The Crystal Empire's grand gate and castle looked as spectacular in the distance as Fluttershy remembered it. It had been dressed up to be straight dazzling during the games, and though the decorations were down the crystals could simply not be detracted. The crowds had been loud and lively, dressed in vivid colors as Equestria came together to play the games.

There were crowds once again, but the air was noticeably different. Gone were the vibrant costumes, uniforms, and banners, to be replaced by a sea of tents, travel bags, and ponies who had all come fleeing a nightmare.

Fluttershy pulled her animals entourage closer to her so as to not to lose them in the massive crowd as she and Pinkie Pie left the train station, while Pinkie Pie carried both their bags. Somehow she was still bouncing despite the heavy weight, a sight that made Fluttershy optimistic the Pinkie would be returning to her old self soon.  

It took nearly an hour and a half to get to the castle, a walk that usually took only about 20 minutes. There was a mass of ponies standing outside the entrance, so big that it enveloped the entire Crystal Heart Courtyard. Fluttershy worried that with this crowd, they may never get in to see the Princess Cadence at all, not that she blamed them, because obviously they were very, very busy and she wouldn't want to impose.

Luckily the young captain Flash Sentry spotted and recognized the two mares and called them out, letting them through a line of Crystal Empire Royal Guard. He escorted them through the front doors and through the busy hallways to the main hallway. There, looking thoroughly tired and disheveled, were Shining Armor and Cadence surrounded by jabbering ponies. Fluttershy stifled a quiet laugh at how it seemed that neither royal pony seemed to be actually paying attention to what was being said around them.

That was probably how they spotted their two visiting friends so fast.

"Fluttershy! Pinkie Pie! How nice to see you!" said Cadence, abandoning the circle of ponies quickly followed by her relieved husband.

"And I'm so happy to see you!" said Pinkie Pie, bouncing in place at Cadence's head level.

"We're sorry if you're busy, we can come back..."trailed Fluttershy.

"Oh no, don't worry. We may be busy but it is no imposition at all," assured Cadence. "I see you brought some of your animals friends with you."

Cadence leaned in closer as to say hello to the small creatures crowding on Fluttershy's back, but to everyone's astonishment all of them recoiled in panic, each screaming in their own tongue. Fluttershy scrambled to calm them and gather them, apologizing profusely all the while.

"I'm sorry! I guess they are still very scared. Oohh, my. I'm so sorry," she stammered over Cadence's assurances that she understood and everything was ok.

"Perhaps I should get them settled. I brought them here to calm them, but...oh dear. We'll get going back outside to set up our tent," said Fluttershy, turning to trot out.

"You're kidding," said Shining Armor. "I think we can get you set up in one of the suites. I'll get Flash Sentry on that."

"HUNH!" gasped Pinkie Pie. "CRYSTAL CASTLE SLEEPOVER PARTY!"

She zoomed off to who knows where, blazing a small path through stunned ponies (none of whom where quite sure what that pink blur was).

"Need any help taking your bags or those critters?" asked Flash Sentry.

"Oh yes! I mean, uh, with the bags, if you can," said Fluttershy, pulling her frightened animals closer as Flash obliged. She had really hoped that her animals would feel better all the way out here, but it appeared that it might not be so easy. She still hadn't been able to get a clear word out of any of the critters, and that hadn't changed on the train. With all of this, Fluttershy's years of experience with animals confirmed just one thing to her.

Whatever was scaring them, it had nothing to do with the ponies' fight.

-----

Rainbow Dash, Star Hunter, Blossomforth, Cloud Kicker, Spitfire, and Soarin filed into the Equestrian Royal Guard Cloudsdale Headquarters, expressions serious and strides determined. The Headquarters had lately been called the Solar HQ for short by both sides. Although one side in Cloudsdale had just about ceased to exist.

It had been a rough week since the sudden surprise attack that rocked through the cloud city and across Equestria, but at least here it was back under control. Just that morning Celestia had just declared victory in Cloudsdale to all the Solar forces, who had responded in jubilation. Rainbow Dash had celebrated by performing her first "for fun" sonic rainboom in almost a month, a sight that had brought sweat to the brow of any Lunar rebel who saw it.

Now it was but past noon and Rainbow Six had been summoned by the Captain of the Royal Guard, for reasons that had yet been explained. The group could only cast sideways and questioning glances at each other and shuffle off to find out. One would hardly recognize the six ponies from just a month before, particularly the Ponyvillians. They all wore their uniforms with their now infamous insignia and commanded a level of respect in just they way they now carried themselves, and on top of them all of them bore the scrapes and bruises of a moon's worth of fights. At the moment Soarin was even wearing an eye patch from a particularly nasty kick he took two nights before.

