"Go!"

At Nightshade's command, Blitz shot forward like a bullet. The straw pony stood helpless before her. Blitz's field of vision narrowed until her focus was fixed on the torso of the target. She grinned with excitement and rotated her hooves, facing her blades outward in front of her. With perfect timing, she swept her legs outward, cutting the target in half lengthwise and scattering straw everywhere. The legs of the straw pony toppled out from under the shredded top half. The rest of the Shadowbolts stood with eyes wide.

While Rainbow Dash had been recovering in Ponyville, the Shadowbolts had been holding these training sessions in a hot windowless warehouse just south of Manehatten. The abandoned building had a great deal of floor space and the high ceiling made it a suitable building for some aerial training as well. Nightshade had taken the liberty of setting up cardboard and straw ponies for target and combat practice. The Shadowbolts had been subjected to daily exercise like Rainbow Dash. They had also studied the more technical aspects of their mission each night. Combat theory, bomb assembly, and stealth infiltration classes filled their evenings. Stratus fell back on his Royal Guard days to teach combat. Nightshade and Charger combined knowledge from their days in gangs to teach explosives. And Starry Skies taught stealth infiltration from her own personal experience. During the day, however, the Shadowbolts made as much use of the warehouse as possible.

Nightshade raised her eyebrows, indicating the shredded target with a hoof. "Not bad. I suppose if you don't mind being covered in blood and gore, that'll work as well as the quick kill." She crossed the warehouse, turning to a second target. "But this is what we're going for."

Nightshade drew her front half low, stretching her front legs. She paced a few steps side to side, concentrating on the weight of the blades.

Perfection is the only way, rang a voice in her head.

She started at a gallop and then took flight, gliding in low and fast. In a flash she threw her left hoof across the back of the target's neck, sailing past it and skidding to a smooth, quiet stop a few yards past. Everypony turned to the target. Its straw head hung limp, attached by a layer of cloth representing flesh at the front of the neck.

"Silent, quick, and completely effective and efficient. One swift movement." Nightshade walked over to Blitz's target. "Effective, but inefficient. That strike took a bit out of you. It took a great deal more out of him, but that's beside the point. It definitely got the job done, but it was loud, flashy, and messy. Overkill."

She walked back to her own target. "This. Perfection. Quick, refined, and clean. One swift cut, instant kill. No wasted energy, minimal noise, and I was able to keep going afterwards. Had there been more guards I wouldn't have been too winded to make short work of them, too." She turned to Starry Skies. "Star, you're up next."

The elegant pink pony gracefully pawed at the air. Her swipes were made no less intimidating by her approach. She made her way to the far wall and turned, breathing deeply. Quite suddenly she rocketed forward. As she approached the target, she swiped outward. Her perfect swipe was hindered by her low speed; the target was knocked over from impact, but the head remained attached.

"Damn", she hissed.

As Nightshade approached Starry Skies, Blitz voiced the thought every one else was having. "Uh-oh", she giggled. She materialized on top of a high stack of crates to get a better view of the action.

Nightshade looked from the target to Starry Skies. "What was that?"

Starry Skies sighed. "I missed, Nightshade, I'm sor-"

"It was failure", Nightshade growled. "Pure failure! We don't need failure, we need success!"

Nightshade spoke, but her voice was not the one she heard in her head.

***

"We need success, damn it! Do you think you're ever going to get anywhere in life like this?"

Nightshade cringed, pressing her rump into the leather chair. Her mother's office had always been a place of great discomfort for her. Everything about it was formidable. The walls were so white that the glare sometimes hurt her eyes. The furniture was all masterfully crafted mahogany. Despite her wealth, Cloudy Night was not one for elegance. Her blunt aggressive demeanor was able to manifest itself in things as mundane as her furniture choice. The tall shelves packed with thick heavy books seemed to lean inward, creating the sensation that they would crush somepony at any moment, much like Cloudy Night would in a courtroom.

Cloudy Night, ever the workaholic, was buried in work. Somehow the fact that she never looked her daughter in the eye when criticizing her made it hurt even worse. The many piles of paper on her desk were hastily organized in a way that left a small patch of work space which was now occupied by a school report card. The little leaflet was riddled with D's and C's.

"Explain."

The command hit Nightshade like a slap across the face. Only ten years old, she looked up at her mother, unable to find words. "I… Mommy, it-"

Writing with one hoof while flipping through files with another, Cloudy Night coaxed, "Come on, out with it. Surely you know why you're doing poorly in school."

Finally Nightshade blurted, "I'm not good at school!"

Cloudy Night paused her work for a moment. She looked at Nightshade with a fierce incredulity. Another intangible slap. "Well then try harder! You think I was good at being a lawyer when I was a filly? I put some effort into it, now I'm here, problem solved."

Nightshade remained in her seat, confused and hurt.

Her mother looked up again, clearly angry. "I've gone and solved your damn problem for you, now you go fix it!"

***

Nightshade glared at Starry Skies. "Did you hear me? Go again, fix it!"

Blitz held a hoof over her mouth as she giggled with excitement.

Visibly flustered, Starry Skies huffed and walked to the other end of the warehouse. With more force than necessary she ran the exercise again, this time cleaving right through the neck of the target.

Examining the target, Nightshade nodded. "Acceptable. I guess this just isn't what you're best at."

Starry Skies became indignant. "Nightshade, that's absurd, I did exactly what you did!"

