The pegasus regiments slung through the dark skies like so many unseen arrows. At different points they split up until only the reserves were left. Those pegasi settled on the clouds above Ponyville and set up camp. Below, in the dark mystery that was Everfree, chromatic bursts of magic energy illuminated the night and the occasional fire flared up.

Lightning Ridge led the charge towards the menagerie of monstrosities that lurked below. The impromptu fireworks show of colored magic would be beautiful under less horrific circumstances.

The vast, featureless expanse of dark ground was always treacherous on approach, even for veteran pegasi such as the Wonderbolts. There was an illuminated makeshift runway in the clearing between the woods and the wall built to protect Ponyville. Lightning yelled for everyone to fall in behind her, and they did so except for one pegasus towards the back who seemed to have second thoughts about battling a horde of mythical creatures.

He braked and banked sharply, giving a short laugh at his treachery and his perfectly safe landing in Ponyville. He ran into the wooden wall with a thunk loud enough to resonate across the sky. Lightning winced.

She and the rest of Division B slowed with a great flutter of wings on landing. They were dead silent, and landed soft enough to barely make a patter on the sand poured down for the purpose.

Another intrinsic magic and a normally passive one: air nullification. It allowed them to fly and hover indoors without causing any wind disturbance. Through years of hard training and meditative self-control, it was possible for a pegasus to adjust this ability to any setting in short bursts. All pegasi in the A and B divisions, and some in C, knew how to do so.

There was a sharp intake of breath and nervous chatter. Never had they seen this many hazardous creatures in one gathering with one singular purpose. Some of them were a nightmare to handle on their own.

Timber wolves, chimeras, manticores, a couple basilisks, a couple smaller rogue dragons, and less concerning nuisances like slimes and a bobcat all marched towards a shimmering barrier of magic energy held in place by straining, armored unicorns, all of whom bore the seal of Canterlot, the royal city.

On the wooden wall behind them, unicorns wearing cloaks rather than armor held bows in the air using telekinesis and fired bolts of magic energy which arced overhead in streaks of light. While flashy, it wasn't especially accurate. A jelly-like slime was hit by one, split in two, and became two smaller slimes. Two timber wolves were struck. These were literal wolves made out of animated timber. They fell apart into inanimate firewood.

Lightning's division reached the magic barrier, where the unicorn in charge informed her on events, "Wall won't last forever, it's exhausting, even in shifts. When it falters, our second ranks will replace them. They have magical artifacts, for the love of Celestia stay back until they deplete those! I'll light the signal fires when I need you to move in and assist."

Lightning was scared at the prospect that lay behind the shimmering, weakening magic barrier: growling, menacing, usually passive creatures moving as though possessed.

"Do you have any idea what caused them to behave like this," she asked, "and can we drive them back into the woods?"

"Tis the plan. The amulets contain spells of fright, of slowing, and we have one which can warp whatever it hits far back into the woods. It should deter the smaller things, the concern is the more dangerous beasties."

Shortly after he spoke the air was punctuated by a shrieking roar which Lightning recognized. Her eyes widened in shock.

"No. A hydra," she said in a disbelieving whisper.

The hardened royal guard let out a frightened whinny and took several steps back. He cleared his throat, ashamed, "I- I will signal when ready. Prepare yourselves."

"I'm gonna scout things out, especially see how far back the damn hydra is. Those are magic resistant."

Lightning Ridge let her division know the plan. They would rest their wings, tighten their armor, and prepare for some difficult, close-quarters, high speed flying and fighting within a heavily wooded area. A preposterous feat, but nothing the most acrobatic of the Wonderbolts hadn't done before.

While the others rested, she flew over the magic wall and over the battlefield, dodging a spurt of flame from a dragon--no, not a dragon, a large lizard called a salamander. Hard to tell in the dark. A tree ignited where she just was. In the weak light of the full moon and flickering flames, she saw the hydra in silhouette. Sure enough, as with others of its kind, it was slow and plodding. Trees snapped in half as it walked through them like a field of matchsticks.

Lightning returned to where the others were resting, and from her side satchel she took out a flask to try and ease the nerves.

"We can't hold it!" came a cry in unison, followed by a shattering sound as the magic wall collapsed along with the unicorns holding it up. The ones in line behind them used their telekinesis to move them out of danger, and then stepped up. Various colors of magic sparks emitted from their horns, and promptly dived down into amulets worn on necklaces. One unicorn charged at the monsters with a burst of red magic, causing some creatures to flee for the woods. The Amulet of Fright had served well.

