The Rise of Nightshade

by Brickbrock24

Chapter 5: The Battle of Canterlot (Part 1)

The Rise of Nightshade
By: Brickbrock24

Chapter 5

“Come on! Come on! Let’s move! Put some hustle to your muscles!” Shining Armor shouted to the soldiers and drafted recruits. He nervously glanced at the setting sun, “Time is short! Princess Celestia is setting the sun as we speak! Nightshade and his merciless horde will be here any minute! Everypony, report to your posts!”

Shining Armor strolled down the streets of Canterlot. They were overcrowded with soldiers trying to get to where they needed to go. The buildings of the great city had been boarded up. Some of the citizens that wouldn’t be participating in the battle hid inside their reinforced homes while some hid in the safe room of the castle. Shining Armor wondered to himself if what the city did to prepare in the past three days would be enough to endure Prince Nightshade’s attack.

Shining Armor had recently returned from the Crystal Empire with as many soldiers as he could possibly spare. Rainbow Dash had done the same with Cloudsdale and brought back a squad of pegasi to help defend Canterlot. Both of them had done their best to train the volunteer recruits for combat with the little time that they had. Shining Armor approached one of the soldiers he brought from the Crystal Empire.

“Quartermaster!” Shining said to him, “Have all of our troops been armed?”

“Yessir, Captain Shining Armor!” the soldier responded boldly, saluting his leader as he did so, “All soldiers have been to the armory and were given weapons appropriate for their posts as well as a suit of armor! The magical barrier we have conjured around the city is up and will hopefully help tip the odds of this fight in our favor. We have twenty five unicorns stabilizing it at all times to ensure maximum durability.”

Shining Armor nodded, “Very good. Now, prepare for battle!” He galloped at top speed to get to his spot at the wall’s garrison. He hoped that Prince Nightshade wouldn’t have too many tricks up his sleeve.

Princess Celestia stared out a window in the throne room. She had just got back from setting the sun and just gazed blankly at her city.

“Celestia, what’s wrong?” asked Princess Luna as she walked into the throne room and saw her sister’s facial expression.

“I did not want to have to do this to my citizens, but I had no other options,” Celestia said in a low, somewhat saddened voice, “I want to take one final look at Canterlot, for I fear this it may be the last time we get to see it intact…”

“Are you talking about the conscription?” asked Luna, “What other choice did we have? Prince Nightshade is marching fifteen thousand soldiers to Canterlot as we speak. Canterlot needed all the help it could get!”

Princess Celestia turned to her sister, “It’s not that, Luna! Many of the ponies in Canterlot and even the ones Rainbow Dash brought from Cloudsdale are not cut out for the rage of war! I could feel the volunteers trembling as they approached me to enlist! These ponies weren’t born to fight; that isn’t what their cutie marks are telling them to do! They have so much potential in their lives and now some of them will most likely perish and never get to live up to that potential…”

“It’s going to be alright, Celestia,” said Luna, trying to cheer her sister up, “I know we’re going to win this fight, I can feel it! I will not let Nightshade and his foul horde lay a hoof on you!”

“I appreciate the efforts to raise my spirits, Luna, but I’d throw that pretense aside. My faithful student tore through scroll after scroll in our archives trying to find any kind of information about Prince Nightshade, but to no avail. All I could do before I went to set the sun for today was give Twilight Sparkle and her friends their Elements of Harmony and pray that they would be able to survive this conflict.”

“I have every bit of confidence that Twilight and her friends will be able to defeat Prince Nightshade and save the day! Their friendship can conquer even the most frightening of challenges!”

“I hope you are right, for all of our sakes…”

A thick blanket of dark clouds loomed over Canterlot. The occasional rumble of thunder echoed through the sky. Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie stood with the rest of the garrison on the main wall, waiting for Nightshade’s army to arrive as scheduled. Shining Armor looked at the conscripted recruits. Most of them were not good at making poker faces, which made their fear as bright as day. They trembled with nervousness; their armor making a fast-paced clinking noise against the stone as the thought of the merciless enemy that was marching up the mountain gave them the heebie-jeebies. The only ponies that Shining Armor saw that weren’t afraid of what was coming were himself, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, some of the soldiers he brought from the Crystal Empire, and some of the already existing Canterlot guards. He didn’t blame the recruits for feeling the way they do, it had been quite some time in since the last major war in Equestria’s history. Nopony had expected this event to just pop up like a jack-in-the-box.

The soldiers on the wall began to hear the loud clanking of armor as they saw the torch-light of Nightshade’s army start to come into view. Shining Armor got out his binoculars. As the enemy marched towards the wall, Shining Armor noticed that there were barely any pegasi in the crowd. He also noticed that Nightshade was accompanied by only three of his friends when Twilight claimed there were five. Some of Nightshade’s soldiers held flags and banners that depicted his sinister cutie mark.

“Wait, do you hear that?” said Rainbow Dash, perking up her ears to listen.

“Yeah, it sounds like they’re singing something!” said Pinkie Pie, “OOOOOOH! Do you think they know “Smile! Smile! Smile!”?” Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie leaned forward and listened. The song that Nightshade and his army were chanting became more clear as they got closer.

You can’t ride my little red wagon!
The front seat’s broken and the axle’s draggin’!
Chug! Chug! Chugga-lug-lug!
Next verse, same as the first!
A whole lot louder and a whole lot worse!

You can’t ride my little red wagon!
The front seat’s broken and the axle’s draggin’!
Chug! Chug! Chugga-lug-lug!
Next verse, same as the first!
A whole lot louder and a whole lot worse!

The evil army kept chanting the lyrics over and over as they marched toward Canterlot. The defenders of Canterlot could immediately recognize Nightshade from the crowd because his glowing eyes made him stick out like a sore hoof. When the Shadow Ponies and Darklings got close to the wall, Prince Nightshade held up a hoof. His soldiers immediately stopped in their tracks and stopped singing their marching song. Nightshade stepped forward and politely bowed to his enemies on the wall,

“Salutations, Shining Armor! I see that you took some time to prepare for my arrival! Good, good! I was kinda hoping you would because now this fight’s gonna be a whole to more interesting for me!”

“I’d sooner lose my right hoof than let you take Canterlot and destroy more lives, Nightshade! I never thought that a runaway thief like you would turn into the monster you are now!”

“That’s a lie, you pampered oaf!” yelled Nightshade, suddenly outraged by what Shining Armor just said, “You have no proof that I did that! Zilch! And yet Celestia’s idiot minions just jumped to the conclusion that it was me because of how I look! What a load of bull!”

“Well, your minions are just as stupid!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“I’m sorry, was I talking to you?” snapped Nightshade.

“You are now, ketchup head!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Don’t you ever call me that!!” snarled Prince Nightshade, “And, besides, who are you to make fun of my mane? Your mane looks like a horrible paint accident!”

“At least my eyes are normal!”

“How is it my fault that my eyes are like this?! I was born this way!”

Sky Blade tapped his brother’s shoulder, “Uh, brother,” he whispered, “Can ve spare the chit-chat and just get on vith the battle?”

“You’re right, Sky Blade!” said Nightshade, nodding at his brother. He turned his head back towards Shining Armor, “Meet my demands, Shining Armor! Surrender this city to the Nightmare Legion and give me Princess Celestia! Or else you can kiss Canterlot and your friends goodbye!”

Before Shining Armor could say anything, Rainbow Dash spoke up again, “Seriously? Your plan is to ponynap the princess? How unoriginal!”

“Rainbow Dash!” Shining Armor whispered angrily, “What in Celestia’s name are you doing?!”

“I’m heckling him!” responded Rainbow Dash, “It’s one of the fun things to do during sports events and these pre-battle encounters!”

