//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Emerald Wind 
// Story: Siege of the Crystal Empire 
// by Mystic Mind 
//------------------------------//


(2: Emerald Wind


Any long-term citizen of the Crystal Empire knew about the regularity of snowstorms. However, in the many years Emerald Wind had spent serving the Crystal Empire as one of its leading Lancers, he had never seen one as volatile as this. Younger Crystal ponies wouldn't have noticed the early signs of a gathering storm, but to Emerald, one glance over the horizon was all he needed.
In addition to the usual relief crew for the return journey, a total of four Unicorn mages were assigned to Emerald's Crystal guard company, helping to clear away any snow drifts building up along the track. One look from the caboose's cupola would show anypony what the train crew were dealing with; near zero viability and snow drifts taller than the locomotive itself. It was not a position Emerald envied, though he did admire their dedication to such a gruelling task.
Staring at his reflection in the carriage window, Emerald fussed around with the belt keeping his sword and buckler in place. Though his coat was still the pristine as his namesake, his short mane had long since dulled to a light shade of grey. He knew he wasn't a young stallion anymore. He hadn't been for nearly two decades now. Most ponies would have long since retired, but Emerald was different. 
He was not just a veteran fighter, but also a survivor of the Crystal Uprising; the day that set the wheel in time in motion toward liberation. Emerald closed his eyes for a moment, thinking back to that day. So many brave Crystal Ponies fought and died by his side, resisting the tyranny of King Sombra's enslavement. Amidst all the chaos clashing blades and explosions of volatile magic, the cruel, unforgiving stares of Sombra's personal guard remained etched into his memory, as clear as day. Were it not for the sacrifice of many brave ponies, they may have never caught the attention of Princess Cadence, heralding their return surface world. 
Of course, it would be remiss of him not to recall the most unlikely twist in the Empire's saga: the return of the Crystal Heart by one baby dragon, forever immortalised with the title “Spike: The Brave and Glorious”.
Emerald let out a long sigh, his hot breath condensing on the glass. It wasn't that he hadn't considered retiring. There was no shortage of strong, capable warriors from both the Crystal Guard and the Canterlot Regiment to replace him; many of whom issued personal challenges for his position. Yet none of them could defeat him in single combat. As much as his old bones tended to creak and complain, he was still one of the most agile and tactically intelligent fighters the Empire had ever seen. How could he let himself fade away when major threats to the empire still roamed?
Sombra Guards, Ice Trolls, Pony generals, all the same. Every one of them rushing to display their combat prowess, and in doing so revealing their most glaring weaknesses. To say he felt something missing from between the empire's resurrection and the present day would be an understatement. Emerald gripped the bench with his front hooves, leaning back to keep himself stable against the train's rocking.
Something was off. There would always be some instability with train journeys, especially in weather like this. Yet he shouldn't have to be holding on this tight just to keep himself sitting upright. Perhaps it was experience talking, but there was just something not right about the way this train was moving. Pricking up his ears, Emerald closed his eyes and listened the rhythm of the train's wheels against each section of track. One, two...one, two... one, two...
“Everypony get down!” Emerald shouted, the more attentive of comrades dropping to the floor without a second thought. The rest found themselves thrown out of their seats when the carriage came to a screeching halt and derailed. Diving out of his seat, Emerald threw his front hooves around the bench's leg, holding on for dear life as the carriage tipped over on its side and skidded into a snow drift. 
The next few seconds were a blur. Every unsecured item bounced around the carriage like balls in a pinball machine, the whole structure of the carriage creaking under the strain; yet somehow, it remained in one piece. 
As soon as his head stopped spinning, Emerald rose to his feet, bruised and a bit shaken, but otherwise unharmed.
“Is everypony alright?” He called, hopping across the upturned benches. Most of the carriage occupants replied with a simple "aye, sir," but it was the pained groans of those not so lucky which Emerald was listening for. Bucking open a case next to the door below him, Emerald pulled out a first aid kit and threw it to the nearest able-bodied soldier. “I need at least three of you to care for the wounded. Make sure they are in a stable condition, then meet me outside as soon as you can. I suspect we have company.”
Busting a window open, Emerald led ten of his troops out into the snow. Miraculously, the Unicorn Mages had not only survived the crash, but were still maintaining their protective spell. Trotting over to the locomotive itself, he noted that the safety valves had burst open, spewing hot steam out into frigid air. 
