A/N: This is a crazy idea that came to me while I read some other MLP fanfiction in this very site. You might catch some references here and there. By the way, I really need an English speaking beta-reader, if anyone wants to help, I'd be grateful.
Oh, and I own nothing in this fic, not the named characters, original or otherwise, or the show this is based of. I'm just a 22 year old who likes to write about flying ponies :P
Nightshade let herself fall down to her bed with the loudest thump she could manage without angering the landlady. Her modest room atop old Winter Breeze's house was a far cry from most houses of Canterlot, but hey, that's what you can afford with the salary of a cloud pusher...
The room wasn't big, but wasn't small either. Although it did look small with all the mess. Several magazines and newspapers on the Wonderbolts littered the floor, and her winter wrap-up gear was laying near a big chest in the corner, next to her training cap and sunglasses. On the central table, several unfinished weather reports lay asking for some attention, but the young mare wasn't touching them now. She was not lazy, nor untidy, and in other days the room would be looking clean and dandy. But right now, she was so frustrated she couldn't care less about her room's state.
At least the bed was good. Very good, actually. She lay spread legged, spread winged, with her weathercrew hat dropped unceremoniously on the floor, and her dark blue mane a complete mess over her head, not that she cared. She sighed deeply as she shifted to the side, facing the western wall, where her two life passions stood side by side.
One poster featured Princess Luna, in her full glory as princess of the night, standing proud and strong, with a stern gaze directed towards the Wonderbolts, whose standard lineup poster was positioned so that it seemed the pegasi where facing the princess and vice-versa.
Nightshade had just blown up her chance with said Wonderbolts. "You're a good flier, girl, nice moves and top notch coordination. But, I'm sorry, you're just not fast enough. I really hope you keep training and try again next year." That's what Spitfire herself had told the young mare.
Her first chance into the Wonderbolts and she blew it! Yeah, yeah, very few joined at their first try, and indeed she was young and could try again next year, but that mean another full year pushing clouds around with that jerk of a boss...
She let out a long, overly dramatic sigh and tried to close her eyes. She had the night shift at weather patrol today, so she could take the afternoon to wallow in whatever it is pegasi are supposed to wallow in. In her head she reviewed her performance: she started slow, flying casually, then picked up speed and started with the acrobatics. She did a pretty competent display, beginning with spinning around several clouds in succession, and finishing with her trademark "Wind Whisper", which consisted of flying into a cloud, then quickly out, using the speed and some pegasus magic to leave an afterimage of herself, then quickly bank and head back to where she started the move, giving the illusion of duplicating herself for a faint second. Nightshade prided herself in her way of pulling stunts, safe and sound, nowhere near as reckless as some other ponies who were at the audition today. Well, the reckless ones got in, tough. It seemed that to be a Wonderbolt you needed more than just cool tricks, you needed this... 'Passion' that, try as she might, Nightshade never really had.
She was almost falling asleep when there was a knock of hooves in her eastern window, the one big enough for a full grown pegasus pass through. "Special delivery for one miss Nightshade!", The mailmare called from outside.
Something snapped inside the young mare and she rolled off bed and landed graciously on the floor without making a single sound. She shook her head so her mane would sit properly messed into her head and trotted curiously to the window.
"Yes?" She called as she pushed the window open with her head.
The mailmare was a middle aged mare with a brown coat, caramel mane and her cutie mark obscured by the huge mail saddlebags. She held out a midnight black envelope, which Nightshade took with her mouth, getting even more curious with the unusual color.
She signed the form the mailmare asked to, bid the good mare farewell, then pushed the wheather reports apart so she could place the envelope in her table. She stopped and eyed it like it was some ancient, mysterious artifact.
It was black like the night sky, it even seemed to have little stars shinning every now and then, and her name and address were written in silver embossed letters. It was closed with a dark blue seal emblazoned with a crescent moon.
When it dawned upon Nightshade what exactly that crest meant, she almost ripped the envelope open:
My Little Pony,
It has come to my attention that you have failed your admission test with the Wonderbolts. It seems you are not good enough to fly under the sun. However, I firmly believe on second chances, and also believe you may be fit to fly under the moon. If you believe that as well, come meet me at the Silver Fortress, this very day, as soon as the sun goes down.
Be prepared to earn your right to fly under my colors.
Princess Luna of Equestria
Nightshade let out a YAY so loud it seemed to shake the whole three stories tall building. There was the slight problem of this meeting being during her shift at the weather patrol today. Well, it wasn't a tough decision to make.
Shaking her head as if to shake away chief Grey Cloud's complaints, she opened the large eastern window and dove out, her earlier melancholy dissipated completely. Better stretch those wings a little if she wanted to make an impression.
