//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Empire of Shadows // Story: The Empire's Shadow // by ValonQuinn //------------------------------// The cold night breeze stings my cheeks. My gaze drifts upwards to the dark clouds looming over the crystalline city, grey tendrils coiling around the tall spires as if to choke them. If not for the clouds it would have been a beautiful moonlit night. I lower my gaze back to the base of the dark city, quiet and asleep. My thoughts suddenly drift to old memories, back when I first walked these streets and the sight of the buildings seeming so large, my neck weighed down by chains. The Great Crystal War, four years of bloody conflict. The cold darkness of the tyrant of the Crystal Empire, and the warm light of the goddess of Equestria. Many of the Equestrian subjects see the war as a crusade of justice to save those under the King's power and to rid the world of his dark magic forever. They only see half of the picture. After years of enslavement, fighting against the dark magic was futile. Many no longer want to be saved and gave up. Now they serve the King, as I once did. I push away the memory back into my subconscious and look out across the city. From my perch I can almost see the North wall, only a few lights illuminated portions of the large outer wall. Despite myself, I do care about the city and the Crystal Empire, I just don't care for its King. Now, I stand ready to bring about his downfall. The sound of voices draws my attention back to reality. Below, two guards are patrolling the battlements. As they approach I crouch down, peeking over from the roof's shadow. The last thing I need is the guards to notice me. "A storm, what bucking luck." The guard on the left cursed, visibly shivering. "Why can't any of the pegasi do something about it?" The guard on the right gave his comrade an exaggerated eye-roll, rolling his entire head into it. "We've gone over this..." The right guard replies with annoyance clear in his voice. The left guard holds up his hoof before the other can continue. "Yeah, yeah I know. The remaining pegasi troops are reserved for scouting." Left quotes, imitating his colleague, to which Right ignores and stops to gaze past the walls. They both stare in silence, the only sound is the low howl of the wind. "...do you think they are out there?" Left asks Right, shifting on his hooves nervously. Right nods his head. "Definitely. But with all the canons, traps, and archers guarding each entrance, nopony will make it to the gate alive." This statement seems to ease Left and they both continue their patrol, soon trotting out of earshot. With them gone, I stand up, but still keeping close to the roof, looking over the city below, this time without letting nostalgia get the better of me. To the South, a few buildings away, stand three artillery cannons. Each canon was spaced out evenly behind the protection of the Southern wall. Each crystal cannon has two engineers to operate it with no guards protecting them. They didn't expect enemies to get anywhere near the wall through all their defenses. That will be their fatal mistake. Those are one of two of my secondary objectives, the other is the destruction of the Southern gate. Each gate is made of pure quartz sections, reinforced with topaz and a high durability magic enhancement, making a sturdy wall remarkably stronger to deal with, even in siege conditions. However, the enchantment has to be activated first, which it won't be unless they are under attack. Thankfully I've packed a few high yield explosives, they will be enough. I walk to the edge of the tower and look down. From my perch, the closest cannon is embedded within several houses on my right. An Equestrian would look and ask why they would put any defenses near residential areas, but the answer is simple. The Princess of Equestria's armies won't risk innocent lives just to allow a battle to go in her favor, playing off of her morals was what allowed the Empire to spread so far. Not risking innocent lives to take out the cannons would also make any attempt against the walls a bloody failure. Fortunately for them, this is where I come in. I search the area and find a dark shadow I like near the cannon and concentrate my magic into my horn. Black and violet flames swirl around my horn, a cold sensation spreads over my body as the shadows across my form expand. The shadows crawl across my fur until my entire body is engulfed in the icy cold of shadows. If anypony looks up at this moment all they would see is piercing white eyes silhouetted against the dark clouds. Darkness seeps into the corners of my vision until everything is consumed in darkness. Then everything gets colder. It's a chill that reaches deep into your bones as if you slowly freeze from the inside out. The feeling only lasts a moment, sight and heat return as I finish my teleport rising