The skies above Canterlot burned. The smell of burning bodies and decay hung heavy in the air and stung her nostrils. Everywhere she looked there was only ruin as she walked the empty streets in the hopes of finding the cause of this catastrophe. It didn't take her long to find what she was searching for in the royal palace as the wind began to pick up.

The ground of the central courtyard was littered with the bodies of fallen guards, all dead where they had fought. Further on she found the dismembered remains of the Draconneques, Discord, with a terrible smile frozen on what remained of his face. What truly disturbed her though was not the goofy snaggle toothed grin but the fact that parts of his body were still wrapped around the blackened form of Princess Luna as if in his last moments he had tried to protect her and failed, her blank stare giving testament to her untimely demise.

Continuing her forced pilgrimage through the destroyed castle she had always known she ultimately ended up inside the throne room, now only a single wall a holding up the doors that she passed through. As she looked around at the devastation she saw a sight that chilled her to the core, the demon that had torn up the city only a few days before on its knees. Surrounding it were the broken bodies of the mares made famous by their many victories against evil and heralded as the saviors of Equestria, the former Elements of Harmony. In its arms it cradled the forms of three little fillies, all dead and broken as much as the mares spread out on the ground before the creature. What she found most disturbing was that its face was turned up to the sky, blood running freely from empty eye sockets as if it were crying, and wailing as if it had lost everything that it had once held dear.

She heard a rustling noise from behind her and turned to face an even more gruesome sight, suspended from rusted iron crosses were the bodies of Princess Celestia and the Demon Hunters. They each starred blankly into space with empty eye sockets, their chests ripped open exposing their still beating hearts, as large carrion birds squabbled over which would get the first bite. Then, she froze for among the bodies hanging before her she saw herself.

“Only you can stop this,” came a far away voice on the wind that sounded like her own, “only you can prevent this.”

“Prevent what? I don't understand,” she asked the empty air and to her horror her suspended doppleganger turned its head to face her.

“You must not let the Rider fail,” it weezed to her.

“Fail, fail how? What happened here?”

“The Rider must not fail... for this world and others... he must not fail.”

“Answer me! I don't know how to stop this if I don't know what to do!”

“Only you can help the Rider to succeed... must help him to succeed or all will be lost,” it may have had more to say but it was drowned out by screaming winds and a column of bright light that blasted its way into the smoke filled sky.

----------

Gasping herself awake she grasped blindly around herself trying to find something, anything, to free herself from the bindings that held her body in place.

“Easy there private, it's okay your in the hospital,” came a gruff stallion's voice and a heavy pair of hooves to hold her in place, “calm down, you'll reopen you injuries. I said calm down before I put you down! Doc you gonna get your sorry flank in here or what!?”

”Can't... breathe... help,” she managed to gasp as the binding around her body tightened their grip.

“Get it together kid, it's all in your head, it's just a panic attack! Just take a deep breath and you'll be fine!” the stallion ordered, still trying to keep her from hurting herself further.

“Where am I?! What's going on!?” she pleaded, some of the panic seeping from voice.

“As I said, you're in the Guard Hospital... in Canterlot.”

“Hospital, that's impossible! I had that thing right where I wanted it, what happened?” she yelled finally ceasing her struggles and getting her breathing under control, “and why can't I open my eyes?”

“That would be the bandages, Private Kicker,” came another voice, this one belonging to a mare, “you probably have some memory loss, you hit the side of the mountain pretty hard.”

“What mountain? I don't remember hitting a mountain. What happened to the Rider and that other pegasus that was chasing it?”

“We were actually hoping you could tell us what happened, we found you but there was no sign of Lieutenant Divebomb or his body. Care to try and piece it together so we can put this to rest?” asked the stallion as somepony began moving things around near Storm Kicker's bedside.

“He was that green pegasus, right?” asked Storm.

“Yeah, you both took off after that thing when it ran and we lost contact as soon as you both crested the peak.”

“It did something to him,” she said, the memories slowly coming back to her, “that creature, the Rider, it tried to slam him into me with its chain but he turned to ash before he hit me and everything and everything else is black. How long have I been out?”

“About three days,” said the mare as she began to remove the bandages from around Storm's head.

“It's curious,” the stallion continued with an hard edge to his voice, “the Princess was the first to call the creature that, but yet you know what it's called even though you were here, unconscious, at the time that information was revealed. You care to share how you came upon this information?”

If he could have seen her eyes he would have seen them go wide in horror at the realization that her dream may have been something more.

“I-I-I just thought the name was fitting given what I saw a-a-and with whom am I speaking, it's rather rude to not introduce yourself to someone who can't see,” she stammered trying to recover from her little slip and hopefully regain control of the conversation.

“I... am Commander Hammerstrike of Her Majesty's Demon Hunters,” the stallion finally said as the bandages around Storm's head fell away to reveal him. He stood there as if he owned the place, still dressed as she had seen him on a few days before on top of the wall. Letting that bit of information slip to a stallion who could make her life very interesting, not to mention short, was definitely not a good thing, she had to think of something fast or he might think she had something to do with the Rider's escape.

“Dr. Meatball, could you give us some privacy for a minute, please,” he asked and the good doctor calmly left the room. This was beyond bad, she was now alone in a room with somepony who could kill her without effort and not get reprimanded or arrested for it. But, then he spoke.

“It seems your little run in with our flame headed “friend” has left you blind in your left eye and me in a bit of a bind.”

