“General Jackson has relayed via ray-dee-oh that Celestia and Robinson have destroyed the greater portion of Sombra’s fleet. However, there’s no way of telling if he actually doesn’t have a navy anymore. But for now, the A-mare-i-cans control the high seas.” Atlanta said. She knew how the last two days had affected her best officer, and hoped the news would cheer him up at least slightly.
“Mm-hmm,” Crimson mumbled. Ever since Rose Thorn had cooled his fiery rage over their daughter’s enslavement, he’d gone from confident soldier to caved-in colt. His life’s work seemed to disappear before him, no longer applicable but instead pointless. Six years of protecting his family, and he failed. The former Nurse Lieutenant tried her best to console him, as they needed his best for the actual assault. With Dragonspire Citadel literally a mile away, time was short - dangerously so.
King Flawless Ice of the Dominion stared sideways at Atlanta through the corner of his eyes. It was odd enough fighting alongside her, but he just now noticed how her turquoise mane flowed around her ears and out the bright orange sunsteel helmet. Her luxurious ocean-blue coat, those dazzling eyes… He shook his head. Now he was falling in love with her? Flawless Ice decided not to talk about it until later, lest it distract both of them from their job.
Rose Thorn’s eyes trained on her mother. “Thank you. I’ll continue trying to get it through this big lug’s thick skull that the only thing we can do now is press on. He lost some of his childhood friends during the Atlantean-Dominion War, so I don’t understand why he broke down now. It might be the whole father-daughter thing, which I can get, being the mother, but since I never knew Andromeda, my instincts are different. My motherly love just never fully blossomed.”
Crimson’s head lulled to the left. He was sleeping now; it was probably a catnap. His wife tapped him lightly on the shoulder and his eyes shot open. “Who? Wha? I’m awake!”
“Crimson, you need to figure out a way to break into Dragonspire Citadel. We must move quickly if we are to defeat Sombra for good at the same time. With the A-mare-i-can fleet moving upriver, the time to strike is now!” Rose said urgently.
“And save Andromeda.”
“Yes. And save Andromeda. Win.”
“Well, I might as well get on with it. I’ve been throwing this around for quite a while now…” He began to lay out his battle strategy on the map of the Crystal Empire. The others stared at it as he worked, glad to have him back. It was like a switch: either one way or the other. Hopefully this was the final time it’d be thrown.
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“... And the Dazzleflash Rangers, led by Colonel Flintstone, will infiltrate the city itself and stage an assault on the northwest corner from within. If we can blow a hole wide open and exploit it, King Ice will be able to send the bulk of his army around their lines and surround them. The Domination Army also is responsible for clearing a friendly landing zone for Robinson’s A-mare-i-can Marines. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” chorused Atlanta, Flawless Ice, Rose Thorn, Midnight Shadow, Silver Comet, Crystal Snow, Hummingbird Sweetnectar, and Haybale.
“Sir, my regiment wants in,” Midnight continued. “We’re itching to kick some flank here in the First Manehattan. Might we go with the Dazzleflash Rangers and help them hold that hole open if it opens?”
“Yeah. Go ahead. Remember, everypony, that this plan is all in. there will be no reserves, no holding back regiments. When we attack, we either win or die trying. I expect to see all of you on the other side of that fortress, tasting that sweet victory and an end to the war.” He eyed each of them one by one. “It was an honor to serve with each one of you.”
“And you, sir,” Silver Comet said.
“It was more than that, sir.” Midnight replied.
“You will always be remembered throughout history,” Atlanta nodded.
“As will you, my Queen,” Crimson stated.
Flawless Ice trained his gaze on the red Pegasus. “You were a worthy adversary, my father said. You make an excellent ally as well.”
“Cousin, I’ll see you on the other side,” Crystal Snow stated.
Hummingbird and Haybale simply shed a tear each.
Crimson saluted them all collectively, and they returned it. “May Harmony guide us all.” He then walked out of the tent to get the ancient, veteran Second Coastal Regiment of AREA for its last combat action as a unit. The others dispersed as well, with Hummingbird going to Special Operations; Haybale to the Seventh Tideless, his original regiment before transferring to the Second Coastal so long ago; Atlanta to her Tampa Guard and most of AREA; Flawless Ice to the Domination Army; Silver Comet to the 4th Manehattan; and Midnight headed to the 1st Manehattan and the Dazzleflash Rangers. Crystal Snow was given her own command, the 7th Los Pegasus, to which she headed to for the impending move. Rose stayed where she was. As a former Nurse Lieutenant in AREA, she had more experience in the medical field than anypony else.
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Colonel Flintstone, his graphite coat and coal-black mane and tail flowing in the wind, squatted as low as he could. He and Captain - no, Major now - Midnight Shadow were scouting out the best possible entrance into the city. At the moment, nothing much was coming up as feasible, as as much as ninety percent of Crystal City was surrounded by a tall, menacing earthen wall littered with cannons and covered in barbed wire, land mines, and Russian/Chinese sensor grids. There were only two exceptions: the gate between the city and Dragonspire, and the anti-snow practical causeway between the sprawling city and its port on the Crystal Mountains River.