“Well, it’s much more original than ponynapping Princess Luna and turning her back into Nightmare Moon!” shouted Prince Nightshade, “At least my army’s better than the pathetic one that’s shivering beside you! Don’t try to hide it, my eyes can see their auras of fear!”

“No, the ponies on my side are better than yours!” said Rainbow Dash, “They’re at least twenty percent cooler than your soldiers; whose rumps we kicked when they chased me and my friends to Canterlot! Whadda ya say to that, lame-mane?”

“It’s “My friends and I”, you dummy!” shouted Nightshade, rolling his eyes as he corrected Rainbow Dash’s grammar, “Besides, that was just a tiny fraction of my army! You, uh, just caught them on a bad day! And stop making fun of my mane, you meanie! The mares love it! I spent, like, ten minutes styling it this morning!”

“Ugh, what a hypocrite you are calling me a meanie! What about you, Prince Biterump? Besides, I’ve achieved far more than you have!”

“Night-shade! It’s NIGHTSHADE!!” screamed Nightshade. Now he was beginning to see red, “You said my name wrong on purpose, you insolent foal! And what the frosting are you talking about?! I’m a master blacksmith and an Earth Pony that’s able to use some of the most powerful dark magic Equestria’s ever seen! You’re just a stupid athlete!” Nightshade began mocking Rainbow Dash in a stupid voice, “Ooooooh, look at me! I’m Rainbow Dash! The only thing that I’ve ever accomplished in life is doing a stupid move I call the Sonic Rainblast!”

“It’s Sonic Rainboom! And I’ve done far more than that! I’ve helped save Equestria from the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra! Ponies are eternally grateful for it! They’re gonna be even more grateful after I mop the floor with you and your pawns!”

“My, my! Cocky, aren’t we? You’re biting off more than you can chew if you think you can take on my friends and I!”

“No way, I’m tougher! I’m a star athlete!”

“Are you kidding? I’ve endured more hardships than you ever have! Sky Blade, Zinnia, and I were forced to live in a freaking cave and had to live off whatever we could forage in the wilderness for half a decade! Plus, I know I sound like a broken record, I possess formidable dark magic! Last time I checked, that qualifies as being tougher than you!”

Rainbow Dash thought for moment. She needed a comeback and she needed it quick. Then she smiled a sly smile and shouted to Nightshade, “Well, at least I don’t develop crushes on my enemies!”

Nightshade’s anger was immediately replaced by nervousness. Although it was a dark night, Nightshade’s glowing eyes showed the Canterlot soldiers on the wall the unmistakable blush on his cheeks,

“Wh-what?” he stammered, “Heh heh, um, wh-what are you talking about? I, uh, I-I d-don’t have a crush on anypony… Heh heh…”

Now I’ve got him! thought Rainbow Dash, satisfied with herself that she’d emerge the victor of this little heckle war, “Don’t lie, ketchup head! I heard how you thought Twilight was cute and I saw the pictures you drew of her in your tent! A lot of them had little hearts around her! You looooooooooooove her, don’t you?”

“Wait, what? This pony likes Twilight?!” said Shining Armor. Nopony seemed to really hear him because Rainbow Dash and much of the garrison on the wall burst into laughter. Prince Nightshade looked at the ground with embarrassment. His entire face was now beet red with blush. He looked like he was about to wet himself.

Hitchcolt stepped forward and shouted, “Shut up, you sniveling oafs! Stop teasing my friend!” When nopony on the wall listened, Hitchcolt took off her hood and used her magical staff to conjure up a huge projection of her face. The garrison ceased their laughter with a scream of terror. Much of Hitchcolt’s face was horribly mangled and covered in hideous scars and stitches. Her horn was almost completely gone, save for the little stub that remained. About half of her face had horrendous magical burns. Her left eye looked entirely hollowed-out with only a white pin-pricked iris present in the socket. Her teeth were a disfigured set of sharp chompers. It looked as if she hadn’t worn braces as a filly when she needed them. Hitchcolt had not one, but two snake tongues that she flickered at the Canterlot soldiers through her projection. Half of her right ear appeared as if an animal chewed it off. Hitchcolt then turned off her projection spell when there was nothing but silence in the air.

