Our new Friends, Our new Enemies

by The Potato Guy

Chapter 39: Blood on the streets

Helplessness. That was the state of Princess Luna’s mightiest servants on that night.

Surrounded. Trapped. Like prey cornered by its predator.

Most of all, as the NG now found itself pinned in with no hope of escape, only one thing prevailed. Above all, only one thing triumphed. Standing tall and above all the panic and hopelessness.

Silence.

It was an eerily, unnerving quiet. No great hundreds of Ponies, even with their armour, could manage to break it. This square may never have seen so many Ponies within its ancient boarders, but nonetheless, it had also never known such a void of sound.

Solar Virtue could practically hear his own heartbeat, and beating it was. Faster and faster in fact. His eyes scanned the trap, a full circle of foolishness on behalf of the Night. Ringed in they were, all because they had underestimated their foe. That was Solar’s next subject of interest the enemy.

Right now, and with little shame, he admitted, internally, that they mattered little. They had outwitted him. Boxed him in like an animal, and would surely close it like a box filling with water. Hope, and the very idea of a reprieve from potential death seemed an ever distant thing. His personal demise, along with that of the NG however, seemed to pale in comparison to the very real truth of his fears coming to light.

He had failed Luna.

This was meant to be the night. The night that would establish a new power in Equestria, one free of corruption and scandal. One capable of delivering real change, change that Equestria so desperately needed. But now, with this humiliating failure, the only change experienced by the population would be an eventful front page, one telling of some idiotic and ill thought out coup falling in spectacular glory.

And the glory would not even be his own.

Luna would see Solar as not only incompetent and a let-down, but it would see to place a curse upon the Commander of the order of the Shadow’s. Solar would follow a path led by his predecessor, too a Pony incapable and delivering only disappointment to his Princess. Steel Onyx however, would be lucky in comparison to the hasty Solar. Tonight, he had enabled Luna’s power to be wiped clean in one fell swoop, exposing her as jealous of her sister, and in dire need of more power. She would be branded as a deficiency in victory, a collapse in civility. She would be seen as her old traitorous self, with only her darkest side capable of driving her.

Princess Luna, the one Pony had ever loved, and the sole Pony capable of giving him purpose, would be permanently humbled by Celestia, and that would be a great mercy. In her current state, Celestia’s idea of punishment was a haze at best, a bloody sight at worst. If she had banished Luna, corrupted by another nightmarish form, even when she had a grip of her sanity, what would be Luna’s fate now? When she was only herself, and fully culpable in her war like actions.

This was what it meant to fail others. Solar, by the looks of it, would receive a quick death, albeit however shameful. Luna would live to meet her cruel justice. She would be a victim to the madness of Celestia, and the failure of Solar. In sharing a heart with her, Solar had now condemned her to bear the full and painful burden of justice that would, no longer, able to be carried in proportion with Solar, giving the fact that he would soon be dead. Solar was forcing her to be punished for his mistakes, and find himself unable to help her through that most torturous of times.

These thoughts alone could have spurred Solar on, should this have been the one sided pitched battle that it should have been. Even had the Royal Guards been prepared and capable of volleying back a decent fight, Solar could have used this fear to drive him on, and spill more blood for his Princess. In this tragic situation however, no dedication, no last burst of adrenaline would help him. And as he became all the more aware of his surroundings, the last vestures of a happy ending abandoned him.

Solar was not the only Pony here, after all. He was just the leader of a large portion of the Nights strength. The NG, comprised of new and old, experienced and eager, were also trapped. They too would know pain, death and the posthumous titles of traitors. Fully aware of this fact, and very much attentive to their perilous position, few could count themselves as lucky, almost ironically, as Solar with his distracting if nauseating positon. For their Commander was unique in his responsibilities, and more capable of spreading his immediate fears over a series of already existing concerns.

They were exposed, in all sense of the word. Enveloped by an ambushing force, and just moments away from death as Solar was. But they were very much of the moment, with only their lives on the line. Knowing this impending doom, even the most veteran of the group could do little but grow in their panic, and just stand there as their breathing rose to audible levels, and morbid realisation set in. Solar could not spot a single soul that wasn’t currently crammed in like some food can, fresh out of a factory. Pinned in they were, like cattle on a ranch, except these cattle were fully aware of what butchery would behold them.

Now however, began the calm before the storm. A silence so pristine, that it never seemed the case that this tightly fit in group would all be corpses, soon laying on the cold ground. The smallest of movements even were now heard by Solar, ranging from fearful breathing, to uniforms folding around as each pony tried desperately to find themselves into a more comfortable, less threatened position. Alas, such a dream was simply non-existent here and now, allowing a perverted batch of further sick realisation to full upon the group. Devoid of action, the NG could look upon the very armed holders of their fate.

They saw, in that cacophony of red and black, just one single thing. Death. Somehow, the NG had failed to anticipate their actual loss, despite never ruling it out arrogantly. But arrogance had claimed them, whether they liked it or not, and had subversively instilled, within them, an ability to foresee only a simple straight path to victory. Before the battle had even taken place, victory had defeated them, and riotous determination had cost them all their tactical strength.