The Silver Fortress was a relic of an age long gone. The last time Nightshade had been there, was for an illegal show of the Moongazers, a rock band which allegedly supported Nightmare Moon. That had been about three years before the whole 'Nightmare Moon comes back thing', though. Back then, the fortress was abandoned.
Well, after Luna was reinstated as princess of the night, the fortress was rebuilt to serve as the headquarters for the newly formed Lunar Guard. It was beautiful, in a sense. Built into the side opposite side of the mountain that housed Canterlot, made of shiny grey marble and obsidian, with two towers that stabbed into the night sky like a pair unicorn horns, it had a charming, but stern look.
The only ways to enter the Fortress where magic or flying, as it was built too high in the mountain to be accessed by hoof. It was a military strongpoint from a time when ponies fought each other and discord ruled the land. Whether that's literally or figuratively speaking was another matter altogether.
Making access even more difficult was Timber Woods. It was a forest a lot like Ponyville's Everfree: a place of free flowing nature and magic, and, in Timber Woods special case, home to several vicious packs of timber wolves. The Woods served as a natural barrier to any enemies that might attempt an assault against the fortress, but even in the peacetime it made the ancient castle look even more gloomy, like a stone gargoyle perched on the mountainside, overlooking the dark woods from where every now and then a chilling howl would arise.
As Nightshade approached, gliding through an easy night gale, she realized the Fortress was far from abandoned now. Magic orbs bathed the balconies in silver light, mimicking the moonlight that seemed to shine brighter against the stone towers. Ponies in silver armor patrolled the balconies and walkways, while bat-winged pegasi signaled her to land on the largest, central courtyard, the one which was slowly filling with eager pegasi just like Nightshade herself.
The courtyard was a semicircle built around the massive doors of the castle. The doors themselves where wide enough that an adult dragon would pass trough without difficult, and the courtyard was probably built to house an entire fighting company of pegasi, which were far more than the thirty-something occupying it right now.
Looking at the fortress from 'ground level', Nightshade realized how small she was and how cyclopean the architecture was a millennia ago. She trotted around, barely paying any attention to the other ponies, and barely containing her nervousness. There were some pegasi around that also where auditioning for the Wonderbolts earlier today, but there were also these others, built stallions and mares with cropped manes that looked like military types.
Nightshade was never a fan of the military, even though the bat-winged pegasi of Luna's guard where undeniably cool, they were still stuck-up jerks who liked to boss ponies around, just like old Gray Cloud of the weather patrol. Her bad memories went back all the way to flight school in Cloudsdale, when some bone-headed pegasus would make she and her friends fight hoof-to-hoof with the griffin that attended the same class. Self-defense class was the worst thing she suffered ever, and it had stained her view of the equestrian military forever.
However, no military in the world would make her miss an opportunity to meet princess Luna. She could fight the whole griffin air force right now if she had to. Anxious as she was, all she could do was pace the courtyard, moving her eyes from the skies to the big metallic doors of the fortress, trying to guess from where the princess was going to appear.
"So, what's it with the princess?" She heard a pony ask another one, nearby.
"It's a coup. She's staging a coup to overthrow the tyrant and she wants us".
"Oh, please, not this again!" Nightshade joined the conversation with an exaggerated sigh and a hoof pointing at the pony who talked about coups. She was a young mare too, purple coat, magenta mane, and a rose for a cutie mark. "Look, I don't like miss sunshine either, but she's nowhere near as bad a ruler as someponies paint her!"
Okay, that was something new, Nightshade standing up for Celestia. It was a weird day anyway. Was going to get weirder, though.
"Yeah, she's right. Also, if the princess wanted to stage a coup she would not call someponies who can't shut their traps, like us..."
The voice was unmistakably male, and carried a low growl that was equal parts menace and authority. Nightshade and the other two mares turned to look at the pegasus who also barged in the conversation.
He had a dark grey coat, with a cropped dark blue mane and what seemed to be an ice meteor for a cutie mark. He was only slightly taller than the three females, but he seemed to tower above them, with a menacing glare and wings flared out.
The two conspiring mares puffed their indignation and trotted nonchalantly away to find someone who would listen to their theories. The stallion just lowered his wings with a chuckle, disarmed his death glare and turned to Nightshade with a smile:
"Nice to find someone who's not a foal who thinks Nightmare Moon had it right. Luna's changed, I know, but she's no better ruler than Celestia..." There was a brief pause, just enough so Nightshade would think for a moment the stallion was leaving her alone, then he said: "I'm Charger, by the way, 9th aerial recon, and you are?"
Nightshade was about to tell him to buck off when they both, and every other pony in the courtyard, heard the booming voice most of them expected.