from the shadows behind the cannon and two ponies. The engineers turn around and are startled by my sudden appearance, both are earth ponies, one a mare, and the other a stallion. The mare steps forward, seemingly having more a spine than her stallion counterpart. "You. Identify yourself, what are you doing here?" She demands. I do not reply. My horn briefly emits a black and purple flame and the mare's shadow beneath her ripples like water in response. With a flick of my horn, the mare barely had time to look down before her shadow shoots up wrapping around her completely. The stallion cries out and turns around trying to run away. The flames on my horn flash briefly. "Guards-!" He shouts just as his shadow swallows him too. Both pods stop squirming after a few seconds as the magic sets in. Then the shadows recede from their now limp bodies, slinking back into my own shadow. A sudden rush of emotions and thoughts flash through my mind before they are filed away temporarily. "I heard somepony, over here!" A stallion's gruff voice called out. He didn't sound too far off. If they come and find nopony here, or worse their bodies, it would lead to more trouble. I look at the two unconscious engineers and an idea forms. My magic flares to life causing my shadow to stir, it follows my will climbing up my legs and over my body covering any exposed fur. The shadows then morph and change color until I look exactly like the unconscious stallion on the ground. I look at my grey hoof, that is now brown. The illusion is stable. I levitate the unconscious ponies behind some crates in the shadows out of sight. With a little bit more of magic, I focus it on my voice causing a small circle to appear around my neck then disappears. Finally, I adopt a scared expression. Not a moment later two guards come around the corner with their spears at the ready. Their eyes dart around the area but see nothing out of the ordinary so they return their attention to me. "Is everything alright?" The voice from before asks. I clear my throat, "Thought I saw something, I-I guess it was nothing." I stammer in the stallion's voice. "I'm just jumping at shadows," I say, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. The guards look around again before shrugging and walking back to the way they came. Once the sound of their hoofsteps fade to nothing my expression returns to cold neutrality. I stick my muzzle into my saddlebags, pulling out a tool. Quietly, and cautiously, I begin to tamper with the cannon's firing mechanism. It would be a simple fix, but one that can be made during combat. I walk past a crate but stop when I see a glint of metal inside. Peeking inside I see large round metal spheres, the cannon's ammo. One ball is the size of a pony's head and on each ball are magical runes etched into them. I glance over the rune carvings, discerning their purpose rather easily. These runes are set with a low magic spell to combust when in mid-air and a high magic spell to explode on impact, setting the area alight, either on a pony or the ground, whichever comes first. Though devastating in long-range combat, these munitions are also dangerous to the operators. Runes like this are made very unstable, for obvious reasons. If magic is used on them or they are jostled too much... well there is hardly a need to explain again. These can be useful for later. Content with my work I drop the illusion and walk over to a nearby shadow, a quick teleport through the shadows later and I emerge on the top of a tall building. I gaze up at the night sky again, actually getting a glimpse of the blank moon before the clouds cover it. The moon is high in the sky, I should hurry. I turn my attention back to the sleeping city. One down, two left, and then the gate. Seven hours until sunrise I emerge behind some barrels, peering around them so I can see the South gate. Four guards stand near the gate with two each on both sides, their helmets' glowing green eyes watching the vacant streets. Four guards that I can see, but there are rarely just four guarding the gate in the capital, so I'll wait. More than a minute passes and two guards stroll in from one of the adjoining streets. After they left down the other direction another two come from a different street. With their pattern, even if I manage to slip past the four at the gate the timing would set me up for the ones passing by, neutralizing them is not an option as the bodies would be found or notice them missing. A distraction is needed, something big and loud enough to draw them away. An explosion perhaps? I glance behind me and at the barely visible nozzle tip of one of the artillery cannons only a few blocks away. I merge into the shadows with a smile on my face. A moment later I stand next to the artillery cannon's ammo cache, their runes faintly glowing in the darkness. Two guards are standing watch talking to each other with