Tensions Arise
Over the past three months a lot had happened. More ponies had filtered into the now small city. More houses were built, and large farms had sprung up around the outside of the walls. The forest made that slightly difficult, but the ponies managed to clear what land they needed. I looked down upon all of this as I soared through the air.
I was flying towards Celestia’s balcony in a hurry. She and Swirl said they need me and a few other guards for something important. Lotus and Black were meeting in the main hall where two other solar guards were meeting as well. But they requested that I meet them in a more private setting. What has happened now? I couldn’t help but wonder.
I kicked up a few leaves as I landed on Celestia’s huge balcony. “Caw!” I called out as I tapped on the window.
“Yes yes. Come in Night.” Swirl called from inside. I pushed open the glass doors and strode into the room. “About time you showed up!” Swirl had a small sfrown on his face. Celestia’s room was pretty....pretty I guess. White marble floor, with white stone walls. Gold accents on everything. And it half the size of a house. How much space could you possibly need?
“Hello brother!” Celestia greeted me. Ah yes, that happened over the months as well. Me and the sisters had grown closer together, to the point of me gaining ‘brother status’. I couldn’t help but smile a little at her greeting.
“Chirp!” I greeted back and hugged her with a wing.
“Focus you two. We have important business to deal with.” Swirl interrupted. ‘Fine, what’s wrong?’ I wrote on some paper. Starswirl sighed before answering. “It seems that another small nation of ponies farther south is.....unhappy with our taking over this land.” An irritated look grew on his face. “This isn’t even their land! They said they were going to ‘claim it in the future’.”
“A few strange Pegasi flew over our town the other day. They circled a few times then flew off in the direction of the other city. It seems they were scouting us. The next morning a letter arrived with an armored guard. It stated that we had invaded land they wished to claim in the future, and we were to vacate immediately.” Her eyes narrowed for a second. “Or there would be consequences...” The words hung in the air for several seconds. A rival nation threatened us? My eyes widened fo a second. Ooooh boy.
‘What is the plan?’ I asked. Starswirl answered, “The plan is for you and a small group of guards, you already know who, to deliver a letter to the city. This letter will state our intentions to stay on this land, and our hope that we can coexist peacefully.” He grumbled. “Even if they are irritating as hay.” Celestia gave a small smile at Starswirl.
“There is another objective as well. We wish to see how these ponies will react to two new races.” Celestia explained. “You must use the utmost caution Night. You may not be received well.” Celestia released a long slow breath. “Please be safe out there. We couldn’t bear to lose you.” Celestia gave me a hug.
“Darn bird.” Swirl grumbled as he gave me a pat on the back. Oh, you know you love me Swirly. I snickered at him. “Now begone with you! The others have already been instructed as to these events. They are most likely waiting for you by the gates.” Swirl shooed me out the door and off th balcony.
“Hur hur hur!” I laughed as I flew away. I flew swiftly over the town, ponies looking up as the strange shadow passed. A few of them smiled but most just looked slightly nervous. Better than when I first showed up in public. I could see a small group of guards by the front gate. They where leaning against the wall talking to each other.
The solar guards had quickly accepted the Thestrals over the three months. In fact, the Lunar guards had started to get as full as the solar. And not just with Thestrals. Regular ponies had started to join regularly, seeming to have gotten over their fear of the Batponies.
The two solar guards by the gate were field officers judging by the mark on their armor’s shoulders . They were right above infantry but below officer. Infantry was the lowest rank in the guard. Everyone started out as infantry and worked their way up the ranks, except for a few exceptions. Then came field officers. These were the soldiers that commanded from the field. They typically relayed orders from the Officers. The Officers commanded multiple field officers, and above them were the Captains. There were only ever four Captains. One for the solar guard, one for the lunar guard. One for the solar personal guard, and one for the Lunar personal guard. Captain was the highest rank possible and they commanded the officers and everyone below them. Thus when I landed, the two field commanders jumped up and saluted.
“Chirp.” I said at them. They looked at each other and held their salute. Oh boy. This is going to be interesting. ‘At ease.’ I made appear on my wing. I had learned how to do it during training, writing on my wings, but I constantly forgot I could do it. I had gotten used to writing on scrolls. The two soilders relaxed and dropped their forelegs to the ground.
“Greetings Captain Night!” The left solder greeted. He was unicorn that had a mane with two bright shades of blue and a white coat. Oh boy, I wonder who’s ancestor you are. I smiled. He had, surprise, a red shield for a cutie mark. “My name is Field Officer Gleaming Shield.” Gleaming pointed to his right. “This is Field Officer Armor Breaker.” Armor Breaker was another unicorn. He had a slightly longer horn than normal and his mane was a dull red. His coat was a light gray to complement the dull red.
“It’s nice to meet you Captain.” Armor said in a very serious tone. In fact he looked like a very serious pony. The way he stood and talked made it seem like he was all business. “We have already been briefed on the situation. We are ready to leave whenever you are.”
“Yep!” Lotus exclaimed. “Got all our supplies already packed.” She motioned to the saddle bags they all were wearing. Shoot! I knew I forgot something! I didn’t bring anything with me. “And don’t worry, I already grabbed your stuff for you.” She smirked and threw a bag to me. It had was designed to slip onto my back between my wings. It had my breastplate and wing blades clipped onto the side of it.
“Chirp!” ‘Thank you.’ I wrote across my wing as I slipped on the wing blades and breastplate. The breastplate was made of the same material as my wings, so It could also be used for a bigger scrying surface than my wing blades. I looked through the bag to find two blankets, two canteens, a stack of paper, an inkwell, and a small wooden box with several quills in it. I slipped the letter from Starswirl out from under my wing and put it in the bag. ‘Ok then, shall we head out?’ I asked.
“Ready when you are.” Black responded.
One Week Later
Starswirl
I walked through the hall of the new magic school. The massive stone building sat right beside the castle. It’s silver capped roofs and marble floors shown with a newness that almost hurt to look at. For the first time in a while I had been smiling all day. My ripe age of 137 had left me grumpy usually. But today was different. I had spent all morning instructing young ones in the art of magic. It was exciting enough to make my heart race! My bones may be old, but my mind was as sharp as ever. The looks on the young unicorns faces filled me with joy as they learned things they never knew about. New ways to use magic. New to them anyways.
I walked down the hall slowly, my shoulder had been hurting the last hour and I had been tired the past couple of days. As I approached my office door my chest started hurting. I gasped as I reached for the handle. Whats wrong with me? I pushed open the door and stumbled toward my desk. I fell flat on my face before I made it halfway. My vision was fading as I drifted to sleep, and I tried to channel a light spell to my horn. Anything to let someone know I needed help! However, as I channeled the energy to my horn......my vision finally faded.
Third Person
The energy building up inside Starswirl horn didn’t stop when he passed out. In fact it grew and grew until his horn could hold no more mana. Then it released in a large beam that burst through the roof and into the sky. The sisters could see the beam clearly from their castle. Upon noticing the color, they knew something terrible had happened.
Nightwing
We had finally reached the city after a week. It took a week because our map was sideways for the first two days. Gleaming got a smack on the head for that. But after trekking through the Everfree and vast plains we were here, and I had to say, the city was impressive. It had high walls all the way around with only two entrances. The buildings were higher towards the center and lower around the edges so you could see all the way to the middle of the city. The walls were of dark stone, and the gates were framed in iron. It wasn’t as pretty as the Everfree castle, but it rivaled it in size. It had probably a thousand homes in its walls. The walls had guards constantly patrolling and watching everything in sight.
We observed all of this from inside the tree line. We were trying to decide the best way to go about this. ‘Lotus, Breaking.’ I got there attention. ‘You stay here as backup, me, Black, and Gleaming will deliver the message. I’ll signal if anything goes wrong.’ Silver had given me tips on basic common sense when in a dangerous situation.
“What’s the signal?” Gleaming asked me.
‘They’ll know, trust me.’ I promptly stepped out of the trees with Gleaming and Black follow me. Gleaming specialized in shield spells apparently, so he would be good to have if anything went south. And Black was a Thestral. And our mission was to introduce Thestrals and myself to the ponies.
