//------------------------------//
// 8 The Change 
// Story: The Crystal Prize 
// by Calden 
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Sparkling Wine opened the door to his home in a foul temper to find Good Vintage looking back at him looking jusrt as furious.
“We knew this would happen old colt. We knew it was only a matter of time.” Sparkling Wine grumbled. He led his friend through the house, pointing out the tipped over furniture and broken glass. A light was on upstairs. “I haven’t been up there, he doesn’t know I’m in. We’re gonna go up there and get the beast for what he’s done. If he wants to be an animal, we’ll put him down like one.” Good Vintage smiled as Sparkling Wine lifted up a floorboard to reveal two spears hidden there, neither of them knew why they had hidden weapons under their houses but they were certainly not complaining now. They crept up the stairs and pushed open the door to see the thin dog standing by Sparkling Wine’s bed with a knife in his hand. Fur was littered all around the room and the dog’s coat was cut short and through it strong sinewy muscles were visible. “Sebastian! You’re going to regret this dog. You diamond dogs will wish you never came here once we’re done with you..” Sparkling Wine roared as he lifted his spear under his leg. The dog laughed, putting the old ponies on edge. They had been counting on being able to intimidate the dog.
“Let’s go through what you got wrong there, shall we?” Sebastian asked, a grin grew across his face. “First of all my name is Sextus Pompeius, not Sebastian, but you two can call me Sextus, no need for formality between such good friends.” Sextus took a step towards the ponies who gripped their spears tighter and jabbed pathetically towards their assailant. “Second of all I’m afraid I’m not a Diamond Dog. I won’t go into the complicated social science of it all, that’s not my thing. We are the Crystállum Canini my gentleponies. A finer breed of warrior, an older breed. Once upon a time, when I was a pup, I thought myself a Diamond Dog. How wrong I was.” Sextus spat on the ground before laughing coldly. “Hey, there’s somewhere we agree after all! We both hate the diamond dogs.” Sextus laughed and took another step towards the ponies shaking in fright. "Finally, I’m going to wish I never came here once you’re done with me, was that it? No, that wasn’t quite it. My entire people is going to regret coming here. Well I don’t think I’m regretting anything right now. Even if I was old Vinty here isn’t in a position to make me regret anything.” 
The ponies looked at each other in confusion and turned back to Sextus a second too late. The canine leapt forwards and plunged his knife into Good Vintage’s side, leaving the knife in a fissure in the pony’s body which left spiderwebs as his crystal body cracked around it. Sextus wrenched Good Vintage’s spear away from him as Sparkling Wine tried to jab at him. Sextus dodged the blow effortlessly and thrust his own spear at him. The spearhead went deep into the pony and caused him to instantly shatter into pieces. Good Vintage tried to scream for help but the shock was too much for him and all he managed was a weak croak. As he literally fractured all he could do was draw heavy breaths. “Tonight everything changes, and there is no room in this empire for a couple of ponies who can’t handle change. Thank you for the heads up about Shining Armor by the way.” Sextus snarled before pressing his foot onto the knife embedded in the pony and pushed down. He swept some of the shards of what used to be Good Vintage with his tail as he left the room. He walked out the front door and into the night, climbing the house and running across the houses. “Tonight, everything changes.”





Cadance sat upon her throne, her imperial tiara perched atop her head. Every day she tried to reserve time for her subjects so that they could come and speak to her directly about any issue they might have, she was even known to make home visits for ponies unable to make the trip. It was the final audience of the day and she was surprised to see a group of diamond dogs walk forward. It brought a smile to her face to see that the diamond dogs had cut their fur, they were finally starting to improve their appearances and trying to integrate more with the ponies. All she wanted was for them to live harmoniously amongst her ponies, sadly however, neither group had actually made a wholehearted attempt to work together. There were eight dogs in all, strangely they assumed a kind of pyramid formation with four of them at the back, a female and a huge dog in the middle and an old dog at the front standing next to a dog around the age of the female and giant dog. The old dog bowed to Cadance, his companions imitated him. 
“Welcome. I am glad to finally have the chance to speak to one of you in the palace. I have been out into the streets to speak to some of you but you eight are the first to actually attend court for an audience.” Cadance said, beaming. The old dog smiled warmly at Cadance and addressed her. 
