//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Ascension // Story: Siege of the Crystal Empire // by Mystic Mind //------------------------------// (23: Ascension)           The news of a victory against Moonshadow raced through the entirety of the Crystal Empire, and for the second time that day, the light in the eyes of the Phantom Stallions vanished, leaving behind piles of empty armour in their combat formations. Despite the cheers of the surviving soldiers, Stellar and his team of heroes knew better than to celebrate too early. A repeat of the events from which they narrowly escaped would mean certain annihilation, so Stellar maintained his level of vigilance, just in case Moonshadow had one more ace up his sleeve.           “Maintain formations!” Stellar called to all ponies within ear shot. “Walk through each rank of Phantom Stallions and shatter their gems. Make sure that none of them are able to revive.”           “What's with the caution, Stellar?” Shining Armour asked. “The phantoms are dead, Cadence defeated Moonshadow, what more could there be?”           “Ye weren't there when the Phantom Stallions first stopped movin',” interjected Meteor with a cautious look on her face. “Moonshadow set a trap for us, lettin' us think they were dead when they weren't. It's how they got to break through the walls.”           “Good point,” Shining acknowledged, though his voice still conveyed a greater sense of relief compared to his friends. “Let’s make this fast, then. I'll go check on Cadence and inform her of the clean-up duty. Though I'm super sure that she's going to grant you all some prestigious positions of honour when all is said and done!”           Garnet blushed a shade of pink so bright that it was visible even through her red coat. “It would be an honour, sir,” she said alongside a formal bow.           “Oh, enough with the formalities already,” Shining chuckled, patting Garnet on the shoulder with his hoof. “After all we've been through today, I've honestly had enough of all these ranks and orders. Besides, I think you'll find that Twily prefers more casual conversations when making new friends.”           Garnet's eyes lit up like a hearths-warming tree. “You mean, you're introducing m-me to P-Princess Twilight Sparkle?!”           “Oh, trust me, my sister will be on the first train from Ponyville the minute she hears about what you've all accomplished today!”           Garnet didn't say another word in response, simply staring at Shining with her mouth hung open and her right eye twitching. “I think ye've broken her, Shining,” Meteor joked, prodding her. Every member of her group burst into laughter, with even Stellar Shine allowing himself a moment of amusement despite the uncertain situation.           Clearing away the enchanted armour would take some time, but now that there was no resistance left to give, it was a relatively simple task. Looking up towards the higher districts, Shining saw his wife gliding down towards him; battered and bruised, but if the wide smile of relief was any indication, she was doing just fine.           The joy that Shining felt in return faded the moment he saw what was following her. Unbeknownst to the Princess, a large, shapeless mass of dark magic floated behind her, descending towards the ruins of the battle just past. “Cadence, look out!” Shining screamed at the top of his lungs. A single glance over her shoulder was enough to get Cadence flying faster away from the sorcerous cloud. Yet as she gained distance from the object, it became apparent that the final remains of Moonshadow was not chasing her at all. In fact, it passed directly overhead of Shining and the army, pulling every piece of the Phantom Stallions armour into its void.           Watching on with a mixture of equal parts curiosity and horror, Stellar teleported himself from rooftop to rooftop, following the path of the abomination until it had consumed all Moonshadow's former army. When the last piece of armour had been absorbed, the ethereal mass began to take shape, three-hundred meters tall and one-hundred meters wide. Around each of its six limbs, flashes of gold and purple popped out, the shadow of its wings blotting out all light beneath as its tail wrapped around the tallest spires.           With its claws grasping against the edge of each building, the metal dragon reared its curving neck, opening its wide jaws to reveal teeth the size of an average pony. It let out a roar that was deeper and louder than any living thing of comparative size. Beating its wings, the Phantom Dragon hauled itself into the air, forcing all ponies caught within its wake to grab hold of the nearest pinned-down object, holding on for dear life as they tried to avoid becoming blown away.           “Everypony, group together and surround this thing!” Shining Armour commanded, a split-second decision to take charge of the fight, while putting a minimal number of ponies directly in harm’s way. A nigh-impossible task, he knew, but it was the first tactical decision that came into his head, and the fact he had never seen a dragon like this before certainly didn't leave him with many options. “All ranged units, shoot it with everything you've got!”           