Seaquestria, Two days later
After two days of walking, running and some setbacks, the seven ponies and a dragon have finally reached their destination and met the Queen of the Hippogriffs, Queen Novo. The only problem was that Queen Novo had just told them that the Pearl of Transformation was not going anywhere.
Twilight could not believe her eyes. After that entire trip and her friends not taking the mission seriously except for Fluttershy and Spike, it was going to end in a failure? As Princess Skystar, Queen Novo's daughter, told them that they could stay there, she started to wondering what were they going to do now since she and her sister-in-law were the only princesses not turned to stone.
As the Princess of Friendship thought for solutions, some coughing interrupted her thinking and she, Fluttershy and Spike all turned to see Cadance coughing. Seeing that, Twilight's worry for Equestria was replaced with her worry for her sister-in-law.
During the two days journey, Cadance's coughing had started off small before gradually becoming serious. Fluttershy had noticed it first and checked her over and over again, but couldn't figured out what was making her sick. Spike also noticed and asked if she was okay, to which the Princess of Love nodded her head and told him she was okay.
After coughing, Cadance looked up to see Twilight, the shy mare and the dragon looking at her in concern. Seeing that, she smiled and replied. "Guys, I'm alright. How about this, I will try talking to Queen Novo. Maybe I can change her mind."
While three of them don't looked convinced about the Princess of Love being okay, they knew that they had no choice as the Queen of the Hippogriffs refused to give the Pearl.
Twilight sighed and said. "Alright, Cadance. Just be okay."
She nodded at the Princess of Friendship before swimming toward Queen Novo.
"Queen Novo..." Cadance started before she got interrupted.
"I already told you..." Queen Novo whirled around before she continued. "That Pearl is going no-hey, are you alright?" Novo stopped her rant and asked as she looked at the Princess of Love in concern.
Cadance raised an eyebrow in confusion before her eyes fell on the reflection of the air bubble she was using to breathe underwater. Her nose was bleeding. She could feel the wetness on her lips. She heard gasps and turned her head.
Twilight's friends and Princess Skystar looked at Cadance in shock. Her sister-in-law and Spike stared at her with concern while Fluttershy had both of her forelegs on her mouth.
After hovering in the water for a while, Cadance felt her throat squeezing and immediately swam toward the beach.
The rest looked at each other before swimming after her.
The Princess of Love jumped out of the water and landed on the sand, with the rest behind her.
Twilight, wearing a worried and concerned face, walked toward her sister-in-law as Cadance started to cough out blood and asked, "Cadance! Are you really alright?!" The Princess of Love turned her head at the question. Twilight, her friends and the two Hippogriffs all gasped in shock and horror at the sight before them.
Cadance's nose was bleeding, her mouth was now covered in blood and her eyes were red and swollen.
Twilight whimpered while reaching out her hoof, "C... C... Cadance...?"
"Twilight... I... don't... feel... so... good..." Was all she said before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and collapsed to the ground, her crown falling off her head.
"Cadance!!!" Twilight shouted out in panic.
The Princess of Friendship, with teary eyes, rushed forward and cradled her sister-in-law in her forelegs. Fluttershy also rushed forward and quickly checked Cadance's pulse while Spike joined Twilight's side, their face being worried.
"Her pulse is low. I think the orb did something to her." Fluttershy said as Cadance's breathing became erratic.
The rest all stared in shock before Applejack stepped forward and asked. "What's wrong with her, Twi?"
Her question was answered with an angry glare from Twilight who shouted at Applejack. "Oh, so now you noticed it?! Where was that when Cadance's condition started to get worse?!"
The Mane 5 excluding Fluttershy could not stopped themselves from reflexively cringing from the shouting of the Princess of Friendship as they started to feel guilty for not realising Cadance's health.
Sound of footsteps and hoofsteps caught their attention and the group, including the two hippogriffs, all turned to see two Storm King's soldiers with a airship in the sky behind them and Tempest who was looking at Cadance in shock and confusion.
"What the hay is wrong with her?" Tempest finally asked.
"How the hay am I supposed to know?! You're the one who threw the orb at my sister-in-law and made her like this!" Twilight snarled at her.
Tempest flinched back at the Princess of Friendship's accusation and immediately defend herself. "What are you talking about?! The Obsidian Orb was meant to petrify, not do whatever it's doing to her!"
Before Twilight could opened her mouth, a loud "thud" was heard from behind the Storm King's soldiers, getting every creatures' attention. They all gasped at the sight in shock and horror.
It was one of the Storm King's soldier, but it had multiple light blue crystal shards stabbed onto it's back, the rest of it's body being riddled with medium injuries.
The lieutenant rushed toward the fallen soldier and immediately asked. "Who did this?! Who did this to you?!"
The injured soldier weakly point it's finger toward the airship above, prompting Tempest and the rest to look up.
