My Little Pony:

Friendship & Courage

Chapter: 5 "The Siege of Canterlot Part 1"

"OUCH!" yelled Soul, wincing in pain as the hospital nurse pulled the final stitch from his side. It had been a week since his confrontation with Ignitos the Dark at Sweet Apple Acres and Soul's injuries from that day had finally healed, albeit with a little outside help.

"You've been in this place so much in the past few days they may as well name it after you" Rainbow Dash scoffed with a smirk from her perch on the windowsill, having accompanied Soul to the hospital with the intention of friendly support, but more so for her own personal satisfaction in seeing him squirm. "Stop being a big baby and toughen up".

"Hey you can't even preen your own wings without complaining so I wouldn't start if I where you" Soul replied with a smirk of his own, Dash frowned angrily but there was a noticeable blush of embarrassment on her face as she flapped her wings, flipped off the window sill and landed on her hooves next to him.

"Yeah yeah whatever" she countered "Can we just go now? This is boring and you promised to help me with my new trick!" Soul looked to the nurse who was helping him who smiled and nodded in response to Dash's question and before long the two friends where leaving the hospital in high spirits.

"Thanks for coming along" Soul said with a smile, looking up at Dash who was flying along above him as he walked.

"Just don't make a habit out of it, I'm not gunna hold your hoof every time you get a booboo" she replied, Soul laughed lightly in response as the two made their way to the fields outside of Ponyville for some serious flight practise.

Meanwhile in the Canterlot royal palace, Princess Celestia was busying herself with her usual morning duties of reading letters and signing partitions, humming a tune to herself as she worked, her attention however was drawn away from her work at the sound of the throne room doors opening and she soon saw Luna walking up to her surrounded by quite a large number of Canterlot guards, ever since Ignitos's attack, Luna had made it her personal mission to strengthen Canterlot's defences and that included the palace and the Princesses safety as well.

"How goes the morning grind sister?" Luna asked, stopping at the bottom of the throne steps, her surrounding guard force quickly moved off and lined the walls of the room, all standing to attention.

"Everything is fine Luna" Celestia assured her with a small smile. "You really don't need to take this so seriously" Luna frowned at this.

"We are at risk of attack!" she replied loudly "We must take every precaution to make sure the kingdom is protected at all costs!" Celestia couldn't help to agree with her sister, though Ignitos hadn't been seen since the attack in Ponyville, she still remained a lingering threat.

"You are correct" she finally replied as she got to her feet and strode down to her sisters side. "But I am confident that Ignitos would not dare make a direct attack on us here, such an action would be foolish and riddled with risk, even for a powerful unicorn such as herself" Luna nodded at her sisters words however her frown of concern remained on her face.

Just outside the main throne room, a single guard was standing beside the door listening in on the Princesses conversation; however this was no ordinary Canterlot guard and as the Princesses spoke the guard smirked with an evil sneer and their eyes shone a dark orange.

"Those fools are as clueless as they are arrogant" he said before walking thru a door down a side hall of the palace, as the guard walked his body began to glow and slowly began to change, until nothing of the guard remained, leaving only Ignitos herself, having used her powerful magic to change her form and appearance, she chuckled to herself as he made her way thru the twists and turns of the palace's hallways, doing down deeper and deeper into the bowls of the dungeons. "A week of hiding in plain sight and listening at every keyhole has finally yielded a result" she cackled to herself as she pushed open the final door to her destination, standing ahead of her was a towering iron door, it was made of thick cold steel with Equestrian engravings marked over it with two hoof print panels moulded into the metal, Ignitos smirked as she walked up to them. "Such primitive magical security for something so precious" she uttered as her eyes shone with her orange magic which soon covered her entire body, she then began to change her form again, her figure and features altering themselves until finally she looked exactly like Princess Celestia herself, with another sneer she stepped up to the door and placed a hoof on the left panel, nothing happened for a moment, but then the large door shone with a bright white colour and the loud clunk of a lock turning filled the room, Ignitos laughed as she used her magic to change again, this time taking the form of Princess Luna and repeated her actions with the right side panel, the door shone again, this time with a dark blue colour followed by another lock turning and with a loud groan the doors slowly swung open, revealing a large, dark and circular room.

