The Great Dictator: Times of Swift Rise

by Time Reaper

Chapter 1: The Military Junta

If you find Green text, click it, since it's a link to music to give ambiance to the story

The Crystal Palace was, as the name implied, a palace made out of the best crystals that could be found in the region. It was made by the founder of the Crystal Kingdom and it symbolized the magnificence of the kingdom, its citizens and its ruler. Inside the Palace, one of the most majestic things to watch was the Throne room, decorated with the most beautiful pieces of jewelry, metal and crafted stone; it had the floor carpeted with the best fabric avaiable at the time and it was of a red wine color, it was a marble to watch and the most important piece of this throne room was the throne itself, made out of marble and covered in molten gold with precious stones. This throne was meant for the king of the Crystal Kingdom and it's descendant, but today things were a bit different for the Throne room wasn't being occupied by one pony, but rather, three ponies. This were the ponies that staged a coup against Sombra to take him out of power and save the kingdom, it was a successful coup but they now had to figure out how to stabilize the kingdom before anarchy could destroy what was left of it.

This three ponies were, respectively, the new heads of the Crystal Kingdom. So let's take a look at them:

One was a tall Unicorn with a black mane and a deep blue coat, purple eyes and an arrow as a cutie mark. His name was Pure Diamond, General commander of the Crystal Army, a pony that deeply loved the Crystal Kingdom and, as of right now, he was trying to keep his mind under control because the coupe d'etat caused a lot of friction inside the Crystal Guard and him, along his two partners, ruling now weren't making it any easier. This weren't the kind of things you would do when your life as a Crystal Guard was supposed to be 'obey your king and protect the ponies of the kingdom'. But, under Sombra's reign, those 2 things entered in conflict, Pure Diamond had to choose between one or the other. It scared him deeply the idea of going against Sombra but, after some intense debating, he chose to protect the ponies from the usurper king. Not too long after that, he now had to keep all of the Crystal Guards under control to avoid any type of internal struggle among his soldiers, he had to avoid another coup for the stability of the kingdom and see how to stabilize the government by defining the head of state. But he will take care of that after the conference that was going to start in a few minutes.

The other pony was a mid-height Pegasus with a cyan blue coat, monochromatic mane, yellow eyes and a lightning sword as a cutie mark. His name was Lt. Golden Strike, a pony who started his career as a Crystal Guard not too long ago and has been quickly rising on the ranks. Typical of a young pony, Golden Strike new that, after this coup d'etat, he was only going to advance even more in the ranks thanks to his skills and quick thinking in military strategy and troop command, after all, he quickly subdued the soldiers loyal to Sombra and arrested them. He was sure that very soon he would meet a nice mare and they would marry, make foals and get to the high society he always dreamed off while being loved by the Crystal Ponies for being the one that dethroned Sombra. Granted, first they would have to keep control of the Kingdom to make sure nothing wrong could happen but he wasn't afraid of anything, he already faced rogue soldiers and won with no problem. He wasn't sure what his general or his friend besides him were thinking right now, but this was nothing the most awesome Pegasus could handle, they would manage to stabilize the Kingdom in less than a year. It was clear that, while he had the heart in the right place, he still lacked the mental capacity to understand what had to be done.

The last one was an earth pony with a brown coat and a dark mane, dark-brown eyes and he had no cutie mark. This pony used to belong to a different species and used to live in a different world, but Sombra took that away from him. He also used to have a name in said previous life but, as long as he lived in this new world, he preferred to go by the name Swift Rise. It was the most appropriate name he could think off, after all, he had to adapt quickly to this new life or face torture... or at least it used to be that way. Now that the source of his suffering was gone, he could focus on finding a way back home. And, even if he couldn't find such way, he would make sure that this new life weren't as bad as it was when Sombra ruled.

Granted, Swift Rise was now a Colonel, he had some duties and he would serve as he was supposed to do so, but that didn't stop him from feeling nervous from the most recent order he have received. After the coup was done, Pure Diamond explained that they would have to explain the citizens of the kingdom what have just happened and each one of them would have to present themselves to the kingdom. Because Swift Rise, being a shy and reserved stallion, would have to be the one making the opening speech in front of the Crystal Ponies, he was starting to regret ever being part of this coup but, even when he didn't liked to talk unless necessary, he would follow orders because that was the military norm and he would fulfill it. Thankfully, his military training would help him to look calm, but that didn't remove the emotions of anguish that were choking him on the inside.

