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// And so It Begins 
// Story: Attack on the Crystal Empire 
// by Lawliet13 
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And so It begins



The gilded shoes felt odd on her feet; the additional metal wrapping around her hooves made her gait awkward and honestly a tad uncomfortable. 

He looked at her with troubled eyes, “They aren’t meant to be comfortable.” 

He glanced around at the room of empty racks only a stray lance or sword lay along a bench or propped up against the wall. The armory was nearly empty, every soldier at the ready, and many foals, having been drafted, were being trained as they spoke.

 “None of this is meant to be comfortable, Twi. If we… if you get through this, promise me one thing” Shining Armor turned his blue eyes, wizened through bloodshed and grief, towards his sister. “Don’t get used to the bloodshed and the death.”

Twilight paused before nodding, placing her muzzle against his neck in comfort. She knew better than to lift her hoof in an embrace, the razor-sharp edge was meant to hurt not heal. She wished it hadn’t come to this, everypony wished it hadn’t come to this. Yet, it had. Before diplomacy is what she would have suggested, fought for. Now? With a Princess and sister-in-law dead she couldn’t help but hope they could fight their way out of this.  She stepped away glancing in the mirror as she passed. Her lavender coat was hard to spot under the light chainmail and gold-gilded bracers.  On her crown, she placed a diadem fitted with sapphires and emeralds. The element of magic would do her no good now since harmony was far from everypony’s mind. Instead, she chose crystals specially shaped to amplify spells and magic. On her breast was the emblem of the sun, a sign that she was chosen by Celestia to fight.

 As a general, she had studied hard to learn the ways of battle, scrounging through age-old texts. Yet, few were to be found of recent conflicts given there had been peace for a millenia and the only battles she knew were won by sheer dumb luck and friendship. She trusted Shining to give her well-trained stallions to fight under her. Raising a hoof to watch the light slide down the blade, the mare prayed they would ne’er be dulled by skin or bone. Her main task was to organize the troops and watch the battle from afar and still, she had to be careful. Magic wouldn’t be enough to protect her. They’d shattered Shining’s shield and heart by merely sidestepping the laws of magic.  They could still be defeated by it, but it was not the cure-all as the unicorns, or anypony, once held belief in. 

Twilight Sparkle sighed, taking one last moment to wallow in despair before putting on a front of determination. She now stood at the highest parapet, the crystal heart weakly pulsing behind her. Two small and lithe pegasai mares, their other defining feature hidden under their own sky-iron, stood beside her. They also sported razor-sharp shoes and a similar adornment of sharpened metal to their wings. They were to be her guards. A first line of defense should the enemy try a more direct approach and take her out. She tried to object to the two being spared for her but to be honest, she needed all her focus for the spells she would cast over the battlefield. The first of which she was ready to cast. A simple surveillance spell, allowed her to see the battlefield and take note of all the squadrons on land and in the air. She closed her eyes, focusing her energy. For this spell, she imagined herself a spider and the spell a net, every life a vibration along her web. As the final thread laid itself down, commotion stirred on the battlement below.

Shining galloped along shouting orders, armor now obscuring his white coat. “The attack had begun! They’ve breached the wards!” Further out she could feel the wards her brother placed just beyond the edge of the city. To the north, they bowed, and cracks formed along their magical surface. She counted down the seconds as the cracks grew larger, trying to steady the quakes in her hooves. 

The northern wards shattered and an army came pouring forth to be met by electrified pegasi and stampeding earth ponies. Yet, the first mark to hit was from the unicorns. Set back from the cavalry they acted as archers firing bolts of pure magic from their horns. It struck down the soldier and more oozed in to take its place. She gathered up more magic and sifted through her arsenal. Her violet eyes pierced the horizon and she gave one last prayer that this would all be worth it in the end.  She bowed her head and raw magic poured forth like a cannon blast at the bottle-necking of bodies pouring through the broken wards. The spell ended and her lungs were already heaving from the sheer exertion.  She could feel the brief pause in the enemy's forces before they poured through once more. 

She braced herself for a long night. “And so it has begun”