On the airship, there were three ponies standing on the deck which was littered with Storm King's soldiers corpses, their eyes giving off pure icy blue magical vapour trail from the corner of their eyes and out into the open air, looking at the Storm King's lieutenant. One was a pegasus stallion, wearing what appeared to an ancient royal armor and helmet. The other two were mares. One of them, a unicorn, was wearing a cloak with the hood on while the other one, a earth pony, was wearing a helmet that had small metal wings on it's sides and a weather armor tied by two belts and a metal medallion and was holding a spear.
The three ponies jumped off the airship and landed on the ground safely, with the help of the unicorn mare's magic, in front of Tempest and the two soldiers, just behind the shadow of the mountain.
Tempest flinched back in surprised by their action, but quickly regained her compose.
"Who are you three?!" Tempest demanded. They remained silent at the lieutenant's question before assuming a fighting stance.
"Not talking? Fine then! Let us get right down to business! Soldiers! With me!” She charged up her broken horn, charging forward, and unleashed her unstable magic to the three while two soldiers readied their spears and charged forward.
The three ponies split up, with the unicorn conjuring a bunch of light bluish crystal shards for the unstable magic to hit.
The pegasus flew up before flying down and headbutted his head into the first storm soldier's stomach. The storm soldier flew and landed on the ground, dropping it's weapon before recovering. To it's shock and confusion, light bluish crystals started to form around the pegasus's knuckles and wrists before they stopped, giving the winged pony a pair of crystal armored forelegs. Before the storm soldier could do anything, the stallion rushed forward and punched it's face with one of his armored forelegs, causing saliva and blood to fly out of it's mouth. The pegasus stallion continued to punch it's face multiple times before finishing up with an uppercut, causing the storm soldier to fly and crash into a large boulder, knocking the solider out of commission.
Meanwhile, the earth pony vaulted over the second storm soldier using her spear, before landing on her hooves and bucking it with both of her hindlegs. The soldier flew and crashed into tree, but quickly regained it's compose before turning around. The soldier swung it's spear toward her, to which the earth pony blocked it's attack with her spear. It attempted to strike at her again, but the pony quickly rushed forward and headbutted her head into the soldier's stomach, causing it to lose it's balance and fell on it's back. Before the soldier could get back up, the earth pony jumped on it's stomach and raised her spear with both of her forelegs, it's tip glittering with crystal, before bringing it down to the soldier's chest. The spear penetrated through the soldier's armor and into the heart, ending the second storm soldier's life.
Simultaneously, when the unstable magic hit and destroyed the crystal, Tempest frozen in shock when the unicorn was seen levitating a few crystal shards via her magic, before shooting them straight toward the lieutenant. Tempest quickly rolled over to her left, before firing another magic at the unicorn. The unicorn sidestepped, causing the magic to hit a nearby tree before following up a beam of light blue magic. Tempest could only widened her eyes before she was hit, flying a few meters before landing on the sandy ground. The lieutenant rolled and quickly got up to her hooves, only to get hit by a crystal shard straight into her left foreleg from the cloaked unicorn.
Tempest hissed in pain before an another pain in her left hindleg was shot through her flank, falling to the ground. She gasped before crying out in agony and looked down to find a spear embedded in her flank, but was unable to remove it as the pegasus suddenly landed in front of her.
He immediately shoved himself off the ground by his front hooves, wings flapping firmly as he wrapped his hindlegs wrapped around her throat. She gargled, grabbing at his limbs, before the pegasus stallion's wings twisted and flapped again, reversing his momentum and dragging the mare head-over-heels in a front roll that sent her crashing toward the mountain wall, her limbs spread apart. As Tempest tried to get back to her hooves, she felt her forelegs and her horn hardening into the rock. She took a look and saw that both of her forelegs and horn had been hardened by light bluish crystals, trapping her. Before the lieutenant could think about freeing herself, a bright blue light got her attention and turned to see the three ponies standing in front of her. Seeing that how the three ponies had just easily defeated her and her group of soldiers, she let her body sagged and looked down in defeat.
Seeing the Storm King's lieutenant giving up, the three ponies turned to see the group of six ponies, a dragon and two hippogriffs staring at them, their mouth opened in pure shock. The group continued to stare at the three ponies before Spike broke the silence.
"Who are you guys?" Spike started to ask, "And why did you help us? And also, how did you do all that?!" He finished with a raised voice.
The three ponies glanced at each other, before the cloaked unicorn giggled.
"Let's just say we have a lot of practice." She said with before she and her group walked out of the shadow while pulling back her hood.
The Mane 6 and Spike all gasped.