backs turned to me unaware, one was muscular while the other was skinny. "You're no sword master." the buff guard says pointedly at the scrawny guard. "Sure am," the scrawny one exclaims puffing his chest out. I crouch quietly making my way closer to them. The buff guard rolls his eyes. "Well then, great sword master, got any sage advice?" Buff strains the words as much as possible. Scrawny is silent for a moment, thinking, before speaking. "The way I see it, sword fighting is a little like making love, it's not always what you do, but what you say," Scrawny says grinning to himself, but Buff is also grinning. "Oh? Pity for you then. You're the most inarticulate stallion I have ever met," he says snickering as Scrawny stands slack-jawed. "Hey! That ain't...that ain't...nice." Scrawny stammers while Buff starts to a full out laugh. Throughout their conversation, I quietly made my way over to them keeping to the protection of the shadows. Once close enough I focus my magic, forming the dark spell Fear. A small shadowy mist flows from my horn over to the guards where the mist silently moves to the Scrawny one's ear and enters. He flinches and starts itching it furiously. "What's the matter?" Buff asks. "My ear itches really badly!" Scrawny cries out trying to relieve himself of the itch. Buff looks at him in amusement, "Why don't you try taking a bath more often then?" Scrawny stops itching his ear and glares at his comrade. "Shut up, you're not my mother I can take a bath when I want-" suddenly his eyes go wide staring at the ground, a new emotion forcefully growing within. His voice lowers to a whimper, "...spiders..." Buff leans closer, "What? Speak up, what did you-" "SPIDERS!" Scrawny yells as fear overwhelmed his mind, showing him his worst fear. He quickly jumps back, accidentally knocking into the light post behind him with such force that it topples over. The magicked light crystal flies out of its perch landing perfectly into an ammo crate. All are silent. The runes react to the light crystal, slowly getting brighter. Buff turns around to Scrawny, who was still busy stomping at the ground, trying to kill the invisible arachnids. "We gotta move, now!" Buff yells before biting down on Scrawny's tail and drags him away as fast as he can. I watch them flee at a surprising speed. This was not what I had planned, but good enough. The light from the magic runes changes from an archaic light blue to a blinding white glowing brighter by the second. That is my cue to leave post-haste. I teleport back over to the barrels near the South gate and wait. I didn't have to wait long. An ear deafening BOOM shook the surrounding houses, echoing through the streets. The night sky is bathed in a blinding white light as three crates worth of archaic ammo explodes simultaneously. After the light fades the guards in the surrounding area immediately go to investigate, including two guards by the gate. Two stayed behind but they were paying more attention towards the explosion than the gate. I push magic into my cloak and dart across when they weren't looking. The enchantment in my cloak responds to the magic causing my cloak to bend the light around me, it's not the best invisibility spell but it's quick and does the job. I slip past the two guards and quickly place the explosives. Once finished I check over my shoulder, the guards are muttering to themselves about the explosion. I turn back around to focus my magic, I can't just leave these here exposed. I close my eyes for extra concentration casting several illusion spells. Green runes appear briefly before vanishing. Done, they should be well enough hidden unless a unicorn is specifically looking for them. The guards are still distracted so I go back into the shadows teleporting to a high perch for a better view. From here I can see many numbers of lights on and Crystal Legion soldiers actively patrolling the streets. I can feel the fear and some anger mixed in among it all, the sudden explosion, accident or not, has caused a stir. Best to lay low for now. Five hours until sunrise I navigate my way through the dark streets with ease, using the shadows to my advantage. Soon the South wall looms over me, a moment later I teleport to the top of the wall and then back down onto the other side, the only obstacle now is the magic barrier. I reach into my cloak and withdraw a small hoof sized stone, holding it in front of me I slowly walk towards the barrier. The closer I get the runes on the stone starts to glow, a few steps more and a hole forms just large enough to fit a pony through. A sudden gust of freezing wind whips through the hole. I pull my cloak closer to my body and take the chance to quickly jump through the gap. Once through I pocket the stone and the barrier seals up with none the wiser. The wind howls and the falling snow flies with such velocity that if felt like small pebbles are