Two threats down, one to go. Or, more precisely, eight.
From out of the storm, a band of eight hulking shapes emerged; their tort blue skin wrapped around limbs as thick as tree trunks.
Ice Trolls. Gritting his teeth, Emerald reached for his weapon, only to realize a second later that he was not their target.
Rather, they were after the engine. Then, with a thunderous war cry, the trolls unleashed their fury.
The first two leaped on top, while the others surrounded the cab, all smashing at the engine with wild abandon. The crew tried to escape, scrambling over the locomotive's tender, but they didn't make it far. The trolls were too quick, grabbing them by the scruff of their neck. The crew squirmed, desperately trying to get away, but it was no use. The trolls flung them to the ground, pinned them underfoot and smashed them with their clubs again and again until they stopped moving.
“Unhand those ponies!”  Emerald's voice snapped the trolls' attention to him. “If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!”
Unsheathing his rapier and slipping on his buckler, Emerald charged. 
A troll reached for his throwing axe, but Emerald was faster, diving beneath its trajectory even before the weapon was thrown. As three others charged, Emerald leaped back up, shoving his buckler forward to parry the oncoming attack. Rearing up onto his hind legs, he thrust his rapier forward, stabbing through a troll's guard to skewer its armpit, pulling back a second later.
Once the troll had dropped its weapon, the crystal pony behind him joined the fray, timing the swing of his broad sword to chop off the troll's hand. His edge alignment  was slightly off, preventing a clean cut, but the damage was done. The troll jerked its hand away, colliding with its comrade as it swept its club down and to the right. 
The agile soldier took a wide step back to dodge, but even this clumsy strike was faster than anticipated. Though the hit was a glancing blow, it was enough to knock the wind out of the warrior's gut, leaving him gasping for air.
Seizing the moment, the one trolls who had climbed atop of the train leaped from its perch, swinging its club down from above its head and slamming into the back of the fallen soldier’s neck, snapping his spine and killing him instantly.
The remaining trolls clambered onto the locomotive and over the carriage roof, dropping down between their injured cohort and the pony soldiers who had yet to enter the battle. Now Emerald found himself surrounded; trapped between the troll with a limp hand and two others at full strength, with more on the way. If Emerald could not find a way to join them soon, there would be no hope left for survival. His joints were already aching from the attack he had made before, though through gritted teeth and focused mind on the cold beneath his hooves, he pushed the pain to the back of his mind, concentrating on the foes in front of him.
At present, the way they held their tight stances told Emerald that they were remaining on the defensive until they were certain his warriors were occupied. If he made the first move, he would have a higher chance of getting back up from everypony else. But by the same token, charging blindingly into a cross section of humongous trolls would be suicide. It would be much too easy for them to intercept his attack and strike back in multiple places.
Looking back towards his force, Emerald noticed that the unicorn mages who had been on the footplate with the crew had climbed onto the roof of the upright first carriage, both unharmed and powering up their horns once again now that they had a clear view of the enemy. Better still, the trolls hadn't noticed. This was their chance to end the attack before the spell casters at the back exhausted their manna. With a devious grin growing across his face, Emerald charged.
Just as expected, as Emerald turned towards the wounded troll, the other three moved forwards with full intent of boxing him in. However, for the first time in his life, the aches of Emerald's joints worked in his favour; limiting the speed of his run which made it easier to bring himself to a sudden halt. Skidding in the snow, Emerald turned his body sideways, directing the spray into the faces of the attackers closing in on him, blinding them and leaving them to collide into each other.
“Mighty wizards, unleash Tartarus!”
Not a moment too soon, a torrent of arcane brilliance rained down on Emerald’s foes, incinerating them and clearing the way for their commander to leap back into action. As a bonus, the trolls the pony attack force had engaged with had now become distracted, allowing Emerald to stab one in the back of the leg with his rapier, then knocking it off balance by striking the wound with his buckler.
Soon the troll forces were overrun, cut down by their blades while the mages shot down any that tried to trick the ponies into thinking they sustained heavier injuries than they had. Less than fifteen minutes after the train had derailed, the troll war band had been slain. With the skirmish over, Emerald's knees gave out, as he collapsed to the ground with exhausted breaths.
Dropping down from the carriage roof, a unicorn mage rushed to her leader's side the second her hooves touched ground. “Commander, are you alright?”