The pegasus stallion had a crystal dark blue coat covering his body, with his mane and tail being blue with three various shades, his eyes being yellow, wings being white with trailing edges of the feathers being pale blue and a cutie mark of a tornado. The earth pony had a crystal brownish coat covering her body, with her mane and tail being light brown, her eyes being amber and a cutie mark of a sword. The unicorn had a crystal white coat covering her body, with her mane and tail being mussy green with two various shades, her horn being a shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan and her eyes being light purple.
While the two hippogriffs had no idea who they were, the rest knew the two ponies.
"CLOVER THE CLEVER?! COMMANDER HURRICANE?!" They all yelled in shock and confusion.
"Yep. That's right." Commander Hurricane strolled forward, his expression neutral. "Leader of the Pegasus Weather Brigade, if they still existed in Equestria." He added.
Clover giggled but was interrupted by Cadance's weak coughing, causing everyone to divert their attention to the Princess of Love.
Twilight cradled her sister-in-law before the earth pony rushed over and put a hoof to Cadance's forehead.
"She's burning up with a fever." The earth pony said as Twilight gave her an odd look.
"And you are...?" Twilight asked while stroking her sister-in-law's mane.
The earth pony smiled. "Dew Nourish, combat medic for the Mighty Helm."
Before more questions were answered, a loud blaring horn was sound, prompting everyone to look for its source. Tempest looked up from the ground. "You three may have defeated me..." She suddenly said, causing everyone to look at her, before she continued. "But now the Storm King has found you! It wouldn't be long before you were brought to your knees."
As soon as the lieutenant finished her sentence, three Storm King's airships appeared from the cloud. Tempest smirked. But the smirk on her face quickly fell when the airships flew over their head without stopping, flying across the open ocean.
As they faded from the sight, the Storm King's lieutenant could only stare at disbelief.
"W... Wh... What...?" She muttered.
Clover continued to stare at the sky where the airship disappeared before turning around to look at the cloud they appeared and said with smile. "Well, looks like the Storm Kingdom are falling back to their kingdom."
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Canterlot, Forty-five minutes ago
Songbird Serenade was currently in one of the cages. Feeling sad and depressed, she looked down and started to sing.
"I am here and I see your pain
Through the storms, through the clouds, the rain
I'm telling you, you can not es-"
A loud explosion interrupted her singing, causing her to look back up. She gasped.
Several crystal coated earth ponies, unicorns, Kirins and yaks were on the ground attacking several Storm King's soldiers while releasing the prisoners. In the sky, several crystal coated pegasuses, bat ponies, changelings, griffons and hippogriffs were attacking from above using crossbow, magic, muskets and bows and arrows while destroying the invasion force's airships.
Songbird had her attention at the battle before a loud "thud" made her turn her head.
In front of her cage was a female Kirin, her coat were crystal reddish brown covered by crystal armor; her mane, fur and tail were light brown; her cloven hooves, back, and forehead were dark brown and her large horn that curved backward was shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan. Behind her was an unmoving Storm Soldier, blood pooling around it.
The Kirin quickly used her magic to destroy the lock on the cage before opening the door, allowing the popstar singer to step out.
"Hey." The Kirin called out to Songbird before asking. "Are you okay?"
The popstar nodded her head to which the Kirin smiled and said. "Good. Go with the other ponies." She pointed at the exit where several prisoners were now escaping while other crystal coated creatures defended them for the soldiers. "It's safer for you."
Songbird nodded her head and started to go toward the exit before stopping. She quickly turned and asked. "What's your name?"
The Kirin blinked her eyes at the popstar's sudden question before replying with smile. "Mallow Sear. My name is Mallow Sear."
After answering Songbird's answer, the Kirin, Mallow Sear, turned around, transforming into Nirik before charging forward toward the battle.
The popstar singer quickly flew toward the exit.
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Captain Crimson Chaser, a unicorn Royal Guard, was being chained up and muzzled, being forced to move by the Storm King's soldier.
As they were moving through the hallway toward the prison cells, a loud crash was heard before the storm soldier that was holding the unicorn flew to the wall.
The captain, confused, turned his head to see his saviour hovering above him.
His saviour was a male changeling, it's body was crystal light green chitin covered by crystal armor, it's insect-like wing was crystal light blue and it's curved horn was shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan.
The changeling quickly glued the soldier to the wall with the Changeling resin, before turning to face him.
The changeling used his magic to break the muzzle and chains around Crimson, allowing him to breathe.
"Are you hurt?" The insect-like pony asked, to which Crimson shook his head.
"My name is Furx." The changeling introduced himself, levitating a spear toward the captain before he asked again. "Can you fight?"
The captain stared at the spear before enveloping it and said. "Yes, I can still fight."
Furx genuinely smiled at the lieutenant before speaking. "Good. Because we got prisoners to liberate." To which Crimson smiled back.
Immediately, both Furx and Crimson Chaser started to run toward the prison cells, to free the rest of the Royal Guards.
