Ponies filled the palace, and they were still coming. They were directed along as quickly as they could be, ever upwards to occupy every room the palace had. The city was becoming empty, save that one jagged crystal point that stood in defiance to the creeping shadow that approached.
"Head up the stairs." Shining pointed the way. "Just follow the direction of the guards. You're all safe here." He hoped, but didn't say that part out loud.
Twilight nodded at the other mares. "They don't like the crystal heart."
Fluttershy was quick to add, "Oh, no. The animals could see when it twinkled, and every time it did, they'd look like they were uncomfortable."
Rainbow clapped her hooves together. "That's good intel. They're coming from that away." She pointed the way. "But there are a lot of them. Like a lot lot."
Cadance sighed gently. "Shining can confirm that."
Shining approached rapidly. "No stragglers, thankfully. Just about everypony is accounted for, inside or at least in the line to get inside."
"That is good." Cadance met him, nose to nose. "I wanted this to be a happy event."
"An invasion?" He quirked an ear. "Hard to make that--"
She put a hoof on his lips. "Shining, we are expecting a foal."
He went stock still. The mares began to clap wildly and stomp the floor, which spread outwards, others on the same floor soon joining in the cheer.
"I mean..." Shining awkwardly shuffled. "Yay... Uh, let's do our part to make sure we can enjoy that."
"Let's." She nudged him away. "Let's protect our ponies, and our foals."
Umbra had a huge smile on her face. "Congratulations!" she joined as many others had already blurted. "This is big, wow!" And then it clicked. "Oh... Oh! Oh.... I'm going to feel that." Cadance and Shining looked at her oddly. "What? You expect a lady giving birth to have the mental bandwidth to block that?" She poked Shining. "That goes for you too. Congratulations, you're gonna feel it too."
Shining paled at his snout. "Oh!" he blurted out, much as Umbra had, joining in that realization. "That... Well, I'm now fully invested in making sure this goes as smoothly as possible." He laughed awkwardly, stepping away to see to other things.
Cadance rubbed her cheek gently. "Poor stallion. That is not something they should have to worry about." Her eyes turned to Rarity. "Did you find anything?"
Rarity put a leg around Spike and drew him in closer. "With my #1 mining assistant at my side, we got all kinds of lovely gems."
Spike held up the basket overflowing with gems. "We thought Umbra might use them."
Umbra leaned in, distracted by them. "Crystals... Yeah! Nice." She sniffed softly. They smelled... Good? Good in a way conjured crystals didn't. She licked over her lips, considering them.
Spike blinked softly. "You look like I do when I see a really nice ruby. Do you eat crystals?"
Umbra started at that. "Huh? No! I like using crystals, not eating them. I like shaping them, and enchanting them." She began to clap with thoughts of what she could do with them. "And these just seem like really good quality ones."
Applejack raised a hoof. "Me an' Pinkie Pie poked around the town."
"Pinkie Pokes!" cried Pinkie, poking at the air. "Ponies are nervous, but they trust us." She waved a hoof at all the gathered guardians, including the Mane Six, Cadance, Umbra, and the departed Shining. "If we don't act all scared, I think it'll help a lot."
Cadance nodded at that. "Sensible. We are the face of the empire. Let's be brave in front of peril. Now is not the time to panic." She turned her attention on Umbra. "We may be the last line of defense. Speaking of that--" She thrust a hoof at the stairs. "Fetch the crystal heart!"
A guard saluted and charged past the moving line to get the artifact. "We can't have that falling into enemy hooves." Cadance nodded with certainty. "They will be on us soon. Be ready."
The Crystal Empire didn't have a wall around it. That let them grow as they pleased, but meant there was nothing to hope to hide behind in the case of an attack. The palace was the best they had. Full of worried ponies, the guards stood at the ready, some on each floor, as much to convince the non-combatants that they were watched and protected as anything else.
Glass shattered in the distance, but it was coming closer. Rainbow vanished in a streak, only to loop back down quickly. "They're coming! All directions." She waved wildly. "The windows are busting as they do. They aren't even touching them!" The sound of shattered glass was coming closer and closer. The low roar of countless hoofsteps echoed up the stairs.
The guards lowered their spears, directed at the stairs that any creature would have to climb to come inside.
The outside world dimmed, as if it had become night outside, washing up and over the crystal palace as a guard scrambled up, heaving and bloodied. "Here!" He threw the crystal as he flopped. Another guard caught it in their mouth and hurried behind the defensive line.
Alarmed cries and helpless yelps came from the line that hadn't made it into the palace. Those that were close broke into a panicked gallop away from those stairs and the shadow that was engulfing their less-fortunate neighbors.
"Stand strong," barked Shining Armor, bringing down a hoof with a loud clop of metal against crystal. With a glowing horn, he threw down a shield over the stairs. There were no other ponies past it, at least any that had made it far enough to have a hope. "Get the civilians upstairs." Wailing and crying, they were rushed away by several guards as Shining advanced. "We cannot give up these stairs. This is our last line." It had been their only line. The idea of defending the entire city against such a large army, unthinkable. "For the princess!"
