~Obsidian Heart POV~
"C'MON LADIES! I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR MANICURE, MOVE! MOVE THOSE FAT ASSES OF YOURS YOU FUCKING MAGGOTS! I'LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU, YOU FAT BRAINLESS HOLLOW HEADED MANGINAS!" I hear our Queens voice thunder through the fierce storm. All of us are wearing armor with strong cold resistance enchantments, which aren't doing us much good with the insufferable cold and the snow hitting our snouts. We are barely able to move through the horrible snow. To add salt to injury, our Queen is only wearing a normal suit-like uniform, which doesn't have any enchantments on it and she is handling herself even better than us, barely even noticing the cold. "C'MON ALREADY! CAN'T HANDLE A LITTLE COLD?! ALL THOSE ENCHANTMENTS DID YOU NOTHING BUT MAKE YOU WEAK! AFTER THIS ALL OF YOU WILL STAY OUTSIDE IN THE STORM NAKED! Tsk... From the time she arrived... She's been putting us through training worse than Tartarus... It's only been a week but everything in our bodies seems to want to shut down... My men are barely keeping up, their bodies burning like fel fire, the fire of the demons, that is said to burn everything.
This hellish training has been filled with exercises all day, beatings, barely any food, and the last time we slept was the day after she massacred all of us and healed us with the painful but fast healing magic the medics learned from her... I still remember that day, we were all sleeping peacefully after the healing, when all of a sudden the sleeping quarters were blown up by some kind of weapon she had, all of us being awoken by the fire and pain. The worst thing about it was her face... She held the most disturbing smile I've seen, filled with nothing but malice, for the Crystal Heart's sake, her smile was worse than Sombra's terror! From then on, she never once hesitated at shooting us whenever we made a mistake. She almost executed a few of us for disagreeing with her. She did something to us in the first day of the training, some kind of potion she put inside us with a syringe, it made us able to become stronger 100 times faster than normal, but it also made us all experience pain millions of times worse than anything we've ever experienced. Then she proceeded to the 'secrecy' training, which was her torturing all of us so we are not to divulge any secrets to enemies if we are captured. Which might I add, was really painful. All of that was soon followed by more and more impossible training.
We were currently heading for the top of a mountain, or so we were told. We are trying to climb the side of the mountain which is quite challenging, since everything is covered in ice and there are very few visible rocks for us to grab onto for support. To make things worse, our Queen seems to find it amusing to throw rocks and ice spikes at us from above us where she is currently situated. None of us have any idea how she's able to get them while climbing and constantly being ahead of us. The cold is getting worse as we climb higher, our bodies starting to freeze in place. Me and my soldiers are all about to be claimed by the embrace of death. The only thing keeping us from falling into its icy grip is pure will power.
"ARE YOU ALL PROUD OF THIS?! YOU PATHETIC EXCUSES OF PONY RESOURCES! YOU DARE CALL YOURSELVES SOLDIERS?! WHAT WOULD YOUR ANCESTORS SAY ABOUT YOU NOW?! DO YOU THINK THEY WOULD BE PROUD?!
As she spoke those words, a flame sparked in all of us... Our Ancestors, the founders... The great ones who made our once Great Empire... Even Sombra, with his reign of terror kept our Empire Strong... The great tales of fearless warriors that were told by our elders... Of Crystal Colossus, a giant crystal pony who fought with the Alicorns, nicknamed 'The Shield of The Empire'. Frock, 'The Plague Ruler', who managed to cure the plague and use it for the good of the empire. Eon, 'The King of The Crystals', with his crystal golems. Necro, 'The No Life King' and Sombra's brother who rules over the death and creator of the Necronomicon. And Sombra, 'The Shadow King' with his trickery and despicable tactics, who created the Grimoire. How could we scoop so low... So far from the greatness of our past... No... WE WILL NOT BE WEAK! WE SHALL ALL BE THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT!
"AUUUUUU! HAU! HAU! HAU!" All of us screamed in a frenzy as we bolted off into the hellish training, to train trillions of times more than our great ancestors ever did! Our new Queen has showed us what we need to be... We aren't soldiers of the empire... WE ARE THE WRATH AND RAGE OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE! WE ARE ITS PRIDE, ITS STRENGTH! WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE WEAK! "ALL HAIL THE QUEEN! HOOOOOOUUUU!" Our voices booming across the land, and for the first time, seeing our Queen's true smile, but not of malice, no... A proud smile, a smile that told us that we choose the right path!
"That's the spirit! C'mon! Show the world that those words weren't empty!" Said our Queen, who's voice finally softened, announcing the start of even worse training; but this time, we were gladly accepting it!
"LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!" All soldiers screamed with the entirety of their hearts who have became burning infernos!
