Black Aether

Preyer Dash, full name Rainbow Dash, was a friend and rival to Applejack. Both had a surprisingly close bond considering their bloody occupations, and both shared a sincere appreciation for both the other’s faith in the Two Sisters and got their personal skills in combat, while also continually working hard to improve their own to surpass the other’s.
Currently, Dash held the bragging rights as she had recently saved Applejack from being killed by the trio of Vampire Bat Ponies and the other creatures of the horde, and so this meant that the Earth Pony would need to endure any and all boasting that might come until she could do something equally awesome in return.

The Shimmering Wave released from the dock, the magically enhanced sails catching the slightest gust of wind and quickly making its way out to sea and following the exact route laid out for it in the Captains quarters, overlaid on the mystical Nautica Table Map.
Said map was very similar to the Harmony Quest Map used by Saint Twilight Sparkle back at her own secret home and base, which gave her a view of the entirety of Equestria and other countries and territories.
The Nautica Map, on the other hoof, gave an impressive view of the oceans and real-time changes in weather and other useful bits of information related to all things that were related to sailing.

Beneath the center mast, Rainbow Dash stood alone on the deck of the ship, looking out over the dark ocean on the starboard side. Her large and powerful wings, capable of propelling her through the air at unrivaled speeds and velocity, were neatly tucked away at her sides. The keen blades hidden among the feathers were visible to the specialized eyes of a Preyer, but regular mortals saw nothing.

Her rainbow mane was cut rather short, but still long enough to cover her head and let some bangs remain partially in front of her face, although her identically colored tail was not cut and was the same length as that of a normal Pegasus.

Before she had been chosen to become a Preyer, Rainbow Dash had been proud of her beautiful mane and took great pleasure in feeling the wind comb through them as she zipped and soared over everything and everypony in the days of her early youth between school and combat lessons, as Pegasi culture was one of peerless warriors and masters of the sky. After all, it was their responsibility to protect the lower world by keeping the skies clear of any and all unholy beasts and phenomena that were an affront to The Two Sisters.

But the day soon came when she’d been seen and taken in by the great Cloudsdale Weather Corporation, or CWC, where she had worked and quickly began to rise through the ranks.
Managing the weather carefully and battling the unnatural conditions in the air that were conjured up by the Witches and Warlocks was a daily task for the average Pegasus, and all had to serve this greater purpose in any way possible.

All had been quite well… until the terrible event known by many ponies as the Heresy of The Flock, where a number of Pegasi were revealed as traitors who’d been carefully scheming with one of the Warlocks to overthrow Cloudsdale and destroy the Pegasi presence across the northern and western territories of Equestria.
It was during this bloody and brutal period of conflict that Rainbow Dash outdid herself on the battleclouds and performed many acts of valor and heroism… but it was all for nought when she, bluntly put, had both allowed a traitor to escape and ultimately had even made (in probable hindsight) the incredibly foolish choice of physically grabbing and destroying a Black Soul Crystal, objects of pure Black Magic that were infamous for the corrupting nature of their mere presence alone, let alone being physically touched.

Having been one of numerous witnesses to her doing this, the Pegasus named Lightning Dust, who was a new member of the famed warriors known as the Wonderbolts, had immediately reported her to the Pegasi branch of The Imperial Inquisition.

The result was Rainbow Dash being found guilty of treachery by letting a Heretic go in the midst of battle and also being strongly suspected of Umbra Taint, with the Inquisition and CWC stripping away her status as an official member and blacklisting her from ever being able to become a Wonderbolt herself.
Dash herself, deeply regretful and broken, had no protests as the Inquisition took her into harsh captivity and subjected her to many harsh and cruel treatments as they sought to find and rip away any and all traces of darkness within her. But strangely… nothing was ever found.

It was during this short but dark time of great shame and torment that she’d been visited and secretly recruited by a dark organization within the Corporation. It was a powerful and highly feared secret society that was only known both inside and outside of the CWC in hushed whispers and rumors, and that was referred to as…

The Rainbow Factory.

It was here that she saw even more just how harsh it was out there in the wider world, as the students of the Rainbow Factory (or RF) were… ‘specially trained’… to strike down any treacherous ponies and horrid unnatural abominations that they came across.
Sure, training and taking missions in the skies of Equestria was important and risky even though veterans were necessary to accompany new troops, and the Heresy of The Flock was a horrific war that saw many thousands of Pegasi deaths. But the absolute harshness of this new conditioning, and the sheer magnitude of the danger that Rainbow Dash faced after joining with them was on such another level that, for a while, she was extremely paranoid and completely unable to tell apart whenever she was still on a mission or not, even when safe deep in the RF bunkers.
Eventually though, she was able to cope better with her traumas and steadily advance in the hierarchy of this secret society, proving herself repeatedly as an exceptional operative even by RF standards, and became a high-ranking member of her peers in a shockingly short period of time.

Then came that day, when she had embarked upon an exceptionally dangerous mission and had almost died, but had been saved last-moment and soon awoke within the bunkers and facing none other than the newly-appointed High Alchemist Twilight Sparkle herself, who informed her that she was now no longer trapped as a full-time member of the Rainbow Factory if she wished to leave, but had been chosen for a higher and greater role than anything else she had ever done or even imagined.

What followed had been… torment. But she’d survived it, and had been permanently changed in more ways than one.

