Nightrise

by Epsilon-Delta

Chapter 3

There were only two entrances to the Crescent clan’s lair, one north and one south. Both were identical, with a long, steep tunnel that led up to a fortified chamber. This was connected to the central cavern. Each tunnel had five iron gates spread throughout them and a much larger one made of pure steel at the end. Behind the steel gate were several large ballistas which could hurl a spear as far as the tunnel went. These were constantly armed, and they were accompanied by dozens of trained marksmen ready to fire barrages of smaller arrows and bolts at any threat that may attempt to assault their keep.

Even deadlier than the rain of arrows were the small nozzles that periodically protruded from the walls. Below them was a river of magma, and in the chamber above was a pump. When the pump was used, these nozzles would spray molten lava at anypony unlucky enough to be in the tunnel at the time.

If you somehow made it past the arrows, gates, spears and lava, only then would you get to fight the Crescent clan themselves. They had over twenty thousand members and every one of them was trained to fight from birth. The Crescent clan intended to reclaim its role as Nightmare Moon’s army upon her return, a role they took very seriously. Every one of them was strong, disciplined and skilled, capable of taking out just about any opponent in a fair fight.

Unlike most clans, who simply left their caves as they had found them, the Crescent clan had carefully sculpted out their lair. Every surface of every chamber and tunnel was either a smooth curve or a perfectly flat plane, leaving not a single stalactite or stray rock behind. The walls and ceilings were decorated with ornate carvings and were reinforced with support structures. It would take a massive explosion to collapse these caverns.

The lava below them made tunneling in from beneath impossible. To the west and east was a half mile of solid rock, broken only by lava flows, making digging through the sides a lengthy and dangerous affair. The only way to dig inside without wading through lava was from above, into the ceiling of the main chamber. There a three hundred foot drop would be between you and the ground.

There was no way in except the tunnels, and the tunnels impossible to get through. Anything that tried to force its way through would have death rained on them from every direction. A dragon wouldn’t make it five steps before falling.

Entering the chamber at the top, seeing the steel gates, rows of armed thestrals, the perfect architecture, the brilliant machines, and the sheer power of the Crescent clan, gave Silverstar confidence and comfort. They had only been defeated once, and that was a thousand years ago and at the hooves of Celestia herself. Nothing short of a god could defeat them. There was nothing to fear.

“Party returning,” Moonlight called, and the steel gate opened to her.

Silverstar stepped through the final gate and entered the main chamber. It was a massive dome, the ceiling three hindered feet up, with entrances to the smaller chambers all along the walls. The entrances were adorned with stone balconies, lanterns and other trappings. There were no stairs or ramps; they were only accessible by flight. Today it was buzzing with activity.

Thestrals flew in and out of sight with a great deal of purpose and urgency. Groups of fully armed ponies stood in perfectly straight columns. There was a surprising lack of sound, however. Most of the ponies were completely silent and still, the only talking coming from officers or scouts.

When Moonlight entered three of her officers jumped to her side and began asking her questions and giving her status reports. Moonlight replied to these with curt, but certain, replies.

“We captured three of the invaders,” she eventually said. “I want them taken to a dreamwalker to see if the story they gave us is true. After that I want scouting units one through five sent north, and six and seven sent south. Our infantry should reinforce…”

Moonlight continued giving orders for some time, most of which was lost on Silverstar. She watched as the changeling and his friends were lead away to where the clan’s dreamwalker would be. Soon enough, the rows of armored ponies began to dissipate and Moonlight wandered out of sight. Fortunately, another pony eventually came along to lead Silverstar and Ignus to the trading room.

Unlike the main chamber, the rest of the caverns were eerily empty. The few ponies she saw were either very young or very old. As they neared the armory, Silverstar saw one of her old friends trotting forward, struggling to get her last piece of armor on. Silverstar greeted her, but her friend was only able to turn briefly in Silver’s direction.

“Ah! Sorry, Silverstar,” she said. “I’m too busy to talk right now. Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Silverstar frowned. It seemed she wouldn’t be seeing much of her old friends.

They had now arrived in the room where trades took place. This room was connected to the armory, larder and treasury. The tables were all covered in a variety of measurement tools, from scales to compasses. Some of them were even Equestrian.

The contents of the treasury were visible from where Silverstar stood. Crescent, the founder of the Crescent clan, began building up this hoard of treasure a thousand years ago in hope of eventually presenting it as a gift to Luna upon her return. Luna didn’t return in Crescent’s lifetime, but the rest of his clan liked his idea and followed suite, pouring every ounce of gold they ever obtained into the treasure trove.

