The Equestria Offensive

Castrum, time and date unknown

As Midnight came up to the fortitude capital city of Castrum, he could see how right Star was. The city was more heavily guarded than Fortis’s mansion prison. That was to be expected, really. It was the capital city of a warring country.

Midnight sat, on the forest line just away from the city gates devising a plan. “Sweet Celestia, what have I gotten myself into? I’m gonna die here. This is the end of my line. Endgame. Game over.” Midnight sat and shed a tear of both despair and happiness.

“Well, well, well. What is this?” A voice came to him. It was a familiar voice, one that he knew from his past. Her voice was warm, calm, but dark and overbearing.

“Nightmare...What do you want from me? How are you still in my head?”

“You don’t sound very inviting. I’m here to help you.”

“I thought you died with Zero.”

“Ha. Silly foal. You can’t kill me. I reside in Princess Luna’s heart and have embedded myself into yours.”

“Fine. But answer me this...Why would you wanna help me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You have a burning passion for revenge. For your dad. For your squad. It’s tearing you from inside out. And you put all the blame on one griffin. Fortis. But deep down you know the truth.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It was your fault all along. You know they didn’t have to die. You could’ve stopped Fortis then and there and this never would’ve happened. You were in a perfect position to kill Fohlen and the soldiers and save Storm. You could’ve all stayed back with Mahoff and escaped together. You didn’t need to leave Thunder and Ace behind. You could’ve stayed behind and cleared the base with them. And you don’t even need to be here right now, but you had to come here to seek your revenge. Face it. Everything up to know, all of their deaths have been your fault.”

“Shut up. I don’t have time to listen to you blame me. I know why I’m here, and I know what you want. So let’s just do this already.”

“Hmm. Whatever you say. You’re just not making this as fun as I had hoped.”

“I don’t plan on making this fun.” From the ground curling up came a spiral of flames, burning around him, and dissipating in the air. His mane, tail, hooves, and eyes burned in a flare. His wings grew with fiery feathers at the tips. In the past when Midnight used Nightmare to transform, her overwhelming power allowed her to take control of his body. For the first time, he was able to use her powers and still be in full control of his body. “Let’s end this war.”

He trotted out from his forest cover onto the main road. The city guards almost instantly spotted him as he picked up off the ground to fly over the walls. That didn’t matter to him. Any bullets that hit were deflected off of him. He didn’t give the guards any attention. He landed down in the stone city streets, running towards the castle towards the center. He had no evidence that Fortis had fled to the castle, but it was all he could go off of. He had a feeling in his gut that this assault would have a positive outcome.

Midnight charged through the streets. Not a single guard gave up their fire. Midnight came to the massive doors on the front of the castle. He rammed the door open, revealing a massive hall. At the end of the hall stood the doors to the throne room. “There.” He claimed and flew full speed down the hall, crashing the doors down. Gryphem sat high up in his chair; a large griffin. No wonder he never left the city. It looked like he could hardly move out of his throne.

“Gryphem.”

“Ol pnol pni bura pnep Fortis leot jel mucork? Kip op uyp uz nihi.”

“O’c rup nihi zuh auy. Jnihi ol Fortis?!”

“What do you want with my top commander that you could not deal with through me?”

“So you do speak English. I have personal issues with Fortis, and I know he has some issues with me that he’s thrown upon all of Equestria through an entire army of griffins.”

“Fortis is busy right now with paperwork in back. What is this blasphemy you speak of? Fortis using MY army for personal trifles? Don’t be so tenacious. My country needs land. I tried to make some sort of agreement on sharing lands with Equestria, but they refused. I had no choice to try and take over. I cannot leave my country without homes.”

Midnight smirked like he had just one this little debate, “And who told you that you need land? Let me guess. Fortis, right? I know it all. You know where I was for most of this war? In open forest. Your country has a lot of land left. I got some information from one of Fortis’ underlings. Years ago, he sent his daughter to Equestria for flight school. I was at that school with her. Her name was Gilda, a classmate of mine. We didn’t get along very well. Five years into our schooling, we had a mishap that caused me to be infected with this demon form I have. I spent a forced ten years hunting down and trying to kill my best friend, who is now my girlfriend, waiting for me at home. The evil Nightmare inside of me has been feeding on my rage. She had me kill anyone who had hurt me in the past. That is where Gilda comes in. We were always fighting, so I had no reason to like her. I ran into her on my forced search, but had no problem killing her. I had no idea that anyone would care so much about her absence.”

Suddenly, a door on the left wall of the room burst open breaking off its hinges and falling to the floor. Fortis stepped out growling, “You! O’c kurre goss auy!” He charged at Midnight in the air, crashing him into the wall. “Tu auy gruj jnep O’c kurre tu pu auy?”

“Yeah, Fortis. I got it. You’re angry. I killed your daughter. But you know what? You killed my father right in front of me for protecting Princess Celestia. Not just that, but all of my squad is now dead. My close friends in this war you started to deal with the personal issues you had with me. We watched as their world and my world crumbled away. They all had reasons to want you dead and so do I. They all gave their lives so at least one of us could get to you and kill you. And you know what? I’m not letting their efforts go to waste.” Despite Fortis holding him to the wall in all of his raging strength, Midnight spun around creating a swirling fire around him, and kicking Fortis in the side with his flaming back hoof, sending Fortis into a new wall, then ricocheting into the ceiling, and back down to the floor. Midnight bounced off of the wall next to him, jumping up and launching a fireball down onto Fortis. He landed down with the fire on Fortis and began hammering into his face and beak. until he was bloody and burned with a broken beak. After all of his anger dissipated, Midnight stood up off of the destroyed and broken body of Fortis.

“You can’t kill me.” Fortis struggled to speak. “O jur’p toi jhuc pni nuuwil uz e bura.”

Midnight simply smiled down upon him as he pulled his rifle from his back and pointed it at the bloody griffin’s head. “Auy fylp sulp pni keci.” And pulled the trigger. The blood stained and ran through the tiles on the floor as Fortis lied on the floor, lifeless. To Midnight, it felt like such a heavy burden had been lifted. Such relief hadn’t been felt by anyone before. “Sir. King Gryphem. I’m sorry you had to see such a horrible display to such a trusted advisor of yours. I just hope that you see what I say to be true after that. I don’t ask for your surrender. I just wish for you to hear me out and make the decision on whether or not there should be a war or not. Whatever you do, it’s your choice. I’m going home. I’ve got too many waiting to know if I’m still alive or not.” Midnight began making his way out. He was not too far before he heard Gryphem speak.

“You.” Midnight stopped. “Your name. Remind me.”

“My name is Midnight Flare; Midnight for short.”

“Mr. Flare. After this display, I struggle to side with you after killing my advisor. It is a hard sight for a king to see such a thing happen. But, I will heed your advice. I could have very well been wrong about this war. I will take time to look into it.”

“Thank you, sir. I have faith I will trust in your decision.” Midnight left the castle and the city with no one trying to kill him. It was...a positive sight after a long bloody fight; confident that this war had come to an end. He had one final destination in mind. Ponyville. Home. But before home. He had one pony to let know that he was alive first.