In a meeting room inside Canterlot Castle, Midnight Blaze, Spitfire, Soarin, Fleetfoot, Thunderlane, and Silver Lining all gathered around a table, as Midnight cleared his throat.

"Thank you all for agreeing to this meeting. I've called you all here to discuss yesterday's events, and the details surrounding them. We now know, Equestria is threatened by yet another enemy, the Shadowbolts, and they have a particular grudge against the Wonderbolts."

"Their captain is named Nightshade," Spitfire spoke up, sounding solemn yet they could all just feel the ire seething under Spitfire's semblance of composure. She was angry. She wanted payback. But she was focused on using her rage to fuel her rather than consume her.
"I first met her when I was a cadet in the academy, but while she was a talented and skilled flier, she was no model student. She wound up hurting her wingpony, a mare named Swift Feather, so seriously that Swift's dream of becoming a Wonderbolt was ruined. Rather than face the consequences of her crime, she fled and no one knew what became of her. Now we know... She was never learning to become a Wonderbolt. She wanted to learn how to kill a Wonderbolt..."

"Wind Ryder has joined with them too," Silver Lining pointed out with contempt, "Even before this, he was a disgrace to the Wonderbolts after that stunt he pulled, trying to frame Rainbow Dash. Dishonorable discharge was too good for that traitor!"

"Not to mention Lightning Dust," Thunderlane sighed, troubled and confused. "I thought she'd changed, after helping save Cloudsdale from the thunderbird, but when she got turned down from the Silverbolts, I guess-"

"Lightning Dust is not a traitor," Midnight firmly declared all of a sudden. When all eyes turned to him, he conjured a folder, "As a matter of fact, Lightning Dust is a double agent I recruited. Her being turned down by me from the Silverbolts was actually a ploy. I recruited her to infiltrate a mysterious group of pegasus mercenaries I'd been hearing too many rumors about. She succeeded. She's been in deep undercover for months, infiltrating the Shadowbolt ranks, learning as much as she could about them, so she could compile this intel on them, which she managed to hoof to me during the fight the other day. Everypony else was so focused on fighting their foes and in the chaos, nopony noticed her give it to me. All the same, we fought in order to preserve Lightning Dust's cover so that she can continue being my eyes and ears in the Shadowbolts' organization."

"Are you serious?!" "Lightning Dust is a spy for our side?" "When did this happen?" "Is she okay?"

"Enough!" Spitfire exclaimed, before giving Midnight a look, "So Lightning Dust really is spying on the Shadowbolts for you?"

"I explained it to her in full detail, made sure she understood the risks, and gave her the option of declining. I didn't pressure her or force her into it," assured Midnight. "Based on what little intel I was able to gather before she went undercover, I figured Lightning Dust would actually be the ideal candidate to serve as a double-agent due to her skills and her circumstances making her desirable to the Shadowbolts.

"Her lashing out after her being 'rejected' at the Silverbolt training camp was staged by us in order to fool everypony present, and possibly anypony who might be watching discretely, into thinking that Lightning Dust was 'scorned talent', one who would be susceptible to whatever the Shadowbolts were selling to whomever they sought to recruit. It worked. Lightning Dust was offered to be taken into the Shadowbolts' ranks and trained, by Wind Ryder personally, who joined the Shadowbolts sometime before Lightning Dust and after he'd been dishonorably discharged. Once she completed her training, she was given full membership... and taken to their headquarters. This file," Midnight raised it up before setting it down and opening it, "is intel Lightning Dust has managed to accumulate and give to me during the fight yesterday.

"The Shadowbotls reside in a floating fortress that is constantly on the move, so no one knows where it is, but the Shadowbolts themselves. It is hidden by some strange magical weather, dark stormy clouds that never thin or dissipate, and unleash lightning strikes on anyone or anything that gets too close unless they are garbed in Shadowbolt attire."

"Judging by what's here," Spitfire gave some of the intel in the file a close look, "this... fortress has to be big! Even if they constantly gathered wild stormclouds, the Shadowbolts couldn't keep it hidden indefinitely, and it attacks anything but Shadowbolts that get too close? That sounds like some kind of complicated magic, which suggests they have a unicorn helping them, or otherwise some kind of magical aid. Nightshade wielded throwing knives that enabled her to teleport wherever she threw them."