We were spotted the second we stepped out. The gate facing us opened up and at least twenty guards ran out in full armor. I was almost ready to fight until they slowed down in front of us. They were all wearing iron armor and bore iron swords at there sides. They all glared at me and Black. One of the soldier carefully approached Gleaming.
“What is you business here?” He demanded.
“We come from the kingdom to your north, in the Everfree. We bear news from the Princesses!” Gleaming explained. The soldier perked up at that.
“Yes yes! We’ve been expecting you. Leave your.....bizarre pets outside and come in.” Ouch. My feelings. I glared at the soldier for a moment.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that sir. These pets as you call them are my superior officers. Unless they are allowed to enter then none of us will.” Gleaming defended us, bringing a smile to my face.
“HAHAHA!!!” The soldier laughed, along with some of the nearby guards. “These vile creatures are surely nothing more than beast!” He straitened up and continued. “Now come inside. Our leader is expecting you.” At that, Black had had enough of the foolishness.
“We would be glad to come in. Thank you for offering.” Black stated. All the guards gasped as he spoke. The soldier speaking to Gleaming gasped for a moment before putting on a strained smile. He was also sweating quite a bit.
“A-ah. I’m am So sorry. I have simply never seen another of your kind.” He tried to explain. “You must be the commanding officer!” He smiled in a hopeful way. You aren’t getting out o this that easy. I almost laughed in my head. Almost. I loved the Thestrals, so seeing someone insult them was mildly irritating.
“Nnnnope.” Said Black with a smirk. “This is our commanding officer.” He pointed at me a I glared down at him.
“H-hello?” The now terrified guard said to me. His eyes lifting up to meet mine.
“Caw!” The guards all flinched at that. ‘It is a.....pleasure to meet you.’ The words scrawled across my wing. The soldier gaped at me before his eyes rolled up and he fell over.
My talons clicked on the floor as I sat on a cushion in the main dining hall. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. The leader, named Over Time, sat on the other end of the table from me. To my right and left sat Black and Gleaming. On Over’s right and left sat two guards. “S-s-so!” Over stuttered. “My apologies for my guards actions!” He attempted to apologize. Every time I clicked my talon on the stone like a raptor, he flinched. “So! You are here to discuss your surrender of our land yes?” Gleaming choked on his water at my left. Black had an unamused face on as he wiped spit and water from his face. I just looked across the table at Over. I levitated the letter out and slid it down the table to him.
‘Read that. Then we’ll talk.’ I wrote across my breastplate. Yay for magic metal. He gulped as he took the letter and opened it. His expression changed wildly as he read from the letter. From hope to anger then finally to a blank expression as he set the letter down. He tapped the table twice and the unicorn guard on his left burnt the letter in a ball of fire.
“Unfortunately these terms are not agreeable. I will have to ask that you and your beast leave. Now.” He pointed towards the door in a angry manner. I quickly stood then spun around towards the door. I heard Black and Gleaming stand up next to me and begin to follow. We walked across the stone floor in a hurried manner, eager to leave.
Only seconds from the door a pink colored shield sprung up around us, and a faint CLINK was heard. I spun around to see an angry Gleaming drop the shield as the knife fell to the floor. Over had the look of being caught red handed on his face. You know, the look that says ‘oh crap! They saw me!’ The guards beside him jumped up in order to defend him, but I just spun around and left through the door way. Gleaming and Black followed me.
I wasn’t worried about getting killed. I couldn’t die now, so that was the least of my concerns. I was however worried about what the kingdom we just left would do in retaliation. The kingdom called Overia. Yeah, that was the name. They had an egotistical hothead for a leader. There was no chance this would just die off. So I took out my irritation on a pack of timberwolves we stumbled across.
“KEEEEAR!!” I screeched as I quickly dispatched the four wooden wolves.
“Ok, hand it over Gleaming.” Lotus smirked as Gleaming dropped a small bag of bits in her hoof. “Told you he would take them out in under ten seconds.” Gleaming just let out a groan.
