asked the first pegasus.

"Duh, of course she'll be out tonight. You know ponies like her, they have the desire to break the rules while looking for trouble." The second pegasus spy chuckled, "noble fools like her are so stupid."

"Yeah, they're all pretty stupid."

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that," said a voice from behind them. Both pegasi spun round, but found nothing there. They shrugged it off, thinking they were imagining things, that was until they heard, "I'm afraid I can't let you harm that pony either." They looked forwards again, but found nothing in front of them

"Okay, this is getting creepy," said the first pegasus spy.

Suddenly, the two of them found themselves engulfed in a cloud, and before they could do anything else, they found themselves in a fight. They were punched, kicked and smacked hard until they were knocked out, and tied up.

"Sorry, but like all ponies, I will protect this one from jokers like you."

He took them over to a tree and tied one end of his rope to it, leaving the two pegasi dangling like yo-yos.

"Love to stay and chat, but I got other business to attend to, so excuse me." Darkwing extended his wings and took off into the sky once more.

"Do you really think the Darkwing is as good as everypony says he is?" asked one officer with Silver Badge. "I mean, he knows karate and he's a master of the shadows."

"He's just a pony like anypony around here," said Silver Badge firmly.

"Yeah, but he also has cool pieces like rope launchers and even smoke bombs. And reading the reports Sir, some of the ponies he beat up never even heard him coming, it's like he walks on air."

"Well he is a pegasus, so it's easy for him," said a second officer.

Silver Badge groaned, "look, we're on a patrol tonight, not gossip corner, now please be quiet and focus."

They did go quiet, and no sooner had they done that, then they heard some chatter in the distance. The third officer in the group heard it, and pointed in the direction it was coming from. Silver Badge and the other two officers followed the voices until they were nearly caught up to them. It wasn't any of the other officers, it was a group of criminals, and many had bags full of equipment for stealing things.

"Stop right there!" shouted Silver Badge.

The criminals jumped and looked behind them. They were surprised to find themselves being confronted by police, "I told you to shut up, but would you listen to me? No you didn't."

"Oh shut up!" snapped the second criminal.

"Drop your equipment and got down on your knees, you're under arrest!" Silver Badge shouted firmly.

"Oh yeah, make us!" snapped the first criminal.

A third criminal looked behind them and saw another group of officers walking over, and they looked firm, "uh guys, maybe we should do as they say, we're kind of surronded."

"No way!" snapped the first criminal, "if we're going down, we're going down fighting."

Right at that moment, Rainbow Dash reached the area. Her cloud blended in nicely with other clouds, so she wouldn't get spotted.

"A fight's going to break out huh? Well let's see how they do, and if they need help, I'll get in there." But then she smacked herself on the face, "get a grip Rainbow, you're suppose to be in hiding, not fighting."

"Hey, did you hear something?" asked one of the officers down below.

Rainbow Dash covered her mouth and didn't move an inch.

"Huh, maybe it was my imagination."

Rainbow sighed and watched on as the officers went into a fight with the criminals. As they fought, she could see more criminals heading for the same jewelry store from two nights ago.

"Darkwing's bound to go after one of them," Rainbow thought to herself. "But where is he?"

She didn't see that he landed above her. He had landed on a cloud after spotting her. He shook his head, and moments later, pulled up a rope launcher. He aimed it and fired the sharp end of his launcher at the cloud. It caught the cloud and slowly pulled Rainbow up.

"Huh? Wha..." she looked behind her and saw the rope. She then looked up and saw what was causing her to float upwards. Darkwing placed a hoof in front of his mouth as if to say 'Shh'. She nodded and stayed as quiet as she could.

Luckily, the robbery wouldn't happen as another group of officers caught the criminals, and engaged them in another fight.

Once high enough, Darkwing retracted his rope launcher, "you know you're lucky I'm keeping a good eye open, two pegasus spies were coming after you, and those officers wouldn't have been fooled by your cloud, you would've been spotted."

"Hey, I had to try something," said Rainbow.

"Yeah well next time, stay high above the ground so you won't get spotted."

"Oh yeah, and who made you an expert all of the sudden?" Rainbow snapped, but then she had to giggle. "And you say I haven't changed a bit. Here we are arguing over what's good or not, eh Lightwing?"

Darkwing smiled, "so you have figured it out. I knew you would." He sighed and looked all around, just to be make sure they weren't being watched, "it is good to see you again Rainbow Dash, it's been too long."

"Yeah, we haven't spoken since I left for Ponyville. Sorry I haven't been able to keep in contact with you."

"It's fine, besides you wouldn't have been able to keep in contact with me, cause it was after you left that things took a bad turn."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at this, "a bad turn? What do you mean by that?"

Darkwing looked all around, then sat down in front of Rainbow, "what I'm about to tell you, I've never told anypony before. You are the first and the only one to ever know the truth about my life."

"Well I'm honored I guess."

Darkwing sighed once more and began, "well as you remember, we first met back at the Junior Speedster Flight Camp when we were only kids. Back then, I didn't really have much skill in flying, so one day, as I was trying to fly, you came along and offered to give me some advice. It really helped me in becoming the flyer I am today, and from that point onwards, we became good friends. Even after we left, we kept in touch and hang out whenever we could. There were also times when one of us would stand up for the other one aganist those bullies."

Rainbow nodded, remembering all that very well.

"Well after you left for Ponyville, that's when the trouble began for me. Do you remember when we were in flight camp and we had another bully picking on us?"

"Yeah, that big chubby one? What was his name again? I can't seem to remember it."

"It was Inferno."

"Oh yes, I remember him now. He really wasn't a very nice pony."

"Yeah well he's still not a very nice pony. Shortly before you left, he took over his father's business, which was to be a crime lord. After you left Cloudsdale, he ordered many of his own minions to steal from the city of Cloudsdale, and anypony that got in his way would be taught a very nasty lesson, some were more brutal than others."

"And that's why you wear a mask, it's to hide your damaged face and allow you to get back at him through a different idenity?"

Darkwing shook his head, "if only it were that simple, but that's not it Rainbow. Besides, that's the kind of thing that happened in those old Western comic books we read when we were kids."

"Oh yeah, I guess you got a point. Sorry for jumping to conclusions."

Darkwing looked around once again, then turned his attention back to Rainbow, "it's fine Rainbow, don't worry about it. Anyways, Inferno also used innocent ponies to keep himself and his gang out of trouble, don't ask me how he does it, he just does. Many ponies ended up either going to jail, or become the outcasts in their communities. Myself, I was one of them."

"One evening, we had a prized jewel visit from a town from the other side of the world. Once he got word of it, Inferno ordered his minions to steal it. They were successful, but they left something behind to shift the blame elsewhere, a feather with my DNA on it."

"How did they get one of your feathers?" Rainbow interupted. "It's not like a pony can just take feathers from another pony."

"Well feathers do fall off from time to time, so that's probably how they got it." Darkwing looked around again, then continued, "the police soon came to my door and arrested me. I was put on trail a few days later, and tried to defend myself. I even stated that I was hanging out with another friend when the robbery occured, but that Inferno managed to get the pony to change their statement and say I wasn't with them. With everything pointing at me, they found me guilty and had me locked up for a solid year."

"When I finally got out, I became an outcast of the neighbourhood, and every now and then, the police would keep coming over to see if they could find the jewel, but of course they would never find it at my house. I tried again and again after that to show I wasn't guilty, but Inferno was always one step ahead of me and managed to convince all of Cloudsdale I was a no good liar. To add on top of it, he managed to make it look like I was the one responsible for many more crimes to follow after that. Seemed I was their favourite target. Soon, nopony would listen to me or talk to me. It made me feel alone and miserable."

Down below, the officers had managed to round up all but one of the criminals. The last one had managed to get back into the Everfree Forest and disappear from their sights.

"Should we search in the forest?" one officer asked.

"Don't bother, we'd never be able to find him now," answered Silver Badge. "Sending him running should send a message that Ponyville police are no pushovers, and we won't allow this to continue."

"Indeed," said a second officer. "Surprising that Darkwing didn't show up."

"I guess he thought we could handle it," said the first officer.

"Perhaps," nodded Silver Badge. "Now let's get these ponies back to the station and question them."

The officers nodded, "Alright you fools, let's go."

One of the criminals groaned, "I can't believe this, after all the cities and towns we've robbed from in the past, we manage to get our flanks whooped by Ponyville's police department. The boss won't be happy about this."

"Shut up you fool, do you want them to hear you?" snapped another criminal.

Silver Badge did hear that and as they stopped, he spoke to the criminal that said those words, "the boss won't be happy about this. Who's your boss?"

"I'm not saying who it is," snapped the first criminal. "You losers won't get me to say the name, or that we're located in the Everfree Forest."

The second criminal stomped down on the first criminal's front hoof, "do you have to be such a blabber mouth?"

"Haul them away, we'll continue our discussion at the station."

"Yes sir," said one of the officers, and with that, they continued on, with the criminals struggling all the way.

"So you were really at the end of your rope," said Rainbow Dash to Darkwing. "I'm sorry Lightwing, if I had known, I would've lent you a helping hoof out of that mess."

"Thanks Rainbow, but don't worry, I found my own way of getting Inferno and his minions. And in a way," he added, "I owe all of this to the Mysterious Mare Do Well."

"Really? What does the Mare Do Well have to do with this? She was just a hero who came out of nowhere to save lives."

