We met up with Moonlight and his soldiers at the castle gates. When he saw me and the cut in my armor he walked over with a concerned look on his face.
“Francois, what happened? Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. My mother got in our way and I got a slight injury from my own spear. It could have been a LOT worse if it weren’t for Darkside here,” I said, nodding at her.
“What do you mean you got hurt from your own spear? And how could it have been worse?”
“Long story, Moonlight, I’ll tell you later. Now where are we to go from here?” I said, changing the subject.
“The other commanders are meeting up to discuss strategy for the actual attack on the castle,” he said, pointing at a small courtyard where the other commanders were waiting.
“So I’m the last commander?”
“We can talk about that when we get to the courtyard,” he said, starting to walk over.
“Come on Darkside, you need to hear this too,” I said, following Moonlight.
When we got to the courtyard I looked around and noticed that somepony was missing, “Where’s Nightfall?” I asked.
Moonlight sighed, “He’s dead…”
“WHAT!?” I shouted in response.
“It seems that Prince Shining Armor is a better strategist than we thought…” he said, trailing off again.
“What about his troops?”
“Heavy casualties, and hardly salvageable. Estimating about fifty viable soldiers, the rest are either dead or too wounded to fight.”
I stood in place for a moment, thinking about how I could avenge my friend, and an idea hit me. If you can’t hurt somepony, hurt the ones he loves.
“Guys, I have an idea,” I said, grinning evilly.
“What’s that, Francois? I know that look,” Moonlight responded.
“I’ll take the remnants of Nightfall’s soldiers to a part of the castle where Shining Armor lives with his family. As soon as he finds out that his family is in danger, he’ll come right back to the castle, where you can set an ambush for him. While he’s fighting with you guys, I’ll make his world crumble around him when I kill his daughter as he watches.”
The others thought it over for a few moments before Starlight broke the silence, “Who will take over your troops?”
“Colonel Darkside will take command of my battalion from here while I take care of Shining’s family.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Starlight, “Go and talk to the rest of Nightfall’s troops and tell them what you’re planning and figure out a strategy to do so.”
I walked out of the courtyard to a small group of soldiers, their armor was scuffed and chipped, some of them were wrapping bandages on their comrades, and some were just laying against a wall, as if trying not to remember the horrific battle they were just in. They all jumped to attention when I walked up though.
“As you were, soldiers. I have a question for you all: Who here would like to get revenge on Shining Armor for what he did to you, your friends, and your commander?”
“How, sir?” asked one of them.
“Simple, what’s the best way to break somepony? Go for his heart, the one’s he loves the most, his family. Shining has a six-month old daughter… I think you understand where I’m going with this. Who wants to come with me?”
In response, they all stepped forward.
“Good, now tell me, who’s in charge here?”
“That would be me, sir, Sergeant Thundercloud,” replied one of them, stepping forward.
“Alright, here’s the plan; Sergeant Thundercloud, you’ll take a squad of the best fliers up to Shining Armor’s room to draw Princess Cadence out to the balcony. While she’s distracted with you and your men, me and the rest of the soldiers will move around to the front door and take Dusk Shine.”
“Understood, sir, I’ll get my soldiers prepared. We’ll be ready in ten minutes.”
“You’ve got five, sergeant. I’ll be waiting in the courtyard when you get your men together,” I said, walking off.
While I waited in the courtyard, I heard a massive movement of troops and figured that the other commanders were starting the full attack on the castle. I silently hoped that they had taken my suggestion to leave an ambush for Shining to heart.
“Commander, we await your orders.” I heard a voice say.
I turned to see about thirty soldiers in front of me, “Alright then,” I paused to see his rank, “Corporal…”
“Crater, sir.”
“Corporal Crater, as you can plainly see, I don’t have wings. I need a few soldiers to pick me up and get me into the castle that’ll be close to Princess Cadence’s room. I’ll direct them, and you all need to follow me in case we hit some resistance.”
“Way ahead of you sir.” He then turned around and whistled and a few soldiers broke ranks and picked me up.
I directed them toward Cadence’s room and we were there within a few minutes. I also saw Sergeant Thundercloud leading his squad of fliers towards the balcony and starting their diversionary tactics.
After we had gotten inside, I looked back out the window and saw bright blue bolts of magic shooting at Sergeant Thundercloud and his men. I smiled inwardly and started to lead my troops towards our objective.
Unfortunately for me, we ended up running right into a squad of unicorn guards around the corner from Cadence’s room. While the fight didn’t take too long, it thinned my troops even more, which is something that I couldn’t afford. After the last unicorn guard fell, I was down to about fifteen men, half of what I started with, to get into Cadence’s room and take Dusk.
Luckily, we got to her room without another fight. When I got to the door, I stopped and pressed my ear to it and heard what I had been hoping to hear: Cadence still firing spells at the diversion.
I stepped back and aimed an unlock spell at the door and was rewarded for my efforts when the door opened slowly. I stepped back and motioned for the troops to move in and stay quiet.
As we stepped in, they started moving towards the balcony to attack Cadence from behind and I went towards Dusk’s room. As I made my way down the hall, I heard Cadence scream, then heard a few troops sent flying into the wall of the castle, then another scream from Cadence.