Making matters only worse, for Solar and his position at the head of the newly formed NG, was those whom had caused him to be in this forceful position. For the Royal Guard were never the problem, even with the almost deliberating disability that was their lack of foresight. These new figures, these ominous foreboders of woe and death, were now the very reason Solar was about to face death. In their inferno armour, an appearance of flames and the fiery heat of death, they stood. Clearly well trained and disciplined, and armed in a limited yet deadly variety of weapons. Swords with seemingly constant curvatures adorning them, like flame turned steel. Most horrifically of all however, were sights of large mace like weaponry, fitted with the most painful looking of spikes, ensuring a star like instrument of armour defying destruction. For these very distant corruptions of the Day Guard were defiantly not of this civilised world. They made for an intimidating, foreboding foe, and one who now conveyed the greatest sense of terror, felt even by the Shadow’s themselves. These comers of apocalypse were a new sight in this very moment, capable of apparently remaining fully unknown to the world, even to the Shadow’s. The fact they were here, in their current death bringing form, made imminent death only more helpless and terrifying.

The NG seemed not only outwitted, but totally outmatched.

“Children of the Solstice! Advance!” Came a voice that few Ponies cared of its originator. For this was a command to finish the job, and to ensure the NG knew that their fate was very much solidified.

Solar could see it happening in near slow motion. Fiery red magic, originating from their Unicorns, covering the front line of the Day in a wall of safety, all while showing the NG that even one last desperate fight back would achieve little. It was a shield barricade of these “Children of the Solstice” that now moved ever closer, step by step in organised and well taught formation.

This was the worst sight of all, Solar instantly knew. An unbreakable and undefeatable wall of literal death ever encompassing the NG, with its ever continuing and incessant march to a slaughter. The NG was watching their death fall upon them, steadily and cohesively, as any victor of war managed.

The silence was over, but the hopelessness was not.

And in one last revealing of that maddening mercy of the Day, Solar caught one final thing, before only his death came into personal view.

The demeaning and humbling smirk of his opponent in command. A smile that said something very loud to Solar, even though the silence.

“I won”.

Solar could do nothing. He was now neither at the head of an organised formation, nor in possession of a last minute, elusive plan. The tight circle group that now formed was in no position to be commanded, even if they could see him. The Shadow’s, the officers of that night, were forced to be squished among that crowd, as trapped and powerless as the lowliest Guardian. Command was broken. Organisation was gone. Now all that remained was the consistent compacting of the NG by the Day, with an ever increasing force of tightness. They were forcing the NG to find all available space, even when there became none, regardless of the advancing encroachment into their mass of black and silver.

There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide or defend. Nothing to do, but await a sharp or heavy blow into their flesh, and fall where they stand, incapable of dying anywhere else, given the total lack of manoeuvrability.

For a supposed authority on the future safety and protection of Equestria, the Night showed little regard to thought military strategy. Their arrogant push, born of only brute strength, had now only resulted in a perfect example of a great envelopment of themselves, and would now be either brutalised to death with deadly looking weaponry, as the Day moved inch by inch closer, and inch by inch took a life, or be crushed to death in a tightening group, so packed in that the air itself would be trapped.

It was an abominable show of dismay. All the NG here tonight, picked off like it was nothing at all.

Solar could now hear nothing but the sound of the encroaching doom. Instinctively, he felt himself fall back among his army, but not out of wish to prolong the inevitable did he do this. Gone was hope of survival, and long gone was hope of redemption somehow, in Luna’s eyes. He felt lost. Disconnected from the world, and thoroughly incapable of hearing even the closest and loudest of yells.

“COMMANDER!” the voice seemed almost an echo as it struggled to cut through the disbelief born of a life about to be cut short.

“-…your orders?! COMMANDER!” Little remedy these ghostly words were to the noose tightening around the collective necks of the NG. Many spoke of miracles in such perilous situations, but few ever addressed their reliability in failing to save that dying soul. What could Solar possible do now? How could he ever come back from his mortal and final mistake?

“COMMANDER!” But the voice was nothing if not persistent. In barrages it came, now loud enough to rip Solar from his surreal world of finality. “Luna damn you!” Somepony had given up on him, and it was now without any degree of cruelty that Solar now was dragged from his daydream like state. The blur cleared to a brutal reality of a situation, and all sound suddenly became all too clear to him.

A sharp intake of air, perhaps one of his last, and as life’s one final tease, he became Commander once more.

“Well finally!” came the relieved and still very alive voice of Dark Blossom. Her seniority among the Shadow’s allowed her to fulfil a more secondary role to all the organisation, and while Solar became lost in despair, she fought against the power she had been fighting for her entire life. “We have to break their lines, Commander!”

Solar couldn’t tell if it was bravery or stubbornness driving her. Reaching her age did surely mean she had grown accustomed to living, but was it foolishness that now caused her to continue fighting?

No, Solar instantly knew. It was love. Love for the family of the Night. Loyalty to those worth fighting for. And it was, above all, another humiliation for Solar, who despite realising such a bond existing, had failed to stand up for it, just as things got tough.

“R-Right!” He agreed, snapping back into action. The ranks of the Day were now mere feet away from denying the NG any more retreat space, prompting quite the immediate if panicked dispelling of acceptance of his fate.

