Kindling
In spite of her warning, we were still unprepared.
Upon arriving to Canterlot, Luna told Celestia and the guards of what she found. While shocked at the news, Celestia decided on a plan of action. Newly appointed Omniknight, Shining Armor, and Luna herself would cast a magical shield over Canterlot to protect from the incoming attack; not knowing that its walls had already been breached.
The brood queen Chrysalis, leader of the changelings, had assumed the guise of the bride, Princess Cadence, and infiltrated the wedding, days prior to Luna’s arrival. During those days, she fed off of the emotions and strength of the groom, Shining Armor, and took control of his mind and emotions. She made him tell her of the magical defense that was to be erected, much to her delight.
On the day of the wedding, Chrysalis sent word to her children to hold off on the attack before the ceremony had completed, and to wait just outside of the shield’s walls. As the wedding bells tolled for the false bride, the real Princess Cadence had been found in a crystal cave by Celestia’s student Twilight Sparkle and brought forth to face the impostor. With her lie disproved, Chrysalis revealed her true form, and the intentions of her actions.
“I only do what a mother would do for her children,” Chrysalis announced to the audience of the wedding, “their father would have done the same, as you will all see soon enough!” Chrysalis lifted her horn, and let out a green pulse; not a second later, the skies over Canterlot were blocked by the black bodies of a thousand changelings.
As the swarm attacked the shield over Canterlot, Princess Celestia faced off against Chrysalis in the middle of the altar, while Luna and rest of the royal guard evacuated citizens out of the city. However, Chrysalis’s absorbed strength and power, as well the infusion of chaos she received from Discord’s corrupting energy, proved too much for Princess Celestia.
With Shining Armor and one of the Princesses effectively out of commission, Chrysalis broke down the shield of Canterlot with her own dark magic and her swarm began to ravage the city. It was in that time, that the wielders of the Elements of Harmony attempted a desperate attack to claim their treasures and stop Chrysalis. As they fought their way through the swarm, the changeling’s numbers proved overwhelming for even them. With nearly all hope lost, Chrysalis reveled in her success and gloated to the downed Princess Celestia the irony of an insect defeating a god and how all of Equestria would soon serve as food and hosts for her children.
Chrysalis trapped Cadence and Celestia in a grasping web, and proceeded to overlook the destruction upon the land that had caused her so much misery; until Celestia’s student intervened. While the other wielders were captured, Twilight Sparkle evaded the grasp of the changelings and teleported to the aid of Princess Cadence. Freeing her from the web, Cadence’s magic coalesced with that of Shining Armor’s, and created a radiant beam of magic that drove Chrysalis and her brood from Canterlot.
Following the banishment of Chrysalis and her kin, the ponies of Canterlot rejoiced in their victory taken from the grasp of despair, with Shining Armor and Cadence marrying soon afterwards.With time given to recover, to both Celestia and Canterlot, the princesses assessed their next course of action.
Luna had mentioned that Discord’s return was imminent, as well as mentioning to Celestia that any incidents and occurrences that happened in the millennia that followed his entrapment may have all been caused by his attempts to escape. Knowing that Discord’s escape could occur at any moment, as the volcano was a very unstable zone, the Princesses of Equestria began to formulate a plan of defense for his return. But before a plan was agreed on, a familiar shadow began to form over a once forgotten kingdom.
The Crystal Empire was the first great city of Equestria, overseen millennia ago by the first ascended Elements of Kindness and Magic, and was known in its time as a beacon for knowledge and prosperity. All of this vanished in the blink of an eye, and no one remembered that it even existed. We know now that it was due to the actions of a powerful, and hateful unicorn named Sombra who used his mastery over the magic of negativity, and became the city’s tyrannical ruler. After his downfall, Sombra placed a curse on the city, expunging its existence from not just Equestria, but also from books and the memories that ponies knew of it. For the city to return, its ruler would have to return with it.