“It is an honour Cadance.” He began. His informality elicited whispers of shock and embarrassment from many members of the court. Cadance, however, was unfazed, she had not always been an empress, she had not always been royal, she had not always been an alicorn. Deep down she still saw herself as just Cadance the pegasus and she was not offended by being referred to as such. “My name is Aetius Iulius, this is my son Iulius Octavius.” He gestured towards the younger dog beside him. “We thank you for welcoming the canini back to the empire.” Cadance was puzzled.
“Back?” she asked. “I am afraid I do not follow Mr Iulius.” Aetius merely laughed.
“I did not think you would.” Cadance was not happy with Aetius’ condescending tone. “Not many equines have memories of their past do they? You all can remember Sombra and your lives since the return but other than that it is a blank. Did you all believe life began with Sombra? No? Have you not wondered why you have no memories of your past? No? Why all you can remember the tyrant but not the paradise that preceded it? Maybe then Sombra was not the tyrant that ended a paradise. I can assure you that Sombra did end paradise, just not one you understand.” By now the court was hanging on his every word. “ Now you were curious as to why I thanked you for welcoming us ‘back’. I believe a few months ago you held a grand celebration for the return of Pursorubi, the last town of the Empire. The mules and towns were not all that returned Cadance. We returned to this world before Pursorubi.” 
“You are familiar with the diamond dogs: savages, unfit for society. That is the fate you equines forced upon us. We are the Crystállum Canini equines. You may refer to us as masters or as enemies, it is your choice.” Cadance shot a look to Espera, disguised as Sapphire Star, in the corner of the room who quickly ushered Dawning Song out of the room and towards the guard station in the palace. Then Cadance looked at her guards already in the room, they were already prepared to strike when needed. She just wished that Shining Armor was here. “Octavius was liberated from the diamond dogs along with thousands of his brethren, they know nothing of the true crystal empire. I remember though. I was there. I am  Legatus Augusti pro praetore. I lead the legions in place of our leader, Consul Maximus, cut down by the equines at the first battle of Cristamera. Overrun by an army the likes of which has never been seen since. You are a peaceful people, your army is complacent and weak.” Aetius said smugly. A nod to Shieldbearer was all Cadance needed to give to have every guard in the room to level his spear.
“You may outnumber my guards but they are trained and armed while you have no weapons, no armour. Leave Aetius. Leave our empire and never return. You may threaten me but you may never threaten my people.” Cadance announced, lifting a spear in her magic herself and aiming it at Aetius. Aetius laughed and turned to one of his companions who placed an object into a small jar in his hands, the emerald flame in the jar turned to black before vanishing. Moments later black flame erupted over all eight canini and suddenly they were clad in full armour: breastplates and war skirts. Shining steel swords and shields were held firmly and javelins were strapped to their backs. The female held a spear with a strange crystal cone in place of a spearhead.
“Thank you for keeping our empire safe for us Cadance.” Aetius said blankly to the shocked empress. He turned to the eight, now heavily armoured, canini behind him. “ Welcome home brothers.”





Shining Armor saw the smoke from outside Cristamera, he looked around and saw smoke from all directions with a town nearby. He sprinted as fast as he could towards the palace, towards all that was important to him. 
“Sir! Finally you’re back.” He turned to see one of his lieutenants calling to him, galloping at top speed towards him.
“What in Tartarus is going on here Wild Wings?” Shining Armor growled, still on course to the palace.
“It’s the diamond dogs sir, the ones that arrived after the fires in the equestrian mountains. Somehow they’re armed and dangerous. We’re holding them but how could we have seen this coming? We’re woefully unprepared sir. We need your help. Where have you been sir?” The desperation in the pegasus’ voice was mirrored in the eyes of the other guards that assembled around them, by the time Shining Armor answered there were about seven of them in all.
“There were complications.” Shining Armor wished he had his armour and weapons. He would have to grab them before finding Dawn and Cadance. Waste precious seconds. “You are all sworn to secrecy on your empire and your oath to each other?” The ponies nodded, he had to trust them. He would need ponies he could trust if this all came out, better to tell them now. “We took the Heart to Equestria to investigate it, there’s a problem with it. Naturally crystal ponies are harmed by it, somepony’s already been killed by it. I took it personally to the Triarchs, it was only meant to take a fortnight at the most. As I said, things got complicated.”
“What sir? If you don’t mind me asking.” Asked a guard to his left, she shared her look of concern with her comrades.