Following behind with beams of blue and green and purple and white, various other status effects emitted from a series of very rare and very illegal amulets. This forbidden magic was for emergency use only, and this definitely qualified.

The monsters that had not ran or been warped were now slowed and blinded, but they still approached. Now it was time for the pegasi to intervene. With a whistle from the white, muscular unicorn in charge, great bonfires were lit, offering light and a signal. The white unicorn then sat, closed his eyes, and a great dome of shimmering energy encompassed the vicinity; the monsters could not pass through it.

The pegasi swooped in at staggered intervals like a great swarm of bats. They dove and swerved through trees and branches and hills, catching the attention of the various horrific creatures, annoying them to the point that they ignored whatever it was that controlled them and pursued the pegasi further into the woods.

When most of the monsters had been lured back into the woods, chasing the pegasi who flew just fast enough to stay out of reach, the cloaked archery unicorns all rushed down from the wooden wall. Powerful light spells from their horns illuminated the area. They tossed smoke bombs into the fray to further distract and confuse the creatures. A teal pegasus dove through the smoke obscuring a timber wolf. She vanished into the smoke; shortly after, a shower of wooden parts came raining down around her.

While division B handled the little slimes, the rogue dragons, and the three chimeras, who had not been affected by anything previous, Lightning flew well above the treeline to locate the hydra.

It had a way to go but it was getting dangerously close. This thing could smash through the dome of barrier magic cast by Shining Armor as though it wasn't there, run over the resting unicorns behind it, and then flatten Ponyville.

Before she could decide how to handle it, she caught sight of a basilisk. Thankfully, it hadn't seen her. Also known as a cockatrice, it could turn her to stone if she met its gaze.

Her heart seemed to stop in her chest. A silvery pegasus with black mane and tail was going after the cockatrice, seemingly oblivious to what it was. Lightning recognized him: Windbreaker, from her flight school days. She dove after him and cried out but it was too late as stone began to encase his body, and he collapsed to the ground as a granite statue.

Lightning dove with speed worthy of her namesake. The cockatrice noticed her. She closed her eyes in midair.

A short count. Factoring in exactly how fast she was going and exactly how far to the stony forest floor below. One mistake in this, and she would die. Three. Two. One. Now, pull up.

There was a sickening squelch right as she made hard impact with the ground. Her eyes flickered open and she reacted quickly, using her wings to help slow her tumbling fall down a steep, forested cliff as she narrowly dodged a tree, the bark from it breaking off against her flank. It hurt, but her intrinsic durability held, and she was unharmed. She kicked off the cliff face and flew back to the top.

The cockatrice was very dead. From the indents and slide marks, it looked like she nailed the thing with a front hoof and then her body weight at a high velocity. She looked herself over for injury. Her dark yellow fur was bloodied and muddied. She was alarmed, and then she realized that, amidst the feathers, it wasn't her own blood.

An unfortunate thing. These basilisks were incredibly dangerous, but mostly harmless. They never sought out travelers to attack unless they felt threatened or trespassed upon.

Lightning folded her muddy wings and ran towards Windbreaker. She looked him over; entirely turned to stone, but not a single crack from the short fall and slide on the muddy ground. It should be possible to reverse the petrifying.

A shrieking, echoing roar, repeated thrice from three heads, ripped through the air entirely too close for comfort. The hydra was almost on her. It picked up speed. She had to keep it from damaging Windbreaker, or he would be stone forever.

She rose into the air with grace and purpose, the wide span of her wings rippling the branches and leaves. The weather control group far above had sent a deluge of a storm crashing down upon the fields between Ponyville and Everfree. Hopefully by now the unicorn guards had retreated behind the wall. The river would flood soon.

Sheets of rain came hurtling down and drained off of her wings and wet, matted fur. Water sprayed everywhere each time she flapped. But Lightning was not perturbed. She shot forward with a singular purpose, but with no idea how she was going to bring down a hydra. Where were her other members?

She cast a glance behind. In the flickering light of signal fires and magic, her hopes were raised as she saw that most of the other creatures had been driven away or else destroyed. Very few pegasi were on the ground, which meant there weren't many injuries. She considered the petrified pony below her, the hydra stomping towards him, and noticed she had just enough time.

Rushing back towards the others, Lightning prepared to call for help when something else rushed past her just as fast. She stopped, missed a beat of her wings, and dropped a bit before catching herself. She spun back around. Who was that?