"FLIERS OF THE NIGHT, WELCOME TO MY LAIR! GATHER TO ME NOW, MY LITTLE ONES, SO I CAN SHOW YOU THE FUTURE THAT MAY AWAIT YOU."
She had lost the 'Royal We', but the Royal Canterlot Voice really suited her well. Luna hovered above them, the full moon framing her as she landed on a raised platform at the edge of the courtyard. She was clad in dark blue battle armor, with her mane like a starry night sky flowing free on its own motions. She was beautiful and terrifying at the same time, and elicited a collective 'oooh' as she landed and was flanked by one of the bat-winged pegasi and a grey unicorn wearing a lab coat.
"Listen now." Her voice didn't boom in the night again, but Nightshade could hear her clearly. "You are here because, frankly, you are failures."
The princess's blue eyes bored into Nightshade's very soul. Even if she spoke to the crowd, it seemed like she was talking just to the young Wonderbolt washout:
"Some of you failed to join the wonderbolts. Some are military loose cannons. And others just have a lot of untapped potential. I have watched you, my little ponies, and now I might have found the place for you."
The princess paced the small platform in slow, strong and measured steps, with her wings tucked closely to her body so they wouldn't betray any emotion. She took her time to look each pony in the eyes, to make sure they understood she knew them, and she thought the same about all of them. However, Nightshade couldn't shake the feeling the princess was watching her all the time:
"As you know, I have resumed my duties as princess of the night, and have assumed direct command over the Lunar Guard. I must confess I spent too much time focusing on taxes, titles and other such bureaucracy that I have almost lost touch with the common ponies."
She stopped pacing and looked straight at Nightshade, who felt like sinking into the stonework at that very same moment.
"Unfortunately, it was never my way of ruling to be close to the populace." She sighed before continuing "Do not misunderstand me, I do love my subjects as much as my sister, but, try as I might, I am not the Sun. I do not deal in charm, I deal in intellect; I do not speak in soft, warm talk, I speak in cold, hard truth; My way is not open fanfare and loud music, my way is cloak and dagger, dark and moody."
The princess' voice raised up a little as she got excited about her new project. Her excitement slowly contaminated each of the assembly pegasi, as they perked their ears up and forward towards the princess, and some, Nightshade included, even started to smile as the alicorn's words went on:
"You fly for me, you fly silently in the night. You will not perform stunts for an astonished crowd, you will not fight open threats to Equestria. You will work in shadows, to bring relief to the needy, to fight the threats that loom in darkness, to fling a sliver of light into the night. Let the sun have her Wonderbolts. You will fly under the moon, you will be Shadowbolts."
There was a collective gasp as Luna dropped the name. Nightshade was sure she could hear a muffled "I knew it!" coming from somewhere. The shadowbolts where sometimes spoken of as terrorists or separatists, but no one knew for sure if they even existed.
Keeping a straight face, but with lively eyes that betrayed her enthusiasm, Luna raised a hoof, calling for their attention one more time
"But rest assured, my little ponies, that this is no dark coup or evil scheme. You will serve Esquestria, you just will not serve her in bright daylight. You may never have the adoration of the masses, but I, and my sister, will forever remember you for your work. What say you, washouts and misfits, would you fly for me?"
A loud cheer erupted from the pegasi even though some of them took their leave with lowered heads and mumbled complaints. Nightshade didn't care. She stomped her hooves furiously on the ground and cheered as loud as her throat allowed to, a cheer that turned to a laugh as she realized why she didn't join the Wonderbolts: like the princess, she didn't like it loud and bright, she always loved the night more than the day. It was in her name, the same way as her pale blue coat and dark blue mane copied the night sky's hues, just as her cutie mark was a waning moon and her special talent was being silent.
Nightshade realized she was built to fly under the moon, and by the goddesses would she earn that right!
Luna smiled as the cheer died down, a deep, sincere smile, then said:
"Very well, my little ones, I like your enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I don't have enough places for all of you, so I will have to pick only the best. Let me introduce doctor Star Sparkle" She motioned to the unicorn to her left, who made a small bow "And captain Nightshroud," She motioned to the bat-winged pegasus to her right "The good captain will handle the selection process as the doctor will measure your performance. I will watch your progress from the fortress' observation tower. Good luck, all of you, give your very best."
And with those words the princess of the night took to the sky and vanished into the starry night. But before any of the assembled pegasi could even utter a word, the bat-winged captain Nightshroud took a step forward and spoke, with the coolest, hardest voice possible:
"Okay, you colts and fillies, now that our good princess has laid the groundwork... I CAN GO ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE ON YOUR SORRY FLANKS!"