Children of the Night

Children of the night

Chapter 24

From the north

Two months had passed, since the three immortal siblings had started their counterinvasion. All three of them were on their way to Canterlot now, that was already under siege. Cadence and Diamond had arrived early, keeping Chrysalis and her Changelings confined within Canterlot. They could not enter the city either, since Chrysalis had raised a barrier, and they were to few to break it, but this had resulted in her forces being disorganized. Celestia, Luna and Moonsinger had been able to retake most of the cities without much resistance. The Changeling queen had called all her forces back to Canterlot, to prepare for her final stand.

Diamond stood amongst the twenty thousand drones she had bred before coming here. They had established a fireing line in front of the barrier, shooting magical bolts at it non-stop. At the other end of their lines, she could see Cadance. It was a strange sight for her. The princess was now the perfect image of a Changeling queen, but still had her soft ice colored mane and tail. Even her wings had not changed much. They had just turned black.

Cadence noticed Diamond staring at her, and trotted over to her.

"So, what do you think? When will they be here?"

"My drones have scouted the area and they say that a group of about twenty nine thousand ponies, led by a light brown Alicorn is closest to the city."

"Light brown? I don't know that one.... Maybe one of aunt Lunas children? Could your scouts see what her cutie mark was?"

"That's the funny part. They say she has the same one as your aunt Luna."

"Oh, then I do know her. It's Moonsinger. But... the last time I saw her, she was an Unicorn."

"Moonsinger you say? Then this battle will be over quicker then we thought."

"You know her?"

"Yes. About four hundred years ago, when I was approaching adulthood, my mother gave me a task to proove my talents. She convinced me she wanted to have peacefull relationships with the garden of shadows, which is your auts refuge. I was young at the time and did as I was told. I tried and established diplomatic relationships with the garden, and even stayed there for a while. They were all nice to me, and Moonsinger was their embassador. In the end, we were verry close to an agreeement, and had almost become something like friends, when my mother showed her true colors. At the day we were to sign the peace treaty, on neutral ground in the forest, she tried to get the jump on Moonsinger, to replace her with one of our drones. I have never again recieved such a beating, or been so close to my death. I helped Moonsinger escape my mothers treachery, and was punished for it. If she is an Alicorn now.... mother will be in for more then she has bargained for...."

"What do you mean? I mean, I know Chrysalis was strong enough to overtake my aunt Celestia."

"Celestia? I beg your pardon, but in a fight Celestia would not stand a chance against the Moonsinger I came to know. Once her eyes begin to glow, even my mother turned tail on every encounter they had afterwards. The empowerment she recieved from that magical spark of hers, is nothing to be taken lightly."

"But... Moonsinger told me that there have been drones that killed her kin."

"Oh yes, but it is verry difficult, and impossible if you encounter them inside the garden. You have to play with them, so they use up most of their sparks energy. When they are weakend like that, you can easily overtake them, but Moonsinger is special. Try to play around with her so she gets tired, and you play with your verry life. You know that our kin calls her Bloodsinger?"

"I had no idea. Why is that?"

"Because she is verry good with any magic that involves any kind of liquid. If you injure her, or she injures you, she can practicly draw the blood from your body, and use it as a weapon. I myself have seen her form a whip out of a fallen comrades blood, hitting every drone that so much as got close to her. Now you might think that a whipping should not really hurt us, but you are wrong. Her whips are as sharp as razor blades, and cut through our natural armor with ease."

"Sounds pretty powerfull."

"Indeed."

The two friends fell silent, awainting their reinforcements, that were sure to come soon.

Moonsinger galloped through a field of flowers, closely followed by her forces. The recapure of Phillydelphia and Muzzleton had gone much smoother then the one in Hoofington. But she had lost way more forces in them. While Muzzleton was just a small back water town, with barely a hundred Changelings in it, Phillydelphias defenders had been prepared for her. She had to take the town under siege, since she was unable to break through without risiking loosing most of her forces...

In approximatly two hours time, she would finally be in Canterlot. If she could get there fast, she would get rid of Chrysalis for her mother, and then forget this whole war even happend. Sure the dead would never be forgotten, but  she knew that, aslong as it went on, she was just not able to make peace with herself.

Lunas forces trotted through Ponyville and were greeted with cheers of joy and acknowledgements. Her campaign in the south had taken longer then she had anticipated. Every time she had thought that she had finally eliminated all the Changelings that hid there, she had found another hideout of these insect like creatures. She had to admit, that she had felt a perverted kind of pleasure, every time they discovered another hideout. She would charge in there alone, and come out bloody. Mostly it were only groups of ten or twenty, but she took her time with them on occausion....

Celestia was also on her way to Canterlot, but her forces had just stopped back in the garden of shadows a week ago, so they would be the last to arrive at the city. Celestia envied her sister, who had passed through the garden the day before, with almost all her forces intact. She on the other hoof, had lost over half her troops, due to her mind being occupied with the whereabouts of Twilight Sparkle, and the unwillingness of Solar Flare to talk to her at all.

Chrysalis stood on the balcony of her bedchamber, holding the barrier protecting her city up. She could feel several great magical auras coming her way, but she was prepared. They would not arrive all at once... If she just could find a way to seperate them from their forces, she could pick them off one by one.... An idea struck her, as she remembered something from a verry long time ago, and a smile played around her lips. She would not give up Equestria that easily. If her plan worked, then she would deal with that "rebellion" and then start recapturing the rest of Equestria.

Stepping back inside she began to bark orders to her drones to prepare for the attack. Yes.... if she played her cards correctly... then even the garden of shadows would be hers at the end of this conflict....

Back in Ponyville, Big Macintosh watched the princess of the night and her forces pass through. He had volunteered to join them in their fight, but had been stationed as a rear guard, to ensure Ponyville was not taked from them again. He didn't like it too much. Just as the others, he wanted to be in the thick of the fighting. He wanted to be there when they found AJ and the others....

Princess Luna passed a particular red stallion, that had an ancient battle axe slung over his back, and approached him. She knew that stallion from her former visists to Ponyville, and she also knew that he was the brother of one of the elements of harmony.

"Hello there Big Macintosh. Whatever is the matter? You look downcast."

"Oh hi there princess. Ah was just thinkin', that ah would laike to join your forces...."

"I know Macintosh... Not knowing the fate of your sister and her friends, must be infuriating for you, but please believe me that you can do more good if you stay here. Somepony has to watch the rear, to make sure nopony attacks us from behind. You are strong, faithfull and would never let anypony down. That is why I trust you with that task.

"But..."

"No buts Big Mac. If the Changelings were to somehow retake Ponyville, or any of the other towns, we would be cut off from supplies and the garden. And if they were to put up an anti teleport barrier in the area, then they could pic us off easily. I need you and the others here, to prevent that from happening."

Big Macintoshs cheeks began to flush as he saluted her.

"Ah will do mah best princess."

"Good. And I promise you in return that, if I get any word of what happend to Applejack, I will let you know."

Luna walked away from the stallion, trying to keep her face straight. She knew what had happend to Applejack and the others, but just didn't have the heart to tell him. Just this morning a messanger from Cadence had found her, and reported that they had Canterlot under siege. She knew that Cadence would keep the Changelings busy until they all arrived, but she was worried about Moonsinger. Two nights ago Flametail had come to her. Thinking that her daughter was in trouble, she had immideatly wanted to gather her forces, but he had told her otherwise. The tale he told her however, was not a good one. After all of this was over, they had to find a way to revert Moonsinger back to an Unicorn. Were she to stay an Alicorn, there was a verry good chance of her getting corrupted....

Luna could not stand the thought of her daughter becoming a being simliar to Nightmare Moon.... She increased her speed, and began to gallop towards Canterlot. Her forces behind her, quickly adjusted their speed to hers....