//------------------------------// // coming storm // Story: Orion // by Crystal Shard //------------------------------// It was a rather strange scene as Noon Day, her husband Mid Night, and Spike stood before Cadance, Luna, Celestia, Shinning Armor, and Twilight, while off to the side Blue Blood stood with the only Royal Blue guard left in Canterlot, who was covered in cake. It didn't take a detective to know what had happened, but even so to Noon Day and her husband Mid Night they could still see traces of cake on the all four Princesses. "Alright, what is going on here?" it was rare for Celestia to sound anything but regal and joyous; this was one of those rare times. "These three attacked and broke into my Royal Guards Barracks." Blue Blood yelled as he glared at the trio. "Thank you nephew, but I was asking them." As Celestia turned her attention back to the heads of the royal guards Mid Night took lead and stepped forward. "This morning during role call it came to my wife’s attention that the Royal Blue Guard had not shown up for duties, when asked where they were the only information we got was that they were gone, so we had to find out what had happened to 10% of the Royal Guards, when we arrived at their barracks the guard refused us access." "Under my orders!" Blue Blood Interrupted, as he cut Mid Night off with a stamp of his hoof. "You will be silent nephew, and let my guard finish." Luna said, as she shot Blue Blood a look that told him to not say another word until given permission to. "Continue Mid Night." "We gain access." "BY THROWING ME THROUGH THE DOOR!" as all four Princesses shot the Royal Blue Guard a stern look he quickly backed down and stood behind Blue Blood. "As I was saying we gain access, and looked for anything that would tell us where the guards had gone." "Upon are investigation we located a tunnel under one of the bunk beds in the barracks, a tunnel that lead under the mare shower stalls." Noon Day finished, as she shot the guard a dirty look. "Is this true?" Celestia asked, as she looked at Blue Blood. "I am unaware of any such tunnel." Blue Blood said, and then turned to his guard. "We will talk about that later, I am more curious upon the location of your guards’ nephew, both me and Luna have made it very clear that they are to be placed with members of our guards until their probation period had past." Blue Blood stammered a little before smiling at his aunt. "You see aunt Celestia with both Cadance and Shinning armor here; I thought it best to send my guards to aid with the Crystal Guards." "I don't recall requesting for reinforcements to be sent to the empire." Shinning armor said, as he glared at Blue Blood. "And even if I didn't think my guards could handle us being away, and requested the backup then I would have requested them from Princess Celestia and Luna, then hoof picked the guards to join me back to the Crystal Empire, at no point and time would I have ever agreed to sending nothing but Royal Blue Guards to the Empire because to be perfectly frank Blue Blood I didn't trust any of your guards when I was captain of the guard here in Canterlot." When Shinning Armor was finished he looked up to Princess Celestia and bowed slightly. "Forgive me your majesty I did not mean to impede." "Quit alright, and if you could please send a message to the empire and request that the Royal Blue Guard returns at once." "It would be my pleasure Princess." It was clear Shinning Armor was still angry as he turned and left. "I'll go see if I can help." Cadance said, as she followed after her husband. "Very well, but while they handle that, let us discuss this tunnel." Celestia turned and looked at the guard. "Now then start explaining." While all this was going on, back at the Crystal Empire Flash Sentry started to wake from his stone slumber, only to find himself in the throne room looking at the black armor Orion. "Who? Who are you?" Flash asked, as he looked at the armor but then noticed the discoloration of his nose, as he looked down at his hooves he started to panic. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?" "I've woken you up." Orion answered as he looked at the rest of the guards who were starting to wake up as blue crystals necklaces now around their necks started to activate, their bodies looked like they had blue veins as they started to move. "You have five seconds to explain what's going on or else." "Alright, the Royal Blue tricked you, turned you to stone, tried to take over the empire, and terrified your citizens. I stepped in freed the citizens switched the empire defenses into fortress mode, and now your citizens are inside the inner section of the empire while new forces of Royal Blue guards are on their way here to try and finish what the first wave had already started." Orion explained, as he walked to a window and pointed towards the train station. "And what make you think we would believe anything you just said?" Flash asked, as he looked at Orion. As Orion turned to Flash he then pointed to the door entering into the throne room getting Flash to notice families of Crystal Ponies standing and watching, as they ran in and found their loved ones, Flash looked at Orion in shock. "But their Royal Guards." "No they're Royal Blue Guards, and if you knew anything about that group you would know they are anything but true Royal Guards." Orion walked up and stood in front of Flash. "We don't have time to argue or hit heads, we have a fight coming and the only way we are going to have a fighting chance against this force coming, since none of you are able to fly or use magic in your current state, is if we work together." Flash tried to open his wings and realized that he couldn't then looked at Orion. "And why should I trust