//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: Captured in the Crystal Empire Part 3 // Story: Luster Dawn Friendship Successor // by SamSwordsman123 //------------------------------// Captured in the Crystal Empire Part 3 The two mind-controlled Crystal guards looked at Luster. One a unicorn like her, the other a muscular Earth Pony. Luster silently hoped that they thought she was one of them. Maybe she could trick them into thinking she was. But that was not the case, for they had heard her just seconds ago. “Time to save your friends?” one of them repeated. “You’re not a pony of our guard,” the other said. The Earth Pony was on her in an instant, raising her front legs into the air and forcing her to stand up on her back ones. The unicorn stood facing her and removed the helmet from her head. “Seems you’re really skilled with magic to be able to resist the mind control spell that Starcutter put on all of those helmets and remove it.” “Should we put a magic suppression ring on her and lock her in the cells?” the one holding her asked. “No, we can make her our very first new mind-controlled recruit,” the unicorn levitated the helmet she’d disenchanted back onto the shelf. “She managed to get in here without detection until now. Must know some fancy spells, could be useful. Though by the looks of it she could use more workouts before she’s able to wear all the armor.” He then removed Luster’s breastplate and looked at her flank. “A rising sun eh? Well little Miss Infiltration pony, you’ll rise up to a high place in our guard as we take over Equestria for King Starcutter. I’m sure you can shine as bright as a sun in our ranks once we give you proper training.” “Should we interrogate her first?” The unicorn shook his head again. “She’ll tell us everything once we put a new helmet on her.” The unicorn was definitely the smarter of these two. Luster struggled against the strong Earth Pony holding her, but it was useless. She wasn’t strong enough or possessed any skill when it came to using her hooves for physical attacks. She had no knowledge of how to escape hoof grips. She watched from the corner of her eyes as the other pony set the breastplate down on the shelf with the others, then picked up a new helmet. He slowly levitated it over so that it was directly over her head. She grunted, and finally, resorted to the one thing she was really good at. Magic. She wrapped her golden magic around the helmet, now half it shined gold, the other half red. Luster tried to push it back at its levitator to strike him in the face. But he managed to stop it, trying to push it back at her. For a moment Luster did her best to keep it from getting closer, but then an idea occurred to her and she stopped pushing. Instead she pulled, having the helmet fly at her hard while ducking. The helmet hit the guard restraining her in the face. “Oh… ow!” he exclaimed. Luster seized the opportunity to free herself, pulling out of her captor’s hooves. She then aimed her horn at the unicorn and shot the same dispelling enchantment at his helmet. The unicorn stopped the spell he had been preparing to fire at her as he regained control of himself. “What’s going on?” he asked. Before Luster could tell him, the Earth Pony guard pounced on her. His eyes glowed red in anger. “What the- what are you doing to that unicorn?” the freed guard asked. “He’s being controlled by that helmet!” Luster shouted as she was pinned down, grunting as she felt the weight of the pony on top of her. The other unicorn hesitated, apparently not remembering everything that had happened. For a moment Luster feared he might not act quickly enough and she would be overpowered. The earth pony drew a magic suppressing ring from his pocket and was about to put it on her horn. If she lost her magic, she would also lose her only chance of saving her friends. But as he saw the red glow in his comrades eye he believed the unknown pony being assaulted. He pulled the Earth Pony off her and removed his helmet from his head. The Earth Pony gaped as he too looked around in confusion. “What’s happening?” he asked. Luster looked at the two of them. This could be her chance to save her friends. She picked up the helmet that she had unenchanted and put it back on her head. “Um… Miss. Only guards are allowed to use our helmets,” the Earth Pony said. “I don’t recognize you… are you a new member?” “No but- “What’s going on here?” Two new guards had appeared in the doorway to the armory. They must have been attracted by all the noise like Luster shouting. Luster cringed and thinking quickly, picked up the Earth Ponies helmet. “Just a little… uh… situation,” she said, trying to put on a fake bad guy face. “This imbecile here tripped and dropped his helmet! We’ll put it back on now!” “Excuse me?” the Earth Pony said. “Shut up!” Luster shouted, slapping the Earth Pony. “Ow! What are you- “Hmm. Fine. Carry on.” The two new guards left. Luster let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry, I had to fool them. Every guard in the Crystal Empire has been put under some kind of mind control spell that’s on their helmets,” she said to the guard. “Its true, you were pinning her down,” the unicorn said. “Your eyes were