Ignitos soon returned to her normal appearance as she slowly stepped into the room, there were many strange and magical items lining the walls and hanging from the ceiling, however Ignitos was only interested in one thing: standing in the very centre of the room was a lone stone pedestal, on top of it was a glass dome and inside it hovered a small, hard covered and old book, it was glowing with a dull yet ominous red glow that seems to lick and flare like fire around it. "This is it" Ignitos whispered almost in awe as she stepped up to the pedestal, her horn began to glow with magic and the glass dome shattered in front of her, the book then slowly drifted towards Ignitos until it hung in the air directly in front of her. "The Book of Dragon Magic" she said with an evil sneer "it's mine….ITS MINE!" with a loud and dark laugh, Ignitos's horn shone brightly and the Book of Dragon Magic suddenly flipped open, instantly the room was filled with a spiralling red magical tornado that shook the entire palace, up in the throne room, Celestia, Luna and the group of guards all tensed in shock as they felt the massive tremor.

"What in Equestria is that?!" Luna shouted in alarm, Celestia barred her teeth and frowned as she looked to the floor, sensing the massive magical output that was occurring beneath their hooves.

"The Magic Vault…no…no it can't be!" she cried, with a swing of her head, Celestia's horn shone brightly, casting a spell which quickly teleported her, Luna and the group of guards down into the vault, once there, the group saw the room had been literally blown apart by the force of the magic that had been released, Celestia and Luna both where horrified by what they saw. Standing in the centre of the now devastated vault was Ignitos, she was glowing with a mixture of red and orange light, the Book of Dragon Magic lay open at her feet, all of its magic spent, Ignitos herself had changed in response to absorbing its power, her mane had grown wild and long, swaying in response to her magical aura, her eyes had become black with orange pupils, and most disturbingly of all, a third eye had appeared on her forehead, its pupil slit like a snake and glowed with a dark red colour, as soon as she saw the Princesses and the guards she sneered and laughed victoriously, her laughter echoed on the cold stone and the sound of a dragons roar mixed with her own evil tone.

"Ignitos!" Yelled Celestia loudly "What in Equestria have you done!?" Ignitos sneered victoriously at Celestia and slowly took a step towards them, the stone floor cracking under her hoof.

"What have I done?" she repeated, her dark cackle still echoing around the room, the group of guards bravely formed a barrier in front of the princesses with their lances aimed at Ignitos, but they were visibly shaking in fear from what they saw in front of them "I'll tell you what I've done" Ignitos continued as her aura flared around her into a raging fire "I'VE COME TO CLAIM WHAT IS MINE!" with a final shrill laugh, Ignitos's powerful new magic exploded around her, sending the entire room up in red light, outside the palace, the civilians of Canterlot watched in shock and horror as the Palace itself began to shake and crumble as a result of the powerful magical energies, dark shadows began to creep out from the structure and began covering large portions of the city, causing pony's to run in fear and confusion, before long the entire town was in utter chaos, roads and buildings were destroyed or burning, dark clouds had gather in the sky with ominous rumbles of thunder and lightning, the palace also seemed to be changing into a more dark and sinister version of itself, now with massive thorns stabbing out of the walls and dark red magic shining from every window and opening.

Inside the palace throne room, Celestia skidded backwards on her hooves, stopping herself from hitting the wall, she was heavily injured from magical attacks and was panting hard from exhaustion, despite the use of her own powerful magic the fight with Ignitos was going badly, what little that remained of the Canterlot guard force has been utterly decimated, and Luna was fairing no better than her sister was, Ignitos herself was floating in the air in the centre of the room, smirking down at the two princesses as her dark orange and red magic flowed around her.

"Your finished princesses!" she called loudly with a dark laugh "best to give up now and save yourselves the embarrassment!" Luna glared at Ignitos at her mocking words and her horn shone with a dark blue light.

"I SHALL END YOU! YOU OBNOXIOUS INSECT!" she cried before rearing back on her back legs and charging at Ignitos with a killer intent.

