Children of the Night

Children of the night

Chapter 23

Returning home

Moonsinger stood on a hill, overlooking all of Hoofington. Due to her attack on the hive two nights ago, she was forced to rest before coming back here. What she saw, almost made her jaw drop. The town had barely changed from the last time she had been here. Sure it was bigger then before, but she could make out familiar streets and buildings. Even the big four story building, that had once been the orphanage she lived in, was still there. All around the city, she saw Changelings and mind controlled ponies patrol the streets.

Good for her and her forces, Hoofington still had no wall, so they would be able to come from whatever direction they wanted to.She quickly analized the situation, and carefully studied the paths the patrols where taking, before relaying her orders to her forces....

An hour later

Her forces were in position all around the city, and so Moonsinger gave the signal for the attack. They charged in, while the Unicorns in each group cast shield spells around their groups to prevent the Changelings from hitting them with their magic. As soon as the fight had begun, Moonsinger felt her blood begin to boil in her veins. It was a feeling she had never felt before, but she enjoyed it verry much and gave in to it. Every creature that was foalish enough to stand in her way, was crushed by her hooves, or her magic. She did not even hesitate to kill several mindcontrolled ponies that tried to attack her, instead of knocking them out.

After the battle was over, Moonsingers coat was stinched a deep red, from the blood of her foes. She stood there, in the remains of had once been Hoofington and watched around at her hoofwork. It was then, that the cry of a foal snapped her out of it. The foal was burrying it's face into the torn flank of one of the ponies she had killed, while the city around her burned. Moonsinger looked around in shock! What had she done? This was..... not what she had intended at all! She had wanted to free Hoofington, not burn it to the ground. Even the eyes of her Enforcers that looked at her from everywhere, were accusing her of going to far. They didn't have to tell her... she knew exactly what she had done, and loathed herself for it. This was one of the many reasons she had never wanted to become an Alicorn.

"Fire control teams! Get to work and safe as much of the city as you can! Evac teams, get the civilians out of here! It's to dangerous for them while everything is on fire!"

She shouted before grabbing the foal in front of her with her mouth and putting it on her back. Everypony around her nodded, and got to work. Moonsinger galloped through the streets of Hoofington, tears streaming from her face. She had lost control over herself.... That, she swore to herself, would never happen again... She would never again allow herself to be swallowed up by the heat of battle.... She teleported civilians out to the hill she had stood on left and right, while galloping through the flames of collapsing buildings. This was all her fault, she just HAD to safe as many of them as she could....

Four hours later

Finally, all the fires had been put out, but many of the ponies Moonsinger had wanted to rescue had been killed in her flames.... She stood in front of the Orphange she had once lived in, that was now just a burnt ruin and began to cry her heart out. She cried over all the ponies she had killed and all the destruction she had caused.... Zecora had warned her about it time and again, but she didn't listen.... She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, when a familiar voice came from behind her.

"I kinda thought I'd find you here Moonsinger...."

"Flametail... Come on, tell me that you think I went to far. I already know that I did."

"You did. But it was not your fault Moonsinger. You are not yet used to your powers, and let them get to your head. That could happen to the best of us."

"Not to mother!"

"Oh, I think you are quite mistaken there. Mother turned into Nightmare Moon, remember? Nopony is without flaw, and that inculed Alicorns."

"Alicorns are creatures of war and destruction.... I knew this long before I transformed...."

"But even so it may have turned out like this, my friend, you had the best intentions. Just remember to control yourself the next time we get into a situation like this."

"The path to hell.... is plastered with good intentions...."

"What?"

"Oh... ehm it's something mother said once.... So... report. What's the situation?"

"We have suffered a little over three thousand deaths and about four hundred injured. The population of Hoofington, according to the documents I could recover from the town hall, has been reduced to a mere thirty percent. Most of them died in the battle, or the resulting fire. The storage buildings on the southwest end of town have been spared by the fire, so they will have all the food they need, and the materials to rebuild everything that was destroyed."

