//------------------------------// // chapter 5 // Story: The Shadow Wars: Rise of Nightwing // by Void Streak //------------------------------// Void Streak decided to make two magiscabers for himself, one containing the unicorn horn and the second, containing the aquamarine kyber crystal. He used metal to make the hilt and made both hilts identical, the hilts would be larger so that they could be used with two hooves, making his strikes more accurate, the only problem with this was that he would have to learn to walk on his hindhooves. He also made his hilts light and more streamlined so that they would make his movements fast and agile. Once his own two sabers were complete, he tested them both out and was pleased with the results. He then used his last remaining kyber crystals to make an additional two magiscabers, one for his master, which would use a citrine kyber crystal making the blade appear yellow, while the second magiscaber would be for Star Swirl, "which used a kyber sapphire crystal making his blade white. He made standard hilts as he didn't want to give them the edge over his own magiscabers. Once the magiscabers were complete, he then looked at the clock and was pleased to see that he would have to time to finish of the project that he had started. He walked to the back of his workshop and pulled a white sheet of a table revealing some kind of robot, all he needed to do was program the robot into becoming a soldier. He used a magiscreen to program the robot into becoming a killing machine that was only loyal to him. He called the robot a Droid Soldier and code-named it as DS-001. The droid would use its back legs to move around while it would use its front limbs to hold another one of his inventions called a blaster. The blaster was a hoof-held cannon that could fire magic bolts without needing a unicorn, It was to be used as a deadly weapon that could take down large groups of enemies. After the programming was finished he switched the Droid Soldier on by using a small button that was placed on the back of the DS's neck. He watched as the eyes, which were located inside of a curved head, lit up. The eyes could be used as torches and had also been fitted with both thermal and night vision. The DS stood up and stood to attention before its master and inventor. "I serve at your command, master." The droid spoke in a mechanical voice that was being emitted from a voice box fitted into the robot's head. "Excellent, for now, you are not needed," Void said before switching the DS off again and throwing the white sheet over it. He had decided to keep his robot secret, he did not want the elementals to discover that he was creating a robot army. *** Void Streak entered the Skyport, to find several airships already rearing to go, he flew over to the flagship that would lead the attack. He entered the Bridge to find Celestia and Defender, he walked over to the Sun Princess and said, "I made a magiscaber for you." He gave the scaber to Celestia, who took it with her magic, she examined it closely, pressing the button, revealing the yellow blade, she then took a few practice swings. "Careful, where you point that thing," Void warned as Celestia narrowly missed the window. "Are we ready to set off then?" he asked, wanting to get the battle over with. "Yes, we just need to take and then hold the mines, while we take the kyber crystals," Celestia explained. Defender then told them, "If these crystals are important to Sombra then I'm expecting heavy resistance." "Agreed, once we have taken the Kyber Crystals, we need to destroy the mines and ruin Sombra's chance of creating more of those weapons," Cerberus said as the ship began to rise. *** When they had crossed the border into the Crystal Empire they had spotted several scout pegasi, their own pegasi, including Void attempted to give chase however they had managed to give them the slip by hiding in the mountains. "Well, there goes our stealthy approach," Cerberus exclaimed in annoyance. "Relax, they only know that we are in their territory, they don't know why or what our plan is." Defender told the old griffon. "Still it would be wise if we hide in the clouds until we get far from this area. Captain, increase our altitude to ten thousand feet." Celestia ordered. They then felt the ship begin to rise as the ship became more slanted. "That should hopefully cover our tracks. Just in case, we should increase patrols around the ships and remain on high alert, the last thing we need is to get shot out of the sky before we even get there." Void said. Surprisingly the rest of the trip had been uneventful and no intercepting pegasi had been spotted, this made Void more uneasy as he would have thought that they'd have been spotted by now as keeping a large task force was not easy to hide, even among the clouds. "We are approaching the target, Your Majesty." The ship's captain informed them, saluting in the process. "Thank you, captain, lower our altitude we shall carry out a bombing run," Celestia commanded. The captain nodded and quickly rushed off to carry out his orders, Celestia then turned to her protege, "Void, I need you to get the pegasi into position." "Of course, Princess," Void said before heading towards the mess hall, where he knew that the pegasi would be finishing off their lunch. Entering the mess hall, he clapped his hooves to gain their attention before announcing, "Attention Pegasi, we need to head