//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: The Shadow Wars: Rise of Nightwing 
// by Void Streak 
//------------------------------//

The Equestrian fleet was heading straight to Crystal City. As soon as Cerberus had gotten approval from Star Swirl, he ordered the fleet to begin making preparations to attack the heart of the Empire. While the ship was travelling, Celestia and Void were both on deck, where they were both practising their magiscaber movements.

While they both seemed to be natural when it came to contact-to-contact fighting, they seemed to be lacking when it came to deflecting magic strikes. Their main problem was actually hitting the magical bolts. After missing for the fiftieth time, Void aura pushed the unicorn, who had volunteered to be the magic launcher, in frustration and anger.

"VOID!" Celestia shouted, quickly rushing over to the fallen unicorn, "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice laced with concern. After the unicorn nodded, Celestia then turned to her protege, "You could've hurt her then. You must learn to control your anger." 

Void rolled his eyes, "Yes, I know, you keep saying." Void grunted in annoyance.

"I'm being serious, Void. Anger can lead to the dark side, you must practice your meditation," Celestia told him.

Void gritted his teeth, "Yes master, I promise to do better."

"Good, now I may have figured out a way to solve our deflection problem. We can use the aura to predict when and where the magic bolts are being fired." Celestia explained, readying her golden magiscaber and getting into a defensive stance

Void copied her and both ponies, felt into the aura. Void then felt an urge to move his magiscaber to the left above his head. He gave in to his urges just as a magic bolt struck the blue blade, sending the magic bolt into the sky. 

Both ponies started to use the aura to feel where the magic bolts were going to strike. Under the emerging night sky, the colours of the magiscabers and magic bolts created a dazzling light show. Once the final magic bolt had been fired and successfully deflected, Void couldn't help but let out a whoop of celebration.

"Excellent work, my student, you have really mastered these magiscabers, now however it is time to up the stakes." Celestia congratulated, as Void's vision was suddenly engulfed in total darkness. Void Streak instantly panicked and tried clawing at the blindfold that now blocked his sight.

"Do not panic, I have temporarily blindfolded you so that we can ensure that we can deflect those magic bolts," Celestia explained, calming the panicking pegasus down.

Void exclaimed angrily, "How do you expect me to deflect those magic bolts when I can't see the blasted things."

Celestia merely sighed before telling him, "Use the aura to feel your surroundings and to predict when the magic bolts are going to hit." 

Void Streak nodded, before he felt Celestia turn him around, "It would help if you were facing the right direction"

Void used the same method as previous, however despite listening to the urges, he still kept on missing. He then resorted to simply dodging them; this only succeeded in him getting struck down by a magic bolt.

Void felt Celestia helping to his hooves, he then went to take the blindfold off but Celestia stopped him, saying "No, leave that on, it will help you tune your senses."

The unicorn then came running up to them, blabbering, "Master Void, terribly sorry, I didn't mean to hit you."

Void merely waved him off, "It's fine, you can say we're even now."

"That first attempt was good, you just need to concentrate and focus the aura onto your surroundings."

"That's easier said than done," he grumbled.

He got into position, listening for the urges, instead of reacting straight away, he attempted to listen to Celestia's advice and began to concentrate; this only made him miss the magic bolts. This repeated with him missing several shots, until he suddenly sensed the presence of the unicorn, using the aura, he focused his concentration on the unicorn, and then he could sense it, the unicorn firing his horn.

Smirking, he struck his magiscaber out and successfully blocked it, now confident he started hitting his mark. After striking lucky, the training came to an end, "Excellent work, Void, you adapted very quickly, I'm impressed. Now go and get some sleep, we have a very busy day tomorrow." Celestia congratulated.

Void nodded, "Thank you, princess." He then walked off to get some well-deserved rest.

***

Void Streak woke up to find the fleet under fire from anti-air cannons, quickly scrambling out of bed, he quickly rushed to the ship's bridge where he could see that they were positioned above the colossal crystal city. Looking out onto the deck, he could see several enemy pegasi attempting to board the vessel, sensing that they were going to get overwhelmed, Void quickly leapt down onto the deck and used the aura to push the enemies away from the ship. 