Pure Diamond, Golden Strike and Swift Rise were starting to move to the Plaza in front of the Crystal Palace to meet the newly formed press and the citizens of the kingdom so they could make their speeches to explain what's just happened and what were going to be the procedures from here on out.

As they were getting closer to their destiny, Pure Diamond looked at his subordinate Swift and, while he usually had a stone face by nature, it was quite clear that he was getting very nervous, so Diamond decided to help him to release some tension before the coming press conference:

"Swift."

Swift looked up and saw his General, Pure Diamond, looking straight at him:

"I understand that you feel nervous right now. It isn't easy to make this kind of speeches when you don't like to talk at all, but you were chose because you have a very powerful skill to convey a message and reach to the heart of those who listen to you. You are our best bet to ease the civilians before they fall into panic after the what we pulled off, so we need you. But don't worry, this will be just a speech, nothing compared with taking down Sombra. If you managed to convince me, Lt. Strike and a big part of the guard to take down Sombra and that this was the best way to help the Kingdom, then this will be nothing to you." - In that moment a very confident Pegasus decided to help his friend to overcome his fears. - "Yeah Swift, the General is right, this should be nothing for you, you adapted to our pony life faster than anypony expected, you survived to all of those months of torture in front of Sombra and never broke, you managed to convince some of Sombra's most loyal guards to dethrone him, heck, you even managed to reach to the rank of Colonel faster than me, and we joined the Crystal Guard at the same time, or did you just forgot how we used to share the same room?" - Swift waved his head and looked at his partner, while the nervousness was still there, now he looked ready to face the new challenge that was in front of him with the same confidence and determination that made the Crystal Guard to turn against Sombra, after looking that one of his most trusted partners was ready to meet his new challenge, Pure diamond decided that his soldier was readier than ever: "Exactly, compared to all we've been through, this is nothing".

They reached the door to the outside and Pure Diamond decided to look one more time at his Ponies, comrades in this new way that was going to lead into a new time for the Crystal Kingdom.

"Good, now, before we leave, I want to thank you for being here, if it weren't for your loyalty, honesty and trust, we may have never got this chance to bring the Kingdom this new light of hope, now Swift, are you ready?" - He nodded, - "do you remember your speech and what are you supposed to convey?" - He nodded, - "good, now let's begin this new age for The Crystal Kingdom".

The door opened, they could hear the reporters screaming already to them and taking notes of what was going on, but they were ready and stepped out of their hideout, ready to bring the news to the Kingdom.

Princess Twilight was smiling from the excitement.

When she received the letter from Cadence stating the discovery of various objects of intrinsic historical value, to say that she was desiring to get a look into it was an understatement, especially once she heard of the existence of a film that could possibly change what was known of Pony, Griffon and Minotaur history. It was impossible to measure how much she wanted to reach The Crystal Empire right away and, as usual, her friends decided to follow her, including Spike who really wanted to come back to the place where he helped so much to save when everything looked so dire. After all, the trip would last a week at best, so they wouldn't lose too much time on this and he wouldn't have to do his chores back at Ponyville.

"Wow Twilight, a little bit more and you might beat Pinkie Pie in making the biggest smile." - Said an overconfident Pegasus, at that moment, Twilight's face stopped smiling and she looked at her chromatic friend -, "what? What do you mean Rainbow?" - "What I mean is that the closer we get to The Crystal Empire, the bigger your smile gets. At this rate you may not only beat Pinkie in smiling, but also, you may even hurt your face." - And she wasn't wrong about the face part, but Twilight never realized it. At this statement, however, a pink pony that could be related with the energy itself decided to interject at the idea that somepony might surpass her on smiles. - "Oh! Dashie, don't be so silly, that's impossible, everypony smile when they're happy, it's impossible to get hurt for doing something when you're happy!" - In that moment, she got close to Rainbow's ear and, with a very cold voice, whispered. - "And nopony can smile like I do, the show states so," - then she went back to her spot and looked at everyone with her happy go attitude.

A few seconds after that, everypony decided to let her be Pinkie and proceeded with the talking with Twilight deciding to explain herself about her excitement. - "I'm sorry everypony, but I can't just hold back this desire to get there as quickly as possible. From what the letter said, this discovery would explain why the Crystal Ponies couldn't remember much of their past when they came back. It could even explain all those weird factories, buildings and contraptions that can be found across the Empire," - at this, the most refined pony decided to enter into the conversation. - "I understand your emotions Twilight dear, I'll even add that should we have known this from the beginning, our first trip into The Empire could have been a lot easier, after all, if it weren't for spikey wiky, it could have ended in a very undesirable way." - At the mention of his name by the mare of his heart, the purple scaled dragon decided to add with a very happy and proud face. - "Then is a good thing that I went for the trip, right?" - This was responded with a few eye rolls, but they let it pass since he had the right to be proud of this. -
"And Twilight isn't the only one excited to go back to the Empire, I really want to see how everything is going on know that Cadence has been ruling for a while".

Rainbow Dash decided to show her support for her friend - "It's all right, I understand, that's why we're here, to show you how much we care about this, both for you and Cadance. But don't expect me to pay a lot of attention to what will be talked there, I'm not interested in any of that nerdy stuff, sorry egghead, but this kind of stuff isn't interesting for me," - very quickly, the farmer Applejack decided to jump in the same bandwagon as Rainbow Dash. - "Ah' agree with Rainbow Dash sugarcube. Ahm not interested in this sciency stuff, but we'll be right beside you for support an' showing that we care for you," - at this, everypony nodded as a way to support her and, while Twilight found it a bit disappointing, she was still happy to see her friends supportive of her and what she liked and being with her friends even when it was for something that they weren't interested in made her feel very grateful and happy, she would always enjoy this kind of moments with them.

After a few hours later, they finally reached the Crystal Empire, with its crumbling buildings from the distant past combined with the new, modern urban styles that were so common in Equestria. Twilight Sparkle was very sure that, with enough work and help from Equestria and the crystal ponies themselves, this Empire would become a nice place once again.

When Twilight and her friends got into the Crystal Palace, they were received by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, invited as well by Princess Cadence for this event that promised to be very important for the whole world, and they were being accompanied by Princess Cadence and Shining Armor; after the introductions (and a little nostalgic dance) was done, they went to the conference room where they met a few ponies, griffons and minotaurs that were historical researchers, professors and diplomatic personnel from Equestria, The Crystal Empire, The Griffon Kingdom and the Minotaur Republic. Once another row of introductions were done by everybody, The Professor Clearing Onyx decided to start the gathering, he cleared his voice and decided to begin talking to the audience:

"Hello and welcome to this Conference meant to share the most recent historic discoveries of The Crystal Empire with the respective Kingdoms and Nations that were involved with us so many years ago. Now, if you have doubt of this since The Griffon Kingdom was made 800 years ago while the Minotaur Republic was founded 300 years ago, I would like to show you that some of the historical records found here are treaties with ancient Griffon tribes, like the Thunder Clans and the infamous Blood Wings, and some minotaurs heroes like Lightning Hammer and Adamantium Shield." - At this moment, the historians looked at him with a mild curiosity but they kept their skepticism, they would believe him after seeing the notes themselves.

"But before seeing those, we want to show you this movie that depicts a very important moment in our history, while Princess Cadence, Shining Armor and I saw a piece of it, we decided that it would be best to see it at the same time as you to show that hasn't been adulterated at all and, to proof that, we're going to show you up to the point we last saw, and after a little bit of talking and opinions so far, we'll continue to watch until we think it would be another good moment to stop so we can gather our thoughts so far, is that agreeable?" - Everybody nodded, Clearing Onyx went at the machine, turned it on and the movie started.

After pausing the movie in the moment that said that King Sombra was dethroned, many Historians started to shout and argue the impossibility of it (specially the Equestrians and Crystal Ponies) arguing that Sombra was known for being extremely powerful, to the point that it required 2 Princesses to defeat him and The Crystal heart to finally vanquish him. The idea of him being dethroned sounded laughable at best, plus that they never heard of such a thing as a "Crystal Kingdom", overall, they were very close to call this movie a big fraud. But, before this could end up in a low note, a voice was heard above the others.

"If I may." -, when everybody looked, they were surprised to see that the one speaking was none other than Princess Celestia. Understanding the weight on her words, they all decided to stay quiet and let her speak. - "Since my sister and I were the ones defeating Sombra a 1000 years ago, I will say that we don't know much of what was happening in the Crystal Empire by the time. We were fighting Discord for a long time and, after turning him into Stone, we had to fix many of the problems Equestria had to struggle with because of Discord's chaotic magic, being the Everfree Forest one of the few problems that still haven't been fixed to this day. During all this time, the Crystal Empire acted as an ally that sent us the resources we needed to stabilize Equestria and we had very little time to see what was going on with our Crystal friends. At best, we got a visit from the Queen Mi Amor Candente when she was on vacation, but she barely talked to us about the affairs of her lands, so we knew next to nothing beyond that. By the time we were finally starting to get a hold of running Equestria, Mi Amor Candente came with her foal, Loving Sapphire, claiming that she was overthrown from The Crystal Empire by Sombra the possibility of him murdering her husband, who stayed behind trying to protect her. Before my sister and I defeated Sombra, he cast the curse that disappeared the Empire for 1000 years and only Mi Amor Candente and her daughter, along a small regiment of soldiers that took her to Canterlot, stayed behind since they weren't in The Empire when Sombra cast the curse. And, for the record, of the few archives we had at the time that were saved from Discord's chaos, they DO mention the existence of a Crystal Kingdom; the reason that we all call it 'The Crystal Empire' is because that was the name given to it by Mi Amor Candente whenever she came to visit. From what I can see, this movie might actually explain the reason of said contradiction, so I ask you to, please stay here for a little while and see where could this go." - At this, many historians became surprised and, before any of them could keep arguing against the veracity of the film, Luna interjected too.

"I agree with my sister, and to answer your question about his power: when my Sister and I fought him, he had an amulet known as the Alicorn Amulet, an object known for increasing the power of an Unicorn to the level of an Alicorn. That was the only reason he was so powerful and why it required the power of my sister and I combined to defeat him. In the end, all that was left of him was his spirit and, after the disappearance of The Crystal Empire, we took the amulet and made sure that it couldn't be found ever again."

After that, everybody was shut and decided to watch the rest of the film. Even Twilight's friends were curious by this point and wanted to see who or what was capable of overthrowing Sombra being in a physical body when he was so dangerous just being a spirit.

5 minutes later, after eating and drinking, the movie proceeded:

The Portrait of a Brown coated Pony with a dark mane and dark brown eyes appeared. From what could be looked, he had a white armor with golden shoulder pads.

An earth Pony mare with orange mane, read coat and emerald eyes appeared, sitting on a bench, while being followed by 2 separated images of 2 more Unicorns (both stallions; One with a Lime mane, lemon coat and green eyes and the other with a White mane, gray like coat and black eyes; it was impossible to see their respective cutie marks from the angle they were looking at) sitting in their respective benches. After that, the film started to show a group of Crystal Ponies moving through what looked like the Empire, but without the architecture that it had now.

A pegasus mare with a golden mane, silver coat and bronze eyes started to seat as well, her cutie mark was almost impossible to see, but from the looks of it, apparently had a quill.

An old earth pony stallion with a blue mane, cyan coat and purple eyes seated in another bench, once again, it was impossible to see his cutie mark; 3 more ponies followed: the first one was another old unicorn with a yellow mane, butter coat and cream eyes. He was the only one so far whose cutie mark could be seen well and apparently it was a black hole (?). The second one was a pegasus stallion with red mane and blood like coat and ruby like eyes, again, no cutie mark could be seen. The third one was an earth pony stallion, with a yellow mane, a white coat and blue eyes, he apparently had a cutie mark, but it could only be seen what it appeared to be musical note.

Another mare seated: she had a light blue coat, bright pink and purple mane and tail along with deep blue eyes.

A book under the name "The Crystal Kingdom facing terror" was shown and then being zoom out.

Appears the image of a spring valley, when suddenly it's covered in frosting while it start to rain chocolate.

"It's been a few decades since Discord started to cause chaos across the land, Princess Celestia and Luna has been trying to fight him off, and while their efforts haven't done much as of now, it has managed to make him focus on just Equestria and leave the rest of the world alone."

Images of Discord creating cotton candy with popcorn and honey hurricanes are shown, then it changes to Princess Celestia and Luna trying to rectify his wrongdoings and failing miserably when Discord decided to encase Celestia in a giant green-colored Jelly and Freezing Luna by covering her with chocolate and then freezing it over.

The scene changes to the Crystal Kingdom, there we can see a crystal pony, unicorn, with a Dark Red coat with a purple-ish mane with orange eyes wearing royal regalia talking in front of The Crystal Palace.

"And while Discord isn't terrorizing the Crystal Kingdom, it doesn't mean it's citizens are safe or in good conditions. The actual King, Loving Garnet, while he really has the heart in the right place, he's incapable of properly rule the kingdom. Many ponies are suffering from hunger and disease caused for his mismanagement of the country, not even realizing that his most trusted Ponies, are the ones making it impossible to save the Kingdom."