We're almost there... So close to our goal... But, sadly, it seems that lady luck has decided to that we deserve more punishment than we already received. An avalanche starts, and tons of snow and rocks start falling down. As we all stare at the cold and unforgiving rocky ice that falls, we hear our Queen's voice, as it's albe to pierce the air like the voice of angels coming from heaven.
"Do not be afraid! Trust in yourselves! Do not look at it as death! It's nothing but a lie, it is not the door that will lead you in the grips of the underworld, it is the lovely embrace of a mother who wishes to protect her child! I repeat! Do not fear! Embrace it!"
As we all hear those words, we give up on our senses and rationality, and listen to the advice that seemed like insanity. We all open our arms wide and welcome all that comes to us. But, instead of the painful feeling of ice piercing our bodies and rocks squashing us, we feel a warm fluffy material embrace all of us as we start falling down the mountain, the material, that did not seem like snow or even clouds, softened our fall, safely bringing us all to the ground. As we all start questioning the things Cadence told us about the laws of the world and such, a sigh that gives us all faith appears. Our Queen... No... Our Goddess slowly descends from the sky, with wings made out of pure light, the sky clearing, and the sun a soothing light appears behind her, making all of our hearts see the truth. The woman that we saw as The Devil itself, was actually a Goddess that showed pity on us and our weak forms, and decided to help us become the greatest of all, to help us all go down into history, not as nameless guards, but as the greatest soldiers that ever existed in the land of Equus!
"Oh Goddess... Please bless us with divinity, as we are your messengers, and we shall show the entire world your magnificence! We all pledge ourselves to You, our Goddess!" I have seen the light... Our minds have been cleared... And we shall all praise Our Goddess as the one true God! All of us, one by one, starting with me, bow to Our Goddess, to Our beautiful Queen!
~Third person POV~
As all the crystal ponies bow to their newfound faith, they all fail to notice that the smile they thought to be of hope and pure good is one of pure malice and evil. Sombra appears as a shadow behind Shiro with a face of utter disbelief at what he has witnessed, as he saw the extent of what this mare would do to make her visions true...
~Before the avalanche, with Shiro~
Sombra was floating next to Shiro and keeping her just our of view of the crystal guards, as she sat on top of a dark crystal throwing ice and rocks down.
"Sombra. Create an avalanche." Said the white mare.
"Umm... What?" Asked the dark emperor with confusion.
"Create an avalanche, but make it an illusion. Make it so they see rocks and ice, but in actuality it is made out of that material I showed you yesterday."
"Alright... Anything else after that?"
"Do the following. After they all fall to the ground make me float down softly and slowly, at the same time, create and illusion of wings made out of energy that is opposite of yours, of light energy. Also, create an white eerie glow behind me to imitate holiness. Understood?"
The emperor, seemingly surprised by her answer, quickly nods and does what he is asked.
~Sombra's POV, a week later~
I can't believe it... She actually managed to make them believe she is a Goddess... They have all become so blinded by it that they are doing whatever she asks them immediately without any questions asked. Are these even the same ponies?! It's like all of them became the avatars of the god of war. They are all training like the end of the world is coming... What even is she? Nopony... No... No one would ever think of doing such a thing... Firstly, she broke their minds with the torture she called training, and then, in the face of what appeared to be death, she gave them hope, she made herself their hope...
Alright... What the fuck is with that song out of nowhere? Aaaaaand they just started training even harder... The amount of testosteron in this place can make Celestia grow a majestic beard that would make even StarSwirl The Bearded jealous. How did she renamed the guards? Oh yeah, Crystal Paladins. Weird name.
Are they... Dancing? Yup... They are dancing... Wow they are actually really good at it...
"Shiro! Come here for a second!" As she notices me she quickly comes in front of me.
"What do you want?" She said in an annoyed tone.
"You know those laws you put up, right?" She nods. "Well there's been a little misunderstanding so I came to clarify it. It says that if you disagree with a law, or think you'd do a better job at ruling, and you can come up with enough good reasons why that's true, you can change the law or become the King/Queen if you are able to get the other citizen's favor. Considering the first part, are you able to refuse them even if they make true claims because it will favor a part of the population, and regarding the ruler part, can you refuse them because they have a criminal record or they appeared out of nowhere and they seem shady?"
"Regarding the first question, yes you can refuse them, and since you will take care of this because I'll be busy with some stuff, I would really love it if you refused them. I hate it when some people get benefits for no reason~ Oh and about the second, they must not have a criminal record, if they do, and it's recent, refuse them before they start. They also have to bring a summary of themselves. Oh and they need to be citizens of the Crystal Empire to be able to do anything. Which I will remind you again, you need to reside here and have lived here for at least 3 years."
"Alright. That's all I needed." I tell her before I walk away. I stop and turn around for a second. "Oh and your package has arrived." Then I left to do my duties.
With every passing day, I start questioning if bringing her here and doing what she asks was a good idea...