//------------------------------//
// 14. Break in 
// Story: Project Eclipse 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

The two guards, both from the Steel Muzzle pack that gave birth to the new Diamond Empire, stood in attention by the entrance to the dungeon, in which were locked some stupid Diamond Dogs that thought about undermining the Emperor’s authority. While this was an important duty, befitting Imperial Guards such as them, both of them felt like there could be something else they could be doing. They didn’t know all the details, but they felt the huge explosion that took out most of the Imperial Army, and the next one, that was caused by their Emperor to punish those responsible for it. After that display of power, which cheered everydogs heart, Huang Li had sent out scouts to find new tribes.
But they had to keep watch over the entrance to the place filled with pathetic low lives.
The guard on the left had sighed and turned his clad in metal helmet with mask head to his partner.
“Hey?”
The other guard turned his head, also bearing mask, to him, slowly.
“Yeah?”
“Do you ever wonder...” the first guard began to say, but never got to finish.
A huge explosion erupted from directly behind, blasting away the doors they guarded (along with the wall), and killing both of them.




 
“Well, we are out of the dungeons.” Crys commented as they walked over the debris and, for E just now realised, two corpses.
The journey up was long and tiresome, and the presence of few non-diamond Diamond Dogs didn’t ease it. Thankfully, most of them were in chains, so they weren’t much of a threat. And the agents, fresh with the memory of what could happen to those who ask for help around here, didn’t bother this time with talking.
And besides, they began attacking them first.
Once they finally reached the top, Crys quickly explained them the rest of her plan: make a big noise...
“Check.”
… let a few guards come, kill them, and then, before the rest would come, split: one group to create diversion, while another would go to the Imperial Vault, grab the two Orbs, and then they all will be on their way out.
“We had crippled their military might.” Crys explained as to why they were running away. “Equestria is no longer in an immediate danger. I know that Huang Li is still a threat, but he is too powerful for us to handle on our own. We will need to discuss with the Director how to take him out.”
Unfortunately, they were still too deep underground for their Beacons to work properly, and were still unable to contact command. E sighed as he waited patiently for some guards to show up - they could all already hear the alarm - when he was hit by another migraine attack.
“Still not feeling better?” Filly asked him when he hissed from pain and rubbed his temples.
“It comes and goes.” the colt replied, looking into her eyes.
He could see pain in her eyes, caused by her worry for him. He hated that he’s making her suffer like this, but there was no helping it. If he hadn’t acted back then, they would all be dead, and the thought of losing anypony - especially Filly - was unbearable to him. His headache would pass eventually, anyway.
Noticing that the painful look she was giving him hasn’t gone away, E darted forward and pressed his lips to her. At once, the hurt was gone, replaced by shock, as they didn’t usually show this much affection for one another with others around. But she wouldn’t get away with saying that she didn’t liked it, as E saw clearly her wings spring up at his mere touch, let alone the kiss.
It lasted less than a couple of seconds, but it was enough for now. The earth pony pulled his head back, only slightly, and stopped it so that their noses were touching.
“I thought I was the one supposed to worry all the time.” E teased her, glad that this time she looked at him happily.
His comment made her smile, but the moment they heard few of their friends snicker, it turned into a scowl.
“After this is all over, you won’t leave my bed for a month.” she whispered threateningly, and E, who remembered what happened last time they did such marathon, gulped nervously.
“My poor pelvis...”
 



 
Huang Li gripped the arms of his throne so hard that the diamonds that made up the arms cracked.
“Your Imperial Grace,” said Guan Yu, the Captain of his Imperial Guard, who kneeled before his in his throne room. “There are intruders within the palace.”
“Do you think me deaf, Captain?” Huang Li growled quietly, which is barely hearable over the sound of the alarm.
“It’s impossible!” he tried to defy inside his mind what was happening. “They couldn’t have survived!”
But apparently, they did, for there was no other explanation for the alarm. Somehow, those ten ponies manage to live through his attack, and were coming for... what, exactly? Even if they did survive their last encounter with him, those ponies were still no match for the power of god, and they should know it. Why, then...
“The Orbs of Harmony!” Huang Li realized with a jolt.
That’s right! Two of those ponies were the ones he encountered within one of the Diamond Dogs old temple. They must be searching for them; why, he did not know. But nonetheless, it made his heart burn with rage. Those Orbs belong to his kind! Ponies had no right even attempting to claim them!
“What are your orders, my liege?” Guan Yu, still kneeling, asked, his eyes firmly held on the floor beneath him.
“Am I surrounded by incompetent fools?” the Emperor wondered out loud, and paused, to let it sink. One of the guards gulped, as he and everydog else understood what could happen to them if they would disappoint him. “Do I have to spell everything to you? I want those ponies dead... no.” he stopped, this time to ponder. After everything they did, simple death wouldn’t be enough for them. “Bring them to me, roughed, but alive.”
Guan Yu nodded and raised, prepared to carry out his order.
“Head for the Vault.” Emperor called after him. “That’s where they will be. Bring me them alive, or don’t bother to return at all.”
 