Cutting through a peninsula of forest at full speed while weaving through trees like a maniac, Lightning overtook the pegasus who had gone around through the clearing towards the Hydra. A flash of actual lightning; light brown fur with a spotted palomino pattern. Closer, another flash. The cutie mark on her flank, a tornado. This wasn't anyone she recognized.

As this strange pegasus turned towards her, Lightning dropped into a dive, arced back up, and tackled her from below. The stranger was driven into a tree, and roughly plopped down on a branch, winded. She glared, twisted back, and before Lightning could process what was going on, bucked and kicked her firmly in the nose with her hind legs.

Lightning saw stars as the stranger took off again towards the hydra. She jumped off the branch and zig-zagged a little, disoriented, and weakly rose into the sky in pursuit.

As the distance closed the stranger spoke in a soft, sing-song voice, "Leave me alone! I can handle this!"

"That's a damn hydra!" replied Lightning, "You can't do it alone, I can't do it alone--we need at least three pegasi just to drive it away from here!"

"I know what I'm doing, just watch!" the stranger pulled a vial of some fluid from under her wing, craned back, and hurled it at the hydra. There was an incredible flash; Lightning shielded her eyes with her wings.

When it cleared, they both looked at the hydra. The strange pegasus was in hysterics.

"That was a shrinking potion! I paid thousands of bits for it! How could it be a dud--oh I was ripped off, I can't believe it!"

"No, no hydras are immune to most magic attacks!" yelled Lightning against the wind and storm. In response, the tan pegasus charged at it, saying before she left, "I'll prove all of you wrong! I belong in the speed squad, I should never have been put in the stupid F division! I'm taking this thing down, you can't stop me!"

"What--what are you doing?! No, wait!"

Lightning charged after her, unable to overtake, winded, exhausted, in pain from hitting the ground and from the hard kick. She just couldn't do it. She glided to the ground and leaned on a boulder, panting. The stranger did well at first, zipping around and around the hydra as it snapped at her. Two of its heads got intertwined and then detached from the body by sharp hooves moving at a ridiculous velocity. Three more heads took its place, and this was one too many even for the sheer speed of this agile pegasus.

The first dragon-like head of the hydra snapped with cat-like reflexes; the pegasus narrowly dodged with a sharp roll to the left. The head on the other side spewed acid. She couldn't overcome her change in momentum fast enough and it hit her in the flank. The magic symbol there, her cutie mark, began to melt away along with the rest of her fur, and her hide under that began smoking. She yelled in pain and surprise, but did not let off.

She was out of control now, in a panic. Two other heads snapped towards her; she shot straight up and the heads conked on each other. She gained composure, and made an arrogant charge straight down to finish these heads off. The new fourth head came around on its long neck and suddenly lashed out from above. The tan pegasus swerved, and was caught firmly in the claws of the hydra.

Lightning flashed in the storm; Lightning Ridge watched in horror. The hydra tore into its meal. Something in Lightning's mind snapped. She rose from the ground with calm and composure. She charged towards the hydra.

The air around her snapped and popped as she approached the sound barrier. It wasn't possible for a pegasus to surpass this mark, and few pegasi had flown remotely close to it a mere twenty feet from the surface of the ground. The muddy, soggy forest floor ripped up in a flurry of leaves and uprooted bushes from the force of disrupted air as she aimed a kick at the hydra's body. The force of impact was multiplied by the steel armored boots she wore over her hooves, and the hydra's tough, magic-resistant hide was pierced, as well as its heart.

It lashed out wildly as it died; one flailing head smashed into Lightning Ridge, swatting her out of the air. The head was as big as she was, and the protruding fang which punctured her left wing was sharp as a railroad spike. In spite of the pain and the chaos she kept control with her right wing and attempted to swing off of the tooth. She was slammed against a tree, caught up in the branches, but the hydra's head missed the tree and kept on going. Sheer force was applied to the weakest point on a pegasus' body. Her wing was torn completely off, and she collapsed to the ground. Her world grew dim and blurry.

The reason she had joined the Wonderbolts. The reason she had work at all. The reason she could reside in Cloudsdale and dance with storms. The reason she had a unique role in the world. The reason fluttered down to the muddy ground beside her. As she grew dizzy and about to faint from blood loss, certain that the dying hydra would take her with it, she saw a shape whoosh past as her world went black, and several dark blue feathers fell around her.