glowing red.” “Oh boy. We gotta do something. How can we help you Miss?” “My friends are in the Crystal Dungeons,” Luster explained. “I could use a hoof getting them out.” Luster removed the enchantment from the Earth Ponies helmet as well. This allowed both guards to lead her down to the Dungeons beneath the Castle. She looked just like one of them. The red glow only appeared occasionally on the helmets so it wouldn’t be too noticeable hopefully. The dungeons were spacious, Luster saw. But fortunately, her friends were in the first cell she saw when she entered. River Song sat at the very front of the crowd stuck behind the bars along with Gallop. Luster couldn’t see Yelena though. As Luster approached the cell, River’s eyes widened in recognition. “Luster!” the Kirin exclaimed in joy. This caused Luster to cringe as yet another pair of mind-controlled guards looked at her. They stood in front of River Song, watching her carefully. Luster noticed that all the unicorns had magic suppressing rings on their horns. But River Song’s horn wasn’t shaped the same way so they couldn’t fit a ring on it. For a moment Luster feared that River Song had given her away. “This mare a friend of yours, Kirin? She the one you journey here to visit? Too bad, she’s one of us.” Both River and Gallop were looking at Luster wide eyed. Luster cleared her throat. “I’ll be happy to watch over my friend here!” she said. “You guys go take a break.” They saluted her and walked off. Luster than stepped up to the bars. “I’m gonna get you creatures out of here,” she whispered. River and Gallop both let out breathes of relief as they realized Luster was not under mind control. River Song grinned widely. “I knew you would come to save us!” the Kirin said. “Where’s Yelena?” Luster asked. “Chained up in the back of the cell,” Gallop said. “We need to free her. Can’t leave without her.” The unicorn guard accompanying Luster passed a set of keys through the bars. “Free your friend, quietly.” Gallop took the keys in his mouth, and moved back to the back of the cell. River Song meanwhile began to whisper to the fellow prisoners. “We’re going to be freed. Help is here!” This caused the ponies and other creatures inside to look at Luster and her new companions hopefully. They began to chatter excitedly. “Get us out of here!” “Yeah!” “Yeah!” The sudden commotion drew the attention of other guards in the dungeons. They were lead by a black pony with a white mane and gold eyes that seemed to pierce Luster like a knife. “What’s going on? These prisoners are sounding rather joyful!” Luster grit her teeth. There was no end to this! The prisoners became silent as they realized their excitement had possibly exposed their impending chance at escape. Luster hoped that maybe she could have talked her way out of this like she had the last couple times. But her luck had run out at last. “You’re not a member of the Crystal Empire’s guards! You’re not wearing a breastplate! You don’t have the physique required for females to wear one well, and I know the face of every mare that’s joined. We don’t have any pink ones!” the unicorn who noticed the prisoners being joyful said. He used his magic to take hold of her helmet and remove it from her head. She let out a gasp of surprise. “This helmet isn’t enchanted anymore,” he said. “Looks like somepony is very gifted with magic.” “As always, you don’t miss a detail Sharp Eye,” the unicorn guard who had accompanied Luster said. The one who’d seen through Luster’s act, Sharp Eye, smirked. “Seems you’re free as well, Street Smart and Hard Hunk.” “I can free you too!” Luster said, hoping that maybe adding at least one more to her numbers might make a difference. Another golden blast shot from her horn with great accuracy. But Sharp Eye didn’t even dodge it. Luster’s spell hit his helmet. But no red light shined off it as it did so, and Sharp Eye grinned before firing a black beam of his own at her (much to her to surprise). This pony was not mind controlled like the others. This pony was fully in on Starcutter’s plan of his own free will it seemed. Luster was nearly hit by the dark beam. She had never seen a unicorn that used black magic before. But Street Smart put up a shield of blue light (which must have been his natural color when not under the helmets influence) in front of her. “Get your friends and get out of here!” he said. “We’ll hold them off!” Luster nodded, she turned to River Song. “Get the rings off the unicorns!” The Kirin nodded and at last activated the magic she hadn’t been able to call upon for fear of being harmed. But now they had a chance. She began to remove the rings from the unicorn’s horns, and one by one they did the same with the others. “Out of the way ponies!” a familiar voice yelled. The ponies in the cell scurried sideways as Yelena came charging forward. The Yak rammed the bars to the cell, her strength enough to break them down. “Yelena smash!” Yelena said. With the door down, the raw numbers of the prisoners proved too much for the handful of guards in the dungeons. They needed reinforcements. “Sound the alarm!” Sharp Eye ordered. One of the mind-controlled guards ran to a panel on the wall and pressed his hoof to it. A loud