The cobbled streets were cracked, with many of the stones that made up the streets missing, exposing the soil to the open air and causing a large amount of potholes to be mixed into the road. The cart trundled along, swaying treacherously from side to side.
Emerald Impact saw the stallion sitting opposite him fidgeting with a locket, from the small glimpses Emerald got when he opened the locket Emerald could almost immediately tell that it was the poor stallion's wife. Eventually the stallion drew his eyes up from the locket and brought his gaze up to meet Emerald Impact's constant attention to his locket.
"Any foals back home?" Emerald asked.
"Two colts and a filly, you?" the stallion said in a sad tone of voice, almost choking up at the slightest mention of the life he had left behind.
"Just the one colt and the 'ol wife," Emerald Impact said, his voice turning to mist on the cold morning air, "by tartarus I miss them."
The cart finally came in the center of one of the many towns and villages that surrounded the Crystal City. This particular town went by the name of Horseshoe Bend. It had been first established by the endless waves of Equestrian settlers on the ruins of one of the old villages destroyed during Sombra's reign of tyranny. It had now been completely transformed from it's old peaceful, agrarian lifestyle into a busy industrial port, now renowned for it's massive dry docks and gantries endlessly churning out ships for both the Equestrian Royal Navy and the Equestrian Merchant Fleet.
The rebel's plan of attack was simple yet devious. Today one of the Equestrian fleet's largest ships ever commissioned would finally be leaving the Crystal Empire in order to pass it's numerous tests in safe, Equestrian waters that would finally mark it as seaworthy. The rebel's had planted stallions in the large workforce that had constructed the ship, meaning that the ships armour plating, specifically near the front would be weak enough that a powerful magical blow would be enough to destroy the ship outright.
Of course all magic that was tied to the Crystal Ponies was a dormant magic residing in their hearts, not being able to unleash it into the physical world like the unicorns of Equestria. However Princess Twilight was another case entirely, her Alicorn magic would be enough to rend the ship from bow to stern. There had been a lot of negotiating between Steel Defiance and Twilight however they had settled on that if Steel Defiance agreed to give Twilight back to the Equestrians, Twilight would provide them with all the magic necessary.
Emerald wiped at the beads of sweat forming along his forehead with a handkerchief that had been stuffed clumsily into his belt, resting snugly behind the holster for his pistol. It was plain to see that he was becoming more and more nervous for the coming attack, even though most major guerilla actions for their fledgling war he had participated in he still could not shake a feeling of doubt that constantly loomed over him like a rain cloud on a summer's day.
Flash Sentry's mission was drawing to a close, there was only one stop left for his motley crew of recruiting sergeants-Ponyville. The train ground to a halt at the small town's only train station, at first glance one could easily overlook this quaint town and move on to it's more extravagant neighbor of Canterlot.
His squad moved into the town square and carried out their usual practice, one that had been repeated in almost every major town or city in Equestria. Many ponies had already converged on the group if only to gaze upon their neatly pressed and newly issued uniforms. Of that crowd Flash Sentry could almost immediately pick out the five ponies who he had never seen in Canterlot except for when Twilight was present.
These ones will be easy, he thought to himself, knowing full well that her friends would most likely serve in the new force being assembled to put an end to the rebellion that had almost killed Twilight Sparkle. He took his place on the makeshift podium that had been crudely assembled and taken apart an uncountable number of times in the past week.
"I am sure you are all aware of the threat on our very borders, the threat that will consume us all if we don't stamp it out," Flash began wasting no time in beginning to play on the fears of all the onlookers below him, "I am of course talking about, the threat from the North."
An aura of fear and anxiety seized the helpless crowd, ever growing as more and more ponies were dragged to witness the royal guards warning. Flash Sentry felt a pang of guilt when he heard a young filly burst into tears and cling to her mother's leg, however he pressed on, now was not a time for compassion but a time for action.
"Many of you will ask yourselves, but we are just harmless ponies, we mean no harm to anyone," Flash Sentry drew in a breath through his teeth, seeing the effect on the crowd he had, "But so was Princess Twilight, and she is currently rotting in a dungeon at the behest of traitors."
His last word burned itself into the minds of the crowd, in every other village he had used prospects of money or national pride as his tools however a simple speech in Ponyville was evidently enough. "Now, which of you will join me in the glorious fight to save our precious princess."
The crowds echo had the desired effect, Flash saw stallions, mares and even foals jumping into the air screaming for the blood of the rebels. Flash Sentry felt his gut churning over, knowing that all who signed up to fight in the new unit would be changed forever, scarred by the dying screams of comrade and foe alike.
By the end of his recruiting foray across Equestria he had a ledger filled with numbers, names and backgrounds, he knew the entire strength of his new battlegroup, and that strength scared him.
