> New Lunar Republic: The Siege of Moongleam > by Crulocrius of Honeycomb > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starlight Weaver stood at the entrance to the Blossomforth Mine. They had found it, they had found the heart of the greatest nightmare ever known to ponykind! Greater than fear, greater than doubt. Greater than despair,anger,violence,hatred or pride! It was greater than all of these nightmares combined for it was the source of them! It was known as Sha and once he got his hooves on it's heart... Oh the things he would do with it! The batpony was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the massive chest being hauled from the mine until it was right in front of him. He took time to grin before giving his orders " Bring it to the pools!" As the casket was dragged to the center of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, dozens of batponies gathered around, they wore Rust Brown armor rather than the traditional Midnight Blue. They roared and cheered as the chain bridge was laid down around the lake which the entrance to the pools was surrounded by and as Starlight walked across. However, he was interrupted. A lion jumped down from the massive temple looming over them and into his path. Starlight readied his axe, passed down to him by his father. " Enough!" The lion shouted "You have run rampant for too long, Weaver, but that ends now." Starlight laughed " Step aside, lion. You confront a force beyond reckoning." " Your father dabbled in powers beyond reckoning. Where is he now?" " That's it! I am sick of you!" Starlight charged, axe in hoof, and met the lion on the bridge. They battled in a spectacle of force versus agility. But no matter what the lion did, he was pushed back. But in one last struggle, he finally disarmed the batpony. Starlight then starting using his hooves and punched the lion off the bridge. But when he looked down, the lion was balancing on the water. He pounced back up, clawing Starlight in the process. " I have fought alongside the buffalo and the zebras and others!" The lion yelled as he prepared to dive-kick the batpony, who had recovered his axe " You are nothing like them!" He attacked and missed, getting is foot stuck in the bridge. Starlight picked up a chain from broken edge of the bridge and threw it in such a way it wrapped around the neck of the lion. " They are no longer part of my republic!" He pulled the chain towards him sending the lion flying into the blade of his axe, impaling him. The lion coughed " Equestria will hear of this." The lion wheezed out " They will come for you." " Yes, I'm counting on it. The armies of Equestria will come for me. And within my fortress they will face all the terrible creatures I have wrought, the boundless power I have mastered! And one by one, they will fall at my hooves. Anypony who would rise against my Ultimate Lunar Republic, will be impaled upon the spires of Moongleam!" The lion fell to the ground with only a few breaths left in him. " You lions try to bury your hate and your anger. But such power cannot be contained. It must be unleashed!" He cut the chains of the casket open in one fell swoop, revealing the black, fleshy heart. " A time will come" the lion spoke as if only wounded "When you will answer for your crimes." " I answer... to none!" He pushed the heart into the hole in the middle of the platform, and once he did so, a massive blast of black and white erupted from it and for many miles further, wiping out all life. And as he walked away, he uttered his final words to the lion " All who challenge me... will burn in the fires of my hatred!" ONE HOUR LATER Starlight stood admiring his work. Sure it wasn't all that pleasant to look at, but he had done it. He would come back for the heart in just a few moments. Then he could begin the creation of his Ultimate Lunar Republic. He could hardly wait. " Oh Princess Luna." He spoke with both anger and pleasure " Your first mistake was putting me in power. Your second will be arriving home so late." > A Changing World > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arcane Lore wandered the streets of Moongleam. The streets were swarming with these oddly-armored batponies who call themselves Kro'Kron. Everything seemed so different from when Luna was in command. He hoped she would come back soon. It was like Moongleam had turned into one huge military fortress. The zebras, buffalo, changeling forsaken, sunwell unicorns,strangely intellegant dogs, and even the lions were all being closely monitored. This was troubling for him as he was a sunwell unicorn. Although he had been pretty lucky in this regard. Like a lot of sunwell unicorns, Arcane was an adept mage. He had trained for a long time and gotten better and better, taking on more and more powerful creatures. He had spent much time on Lionus and had even been a part of slaying the Mantid Empress when the nightmare of fear had taken hold of her, but that's another story for another time. Things had always been a mess since Starlight Weaver took over, but never like this. Arcane whistled, and his faithful drake came to him.He mounted, and they flew off to their destination. It wasn't that long of a walk, but he flew there if only for convenience. The Valley of Strength was busy with trade as always. His destination was in the Valley of Honor. A place with a few lions. One of them was casting a portal to Lionus. He wanted to travel there, to see the Vale of Eternal Blossoms just one more time. He went through the portal into the peaceful little lion village at the end of it and took flight for The Vale. He had no warning of what awaited him. MEANWHILE As Princess Luna sailed for home, she wondered how Starlight has been managing the Republic. He was fairly young. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to put somepony so headstrong and brutish in charge. As she wondered, she thought she saw a batpony in the distance, flying towards her ship. It got closer and closer until it could be heard. " Princess Luna! Princess Luna!" The batpony landed on the deck. " What have you come so far to tell me?" " The heart of Sha has been awakened." " Oh no, this is a serious problem. Thank you for reporting it to me. She wondered, who could want to unleash the most powerful nightmare force. " There's more Princess. It seems that Starlight Weaver may be the culprit Him and his Kro'Kron were all seen in The Vale of Eternal blossoms before the heart was unleashed. He was seen dumping a casket into the pools. Zecora advises you do not dock in Moonbeam." Luna gave the batpony a glance " I'll make sure of it" And with that, the messenger flew away. > Meanwhile > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the city of Ironfeather, Princess Celestia sought aid from her griffon allies. She believed there was an encampment of ice zebras that could threaten the city. So he asked the aid of the Council of Three Talons. " We cannot help you!" Said the bronzebeaks " for if we do, the darkwings will defeat the wildtalons and take over Ironfeather!" " And we cannot help you!" Said the wildtalons " for if we do, the darkwings will defeat the bronzebeaks and take over Ironfeather!" Princess Celestia became worried. But thankfully, the leader of the darkwings stepped up. " We will help you, and show our honor." Not long after, Celestia had assembled her champions to aid the darkwings. A snowstorm was brewing in just the right place to block them off. " Not normal, I presume?" Princess Celestia asked. " No" the darkwing leader replied " Those blasted ice zebras must be behind it." "I will send my champions to dispose of whatever is causing this." " Tell them to rescue my missing scouts while they're at it. Maybe they know something about what's going on." The heroes set out into the storm. Near the entrance to the camp, they found one of the scouts cornered by the zebras and with the storm preventing it from flying away. The heroes quickly disposed of the zebras and asked the scout what happened to her companions. " They took Finefeather in that direction! He knows more than me." They moved forward, slaying any ice zebras they could find. Once they found another captured scout , they freed him with utmost haste. " It's a good thing you came when you did! That Zandalari priest has the zebras up in a frenzy. They're making blood sacrifices to elemental spirits! That's what's causing the storm!" The heroes ventured out to a shrine just away from the camp. " There's our elemental." The leader said. It went down easily and the griffons laid waste to the camp. The Zandalari priest proved very troublesome. The ice zebras fell into dissaray when the priest fell. " Thank you." Princess Celestia told the darkwing leader " all of the empire is in your debt." " Today we have proven our loyalty to the griffons and to the Solar Empire!" She replied. But while the Empire brought itself ever closer together, the Republic was tearing itself apart.