It was a terrible way to go, but if he were to leave this world prematurely, he would be sure he would leave it in a spray of blood and gore, perhaps enabling Luna a slightly more positive appreciation of yet another of her failed supporters.

“Earth Ponies to the front! Focus on the Night Guard formations!” Dark Blossom nodded with no lack of great haste. Time was rapidly running out, and nopony knew if such a fight against the void would do anything. All Solar now knew was, to kill two birds with one stone, and to perhaps punish the Night Guard for their abandonment of Princess Luna, all while perhaps prolonging the inevitable, only the strongest of Ponies would be needed if they were to find any chance of smashing through the capable magical shield barriers of the “Children of the Solstice”.

“Dark! Get focus on our support!” In order to gain even the slightest chance of survival, focused and precise pressure needed to be forced upon the weakest part of the encirclement. Fortunately, the “Children” were few, and most put to creating the barrier in the first place. It seemed the plan that, once the NG had been thoroughly crushed amidst each other, then the Night Guard could simply move in and finish the job. The plan hastily made to counter this was for all strong Earth Ponies, Solar included, to find this exploit, allowing the plurality of Pegasi and Thestrals to swoop in and widen the break out.

So therein now lay possible salvation, in the very weakness of the detail and composition of the Night. For Unicorns, unlike these “Children” it seemed, were few and far in-between. After all, the NG was made up of criminals and miscreants, violent Ponies who had little left in life. Unicorns, often said to be the privileged race, mostly had a good education and training regime, given their magical abilities, a natural skill, and thus were less likely to find themselves in less fortunate positions. So in the face of this affliction, the pure yet agile strength of the NG were forced to more practical methods.

“All Thestrals and Pegasi! On my mark, flood the gap and wreak havoc! Blacken the light of the Day, and extinguish all flames of life you face!” Dark Blossom should have really been the one leading this force. She was the Pony of experience here, and worthy enough of her orders. Solar was no stranger to violence, but as he was learning today, with little possible chance of putting these lessons into practice, he was no commander of armies. No great tactician on the battle field. If he we to, miraculously, survive today, then maybe he need remind himself his violent tendencies were better use in regards to the Shadows, operating in their name sake.

Useless was now the time for desperate premonition. Not while a wall of fire and death was upon him, and upon him it was.

Now was the time to fight back. One last time.

“NOW! PUSH!” roared out Dark Blossom, her voice echoing through the square as a final act of inspired defiance. It was powerful. Enraging. Terrifying for the enemy. And not enough for Solar to remain silent.

“For the Night!” He too cried, the beginnings of an almighty battle cry from every member of the NG. “FOR LUNA! FOR EQUESTRIA!” Death was certain. Maybe too a fate of Equestria’s fortunes. But with the moon and stars as his witness, and for all the love he bore in his heart for Luna, Solar let his voice thunder in the hearts of all those present, his adrenaline maxed as if he had been corrupted by some beserking, ravenous rage, and charged.

For all his failures, he was at least strong of body. Along with his fellow Earth Ponies, these living battering rams picked their target, a particular area of the encirclement more compromised of Guards, and slammed into the unholy magic. Not without a last glance at his opponent in command did Solar bash into the barriers. It was neither a look of possible victory nor final revenge. It was just the look this Pony would need, even as Solar lie cold in the ground, to go back and tell his allies one important thing.

That the Night would never give up so easily. That they would never surrender, and they would die, rather than give up what was so close to their hearts.

And what a sight it must have been. Ponies with enough power to shatter a mountain nearly, all focused in one small spot. So much energy, regardless of the aptitude of magic present, would have been transferred to its recipient, and no blockade, magical or physical, could stop this juggernaut like charge from causing literal shockwaves.

“Unicorns! Hold them back!” In the frenzy and chaos of the charge, Solar had paid little thought to those NG whom were not among his great vanguard. For the Night’s current solution was but limited in scope, and not applicable to those with neither wings to escape the crushing, nor strength to charge into the fray. “The rest of you! HOLD. THE. LINE!” Dark Blossom, providing she even lived beyond this moment, was apparently in dire need of some form of promotion. Even as Solar slammed his body and hooves into the flame coloured barriers, he knew Luna must become aware of the time Dark had bought him.

Rewards had to be cast away however. Sentimentality to life beyond tonight was a fool’s wish, for all that mattered now, was breaking through the encirclement.

“PUSH YOU BASTARDS!” He cried, his voice sore from the ferocity of his determination. “BLOT OUT THAT FUCKING SUN! BLOT IT OUT!” Never before had Solar yelled so loudly, nor with so great assurance or fortitude. A sickly, almost metallic taste was felt at the back of his throat, but for all it mattered, he could have split his voice box apart, as long as his fellow train like Ponies didn’t stop trying to breach the magical wall.

But alas, no breach was made. No crack formed in the offensive tactics of the defence of the Day. These few strong Earth Ponies of the NG may have held the “Children” from closing in further, but this was not a battle of holding out. If this was a siege, then the enemy was already in the keep, and slaughtering the people. Holding them back, however valiantly, would only ensure all those behind Solar would fall first, and for the opposite side of the encirclement to eventually stab him in the back.

The NG needed a reprieve. They needed just one moment.