you?" "Here he is big brother." Gemini said, as he ran up and hugged Orion's leg. "He came in and really gave those bad ponies a walloping." As Orion looked up from the young colt he saw a stone guard walking up with Gemini's parents. "He's a good stallion big brother." "From what you're telling me he's a great Stallion Gemini." with that the stone guard held out his hoof and smiled, as Orion bumped it. "I want to thank you for what you've done." "It's my honor to aid in these trying times, but another wave is coming and I'll need everypony's help in beating them back." with that the other guards turned to Flash who nodded. "Alright first things first I need every citizen to be moved close to the palace, and I need every guard to ensure that they never lose hope, the barrier is going to be are best defense right now and it will keep all of the ponies safe but only if they know for a fact that it will hold, and I give every citizen in this room right now my word that that barrier will stand against anything those tyrants want to throw at it." with that the guards nodded and then lead every pony out of the room leaving only Flash and Orion alone, as Flash checked to make sure no pony was outside the door's listening in he shut them and returned to Orion who was looking at a model of the Crystal empire. "Alright you want me to trust you, tell me the truth." Orion looked at Flash and then took a deep breath. "The truth is the only chance we have is if we have away to get a message to the princesses, the barrier will hold, but only as long at the ponies keep hope, and we both know what happens over time if nothing changes, while a monster bangs on the front door." "The citizens will start questioning if the barrier will be able to hold." "Which will make it weak and eventually." "Fail, alright any ideas?" "I'm thinking right now, if any of the unicorn guards were back to normal I would have them send them a message." "Yeah, and then empire doesn't really have allot of unicorns, the only others are foals." "Yeah, not about to ask a foal to send a message to Canterlot, top it off the first wave intercepted any messages being sent from the empire, so magical teleportation is out of the question." "To bad we don't have another way to transport things right now." Flash kicked the floor in frustration but then looked at Orion, who seemed to be thinking. "What is it?" Before Orion could answered the other guards returned and started to line up as if they were in formation. "Report." "All citizens have been told of the barrier and Orion's promise, and so far it seems that the barrier is holding." "Good, what's the next step?" Flash turned to Orion who had moved to a mirror. "Spectra, you transported me here through a reflective surface that was connected to the Crystal Nexus correct?" "Yes, to be more accurate the Crystal Heart." "Is there a way that we can send a message to Canterlot through the Crystal Nexus?" "I believe that some of the old mirrors in the Canterlot palace contain crystal in them so it should be possible, but even if I was able to open a path for a message it would only be for a very short amount of time, so whatever you sent would have to travel very fast." "Great." with that Orion ran up to the throne and grabbed a quill and scroll and started to write. Back in Canterlot Shinning Armor returned with Cadance with a look of concern on their faces. "Cadance, Shinning, did you send the message?" Celestia asked, as she looked at her niece and nephew in-law. "Yes Aunt Celestia, but something didn't feel right." Cadance said, as she looked at her husband and then her aunt. "When I sent it, it felt as if it was harder for some reason like I was fighting against something." "Strange." "Well no matter my guards are there and nothing can possible stand against them, your empire is completely safe while the Royal Blue Guards stand ready." Blue Blood bragged just before he was hit in the back of the head with something with such force it caused him to go face first to the floor, while the rest present turned and looked at an old mirror to see the stone guards and the black armor of Orion just before the mirror returned to normal. As Celestia levitated the wadded up scroll with her magic a stone fell to the ground just in front of Blue Blood nose. "What does it say?" Cadance asked, as she looked at her aunt. Celestia read the message then turned to Luna. "Get every guard we can spare, and be prepared to take off in three minutes." "Aunt Celestia?" Celestia turned to her niece with a bit of concern, then handed her the message. As Cadance looked at it she gasped then looked at her husband, as he looked at the four words quickly written anger started to boil in him. 'Empire is under attack.' "Shinning I have to go." "Cadance that's too far." "I can't just stand around and do nothing, at least there I can give our citizens hope and do my best to keep them at bay, besides you saw those monsters who know what their capable of doing, I have to go help our ponies Shinning." "I understand but just give us a few minutes you heard your aunt we're all going in 3 minutes and we'll be there before you know it." Shinning could see Cadance was worried and smiled when she nodded. "Great, you'll see we'll be there before anypony knows it and we'll break those stone monsters and whatever that black metal thing was." As Shinning headed for the door he was just about leave when he hear Celestia and Twilight yell Cadance's name just before there was a flash of light, as he turned he could see that Cadance was gone. "Oh Cadance you fool." Celestia said, as she looked at the spot Cadance had just been standing. "Get the guards ready we have to leave now, and tell Luna that Cadance has just tried to teleport back to