The Fall of the Night

by Stahl

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Adventure
Length: 23332

Twilight was shocked when the Elements of Harmony didn't work against Nightmare Moon. Now Nightmare Moon has won, the Elements of Harmony have lost, now it is up to one pony and his rebellion against the tyrannical Nightmare Moon.

Twilight was shocked when the Elements of Harmony didn't work against Nightmare Moon. Now Nightmare Moon has won, the Elements of Harmony have lost, now it is up to one pony and his rebellion against the tyrannical Nightmare Moon. Will he be victorious, or will Nightmare Moon be the victor. Rated T for violence.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-08 03:04:37 UTC

Chapter 1: The Black Unicorn

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  All I own is this idea, and my OCs (which appear this chapter XD yay!)

Chapter 1: The Black Unicorn

- 1 month later-

A stallion with a brown worn cloak walked out of a rather large forest.  It has been night for about one full month now, the stallion thought as he pulled down the hood of his cloak, reveling that he was a unicorn with a black coat, a silver mane, and golden eyes.

The unicorn saw a glow of a town in the distance.  It was a rather large town.  I might be able to have my next meal there the unicorn thought with a hunger, as he started walking towards the town.

For the last month life has been rougher for him, heck he even had a rough life before the ‘eternal night’ began.  The unicorn had grown up on the streets of Canterlot with no home or family all he had was his one and only friend, Wing Beat.  Wing Beat was a pegasus with a dark green coat, a light blue mane, and one green eye the other blue.

Wing Beat was in the same position as the unicorn was in, no family and no home, the two had resorted to crime to eat and get their ‘own’ money.  Wing Beat wasn’t around anymore… Wing Beat betrayed him to a gang of ponies… the gang of ponies almost killed him… ever since that fateful day Night Shadow had never trusted another pony in the world… it’s hard seeing your best friend betray you.

As the unicorn entered the town he noticed that other ponies were working, something he hadn’t done in a long time.  Maybe he could didn’t have to resort to crime here. Maybe.

As he walked to where the market is he noticed a mare with an orange coat, a blonde mane, a cutie mark of three apples and Stetson on.  He walked over to her stand and looked at her and asked, “May I have two apples please?”

The mare looked at him and thought I’ve never seen this stallion before…he’s probably new ta Ponyville… well soon there’s going ta be another welcomin’ party from Pinkie Pie.  The mare looked at the unicorn and said “Sure it would be two bits, but since you’re new ta Ponyville an all, ah’ll give ya two on the house and by the way the name’s Applejack.”  Said the mare in a southern accent shaking his hoof.

“Umm… thanks my name is Night Shadow.”  The unicorn named Night Shadow told the mare named Applejack.  Night Shadow was never shown this much kindness from a pony before; at Canterlot he was treated like trash, like he wasn’t even a living pony.  “And how do you know that I’m new to Ponyville?”

“Well ah’ve never seen ya before and ya have more of a Canterlot accent, like Twilight’s.”  Applejack told Night Shadow with a smile on her face.  “Since ya new an all where are you staying?”

“Well I haven’t thought of that… I’ll probably stay out on the street since I really don’t have any money or home.”  Night Shadow told Applejack.

“Ya don’t have ta stay out here on the cold an hard street, ya can stay in mah family’s barn.  Ah’m sure Big Macintosh and Granny Smith won’t mind.”  Applejack stated with a smile on her face.

Wow I’ve only been here for about an hour and I’ve already got food and an offer for a place to stay; something doesn’t seem right about this...  Thought Night Shadow.  “Umm… sorry, but I’d like to find my own place for the night.”

“Well we really don’t have too many places for newcomers here… we usually don’t get too many visitors here…”  Applejack told Night Shadow.  “That’s why ah offered ya to stay in mah barn, but if you don’t want to its okay.”  Applejack was confused about how Night Shadow turned down her offer.

“Well is there an inn or a place for travelers here?”  Night Shadow asked.

“But ah thought ya said ya didn’t have any money…”  Applejack questioned Night Shadow.

“Well I don’t, but…” Dang, how can I say this without me looking like a jerk? Night Shadow thought to himself unsure on what to say.

“Well if ya need a place to stay just ask me.  Ah could show you around Ponyville an ya could meet my friends.”  Applejack offered.

It would be pretty good to learn what this town has in it… but I don’t completely trust Applejack… and I probably never will… what if she tried to kill me or if she tried to rob me of the things I had or… or… or… do some other unspeakable horror to me.  “I uhh…”  But on the contrary getting to know the town would be a good strategic move… “I guess I’ll accept your offer to show me around Ponyville…”  Night Shadow said hoping he wouldn’t regret it…

Applejack first took Night Shadow to a library.  At the library he met a fellow unicorn, but she had a purple coat, violet eyes, and darker purple hair with a bright pink highlight in it.  There he also met a small dragon who had purple scales with green spines on his tail, back, and head.

“Hi Night Shadow, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and this is Spike.”  The purple coat said to him with a smile on her face.  “So, what brings you to Ponyville?”

Can I trust these ponies? Night Shadow thought to himself. I don’t know… they seem friendly enough… but what if they betray me like Wing Beat did.  Night Shadow was unsure about this…  Could this place actually have ponies that are this nice…? It doesn’t seem possible.

“Umm… well I really don’t know why I’m here… I’m mainly just passing through.”  Night Shadow told Twilight, Applejack, and Spike

“So, where are ya goin’?” Applejack asked the stallion.

“No where really… I’m just looking for food and shelter here for now…”  Night Shadow told them.

“I told ya you could stay in mah family’s barn.”  Applejack stated with a large smile on her face.

“No thank you.”  Night Shadow said with a nervous look on his face.  “I’d hate to be a bother.”

“It wouldn’t be a problem.  Big Macintosh an Granny Smith wouldn’t mind either.”  Applejack told Night Shadow.

“Why are you offering me to stay in your family’s barn?  We only just met today.”  Night Shadow told Applejack with a puzzled look on his face… these ponies are so kind… Night Shadow thought to himself.

“Well it’s because we’re friends, right Night Shadow?”  Applejack asked.

“Friends…”  Night Shadow said with a frown on his face.

“What’s wrong, Sugarcube?”  Applejack asked noticing the frown on the unicorn’s face, puzzled by it.

“No… this can’t be happening…”  Night Shadow mumbled to himself.

“What was that?  You need to speak a little louder.”  Twilight told him.

“NO!”  Night Shadow shouted with fear coming to his face at the thought of friends.  This can’t be happening… It just can’t.  Night Shadow thought running out into the darkness of the eternal night.

“What just happened?”  Twilight asked Applejack shocked at what had happened.

“Ah don’t know.  What in tarnation had gotten in to him?”  Applejack asked just as confused.

Chapter 2: The Flashback

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Star Shadow (you’ll soon see who he is), or any of mlp’s original characters.  All I own is this idea and my own OCs like Night Shadow and Wing Beat.

Chapter 2: The Flashback

Night Shadow ran until he could run no more, the unicorn ended up at a large lake.  Friends… no I can’t have friends… thought the stallion.  They’ll betray me just like Wing Beat did.  Wing Beat what happened between us…

- Flashback: 10 years ago-

A young unicorn colt walked down a busy street of Canterlot, and the colt had a dirty jet black coat and a dirty silver mane.  I’m so hungry. The colt thought to himself as his empty stomach growled.  How can I get some food?  Umm… I could get a job, but I’m too young to get a job… nopony would hire me.

That leaves only one other option… I must steal from some other pony.  He thought not liking the idea of stealing anything.  Should I steal food or bits?  The colt asked himself unsure on what to do.  I should just steal some bits, so I can buy the food.  The colt decided.

The colt continued to walk in the busy streets of the city.  While walking he seen a vendor at a stand selling oats.  The colt noticed a small coin purse on the stand, the unicorn colt started to watch from a distance waiting for the right time to steal the bits in the small bag on the stand.

When the vendor looked away, the small colt ran up to the stand, and stole the small purse from the vendor’s stand.  Unfortunately for the colt the vendor looked around and saw the colt stealing the bits in the purse, the colt ran for his life.

“Hey kid get back here!”  Shouted the vendor who started running after the colt.  The unicorn ran into an alleyway and found that it led to a dead end.  The vendor with an angry look on his face started walking towards the small unicorn.  “I’ll teach you what happens when you try to steal from me.”

The colt had a look of pure horror on his young face.  “Please mister!  Please don’t hurt me, I need this money!” The unicorn pleaded with the vendor.  Tears started to run down the colts face.

“Well if you didn’t want me to hurt you then you shouldn’t have stolen from me in the first place.”  The vendor said with a look of disgust on his face.  The vendor started getting closer to the unicorn, the unicorn tried to back away, but it was all in vain.  The colt had nowhere to go.

The older pony walked up to the colt and hit him across the face with his hoof.  The colt fell to the ground in pain.  The vendor began to kick the colt while he was on the ground.  The colt felt pain everywhere in his body as the vendor continued to beat him.

After what seemed like hours, the vendor stopped and looked down at the colt with a look of pity upon his face.  “I’ll let you keep the bits you stole from me this one time, but if I catch you stealing from me again, I will kill you.”

The small unicorn looked at the older pony with pure horror on his face not wanting to be hurt anymore.  The vendor galloped away from where the colt laid in pain in the alleyway.

The colt blacked out.

- 2 Days Later-

The small colt awoke in a small bed, not knowing what had happened.  Then it all came back to him in a flash… the money, the vendor, and the pain.

The colt opened his eyes and saw that he was in a small room of an old run down house, the bed he was on even looked worn.  The colt had realized that he was somehow taken here and was cared for by somepony.  The colt looked around for the bits he had stolen; luckily he quickly found them on a small table on the left side of the bed.

A pegasus around his age walked into the room, and seen that the young unicorn has awoken, but the unicorn just laid in bed with his eyes open staring at the ceiling.  The colt looked at the pegasus who had walked into the room seeing that the pegasus had a dark green coat, a light blue mane, and one green eye the other blue.  The pegasus started walking towards the bed where the unicorn lay.  The colt accidently rolled out of the other side of the bed trying to stay away from the pegasus.

“Are you okay?” The pegasus laughed with a smile on his face.

“Umm… yeah…” The unicorn replayed to the pegasus.  The unicorn looked scared of the pegasus who had walked into the room.  The pegasus walked closer to the colt on the floor.  “Please don’t hurt me.”  The unicorn didn’t want to get hurt any more than he had.

“I won’t hurt you, silly.  It’s actually thanks to me that you’re in that bed right now.  And by the way I’m Wing Beat, what’s your name?”  Wing Beat told the unicorn with a smile on his face.

“Umm… I’m… I’m Night Shadow.”  Said the unicorn in a shy voice afraid of Wing Beat.

As time went on the two ponies became the best of friends.  They both were orphans from a fire that had happened four months before they met.  They stole from other ponies to survive and that is when Night Shadow gained his cutie mark, it was a coin purse with a hole in it.  It had a small knife lying next to it and there were seven coins out of the bag.  Two of the coins had an earth pony, another two had pegasi and the last three all had unicorns on them.

The two ponies grown up together like brothers in the streets of Canterlot; until that one fateful night…

-Two months before Night Shadow came to Ponyville-

“Hey Night Shadow I have something to tell you.”  Wing Beat said to Night Shadow with an unemotional face.

“What is it?”  Night Shadow asked his friend with curiosity on his face.

“Well do you know the tale of Nightmare Moon?”  Wing Beat asked.  Night Shadow knew the tale, but it was just an old legend, nothing important.

“Yeah… where are you going with this?”  Asked Night Shadow confused on why Wing Beat brought up the legend.

“Well you see Nightmare Moon is real.  She spoke to me in my dreams saying that she would be brought back on the next Summer Sun Celebration to take over Equestria and destroy anypony who defies her.”  Wing Beat said with passion in his voice.  “She even asked me to join her…”

“What did you say?”  Night Shadow asked with a frown on his face.

“Well… I agreed to her offer!”  Wing Beat shouted in pride happy that he had joined the evil mare.

“WHAT!?”  Night Shadow shouted in shock…  Why would he do that…? Princess Celestia is a great leader… even if we aren’t well off she is amazing.  Why would he betray our princess?

“What are you surprised that I joined Nightmare Moon.  It was a very logical choice; she offered me everything I can dream of.  This is the chance we’ve been waiting for, we can stop stealing and we will get very well paid, we even get our own sweet in the castle.”  Wing Beat said with excitement trying to convince his friend to join the mare in the moon.  “What do you say; we would be living large with her as our leader.”

“No… I’m sorry Wing Beat, but something is wrong about her… I just don’t trust her as the ruler for Equestria… Princess Celestia is the best leader we could ask for…”  Night Shadow told his friend.  Wing Beat had a furious look on his face after Night Shadow rejected the idea.

“WHAT DID PRINCESS CLESTIA EVER DO FOR US!? HUH!? EXCALTLY SHE DID NOTHING FOR US; SHE’S JUST SOME STUCK UP RULER WHO THINKS SHE SOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN THE REST OF US!?”  Wing Beat shouted at his one and only friend.

“Wing Beat, Nightmare Moon is evil.  She’s just using you to get herself an army to take over Equestria, and after she’s done you’ll be nothing more than a pawn.”  Night Shadow stated calmly at his friend not wanting to get angry at his friend.

“SHE’S A LOT BETTER THAN THAT PRINCESS CELESTRIA, WHY DON’T YOU SEE THAT!?”  Asked Wing Beat.

