//------------------------------// // Battle at Ponyville: part 1 (Ch. 7) // Story: The Chronicles of Star Well // by Eragon5055 //------------------------------// Chapter 7: Battle at Ponyville, part uno She-Who-Stalked-Silently was getting steadily more irritated with this mission. First, the Queen had decided to place two of her drones and one of her court magicians to 'ensure success'. 'You mean to watch me and slow me down' she thought bitterly. The Queens lackeys were diffidently no use in any manner of a stealthy operation. Drones were essentially hollow shells with no real intelligence of their own, and the moth was loud and pretentious. It's O.K., she thought, she could make do with this. When they arrived at the settlement, She-Who-Stalked-Silently had meant to take each one quietly, but as soon as they met their first target, the moth had the drones open fire with their S.A.F. cannons on the pegasus. She-Who-Stalked-Silently thanked the heavens that the target lived a distance away from the town, otherwise the whole town would be on to them. The mantis decided it was pointless to try for stealth as long as she had these three with her so she decided to split them up. The mantis sent the drones after the orange earth-pony, hoping that the profiles given to her were accurate and that the mare would be the least likely to run. She left the moth at the cottage to get the yellow crystalized pegasus into the containment spell, then meet up with her later. She-Who-Stalked-Silently decided to go after the two most dangerous targets on the list, the unicorns. The mantis had managed to capture and knock unconscious the white unicorn easily enough, but now it seems that the blue pegasus had placed the purple unicorn on high alert. She-Who-Stalked-Silently quickly climbed the the strange house-tree the unicorn resided in and waited for her moment to strike while their backs are turned. She left her captive up in the tree for safe keeping as she waited by the front door. Moments later, three ponies ran out the door, two of which were her targets. She did not know who this third unicorn was nor did she care, she would take all three out with a single strike. The mantis leaped from the trees to land a heavy blow with the back of her blade-gauntlets only to find her strike to be stopped by a fourth pony, covered from head to hoof in all black, using a knife in its mouth to stop the blow. 'This job keeps getting more and more irritating.' .................... Star Well was stunned at the sight before him. A tall slender creature resembling pray mantis with metal blades attached to its arms was going head to head with a ninja, warriors that existed only in rumors and stories. Star just stood there, his brain trying to register the insanity that was before him. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash showed no moment of hesitation to act, they were far to desensitized to bizarre scenarios to be shocked at the sight of only a ninja fighting a giant pray mantis. Twilight immediately sent two magical blasts at the mantis while Rainbow Dash flew up and started to create a miniature rainbow tornado to hurl at their assailant. The ninja jumped backward as the mantis swung at her with her other bladed arm, moving out of the way as the magical blasts came hurling at the creature. The mantis parried the blasts effortlessly with her sickle like blades and turned her attention to Rainbow's tornado which came flying at her with tremendous force. The mantis raised her bladed arm which started to glow fiery hot and brought it down an the rainbow colored tornado. Heat exploded at the collision, instantly dispersing the tornado and sending Dash skidding back across the floor skidding and slightly scorched. "Rainbow!!!" Twilight popped in a flash of purple light and reappeared before Dash, ready to defend her. "Are you alright?" "I'll be fine," Dash grunted, "I didn't think this guy could go ahead and cheat by being able to use magic. I thought only eggheads like you could do that." The explosion knocked Star back into his senses. He didn't have time to question the sanity of the situation as the creature was certainly not going to wait for him to recover before killing everypony. Star Well ran to Rainbow Dash to help Twilight defend the pegasus mare as she recovered. 'The mantis is too dangerous to fight in close combat,' Star thought. 'That makes trying to use THAT spell is to risky, We'll have to keep our distance.' At that moment, Spike ran out of the library, charging with a broom. "Get away from my friends!!!" He was met with a swift kick from the mantis into his gut, sending the baby dragon flying back into the library. The mantis turned to face her prey just in tim to see three metal spinning objects flying at it. The mantis managed to dodge all but one, leaving a cut across its cheek. "I hope you didn't forget about me." stated the pony donned in black, her hooves full with more metal stars to throw at the mantis. Nopony noticed as the unconscious dragon hiccuped a burst a flame that formed a scroll with the royal seal on it. "Any news from Twilight Sparkle?" "I'm afraid not your majesty." Celestia silently cursed. lt had been roughly an hour since Celestia had sent her call for help. This behavior was incredibly unusual for Twilight not to immediately respond and even if she had left Spike home, he would have certainly of ran to get Twilight as soon as he got the