"Well you just answered your own question right there Rainbow. Yes she did appear out of nowhere, but it was her compassion for others that inspired me, plus the fact she hid her identity hidden from the world, it kept her safe from those who may want to hurt her, or those she cares about."

"Well it certainly kept many ponies wondering who she was," said Rainbow, not mentioning the fact she was the only one who wanted to know who the mare was under the mask.

"After reading all the articles about her heroics, it got me into thinking, why don't I dress up in a similar style and use my skills to bring down Inferno and his minions? So I grabbed alot of the stuff around my house and over a period of days, made the current costume you see today. Even the rope launchers, made out of simple rope and hooks found in my backyard."

"Of course," he continued, "I couldn't very well be both Lightwing during the day and who I was at night, so I knew one idenity would have to go."

"So what did you do?"

"On the night I was to begin my new life, I set my house on fire. I had even gotten a ponnequin to look just like me, and fooled everypony into thinking I was burned up in the house. It worked as proven later when the fire chief inspected the house, and said I had been burned along with everything inside. Everypony truely thought I was gone, and thus my life as Lightwing was over."

"My life as Darkwing began less than an hour later as one of Inferno's minions went after a young mare. He was about to steal her purse and hurt her, when I came out of nowhere and brought the hammer down." Darkwing chuckled, "I still remember that look on his face, he never did see me coming. Anywho, I beat him and then I took off, if I stayed at the scene too long, ponies would discover who I was, and the police would've arrested me again. I'll admit though, it felt good to fight back."

"For many nights afterwords, I would go out on patrol and whenever I saw or heard any kind of trouble, I would get to the scene, wait for the moment and strike. Many of those criminals never did see coming, and would end up with their flanks kicked, and later to be tied up for the police. The residants of Cloudsdale were grateful for my services, and more often than not, I found myself being chased by reporters or police officers cause they wanted to get to know me, but of course, I never stayed in one spot for too long, for I was like a Phantom that disappears in the shadows. In the end, they just called me their city's greatest mystery and gave me the name 'Darkwing'."

Darkwing paused as he looked around the area again, "sorry for the pause, but I have to make sure we're not being watched."

"It's fine," said Rainbow. "Please continue."

"Well after a while, I did get on Inferno's nerves and wanted to continue his business without me nearby. He and his group went to other cities and towns, but no sooner would they arrive and begin than I would show up and the beatings continued. Only recently did I learn about their attempts to rob Ponyville's shops, so I came here and...well I think you know the rest by now."

"Yeah, but I...I never would've thought that would happen to one of my oldest friends," said Rainbow when Darkwing had finished.

"Yeah, well now you know, and being Darkwing is the only thing that's keeping me going. At least, it will be, until I catch up to Inferno."

"And then what? Bring him to Justice?"

"You could say that." For a moment, Rainbow could've sworn she heard Darkwing snarl crossly under his breath, "That beast of a pony, he took away my life, he took away any chance of clearing my name, he will pay for his crimes. Trust me, he will." He said it with such an angry tone that it almost scared Rainbow. Almost.

"Well I'm sure you'll catch him sooner or later."

"Thanks, but I'm sure it's going to be soon. I've been watching the coming and goings of many of his minions near the Everfree Forest, so I know he's in there. I just need to know about any traps, then I got him. Once and for all, I'll get him, and then the Darkwing will be over for good."

"Then what? What will you do?"

"I don't know, I haven't thought that far ahead yet." He sighed as he looked down towards Ponyville, "you honestly don't think anything bad will happen to you, then in the swoop of one evening, it does."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's not your fault. Besides, I don't think there's anything you could've done to help me. Speaking of which," he paused and walked towards Rainbow, looking her firmly in the eyes, "I need you to stop coming after me."

"What? But why? Two heads are better than one."

"True, but as I had stated to you already, two pegasi were looking for you. If Inferno finds out your my friend, he'll find some way of using you aganist me. Trust me, he's good at doing that. So please Rainbow Dash, do not come looking for me again. Promise me you won't."

"I..."

"Promise me."

Rainbow sighed. She didn't want to make the promise. Now that she knew everything, she wanted to help her friend more than ever, but he did make a very good point about being in danger. She lifted her hooves and said the Pinkie Pie Promise; "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Darkwing looked confused, "so do you promise?"

"Yeah, I do promise. It's a serious promise, and if you break it, you'll be regretting it." She winced, remembering when Applejack broke the Pinkie Promise back at Dodge Junction.

"In that case, good bye Rainbow Dash."

He extended his wings and prepared to take off, "Wait! What if I'm in trouble anyways from those ponies? Will I see you then?"

Darkwing looked behind him, "we'll see." He jumped into the air, and took off, leaving Rainbow Dash on her cloud.

Can't Fight Them Alone

Chapter 6: Can't Fight Them Alone

When she was sure the coast was clear, Rainbow Dash began making her way back to her house. She sighed as she pushed the door open, and shut them behind her. She walked through the empty hallways and towards her bedroom where she found Tank getting ready for a good night's rest. However, he did notice Rainbow's unhappy face and climbed out of his bed towards her.

"You think somepony who's been fighting alone for so long would actually want some help," she said out loud. "Yet he makes me Pinkie Promise not to go looking for him again. I can't just do that...but I made the promise. ARGH! I should've crossed my hooves behind my back. Then again, Pinkie would probably jump into the air from the false promise."

She thought back to what Diamond Tiara had said during the time Sweetie Belle was on Earth with her human counterpart.

"What do you think Tank? Is a promise more important than being loyal to your friends?" But Tank didn't move his head, he just blinked at Rainbow. She sighed unhappily, "I'm the element of loyality for crying out loud, yet I can't be loyal if I can't go out looking for him."

Tank tilted his head to the left, which Rainbow noticed. He didn't need to say any words, even if he could, Rainbow knew what he was thinking.

"Right, I said I wouldn't go out looking for him, but I never said anything about Inferno and his stupid gang. Maybe if I take them down, then Darkwing's name can be cleared and his life can return to normal. Yes, that could work. Thanks Tank, you're the best pet in the world, you know that?"

Tank just smiled.

Rainbow jumped out of her bed and flew over to her front door once more. Once outside, she looked to make sure the coast was clear, then took off into the night sky.

However, she wasn't aware that Darkwing had seen her. He knew she would find a loop-hole in her promise.

"Darn it Rainbow Dash, you need to learn to leave things alone," he thought to himself. He looked behind him and saw a couple of pegasi flying below, following Rainbow Dash. "Guess there's only one way to stop you from helping." He extended his wings and took off after the pegasi. He took them down in a flash, and flew off after Rainbow Dash.

However, he wasn't aware that a third pony had been present, only to observe. After seeing everything, the pegasus pony flew back into the Everfree Forest.

Inside a hideout recently built, Inferno sat in his big chair eating spagetti with tomato sauce. He was enjoying his meal, but he was growing angry with each slurp he took.

"They fail me time and time again, and it's really getting me peeved," he snarled. "I thought I was working with the best, not the worst. Somepony better bring me some good news in the next half hour, or I'll throw one into The Pit."

His guards at the door gulped.

"Inferno Sir!" called a voice. "I have news!" The voice belonged to the pegasus that returned from Ponyville.

"Come in then Stealth Wings," he said, still looking rather angry. "You better have good news to report, or you're up for a little trip down the pit."

The pony, known as Stealth Wings gulped, but regained composure.

"While your pegasus teams have not been doing well aganist the Darkwing, I have seen the pony we've been looking for, and she is a friend of the Darkwing."

"So, we know what she looks like. We've known that for a while now."

"But there's more Sir," Stealth Wings interupted softly. "By sneaking around Ponyville, I have overheard officers talk of the pony's name as they have dealt with her already. She goes by the name of Rainbow Dash, and get this, she's also a friend to Princess Twilight Sparkle."

An evil smirk came to Inferno's face, "a friend to the Princess of Friendship huh? Hmm, this could be very helpful to us. GAUNTLET!"

A pale green stallion earth pony stepped forward, "yes Sir, what would like us to do tonight?"

"Go to the Castle of Friendship and ponynap Princess Twilight Sparkle, and whoever's in there. And while you're there, ponynap the other ponies she and this 'Rainbow Dash' are friends with."

"Yes Sir!"

Gauntlet turned and ran off to get some of the minions. Inferno smirked, "with them here, Darkwing will have no choice but to come here and save them, and if he refuses, they'll take a trip into the pit. And if he does, well...he'll finally meet his end." Inferno started cackling with laughter, and soon his minions and guards were laughing along with him.

Rainbow Dash was soon on a rooftop and looking down to the streets of Ponyville. They were empty, and a little too quiet.

"I know we have a curfew, but surely there'd be some activity," she thought to herself. "No matter, once one of those criminals show up, I'll tackle them and get the truth out of them, Rainbow Dash style."

As she waited, Darkwing landed on the other side of the roof quietly.

"Come on you suckers, where are you?"

"They're not going to come when you ask for them to come."

Rainbow Dash gulped as she turned and saw Darkwing standing on the other side of the roof. He looked annoyed, "uh Darkwing, I wasn't expecting to see you. I'm not here looking for you, I'm..."

"Yes, yes I'm aware of what you're doing, you're trying to capture a criminal and force them to show you Inferno's hideout. You're trying to be a Darkwing of your own, sort to speak."

"I prefer blue streak, but that's not important. I want to help. It's in my nature to be loyal to my friends."

Darkwing shook his head, "your loyality will get you into a lot of trouble Rainbow Dash. These guys are not like the baddies you face all the time, these ones won't give you a chance to escape. If captured, and they find no use for you, they will kill you. Now go home, this is my last warning to you."

