Chapter 1: The Gathering Storm
Canterlot was renowned across Equestria for having an active night life. A pony could not walk down the cobblestone street without hearing shouts and singing from a tavern on a street corner, or seeing a pair of young star crossed lovers walking together, hoof in hoof. Windows would be lit up with golden light from the lamps on the inside of houses, and lively chatter could be heard from within them. The only light came from the half moon, which shone down a radiant glow upon the city.
But that had changed, a pony wouldn't be caught hanging around the streets at night these days, no golden lights gave off a warming glow from the houses of the city and the whole capital was as silent as a graveyard. The only noises that could be heard were the hoofsteps of guard ponies as they walked in tight formation down the streets and alleyways, their terrified eyes flitting from rooftop to rooftop, and the sound of water dripping from the melting icicles hitting the cold ground.
It was the end of a bad Winter and the icicles were only now starting to thaw, their pointed edges aimed straight down at the street bellow, like a snake ready to sink it's teeth into its prey. Water dripped from the ends of these icy teeth like venom. The terrified silence that plagued the city had been floating around for a month. It was exactly one month ago to the day that over one hundred unicorns had died in a mining accident after the mine caved on top of them.
This was not the first incident however where a group of unicorns had been killed recently, in Manehatten, three unicorns fell to their deaths as they were constructing a large building, they were placed in the most dangerous spot on the site and fell off the rigging, and in Baltimare another had drowned during the construction of a dam.
Unicorns all over Equestria were in outrage over the deaths, they started to believe that they were being treated like a second class, they were the ones sent out for the most dangerous jobs in Equestria. Magic could get jobs done quicker and more efficiently, the risk for a unicorn to loose their life however was great. The death of the miners was the tipping point for unicorns all over Equestria, there were riots in the streets and revolution was stirring.
Since then guard patrols had been sent through the streets, attempting to stamp out the Canterlot revolutionaries. Though even this hadn't been enough to put out the fires of rage in the unicorns hearts.
A raven flew up suddenly and landed on the chimney of a house, the appearance of these birds was an unusual sight. Some considered them to be a bad omen, beings of death hovering over the city day and night, ready to swoop down and snatch up a by stander.
Suddenly something landed on the rooftop the raven was perched on, the bird took off in fright and was swallowed up by the gathering darkness. The newly landed creature, peaked over the edge of the building and down into the street. This creature was a tall stallion.
His coat was coal black, his mane a dark shade of silver and his eyes a stunning grassy green. Around his neck was a black cloak, secured around him by a silver buckle shaped like a dragons head. A sudden gust of wind blew the cloak backwards, briefly revealing his flank and showing his cutie mark, a sword floating in front of a full moon.
The stallion walked quietly across the roof of the building, taking a breath, he sprinted to the edge and jumped straight to the next rooftop. He moved with the agility and speed of a cat and moved just as quietly. His hoofsteps made hardly any noise as he leaped through the air. Finally his journey came to an end on the roof of Canterlots' most famous bar, the "One Winged Griffon".
The roof of the bar was flat and had a wooden trap door which lead to the attic built into it. The black stallion looked down to the streets and around at the houses, he waited there for a few minutes, lightly tapping his hoof. When five minutes passed he started to pace, impatiently, "where in Tartarus is he?" The stallion asked under his breath.
The stallions ears pricked up, he turned and looked behind him, he swore he had heard what sounded like the clink of a sword. Slowly, the stallion faced forward, staring straight ahead at the rows of buildings.
"One", he counted in his head, still looking out over the sea of houses, "two", a cool night breeze had started to blow in, rustling through the stallions untidy mane.
"Three"
The stallion spun and dropped to the ground, as he did so he stuck out his back leg, as if to trip something up. His leg collided with something hard. The was a heavy thud and a cry of surprise, "ow!" The invisible creature cried out.
"Evening Sunny" the black stallion said, smiling down at the roof. There was a small, buzzing noise and a ivory colored unicorn appeared on the ground. His mane was a bright gold, he too wore a dark cloak like the black stallion was and his cutie mark depicted a gleaming broadsword, who's blade was alight with fire.
Using his magic, the black stallion pulled the one he'd called Sunny to his hooves, he locked one foreleg around his neck and ruffled the trapped pony's mane with the other. "Piss off!" The white stallion pried his attackers hoof off of him with magic, he struggled away and looked at the black stallion with annoyance.
"You're getting better" the black unicorn said with pride, "it's not easy for a pony to sneak up on me Sunny, great job".
"Suncloak" he said getting to his hooves, "you can stop calling me Sunny, Nightshade".
"Ah yes" Nightshade exclaimed in an exaggerated tone, "not my little stallion anymore are you?" Nightshade put a foreleg around his brother, "twenty one years" he said, shaking his head, "how could you be twenty one? You were only born yesterday".
Suncloak chuckled and pushed Nightshades' fore leg off of himself, "been one hell of a ride hasn't it?" Nightshade nodded, he starred at the ground, looking as though he was reflecting back on his early days with his brother.
"Oh" he said suddenly, "that reminders me".
He reached a hoof under his cloak and pulled out a parcel he had secured around him, wrapped up in plain, brown, wrapping paper. The parcel was about half the length of his foreleg, "happy birthday" he said with a warm smile handing the parcel to Sun Cloak.
Suncloak levitated the parcel in front of his face and pulled the paper in one clean rip, the parcel concealed a highly polished oak wood box with elegant symbols etched into its top. Suncloak raised the lid and his mouth hung open in shock.
The box contained a gleaming, curved silver short sword with a sapphire placed at its hilt and several symbols and old Equestrian writings etched into the silver. "Finest Saddle Arabian steel" Nightshade said proudly, watching with amusement as Suncloak drew the blade from its scabbard and gazed at it with awe.