being thrown at my face. Just an average night in the Frozen North. Through the falling snow and wind, I can barely see my destination, a small silhouette of a cliff face in the distance. I'm going to be late for the meeting place, but only a little. I check my surroundings and pull out a compass following it South. Several frostbitten minutes pass before I finally see the small outcropping, at the base, is a dark cave going down into the frozen earth. I stop at the entrance staring into the darkness. No hoofprints can be seen, but in this weather, it's not surprising if they got covered up. I silently walk deeper into the bowels of the cave. The darkness soon gives way to dim light at the far end. A single magic gem sat on a small stand providing the heat and just enough light to see the cavern. Within to the left is a bedroll with a couple of heavy blankets, they are unused, and a few unlabeled crates line the far wall. Leaning against one of the crates is her. The pegasus mare is wearing the new black and blue Wonderbolt armor, light, but gives good protection and coverage. Her helmet makes it difficult to actually identify the pegasus, but her prosthetic wing gave away that it was indeed her. "Sorry if I'm late-" the moment I step into the light the mare whirls around and lunges at me, a glint of light is the only warning I get before her metal wing came at my throat. I dodge back as the sharp metallic feathers slashed air where my neck used to be. She uses the momentum of her slash and a beat of her wings to quickly whip her hind legs around for a powerful kick to the head. I barely manage to block by summoning a shadow tendril catching her leg an inch from my head. "-Commander Chroma." I finish. The Commander huffs in annoyance yanking her hind leg free and turning to face me fully. She is a little bit taller than I am when standing, which she always uses to its fullest to look down at me. "If you sneak up on me again next time I won't miss." She growls. "I'll keep that in mind." My face may be calm, but my heart was another matter. I never had to fight the Commander and hope I never have too. Few can match her speed in a fair fight. "I assume you're on edge because of the explosion?" I ask. Chroma huffs again and leans back against the crates. "Yeah, I could be. Were you the cause of that?" She lifts her visor to reveal her magenta eyes glaring at me. "Straight to the point. Yes, I was. I needed a distraction, and it ended up being a bit flashier than I intended. But it accomplished its purpose." "A bit? I'm sure the whole city woke to that explosion! Now they are going to be more alert than ever! Pretty loud for an assassin." She spat the last word like it tasted foul. I stare at her stoically. "Despite my argument to this meeting being this close to the barrier and patrols, you flew within the Empire's detection ring to this safe house, sitting not even a mile from an enemy's Capital, alone, risking capture of Equestria's best flyer and most experienced on-field commanding officer." My eyes narrow slightly. "Pretty reckless for the Commander of the Air Cavalry." We glare at each other, the tension building between us until finally, Chroma growls and backs down. "We don't have time to insult each other. Did you complete your missions?" She asks. I walk over to the magic gem basking in the small warmth it provides. "The cannons have been sabotaged and explosives set on the Southern gate, your soldiers should have a cleared path through the walls." The Commander snorts a short laugh as she pulls out a field ration. "Well that's all fine and dandy, but it won't mean anything if that blasted shield isn't down." She bites into the bland ration without hesitation, chewing aggressively. "I will handle the shield," I state as I take a step back from the light gem. "I don't think I have to tell you, but start the attack as soon as the shield drops, it won't be up for much longer." Chroma's scowl remains on her face as she continues chewing, her hooves crossed across her chest. A moment of silence follows. I can feel the disgust and hate radiating off of her. "You still don't trust me." My statement brought a chuckle out of the mare. "Trust you? The King's Shadow?" She chuckles some more but they held no mirth. It stops and suddenly her piercing magenta eyes were boring into me. "King Sombra's personal assassin. The same pony who has bypassed our defenses countless times, assassinated many of our nobility and Generals to cripple our kingdom and instill chaos?" With a push, she's off the crate and approaching me slowly. "How many lives have you killed for your King?" We're standing face-to-face now, her eyes staring into mine with a burning fire of hatred. I won't look away, I know the answer to that and so does she. "You have good reason to distrust me, I do not expect you to ever trust me. But you can trust my motivation. Believe me