The princess Cadance soared the skies, her elegant frame moving in a quick and precise manner, all the way from the lower levels of her castle, towards the very top, her wings flapping with strenght and determination, as her eyes were set towards a light that came from the very top of the tower.
The building wasn't exactly shaking by now, enduring pretty well the growing earthquake down there, however, the ocassional shake was clear, the crystal structure holding its own against nature's wrath, a luck, wich seemed to not be shared by another buildings down there...
"DIVE!" The instructor shouted, the old mare leading a group of unicorn guards in a hallway, their horns shining bright as they galloped, eyes focused towards the city outside the palace, most of the guards looking surprised at best, or outright scared at worst "Keep moving, we need to get as many civilians safe!"
"Lead everypony away from any building, we don't know if they endure this this!" Shining armor shouted as he quickly teleported from the palace towards a nearby a house, quickly using his magic to catch a foal that fell from the shaking building "Are you okay?"
Shining armor asked the shaking foal, she nodded before a pegasus landed not too far
"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!" The pegasus shouted quickly hugging Shining armor taking the young foal on his back "It's nothing, hurry up and go with the guards, its somepony else inside the house?"
"N...no, I'm a single father" Explained the Stallion and Shining armor took an step back, a bit surprised, but soon nodded "Very well then, hurry up and be careful!"
The pegasus nodded and quickly flew away, the scared foal hugging the back of his father with all of his strenght, fighting back some tears of fright.
"Captain, the royal guard is mobilizing every single reserve towards the aid efforts, however, we are still too few right now, we cannot take care of the souther half of the city!" An armored mare quickly galloped towards Shining, bowing down to him before he shook his head "No, we can if we mobilize every single pegasi, deliver the message to everypony, I want every single pegasus soaring towards the south, I don't care they need to go withouth armor, we need every civilian safe with haste!"
"Roger that!" The mare spread her wings before jumping into the air, flapping quickly, flying with haste.
"ATTENTION EVERYPONY!" The voice of Cadance suddenly boomed, as a bright light came from the tower, almost blinding those who had the bad luck of look at it, however, it wasn't as blinding as one could expect, just leaving a slight headache that dissapeared in mere seconds "LISTEN TO THE ROYAL GUARD AND FOLLOW THEM, I WILL HOLD BACK THE TREMOR, BUT I NEED YOU TO MOVE WITH HASTE!"
Shining armor blushed a little upon hearing the princess voice, but quickly looked down, as the earth began to be covered in a soft pink light, one wich spread out from the base of the palace all around the city, softening the motions until they weren't capable of doing any damage.
"You heard my wife, let's go!" Shining armor shouted out loud to a group of unicorns, they quickly followed suit, galloping behind the white coated stallion "Hurry up everypony, we are waiting for you!"
As he ran leading the growing herd, he used his magic to open up the doors of the buildings, helping the ponies inside to leave faster, however, he a rather grim sight made him stop on his tracks for a moment.
There was a building, made of crystal like the others, but far bigger than a single house, Shining armor eyes widened in horror looking at it...
The crystal was broken, collapsed in a grim sight, as the building laid victim of its own weight, the nightlight making it look far more impactful, since, the crystal was made an absolute mess, most of the structure broken, a bit turned into nothing but dust, and some bits still standing.
"EVERYPONY, GALLOP TO SAFETY, AND TELL AN SQUAD OF UNICORNS TO COME HERE, THE CLINIC HAS COLLAPSED!" Shining armor ordered, as he ran towards the building, using both, his hooves and magic to move the debris away, with a rather desperate expression on his face, he didn't like this in the slightest "GO ON, PLEASE!"
A few foals cried, some stallions gasped, while most mares quickly joined the captain on his duty, trying to take away as many debris as they could, while the young ones quickly were dragged away by their fathers, towards safety.
"Hurry up!" A mare shouted as she kicked away a rather big crystal, her ears twitching a bit as she seemed to be desperate on cleaning up as much debris as she could, since she lacked both horns or wings, she was using her strenght in quite the noble endeavour, uncaring of the bruises she got against the hard crystal "I can hear something, there's someone on the other side!"
Shining armor felt his senses sharpening as the mare said that, and he quickly took a few steps backs, his horn lighting up quickly with an almost blinding light, making everypony stop in their tracks, quickly backing up, as a ray of pure magic came out of his horn, towards the debris.
"Thanks Celestia!" A voice could be heard from the debris, as the magical energy swarmed the crystal, lifting it into the skies as an smaller light came to sight as the crystal could no longer hold it down, this light was light brown colored, and formed an half sphere, and a rather big one underneath the debris "Go, go help everypony leave!"
Standing in the middle of the debris, there was a group of unicorn mares, using their magic to form a shield, they seemed rather tired, sweating and panting loudly, as they held the sphere of brown magic, a group of earth ponies tending to the sick and wounded in the middle of the sphere, the sight made Shining armor sight of relief as he laid the debris away from the group, leaving them unscathed, save a few bruises wich the nurses and medics were quickly taking care of.
"Thank you Captain!" The apparent leader of the unicorns said before bowing down, the magical sphere dissapearing as she and the other unicorns took a moment to breath, the group of earth ponies quickly galloping carrying the sick ponies, some them finishing the cleaning of the bruises of the wounded "Thankfully no one was badly wounded, just a few bruises captain, however, we will need some help to carry the sick"
"Spare no effort everypony we need to help them!" The same earth pony mare who was putting more effort into lifting the debris said, quickly followed by other mares who aided the medics and nurses "Captain, I'm sure somepony else is in need of your help, I promise i will try to get everypony to safety"
That same mare bowed in front of Shining armor, quickly offering up aid, aid wich Shining seemed a bit reluctant to accept, but after watching the civilians helping each other, he nodded before lighting up his horn.
