On that chilly February morning, two months into the New Year, 1st Battalion, 1st Crystal Guard Regiment paraded outside the Crystal Palace.
While Celestia would never let him establish an army, Luna had assured Shining Armor that he had the authority to protect the Crystal Empire with reasonable means, so the moment they had returned from Canterlot, Shining Armor and Cadance had issued a proclamation: any pony who wished to serve in the Guard to defend their homes would be welcomed into training. Dozens of young Crystal Ponies had signed up, and within a week, the Crystal Guard had grown from an understrength company to a full-strength battalion. It would be, they hoped, a laboratory for Equestria’s drill and doctrine.
In truth, Shining Armor worried about the new recruits: for centuries, ponies, gryphons, minotaurs and goats had joined their countries armies just to get regular meals, half-decent pay and a smart uniform. The Crystal Empire’s economy was a thousand years behind the rest of Equestria’s, and it hadn’t been in a good state when a thousand years ago, either. Ponies who had joined up just to escape the drudgery of unemployment did not make for committed soldiers, but after a month and a half of training, he could only watch the parade and hope.
Hundreds of Crystal Ponies had turned out to watch the progress of their new regiment, and the shining crowd ringed the square. Shining Armor and Cadance stood on the balcony in their new uniforms of Colonel-in-Chief, a position they held jointly as co-rulers. Next to them stood Warding Ember, a mutton-chopped veteran of the Royal Guard from Canterlot. He wore the twin red braids and three gold stars of Colonel of the Regiment on his green epaulettes. He was a superb administrator, and it was because of him that the Regiment had got through its training, but today he was the dignitary to be saluted along with Shining Armor and Cadance. The parade would be led by the battalion commander. Behind them were several Crystal Pony notaries, including First Minister Jade Stone. With an opal coat and a cutie mark of an olive branch and arrow, she was the most senior Crystal Pony in the Empire, and Cadance and Shining Armor’s ablest advisor
The battalion was formed in a line three deep, spread out across the square below the Crystal Palace Balcony. Ten companies, each a hundred ponies strong, formed the line. The battalion was over a thousand officers and rankers strong, every one of them wearing a smart grey greatcoat over their green uniforms. Their cuffs and epaulettes were faced in ice blue. White saddlebags bearing the Imperial Snowflake of the Crystal Empire in shining brass were slung over their midsections, secured by white crossbelts over their chests. Dull gold emergency edible boots hugged their hooves. Every soldier clutched a long spear in his right hoof, while the officers held swords and wore cocked hats.
The battalion was flanked on the right by the Grenadier Company. It was composed of the biggest ponies, the pom-poms on their tall gold mitre caps white in memory of the smoke from the heavy iron grenades their forefathers had thrown in the Discordian War. Now they existed as shock troops, the first to lead assaults. They wore white lace wings on the shoulders of their greatcoats, while their officers wore gold.
Eight numbered infantry companies formed the centre of the line. They wore tall black shakos carrying a brass plate bearing the Imperial Snowflake. Their pom-poms were red and white. At the flanks of each company stood the officers – a Captain and two Lieutenants. Standing at the back of the companies were two Sergeants, bearing the spontoons of their rank.
Between the Fourth and Fifth Companies stood the command group: Guarded by six Sergeants, three Ensigns carried the regiment’s colours: On the right was the Crystal Banner, bearing the Imperial Snowflake on a field of iridescent blue. On the left was the regiment’s colour, a bold white cross on blue with the regiment’s number, “1st Crystal Guard” wreathed in laurels in the centre. And in the centre of the colour party was the Vexillum of Equestria, carried by the senior Ensign, bearing forty-two stars and the sun and moon ringed by the Royal Pony Sisters. Behind them was the second-in-command, Major Bronze Star, and to his left and right, Major Sword Bolt and the Adjutant, Major Sun Blade.
Ahead of the command group stood the battalion commander, Silver Star, newly-promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. If she was nervous, it did not show. She held her sword perfectly straight and her uniform was immaculate.
Behind the command group stood a dozen pioneers, their axes polished to gleaming and their leather aprons shining white; behind them, eighteen bandsmen; and then the regiment’s staff – the Quartermaster, Paymaster, Regimental Sergeant Major, Training Major, and the Regimental Surgeon and his staff.
On the line’s left was the Light Company. The pom-poms in their shakos green, their crossbelts and shoulder wings black, they were the battalion’s best shots. Fourteen drummers stood behind the line.
Thus did one thousand and sixty-seven ponies form up that morning.