“It’s… gone. Twilight and Luna were performing tests on it and it just vanished in a flash. We have no idea why, just that there was an unbelievable power spike in the seconds before it happened. That’s why I was gone so long, they quarantined us to see if the energy had any effect on us.” Wild Wings opened his mouth to ask another question but Shining Armor shot him a furious look. “Now soldiers, get to the east gatehouse and co-ordinate a counter-offensive. I will be with you as soon as I can.” Without another word the guards drifted left as Shining Armor increased his pace.

Buildings could be rebuilt, the other guards would save the ponies but he had to get to the palace, to Cadance, to Dawning Song. He had to get to his little filly. He ran the whole way, the blazing streets blurred together, all he could hear were the flames and the screams. He ran through the gardens and ripped slabs of stone from the garden and floated them in midair to form steps. He galloped up them and leapt into Dawning Song’s bedroom. He looked around to see Star Sapphire with a furious look on her face standing in front of Dawning Song. The filly was curled into a ball, tears streamed down her face as she tried to comprehend what was happening. Fear was all that she could process.
“Dawn. It’s fine. I’m here now Dawn, I’m here.” Shining Armor whispered as He walked past Star Sapphire and held his daughter in his hooves. She continued to cry uncontrollably. He set her back down and turned to the foalsitter. “I’m going to get Cadance. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes I want you to leave. I don’t care where, just get somewhere safe.” Star Sapphire nodded and Shining Armor turned back to Dawning Song. The filly looked at her father. “Dawn. I’m going to get your mom. If anything happens just know. We love you, we love you more than anything else. You’re the most special filly ever to be born, literally. It’s always been our dream for you to become empress, you can bring unending peace and prosperity, get rid of the inequality. Bring happiness, you’ve always been good at that. Make our dream come true Dawn, and never forget that we love you.” With that Shining Armor used magic to rip a chunk out of the wall behind Dawning Song’s bed, revealing his personal weapons and Armour which he promptly put on. “We love you.” He repeated before sprinting towards the throne room. 
After his first turn around a corner he saw the first of the attackers. The canine did not even have time to think before the spear was plunged into his heart. His companion did have time to react however, and raised his shield to block the blow aimed at him. Shining Armor roared and his magic enveloped the shield. The canine’s eyes widened in shock as the metal rectangle contorted in his hand and wrapped around his wrist. He screamed in pain as Shining Armor had what was once the soldier’s shield shield jerk upwards, snapping the canine’s wrist, he dropped his spear to hold his now limp appendage. Seeing his chance Shining Armor thrust his spear again and killed the canine. He lifted the canine’s two javelins and continued running, three now floating above him. 





Octavius laughed as he felt the resistance against his sword disappear as the pony shattered with his blow. They were holding the reinforcements at the door while Cadance hid behind her shield with what was left of her guard, the rest being merely shards by her hooves. While they had eight dogs originally they had been reinforced by a further dozen almost immediately after Aetius’ plan began. For the false empress’ credit she had managed to kill four fully trained canini personally, with her guards whittling them down to the six canini that guarded the door, and Numeria who stood facing Cadance, her spear aimed directly at the pony’s heart. if Cadance lowered her shield for even a second Numeria would kill her. Due to their training being based on fighting each other, none of the canini but those that returned with Aetius were fully prepared for the magic the equines held, especially Cadance who managed to use magic to snap the necks of one of the canini before the fighting had begun. A window shattered to his left and Octavius wheeled around, sword in hand, ready to kill the equine trying to sneak up on him. He smiled when he saw seven new soldiers reinforcing them.
“How goes it?” Aetius asked. The leader of the group explained the situation to the Legatus and his protege at his side. The soldier explained their current situation. Thousands of ponies had fled the city but that was of no consequence. The guards had quickly retreated to the palace where they were blocking the entrances to the palace but they were slowly being overwhelmed. “Only a matter of time soldier, then we will have back our empire.” Countless reports appeared over the next half hour from every own in the empire, each reporting the success of the legion. “It has all led to this Octavius.” Aetius beamed smugly at Cadance and her guards, still holed up behind their forcefield. “Now it is time to take our seats at the head of the greatest war machine in the world. Eventually they will thank us, I am sure of it. We shall bring order to them all. Their ‘harmony’ is unsustainable and unreasonable between species. Order is stable, it is permanent. Order is universal. You shall make a fine regent Octavius” Octavius’ face fell.