Solar was no great general, but he knew Ponies, and he knew how they felt. From the looks of it, the “Children” were just Ponies too, albeit with the greatest hatred of anything with a degree of night symbolism upon them. These were not statues, nor were they immune from the war of the mind.

Now Solar could truly be commander.

“EARTH PONIES! HOLD!” He ordered, to admittedly confused ears. His fellow members of this break away thought they were meant to force themselves through, but here their Commander was, telling the opposite.

“Solar?! What are you doing?!” Such was the near panic given by the increasingly dire situation, Dark Blossom had forgone Solar’s title, as she looked over the packed horde of Ponies with bewildered confusion.

But she needn’t have worried.

I hope.

“Ponies! Look upon those eyes of bloodlust!” Solar ordered to his strongest Ponies. “Stare into those eyes that would want to see your body cold and lifeless! Look at them, and do not give them any satisfaction!” Solar’s idea was simple, but potentially critical in his victory. If these crusaders of the Day, if these extremists of Celestia was so passionate about the extinction of the Night, then they were probably already a little lost in mind. Now, as Solar looked eyes with one of these lunatics, through the transparency of the magic shield, he gained the attention of a Pony so long lost to rage and anger, that it made it quite impossible not to immediately gain a bitter rival.

The connection was made then. The furthering of uncontrollable frenzy in the Daylings.

“EARTH PONIES, NOW, PUUUSSSHHHH!” leading by example, Solar once again through himself into the enemy magic. But this was not the tactics of a Pony with the memory of a goldfish, this was the prelude to the total collapse of the encirclement.

Unlike previously, the strongest of the NG did not now try and find a gap in the wall. This much seemed impossible. Exploiting the, admittedly, well-crafted spell was not the objective. If this barrier functioned as intended, as a single cohesive structure almost, never capable of collapsing individually, then the it need be demolished as one, in a single foul swoop.

So when it seemed the case again that the two sides had reached a state of complete stalemate, with each opposing formation so entrenched that no further movement may be found, Solar sprung his trap.

“THROW THEM BACK!”

The NG proved themselves as adapt defenders this night, not to mention individuals who had never before heard the word “surrender”, yet it also seemed that despite their checkered pasts, they were no fools. They knew what to do.

A charged, powerful and lone push, forcing the affected barrier to fall back, even by just a short distance. Of course, they would have immediately charged back, suffering little exhaustion as the NG did as they put so much of their effort into their one and might push. But as went the plan, no refill of the divide occurred.

“DIVE, NOW!” Finally, the Thestrals and Pegasi could act. In a targeted descent, avoiding the potential anti-air fire of the rear guard of the Day, those with wings dove into the targeted area of the shield barrier, each plunge rattling the Day a little. Of course, unlike last time, this was not in attempt to break the shield. Far from it. For the barrier remained strong, as was the casters desire to pay the NG back for this attack.

So strong was this hunger that the barrier came flooding back with little of the constant steadiness that it had before. Solar winced as it forced its way back into his flesh, but a little pain was nothing in compared to the growing frustration and bloodlust of the Day.

“AGAIN! PUSH!” And so the Earth Ponies repeated there temporary dismissal of the barrier. A short but powerful push back, while they held their line and recovered for the next attack, all while the airborne troops once more engulfed the gap with a fury of violence.

“Commander, we do not have the time for this!” Came the voice of Dark Blossom, who fought bravery with the rear part of the group as they too desperately tried to hold the enemy back.

Her words though, while true to an extent, were in no position to have fear among them. Yes, The NG could not hold the line indefinitely, but everything was finite. Especially the patience of the Day.

Denial after denial came their way. No progress made in furthering the encirclement. Just as they returned to trying to close in the surrounding barrier further, then came set back as the Night’s strongest warriors drove them back, all while digging their hooves in further. The turbulent assault of the Bat Ponies and Pegasi, while not strong enough to push them back further, served their purpose well. To antagonise, aggravate and tease the Day just a little more.

A deadlock, what with both armies making zero progress, and neither force doing much but hold back a blunt attack, was tedious, but it was predictable. In the end, in the face of such a challenge, time was on the side of the larger force, the one whom held the encirclement. Constant probing of their defences, made up of the most fierce and rough feeling, ensured a sense of failure each time the attacker rammed back into the fray. And as eye lock was maintained throughout, these failures became ever more personal.

In short. If the Day weren’t pissed and crazed already, then they surely were now.

Emotion, especially of the angry variant, was useful in battle. Should an individual about to fall, this last burst of energy was crucial in continuing the fight. Yet the Day was not the trapped animal that it needed have been to use this final stand. With this encirclement, their victory was meant to be quick and certain, but it was nowhere to be found. Anger here, instead of fuelling energy reserves, now only corrupted, and made each cohesive warrior fall apart, as emotion made them an individual once more.

The barrier remained, but its foundations were rotted through. Now, this once seemingly immovable object was free to move.

“ONE MORE TIME!!!” Solar shrieked. “PUSHHHH! And so the NG did, harder and more fiercely than they even had before. A power thrust into the barrier, casting them back, and unleashing a torrent of airborne stings where space was free.

This time, apart from just getting in the heads of the enemy, formation began to break. Magical skill, powerful it seemed, continued on, but its casters and supporters could not count themselves so fortunate in terms of their discipline. Instead of one block of force, a single unit of cohesion and unity, rank slowly fell apart, ensuring a sloppy and unorganised assault back.

