Daughter of the First Reign

by LegionPothIX

Act 2 | Royal Royale

The mid-morning sun glinted off the crystal crown of the Queen as she was led to her seat by royal procession. Bleachers had been set up on the side of the artillery range, and all drills for the day had been canceled. The field was as quiet as could be expected for having had five hundred confused ponies in full dress uniform stuffed onto it. It was a strange sight considering that neither the Queen, nor any of her staff, made an attempt to address the restless crowd.

Being the consultants in charge of this activity Sombra and Nurse Clarity sat on the sidelines. Sombra leaned to C.C. to whisper, "I'm sorry about what I said the other day. I was wrong." She shot him a confused glance, and he hurriedly added: "About after the war. I was wrong to say we shouldn't give her hope." Her smile gave off generous warmth as she leaned her head on his shoulder. The moment was abruptly interrupted by Lieutenant Hurricane's wing-over on his way to the field. A field that played host to the same argument across many groups of participants.

"I don't know what's more insulting," said a unicorn in full battle regalia as she turned to her pegasus friend, "The fact that our first combat consultant is a little filly, or that the L.T. doesn't think we can handle it."

"I know what you mean, Prim," a similarly dressed pegasus replied, though lacking the heavy plate armor, he too was in full military formal dress. "My unit was up at the crack of dawn running evasion drills while she slept in."

"This is stupid," an earth pony chimed in while stomping a magic imbued horseshoe in the dirt, "It looks like the entire battalion turned out to watch us make asses of ourselves."

"Shut your pipes!" barked Lieutenant Hurricane to his platoon. A single, collective, horseshoe hit the ground as thirty ponies snapped to attention. "You are here to do as you are ordered. Does anypony have a problem with that?"

"Sir. No, Sir!" the collective mass shouted just as the filly in question strolled onto the battle field. She was mentally fatigued from a restless night, but that only affected her conscious mind. Her primal instincts, however, were intact and they radiated though the swagger that she put into every step.

"Many of you have families and offspring of your own," Hurricane added with military authority, "but this isn't your milk-mare's baby..." The Lt. paused briefly to allow his platoon to get a good look at Treeling. With all eyes on her she beamed with pride and a jagged toothy-grin pushed apart the scars on her face.

"She's been on the outside!" Hurricane added with a dramatic flair, "And her body-count is higher than the lot of you put together."

A collective gulp from the platoon could be heard as she started to look like the monster that their C.O. was describing.

"She has a flair for tearing weak ponies apart." Hurricane's words came with a chomp from the filly that began pacing the field like a wild animal waiting to be left off its chains. The commanding officer finished his introduction of her: "If she puts any of you in the infirmary... I will make the the entire platoon dig to the tenth circle of hell." After another pause to verify the recognition in their eyes, he shouted: "Are we clear!?"

"Sir, yes sir!" The mob responded without hesitation.

"Begin!" Lieutenant Hurricane shouted as he took to the sky.

Discomfort befell the crowd as one pony asked, "What, all of us?"

"That's what it's going to take," Hurricane said over his shoulder as he flew off field.

Sombra and Nurse Clarity watched with concern as the ponies broke into formations, and ten horns flickered on. Then the rustle of fur could be seen, which revealed the glittering gilt of the filly, and ten horns flickered off. The thirty-mane melee began with confusion and it quickly became a twenty-nine-mane melee when a beam of energy sliced through the air. A pegasus struck in the chest was stunned by the blow, which caused him to fall, and break his wing on impact.

The crowd of spectators roared at the sight of a medic lassoing the pegasus to drag him off field, and the filly giddily danced in place, because now they had nothing to lose. The Queen looked down to a roster of the combatants. They weren't necessarily the best-of-the-best, but they were each selected with a specific purpose. The group possessed a wide variety of combat styles and specializations that was to be representative of their crystal corps as a whole. The operation's purpose was two fold: the secondary of which was to test how her military overall may react to the unknown. The longer the battle went on the more clearly that question would was answered.

The crowd roared again at the fist clean hit of the match that was delivered to Treeling, and Crystal Clarity cringed at the subsequent counter attack. Lance Dancer, a cavalry mare, broke from a shielded formation to attempt an overrun against the filly who had left herself open. A lateral scratch dug deep in her cheek, and down the side of her neck as she pulled her face away, before a shielding spell of her own exploded outward. The force of the impact knocked the mare unconscious, and sent her flying, while the magic fused the left half of her armor together.

"I don't know how long this can go on..." Clarity turned her concerns to Sombra.

Who returned with: "She's taking in too many different types of spells at once."