"Lightning Dust reported in her intel that the Shadowbolts are strictly pegasi," Midnight brought up, "no earth ponies or unicorns in their fortress, but they do have lunar pegasi in their ranks, and they've done business with unicorns, earth ponies, and even other creatures. She's also compiled a list of names with notes regarding each of them. They're mostly observations she's made on these individuals, and state some are members of the Shadowbolts while others are shady associates or even criminals."

"I gotta give it to Lightning Dust," Fleetfoot commented, "She's got a lot of guts, risking her life like this..."

"She'd have been a good Wonderbolt if she'd conducted herself differently," agreed Silver Lining.

"But how long can she keep this undercover thing going on?" asked Thunderlane, concerned. "Rumble told me, because he followed her to their hideout in Canterlot, Lightning Dust got in trouble with their captain. She got brutalized, and Rumble had to watch...!"

"But because Rumble did what he did, he was able to warn us of the Shadowbolts' plan," Soarin pointed out, "It's because of Rumble that you, Spitfire, and our friends are still here, Thunder."

Thunderlane couldn't argue with that, but it still bothered him that his brother had to watch such violence. He said nothing, so Soarin moved things along by asking, "So... the Shadowbolts have a moving fortress that's hidden by some strange magical weather. Does Lightning Dust have any idea what that is?"

"Mm, according to her intel, that's something she's still trying to get to the bottom of," Midnight answered as he looked at the file, "but it's slow-going and apparently a big secret. She's still kinda new to the organization, so she doesn't have the complete trust or even the clout as to be entrusted with whatever the big secret is."

"How big is this group?" asked Fleetfoot. "When they attacked, they numbered at least thirty bodies."

"Lightning Dust isn't sure, but her intel states that there are more than just the Shadowbolts who showed up for Nightshade's scheme," Midnight nodded, "According to her, the Shadowbolts always leave the majority of their members to protect their headquarters, only sending out as many of their members they deem necessary to complete a job. She says in her notes she's personally met over twenty Shadowbolts but she continues to meet and see others she never saw before, suggesting the Shadowbolts send out members to do multiple jobs, meaning they come and go while the mentioned majority stay."

"We could be up against a whole army!" Silver Lining realized, "Even the Wonderbolts number no more than fifty members, because we only accept the best of the best, and part of the job includes risk of injury or worse, not to mention some eventually choose to retire, and we're very selective of who we would recruit to fly with us in our ranks."

"Perhaps we should lower our bar a little," Spitfire considered, "start recruiting more members and increase our ranks..."

"Perhaps, but don't lower your standards too much," advised Midnight as he magically copied the intel and gave the copies papers to Spitfire, "I plan to train and recruit more members in the Silverbolts soon, because you're right. We may very well need to increase both our organizations' roster of members if we're gonna face the Shadowbolts. The problem there, however, is their fortress is always on the move and we have no idea where they could be at the moment.

"Hopefully, Lightning Dust can obtain more intel and give us a better understanding of what we're up against. Apart from their vendetta against the Wonderbolts, the Shadowbolts are mercenaries for hire. The Crown has received complaints from other nations about them, and we keep having to assure them that the Shadowbolts are not affiliated with us. But I fear there might come a point where the Shadowbolts will force our hooves and entangle us in an international incident."

"So then what are we gonna do?" asked Spitfire with furrowed brows. "We can't let these psychos continue to fly free as birds. They have to answer for all they've done!"

"We'll find them, Spitfire, but the next time we face them it will be on our terms, not theirs," stated Midnight, before he wing-saluted them, and they saluted back in return.

"FUCKIN' WONDERBOLT SCUM!!!" screamed Nightshade in the hidden location where she and her Shadowbolts were squatting in.

Due to a lot of them getting injured, they'd had to take refuge in a previously-prepared hideout before taking the long journey back to their flying fortress. But that meant they had to put up with their captain's incessant rants.

"We had Spitfire... WE HAD HER!!" Nightshade spat as she lashed out her hoof at a nearby Shadowbolt who'd had the bad luck to be too close to Nightshade and her need to vent misplaced aggression.
"The plan was perfect... they never saw us coming, there would have been no witnesses!! Spitwad would have been dead and all of Equestria would have been none the wiser!!"