“King Sombra could not have returned on his own,”spoke Celestia to her sister, “Discord must have played a hand in this; if he did not play a hand in his initial rise to power to begin with.” The sisters stood in front of a large stained glass window in the throneroom of Canterlot, depicting the dread unicorn’s downfall.
“If Discord’s chaotic power is strong enough now to disrupt the flow of life and death, then he must be closer to escaping than he let on,” replied a worried Luna. While the return of the Crystal Empire, and its once deceased ruler, was a major concern to the princesses, the preparations for the imminent return of Discord had become a much higher priority. With time growing shorter they decided on a risky course of action.
Princess Celestia and Luna would leave for the lands south of Appleloosa in search of the latest descendant of the Elder Titan. In their stead, the princesses sent out Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, and the wielders of the Elements of Harmony to the Crystal Mountains, where they would investigate the reappearance of the Crystal Empire, and deal with the resurrected king when the time came. As each party left towards their destinations, a strange light could be seen in the horizon of Canterlot.
It had been many centuries since the sisters had seen the memorial together again. Luna remembered it only having one large stone to represent their fallen brother, but now circles of smaller stones seemed to surround the large one, almost as if they congregated to it. In spite of the new appearance, the Sisters felt no ill will towards the site, and after their initial surprise, they remembered their reason for returning there. There were some doubts in Celestia’s mind that she needed to resolve, and she felt that speaking them to another sibling could help her through it, even if that sibling was dead.
“I know that you cannot hear me brother,” spoke Celestia, “but I hope that you can forgive me for the mistake that I have made.” “I know now that in order to protect those you love, you must give up part of yourself,” her tone became more somber now, “in order to prevent any further loss of life, sacrifices must be made.”
Luna could see tears forming in Celestia’s eyes, the words were almost too painful for her to say. “In order to prevent the corruption of this planet, which you loved so dearly as to give your life to save,” the tears now broke free from her eyes, “I have decided to forgo my i...initial conceptions of what it meant to keep law and peace...and if that means k...killing a brother, then so be it...”
Luna held Celestia close and let her cry in the embrace. Luna knew exactly the feelings of anger, sorrow, and regret that her sister was feeling. Until now, Celestia had never worried about their anything of such a degree, nor questioned her own decisions, but after the revelations before the royal wedding and the incident occurring in the Crystal Empire, her attitude towards her decision to letting her brother live had finally spilled over.
“Do not worry sister,” spoke Luna in a soft voice, “we will set this straight, after that, there will not be anymore bloodshed; that, I promise you.” They remained like that for a while, until they saw a bright light over the horizon and the sounds of a hundred approaching hooves.
The buffalo stopped in front of the memorial site and all bowed their heads as they faced it. They then turned to the princesses. From the herd, stepped out a large brown buffalo with a familiar white and black feathered headdress, and a pronged, glowing totem on his back; the source of the light.
“In all the seasons since I inherited this sacred totem, never had it made such a light,” spoke the buffalo leader, “but now its glow is as bright as the north star, and has guided me here just like it.” “I am Chief Thunderhooves,” announced the buffalo, “and I wish to know why I have been summoned to the resting place of my ancestors and to the presence of the leaders of the pony.”
“We are pleased to meet you Chief Thunderhooves,” stated Celestia, wiping any leftover tears, and subsequently bowing her head alongside Luna’s, “and we were actually looking for an audience with the buffalo.”
Luna stood next to her sister and spoke, “The totem is an extension of Titan’s conscience as well as his power, it must have felt the rumbles beneath the world and called you to where he was last.” The chieftain nodded in agreement, and the light of the totem began to dim, possibly at acknowledgement. “What matter now though is that you’re here, and we now beseech you and your people to aid us and ponies of Equestria in a time of peril,” stated Luna in a serious tone.
“Two-thousand years ago, the world was nearly destroyed by a sundering at the hands of our brother Discord, your ancestor ,Cairne Bloodhoof, stood alongside us to repair the world from that calamity,” spoke Celestia, “we ask you, Chief Thunderhooves, to stand alongside us to banish the evil that began that cataclysm just as your ancestor stood alongside us so long ago.”
