//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: The Shadow Wars: Rise of Nightwing // by Void Streak //------------------------------// 6 years later Void Streak was now a teenager and an excellent wielder of the aura. Princess Celestia had trained him on the various arts of the aura, although one thing she noticed was that he seemed to excel at combat. Celestia had taken him on various missions to help combat the Crystal Empire. This included missions of sabotage and defending various towns and cities from invasion. Void's main problem was keeping his emotions in check. If an aura wielder keeps his anger and hate built up then they are easier to succumb to corruption. Celestia and Void Streak, both walked to the training hall, where he had all of his elemental lessons. “What is that we will be doing today, Princess?” he asked, although he tried to hide it, Celestia could still sense the feeling of frustration being emitted from him. “What is the matter, young Void? I can sense that you are feeling frustrated.” Celestia asked, in an attempt to figure out what was bothering her student. Void merely ruffled his wings in annoyance, “It's the same lessons over and over again, I feel that I am ready to become a full Elemental.” “While you may think that you are ready, in reality, you are not. Thinking that you are ready can lead to arrogance, arrogance can lead to corruption.” Void sighed in annoyance, he had heard the same lecture every day and it was starting to annoy him. Celestia sensing his irritation, added “Besides today we are going to do something a little bit different. Your main problem is letting your emotions get the better of you. There is an easy trick to solving this and it is through the method of meditation.” “Meditation! How will meditation solve anything?” he asked angrily, he was unhappy about the fact that he was seeing no action. Whenever they went on missions, he was always given a supporting role, such as delivering messages or building defences. He felt that Celestia and the League were deliberately holding him back from reaching his full potential “Meditations will both clear your mind and in turn will make you calm,” Celestia said. She then dimmed the lights before sitting cross-legged, she then instructed Void Stream to do the same, he reluctantly complied. Celestia then told him, “Now close your eyes and clear your mind and concentrate on your breathing. Breathe in through the nose and hold for three seconds then release through the mouth.” Void followed her instructions and to his surprise did feel that he was becoming less angrier. Celestia then explained, “Meditation can also help you become one with the aura.” Void Streak nodded before reluctantly agreeing, “It does feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.” Celestia nodded, “Good then that means it is working. You should do this every so often or when you are feeling emotional, typically when you are feeling angry.” Suddenly Princess Luna rushed into the room clutching a piece of parchment, “Celestia, we are getting reports of a large gathering of Crystal Troops amassing near the City of Stalliongrad.” Stalliongrad is a large industrial city that is vital for the war effort. Under no cost was the city to fall to Sombra’s hooves lest the entire frontlines could collapse. Celestia read the parchment that Luna was holding before turning to Void, “We have a new mission, we are to head to Stalliongrad and defend the city, I hope you've practised your combat skills because I fear that you are going to need them.” Celestia explained with a grim face. Void smiled, “Yes finally some real action.” “Let's not get too carried away, my protege, remember Elementals don't go looking for fights, the role of the elementals is to protect the creatures from the dark forces,” Celestia explained, however, Void merely rolled his eyes. This slightly concerned Celestia as she feared that Void was beginning to grow power hungry. Void Streak and Celestia rushed to the airship that would take them to Stalliongrad. When they arrived on board Celestia ordered Void, “Go check on the ship’s cannons and defences while I go speak with the ship’s captain and find out more information on the situation.” Void Streak nodded and walked around the sides of the ship, inspecting each cannon, making sure that the barrels were clear of any dust or dirt that could cause a blockage, he also made sure that there was a cannonball in each cannon so that they could fire back straight in the event of an attack. He then entered the bowels of the ship and smiled as he saw his creation was in perfect condition. When he wasn’t training, Void Streak would think of different ideas as well as invent various different machines that could help with the war effort. The machine that he was looking at now was a reactor that would power up a force field for long periods of time. Before his invention, unicorns would suffer from magic exhaustion due to holding up shields for a long time, slowly weakening them. As a way to combat this issue, Void used his expertise to create his Shield Reactor. The machine looked like a sphere surrounded by hexagonal tiles, these tiles would surround a magical crystal that would create the force field itself, while the tiles would emit the shield to encompass the building or ship that it was protecting. For it to work however it would need to be kept in the centre of the building and the dimensions of the thing that it was protecting would need to be properly coded into the Reactor. Void made sure that the reactor was running smoothly by checking for damage on the tiles and also checking to see if the dimensions had been properly programmed into the machine. Nodding, he was happy to say that his reactor had passed the inspection with flying colours. *** Meanwhile on the ship’s bridge Celestia asked, “What is the situation in Stalliongrad?” The captain gave her a grim look, “From what the mayor has told me, the city is surrounded by Sombra’s forces with King Sombra leading the attack, himself.” Celestia silently cursed, “Do we have enough troops to combat them?” “We have enough troops to hold them of but we will still be greatly outnumbered.” He informed her. Looking at a map, Celestia began to strategize, “Captain when we start flying over the troops, I will need you to start dropping bombs onto them, hopefully, that will create a corridor for supplies to get through. You deal with his troops and I will deal with King Sombra myself.” The Captain nodded before saluting. Void Streak entered the bridge and asked, “What is the plan?” Celestia began to explain, “Right now the city is currently under siege from King Sombra, himself. I have ordered the Captain to bomb the troops surrounding the city so as a way to both weaken them and to break out of the siege. Our job is to fight Sombra himself, I will need your help to combat him but first I must ask, are you ready to fight him?” Void