Before Silverstar were the results of centuries of gathering precious metals and gems. Piles of gold coins, stacks of bullions, dozens of gems twice the size of a pony, armor, boots and utensils made of gold and platinum and much more all laid in the chamber, waiting for Luna to claim them.

The actual trading didn’t take long. The Crescent clan always made fair offers, so there was little need to haggle on anything except the books. The amount of salt Silverstar got from the books was dismal. The other clans had beat Silverstar to the punch. The Crescent clan already had at least one copy of every book Silverstar wanted to sell. The book about Daring Do was particularly overstocked; the Crescent clan already owned ten books about her. They didn’t even make her an offer on it. At least Silver would get to keep it, which was about the extent of her luck tonight.

“Ah, there you are!”

Silverstar turned around to see her alchemy teacher.

“Mist!” she shouted and grabbed him in a huge. It was good to see him again. Today had been a storm of bad luck, but Silverstar was certain that she was at the tail end of it.

“I thought I’d offer to let you stay with me,” he said with a smile. “I’m just about the only pony here too old to go off and fight, so I’ll have time to catch up with you.”

Silverstar nodded. “Of course! I think I’d better stay here till this whole thing blows over. How long do you think it will take to get rid of the invaders?”

Mist shook his head. “I honestly have no idea. Moonlight is going to hold a council between a few of the nearby clans tomorrow. She wants you to attend as a representative of the Starlight clan. I suppose you’ll get more information then.”

“Well, I’ll go, but,” Silverstar said, “is it really necessary to have a council between the clans? We haven’t done that in years. Is this invasion that bad?”

“We won’t know until tomorrow, and worrying about it won’t do us any good. Let’s talk about something else.”

Silverstar liked that idea. Ignus was lead off to be with the other trolls and Silverstar followed Mist back to his living chambers. There they talked and got caught up. Silverstar began to relax, putting the thought of the conflict out of her mind. It seemed far away now.

At one point the conversation turned to the visitor from the surface.

“That stallion came to us three times, actually,” Mist explained. “To be completely honest I am tempted to take his offer.”

Silverstar was surprised. She had thought Mist was smarter than that. “Really? Why?”

“I may be a master alchemist to you, but to the Equestrians I would be little more than a neophyte. When I think of the knowledge I could gain, it almost makes me feel young again.”

“I already feel young,” Silverstar said, “It’d take a lot more than that to get me to go to Canterlot.”

Mist laughed. After that the conversation drifted to the potions they had seen in the books, then about Silverstar’s grandmother, and then a few other things.

The night past swiftly and soon it was morning. Silverstar crawled into the guest bed and closed her eyes. This morning, Silverstar didn’t allow herself to dream, she had business in the dreamscape.

The dreamscape was dark, it always was at first. Silverstar was in her own mind, but because she wasn’t dreaming there wasn’t anything to see. While in this state, anything she imagined would become visible. Some thestral’s used it as a source of entertainment, but tonight Silverstar had duty.

She focused, looking for the minds of others. Slowly, silver streams of light began to appear in her imagination. They were close at first, but more appeared as she searched farther and farther away. Each light was the dream of some sleeper. Some of the streams were dim and almost impossible to concentrate on while others were vibrant and difficult to ignore.

The closer the dreamer was to Silverstar, in both a physical and metaphorical sense, the easier their dream was to access. It was easy to find the sleeping mind of her Grandmother and even easier to enter into it; she had done so a thousand times before and was always welcomed in.

One could enter a dream with or without waking the conscious mind. If you didn’t then you would view their dream and have the power to manipulate it. By twisting dreams you could soothe or create nightmares, or bring out memories locked away in a mind.

Ending a dream and waking the conscious mind was the only way to directly send a message without any misconception, however, so Silverstar would have to end the elder‘s. Of course, Silverstar had seen enough of those to not even be curious about it.

The elder’s dream vanished before Silverstar could even glimpse it and everything went dark, only the silver streams remained. The elder created a visage of herself for Silverstar to talk to.

“Is something wrong, Silver?” the elder asked.

“Yes, actually,” Silverstar replied. “Invaders are coming from the north and everypony over here is going crazy about it.”

The elder‘s surprise made it clear she hadn‘t heard of this yet. “An invasion? By who?”