“I'm fine, thank you, Star Dust,” Emerald replied with an exasperated groan. His whole body ached and shivered from the cold, but otherwise he was unharmed. “What about the train crew?”
“They're earth ponies, sir. They're a pretty hardy bunch to say the least.”
“Well that's the last time I underestimate the stamina of a train crew,” Emerald chuckled and cleared his throat. “Let’s see if we can get this train back on the rails. I think Princess Cadence will want to know about what just happened. But first, give my compliments to the weather magic team. They've done an outstanding job today!”
Star Dust didn't reply.
“Officer Star Dust, can you hear—” Emerxald stopped mid-sentence when he noticed Star Dust's sudden change in expression. Her normally jovial smile was replaced with a blank stare, the pupils of her eyes vanished to be replaced only with a sunken white void where her spark of life once was. All around her, a strange purple essence began to rise, spiralling up from the bodies of the dead trolls and shooting off into the thick of the blizzard beyond.
“What the buck is going on here?!” Emerald yelled, forcing himself to his feet despite the protesting in his joints and muscles.
“Commander, I think you'd better come and look at this,” an orange-coated unicorn said, gesturing to the derailed wagon behind him.
“What are you talking about, Dawn Fire?” Emerald asked, glancing back between the bizarre expulsion of magic before him and the derailed wagon. The urgency of the stallion’s voice ultimately influenced his decision to turn his attention away for a moment, despite proper protocol dictating the priority of first aid. Moving over to the broken wagon, Emerald scanned through the inside to see what the soldier was talking about. “I don't see anything.”
“Precisely, sir,” Dawn confirmed. “The cargo of Canterlot armour; it's gone! And so is the body of Crystal Hoof. No trace of them, sir.”
“Damn those trolls to Tartarus!” Emerald swore, kicking a hole in the broken wagon to relieve his anger. “It was a distraction all along! The skirmish was little more than bait.”
Suddenly, a beam of purple light shot through Dawn Fire's hind legs, his agonized scream of pain turning everypony's attention back to the bizarre light in the snow. From out of the storm, an army of ponies covered from head to hoof in the Canterlot armour sets marched forwards, their eyes glowing with the same purple magic as they unleashed a sorcerous barrage down on his task force. Despite their efforts to shield themselves from the attack, the sheer power of the unsuspected opponents was far too much to defend against. One by one the soldiers fell in battle, until Emerald Wind was the last pony standing – the race-defining crystal sheen spread across his coat and armour protecting him from the worst of the attack.
There was nowhere to run. The storm was closing in now that the unicorns at the rear of the train had been killed. To Emerald, there was no other option but to make his glorious final stand here and now, taking out as many of the ponies as he could before he met his doom. “For Princess Cadence! For the Crystal Heart! For the Empire!” With this war cry, all thoughts of tactical combat were thrown to the wind. Single-mindedly, Emerald ignored the searing pain of the magical attacks as best he could, charging straight towards the advancing army and shoving his rapier into a pony's neck, slipping the blade between a narrow gap in the armour.
To his shock, the pony he had just stabbed did not respond. He couldn't have missed; the rapier went straight through where the soldier's neck should be. Yet it pushed forward, acting like the weapon was never there, snapping the thin blade in two. Tightening the muscles in his front hooves, Emerald put all his remaining strength into pounding his buckler against the pony's helm. After the seventh blow, the clips that held the helmet in place came loose, only to reveal a far more horrifying sight.
Nothing. There was nothing underneath the helmet. No head, no body to be attached to, not a single bit of pony flesh anywhere. This armour may as well have been containing a ghost!
As Emerald's back legs gave out, the ghost pony pinned him to the ground, lowering its chest to reveal a glowing gemstone embedded just below the neck. The elegant stone burst into life with a flash of magic, while a strange ethereal eye gazed down at the Crystal Pony commander. The more he looked, the more Emerald felt his head became lighter, his consciousness slowly fading away, along with his breathing rate.
Stop.
A mysterious whisper echoed in Emerald's ears.
That will do for now. Leave this one alive, and make sure he is granted safe passage back to the Crystal Empire. I want him to tell the Princess all about the Phantom Stallions that defeated him this day. Perhaps if his kind knows how hopeless it is to fight against me, they will make a wise choice to surrender to me without resistance.
The last sight Emerald saw before blacking out was the Phantom Stallions retreating; marching back into the blizzard, where the silhouette of a tall, long horned unicorn awaited them.