Teleporting in front of the dragon's head, Stellar met with Far Seer and Princess Cadence to fire off a series of magic missiles, empowering the barrage of arrows to strike at the new enemy with maximum force. However, it soon became apparent all their attacks were for naught, as any damage that they may have done was barely a chip in the armour of such a huge creature. The dragon threw back its head to take in a deep breath, and Shining Armour threw up a shielding spell just in time to take the brunt of a black fire blast. Shining cringed and gritted his teeth, his legs shaking under the strain of using so much magic to block this attack. Cadence used her own magic to aid with the spell, feeling the searing heat seeping through the shield and singing her mane. When the breath attack came to an end, so too did Shining Armour's shield spell, his vision blurring as he wobbled on his hooves. He had exhausted a large quantity of his magic, and the dragon's last attack had worn his manna reserves down to the bone.           Lashing its tail from side to side, the Phantom Dragon smashed straight through two towers behind it, the structures sending the ponies on the ground scrambling away to avoid getting crushed. Hovering in mid-air, it swiped its claws inwards, cutting through ranks of fleeing ponies with each slice. No part of its body remained still, the gigantic monster granting the final wish of its master to see the Crystal Empire burn.           And burn it did. Fires blazed through the streets behind the army, trapping them between a rain of molten crystal ahead and towering walls of flame behind. Even if they could escape, there would be nowhere ]to go, as it meant risking a frozen death in the tundra outside the protective barrier, the citizens in the upper district being left to die in agony. Garnet, Meteor and Moonlight did their best to combat the fires, using the charred remains of the lower district to throw onto the blazing paths; even a magical fire needed air to react to.           Yet for every section of blaze they managed to put out, the burning rain sprouting from the dragon's mouth replaced it with a new inferno in dozens of places at once. Moonlight did her best to weave through the falling rubble, but much like her unicorn comrades, her stamina was starting to wane, her reflexes dulling with each adjustment to the flight path she made. She tried to climb towards the other Solar Pegasus guards, but a burning piece of rubble came hurtling down from the sky, striking her left wing and sending her plummeting down in an uncontrollable dive. It had broken the long, supporting bone of her wing in two places, leaving her with only her right wing to try and direct her down safely; an effort that resulted in her crash landing right in front of Meteor and Garnet, who's dented armour and burnt hooves made evident that both were at the end of their rope as well.           “Moonlight!” both Meteor and Garnet cried together.           “I'm... okay...” Moonlight said weakly. “Still alive... but not in great shape...”           “Stay behind us,” Garnet said, the pony who had just an hour earlier viewed her as a traitor to the Crystal Empire, now throwing her shield over the downed Bat Pony to protect her with the same level of concern as with her closest allies. “You've done all you can. Rest up while we take it from here.”           “Well, it's not like I have a choice, now, is it?” Moonlight chuckled, putting on a brave face despite the amount of pain she was in.           “Come on ye massive flamin' beast!” Meteor roared, even now refusing to show an ounce of fear at a seemingly impossible situation. “Ye ain't gonna hurt my friends anymore as long as I'm still standin'!”           By this point, everypony could see how most of the Unicorns were starting to lose focus on their magic, with a faint flicker dying on the tip of Far Seer's horn representing how they were all fighting a losing battle. But what truly made Far Seer's heart sink was seeing Stellar fall to his knees next to him, trying and failing to summon enough magic to attack the dragon with. Looking up to see the monster looming overhead, shooting flames in every direction, Far Seer's blood ran cold, no longer able to deny the stark reality of the situation.           “We're doomed,” Far Seer said in a monotone voice, staring blankly into the abyss of his own emotions. “There’s nothing we can do to kill this thing. We’ve fallen, we're all going to die.”           “No...” Stellar forced the words out of his mouth, a grimace of determination still etched on his face despite everything he had been through. “We're... not done just yet.”           “How the buck can you say such a thing?!” Far Seer threw his hooves over Stellar's shoulders, shaking him hysterically as he yelled. “Nothing we do even comes close to hurting that... that thing! How can you look with your own two eyes and think we're anything other than doomed to Tartarus once the dragon is done with us?! We're doomed! Dead! Done for! Finished! The end! Game over!”           “That's quite enough,” Far Seer's only stopped his frenzied ramble when he heard the voice of Shining Armour, who somehow was remaining calm despite the circumstances. “I've overheard many Crystal Ponies offering the same sentiment before, but we have always found a way to come out on top.”           “B-but sir...”           “Shining is right,” added Princess Cadence. “It was because of you and your friends that I was able to defeat Moonshadow. You all gave me the hope I needed to fight back. Now it's time for me to return the favour.”           Tentatively pulling himself to his hooves, Stellar Shine took a deep breath and collected all of his remaining magic at the tip of his horn. Thinking back to his first encounter with the Phantom Stallions, he knew that he still had one last spell to cast that had the potential to save the Empire. Only now, he not only had an entire army's worth of ponies to draw magic from, but he also had the royal couple to inspire all those living within it to come to his aid.           