“Wing Beat… it just doesn’t seem right for an evil mare to rule the country…”  Night Shadow told his friend.  “Please don’t do this…”

“FINE BE THAT WAY! WE’RE NOT FRIENDS ANYMORE!  STAY WITH YOUR PREIOUS PRINCESS!”  Wing Beat shouted at his former friend as he ran out the door of the very same house Night Shadow had met Wing Beat ten years ago.

“WING BEAT, WAIT!”  Night Shadow shouted after his friend… but it was too late, he was gone.

-10 days later-

Night Shadow walked down an old area of Canterlot, still thinking about what had happened ten days ago.

“HELP!”  Somepony screamed from the shadows.  Night Shadow heard the plea for help and he started running towards the origin.  The origin of the scream was in a dark alleyway, unsure about it the unicorn walked into the alley.

“Hello?  Anypony there?”  Night Shadow asked out loud looking for the pony who shouted for help.

“Hi Night Shadow, long time no see.”  Said a pony walking out of the shadows in the alleyway, the pony that had walked out had a jet black coat, brown eyes, a maroon mane, and wings.  “It’s nice to see you again… brother.”

Night Shadow stood there in shock… No this can’t be… my brother, Star Shadow, had died in the fire ten years ago with my parents… this can’t be him.  “You’re not Star Shadow, he died ten years ago in the same fire who killed my family… unfortunately he was in the house with my mother and father.”  But… he does look a lot like Star Shadow… NO… it can’t be he died years ago.

“Silly little brother… I didn’t die.  Mom thought it was getting late and she told me to go look for you.  I was not able to find you though, so I came back to the house and saw that it was nothing but ashes.”  Star Shadow told his younger brother.

“What do you want from me?”  Asked Night Shadow.  “Why are you here?”

“Well according to my new friend, you turned down Nightmare Moon’s offer.  We’re here to teach you a lesson.”  Said Star Shadow with an evil smile on his face.  “Come on out guys.”  Star Shadow then motioned for someponies.  Three other ponies walked out of the darkness… one of them was Wing Beat his former friend.

“Wing Beat what are you doing?”  Asked Night Shadow as soon as he seen his former friend.

“Well apparently Nightmare Moon had spoken to some other ponies and had us form an organization… and like your brother said we are here to kill you.”  Wing Beat said with a twisted smile on his face.

“Wing Beat you can’t do this.  We’re friends not enemies!  Nightmare Moon is controlling you!”  Night Shadow shouted at Wing Beat trying to convince him Nightmare Moon was evil.

“No, younger brother.  Nightmare Moon is our savior, and she will have revenge on all of Equestria, and we will be at her side taking our revenge against the world!”  Star Shadow shouted at Night Shadow.  “You and your Princess Celestia will fall.  Get him guys!”

All six of the ponies pounced on Night Shadow beating him and beating him, when they thought he was dead the ponies walked off.  Night Shadow laid there in pain worse pain than when the vendor beat him.  Night Shadow blacked out.

-The Following Day-

Night Shadow awoke in a hospital.  He looked around and saw a doctor walk into the room.  “Ah, mister Shadow it seems that you have awoken.  When we found you we thought you were dead, but, lucky for you, you are still alive.”  The doctor told Night Shadow.

The following week Night Shadow was released from the hospital.  He went back to his house, and grabbed his brown cloak, a nice amount of bits, and set out to go somewhere, anywhere, other than Canterlot.

-Reality-

Tears formed in Night Shadow’s eyes as he remembering what had happened between him and his old friend.  Applejack and Twilight watched him from a nearby bush.  “I’m gonna go over there an see what’s the matter with him.”  Applejack whispered to Twilight.

“I want to go over there with you Applejack; I want to know what happened to him as well.”  Twilight whispered back to her friend.

“Okay, but rememba we got ta do it quietly we don’t want ta scare him like how we did earlier.

The two ponies tiptoed over to where Night Shadow was laying.  “Are ya ok sugarcube?”  Applejack asked in a soothing voice.

“Ahh, don’t hurt me!”  Night Shadow shouted in fear of Twilight and Applejack.

“It’s okay we won’t hurt you.”  Twilight said in a soothing voice like Applejack had.  “Why would we hurt you?  Why are you afraid of us? And why did you run from us when we said that we were your friends?”  Twilight asked the black unicorn with curiosity on her face wanting to know what his explanation was for what had happened.

“That’s what they all say!  They say they won’t hurt me!  But then they turn around and stab me in the back!”  Night Shadow shouted at Twilight and Applejack.  “All of you your all the same, you’ll stab somepony in the back if they don’t do what you want them to do!  All ponies do, and you know it!”

“We’re not like that, sugarcube.”  Applejack said in a calm voice, “We’d never do that ta any pony.”

“Yeah, come on Night Shadow be reasonable.”  Twilight said with a calm voice, “What happened to you to make you not want to have friends or trust anypony.”

“Do you really want to know?”  Night Shadow asked, not really wanting to tell the story.

“Yes, we do.”  Twilight told the unicorn with curiosity on her face.

“Fine here it goes…”  Night Shadow told the two innocent ponies.

The unicorn began to tell the story of what had happened to him.  As he got to the more violent parts Applejack and Twilight had looks of pure horror on their faces.  As he finished Twilight said with tears coming to her eyes, “You poor thing, how could anypony go through something like that... we’d never do something like that to anypony…”

“It’s okay to be friends with us… we’d never do anything like that ta you…”  Applejack told the black unicorn.  “And how could ya own brother do that ta ya?”

“I don’t know… but he did…”  Night Shadow had more tears streaming down his face.  “I’m sorry I ran from you in the library… I was just scared of having… friends.”

“It’s okay sugarcube, we understand.”  Applejack told Night Shadow, “Friends?”  She asked while holding out her hoof to have Night Shadow shake it.

“Umm… friends.”  Said Night Shadow with an unsure look on his face while shaking her hoof.

-Canterlot Castle-

Wing Beat walked into the throne room and saw Nightmare Moon sitting in her newly acquired throne.  “You called for me, my lady.”  Wing Beat told his mistress.

“Yes I have, it seems that your little friend is still alive.”  Nightmare Moon told her newly appointed commander.

“No that cannot be I killed him around two months ago, there is no way he could’ve survived…”  Wing Beat told Nightmare Moon.  I would’ve sworn I killed him.

“Well apparently you didn’t otherwise he wouldn’t be in Ponyville, at least that’s what my sources saw, a black unicorn with a silver mane and golden eyes.”  Nightmare Moon told her subject in strong voice.

“That’s him…”  Wing Beat told his mistress in a timid voice.  “What would you like me to do about it?”

“Why, kill him of course.  I’ll even give you enough troops to destroy Ponyville.”  Nightmare Moon said with a twisted smile on her face.

“As you command, my lady.  The assault on Ponyville will begin soon.”  Wing Beat told Nightmare Moon, “This time he will die.”

Chapter 3: New Friends

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Star Shadow, and any character originally from MLP.  All I own is this idea, and my OCs.

Chapter 3: New Friends

“So Night Shadow, are ya goin’ ta cept my offer ta stay at my barn?”  Applejack asked hoping her new friend would accept her offer.

“Umm… sure, I guess.”  Night Shadow told Applejack still unsure that he should trust his new friends.  The three ponies walked to Sweet Apple Acres, so Night Shadow could stay in Applejack’s family’s barn.

When the three ponies walked into the barn it was completely dark, after the three walked into the barn lights turned on and they heard many ponies shout out, “WELCOME TO PONYVILLE!”  with a happiness in their voices; something that was rare ever since Nightmare Moon took the throne.

A bright pink mare with a pink mane bounced up to Night Shadow and said in a really happy voice, “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie!  What’s your name?  Where are you from?  What brings you to Ponyville?”  Pinkie Pie sure is one odd pony… Night Shadow thought while Pinkie shook his hoof way too fast.

“Pinkie, this is our new friend, Night Shadow.  He’s been through a lot… please don’t ask him so many questions.”  Twilight told Pinkie Pie with a frown on her face.  “Night Shadow this is our friend Pinkie Pie, come on I’ll show you our other friends” More friends huh…

Night Shadow, Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie walked through the crowd of ponies until they saw three new ponies.  A pony with a cyan coat and rainbow colored mane walked up to Night Shadow and said, “Hi, I’m Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in all of Equestria.”  Rainbow Dash said in raspy voice shaking his hoof.  This one is a little over confident in her abilities.

“I’m Night Shadow it’s nice to meet you too.”  Night Shadow still had a frown on his face unsure on what to do with so many friends…

“Hello darling, I am Rarity. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  Said a white pony with a neatly brushed purple mane, with a smile on her face.  She sounds like one of the nobles from Canterlot…

“Umm… hello… I’m… Fluttershy…  It’s umm… nice to meet you.”  Said a yellow mare with a light pink mane told Night Shadow in a timid voice.

Can I trust these four I’ve just met… they do seem nice like Twilight and Applejack were… but Wing Beat was nice until about two months ago.

“So umm… Night Shadow what brings to Ponyville…?  If you don’t mind me asking.”  Fluttershy asked Night Shadow in a quiet timid voice with a look of curiosity on her face.

Night Shadow had a troubled face on and tears in his eyes after she had asked that question.  “Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to upset you… is it really that bad?”  Fluttershy asked.

“It’s okay Fluttershy… my past just brings up painful memories.”  Night Shadow told the yellow mare with a sad look on his face.

“Cheer up silly, it’s a party!”  Pinkie Pie told Night Shadow trying to cheer him up, and it worked.

“You’re right, Pinkie, thanks.”  Night Shadow told his new friend with a small smile on his face.

The ponies partied into the night, having a good time laughing, dancing and playing games.  Is this what it’s like having friends?

-Canterlot Dungeons-

Shining Armor looked out of his cell at the guards outside.  “Did you here?  There’s going to be an assault on Ponyville.”  One of the guards said to another.  WHAT!?  Ponyville is going to be attacked.  Thought Shining Armor in shock, Twilight’s there… I have to warn her somehow, but first off how do I get out of this cell?

“Yeah I heard, it’s supposed to happen in three days, right?”  The other guard asked the first one.

“No it’s going to be in four days.  The army still needs time to prepare themselves.”  The other guard replied to his coworker.  I’ve got it… I need to act like something is happening to me and then I can take out the guard and get out of here. Shining Armor thought to himself.

Shining Armor shouted, “Help!  I’m injured!”  Holding one of his legs to act like he was truly injured.

“Hey, you want to go help him?”  The first guard asked to the other, not really wanting to help the stallion.

“Sure I guess…”  The other guard started to walk to the cell where Shining Armor acted to be hurt.  When the guard got there he looked into the cell and asked, “What’s wrong, kid?”

“I… I think I broke my leg!”  Shining Armor shouted out in ‘pain’.

“Okay, stay there let me have a closer look.”  The guard unlocked the cell and started to walk into the cell, this guard clearly wasn’t the brightest of the bunch.  As the guard walked in Shining Armor bucked the stallion in the face knocking the guard out cold.

“Well that was easier than I expected…”  Shining Armor whispered to himself.  The white unicorn stole the keys from the unconscious guard and he closed the cell and locked it.  Luckily before he was posted commander of the guard he was a dungeon guard, so he knew the dungeons like the back of his hoof.

Shining Armor quickly found the way out and into the cold night air.  Now here comes the hard part… getting out of Canterlot and getting to Ponyville in enough time to warn everypony.

-One Day Later-

Shining Armor looked at the rather large town that was called Ponyville, as he began walking towards it.  Finally… he thought to himself.  When he got to the town he seen ponies working like they would everyday… thanks to the letters Twilight sent him he knew where Twilight lived at, in the library.

It didn’t take long to find the library of Ponyville, as he walked in Twilight saw him and shouted, “Shining Armor, I thought you were in the dungeons of Canterlot… how did you escape!”

He was also happy to see his little sister, but his face grew serious when he remembered what the two guards were talking about.  “Twilight, it a long story, but the important thing is, is that Nightmare Moon is planning on attacking Ponyville in three days from now.”

“WHAT!?”  Twilight asked in a shocked voice at what Shining Armor had said.

“It’s true Twilight Ponyville is going to be attacked by Nightmare Moon’s army… but we can still fight!”  Shining Armor told Twilight with confidence.

“We need to call a meeting immediately.”  Twilight told to Shining Armor.  The two unicorns set out to city hall so they could talk to the mayor about the threat to Ponyville.   When they walked into city hall they saw the mayor’s secretary behind a good sized desk.  “How may I help you?”  Asked the secretary.

Shining Armor was the first one to speak.  “We need to see the mayor, it’s a an emergency.”

The secretary could tell that the stallion wasn’t lying and told him, “Yes sir, she will see you right away.”  The secretary then left into another room and came out about ten minutes later and told the two unicorns, “The mayor is in there, and she wants to see you immediately.”

With that said the two unicorns walked into the mayor’s office.  “What is this emergency?”  The mayor asked with a worried expression on her face.

“Nightmare Moon is preparing to attack Ponyville.”  Shining Armor told the mayor with an unemotional look on his face, while the mayor gasped in shock at the news.  “We need to fight back against Nightmare Moon, I heard that she will attack in three days from now, but we also need to have a town meeting so we can warn everypony of this attack.”

“Okay, we will have a town meeting; meet me here in two hours.”  The mayor told Shining Armor and Twilight, who was silent through the whole meeting with the mayor letting her older brother speak.

“Okay, I’ll see you then.”  Shining Armor said to the mayor as he and Twilight walked out of the mayor’s office.

-2 Hours Later-

Outside city hall everypony from Ponyville, including Night Shadow, stood waiting for the mayor to begin the meeting.  The mayor, Twilight, and Shining Armor walked out of city hall looking at the crowd with grim faces.  “Citizens of Ponyville,” Shining Armor said to the crowd of ponies.  “I hate to say this, but Ponyville will be attacked in three days by Nightmare Moon.”

The ponies in the crowd gasped at the horrible news, a few of them even fainted.  “We must fight back!”  Shining Armor shouted in confidence. “We will not let Nightmare Moon destroy our homes and kill our families!”

“YEAH!” Shouted most of the ponies in the crowd.

“But, first we must plan a strategy to stop the forces Nightmare Moon is sending at us!”  Shining Armor continued his speech.  “First we need six groups, two of unicorns, two of pegasi, and two of earth ponies.  Then we will need a leader for each group, I will lead one of the unicorn groups, but we still need more!  Any volunteers?”

“I’ll lead the other unicorn group!”  Shouted out Night Shadow who was in the back of the crowd.  “Even though I’m not from here I don’t want to see your homes get destroyed and anyway I owe Nightmare Moon a little payback!”

“Twilight, do you think he’d be a good leader for the other group?”  Shining Armor asked Twilight in a whisper.

“Yes, he deserves the slot.”  Twilight whispered back to her older brother.

“Okay then come on up here!”  Shining Armor shouted to the unicorn he had never met before.  Night Shadow walked onto the stage and Shining Armor said, “I’m Shining Armor, what is your name?”

“Night Shadow!”  Shouted the black unicorn for everypony to hear.

“Night Shadow, you shall lead the other unicorn group, lead it well!  Any other volunteers to lead the other groups?”  Shining Armor again shouted into the crowd.

“I’ll lead one of the pegasus groups!”  Shouted Rainbow Dash.

The leaders were then chosen by Shining Armor, and Twilight.  After about an hour all six leaders stood on the stage.  “The six leaders are, for the unicorns Shining Armor, and Night Shadow, for the pegasi Rainbow Dash and Thunder Cloud, and for the earth ponies Applejack and Caramel.  These are the six commanders of the Battle of Ponyville!”  The mayor shouted in enthusiasm.

“YAY!”  The crowd shouted at the commanders of the Battle of Ponyville.

-The Canterlot Castle-

Star Shadow walked into the throne room where Nightmare Moon sat on her throne.  “Good Star Shadow you’re here, as you’ve probably heard about Shining Armor escaping from the dungeons.”  Nightmare Moon said to the other commander of her army.

“Yes… I’ve heard about it.”  Star Shadow told his new leader not completely knowing what she wants.

“Well I believe he went to Ponyville to warn his ‘friends’ of the attack.  I want you to go with Wing Beat to Ponyville.”  Nightmare Moon told her subject.

“Yes, as you command, your majesty.”  Star Shadow said as he bowed to Nightmare Moon.

“But I want you to do something else.  I want you to personally kill Shining Armor.”  Nightmare Moon said with a twisted smile on her face, “Oh, and one more thing since Shining Armor escaped I want the assault done one day earlier.”

Star Shadow looked at his mistress with a beaming smile on his face and said, “Shining Armor will die at my hoof, him and my brother will.”  Star Shadow started to laugh with a huge smile on his face.

Chapter 4: The Battle of Ponyville

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

Chapter 4: The Battle of Ponyville

-2 hours after the town meeting-

“Okay the first thing we need to do is find a place where the fillies and colts can stay at during the battle.”  Shining Armor stated at the war meeting, “Do any of you know a good place?”

The six leaders, the mayor, and Twilight all thought about this until Twilight exclaimed loudly, “Oh, we can have them stay in the castle where we lost to Nightmare Moon; it’s in the Everfree forest nopony ever goes in there.”

Shining Armor thought it was a very good idea, “Great idea Twilight, but we’ll need at least two adult ponies to help them get there and to make sure they stay where they’re supposed to be at.”  Shining Armor told the seven other ponies in the room.  “Do you know anypony who would want to go with the all the fillies and colts?”

“I’m pretty sure Fluttershy doesn’t want to be in the battle, I think she’d be happy for us to ask her if she’d watch the fillies and colts.”  Twilight said answering Shining Armor’s question, “But I don’t think Fluttershy can do it on her own though.”

“Well we’ll have to ask for more volunteers then.”  Shining Armor told the small group of ponies, “But we’ll discuss that in the near future.  Now we need to talk about what to do when Nightmare Moon attacks.”

The meeting lasted well into the night.  The eight ponies made up their minds and began to prepare for the Battle of Ponyville, but what they didn’t know is that the assault was going to be a day earlier.

-Two Days Later-

The ponies were almost ready for the assault.  They have built barricades for when Nightmare Moon’s forces comes.  The fillies and colts were all in the castle in the Everfree forest with Fluttershy and the other volunteer, Cheerilee, and Shining Armor sent out pegasi scouts to watch the surrounding area.

Shining Armor was in Twilight’s house still sleeping when a knock on the door awoke him.  The white unicorn got up to check on who it was.  When he opened the door he seen one of the pegasi scouts he had stationed throughout the surrounding area.  She had a light blue coat, with a pink mane, and two lightning bolts in a shape of an X for her cutie mark.  “What is it Lightning Fast?”  Shining Armor asked the pegasus.

“It’s Nightmare Moon’s army!  They’re coming here at a fast pace!”  Lightning Fast told Shining Armor with a scared look on her face.

Shining Armor’s face grew serious instantly, “What?!”  Shining Armor shouted out confused.  “Lightning Fast, wake up everypony else and tell them to get ready for an all out attack.”

“Yes, sir!”  Lightning Fast said quickly and flew off to awake the other ponies.

-Two hours Later-

Night Shadow stood at the front of his and Shining Armor’s group with Shining Armor standing right next to him and Twilight was on the other side of Shining Armor.  “Are you ready, Night Shadow?”  Shining Armor asked.

“No.”  Night Shadow replied back to the white unicorn.  “I’m not ready.”

“Me either, nopony is ever ready for war.”  Shining Armor told to Night Shadow with a sad look on his face.

“Sirs, they’re coming!”  Lightning Fast shouted to the two unicorn leaders and sure enough they seen another army marching towards them.

“It’s time…”  Shining Armor mumbled to himself.  “Everypony, get ready here they come!”  Shining Armor shouted at the army with a sad look upon his face.

Nightmare Moon’s forces were getting closer.  Night Shadow looked up and was two ponies leading the army, one with a green coat and the other with a black coat.  “No… it can’t be…”  Night Shadow said to himself shocked at who the leaders were.

“What is it?”  Shining Armor asked Night Shadow with a curious look on his face.

“It’s just that I know the two leaders… the green one was my best friend, Wing Beat, and the black one is my brother, Star Shadow…”  Night Shadow said in a sad voice not wanting to fight his only family left and his old friend.

“What?!”  Shining Armor asked in confusion.  How could Night Shadow’s brother and best friend be in Nightmare Moon’s army?  Not just be in the army, but leaders of it!  Shining Armor thought to himself.

“They betrayed me.  I didn’t want Nightmare Moon to rule… it just felt wrong…”  Night Shadow explained to Shining Armor.

Now Shining Armor understood when Night Shadow said that he owed Nightmare Moon some payback.  “It’s okay, but don’t hesitate… they won’t for you.”  Shining Armor told his new friend.  “Now then let us get started.”  Shining Armor then shouted “CHARGE!”  To all the ponies and they charged towards the opposing army.

The unicorns shot magic; the earth ponies used knives and other quickly made weapons, and same with the pegasi except they were battling in the air.

Night Shadow was in the heat of battle, as were the other five leaders.  Night Shadow killed his first pony that day… it was a light blue earth pony… it was a face he’d never forget.

Night Shadow had many close calls in the battle, but luckily there was another pony to save him.  Shining Armor on the other hand was beside Twilight protecting her and fending off other ponies.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t doing bad in the air, until a familiar face popped up.  It was Star Shadow somepony she hasn’t seen since flight school.  They were very good friends back then, but now he worked for Nightmare Moon the very pony she was defending Ponyville from.

“Well hello there Rainbow Dash, it’s been what twelve years now hasn’t it?”  Star Shadow told his old friend.  “Come on help out your old friend, these ponies don’t deserve to live.  Nightmare Moon is the true leader not Celestia.  Celestia was the true evil one.”

“No, you’re wrong Star Shadow.  Celestia was a great leader.”  Rainbow Dash yelled back at her former friend, as she charged him with all her power.

“Sorry Rainbow Dash, I have no time to play.  I have other things to do.”  Star Shadow said as he flew down towards the crowd of ponies battling.  Rainbow Dash flew after him, but before she could catch up to the other pegasus, she was hit in the side from another pegasus sending her to the ground unconscious, luckily it was on the side where her friends were.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Shining Armor was fending off ponies with the help of his magic, and Twilight was doing the same.  Then out of nowhere a black flash came out of the sky down towards Shining Armor, and the next thing Twilight knew was that her brother was lying on the ground with blood seeping out of his neck and a black pony, who looked a lot like Night Shadow except he had a maroon mane and wings, standing over her brother’s limp body.

“Shining Armor!”  Twilight shouted out in pure horror of what had happened to her older brother.  Star Shadow looked at Twilight and laughed.

“Were you close to Shining Armor?  Well to bad, because now he’s dead!”  Star Shadow laughed with a sickening smile on his face.

Night Shadow heard his brother’s voice and looked toward the source of it and saw Star Shadow standing over Shining Armor’s limp body.  “Brother!”  Night Shadow shouted out at his older brother.  Twilight had a look of horror upon her face at what she saw.  Poor thing, her brother died right in front of her, and now his killer is laughing… this isn’t my brother he was nice a good pony… this can’t be him.

“What happened to you brother?  You used to be one of the nicest ponies around; you’d always help when help was need, or even when it wasn’t!”  Night Shadow shouted at his older brother who was now looking at his younger brother with a smile on his face.

“This world happened to me.  First the world took away mom and dad, and then I was put out on the streets.  The streets showed me no kindness the first pony to show me any kindness was Nightmare Moon.  She saved me from the streets, she is my leader!”  Star Shadow told his younger brother.  “Now then it’s time for you to parish from this world.”  Star Shadow had a sickening smile on his face.

“No!”  Twilight shouted at Star Shadow.  “You killed my brother, I will not let you kill anypony else!  You are an evil, twisted pony!”  Twilight’s horn began glowing with a purple aura.  “You will not get away with this!”  Then a large explosion happened and everything went black.

Chapter 5: The Aftermath

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

Chapter 5: The Aftermath

Night Shadow awoke to a horrible scene, he saw unconscious and dead ponies, but something he didn’t see was Ponyville, it was destroyed.  Night Shadow looked around at his surroundings and he saw a giant crater, with an unconscious Twilight in the middle next to an either dying, or dead Shining Armor.  Night Shadow limped over to where Shining Armor lay.  “Shining Armor?”  Night Shadow asked and in return got no response.  Shining Armor laid on the ground with his eyes opened staring into nothingness.  Night Shadow reached down and closed the white unicorn’s eyes for the last time, and then he saluted and said in a somber voice, “You died a warriors’ death.  I hope you find peace.”

Night Shadow looked for Wing Beat, and Star Shadow, but could not find them anywhere, it’s almost like they disappeared.  He looked back down at the dead body of Shining Armor, and he heard Twilight stir.  Night Shadow looked over at the lavender unicorn with tears in his eyes knowing what feels like to lose family.  “What happened?”  Twilight asked Night Shadow while she looked around at the crater.  Then her world collapsed when she saw Shining Armor’s limp body in a pool of blood.  It all came back to her in a flash, and tears began to stream down her face.

Twilight slowly walked over to where Shining Armor’s dead body lay and asked in a small voice, “Shining Armor?”  When he didn’t respond he asked in a louder voice, “Shining Armor?”  Shining Armor’s body still lay where it originally was when Star Shadow killed him.  “Shining Armor, please wake up?!”  Twilight shouted at her older brother’s dead body; more tears streamed down face as she shouted at her older brother to wake.  When Shining Armor didn’t wake after five minutes Twilight gave up and lay down next to her brother’s body and began to cry.  This is horrible… how could my brother do this?  It’s just not right, Twilight doesn’t deserve this…  Night Shadow thought to himself with tears in his eyes.

Night Shadow looked around, and he saw other ponies waking to Twilight's crying at her brother’s dead body, they all had sad faces.  Night Shadow limped to where Twilight was crying and told her in a weak voice, “Twilight, its okay, he’s in a better place now.”

Twilight looked back with tears heavily streaming down her face and told Night Shadow in a surprisingly strong voice, “Star Shadow will pay for this, he will die by my hooves if it’s the last thing I do.”  Revenge, one of the worst things there is in this place; it took Wing Beat away from me… I won’t let it take my new friend away too.  Night Shadow thought to himself in a somber voice with a frown on his face.

While Twilight laid sobbing at her older brother’s death other ponies began to wake, and they saw their dead leader lying on the ground.  Lightning Fast walked over to where Night Shadow was standing and said in a depressed voice, “Sir, we have won the battle, but we cannot find the two leaders.”

“So you’ve escaped death my old friends.”  Night Shadow thought out loud.

“You know them?”  Lightning Fast asked the black unicorn with a curious look on her face.

“Yes, I have past with both, Wing Beat, the green pegasus, and Star Shadow, the black pegasus.  They serve Nightmare Moon; I on the other hoof serve Celestia.”  Night Shadow told the light blue pegasus with a sad look on his face.

“Oh… it’s okay, I understand.”  Lightning Fast said back to Night Shadow.  “What should we do next, sir?”  She asked in a louder voice.

“Well we should bury the dead ponies, and then we should go to the others in the Everfree Forest.”  Night Shadow commanded.  It took about half the day to bury all of the dead ponies.  Now the crater was a grave yard for everypony who died at the Battle of Ponyville.  The ponies who had survived marched into the Everfree Forest to where everypony else was.

Chapter 6: A Speech

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

Chapter 6: A Speech

It took them about two hours to get to the castle in the Everfree Forest.  As everypony walked in all of the foals looked for siblings, friends, and other family, most ponies survived the battle, but some were not as lucky.  There was foals with smiles and others crying at their lost family or friends who had not returned.

All the ponies in the room were in small groups, either with family or friends.  Night Shadow looked upon everypony in the room with a sad look on his face.  I don’t think these ponies have any fight left in them… Night Shadow thought to himself.  But we need to stop Nightmare Moon, maybe I could convince them to fight with me…

Night Shadow jumped onto a rock letting him see everypony in the room.  “Ponies of Ponyville!”  Night Shadow shouted at everypony in the room getting their attention.  “We must strike back at Nightmare Moon!”  Night Shadow continued on.

“But, Nightmare Moon will kill us, and the ones we love if we try to fight back.”  Said somepony in the crowd.

“She would certainly try, but even if we don’t fight back she will still try to kill us!  For example, she attacked Ponyville for no reason at all!  And if it wasn’t for Shining Armor even more ponies would’ve died today!  He chose to warn us of Nightmare Moon’s attack, and he helped us fight her!  He even died for us!  If we don’t fight back he and the other ponies that died in the Battle of Ponyville would have died in vain!  Who’s with me?!”  Night Shadow shouted at the crowd of ponies.

“I am!”  Shouted Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and, surprisingly, Fluttershy in unison as they all stepped forward.

“Me too!”  Shouted Lighting Fast, as she too stepped forward.

“Anypony else?!”  Asked Night Shadow in a confident voice hoping more ponies would help him defeat the evil who now ruled over Equestria.

“I will!”  Shouted somepony he had never seen.  It was an earth pony who had a bright yellow coat, and a light blue mane.

Many more ponies joined Night Shadow in his rebellion against Nightmare Moon.  Among them were the bright yellow pony, Shining Light, Thunder Cloud, and about fifty other ponies.  This isn’t nearly enough to defeat Nightmare Moon’s army…  I’ll have to get more.  Night Shadow thought to himself.

Lightning Fast walked over to where Night Shadow stood and said in a worried voice, “Sir, this isn’t nearly enough ponies to defeat her… we need more ponies to take down Nightmare Moon and her army.”

Night Shadow looked at the pegasus and told her in a confident voice, “I know that, Lightning Fast.  We will travel across Equestria recruiting more ponies to help take her down.  Nightmare Moon and her army shall fall, including my brother and my old friend.”  Night Shadow looked at Lightning Fast and continued, “We will get an army to destroy her.”

“But sir, what if we don’t get enough ponies?”  Lightning Fast asked in a worried voice, unsure if they will get enough ponies to defeat the tyrant who now rules Equestria.

Night Shadow looked at her with a smile on his face and told her, “We will get enough ponies to defeat her, we are not the only ones who wants to defeat Nightmare Moon.  Haven’t you heard about the uprisings in Manehatten?”

With that news Lightning Fast looked surprised, “What uprisings?!”

It’s big news in Canterlot.  It must’ve not reached this far yet.  Night Shadow thought to himself.  “Well I’ve heard that Manehatten is now completely against Nightmare Moon.”  Night Shadow told his soldier.

The look on Lightning Fast’s face was pure shock, “I… I had no idea…”  Lightning Fast said in a weak voice.

“That is why we’re going to Manehatten first.”  Night Shadow told Lightning Fast.  “Please tell the other ponies to pack up.  We’ll be leaving for Manehatten soon.”  With that Lightning Fast saluted, and flew off towards the ponies that now follow Night Shadow were at.

Night Shadow now led a rebellion against Nightmare Moon, the mare who had brought the eternal night.

-Canterlot Castle-

Wing Beat awoke and saw he was now in the throne room in the Canterlot Castle.  Confused he looked around and he saw an unconscious Star Shadow, and Nightmare Moon sitting on her throne.

“You failed me, Wing Beat.”  Nightmare Moon told the green pegasus in a disappointed voice.  “I thought I could trust you with a task as simple as killing only one pony… Star Shadow killed Shining Armor.”  Nightmare Moon had a look of degust on her face.

“I’m sorry…”  Wing Beat told his leader hoping she would forgive him, but she didn’t.

“Wing Beat, I gave you a task and you failed!  There will be consequences!”  Nightmare Moon yelled at her subject.

I’ll prove to her I’m worth.  I will kill Night Shadow with my own hooves even if it’s the last thing I do.  Wing Beat thought to himself as he began to leave the throne room.

As the pegasus left, Nightmare Moon looked at him and smiled as she thought what she would do to him for failing his task.

Wing Beat walked to his new home in the upper region of Canterlot.  It was a nice home, not too big and not too small.  He lived there with his new marefriend, a beautiful earth pony with a pure white coat, a light purple mane, and deep green eyes, her name is Winter Breeze.

As the green pegasus walked into his new home he saw Winter Breeze cooking a small meal and he said, “I hope that’s enough for both of us.”

Winter Breeze jumped when she heard Wing Beat talk.  She turned around and ran at him giving him a tight hug, and saying, “I’m glad you’re back.”

Wing Beat looked at her and said in a sad voice, “I’ll be going… soon.”  Winter Breeze looked sad at this piece of news he brought her.  “I’m sorry, but it has to happen.”

“Where will you be going?”  Winter Breeze asked Wing Beat with a frown on her face.

“I have a small reunion with somepony I used to call a friend.”  Wing Beat told her.  “Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”

Chapter 7: Old Friends

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

Chapter 7: Old Friends

Night Shadow looked at the fifty ponies who now followed him.  Among them he seen many ponies he knew and many ponies he practically never seen before.  What am I getting these ponies into?  Night Shadow thought to himself.

Lightning Fast walked up to where the black unicorn stood and told him, “Everypony is ready, sir.”

Night Shadow looked at the mare and told her in a monotone voice, “Okay, well it’s time to go.”  The black stallion started in a random direction.

Lightning Fast looked at her commander, and said in a confused voice, “Umm… sir, that’s the wrong direction.”  Night Shadow looked at her with an unamused expression and started walking in the direction of Manehatten.

-Canterlot Castle-

Star Shadow thought about his now orders Nightmare Moon had given him.

¬-Flashback 2 hours ago-

“Star Shadow,” Nightmare Moon to her subject as he awoke.  “You did a good job at killing Shining Armor, even though you lost the battle. But Wing Beat failed his duty to kill Night Shadow, the unicorn who now leads a rebellion against my kingdom.  According to my sources Wing Beat is now going to try to assassinate Night Shadow.”  Nightmare Moon said in a rather uncaring voice.

“I want you to do two things.  First off when Wing Beat leaves I want you to kill Winter Breeze, the only pony Wing Beat cares about, then I want you to kill Night Shadow before he becomes an actual threat.”  Nightmare Moon told him in a monotone voice.

Star Shadow looked at his leader with a smile on his face and said back, “Yes, your majesty, but for the assassination of Night Shadow, I’ll need few more ponies than just me.”

“Oh… who would you like to bring?”  Nightmare Moon asked the pegasus.

“Just a few old friends of mine…”  Star Shadow told her in an upbeat voice.

-Reality-

Star Shadow knocked on the old door.  He heard a voice from inside asking, “Who is it?”  Star Shadow recognized the voice as one of his old friends.

“It’s me, Star Shadow; I have some business we need to attend too, Nightfire.”  Star Shadow told his old friend in a rather happy voice.

Star Shadow heard a lock clink on the other side of the door, and then the door opened revealing a stallion earth pony with a dark red coat, a black mane, orange eyes, a cutie mark of a rather large knife, and a knife strapped to his side where he could reach it without much difficulty.  “What is this business you want me to take care of?”  Nightfire asked in a rather happy tone at getting a new assignment.

“Not you, I want me, you, and Midnight; we have a job to do.”  Star Shadow told his old friend with a sickening smile upon his face.

“All three of us… this must be a pretty big job.”  Nightfire said as he walked out of the door.  “What do we have to do?”

“Nothing too big… all we have to do is kill my little brother, who now leads a rebellion against Nightmare Moon.”  Star Shadow told Nightfire in an upbeat voice.

“Wait, I thought we killed him a couple months ago.”  Nightfire said with a puzzled look on his face.

“Apparently it didn’t do the trick; he lived, but we also have another target, one much easier.”  Star Shadow said.

“When Wing Beat leaves, we are to kill his marefriend, Winter Breeze.”  Star Shadow told him.

“Why is that?”  Nightfire asked with curiosity in his voice.

“Wing Beat failed his task, twice.”  Star Shadow continued with a smile on his face.  “He was supposed to kill Night Shadow.”  Nightfire’s expression turned into a beaming smile.

“Come on, let’s go to where Midnight lives.”  Nightfire said starting to walk away.

The two ponies started to walk to where Midnight lived.  As they approached Midnight’s house they saw Midnight walk out of the old house.  Midnight was a unicorn with a dark blue coat, a jet black mane with a dark blue stripe going through it.  Midnight looked at her old friends and asked, “What are you two doing here?”

“What two old friends can’t come over and visit?”  Nightfire asked in a playful voice.

Midnight scowled at her old friend and said in an unhappy voice, “When I see you two I know its business, so what do you want?”

“Well Nightmare Moon gave us an assignment.  We are to kill Winter Breeze, and my little brother, Night Shadow.”  Star Shadow told Midnight with excitement in his voice.

“I told you he wasn’t dead, but you didn’t listen to me…”  Midnight told them in a stern voice, “Men…”  She then mumbled.

“Well, will you join us?”  Nightfire asked hoping the mare would agree.  Star Shadow, knowing Nightfire still had a huge crush on her, chuckled.

“Sure, I guess.”  She said as Nightfire grinned in excitement.

“Yeah, the trio is back!”  Nightfire shouted in an excited voice.  The perfect assassination team was now assembled.

-Two days later-

“Bye, Winter.”  Wing Beat said to the mare he loved as he walked out the door.  Midnight, Star Shadow, and Nightfire waited outside in a bush waiting for Wing Beat to leave.  They saw him leave and Star Shadow thought to himself, Time to die, Winter Breeze.  A smile came to his face as he thought about what he would do.

The three ponies waited outside in the bush until Winter Breeze went to sleep.  As she entered her room Nightfire pulled out a match and set the house on fire.

-Inside the house-

Winter Breeze awoke to the smell of smoke.  She rolled out of her bed and went to the door and opened it and saw fire down her stairs.  “Ahhhh! Fire!”  She screamed in pure terror.  She ran to the window and saw it was fifteen feet to the ground.  If I jump I’ll be injured, but still alive.  Winter Breeze thought to herself.

She started to back up from the window.  When she got to the other side of the room she galloped to where the window was and jumped through it, breaking the window.  She landed with a loud thump, and two crunches.  “Ahhh!”  She screamed out in pain, she had broken her two front legs.

Star Shadow walked up to her, and smiled as he looked down at her.  “Well it seems that our little pony has jumped through her window, and hurt herself.”

“Please, Star Shadow, help me!”  She shouted out in pain from her broken legs.  Star Shadow then smiled.  What’s going on?  She thought to herself.

“Sorry, Winter Breeze, but we can’t do that.  You see if we did that it would displease Nightmare Moon greatly.”  Star Shadow told as he brought up his hoof with a sickening smile upon his face.

“No, I have served her well!  I’ve done nothing wrong!”  She shouted in fear of her life.

“But your little Wing Beat has.”  Star Shadow told her and she gasped.  Star Shadow brought down his hoof as hard as he could onto her neck killing her.

“Wing… Beat… I’m… sorry…” She said as her last words.  Star Shadow stood there and laughed at what he just done.

-Outside Canterlot-

Wing Beat felt something in his chest.  Something is wrong.  He thought himself as he started walking back towards Canterlot.

-Three days later, outside of Manehatten-

Night Shadow looked at the city’s gates as they approached.  They were now at Manehatten; his plan has begun.

Chapter 8: New Allies

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

Chapter 8: New Allies

Night Shadow looked at the large city; it was even larger than Canterlot.  As his group approached the gates, two guards stopped them and asked in a loud voice, “What business do you have in Manehatten?”

Twilight approached them and said in a calm voice, “We wish to speak to your leader about the rebellion here.”  One of the guards looked at her with a scowl on his face.

“What about the rebellion?  Are you with Nightmare Moon?”  The guard asked her in an untrusting manner.

“We have rebelled against Nightmare Moon ourselves, and we wish to have a meeting with whoever leads this rebellion.”  Twilight told the guards in an even calmer voice.

“How do we know you’re not lying to us?”  One of the guards asked in a dubious voice, “Give us a good reason to believe you.”

“Well for one thing, I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s personal student.”  Twilight said hoping that they have heard of her before.  The guard on the left had a look of confusion, while the guard on the right recognized Twilight, when she told them her name.

“Twilight?”  The guard on the right asked her.  How could I have not seen that this was Twilight earlier?  The guard thought to himself, Well it has been two years since I was transferred here to Manehatten…  “Well, Twilight, I’ll get you a meeting as soon as I can.”  The guard said in a respectful tone.

“Thank you.”  Twilight simply replied.  “Is there a place we all can stay inside the city?”

“Yes and no.”  The guard told her in a strict voice, “Only ten of you can enter the city, the rest will have to wait outside, sorry city policy, but the ten of you who do enter will have to stay until our leader allows you to go out, or if you are actually leaving not just being in your camp with your fellow ponies.”  Twilight nodded at the guards orders.

“Okay.  Night Shadow, who do you think should go in?”  Twilight asked wondering herself who should go in, but Night Shadow was the leader of the group, he should make the decision.

“Well in my opinion I think that you, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Lightning Fast, and I should go in, but I’m not sure about the rest though.”  Night Shadow told Twilight, knowing she would know who else to take with them.

“I really don’t know who else, I personally think that the eight of us will be good enough for the time being.”  Twilight told the black unicorn.

“I’ll show you where she is.”  The guard simply stated, as he started walking towards the inner part of the city.  The eight ponies followed him until they reached the center of Manehatten, and they saw a large building with about six or seven floors.  The guard began to walk up the stairs and, again, the eight ponies followed him.  When they reached the seventh floor the guard knocked on the door and from inside they heard a feminine voice simply say, “Come in.”

The guard opened the door and began to walk inside and the eight ponies were right behind him.  Inside the room they saw a unicorn mare with a light brown coat, a curly orange mane, cyan eyes, and a cutie mark of a six pronged star inside of a heart.  “Hello…”  The guard whispers something in her ear, “Twilight Sparkle, I am Serenity, the leader of the rebellion in Manehatten.”  The light brown unicorn mare told Twilight.

“Hello Serenity, as you already know, I am Twilight.  The ponies behind me is my group; the black unicorn, Night Shadow, is the leader of our rebellion.  We are here to make allies with you and your rebellion here, so we have a better chance of taking down Nightmare Moon.”  Twilight told her in a simply yet dignified voice.

Night Shadow bows to Serenity and says, “Hello, like my friend said, I am Night Shadow.”  He looks up at Serenity and continues in a smooth voice, “I would like to introduce the rest of my group here.  They are, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Lightning Fast.”  Each of the six ponies had different reactions when he said their names.  Lightning Fast and Rainbow Dash saluted, Fluttershy took a step back, Rarity simply smiled and flipped her hair, Pinkie Pie jumped in joy, and Applejack smiled.

“So to my understanding, Twilight, you are Princess Celestia’s personal student.”  Serenity said smiling.  Twilight simply nodded.  “Well then, you ponies would make a good ally.”  Serenity told the group, as the group smiled with joy, Serenity smiled even wider.  “Twilight I understand where you are coming from, so I will ally myself with you, but it’s not up to me whether or not our forces ally, it’s up the ponies of Manehatten.  Meet in the town square one hour from now, we will have a meeting there on whether or not if we want to ally ourselves with you.”

“I completely understand.”  Twilight said to the light brown unicorn.  Serenity’s eyes almost had a look of sadness in them.

As eight ponies left the room the guard walked over to where she sat and asked in a concerned voice, “What did you feel in them?”

Serenity looked back at him with sadness in her eyes.  “The lavender unicorn… she… she had a large mixture of emotions, there was hate, sadness, and a small sliver of happiness, but she hasn’t felt much happiness in awhile.  The black unicorn had sadness in him as well, but also happiness.  I think we will find out soon enough…”  Serenity finished.

“What about the others?”  The guard asked his leader.

“Well Lightning Fast seems very loyal to her leader.  The others don’t have too much else about them…”  Serenity told the guard in a happier voice than when she was talking about Twilight, and Night Shadow.  “Now then, find everypony you can get, we’re having a meeting.”

-1 hour later-

Serenity looked upon the crowd she, and her guards had gathered and shouted, “Welcome everypony, we are deciding if we shall ally with the ponies here from Ponyville!”

The eight ponies from the meeting walked up the stairs to get on top of the stage.  Night Shadow was the first to speak, “Ponies of Manehatten, I am Night Shadow, the leader of the ponies from Ponyville!  We are here to gather allies to defeat the tyrant Nightmare Moon and let Princess Celestia rule once again!  We have already felt the presence of battle, and the sadness of losing somepony close to you!  It was Nightmare Moon who attacked the town of Ponyville for no reason; she killed innocent ponies for no good reason!”  Night Shadow looked at the crowd, some of the crowd cheered, but it wasn’t much.  Well I’ve won over someponies in the crowd… Night Shadow thought to himself.

“I ask of you ponies to join the fight for the freedom of Equestria from Nightmare Moon!  Are you with me?!”  Night Shadow asked again into the crowd.  More of them cheered.

Twilight approached the edge of the stage.  “My brother, Shining Armor, has died at the hands of one of Nightmare Moon’s ponies!”  Twilight shouted into the crowd with tears beginning to come down her cheeks.  “He stood up to Nightmare Moon and lost his life!  He broke out of the Canterlot dungeons to warn of the assault of Ponyville, and Nightmare Moon killed him right in front of me!  He didn’t deserve to die!”  Twilight shouted into the speechless, wide-eyed crowd, they were shocked at what had happened to her older brother, and the guards who knew the white unicorn saluted and took off anything that was on their heads, while Night Shadow, and the other seven ponies who are in Twilight’s group looked away, unable to see their friend crying.  “Who is with us?!”  Twilight then asked the crowd of ponies.  The crowd erupted into cheers.

Serenity felt the sadness coming from Twilight and began to cry herself.  Well it looks like they have a new ally, we will fight with them.  Serenity thought to herself as she wiped the tears from her eyes.  Serenity walked to where Twilight stood and shouted to the crowd, “Well it looks like we made a decision, we will ally ourselves with the ponies from Ponyville!”  Serenity had a beaming smile upon her face.  “FOR SHINING ARMOR!”  Serenity shouted, and she heard the crowd shout it back.

-Two hours after the meeting-

Night Shadow finished the story of what had happened at the Battle of Ponyville, and what everypony in the group went through.  Tears came to Serenity’s eyes, especially when Night Shadow got to the parts where Shining Armor died, and what had happened to him as a foal.  “It is now clear to me that the ponies of Manehatten have made the right decision.  We will stand by your side through this war with you as our leader, Night Shadow.”  Serenity told them, practically giving her rights as commander to Night Shadow.  Who knew, a lowly thief could become a great leader.  Serenity smiled at the thought.  I hope we win; we have to for Celestia’s sake.

-Canterlot-

Wing Beat couldn’t believe it, after Nightmare Moon said Winter Breeze and him were completely safe, and then their house burned down killing Winter Breeze in the process.  Wing Beat entered the throne room and yelled at Nightmare Moon, “Why?!  Why did you lie to me?!”  Wing Beat wanted an answer, and wanted one now.

“I didn’t lie to you.”  Nightmare Moon simply said without any emotion.  “You just need to learn the consequence for failure.”  Wing Beat’s eyes widened at what she just said.

“Wait, you killed her?”  Wing Beat asked her rage coming to him, but somehow he was containing it.

Nightmare Moon looked at the green pegasus and told him, “In a way… I did order somepony to kill her.”  Wing Beat was furious, but he still contained it.  She will pay for this.  Wing Beat thought to himself as he slowly walked out of the room.  I will get my revenge, but first I have a reunion with somepony who was right, I never should have sided with her.  Wing Beat began to go to the one place Night Shadow would probably be, Manehatten.

-Manehatten-

Star Shadow looked at his brother from the crowd he was in.  Twilight was rambling on about her dead brother, Shining Armor, to Star Shadow that was one of his best memories.  Star Shadow let out a small laugh as the ponies around cheered; all they were doing was giving there selves a death sentence.  Tonight, Star Shadow thought, tonight we strike, and the so called leader will die by Nightfire’s, Midnight’s, and my hooves.  Tonight will be a wonderful night to remember.  Star Shadow let out another small laugh.

“What’s so funny?”  Nightfire asked his friend.

“Oh it’s nothing, just thinking about tonight.”  Star Shadow told his friend while beaming.

“Star Shadow you are one messed up pony… but that’s why we’re friends, right?”  Nightfire told his friend as well smiling.

“Yep.  Tonight will be a night to remember.”  Star Shadow told his friend, “But remember, keep Rainbow Dash alive, I have business with her.”  Star Shadow remembered what it was like in flight school with her and gave a small smile.

“What type of business?”  Nightfire asked playfully with a wink, knowing how Star Shadow felt about his old friend from flight school.

“Shut up.”  Star Shadow said in an annoyed voice.  “Before I tell Midnight something you don’t what her to know.”  Nightfire’s mouth shut instantly.  Tonight, tonight will be so much fun.  Star Shadow thought to himself again.

Chapter 9: Reunions

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

Chapter 9: Reunions

Star Shadow and Nightfire walked back to the small inn he, Nightfire, and Midnight stayed.  “When are we going to strike?”  Nightfire asked eagerly.

“Later tonight, like I said earlier.”  Star Shadow told his old friend.  The two continued on until they reached the inn they were staying at.  The inn wasn’t the best, nor the worst, it was an old wooden building, but even though it had an old, it was recently refurbished and now it looks newer than what it was when it was first built.

The two ponies entered through the main door of the inn, and looked around the common room.  The room had a few ponies in it, at the table drinking water, or something else, but Midnight wasn’t in there.  The ponies started to walk up the stairs going to the room they shared with Midnight, for she was most likely in there.  The two ponies walked into the room and they saw Midnight lying on the ground reading a book.  Midnight looked up at them and asked in a calm voice, “What was the meeting about?”

Star Shadow gave her a small smile and told her in a rather happy voice, “It was mainly more ponies joining my brother’s little rebellion, and Twilight talking about her brother’s death.”  Star Shadow gave a small laugh while thinking about what they were going to do to his brother and his friends tonight.

“Are we still going to through with the plan tonight?”  Midnight asked looking back down at her book.

“Yes, Night Shadow and his friends will die tonight, well except for Rainbow Dash, I want her alive.”  Star Shadow told his two friends in a happy tone while smiling.  Nightfire returned the smile while Midnight continued to read her book.

-Town Hall-

“What’s should our first move be?”  Twilight asked the other eight ponies in the mayor’s office.

“Wait, before we do anything we should know how many ponies we have fighting for our cause.  Serenity, how many ponies do you have that are willing to fight for us?”  Night Shadow asked Serenity hoping that just about everypony in the city wanted to help defeat Nightmare Moon.

“Well currently I have about ten thousand ponies, or just about half of the city, but there are still some that despise Celestia and want her to stay in the Canterlot dungeons.”  Serenity told them with a smile.  That’s a lot of ponies, but I don’t think it’s enough to take on Nightmare Moon, the current ruler of Equestria… Night Shadow thought to himself.

“I think we should get more ponies!”  Shouted Lightning Fast, everypony in the room was a little surprised at her sudden outburst, but it was the right idea.  “Ten thousand ponies may seem like a lot, but Nightmare Moon has more, and it’s going to be hard attacking Canterlot, mainly because it was built on a mountain that’s practically impossible to get up without wings, or a train.”

“Or a large teleportation spell!”  Twilight exclaimed, “Serenity, do you know a spell like that, or have any books on a large teleportation spell that I can look at?”  Twilight then asked eagerly, hoping that would get the chance to learn a spell or spells.

“Well, I personally don’t know a spell like that, but there are some spell books in the library, and I haven’t looked through all of them.”  Serenity told an eager Twilight.

“Where is the library at?”  Twilight asked, beaming with joy.

“Down the hall to the left.”  Serenity told Twilight in a happy voice as Twilight ran towards the library.  Night Shadow wasn’t too happy that they were now separated, but he wasn’t going to tell Twilight to stop from doing what she loves to do.

-Manehatten gates-

Wing Beat looked at the gates as he walked towards them.  “Halt!”  A light green unicorn guard shouted at him, “What business do you have in Manehatten?”

“I need to find somepony and talk to him… His name is Night Shadow; he’s a black unicorn stallion with a silver mane.  He should be traveling in a group of about fifty ponies.”  Wing Beat told the guard in a sad voice.

“I’ve seen him…”  The guard simply stated and Wing Beat’s face lighted up in joy, “What do you need to talk to him about?”  The guard then questioned.

“I… I need to say I’m sorry; that he was right and I was wrong.”  Wing Beat told the guard in a sad voice.

The guard could tell Wing Beat was telling the truth.  “Okay, mister Night Shadow is staying in the town hall currently.”  The guard said moving aside to let Wing Beat into the city.

Wing Beat slowly walked past the guard not trusting him after he let him in so quickly.  As Wing Beat entered the city he saw it was amazing, but not as amazing as Canterlot.  The green pegasus quickly found city hall. As he walked inside he asked the secretary, “Is Night Shadow here?”

The secretary looked at him in confusion, for she had never seen this pegasus before.  “Yes… he’s in an important meeting right now, why do you want to see him?”

Wing Beat looked up at her and said, “He’s an old friend of mine… I need to see him immediately.  Please tell him that I, Wing Beat, need to talk to him.”  Wing Beat looked at the secretary with a frown on his face.

“Okay, I’ll tell him.”  The secretary told Wing Beat as she began to walk to where Night Shadow, and Serenity were at.

-Meeting-

Night Shadow heard a knocking on the door.  “Come in.”  Serenity told the pony on the other side of the door.

In walked the secretary who said, “Night Shadow, a pony is here to speak to you, he says it’s important.”

“Okay, send him in.”  Night Shadow stated not thinking on who it could be.  The secretary walked away, and they heard voices down the hall, one sounded very familiar to Night Shadow.  The eight ponies heard somepony walking down the hall, and in walked Wing Beat.

Night Shadow’s face grew serious instantly, as he prepared for an attack from his old friend.  “What are you doing here?”  Night Shadow asked his old friend.

Wing Beat simply looked up at him and said, “I’m… sorry.”  Night Shadow still didn’t trust him.  “You were right, Nightmare Moon isn’t fit to rule Equestria, she… she is evil.”  Wing Beat finished in a somber tone.

Night Shadow looked at his old friend and told him in an angry tone, “Why should I believe you?  I trusted you, and you stabbed me in the back.  What makes me believe you now after you tried killing me, after you destroyed my friends’ homes.”  Night Shadow looked at his old friend with pure rage on his face.

“He’s telling the truth.”  Serenity chimed in earning glances of confusion in her direction from Night Shadow and all the other ponies in the room.

“Wait, how do you know he’s telling the truth?”  Questioned Night Shadow.

“Well, you see, I’ve been able to feel the emotions of other ponies ever since I was a filly.  And I can tell Wing Beat truly means what he is saying.”  Serenity told the group of ponies, “He doesn’t want to hurt you, he just wants to talk.”

“Okay, Wing Beat, what changed your mind on the subject of Nightmare Moon being the leader of Equestria?”  Night Shadow asked his old friend.

“She… she killed… she killed my marefriend, Winter Breeze…”  Wing Beat told the group with tears coming to his eyes.

Night Shadow looked at him knowing what it feels like to lose somepony close to you.  Night Shadow slowly walked over to where Wing Beat stood and put his hoof around him and said, “Okay, I believe you.  It’s okay, we will destroy Nightmare Moon.”  Night Shadow was determined now.

“Hey, everypony I found a spell for large tele-” Twilight began to say as she ran into the room, but she stopped when she saw Wing Beat in the room with the other ponies.  “What is he doing here?”  She then questioned.

“It’s okay, Twilight, he’s… he’s on our side now.”  Night Shadow told Twilight with a smile on his face, he was happy, happy that he had his old friend back.

“Sorry what happened to your brother…”  Wing Beat told her in a somber voice.

Twilight looked at him and frowned at the thought of Shining Armor.  “It’s okay, Wing Beat, it wasn’t you… it was Star Shadow.  But, I got the large teleportation spell.”  Twilight told them.

“Great, let me see the book.”  Serenity told Twilight happy that she had found the book.  Twilight hoofed over the book, and Serenity began to look at the spell and she smiled.  “This is great; we can use this to get to Canterlot.”  Serenity exclaimed.

-Outside city hall-

Star Shadow looked at the building that stood before him and he smiled.  “Are you ready?”  Star Shadow asked his two friends.

“Yeah, let’s do this.”  Nightfire told Star Shadow also smiling.

“Yeah, let’s get this over with already.”  Midnight told her two friends.

The three ponies walked into city hall and they seen the secretary and Star Shadow asked in a pleasant voice, “Is Night Shadow here?”

She looked up at the trio of ponies and mumbled to herself, “Everypony wants to see Night Shadow.”  Star Shadow looked up a little confused at what she said.  Who else would want to see Night Shadow?  “They’re down the hall in fifth room to the right.”  The secretary said not really caring this time on who went and seen Night Shadow.

“Thank you.”  Star Shadow told her as he began to walk towards the room Night Shadow was in while he smiled.  Wonderful, it’s time to have fun.  Star Shadow thought to himself.

-Meeting-

“So, this spell makes a portal that brings you anywhere you choose, you just have to have been there before.”  Serenity said as she finished the page in the spell book.

“Yes, and luckily I used to live in Canterlot, so I should be able to make the portal to Canterlot.”  Twilight said happily.

The ten ponies heard a knocking on the door and Serenity said, “Come in.”  In walked Star Shadow and two ponies Night Shadow had never seen before.

“Hello, brother, long time no see.”  Star Shadow told his little brother with a smile on his face.  “Oh, and hi Rainbow Dash.”  Star Shadow winked in her direction and she took a step back.

Twilight looked at the black pegasus with rage in her eyes wanting revenge for what he had done to her older brother.  Star Shadow looked at the group of ponies and said in an almost happy voice, “Let me introduce you to my friends, Midnight and Nightfire.”  Star Shadow told his friends while pointing to his friends.  “Now then, surrender and we’ll make this painless for all of you.”  Star Shadow said looking around the room.  Star Shadow noticed Wing Beat inside the room as well and said to him, “Wing Beat, are you seriously on their side now?”

Wing Beat looked at him and scowled, “Yes, yes I am.  They’re better ponies than you and your friends will ever be!”

Star Shadow looked at him and smiled, “What a waste of such a good leader… well Wing Beat it’s time for you and your friends to die.”  Star Shadow laughed.

“Shut up!”  Wing Beat shouted at the black pegasus as he began to charge at him.  Star Shadow easily side stepped and looked at the green pegasus and put on a twisted smile.  Nightfire pulled out his knife and lunged at Wing Beat, the knife hit Wing Beat in the side and began to drag the knife down his side leaving a terrible gash as the blood began to stain his dark green coat.  Wing Beat fell to the ground screaming in pain.

“Wing Beat!”  Night Shadow shouted worried for the life of his best friend.  Night Shadow charged up his horn and shot a beam of energy at the dark blue unicorn knocking her out.

“Midnight!”  Nightfire ran to where Midnight lay.  “Midnight, wake up!”

“She’s okay Nightfire, just unconscious.”  Star Shadow told his friend in a calm voice.

Nightfire stood up and stared at the stallion that harmed his friend and started to run at him with his knife drawn.  Night Shadow side stepped the attack easily thanks to Nightfire’s blind rage.  Night Shadow reached his hoof back and swung it down onto the back of Nightfire’s neck knocking him to the ground in pain.

Star Shadow looked at Night Shadow and smiled.  “Are you ready to die, little brother.”  Star Shadow asked his little brother with a twisted smile.

“It’s not going to be me; it’s going to be you.”  Night Shadow told his brother with rage behind his voice.  Two beams of energy came from behind Night Shadow aimed at Star Shadow who side stepped both of them.  Night Shadow looked behind him and saw Twilight and Serenity charging up another blast.

“Rule number one of combat.  Never take your eyes off your enemy!”  Star Shadow shouted at his brother as he ran up to him and hit him in the back of his head sending Night Shadow to the ground in pain.  Star Shadow began to hit him while he lay of the ground.  Wing Beat stood up pain coursing through his body and started to run at the unsuspecting Star Shadow.

Nightfire had recovered from Night Shadow’s blow to his neck and began to charge at Twilight and Serenity with his knife drawn.

“Rule number two of combat.  Never under estimate your enemy!”  Wing Beat shouted at Star Shadow who had just enough time to look at the charging pegasus before Wing Beat charged into his side, sending Star Shadow a couple feet.  Star Shadow looked at his former ally and smiled.  “You… never hurt… my friend!”  Wing Beat shouted at the black pegasus.  Wing Beat ran at Star Shadow again, but, once again, Star Shadow side stepped and brought his hoof out to where Wing Beat’s gash in his side was, hitting it with all his force.

Wing Beat fell to the ground wincing in pain, again.  Night Shadow had recovered from the attacks his brother inflicted upon him and charged up his horn again sending a beam of energy at him.  The beam hit him sending him to the ground.  Night Shadow glanced to where Nightfire was; currently he was trying to hold off three ponies, Twilight, Serenity, and Rainbow Dash.  Where are the others?  Night Shadow asked himself looking around the room.  To, kind of, answer his question he seen Lightning Fast fly over to where Star Shadow was and began battling him one on one, but it didn’t look like she was doing well for she was on her last leg trying to hold Star Shadow off of the injured Wing Beat.

Night Shadow ran over to try and help his friend.  Star Shadow seen him and hit Lightning Fast in the muzzle sending her to the ground.  “Didn’t mom ever tell you?  You should never hit a mare!”  Night Shadow shouted at his brother sending another beam of energy at him, but missing him this time.  Star Shadow smiled at his brother, and reached back and hit his brother across his face and laughed at what he had done.

Wing Beat stood again, barley able to stand, and saw his best friend getting assaulted by his older brother he also saw a light blue pegasus, who he hasn’t really been introduced to yet, on the ground wincing in pain.  Poor thing, she doesn’t deserve this.  Wing Beat thought to himself.  Anger began to swell up in him as he saw Night Shadow getting pummeled by his older brother.  Wing Beat stretched out his wings, luckily Nightfire’s attack did not hit either of his wings, and flapped them and began to fly at Star Shadow with all his force.

Star Shadow noticed it with enough time to evade the attack, and that is exactly what he did.  Wing Beat flew into the wall leaving a large hole in the wall.  Sorry… Night Shadow… I… I failed you… That was the last thing Wing Beat thought before he blacked out.

Nightfire wasn’t doing too good against the three mares.  With the rainbow maned one, who he was guessing was Rainbow Dash, keeping him on his toes in physical combat and the two unicorns firing beams of energy at him, he was screwed.  He couldn’t kill Rainbow Dash, or Star Shadow would kill him, literally.  He tried desperately to hold off the cyan pegasus, and the two unicorns, but he couldn’t by himself, and with Star Shadow being fighting his brother and the other two ponies over there and Midnight unconscious Nightfire didn’t have anypony else to help him.  It was only him and his trusty old knife.

Nightfire reached out with his knife and slashed Rainbow Dash across her front left leg making part of her coat a bright red.  She backed away wincing in pain, but she was soon to recover.  She hit Nightfire in the face with her injured leg causing blood to go into his left eye, blinding his left eye.  A blast came from behind the cyan pegasus, but it, luckily, missed him.  He slashed at the cyan mare again and got her in the right wing causing her to go the ground screaming in pain and unable to fly now.  Nightfire smiled, now this will be much easier Nightfire thought to himself.  Nightfire brought the knife up and began to swing it down upon the injured mare.

Star Shadow saw what Nightfire was about to do and flew over to him and hit him in the side.  Nightfire looked at him in confusion.  “Never!  Never kill her!”  Star Shadow shouted at his friend.  Serenity and Twilight lost their concentration on their spells confused on why Star Shadow just saved Rainbow Dash’s life.  Night Shadow was on the ground in pain after what Star Shadow had done to him.

“Stop right there!”  Shouted somepony from the doorway.  Star Shadow looked over and saw guards at the door with Midnight already in shackles and on somepony’s back, still unconscious.

Star Shadow looked at Nightfire and said, “There’s no way we can win against all of them; we have to retreat.”

Nightfire looked at his friend and said in a sad voice, “No, I’m not leaving her behind, you go on without me.”  Nightfire looked at the guard who had Midnight on him.

“Okay, but when you get her run, I’ll be at the inn we’re staying at.”  Star Shadow whispered to his friend as he began to fly out the window.

Nightfire looked at the guards and smiled with the knife in his mouth, and charged with full force.  The guard reared back and hit Nightfire in the head knocking him unconscious.  Another guard put Nightfire in shackles and picked him up.

Star Shadow saw what had happened through the window.  I’ll get you out, both of you.  Star Shadow thought to himself now determined to save his friends.

Chapter 10: Prison Break

Disclaimer:  I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Serenity, Star Shadow, and any character from the show.  All I own is this idea and my OCs.

Chapter 10: Prison Break

Midnight opened her eyes slowly.  She began to look around the room; she was in a dark room with nothing in it, except for a bed, a washstand, and a figure lying on the floor.  What happened?  The dark blue unicorn thought to herself, I remember going into city hall, but then…  Midnight stood up and started to walk to the figure on the floor.

As she gotten closer to the unconscious pony she saw the pony had a dark red coat, a black mane, and a cutie mark of a large knife.  “Nightfire!”  She exclaimed in glee, recognizing her friend.  Nightfire began to stir at the sound of his name.  He opened his eyes and saw Midnight standing over him with a grin on her face.

“Midnight!”  Nightfire exclaimed as he quickly stood up and embraced her in a hug.

“Nightfire,” Midnight said in a more serious tone, “What happened?”  Midnight could remember getting hit by the magic blast, but nothing after that.

Nightfire broke the hug and looked at her with a serious face.  “After you were knocked unconscious Star Shadow and I fought against Night Shadow and his friends, but they were too much for us.  Star Shadow escaped, but I stayed behind to try and get you out too, but, as you can tell, I failed.”  Nightfire finished.

Midnight looked at him with a frown on her face.  “You didn’t have to stay behind with me, I would’ve been fine.”  Midnight told Nightfire with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“No, I had to at least try.  I couldn’t leave you to… them.”  Nightfire told her in a passionate voice.

Midnight looked at him and smiled.  “Thank you, Nightfire.”  She told, as she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.  “That was very sweet of you.”  Nightfire beamed with joy.

-Hospital-

Wing Beat opened up his eyes and looked around the room.  He saw a clean hospital room with medical equipment attached to him.  Wing Beat felt a dull, aching pain in his side.  What happened?  Wing Beat asked himself, as the memories of the battle came back to him.  He looked at the place where that dark red earth pony, Nightfire, cut him at, and saw a bloody bandage around most of his torso.

Wing Beat heard talking outside of his room, and the door began to open.  In walked a white unicorn stallion with a stethoscope as a cutie mark, and Night Shadow.  Night Shadow seen that his friend has awoken, and he ran over to him, pushing the doctor out of his way.

“Wing Beat, are you okay?”  Night Shadow asked Wing Beat in a very concerned voice.

Wing Beat looked up at his friend.  “Well I’ve been better.”  Wing Beat joked, but Night Shadow wasn’t in a joking mood.  “But, seriously, my side is killing me, what happened after I blacked out?”

“Well, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie went off to get the guards while Twilight, Lightning Fast, Serenity, Rainbow Dash, you, and I stayed behind to hold off Star Shadow, and his friends.  We were able to capture two of them, but Star Shadow got away.  We have ponies searching for him right now.”  Night Shadow told his friend.

“How long has it been?”  Wing Beat asked hoping he wasn’t out for too long.

“About twelve hours.”  Night Shadow responded simply, “But nothing major has happened.”

“Okay, tell me if anything happens.”  Wing Beat told his friend, “For now I’m going to get some more sleep.”  Wing Beat began to close his eyes, and Night Shadow walked out of the room, giving his friend time to rest.

-Manehatten Dungeons-

Midnight and Nightfire had talked for hours in their prison cell, having a good time, well as best of a time they could have in a dungeon.

The door to their cell opened and in walked three of the city’s guards, two being unicorns, and one being a pegasus.  “Prisoners, come with us.”  The pegasus guard stated as he gestured for the two prisoners to follow him.  Nightfire and Midnight did what the pegasus wanted them to do, not wanting to cause any trouble, yet.  The two unicorns went after Midnight, and Nightfire making sure they didn’t try anything.

The pegasus led them into a room, it was a simple room, it had a table with four chairs around it.  “Sit.”  The pegasus guard told them again, and they listened to the guard.  A door on the other side of the room opened and in walked two unicorns, both from the battle that had happened earlier.  One being purple and the other the light brown one.

The two unicorns sat across from Nightfire and Midnight.  “Okay, we are going to ask you a series of questions, if you lie there will be consequences, and we will know when you lie as well, so don’t try to lie to us.”  The purple mare said in a calm, but commanding voice.  The two prisoners nodded.  “First question: what are your names?”

The two looked at each other, confused; Star Shadow had introduced them earlier, didn’t he.  “I’m Nightfire, and that is Midnight.”  Nightfire stated still confused at what the purple mare had asked them.

“Second question: who do you serve?”  The light brown mare then asked the two prisoners.

“We mainly serve under Star Shadow, but he serves under Nightmare Moon, so we technically serve Nightmare Moon.”  Nightfire said again without hesitation.  These ponies should know who we serve, so why are they asking us these stupid questions they already know?  Nightfire asked himself.

“Third question: what was your main goal in attacking us earlier?”  The purple mare asked.

“Our main goal was to kill Night Shadow, something Wing Beat had failed at, but we were also told to kill anypony else who got in our way.”  Nightfire said again now not really caring at what he was saying, for now the ponies were just asking stupid questions.

“Fourth question,” The light brown mare continued.  The two unicorns kept asking the ponies questions for about two hours; they were all simple questions, except for the last one.  “Final question, where is Star Shadow?”  Asked the light brown mare.

-Outside the interrogation room-

Star Shadow looked at the door to the room where Nightfire and Midnight were being interrogated, and he smiled.  He listened into the room and he heard, “Final question, where is Star Shadow?”  Star Shadow chuckled at this question, and he bucked down the door leading into the room.

“I’m right here.”  Star Shadow said pleasantly.  The two unicorns looked up at him, surprised he’d be here.  “Midnight, Nightfire, miss me?”  Star Shadow asked in a pleasant voice, the two other unicorns were still surprised at who had just came into the room.

“Stop right there, Star Shadow!”  Twilight shouted at him, recovered from her shock at the sight of him.  “You’re under arrest, for the attempted assassination of Night Shadow and other ponies!”  Twilight shouted at him, again.  Twilight had fury in her eyes, she was still angry at Star Shadow for killing her older brother, Shining Armor.  Twilight fired a beam of energy at Star Shadow, but Star Shadow simply avoided it.

“Woah now, Twilight, you don’t want to be hurting somepony with your magic, do you?”  Star Shadow laughed at Twilight, making a game out of her rage.  This made Twilight even more furious than before.

“Shut up!  You’re a monster, how could you kill Shining Armor and just laugh at what you did?”  Twilight asked him, still furious.

Star Shadow looked at Twilight with an amused look on his face, “Oh, you’re still mad at me for killing your older brother.  Well, actually, that is one of my best memories!”  Star Shadow shouted in glee.  “He was always so rude to me, and when I killed him it just felt so good!”

How could anypony be this evil?  Twilight asked herself.  She fired another beam at Star Shadow, but he sidestepped, again.  “Sorry Twilight, but I can’t play games right now; I have places to be and things to do.”  Star Shadow told Twilight, as he began to run out of the room with Nightfire and Midnight close behind him.  Twilight and Serenity began to run after him, but they eventually lost the pegasus and his two friends.

Twilight sighed.  Well they got away, again, but the time to strike is coming soon, they will soon be defeated by us.  Twilight thought to herself, still angry at Star Shadow.  And they will feel pain beyond belief, just like I did.  Twilight thought of her older brother at that last thought, and tears came to her eyes.  Soon.

Chapter 11: A Dream

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

Chapter 11: A Dream

Star Shadow, Nightfire, and Midnight exited from the building in haste, running towards the edge of the city, for they knew that they couldn’t defeat the group of rebels by themselves.  We need allies; more ponies that will help us defeat them.  Star Shadow thought to himself, but who would make a good ally?

The three ponies turned a corner and started to run down the street towards the gates of the city, earning strange glances from the pedestrians.  The three ponies burst through the gates of the city.  “Halt!”  A guard shouted, but the three ponies ignored him and continued on.  The guard didn’t try to chase them, he didn’t really care about three random ponies running out of the city, and his job was to keep ponies out, not in.

Star Shadow ran until he found a spot they camped at getting to the city of Manehatten, a rather large cave, it was hard to find, but when you did find it, it was a great place to camp at.  It was a small hole near the base of a small cliff, it looked like nothing from the outside, but on the inside it was huge, it was almost enough to fit a few hundred ponies inside it.

The only flaws in it was there was only one escape route, and it was pitch black without a fire or some other light source.  Luckily they still had plenty of firewood from when they camped here while traveling to Manehatten and Midnight knew a spell to start a fire.

The three ponies easily started a fire, and they sat around the campfire.  “Okay, if we’re going to kill Night Shadow we’ll need more ponies to do it.”  Star Shadow said, surprising both of his friends, he was a pony who was more brash, and reckless when it came to this type of stuff.

“I think we should contact Nightmare Moon, to get more ponies to help us with this.”  Midnight told them in a confident voice.  Star Shadow looked at her and nodded.

“But how do we contact her?”  Asked Nightfire.

“Simple, one of us goes back to Canterlot to get reinforcements, while the other stays here and makes sure that the ponies in the city don’t do anything, they shouldn’t, you left Wing Beat pretty injured back there, and I don’t think they’ll leave him behind.”  Star Shadow said, sounding more like a leader.  “I’ll be the one to go; you two stay here and watch the ponies in Manehatten.”

Midnight and Nightfire nodded.  Star Shadow looked at them with a serious face; he rarely had one of those on his face.  “We’ll all sleep here tonight, but tomorrow we move out.”  Star Shadow said again as he put his head down to the cave floor, and closed his eyes.

Midnight sighed, “How long do you think it will take him to get back?”  Midnight asked Nightfire.  Nightfire sighed.

“Probably about two days to get to Canterlot, and then a good three days to get back with the ponies he’s bringing, so basically we have a just about a week before he gets back.”  Nightfire said looking at Midnight with a small smile, but, lucky for Nightfire, the room was too dim for Midnight to see the smile.

“Well, I’m going to get some sleep.”  Midnight said as she too laid her head on the floor and closed her eyes.  Nightfire was now the only one awake, he began to close his eyes, today was an eventful day.  Nightfire began to close his eyes, and soon enough he too found sleep.

-Nightfire’s dream-

Nightfire looked around; he saw ponies everywhere fighting each other, he was standing in the middle of a battle.  An attacker came out of nowhere swinging a small knife at him, but Nightfire easily side stepped the blow.  Nightfire reached for his own knife and grabbed it and slashed at the attacker, hitting him in the neck sending him to the ground.

Nightfire ran through the battle fending off, and, sometimes, killing attackers.  He reached the middle of the battle and saw his two friends, Star Shadow and Midnight, fighting against four ponies, one being Night Shadow, another being Wing Beat, and two other he has seen but didn’t know the name of, one was a light blue pegasus with a pink mane and had two lightning bolts in an X for her cutie mark.  The other pony was a dark purple unicorn with a darker purple mane with a pink stripe through it.

The purple unicorn and Night Shadow were attacking Star Shadow, while the light blue pegasus and Wing Beat were attacking Midnight.  Nightfire tried to run up to help his friends, but he couldn’t he just stayed in one place.  Confused, he tried to shout at them, but his voice wasn’t working.  He looked back at Midnight and Star Shadow and he saw one of his worst fears come true.

The light blue pegasus and Wing Beat both flew down at Midnight at the same time.  Midnight dodged the attack, but as she did Twilight fired a spell at Star Shadow, the spell missed and hit Midnight in the face.

Midnight screamed and fell to the ground.  Another pony, seeing his fallen enemy stabbed a spear through the fallen mare.  Nightfire’s eyes widened at this sight.  Tears came to his eyes at the sight of his friend dying.  Why?  Why her… why not me?  Nightfire thought to himself.  Why… why am I so useless, why can’t I do anything?  I’m so… so… useless.

Nightfire awoke with tears going down his face.  He looked over at his sleeping friend and smiled.  I’ll protect you.  You won’t die, I promise.  Nightfire thought to himself before going back to sleep

-The next day-

Star Shadow walked out of the cave with saddlebags on his back, ready for the journey to Canterlot.  He will get more troops, he will kill Night Shadow, and he will be victorious this time.

Chapter 12: Reinforcements

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

Chapter 12: Reinforcements

It had been days since Star Shadow had attacked the rebels in Manehatten, Night Shadow was worried for his scouts haven’t found a trace of the whereabouts of his older brother’s presence.  The black unicorn had a lot on his mind, as he walked into the hospital that Wing Beat was currently in.  He was continuously thinking about the whereabouts of Star Shadow, how he was going to get a bigger army, so he could take on the Nightmare, but the biggest thing on his mind was his friend’s health.

Night Shadow walked through the doors of the hospital and was greeted by a white unicorn mare, who Night Shadow assumed was a nurse.  “Welcome, to the Manehatten hospital, how may I help you?”  She said in a pleasant tone.

Night Shadow looked at her with a small smile on his face and asked her, “May I please see Wing Beat, he should be in room 2-5.”  The nurse nodded and motioned Night Shadow to follow her.  The two unicorns went up the stairs to the second level of the building, and entered Wing Beat’s room.

Wing Beat was laying on one of the hospital’s beds with a heart monitor connected to him, and it was beating steadily.  Good, Night Shadow thought to himself, he’s still doing well.  Night Shadow trotted up to the bedside and asked his friend, “So, is the hospital as boring as you thought it would be?”

Wing Beat looked at his friend with a straight face.  “Yeah, it’s the funnest thing that I’ve ever been to.”  Wing Beat said in sarcasm, while Night Shadow let out a small chuckle.

“On a more serious matter, when did the doctors say you can be released?”  Night Shadow asked the green pegasus in a more serious voice.

“Well, the doctor said I’ll be able to be released in three more days, but I can’t do anything too strenuous for about a week, so, in other words, I won’t be able to help you in battles for about a week.  We can only hope that Star Shadow won’t attack for another week or two.”  Wing Beat told the black unicorn, in a more depressed voice for he didn’t want to stay in the hospital for another minute.

The two friends talked for hours, having a good time.  If only Night Shadow knew that this would be one of the few happy moments he will have for years.

-Canterlot-

Star Shadow bowed to his mistress as he entered the throne room of the Canterlot Castle.  “Welcome back, Star Shadow, I’m guessing that your endeavors were successful.”  Nightmare Moon asked her loyal subject in a rather pleased tone.

“No, the rebellion is not yet crushed, we have failed.”  Star Shadow winced at what he had just said, for he thought his mistress would punish him for failing his duty.  “We need more ponies to be successful, my brother has gotten more ponies than I had thought he would be able to get.”

Nightmare Moon looked at her subject with a disappointed face.  “Well, Star Shadow, I guess I can lend you the ponies you need, but do not fail me like Wing Beat did, there will be consequences if you fail again.”  Nightmare Moon told Star Shadow unhappily.