The force largely consisted of veterans from Equestria's wars with both the Gryphon-Zebra alliance and the rehousing of the Buffalo. The're were also many young stallions who had signed up for the chance to seize glory in a foreign land, yet almost all the recruits drawn, be they veteran or glory-seeker, had come for one simple reason-money.
They were paid ten bits a day-almost as much as even the elite Thunderbolts. That was what made Flash Sentry's stomach turn over. He had little respect for mercenaries and even less for those mercenaries who rebranded themselves as something else. The entire force of ponies, around twenty five-thousand strong, would be sent to Canterlot for training, even though they barely had enough uniforms for the sudden influx of recruits.
Bringing Shattered Dawn up to speed was no easy task. A mixture of his incessant questions and naive outlook on both killings from either side led him to see the Equestrian's nothing more than the enemy and the killings perpetrated by the rebels as an easy task. Steel Defiance had tried to dissuade his headstrong brother however that had proved to be even more difficult than explaining to him the current situation of the revolutionary war.
He had left his brother in more than capable hands, having to reassure himself that he was safe. When he arrived back to the rebel's underground lair he had a momentous task that lay before him. The task however, was not one of bloodshed but instead one of peace-he had to deliver Twilight Sparkle back to the Equestrian authorities in exchange for both Twilight's magic and the release of their head of state White Blizzard.
The group was prepared to leave, in the vanguard would march their band comprised of five men using an assortment of marching instruments, behind them stood in perfect formation a column of roughly twenty stallion each armed with their rifle and lastly came Steel Defiance with Twilight Sparkle, who had well-armed guards flanking her on each side.
When the group left their compound they had to force a bandage over Twilight's eyes, if she knew any sensitive information their rebellion would be ended the next day. The marching music lit up the gloomy morning in the slums, the stallion's perfectly synchronised footsteps ringing through the streets. Then the chant that would strike fear into the Equestrian's went up into the sky as the marching Stallion's raised their fists to put on a show for the cheering onlookers.
Well I have been a rebel now for about a week or more
with rifles and guerilla tactics I thought I knew the score
But now we have a weapon, we've never used before
The soldiers are looking worried - and they're going to worry more!
Steel's thoughts began to race around in his head, if the Equestrians were willing to negotiate now, what could that mean for the rest of the rebellion. This deal could measure the effectiveness of the rebel's adopted brutality. However as the procession marched ever closer towards the inner city an inexplicable gloom washed over them, going from the elite of the deadliest paramilitary in the known world to a procession of spectres within a few short moments. But even that did not stop there chanting, it only became louder as many of the Crystal Ponies who lived in the slums followed the group and joined their voices to the rebel's.
I started out with nothing, just throwing bricks and stones,
With a hundred more lads like me I never was alone,
On that early morning they kicked in our back door,
For every stallion they took away, they missed one-hundred more,
As the chant continued to echo through the grandiose streets of the inner city the group finally came to the massive crystalline spire. The small parade was met with a large group of Equestrian soldiers all hunched behind a barricade erected after the chaos of the rising. After the procession stopped in front of the barricade, the two groups as silent as the grave Princess Cadance and Shining Armour finally emerged from the Equestrian barricade.
"where is she, please," Cadance said in a stressed tone faltering at every word.
We have you right where we want you Steel thought cruelly, knowing fully what they had done to the Equestrian's morale, "Not before we have him."
"Bring him forward, Now," Shining Armour said in the most commanding tone he could muster, however even he was daunted by seeing his sweet and innocent sister flanked by armed men. The Equestrians almost flung White Blizzard out from behind their barricade, all of them glad to see him go.
"Pleasure doing buisness with you," Steel joked when they pushed the bound Twilight Sparkle from out of their ranks. As soon as they were done, they turned on their heels to a cheering crowd and made their merry way back to the slums.
"Do it," Emerald Impact almost screamed, the din from crowd below them and the ships loud horns nearly blocking out his voice completely.
The rebel aimed the contraption using the crude sights that had been fastened to it. The machine was a rifle that the rebels had modified to contain Alicorn magic, doing away with almost the entire midsection of and adding on a large Crystal tube that contained the particles of magic to the underside of the weapon.
When the rifle shot, it's sound could be heard even by the sailors on the ship. The ship soon burst into a maelstrom of magical energy, pink and purple flames licking the evening sky whilst the bottom of the ship began to crack open as if the steel that made the ship were paper. The sailor's dying screams seemed to be amplified as they resounded across the entire countryside. Emerald could see sailors and marines wrapped in blankets of flame desperately jumping into the black depths river in a futile attempt to quench the flames.
Finally the reality of his actions hit Emerald in full force, however he only shrugged it off, burying it deep inside of his conscience to be dealt with at a later date.
"Let's get out of this hell hole," Emerald Impact said, his gaze still locked on the harbour being immolated by the purple flames. The rebels
moved into the streets, none of them speaking, none of them had to.