"Then I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you."

Again Darkwing shook his head, "I knew you'd find a loophole in your promise, but too bad you didn't think that I'd know that."

"Well...maybe I wanted you to find me after all," Rainbow Dash said hastily, which really wasn't true. "Cause now we got them where we want them to be. Just think, Darkwing Pony and Rainbow Dash working together."

"There is no working together. I work alone, and that's the way it's going to be till my dying day. And I won't have you going after criminals." In the distance, he could see Ponyville's police force walking around, "and I'm sorry to do this, but it's the only way to keep you out of my way."

"Darkwing, what are you..."

He turned around and bucked Rainbow Dash off the roof and towards the ground below. The police heard and ran towards her. She would've taken off had they not used spells to restrain her.

"Let me go! I want to help my friend!" Rainbow cried.

Darkwing sighed, "sorry, but it's for your own good. Maybe now you'll learn that loyality is worthless." He extended his wings and took off into the night sky.

"No, get back here and help me! DARKWING!" she shouted.

The officers arrested her and took her to the station, all the while she was struggling to get away and help her friend. Which didn't help her at all.

Darkwing moved over to the top of Town Hall and looked down at the town. He looked around him to see if he could spot trouble, and sure enough, he could see it moving towards the castle of friendship.

"So they found out about Rainbow and her friends, well they're not getting to them on my watch."

He took off and dashed over towards the castle's front enterance way. As the criminals were about to smash and enter, Darkwing landed in front of them, looking firece, "alright you punks, this is as far as you go! You won't be getting past me!"

Gauntlet smirked, "strike him down, hard!"

Seven ponies ran forward, ready to strike. Darkwing smirked, "you should've sent more." The first of the criminals he punched on the right side of the face, then the second one got kicked in the left front leg, knocking him down. Punches and kicks were thrown from all of them, but none could hit him, "really? Is this all you stupid fools have got?"

Gauntlet wasn't looking worried, instead he was still smirking.

"Put Plan A2 into motion now," he whispered to nopony in particular, or so Darkwing thought.

Hidden from his sight was a big pegasus pony in a black coat. He snuck up right behind Darkwing and smacked him with a two by four piece of wood. Darkwing felt the impact and within seconds, was down for the count.

"What a fool he is, trying to beat us," said the pegasus pony. "Let's see who he really is."

"No," said Gauntlet firmly. "Our orders are clear, we go into the castle of friendship. However, we can dispose of this garbage. You two," he called to other pegasi, "put him somewhere out of the way."

They nodded and lifted him up, "what about the water?"

"Why not, it'll mean the end of him."

The pegasus ponies took Darkwing towards the water and threw him in there.

"There's no way he'll survive that," snickered one of the pegasus ponies. "He's finished. Master Inferno will be pleased with us."

That wasn't all he was going to be pleased with. The minions captured Twilight Sparkle alright, as well as Starlight Glimmer and Spike. They next captured Pinkie Pie, in spite of a brawl with the Cakes, then Applejack was captured, followed easily by Rarity and Fluttershy.

Inferno smirked when they returned with the news, "what about the pony named Rainbow Dash? Did you not capture her?"

"No, we couldn't," said Stealth Wings. "You won't believe this, but that fool Darkwing had kicked her off the roof and sent her to jail. One of our own saw the event unfold."

"She's in jail?!" Inferno almost went angry, but his smirk quickly returned. "Doesn't matter, we have more than enough hostages."

"You won't need them," said one of the pegasus ponies. "We threw the Darkwing into the water. He's surely as good as dead."

The smirk seemed to get bigger on Inferno's face, "even better. Now I guess we can use our hostages to get what we want, and with that Darkwing dead, and Rainbow Dash in jail, there's nopony left to stop us."

Morning soon arrived, and with it came many sad faces in Ponyville as they learned of the ponynappings. But Darkwing wasn't dead, he had woken up minutes after being thrown into the water and swam to the service, however he still passed out upon reaching shore. When he awoke the next morning, he felt the back of his head, "darn those stupid fools, they play dirty big time."

He took to the skies and landed on a cloud. He could hear the worrying words from ponies about the Princess of Friendship and her friends being ponynapped.

"Some thugs just broke into their homes, and took them," said Silver Spoon to Scootaloo.

"They blocked our doorways to prevent us from helping," groaned Apple Bloom. "It took Big Mac till an hour ago to get us all free."

"They blocked me with a spell," added Sweetie Belle. "They took my Rarie-Roo too easily."

Scootaloo looked worried, "what about Rainbow Dash? Did they get her too?"

"No, that's the strangest thing," answered Diamond Tiara. "I heard she was taken to jail just before the ponynappings began. I don't know how she ended up there."

"There must be a mistake, Rainbow Dash is no criminal," said Scootaloo. "What is Silver Badge even thinking?"

Darkwing didn't pay any more attention to the conversations. He was thinking about his actions the night before, "at least it kept her safe from them," he thought to himself. "So I was right, plus it kept her away from me. Then again," he added, "she would've warned me about whoever it was that hit me from behind. No, what am I thinking? I work alone. Always done so, and always will."

But his mind soon replayed some thoughts from when he was a young colt, and Rainbow helped him when he needed it.

Meanwhile, back in the Ponyville jail house, Rainbow groaned as she sat in the cell. She had already heard the news from police officers, but wasn't saying a word to anypony.

"I try to be who I am; the element of loyality, and where does it get me? Thrown in jail like the rest of these scumbags," she thought to herself. "What was I even thinking?"

Silver Badge was walking past her cell at that moment. He stared angerily at her, "we warned you to stay home when the curfew was on, but you didn't listen. Why?"

"I thought I could help."

"This isn't one of your adventures Ms Dash, you need to listen to what other ponies are saying, and when we say to stay out of it, you stay out of it. Now sadly, this will have to go in your record."

"Oh great, so there's my job of being a Wonderbolt over and done with," she sighed unhappily.

"You should've thought of that when you had the chance." Silver Badge then walked away.

Rainbow kicked the ground unhappily. Then, she heard a 'psst' from outside. She walked over to the window and called out, "Who's there?"

"It's me Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash frowned, for she knew the voice belonged to Darkwing. "Go away you idiot, you've gotten me in enough trouble as it is."

Darkwing looked down unhappily, "You're right there, I have gotten you into trouble, but you have to understand, I've been working alone for a while now, and the mere thought of somepony coming to help is next to impossible. Sometimes, you have to face the world on your own, and if anypony gets in your way, you knock them down."

"Yeah like you did. I was just trying to help, yet now I'm in here, my friends are captured and I have nopony to bail me out."

There was no response from Darkwing. Rainbow sighed and went back to her seat. As she sat down though, she heard pounding sounds coming from the front of the station. A short while later, Silver Badge returned with Darkwing right behind him, "you realise attacking police officers is the wrong thing to do."

"Yeah, and so is arresting my friends who had nothing to do with this. Now let her out, and you'll remove that charge from her record."

Rainbow turned away, "What if I don't want out?"

Darkwing walked up to her cell, "I'm sorry okay? I believed in my thoughts for so long that I forgot about friendship, and how even loyality can help. Now I need your help to save your friends, and bring down Inferno and his gang. So Rainbow Dash, will you give me a lending hoof?"

Rainbow was quiet for a minute, thinking it over. She was of course mad at Darkwing for throwing her off the rooftop. However, he was breaking her out and even getting Silver Badge to remove the charge from her record, and was willing to go help save her friends.

"You'll have to earn my respect back," she said firmly. "But I'm with you."

Silver Badge unlocked the cell door, allowing Rainbow to walk out. Darkwing then lead him to the desk, and watched as he tore up the report on Rainbow Dash.

"You're free to go Ms Dash. And Mr Darkwing, you're going to end up on our most wanted list for this stunt."

"Yeah, like my life wasn't ruined already," he grumbled loud enough for Silver Badge to hear.

Once out of the police station, both pegasi took to the skies and landed on a cloud. Darkwing pointed down to the Everfree forest, "they're in there, somewhere. We just need to find one of those fools, and get the location of the hideout from them."

"But won't they see us coming? It's daylight now."

By this point, the sun was already in plain view and soon would be at it's highest point in the sky.

"We'll just have to be sneaky, and hope for the best."

A sudden memory returned to Rainbow Dash and she smirked, "hey, remember when we were younger and whenever trouble was coming, you had that pharse you liked to say?"

Darkwing looked firmly to her, "you got to be kidding me. I am not saying it."

"Hey, you kicked me off the roof, you owe me big time."

Darkwing sighed, "fine, but only for you." He took in a deep breath and said, "Rainbow Dash, let's get dangerous." He shuddered a moment later, "sweet Celestia, that sounded corny." He extended his wings and took off for the Everfree forest.

"I don't know, I think it fits you perfectly, Darkwing Pony."

"Oh for pete's sake. Just come on already."

Still smirking, Rainbow Dash extended her wings and followed Darkwing into the abyss that is the Everfree Forest, and the terrors that lay in there.

Battle at the Castle

Chapter 7: Battle at the Castle

Inferno's minions were all over the place in the Everfree Forest. It was difficult to move around, but Darkwing and Rainbow Dash often hid in the trees and waited till they were sure the coast was clear before they could move again. Although she wouldn't admit it, Rainbow Dash was actually starting to get a little scared. Was it because of the spooky surrondings of the forest? Was it because of the criminals that roamed around the forest like they owned it? Or maybe it was a little bit of both.