 
“Damn, that’s one complicated locking mechanism.” Mane muttered to himself as he tried his best to open the doors from the inside of the vault. “Whoever designed this was a genius...”
He trailed off abruptly as he heard something click. Instinctively, he activated his ability, just in time to let small arrows pass through him.
“A trap inside the vault?!” he shouted in surprise of either idiocy or foresight of Diamond Dogs. “I take that back - whoever designed this was an asshole!”
Finally, he managed to break the damn lock, and the door opened; allowing Crys, Filly, Los and E to walk in.
“What exactly were you doing here?” E asked him, glancing at the arrows that were now stuck in the floor.
“Don’t ask.” Mane muttered in reply.
“Okay, Filly and Mane, you two go and secure our way out.” Crys ordered. “Los, E, help me look for the Orbs.”
Mane stopped paying attention to the rest of what she said, instead immediately focusing on his new objective. As he and Filly trotted towards the end of corridor, he pondered if the reason why Crys haven’t made him help look was for his reduced eyesight.




 
“Spread out and search thoroughly.” Crys continued as she and two stallions walked deeper into the vault, while Filly and Mane made their way out. “There may be other things we can use.”
E nodded to her and trotted deeper into the vault. Its contests were... beyond imaging. Everywhere he looked, he saw tons of treasures: mountains of strange gold coins, gold cups, jewels of any kind, and many weapons, one of which seemed to catch Los attention.
It resembled to E a halberd’s blade, that somepony broke and joined with another identical blade, leaving a handle in between them. The pegasus picked it up with relative ease, despite its size being too big for a pony to lift, let alone wield in battle. But it seemed to suit Los somehow.
“That’s a good look.” E commented when the other agent glanced his way, and Los replied with appreciative grunt, before both of them returned to the task at hoof.




 
Crys looked at the two agents when she heard them talk, but rolled her eyes when she noticed that the object they found was some weapon.
She continued to search through the hordes of valuables hidden here, but not finding the two Orbs, when after few minutes her Beacon activated.
“Cant to Crys.”
“Crys here.” the unicorn immediately lifted her foreleg to her mouth and responded.
“We secured the escape route, but we’ve encountered less resistance than we expected. Also, one of the patrols that we’ve run into was actually going in the opposite direction, and its leader mumbled ‘Imperial Vault’ before he died, so you should expect some company.”
“Shit.” Crys commented in her thoughts, “As if we didn’t have enough problems as it is.”
“Understood. Hold the exit and wait for further orders.”
“Got it. Don’t make me wait too long.”
She didn’t miss that Cant said ‘me’.
“Pick up the pace, ponies; we are going to have company soon.” Crys told E and Los, and then contacted Filly and Mane. “Some Dogs might start coming. Keep them off our back if you can, warn us if you can’t.”
The two agents confirmed their orders, and Crys returned to searching for the Orbs. She preferred to find them before this place would get hot, but as the contents of the Vault were regarded by her, their main objective remained to be unseen. The unicorn was about to growl in frustration, when she noticed that E was approaching her. Hoping that he had good news for her, Crys turned to regard him.
“Boss, I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“Hit me. And don’t call me ‘boss’, it’s annoying enough when Mane and Trot do that.”
E spared a split second to grin, and while Crys was glad to see him grow more confident in comparison to his beginnings, she was kinda impatient now.
“We checked the entire area, and there is no sign of Orbs.”
“Buck!” she cursed. “Where in Tartarus are they, then?!”
“What’s the good news?” Crys asked
“We found the control panel to the traps around the Vault’s doors. I figured we could-”
“Shh!” Crys quickly silenced the younger pony.
She listened intensively at what she hoped was her imagination, but unfortunately was proved wrong: somepony was coming.
Somepony who wasn’t walking on hooves.
“Why didn’t Filly and Mane warned us?” E asked her, noticing that sound as well, and his eyes slowly widened in terror. “They didn’t...”
“We will worry about them later.” Crys interrupted him. It might have seemed heartless of her, but the time was of the essence. Closing the doors shut with her magic, she added: “Show me to those controls.”
 



