The Fall of the Night

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and any of the original characters from the show.  All I own is this idea and my OCs.

Chapter 13: The Siege of Canterlot

Everypony in the city began to gather in the city square.  Night Shadow looked over the large crowd of ponies as he stood on a makeshift stage that was used for speeches in Manehatten.  Night Shadow looked to Twilight as she began to cast her voice enhancing spell.  The spell didn’t take long to cast, so Night Shadow began speaking.

“Everypony, may I please have your undivided attention?!”  Night Shadow’s voiced boomed throughout the square, and the ponies in the square looked up to the black unicorn on the stage.  “Nightmare Moon’s forces are going to attack the city soon,” the ponies in the crowd began to look at each other with worried expressions, “And we are going to let them take the city!”  Most of the ponies took a step back, in shock, at this piece of information.

“For we are going to attack the city of Canterlot,” Night Shadow shouted excitedly.

“How,” asked somepony in the crowd, “There is no way we can get to Canterlot without the enemy attacking us.”

“A very good question,” Night Shadow told the crowd, “with a simple answer.”  The black unicorn began to smile.  “Twilight Sparkle,” Night Shadow pointed a hoof at Twilight and continued, “has found a spell for teleportation large masses that we can use.  Twilight, please explain to the crowd on what the spell is and what it does,” Night Shadow told the purple unicorn.

Twilight took the stage and began speaking in a calm, collected voice, “The spell I have found is called Traveling.  Traveling opens up a portal of sorts and it takes you to the place you want to go to, but you’ve had to have been there before and know it pretty well.”

“So, in simpler terms, she makes a portal to Canterlot,” Night Shadow tells the crowd.  “Back to the matter at hoof, the civilians of the city will be coming with us; they have one of two choices.  The first choice being, you may choose to fight, the other choice is that you may go to Ponyville and stay there until the battle has finished,” The black unicorn told the crowd, “Please get your things as quickly as possible, I want to be out of here before the fighting starts, please meet with one of the soldiers if you would like to fight in The Siege of Canterlot.”  With that Night Shadow left the stage and began to walk to the hospital where his friend was.

Night Shadow walked through the double doors of the hospital and began walking to the room where his friend rested.  Night Shadow walked into the room where Wing Beat was staying at, “Hey, Wing Beat, we’ll be leaving soon.”

Wing Beat looked up at Night Shadow with confusion on his face, and asked, “Why?”

“Because Nightmare Moon is planning on attacking the city, so we are going to take Canterlot while the majority of her troops are ‘attacking’ Manehatten,” Night Shadow told his friend in a happy voice.

“So… it might be over soon?”  Wing Beat asked, hoping this whole thing will be over in the near future.

“Yeah, it might be over soon.”  Night Shadow told his friend in a reassuring voice.  “The reason I came here is because, I want you to stay in Ponyville while the battle takes place, and you’re still too injured to fight.”

Wing Beat looked offended at this statement.  “No, I’m going to fight, I won’t be useless in this battle, I want to fight!”  Wing Beat shouted angrily at his friend.

“No, you’re injured still, and I won’t allow you to kill yourself,” Night Shadow stated calmly to the green pegasus.

“No, I’m going to fight in this,” Wing Beat told his friend in an angry voice, “Even if you tell me not to, I still will.”

Night Shadow cursed to himself, Why did I even tell him what we’re doing, I should’ve known this would happen. I’m so dang stupid, Night Shadow thought to himself.  “Fine, but you have to promise me that you’ll stay away from the main fighting.”

“Fine, I’ll stay away,” Wing Beat lied, something he was taught over his years of thievery.

“Okay, please meet with the one of the guards and tell him that you would like to fight in this battle,” Night Shadow told his friend as he began to walk out of the room, still mad at himself at telling Wing Beat on what he was planning.

Night Shadow began to walk towards the City Hall to start packing the few things that he owned.  He walked through the doors of city hall and looked around the lobby, the lobby was basically empty, only two ponies stood in the lobby ready and they were Twilight and Serenity.

Night Shadow walked over to the two mares and started to talk, “So, are you two ready for this?”  He asked.

The two mares looked at him as if he just asked the dumbest question in the history of Equestria, which he basically did.  “No,” they both said in unison.

“Me neither… as your brother,” Night Shadow pointed to Twilight, “said, ‘nopony is ever ready for war,’” Night Shadow told the two mares, “You know, I just realized something.”

“What,” asked Serenity in a curious voice.

“I’ve never really had a casual conversation with the two of you,” he said to them, “Well, to be honest, I’ve rarely ever had a casual conversation with anypony before.”  The three of them chuckled at this.

