Rainbow Dash could not contain her happiness as she flew faster than ever before through the corridors of Fortress Umbra. The narrow passages she navigated with the speed and grace of the Wonderbolts.

"No." she thought, shadow stepping through a door that could not bar her way. "I’m better than all the Wonderbolts combined. I am Shadowbolt!"

Rounding a corner she found herself in a long straight corridor. Pouring all her energy into her wings, Rainbow rocketed down the corridor, rapidly surpassing the speeds necessary for a Sonic Rainboom.

The corridors end was in sight, Rainbow Dash clutched her wings to her body and touched down, skidding the last several yards before coming to a stop a few inches from the wall. Rainbow braced herself and mentally counted, after 5 seconds the shockwave from the Sonic Rainboom hit her followed by the sound 3 seconds after that.

A dark smile crossed Rainbows lips. She continued to smile as she walked the last few feet to the door she sought.

Twilight sat upon a large cushion within one of the few brightly lit rooms in Fortress Umbra. Large stacks of dusty tomes sat around her, casting dancing shadows along the walls from the many candles floating about the room.

Compared to others, the library within Fortress Umbra was relatively small, similar in size to the ground floor of Golden Oaks. However unlike any Twilight had come across before this one was enchanted. She had discovered almost immediately that if she thought of a topic the library would become populated with all manner of books relevant to the topic.

Giddy with excitement from this discovery, it took her no time at all to quickly select several dozens of books for further study. Having just finished reading "The Adeptus Astartes: Heretics and You", she arched her back, eliciting several loud pops from her back before levitating over a darkly bound book simply labeled "Normanomicon".

Just as she was about to open the book, a massive shockwave tore through the room, toppling the many stacks of books One such stack fell directly on top of Twilight, bury her alive. As she was digging herself out an explosive sounded close by jarring her senses.

"Are we under attack?!" Sombra!" Twilight called out with her mind. Receiving no answer she teleported to the door and with a burst of magic flung the door open and jumped through the threshold...headlong into Rainbow Dash who was just reaching for the handle.

Twilights forward momentum carried the pair out into the hall, they rolled once before Rainbow landed heavily on top of Twilight.
"I thought you had a thing against running through doors?" Rainbow asked turning her head slightly so that she was eye to eye with her friend.

"Yes but I was in a hurry." She stopped when Sombra's voice echoed in her mind. "No need to worry my dear, that explosion was caused by Shadowbolt."

Twilight let out and angry sigh. "Thanks for the quick reply." She thought, forcing as much sarcasm as she could into the thought.

"You’re welcome." He answered. "When you two are finished, come to the war room. There is much we need to discuss."

"Twi? You ok?" Rainbow asked with a hint of concern. Twilight blinked, remembering that the conversation with Sombra was in her head. "Sorry. Sombra wants us to meet him in the war room."

Rainbow Dash used one hoof to push herself up slightly so that she was now muzzle to muzzle with Twilight. "Right now?"

Twilight felt her face grow slightly warmer. Up until this point the fact that Rainbow was lying on top of her had not been apparent to her. "Yes right now, so if you could get off of me..."

Rainbow brought a hoof up to her face to scratch under her chin as if thinking deeply. "Hm...Nah, I’m good here."

"Rainbow." Twilight said threatenly, eyes narrowing. "We need to go see Sombra."

The heat in Twilights face escalated as Rainbow Dash brought her face extremely close to hers. "Not just yet. There’s something I want to show you first." She leaned in even closer, closing the distance between them. Twilight didn’t know what Rainbow was doing but she felt a strange longing for whatever it was. She closed her eyes as a new feeling overwhelmed her when suddenly the weight of Rainbow on top of her was gone. Opening her eyes she saw that she was now alone in the hallway.

"Rainbow?" she called out, slightly nervously.

"Over here." Rainbow responded.

Twilight spun in place to find a happy Rainbow Dash waving at her several yards down the hall. "What...how...how...” She stammered.

Rainbow Dash giggled before disappearing in a puff of what looked like smoke. Twilight looked on in stunned silence but jumped suddenly when she felt a hoof tap her on the shoulder. "Gah!" she cried, whirling to face a laughing Rainbow Dash.

"Bah hah hah! You..you should see your face! Heh hah hah."

Twilights face began to burn with slight anger. "How did you do that?"

Rainbow took several calming breaths but was still chuckling slightly as she began to explain.

"Ok so while you were wandering around, Sombra wanted to finish my initiation into the Shadowbolts, see each new recruit does two tasks to become a member but as the Captain, Sombra wanted me to go through a new ritual that he made."

"What kind of ritual?" Twilight asked, eyes narrowing once more.

Rainbow Dash looked towards the ceiling and began scratching her chin again. "I guess you could call it a fusion. He summoned a void spirit and fused it with me, so now I have really cool shadow powers." She finished happily.

Twilight brought a hoof to her face with an audible smack. "I need to stop leaving you alone with him" She dragged her hoof a crossed her face before placing it back on the ground. "I should be angry with him for doing something so dangerous to you but I can’t help but think how useful your powers will be."

Rainbow nodded her head. "I know right? I was sketchy of it at first but without these powers I wouldn’t have been much use to you fighting the princesses."

"I assume you can do more than simply teleport?" Twilight asked.

"Technically its called shadow stepping, which in my humble opinion sounds way more awesome then teleporting."

Twilight chuckled. "Granted. So what other powers to you have?"

"Well right now I got shadow stepping, rapid healing, increased stamina, and magical resistance. Sombra said that I’ll get more as I get used to the void spirit."

“Hm…” Twilight said aloud as she cocked her head to one side, lost in thought. "I could devise tests and conduct some research on this so that we can draw out your full potential. I’ll talk with Sombra and we'll..."

"Twilight." Rainbow Dash said.

"...course of several weeks at least but as long as the Princesses don’t make a move..."

"Twilight!"

"...shock therapy has been proven to stimulate magical growth so its application would be approptiat..."

"TWILIGHT!!"

"Hm? Yes Rainbow?" Twilight said, stopping mid speech.

"How about instead of all the testing and experiments we just see what happens?"

Twilight seemed to visibly deflate. "Oh...ok, well just be sure not to push yourself until you learn your limits, new powers can be dangerous."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before responding. "Yeah and you’d know all about that wouldn’t you?"

Twilight playfully smacked Rainbow Dash on the shoulder. "Hey! I’ve gotten better control of my powers now!"

Rainbow began to chuckle. "Sure you have. I think the only reason you haven’t blown anymore doors off their hinges is because the forts not falling apart like the palace."

"Well there is that." Twilight said dismissingly. "Come on, we should go see Sombra."

Rainbow unfurled her wings and began to hover next to Twilight as the two started walking in the direction of the war room they chatted for a time but Twilight grew silent, her mind wandering to a new feeling that was steadily growing inside her.