//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17: The Siege of Mane-kind 
// Story: Red Clouds: The Strangers of Fate 
// by Akatsuki God 
//------------------------------//

{Manehattan}

It had been a day since the changelings had reached Manehattan and, already the ponies their began to waver slightly. To them, it felt like a week had passed because of how heavenly outnumbered they found themselves made them feel weary and some were even nervous to the point of sickness. Shining Armor had used his magic to put up a shield around the city which offered a vast amount of protection for the time being, however, this offered little comfort to most of the legionaries inside and Shining Armor himself wasn't an exception. He sat at the large fire in front of his tent by himself as he remembered his in counter with the Akatsuki. In his head, he could see Deidara and Sasori walking down the road in Canterlot to the castle. "To think that they...could have taken out the Crystal Empire in a single day..." He said to himself as he noticed a patrol of legionaries passing by briefly glancing at them and receiving a salute from their officer as he returned the gesture. 

"What seems to be the problem, sir?" He remembered Deidara saying in Canterlot before the attack of the Crystal Empire.

He clenched his teeth, a grimmest at the memory. "Just what are they planning?" He asked himself in frustration as he continued to stare into the flame and the deep thought he was in prevented him from feeling the cold wind of late autumn making him become temporarily oblivious to the world around him, much less the changelings that besieged them. 

He sneezed as another image of Deidara and Sasori came to mind "We are mere artists in the presents of royalty." Was the next quote that played in his head as he remembered seeing them speak to Princess Celestia for the first time.

He sighed and was completely silent for a long moment as he began to wonder. "And...what exactly did he mean when he called himself an artist?" He then questioned himself, racking his mind for clues "Maybe something to do with that bird he uses...no, that cant be it". Fox Trot came by as he caught Shining's attention.

He stopped right next to Shining and put his mouth close to his ear as he whispered. " General, we have been recieving reports of some ponies who have been acting strange within the encampment, many of which stick with each other in groups." He said as Shining turned to him. "And the changelings seem to be waiting us out, they may not be aware of the reinforcements." He then suggested.

Shining blinked, not taking his eyes of the flame. "I've noticed, I thought they would have known to attack us the moment they got here, but then again, Chrysalis isn't one to just charge in, she likes to take her time to play with her enemies as if they were her toys, so I somewhat expected that she would take things slowly not only for that but also because of the shield I have over Manehattan." He then pointed out using what he knew from the changelings attempt to capture Canterlot during his and Cadance's wedding. "But she probably found out about the reinforcements, so I'm a little puzzled as to why she waits." he then stated aloud as he finally took his gaze off of the warm fire in front of him and focused it on Fox Trot.

Several Guards passed them, one of them quickly glancing at them as they patrolled and disappeared behind a block tents. Fox Trot turned to them just before rounding the corner and then back to Shining. "Well I'm guessing if they already know and continue to wait, then they're either underestimating us, or they are waiting us out for the griffins to show, assuming they would come to Manehattan."

Shining stared at him with his mouth slightly agape. He was caught off guard with Fox Trot's advanced analysis of their situation, which would normally be around his level, given that he couldn't think straight sense he had heard the news of what happened in the Crystal Empire. He then looked back into the fire a grimmest at the situation with the siege and his wife. "You just may be right. Now that I think about it, those are probably the two most likely reasons that they would besiege us rather than to just attack us as we are and move on to the next town, but if non of those are true, then they may be plotting with those humans, to do to Equestria, what they did to the Crystal Empire."
____________________________________________
{Just outside of Manehattan}

Much like the encampment that stood between them and Manehattan, the camp made by the changelings was full of patrols, tents, and camp fires which sent smoke rising in several areas of the camp. The difference however, was in its size, shape, and the walls which surrounded them which was actually just as tall as a normal wooden fence. The camp itself was enormous, forming a semi circle around the city. The changelings their began to become hungry and unruly, they could smell the fear that their pony rivals gave off along with a hint of the love that resided within them as they had long awaited the day they would begin the invasion and capture several ponies for them to feed on, an anticipation and hunger also felt by Queen Chrysalis herself. She appear very similar to any ordinary changeling but roughly the same size as Princess Celestia. She stared at Manehattan, recognizing the barrier around it that halted their advance. She was well aware of the legion that was on its way to reinforce Manehattan's current garrison and she also knew that the shield had come from Shining Armor and although it was a very powerful defensive spell, she had more than enough changelings with her to overwhelm it within a few minutes and she knew it yet, she decided to wait a while. She wanted to see the terrified looks on the ponies after wiping out the entire legion during their first major attack on the Equestian heartland and just thinking about it almost made her tremble with excitement. "My queen, the nimble pony army is less than a day away and their princess is with them." Came the voice of one of her subject. "And as for the town, it seems they are starting to catch on to the spies we have there." He continued as Chysalis's irises shrunk and her facial expression darkened as she made her teeth easily visible at the mention of Celestia.