Now, the real push back could begin.

“BLOT THE SUN! BLOT THE SUN!” Solar’s initial surge of encouragement now rapidly became a war chant, a miraculous burst of assistance as the NG could now, through tactical harmony and integrity, push the line back permanently, reclaiming land they previously held.

The mess of the Day could not hope to continue their assault, regardless of how deranged and mad they became. Seeing their once fool proof plan fail, to see the one trip ticket to victory burn up, only made their rage worse, and for an officer in command of unit organisation, there was nothing worse than a Ponies vision going red, and becoming a one Pony army.

“BY LUNA’S GRACE, COMMANDER!” Laughed Dark Blossom, a hint of her own, albeit regulated, bloodlust bleeding through. “It’s working!”

That it was, although Solar could not find the time to admit it, not while he wrestled with unholy magic. His muscles were strained, bruised and nearly failing him, but as was surely the case for all NG fighting today, their love of the Night, and of Luna, carried them through the pain and banished all desire to rest.

Then, after all this effort, true opportunity finally came.

A gap, made up of enemy Unicorns losing formation and disconnecting their pool of magic.

THIS IS IT!

“CHARGE NOW! FOR THE NIGHT!” Solar’s words may well have gone unheard of, for they made little difference really. As soon as a clear gap was seen, the world without that red tint of the magic, the NG knew instantly what to do. It was simple. It was bullish and very nearly too obvious.

But it was the only way.

“On your right, Commander!” Solar turned his head, but the grey blur that sped past his vision wasn’t much to see. Fortunately, Solar knew this to be the voice of Silver Sky, who led the dive bombing into the exploit of the barrier. The Shadow, along with a host of other winged Ponies, proved their support well that night as the once formidable shield barrier began to flicker as its casters became ever more disorganised and shuffled in their harassment.

How the Day must have then felt, how their leader must have despaired, as their instrument of victory finally collapsed in spectacular fashion. Solar would have paid for the chance for tonight’s dramatic events to be on film. “Twice the last stand” he imagined Ponies labelling it as. A momentously miraculous turn around in a battle the had initially spelt only a bloody end for the Night. The writing on the wall however, was not as coherent as it might have been, not now while Solar and whoever had joined him in that charge, now so bombastically broke that initial death trap.

Despite all this, Solar made one mistake. Now the real battle was to begin.

“RELIEVE THE REAR! GET OUT OF THE ENCIRCLEMENT!” The immediate, and most pressing challenge was obvious. To ensure those NG at the back of the group, those who still battled against the barrier, could adequately fall back enough to escape their own defeat. Solar, leading the charge, had to push through enough to allow a proper flood to spread.

Easier said than done of course, but if anything, all he needed was a literal fighting chance, not an inescapable trap of annihilation. The fight would have been a challenge against just the Guard, so little wonder that now avoiding barbaric mace swings, and slashes from swords meant to inflict little less than a total disembowelment, was nothing more than that, a fighting chance. Still, it was more than they all had that Night, and the underdog knew little more than those impossible odds.

“SILVER SKY! PICK ‘EM OFF! DONT LET THEM FOCUS ON OUR CHARGE!” Solar then commanded with a resounding yell, prompting an obedient and ever strengthened nod in response from the swift Thestral.

It was all going so well, albeit being a mortal struggle at best. These “Children” were born for war clearly, an expertise demonstrated well as their ferocity absolutely eclipsed that of the, yet again, morale deficient Guards. Solar was sure that before they would even accept anything less than complete victory, they would give their lives gladly. Yet as endlessly they fought, as violently as they waged a near ideological war against the NG, it became ever clearer that they were no soldiers, not as they lacked even the simplest of combat discipline. They fought like Ponies possessed, swinging and attacking at the mere thought of gutting a member of the NG. Yet their opponents were swift and skilled in combat, even as they found themselves in this fight unarmed. Granted, if this battle did not reach a conclusion soon, the NG would undoubtedly make a mistake, slip up just the once so the “Children” could exploit the error, and have their blood spilt liberally upon the Canterlot cobbles.

Solar knew a defining end need to be achieved ASAP, less each unarmed NG would find themselves on the nasty end of the horrific weapons they fought off against.

“DARK! WE NE-“A valiant attempt at the next stage of the break out, if it had ever have been communicated. Deep in the chaos of melee battle, Solar’s senses had been overcome with the violence of it all, and had become passionately invested in making his Luna at least proud of his death. In that riot of hoof and blade, he did not ever anticipate somehow being tackled from the side, sending him hurdling back through Ponies of both absolutes.

“Fucking moon boot licker!” Came an all too familiar roar. A parting, a near ring of Ponies battling had already began to form around Solar as he got up with a groan and saw the leader of the “Children”, already coming at him again, a spiked horse shoe ready to impale a barely recovered Solar. “ILL SEND YOUR HEAD TO LUNA MYSELF!”

Fanatical was too weak a word. Ideological too simple a definition to be given to the purpose behind this giant Ponies onslaught. He would not be commanded otherwise, not be convinced against, and certainly not be stopped from seeing Solar lying dead under his hoof. Such an overzealous ultralist, hell-bent on taking the lives of the entire NG, could not have given Solar any more realisation to the truth of the Equestria of today.

