//------------------------------// // The Crescent Empire Epilogue 1 // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 3 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 3 By TDR The Crescent Empire Epilogue 1 [ In the burning city.] Rarity screamed out as a massive chunk of black crystal smashed into the street in front of her as the palace top exploded. The massive chunk of crystal bounced once and plowed into the side of a building , sending a collection of white rabbits scampering away. The crystal ponies behind her all scattered for cover, her trek having picked up a few more after the dragon had focused on something else. The black crystal rocked before smashing open and a black unicorn staggered out. Cracked and burnt armor was half melted on his form. Blood ran from his mouth and nose and he spit off to the side dislodge another tooth as he cursed yanking a melted crown off his head, tearing out some of his own fur as he removed the ruined bit of metal. “This is not over Twilight Sparkle.” he snarled looking up at the broken tower.”I will destroy you mare, and you damn dog too...” “Assuredly not.” “What?” Sombra demanded turning his head only for another white hoof to cold cock him across the face. After all the punishment he had been through already, that last bit was more than enough to drop him like a sack of potatoes. “I am not sure who you are darling, nor who dressed you in such tacky things but you do not threaten my friends in my earshot without....... never mind you're unconsciousness.” Rarity sighed looking at her hoof idly. “Alright, shows over darlings, you can come out now.” “Is that.. is that King Sombra?”one of them whimpered poking her head out from behind a barrel she ducked behind. “Sombra...?” “The ruler of the Empire, he .. he took over when Solomon was killed.....” the crystal pony continued. “I have no idea darling, but we can't simply leave him here to burn... or to wake up and go after a friend of mine.... Hmm.” Rarity shrugged, her horn glowing as she grabbed the stallion by his tail and started walking, dragging him along after her. “Come along darlings, I'm sure this is the way out.” Ten gods rushed into the Crystal Empire after a streak of pink. Two stayed back watching over the burning Empire as the others went to help. “Not going in?” Bleu asked simply, her form about the size of Luna who sat beside her. “Our presence will not help at this point. We came in case we needed to fight something. The crystal ponies do not need to see us, it will simply add to their panic.” Luna sighed. “Better to let my sister deal with this.” “Probably.”Bleu offered letting the silence linger a bit before speaking again. “I don't blame you for Kayete..” “Thou are lying.” Luna responded sadly. Bleu stared for a moment more at the city, before looking over at the alicorn who hadn't moved or changed her gaze from the city. The flames were dying down rapidly, putting themselves out, likely Kaz's doing. “Yeah, okay, pretty much. Even after Solomon died you continued on as Nightmare Moon. You tried to kill your sister and usurp her throne. You would have killed the world to spite your sister.” Bleu agreed, “ So yeah, I do still not like you.” “We are fine with that, we feel far too many did forgive us too soon.” Luna responded. The pair sat in silence for a bit longer watching a blast of light fill the air and cover the empire, the few Crystal ponies they could see moving around suddenly taking on a crystalline sheen. “Wonder how the whelp is doing.” Bleu questioned. “Thine son?” “He's not my son.” “Thou are lying.” Luna responded. Bleu snorted, “Fine, whatever you figured it out still so what I've got lots of kids dragons don't care for them after they get to be a certain age....” “Thou are lying.” Luna responded. “Stop doing that.” Bleu sputtered.” What are you the Element of Honesty or something?” “We were.” Bleu stared at her a moment before sighing. “ Yeah forgot about that.” “He is Kayete's isn't he?” Bleu remained silent. “We are sorry...” “Always was a headstrong bastard, took a flight of our toughest to deal with the trouble himself. Left me with a clutch to tend. Never came back. I thought he was dead for years. But I never hatched that last egg cause I wanted him to be there to see one of his sons born. Then I thought, well I'll wait until the Darkness is beaten then it will be safe to hatch him. The empire vanished and I thought well Nightmare Moon is still out there better wait for her to be stopped. Then you went to the moon and I found another excuse and another.” Bleu sighed as Luna looked over at the dragoness finally. “So I gave the egg to Celestia, made her think it was some sort of peace offering. It worked, but the real reason is for as long as I had that last