Heart of Magic
Prologue
The sun rose high up into the air on this late day. The border town of Rock Haven at the edge of Equestria was a quiet place generally. It didn't used to be this way though, Lemon Hearts could still recall when Celestia had asked her to personally see to coming down here to keep the town safe from the threat of changelings. Of course the evil changelings slowed their assaults over the past year or so, until now where no changelings had been seen in three whole months. According to what Lemon Heart had read in the reports, King Thorax was pleased by this development as it meant Chrysalis had finally stopped trying to conquer Equestria. Yet Lemon Hearts had been in Celestia's school. She knew better than to ever assume things would be so easy with such a deadly threat against them. Something was going on, and her nerves were on edge with every step.
There was a reason why Celestia choose Lemon Hearts to personally lead this particular village to safety. She, much like a good portion of the higher ups in Equestria's military, was an alicorn. Ever since the windigo war had ended a lot of alicorns had appeared. She thought it must have had something to do with the return of the alicorn empire, but she wasn't a scroll master, or a Seeker, or any kind of intelligent pony, at least not by her reckoning. She was a hardened warrior, who lamented losing a childhood to Celestia's school on rare occasion, but was more than thankful for it otherwise.
Lemon Hearts flew around the town looking over the villagers walking about their daily lives. None of them were too much concerned with the threat that was on the horizon. She wished she could keep it that way. That's why she was in charge though, to keep them safe, and to keep the borders clean of enemies. In this respect she had sent scouts out on recon missions at least twice a day. She was waiting to hear back from one of the teams now in fact. She swore if she caught anymore of her soldiers fooling around behind Lover's Rock she was going to start making ponies do laps around the entire settlement.
She flew around the town once more, looking back at the giant clock firmly attached to the side of the town hall. it was six pm already. An hour late for their report. Even fooling around shouldn't take this long. They must have met trouble. Changeling surprise attack perhaps. Lemon Hearts flew toward the barracks on the edge of town. She needed to send another, more reliable team out to go fetch her missing scouts. This close to Southern Equestria meant dangerous beasts, possible dragons, and who knows what else. A shiver ran down her spine as she approached the barracks.
"Come on, Lemon, get it together. It's just another routine problem." Lemon Heart may have said this to herself, but her heart couldn't believe it at all.
For a moment she felt something in the air. An electrical spark that made every hair on her body stand up on end. The world in front of her exploded. Wood flew by and the scream of metal and flames flew past her as she felt the air whooshing by. Her back hit the ground sending pain shooting through her spine and she found herself rolling a few times in reverse. The ringing in her ears was complemented by the taste of copper in her mouth.
Lemon Hearts looked up to see she was thrown a good couple hundred feet away from a flaming ruin of wood, metal, and charred ponies. It took a moment but she quickly realized it was the barracks.
The barracks had exploded!
She jumped up to her hooves and tried to shake the dizziness in her head. Ahead of her she watched as three figures stepped out of the flames. There was a blue bubble shield surrounding them, and each one wore a suit of golden armor decorated with lines of crimson paint. Each one of the ponies before her had unicorn horns, and wings; it was a trio of alicorns.
Lemon Hearts spat a crimson glob to the side and started a march toward them. Her horn was already glowing with anger and fury. "Who the tartarus do you think you are coming into MY town and killing MY ponies!"
The leader of the trio stepped forward. Her dark indigo fur steamed as the shield dropped. "You? a fake Alicorn? I would never think such a pitiful excuse for a being would dare to speak to me like that."
Lemon Hearts didn't need anymore information, she knew exactly where these ponies came from. "The Alicorn Empire."
"Oh, how nice to see at least part of your horse brain works well enough to recognize your betters on sight. Now bow before us and die swiftly."
"Heh, you think that I'm going to bow before a bunch of murderers?" Lemon Hearts glared directly at the mare. Things were starting to connect in her mind. The changelings vanishing. The scouts missing. These alicorn were involved somehow. Yet she didn't have the ability to defeat them here and then. She had to do something first. Lemon Hearts put every ounce of magic she had into a single spell.
The blue mare's horn lit up and the bubble reappeared around them. She was clearly expecting a retaliation. Of course she was going to get one, but not before Lemon Hearts did her duty.
Lemon Hearts spoke loud and clear. "Princess Celestia, we are under attack by the alicorn empire!"
The magic from her horn collected into a ball of golden light and went flying into the air and toward the north at the speed of light. The blue mare's eyes widened. "No you don't! Jacks get that orb!"
The orange stallion jumped into the air. He was fast. Almost Rainbow Dash fast. Yet Lemon Hearts wasn't done. A beam of golden energy whipped out from her horn latching onto the stallions rear leg and dug into his flesh burning at his fur. She whipped her head around swinging him around in a circle and into a building behind her. He went through the wall with bricks collapsing into a pile after him. Lemon Heart focused her attention once more on the blue mare. "You made one huge mistake when you attacked us. You didn't kill me first!"