> Shadow Wars: Dawn of a New Empire > by Void Streak > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emperor Nightwing was leading his army of Droid Soldiers through the empty streets of Canterlot. The city had been abandoned after his attempted coup, signs of his previous attack were still evident, ranging from rubble strewn across the streets to rotting corpses. His mechanical eye, which he had made from a red gem, scanned his surroundings, ready to take down anypony, foolish enough to try and attack them. Nightwing thought it was rather foolish to abandon such a strategic city. Turning towards his forces, he ordered, "Check these buildings and make sure they are empty, if you find any survivors bring them to me." Nightwing then entered the destroyed fort that used to be the headquarters of the League of Elementals. He searched for any clues that might point to the location of Celestia and the rest of the elementals. Not finding any, he then decided to use the aura to feel for any connection to either Celestia or even Defender, however he could sense none. Nightwing walked up to a flag pole and cut down the Equestrian colours, before raising the flag of the Imperial Empire, which was a red flag with a black circle that has miniature spikes around its circumference, within the circle was a white symbol with the same appearance as the black symbol, surrounding the symbol was a black octagonal ring. If he was to use the city as his new capital then he would need to repair the destruction that his forces had caused. Facing his legion of droid soldiers, he suddenly announced, "Attention Droids, We have successfully taken Canterlot and have got the enemy on the retreat. I want all APIs to be on the hunt for the retreating enemies. I want sentries on all major entrances to the city and patrols in the streets. If you find anypony, bring them directly to me, I shall be investigating the old archives." With that, Nightwing made his way to the royal archives in search of ways to increase his power. Entering the archive, he instantly made his way to the restricted section; there he found an entire bookcase dedicated to the dark side. Sitting down at a desk, he began to examine the ancient texts, mumbling every time he found something interesting. *** After he had finished examining the archives, Nightwing began to make several plans for new inventions that could help his new empire, he needed to make sure that everypony knew about his empire, so he began to design a droid that could project a live image of himself so that he could make public addresses without needing to be there in person, this communication droid could also make it easier to communicate with his forces and potential allies. His second plan was for a much larger project, they were blueprints for a type of airship that was large enough to house thousands of ponies, it was to essentially be a flying fortress. He called it the Sky Destroyer. The Sky Destroyer would have a triangular design with three large rocket boosts at the rear of the ship, giving it large amounts of speed, the ship's bridge would tower over the rest of the ship. Unlike the old airships that were controlled by Celestia, the Sky Destroyer would have no open decks, making it next to impossible to board while in the air. It was to be heavily armoured and have hundreds of cannons that could shoot down any hostiles from the sky. There were also several large hangers that could house Advanced Pegasi Interceptors. Emperor Nightwing was hoping that the Sky Destroyers would be the backbone of the empire. As soon as he had designed the Sky Destroyer, Nightwing, immediately ordered hundreds of droids to begin construction of the colossal airship, he wanted to have the Sky Destroyer up and running as soon as possible. While construction began on the Sky Destroyer, Nightwing was in his newly created workshop, creating the new comms droids. The comms droids would be in the shape of a ball and would use tiny rocket boosters to keep themselves in the air, while it would use a projector to show the live feed of the pony that was using it. He wanted to create enough so that they could be sent out to all of Equestria, where he would give Celestia's precious little ponies a message of his own. One good thing about using droids was that they didn't need sustenance, which meant that they didn't take up as much resources, however despite this, Nightwing knew that his empire would crumble if it had no creatures that were alive to live in it. He needed more land, however, he didn't want to start any conquests until his Sky Destroyer had been built; this wasn't because of fear that he would be beaten, no, it was because he wanted to send a message that his empire was unstoppable. Looking out from his window towards the Skyport that was being used to build the Sky Destroyer, Nightwing knew that it would be months before it was fully operational. Suddenly an idea had come to him, as far as he was aware, Celestia nor any of the elementals hadn't been seen, not even by their own subjects, the same subjects that they were supposed to be protecting. He then attempted to reach out with the aura to see if he could sense the elementals or Celestia, however, he still could not detect the missing princess and warriors. He knew that there being no indication of the elementals in the aura was a potential indicator that they were dead. Nightwing was no fool and instead, he felt it more probable that they were blocking him from sensing them; he had no idea of how they could be doing this, however, this also meant that as far as the citizens of Equestria were aware, their protectors and princesses had vanished, which made them more vulnerable. With a plan in his mind, Nightwing then sent all of the comms droids to various towns and cities across Equestria, once they were in position, Emperor Nightwing began his message to the ponies of Equestria... > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Celestia was sitting on the roof of a large skyscraper and was overlooking the City of Manehatten. She should’ve known this would’ve happened. “Sister, you seem