“Well, Twi, are we going to go to Ponyville to drop off the civilians and then go to Canterlot?”  Night Shadow asked and with that question the casual conversation was over and now about business.

“Well that’s what I plan on doing, the civilians’ safety is the most important thing right now, I don’t want Nightmare Moon hurting any innocents,” Twilight told Night Shadow.

“Okay, I was thinking that as well,” Night Shadow told the purple mare, “I’ll be right back, I just need to go get my stuff together for the trip.”  The two mares nodded as Night Shadow walked off.

Night Shadow climbed the stairs of the city hall and went to his room.  He didn’t have much; he only had an old cloak, which he had no idea of why he still had with him, his bag of bits, and that was basically it, he had nothing else.  The black unicorn walked down the stairs back to the lobby; back to Twilight and Serenity.

Night Shadow walked down to the lobby and seen the two mares were still by themselves.  He walked over to restart conversation with them.  “Hello, Twi and Serenity,” Night Shadow said in a calm voice.

“Oh,” Serenity quickly exclaimed, “Night Shadow, I have something for you, I forgot to give it to you earlier.”  Serenity’s magic opened up her saddlebag and out floated a small sword.  “It’s something that some of the forgers in Manehatten made, Twilight told me that you didn’t have a weapon, so I asked somepony if they could make you a short sword.”

“Thanks, Serenity,” Night Shadow told the light brown unicorn in a happy voice as his own golden aura began to surround the sword.  The sword itself was fine craftsmanship.

“You’re welcome, Night Shadow,” Serenity told the black unicorn in a happy voice.

Night Shadow hugged Serenity, “No… you have no idea what this means to me… this is the first kindness anypony has shown me, well other than Wing Beat.” Serenity smiled at his words, as tears of happiness stained her coat.

-Outside Manehatten-

Star Shadow looked over the army of ponies, and smiled.  This will be easy, the black pegasus thought to himself.  He looked to the city of Manehatten, I don’t think they’ve even noticed us, Star Shadow put on a wider grin.

“Hey, Star Shadow, are you ready for this,” asked a voice from behind Star Shadow.  Star Shadow turned around and saw Nightfire and Midnight standing there.

“Of course I am,” Star Shadow told them happily, “When have I not been ready for a battle?”  Star Shadow laughed.  “Well then, time to get this over with.”  Star Shadow flared his wings, showing a pair of wing blades he had recently acquired.

Star Shadow looked back at his army and began, “Everypony, it is time to take Manehatten for Nightmare Moon.  If you see the leader, Night Shadow, don’t kill him, I want to have the fun in doing that.”  The army cheered at his words.  “Now then, let’s do this!”  Star Shadow flew into the air and began to fly towards the large city, with his army in pursuit.

Star Shadow flew to the gates of the city and saw no guards near the gate, What is this, he asked himself, confused at why there was no guards at the gates.  Star Shadow flew into the city… it was empty; nopony was in it.

The black pegasus landed in the city square and looked around, nopony was there.  He heard sounds of his army breaking down the gates of Manehatten and storming the city that nopony was in.  Midnight and Nightfire ran up to Star Shadow, with confused expressions on their faces.

“Did anypony leave the city while I was gone?”  Star Shadow asked in a small voice.

“What,” Nightfire asked the black pegasus for he was talking in too small of a voice.

“I asked, did anypony leave the city!”  Star Shadow shouted at his friends, he was furious.

“N-no, we didn’t see anypony leave,” Nightfire quickly said.

“Then how,” Star Shadow asked himself, “how are they NOT here?”

“I-I don’t know,” Midnight said in a quick voice, scared of her long time friend.

-Ponyville-

“So, you’ll take them?”  Night Shadow asked Mayor Mare in a relieved tone.

“Yes, we will take the refuges of Manehatten,” the mayor told the black unicorn and his friends.

“Thank you, miss mayor,” Night Shadow told her as he began to walk off, “Now, I must take my leave.”

Night Shadow walked outside the small village of ponies, the Battle of Ponyville took a large toll on Ponyville, but they were doing their best at restoring it.  The black unicorn saw Serenity and the rest of the ponies of Manehatten, the ones who wanted to fight.

“Okay everypony, it is time to fight.  I would ask you ‘are you ready’ but nopony is ever ready for war,” Night Shadow said somberly.  “Twilight, Serenity, please take us to Canterlot,” Night Shadow told the two mares as they powered up their spells.

Soon two portals stood in front of him, “Now then, let’s do this.”  Night Shadow walked through the portal with his new sword drawn.