ring filled the dungeons. Soon more guards rushed into the room. The unicorns and River Song fired spells from their horns, but the Royal Guard was much better trained for combat than civilians were. They quickly began to take down the escaped prisoners and blocked their attacks. “We need somepony with a lot more magic power!” Luster said as she deflected a spell aimed at River Song. “We need Princess Flurry Heart!” Street Smart said. “She’s up there!” Luster looked up and saw a cage suspended high above the ground with a single pony inside. Surrounding herself in golden aura, she flew up and saw that it was indeed Princess Flurry Heart, the alicorn’s wings were tied to her back, a gag in her mouth and a magic suppressing ring on her horn. The rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire tried to speak through her gag. “Hold on,” Luster said before using her magic to remove the gag on her mentor’s niece. “What are you trying to say?” “Look out!” Flurry shouted. A mind-controlled Pegasus grabbed onto Luster, the contact broke her concentration and her flying spell stopped working. She instinctively kicked at the Pegasi, which caused him to lose his grip on her. With a yell she fell toward the ground. “Luster!” Gallop shouted in concern as he looked up at her shout. He leapt up at her and held out his forelegs, catching her before she could hit the floor. “Phew, thanks Gallop!” Luster said. “No problem,” he said as he set her back on her hooves. “Thanks for coming to rescue me and the others. I didn’t really know if you were going to- “Uh… smash now talk later!” Yelena said as she wrestled with several Earth Ponies. Looking around Luster saw that the guards were had nearly managed to put all the prisoners back in their cell. They wouldn’t last much longer. They needed to escape somehow, and fast. Luster looked back up at the caged Flurry Heart. Once again, she flew up there and looked at Princess Flurry Heart. “Please get this ring off my horn! I need to help!” Flurry said. Luster nodded. Using her magic once again she removed the ring on the Princess’s horn. Flurry removed the ropes on her wings and then fired a beam that split the bars of her cage. Its floor plummeted to the ground, Flurry spread her wings and flew through the dungeons, firing spells at her own guards. “I don’t know what Starcutter did to make you all turn on me! But I will see him answer for this treason!” Flurry said. The naturally born alicorn’s power was formidable, but her guards were too many. She managed to take down many of them but was soon hit by Sharp Eye and fell to the floor. Luster landed in front of the Princess, her friends coming up beside her as she put up a shield around them. “We need to get out of here!” Luster said. “No! I can’t abandon my kingdom!” Flurry said as she got back up. “Princess there no time! Yaks know when time is to fight, now is not!’ Yelena said. “Yaks regroup and fight another day!” “If we don’t get word to Princess Twilight, more of Equestria could fall! Fast!” Gallop said. “Then there won’t be anything good happening in Equestria!” River Song stated. Street Smart approached with a few ponies that he’d managed to prevent from getting recaptured. “Go, get to your Aunt Princess! We’ll hold them off!” He and Hard Hunk both charged at Sharp Eye and the remaining guards. Luster looked at the ponies that they’d be leaving behind. But they had no choice. They had to get to Princess Twilight and tell her what was going on. She looked at Princess Flurry Heart, who was tearing up. “I just started ruling this kingdom, but I’ll be back!” the alicorn shouted as she lit up her horn and teleported Luster, her friends, and the handful of other lucky escaped prisoners straight to Canterlot. Gallop, River Song, and Yelena all sighed in relief. “Yay! We’re free! We’re safe!” River leapt for joy. “Yelena glad to not be in dungeon anymore.” “Glad we’re out of there!” Gallop said, before looking around. “Hey… where’s Georgia?” Luster gasped. “She’s still back in the Empire!” ________________________***_______________________ Night came on the Crystal Empire as Grogar stood in front of the doors to the Palace with Star Cutter and Sharp Eye by his side. He was wrapped in his blue cloak to prevent anyone from recognizing him. It was doubtful that would happen of course, seeing as there were no wanted posters out for him and everypony assumed he was still in banishment, but best not to take chances. Grogar held the Ruby of Reign in front of the gathered crowd, whose eyes were all now glowing red. He had his army of ponies ready. The first phase of his plan was complete. “Princess Flurry got away your Excellency,” Sharp Eye said. “It is of no concern, I have the army, what’s one alicorn against that?” Grogar asked. “Soon I shall have full power back, and then no pony can stop me.” Neither of them noticed the shadow of a black griffon flying away in the distance. “I’ll be back for you, my friends! I’ll just head to Ponyville like Luster told me and get Headmare Starlight!” Georgia said. Since Luster hadn’t gotten back with their friends as planned, the Griffon had assumed that she’d been captured as well. Now she could only fly back to Ponyville for help.