It was already becoming an enemy of progress, and needed nothing less than a total restart. And that rebuild, would have to start with the elimination of Celestia’s probable counter-revolutionaries.

Solar had no time to afford this Pony personally. All of Luna’s enemies would meet the same dire end.

“THIS. NIGHT…. SHALL LAST FOREVER!” A more final, true to heart battle cry could not be heard on that night. Against such fierce, hateful Ponies, the NG could only in invigorated in their determination to uproot the corruption of the likes that they now fought against. Solar did not care for further personal conflict with his current opposite. Only the blotting out of everything the treacherous Day stood for.

And so, with neither doubt or fear in his heart, Solar charged once more. An almost respectful clearing open for him as the NG still managed to not only push back, but avoid or disarm their ravenous opponents.

Alas, tonight’s battle had not been an equal one, nor had it been a predictable one. Just as Solar was about to clash with his enemy, ready to attempt a host of evasive moves designed to target weak and exposed joints, he was stopped in his tracks.

“JUST KILL THEM ALL!” The voice of the enemy commander was still enraged, and almost too thirsty for blood, but for the first time since his humiliating smirk, that once illusive result for the Day, defeat, became nestled among it. A triumphant change in fortune, were it not for the further torment that now await Solar.

Atop the surrounding buildings now came more of the “children”. Lightly armoured these were, but never was this a good sign to the NG. For these reinforcements did not descent their high ground to join the fray in an attempt to hold back the rallying of the Night. On the contrary, they had no need of doing such a thing, not as they trained their ranged weaponry upon the masses of the NG.

Solar could have been tackled again, such was his despair. A moment of hope he had been given. A chance to turn the tables somewhat. Now, only certain death faced him. Dozens and dozens of bows and crossbows, loaded with horrifically dangerous barbed points. For Solar and his rally, perhaps there was some chance and avoiding the hellish rain, but their fate too would have been sealed as the majority of the NG, still huddled up in the remnants of the encirclement, would have fallen likes flies as the marksponies effortlessly rained down death upon Ponies who had zero chance of finding cover. Bodies would have piled up even faster than they would have, should the encroachment have continued.

Rage could have, and perhaps should have taken Solar in that moment. Ignoring the curious fact that the Day had not called for these reinforcements earlier, promoting a revaluation of just what exactly were the orders of the Night’s enemies tonight, Solar was left with the sudden and all too humbling realisation that, yet again, he had been outplayed. Once more trumped by superior tactics, and a real prospect of victory.

A failure in tactics. Nothing but an undermining of his leadership, a collapse in his authority.

Defeat by the Day, of who’s forces had not yet relied upon their final vestiges of willpower, a disgrace to Luna, and validation to her oppressed past of action.

And Solar could do nothing about it. He was not armed with any weapon capable of retaliation. He had neither the time no capability to withdraw his airborne forces to abandoned their fight and rush to take out the new foe, all before the rest of the NG was mown down.

And during this futile wish list of unachievable solutions, the futility of options slowly began to become apparent. Those who he had been so willingly led to their deaths would surely never forgive him in the afterlife, if there even was one. In the living world, his name would go down in history as the one who could not, the Pony who thought he could bend Equestria to the collective will of the Night.

All worthy considerations to a broken, defeated mind. Concerns he should have given, as Commander and the embodiment of the revolution against the corrupt. Even in the face of death, that was the honourable thing, and possibly the sole action he could have attempted to salvage a seedling of a mere flicker of a positive legacy.

But yet again, alarming him little, he only thought of Luna. The one who had accepted him. The one who had loved him…and the one who had become him. Only she mattered, for only she would have been the legacy that he had power over.

The world may very well fall into chaos, consumed by apocalypse even in spite of a victory by the Night. Solar was but one Pony, and his actions, however everlasting, would only spawn a host of differentiating possibilities and if they were separate timelines deviating from his very efforts. Regardless, through the love they shared, Solar would forever have a hold over Luna. In that regard, the only one he now cared about, he was inevitable.

Victory had turned to defeat, which had repeated itself once more. What a dizzyingly set of events that made the world a blur of despair and numbness. So much had this effected Solar that only after an unknown of further occurrence did Solar return to the world.

“W-what?...” He said to nopony, his eyes, along with many others, now directed into the night’s sky, witnessing a giant flock of Thestrals join the battle of the square.

“Kekeke!” Came that ever disturbing sound of the Shadow who could not be found. But perhaps this had been for the better, as now, not yet defeated by the Day, Neon Edgy came swooping down with at least 100 Thestrals. “Hello Commander! Do you need help?”

This has to be a joke right? A dream?

“DEATH TO ALL FOLLOWERS OF LUNA!”

‘Perhaps not’ thought Solar, as the thunderous anger of the leader of the “Children” echoed through all present ranks.

“Bad guy, Commander?” Neon Edgy seemed either unknowing or uncaring of the very real fact that this was a battle on the edge, and at any moment a volley of arrows and bolts could kill them all. She, along with her host of very unfamiliar Thestrals, simply hovered where they were, above near every part of the square.