down to the hatch." Ignoring the 'yes sirs" that he received, he led them down to the hatches that they would be jumping out of, as they walked to their destination, they could hear the sounds of bombs whistling and explosions from below the ships towards the ground. They entered the hatch room and began to prepare themselves for the eventual drop that would happen. Void told the pegasi in his charge, "Remember we head straight for the mines and take out any enemies that may be there and we establish a defensive position ready for drop team two, who will clear out the mine. We do not enter the mines." Suddenly a loud buzzing sound filled their ears and a green light lit up the room. Before he could prepare himself, Void's heart lurched into his throat as the floor opened up causing the pegasi to drop. ignoring his instincts to flap his wings, he instead nosedived before spreading his wings once they were close to the ground, he then led his team towards the mines. Regaining his bearings, he looked around to see several anti-air cannons firing at the fleet overhead. Void knew that before drop team two could launch, they would need to take out those cannons first. He shouted over to his fellow pegasi, "Windy, Typhoon, Hurricane and Rainy help me get rid of these AA cannons, the rest of you secure the entrance to the mines!" The five pegasi broke away from the group before finding their targets, Void went for the one that was closest to him, which was hidden on a mountainside, and instantly took out the two brainwashed unicorns that were guarding it. He used his blue magiscaber to slice the Unicorn mare before using the aura to pin the other unicorn stallion to the mountain face and ran the blue blade through his heart and into the stone rock behind him. Then with one single swipe of his scaber, he took out the cannon. Looking at the other cannons he could see his companions using explosives to destroy the cannons. He repeated the process with two other cannons before they were all destroyed. The pegasi then flew over to rendezvous with the rest of the team, who were having trouble taking the mines. Arriving at the mines, Void immediately leapt into action, using his magiscabers to cut down any soldiers that dared to stand in their way. Void quickly realised that the soldiers they were taking out were being replaced by soldiers that were emerging from the mines themselves. Void used the aura to blast wind into the tunnel, making it harder for the soldiers to reinforce their fallen. Once the enemies were pushed back into the tunnels, he then waved his hoof downwards to cause several rocks to crash down, effectively blocking the entrance. After the last couple of troops were defeated, they got to work establishing defensive measures that included trenches and hidden traps. Several pegasi couldn't help but admire the glowing, blue sword that Void was holding. Seeing that the Mines were now secured and better defended, Void shot a flare into the sky indicating that it was safe for drop team two to land. *** Defender led his own team of pegasi to the entrance of the mines and ignored all the crystal soldiers that lay dead aroundd the entrance. "How was it?" Defender asked glancing at the bodies that were strewn about. "Not too difficult although be warned there are enemy forces hiding behind that blockage," Void explained nodding towards the blocked entrance. Defender crossed his hooves while flapping his wings in annoyance, "Seriously, you couldn't have defeated them yourselves." "Technically, they were inside of the mines, which means that they are your problem." Void said cheekily pointing towards the red pegasus. Defender waved his hoof in mock anger before telling his forces, “Get ready.” The pegasi all lined up in front of the collapsed mine and drew their wingblades. Instead of moving the boulders out of the way, Defender decided to aura push them inwards crushing several crystal troops in the process. The pegasi then leapt into action, engaging the enemy with their wingblades and narrowly dodging their enemies swords. Defender would rush in with an attack before pulling back and using the aura to throw larger boulders at the chasing armies. Eventually, the fight led into a large command centre, where several officers were held up. Defender, who was using a sword locked with the general’s own sword. He narrowly dodged his strikes, deciding that instead of attacking first, he would let his foe tire himself out before moving in for the strike. He then grabbed the general's hoof before twisting around the earth pony, before slamming his head against a table creating a sickening crunch. Once the soldiers were killed, Defender quickly drew his attention to the command centre, they were joined by Void Streak and his own forces. Void could see several drawings of maps and other sorts of wacky ideas, he decided to make a mental note of the sketches. Void quickly wrote a message detailing, how the battle had gone and how they had secured the mines. Suddenly, Typhoon ran up to him and said, "Sir, we've spotted a large gathering of Crystal forces heading towards us." Both Void Streak and Defender followed her out the entrance of the mines, where in the distance they could see a large black blur that looked foreign in the white, snowy mountains of the frozen north, Void instantly realized that they were looking at a large army that was making a B line straight for them...