Images of the King ruling are shown, followed by a group of ponies looking like nice ponies, but then the picture change showing the ponies stealing from the citizens and laughing at them while the citizens look bad nourished and close to die.

The old earth pony stallion with a blue mane, cyan coat and purple eyes appears and start to talk, in the corner of the film appears his name: Recording Quartz; Occupation: Historian/Sociologist.

Recording Quartz (RQ): "Loving Garnet was one of those kings that would have been a good ruler if he had a more trustworthy court".

The old Unicorn with a yellow mane, butter coat and cream eyes appeared as well his name on the corner showed: Firm Marble; Occupation: Journalist.

Firm Marble (FM): "His court were ponies that didn't cared for anything, they took everything and told the king that everything was fine, he never knew what was happening... or what was going to happen. I suppose he was the only one who never saw coming the coup d'etat"

Recording Quartz (RQ): "It was an announced strike".

"When the queen Amore dies from a disease, and with the Princess Mi Amor Candente still too young to rule, the king is incapable of stabilizing the kingdom and, in the end, is taken over by Sombra, who lead the armed revolt under the promise of helping the ponies of the kingdom, but the ponies started to feel the problem when they witnessed Sombra's first action as the new King."

FM: "By this point, the citizens were mad at the nobles, always taking everything from them, this created a lot of tension and hate among those who wanted a change, those who wanted to reform the kingdom and later, those who wanted to be the new nobles".

A black unicorn with a black horn and red eyes appears killing a red unicorn by cutting his head, followed by another group of ponies. On the bottom a crowd of ponies are looking at the spectacle and celebrating.

Flame Ruby (FR); Occupation: Political Activist/Maid.

Flame Ruby (FR): "When I saw the King being murdered, I felt horror for the lost a nice, but awful ruler at the hands of a Pony who didn't showed any signs of even caring about us. But that wasn't the scariest part, the scariest part was when I saw the crowds celebrating what he did."

Firm Marble (FM): "Anypony who understood what was going on or saw what was going to happen to us, lost all hope of having any shred of good life."

"Sombra started to increase the power of the Crystal Guards by increasing the amount of guards (through conscription) from a few hundreds to tens of thousands in a Kingdom of just 100.000 citizens, at best. He started to force his rule into the ponies by eliminating anyone who opposed him and indoctrinating the soldiers into being loyal to him, his followers and his generals; while he gave more food to the citizens, but just enough so they didn't complained too much and always making shows of how powerful he was, being the biggest one a summoning and transformation of a creature from another world into a pony."

By this point everybody was having very different opinions on the subject:

While Celestia, and Luna, was initially embarrassed of her ponies looking at her being humiliated, again, by Discord, although that focus was quickly changed when Sombra's Rise was shown. She was also sad about the King who wasn't capable of properly rule. The dangers of corruption was something she was highly aware of now, being tempted by it at first. When she started to rule, she had a hard time learning how to get rid of it, and while there was still corruption in her Kingdom, she at least managed to control it to a certain degree and it would be just a matter of time before she could totally get rid of it. It also couldn't be ignored the fact that Sombra dared to take an innocent creature from another world and forced it to live under him. They also felt relieved to know that their ponies would never fell under those conditions of hatred and unrest that were against all she believed in and was glad that her ponies were always eager to forgive and forget. Luna on the other hoof saw that as signs of what could have been had she actually succeeded in her plans as Nightmare Moon, the idea of polluting Equestria in that same poisonous hatred caused her to shudder at the thought.

The historians, meanwhile, were highly interested in seeing how King Sombra raised to power. It was a huge mystery to them since, while there were records of him, most of the history of the Empire was unknown because the only sources in existence were the Libraries of Equestria (which suffered a lot of damage from Discord and, thus, most of the information was lost forever) and the Crystal Empire's which wasn't available until now, now they were expecting this to show at the very least, what kind of ruler he was since they couldn't see anymore reasons for this film, after all, it looked like he just got the power and he had the followers.

Princess Cadence was hurt seeing how her ponies were suffering under a corrupt kingdom and how it looked like they were just going for the worse with Sombra's coming and that wasn't even talking about how low her ponies could fall if they could accept such monstrosity to happen on the first place. Shining Armor, on the other hoof, was shocked at how Sombra was starting to militarize the Empire. Yes, he would like it more if he could have more ponies serving so he could protect the citizens more, but never in the way Sombra was doing so. The Crystal Guard was supposed to protect the citizens, not to suppress them, and he was glad that, thanks to his work, the soldiers were being drilled into the loyal and reliable guards they were now.