"Very well then, good luck miss, if you need aid, just ask an unicorn to use a beacon spell the royal guard nearby will follow with upmost haste!"
Shining armor dissapeared in a flash of light, as the group resumed their gallop, running towards the outskirts of the crystal city, towards the green pastures.
As for Shining armor, he quickly reappeared in the middle of the city, galloping towards a group of guardsmares, the group saw him and quickly saluted, standing tall and firm.
"Situation Report gentlemares!" Shining armor asked as the lead mare, a pegasus spoke in a firm and disciplined tone "No casualties as of yet sir, everypony is being escorted to the outskirts, the pegasus groups are searching for civilians, the earth squads are removing debris to help those trapped, and the unicorn batallions are teleporting those unable to move"
"How many building have collapsed so far?!" Shining armor demanded to know and the second pegasus spoke out loud "The theatre and the tax office so far, the earthquake was stronger at the north, most houses northwards are barely standing, however thanks to the Princess Cadenza the damage was halted for now, most of the royal guard is deployed at the north because of this, however a sizable portion is distributed in the center and south!"
"Understood, something else I should be aware of?!" Shining armor asked, looking as if he just experienced a slight relief, however the third mare nodded "Yes, a group of settlers at the northern frontier, far beyond the barrier had arrived, they can barely speak but tried to ask an audience with the Princess, they brought dire news and seemed too scared to properly speak more than a few words, the message we could understand is grim to say the least!"
"Deliver" Shining ordered and the lead mare spoke quickly "They say that the Northern border is victim of earthquakes too, they lost comunication with the explorers and not even magic seems to be capable of allowing them to speak with the brave expedition, however, that's the only thing we could understand, the rest was nothing but mumbling and words with no logic behind them, with mentions about something hunting deers on the Northwest, nearby the Diamond mountain range"
"We shall deal with that later, return to duties!" Shining armor ordered as the pegasus quickly jumped off the ground flying towards the northern bits of the city as Shining armor, quickly lighted up his horn dissapearing in another flash of light.
The royal guard was doing quite the good work, everypony was getting to safety thanks to the effort of the stallions and mares in armor, however, the greatest effort came from a certain mare, wich was pretty much holding the entire city quiet and still by now.
The princess Cadence stood, alone in a chamber in her palace, her horn shining bright as she stood in front of a heart shaped crystal, sweating as her eyes were shut, she seemed to be in a deep concentration.
"Candance!" Shining armor appeared in a flash behind her, and that caused her to open her eyes, the second she did that, the floor began to quake way more violently than before making her quickly close her eyes, cadance Groaned as a thick ray of light came out of her horn tip, towards the crystal, the energy quickly flowing towards the supports of the heart shaped structure, flowing downwards as the floor returned to the calmer state "Shiny... can you give me a hoof?"
Shining armor nodded as he stood at the side of the taller pony, quickly channeling his magic towards the beam the princess was making, giving the princess some respite, however he quickly began to sweat and pant too.
"Do you feel that?" Shining armor asked looking atCadence and she whispered back "Yes... the cold... something... feels wrong with the heart..."
Both of them stood, side by side, shoulder against shoulder, magic beamed towards the crystal structure, slowly but surely getting closer and closer to each other, until their horns were touching, the magic no longer being a pair of beams wich fused at some point, but one single beam coming out of both of their horns.
It was quite the cute sight, with their eyes closed, their cheeks rubbing with each other, their horns together, it was like an embrance, as they simply stood together, working together, as the ground began to quake less and less until after a minute it was still, like if there wasn't any single earthquake.
Time passed, and after a few minutes everything seemed to be calming down outisde, after ten more minutes, a lone pegasus flew towards the pair and fell on her knees in a respect gesture.
"Princess Mi amore Cadenza, the population is finally safe at the outskirts" The pegasus spoke as she looked at the floor, then as both ponies heard her, their magic began to slow down, and slowly but surely they broke their closeness, as the eartquake resumed at all of its strenght... "Shiny... do you think the tower can endure this earthquake?"
"I... I think it can, however, I will gather as much unicorns guards as possible if the worst happens" Shining armor answered as Cadance couldn't avoid stealing a kiss from him, making him blush brightly "Good... I... I need to go to Canterlot, my magic is pretty much drained save for enought for a teleport spell and some others... my Aunt needs me"
"Go ahead Cadence I will protect the Crystal empire while you are there... just tell Twilight I said hi please, I barely could speak to her after her ascension" Shining armor quickly stole a kiss from Cadence and she smiled widely, embrancing him with her wings for a brief moment "Very well, I'll tell her you were 'leaking liquid pride' for her"
"Hehe" Shining smiled a bit, in playful manner as he looked towards the crystal heart, the tower shaking violently, and yet, it seemed as solid as ever, pretty much unfazed much to the surprise of the stallion, however, the alicorn princess quickly galloped towards the opening and jumped out the tower, spreading her wings and flying with upmost haste, her horn shining bright as she seemed to gather magic for something "Please... I really hope this works..."
Shining armor pointed his horn towards the crystal heart as he closed his eyes, casting an spell...