when I say this..." I let my mask slip just enough to reveal my own flame of anger. "King Sombra will die this day, and there will be vengeance for the pain he has caused me." Chroma stares at me frowning and processing the first emotion I had ever let her see, anger. I pull in my anger and the stoic mask returns to its place once more as I pull the hood of my cloak over my head. "You should leave, the next pegasus patrol will be passing nearby soon. If you leave now you might be able to fly fast enough to avoid them." I turn and start walking towards the cave entrance with the Commander following behind. She nods in agreement pulling her visor back down over her eyes. Soon we both arrive at the entrance, the first blizzards of the Frozen North are starting up. The snowfall in comparison is dozens of small sharp shards of ice cutting across your fur in a few seconds. Chroma stretches her wings, ready for flight. "Isn't there some quote about seeking revenge and digging two graves?" She asks. A moment passes through us staring at the snow and wind. "Then Equestria has nothing to worry about after today." I look at Chroma over my shoulder. "Report to your Princess that I have succeeded in my first two missions and will succeed on the third." The mare nods her head, she's still glaring at me. "I'll give you one hour before the Princess raises the sun and the Legion get an early wake-up call, get it done." "It will be done, even if it kills me." I turn away into the wind, but before I got too far I hear a shout from her. I turn around to see what she could still want. "Hey! I will be the one to bring you to justice, remember that assassin." She says with a sense of finality. I can't help but chuckle, "Justice comes for us all eventually." and with that, she launches into the air into the night sky. By the time I look up, she is already gone. Now that Commander Chroma left I should see just how much damage my distraction had actually done. Returning to the barrier and repeating the process to get through, once in I teleport through the city until I'm back at the scene of the explosion. As expected the small hut housing the extra munition is a burning crater. Not too far from the burning crater stood the two Legion guards from before facing three other armored ponies. The new arrivals wore a different armor configuration, two are slim and fancy with the usual colors of black with red accents. They wore hoods with masks instead of a helmet, the mask had no features, just a smooth black mask with the Crystal Empire emblem engraved on the forehead just below their horns. I recognize them immediately, the Shadow Guard. Rarely seen outside of the Crystal Castle, and for good reason. The Shadow guard is King Sombra's personal guard, viciously trained, hand-picked, and brainwashed to give their lives to protect their King. One of the three steps forward positioning himself in front of the guards, the superior of the three. Unlike the other his armor is bulkier and more of a darker purple than black, but still with red accents. He wore no hood but a helmet with a red plume. The General of the Legion. He glares at the guards watching them squirm under his gaze. "What happened here?" Scrawny is paralyzed, unable to speak. Buff speaks in his stead. "I'm not sure sir, we were talking and suddenly Private Gem Duster was spooked and knocked over the light post into the archaic shells, sir." The General brings his full gaze down on the Private, I can see the skinny stallion's knees knocking together from here. "Spooked...by what?" the only response the General gets is a whimper, he squints at the Private before looking away in disgust instead addressing the buff stallion. "Private Strong Hoof, what was Private Gem Duster spooked by?" At the General's question, Strong Hoof's expression wavered. "He...he was spooked by spiders, sir." "...spiders?" Strong Hoof nods his head. The General slowly turns and approaches Gem Duster, he got an inch from the young stallion's muzzle looking down at him. "Spiders, Private?" Gem Duster nods his head. The General glances back at Strong Hoof. "Did you see these spiders?" "No, sir." The General backs away from Gem Duster, the eye sockets in his helmet glowing green. "This incident cost us one of our major ammo caches, how convenient when the Equestrian Army is at our doorstep." Gem Duster's head snaps to stare at the General with a look of absolute horror. "Wait! Sir, it was an accident! I'm not a traitor, I-" The General's horn glows a sickly violet and then there's a loud snap. The Private falls to the ground screaming in pain with his back foreleg pointing the opposite direction it should be. "Who gave you permission to speak?" He asks then turns to one of the Shadow guards accompanying him. "Take these two to the dungeons, have them tortured for information. They could be Equestrian saboteurs." The hooded guard on