nodded, “Yes Princess.” “Good, now go and get some rest while you can,” she told him. He then walked off to find a cabin for him to stay in. While most ponies would be terrified at the prospect of facing Sombra, he was excited and fully believed that he could take him down. *** Emerging from the clouds, they could see that the city was surrounded on all sides by the Crystal Army, the city was currently being bombarded by Crystal artillery. Using the aura both Void Streak and Princess Celestia could sense the general direction of King Sombra himself. Indeed, looking in that direction, Void could see the tyrant himself, his hoof pointing towards the sieged city, the artillery rained down another deadly barrage. The rain from hell was burning innocent ponies homes causing a foul stench of burnt flesh to fill the air. Disgusted, Void was about to leap over the side of the ship to rush Sombra, however, Celestia stopped him by placing a hoof onto his shoulder saying, “Patience Void, we do not want to rush him like a band of headless chickens.” Void listened and stopped himself from launching his attack, while the ship’s Captain immediately shouted out orders, “Everypony, to your battle stations, prepare the bomb bays and fire at my command!” The ship's crew moved swiftly and hurried of to their various posts while the captain peered through a scope that could see below the ship. The captain waited until the ship began to fly over the invading armies before shouting, “FIRE!” He heard a voice shout back “Bombs Away!” as the whistling sound of large explosives began to fall to the ground and hit their mark causing a loud BOOM! Below, the soldiers quickly dived for cover, however there was nothing to hide behind. The terrified screams of the doomed soldiers filled his ears causing him to smile. The army was in disarray as the bombs caused them to go unorganized as it quickly became every pony for themselves. Once the ship had passed the soldiers it began to descend into the heart of the city below. Once they touched down, a ramp extended and troops began to pour out onto the City Square. *** Celestia walked over to one of the commanders of the army and told him, “Commander I need you to split your forces in half, one half is to help the citizens in evacuating, while the other half is to follow me and hold Sombra’s guards off while me and Void fight him directly.” “Yes Your Majesty,” he said as he went to split his troops. One half of the guards went into the city suburbs to evacuate while the second half marched with Celestia and Void Streak to confront King Sombra himself. As they got to the outskirts of the city, Void could see Sombra’s army formed up in one massive line making it appear as it there was a wall surrounding the city and not thousands of bloodthirsty soldiers. Celestia shouted, “Lower your shields!” While Sombra roared, “CHARGE!” All of a sudden the wall of troops began closing in as Celestia’s army raised their shields and spears ready to impale the enemy clean through. Celestia and Void Streak marched to Sombra in sync while Celestia began to power up her horn and Void was ready to propel a windrush spell towards him. Suddenly, to both Celestia and Void Streak’s surprise, Sombra pulled out a small metal tube before pressing a small button that caused a purple laser to form out of it, making what appeared to be a laser sword. Sombra smiled sinisterly as both Void and Celestia stared at the contraption with apprehension. Sombra then exclaimed, “Do you like my new invention?” Sombra didn't wait for an answer as he began to explain, “It is a powerful sword that is created with magic. I call it a magiscaber.” Celestia sneered, “If you think this sword will help you then you are poorly mistaken.” However, Void Streak looked at the magiscaber with interest and decided that he wanted it for himself. Sombra poised for attack and Void readied his move. Sombra began his attack with lightning speed jabbing at Celestia, deciding that she was the biggest threat, a decision that he will later regret. Celestia was forced to teleport away from him. Void analysed Sombra’s moves and could tell that the King was still getting used to his own invention. Fool, inventors are supposed to test their inventions before taking them out on the battlefield void thought. He then watched with amazement as the magiscaber cut through Celestia’s shield as if it was butter. Celestia sent a few magic bolts towards the tyrant, however, the crazed unicorn merely deflected them with his saber. Void knew that while he had the magiscaber, he was untouchable. So sneaking off to the side of him, he then channels the aura through his hooves and pushed a windrush towards the unicorn causing him to go flying, however to his disappointment, the king had managed to keep hold of the saber. The king then leapt towards the pegasus with ferocious speed, narrowly avoiding him. This time it was Void, who was on the defensive, he could do nothing but keep on dodging the deadly blade, he kept on rolling to the side as he did this he could see that the magical sword was melting the snow. Suddenly the deranged king was blasted by Celestia, sending him flying, Void taking the chance, picked up the half melted snow and used the aura to melt it into water, which he then boiled before throwing it at the evil king’s face causing him to scream in pain. Void then used the aura to pull the magisaber out of his grip. The magiscaber felt warm in his hoof, he looked down at it with greed and couldn't wait to take it to his workshop and examine it further. He pressed the small red button of the side of the metal hilt and the magical laser vanished. Sombra screamed “NO!” and attempted to use the aura to snatch the magiscaber back out of his hoof, however the magical bolt had weakened him. With anger in his features, the king was forced to call for a retreat but not before telling Celestia, “I will be back, I will be back bigger and stronger for you may have won this battle but I shall win the war!” His army then pulled back, Void was ready to chase after them but Celestia held him back saying, “Let him leave, we barely survived that round let alone won it.” Void showed the princess, the magiscaber asking “Have you ever seen it before?” “No, we will have to take it to the League when we get back but for now we should head back to the city and secure that device,” Celestia said. “If it is alright with you, am I able to take this to my workshop and analyse it?” he asked, wanting to find out more about the mysterious sword. Celestia reluctantly agreed but not before warning him, “Yes but be careful, we do not know anything about this device for all we could know it could have some form of protective enchantment.” Void nodded saying “Yes Princess.” “Good, make sure you tell me what you find, now let's head back to the city and help with the reconstruction efforts.” Celestia said as they began to head back towards Stalliongrad.