"So, Rainbow, what do you think is up?" asked Star Hunter, coming up the side.

"I dunno, but I have a feeling we won't be around here too much longer," said Rainbow Dash to the dark colored pegasus, not making eye contact.

"You think they'll send us out?" he continued.

"Probably," said Rainbow, staring resolutely forward. This wasn't a show of strength or coolness at all. Rainbow Dash had noticed her cheeks getting hot lately around Star, and since she didn't quite understand it, so she chose to avoid it.

Soon they came to the door that had the hastily painted letters "General" on window and knocked. The door swung open and let them in, where they all had to catch their breath as Princess Celestia was standing in the small room. Considering what they'd been doing for the previous month, they didn't know whether to salute or to bow. So about half saluted and the others bowed, and for a comic second both tried to imitate the others and reversed their show of respect. Fortunately Celestia smiled, and told them to relax.

"I have called you here first to congratulate you on your incredible feats," said the Princess. "Your work here has hastened the restoration of harmony in Equestria that will always be remembered."

The six pegasi stood a little taller.

"Now I have a special need of your assistance and talents elsewhere. In the last week our trains and chariots have been terrorized by a small group of ponies calling themselves 'The Night Raiders,' and unfortunately our Guards have not been able to find nor stop their actions. I need you, our most decorated unit, to go out, find them, and put a stop to them."

"You can count on us Princess!" said Spitfire.

"Rainbow Six will never let you down!" said Rainbow Dash.

"Then go and prepare yourselves. You must leave as soon as possible, for every minute lost may mean more ponies attacked," said the Princess authoritatively.

"Yes Ma'am!" called Rainbow Dash, and with that the small unit exited the room and went to grab some supplies. In ten minutes flat, they took off in formation, with their destination being the outskirts of Dodge City, the last known location of the Night Raiders.

The flight took a couple hours before they reached the small town. Here had been the sight of another uprising that week, but after the initial surprise the local guards were able to come back and take control, capturing most of the perpetrators and keeping them in a jail camp.

The town hadn't been big in the first place, so the camp just outside was small compared to Cloudsdale's. The number of civilian ponies walking around paled in comparison to the guards patrolling the street. Strangely enough Rainbow Dash recognized one as the Cherry farmer that they had worked for during the whole Applejack/rodeo fiasco, but she decided that their mission was too important to waste time catching up.

Instead they immediately reported to the Captain of the battalion for whatever he knew about their mission. Unfortunately it wasn't much other than that there were two different trains raided on the nearby tracks going north.

"Well, it looks like the game's hide and seek," said Spitfire as they walked out of the HQ.

"Ok, let's get something to eat," said Rainbow Dash. "Then we hit the desert."

-----

Twilight Sparkle hadn't been this stressed out since her last test, and she hadn't been this tired since the time Rarity had accidentally been taken over by dark magic and started changing everything. All week she would get reports from the Princess (much to the distress of Spike) about the state of things elsewhere in Equestria and Twilight would respond with reports of efforts in the Ponyville area. It wasn't well on either side. While things were now mostly under control in Cloudsdale and Dodge City, the entire city of Maneapolis had been essentially lost and Royal forces hadn't been able to get any where near Rainbow Falls or Appleoosa.

And in Ponyville, they hadn't found a single pony who it could be proven was part of not just that first surprise attack but also two smaller scale attacks in the week since. Always the same disguises; totally covered in black and their tails coated in dark blue. The most recent incident, after a trio of them jumped a couple of guards before taking their armor, they had tried chasing them, but they vanished among the homes of Ponyville, and a search the next day produced absolutely nothing.

Whoever they were, they had a lot of help. Twilight just hoped that most of it was coming from outside Ponyville, but logic told her she had to be suspicious of her fellow townsfolk. It was enough to wear at any pony's sanity.

That's why that night she was planning to patrol herself, and Applejack and Rarity would accompany her. She didn't think anyone would attack a friend no matter what was going on, so she wasn't planning to catch someone in the act. No, she was planning on using her talents with magic to see if she could find any trace of Luna's magic.

Neither AJ or Rarity had seemed too thrilled with the idea, but had agreed to come along when she made her best puppy eyes at them.

