BANG BANG BANG

Rainbow jerked awake sending the bed sheets flying into the air. Her head snapping upright, ears swiveling to locate the loud hammering.

BANG BANG BANG

"Rainbow!? If you're in there you need to answer the door!" Twilight's muffled voice yelled through the dense clouds of her home. Knowing Twilight wouldn't demand her to get up unless it was urgent Rainbow sprang out of bed and quickly ran to answer the door not taking care how tired she looked. Opening the door she found a very panicky looking twilight nervously trotting in place so fast her legs were a blur.

"Twilight? What's wrong?" She asked rubbing her eye to get the gunk and sleep out. Twilight's ears splayed back as she spoke.

"It's terrible Rainbow! The royal vault at the palace has been broken into and a dangerous artifact was stolen!" Twilight yelled in a panic before pacing back and forth muttering and mumbling something to her self. Rainbow blinked in confusion. The royal vault was robbed? How the hell did they pull that off? Canterlot castle, while not impregnable was just about the hardest place in Equestria to get into, let alone rob.

"The princesses have called us to Canterlot to help investigate so Spike and I have been rounding up the rest of the girls and getting them ready. The train leaves in less than 20 minutes." Twilight explained. Rainbow, while understanding this was important, was still very tired from her late night. As quickly as she could she scarfed down some bread and grabbed her saddlebags out of habit.

Gliding down from her cloud house she landed on the ground and with a flash Twilight teleported beside her. At Twilight's constant nagging, urging she meant urging, Rainbow quickly trotted after her as they made their way to the train station. Rainbow sighed as the train station came into view.

A ten. tch tch tch, I'm sorry my dear rogue but that's not high enough. To bad! HAHAHA!

"Here I am again." She commented to herself, not realizing she said it out loud. Twilight gave her a strange look and made to say something but she was cut off by the shout of greeting from Spike and the rest of the girls standing on the platform. Twilight explained the others what was going on as they filled onto a train car. It was extremely early so not many ponies if any were on board leaving them with an entire car to themselves.

"It's shocking to think that some ruffian was able to make off with some of the crown jewels of the Princesses," Rarity commented hotly. They were all close by so they could talk to each other without having to raise their voices. Applejack raised a single eyebrow.

"What makes you think it' was the crown jewels they stole?" She asked. Rarity gave her a 'are you serious' look.

"Darling, it's the crown jewels. It's always the crown jewels." She said it like it was the most well-known truth of all time. Rainbow Yawned again the haze of sleep still not yet fleeing from her mind.

"Why do you have a pair of saddlebags with you Rainbow?" Rainbow turned her head and saw Fluttershy on her left giving her a curious look. Looking down Rainbow noticed she had her D&D saddlebags slung over her back. Instantly the haze of sleepiness was lifted by the shot of adrenaline to her system. She didn't even remember grabbing them. She gave a nervous gulp and gave Fluttershy what she thought was an innocent smile, but it was more of a sheepish grimace.

"Those aren't mine." She denied, not realizing she had drawn the attention of all the others when she answered. Fluttershy just gave her friend a flat stare.

"It has your initials in red and blue on the side Dash," Fluttershy said flatly. Rainbow's brain panicked, Curse rarity for making sure all their bags had their initials sewn on.

It's an 8. These dice don't seem to like you much. I should give them a raise.

"I always take them with me when I go to Canterlot. Never know what you'll find and need to carry back." She defended.

14. just enough. You're safe... for now.

The other girls didn't seem totally convinced but they excepted her answer for now. Rainbow gave a quiet sigh of relief as the subject was dropped. She kicked her self mentally for bringing her saddlebags along. It had become a habit since every time she went to Canterlot it was for the campaign and she never left without her bags in tow. She wouldn't be able to handle the amount of embarrassment she'd feel if her friends found out so she counted herself lucky they didn't press the matter.

As the train steamed its way toward Canterlot the girls talked about what the Princesses might have called them for. Twilight had barely sat down the entire ride, choosing to pace up and down the isles mumbling to herself. After an hour the train pulled into Canterlot station. Usually, it would have taken longer but the engineer had been told to not spare the coal and that had shortened the wait time by a good amount.

Rainbow and the others were met and quickly rushed into two carriages by the waiting royal guards and very quickly brought up to the palace. The guards didn't waste any time hauling them to the throne room, to Rainbow it was almost as bad as when she was being dragged around by Pinkie Pie. Just as quickly as the guards brought them they left and the doors closed with a solid bang.

Looking at her friends she could see the looks of concern, uncertainty, and nervousness that she didn't doubt were plastered on her face as well.

"I apologize for calling you on such short notice but this is a matter of utmost importance." Rainbow heard a very familiar voice say. Rainbow turned toward the dais and watched Princess Celestia and Luna approaching them.

"Celestia!" Twilight cried galloping up to quickly embrace her mentor which Celestia returned in kind. Rainbow quickly followed the others to catch up. Twilight uncoupled from the hug and looked at her mentor worriedly.