"Captain, with all due respect," said a mare who helped the pony Nightshade had knocked for a loop in her blind rage, "please refrain from beating our fellow Shadowbolts. I have enough patients as it is."

"RRGH! Don't start with me, Aconite!" Nightshade snapped at the older mare, who was tending to another injured Shadowbolt. "Just because you're my aunt, doesn't give you any say in my life!"

"Well, it may interest you to know, dear niece..." Aconite spoke, apparently unfazed and unafraid of the younger mare's psychotic tantrum, "that we have a visitor."

"What!?" Nightshade turned to the stairs, and sure enough down came a hooded pony, a unicorn given their horn, and Nightshade approached them with the steely gait of a lioness, "I don't know you got in here, but-"

"You can save the meaningless threats to my health for someone who cares," interrupted the intruder as she threw her hood back, revealing her face. "My name is Sunset Shimmer. I'm here on behalf of my mistress to hire you and your Shadowbolts, Captain..."

Nightshade narrowed her eyes at this brazen hussy. Physically, Sunset seemed younger but there was something about the look in her eyes that told Nightshade that this unicorn was no greenhorn. Regardless, she wasn't about to let this blatant disrespect go unpunished. She raised her wings threateningly as she spoke, "I don't do business with upstart little noponies who don't know their-"

Her words were interrupted again, but not by words. Sunset's horn lit up with blistering mana and almost immediately the whole room was filled with stifling heat! It was as though they were walking a barren desert, the sun beating down on them mercilessly in the form of this stranger, who suddenly turned from intimidating to frightening as Sunset's very mane seemed to burst into flame! Yet she did not cry out in pain or betray any sign of discomfort. If anything, Sunset seemed to be on a supernatural high as she felt the mystic heat of her own magical fire... until the flame suddenly snuffed itself out, her mane turning back to normal, and the searing heat that had filled the room just a moment earlier quickly began to drop, and everypony else shuddered, not in cold but relief that was mixed with a shaken intimidation.

Though Nightshade had not betrayed any faltering of nerve, that didn't mean she was so foolish as to not realize that this Sunset Shimmer was not somepony to trifle with.

"Now, unless there's anything else," Sunset levitated out a bulging bag from under her cloak, "consider this a token of our admiration. We have heard of the Shadowbolts and are impressed by your reputation, both in your success record and your ruthless execution.

"My mistress has a job for you, and, depending on how well you perform, she would be interested in providing you with her continued patronage."

Sunset dropped the bag right in front of Nightshade, and she heard the unmistakable clinking of coins. She gave the unicorn a suspicious look, Sunset gesturing her to go ahead, and Nightshade opened the bag, finding it was filled with gold Bits!
There has to be at least a thousand gold Bits in here, and this is a 'token of admiration'? Not an offer of payment?!

"I can see the skepticism on your face, Captain," Sunset chuckled, "rest assured, this token is absolutely no strings attached, an... incentive for you to hear me out and consider the job we'd like to hire you for, and a promise that, so long as you do your job and do it well there will be more where that came from. Much more..."

As much as this mare rubbed her the wrong way, Nightshade needed something to focus on, something to take her mind off what had happened. Sighing irritably, she asked, "What's the job?"

Sunset smirked as she levitated out a folder and opened it while asking, "How would you feel about helping instigate a civil war?"

Nightshade gave the folder a look and saw two photos, one was of King Godric, the new griffon king, the other his disgraced brother, Lord Gar. She'd heard through the grapevine how Gar had been found guilty of crime, bribery, association with a griffon thieves guild, and attempted murder. Instigating a civil war was somewhat beyond what she and her Shadowbolts have ever done, but it wasn't the worst thing they'd ever done for money.

"And to sweeten the deal," Sunset Shimmer added, "my mistress can provide you with magical armaments and gear that will make your next encounter with the Wonderbolts result in your favor."

"How?" Nightshade raised a skeptical brow.

"Trust me, and with the work we'll do together, my mistress and I will show you new avenues of weaponry, strategy, and tactics that will make you invincible," Sunset stated with absolutely confidence.

"...show me," Nightshade demanded, and Sunset smirked while chuckling to herself.

Meanwhile, Nightshade's aunt, Aconite, watched the exchange of words between her niece and this stranger with troubled eyes, as did Lightning Dust.

Next Chapter: 407. Roll of the Dice - Part 1 Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 6 Minutes