egg I'd never get over Kayete. And if I hatched him I'd just see Kayete in him and who knows what I would do. My other whelps from Kayete were either killed in the war or left for parts unknown. I'm still not sure there's any left alive out there or not. Every so often I see a little bit of him in one of my other kids. Ember has his horns, for instance. Torch wasn't his, but from another after I moved on, but his mate might have been a descendant of one of the others, or one of Kayete's brothers.” Bleu frowned. “ Doesn't matter, Kayete's finally at rest and Spike's got a family that actually won't see any one in him but himself. I won't distract him with my emotional shit.” “Yet you still care for him?” “Yeah well, no shit. If Celestia had done anything to him or let anything happen to him I would have raised Equestria to the ground and there's not a damn god or thing out there that could have stopped me.”Bleu said flatly. “ Despite the stuff I hear he gets up to he's in a better position now and he's got some dangerous siblings watching his back. Seriously, that one soloed a Dreadnought. That's gonna make some of the older dragons piss themselves.” Luna pondered a moment before speaking again.“You know he has a filly friend......” “Oh? So I should expect another half breed in my family line?” Bleu smirked. “So which one is it, not that prissy white unicorn is it? Stars. I hope he has better taste than that.” “Nay, tis one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders that has his eye.” Luna smiled. “Oh shards, that's worse. He's got his fathers bad taste in females.” Bleu cackled. “ We hear about them all the way in the Dragon lands.” [ Crystal Library] “So due to the temporal instability in the spell, I will have my followers take care of all the whirls and eddies around the empire when it comes back. Due to everything being out of phase with the proper flow of time, we have yet to realign it. Some places were already aligned properly so we will have no need to be there. It seems that was intentional, and the dreadnought will correct himself back into the flow of time again before he fought.” White explained. The researchers gathered around the rabbit god were writing things down quickly trying to translate the rabbits odd tenses as best they could. The bunny sat on the metal dais the buffalo had been on and occasionally some where else without seeming to move. “We left a number of the empire's citizens out of phase simply due to if we brought them back in they would die in a fire or from an attack or old age, or when they were born, the only ones we couldn't keep from getting hurt, were the ones who were already awake, in one of the temporal dead zones, or will come in from outside.” “So you're saying there are no deaths despite all that out there?” Moon Dancer asked. “Just three. The dreadnought, witch wolf and juggernaut. Solomon will call the witch wolves, reavers but the name never stuck.” White added.” You will be welcome, or maybe you already are.” “How did all those rabbits manage to fix this?” Sunburst asked. “Most of them are my brood, or will and have been mates. The were called vorpals or will be called Chenrenbog, depending on who you ask and when.” White offered waving a paw to the three dozen smaller white rabbits that now moved around the library nibbling at things.”They eat the time issues.” The rabbits all stopped and turned to stare at Sunburst as he looked at them. They all then opened their mouths showing lamprey like maws with rabidly spinning teeth. “GAAAH!” Sunburst shrieked. “Knock it off, you're not Langoliers!” White snapped as the bunnies all giggled. “Are you sure this is a good idea Princess?” Lodestone muttered from the door of the library. The massive nox-cal sporting a number of bandages, though he seemed unperturbed by his injuries. “They need a break and it keeps White out of my mane.” Celestia sighed heading off to check on the others. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” Ascepius stared. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” Ascepius raised a brow looking at the moon dog, dragon, and white unicorn she had been treating. The larger two shrugged, the smaller was trying not to laugh, as it clearly hurt him to do so. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” The naga goddess of snakes and healing sighed. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” “How long isssss sssshe going to keep thissss up?” Ascepius asked. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” “Her record is seventy two hours.” Spike pointed out. The green naga slapped her face with her hand. Twilight Sparkle was in a fear filled panic run around her brothers. The only thing keeping her from tearing off into the crowd was a shield put up by Fledge, who was watching the mare go around in a circle with a tireless morbid curiosity. “And the pink one?” Ascepius asked. “See, that's new.” Shining Armor admitted. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” “WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” Holding onto Twilight's tail with her wings out was a pink alicorn, who was acting like she was water skiing, clearly enjoying herself. Her cheering only paused when she was near Rahs in the circuit so she could belt out a rapid fire explanation of some new plan she had involving boats or something that was too fast for any of them to understand. “Thisssss cannot be helping her concusssssion.” The great buffalo god Iinii strode through the crowd, passing the crystal ponies who gave him a wide berth. His massive size making it easy to push past any one trying to stop him, though none were dumb enough to try. The massive white buffalo stopped under the huge palace, taking note of the Crystal Heart that now floated and pulsed in the air under the palace. Though his attention left it quickly as he searched the area. “There you are.” The massive buffalo god whipped around with more speed than any one had ever seen him move. Snow slung from his back coating the area with a carpet of white. Approaching him was a much smaller buffalo cow, though one who would be considered large by the average buffalo. Her golden fur was marred with a number of black scars including several that went across her face and over her eyes. Green glittering gems lay in the sockets of her eyes staring at the buffalo god, a gift from Iinii long ago. The pair stared at each other for a long time as the great god of the Buffalo smiled. “Maohk. You are safe...” “I told you I would be Iinii.” Maohk smiled.” But you never lisooof..” The buffalo cow's words were cut off as the massive god of the snows hugged her to him, weeping openly at the return of his wife. “Let go of me damn it!, don't you know who I am?!” Lockheed crowed scrambling against the stone road as a figure drug the griffon god along in a one armed headlock. Pulling the flailing bird towards Celestia, who paused and waited for the pair to approach. The griffon dragging the god along was not a pretty bird. The war bird of the, now defunct, Fairchild Republic was scarred, with a oddly shaped beak and clearly carried a bit of weight with him despite his time imprisoned. He had a slight list to one side as he drug the griffon god with him and he moved with the authority of some one who got things done. Despite his state and status he was barely in his mid twenties. He was also one of the few mortal creatures that Princess Celestia would not risk messing with. Also the only one who still rated higher than Pinkie Pie. The former bearer of Loyalty was lost when the empire vanished, Celestia was surprised that that would slow him down. “Lord Thunderbolt the second.” Celestia smiled at the griffon. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you are alright.” “I expect so. But that can wait until later. Who is this lout that thinks he can command me?” Thunderbolt questioned holding up the golden and silver feathered griffon god who was clearly indignant and confused that he was being tossed about so easily by a mortal. “That is Lockheed, the current god of the griffons.” Celestia pointed out. “What?! What happened to my grandmother?” Thunderbolt demanded, dropping god of the griffons to the ground with a thud. “Southern Cross retired not long after the empire vanished and passed on her title and portfolio to Lockheed.” Princess Celestia sighed. “The loss of her only grand chick did not sit well with her.” “How long?” “Over a thousand years. Much has changed in your absence.” Celestia frowned looking to her friend with pity. “So was this whiny git correct? The empire is fallen?” Thunderbolt frowned gesturing with a dull gray wing at the much fancier looking griffon god. “Whiny git!? How dare ymmpph.” Lockheed was silenced as the other griffon grabbed him by his beak holding it closed. “Quiet chick, the adults are talking.” Thunderbolt looked expectantly at Celestia. “Not completely, but it is hardly the place you knew. Greed, corruption, apathy, and laziness has infected the society, hardly any of the nobles even live in Griffonstone now. They reside in Equestria on my bit. Well they will until I get home any way. The land has been without a proper leader for quite some time....” “Stop.” “What?” “You're going into your chess master mind set, I hate that.”Thunderbolt frowned. “I wasn't..... honestly, I had not planned to... it's gotten me in trouble in recent years, but old habits I suppose.” Celestia sighed. “ Look Thunderbolt, it's been a long time, and the world has changed. I have ponies who can help you catch up as they did with Luna....” Celestia continued noticing the griffon's eyes go wide as she mentioned Luna.