“That was all my spending money to....” Gleaming looked at the ground.
“Never make bets with Lotus. Or anyone for that matter.” Laughed Black. “You’ll lose far too much money.” Breaker just stood on the edge of the clearing looking serious. Simply observing his surroundings.
I stood in the middle of the clearing and took deep breaths. After I had calmed down I stood back up and sighed. ‘I’m sorry about that. Between that pony insulting you and throwing a knife at me.....I lost my temper a bit.’
“Lost your temper?!” Lotus fell to the ground laughing.
“What she means to say.” Black glared at Lotus. “Is that you showed surprising control of your temper. Another pony would have attempted to kill him then and there. Yet you walked away.” He smiled at me. “That seems like a pretty good temper to me. One a respectable commander would have.” Gleaming walked up to me.
“I agree! I was about to take out his guards when you walked through the door!” He shyly rubbed the back of his head. “I suppose I didn’t think about the consequences.” I looked over at Breaking to see what he thought. He just stood there. ooookay then.
Lotus had managed to stop laughing and stood up from her position on the ground. “Oh yeah! A younger Silver would have cut his head off!” She fell down laughing again. I honesty didn’t see what was so funny. She took a minute to calm down before she stood up again. “Okay! Okay. I think I’m done.” She breathed heavily.
“Come on, we have to get back home and tell Princess Celestia about this development.” Black stated before he started walking in the direction of the castle.
“Can’t wait to get back and buy some cider with all these bits!” Lotus bragged to Gleaming. I shivered at the thought of more alcohol. Never. Again.
“Okay we get it Lotus. Leave the poor kid alone.” Black defended Gleaming Shield. “Don’t feel bad Gleaming. I’ve lost more than once to her.” He hung his head. “Took me far to long to learn no-“ Black was interrupted as a letter appeared in front of me in a burst of yellow magic. I snatched it out of the air and ripped it open. My eyes widened as I read what it said.
Third Person
Nightwing’s eyes widened as he read the letter. Then, in a flash of blue and black light, he vanished. “So uh, do we just wait here or....” Gleaming asked. Black went over to pick up the fallen letter. Upon reading it his eyes closed for a moment.
“Come on. It’s time to head home. Starswirl has fallen ill.”
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Accepted*
Great chapter as always and really nice that these came out really fast!
It was absolutely delicious. Which is a compliment, and not something random. I'm glad Night finally realized he could write on his wings. That was something I thought of near the beginning of the story. By the time I caught up with it, he was using paper, so I thought I had no reason to mention it. Oh well, It happened, and that's what mattered, Have a nice day!
I really enjoy reading this story so far, and I can't wait to read more of it.
Here is my comment, happy? Just kidding!
But seriously, story is very interesting. I like that all started looooong before 1 season. And like probably all readers I have some questions (if you answer I will be very glad ;) ):
A. Sirens, Nightmare Moon, Sombra, Pony of shadow and limbo - will you go "wild" with your story or try to connect with original one?
B. Will birdie learn to speak? Chirping doesn't count. ;)
C. Will we meet Sparkle's ancestors? XD
D. How those retards from south wants to control sun and moon? (I see only slavery as options, unicorns or princesses)
Good chapter
Since when could he teleport?
9039825
A. I will try to have the main things present in the story. XD funny story about that. I literally hadn’t watched the limbo episode until after I wrote this chapter. So I had to go back and change the Starswirl scene. He originally died of the heart attack. Now he’s just passed out.
B. I plan to not have him speak in the waking world. Now, dreams and the ascension place....yeah he can talk in those.
C. Well we already met one.
D. Well, keep in mind that not everyone is going to accept that Luna and Celestia defeated discord or move the sun and moon. Not at first. And even if they do they may not like it.
9039866
Since now. This is the first time.
Get hype!
9039867
Thx for your answers :D I don't remember whose ancestor we met. That happens when you read too many stories... or chapters appear not fast enough ;)
In my case the first one XD Anyway, good work. Your story is in my private TOP 10.
