//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Shadow Seeds // by Orsuros //------------------------------// Orsuros watched the two sisters complete the magical ritual that changed day into night. He could sense the shadow beasts nearby as soon as the moon jumped into the sky. There were so many of them that he could feel their presence surrounding the city. He stepped onto the balcony with the two princesses while the ponies all ran off to their stations. A magically amplified voice sounded over the city. “Ponies of Canterlot! Cease this foolish fight and come join us.” The voice sounded like Nightmare Moon. “Save yourselves from the pain of fighting a hopeless fight. Just look at our numbers and what Siega can do for those who join him.” Orsuros growled as he noticed a swarm in the sky. The shadowy forms of ponies filled the sky, the glow of their horns lit their wings dimly. “Wait? Are they all alicorns?” Luna asked as her eyes widened as she scanned over the mountainous landscape around the city. Orsuros glanced around. He could still see plenty of normal shadow beasts in the form of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, but it seemed Siega had been busy with preparations of his own. In theory, with the materials taken from the souls of ponies, it wouldn’t be difficult to craft the shadow beasts into alicorns. It was just surprising that Siega had figured out how to do it so quickly. Orsuros looked over the group in the sky. He counted a few and then guessed at the total. “There seems to be about 50 of them. He’d need to use things from each type of pony to make them, so he can’t have made too many. I better go put the final touches on my own surprise.” Orsuros hopped off the balcony and glided down below. Out in a courtyard by the outer wall, Spike was waiting with Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and his other friends. Behind him, the changelings and pegasi guards filled the sky above Canterlot. Some unicorns hastily started to cast the protective spells over all the ponies. Orsuros landed in front of Spike. The little dragon looked scared but determined. “I’m ready. I’ll finally get to protect everyone and help you and Twilight and Thorax.” “You’re already showing great bravery in agreeing to this. It isn’t easy to become something you fear.” Orsuros began his spell. His blue lines glowed. He put his front paw on Spike’s forehead, and the glow transferred to the dragon. The magic changed the aspects of Spike’s soul. The greed that would cause Spike to grow was shifted to Spike’s desire to protect his friends and the ponies of Equestria. Spike suddenly doubled in size. His stance and appearance shifted, too. The spell had taken hold. He kept changing. He growled out in pain as his body continued to grow. Soon, he was several times the size of Orsuros and towered over most the castle. Orsuros had to look almost straight up. The spell was complete, but he had to be sure Spike still had some presence of mind at the end of it. Spike looked down and roared a challenge at Orsuros. He roared back and pointed to the swarm of shadow beasts outside the walls. “Spike, they are here to take away your precious friends and family. Now go fight for them!” Spike roared in agreement and stretched his long neck out before breathing a burst of flame over a group of shadow pegasi. They vanished in the flames. The shadow alicorns were all beginning to glow with powerful magic. Orsuros spotted Nightmare Moon approaching rapidly from above. He beat his wings and flew back to where the princesses and their friends were gathered. They stared at the incoming swarm of enemies. Orsuros landed and startled them. “There’s no time for standing around. We’ll need to do our best to protect Spike.” Spike was being pelted from afar by little magical blasts, but they mostly seemed to be distracting the dragon rather than harming him. Celestia spread her wings and jumped over the railing. “There’s my opponent. And since she’s not the same as my sister, I won’t have to hold back.” Celestia’s horn gathered magic around it until it was glowing so bright that it was hard to look at it. Luna and Twilight followed to the sides of Celestia and each prepared their own spells. Starlight remained back for a moment then teleported from rooftop to rooftop with her own spells. As much as he wanted to help, Orsuros needed to find Siega. At the very least, he could prevent Siega from fully directing the battle if he got too close. Orsuros glided down to the outer wall. A handful of shadow pegasi charged him, but he lashed out with claw and tail. The three shadows smashed into the ground and vanished. Orsuros had to crouch low as Spike breathed a plume of fire above him. He carefully got up and poked his head over the stones of the wall. There were hundreds or maybe even over a thousand shadow beasts all swarming the wall at places where it seemed easiest to attack. The guards were doing their best to hold them back, but some of the distant sections were struggling, especially down by the city. Siega flew in the distance, circling high above Canterlot. Orsuros spotted him briefly but then was distracted by a shadow alicorn that charged in with a contingent of pegasi. A few loud smacks were all Orsuros heard before a rainbow blur came to a halt. “I got your back,” Rainbow Dash said. “But the ponies at town gate are struggling. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy are all there, but we’re getting overwhelmed.” “I think the princesses will do fine here,” Orsuros said. “As long as Siega doesn’t join the battle directly, I’ll be wherever you need me.” “I’ll meet you there. I got some shadow butts to kick!” Rainbow Dash zipped off in a blur. The princesses were fighting off the shadow alicorns and Nightmare Moon with some ground support from Starlight and the guards. The enemy was slowly getting smarter and putting more of their forces in the air away from the ground troops. Several groups of shadow unicorns and earth ponies were also pushing onto the outer walls of the castle and forcing the guards to engage. If the enemy kept gathering here, they might be in trouble, but it would be even worse if the defenses of the town were breached. The shadow beasts would rampage among the citizens and multiply even faster as they captured more ponies. But as long as the spell on Spike held, the castle itself would have a very powerful guardian. Orsuros glided along the wall. A group of guards was getting pushed back while some shadow unicorns levitated a squadron of shadow earth ponies to the top of the wall. Orsuros didn’t have much time to help, but he swooped in and raked two of the unicorns. They burst into shadowy dust and vanished before he had even pulled back up from his dive. So far, the battle seemed almost too easy. They had planned well, but it felt like Siega was definitely planning something. Orsuros tried to think through how he’d approach the battle himself, but he was distracted by the screams from some of the houses below. A squadron of shadow pegasi had landed and the guards were far away. Orsuros swooped in and lashed out. He caught a few of the enemy off guard, but the rest spread their black wings and charged him. He tried to slash at them, but they jumped back. A few flew above him and kicked his wings and back. He growled and drew in his wings. Nothing was broken, but he’d definitely have some bruises. He charged at the closest ones. He was able to catch one and slash it apart, but the rest pulled back or countered by kicking him. The enemy was definitely getting smarter. He saw the ponies that had been in the street running safely away, so he made one final charge. He slashed another shadow pegasi apart as he rose in the air. The royal guard pegasi were now closing in. They swooped down and took advantage of the distraction Orsuros had created to finish off most the enemies. Orsuros saluted them briefly as he looked back. He flapped his wings hard enough to feel the muscles burn until he was high enough to see the city gate. Even from this distance, he didn’t like what he saw. Black figures were crawling onto the wall and swarming down onto any ponies below. Someone had kicked a few big carts in front of the gate, which was the only reason it was still closed. Down in the crowd of ponies, he spotted a small group fighting bravely, or at least most of them. Rainbow Dash was already down with her friends, kicking shadow pony after shadow pony. A few burst into nothing with the harder kicks. Applejack’s bucking carried even more force. A single kick from her easily destroyed any enemy unfortunate enough to meet it. Pinkie Pie seemed to be distracting the enemy with thrown pies. Rarity was doing her best to deflect any incoming spells with a diamond-shaped shield while Fluttershy cowered in back. But animals seemed drawn from the city to protect her. Dogs, cats, and a few other rarer pets circled around her and drove back the enemy. From this point, Orsuros could see a group of several shadow alicorns and a large squadron of shadow pegasi descending on the gate. The enemy charged their magic, hoping for a surprise attack from above. Orsuros dove at them before they could fire and ruined their aim. The magic blasted away part of the mountainside in the distance. Before Orsuros could turn to continue his attack, the shadow pegasi swarmed him and grabbed hold of his wings. He clawed and bit at them, destroying a few, but they continued to surround him and push him toward the ground. With so many, he could feel them trying to drain his soul. He focused his magic and strengthened his defenses, but he could still feel the air rushing past him. He tried one last time to shake them off. From nearby, Orsuros heard a shout. “Changelings! Protect the dragon!” The swarm of shadow pegasi quickly diminished, but Orsuros was still being forced down toward the gate. He caught a glimpse of Thorax and the changelings trying to free him, but everyone around him let go a moment later. He flared out his wings, but there wasn’t enough time. He crashed right into the gate. He couldn’t tell if the loud crack had been his bones or the gate. It had been dumb of him to rush in, but his friends would have been in trouble without his help. His vision was blurry and his head hurt. He felt several hooves on him as they pulled him forward onto a clear patch of the street. Someone poked at him and saying something. He felt suddenly wet. His vision slowly cleared and his ears stopped ringing as badly in a few moments. Rainbow Dash was right in front of him and seemed to have emptied a bucket of water on his face. “Rainbow Dash?” He asked, still feeling