With every stolen spell they could tell a toll was paid but the filly didn't seem to mind. So long as there were enemies to fight she pushed on. With a burst of celerity she broke the earth pony lines, leaving three stallions crumpled under magical slashes and the pricks of horn pokes. Coming to a stop she turned her attention to the sky while a shard of magically resistant plate still hung from her mouth.

The combatants soon realized that this was no exhibition match and that their friends were seriously injured. With three earth ponies down, and two pegasai grounded, they quickly put together that the unicorns were operating with impunity. Prim Palisade took charge of rallying the troupes. "Basic artillery only! She's stealing our shields and augments."

Volley after volley of basic blasts did well to stunt the movement of the filly. At first they were just trying to pin her down but after a few were returned, knocking out more air support, they became less hesitant about harming the filly. Tensions soared as the crossfire worked its way into a lull. Everypony on the field was exhausted. Those who still remained in the aerial combat team thanked their lucky stars for the extra evasive practice while a few earth ponies huddled behind the unicorns. A sizzling smoke trail came off Treeling's horn as she heaved air in and out.

"What have we done?" Crystal Clarity asked Sombra. She looked up at him with doleful eyes. As she begged her question the earth ponies made a run at Treeling under the cover of the pegasai.

Sombra nodded out to the field at the ponies charging into a trap. "It's not what we've done, or what we've been asked to make, but the fact that we succeeded that should concern you."

Just as he predicted the filly who looked to be hyperventilating was actually drawing in the residual energy displaced by their arcane cannon shots, and that energy was used by the metaphorical sword to slice through the literal platoon. Sombra turned his head away from an explosion that tore up mounds of dirt, armor, and the first five ponies in range. The fire that raged in the field was a mere spark cast off by the tempering process, as mallet folds mettle, and this fight would quench that still-glowing sword.

Those whose attention wasn't drawn to the earth and pegasus ponies crashing to the ground, could easily see the wobble in the filly's legs, and her struggle to keep her eyes open. The platoon recounted their numbers and found they were down under half. Of the starting ten: six unicorns had collapsed from exhaustion, the remaining four were fairly beat up, but still able to battle. Of those not blessed with the favoritism that came with spells to steal, one male and one female had wings, and only one male still stood of the three without. Their opponent's horn was still smoking and she was about to nod off to sleep.

More.

It wasn't the word, but instead the feeling that Nurse Clarity had attached to it. Ambition was rediscovered in Treeling's heart as though it had always existed there. She pried her drooping lids open a little further to look around for the source of the emotion that filled her, but Asheveld didn't need to repeat her communion. The dark hew of ash spread down from her horn and across her coat like flameless wildfire. Her mane gained a level of celestial buoyancy as the short strands of her thin hair lengthened; plump with magic. Her form and features gained a slight elongation that was not present during her first transformation.

"No!" Sombra shouted, startling Nurse Clarity who—like everypony else—was seeing this for the first time. An uncanny still beset the crowd and the Crystal Queen raised an eyebrow at her "crystal sword" while Sombra rushed onto the field. "She shouldn't be able to draw it out... I haven't casted anything!" he frantically said to himself.

"Fire!" another unicorn shouted after realizing their leader had been incapacitated.

"No!" Sombra countermanded but it was too late. The remaining four casters crashed to the ground with blood coming from their eyes, ears and noses, as a magical inversion canceled their spells. "Get them out of here!" Sombra shouted at the final five before turning his attention back to the filly who had become a mare in front of the whole of the crystal army.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" He poured the words into her ears and an extreme stare into her eyes. After a long, longing look at him, and those escaping behind him... she turned her gaze up to the Crystal Queen, and the hundred highly trained officers between them. Then he knew. Even if she could speak, she didn't have to say a word. The Queen wanted to show her people the nightmares of war. He too looked up to the Queen, as Treeling's coat flickered. The eyes of Crystal Clarity briefly matched their gaze before Asheveld burned herself out, and she rushed onto the scene. The filly didn't have enough strength left to do anything with the new power that was fleeting from her veins, but it was enough to flex those muscles.

"What did you do?" the nurse cried the accusation at Sombra as she picked the filly up off the ground.

"The same as you..." he said, "What we had to." He knew that the Queen's ponies had to know what they would be getting into when the shield came down since that was only a matter of time now. Likewise it was the same matter of time time before he could return home.

Treeling let go of Asheveld's magic. Through tired eyes she caught the Crystal Queen's suspicion, the Nurse's pain, and Sombra's fear. She smiled in the warm embrace, not that of Crystal Clarity, but rather Asheveld's as it carried her off to sleep.

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