"I'll give you this, you must have nerves of steel to deal with punks like these all the time," she whispered to Darkwing.

He was quiet at first as two more minions walked past, then he responded back to Rainbow Dash, "I don't have nerves of steel, I get scared as much as any pony would, but when trouble comes, I have to suck it up and press on. Now quiet, I need to keep an eye on this duo down below."

Rainbow nodded and went quiet at once.

Darkwing watched the duo of minions circling the area for about three minutes, then going into the fouth minute, the first of the minions walked away for some reason. Darkwing didn't care to know, this was his chance of finding the hideout.

Without warning, he jumped down from the tree and tackled the minion aganist another tree.

"Darkwing?! But I..." his mouth was covered up by Darkwing's hoof.

"Shut your mouth you fool, don't want attention being drawn to us. Now where is your boss Inferno?" But the minion didn't answer the question, which got Darkwing angry. "Alright you little punk, you got two choices here. You can either tell me where he is with no trouble, or I'll beat the truth out of you. Your choice."

Fearing Darkwing would actually hurt him, considering all the stories he heard from his pals in the criminal group, he gave an answer.

"You'll find him in the castle of the two sisters," he answered. "He figures it's the best place to hide out since nopony goes there anyways." Darkwing glared at him firmly. "I'm telling you the truth, honest, please don't hurt me."

"Fine, I won't." And he backed up from the minion. He then dashed off, with Rainbow Dash following close behind.

The first of the two minions returned, shocked at seeing two pegasi flying in the forest, "was that the Darkwing Pony our boss has been hunting down? I thought he drowned in the waters of Ponyville."

"Somehow he survived," said his buddy. A smirk came to his face, "but he'll never find the master."

"Oh? And why do you say that?"

"Cause I sent him and his little pal to the Castle of the two sisters, that's where we send any nosey ponies remember?"

The first minion chuckled, "he's done for. Master Inferno will never know about Darkwing's return."

After running and flying through the Everfree Forest, Darkwing and Rainbow Dash arrived at the rope bridge connecting the canyon with the forest, to the land the castle of the two sisters sat on.

"If that Inferno nutjob has hurt my friends, I'll make him regret his decision," grumbled Rainbow Dash as she smacked her hooves aganist each other. She was about to fly over, but was stopped by Darkwing, "why are you trying to stop me?"

"Something's not right."

"What?"

"Inferno never leaves a chance to be found, even with the hideouts. So why was it so easy to get to?"

"Maybe he didn't think anypony would come here?" suggested Rainbow Dash.

Darkwing shook his head, "no, he's too smart to think that way. We're going in, but be cautious and don't let your guard down."

Slowly, the two pegasus ponies made their way across the rope bridge. It seemed to take forever for Rainbow Dash, mostly due to her being scared of what was waiting in that castle this time. The only other time she had been scared of this castle was the night she and Applejack tried to find out who the most daring pony. It resulted in them being seperated and getting scared over little things, and each other. This time though, it wasn't a game, this was a matter of facing criminals and saving her friends.

Finally, they reached solid ground and slowly walked into the front hallway.

"Not bad, it's certainly better than some other buildings I've gone into," Darkwing thought to himself.

As they walked along, he heard a small sound, like some pony hitting a rock.

"Rainbow, get behind me."

"Why?"

"We're not alone in here."

No sooner had he said that than he and Rainbow Dash found themselves surronded by a large number of Inferno's minions. Some looked shocked, while others stared angerily at Darkwing.

"I thought he was gone," one said.

"Does it matter? We need more practise anyways, and by destorying him and his girlfriend, we'll get that."

"I'm not..."

"Rainbow, stay quiet and stay down," Darkwing said firmly. He charged at a small group of minions and started attacking them. He punched the first one with his right hoof, ducked from an attack by a second and smacked him hard with a punch of the left hoof. Another minion tried to hit him from behind again with, yet another two by four, but this time the minion was hit by Rainbow Dash.

"Stay quiet and stay down? I don't think so!" she said firmly. "You didn't get me out of jail to just stand by and watch. You said you wanted my help, well now I'm giving it." Extending her wings, Rainbow Dash took off and started smacking the minions about, making many go flying.

"Show-off," muttered Darkwing before he punched another minion standing behind him.

Still, he did allow her to help him and soon the group of minions were down and out cold.

"Well I say that takes care of the welcome reception, now let's get that Inferno and teach him a few lessons," said Rainbow with determination.

She was about to fly off, but found her tail being grabbed, "I need to make a sign saying 'stop grabbing my tail'."

Darkwing however didn't let go, so Rainbow flew down till all four hooves were on the ground, and that's when Darkwing let go of her tail.

"This isn't the hideout," he said firmly.

"What? Are you kidding me? There was a large number of ponies here trying to beat the living snot out of us."

"Something I forgot to mention is that Inferno also has a place to send nosey ponies looking for him, and sadly many ponies have fallen victim to this trap, with many never being seen or heard from again."

Rainbow gulped hearing that.

"If I had to guess," Darkwing continued, "I'd say this whole castle is infested with minions."

Right on cue, a second wave of minions appeared, this time they were carrying big pieces of wood either in their magic or their mouths.

"They're not going to let us leave, are they?" Rainbow asked.

"Nope, not a chance." Both ponies got into fighting stances once more, "get ready Rainbow Dash, everything before this has merely been practise."

Inferno was in his hideout, enjoying a nice meal of spagetti with tomato sauce when one minion knocked on his door, "What is it? I'm trying to enjoy lunch."

"Sorry to interupte Master Inferno, but word's coming in from the Castle of the Two Sisters. Two ponies have entered and are fighting our guys."

Inferno raised an eyebrow, "and who would these ponies be?"

The minion looked down nervously, "one is that Rainbow pegasus, she got out of jail, and the other..." the minion paused.

"The other one is...?"

"It's the Darkwing Pony, master."

"WHAT?!" he exclaimed. He shot upright out of his seat and his lunch went everywhere. "I was told he drowned in the waters of Ponyville. How did he escape?"

"I don't know Master, he just did."

Inferno snarled, "Blast it all, he'll soon find my hideout." Then a smirk came to his face, "then again, maybe it's a good thing if he comes here."

"Uh Master, are you sure about that?"

"Yes, cause now I have a chance to destory the pony with my own hooves, and while we're at it, we get one more prisoner." He cackled to himself, "even slight little hiccups can turn into advantages for me."

"Of course Master," said the minion and bowed as he left.

Back at the castle, Rainbow Dash was using all her energy to fight the minions that were trying to hit her. She often had to duck down low when two or three pieces of two by fours tried to hit her in the face.

"Whew, that was close," she gasped.

The minions however had hit Darkwing at least five times with their two by fours. But just when they thought he was finished, he suddenly spun round, hitting them in the legs and when they started groaning in pain, he smacked them in the faces, knocking all but one out cold. The last one was now too injuried to fight back.

"Darn buggers," muttered Darkwing.

Now that he wasn't surronded, he was able to go back and help Rainbow Dash. Punching and kicking, the two ponies fought hard and before long, knocked the ponies down to the ground. Some were out cold, while others groaned in pain.

"You do this every single night? I can't imagine a job that's harder than this," she commented.

"Well be thankful you're a weather pony and don't have this sort of thing to deal with."

"Actually, I'm a Wonderbolt now. I recently gave up my job as weather pony."

Darkwing was surprised to hear that, but soon the shocked look disappeared into a smile, "so you got to live out your dreams eh? At least one of us accomplished their dreams."

He walked over towards the only minion he kicked down that was still awake.

"Now, where is your stupid boss Inferno?"

The minion spat some blood out of his mouth, which landed on Darkwing's suit, "like I'd tell you. The master is a busy pony, he doesn't have time to deal with a piece of garbage like you."

"Really now?" Darkwing raised an eyebrow. Then he saw something in the pony's saddlebag, which was laying next to him. Inside was a bottle of hot sauce, but not just any hot sauce, it was Inferno hot sauce. The hottest kind of hot sauce in all of Equestria.

Rainbow shuddered just seeing it. She didn't like peppers or hot sause as it was too hot for her taste buds.

Darkwing reached over and broke the lid off of the bottle, "are you sure you don't want to tell me where Inferno is?"

The minion pony groaned, but remained firm, "I won't say a word. I won't even open my mouth," and he mimicked closing his mouth with a sipper.

Darkwing smirked, "oh I'm sure we can find a way to get your mouth to open up. Now it's your choice, you're either going to talk, or the sauce goes in and we'll force you to tell us."

The minion pony refused, but as he saw Rainbow Dash walk over and Darkwing bring the bottle close to his mouth, his fears got to him.

"Alright! Alright! I'll talk!"

Darkwing pulled the bottle away, "go on then, tell us, where is Inferno?"

The minion pony groaned, "leave the Castle of the Two Sisters, go back into the Everfree forest, take ten steps and go right. You'll go down a path to his new hideout."

"Anything we need to know about the hideout?" Darkwing asked, bringing the hot sauce bottle over to the pony's mouth.

The minion pony moved his head back, "uh yeah, there's plenty to know. Flying in is impossible for those who don't work for Inferno. He has pegasi ready to strike you down as soon as you go in there, sneak in threw the bushes without making a sound and you'll be fine. Don't bother going in through the front doors, or you'll be attacked by unicorn guards. Also on the inside, there are earth pony guards who know martial arts."

Rainbow Dash looked firmly to him, "how do we know we can trust your words?"