"That is... atleast something... Are there any volunteers amongst them?"

"No. Actually a representative chosen by the survivors approached me earlier and asked, that we leave as soon as we can. We are appearently unwelcome here."

"Can you blame them? We have burnt down their homes and killed many of their friends and family.... Flametail, give the order for retreat. We will head north from here to Phillydelphia."

"As you wish Moonsinger, but what about you?"

"I have something I want to do. I will be right behind you."

Flametail took a last glance at his long term friend and commander, before he took to the air to relay her orders to their forces.

Moonsinger stood up, after she had made sure that Flametail was gone, and went into the former orpganage. Inside the building was burnt badly, but she could still imagine how it had been once. Her horn flashed pale white, and in a matter of seconds, the building rebuild itself. Fallen over and burnt furniture stood up on itself, while the firedamage seemed to reverse itself. The upper floors of the building began recontructing stone by stone, until it stood there as if nothing had happend. Moonsinger looked around. It was definitly the home of a family with several kids. The photographs on the walls indicated that. On several she could see an orange coated pegasus mare, embracing an earthpony stallion, and three foals... She just hoped that they had survived.

As Moonsinger stepped out into the street again, she could see that her spell was doing it's job. Hoofingtons memories were rebuilding the town itself. Everything had memories, even if it was not alive... Giving the town much of her magical energy, she had enabled it to rebuild. It was a spell she had used in the garden a few times, but didn't want to use any more. It used up much of her magic every time she did, and that had brought her to the brink of death a few times before...

Celestia was pleased with her hoofwork. Los pegasus had been freed under her command, while she had kept her losses to a minimum. Also the city had stayed almost completly intact, so there would be no need for massive funds to rebuild it. Now to get to that matter Twilight had asked her to do... Celestia closed her eyes, and tried to locate her student, but was unable to do so. She extended her senses, and combined them with the sun itself to widen her search radius, but still no sign of Twilight Sparkle.

"Can you blame her Celestia?"

"What do you mean Solar? I did what I had to do. This battle had to be fought and as a commander I can not simply leave the battlefield at my leisure."

Her mental passanger sighed.

"Celestia... I've known you for so long now, but this is a side of you I guess I will never be able to understand. Let me ask you, what is Twilight Sparkle to you?"

"She is my personal student."

"Nothing more?"

"Well... since I don't have any children, I guess she is kind of like a daughter to me."

"So... And this daughter came to you, pleading for your help in saving her friends life, and you refused. Can you really blame her for not wanting to be found by you anymore?"

"Well if you put it that way.... I have been a little heartless, haven't I? But I'm sure she will come around and understand that I was needed here."

"For what? That is what your second in command is for Celestia.... I can't believe I have to lecture you on strategy. A commanding officer in your ranks, is there to take command, should you be unable to stay in command, or have to leave suddenly to deal with a more important situation. Apple Candy is verry capable, so that's no excuse my friend."

"But still.... What if something had gone terribly wrong? I needed to be here...."

"NO! Where you had needed to be, is your students side. I know where she is."

"You do? But how? I can't locate her anywhere. Tell me."

"I won't."

"Why not? She is not only my student, but also the bearer of the element of magic. Equestria will need the elements in the future!"

"I respect her wish to stay hidden from you, and I can understand her reasoning. Celestia... you have lived over fifteen hundred years... I think it is time for you to question your own decissions, or you will end up alone..... Please take my advice, since I don't want you to end like me...."

"What do you..."

"And now we have talked enough Celestia.... Until YOU come around, I will lend you my power, but you will have to do without my advice or company. You have sent your student to learn about friendship.... without knowing the first thing about it yourself...."

With that, Solar Flare... former queen of the Alicorn tribe, secluded herself in the deepest corners of Celestias mind. All attempts the princess of the sun made to contact her, stayed unanswered....