troubled,” said Princess Luna, joining her older sister and fellow princess onto the roof. "I could've stopped this," Celestia said, angry at herself for her former protege's downfall. Luna sighed, placing a hoof on her sister's shoulder, "No pony could've predicted this, not even you." "No, you don't understand, there were signs, they were staring at me in the face and I foolishly ignored them," Celestia muttered angrily, shaking her sister's hoof off her. "Celestia, you should get some rest." Luna urged. "No, I need to correct my mistakes. I need to take Void Streak down." Celestia said finally before leaving the room, Luna felt helpless at the situation. Her student was not doing much better, he had been Void's best friend. Luna decided to go and check on Defender, who had been training with his magiscaber. Walking towards the training grounds, she watched as her student cut down every single mannequin that was still standing with his blue magiscaber. "Defender!" Luna called out, halting the young pegasus's training "Yes, Princess," Defender acknowledged, walking past his mentor as he put the training equipment back to their original location. "That is enough training, you need to rest," Luna ordered, she couldn't stand watching, her protege train himself to the point of exhaustion. "I can't, I have to be ready to face Vo- Him." Defender said, Luna noted the way Defender stopped himself from saying Void Streak's name. Luna sighed, "Defender, you can't face him, alone." "I HAVE TO! He was my best friend and he betrayed me." Defender shouted angrily as he remembered his fight against his former friend. "Revenge is not the elemental way. Revenge will only make you as bad as Nightwing." Luna told her student. Before Defender could retort, a royal guard ran into the room, "Your majesty, Princess Celestia needs you in the command centre," the guard explained. Luna nodded as she motioned for Defender to follow her. *** The command centre was located at the top of Manehatten's tallest tower, The Celestia State Building. "Why couldn't the command centre have been located on the ground," Defender grumbled to himself as Luna chuckled at his remark, her face soured as she what appeared to be a hologram of Void Streak, now known as Nightwing, Equestria's sworn enemy. The hologram then began to speak, Nightwing's voice rumbled all around them as everypony could only glare at the evil pegasus. "Attention Citizens of Equestria, I am Emperor Nightwing. I am here to tell you that your precious princesses have abandoned you in the face of danger and invasion. Last night, my forces marched through the remains of the grand capital city of Canterlot. While her defenceless subjects were being slaughtered right before her eyes, Princess Celestia fled in fear. She is now hiding like a coward and has left your cities open to attack. Right now the City of Cloudsdale is being destroyed after they refused to join me peacefully. Now you can be like Canterlot and Cloudsdale and have your city, wiped off the map or you can join my new Imperial Empire and have guaranteed security and safety. Join me or die, those are your only options, you have twenty-four hours." "Everypony in Equestria heard that message and we are already receiving reports that Cloudsdale is under attack by those flying ships. We have also lost contact with the cities of Las Pegasus and Vanhoover." A royal Guard captain said as everypony cursed themselves. Blaze then spoke up, "We cannot abandon Cloudsdale lest more cities will join the Imperial Empire." "We may be too late, by the time we are able to muster an army to defend the city, Cloudsdale will already be destroyed," Cerberus said. "That may be the case but as protectors of Equestria, it is our duty to defend all cities even when all hope seems lost," Star Swirl explained. Luna then declared, "I can quickly mobilize a detachment of Night Guards to help hold the Imperials off while we wait for reinforcements." "Do that, we must do everything that we can," Celestia ordered, stressed out by the situation that she was facing. *** Emperor Nightwing smiled as he stared up at the smouldering ruins of Cloudsdale. Unbeknownst to Celestia and the Elementals, he had lain a trap, while the Equestrians thought that he was destroying the city, in actual fact, he was rigging the city with hidden explosives that would detonate when the enemy came close. He had no intention of destroying the city, Cloudsdale was far too important to lay waste to, besides, how could he rule an empire if his empire had no functioning cities. He had ordered his APIs to use strafing runs against the city so that it would give the impression that the city was being destroyed, while several hundreds of Soldier Droids flooded the city with the intention of occupying the city. The civilians had not been evacuated as Nightwing was going to be using them as pony shields and hostages. Below the floating city several cannons, that could fire magic bolts, were lined up and hidden by sheets of camouflage, ready to bombard the city as soon as the Equestrians arrived. Cloudsdale was more of a death trap than a city. Suddenly a Droid Soldier walked up to him, bowing before saying in a robotic voice, "My Emperor, our droid scouts have reported that multiple Equestrian Chariots are flying at speed towards Cloudsdale. Should we move to intercept?" "No, let them enter the city. I do not want to scare them off before they can enter my trap." Nightwing ordered. Nightwing was grinning as he watched the Equestrian army rush into Cloudsdale, his evil grin grew wider as his keen sight recognised Princess Luna and the traitor, leading the Equestrian forces, which he noticed were Night Guards. His mood soured upon realising that they were Night Guards. Night Guards were trained by Luna, herself and were effectively more experienced and tougher than the average Royal Guard. This did not concern Nightwing as he knew that even if they managed to escape the city alive, they would be no match for his APIs, who would destroy them as soon as they made any form of getaway. Still smiling, he ordered, "Let the battle begin, FIRE!"