“PARADE!” barked Silver Star, loud enough to be heard across the square. “PARADE, SHUN!”
The square roared as a thousand hooves and spear butts were brought up and stamped down.
“PARADE WILL FORM CLOSE COLUMN UPON THE GRENADIERS! BY GRAND DIVISIONS, MARCH!”
Shining Armor’s mouth twitched slightly. This was where his ponies proved themselves. Not just to him, but to the entire Empire, to the whole of Equestria. The Royal Guard Drill Manual prescribed Eighteen Manoeuvres, designed to encompass everything that might be found on the battlefield. This was the first.
The drums rattled and the band thundered. The Grenadiers and First Company marking time, every other company spun to its right and peeled off, marching diagonally. Hooves and spear butts thundering against the ground as they marched, a column with a frontage of two companies was rapidly formed.
“PARADE WILL FORM LINE UPON THE LIGHT COMPANY! BY GRAND DIVISIONS, MARCH!”
Now with the Light Company and Eighth Company marking time, the companies spun to their right and marched out off column. A line was rapidly reformed.
The Second Manoeuvre was a virtual reversal of this: a close column with a two-company frontage was formed on the Light Company. The battalion then marched back into line.
So it continued. The Third Manoeuvre involved the formation of a close column upon the Fourth Company before redeploying into line. In the Fourth Manoeuvre, the line moved into open column and wheeled into a new line at an oblique angle. From there, the line wheeled with its left wing thrown back into a line parallel to its original position.
The line moved like a great coiling snake. After every manoeuvre the crowds applauded.
In the Sixth Manoeuvre, they wheeled into an open column, then a close column, and then formed a solid square.
“PREPARE TO RECEIVE CAVALRY!” boomed Silver Star.
The two front ranks dropped to their knees, spear points facing up. Behind them, the rear ranks levelled their spears and fired by files. In the core of each spear was a hair-thin shaft of cultured unicorn horn, channelling each pony’s magic, and scintillating bursts of energy shot across the square. The crowd leapt in shock at each shot, but applauded nonetheless.
From then on the regiment performed perfectly. They wheeled from line to column and back again, countermarched, retreated, formed a hollow square and advanced. Finally, after the regiment had completed the Eighteenth Manoeuvre and fired two volleys, Silver Star bellowed; “PARADE! GENERAL SALUTE, PRESENT ARMS!”
With a mighty slap as the butts were slammed to the ground, the soldiers of the battalion thrust their spears forward, points facing up towards the balcony. The officers brought their swords up in salute. Shining Armor, Cadance and Warding Ember snapped to attention and brought their right hooves to their foreheads. The drums rattled and the first verse of The Fire of Friendship roared out across the square.
When the last note of the national anthem faded, there was thunderous applause, and it was all Shining Armor could do not to join them. He stood saluting as the regiment made its march past with a perfect eyes right, marching off the square as The Crystal Kingdom Anthem played. The regiment had performed magnificently, spectacularly even when he remembered how short a time it had been active. They’d be talking about this all over Equestria.
“Wonderfully well-done, Colonel,” he said to Warding Ember as they walked off the balcony.
“Can’t take any credit, Your Highness!” barked the old Colonel in a Canterlot accent. “Silver Star’s the filly you want to thank for this!”
“I certainly will, but the regiment wouldn’t have been here today if it weren’t for you.”
“I for one was quite surprised at your ponies’ turnout, Colonel,” said First Minister Jade Stone. “No armour?”
“We put that stuff through every test you can imagine,” grunted the Colonel through his mutton chops. “Spear shots got through every time. No point keeping the extra weight.”
“The response of the Crystal Ponies rather surprised me as well,” the First Minister continued as they descended a staircase. “I worried that they might be reminded of the parades Sombra held.”
Shining Armor stopped suddenly. “I never knew that about Sombra.”
“Oh yes, Sombra loved his parades. He was as much at home on the parade square as he was on the battlefield.”
“He was a soldier?”
“The finest the Crystal Empire ever produced,” said Jade. “That was before he took power, though. Before it drove him mad.”
Most Crystal Ponies Shining Armor spoke to preferred not to dwell on their memories of King Sombra, and he’d learned not to press them. Even the academics (among them his sister, to her chagrin) were finding it difficult to piece the Empire’s history together. But Jade Stone was being alarmingly candid. The Crystal Ponies behind her shuffled uncomfortably.
“Well, how about we head downstairs?” said Cadance brightly. “I’m sure we don’t want to keep the soldiers waiting! They’ve earned this lunch, after all!”