“Now, Nightshade, I believe you wanted to show Shining Armor something?” said Hitchcolt.

Nightshade snapped out of his mortified state, “Thank you, Hitchcolt! You’re a true friend! I almost forgot that I had a little surprise for Captain Tarnished Armor!” Nightshade turned to his soldiers, “Bring up the royal prisoner!” Nightshade’s troops made a hole in their ranks. Pushed by about six Darklings was a huge trolley cart that came through the hole. Whatever or whomever was on it was covered by a large white sheet.

“Hitchcolt, illuminate this area with your staff!” Nightshade ordered, “I want to make sure those deadbeats on the wall get a good look at this!” Nightshade turned back to Shining Armor as Hitchcolt used her magic to light up the area around the trolley cart, “Let me ask you this, Shining Armor, do you miss your wife?”

“What’re you getting at?” asked Shining Armor with a raised eyebrow, “How did you know Cadance was missing?”

“Isn’t it obvious, you twit? I took her from you, courtesy of the greatest stealth specialist in Equestria! My friend Roger!” Nightshade pulled of the sheets to reveal his special prisoner: Princess Cadance.

“Cadance!” gasped Shining Armor. He was horrified by what he saw. Princess Cadance’s hooves and neck were chained to the trolley cart she stood on. Her magic had been sealed by a powerful spell that had been cast on her horn. She had a black eye and several bruises all over her body. Her body itself was much skinnier than it used to be thanks to being malnourished as a captive. She was gagged with a muzzle over her mouth that looked a lot like a the kind of muzzle used on dogs. She looked up her husband and tried to shout to him; but her muzzle just made it come off as muffled gibberish. Shining Armor shouted to Prince Nightshade in anger, “Let her go, you monster!”

Nightshade smirked, “I’ll let your precious wife run back into your arms if you give in to my demands! Give me Canterlot and Princess Celestia!”

“Never!! I will not be blackmailed!” shouted Shining Armor.

Nightshade turned to Princess Cadance, “Did you hear that, Cadance? Your spouse doesn’t love you anymore! He’d rather die than save you!”

“That’s a lie, Nightshade! I love her with all my heart!”

“Really? Then why don’t you practice what you preach and save her? If you really love her as much as you claim, you’d agree to our little deal! I’ll even leave the Crystal Empire alone if you say yes! I cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” He then gave Princess Cadance a punch to her stomach, which enraged Shining Armor even further,

“Don’t do that to her! You’re really pushing your luck now, Nightshade!”

A mischievous smile grew on Prince Nightshade’s face, “Oh, I’m sorry! Do what exactly? Ooooh, you mean this?” He punched Cadance again, this time in her face. Shining Armor was outraged, but he decided to keep quiet because saying things only made things worse for his wife in her predicament.

Nightshade laughed, “Oh, yeah! Look at that aura of yours! It’s searing with pure anger!” He turned to his soldiers, “Hey, everypony! Let’s play a game! I need six volunteers to help me out!” Most of the Shadow Ponies and Darklings in Nightshade’s army enthusiastically raised their hooves in an instant. Prince Nightshade selected six at random and using his own dark magic, he gave each of them a small but firm club. Nightshade turned back to Shining Armor, “I hope you don’t mind, my friend, but my soldiers and I are very curious to know if there’s candy inside your wife!”

Shining Armor gasped, “No! You wouldn’t…”

Nightshade made a gesture with his hoof and the six soldiers with clubs began to savagely beat Princess Cadance with no mercy. Pinkie Pie and many of the Canterlot soldiers looked away with disgust at the sight of such an atrocity. Shining Armor gripped the wall in anger. He wanted to help Cadance, but he couldn’t do anything but watch.