-

Now it was the present day, and here she was as an incredibly awesome immortal warrior of Ponykind, and had realized the hard way that attempting to perform combat maneuvers in flight and battling against the kinds of foes that she did resulted in it not being in her best interest to have a long mane, and so she had needed to make a necessary sacrifice.
That and.. she no longer really felt like the same pony she used to be, her former personality still present, but not like quite before.

Unlike Applejack, she wore her black Preyer body suit very often, only taking it off when there wasn’t a mission to be prepared for on schedule.
She also often spoke in a rather calm and reserved manner when in conversation, and carried an air of calm and quiet confidence and coldness wherever she went.
All in all, she was an image of discipline and professionalism.

“Do you think we’ll get a chance to do something that is… you know, REALLY AWESOME?”

But just occasionally, she’d allow some of her famous charm and wit come out to play.

“Ah’ really dunno know fer’ sure, sugar cube,” Came the honest reply, a bit of a chuckle in there as well.

“But ah’ think’ thet’ there’s somethin’ reeeaaally fishy bout’ this whole thang’. Fer’ Twilight herself ta’ send her own apprentis’ n’ all, along wit’ the two ah’ us? That ther’ sure means this here’s a real importin’ thang’. Moreso then anythin’ else ah’ve faced so far, y’know?”

“I know, but that’s not what I was asking, AJ. Sure, I’m completely aware it’s gonna be real important and ridiculously dangerous, it always tends to be whenever more than one of us get called up to go to the same place, on the same job, and all that stuff.”

Dash turned to face her rival and fellow dark mystical warrior of Ponykind, and her eyes were a mixture of serious and almost mischievous.

“YOU think you’ll get a chance to do something as awesome as I did? Hmmmmmm?”
And she had that mud-eating grin on her proud, battle-scarred face. She knew she was being an annoying little filly right now, but didn’t care. She rarely ever got to express herself like this, and it was always a precious commodity whenever it happened.
Sure, Applejack was probably the only pony who ever really got to SEE this side to her, but that made it even better!

“Well obviously, sugar cube.”
The Earth Pony shot right back. She too could be ridiculous if she wanted to be, and besides, this was an opportunity for her to be more relaxed, too. Her enhanced hearing allowed her to know that there was no risk of any crew members close enough to hear them speak in this manner, and so they could afford a few moments of talk and playful banter.

“S’matter, you still sore about making a rookie mistake, cowgirl?”
Rainbow Dash snarked, her cheeky grin and cockily narrow eyes making her face all the more punchable, in an innocent way of course.

“Oh, and you’ll know all bout’ makin’ rookie mistakes, wouldn’t ya, Rainbaw’ Crash?”

The cheekiness on the face of the Pegasus didn’t fade, but it was just a bit duller now.
“Still trying to bring up what I did on my first mission AJ, really? But then again, I can’t blame you for doing that…”

And here she turned away and flicked her tail at Applejack’s face, her nose turned up like a snobby lady.
“After all… it’s the only thing I did that you can use against me, isn’t it? The same can’t be said for you, Trippy McGee...”

The Earth Pony now set her face in a grin, and was halfway deciding whether or not to make a rush at the cocky Pegasus and teach her a thing or two about being such an immature filly or just say something else that would wipe the pride off her face, but their playful mood was ended by the arrival of several crew members from below who had finished their time in the Mess Hall and now returned to their respective roles aboard the ship.
The two Preyers were by now again images of pure calm and discipline, and Applejack herself turned away and headed across the deck to stand at the front, the crew members giving her a noticeably wide berth, but not acting too fearful or anything like that.

Reaching her destination, Applejack stepped up to the bow of the ship and leaned slightly over the waters below, thinking about the near future and how they would proceed with this mission.
So far they were to first stop at a small port that was run by both other Ponies and allied Minotaurs, The Bay of Toro, and there they would pick up Preyer Glimmer and truly embark with their mission. She looked up at the sky, and thought over the details of this expedition.

The East Coast Badlands had once been a wet and green realm, famous for its vast swamplands and dense forests. That had been before the arrival of the Witch, an exceptionally vicious and aggressive one at that, and she’d spread her darkness and multiplied her hordes of foul monsters into the lands.
Now the land itself had become ravaged by the black magic and it was twisted and altered massively so, more akin to a series of cold forests and Saify’s hills and vast rocky fields and mountains than a series of swampy biomes, even though there was reportedly still some swampy areas that held high levels of danger.

There also was the question of why and how there had been a number of most unusual discoveries that had been made on the very fringes of this accursed land, like why odd and unusual mystical chests made of stone and roots had been found at the roots of massive trees, or why a tunnel into ancient ruins had been found in a nearby hill that apparently lead under the Witch’s land and was crawling with monsters. All of that was a bit of Arcana Applejack didn’t think she’d be too interested in deciphering… although something told her that Preyer Glimmer probably would be very different, especially when considering the fact that she was the personal student of the most well-read Pony in existence.

It don’t matter…

She decided thus, blinking away the stray thoughts and choosing to focus on other things instead, and then the idea entered into her mind to wander about just what Dash herself was thinking about right now.
This got a small smile out of her, and she soon heard Dash heading to her cabin to retire for now. The Pegasus would wake up when they reached their destination, but she could use this opportunity to rest up as much as possible. Dash always liked resting when she could between missions, and Applejack didn’t mind keeping watch for long periods of time anyway.

Up ahead on the horizon, a storm was starting to form…