Twilight waited for them on the porch of her library as the sun set and the moon began to rise, anxiously leaning from one hoof to the other. When she finally saw them walking beside one another, Twilight trotted out to meet her friends halfway in the courtyard. Twilight saw that Rarity was wearing another new chapeau that was white that was accented with a lovely blue flower, though she thought it was probably not what most ponies would of worn for a patrol like this.

"Ready?" asked Twilight lightly when she

"Ah...sure Twilight," said Applejack nervously.

"I know you can't be comfortable doing this but it makes me feel so much better having you girls along."

"Don't mention it darling, we are always here to help," reassured Rarity, though she looked just as nervous as Applejack.

"Don't worry girls, I doubt anything will happen to us. There may be some ponies who are...er...confused but I don't think they'd hurt their friends. Besides, we're really going to look for Luna," said Twilight, trying to allay their fears.

"How do ya plan to do that?" asked Applejack as she looked down the streets radiating from the library square.

"Well, you see, when a unicorn uses their magic, they leave an invisible imprint on what they perform their magic on, and every unicorn's is unique," explained Twilight.

"And you can tell them apart?" asked a surprised Rarity.

"Well, while I can detect them and see the differences, I'm not good enough to be able to tell what magic residue belongs to who. In fact I'm sure I would need a lot of time just to tell yours apart, Rarity, even though I've been around you this long."

"Beggin your pardon, but wouldn't that make this search for a Luna a little...pointless?" asked Applejack.

"Yes, if she were a unicorn. But Luna is an Alicorn, and on top of that I can make an easy reference for what her magical residue looks like right up there," said Twilight, pointing a hoof in the sky towards the nearly full moon. Rarity and Applejack looked up at the moon for a few moments before Twilight got their attention again.

"I know it's not quite as distinct as what they're giving the volunteers up in Cloudsdale, ("ugh khaki!" shuddered Rarity) but I do have these gold neckerchiefs that'll at least tell you apart," said Twilight, holding the two cloths out with her magic.

"Do we really need these?" asked Applejack as she grabbed one and began tying it around her neck, nervously looking around.

"Yes, but it's more to help the guards know who's who," said Twilight. "That way you can help me without having to worry about them stopping me, especially if we have to split up while we're looking."

"Oh," responded Applejack, finishing the knot as Rarity did the same.

"Oh, this doesn't quite match my hat does it? Oh well, so Twilight, where are we going to look first?" asked Rarity, smiling encouragingly.

"Well, the guards got the town covered, but they haven't been able to do much near the Everfree forest so I figured that near Fluttershy's house would be a good place to start," said Twilight, trotting in that direction.

-----

If Applejack didn't like how she felt before, she absolutely hated what she was doing now. Before she was just avoiding the truth, but this felt like outright lying, walking beside Twilight wearing a signal that supposedly marked her as on Celestia's side and supposedly trying to help find the very pony Applejack was working to actually help.

And what was worse, she had taken advantage of it, and that plan was going perfectly. The day before, Thunderlane had noticed that the Royal Guards in Ponyville had stockpiled a bunch of food in one spot near the town hall, and when Rarity and herself had been asked the next morning about this venture it seemed perfect. It was generally agreed that it would have been far too risky to try with the young Princess so nearby, but here was a chance that couldn't be passed up.

All she and Rarity had to do was to keep Twilight away from town and away from Sweet Apple Acres. The latter would be an even bigger of the two potential disasters.

Twilight's own suggestion of going towards Fluttershy's cottage had really just saved the trouble of having to suggest it herself.

Twilight chatted with Rarity casually as they made their way out of town down the familiar paths. Familiar ponies went about their day in what could be termed normal, at least as normal as it could be. Twilight happily greeted those they walked past that evening, leading the three friends. Behind her, Applejack would also greet the ponies they passed. Only when she did it was with a little nod that was returned by everypony they walked by. Rose, Daisy, and Lily tending the flower beds in the park. Vinyl and Lyra walking by dragging a wagon full of loud speakers. Big Mac carting a load of apples towards the town market. Cherilee talking with Cloudchaser and Flitter outside the schoolhouse.

"Applejack, tell me honestly, do you really think that the ponies that attacked those guards were from Ponyville?"

Applejack snapped back her attention to the purple alicorn at the question.

"Well, uh....I dunno, Twi," said Applejack. "It's hard to say."

Twilight didn't reply but looked away, obviously thinking the same thing. "We'll start here. AJ, I want you to watch the left, towards the forest, and Rarity take the right. This spell will take most of my concentration so I'll just need help keeping a lookout."