One by one, I checked the rooms until I saw a crib. I moved toward it and saw Dusk sleeping peacefully. I levitated her onto my back and then teleported into my own room.
When we came out of the teleport, Dusk woke up and started crying. I ignored it and opened to doors that led to my balcony. As I stepped out, I casted a voice amplification spell and called out, “Shining Armor! I’m sure you’ve deduced that I’m behind this! Just as I’m sure you’re looking for me! Well come get me! I’m on my balcony. But you may want to hurry! I’ve got somepony here that’s very close to you!”
I casted the same amplification on Dusk and she yelled out, “DADDY! FRANCY BAD! DA-” was all she got out when I took off the spell.
“So what are you going to do Shining? I’ll be waiting for you here!” I said before removing my amplification spell.
A few minutes passed and I saw a large number of unicorn guards come out of a teleport with Shining leading them towards the castle. I stood up and amplified my voice again.
“About time you showed up Shining! Now, look up here!” I called out while levitating Dusk to me and putting her on the railing.
His amplified voice responded, “Don’t you dare! If you have a problem with me, let it be with me! You leave my daughter out of this!” I laughed in response.
“You really are dumber than you look!” I said, “Thestral army, attack!” I called out, hoping that there was an ambush party waiting.
Out of nowhere, what looked to be half the Thestral army simultaneously flew off the roofs of the buildings that lined the street and began to tear the unicorns apart. I laughed to myself as I saw it happen, but decided that I needed a closer look.
I teleported down to the closed gate and saw Shining Armor fighting valiantly, taking down soldier after soldier of mine, while still keeping himself protected with a shield spell. This wasn’t what I had in mind, so I decided to draw his attention.
“SHINING!” I yelled out.
He turned and looked at me, but his eyes went straight to Dusk, who was still crying and reaching for her father.
“Say goodbye Shining!” I said, wrapping my forelegs around Dusk’s throat.
“NO!” he yelled out as he saw what I was doing, running over and starting to beat on the gate in a futile attempt to save Dusk.
“Da-da” Dusk choked out before going limp.
“NOOOOO!” he yelled out in agony as he released a huge torrent of magical energy, sending my soldiers, his soldiers, Dusk’s body, and myself flying. I hit the wall of the castle and saw stars.
I struggled to my feet and looked around to see Shining kneeling over Dusk’s body, the bodies of the Thestrals he had killed, the unicorn guards that had been killed, and the remains of the gate all strewn around him.
Seeing him in that state made me confident that he would no longer be a factor in the battle, so I teleported back to my room and called out to address my troops, “THESTRAL ARMY! Join your brothers and sisters and take this castle from the tyrannical overlord of the sun that has oppressed you for so long!”
Again, in unison, the army swarmed off the ground, the rooftops, and wherever else they had been waiting and started to pour into the castle. I turned and walked out of my room and made my way to the throne room to challenge my aunt again.
On my way to the throne room, I ran into a company of thestral soldiers just as they had finished wiping out a squad of pegasus guards.
“Company! Attention!” I called out.
They snapped to attention and the company commander came to speak to me.
“Your highness, how can we help you?” She asked, saluting.
“I am assuming command of your company Lieutenant, I’m on my way to the throne room to challenge Celestia and I need soldiers to take on her bodyguards.” I replied.
“Understood, sir. We’ll be right behind you. Let me address my troops and then we’re yours.”
“Make it fast Lieutenant, you’ve got two minutes.”
She turned around and informed her troops of what was happening and where we were going, then let me know that they were ready.
“Alright then, follow me and keep watch for guards.”
We made our way down the hallways to the throne room, as I scanned the door with my magic to make sure there were no traps, it opened unexpectedly to reveal Celestia, along with a mixed company of pegasus and unicorn guards.
“Prince Francois Midnight, you again have taken it upon yourself to try and take over this kingdom from your mother and I,” she said as the door opened.
“Yes, but this time I’m not alone. I have an army with me this time, one with as much hatred toward you as I have. And with their help, I will take this land for myself and set these oppressed ponies free.”
“We shall see,” she replied, readying into a fighting stance.
“So I take it that you will not surrender? If you do, I’ll make sure that your execution is not painful,” I said, readying into my own stance.
She didn’t respond, only motioning her troops to attack.
With that, the battle was on, I charged forward, swinging my sword at every unicorn guard I could reach to even the odds until I reached Celestia, but as soon as I reached her, she teleported to another part of the room.
“Francois, I have lived for more than a thousand years, you’ll have to do better than that if you hope to stand a chance.” she called out.
I decided to try and get my soldiers involved to try and corner her, so I started taking down her guards until there were only thestrals alive in the room.
“Thestrals, move in and corner her, she can’t run forever!” I commanded.
They all moved in unison, and again she teleported, this time onto the platform on which sat the throne. I tried to take my chance, but as I tried to move I saw a flash of white fur and blue mane. A half second later I felt a searing pain in my abdomen. I looked down and saw a bloody spearhead protruding from my chest.
I fell to the ground as darkness closed in on my vision. The last words I heard before the darkness enveloped me were, “That, was for Dusk, you son of a bitch!”