Epilogue: Know They Did1,309 words

Gear City

The flight from Ponyville was even more uncomfortable then they'd imagined. For Lightning Claw. The broken-horned alicorn tried to focus on the Flutterbird's instrument panel and the sky in front of him but he couldn't lose the sensation that he was being watched. Probably because Dan had insisted on sitting next right next to him in the copilot's seat and hadn't taken his eyes off him since they took off.

"Do you… uh, wanna takeover the controls for a while?"

"Maybe on the flight back. Without you," Dan remarked.

"Unnnng," Lightning sighed. Earning their trust, if it was even possible, was going to be harder than he thought. He had to find a way to get them on his side and also, change the subject to something less awkward and possibly threatening to him. "Your brother and Cadence are safe; they're holding them in the Crystal Palace. Just in their quarters until the trial."

Twilight, in the back along with Phoenix, Chrys and Fluffle Puff, breathed a sigh of relief. "At least they're safe," she said, though her head dipped down. "I know we don't talk much but they're my family. All my friends… mean everything to me. It's hard keeping track of so many different ponies that I care about."

Chrys patted Twilight's back. "You're trying, Twilight. That's why we're here." The two smiled.

Phoenix scratched his chin, strapped in next to Twilight. "What we don't know is why your brother and Princess Cadence would try to destroy the Crystal Heart," he said, thinking aloud. "Why would they want to destroy it? Could they have been framed?"

"The Crystal Heart is a focal point for magical energy across Equestria," Twilight explained. "It's where magic of all types is gathered, focused and reenergized. As new lives, new feelings and new bonds are formed throughout Equestria, they create more magic in the environment. The Crystal Heart is where that magic is pooled and then spread across the globe, reinvigorating all the beings connected to it. It's a way of recharging all the magic in Equestria and helping the environment and all creatures grow."

"It can also be… corrupted," Chrys said, frightened at the thought. "Not that corrupting the Crystal Heart, even feeding off it hadn't crossed my mind at one point, but if Vice or anypony else had done anything to it, we probably would've seen it by now."

Twilight nodded. Princess Celestia had told her long ago that if the Crystal Empire prospered, that prosperity would filter to all Equestria. But if the Crystal Empire had been affected by dark magic, the taint would spread instead, like a plague. There was still much they didn't know about the Crystal Heart but if it was in jeopardy, the consequences could be disastrous for ponies, for all creatures all over the world. And more than one world, too.

But... maybe that was the point. Not that they knew it.

"I don't know what Vice plans on doing with Shining Armor or Cadence," Lightning said loud enough for them to hear. "But I know he wants the princesses distracted."

"I knew it!" Dan declared. "He's planning on nuking Equestria, isn't he? And he wants anypony who can stop him out of the way."

"He's not planning on nuking Equestria," Lightning said, glancing harshly at Dan. "Vice cares about Equestria, he just wants a future for it where the princesses aren't in control. Where magic isn't in control."

"Then why is he building all these doomsday robots?" Dan asked.

"Why do the zebras have them?" Chrys asked, remembering the news broadcast. "Is Vice behind the zebras attacking Saddle Arabia?"

Lightning hesitated before answering. "He is. But he didn't tell me why. He's also persuaded the griffons into attacking the Buffalo League."

"What?!" Dan turned to him.

Twilight and Phoenix practically leapt out of their chairs. "The Buffalo League is under attack?"

"Hey-! Watch the controls! Yes, they're attacking the buffalo!" Lightning answered quickly, the Flutterbird pitching forward slightly before leveling out. "I thought you guys already knew if you knew about Saddle Arabia. It's all over the news."

"We didn't hear anything about the buffalo," Chrys said. "The griffons are attacking them?"

Lightning nodded. "And Apploosa is getting pretty close to the conflict, too. Vice didn't tell me why but he said it was important."

Dan thought of a reason. "Where exactly is this league of buffalo? Pony Wyoming or something?"

"Wy-what? No, the Buffalo League is a group of tribes," Lightning said.

