Nearly a month after The Incident, as Rainbow Dash and her friends had come to call it. A month! Go figure.

Anyway, things had been relatively peaceful. Relatively speaking, of course. She and her Wonderbolt team had been around, doing a show here and there. Mostly they were there to bust up occasionally appearing storms. And so it happened to be that they were finishing up setting up the arena in Vanhoover.

After the previous performance is, Rainbow Dash found that she was receiving a lot more attention than she expected. And was far less tired than usual. This rather pleased her, so she pretty much brushed it off.

Anyway, it was going to be a full moon this night, and the 'Bolts were setting the arena up for the event. It would require them to be a bit more careful than usual, but that's when they shone the most.

Rainbow Dash was limbering up (not that it really was necessary). She was feeling excited, much like you would expect. Being the Loyal type that she was, she I was hoping for the best for all of them. But especially for herself.

"CRASH! It's time!" Spitfire said from somewhere nearby. "You about ready?"

'Aw yeah! This is going to be awesome' "Ready as any of us ever will be."

"That sounds like a yes to me." Spitfire said. You could possibly feel the smug smile that she was giving silently.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Let me rephrase that; Born ready, Swallowfire."

Spitfire laughed heartily. She then walked away, presumably toward the arena proper.

Slightly later, the performance was in full swing. They were all doing quite well. However, strangely enough, whenever Rainbow looked up the crescent moon above, she felt like there were ants crawling on her. Something was kind of odd.

She shook her head, trying to get it back in the proverbial game.

The crowd was cheering merrily. The adoration the crowd was giving off was such that it was almost palpable.

Alas, all good things have to come to an end.

Suddenly, the door to the arena crashed open, smoke filling the area quickly. Several shapes flew into the arena and spread out in the place.

Rainbow Dash frowned. Griffs. Just of course.

Spitfire had the signal for them to gather together. "All right, everypony! We need to get these Ponies out of here before something goes seriously wrong."

Soarin asked the very pertinent question. "Who should we prioritize?"

"Prioritize the foals; particularly those who don't have wings. Other Pegasi can just fly out. The ground bound ones aren't quite so lucky. Are we all ready? Right! Break!"

Rainbow Dash swiftly went and picked up two Earth Pony fillies. She did her best to fly them out of the area, but again, every time she saw the Moon, the ant-y feeling came back.

She was able to evacuate 26 more before something happened. An explosion went off, knocking several of the fliers from the air. Most damaged of them was Spitfire herself.

Rainbow Dash next went to help her and the other downed Pegasi. Spitfire was just barely breathing, bleeding profusely. Rainbow Dash reached into her Pocket and retrieved an emergency first aid medication. 'I'm glad that she had us take these along, in case of just such an emergency.'

She injected the hypodermic into one of Spitfire's smaller wounds. Immediately, she began to breathe more easily, her wounds at least temporarily clotting. It wouldn't replace gauze and stitches, let alone any broken bones, but it was leagues better than nothing.

"Looks like these ones ain't dead yet. We can't have that, can we?" Several of the Gryphons had gathered around the two. Rainbow Dash knew that if she didn't do something, both of them would die. And besides that, she was rather ticked off. If there was one thing that she couldn't stand it would be those who decide to hurt those that she cared about. And as a second, traitors. But that's there and not here.

She began to feel a wave of rage wash over her. Her eyes began to glow golden. When she looked up at the Gryphons, she snarled and said "You are going to pay for that."

Instinctively, she looked up at the moon above. This time, it wasn't ants that she was feeling. There was a new strength filling her. She shouted toward the night sky, "Luna! Grant me your strength, that I may protect those that I care for!"

The moon gave off a silvery glow and then a shaft of light engulfed the rainbow mare. She felt her coat begin to bush out, her mane and tail following suits, to some extent. Her teeth began to sharpen, becoming more pointy. Hooves split into paws with sharp claws on them. Soon enough, where Rainbow Dash once stood, there was now a powerful looking woven creature, with dark blue energy emitting from her.

Once again looking toward the night sky-

AWOOOOOOOO!!!!

Couldn't wait, I guess.

Anyway, she found that she was definitely outnumbered. Looking around her, she found that most of the other Wonderbolts were either unconscious or evacuated along with the citizens. They were relatively off to the side. Perfect.

'Like my father used to say, If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.' she thought, underneath the emotions consuming her.

{Gauru Form!}

She began to double in height. Within the moment she was towering over the oppressors. She was even a bit taller than Princess Celestia! About to similar if she had her head raised, if you counted the horn. Anyway...

Her muscles bulked up even more. Her coat became even thicker, and her eyes now turned to a red glow, showing that she was now about to fully manifest her rage at the attackers. "I'm going to enjoy this." she snarled.

One of the more green Gryphons was rather nervous by this point. "You're going to kill us... For fun?!"

"Fun? No. I will kill you because my Blood and Bone tell me to. I will kill you because my Code of Honour demands it. I am going to kill you because you hurt my leader."

Without speaking further, she attacked readily. Within a second, she cut one of them into pieces. The next one also didn't stand a chance. He was decapitated. The next one tried shooting a weapon that he had, which was slapped out of his grip. After that, he was defenseless for the next attack.

{Summon Animal Companion!}

A trio of spirit wolves appeared beside her, ready to attack as well.

{Pack Triumphs Together}

Glowing with red energy, they went for their own targets. Rainbow, now further empowered, went back to her adversaries.

The next Target had drawn his weapon and was attempting to fire rapidly, but the rainbow maned wolf's hide was way too tough and it didn't do much of anything.

On the other less seasoned ones was fully under her influence, causing him to be extremely afraid. "She's a monster!"

"I'm not the monster here; you are! You and those like you who profit from the suffering of others!"

{Howl of 100 Voices!}

Rainbow Dash emitted a howl loud enough to shake the foundation of the arena. Fortunately, nothing was broken.

{Stormcall! Rolling Thunder!}

Next she raised one arm to the sky, taking a bolt of lightning and catching it deftly. With almost practiced ease, she rolled it into a ball, tossing it to a few of them. It exploded upon contact, throwing them aside.

"It is time to finish this!" {Stormcall: Twister!}

This time, she received a gust of wind energy. With a bit of effort, she made it into a tiny whirlwind that when she threw it to the ground it quickly became miniature tornado. Unexpectedly, it went around the area and picked up all the downed Gryphons, tossing them into a corner, rather knocked out or dead.

Reverting to her true form, Rainbow Dash said, "And let that be... A lesson... To... You...." With that, she fell unconscious.

When the local law enforcement came to pick up the bandit Gryphons, they were taken to the local imprisonment area. They kept saying something about a monster, but when the cameras were checked they were blanked out. (1)

The Wonderbolts were taken to the local hospital and had made a swift recovery within a few days, as Pegasi are known for. Nobody had seen anything unusual at all, so it seemed.

Congratulations, Rainbow Dash. You have claimed the power of the Storm Lords. Use it to fulfill your destiny.

Author's Note

1: Apparently that's one of the helpful side effects of Lunacy.