"I think in these circumstances, we can trust this pony," said Darkwing. "Thank you very much buddy." He lifted his right hoof and punched the guy's lights out. "Lights out you fool."

He placed the hot sauce bottle down, then got up.

"We better get out of here, we've given the third wave enough time to reach us."

"How bad is the third wave."

"DUCK!" shouted Darkwing. Both he and Rainbow ducked for cover as spears flew past them, going at break neck speeds. "Should I answer that question?"

"No."

"Plus Wave 4 is the worst one, so let's go!"

Moving quickly, Rainbow Dash and Darkwing flew out of the Castle of the two sisters with the ponies flying after them. Thankfully, they were able to get into a tree and hide out of sight. The minions looked around for them, but couldn't see them. They soon walked or flew away to continue the search.

"Wow, now that was too close," whispered Rainbow Dash. "You know something, you're more entertaining than many of the superheroes in Spike's comic books. You even have a catchpharse, you just need a catchy tune. How should it go? Daring pony of mystery, champion of..." But Rainbow was cut off by Darkwing placing a hoof over her mouth.

"Are you trying to get us caught?"

"Sorry."

"Besides, I'm not better than those heroes in those comic books. They at least are loved by ponies, as for me, well you know. Now come on and let's get that short sided fool. Let's Get Dangerous." He suddenly realised what he said, "ugh, the sooner we beat him the better. I don't want to become a comic book hero."

"Hey, you never know, you could end up with comic book stories about yourself."

"Don't count on it, now come on."

With Rainbow now being silent, they walked away from the Castle of the Two Sisters and into the forest. After ten paces, they reached the path. From here, they had to be super quiet. Darkwing went in first, followed by Rainbow Dash. Above them were the pegasus guards, ready to strike anypony who was crazy enough to go down their pathway. To say going through the bushes was easy going would be lying, as some bushes had thorns in them and it took all of Rainbow's strength to keep herself from screaming. Darkwing didn't even flinch.

"He gives himself less credit than he deserves," Rainbow thought to herself. "He is like those super heroes in the comic books."

After about nine minutes of crawling through the bushes, the two ponies emerged on the other side and found themselves face to face with a small castle, no bigger than the trees.

"I've flown over this forest hundreds of times, and I've never seen anything like this before," Rainbow commented.

"That's because of the unicorn guards he has," said Darkwing. "They use their magic to hide this place from sky views, but it's useless from ground level."

He then began looking around the area, trying to find some way of getting into the structure. Finally he found one, "quick question; can you swim?"

Rainbow walked over and looked to a pond of disgusting looking water, "You can't be serious."

"Completely serious, now follow me." He folded in his wings, jumped into the air, and dived into the waters below.

"Yuck," Rainbow muttered. She took in a deep breath and followed Darkwing into the water.

Watch Out for the Inferno

Chapter 8: Watch Out for the Inferno

It was difficult to see anything in that water, but with Darkwing leading the way, both pegasi finally emeged inside the castle and surprisingly, there were no guards in the area.

"Odd, but then again, maybe Inferno thought no one could sneak in through the canal," Darkwing thought to himself.

Rainbow Dash meanwhile was spitting into the water, "I'll say this again, yuck. I think I got some of that slimey water in my mouth, it's awful."

"Well Inferno and his stupid gang are not known for looking after their own hideouts," Darkwing whispered to her, "now please keep your voice down, just because there's nopony in plain sight, it doesn't mean they're not nearby."

Rainbow nodded, and after shaking the water off, she followed her masked friend through the hallways of the small castle. As they walked along though, Rainbow was still thinking back to the conversation she had with him about his future, or rather the lack of one.

"There has to be a way to help him regain what Inferno took from him, but how?" she thought to herself.

"Focus Dash," Darkwing said firmly to her, which snapped her out of her thoughts. "This is no time for daydreaming, we need to reach your friends, and the only way to do that is get through these hallways."

"Which are full of Inferno's minions," Rainbow groaned as she looked down the hallways. "Hope you got a few tricks up your sleves."

"Do you even need to ask?" He reached down to his belt and pulled out small little pallets, "these are smoke bombs, it'll blind them for about ten seconds, which should be enough time to move from one end of the hallway to the other. Are you ready, or are you going to have another daydreaming session on me?"

"Nope, I'm ready. Ready to save my friends," she said with determination.

And on that note, Darkwing tossed the first pellets down to the ground, which exploded and surronded the hallways in thick clouds of smoke. Unaware to the minions, the pegasi moved quickly until the smoke disappeared.

"What was that?" asked one minion.

"You got me. Maybe somepony was playing with fire crackers again?"

"Which created all that smoke? I don't think so, something's going on here."

They searched the area, but could find nothing to show there were any ponies there, other than the minions. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Darkwing were repeating their steps as they made their way through one hallway after another.

"How many of those pellets do you have?"

"Not many left Rainbow, we can only do two more hallways, then we're on our own."

More smoke pellets were dropped and they slid past more minions without being noticed. Luckily though, they didn't need to use the remaining pellets at that given moment, cause once they were through the main hallway, Darkwing stopped and looked to a set of heavy metal doors.

"What are you doing?" Rainbow whispered.

"I believe your friends are in there," he whispered back. "If you had noticed, many of the doors in this castle are wooden doors, while these ones are metal, and why is that?" Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "It's because it's to keep prisoners from escaping, and keeping unwanted company out."

"Wow, you're really good at figuring these things out."

"Not really, just thinking like those lame brained idiots, which hurts my brain to be honest," he groaned. "I just need to pick the lock, then we get in quickly before anypony sees us."

Luckily, he had some lock-picks in his belt and after a few seconds of fiddling around, he undid the locks. Moving quickly, he and Rainbow Dash pushed the door open and once inside the room, they shut the door. Inside the room, Rainbow Dash gasped to see a long platform hanging above a deep pit, which seemed to be endless from her viewpoint.

"How far down is that pit?"

Darkwing kicked a rock into it, but there was no sound. At least not for thirty five seconds before they heard a clunk. Rainbow groaned, but Darkwing wasn't impressed, "usually they're deeper than that. I guess Inferno hasn't had the time to finish it."

"Maybe, now where are my friends?"

Darkwing looked up, "uh Rainbow, look up," he said.

She looked and sure enough, she could see a big cage with all her seven friends in there.

"Oh," she said meekily. Then she looked down, their cage was above the endless pit, "so how do we get them down safely?"

"We pick the lock, and get them out, one at a time."

But no sooner had he said that, then one of the minions came in with food for the prisoners. He was surprised to see Rainbow Dash and Darkwing, "I don't know how you got in here, but I'll see to it that you won't leave this place alive."

Darkwing shook his head, and stood in a fighting stance. However, all it took was one throw into the metal door to take the minion down.

Two more came in, but Rainbow stopped them with a firm glare, and the gesture to throw punches at them, "alright you punks, you better let my friends go, or we'll..."

"Really Ms Dash, you would make threats in my castle, I am surprised," said a voice from above them. Darkwing and Rainbow looked to see who the owner of the voice was. It was Inferno, standing on a platform high above the cage.

"Inferno," Darkwing muttered darkly under his breath.

Despite being a rather big pegasus, Inferno flew down to the platform without any trouble. Darkwing's eyes narrowed. Finally after the time it took, he was face to face with the fiend that destoryed his life.

"I must say, I am quite impressed with your performances today. Not too many ponies have been able to enter my hideouts and get to the pit without being found out, but then I shouldn't expect anything less from the pegasus who's been hunting my army down."

"Oh well I'm just doing my best to rid the world of your senselss gang Inferno," snarled Darkwing.

"Really? And here I thought it was about revenage. That is your main reason for being here, isn't it Lightwing?"

Darkwing's eyes popped wide open in surprise, but he quickly regained composure, "I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not Lightwing, I'm the Darkwing."

Inferno rolled his eyes, "really, do you think I'm that stupid? The Darkwing just happened to appear after Lightwing destoryed his own home, and himself along with it? If you had left your enterance for a couple of days, then maybe I wouldn't have figured it out. Granted, you did keep it hidden good for so long, but when you started talking with Rainbow Dash there, it came back to me from the Junior flight camp."

Darkwing groaned. Not only had he put his best and only friend in danger, but he left himself wide open to be found out.

"Now, I suggest you stop fighting, or we'll drop that cage and your friends will fall into The Pit."

"What? Why you..."

"Watch it girl, or they get it."

"He's not kidding, he means it," Darkwing groaned. "Stand down Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow sulked, but did as she was asked. Inferno smirked, then walked over towards Darkwing, "and I'll be taking back those blueprints you stole from me."

"Blueprints?"

"Yeah, I took them from his gang back in Vanhoover when I learned of what they were going to do."

"Yes, and now I would like it back, or else..." and he pointed to the cage.

Darkwing sighed. He lifted his left hoof, pulled off the boot, and using his mouth, pulled a set of blueprints out. He held them out for Inferno, who took them with his hoof.

"Ah yes, the magic cannon. With this, we can steal anything from anywhere without leaving the shelter of our hideout." He cackled as he looked the blueprints over, "no police force in Equestria will be able to stop us now."

"Fine, you got what you wanted, now what about them?" Darkwing asked angerily. "They had nothing to do with this, so let them go."

"As you wish." He looked up to a group of ponies; two pegasus ponies with unicorns riding on their backs, "break the chains, drop the cage!"

"What?!" Rainbow exclaimed.

The unicorns nodded and following their dark master's wishes, they blasted the chain until it broke. The six ponies and one dragon screamed as the cage started to fall.