Wordlessly, he fired a beam of magic straight up into the sky, past the Phantom Dragon to pierce through the protective weather bubble. Laying their horns against his, both Cadence and Shining Armour channelled their magic into the spell, their coats shining as they thought back to every single pony, living or dead, who had fought to defend their home. It was an incredible spectacle which drew the eyes of every pony across the city. One by one, everypony felt the magic of the Crystal Heart surging through them, their souls connected as all their fears and sorrows became washed away with the power that they willingly gave.           A beautiful rainbow streamed down from every corner, all citizens adding their power, including Flurry Heart, raising from her cot to let out a jovial giggle as her extra wave of Alicorn magic caused Stellar's beam to burst onto a dazzling flash of light. Wrapping around his entire body, the power of everpony lifted Stellar off the ground to begin a transformation. His cutie mark glowing, sunbeams washed over him, his turquoise mane growing into long, shimmering locks, granting him a pair of ivory-white wings to match the new colour of his coat. In an ironic twist of fate, the very goal that Moonshadow had sought to obtain had been granted to the pony who had used the one form of magic that the dark unicorn so adamantly rejected; the magic of friendship.           Stellar Shine's ascension to Alicornhood was complete, and he wasted no time in using that power on the rampaging enemy that was the final legacy of Moonshadow. Drawing upon his newfound power, Stellar Shine fired a single cone at the dragon which pierced straight through its heavily armoured chest, melting away at its outer shell and snuffing out the unholy light within. With a final roar of agony, the last remaining threads of magic that was Moonshadow became cast away into oblivion.           When Stellar fluttered down to land, he found every pony he had fought alongside, including Cadence and Shining Armour, bowing before him. At first, he blinked a few times in confusion, the notion that he was now technically classed as royalty taking a few seconds to sink in. Clearing his throat, Stellar addressed the crowd with his best imitation of the Royal Canterlot voice. “Citizens of the Crystal Empire, you may rise and greet your new...” he hadn't even gotten half way through his sentence before bursting out laughing; the first time he had truly laughed in over a week. “I'm sorry, I don't know how Luna can speak like that with a straight face!”           “Oh my gosh, Stellar Shine!” a familiar highland pony voice called to him, just before he found his face buried in a jungle of yellow fur. “Maybe I should be callin' ye Prince Stellar Shine now. I dunno, but what ye just did was the most amazing thing I ever laid eyes upon!”           “Oi, oi, careful there, Meteor, you don't wanna break the poor fellow,” Moonlight quipped, her broken wing having been healed from the magical spectacle. “I speak from experience when I say that newly transformed wings are indeed quite delicate structures.”           “Oh, sorry,” Meteor blushed as she released Stellar from her hug. “Guess I got a bit carried away, eh?”           “Oh, no, who will save the new Alicorn prince from the overly affectionate Earth Pony?” Garnet added with deadpan sarcasm. “Honestly, I haven't known you long, but you seem like the type who will never stop being happy.”           “Hey, don't we have a reason to celebrate today?” Meteor retorted, though before she could argue any more, she found herself being pushed out of the way by Far Seer.           “Seriously, where are everypony's manners today?” he said with more than a hint of annoyance as he rolled his eyes. “Shouldn't we all shut up and listen to what our royal leaders have to stay before we start bickering with one another?”           “It's alright, Far Seer,” Stellar said with a gentle smile. “It's been quite an ordeal to get through today, and quite frankly, I don't feel much like royalty. You are all my friends for contributing so much to winning this war, yet I hardly even know you! If Princess Cadence thinks it’s okay, how about we all take a nice, long break in Ponyville? We could go and meet the sister-in-law she holds in such high regard.”           “You know, I've never really been a pony who likes royal formalities anyway,” Cadence added with an awkward chuckle, rubbing her hoof on the back of her head. “As far as I'm concerned, you are all heroes, and don't need my permission to go anywhere!”           “Though I think we have a bit of cleaning up to do first,” Shining Armour added. “Can't leave all these Crystal Ponies homeless, now, can we?”           “Oh, come on! Janitor work?!” Meteor moaned, crossing her arms in a huff. “I guess that's what I get for skippin' cleaning duty in the forge last week.”           Shining armour stifled a laugh, holding his hoof over his mouth. “I swear, Meteor, I should introduce you to Twily's friend, Rarity. You two are like polar opposites!”           “Hey! No fancy fashionista is gonna be critiquing the style of my armour!”           Out of all the mental images that Meteor could have given her new found friends, the idea of Rarity making a fashionable line of battle armour was enough to send everypony around her into a fit of laughter.