“What?!” immediately fired back Solar, his fate once more in the balance. “Well yeah! Would you mind helping?!” The word rhetorical could simply have never done his response justice, such was the surreal nature of this apparent and very last minute rescue. “NOW PLEASE?!”

“Ok Commander!” Came back the chirp nature of Neon Edgy. Solar, if he hadn’t been already, now could only stand there and watch the contrast that was. Neon, transforming from the oddity that she was, into a ravenous, blood thirsty beast. She required no order of her own for her and the new Thestrals to prioritise their targets, and dive into them, fangs and all. Chiefly among these victims were the ranged Ponies atop the buildings, who had little chance to switch their targets to the sky, and fire before they were either knocked out, or had such a descriptions extended, only with their jugular. Next, as near a demonic murder of a living storm as they could be, the magic casters were their next targets. Within just a few short seconds, not only had Solar survived his almost certain defeat, but all tactical elements of the Day had been eliminated, and now the full force of NG could charge out, and make this a full scale battle.

Just like that, shocking Solar to his very core, had these fortunes been so dramatically reversed. The Day was in chaos, no surprised left up their sleeves, and no organisation to compensate for it. As intended originally, all those mistakes ago, the Night now showed its strength, and as designed initially, so retreated the Night Guard.

“COWARDS! STAND AND FIGHT!” Solar had thought to himself, just as he was about to lock hooves with this Pony, that he needn’t have made it personal. “I WANT THEIR HEADS! EVERY ONE OF THEM! DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!” However, he could not contain it.

Once the opposing Commander’s vision turned to him finally, a pitiful and almost foal like instinct of caring what others thought, Solar had only one response.

A near perfect copy he had received, upon his possible defeat.

A simple smirk.

“Commander! The Bells!” Solar had not wanted to listen to Dark Blossom’s information. His mortal lock with his counterpart was beginning to turn into something far more than just petty rivalry. The still unnamed Pony of the Day had all the characteristics of one humiliated. A dangerous enough motivation, even for an average Pony. For this hateful soul, ideological war wasn’t exactly quenched with defeat, and the fanning of the flames rarely ever lowered tension.

“I WILL NOT!” Solar knew the purpose of this caution. Retreat was simply not an even realistic proposal. The real question was, how had such a conflict, so deadly and large in nature, been allowed to play out for this long, without some form of intervention. The cowardice and devious nature of the Night Guard, instead of calling for the full force of the Guard, had followed some cult like pretender, and had trusted in a cause nothing short of a mockery of their once loyal order.

“We don’t have the capacity to fight any more battles tonight, Commander!” There was wisdom in Dark’s words, even as she struggled to mop up whatever management she could scavenge among this square of destruction. “Celestia will be frothing at the mouth to find a situation like this! She could finally expose you as a dangerous agitator!” Truly, if the NG stood their ground, even with a well-deserved victory against the “Children”, could the same victory be replicated against the majority of the Guard? And would such a conflict even be beneficial to the cause? Unless somehow overcome in the field, tonight had proven that the Day would not so easily submit, as the initial plan had been. In that stalemate, the Night had little to gain, save the publicity of rioting against the authority like some common dissident.

Victory through submission had not found today, and it certainly wouldn’t be if Solar ordered his tired army to fight from the same, repressed position. Like Dark suggested, Celestia would be all too happy to see this rag tag band of rebels labelled as nothing more than plain violent terrorists, and not the alternative power that Ponies could have turned to, had victory been complete tonight.

And never let it be known that Solar’s new enemy tonight, his opposite commander, was not so devoid of sense that he may initially have seemed. For entirely separate reasons of course, it became obvious that his legitimacy in the eyes of the population was not so complete yet. A pet of Celestia’s he may have been, but not one to be on full show just yet. The master could not walk her rapaciously ferocious beast of a pet just yet, less Ponies call for it to be put down.

For the sake of their respective responsibilities, and that of the collective image of their forces, both commanders came to the same conclusion. With a heavy heart, once last look of blood lust for each other, the call was made.

“Disperse!”

The battle then came to an abrupt end, with neither side leaving with the hope that they had arrived with. The bitter sting of ambiguity now reigned, and the prospects of a future, even bloodier conflict now seeming ever more likely.

The “Children” made quickly their haste, not least of all because of their fear of being picked off by the Thestrals. The NG, perhaps because of the inability to find any other success of their narrowly missing out on a total annihilation, remained still, ghostly figures that now had the freedom to count the dead of yet another Canterlot graveyard.

“Commander, you must leave the city…” Then cut in Dark Blossom, the lieutenants of the battle, that were the Shadows, now congregating around him.

Yet Solar had not expected such dismissal. As Celestia would probably feel when she learned the true nature of tonight’s march, he now felt a sense of deep betrayal, like he had been cast out, in spite of his survival here.

“Leave?” He spat back. “I will not give Celestia that satisfaction of another day in power! I’ll go up to her tower myself and open her throat!” Fighting over, and adrenaline draining away, only the political ramifications of the night remained, and what did they spell but a Princess who now relied upon murderous cults to do her dirty work.

Her paranoia born of failure, her tyrannical extremities, warranted nothing more than an immediate cease of power.

“Geez Commander, we can’t lose you now! Not when we have gotten this far!” Interjected the bloodied form of Silver Sky, his power flying haven taken quite the breath out of him.