"You lying fiend!" shouted Darkwing. He jumped up and bucked Inferno a couple of times, making him fly towards the doors on the other side of the platform. He then jumped down to get the cage.

"Darkwing!" cried Rainbow Dash.

She looked down, and sighed with relief as she saw him lifting the cage up, though he was groaning. He didn't even need to ask, she flew up and grabbed a part of the chain.

"Shoot them down!" Inferno shouted to his minions on the platform. "Make them all fall."

The unicorn minions started shooting at them. Rainbow looked to Darkwing, "they'll hit us any second, got anymore ideas?"

Darkwing was going to say he didn't, but then he remembered that they had a weapon of their own, "Swing the cage and hit them hard!"

Rainbow nodded, and together, they swung the cage. It missed the minions and Inferno quite often, but with some aim and timing, they were able to hit them all hard. Once they were out of the area, Darkwing went to tackle the flying minions with unicorns on their backs, he smacked them back, then threw different pellets at the walls. They exploded and blocked the platforms and the second enterance way.

"Darkwing! Can you help me here, this cage is heavy?!" Rainbow cried.

Darkwing flew back and together, they landed the cage on the platform where he finally picked the lock, which allowed the ponies to get free. Once he was sure everypony and dragon were out of the cage, Darkwing bucked the cage and made it fall to the bottom of the pit. The ponies listened as it bounced off the walls, and finally hit the bottom of the pit with a loud bang.

"Yikes, they could've been ugly," said Pinkie Pie.

"Why didn't you guys just use magic to get out?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"We tried, but the cage was magic resistant. Everytime we tried, our horns went out, and Spike couldn't burn the lock off as it was fire resistant too," explained Twilight.

Suddenly, the group could hear pounding coming from the blocked doorway and the enterance way above.

"Those rocks won't keep them back forever," said Darkwing. He looked to Rainbow Dash, "We got your friends out of the cage, now it's up to you to get them out of the castle."

"But what about you?"

"Inferno is my problem, and I will be the one to take him down, once and for all."

"But you can't. Not on your own. I'm staying to help you."

Darkwing looked firmly to Rainbow Dash, "I think not. Our partnership was to last till we got your friends to safety, now they're out of the cage, you can lead them out and leave me to my job."

"But you can't! You might get seriously hurt, and what if you don't make it out of here?"

Darkwing softened his approach and smiled at his friend, "it's nice of you to be concerned for my safety, and to honest, it feels nice to know that somepony does care for me, but this is something that's been coming for a long time and I'm not going to back down from it. I want you to get your friends out of here, and don't come back for me."

"I can't do that."

"You can and you must, it's not worth getting hurt or worse for a pony who has nothing left. Now go, please."

"But..."

"Please Rainbow, just go."

She really didn't want to leave, but in the end, she agreed to at least get her friends to safety. As they were walking out, Rainbow looked back to Darkwing, "being dark and alone can only get you so far, but when you start accepting the help and advice of others, then the real hero in you will finally come out."

She flew off with her friends right behind her, since she was the only one who knew the way out.

Darkwing grabbed some of his exploding pellets, and threw them right at the top of the doorway. They exploded upon impact and blocked the doorway.

"I know you'll come back to help me, but hopefully this will keep you away from me," he thought to himself.

As he turned back to the other doorway, where the pounding was coming from, he thought back to Rainbow's words. Back in the tree, just before she left, and even when she asked him to say his old catchpharse.

"Be a hero huh? Well if this is my last night, I might as well make it count as a real hero."

Extending his wings, he took off to the top of the room and waited. Within moments, Inferno and his gang emerged into the room, "where is that so called hero?"

"Maybe he escaped with the others," suggested a minion.

Suddenly, they all found themselves being surronded in dark smoke. Smoke which was coming from the smoke pellets left over, then they heard him, "I am the terror that trots in the night, I am the phantom that haunts your piano!"

"Shoot him!" shouted Inferno.

The unicorn minions fired blindly into the smoke, but were instead hitting the walls. When the smoke cleared, they looked to see if they hit Darkwing, but they hadn't.

"I am Darkwing Pony!" shouted Darkwing Pony from above.

The unicorn minions aimed at him, but Darkwing wasn't scared. He had a plan all set. He knew from looking at wrecks of other hideouts that Inferno always made the pit to be the structural support for the whole castle, so if it was damaged or even destoryed, the castle would start crumbling down all around them.

"Alright boys, hit me with your best shot, if you can," he smirked.

"Fire!" shouted Inferno and they did.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was leading her friends through the hallways. Minions tried to stop them, but with magic and a little hoof swinging, and fire breathing from Spike, the group of eight were able to reach the front enterance way where the guards were waiting.

"You will not be leaving this..." but they were cut off as Rainbow flew quickly around them, and smacked them hard till they were knocked out.

"Oh shut up already, you guys were giving me enough headaches as it was."

Applejack bucked the lever for the drawbridge, and watched as it came down quickly.

"Alright, you ponies need to watch it going through the thorn bushes, and there are pegasi guards in the air, so hit them hard."

"Rainbow, that almost sounds like you're not coming back with us," said Rarity.

"That's because I'm not. Not yet anyways, I'm going back for my friend Darkwing."

"But Rainbow, he said and I quote 'don't come back for me'," said Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow looked firmly down to the pink party pony, "I know he said that, but that's only because he thinks nopony can help him out of the mess he's in, but that's not true. I can help him regain his old life back, I can help him defeat Inferno, and I can help him be the pony I once knew and cared alot about. Plus I am the element of loyality, so it makes sense for me to go back."

Twilight nodded, "go then Rainbow, but be careful."

"You got it Twilight," and before anypony else could say anything, Rainbow was gone in a flash.

"Come on girls, we better get outside, something inside tells me that soon it'll be too dangerous to be in here."

"Something inside you. What, like a Twilight sense?" Pinkie asked in surprise. "Do you have the same sense I do?"

Twilight chuckled and shook her head, "no Pinkie, call it a gut feeling, now let's go."

The others didn't need telling twice. They followed their alicorn friend out of the castle and stood a good distance from it, but stood ready in case Rainbow Dash or Darkwing Pony needed their help.

Hanging By A Thread

Author's Note

This is where the story will get a little dark.

Hanging By A Thread

Chapter 9: Hanging By a Thread

Try as they might, Inferno's minions couldn't hit Darkwing Pony, he proved to be slik, sneaky and fast. Worst still for them, he was insulting them by saying what bad shots they were and calling them names.

"You'll pay for those words!" they shouted angerily.

Darkwing Pony smirked, "actually, it won't be me who pays, it'll be you and your whole stupid organization. So come on bone-heads, hit me with your best shot, if you can."

The minions fired off again, and one nearly hit Darkwing Pony's tail.

"Whew, that one was a little too close for my comfort," but he smirked as he looked to the damage to the roof of the Pit area. "Just a few more hits, and I'll give them a whole new meaning of 'bringing the house down'."

"Keep firing you idiots, get him and destory him!" shouted Inferno.

The minions responded by firing at Darkwing once again. Inferno was getting more and more annoyed, but before he could shout a command, he finally noticed the damage his minions had done to the roof, and it suddenly hit him. For as long as he's been who he is, Darkwing had come to know alot about them, including how they build their hideouts.

"He's going to knock my castle down!" he thought to himself. "Stop firing you fools, stop firing! You're destorying the castle."

The minions stopped firing. Darkwing Pony looked to the roof and groaned. All was needed was one more hit to bring the roof, and the castle down. He smirked as he looked down to the minions, "that's it? I thought you guys could actually hit a target. I guess I'm just too fast for slow pokes like yourselves. Oh well, you just proved my point of how stupid you fools are."

"Take that back!" shouted one of the unicorn minions.

"Don't listen to him, he's trying to get in your head," Inferno said firmly.

But Darkwing Pony continued to mock the minions, "come on! Hit the bull's eye, win a prize. Like a promotion perhaps. Come on! Are you too chicken?"

"Too late, he's in my head! SHUT UP!" shouted the minion and fired.

"NO!" shouted Inferno.

It was too late. The magical energy left the unicorn's horn and shot up towards Darkwing Pony. At the last second, he moved to the left and the beam hit the roof, right where Darkwing Pony wanted them to hit.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Congratulations fools, you win a prize! And your prize is...your castle falling down. Thanks for the help."

There came a deep rumbling sound and the surronding area started to shake. At first, it was gentle shaking, but soon it started to become violent shaking.

"Let's get out of here!" shouted a minion.

"You don't need to tell me twice!" shouted another and they all started running for nearby exits.

"Come back here you fools!" Inferno demanded. It was no use, they had no intension of staying in a crumbling castle.

Just down the hallway, Rainbow was still flying towards the Pit when she saw the place shaking, "he's knocking it down?! Oh no, I got to get to him before it's too late."

She put on the speed, and raced back to the Pit, but was shocked to see the doorway blocked.

"I don't believe this, he's blocked my way in there." She rammed towards the stone wall, but nearly broke her left shoulder hitting it several times. "Darkwing! You can't do this! You have alot of life in you! Break this wall down! DARKWING!"

Inferno stared up angerily at Darkwing Pony, "you destoryed my latest hideout, and it was my favourite! You'll pay for this Darkwing!"

"Correction, it's you that will pay Inferno. You took my life away, you made me a pariah, you forced me into this line of work, so if anypony is going to pay, it's going to be you at last!" Darkwing Pony charged in at Inferno. He lifted his right hoof, ready to strike Inferno, but was shocked to learn Inferno, despite his big size, was good at karate.