“A bunch of diamond dogs lead by some rogue changeling,” Silverstar said. “The Crescent clan will take care of them though. I’m just letting you know to be careful. Some of them are wandering around the tunnels near us. They’ve been collapsing tunnels.”

Silverstar explained her encounter in the tunnel, and what the changeling she captured had said.

“This sounds very serious,” the elder concluded.

“I guess,” Silver replied, “but like I said, the Crescent clan is too powerful to lose to a bunch of diamond dogs. We’ll be fine.”

“Let’s hope you’re right. I’ll be sure to keep everypony on alert. Thank you for the warning. I‘ll see you in a few days.”

Silverstar bid her grandmother farewell and returned to her own dream. She didn’t want to break the bad news about the book sales just yet.

There was one last thing to do before going to sleep for real. It had been a few weeks since Silverstar had cleansed herself of the nightmare forces. She focused on her own mind and soon the purple mist that was the nightmare force became visible. All she had to do was focus on them and they popped like a bubble.

Nightmare forces were something that built up in the dreams of thestrals over time. The ability to enter the dreamscape made them easy to destroy, but they were dangerous if left unchecked. If you let them build up they would begin whispering to you and twisting your dreams. They could, eventually, drive a pony insane, but it rarely got that bad. Cleaning them up was more an annoying chore than anything else.

With no more business in the dreamscape, Silverstar allowed herself to sleep for real.

________________________________________________

“The leader of the invasion is a changeling named Onyx,” Moonlight explained. “He commands a very large army, but he’s only sending a few hundred diamond dogs to attack from the north. Apparently he underestimated us and overestimated the effect that collapsing a few tunnels would have. Our mobility will hardly be reduced at all and I’ve sent a large force to ambush the attackers. They should be out of the caves within a week.”

Silverstar sat at the conference table. Seven other mares were there, most of them representatives from nearby clans. It seemed most of the clans hadn’t sent anypony, and from the sound of it they didn’t really need to either.

“You had better!” Nightwish shouted across the table. “We pay you tribute to keep the outsiders where they belong- outside! I won’t deny that you’ve kept your end of the deal for the most part, but the diamond dogs that you allowed in have destroyed vital tunnels. I demand compensation for your negligence!”

Nightwish was the leader of the Dusk clan. She was always complaining and demanding compensation for something. The only time she stopped being outraged was when she was looking for more things to be outraged about.

“I intend to reopen the tunnels as soon as it’s safe to do so,” Moonlight replied calmly. “We have more pressing issues in the meantime. We can get rid of the force attacking from the north, but that doesn’t mean Onyx will give up. He may send a larger force next time. That’s why I want to arm the other clans and get ready for-”

Moonlight never got the chance to finish stating her plans, because at that moment a lightly armed thestral charged into the room at a gallop. He barely managed to stop himself before ramming into the table. The stallion was panting heavily and had a look of panic far from the collected demeanor Silverstar was used to from the Crescent clan.

“Commander!” he said, panting as he spoke. “A force is approaching quickly from the south. They seem to be closing in on this spot!”

The south?!

“How many?” Moonlight asked.

“I don’t know. Thousands at least!”

Nightwish pounded her hooves on the table. “I thought you said they were attacking from the north, and that there were only a few hundred!”

“Our information did say that,” Moonlight replied, “Our captive’s mind was searched by our dreamwalkers. He must have been misinformed about the attack. Maybe their leader gave him false information and let him get captured to feed it to us.”

“Oh, now you think of that?! Now we have thousands of diamond dogs barreling in on us and half your forces are on the wrong side of the caves!”

“I can still deal with this. If they try to attack they’ll only break their forces against our gate. The entrance to our lair is a bottleneck, it doesn’t matter if we’re outnumbered or not.”

Silverstar couldn’t keep quite any longer. “Moonlight! My clan is probably right in their path. You have to do something!”

Moonlight turned toward the scout. “Have the scouts still in the south try to warn the clans that are there. If at all possible have them evacuate here immediately. Send another team north to recall the force we sent there. That’s all we can do for now.”

“Now wait,” said Nightwish, “there are still enemies to the north as well. You can’t just-”

Moonlight waved Nightwish away, and began walking out of the room. “I don‘t have time to discuss this, but I assure you I’ll take care of the situation. Anypony willing to fight come to the armory. We may need to defend the gate soon. Anypony who isn’t should go the guest quarters or retreat north while you still have a chance.”