Void then leapt off the ship and began to use his magiscaber to cut down any pegasi who dared to try and attack the ship. Void then flew back towards Celestia, "It's time that we ended this war once and for all!" he shouted.

Before Celestia could stop him, Void jumped over the side and began flying towards the massive crystal castle that towered over the city, "VOID! You can't face him alone!" Celestia shouted, however, none of it reached Void's ears. Knowing that she couldn't let Void face Sombra by himself, Celestia quickly rushed to follow, him.

Using the aura to sense where Sombra was, he crashed through a large window, where he found himself in what appeared to be a throne room, and there sat atop a large, dark crystal throne, was none other than King Sombra himself.

Sombra chuckled, "So you think you can defeat me, yourself."

Smirking Void replied cockily, "You still underestimate me, your majesty. I'm surprised that you haven't learnt your lesson."

Sombra thundered, "You think you are the hero, yet you do not know what you will become."

Suddenly Sombra fired a blast of dark magic towards a crystal and the room began to change into a black, empty void, looking around Void realised that Sombra had vanished. Suddenly Void saw himself clashing magiscabers with Celestia, he couldn't tell how the battle had begun nor what the outcome would be. As quickly as it had appeared the vision vanished, instead to be replaced by him locked in a duel against Defender, however, unlike the previous vision, he appeared to be losing. He then watched in horror as Defender swung a blue magiscaber down across his face, the last thing he saw was himself clutching his eye.

The vision then shifted to reveal Void, wearing a black billowing cape dressed across a metallic suit, a small red gem now in place of his right eye, he appeared to making some form of speech, but the words sounded like they were being said underwater.  The vision changed again, this time to show himself facing down a group of mares, who were wearing several different coloured gems, they appeared to being led by a purple alicorn. 

The vision changed again, this time revealing a bipedal creature, who was wearing a metallic suit with a cape similar to the other Void in the previous visions. The creature appeared to be wearing a black metal helmet that covered the entire head. It had no mouth hole, instead having a triangular vent and two dark red visors in place of eyeholes. The mask appeared to be emitting a metallic breathing, that sounded artificial. The vision then vanished.

Void then turned around to see himself coming towards him before changing into the second version of him from the second vision before changing again into that same creature, the creature swung a red magiscaber towards him before the dark void receded to reveal the throne room again.

***

Celestia then burst into the throne room, to find her student on the floor clutching his head, she could see purple tendrils of smoke coming from his eyes that were now glowing green. Celestia then laid her hoof onto his shoulder, making him jump, she used the aura to clear away the dark magic that was plaguing his soul.

Sombra then told Void, "You cannot avoid your destiny,"

Void stared at Sombra, his eyes full of hatred. He then pounced at Sombra, both ponies igniting their magiscabers, the purple and blue blades clashed sending sparks. Void used his anger to make his strikes more powerful. Celestia then joined the fray, each pony using their scabers to combat each blade of the Sombra's now separate magiscaber. 

Sombra used the aura to push both ponies backwards before flinging his hoof down, causing the ceiling to collapse, while Void managed to dodge most of the falling debris, Celestia wasn't so lucky and ended up getting knocked unconscious. 

"It is just you and me now, go on use it, I know you want to." Sombra hissed.

"Use what?" Void snarled.

"Embrace the dark side, let the power consume you and you will become the most powerful pony in Equestria!" Sombra shouted.

"Oh Sombra, I have already embraced the dark side," Void said before opening his red eyes. He then used the aura to cause lightning to be shot from his hooves, striking Sombra and sending him flying back into the throne. He then used the aura to drag Sombra towards him and forcing him to a kneeling position, he then pulled out the red Magiscaber and crossed the red and blue blades, "Goodbye, Your Majesty." He then used a scissors motion, completely decapitating the evil King.

Then to his astonishment, the rest of Sombra's body along with the rest of the city started to turn to dark smoke before completely disappearing. As the city slowly vanished, Void could hear the ghostly laughing of King Sombra...