“Regent, my Legatus?”
“But of course. Now that we have succeeded here it is time I have my own pups, my heirs. Oh how I wish you could succeed but we must be led by the true canini, the line of Maximus. It is the way. You understand.”
“I am not sure that I do. What of the equality of the canini? The ancient canini are the minority, we are the future. You mean you plan to cast us aside?”
“Not at all Octavius, in time the crossbreeds will evolve to become superior like the ancients.”
“So we are inferior sir?” 
“For now, I have great plans for you though Octavian. You will rule as my pups grow. You will make the perfect teacher. I know you understand.” 
“Of course my Legatus.”Octavius smiled for a moment before swinging his spatha at Aetius. Quick as a flash the old dog rose his sword to meet Octavius’. His face awash with fury. 
“Treachery? I expected more Octavian. Come the, let me show you the superiority of the time of Maximus.” The two fought at the centre of the throne room, all the while Numeria kept her eyes locked onto Cadance’s, her spear ready. The bodies of canini soldiers littered the doors, sprinkled with shards of crystal ponies, nevertheless soldiers from both side poured into the fray. 

Octavius and his mentor were evenly matched, neither seemed able to gain the advantage until Aetius feinted to the left and swiped at Octavius cutting deeply into his left arm. Octavius howled in pain and dropped his shield as Aetius began to swing again to finish the fight. With a renewed ferocity he brought up his sword and went onto the offensive. Aetius held his shield up as Octavius slammed his sword against it repeatedly, roaring with rage. Suddenly the young dog dropped to the floor and sliced at Aetius’ legs. Aetius fell as the sword severed his feet from his legs. As he writhed in pain he watched Octavius walk towards him and take his finely made gilded sword from his paw. Aetius looked directly at Octavius as the Legatus’ own blade swung at his neck.





Sextus and Lucius jumped into the throne room with more soldiers as Aetius’ head rolled towards them. There was a stunned silence in the room. As one Lucius, Marcus and Sextus dropped to one knee, right paw resting on their heart in salute, and bowed their head to Octavius. The other soldiers followed suit.
“Hail Legatus.” They all cried in unison. Octavius smiled and mimicked the gesture. His left arm still hung limply at his side. He tore the cloak he wore around his shoulders and threw it to Lucius.
“Lucius, shroud the Legatus in this. He will received the greatest burial we are capable of. No one will ever forget his services to the canini.” He turned to the soldiers. “Today is the genesis of the second great canini empire. We are the greatest soldiers, the greatest inventors, the greatest scientists, the greatest minds. We are the dominant species of this world. For too long the equi have ruled this land with their peace. Peace gained through cowardice and treachery. We will bring true peace through submission. We will gift the equi and the griffins and the dragons with the laws and stability gained under the rule of one. I promise every soldier will have a farm, where they may live and raise a family. No pup will die cold and alone. No longer will we be seen as freeloading beggars, as thieves, as beasts. Today begins the fight for home. First our empire is regained, then we expand. Long live the empire. Long live the canini. Long live you all!” The soldiers roared the last three phrases Octavius said back to him. In minutes he had gone from murderer to leader. Octavius quickly jerked his head to the side as a javelin flew past him and embedded itself in the wall behind him. A cut bled on Octavius’ cheek. Numeria gestured for another guard to take her position aiming at Cadance and ran to Octavius.
“Who dares?!” She shrieked. As if on cue another javelin flew in through one of the side windows, narrowly missing Numeria. All of a sudden Shining Armor in his full golden and purple armour jumped into the throne room through the window. No less than thirteen javelins levitated around his spear. 
“I do.” He said calmly. All thirteen javelins flew out from around Shining Armor, each and every one leaving a soldier dead. Shining Armor could see that their leader was worried, scared ever, he clearly hadn’t planned on him getting to the throne room. Suddenly Shining Armor’s spear darted across the room and hit the chandelier which began to fall down towards Octavius. The canine would have been killed has Marcus not run forward and caught it. The huge canine was forced down onto one knee as he struggled to hold the weight of the chandelier. Undeterred, Shining Armor fired a bolt of magic directly at Octavius. With lightning-quick reflexes Numeria thrust her spear out into the path of the magic. The head of the spear began to glow and four canini grabbed Shining Armor and Wrestled him to the ground. As Shining Armor hit his assailants with more bolts of magic more and more soldiers leapt into the fray to subdue him. Almost drained completely of energy. Shining Armor was forced to watch as Octavius took the spear from Numeria and step towards the shield and speak to Cadance, blood still flowing from his cheek.