"Uh oh."

"I underestimated you Darkwing, now you'll simply die!"

He lifted his right hoof, and smacked Darkwing hard, sending him flying towards the rock wall blocking the doorway. Feeling he had won, Inferno turned to make his escape.

Darkwing Pony looked up and noticed how loose the rocks were above the other doorway. A big rock landed beside him.

"You're not going anywhere big boy." He aimed, fired and threw the rock right at the spot. Dozens of stones and rocks fell and blocked Inferno's pathway out. "We're finishing this fight Inferno."

"Fine, I'll destory you, then I'll leave."

On the other side of the rock wall, Rainbow was pounding away, shouting Darkwing's name. But all she was doing was hurting her throat from yelling, and giving her sore hooves. Eventually, she had to stop.

"Ow, okay that hurt."

She jumped as a big rock fell in front of her.

"Okay Rainbow Dash, if you were Darkwing, what would you do?" She thought it over, then it came to her, "I would find the weak point in something, then use it to knock them down."

It wasn't really easy to find a weak point in a rock wall, especially with rocks falling down around her. Finally though, after what seemed like forever, Rainbow found the weakpoint; a loose set of rocks.

"Hang on Darkwing, I'm coming."

She lifted a hoof and prepared to strike, when suddenly, the ground shook following a loud boom. From the sounds of it, it was coming from inside the room of the Pit.

"NO! Hang on old friend, I'm coming!"

Inside the room, Inferno and Darkwing Pony watched as a huge part of the roof caved in and started falling towards them. It broke the platform right in the middle. Both ponies jumped into the air and started flying. Then Darkwing Pony heard Rainbow.

"No, you shouldn't be here," he groaned.

He was about to fly over and tell Rainbow to get out, when he suddenly found himself being tackled to the ground and pinned down.

"You broke my castle, now I'll break something of yours. Namely, your wings!" He raised his left hoof and stomped down on Darkwing's right wing, dislocating some bones in the process and making him scream in pain. "Now get out of my sight!" shouted Inferno and tossed Darkwing off the platform. "Good ridence to the fool."

But just as he was about to fly away, he found one of his back legs get wrapped up in a rope.

"What?!"

"You didn't think I was going to let you get away, did you?!" shouted Darkwing in some pain. "We're not even close to being even Inferno." He swung on the rope and made himself fly up. Extending one of his back legs, he kicked Inferno's left wing. There was a horrible cracking sound and he found himself falling. Darkwing aimed his other rope launcher and it went flying, right at the rock wall, which Rainbow was about to break down. The launcher caught the rocks and Darkwing stopped.

Before he could sigh in relief, something big and heavy grabbed one of his back legs.

"Okay, you got more skill than I thought, but it won't save you from me when I finish you."

He tried to climb back up, but it wasn't easy. Worst still, his movements were weakening the rope.

"Quit moving around down there!" shouted Darkwing Pony. "You're weakening the rope!"

But Inferno wouldn't listen, "I'll tear you to pieces!"

Darkwing looked up. He could hear the rocks from the rock wall in the doorway move, which meant Rainbow would break it down any minute, and there were no other points to attach the other rope launcher to. Plus with his broken wing, he wouldn't be able to fly away, there was no way out. Rainbow Dash was wrong.

"Come on boy, fight back!" taunted Inferno, "or are you the one that's being chicken?"

But instead of fighting, Darkwing gave up. He was going to let Inferno end eveything. Inferno groaned as he tried to get up and break Darkwing, but it was too late by the time he realised he was weakening the rope to it's breaking point.

"Oh no," he groaned.

Rainbow backed up, ready to hit the rock wall. She charged at it, but before she could break the wall, the rope snapped. Rainbow burst through the wall and looked down to see Darkwing Pony and Inferno falling into the Pit.

"NO!" she cried.

Inferno screamed as he fell, but Darkwing was merely smiling, "you've been the best company I've had in a long time Rainbow Dash, I'll never forget you. Thank you, for one last chance." He closed his eyes and waited for the crash landing.

However, he found himself being caught by somepony. He opened his eyes and saw who his rescuer was, it was Rainbow Dash. She flew both herself and Darkwing Pony back up to the platform.

"Are you alright?"

"Apart from a broken wing, yes I'm fine."

"Good." She then smacked him across the face with her right hoof, "now I don't feel guilty doing that. Don't ever tell me to go without you again, do you hear me?"

Darkwing smiled, "loud and clear, friend."

Rainbow smiled, "oh I can't stay mad at you." And she gave him a big hug, and he in turn hugged her back. Then they remembered Inferno, "if I hurry, I can get to him."

She was about to take flight when they both heard a loud 'boom'.

"Too late isn't it?"

"Yes," Darkwing Pony sighed. "I did warn him, but he wouldn't listen to me."

The shaking of the castle got worse and worse. The two ponies had to get out of there, fast! Since his wing was broken, Darkwing rode on Rainbow Dash's back. She dashed quickly out of the Pit and through the hallways towards the front enterance way.

Darkwing looked behind them and gulped, "uh Rainbow, how fast can you go?"

Rainbow scoffed, "have you forgotten who you're talking to? I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria."

"Right, so maybe you could put on more speed."

"It's coming down, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah," Darkwing nodded.

Sure enough, the castle was indeed coming down hard. Rainbow's wings flapped faster and they hurried out of the castle, going faster and faster than ever before.

Outside, the minions had escaped and were now running for their lives. Twilight Sparkle, Starlight Glimmer and the other ponies, and one dragon waited for Rainbow Dash and Darkwing Pony.

"That's it, I'm going in!" cried Applejack.

But Twilight's magic stopped her, "no Applejack, it's too dangerous."

"But what about Rainbow Dash? She could be back in The Pit and in case you haven't noticed, the castle is coming down!"

"Here she comes!" cried Starlight.

Sure enough, looking through the open doorway, the ponies and Spike could see Rainbow Dash and Darkwing Pony coming, and in a mad dash. They zoomed up in a trail of rainbow, it was clear she had done a sonic rainboom.

"Ponies! Get out of there! This castle is coming down!"

They didn't need to be told twice, they ran away as the last parts of the castle began to fall down, creating a huge dust storm in it's wake.

The falling of the castle was so loud that everypony in Ponyville heard it, "what was that?" cried Scootaloo. "Is it a monster?"

"I hope not," groaned Sweetie Belle.

In the Everfree forest, the ponies and Spike finally stopped running. They were now covered in dust and dirt, but they were unharmed.

"See what the Magic of Friendship can do for you Darkwing?" Rainbow asked.

Darkwing groaned as he got off Rainbow's back and stood up on all four legs, "yeah...I'm starting to..." but he never finished as he collapsed.

"Darkwing? Darkwing! Come on buddy, wake up! Wake up!"

Twilight ran over towards them, "he's out cold Rainbow, we got to get him to Ponyville General, they can look after him."

"No," Rainbow Dash said firmly. "He's not going to a hospital, he's coming back to my place. Twilight, Fluttershy, can you get a couple of doctors to come up there, and tell nopony else about Darkwing."

Twilight and Fluttershy nodded and flew off. Rainbow turned back to Applejack, "get the hot air balloon, we're going to need it to get him up there."

Applejack nodded and hurried off, leaving the other ponies and Spike to keep an eye on Darkwing.

A short time later, they were back at Rainbow's house. Darkwing layed on the couch breathing normally, but wouldn't wake up. At last, Twilight and Fluttershy arrived with Nurse Coldheart and Nurse Sweetheart.

"Oh my, what a mess you're all in," said Nurse Sweetheart.

"Never mind us," said Rainbow Dash. "He's in need of more help than any of us." And she pointed to Darkwing Pony.

Both nurses gasped to see him. They of course had heard about him, but never thought they would actually see him for real, "well first, we'll need to remove his mask and check..."

But Nurse Coldheart was stopped by Rainbow Dash, "there is one rule though, don't and I repeat don't take off his mask."

"What about moving it up so we check his airways?" asked Nurse Sweetheart.

Rainbow allowed that, and under her watch, they catched his breathing. They checked his pupils, which seemed fine to them. Then they attended to the broken wing, "we'll need to exaimine him alone, you'll have to leave the room."

"But don't worry," said Nurse Coldheart, "we won't remove his mask."

The ponies and one dragon left the living room. Rainbow was quiet as they did, and Starlight noticed this, "Don't worry, they'll fix his broken wing and he'll be as good as new."

"I know they will, I just can't but help worry for my friend."

"Yeah about that, when was he ever a friend of yours?" asked Applejack.

"I love to tell you, but I Pinkie Promised not to say anything to anypony else, and you know what Pinkie does if you break a Pinkie Promise."

Applejack groaned, she did remember all too well.

It was forty minutes later when the two nurses returned, "well we've done all we can for him," said Nurse Sweetheart. "He merely passed out due to being exhausted, and from his injuries. He should wake up soon."

"And don't worry, we did not remove the mask," added Nurse Coldheart.

Rainbow sighed, "thank you. Can we see him?"

"Of course, go right ahead."

They walked back to the living room and found him, still out cold and with his wing bandaged up. The other ponies and Spike decided it was best to leave them alone, so they left with the balloon.

"Don't worry buddy, I'll be here with you," Rainbow said kindly. There came a small sound from behind her. She looked and saw Tank there, "and so will Tank, he's my pet Tortoise."