“Silver is right, Commander!” Agreed Dark Blossom. “You’re a public figure, and you can’t just now expect to return to office and freely walk around the castle like all this never happened! Celestia won’t have it, even if she is hasty in taking you down!”

Solar hated being so wrong in his vengeance. However pathetic in terms of results, he had played his hoof tonight, and had struck the powers that may be. The Night Guard may be corrupt as sin, but who was Solar against such a permanent and long lasting part of Equestrian society? As lowly and worm like as they were, he was but a glorified assistant to Luna, and could and would be singled out as the one who did not care of the consistency of Equestria, despite that consistency devoid of the greatness it once owned.

“Fuck! What about you lot? And where should I go? I will not surrender our dream of a better land!” Salt in the existing wound, from the fight, was far from pleasant. Increasingly this retreat seemed to be very near the fall back of the kind that did not present that dire other option to Ponykind. Of all outcomes, even victorious death, this was surely the worst.

“We shall be fine, Commander. We do not exist, and never have been.” Dark had the luxury of obscurity and the covertness of a true Shadow. She, along with her comrades, could simply become one with the darkness again, and act as if they had never have been here. “You, I suggest our new friends may be of help to you, once more…”

Solar turned to face Neon Edgy. She had not said a word since the fight had ended, and with good reason. As much an anomaly as she was, the one consistency about her, Solar could say loudly, was that she was a patriot to the Night, and a champion to Luna’s true wishes. She felt the weight of Solar’s frustration as much as he did, and for her, there was no reason to be so energetic in the face of tonight’s failure.

Still, she was not useless, and proved lucky enough to provide an escape for Solar.

“I hope you like forests, Commander.” She eventually spoke, a detection of a possible very violent and very unhinged anger about her. “We shall take you to our camp.”

In truth, Solar had no idea of what she was talking about. Earlier, he had lamented her missing presence and had cursed her unknown whereabouts. In hindsight, it was probably that she was being collecting her reinforcements, but even armed with this fact, who these new wild like Thestrals were, and where exactly she would now take him, remained up in the air.

“Fine! We pull back for now! But let it be known that this is not even a setback for us, and certainly not a defeat!” The truth of that statement was rife for debate, but it could have been trounced in a court of law, for all Solar cared. The Night didn’t need a loss of momentum, not at this crucial stage. A divergence in the plan it may have been, but Solar had not lost his ability to fight, and as had been the sole image, even so close to death, it was Luna who still mattered the most, and whatever had happened tonight, Solar would let nothing dismantle that fact.

“Never, Commander!” Complied Dark, gaining the support and agreement of her fellow Shadow’s. “We have not fought for this long, prior to your arrival, so we can just give up at the sight of blood lost!” Solar was truly glad morale had not seemed too badly hit by all this. On the contrary, perhaps a sense of realism, a more probable prospect of defeat, would awaken the NG to the dangers of complacency, and galvanise them into a more determined, fanatical force. “We shall further our glorious Night where it is strongest. In the darkness!”

Solar nodded, smiling for the first time since the march down had begun. Neon leading the way, the Commander of the NG fled from the bells, alarms of the suggestion of what they must fight for. The sound from the castle an admonition of the continuing fight, however underground it must remain for now.

“Commander!” Came a final word from Dark Blossom. “What of the dead?”

Solar stopped. His eyes scanned the square, fortunately seeing no fallen Shadows among them, allowing at least that degree of relief. Celestia would not get her dirty hooves on the secrets of the Night, yet still, there were many fallen Guardians. Ponies who had fought bravely and passionately for their true Princess. Yet Solar too could find solace in the fact that the number of dead was quite disproportionate, in terms of which side had suffered more. Notably, the among of cold, lifeless and armoured forms of the Guard and Day that now lay dead, far outnumbered that of the lightly armoured martyrs that were those Ponies who would have been told they had no chance against the power of the status quo.

Seeing the defeat suffered by the Day was beautiful. A testament to the unbeatable nature of the NG and the Night. When the sun had risen, and Celestia looked upon the aftermath, she was stand there uneasily, a shake in her legs, and a newly formed fear of the Ponies who had the capacity to see her tyranny, and the skill to match whatever she throw at them.

“Leave them. Let they serve as reminders that a better world is within reach. We only need reach out and grasp it!”

Clearly, this was not the favoured decision of many. Solar understood that it wasn’t fair to leave these champions to the barbarity of the Day, but this was war, and luxuries of these likes could be ill afforded. In fact, such a moot concern was this that Solar knew these fallen souls would have liked nothing more than to have their physical forms strike fear into the hearts of their enemies.

And so, with this, Solar forced himself to sneak out of the city with Neon Edgy and her band of wildlings.

A hindering to the Night that shall last forever, but a hindering it just was.

And the Day…all those who opposed the Night in fact, would pay dearly for this delay in the destiny of Equestria.

Author's Note:

Let's play the "Can you spot the hypocrisy" game!
Correct! It's Solar throughout the chapter!

So yeah, basically We are seeing him turn into a bit of an all controlling fascist kind of Pony. Whatever critic he has of his opponents, he's essentially doing anyway.

But with this, we now leave Canterlot for the most part and get into the reality of the rest of Equestria, which should be very interesting!