"For the princess," echoed the other guards, spears returning to ready positions, where they had strayed and wavered at the frightful meeting of the enemy.
"For the empire," shouted Shining, encouraging them to shout and yell instead of cower in terror. His magic faded from the stairs. He'd need it later, but that moment of reprieve was enough to get the ponies moving towards the upstairs and get the guards back in position.
Umbra took a slow breath. "Alright... Alright, time to get serious."
"You could say that again, dear." Rarity perked an ear. "How do you propose that, exactly?"
"Twilight." Umbra turned to the arcane-gifted one. "You know how to zap things, right?"
"Yes." Twilight inclined her head. "I plan to if I have to, why?"
"If I could borrow your zaps." She reached over to the basket of crystals. "We could have two zappers instead of one."
Twilight blinked with wide eyes. "You're going to make a magic item, right now?! Doesn't that take time?"
"Ideally? But this isn't ideal." She took a big bright blue gem in her hoof. "So, if you would." She willed an opening into the gem, diminishing it faintly. The more she magically altered it, the more damage was done. Natural gems were only natural once. But it remained an unideal situation. "I need all the zaps, right here." She pointed at the hole created.
"This is incredibly reckless." Despite that, she lowered her horn to be on level with the opening and with a bright glow, began firing wildly into it, the gem rattling and shaking. She was blasting hard enough to shatter the poor thing. It was only Umbra's own magic working on it, making the crystal absorb the magic into itself, to become one with it instead of being overwhelmed that prevented the destruction.
"Not fast enough." Pinkie grabbed Twilight by the tail.
"No, Pinkie!"
But Pinkie was not one to be stopped. She began pumping the tail up and down wildly, forcing a blast out of Twilight with each downward pump. It was all Umbra could do but to struggle to keep up with the outpouring of bright arcane magic and avoid the gem exploding into bits. "Okay okay! That's enough! Stop! Stop!"
Pinkie released Twilight, who flopped to the side, heaving for breath. "All ready?" She leaned in closer to Umbra, grinning widely.
"Seal it up." She willed the break closed, damaging the gem a second time, but she was sure with only those two touches, the gem was still quite a nice rock, able to hold the magic placed in it. "And invest..." She began focusing her own power on it, shadow pouring from her eyes, horn and even mouth as she grit her teeth, trying to get it done all the faster. "Invest..."
Even as Umbra worked to sacrifice the small part of herself needed to make a magic item truly complete, the shadowy assailants did not wait. The stairs began to thunder. Spears met shadowy forms and battlecalls went out. The fight had begun in earnest. There was no more waiting.
"AJ, time to mix it up." Rainbow pointed at the action even as she took off, zipping towards it an intense speed that was only paused when she slammed hoof-first into the face of one of the shadowy ponies. She could feel the thump of hoof against flesh, something breaking, but it was rearing back, parting with teeth, too many teeth as it made to snap at Rainbow Dash with nothing but a great mouth.
The fight was on, against the force of nightmares. "On it!" Applejack charged in as she ran her hoof down, brushing a pendant that had been hidden before into sight, her element of harmony. She met the first shadowy thing with a great uppercut, only for her hoof to pass through shadowy nothing. The pony was behind her, lashing out its hooves in a powerful buck. "Hey now!" she grunted, spinning to face even as her side ached from impact. "Only one pony 'round here allowed to buck things."
"You would say that to your mother." It was as if another pony was stepping free of the shadowy pony, a familiar pony, gazing at Applejack with disgust. "I thought I raised you better than that."
"M-mom?!" Applejack scrambled back. "It can't be! Yer... Yer!" Her mother slugged her across the face with a mean hook of a hoof, sending Applejack spinning back.
"So disappointing." Pear Butter approached, a flash of darkness at her eyes. "I should have listened to mom. What a worthless pony... If I had, maybe that wouldn't have happened. It's your fault, you know. Entirely your fault. And now it's time to pay for what you did."
Shining landed with a crash on a shadowling that had been menacing one of his guards. "We are the guardians of Equestria," he boomed loud enough to be heard over the chaos. "We will not falter!" He lashed out his hind legs, catching another combatant about to rush behind him. "Watch for each other!"
Which is when it suddenly became quiet. There were no shadows, save for the darkness just down the stairs. Just guards.
Too many guards. With a startled gurgle, one guard slumped to the side, a royal spear jutting from his side. "He did it, I saw him!" One guard pointed at another. That guard protested his innocence even as he was tackled by others. None of them were ready when the next attack came, another guard slumping to the ground, their breath little more than rattles.
"Even your friends are being let down," scolded Pear Butter, approaching Applejack at a slow and steady pace. "Ya really messed it all up, from the top to th' bottom. Are ya even an Apple?"
Pinkie looked side to side at all the chaos unfolding before her. "Uh..." A musical number didn't come immediately to mind to fix it all. "This is bad."