“ Right, look, long story there too. Just, when you get caught up on the modern world, whatever you want to do is fine. You want to wander and fight things, go for it. I can point you to hot spots. You want to retire, I can point you to some decent resorts and the crown will pay for it for what you've done. You want to head back home and fix things, the crown will support that too. All of it's you're choice my friend, just let me know what you want and I'll try and help.” “Wait you're throwing me and the nobles to the wolves, but this random bird shows up and he gets a free pass!?” Lockheed snapped. “Because you're an asshole and I trust Thunderbolt to make proper decisions regarding the well being of the griffons” Celestia stated. “ I wouldn't trust you or the nobles to clean up after your own dogs after you took them for a walk.” “I am the god of griffons and the hunt Celestia.. I will not be talked down to by you....” Lockheed snarled. “God of the hunt? Well now... That's a new title? Bit of a hunter myself. What do you usually hunt, big game I mean, foods barely a thing.” Thunderbolt questioned, interrupting the other griffon. “Cryo hydra's mostly, there's a plethora of them in the north along with the usual abominations.” Lockheed stated with some disdain, but no small amount of pride. “Ahh those things. A bit gamy if you ask me , but easy enough to take out if you got a bit of fire on yah.” Thunderbolt nodded with a shrug. “Fairly large and good in a pinch rather than starve. The hydra not the abominations, those taste like shit.” “And what exactly did you hunt to be so unimpressed.” Lockheed snapped. “ Tanks.” Thunderbolt smirked. “Tanks..” Lockheeds eyes widened.” You mean....” “Discordian era dragon turtles, yes.” Celestia smiled. "You know the things that eat ships and are known to pretend to be islands so they can drown the settlements that are built on their backs for a free meal. I do look forward to your next hunt Thunderbolt. It's been a long time since I had that wonderful soup you make.” [ Much later in the day] Shining Armor rested his head on his hooves barely, listening as the gods sat at the table around him talking. Twilight was finally checked on by some one other than the naga god. She had a concussion as predicted as well as a number of smaller injuries and a small taint of black magic that was quickly removed by Celestia. Though it was expected the spell would have worked out of her system and been eaten by Rahs before too long. She was treated and put to bed with several doctors watching over her. Rahs was in fairly good shape considering. He was covered in cuts, punctures, and bruises, some of them fairly deep. The impact damage from the fall as well as the bits of the haberdashery that impaled him healed up fine as soon as the offending objects were pulled out. The burst of energy from the heart more than enough magic for him to recover. The rest of his injuries would take longer to heal as he had evidently overtaxed what he body could convert to healing. And given the wounds were made by a magic eater, they were immune to any form of magical healing. He had also opted to take a nap after proving to Rarity that he had not destroyed another coat. Shining himself had a number of burns, some minor wounds and had burned out his magic for a while with that last spell. His fur was scorched to the root around his horn and the white was evidently burned out of the fur. He would be stuck with a black spot around his horn and temples. Still better than going gray. The doctors made him wear a few suppressor rings much like Twilight to avoid accidental casting so he could recover. Spike was the worst off, though he was doing his best to power through it. His arm was broken in two places, a few of his ribs were cracked and he had deep gashes in his back and arm. One of his spines had also been ripped out of his back and was probably the worst of the wounds, though the naga doctor had pointed out he would probably regrow it after a few moltings. The bruise on his head was minor despite the black eye he was getting from it. He was currently dictating his story to the guard assigned to watch him and had full plans to turn this whole thing into an O&O adventure. Shining Armor had met with the few city leaders that remained, helped pass judgment on a number of Sombra's soldiers and had been busy all day even while getting treated. The weird crystalline effect that had taken hold earlier was thankfully fading from all the non crystal ponies. Much to Rarity's annoyance. Despite the gods in the room, every crystal pony who had come to speak with them had deferred to