"And I did it better", Nightshade snapped back. "You've got to be the best at SOMETHING, or you're useless!"

***

"It doesn't matter what you do, just do it better than everyone else!"

Nightshade stood in her mother's home office. The home office was considerably less terrifying than the corporate office in Manehatten. It was less cluttered, less busy. The heavy mahogany furniture was gone, leaving in its place warm, homey oak pieces. The piles of extraneous papers and stacks of case files were all neatly put away, with the exception of a few cases which Cloudy Night planned on working on during her break. There was even a small photograph of Nightshade with her father, taken about two years before his death when she was eight. About the only thing in the room that lacked warmth or peace was Nightshade's mother.

Nightshade's mother sighed, pushing away her largest stack of papers. "I can tell this is gonna be a family moment. Can we make it quick? I'm off break in twenty."

Nightshade shuffled her hooves. "Mom, you don't have to be anywhere today, you can put it aside until whenever."

Without looking up from her papers, Cloudy Night answered, "Yeah, just like your father did with getting his cutie mark." Seeing the affect her words had on her daughter, she continued, "Nightshade, he was nice, but he was a loser. He had no ambition. The only thing he ever did well was spending time with you, and even then, he only put in eight years at that until he gave up on the only thing he did consistently, which was being alive."

Holding back the tears, Nightshade deflected, "Mom, Dad had cancer…" Recovering from her pause, she continued forcefully, "Mom, I'm not going to law school. I'm an athlete, not a lawyer."

Cloudy Skies seemed to look right through her daughter as she said, "Okay. Be the best damn athlete on the circuit. Follow your dreams, whatever, but be the best. Because if you fuck it up and fall flat, you have nopony to blame but yourself."

"I don't have to be the best to be successful, Mom."

Cloudy Skies stood. "That's bullshit, Nightshade! Why would anypony settle for any less than the best? You can't get by on doing what makes you happy! You have to get by on winning! If you aren't the best, you don't matter!"

Visibly hurt, Nightshade poured venom into her voice as she stammered, "Especially not to you, right?"

Cloudy Night was immune. Without looking up, she retorted apathetically, "Damn right. If you aren't the best you don't matter to anypony."

***

"If you weren't the best at something, I wouldn't even have you around. At least this is all you've fucked up today."

Nightshade's words struck Starry Skies like knives; this was the first time Nightshade had ever really yelled at anypony. Her serious and aggressive demeanor had always been enough to keep everypony in check. Tirades of this sort had never been necessary, nor had Nightshade ever used them before.

"Whoa, hey, cool it," Charger warned.

Stratus stepped forward, taking Nightshade by the ear. Through gritted teeth he spat, "We need to talk."

Outside the warehouse, Stratus pressed Nightshade into the adjacent wall.

"What the hell's wrong with you?", she growled.

"What's wrong with YOU? Tearing into your own team? That's not only unnecessary, that's childish. You've worked awfully hard to earn their respect to lose it with temper tantrums."

"I'm scared, Stratus!", Nightshade blurted. Her voice became quiet. "I'm terrified."

His voiced considerably more gentle, Stratus inquired, "Of what?"

"Of fucking it all up. I've poured years of my life into this, and now that it's here and we're actually staring it in the face, I'm terrified. We only get one shot. I'm realizing now, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. But it's too late to turn back. I'm in way over my head. I'm scared, I'm confused, Strat."

Stratus sat down next to Nightshade, motioning for her to do the same.

"You've come a very long way, kid."

Nightshade wiped the tears of frustration from her eyes. "I guess."

Stratus gazed off into the woods and did something he rarely did: he smiled. "You remember the very first crime we committed together?"

"Which one?"

"The mugging, that very first one?"

Nightshade put a hoof over her face, remembering the story very well. "Yes. Yes I do."

Stratus chuckled as he reminisced, "You told the punk to give you all his money. And he did. And then you smiled and thanked him and apologized for inconveniencing him."

Nightshade laughed, and Stratus laughed with her. He continued, "You're gonna be alright, kid."

Nightshade felt better after hearing these words, but she was still unconvinced. "We only have one shot at this. If anything goes wrong, the whole operation could go down the drain."

Stratus gave her a firm pat on the back, nearly knocking her over. "Trust me, kid. I've never lied to you before. I've got your back. We all do. We're gonna make this thing happen. Now get back in there, apologize to Star, and lead your team. Tomorrow night's gonna be the biggest night of their lives. It'd be comforting to know that their leader hasn't gone off the deep end."

Feeling considerably more confident, Nightshade strode back into the warehouse. She first took a minute with Starry Skies, explaining her outburst. Next she stood in front of the group, addressing them all. "Alright everypony, listen up. We've got a big day tomorrow."

The group assembled in front of their leader. Stratus cracked a hint of a smile.

Nightshade turned to Starry Skies. "Star, you're the first to split from the group. You're setting up the bomb in the main living quarters. If you somehow fail, Blitz is your backup. Otherwise, Blitz, you'll be covering the rear as cleanup. Anything gets up and tries to follow us, kill it."

She turned to Charger. "Charger, you get to pursue vengeance. You clean up anypony else in the mansion and then head to the manager's office. I'm sure you'll enjoy that. If you fall short, I'll send in Stratus. Otherwise, Stratus is with me, taking out any Wonderbolts running about. Any questions?"

A resounding "No ma'am!"

"Good. Everyone get some rest."