-Canterlot-

A battle raged on inside the capital city of Equestria; ponies fought everywhere, while civilians tried to hide from the fighting, but many were unsuccessful.  Night Shadow, Wing Beat, Serenity, Twilight, and the other elements of Harmony stayed together during the battle, waiting for their armies to cut a clean path to the castle.

The rebel army did just that, Nightmare Moon’s army was quick to recover from the surprise attack, but they were still losing great numbers of ponies to the well prepared rebels.

Night Shadow looked at the fighting, How did Equestria turn into this, he asked himself sadly, as he remembered how Equestria used to be, it wasn’t the best, but it was better than this.  He remembered a time when he was in the streets with his best friend, stealing from the ponies of Canterlot; he remembered a time of peace.

An earth pony to Night Shadow’s left lunged at him with a short sword in his mouth; Night Shadow sidestepped the attack and brought his own sword down onto the pony’s back.   The earth pony screamed in pain as he fell to the ground, Night Shadow put his sword at the back of the pony’s neck and hesitated.  He felt the sword force itself down through the pony’s neck against his own will.  He took a step back in surprise and looked back at his companions; Twilight’s horn was glowing.  He looked at the purple unicorn in shock.

“What, you weren’t going to go it, so I did it for you,” she said with hatred in her eyes as she trotted past Night Shadow.  Night Shadow looked at Twilight with sadness, This world has taken another one of my friends, he thought sadly to himself as a tear went down his left cheek.  Serenity put a hoof around him and nuzzled him.  He looked to the light brown unicorn mare and smiled, “Thanks, Serenity,” he told her as more tears went down his face.  The other ponies in his group were horrified at what Twilight had done, especially Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.  Night Shadow gave the other ponies a sad smile.

Night Shadow walked after Twilight at a slow pace.  Twilight was firing at the enemy with her magic, killing them.  What has this world done to her? Night Shadow asked himself.

The battle raged on, through the entire city.  Dead bodies were everywhere, littering the streets, Night Shadow and his friends slowly made their way to the castle.

The group of ponies looked at the doors of the castle, Night Shadow, Serenity, and Twilight used levitation to open the huge double doors.  The group of ponies walked into the castle that once was the home of Princess Celestia.  The castle was stunning; Nightmare Moon may have taken over the kingdom, but she has done nothing too drastic with the castle, it was basically the same, but the golden sun banners were replaced with dark purple banners with the moon on them.

The ponies walked through the castle, it was strangely empty.  Not a single guard in sight, the nine ponies walked through the castle until they got to the most likely place Nightmare Moon would be, or in simpler terms, the throne room.

The nine ponies walked into the throne room, and there on top of a large, black as night, throne was a dark purple mare, with a mane that looked like the night sky itself, and to top it all off, she was wearing jet black armor.  It was Nightmare Moon.

“So, I take it that you are the leaders of the rebels?”  Nightmare Moon asked in a calm, uninterested voice.

“Yes, we are!”  Shouted a furious Twilight, as she stomped a hoof on the ground, “and we’re here to stop you!”

The mare on the throne laughed at Twilight’s exclamation, “You think that you, a lowly bunch of ponies, can defeat me, a goddess!”  She shouted at the ponies in the room and then began to laugh hysterically.  “And look at that, you even brought your worthless elements of harmony with you, why did you even bring them, you’re too weak to defeat me, a goddess!”  She continued to laugh.

“We will defeat you Nightmare Moon, we have the elements, and they aren’t useless,” Night Shadow shouted at the ruler of the night.  “If you’re so sure about them being useless then let us use the elements on you.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer, young unicorn,” Nightmare Moon scoffed.

Night Shadow smiled at what the alicorn had said, she was overconfident, and overconfidence can kill.  He looked at the Elements of Harmony behind him and said, “Do it.”

Night Shadow backed away from the elements, for he was unsure what would happen to him if he was caught in the crossfire of their attack.  The five of the six elements pulled out and put on necklaces that resembled their cutie marks, while Twilight put a crown on top of her head.

The elements flew into the air, Night Shadow, Serenity and Wing Beat watched in awe.  Multicolored light began to surround them; the lights then turned into a rainbow firing directly at the alicorn on the throne.  Nightmare Moon was laughing as the elements attacked her, she, thinking surely that they would fail again, wasn’t worried about the elements purging her of her dark, internal forces.

Soon she realized that the elements were working on her, she began to scream, “What?! No, you’re supposed to fail again, I’m supposed to win!” She thrashed about on the throne, scared out of her mind at what was happening.

A light enveloped the room, blinding everypony in it and then a large explosion.