• Published 14th Feb 2015
  • 1,843 Views, 52 Comments

A Crystal Revolution - Stalins Moustache



When Equestria came to power in the Crystal Empire, not everypony welcomed their new Princess

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Chapter 4: The Hearth's Warming Rising

The city was smothered in a thick blanket of fog as the column made their way down the street. The rebel's orders were clear, take the palace or die trying. Steel knew every Stallion and Mare under his command had volunteered willingly but he couldn't help feeling a pang of guilt as he led his men to the slaughter.

Unlike Equestrian Regiments or any of the Crystal Regiments they marched to battle with no drum to herald their coming, nor did they wear any uniforms only taking with them the bare essentials needed for the coming battle; field glasses, rifles, extra munitions and the like.

Every pony in the Column was wearing a grim and dour expression, they were all aware that not everypony would be going home after the coming battle. As they made their way towards the city centre they all witnessed the destruction carried out by the first wave of rebels as they made their foray into the Equestrian territory. Smashed buildings, burnt out carts and the corpses of both rebel and loyalist alike lined the streets, rot had already begun to set in on some of the corpses.

As they passed out of the slums they crossed over a massive stone wall that once served as a symbol to the divisions between the upper and lower classes, it had keeled over causing large chunks of concrete to litter the avenue. The column pressed on taking note of the myriad of decorations garnishing the houses that had belonged to the Equestrian settlers, today was a special day for them, today was Hearth's Warming Eve.

Finally after what had appeared to be hours of endless trekking the massive Crystalline palace in the center of the city came into view. What was once the gem of splendour surrounded by a hive of opulence, was now burning with rebels poking out of almost every window and standing on every balcony whilst the Equestrians and Loyal Crystal Ponies had formed a barricade surrounding almost the entirety of the pearly spire.

There was only one position the Equestrians had not thought of posting soldiers to, it was a small alley that led to the steps of the palace and from there into the palace itself. The attack itself had started smoothly for the rebels however when Shining Armour and Princess Cadance weren't in the palace things went to hell...fast.

As the column of twelve ponies drew closer to the alleyway the sounds of the battle began to get more ferocious, artillery shells exploding and the sound of rifles backed by machine guns grew louder. When the drew to the alley Steel Defiance finally turned around to look at his sullen group of freedom fighters.

"Go one by one, heads down and move fast, I don't want to have to tell your families any bad news," Steel ordered with a new found assertiveness he had gained after he was placed in command of his very own column of fighters.

"Sir what do we do once we reach the building?" questioned a light blue Stallion, having to raise his voice over the constant drone of the enemy's machine guns.

"Wait in the central lobby, I will depart last, if any pony is wounded on the way up it will fall to the next pony running to drag him there. Any other questions?" Steel's question was treated as if it were rhetorical by the group and after a brief pause the first stallion began his mad dash to the stairs of the massive Ivory tower.

The first stallion arrived at his destination relatively unharmed however the second pony who made the dash came under light fire, but that only served to usher him to his destination faster. The third pony wasn't so lucky as soon as he began his journey he almost immediately intercepted a bullet in his leg, collapsing instantly. At least he was lucky enough to be able to pull himself behind a piece of fallen masonry to shield himself from any further hail storms of bullets.

The fourth pony took this as his chance to save his fallen comrade, but as he made his run he came under a shower of bullets and after taking on multiple wounds collapsed near his comrade, only this time the fourth pony was dead.

After bearing witness to such a grisly spectacle it did much to undermine the morale of the group of once courageous group of rebels. Yet they soon had no choice but to run when a cart chock-full of Equestrian soldiers, every last one wearing an expression that showed they lacked any semblance of mercy towards traitors.

"Run, go,go,go, RUN YOU BUCKING IDIOTS!" bellowed Steel as the group sprinted with a speed that would put any Wonderbolt to shame.

When the ragged and exhausted group finally stampeded through the door to the palace a cobalt blue mare, one of the few mares who had signed up for service in the new paramilitary approached him, with a terrified look on her face.

"S-sir three of our stallions were wounded on the way up and, a-and two, two are no longer with us," she said with the unmistaken fear in her voice, the kind of fear that only comes around in somepony after they have seen battle for the first time in their life.

"Thank you Private," Steel Defiance said not truly knowing the rank of the mare that stood before him, or even if they had any real ranking system, "Ponies we have taken many casualties getting here but our orders still remain, we are to take the Crystal Heart, trust me, I wouldn't have accepted this mission if I didn't think we could pull it off."

As the rag-tag group of rebels made their way through the burning ruins of the palace in which only tyrants had previously resided beginning with the palace's builder King Sombra and now the Royal couple who had almost completely destroyed the Crystal Pony way of life.

The interior of the palace was destroyed, entire sections of roof had fallen off, leaving the ponies inside to face both the elements and the constant Equestrian mortar shelling. Steel could hear from inside the bowels of the palace that the upper floors had been sent ablaze by the Equestrian's new incendiary shells.

Finally they came to the podium on which the Crystal Heart was kept, where once there were no walls, opening the base of the palace to the rest of the city centre there were now crudely assembled barriers of fallen masonry and upturned carts. The barricade, much like the rest of the palace, was littered with the broken bodies of it's fallen defenders.

Steel Defiance slowly proceeded forward knowing that whatever the outcome it would still bring them a step closer to winning their revolution. As he kept moving towards the shrine that bore the heart it seemed to have some kind of psychic effect on him as his thoughts began to race through his brain.

Steel their lying.... Came a female voice inside his head that almost made him recoil out of sheer terror. Assuring himself that it was just the nerves he began to edge closer. Steel the voice came again, this time he thought of his wounded brother and almost managed to reach the shrine, until he was interrupted by what seemed to be the loudest noise he had ever heard in his life.

"STOP YOU TRAITOR DOGS!" a thick equestrian accent shrieked at his column. When he looked saw the barricade in ruins and what seemed to be an entire battalion of Equestrian troops standing at the rupture their artillery had created, at their helm stood a gaunt and bulking Equestrian officer.

"Oh Buck!" Steel Defiance Whispered to himself.

Author's Note:

This one was a massive Bitch to write but it's out regardless. I'm not entirely sure how to feel on this chapter some parts were a breeze but others were almost bloody impossible :twilightoops:

As always feel free to criticise, comment and rate, I'd encourage you to PM me if you have any questions :pinkiecrazy: