chapter 1: the first night

authors note: this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic and it is only the first chapter please bear with me and post what you think. thanks!

“Princess Luna we need to get you to safety, hurry there’s no time!” shouted Shining Armor over the blazing fire. Canterlot was a warzone, the rebels came in the middle of the night and struck fast, many guards were killed before they knew what was happening. Suddenly part of the roof came in crushing several of the guards behind Shining and maiming them “That’s it were leaving now princess, follow me!” with that Shining ran out of the room with the few surviving guards escorting Princess Luna to escape route hidden in the dungeon “what has happened to my sister?” Luna panted as the group ran down the stone stairway
“she refused to leave the other ponies and ordered her guardsmen to help escort as many of them to safety as possible, we can only hope she is ok” replied Shining as they rounded the last flight of the stairs into the dungeon “quickly Luna this way” Shining Armor said as he pulled a chain exposing a second route once hidden by a stone wall, just as the wall lowered several unicorns jumped out of the shadows, letting off bolts of pure magic burning a hole in three of the six remaining guardsmen “protect the princess at all cost” exclaimed Shining who retaliated by setting up a magical barrier that was already starting to fade from the constant barrage of magic attacks “run Luna head to Ponyville and warn them of the rebellion, hurry while we hold these bastards off!” Quickly Luna turned and ran into the dark passageway. Moments after she trotted through the stone fell back into place; she gave only a quick look and trotted off into the darkness. Being princess of the night she could see exceptionally well in darkness and needed little magic to assist her in her voyage. “I hope sisters ok, sometimes she’s too headstrong for her own good I would rather lose Canterlot than Tia, I need to hurry and warn Ponyville before they fall to the same fate as Canterlot, but I cannot imagine what rebels would want with such a small town as that.” With a thousand thought rushing through her head she made her way through the narrow tunnel only to fine multiple paths ahead of her “oh great just what I need at a time like this, if only Shining had stayed with me, he would know which way to go.” Though Princess Luna aloud “but if he did then we would of probably been found by now, Pony feathers what else could go wrong” screamed Luna angrily, tears streaming through her eyes. Spontaneously the earth above her shook, it was as if the castle itself had just collapsed “I need to hurry before somepony finds me down here” quickly Luna ran to the path on her left and hoped for the best. Luck decided to assist the young princess this time as she quickly found herself with only a sewer grate between her and fresh air “nothing a little magic can’t fix” though Luna as she mustered her energy into quietly moving the grate and hopping down into the long grass below and landing next to a beautiful waterfall, when Luna turned she saw to her horror Canterlot near ruins, that earth shaking crash was part of the castles towers plummeting off the side of the mountain down onto the grassy knolls below. Most of the castle was still standing but the larger towers were either ablaze or in ruins “oh Celestia will we ever regain from this” muttered Luna quietly as she assessed the area around her, she the waterfall and lake well from her childhood when she used to swim “looks like I could fly from here on out” readying her wings she took off as quietly as she could surveying the carnage below her the dead had been burned or just exploded from magical bolts from pegasies some bodies were so cut from blades so badly she could hardly tell who they were, which was probably for the better. She had not seen this much death in centuries and that was long before the first time discord appeared for he was marked as a staple in the pony history books as the only creature to obtain anarchy through means other than death and ignoring plagues and accidents most ponies died of old age due to the fact that crime was relatively low and that crime was mostly petty things like theft or tax evasion and not murder or rape. “How could we not be prepared for such a thing sister” Luna thought to herself when suddenly a magical blast grazed her wing, burning most of the feathers and the flesh below. The last thing Luna remembered was falling to the ground and slowing into a magical field that dampened her blow before she fell unconscious.

Luna snapped awake and tried to move only to find her bound by rope “wha...what’s going on do...don’t you know who I am?” mumbles the dazed Princess to several ponies with their backs turned to her. At that the figure in the middle turned to her, he was a deep steel color and had a voice like a razor. “Of course we know who you are the greeaaatt princess Luna running from a battle” the colts words burned like acid “you should of stayed with your guards then you would of died quickly like them, at that remark Luna leaned forward “if you hurt Shining then you’re dead!” exclaimed Luna with a surge of adrenalin
“I don’t know what fate happened to your troops you stupid girl! Me and my team we put here to kill anyone trying to escape. We didn’t expect to find one of the sisters themselves but now that we did we can have some fun” said the rebel leader as he brushed his tail against Luna as he walked in a circle around her.
“Celestia damn you!” exclaimed Luna as she tried to burn him alive with her magic
“You are a stupid girl aren’t you, we put a magic displacement ring on you, cant you feel it feeding on your magic?” In truth Luna could feel it eating away any magic she cast out
“C’mon boss stop toying aren’t we going to kill her now?” asked a light blue mare who hoped that his boss would hurry up and do his job
“Shut up or I swear to Discord I will kill you as well!” screamed the steel mare as he kicked the questioner in the face with his hoof breaking the poor colt’s nose. At that Luna had enough torment and tried as hard as she could to break the rope around her “poor princes, im sorry but I have very specific orders to make sure you suffahhh!” screamed the leader as a dark bolt hit him in the side of the face instantly incinerating it from cheek to cheek leaving only a charred stump where his head would be, the other rebels suddenly backed up scanning the sky for there unknown assailant were. When out of a tree flew three dark masses moving too fast to identify but agile enough to fire several bolts at the rebels killing most and sending the few survivors scurrying to get reinforcements from the now dead Canterlot.
The dark masses landed in front of Luna who was scurrying to get away “Princess Luna do not be alarmed it is us your guardians” quietly spoke the largest of the group, he was a night colored colt who nearly doubled the little Princess in size. Even through the trauma of the night Luna recognized the head of her guard Midnight Shadow from her childhood.
“Midnight I can’t believe your alive. What happened to Canterlot and Celestia, who are the rebels, why are they killing so many?” barraged Luna as her royal guards untied her and got off the magic inhibitor ring
“Please princess there will be time for all of your questions but please wait until we get away from this damned place and start on our way to Ponyville” pleaded Midnight Shadow as they started their flight to Ponyville.