She turned with a very different experience, not of anger and frustration but of anticipation and sinister intent. "Well then Celestia must be far more foolish than I thought." She stated aloud. She didn't expect Princess Celestia to go personally on the offensive and finding out that they were less than a day away only added to her excitement. "Let us go, order the troops foreword at once. We mustn't let them get to the ponies inside that meager fort." She commanded.

The changeling captain stared quizzically at her in response. "But my queen, what are we to do with the city?" He asked in confusion.

"We leave a quarter of the troops here, the ponies will still be pitifully outnumbered. Besides, I've got a feeling that if Celestia herself is on her way, then there should be quite a few of those mortal ponies with her." She assumed out of common sense. "I'll leave you in charge here, but I'm taking most of the troops with me." She demanded as he bowed his head before flying away to inform the others.

After some time, most of the changelings became riled up as they heard that they would have a chance to take down Princess Celestia herself and the ones that were told to stay did so obediently and without hesitation and, although they were greatly disappointed with the order, they knew full well why they were assigned to take Manehattan without their queen so most of them were fine with it as long as they felt they could still be of use to her.
___________________________________________
{Elsewhere}
It was morning as noon was fast approaching and the cold autumn air had made no impression on any of the humans that had been summoned some time ago, a fact that held true for both the Akatsuki and the Koyoake. Sasuke was no exception for his goal kept him from caring about anything that didn't support him wether it was the ponies that were against him, or even the temperature of the air mixed with the chilling wind around him. He was walking down the same dirt road he was on just a day ago with very little difference in the setting with most of the trees around him having had lost most of their colorful leaves, a lot of which were on the road making his steps rather noisy, making a crunching sound with almost every step he took. Some distance away, a large bulge which seemed to have a massive vertical crack slowly emerged from the ground and stopped growing out after it reached a little over a meter in length as it slowly turned changed color from that of the ground to a heavy tint of a dark green. "Well, it seems Sasuke is exactly as Itachi made him out to be." Came a light voice from the figure as it as the two sides split revealing the half black, half white Zetsu. 

"Yes, and other then the cloths he wears, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between them from this distance." Said the darker voice from the dark half. "But there is one thing that can easily be used to tell them apart." The dark half then muttered as they continued to watch the oblivious Sasuke as he walked down the road. 

They were still, not making even the slightest movement as they had almost all their attention on Sasuke. "Hmm? What would that be?" The white half asked. 

"Can't you feel it? His chakra is different." He then explained to the other half as the other came to realize the same thing. "His chakra is far from identical to his older brother's." He said as they saw Sasuke stop in his tracks to kneel before picking up and holding some loose dirt in his hand. "The flow and characteristics of ones chakra can be affected by ones state of mind and emotional output." he then said to his other half which listened intently. "While Itachi is calm and doesn't let his emotions get the better of him in the midst of battle or otherwise, the same can't be said about his younger brother, Sasuke. Unlike Itachi, right now his life is completely dictated by his hatred for his brother and will do what it take in order to avenge his clan." he then said.

He knew that winter was fast approaching and he held his arm out away from his body in a fist before he began to gradually loosen his grip on the dirt in his hand causing a small trail of dirt to fall to the ground as it was dragged in the wind, allowing him to know the exact path that the wind followed. "The land I was summoned in is north of here and the air being carried by the wind is cold and dry, which means that it's getting close winter." He said to himself. He knew about Canterlot and the roads to take to get there but he wanted to be sure of where he was going. "And the wind is heading south which probably means that I'm in the northern hemisphere of what ever world I'm on. That being said, I should be heading in the right direction." He said to himself as the last of the dirt had left his hand to join either a small mound on the ground near his feet or the cold wind as it dispersed to the point of invisibility. "And as soon as I'm done with this princess, I'll come for you....Itachi." he then said in his head as he lowered his hand and squinted angrily. He then looked up into the sky to see several clouds which hung over him. He even noticed a few fast moving pegasus ponies who wore matching blue outfits heading in the direction of Manehattan. This let him know that a skirmish was just around the corner and he had no problem with running right into an army of ponies and there was easily no chance that he would simply go around them as he felt this would make things easier for his plans.