"LUNA NO!" Celestia called out with urgency after her sister, however her warning fell on deaf ears as Luna jumped up at Ignitos and fired a powerful beam of moonlight magic at her, Ignitos simply deflected the attack with a swing of her leg before throwing out another and grabbing Luna around the neck with a coil of dark magic, Luna gaged slightly and feebly grabbed at the coil with her hooves but to no avail.

"Every sun and moon must set!" Ignitos mockingly cackled at her with an insane looking smile, Luna glared at her, not showing any fear in her expression; Celestia stood helplessly watching with a worried and shocked look on her face.

"WE WILL DESTROY YOU!" Luna countered back defiantly; Ignitos frowned slightly and roughly swung Luna around before tossing her to the ground in front of Celestia, who quickly ran to her sister's side to help her up.

"Talk, that's all you ever do!" Ignitos replied, now towering over them, her magic roaring like massive licks of flame around the room. "I think it's high time I shut you up!"

"Do your worst you pathetic excuse for a unicorn!" Luna barred her teeth and her eyes shone a pure white as she charged recklessly at Ignitos again; however this time Ignitos fired her own powerful blast of magic that hit Luna dead on and caused a massive and a blinding flash of light which forced Celestia to cover her eyes with a hoof.

"LUNA!" she cried out in fear and as soon as the light faded she frantically looked around for her sister, she soon found her, Luna was standing a few feet away from Celestia in the same position as when the magic had hit her, at first Celestia sighed in relief to see her sister ok, but her expression soon turned to horror as she realised what had happened: Luna had been turned to stone.

"What a lovely paper weight!" Ignitos said as she lowered herself to the ground, Celestia glared at her in anger but stepped back slightly away from Ignitos and back towards het throne.

"You won't get away with this" she uttered in an almost calm manner.

"Oh no Princess I think I will definitely get away with this" Ignitos replied smirking evilly again, matching every one of Celestia's steps back with a step forward, soon the two were staring each other down in front of the Equestrian throne. "And you and the rest of this pathetic kingdom will finally pay for what you did to me!" Ignitos continued, stomping a hoof as she spoke which cracked the floor and shook the room slightly, Celestia recoiled a little at this but continued to meet Ignitos's gaze with a frown, secretly using a spell to hastily write a letter behind her back.

"Your magic was taken away from you because you used it to bring harm to others!" Celestia argued back "It was not a selfish decision!" Ignitos suddenly grew angry at these words and swung a leg out which caused a spell to hit Celestia in the chest and knocked her down the throne steps and onto the floor at the bottom with a hard crash.

"THAT IS NOT WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT CELESTIA!" Ignitos roared with fury, her dragon magic flared just as angrily around her as she spoke, Celestia winced as she sat up a little, still focusing all her efforts on writing the letter and making sure Ignitos didn't spot it. "What you did I shall never forgive!" Ignitos continued, slowly walking down to Celestia who shakily got to her feet, now realising what Ignitos was talking about and frowned back at her.

"If revenge is what you seek then so be it Ignitos" she calmly replied, the letter she was writing now finished "But I can't and won't allow you to take your rage out on my Kingdom and its people!" with a flick of her horn, Celestia quickly sent the letter flying past Ignitos's head towards herself, and with another flash of magic she teleported it away in an instant, Ignitos glared and the sound of a dragons roar filled the room, making Celestia step back near Luna.

"YOU WILL MAKE A GREAT GARDEN ORNAMENT!" Ignitos sneered as she charged magic into the tip of her horn, Celestia continued to stare her down, not giving Ignitos the satisfaction of seeing her accept her fate.

"So be it..." was all Celestia uttered as Ignitos fired the massive torrent of magic towards her, Celestia calmly closed her eyes as the attack hit her and covered the room in blinding light, when it faded, Celestia, like her sister as he been turned to stone where she stood, Ignitos laughed victoriously and fired a number of magical bolts at the ceiling, causing it to crack and break as she walked to one of the windows, looking out at Canterlot.

"I'm waiting for you Aura" she smirked with a low cackle "I'm waiting for you and your little friends…COME AND GET ME IF YOU DARE!" with a final insane laugh, Ignitos fired a large orange beam of magic into the sky, laughing at the top of her voice in victory, her laugh mixed with a dragons roar that deafened the ears of all those who remained in Canterlot.