 
They didn’t have much time to prepare, and even if the whole mechanism wasn’t that complicated, the Diamond Dogs began battering the doors down as Crys finally got the hang of it.
The doors gave in, and crowd of Dogs wearing full body armors of Imperial Guard stormed in... and was welcomed by valley of arrows, with magical beams, energy blasts and various thrown objects mixed among them.
Neither armor or their diamond hides could protect them from this attack, and in a matter of seconds, the floor was covered in bodies of the guards. It was good, considering that the trap mechanism had just run out of arrows shortly.
Crys, E and Los stopped their attack and came out into the open area of the Vault, to see the littered in corpses entrance... and one enemy that was left.
The bulky Diamond Dog wasn’t only different from others by his more adored armor (and the fact that he was still alive), but also he had long pipe-like things attached to his plated gloves, with tubes coming out of them and joined behind his back.
“What the buck is with this guy?” E asked Crys, confused by this strange... whatever it was.
As if to answer his question, the Dog, who walked a bit forward dramatically and pointed those pipes at them. In a heartbeat, a river of flames shot in their direction.
“Whoa, that’s hot!” E commented as they all ducked for cover behind the treasures.
He noticed that Los attempted to throw a warhammer made out of solid gold at the Diamond Dog, but their enemy simply aimed his flames at it, causing it to melt before the weapon reached him.
“That’s Guan Yu, Captain of the Imperial Guard.” Crys informed him and Los, glancing from her hiding spot. Her horn was charging with energy. “I’ve got thi- the hay?!”
E also glanced and saw, to his relief, two ponies attacking the Dog from behind - Mane, and more importantly, Filly. He was gravely worried about her when they didn’t warn them earlier.
Guan Yu was on the ground in a matter of seconds, disarmed and legs-broken, but alive. The trio trotted towards them, with Crys leading the way. She was a bit pissed.
“You were supposed to warn us.” the unicorn told them sternly.
The dog made an attempt to raise, but Filly pressed her hoof harder on his neck, and they stopped paying him attention.
“Once we realized how big the group was, we realized you would be able to hear them well before they would reach you.” the pegasus mare replied calmly. “We didn’t want to risk giving away our position. Mane and I followed them, hoping we would get a chance to capture this cocksucker, in case we would need some intel.”
E made sure that Crys (who was grimacing as she realized that Filly’s defiance of orders was valid) wasn’t looking at him, and shoot a quick smile to his marefriend, earning himself a subtle wink.
“You have a point.” the top agent finally said, and then turned to him. “Find out the location of the Orbs.”
He nodded and stepped forward to Guan Yu. E wasn’t excited about prospect of reading through somepony’s mind, especially after he already taxed himself greatly, but this was the fastest way of finding out the information they needed. Lowering his head to Diamond Dog’s level, he gazed through the eye-holes of his mask, meeting Guan Yu’s gaze.
His mind was like no other he’s seen so far. It was so... orderly, and yet wronged, alien, but with traces of familiarity, vast, and yet confident...
E pulled himself away from Dogs mind as soon as he got the location he searched for. And despite being glad to be out of there, he had suspicion that nopony would be happy.
“So?” Crys asked him as E shook his head.
There was only one reply he could give.
“They are with the Emperor.”
For few heartbeats, there was silence.
“So, are we gonna pack it in?” Mane asked,
Crys shoot him a glare, making him immediately back away.
“We are not leaving without those Orbs.” she said in a voice that silenced any dissents. “I guess we will deal with the ‘Emperor’ while we’re at it.”
“Deal with him.” Mane repeated, “With the guy that tried to fry us all with a star.”
“He won’t risk destroying his Throne Room.” Filly said. E had to admit that she probably was right. Courtyard was one thing, but the Throne Room was much more important.
Crys rubbed her chin, musing for a moment as how they could possibly beat the Dog that shoved them as far below underground as couple of Ursa Majors combined were high.
“I think I might have an idea.” she said after few seconds, glancing at their prisoner.