All of the element bearers (plus Spike) were terrorized of how Sombra was treating them, no wonder the crystal ponies didn't wanted to remember his rule, but what baffled their minds was the idea of ponies wanting to celebrate the murder of a king. Twilight was especially affected. If she weren't a good ruler, would she cause the same kind of results on the ponies? The idea alone almost cause her to panic but, for now, she wanted to keep watching just so she could learn something from this, and avoid committing the same mistakes.

Clearing Onyx was surprised of finding his name there, he tried to remember when he accepted to do something like this, but he would just get a headache. It felt so alien to hear his own voice in something he couldn't even remember to have agreed on doing. It was almost the same story for Flame Ruby, she was serving the food and beverages for the guest of the palace. Everything was fine until she saw herself on the film. She felt very weird, why was she on a film? She never aimed for that kind of thing in her life, she only wanted to be a maid, or was it being an activist?, she only wanted to... what did she wanted in her life? When she tried to remember she would only feel a migraine that would block any attempt to remember.

"But when all hope was lost, something happened, something that nobody saw coming."

The mare with light blue coat, bright pink and purple mane and tail along with deep blue eyes appeared. Name: Jewel Joy; Occupation: Civilian.

Jewel Joy (JJ): "I was in school when, suddenly, we were told "everypony to your houses". I tried to ask what was going on, but all I would get was something like "I don't know, something happened, something good"".

FM: "King Sombra's dethroning sounded impossible, and still does".

RQ: "We all thought he had the control... And, apparently, we were wrong".

A Newspaper clip appears with the headline "The Crystal Guards took over the control of the kingdom yesterday".

The Stallion Pegasus with red mane and blood like coat and ruby like eyes appeared this time on screen. Name: Crimson Cut. Occupation: Officer of the Crystal Guard.

Crimson Cut (CC): "Sombra was very strict and he always focused on indoctrinate us to him and, well, his generals. They didn't liked that, neither how he was damaging the kingdom."

RQ: "The military were splitting among those who liked Sombra and those who wanted to help the kingdom. In the end, that schism, that incapacity from Sombra to keep the guards together, lead to his dethroning."

FR: "I was working in the Crystal Palace that day and I remember that I was cleaning Sombra's throne, when a group of guards entered the throne room and, before Sombra could even greet them or shout at them for entering without his permission, they hoofed him in the face, broke his horn and then arrested him," - she paused, after remembering the moment with a few more details she added, - "when Sombra recovered from the pain, he demanded to know who dared to arrest the King, and they answered "The High Military Command"".

Images appears depicting a pony guard with crystal shoulder pads and golden marks in the helmet looking at the horizon while another group was taking a black unicorn with a broken horn out of the kingdom, on the background it could be seen the crystal ponies celebrating the moment.

"King Sombra and his most loyal generals and officers are arrested and soon exiled from the kingdom, while many of his followers goes into exile or goes into clandestinity. The military has taken total control of the kingdom, there is fear of this resulting in something worse, but at the next day, everypony acts like if nothing happened, like if they silently decided to accept what just happened."

For the first time, actual ponies appear in the film being recorded, showing a press conference with 3 crystal guards that weren't wearing their helmets but wore their respective armors, one with a white armor and crystal shoulder pads while the other two had normal armors, entering into the conference room while being followed by a group of soldiers, they all had the stone face common of all the guards.

The first one, an Unicorn, is shown talking to the audience while holding his notes through magic.

"The military joint that took over the kingdom is made by the General Pure Diamond: crystal pony, unicorn, of noble birth, graduated in the Crystal Academy, he was the second in command when King Sombra was in charge."

The second one, a Pegasus, is then shown talking now with the help of notes being held by his wings.

"Another member is the Lt. Golden Strike, an energetic and extrovert pegasus guard, born in the Crystal Kingdom but with Equestrian ascendance."

The third is then shown slowly walking towards the journalist, holding his notes with his hoofs in a very awkard position to be sure to not get them dirty.

"And the Colonel Swift Rise, the summoned creature and then turned pony by Sombra, who is looked as the true mastermind behind the military coup".