_________________________________________
{Canterlot}

Back in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle along with her own intelligence division was hard at work as most of the agents sent to other towns and cities had already began to monitor and the towns and the regions around them, they were not to share any important information as was ordered by Twilight herself, although, they were also told to keep them updated on the situation in the Manehattan region, giving only simple details on the battles that should occur there such as if the ponies have succeeded or failed to push back the changeling who seemed to be in the area without any aid from their griffin allies. Twilight was sitting next to a colt with brown fur and a black mane who had bandages covering his abdominal area. It was the poor pony from the destroyed village near the borderlands. He sat down just as Twilight was as they talked about the attack on his friends and family. "Why is it that they would attack a small town of innocent ponies?" She asked causing him to sigh at the memory before he gridded his and forcefully shut his eye as he put a hoof over his stomach as a short yelp escaped his lips, startling Twilight. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's fine...the it's just the injury..." He interrupted as he put out his other hoof to halt her words.

(Flash back)

The brown colt could remember the sight of the many friends being overcome and even slaughtered by several changelings as he courageously fought against then, knocking a few down. 

(Present)

"I have no idea what or why they would do it, but they did,"

(Flash back)

He looked over the changelings who were now getting back on their feet as they looked behind them before flying away. He then saw that a human had come face to face with the colt. 

(Present)

"And not only that, but a creature was with them, one just like the two legged freaks that you summoned." He then growled although not necessarily at her.

(Flash back)

After a few seconds of staring, the human attacked and he found himself unable to block or dodge every attack that came at him, in fact he was only able to dodge once when he came at him with a sword followed by seeing him go down with a speed he couldn't keep up with before the human landed a blow on his gut by kicking him full force, making him fly backwards into the wall of a nearby building, causing him to cry out in pain, almost breaking his back from the impact.

(Present)

"The combat ability it possessed was unreal, so great in fact, that I wouldn't be surprised if he could take on one of the princesses." He then stated in a low and dreadful voice.

(Flash back)

The human then ran at him with such speed that the colt he ran to only saw him as a blur with red eyes until he stopped and stabbed him with a narrow blade that had lightening streaming through it with a sound that resembled the screeching of countless relentless birds as the pony felt a physical pain far greater than any other he had ever felt as he yelled out in absolute agony until a few seconds after the had pulled the sword from his abdomen with several jilts of electricity still streaming throughout his body and blood almost pouring out of the stab wound. He put a hoof over it to stop the bleeding but felt almost nothing but weakness and light headedness. He then looked up to see the human taking out a few other ponies who opposed him. He stabbed one on the chest causing him to go limp as he died by his hand before he both the human and the brown colt noticed two other ponies, both with small knives. Who came at him from either side in anger. He remembered how he yelled out to warn them about it but unfortunately his plea came too late as the human used the pony that he had just killed as a shield to block one of the blades before tightening the grip on his sword and kicking the pony onto the other pony that he was used as a shield against before turning to the other, who was a second away from stabbing him, and swung him sword, slitting his throat followed by jumping onto the pony's head before kicking out, sending him flying in the other direction as the human back flipped and landed gracefully on the ground in front of a young mare who was crying heavily and also was very enraged by the human but before she knew it he seemingly disappears as she felt a gust of wind blow past her as her eyes widened in realization of what was happening, the human was off to the side behind her and before she could react, he brought up a hand and hit het on the side of her neck, causing her to loose consciousness on the spot. After that, the sight grew silent as the human spoke one line before walking away as the brown colt watched every moment in anguish for his fallen friends and at this point, was slowly slipping out of conciseness. 

(Present)

"And his eyes, they glowed red and he displayed a dark ferocity painted when he mercilessly killed off the few ponies who fought back along with my defenseless mare friend, something I was forced to watch after he pinned be to the wall with some kind of lightening sword and I couldn't move when he pulled out and attacked the others and soon enough, they were all dead and after that, he left and I blacked out." He said painfully, not wanting to get into to much detail.

Twilight was saddened at hearing this, she didn't like what the war was doing to the ponies who were caught in it, but she didn't expect to hear about anything as bad as that. "Oh you poor soul, I had no idea." She said sympathetically. 

He looked away from her. "It's not your fault." He assured her. "I just don't know if our legionaries can stop this alliance."