The Causeway, as Midnight dubbed it, was twelve ponies tall and three miles long. A wide plain stretched beside it for two miles on either direction before any rocks big enough to hide behind even appeared. No large-scale assault would break in without a diversion big enough to possible take Dragonspire Citadel to the west. Even so, the American threat sailing upriver would keep most of the guards there. Three layers of snow-choked barbed wire (cleaned on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) blanketed the steep slopes, with construction ponies working to lay mines around to block this avenue of attack.
Several Crystal pickets sneaking about camp had been captured and sent back to their leaders in catapulted body bags. With the Dazzleflash Rangers and 1st Manehattan having the bust-in duty, they had no artillery and therefore made do by “borrowing” some catapults from a poor Crystal pony lichen farmer’s barnful of equipment. But the Crystal Imperial Army obviously felt that the two understrength but veteran regiments were of no concern, focusing their efforts on the Domination Army encircling the Gem mine.
“Looks like a real storm’s brewin’, sir.” Flintstone commented, gesturing to the sudden smoke from Atlantean twenty-pound smoothbore cannons. The smaller twelve-pounders scattered on the Crystal wall around Dragonspire Citadel fired back, their higher position and cover giving them a fair advantage. A mine between the two opponents exploded violently when a low shot slammed into it, and shrapnel went everywhere and set off more.
“And so it begins.” Midnight said quietly.
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King Flawless Ice of the Dominion of Apollo stood with his commanders of the Domination Army. They were halfway to the Gem mine and already got bogged down in a slugfest. It just so happened that the Russians and Chinese used the mine as their base of operations, and getting past the rapid-firing machine guns proved to be quite the challenge. The king was inclined to win with the least loss of life on his side.
Glancing up from his soldiers to the mine top and mirror setup, he saw the thing was aimed straight as his army! One cry of alarm was all that was needed for the officers to notice and come close to panic. As they watched, the mirror refined its targeting solution and a solid white light, brighter than the Sun at high noon, brighter than anything ever known, enveloped Flawless’s vision. Searing pain shot through his entire body, causing him to convulse violently and shake uncontrollably. He never saw or heard anything again.
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Deep within the mine that had uncovered much of the magical Gem containing the spirits of seventeen alicorns, a crack had appeared in the great crystal and gone unnoticed. As the magic swirled and fired upwards, reflected into the Domination Army, the crack expanded rapidly and became a mini chasm. The tiniest speck of alicorn magic was reflected by the mirror wrong, being shot back down into the Gem faster than sound. The resulting sonic boom hit the Gem with the full force of sound waves, shattering it into a billion pieces. Smoke and magical green flames shot out of the top hole, consuming the mirror apparatus in an instant. Sparks flew in all directions, giving the wide mound on the surface the appearance of an erupting volcano.
The overpressure of the explosion was awesome. Both sides stopped whatever they were doing to watch seventeen colors - magenta, midnight blue, bright pink, blood red, violet, yellow-orange, pitch black, twilight white, grassy green, sky blue, cloudy gray, turquoise, chocolate, golden brown, tan, indigo, and blue-green - spiral over the smoke and ash and debris. Each coalesced into a single mare about as tall as Princess Celestia but built like a normal pony. The seventeen unexpected spectators unfurled their wings and took flight, casting their magic spells to clear the cloud the remains of the Gem mine still spewed out. Alicorns! The fifteen rulers that came before the Tribes of Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns and two more, the latter familiar to the Equestrian army, watched the paused battle in horror.
It was a sight to behold for the Princess of the Night. The last time her eyes had been opened, a large hole in her had been bleeding her lifeblood away. She’d been in Manehattan during the siege. Princess Luna saw Twilight Sparkle as well, flying precariously to avoid falling several hundred feet.
“Twilight Sparkle. I did not expect to see you here. However, it must have been quite the time between my death and the now.”
“Princess Luna! I don’t know where to begin! The Tree of Harmony may still be alive, but I doubt it. I’m pretty sure the Everfree Castle is gone as well, seeing as I was hit by a blinding light and my soul ended up in heaven a second later.” she replied. “Do you see Cadence or Celestia?”
“No, Twilight, I do not. However, there is an ocean-blue alicorn down there leading an army. If she is to be trust- ah!” The two, along with the other fifteen alicorns, were pulled towards the Crystal Castle, where the King of Shadows waited for this very moment. His magic was much too strong for the resurrection-weakened flyers, and they were immediately put under a horn lock and a wing bind.
Twilight looked around worriedly and stopped her head when she saw one of the few ponies she hoped never to encounter again: King Sombra.
She shivered when the shadow-black Unicorn spoke with the knives of a thousand words in little more than one sentence: “Well, well, well. Seventeen alicorns, one of them the Element of Magic, another the Princess of the Moon. I’ve hit the jackpot.”