Applejack and Rarity acknowledged as her horn glowed the familiar purple they had come to know. They walked slowly along the edge of the Everfree for nearly two hours will nothing to show for it.

And they returned to chaos.

Twilight, with the others in tow, entered town to a frenzy of guards running all over the town in confusion, trying to figure out what to do. One pair spotted the Princess, and immediately went to her.

"Your highness! They came! Dozens of them, dressed just like before!" they reported, with panic still edging their voices.

"Now calm down," said Twilight authoritatively. "What happened?"

"Well, about 30 minutes after you left, the battalion food store was attacked by....too many that we could count. The guards were far outnumbered, and they managed to take almost all of the food," they reported, out of breath. "What should we do?"

Twilight gathered her thoughts quickly before ordering them to organize search teams again, and find any evidence they can. She sent them on their way and turned to greet two more who had run up.

"Princess, they took the entire food stockpile. We have nothing to support us here," one informed.

"I think we can solve that, Applejack-"

Twilight cut off when she realized that neither Applejack or Rarity was standing beside her anymore, and they were nowhere to be seen. She wondered where they had gone for a moment, before shaking out of it and turning her attention to the task at hand. She could talk to them later. For now, there were ponies that needed organizing.

-----

The morning air was still cool in the desert, with a weak breeze lazily sweeping over the land. This was one place that the khaki uniform that Rainbow and her companions were wearing helped them stay hidden. Blossomforth loudly yawning was the only sound that any of them made as they flew low and slow over the rocks. They had been up late, camped out, and then awoke early all in an effort to find these Night Raiders.

And they were getting close.

"Look at that!" said Star Hunter in a loud hush, slowing to a total stop just above the ground. He pointed with his front hoof and said, "a pegasus took off right here, and there are more tracks over there!"

Guess he wasn't named "Hunter" for nothing, because he was right. There were tracks in the dust leading off into a valley that was overcast with the early shadows.

"Let's get above. If they're there we can get at them from above, and that would give us an instant advantage," said Spitfire quietly. The rest nodded, and took off straight up, getting above the small clouds. The flew slowly across the clearing and finally above the valley. It was full of bushes and shrubs, a perfect place to lie low at night. The pegasi strained their eyes, looking for any moving shapes or perhaps, if they were lucky, a few sleeping ones.

"Let's get a little lower," suggested Soarin, and the others agreed with a nod of their heads. They slowly descended until they were just below the cloud layer. Time passed slowly as they searched with baited breath for their quarry. It appeared useless, as after several minutes they had nearly crossed the entire valley, and their was no sign that anypony was there.

"I think they've moved on," said Cloud Kicker, coming up beside Rainbow Dash.

"I think you're right," said Star Hunter, flanking on the other side.

Rainbow Dash nodded resignedly, glancing around one more time. She saw nothing, but something caught her ear. A sound familiar to her because she did it all the time herself. Someone was breaking the sound barrier...

"ABOVE US!" said Rainbow Dash, immediately speeding sideways and sending the team scattering. A light blue blur was streaking straight down, with a lightning contrail following. It struck Cloud Kicker in the side, sending her into a spin. Soarin reacted quick and caught her before she hit the ground.

"SOARIN! DUCK!" yelled Spitfire, and fortunately he did, as a beam blazed past where his head was.

"I see 'em! There's four on the ground behind us!" yelled Star Hunter.

"And another pegasi too!" called Blossomforth.

Rainbow Dash scanned around her quickly, taking in the whole situation in a second. "Spitfire, you take that pegasi while the rest of you go after the group below!"

She watched as the lightning contrail made the long turn at supersonic speed, "I'll take care of her."

Rainbow Dash burst forward after the blue streak, making it past the sound barrier in a few seconds.

"LIGHTNING DUST!" she roared as she came up behind the pegasus.

"Ha! So they sent you!" called Lightning Dust with a smirk. "Perfect, now I know I'm gonna win!"

"We'll see about that!" yelled Rainbow. She put an extra burst of speed that put her right next to a very surprised Lightning Dust before punching her in the cheek. The mare grunted with the impact, then refocused and changed direction to the right.

"Oh no you don't!" And Rainbow Dash sped off in pursuit.

-----

"You'll have to do better than that to beat Trixie!" taunted the unicorn, as she nimbly avoided a diving tackle from Blossomforth before throwing her sideways with a spell.

"Better watch yourself!" yelled Star Hunter, who at that moment swept along the ground and undermined Trixie's hind legs. She fell hard on her rump with a little squeak. She glared indignantly at Star Hunter before pelting him with a magical flurry of dirt clods that sent him scrambling, covering his head with his wings as he galloped for shelter behind a shrub.