“Blind. That's impossible, how?” Storm asked unable to believe he had just so casually blew off what she thought was a dangerous slip.

“When they brought you in they found a number of small cinders in that eye that were still burning, they said that the damage was unrepairable as many of the soft tissues had suffered third degree burns. Fortunately, the damage is unnoticeable and unless somepony knows of your condition they will never be able to tell there is anything wrong,” he said with a very strange calm tone to his voice.

“So did you come here to tell me about my condition and wish me a speedy recovery, or do you want something?” Storm asked getting very uncomfortable with his manner of speaking.

“Actually, I'm here to make you an offer,” he paused before continuing, “you transfer to my team, as we are currently short a flier, and I'll let your little slip go. I mean, it's a very predictable name and anypony could have come up with it... unless there is some reason I should believe that you and it have some connection.” She almost got away with it.

“And if I refuse?” she asked, already sure of the answer.

“You'll be moved to a holding cell while we investigate your probable connections with the Rider and see where that goes.”

“Well... I guess it's a good thing I'm taking you up on your offer then. When do I start?”

“In the morning, right now you need to rest and let the doctors do their work,” he said turning to leave the room, “I'll have your belongings moved from the barracks to a private room in our wing of the castle. Any questions for me?”

“Yeah, do we know what it wants?,” she asked hoping it might have something to do with her all too real dream.

“From what the Princess told me,” he paused for a good minute with his back to her before continuing, “it plans to kill her and quite possibly the Former Elements of Harmony.” And with that he left the room.

Storm Kicker couldn't believe her ears, if the dream was to be trusted she would be complacent in murder, and not just any murders, the murder of the beloved sun diarch and the mares who had dedicated their lives to the safety of Equestria. Warring thoughts raged in her mind, duty or the safety of all of Equestria, it was all too much responsibility for one pony to handle.

“What should I do?” she asked under her breath as she lay back in her bed and stared out of her window at the gathering storm clouds off in the distance.

----------

In a darkened room sat a young unicorn filly with a purplish grey coat and blonde mane in the only pool of light, around her were the forms of three others. The darkness that filled the room and the concealing robes hid their features from the filly as she waited for them to them to speak.

“Um, girls, is this entirely necessary, it's kinda weird,” said the little filly, finally breaking the silence that had hung about them for far too long.

“Yes, yes it is, this is a secret society after all,” came a scratchy reply from one of the figures before it continued, “now, is there anypony here who will speak for this poor, blank flanked filly.”

“I shall speak for her,” came a second voice, this one with high pitched chirp, “she has expressed her desire to join our hallowed ranks and her desire to find that one thing that makes her unique among the herd.”

“Has she already completed her first task in the endeavor to find her Cutie Mark?” asked the scratchy voice.

“She has. She aided me and my sister today in the orchard,” came a third voice with a southern twang, “and though she failed to obtain her prize, her dedication to the Cause has not wavered. I motion that she be allowed to join our ranks.”

“I second the motion,” chirped the second voice.

“Then, it is done,” came the first voice, “We welcome you, Dinky Doo, into the fold.”

With a flurry of motion the lights in the room came on and the robed figures removed their hoods to reveal themselves to be The Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Seriously, was all that necessary? You could have just said I was in,” deadpanned Dinky at the antics of the other fillies.

“Not really, but it was kinda fun,” answered Sweetie Belle as she moved over to a table set up to the side to fetch the groups newest member a glass of punch.

“True, but she does have a point, we coulda been relaxing instead of setting up that elaborate ceremony,” added Applebloom as she tied a cloak around the neck of the group's newest member.

Unfortunately, before the conversation could continue they were interrupted by a series of hard knocks on the tree house door.

“I'll get it,” said Sweetie as she passed the glass over to Dinky and headed for the door. Upon opening it she really wished that she hadn't. Standing in the dying light of day were the last ponies anyone of them ever expected to be there, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you going to move aside so we can put our stuff down, it's really heavy,” said Diamond Tiara as she forced her way through the door and the two bullies threw over-night bags and sleeping bags into a corner.

“What are you two doing here, this is a private slumber party!” shouted Scootaloo taking a fighting stance and Silver Spoon began to play nervously with her mane.

“Your sister, Applebloom, talked to my Daddy and they decided it would be good for all of us if we tried to work out our differences in private so that we would stop all of our fighting,” responded Diamond Tiara with an uncharacteristic look of unease on her face, “and... we need to talk to you three about something important.”

“And what would we have to talk to you about?” asked Applebloom taking up a position beside her friend.

“We saw it too,” blurted out Silver Spoon, “that thing that attacked Canterlot while we were at the museum and destroyed that painting.”

“Wait, you saw it too!?” shouted Sweetie Belle.

“Um, saw what? What are all of you talking about?” asked Dinky in genuine confusion at the entire exchange.

“Grab a drink and take a seat,” Applebloom told the two bullies and her new, confused friend, “we need to have a long talk.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delays folks but I've had a few other projects in the works that have kept me away from this story, but I'm back and hopefully your wait for chapter 6 won't be nearly as long. So, I hope you enjoy this long awaited bit of Riderless story telling.

Here is another soundtrack selection, this time by w00t4halo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcbcNWhjnO4

In truth, this chapter has been done since Memorial Day but I couldn't get time to post it. As such, I would like to give a late shout out to the men and women of the 898 MUNS, just keep keepin on, keepin on.