"Nightshade" he started, a dumbfounded look on his face, "you didn't have to spend all of your bits on-"
"Ah" Nightshade cut across Suncloak's sentence sharply, "it's your birthday, I'm allowed". After vaporizing the torn paper, and banishing the fine oak box in a cloud of smoke, Suncloak clipped the sword to the belt over his back and hugged his brother.
"Thanks Shade" he said, patting him on the back.
His brother winked at him, as if to say, "it was nothing". "So" Nightshade started, looking across to some of the surrounding buildings. "The others in position?"
Suncloak threw a hoof up in the air and waved it around. On the surrounding buildings groups of three unicorns appeared out of thin air, they all carried some kind of weapon and were wearing cloaks. In unison, they returned the signal, Suncloak nodded to them and they disappeared once more.
"All ready" he said smiling.
"And if I'm correct" Nightshade said, walking to edge of the roof and looking down at the frozen street, "our sheep should come trotting by anytime now".
He stared down the street intently, searching for small flecks of moving, golden figures and keeping his ears open for the sound of clicking mettle.
The sound of the latter reached his ears. He signaled to Suncloak to hide and both cast their invisibility spells. They leaned over the edge of the roof and looked at their oncoming prey.
Six guards, all keeping close together, their spears drawn and held straight. From above, the two brothers could just make out the expressions on their faces. The hardened face of a royal guard was plastered upon each of their faces, but their eyes were flitting from roof-top to roof-top, never stopping.
"Go" Nightshade whispered as the guards reached the front of the bar. A yellow aura emerged out of thin air in front of Nightshade, the surrounding group of unicorns ignited their own horns, creating a small collage of colour.
A heavy fog suddenly rose in the street, from one end of the long stretch of road to the next, the blinded guards made noises of unease, from above Nightshade heard a loud "oof" and a clank.
"Idiot" Nightshade thought, shaking his head and smiling. "Phase two" he said, a little louder than before, the resettles noises of panic from the guards allowed him a little more freedom for speech.
Suncloak became visible once more, he waved his hoof to the others. Once they were back in sight, Suncloak's horn glowed again, Night Shade copied him.
His vision changed, from inside their cloud of magic fog Nightshade could see six moving masses of red, blue and green. Nightshades' horn glowed navy and from under his cloak he produced a slender short sword. Unlike the present he had given his brother, this blade was straight and had black leather wrapped around the handle.
He shot a look at Suncloak who had re-drawn the Saddle Arabian sword. Returning the look, Suncloak nodded. Nightshade raised a hoof and pointed it straight down at the cloud of fog. The surrounding unicorns drew their own swords and jumped with their leaders into the mist.
It was over in seconds.
The guards taken by surprise couldn't avoid the attacks of their hidden adversaries. Nightshade stabbed his sword into the neck of the nearest guard, he screamed and dropped his spear in shock. Nightshade turned the sword and the guard fell silent.
Tearing the sword out, Nightshade turned and saw the other glowing masses fall to the ground and lie still. He heard noises from the surrounding houses and could hear muffled yelling.
"Go!" Nightshade ordered, "we'll talk later".
There were six loud snaps! and the unicorns had vanished.
**********
The next thing Nightshade saw was a blue room. Realizing that the thermal spell was still active he quickly deactivated it and allowed the colour to come into focus.
He was standing in a windowless sitting room, on both sides of the room were sofas, four lamps, each placed on a nightstand, a large bookcase, and a painting showing two foals, a grizzled looking stallion with gray fur on his chin and a pretty mare with long eyelashes and a long rosy red mane.
Nightshade took in the portrait for a moment before Suncloak appeared in the room in a flash of amber light.
Nightshade walked up and clapped him on the back, "great work Sunny" he said smiling.
Suncloak gave him a tap in the shoulder but smiled at him. "Thanks mate, I recon she'll get the message after tonight, I had Frostbite on mane street and D.C is up on the theater".
"Well" Nightshade said smirking, "look at you taking charge".
Suncloak chuckled. He looked over at the portrait and studied it for a few seconds, "you know if they were here now, I think they'd want us knighted after everything we've done"
Nightshade laughed, "knowing what dad thought of the royals it wouldn't surprise me. Right" he said, cracking his neck, "I'm off to bed, and I'd suggest you do the same".
"Just a minute, I got to head out and see if Frost and D.C are okay".
"Fair enough, just try and get back quick, take care out there".
Suncloak's horn glowed and he vanished with a snap! Nightshade left the room and ascended a set of stairs up to his bedroom.
The bedroom was very plain, small room, containing a single bed, one window which faced the market place, a nightstand with an oil lamp atop it, a desk and large map of Canterlot tacked on the wall above it.
The map had many different colored pins inserted into different areas, most were clumped together in little groups along streets, while others were spaced apart around specific buildings like the bank and castle.
Nightshade ran a hoof along the map, stopping at the area of the "One Winged Griffon". Six red pins were stuck in the area representing the road and a red line was drawn across the map as if showing a route the pins were to follow.
Nightshade removed these pins from the map, slid open a drawer in the desk and placed them with other red pins, he then produced an eraser from the drawer and rubbed out the red line. Placing everything back into the drawer and closing it he stretched and yawned.
He lit the oil lamp and closed the curtains, the dim light in the room cast a long shadow across the map of the city. He layer down on the bed and shut his eyes.
A raven cawed loudly from outside his window, breaking the peace. He opened one eye and grumbled, "bloody birds" he whispered.
He rolled over and allowed sleep to overpower him.