The colonel moves into a podium so he could speak to the public while Pure Diamond and Golden Strike sits behind him, both of them with stone like faces, not allowing to show any kind of emotion while the colonel gives the speech:

"There's ahead of us, a series of problems of hard solutions: the evident disorganization of the country, the lack of a stable economic structure, the unfair treatment of social classes, the disadvantages between the species of ponies, the weak state of the k-"

"There is no king or nobles in the government, 3 guards assumes the control."

Pure Diamond and Golden Strike are shaking hoofs with a lot of ponies that are getting close to meet them while they dropped the military face and are showing emotions so the citizens could feel safer with them, although Swift Rise looks like he doesn't want to be there at all.

"The Kingdom looks lively, like if nothing have happened, the citizens just wants to get back at their lives and enjoy what they have now."

Various activities being done by the crystal ponies are shown: foals playing among each other, adults going around and buying food and other frivolities, dancing in parties, etc. Among the ponies, the ones who step out the most are those who are wearing a black tuxedo and are always well groomed.

"Life goes on, but the citizens have to be quiet because what is left of Sombra's followers are lurking in the shadows and any type of protest is looked as association with him and is quickly arrested."

The pegasus mare with golden mane, silver coat and bronze eyes appeared speaking, name: Lasting Marble; Occupation: Teacher.

Lasting Marble (LM): "There was a persecution from the military against Sombra's followers. If you said something against the actual government, you would be looked as one of his followers and be sent to jail. While nopony liked this type of repression, they also wanted Sombra's minions to be arrested, so they said nothing."

FM: "While the military would allow the media to say whatever they wanted, they would always take a look at what you said, and if you stepped out of the line, your working place could suddenly be inspected by them".

A Meeting board is seen, filled with many military Ponies and a few civilians.

"While the military are in control, the control isn't exclusive to them. Well known professionals among the civilians are appointed to the court or are turned into administrators, one of those being the ex-Princess Mi Amor Candente, who survived Sombra's takeover by hiding in the shadows until his dethroning."

A pink unicorn mare appears in the screen, she was signing some scrolls and after doing so she is received with open forelegs by Pure Diamond. Another scene opens with some Unicorns making a lot of giveaways to foals that look dirty and poor.

"The military junta have offered that, in the right moment, they're going to follow the right procedures to crown a new king; the nobles are highly interested in who will be chosen as the new king and under what conditions, but they stay very quiet, some make fundings and charities to rise in popularity, for the time of choosing the next king comes, but nothing else, any type of political control or speech has been banned."

A military procedure opens in, making a inauguration of a big library.

"The Crystal Kingdom doesn't lack resources by now, Sombra forced his citizens to mine nearby mountains and use it's resources to increase the amount of money avaiable for the Kingdom. Now, the military were using it for infrastructure, building constructions of great magnitude like the stadium, the Library and the new houses for the citizens of the kingdom."

At this point, everybody was in shock and, baffled, but mostly in shock:

Celestia didn't know what to think of this. on one hoof, she was glad to see how the Crystal Empire (or Kingdom? why the change in the name?) was saved from Sombra (as hard to believe as it was) but the idea of the no monarch or ruler in the kingdom was something she never heard of, - "the military took control of a kingdom, how is that possible?" - She thought. She tried to search for goods or bad of this but her mind was in such state of shock that she couldn't think clearly. But she was aware enough to keep her poker face so no one knew what was going on, and while her sister Luna was keeping the same face, Celestia knew that she must have been in the same state of shock... and she was right, but for different reasons, all this time, Luna was always worried of what could have happened should the rise of Nightmare Moon had won, and this film was acting on her as an answer, she wasn't sure exactly how (the shock didn't let her think clearly), but she knew that somehow, should Nightmare Moon had won, this story would have repeated in Equestria. They both knew there was something else they should be taking notes of, but they would probably remember what once the shock had leave them.

The historians were surprised by this turn of events: the equestrians were close to cry out that this film was a forgery. The possibility of guards taking over was impossible, they were made to protect not to rule, what kind of political government was this? The crystal ponies were baffled, they didn't know what to think now, there were some notes in the military of some of this ponies (Pure Diamond was mentioned in there somewhere), but most of the information provided by this film was completely new. Why the library and archives hadn't talked about any of this? There had to be a reason for all of this. The only thing stopping the ponies from leaving were the Griffons and minotaurs who wanted to see all of this who, for some reason, were VERY focused on the film.