Having listened to their request, Chief Thunderhooves remembered the tales of the world lit aflame, and how his ancestor had managed to return it to stability. The chief replied, “It is the duty of the Elder Titan to shape the world, and it is also his duty to protect his work; I would be honored to uphold my ancestor’s legacy alongside those he called allies.” With his agreement, the Princesses explained their plan of defense.
They called it the Aegis of Harmony, a massive ring of towers that would be built around Equestria and near its cities. Each tower was to be outfitted with a garrison in order to spot and hold Discord long enough so that the Princesses could apprehend him on their own terms. Due to Appleloosa and the land of the buffalo’s proximity to the Gloom Volcano, they would need the help of the buffalo to act as spotters once Discord finally escaped, and the Elder Titan’s help to defeat him once he was found.
After describing their plan to Chief Thunderhooves, the sisters’ returned to Canterlot in order to begin the groundwork for their plan, and found that Celestia’s apprentice and her friends had been more than successful in dealing with the incident in the Crystal Empire.
From the accounts of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, their assignment into the Crystal Empire almost failed before it began. Having been caught in a massive snowstorm near the pass into the Crystal Empire, and being continuously persecuted by the ghost of King Sombra, the ponies would never have made it in without the help of Princess Cadence and the Omniknight Shining Armor. Even when they got into the city, the influence of Sombra could be felt throughout in the form of a draining aura that seemed to degrade the emotions and colors of the ponies within.
King Sombra’s influence was not the only thing he was doing to engulf the city. Princess Cadence kept a massive shield around the city, but without the aid of Shining Armor’s powers, which were disabled by Sombra’s corrupting magic, the shield eventually failed and Sombra’s negative energy began to close in around the Crystal Empire. The sister princesses were reminded of a similar corruption that Discord seemed to impose upon the world with just his mere presence; they were certain that such an aspect could have only been gained from Discord’s involvement.
It was only through Twilight Sparkle’s resolve, and the assistance of her dragon friend Spike, that the sacred relic of the city, the crystal heart, was returned to its seat of power, Princess Cadence was rediscovered as the heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire, and King Sombra was finally destroyed. As the ponies of Equestria celebrated their victory over Sombra, and the rediscovery of the Crystal Empire, Princess Celestia and Luna began their plan.
In the weeks following the incident, posters, letters, and hundreds of other advertising papers were posted throughout Equestra, all requesting ponies to lend a hoof to the construction of towers, each in specific cities, and for able bodies stallions to act as militia, claiming that if they stood for their lands, they would stand for a peaceful future.
The princesses had designed the towers not just as a way to ward off Discord, but also as a way to bring the three pony tribes closer together, as the towers could not work effectively without the guards working in conjunction. Pegasi with keen eyes were chosen to act as sentries, strong earth ponies were chosen for the main garrison and repair duty, and unicorns with strong crystal affinity were chosen to power the tower’s powerful defense.
Each tower was to be equipped with a crystal that could channel two specific unicorn powers: a defensive energy blast, or a flare to signal the other towers and the princesses of Discord's return.
The remaining ponies that did not work on the towers or serve as guards, were perplexed by the need for so many towers and military fortifications, it’s not as if Equestria was headed to a war, it was just warding off a threat. In spite of this, the ponies paid it not much heed besides their initial surprise, and trusted the princesses's judgment.
In under three months, more than half of the towers were completed and their garrisons fitted out to their respective posts. The princesses were surprised at their subject’s rate of construction and patriotism, but soon realized that in the end all of Equestria would be behind their project. For millenia, Celestia and Luna always wished for a place to call home, and soon they would defend that home from a monster that sought to destroy it. Soon the aegis would be complete and the nation of Equestria would be ready for Discord’s return. Soon, the future of Equestria would never be again plagued with incidents as a result of Discord’s corrupting influence.
Soon, the nation of Equestria would know peace.