Nightshade was enjoying the show he was putting on,

“Yes! That’s it! Really let her have it,” he laughed, “Mind her head, I don’t want her dead! I want her to feel every bit of pain! A little more to left!” Nightshade thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s make this more interesting! Let’s grime her up! I need two more volunteers to smear mud on her!” Nightshade selected two more soldiers. They scooped up mud from the damp ground and began to dump it all over Princess Cadance’s body. They vigorously rubbed it into her coat as if they were trying to wipe a tough stain off a kitchen counter.

After about a minute, Roger tapped Prince Nightshade’s shoulder. He communicated to him with sign language. Whatever he said made Nightshade’s grin grow even wider.

“That’s a brilliant idea, Roger!” said Nightshade, “Everypony, take a break from the clubs and mud and ready your ink balloons!” The eight ponies did as they were told. They stepped back from Princess Cadance and each pony took out a water balloon filled with ink from their saddle bags. They hurled the balloons at her as hard as they could. The balloons exploded when they hit Cadance, spreaded ink all over her body and on some Shadow Ponies and Darklings who were in the ‘Splash Zone’.

Nightshade spoke up again, “Hmmmm, I don’t really like this alicorn’s style! Sky Blade, give her a mane-cut!”

“My pleasure!” laughed Sky Blade. He got up on his hind legs and walked towards Princess Cadance. He drew his broadsword with one hoof and grabbed the alicorn’s mane with the other. He yanked it up as hard and as far up as he could and with one quick slash, Princess Cadance’s beautiful mane was now history. Sky Blade threw the mane at the Canterlot wall for the garrison to see.

“That’s some fine barber work, Sky Blade! Cut her tail, too!” Sky Blade nodded and did the same to Princess Cadance’s elegant tail. Nightshade applauded his brother, “Awesome job, Sky Blade! I really should tip you! Now, let me add the finishing touch!” He walked over to Princess Cadance and made a red marker appear out of thin air. He wrote “LOSER” in cursive on her flank where her cutie mark was (which was now covered in ink and mud).

“That tears it! I can’t watch this anymore!” shouted Rainbow Dash. She picked up a rock from a crate on the wall.

“Dashie, no!” shouted Pinkie Pie, but it was too late. Rainbow Dash hurled the rock at Nightshade with all of her might. It passed through the magical barrier around the city and hit Nightshade on the back of his head. Nightshade clutched the back of his head in pain and stumbled around. The Shadow Ponies and Darklings began to snarl with anger. When he regained his composure, he turned to Rainbow Dash and gave her fierce glare,

“I never thought that the protagonists would have the guts make the first strike!”

“You better believe it, you cruel freak!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “If you want Princess Celestia, come and get her!”

“You want a battle? Fine! Let the games begin! Bring up Bucephalus and get this pathetic prisoner out of my sight!”

“Da! Finally!” uttered Sky Blade, jumping with joy on all fours, “Is party time!” Nightshade’s army once again made a hole in their ranks to allow the trolley cart that Princess Cadance was chained to to pass through. Then they made an even bigger hole and allowed a terrifying siege weapon to come through. It was a large ballista loaded with a special bolt designed by Prince Nightshade. The ballista bolt’s head was made of steel and shaped like a horse’s head with its mouth gaping wide open. Within the horse’s mouth was a huge piece of malicite.

“Ha, you’re wasting your time, ketchup head!” laughed Rainbow Dash, “It’s gonna take a lot more than a prehistoric weapon to take down our barrier!”

Nightshade sneered at her, “You shouldn’t be so quick to judge, little pegasus!” Nightshade supercharged the malicite crystal by imbuing it with even more dark magic. This made the crystal shake violently and emit tiny purple sparks. The crystal would flash red for a second on occasion.

“Where’s that magic bulwark’s weak point, my lord?” asked the engineers who controlled Bucephalus, “Can you see it?”