As if things hadn’t been bad enough already. If the army was coming from the south, through the main tunnel, then they would pass right through Silverstar’s home. Her clan was small, and they didn’t have any warriors. If thousands of diamond dogs attack then-

No. That wouldn’t happen. There was a chance Onyx would take a less conspicuous route. Even if he did pass them, there was no reason to waste his time on the Starlight clan. The Crescent clan had mountains of gold and control of the whole area, but Silverstar’s clan had nothing. If this was to be a surprise attack then they would be in a hurry. It wouldn’t make any sense at all to attack the Starlight clan.

There was still hope. That was enough to calm Silverstar down. She moved quickly to the armory and told them that she was willing to fight. Regardless of whatever else happened today, her only chance of safety was for the Crescent clan to win this battle.

Silverstar was given a set of armor and an iron lance and was moved to the reserve force just inside from the southern entrance. She watched as they closed the gate. It was too well fortified for anything to get through, Silverstar reminded herself, and nothing was going to come through it.

The chamber before her was filled with warriors. All of the ballistas were armed. Thestrals with crossbows covered the ground and air. The pump was ready to pour magma into the tunnel below. Nothing could get through that tunnel. Numbers didn’t matter here, ten armies couldn’t get through.

Moonlight shouted out that the attack was inbound, it would be here momentarily. There were still over a thousand ponies ready to fight. There was a good chance Silver wouldn’t even have to fight herself, because nothing could get through the gate.

Everything was silent. Somehow the flapping wings and moving armor and artillery seemed to make no noise whatsoever. Silverstar knew that the silence wouldn’t last long. Soon the air would be filled with the sound of arrows, battle cries, and the screams of diamond dogs from within the tunnel. Silverstar waited for the sounds to begin.

But they never came.

The only thing that came through the tunnel was a single metallic object. The thing whistled through the air and landed in the middle of the thestrals’ forces with a clang. Silverstar was expecting it to explode, but it didn’t. Instead it let out an odd hissing noise.

The thestrals who it landed next to began coughing heavily and after just a second or two a few of them fell over. Soon the entire chamber in front of Silverstar was filled with the coughing and wheezing of ponies.

It must have been poison gas. It was something you occasionally encountered when digging. Silverstar had seen poison gas before, but never dreamed of being able to weaponize it like this.

Moonlight had come to the same conclusion and was already taking action. She flew into the chamber herself and threw the container down the tunnel. She then shouted for everypony to beat their wings to try and dispel the gas. Soon the chamber was filled with a small whirlwind from all the flapping.

Silverstar held her breath and moved into the chamber to help, flapping her wings as hard as she could. It wasn’t long until she couldn’t keep her breath held any longer. Silverstar’s body forced her to inhale. The air was thick and had a strange odor to it, but did little damage. The gas had been successfully dispersed.

The damage was already done, however, and nearly all of the ponies who had been in the front chamber were now unconscious. Had Moonlight not acted so quickly they may have died. Many of the remaining ponies were still wheezing heavily and looked disoriented. It was already over, they had lost. All it took was that stupid little thing to defeat them. Silverstar’s body locked up.

Moonlight looked about anxiously, taking stock of the situation and trying to think of a way to salvage the situation. She didn’t have time to think of anything before the same whistling sound from before came from the tunnel.

This time it wasn’t just one container, there were over thirty.

The remaining ponies panicked upon seeing this and tried to retreat back into the inner chamber. Silverstar attempted to follow, but between the heavy armor and crowded room she wasn’t able to get very far before being knocked to the ground by a fleeing pony.

It was at this point that Silverstar realized that the containers weren’t letting out the hissing noise. They weren’t releasing gas.

From down the tunnel came hysterical laughter. A changeling, the source of the laughter, strutted up to the steel gate. He was accompanied by four more changelings wearing armor and carrying some strange devices.

The changeling in front smiled with half his mouth and spoke to nopony in particular. “Did I scare you? Don’t worry, those ones were empty. Hahaha! You thought you were going to die, didn’t you?”

He gave another chuckle, and then nodded to one of his lackeys. The changeling shot a blast of green light from its horn that smashed into the gate and exploded, but the Gate was mostly undamaged.

“Hm? This one’s actually made of steel?” the lead changeling said. “I wasn’t expecting that, but it makes no difference. Which one of you is in charge?

“I am!” Moonlight stepped forward. “Who are you?”

“Hm? Didn’t my little friends tell you?” he asked. “I am Onyx: King of the Underground!”