what he said, not what Princess Celestia or any of the other gods said. Some listened to Cadence as well, but given that she still had not sat still for longer than five seconds, and that was to only to almost crush him in hugs and kisses, he understood the why of it. The weird thing of it was that Celestia said that they expected Cadence and Shining to take over running the empire. He protested of course, he might have made Guard Captain, but he wasn't fit to lead an Empire. Cadence had never expressed a desire for anything like that either. Besides they were still supposed to be on their honey moon. Teacup 'helpfully' pointed out that his wife had the Crystal Heart branded on her ass, so she was probably related to the last bit of proper royalty the Crystal Empire had had before Solomon took over. Of course by association and more importantly 'deed', so were he and his siblings. Over half the empire had seen his battle with the dreadnought and his siblings fights with the witch wolf, juggernaut, and saw the end result of Twilight's fight with Sombra. The Sparkles were on their way to becoming legendary folk heroes of the Crystal Empire. Shining just wanted to rest and recover from this, he was no royal, he was a guard. Still since the Crystal Ponies were listening to him now that they all were more aware of themselves, as well as blatantly ignoring all the Gods walking around, he relented to a point. The first thing he did was draw up a battle plan. Recovery and care for the wounded was first. Securing of all the new prisoners, release of all the old ones, and a full sweep of every part of the Empire was next. Turned out there were only three old prisoners, and they did their own thing. He was more than happy to let them, well two of them any way. The two buffalo left. Iinii and Mahok clearly had catching up to do. Once he was done talking with Princess Celestia and the griffon god, Lord Thunderbolt offered his assistance in dealing with any thing else that might crop up and filled in any blanks he might know of on how things were around here before the empire vanished. Shining Armor was going to pair him with Comet Trail, but the griffon seemed rather aggravated by the nox-cal, so Shining put him with a wing of standard pegasi to check out a few places. He was not happy with the report on why there were no more unicorn or pegasi crystal ponies, though he had no reason to disbelieve Thunderbolt. It did make him far more leery of what Rahs might have been when Discord touched him, and far more satisfied at what had happened to the dreadnought and witch wolf. The third prisoner, a one Rhedric Pelt, hero of the Crystal Empire, sadly not self proclaimed, took care of himself as well. As in he hit on Princess Celestia, and was ignored. He hit on Cadence and nearly got thrown off the balcony by Shining himself. Then he hit on Pinkie Pie and got knocked right the buck out by an angry, and rather possessive, butter yellow pegasus. The Element Bearers themselves went back to working on the faire and trying to help out any way they could. Rarity's …. guest.... was slapped in chains, a few dozen magic suppression rings, a gag, tossed in a cell in the dungeon and was watched over by Teacup, who was practically frothing at the mouth in hope that Sombra tried something. He got White to have his rabbits guide the rescue teams to any one trapped, injured, or still out of phase. Kaz dealt with the fires, Fledge acted as messenger between the base camp and the empire, and he had Princess Celestia advising him. Ascepius was still running a medic triage, though at last check she was preparing to vaccinate every crystal pony in the entire city against modern viruses. Martle was tasked with watching Cadence as she set up a new shipping room and Burlap went back to sleep in the middle of the road ignoring everyone. Lockheed did his own thing as well. Despite his arrogance, he still tried to help how he could. He joined another of the flight teams to scout the perimeter and see if anything else came up. Food and necessities were scrounged and passed out and the least damaged buildings and homes were turned into shelters for those who had become homeless due to the fires. Messages were sent back and forth between the Crystal Empire and Equestria thanks to Fledge and the supply trains would be coming along with engineers and construction ponies. Another wave of Guards would come in and all the nox-cal present would ship back out, due to the Crystal Ponies reactions to them. It would take some time for the nox-cal to be accepted here given they were once Nightmare Moons warriors. All and all, this had been a long day and he was glad it would be over soon. Granted it looked like Shining Armor had a lot of long days in his future.