Wow you're pumping out chapters left and right now. What a pleasant surprise. Anyways great chapter, but it is a little disappointing that we never got to see what happens when our favorite Birdy gets drunk. I was kinda thinking he would be ignorant of what happened and all the thestrals would make sure to not get him drunk ever again. Also I did realize that birds can also like making clicking noises with their tongue and snapping their beak when they are unhappy.
9039882
I didn’t actually say who they were in the story. But it is a guard.
I haven't seen any of the Founders so far. I thought they live in the same period as Starswirl. Or this story don't follow the canon?
This is a great chapter! That king is so Over! Huh? Huh! *nudges you in the side* Ahh you get it...
Really enjoyable chapter!
Good chapter! I was pleasantly surprised by the swiftness of the update. Thank you!
More.
:D!!! FANTASTIC! Also about time Night used his wings for writing!
Well they are doomed, Night has now sen their leader and can scry on him, reading documents over his shoulder. Hard to plan a invasion if your enemy knows your every move the same moment you make it.
That's awesome! Sad about swirly, but the show shall go on.
I was about to suggest him writing on his wings when you up and did it. And now he can teleport? Nice, a great phoenix like ability. Do you think he could disguise himself as a giant phoenix? Maybe cloak himself in fire with a spell? It would do wonders for intimidating the enemy and boosting morral.
I'm excited for the next chapter.
9039972
XD I didn’t even know the founders existed! Until after I wrote the chapter! XD I decided ‘Hey! I’m going to go watch that important thing I haven’t watched yet. After I write the chapter!!’. The original chapter had Swirly dying from his heart attack. I had to go back and change it before I submitted it. Because hey, who can have a good story without a pony of shadows? Lol. Plus I needed Swirly for a few more things before I kick his bucket. You know, he hasn’t really risen to the world famous unicorn yet.
It feels so good to get so many chapters recently!
I'm loving it.
I love it!
Teleportation? Oh yeah! Writing on wings? Great, no more using so much paper and ink!
Will Night Wing be able to do more magic that is cold or dark themed like his resurrection when he 'died' in a previous chapter and the teleport? That's the author's choice, but one can hope!
9040550
We will have more explanations on different magic uses in the future. Although I will say this, Night will be able to use dark magic without consequences due to him being a creature of darkness. Same with other creatures of darkness. If a light creature uses to much dark magic it will drive them insane. And yes, regular ponies are light creatures. Alicorns don’t count, they’re immortal.
9040580
Would using light magic drive Nightwing insane?
9040309
In before secretly Philomina.
More comments hu?
Noice chapter
Very nice chapter, one hopes that he'll be able to maintain a bridge betwixt the sisters, that's always one of my favorite "what if's".
9040710
No. Immortals are exempt from going insane due to using dark or light magic. This explains how Celestia showed Twilight how to use dark magic in the show.
9040911
Lol thanks for all the comments.
[creative comment]
So... playing dirty, are we? Remember, Nighty, you are in a time where there are no rules in all out war. There is no honor. I believe it would have been in you and the kingdom’s best interest to kill him. Now? Now they’ll declare war, they’ll fight even dirtier, and take any chance they can get to... dispose... of you, and Celestia and Luna. Remember, No honor. Now, you have to fight smart, not hard. Take all chances you can to exploit every weakness, if there are none, make some. If you can’t, fly over there yourself, camouflaged of course, and straight up shank the leader.
The way I see it Nightwing could recreate video games on his body. At least the simpler ones. Would be cool if he could create a Gamer Luna.
another to btw, should be too
You're time skipping a lot, and in my opinion, far too much. Time slips should be done in moderation as it can be confusing and breaks the flow of the story
“Then it released in a large beam that burst through the roof and into the sky.”
Wondering what did that. Is it typical for unicorns in medical distress to release a burst of magical energy? Is that only something powerful mages do (although he’s not all that powerful), related to his specific malady, something he set up in advance, or what?
The scene with Overtimes forces was fun too, but maybe had a self-indulgent tone: these bullies don’t seem like interesting characters, but we’ll see.
Surprised this never got caught.
9995427
Fixed
Ok awesome Night is wrighting with his wings. Glad I didn't have to wait long before that got sorted out