“We are not like you mules, we have no magic flowing through our veins. We cannot will the weather to be how we wish it. We cannot animate objects to do what we will. We possess no affinity with the ground to help feed our people. Your dominance is based upon this power but now that advantage has gone.” Octavius said as he approached the bubble of purple light cutting Cadance and her remaining guards off from the rest of the throne room. “Numeria’s spear is tipped with a head made of pure crystal, the purest of crystal.The horn of a crystal pony.” Shining Armor was so shocked that he stopped struggling to get free from his captors. “One of your ponies stumbled accross us so we took what we could. Since then Numeria has been waiting for the opportunity your darling husband just gave us. The bolt of energy intended to kill me has been absorbed by the spear. Now all that energy is stored at the tip of this spear, longing, begging to be free. All it needs is a target. Oh think of all that can be achieved with this technology. No longer will you be able to defeat us with your magic. Never again will you use it against us. Never again” Octavius began to speak louder as he neared the bubble.
“Once you used your magic to almost destroy us, to take away our empire, claim it as your own and wipe us from history. You reduced the Crystállum Canini, the mightiest and purest of races, to mere savages. Savages you deemed not to be fit for society, and treated as such. No effort has been made to improve us our standing or treat us as equal. While you live in your cities and palaces we were forced into caves. You even forced us to rely on you for the most basic luxuries of life. The Sun and the Moon! Today we begin to take back what was taken from us. Today we begin to take back our world!” 
Octavius jabbed forward with the spear. Every eyes in the room looked on in amazement as the spear went straight through the shield. From its entrance point a blood red spiderweb began to grow across the wall of energy until finally it shattered. Javelins flew from soldiers all around the throne room, killing all Cadance’s remaining guards. The spear head had noticeably dimmed but still glowed slightly with energy. Cadance began to charge her horn with power, planning on sending out a shockwave powerful enough to incapacitate every canini in the palace. “I am afraid I cannot allow you to use your energy like that Cadance. I have far greater plans for it. And even greater plans for the little princess.” Cadance’s mind filled with fear and rage as all her thoughts turned to her daughter, she sent out a mental pulse. The pulse was subtle enough that none without training in mind reading or a similar magic would be able to detect it though. Espera got the message however and used her magic to teleport herself and Dawning Song as far away from the palace as she could, sending a pulse back as she did. Cadance barely had time to recognise the pulse had been emitted before Octavius’ spear tapped the base of her horn, sending the energy still was still charging back into her, knocking her out cold. 





Octavius stood on the balcony that overlooked the front gates of the palace. The canini soldiers that had taken Cristamera had been called there at three in the morning to hear a speech from their leader. All of them were tired from the fighting and even those that were not in Cristamera were forced to wake up to hear copies of the speech sent to their respective commanders. “Today we have taken back our empire my brothers and sisters. Today we reminded the world of what we are, what we can do. So many of us lost their lives for us to bask in this moment and bask we shall. Now is the time to purge our empire of the mules and welcome our brethren to this paradise. All canini are welcome here, all those left to rot in caves by cruel tyrants. We will make our home here and then we shall expand. We shall take this world for our own and no creature will ever forget us again. To celebrate our victory I offer the chance to retire to every soldier from the old empire. They shall have the chance to work as farmers, shop owners, administrators, civil servants; your lives are yours. All canini in bondage are free to live in our empire as citizens, not as slaves. Our young shall train, they shall learn, they shall grow, and they shall fight. All the land will know their glory, and then their children shall do the same. It is our role to facilitate glory, the glory of the empire, the glory of Aetius and Maximus, the glory of the canini. The glory of you, my brothers. The glory of you, my sisters, be you of the time of Maximus or today. I promise the sun will set when you wish. The moon will rise when you will it to. It will rain and snow and the sun will shine and the crops grow when you decree. Just follow me and we shall rule, and our children shall rule, and their children shall rule. I simply have one question: will you rule?” The roar from the crowd that had totally forgotten how tired they were was all Octavius needed. “Then let us work.”