the left bows slightly before walking towards the two Privates. A flash of magic and all three teleported away. The General looks to the second hooded guard, who is patiently waiting. "Can you find anything amiss?" The Shadow guard's horn glows brightly bathing the entire scene in its light. A moment later and the glow stops and the guard curtly shakes their head. "Unable to distinguish, the surrounding area is saturated in ambient magic from the explosion. If there was a third party involved we will not know until it dissipates." The General growls as his glowing horn lift off his helmet revealing his white coat and blue mane, his eyes glowing from the dark magic corruption. Those eyes scan the crater trying to find anything amiss by sight alone. "By the time that happens any potential evidence will go as well." They go silent, probably contemplating. "How should we proceed, General Armor?" After a moment he turns away not finding anything. "Send a message to the armory to wake up the unicorn slaves and begin recasting more archaic shells immediately. Resupply this cannon and place guards at each artillery cannon for more spooks, Equestria's measly force is nearly upon us and I need to concentrate on our defense. The rest of the Legion won't arrive for another four days, but we shouldn't need them." General Shining Armor levitates his helmet back over his head and walks away. The Shadow guard bows and teleports away to carry out his order. Once they disappear I let out a breath I didn't realize I'm holding in. I didn't think the Shadow guard would be involved. I will never agree openly, but Chroma is right, my distraction was more than I needed. I'm lucky and should be more cautious, they're going to be on alert for any attempt of sabotage now. Thankfully there is only one thing left, the shield and the unicorn caster himself. Once it's down the Equestrian's should have a clear shot into the city. Commander Chroma should already be with the rest of the army to begin the assault. Of all the targets I have hunted in the past, General Armor is one of the most dangerous. This is not some soft noble or clueless civilian. General Armor is a powerful unicorn and a skilled warrior. Numerous times I had to duck into the shadows when he stopped suddenly to look around. His instincts are good, but my skill in stealth is better. He took me down patrolled streets and zig-zagging all through the city with no possible chance to take him out quickly or quietly. As we near the castle the once dark sky suddenly turns orange, then yellow as the sun quickly climbs the horizon. I curse under my breath as the shadows quickly disappear around me, I'm out of time. The sudden loss of cover didn't go unnoticed. General Armor was looking around in alarm as soon as the sun made its early ascent and very easily spotted me without my cover of darkness. I act quickly teleporting to his shadow striking his legs out from beneath him. He recovers like a veteran rolling into a fighting stance, his horn glowing with magic. A bolt of magic flies at me but I dodge it shooting out tendrils from my shadow to quickly immobilize him. Before they come into contact a magic shield pops up stopping their advance. He smirks and the shield suddenly expands outward crushing the tendrils and continues towards me with the same intent. I shift into my shadow form using its mobility to fly up and away out of reach. His shield shrinks back to its original size allowing me to materialize several feet away, after my display the General seems uneasy. Following his line of sight, I realize he's staring at my horn, and the flames of dark magic enveloping it. I take advantage of his momentary lack of focus creating several black knives shooting them at his shield, but they bounce off harmlessly. He fires another bolt of magic through his shield at me, but I dodge around it countering with my own bolt. It was shaped to a sharp point for the very purpose of piercing shields. That shattered across his shield without so much as a scratch. My brows furrow in annoyance, with that shield up I'm at a disadvantage. The General charges his horn and several walls of magic form in front of him. The first wall shoots forward with incredible speed. I narrowly dodge to the side and hear a loud cracking following a thud. Quickly glancing behind me I see the magic wall embedded into the building behind me leaving a sizeable dent. I didn't want to get hit by that. The second wall shoots forward just as sudden as the first, then the third, fourth, and fifth. He's not allowing me to counter forcing me to dodge instead, if this keeps going he's going to get a lucky shot. Time for a change of plan, at the last second I jump into the shadow of a nearby building, merging with it, as his magic hits making it seem like I was crushed. I take moment to breathe, as much as a shadow can breathe anyway. There is no way I