letter. The whole situation was putting her on edge. A white unicorn in bright silver armor came walking into the palace meeting hall were the princess resided. Another white unicorn stallion with a bright red mane and golden eyes walked with him,wearing the golden royal guard armor forgoing the helmet. "Ah, Captain Shining Armor and Lieutenant Lance, I trust that you have a status report for me?" "Yes, your highness," Shining spoke "We have made an estimate of our losses." Weary grew on the alicorns face. "Please continue." "We have estimated that around 230 city guards have been injured in the assault, with around 37 missing in action. Civilian are lucky estimated losses are estimated around 53 injured with only 13 reported missing. So far, no bodies have been found and it is believed that the most of missing were at least captured and taken hostage. The attackers managed to bomb several cites in the city, including all the radio towers, civilian and military, as well as most of the cites were the shield glyphs had been placed. the damage to the outer walls will take some time to rebuild and the total estimated damages to the whole city are being estimated at 150,700 bits." "What about Luna and the remaining ponies inside the city." "Luna at this moment is searching for any stranglers and hints of where the invading force went, but she should be back rather shortly. The remaining guard are busy evacuating everypony onto palace grounds while setting up new glyphs for the Evershield spell." "Good to see that Twilights plans have been instituted so quickly." "You know Twiley. Right after the changeling attack, she went right into researching what to do if my Evershield ever failed again. She sent me thirteen plans as well as sent me seven back-up if any of those failed. Though, I don't think even my sister could have planned for what happened here." "I don't think anypony could. I also got a report that you went and defend the Northwest section by yourself." "Ya! It was sweet! I got to see a true Realization, and the Captain's no less. I never imagined it would be so powe-" Lance then realized that both the Princess and SHining were glowering at him. "sorry, I'll shut up now." Princess Celestia then turned her attention back to Shining. "That was rather a reckless decision on your part." "The Southeast wall forces took the heaviest damage on the initial attack. I felt was necessary to majorly reinforce that area, especially how close it is to the residential district." "With all do respect your majesty, the air guard could not spare even one pony, the invading air force was to great in number to lose any." "I just don't want to hear that my niece as suddenly become a widow. How is Cadence doing by the way? I was informed that she was admitted to the hospital a couple hours before the attack." "Cadence had another minor magic surge." Lance gave a surprised look at his Captain, "Wait, is Princess Cadence sick? I thought alicorns could not get sick." Princess Celestia gave another worried look, "Normally, no, alicorns cannot get sick, but Princess Cadence is not an alicorn. Do you know what makes a pony an earth pony, a pegasus, or an unicorn?" "Isn't because one has wings or a horn, or has neither?" "Your partially correct. What type of pony foal will be is decided by what type of magic it develops in the womb. There has only been three alicorns in the recorded history of this world, one which died a long time ago. Normal ponies only develop one type of magic, either earth, pegasus, or unicorn, an alicorn however has access to all three types of magic as well as 'the spark of divinity' which keeps the three magics in balance as well as provide us with immortality. Princess Cadence is different in that she was born with only two types of magic, unicorn and pegasus. It is a rare condition called 'Veneficus Imbalance Syndrome'. It is a extremely rare genetic defect that causes a foal to be born with more then one type of magic. There are different degrees of the syndrome which Cadence has a 'class A' type. That means she was born with at least average amounts of both types of magic. Most foals with this same type of condition don't even make it to term as without the 'spark' to keep the magic in balance, both energies would try to repel each other and tear the child apart. It was a miracle she survived her birth, never the less to grow up." Shining added, "The magic energies settled down after childhood, but she is still proned to magical 'fits'. That's why she needs to get monthly check-ups. I am just thankful how small this attack was. Cadence insisted she was fine, but I convinced her to get a check-up just in case." "She's a strong mare Shining, she'll be fine" "Still can't help but worry." A blue mare with a mane like the stars the flew into the meeting hall along with two pegasus guards with bat wings instead of feathers. Princess Luna looked incredibly frustrated as she walked closer to her sister. "I found no trace of the insect army. They even managed to hide their presence even from my tracking spell. I fear they have gotten away with the Elements." "Sister, I think it is time to call the City Council. There is much about this attack that troubles me, and I need to lay out my fears before the council and get their opinions before we can plan any sort of action. I have not gotten word from Twilight and I fear that Canterlot is not the only place that was attacked.