confused. “Can you hear me now? How many wing feathers am I holding up?” Rainbow Dash held up three or four. Orsuros blinked and she became clearer. “Uh… four?” “Good. Now get up! There’s still a battle all over town.” Rainbow Dash helped Orsuros stand before jumping back into the air to go attack some shadow unicorns on the wall nearby. Pinkie Pie was slathering something sticky on the cracked gate that looked suspiciously like bubble gum while Applejack guarded her flank. An angry roar shook the entire city. Spike sounded both angry and in trouble. Orsuros glanced up to the sky. Siega was no longer circling above them. “We’ll have to let the guard ponies defend the gate,” Orsuros shouted. “We need to go now! Spike and the princesses are in trouble.” Rainbow Dash gestured at the gate. “If we leave, they’ll break right through this!” “Go. Tell the guards to have everyone retreat to the castle. If Siega gets the princesses, we’ll lose this battle if he can figure out how to use more of their powers.” Thorax landed and looked around. “I’ll take care of things here and meet you there. You go save them.” Orsuros thanked Thorax and spread his wings. They hurt in many places now, but nothing seemed broken. He could feel plenty of bruises all over his body from the crash, but he’d have to ignore them for now. He flapped and gained altitude. He could no longer see Spike in his larger form. Siega must have undone his spell. Rainbow Dash flew ahead and Orsuros followed as they weaved through the towers of the castle. Siega and Celestia were facing each other. Celestia was protecting a fallen Luna. The shadow ponies were swarming through a large breach in the wall. Twilight and Starlight were protecting an unconscious Spike from getting overrun, but they were completely surrounded. Celestia shot a beam of powerful magic at Siega. Orsuros roared out in pain as he could feel the searing heat through his connection with the other dragon. Siega swiped at Celestia, but she ducked and stepped away from the claws as she hit the dragon with another spell. Orsuros felt that one, too. She cast one more quick spell that created a barrier between the two. Orsuros followed Rainbow Dash as they landed next to Celestia. Celestia looked over at them. “Take Luna to the castle and wait for me there. Siega did something to Luna, but I was able to defeat Nightmare Moon after she threw all her power at Spike. If I didn’t have to worry about hurting Orsuros, it wouldn’t be hard to defeat Siega with all my power, but we’re going to need to find another way.” “Do what you have to,” Orsuros said. “I was the cause of this. I’ll accept any pain I have to in order to fix it.” “I’d rather have a friend than a martyr. But go. Get the citizens to the caves under the castle and organize the defenses inside.” Celestia waved them off with her wing. Rainbow Dash grunted as she pulled Luna onto Orsuros’s back. “We got her. You go and I’ll help out Twilight and Starlight.” Orsuros was forced to run carefully back toward the castle to keep Luna from slipping off of him. Rainbow Dash dove straight into the crowd of shadow ponies. She bowled through them before skidding to a stop. Orsuros reached the door but paused to watch her scoop up Spike and motion to her friends to get to the castle. As soon as everyone was inside, they barred the door. The guards focused on creating a barrier around the castle to buy them a moment of rest. Orsuros was in rough shape, and most of his friends and the other ponies who had made it inside didn’t look much better. They left the guards at the door and made their way to the main throne room. Celestia cast a few spells on Luna and brushed a hoof through her sister’s mane. Luna took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Celestia helped her sister up. “You’re safe for now. The battle isn’t going too well, though. They’re slowly pushing into Canterlot. We’ve lost a lot of good ponies already.” Orsuros sighed. “If we had fought them sooner, we could have easily stopped them. Your castle, you homes, all destroyed because of what I brought here.” Luna sat down next to Orsuros and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t blame yourself. You didn’t mean to cause any of this. We need to find a way to win, somehow.” “We could try my other plan, but it might be very dangerous. If we find a way to defeat Siege with that, the shadow ponies would lose much of their power and focus. But my powers alone aren’t enough to use this connection at this distance. I’ll need your powers as well, Luna.” Luna looked down at her flank and her eyes widened as she noticed her cutie mark had been restored. “You defeated Nightmare Moon?” Celestia nodded. Luna thought for a moment before speaking. “I do seem to have my full powers back. But even with that, I could only take a few minds to such a fight.” “Do you have enough power to bring Spike and Thorax? They both have unique abilities that could prove useful.” “What about me?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I don’t want to miss a good fight.” Luna looked at each of them. "That’s about as many as I can bring. Tia, Twilight, and Starlight can stay here to help with the spell.” “The longer we take, the more time we’ll give the enemy to grow stronger.” "Then let’s get started.” Luna gathered them all around her as her horn began to glow.