"What's happened?! If it's about that portal spell I was testing that ripped a hole between dimensions above Ponyville that the Folorgaks of the Sludgemudgony Empire tried to use to invade Equestria through I can totally explain!" She started to babble and was only stopped when Celestia's hoof clamped over her mouth.

"While I would very much like to hear about that," Celestia gave Twilight a stern and pointed look making Twilights ears splay back and gulp in nervousness as Celestia removed her hoof.

"That is not why I've called you all here today." Celestia glanced toward her sister who gave her a firm nod. Rainbow was particularly intrigued by this supposed invasion. Why hadn't she heard about it? She didn't get to ponder this for long as Celestia began her explanation.

"As Twilight no doubt informed you, the royal vault has been broken into and been stolen from." She began, her face becoming a stern and thin mask barely holding back her anger. Rainbow gulped, she'd never seen the princess like this before. Celestia had been angry before that's for sure but this wasn't anger. This was... rage, barely contained rage. Princess Luna placed a hoof on her sister's withers in comfort and continued for her.

"What you must understand is this vault was set aside from the main one that contains the treasury and crown jewels," Out of the corner of her eye Rainbow saw Applejack give a slightly smug smirk in Rarity's direction.

"This hidden vault is, or I should say, was only known to myself, Celestia and two other trusted ponies as it held the more, dangerous objects that we wanted to keep out of the wrong hooves." Luna's face looked grim and Celestia snorted.

"Some of the most deadly items in existence were kept there but only one item was taken from the vault, excluding all others and that is why Luna and I are so worried," Celestia explained. Her horn glowed with magic and an image of a delicate glass ball appeared. It didn't look like much if you looked over the ever-shifting and screaming skulls and shadows that twisted and broiled around on the inside.

Just looking at the image made Rainbow feel like the temperature of the room dropped a few degrees making her shiver. She wasn't the only one affected by it as Fluttershy ducked behind a shocked Twilight in fear, Applejack actually growled at it, Rarity became paler, somehow, and Pinkie's mane lost some of its poofiness and she started trembling slightly. Celestia glared at the image as she spoke.

"This is the 'Prison of Eternal Torment' it contains in it some of the vilest and darkest things imaginable. Not only creatures and monsters but desires and thoughts as well. While this thing is pure evil, it is also why Equestria is as prosperous as it is." She said as the image vanished and a weight that none had even noticed was there lifted off their shoulders and they breathed a little easier. Twilight, as always, was the first to ask a question.

"How is that possible? How could something so evil help Equestria prosper, let alone help at all?" She asked, clearly confused with what she'd heard.

Oh! this is interesting. A 17 is a good role, or maybe not depending on how you look at it.

Rainbow snorted in amusement that she understood something her egghead friend didn't.

"Care to share with the rest of us miss Dash?" Rainbows amusement disappeared faster than apple fritters at Applejack's family reunion at the surprisingly cold voice of Celestia. Her eyes locked onto Celestia's narrowed ones and she found something there that made her very nervous and confused. Suspicion and scrutiny. Still, she had been called out and never let it be said she backed down when somepony challenged her.

"It's obvious Egghead. Celestia said is contained evil thoughts and desires as well as monsters. If there are no more evil thoughts then there can't be any evil deeds or at least non-worth mentioning like a filly taking a cookie from a cookie jar and such." Rainbow explained. She looked at the shocked and surprised faces of her friends. rainbow huff and started hovering in the air.

"What? I read a lot of Daring Do books, that's like the most basic theme for dark or evil items as it gets." She crossed her forelegs in annoyance. There was a tense silence that followed for a few moments but thankfully Luna broke it. Rainbow did note Luna looked slightly shocked but that was quickly turned into a thoughtful look.

"While it is surprising, Rainbow Dash is correct. It holds most of the darkest and selfish inclinations of Ponykind. Not only that but it is very, very old. It predates the unification of the tribes by at least 500 years if not more. We don't know who or what created it but we have been ever grateful to them. If they had not, the Equestria we know today would most certainly not exist." Luna explained to the rest of Rainbows friends but she now kept glancing at her with the same eyes that Celestia had yet to break away from Rainbow this whole time. She was getting very antsy.

"But if it is such a dangerous object and as protected as you say then who could have taken it?" Twilight asked, trying to think of an answer. Celestia and Luna shared a look, leaving a relieved Rainbow of their gaze for a moment.

"While we are not absolutely certain of who the thief was, we have a very strong suspicion as well as evidence of who they might be." Luna's voice was hard as steel as her gaze returned to Rainbow masking the pegasus feel a cold sweat start to form.

"The thief left a piece of very telling evidence behind," Celestia said. Her gaze joining her sisters as her horn lit up with magic. There was a small flash and a loud gasp from all the girls as a single primary flight feather floated in front of them. A single, distinct shade of Cyan primary flight feather.

Author's Note

Well... That's interesting, wouldn't you say? Let's see what happens next, shall we?