can take him on directly, not like this. He excels in a frontal confrontation like this, I'll have to play smart. General Armor stares expectantly at the spot where the assassin should be crushed against the wall, but when the magic dissipates there is no sign of him. Acting quickly he erects another barrier around the block, he will not let this assassin escape. However, the effort put a major strain on him. He's already keeping up a city-wide shield, one he can feel being attacked at this very moment. Curse those Sun Goddess loving Equestrians. On top of that, he has a shield around himself and the block, but he can't afford to let this assassin escape. Whoever this pony is they are proficient in dark magic, on a higher level than the Shadow guard. His magic is somehow centered around his shadows allowing him to control them. The King doesn't have any current experiments this powerful, could the assassin be something new from Equestria? General Armor shook his head. No, he knows the Princess, she wouldn't let one of her precious subjects be potentially corrupted even for an advantage. This left him back to square one. His aggravation starts to get the better of him. "Show yourself, coward! Nopony can escape my barriers, I know you're still here," He shouts. A minute goes by, his anger growing by the second. He was about to shout again when a sudden ripple in the shadows caught his attention. From the shadow of the building in front of him the hooded assassin steps into the light. This was the first time he got a good look at them. He, or she, is wearing a hooded black cloak with a royal purple trimming. He couldn't see their face as the hood shrouded it in darkness, all he could see is their glowing green eyes and grey muzzle. Their horn stuck through the top of the hood where a hole is designed for it. "Lower the shields and surrender then you may live after this," the assassin commands. The General chuckles, "I don't think you understand the situation." His horn lights up and a row of several tall magic tower shields suddenly appear around the assassin himself. The assassin looks around in surprise as his escape is blocked off. General Armor flexes his magic and the spiked tower shields converge. The assassin cursed diving back into his shadow before the shields smashed together. He suddenly felt a presence behind him and turns around just in time to see the assassin's blade come down at his neck, -before it bounced harmlessly off his personal shield. From this distance, he could see the assassin's eyes widen in further surprise. Armor grins, Got you. Before the assassin could do anything more the shield around himself shoots out and wraps around the unprepared would-be killer. He chuckles darkly as he drops his other shields reinforcing the shield around his captive. "Now do you see? Your attack failed. You were out-matched the moment you threw the first punch." Instead of cursing out at him, or pleading for his life, the assassin calmly sits in the shield. "No General..." the assassin answers in an unnerving neutral tone. "The question is not what I see, but rather, how much do you believe in what you see?" General Armor stares shocked as the assassin starts to blacken and dissolve into black mist. He quickly tries to bring up a shield around himself but a black smoke hits him from behind enveloping him into total darkness. I dismissed my illusion and watched as the General's body crumbles to the ground from my spell. I sigh heavily. You were a skilled and troublesome enemy, General Shining Armor. I truly wonder how the Equestrians would have fared if you had not been turned against them. A stray ray of sunlight reflects off a piece of Armor's armor and into my eyes, I groan and look skyward. The citywide shield around the Crystal Capital dissipates, allowing the first unfiltered rays of sunshine to grace the city in the past few days. The ground trembles under my hooves as a large explosion echoes off the buildings originating from the South. The echoes fade and the entire city falls into silence before the storm. Then in the distance, I faintly hear the roar of war cries and the following sounds of battle. I reach into my cloak approaching the unconscious body of the General of the Legion and place a crystal with a single rune onto him. Taking a step back, I watch a spell diagram appear on the ground beneath his body before it and the General disappear in a single-use flash teleport. "Now the Equestrians have their prisoner and their opening." I look South at the rising smoke cloud and the growing noise of battle before turning North. Further into the city stood the Crystal Citadel, the central building of the Empire, and the location of King Sombra. I adjust my hood and glare at the black twisted growths of crystal all over it. "So it begins." I step to the side into the shadow of the building and vanish into the darkness.