“What do you want from us? Why are you here?”

“Why am I here? Well, we’re underground, aren’t we? And, as I just said, I am the king of this place. I do whatever I want and take whatever I want. That’s something you little ponies needed to learn.”

“Well it was brave of you to come right out in front like this,” Moonlight said. She took a crossbow from a nearby, unconscious pony and fired at Onyx. He managed to erect a shield of green magic to block it just in time.

“I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” said Onyx. “My friends here are armed with weapons that spray a much higher concentration of that stuff than the little demonstration I sent you, enough to actually kill a pony. If I really needed to I could pump the entire cave system full of the stuff and kill everything.”

“If you did that then you’d kill yourself too.”

Onyx laughed again. “The thing about shape shifters is that we’re kind of hard to poison. We can just change our anatomies to something that can survive it. We’re immune to almost every poison and this gas is no exception."

Moonlight stood silent for some time.

“I assume the reason you haven‘t already done so is because you need something from us,” she finally asked. “What is it? Tell me why you‘re here.”

“Ah, you‘re clever! I think you’ll be more useful to me alive, but only if you understand that I call the shots. I came here to demonstrate that I‘m the one in charge now. You got the message, yes?”

Moonlight stood perfectly still, glaring at the changeling.

“No?” he said. “Do I have to start killing ponies for you to understand? You can throw down your weapons and open this gate, or I’ll fire a few dozen canisters of gas in here for real.”

Moonlight bit down hard, wincing in anger. She barely managed to restrain herself, but in the end she threw down her spear and gestured for everypony else to do the same.

“I have no choice. I surrender,” she said, somehow managing to make it sound like a threat.

“Good,” he said with his half smile. “Don’t worry, my conditions are fair. In fact I think in a few years you’ll be happy that I came along. I don’t really like having to resort to force like this, but it is very important for you to understand who wields the power here.”

The gate was opened and Onyx and his changeling entered the chamber. One of the changelings moved over to the pump that controlled the lava flow immediately and took control of it.

“Firstly,” Onyx said, “I’m going to be confiscating all of your weapons, and destroying your forges so that you can‘t make any more.”

“Without our forges we won’t be able to make the tools we need to live,” Moonlight Protested.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll let you use mine for a small fee. My second term is that I’ll be taking all the foals between the ages of 2 and 12 as hostages, as well as thirty or so adults. I’ve also taken a few of the smaller clans to work for me in my mines. If you kill any of my officers or try to perform any sort of sabotage then I’ll kill somewhere between one tenth and one half of my hostages, depending on how much it upsets me.”

He said that he had enslaved a few of the smaller clans, but that didn’t necessarily mean the Starlight clan. There was still a chance they were safe.

Moonlight stood for a few minutes before consenting to his demand. Silverstar couldn’t believe it. She was about to object, but six other ponies beat her to it. The room was soon filled with shouting and objections.

“Silence!” Moonlight shouted. “I don’t like this either, but if we’re going to survive we have to keep our heads down for now.”

“That’s the spirit!” Onyx agreed. “I know you don’t like this, but…”

He continued to talk, but Silverstar wasn’t listening. The Crescent clan had failed.

Silverstar looked down the long tunnel. It was empty now, but that wouldn’t last long. She didn’t know what was on the other side, but this may be her last chance to leave this place for a long time. If Silverstar was going to have any chance of getting back to her clan she would have to leave now.

Silverstar charged down the tunnel. She heard several shouts from behind, one of which was from Onyx himself.

“It’s just one idiot,” she hear Onyx shout from behind, “it’s just one idiot!”

He wasn’t even going to bother chasing her! Silverstar might actually have a chance. The added weight slowed her at first, but as she moved through the downhill tunnel she began to gain momentum and more speed than she would have expected. She was nearing the end of the tunnel when a diamond dog came into sight.

Silverstar had built up too much momentum to stop. She smashed into him with full force; enough to slam him hard against the wall and knock him clean out. She hoped that this would be the only one, but he wasn’t. There were a few dozen more, as well as a changeling in the direction she would have preferred to go. The other direction was empty so she charged off in that direction instead.

She made another three turns without incident, but that luck didn‘t last long. The next tunnel she had to go down was filled with diamond dogs, armed to the teeth with armor and weapons.

Silverstar was already committed to escape at this point, and she didn’t dare try to retread ground. Her charging technique had taken down one diamond dog, so she would just have to go with that.