"They're a collection of buffalo tribes living in the plain lands west of Apploosa. Some live in the mesas but they're mostly nomadic. It wouldn't make sense to attack them," Twilight said.

The idea dawned on Phoenix next. "Unless they were in the way."

"And Saddle Arabia? That place is in the far east, right?" Dan asked.

Twilight nodded. "Yes, it's in the desert east of the Zebra Nation."

"And he has control of the Crystal Empire in the north…" Chrys said, rubbing her chin.

"He's hitting every nation around Equestria first," Dan said. "He wants to conquer Equestria and nuke anything that doesn't get in the way. Vice Grip's future realized."

Lightning looked over at Dan again, realizing he couldn't convince him. "I think… you might want to rethink that."

"Why's that?" Dan asked.

Their new ally gestured towards the viewport ahead of them. "Because if it's the future Vice wants… he's already got it."

The Crystal Empire lay directly before them. But the sight of it silenced them all in abstract shock. What they were seeing was part too impossible to believe, part too unbelievable to be possible. For the Crystal Empire before them looked like something that could have only come from one place: the future. Albeit, a very, very dark one.

The skies around the Crystal Empire were dark blankets of gray clouds. The Crystal Palace, which stretched into the sky itself, had turned from its normal lustrous shine to a dark gray, like a spear jutting up from the ground. Or a sword. Above it was a strange shape, almost the size of the base of the palace itself but with a large hole in the center. It rotated around the tip of the palace and as the Flutterbird drew closer, they realized it was an enormous cog. A gear-shaped flying fortress of some kind, clouds pouring out of it and lightning traveling up the length of the Crystal Palace into it.

Other shapes in different colors stretched up to the sky across the empire's landscape. Huge holographic buildings shimmered beneath the overcast, each one a different color. At their feet, the roads of the Crystal Empire and buildings were all dark except for the streets that led from the outskirts all the way to the palace: those glowed red.

Twilight gasped.

"Hoooollleeeee-"

"Thbbbbb…" Fluffle interrupted Dan and Phoenix.

Each of them were awestruck, horrified at what the Crystal Empire had become but they were more terrified of the shapes that moved amongst the houses and streets.

"Are those…?"

"Yes," Lightning said.

Dan swallowed. "A-all of them?"

Lightning looked over to him and silently nodded.

Magic Gears, thousands of the robotic ponies walked the streets pulling various carts and saddlebags full of supplies. Each one was a bit different; some wore armor, some had wings, others had weapons and there were even some that were clearly earth ponies but all of them worked among the buildings of the once-crystal Crystal Empire. Their eyes illuminated the streets as they dug up the roads, tore down structures and mined the ores of the city. They talked amongst themselves, exchanging information like a sisterhood of enormous, metal fillies.

"Pegasisters are doin' it for themselves…" Chrys remarked.

Most of them were the same size as KNIGHT and ACE that Dan had seen earlier. But three larger ones, full-fledged alicorn-sized Gears strode through the less-dense areas of the city

As the Flutterbird flew over the city, the eyes of the Magic Gears tracked them. Some even pointed, as if they'd all been expecting them. "Look," Phoenix pointed out the window. "On the main street."

Glowing red horns, Sword Spells, pointed skyward and lined the streets from the edge of the city to the palace. Each one, with the power to destroy the Empire itself.

"Okay, guys," Lightning flipped some switches on the controls. "This gonna sound kind of… well, this is going to sound really bad, but I'm going to need you to trust me."

"What's going to sound really bad?" Dan asked, worried. "Trusting you? It's going to sound really bad for us to trust you?"

"No," Lightning removed his safety restraints. "I'll contact you when I'm ready to get Shining and Cadence out."

"What's bad about that?"

Before Lightning had a chance to answer, or maybe he just decided not to answer, he teleported in a burst of electro-magic. Leaving the Flutterbird pilotless. The control panel then began to flash red as the craft lost altitude, along with an alarm klaxon.

"Oh…" Dan said. "That's what he meant."

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