the Empire. "SHE'S DONE WHAT!?" Luna yelled, as she ran in and looked at her sister. "Does she not know that it is too far for one teleportation spell even for us, even if she makes it all the way her magic will be drained she would be of no use to anypony there." Luna looked at her sister and saw the look of concern on her face then noticed the tear, she knew what Celestia was already thinking about, the attackers would now have a Princess prisoner if Cadance had made it all the way, and if not Cadance could be lost somewhere between there and Canterlot, if her magic didn't give out and she materialized in the middle of a mountain, or something. "Sister you rally the guards I will fly ahead." Before Celestia could say anything Luna was out the window and heading for the empire. Back at the empire Orion was just going over the plan when from the center of the throne room there was a flash of light and Cadance appeared, only seconds before she fell to the floor. "PRINCESS!" Flash ran to Cadance's side and lifted her head, as Orion joined her. "Not good." "Princess Cadance, is she alright?" One of the guards asked as they started to gather around. "Spectra I need some information." Orion said, as he spoke into his right wrist and a holographic image of Spectra appeared looking at Cadance. "She's completely used her magic she must have teleported all the way here and through the Crystal barrier." "Will she live?" "Yes but she's going to need a lot of rest." "Alright." "But her foal might not." "HER WHAT!" All the guards said at once as this information came to light. "I'll go get the royal doctor." one of the guards said as he headed for the door. "HOLD IT!" the guard stopped and looked at Orion confused. "Get all the Doctors you can find, bring them up here, but try and keep it on the quite side that she's here, and don't answer any of their questions until Flash fills you in." with that the guard nodded and headed out the door, while Orion looked at Cadance. "Spectra are there any ways we can transfer the energy from the Crystal Heart and restore Cadace’s magic?" "It would weaken the barrier so much; it's already starting to falter." "What?... Why?" "I think I know why." a Guard said and pointed towards the window getting the others to look to see a giant stone creature heading for them. "That thing has to be as tall as the Palace." One of the guards commented getting Orion to look back at Cadance. "Spectra the barrier it needs the hopes of the Crystal Ponies right?" "Yes." "And there is away to transfer some of the magic that the Crystal Heart uses to make the barrier to Cadance to ensure her life and the life of the foal she carries?" "Yes." Orion turned back to the window and saw the stone monster once more. "Then what we need is to give the Crystal Ponies some more hope." "We could try and wage an attack on that monster." One of the guards suggested only to have Orion shake his head. "Why not?" "Because I know the royal sisters can turn you back to normal, but I’m not too sure what could happen if you got smashed out there, besides none of you are at your full game right now." Orion gulped slightly and then looked at Flash. "I know we don't know anything about each other but I need you to trust me now." "Alright." "Spectra give me that device we just talked about." with that a necklace appeared with the shape of a Crystal Heart as its center piece. As he placed it around Candace’s neck he looked at Flash. "Tell your guards to spread the word that Princess Cadance has arrived." "But that will just scare them if they find out her condition." Orion shook his head. "No tell them to spread the word that the Princess has arrived and has transferred apart of her magic into me to stop this monster, tell them that she has put her faith in me and that they should have faith in her actions." "You honestly think this will work?" "You honestly think we have a better choice right now?" "Good point, but what about you?" "Forget about me, I'm nothing you should be concerned about, only think of those under your protection and right now that includes your princess, I'll go out there and do what I can, hopeful I’ll be able to hold that thing off long enough for Princess Cadance to get back to normal." with that Orion talked to the window and red Pegasus wings of crystal appeared as he took to the air. "Orion even with the boost of positive emotion it'll still take awhile for Cadance to get back to normal." "Positive emotion? Spectra you told me the armor is powered similar to the Crystal Heart." "Yes but it was made to use all emotions, Crystal Edge learned that if one wears the armor for too long while it was only being powered by one kind of emotion it would alter the wears behavior." "So what you're telling me is that this armor can run off of just the dark emotions, hate, anger and so forth." there was no response. "Spectra I need to know the answer." "It can but only for a limited amount of time before the armor starts to corrupt your behavior." "In other words I wear the armor feeding on nothing but those emotions and I might turn into something like Sombra." "No, you'll turn into something far worst." "It's a risk we have to take, filter all the positive emotions back to the Crystal Heart and from there to Cadance and the barrier, Once it's confirmed that her foal is safe focused the energy on the barrier alone." "And what of you?" "One pony for thousands, and an empire that spreads hope across all of Equestria, sounds like a good deal to me." Back at the Palace the doctors started to walk in and started to tend to Princess Cadance while Flash passed on Orion's message and sent them to pass the message, in a bid to raise the Crystal Ponies spirits. "Good luck Orion, my Faust watch over you."