//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: The Final Mission Part 1 // Story: Falling Equestria // by Playtindo //------------------------------// Orion had been resting his eyes when he heard Nyx groan as she woke up. He thought he heard her mumble something about never escaping something, but brushed it off as post-sleep ramblings. "Nyx, your awake!" He said as she pulled the electrodes from her body and got out of bed. "You should stay in bed, Twilight just beat the tar out of you." "She did, but alicorns can take a lot more damage that a regular pony. I wasn't even at my full strength then." She replied as she stretched her legs and wings. "What do you mean?" "I was magically exhausted." She said as Orion opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped when Nyx continued speaking. "You may argue that when my mother fought Tirek that she used a lot more magic that what I used to fight. You may remember that she absorbed the power of all the other alicorn magic in Equestria, including mine. Using an eclipse cannon of that magnitude takes about ninety percent of my magic, and flight requires little to no magic at all. But sense magic exhaustion sometimes has an intoxication-like side effect, I ended up charging Twilight and cost me and Cadence the fight." Nyx finished her stretches and walked towards a window to stare at the mountain city-turned-fortress, Canterlot. "You are aware that Cadence has been captured, right?" Asked Orion, Nyx nodded before resting her chin on her hoof, with an expression that screamed 'I'm thinking.' "And what about casualty numbers?" Orion pulled out a report and began to read. "Thirty-six dead, forty-seven wounded, and two missing, one of the missing being Cadence while the other...." He stopped as Nyx turned to him. "Don't tell me," She began, her voice trembling. "They took her, didn't they?" Orion swallowed hard and readied himself to subdue Nyx if it happened again. "Yes, they did. They kidnapped your daughter, Dawn." Nyx closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and walked towards Orion. As she walked past him she said one sentence to him. "Call them in" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nyx had been sitting at Cadence's desk in the town hall for forty-five minutes when a group of ponies she had longed to see walked through the door. Rarity, who was the 'President' for a few months took a seat next to Orion. Who, along with the three other stallions in the room, took a trip through the town armory, outfitting themselves with the best tech that the resistance had. Each one of them had pitch-black assault armor covering their bodies. This trio of stallions were known throughout the town as the 'Task Force'. They gained this reputation by joining the local law enforcement and quickly became the go-to group when it came to bank heists, hostage situations, and anything else that couldn't be stopped by the threat of Celestia. They were each a different race, so that they could tackle any job that came up. The leader of the group, Slipshot, was a tan unicorn with a dark-brown mane and a red cross-hair cutie mark. He was known for being an avid smoker, with a large cigar usually hanging out of his mouth. Whiteout, the earth pony of the group, had a snow white coat and black, mohawk-styled mane. His cutie mark was a sword resting on top of a blue shield. The last member of the group, Specter Mist, was a white pegasus with a grey mane. His cutie mark was a knife shrouded in mist. Nyx was dressed in something that she thought she would never wear again. She was wearing custom Nightmare Moon armor. Her facial expression was unreadable. "I assume you all know why you are here." The group nodded as she continued, "Then you'll know that you may not come back from this. I want all of you to be sure that you truly want to go on this mission." She said as the look Rarity's face went from curious to a look of dread. "Nyx, are you going to do what I think your going to do?" She asked, her voice wavering as she connected the dots. "Yeah," Nyx replied, walking towards the door with her squad following her. "I'm taking whats left of the ShadowBolts to Canterlot, and I'm going to give Chrysalis what she wants." "What do you mean?" "Chrysalis has killed Shining Armour, brainwashed my mother, and kidnapped my daughter and my friend. She clearly wants Nightmare Moon to return so that she can try to control me." Rarity felt a strong sense of dread at Nyx's next sentence. "I'm going to let Chrysalis know Nightmare Moon's opinion of a Changeling-ruled Equestria where she is nothing but a puppet. And it is going to be a very bloody opinion. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There were many sky chariots just laying around Ponyville after the battle. The Changelings liked to use the pegasai pulling the chariots as living shields to deter attackers. So when a sky chariot pulled by an armored pegasus arrived at Canterlot in the middle of the night, most guard changelings thought of it as some secret scouting party. What wasn't expected though was when the chariot started glowing a dark blue. The glow intensified until a large, blue, pony-sized orb of magic leaped from the chariot and sped towards the ground at a very fast pace. It hit the ground with a thunderous boom, awakening most of the Changelings taking up residence in Canterlot. A small group of Changelings had gathered around the crater the orb had made. The crater was still filled with a cloud of dirt and dust. But when a large silhouette of an alicorn appeared, many of the observers began to run for their lives. The dust settled around a pitch-black alicorn with dark blue armor covering most of her body, her gem-sword ignited and floating next to her head. Nightmare Moon had only one thing to say: "It's good to be back......"