"Trixie! A little help!" called an earth pony a distance away. The gray stallion was struggling to deal with Soarin, who was darting every which way a striking blows all over.

"What are you, made of rubber!?" yelled another pony on the other side, a purple unicorn mare that was overwhelmed by the flexible Blossomforth.

Trixie made sure Star Hunter was at bay before thinking of a spell that would help. She was about to cast it when everypony was nearly knocked off their feet by Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust streaking by, kicking up dust like a wave that buffeted them all. Once they could see they all briefly watched in wonder as the two speedy pegasi twisted upwards like a DNA strand, before separating and coming back and colliding with each other with explosive force.

At where they impacted an odd explosion that was mix of lightning and rainbow lit up the sky, and it was quickly followed by several more as they collided several more times.

Spitfire watched as she held down the pegasi she had tackled, thinking back to something she had read while studying in the Wonderbolt academy. Back in the days of the tribes, the pegasi had been the most war-hungry of them all, and sometimes fought each other. It had read that when two powerful pegasi battled, their inner magic would manifest externally in brilliant displays; magic that now usually only manifested with speed contrails and with Dash's Sonic Rainboom. It was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time, which struck Spitfire as such a weird combination.

-----

Rainbow Dash hardly felt any impacts as she clashed with her former fellow cadet. The adrenalin and pegasi magic was just running too high for that. She regretted not wearing goggles when they went out, because at the speeds they were traveling she was sure that neither of them could very clearly.

She battled and twisted and turned with every skill she had picked up over years of flying, but Lightning Dust was a worthy flier in her own right. She braced for another attack and quickly countered with a hoof, their strikes once again exploding in a brilliant light display. Rainbow tried to think quickly what to do as she curved around into another glancing collision, because this was obviously going nowhere fast. They were too evenly matched. Then Rainbow got an idea and must before colliding again dove towards the ground.

Lightning Dust gave chase, taunting, "Giving up?"

Rainbow Dash didn't reply, partially due to the G-Forces building as she gained speed. She could accelerate faster, but she didn't want to be too far ahead of Lightning Dust.

"Hey!" she finally called, turning her head only slightly so as to not ruin her aerodynamics. "Eat DUST!"

The pursuing mare had no time to react as Rainbow Dash burst through a Sonic Rainboom, instantly changing direction and shooting off into the clouds. The shock wave caught Lightning Dust full on, throwing her sideways into a faster tailspin than the one at the academy, and tumbling into the ground. She somersaulted over several times, crushing several bushes and bounding over a surprised Trixie and Star Hunter.

Rainbow pulled up into a stop before descending quickly back towards Lightning Dust, who was trying to get up on wobbly legs. Rainbow Dash didn't letter, knocking her over once again, and placing both front legs on Lightning Dust's shoulder. Dash just stared for a moment, breathing heavily. Then she bent down, and with her teeth ripped off the blue neckerchief, before spitting it out on the ground.

"You're done," menaced Rainbow Dash. Lightning Dust tried to raise her head, glaring up at Dash. As she looked about to lunge, Rainbow Dash gave one, stiff punch into the jaw that knocked a tooth loose, and put Dust out cold.

The rest of the Night Raiders were momentarily distracted at their leader's fall, at which Rainbow Six took full advantage. Star Hunter quickly jumped up onto Trixie and pinned her, twisting one hoof behind her back, while Blossomforth and Soarin quickly overtook their opponents, doing the same. Spitfire had tied the pegasi up like a hog and had even trapped the last earth pony who had tried to escape, and who subsequently gave up when she saw she had no chance.

"Well, that was fun," said Star Hunter, out of breath and a little bruised.

"Anypony hurt?" asked Rainbow Dash, getting off the unconscious Lightning Dust.

"I'm alright," said Cloud Kicker quickly, popping up but then instantly collapsing again to the ground, answering the question. Rainbow Dash flew over to her and quickly looked over her side.

"Your wing is sprained, and I think you have a few broken ribs, so don't move too much," said Rainbow Dash, gently moving her wing into a better healing position than the awkward angle it was at. "Soarin, you got that one taken care of?"

"Yep!" was the reply, as he finished the knot on the ropes around the gray earth pony.

"Fly to Dodge and get them to send a chariot to pick up these bozos and another one for Cloud Kicker," she ordered. "Oh, and Soarin'....tell them we kicked flank."

Next Chapter: Friend and Foe Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 27 Minutes