“Yes, my lady.  I promise that Night Shadow and his rebellion will be crushed.  I am sorry for failing you this one time, it will not happen again.”  Star Shadow told Nightmare Moon, hoping he won’t fail again as he had recently.  “For this assignment I’ll need a few hundred more ponies on my side, it will not be easy taking Manehatten.”

“You will be given three-hundred ponies for this.  Do NOT fail me, I do not want my armies more weakened from this battle, they are weak enough from the Battle of Ponyville.”  Nightmare Moon told her subject in a regal voice.

“Yes, I will not fail.”  Star Shadow simply stated after he started to back out of the throne room.

-Two Days Later-

Midnight and Nightfire were waiting patiently for Star Shadow’s return.  Star Shadow walked up to the mouth of the cave, and began to walk into the cave.  “Nightfire, Midnight, I have the reinforcements.  The battle will be beginning soon.”

Nightfire and Midnight began to walk towards the sound of Star Shadow’s voice, and they quickly found him.  “You got the reinforcements?”  Midnight asked in her calm voice, surprised that he had returned already.

“Yup, they all are waiting near Manehatten, but still out of sight, hopefully the rebels will not be able to find them, I don’t want the battle to start without me.”  Star Shadow smirked at this thought, but he then continued, “Did anything of importance happen while I was away?”

Nightfire and Midnight shook their heads at the same time.  “Nothing really, just a few scouting parties being sent out,” Nightfire assured Star Shadow.

The three ponies began to walk where the army of loyalists was at.  Hoping that they will not fail again, hoping that they would win this battle and live to tell the tale to future generations.

-Manehatten-

The messenger pegasus flew through the city of Manehatten, determined to find Night Shadow, and, if not him, Serenity to deliver the message that a large force of ponies has been gathered little more than three miles away from the city.

The pegasus quickly flew down to the city hall and began to run into the building at his full speed.  The pony ran through the halls of the city hall, going from room to room looking for the leaders of the rebellion.

After long last he found Night Shadow, Serenity, and the other leaders of the rebellion in a meeting discussing their next move.  “Sirs!  I have a message from southern scouting party!”  The messenger shouted in a rush.

The ponies in the meeting quickly turned their undivided attention to the pegasus.  “What is it?”  Night Shadow asked the pegasus in a hurried voice.

“It’s the enemy!  They’ve gathered a small army there, we believe they are going to attack!”  The pegasus shouted in a rush.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention… err… what’s your name?”  Night Shadow asked embarrassed at his lack of knowledge.

“Rush, sir!”  The pegasus told the black unicorn in a rush.

“Thank you Rush, go tell the everypony to get ready for a battle,” Night Shadow commanded.

“No wait, if we can do the large teleportation spell to Canterlot, we could take the city,” Serenity told the group of ponies, “Their armies will be weakened for a bulk of them will be here trying to take this city.  If we can strike at Nightmare Moon now, then we should.”  The ponies around the room took this information in slowly, thinking about it.

“What will happen to the noncombatants here?”  Twilight asked, afraid on what would happen to the ponies here that had nothing to do with the rebellion.

“They might be taken into custody, but they won’t be killed.  They will surrender the city to the leader of the army out there, and meanwhile we can take Canterlot, defeating the Nightmare in the process.”  Serenity explained to the ponies in the room.

The ponies in the room began to nod their heads, thinking that Serenity’s plan would go through and would most likely succeed in taking Canterlot.

“We’ll do it,” Night Shadow simply stated, accepting the idea.  “Rush,” Night Shadow told the pegasus messenger, “Go get everypony in the City Square, we’re about to go to Canterlot.”  Rush saluted his leader and flew off.

“Now then, everypony, we have a city to take and a leader to defeat,” Night Shadow told the ponies in the room as he began to walk away from the meeting, to prepare for the taking of Canterlot.

Chapter 13: The Siege of Canterlot

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.

Chapter 14: Explanations

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Star Shadow, Serenity, or any character originally from the show.  All I own is this idea and my OCs.

Chapter 14: Explanations

The light slowly subsided; Night Shadow looked around the throne room.  He saw the Elements of Harmony standing in the middle of the room and looking at a mare he has never seen before, she almost reminded him of Nightmare Moon, but she was different, she didn’t seem as evil.

Night Shadow walked over to where the alicorn lay and asked, “Who… who are you?”  The black unicorn asked timidly.

The alicorn looked at him, tears in her eyes and shakily said, “I’m sorry.”

Night Shadow gave the mare a confused face, “What do you mean ‘you’re sorry’?  Who are you?”

“You, you don’t know who I am?”  She asked in a calm voice, confused on how this black unicorn didn’t know who she was.

Another blinding light took the room, again blinding everypony in it.  Night Shadow reopened his eyes after the light went away and standing in the room was a white alicorn, it was Princess Celestia.

Night Shadow and the other ponies in the room bowed to their princess.  Celestia slowly walked over to the dark blue alicorn and said to her, “It has been years since I seen you, dear sister.”

Everypony in the room were shocked at this discovery, this mare was Princess Celestia’s sister.  “Sister?!  Who is this mare?!”  Twilight practically shouted at her mentor in shock, for she had no idea who this other alicorn was, and she has never heard of Celestia having a sister before.

Celestia looked over to Twilight and her friends with a small smile on her muzzle.  “Everypony, I’d like to introduce my sister, Princess Luna,” Celestia said to the group of ponies.

“So, you have a sister, your highness?”  Night Shadow asked the white alicorn.

“Night Shadow, you have no need to call me ‘your highness’ just call me Celestia.  And yes, I do have a sister, she was Nightmare Moon, but-” Celestia was cut off as soon as she said that Luna was Nightmare Moon.

“She’s Nightmare Moon?!”  Serenity exclaimed in shock, looking at the dark blue alicorn on the ground.

“No, she was Nightmare Moon; the Elements of Harmony have purged her of the evil that was Nightmare Moon.”  Celestia explained to the other ponies in the room, “She is no longer Nightmare Moon, she is now Princess Luna.”

Everypony’s, except for Celestia and Luna, mouth hung wide open at what the white alicorn had just said.  “So, she’s no longer evil?”  A timid Wing Beat asked.

“She is no longer evil, she will now rule at my side,” Celestia calmly told the ponies in the room with a smile.

“So, Princess, why didn’t the elements not work when we tried the first time?”  Twilight asked her mentor, confused on how the elements worked this time, but before they had failed.

“Twilight, the answer to your question is, that at the time Nightmare Moon had followers who would do anything for her, she had ponies who would follow her into battle, they would follow her anywhere.  The Elements of Harmony are powered off the ponies in Equestria, their love, happiness and courage powers the elements, but since you were trying to use the elements on a pony that brought happiness to many, the elements did not work.  But even though she has ponies who follow her now, she has brought pain, and sorrow to more ponies than she brings happiness too, and some of her own ponies have left her side.”  Celestia explained to the ponies of the room, all of them nodding their heads understanding somewhat of what the princess had said.

Night Shadow walked over to the white alicorn, “So it’s because she had followers, and ponies who completely obeyed her?” Night Shadow asked the princess.

“Yes, that is correct,” the princess replied in a soft tone.

“Celestia, what about the ponies that still follow her, the ones in Manehatten?”  Night Shadow timidly asked Princess Celestia.

“Well, they are going to try and take back Canterlot soon, I know they will.  And they’ll do in their beloved name of Nightmare Moon,” Celestia told the black unicorn, “Even if was defeated as of today.”  Celestia frowned at what she had just said, she didn’t want to hurt any more of her subjects, she didn’t want to harm anypony else.

“But, princess, could we somehow convince them to stop the fighting?  I’m sure Princess Luna could stop them, since she used to be Nightmare Moon,” Night Shadow told the white alicorn.  Luna winced at the mention of her being Nightmare Moon.

“I don’t think so, granted she was Nightmare Moon, she is no longer the pony they all serve,” Princess Celestia told the small group of ponies in her throne room.  “And I don’t believe that they would follow a pony who is the exact opposite of the one they served.”  Celestia frowned at what she had just said.

“But, there’s always a chance,” Night Shadow told the princess, “If we can get the ponies to not fight, we can make peace, we can have harmony again.”  Night Shadow looked at the princess desperately, but Celestia just shook her head no.

“Night Shadow, no matter what we do, we cannot stop this with reason.  Those ponies are in a frenzy, they want to harm us, they want to kill us,” Celestia told the black unicorn in a more serious voice.

“Fine, we’ll do it your way,” Night Shadow told Celestia angrily, “I just don’t want to hurt any more ponies, I’ve done enough, but if they try to attack us, I’ll fight back.”  With a determined look Night Shadow walked out of the throne room followed by Serenity and Wing Beat, the Elements of Harmony stayed in the throne room with the princess.

Night Shadow storm out of Canterlot Castle mad at Celestia for not even trying to stop the forces Nightmare Moon still had.  “Night, wait up!” Serenity shouted at her friend, as her and Wing Beat tried to catch up to him.  Night Shadow didn’t listen to the two ponies pursuing him; he just continued on.  He went down a random street, not caring where he was going.  Night Shadow kept going down more and more streets, Wing Beat and Serenity never did catch up to him, but they continued following the black unicorn through Canterlot.

Night Shadow suddenly stopped as he looked upon a certain lot in the city; he stood there, unmoving, at the sight of the lot.  Serenity and Wing Beat quickly caught up to the unicorn; Wing Beat understood as why Night Shadow was here, unmoving, Serenity, on the other hoof, was confused at why Night Shadow had stopped at begun to stare at the empty lot.

“Night, what’s wrong?”  Serenity asked him.  Night Shadow looked over to her, tears coming to his eyes while in his mind memories of him and his brother played.

“This… this is the place.  The place where we used to live, until…” Night Shadow was cut off after Serenity kissed him.  Night Shadow was surprised at this his eyes widened when she first made contact, then he began to kiss back.

Night Shadow pulled away and said, “Serenity, thank you,” Night Shadow told the unicorn as he began to hug her.  “Thank you for everything.”

-Manehatten-

Star Shadow looked at the one and only resident of Manehatten they had found in the city.  According to this pony, Night Shadow found a spell that could get him to Canterlot easily. He’s probably already taken the city, Nightmare Moon may be a goddess, but she can be defeated… Star Shadow thought to himself angrily.  Apparently this pony was left behind in the rush to get to Canterlot.  Star Shadow smiled, Well then, if Night Shadow went to Canterlot, it looks like I’ll have to follow him.

Star Shadow looked at Nightfire and Midnight, “Are you ready to get this over with?” He asked them playfully while beaming.  The two ponies nodded at his question, “Well then, I guess it’s time to go to Canterlot, it’s time for Night Shadow to fall, and he shall die at my hooves.”  Star Shadow walked away from his friends beaming with joy.

Prologue: The Beginning of the End

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

Prologue: The Beginning of the End

Twilight stood there in shock; the elements didn't work against Nightmare Moon, they had lost. Nightmare Moon laughed at the ponies who had tried to use the Elements of Harmony against her.

"Why… why didn't the elements work?" Twilight mumbled to herself confused at why Nightmare Moon wasn't defeated.

"It looks like your luck has run out, little ponies!" Nightmare Moon shouted out in triumph.

Twilight scowled at the black alicorn. "No, we can still beat you!" Twilight shouted, but she had no confidence in her voice.

Nightmare Moon simply laughed, again. "Look at you six little ponies trying to defeat me, Nightmare Moon! You cannot win!" Nightmare Moon shouted at them trying to contain her laughter at what Twilight had said.

"Twilight, we ah'm pretty sure we won't win this battle." Applejack told the worried Twilight.

"She's right." Said a voice nopony recognized, the Elements of Harmony looked at Nightmare Moon, for that is where the voice came from, and two pegasi came out from behind her, one a green pegasus and the other a black pegasus. The black pegasus looked at Rainbow Dash and he smiled.

Rainbow Dash gave this pegasus a death stare, Twilight was still confused at who these pegasi are, and why the Elements of Harmony didn't work on Nightmare Moon.

"Twilight, let's go." Applejack whispered to Twilight, hoping Twilight would go.

Twilight looked back at Applejack, and she whispered back, "No, we need to fight otherwise Nightmare Moon will defeat the princess and cause eternal night." Twilight looked back at Nightmare Moon.

Twilight, the Elements of Harmony heard in their heads, it will be okay. Nightmare Moon will defeat me, but I will still be alive. There is a pony somewhere near you, he will be the one that will help you defeat Nightmare Moon. Find him, and defeat Nightmare Moon. Right now she is too powerful to defeat with the Elements of Harmony, you need to weaken her before you use the elements. Now go, find this pony and defeat her.

Tears started to roll down Twilight's cheeks as she thought about the princess, she didn't want to go, but the princess told her she had to go, to find this other pony.

Twilight turned around and said to her five friends, "Let's go." And she began to walk out of the building.

The green pegasus began to fly after her, but Nightmare Moon stopped him and said, "Let them go, they won't be able to defeat me, even if they try, they will fail." The black pegasus laughed with joy at what Nightmare Moon had said.

Nightmare Moon had won, the eternal night will begin soon, but little did she know her reign will be short lived. This was the beginning of the end.

And that is it… so I showed this to one of my friends… his first thought of it was "It will make a good name for a parody." I asked why back and he said, "The beginning of the end, it is the beginning of the beginning of the end of the story" I seriously wonder about my friends sometimes…

Well that's it for now, bye everypony ^-^.

-bathroomstahl