Cadance couldn't make up her mind. The idea that her Empire was once ruled by military was surprising, but to know that they allowed her ancestor to have a political power? Give her back her nobility? What was going on? She felt that this was conflicting with the information her aunt Celestia told her about how her ancestor came to Equestria, if all of this information was true, then, what happened that made Sombra in charge again? Shining Armor on the other hoof... didn't know whether to feel glad that he was commanding officers that had their citizens well being as a priority or be ashamed over the idea that they decided to take the control instead of giving the throne back to the rightful ruler, Mi Amor Candente.

Neither Twilight nor her friends (including Spike, who was starting to feel lost at this point for the amount of information being dumped on him) was capable of gathering their thoughts: Pinkie wanted to know where to find the music used in the film so she could use it on her parties (there was something else, but she didn't know what at the moment. Maybe it was that she forgot to adjust the stove, maybe is that she had to search for a new recipe for a new type of cake or maybe it was that there was something weird with that earth pony... nah, it probably was the cake recipe). Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy were surprised at this turn of events, the idea of no ruler on a kingdom was something new to them so they didn't know what to think of it. Rarity was focused on the ponies that were wearing tuxedo, they looked quite good and she might try to make that outfit once she get back at the boutique. Twilight was perplexed, she was trying to think on how it was possible for guards to be in control, she tried to think of a way, but that train of thought would always go to her brother, but he was married to Cadence, so he couldn't count, but he was a Chief General, but he was an exception, but - headache -, agh, maybe it was for the best to think on something else, like the mining, they were using it to increase the state of the kingdom, then she remembered what that colonel was talking about... now she wanted to know what they did on the Kingdom, it was a good thing that she was taking notes of this, it would be helpful for her.

"By this point, the Military shows cohesion and control, but there's tension among them. A big part of the military doesn't like the General Diamond, they don't trust him, he is too farsighted, of a rich and noble family, with advanced ideas and friend of the elite. They comment that he wants to become the new king. On the other hoof, Swift Rise has popularity between the officers, he is always by the book, follows the rules and represents them all the time. A true Crystal Guard."

"While Sombra's followers may be weak right now, it doesn't mean that they can't influence the ponies, they have become the resistance and they're trying to take down this new government."

RQ: "The followers of Sombra, who were later called 'sombrist', were ponies who wanted to regain the control that Sombra gave to them".

CC: "They were in a state of revengeance, they were took down, now they wanted to take the new government out".

"Pure Diamond promise that Sombra won't be coming back and that they are already searching his followers in the city with a new type of guard designed to be the defenders of the kingdom. There was no way that they would recover the kingdom, and this was the last time Pure Diamond would make a public appearance."

A unicorn guard is having a walkway in the kingdom when, suddenly, he is foalnapped by a group of ponies who put a metal ring on him. They put him into a carriage, while they beat him down, they take him into a house where they start to shoot him with their horns and leave the body there.

"The story goes that the General Pure Diamond was on his way to the Crystal Palace when he was intercepted, a dozen of ponies gathered for the ambush, they force him to get into a carriage. The leader said "take off your helmet, because today you stop being a commander". Pure Diamond doesn't obey, they struggle and goes to the new suburbs called "The Merciful", and they stop in a empty house. In an attempt to escape, Pure Diamond hoof the leader, everything starts to crumble, they take him to the courtyard, there are discussions and threats, they start to shoot him, first in the face, then in his back. The Chief General Pure Diamond, leader of the Military Junta, is left agonizing in the cold floor. By noon, the newspaper shows the news."

A newspaper clip shows the headline: Leader of the military junta murdered.

"In a place where safety reigns, terror strikes were nopony expected. There are rumors about the attack: some say that he was attacked by ponies with a personal vendetta, others that were Sombra's followers terrorizing the kingdom, others that it was an attempt of a military strike"

A big funeral is shown, with the military, family, relatives, friends and acquaintances gathered, some are crying while others (military) show nothing as usual.

"The funeral is lead by Swift Rise, now ascended to General, who is looked by many as the instigator of this, but they're just rumors (like everything else) and only one thing is certain: the tragic death of the Chief General Pure Diamond."

"A few days later, chaos start to erupt in the kingdom: in the outside, groups of Griffons, Minotaurs and Exiled ponies are trying to invade while, in the inside, Sombra's followers had started to attack the city by making riots and terrorizing the city in general. The Military junta is forced to take action and Swift Rise decides to make the first move to defend the Kingdom: He decides to proclaim himself the King and reforms the Kingdom into a Constitutional Monarchy".