She mounted the iron lance onto her shoulder and charged at them with a wild scream. The first diamond dog didn’t seem worried at all; he just shrugged and stepped to the side. The others did the same, allowing Silverstar to simply charge through the entire column.

It wasn’t until the last diamond dog stepped to the side that Silverstar remembered that there was a deep cliff at the end of this tunnel. She had too much momentum to stop herself from charging straight off the cliff.

Silverstar flapped her wings furiously, but it simply wasn’t enough to fly. She had no idea how the members of the Crescent clan were able to fly in this heavy armor. All she could do was hope that her flapping would slow the fall enough for her to survive it.

She hit the wall on the other side first, and then hit the ground with an enormous force. She wasn’t dead, though. Silverstar lied on her back for some time, watching as a diamond dog peered over the ledge. It gave a short chuckle, then turned and left.

Silverstar’s body ached. She was too weak to run with the armor on anymore. She threw off the iron chest plate, helmet, lance and the plot armor. The change was felt immediately, Silverstar was suddenly felt completely weightless. She decided to keep the boots on, as they had padded leather on the bottom that would make less sound than bare hooves, and her bags, in case the contents were needed.

She knew this area well. The route back to her clan from here was dark and obscure, exactly what Silver needed.

Silverstar galloped through the dark caves. She was thankful for memorizing them now. It was unlikely that any diamond dogs or changelings would wander into these areas and even if they did they would give away their present with their light.

It was still possible that her family was safe, she reminded herself. There were other clans to the south; Onyx may have been referring to them. What she had to do now was get back to them. Silverstar couldn’t stop running through every possible scenario in her mind.

She imagined returning to find her home overrun by diamond dogs and her family already in chains. If that was the case there wasn’t much she could do. Maybe she could try to fight them if there weren’t many and they didn’t have any gas, or else surrender herself so that she might still be with her clan.

If her clan was still there she would be overjoyed. She could lead them somewhere else, there had to be some place left that was still safe for them. Silverstar pleaded with Luna to let that be the case.

The fastest return from the Crescent clan Silverstar had ever made was three hours. Her perception of time was too skewed to know if she broke it or not. On one hoof it seemed like the longest trip she had ever made, but on the other she had run faster then she ever had before.

When she finally got back to the light of the moonflowers, the ones near the western edge of her home, she was exhausted. Her chest burned. Worried that her heavy breathing would be heard, Silverstar forced herself to breathe through her nose as she moved forward.

Silverstar crept up to the edge of the entrance and peered inside. The main chamber was empty. There were no ponies, diamond dogs or even the tools that belonged to her clan. The only few remaining objects were either broken or scattered about.

Silverstar went to her living chamber, but it was also empty. Her lab and the clan larder were both empty, not a single potion or piece of food left behind. She searched through every chamber of her clan’s area; calling out in hope that somepony had managed to remain hidden. She’d take anypony, but there was no one.

She collapsed in the elder’s chamber when it finally sunk in. She couldn’t deny it anymore, her clan was captured. Her legs were too weak for her to stand, so she just sat and looked over her grandmother’s chamber.

Silverstar noticed that the book of traditions had been left behind, thrown off to the corner of the room. The diamond dogs had taken everything but her clan’s most valuable possession. Silverstar pulled it over to her and looked at the cover. It was a thousand years old, written when Luna was still with them.

But Luna wasn’t here anymore. A single tear hit the cover.

“What am I supposed to do, Luna?”

Comments

[CrowMagnon]

This story looks really good! I'm looking forward to seeing where Silverstar goes from here. Who will she turn to in order to save her people? Who? WHO?

"Hiiiiiiiii!"

Also, you'll probably want to fix this:

Onyx laughed again. “The thing about shape shifters is that we’re kind of hard to poison. We can just change our anatomies to protect us from our anatomies something that can survive it. We’re immune to almost every poison and this gas is no exception.

[Epsilon-Delta]

3965095

I'm glad you like it. I fixed the mistake, thanks.

"Hiiiiiiiii!"

It's too bad Celestia is evil, huh?

[CrowMagnon]

3970357 That's why the Trollestia icon is so perfect. I can just imagine Silverstar imagining Celestia as Mr. Popo from DBZ Abridged.

"Pecking order!"

In all seriousness, though, I'm both expecting and hoping for a team-up with Lyra.

[Kapuchu]

3970357
I really doubt Celestia is evil The Thestrals are just ignorant