“My eyes can see many things, my loyal subjects!” said Nightshade. He analyzed the magic barrier around Canterlot for a minute and then said, “I found it! Aim Bucephalus up a little higher!” Nightshade rattled off more instructions for adjusting the ballista’s aim. When they found the sweet spot, Nightshade motioned for his engineers to stop the adjustments. Then he shouted, “Let’s do this! Launch this sucker!”

The engineers nodded and pulled the weapon’s launching mechanism. The bolt from Bucephalus launched into the air towards its target. When the bolt hit the barrier, it exploded with such destructive power that it completely shattered Canterlot’s magical shield. The unicorn’s in charge of keeping the barrier up were knocked back and found that their magic was suddenly shorted out.

“Those malicite crystals can be used as bombs?!” said Rainbow Dash in disbelief. Even at this surprise, her confidence would not be outshined by concern.

“It’s showtime, everypony!” shouted Prince Nightshade. He pointed at Canterlot and said, “Charge! Take them down! Make your prince proud!” Nightshade’s army did not hesitate to obey this order. His soldiers sounded their battlecries and began to make a dash for the wall with their spears up and full of hatred.

“Prepare to fire!” shouted Shining Armor. The Canterlot garrison quickly drew arrows from their quivers and attached them onto their bowstrings. Some of the arrows had broadheads while others had Nightshade’s blunt horseshoe-shaped design that the fletchers and smiths of Canterlot managed to reverse-engineer. “Release arrows! Fire at will!” shouted Shining Armor. The garrison released a flurry of arrows. The arrows that made their marks took down their victims, making the Shadow Ponies explode into black smoke and yellow glitter and severely maiming the Darklings. The garrison fired volley after volley at the horde, but that didn’t stop them from coming. The Shadow Ponies and Darklings equipped with bows that got close enough to the wall began to shoot at Shining Armor’s soldiers, picking them off one by one.

“Sky Blade!” shouted Nightshade to his brother, “Ascend to the dark clouds above and tell the soldiers up there that it’s time to kick some Canterlot rump!”

“You don’t have to be asking me twice, Nightshade!” said Sky Blade. He spread his wings and took off. Rainbow Dash saw him fly into the clouds. For a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, the dark clouds began to open like sliding doors on a patio and huge swarms of Shadow and Darkling pegasi flew out of the to join the brawl.

“Rainbow, get your squad of pegasi up there!” yelled Shining Armor after following Rainbow Dash’s eyes.

“I could’ve figured that out on my own, thanks!” said Rainbow Dash. She put on a pair of shades and flew to the pegasus soldiers that were waiting on the rooftops of the city. “Come on, everypony! Let’s do this like Brutus! To battle!” Rainbow Dash and her team took off like rockets towards the enemies, ready to duel them in Celestia’s name. The pegasi on both sides drew their weapons and clashed in an epic aerial battle. Some wrestled in the sky, others clashed weapons. Explosions constantly went off both in the sky and on the ground; as Prince Nightshade’s soldiers consistently chucked malicite bombs at the defenders of Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash flew around, looking for an enemy to take down. Just then, the pegasus she had been waiting to duel flew right in front of her.

“Vell, vell, vell! I finally get to be meeting the great Rainbow Dash!” said Sky Blade, “Vurd has it that you’ve been named the best flier in all of Equestria!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” said Rainbow Dash, “Sweet sword you’ve got there. I hear you’re quite the savage with it!”

“You bet I am, little filly! Thanks for throwing that rock at my brother. I thought he’d never shut up!”

“I couldn’t let him abuse Cadance like that! Apart from that, I just wanted to get to the part where I kick your butt!”

“Ve’ll see about that, Dash! En garde!”

Author's Note:

What will happen in Sky Blade's and Rainbow Dash's duel? What will the fate of Shining Armor and his garrison? What are the roles of Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle in this heated battle? Where are Zinnia and Sponduli Moolalli? When will I stop asking you these questions?

Find out next time in Part 2 of The Battle of Canterlot!