Tank nodded in agreement, but still there was no movement from Darkwing.

"Get better my friend," she whispered. "I'll stay with you until you wake up. I promise, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

Carrying On

Chapter 10: Carrying On

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

The sudden knocking noise woke Rainbow Dash up. She had been sleeping in her living room chair, and wasn't expecting any visitors today. Still, she got up, wiped the droll coming down from her mouth, and walked over to the front door, "hang on, I'm coming!"

She opened the door and found Soarin' on the other side, and wearing his wonderbolts outfit.

"Hey Dash, we haven't seen you in three days, is everything alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine, other than my sore shoulder and hooves," she groaned.

It had been three days since the fight in Inferno's castle in the Everfree Forest. Rainbow was still recovering from the slight injuries she got from banging on the rock wall so many times.

"So, how come you haven't come in to Wonderbolts Headquarters? All Spitfire will say is, 'you're taking time off to attend to a problem'."

During that time too, Twilight had sent a message to Spitfire, on behalf of Rainbow Dash, and said she couldn't make it to training or any shows until such a time she felt ready to return.

"I'm watching over a friend," and she pointed to Darkwing Pony.

Soarin' couldn't believe his eyes, "it's really him, the legendary masked hero of the night."

Rainbow shook her head, "no he's the Terror that trots in the night, at least that's what he calls himself now." She sighed and continued, "until he wakes up and I talk with him, I won't be returning to Wonderbolts headquarters. Sorry Soarin'."

"Hey it's alright, I just wanted to make sure you were alright, and it's actually good to know you're looking out for a friend, rather than slacking off." Soarin' turned to leave, but he had to ask, "word from Ponyville is that you got arrested recently. Is that true?"

"Oh yeah, well that's because I was looking out for my pal over there, but he kicked me off the roof and into the hooves of the police. Silver Badge even had a report all set for me."

"Really now? Well even if you had one, we wouldn't kick you off the team, you're still one of our most talented flyers."

"Not as much as you guys are. After all, you've been doing these tricks longer than I have."

"Perhaps, but we're all important to this team." Rainbow Dash had to nod in agreement. "Well I guess I'll see you later Crash," he smirked.

Rainbow smirked, "yeah yeah, see you around, Clipper."

Soarin' laughed as he flew away. As soon as he was gone though, and Rainbow Dash had shut the door, silence filled the big house in the sky. Darkwing Pony was still out like a light. Rainbow sighed and walked back to the chair.

"I only wish you had come to me sooner, I could've helped you. Then maybe you wouldn't have to go at this alone," she said quietly to him.

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

When she next opened her eyes, she discovered it was nighttime. Luna's moonlight shone brightly into the room, almost hurting Rainbow's eyes, "must be a full moon tonight," she thought to herself.

"About time you woke up," said another voice.

Rainbow looked away from the window and saw Darkwing, now awake and staring at her.

"I could say the same about you," giggled Rainbow Dash. "You've been out cold for three days, yet now you decide to wake up."

"Well what can I say? I haven't had a decent night's sleep in moons, plus I'm an evening pony, not daytime." He then groaned again, "ow, my wing hurts. My shoulders hurt, my legs hurt, even my bruises have got bruises."

"Really? I can't tell with that costume on."

"Hey, you know I have to wear it...say, where did these bandages come from?"

"Nurse Redheart and Nurse Coldheart came in and bandaged you up. They also checked to make sure you're okay."

Darkwing's eyes popped wide open in surprise, "you mean, somepony else saw me. Did they..."

"They only checked you over, they did not remove the mask, I made it very clear to them. Don't worry buddy, your identity is still safe with me."

Darkwing sighed, "thank you Dashie." A thought then came to him, "what about Inferno? Have they found him?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head, "they haven't reached the bottom of the Pit yet, and it's been three days."

"Hmm, I guess I should've figured that out."

"So, what will you do now?"

Darkwing Pony groaned as he got to his hooves and put his hat back on top of his head, "I don't know. With Inferno defeated, all that's left is his minions."

"Actually, many were captured by the Ponyville police department, not to mention my friends."

"Then, I guess that's it. Once the last of those minions have been captured, there's no purpose for the Darkwing Pony anymore. My life is officially over."

Rainbow's face changed to a firm expression as she jumped down from her chair, "your life over? Not by a long shot buddy, there's still alot of life in you, and I can help you get it."

"Oh yeah, how? Inferno and his minions have hidden all of the evidance that could convict them."

"Not all of it, and if I can prove that they were the ones that commited those crimes and not you, we can finally clear your name and get you back to the life you once had." Darkwing Pony didn't look so sure, but before he could say anything, Rainbow Dash spoke up, "I'll give you the Rainbow Dash promise here and now, that I will find the evidance to clear your name once and for all." She did three spins around Darkwing Pony, then hoofbumped him, "and that's the Rainbow Dash promise."

Darkwing Pony still wasn't sure, but he knew Rainbow Dash was a stubborn pony, and probably wouldn't give up in clearing his name.

"Very well then Rainbow Dash, I'll give you the chance to clear my name, but don't get your hopes up."

Now that he regained his strength, Darkwing Pony made his way out of the large house in the sky and towards the ledge of her cloudway. Rainbow Dash followed along behind him.

"It will take time, so I guess until then, I can always go after Inferno's minions, or at least what's left of them."

"I guess you could do that, just promise me this time you'll consider asking other ponies for help if you land yourself in trouble. I mean, you don't want to get tossed into the water while out cold, do you?"

"No, I guess not."

The two went quiet as they looked down upon the streets of Ponyville. Since Inferno's defeat, the curfew had been lifted and ponies were once again allowed to walk about with little worries at all. In the distance, they could see the weather team with their new leader; Cloud Chaser, working on new weather patterns for the late-night.

"Does it feel good?"

"Hmm?"

"Saving ponies from the chaos these criminals bring?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah, I guess it is a good feeling."

"Then do more than just hunt down the last of Inferno's minions. While you wait for the evidance to be found, why don't you go out there and be the hero I've always known you would become. Be a hero, and not some masked nut job that the police will want to hunt down."

Darkwing Pony looked at his friend, then back down towards the cheerful ponies in Ponyville.

"Maybe this costumed clown can be a hero, not just a pony on a solo mission. Very well, you convinced me, but the outfit and mask stays on. I'll take them off for nopony."

"What about a close personal friend?" Rainbow asked with a raised eyebrow. "Can I at least see your face one more time?"

Darkwing Pony stood still for a bit, then he agreed, "since you're the only pony I trust, I guess it's alright for you to see the real me." He removed his hat from his head, then he pulled his mask off.

The face under the mask had a scratch under the right eye, and a bruise on the left side of his face, but apart from those, it was the face of Rainbow's old friend; Lightwing. She was so happy to see that face once again that she ran up to him and gave him a big hug. He was stunned at first, but finally he smiled and hugged her back.

"You do realize that until our paths cross again, we won't be able to talk. It's for your own safety."

"I understand...gosh, I missed you old friend."

"Well I missed you too Rainbow Dash."

They hugged for almost a minute before seperating. Lightwing put his mask and hat back on, and became Darkwing Pony once more. He turned and prepared to jump.

"Wait! Your wing is hurt, how will you be able to fly?"

"That's what the rope launchers are for," he answered. He quickly changed the broken one for a new one, "I've hurt my wings more times than you care to count, so I need launchers to get around." He pointed his right rope launcher at a cloud and fired. The launcher wrapped itself around a cloud in the distance. "Until next time Rainbow Dash, keep yourself out of trouble."

He jumped from the cloud and swung on his rope launcher. As he passed the cloud, he aimed and fired his other rope launcher. It caught another cloud and he swung off, retracting his previous launcher back into it's holder for the next cloud.

Rainbow Dash could only smile as she watched him, "go get 'em Tiger," she said quietly. Tank, who finally was able to join Rainbow Dash, looked up at her in surprise. "What? It's an old nickname I had for him, for he was firece like a tiger."

Tank raised an eyebrow at her. Rainbow disregarded the look and watched as her old friend disappeared into the distance.

The following next morning, several of Inferno's minions were clearing the mess in the Pit, "the boss wouldn't have wanted to be left here," said one, "we need to get him out."

"Too bad he's gone," said the second, "I enjoyed the jobs he gave us."

A third minion moved a big rock, and gasped, "hey guys, you're not going to believe this...come down here!"

The other minions all came down into the pit and got the biggest surprise of their lives.

Within days, Darkwing Pony had found himself in Manehatten, overlooking the streets of the big city. Just about everywhere he looked, he could see criminal ponies on the loose.

"Yes, we shall meet again Rainbow Dash. Until then, I have work to do."

He aimed his rope launcher and charged in at the streets below. As he did so, he was not aware of another pony watching him from above. In the shadows, it almost looked like Darkwing, but the outfit was in different colors and the hat was bright red.

"So the stories are true, there is such a thing as the Darkwing Pony," he said to himself. "Well, he better enjoy his little career in Manehatten while he still can, cause when I get through with him, he'll be nothing more but a forgotten legend." And the mysterious figure cackled to himself as he disappeared back into the shadows.

Meanwhile, Darkwing Pony managed, somehow, to stop at least seven criminal ponies, tied them up and using all the strength he had, brought them to the police station. This surprised the police cheif, who ran outside. He looked up, and saw just in time of a masked pony saluting him. The cheif of police knew from that point onwards, the city had it's own protector. A Terror that trotted in the night. A silent protector of the innocent, their own Darkwing Pony.

The End!...For Now