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Canterlot was once again thrown into chaos. The crystal creatures, along with the help of the Royal Guard that were imprisoned by the Storm King, were overwhelming the storm soldiers.
Meanwhile, Storm King was starting to get furious as his plan to power up his staff was crashing down while looking at the battleground below on the balcony. The throne door was suddenly burst open, revealing a panic Grubber, making the king turned his head around.
"Boss, we've got big troubles!" He started with panickingly voice. "A herd of yaks just stormed inside the castle and there are now several some sort of crystal creatures attacking and overwhelming our troops!"
Just as Storm King started to speak, a loud roar interrupted him, prompting his head back to the battleground. His eyes was widened in fear at the direction of the roar.
In the sky, a massive crystal red scaled wyvern with light blue crystal spike running along it's spine, was descending down toward Canterlot while a large crystal yellow scaled dragon was flying around the castle, unleashing blue flames on the airships and the storm soldiers.
As Storm King stared in horror and fear, the throne door was suddenly burst from the hinges and shattered into million pieces.
The King and Grubber turned to see several crystal ponies and crystal creatures containing griffons, yaks, hippogriffs, bat ponies, changelings, and kirins. They were all staring angrily at the Storm King and Grubber.
"FALL BACK!!!" Storm King shouted before jumping out of the balcony with the small hedgehog following along, leaving the two petrified princess behind, and landed onto one of the airships.
The pilot, hearing what Storm King had ordered, quickly piloted the airship out of the city and into the sky.
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Present time
The group all stared at Clover with confusion, but before they could ask, a bright blue light got their attention.
Where the light was now stood a unicorn mare being at the same size as Princess Celestia, with a very pale vermillion coat, her mane being in gradient of brilliant raspberry to moderate cobalt blue, her horn being a shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan, a cutie mark of deep blue snowflake between blue laces on both flanks and wearing blue garb around her body and a blue crown on her head.
Clover, Hurricane, and Dew immediately bowed down while the others just stared at the new arrival.
"Princess Amore!?" Twilight recognised the mare.
At the call of that name, the unicorn mare turned and saw Twilight cradling Princess Cadance.
Princess Amore, concern on her face, started walking toward them, her attention toward Cadance.
However, before she could get any closer, four mares immediately stand between her and the sister-in-laws. The four mares were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity.
"Hah, nice try, rogue changeling!" the rainbow-mane mare yelled at Princess Amore at the sheer horror of Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy as Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash took a fighting stance. "You can forget about hurting Cadance, because we will-"
Whatever the cyan pegasus was going to say, the four mares were suddenly enveloped in light blue magic before they were pulled toward Princess Amore's furious face.
"You dare suggest that I would hurt Cadenza?!" Amore snarled with her eyes giving off pure icy blue magical vapour trail from the corner of her eyes. "My own daughter?!"
Everyone except Clover, Hurricane, and Dew all dropped their jaw at what Amore had just said.
The unicorn princess tossed the four mares aside.
The pure icy blue magical vapour trail disappeared and her face was quickly replaced with concern when she noticed Cadance was breathing weakly, trotting toward the two sister-in-laws before stopping in front of them.
Amore's concern face deepened when Cadance started coughing out blood before being replaced with determination. Her horn immediately flared up with magic, surrounding the Princess of Love.
Almost immediately, Twilight and her friends stared at Cadance being lifted up as dark magical dust was pulled out of her before it was destroyed by Amore. Twilight's sister-in-law slowly lowered to the ground
The Princess of Love gasped and her eyes opened half-lidded before they slowly closed as light blue aura glowed and shimmered around her before dying away, revealing her disguised horn and wings.
Twilight and the others except the three crystal ponies all stared in sheer shock as Amore levitated her daughter onto her back before looking at the Princess of Friendship.
"Clover and her friends will explain everything to you." The unicorn princess said while gesturing the three crystal ponies. "Right now, I need to take care of my daughter."
Amore's horn glowed a bright light blue; and before anypony could stop her, she teleported both herself and Cadance away.
Twilight and her friends all stood in silence for what seemed liked hours, but in fact was just several seconds.
Princess Cadance - Princess of Love - Ruler of the Crystal Empire - Wife of Shining Armor - Adoptive Niece of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna - Sister-in-law of Twilight - was a daughter of Princess Amore, who was alive.
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The fighting continued for another few minutes before rest of the storm soldiers were forced to surrender. But after the Storm King's soldiers surrendered, the crystal ponies and crystal creatures quickly disappeared via teleportation with the help of the crystal unicorn, crystal Kirins, and crystal changelings. The ones who stayed in Canterlot were a yak, a bat pony, a hippogriff, a griffion, Mallow Sear and Furx.
Inside the small crystal city, a large group of crystal ponies and crystal creatures gathered around Princess Amore. The unicorn princess looked at the still sleeping form slumped on her back, and smiled.
Her daughter was finally home.