A Crystal Revolution

by Stalins Moustache

Chapter 7: New Tactics, New War

Cadance awoke to a blissful Autumn morning in the Crystal Empire, the sun was hanging high in the sky and the cool breeze could be felt through the open windows of her room. She pulled herself out of bed and rubbed the sleep from out of her eyes, when she finally was standing her housemaid opened the door timidly and entered the room.

"Hello Rosie, it'll just be a change of sheets today," Cadance said with a smile, as her servant timidly nodded and set to work as Cadance moved downstairs to the feasting hall.

"Good morning Shining Armour," She said to her husband who had recently been under a bout of stress over rebel activity at the prison, however Cadance was never truly aware as to the extent of the rebellion.

"Good morning Cadance, did you remember to send the invites to the party?" Shining Armour, in celebration of the rebel's recent humiliation was to hold a feast in the Crystal Palace, Cadance only truly cared as her friend turned fellow princess and sister in-law Twilight Sparkle would be present.

"Don't worry I remembered, you didn't think I would ever forget," Cadance said in a sing-song voice, her warm smile never faltering.

However as Cadance joined her husband over breakfast she was blissfully unaware that in another part of the Crystal Empire there was a group of rebels preparing to leave for a mission that would not only change the Crystal Empire but would change Princess Cadance herself.

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Steel Defiance looked at his group of guerillas, many of them were too young to be participating in war, however with a heavy heart he bid them goodbye and good luck with their separate missions. The hardest task of all however fell to Steel Defiance and his small group of rebels.

"Men we know what were doing, I won't lie this will cost a piece of your soul, murder isn't always easy," he said with a half-chuckle half-sigh, his voice husky with not only the weight of his own conscience bearing on him but also the stress of an entire night devoid of sleep.

As they filed out of the Strong Stallion and into their squad's cart, he found a strange sort of peace in the constant rattle of the cart's wheels. His head rested back and Steel began to let his thoughts drift as he closed his eyes hoping for sleep to claim him.

However this was not Steel's only journey that day, earlier in the morning he had visited his wounded brother in the makeshift hospital that served as the slums only medical centre. His brother's condition was beginning to stabilize, however with both a lack of resources and trained personnel the hospital's staff still couldn't be certain on how bad his brother's coma truly was.

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Crimson Hazard moved into the bustling market place. His prey was to be a Crystal Pony informant turned Equestrian officer. As he made his way through the crowd of customers he noticed a gathering of mares desperately trying to barter with a shopkeeper over the prices of almost everything in his stall.

Crimson finally noticed his target leaning against a long neglected lamp post eating an apple with a peaceful and content look on his face. Crimson was only spurned on by this, seeing the traitor stand their happily as his old comrades suffered.

Crimson cautiously drew his hand up to his pocket and, after slowly stuffing it inside his coat's inside pocket he moved behind the stallion. Finally he gulped down and drew his revolver, bringing it to the head of the traitorous stallion.

"May you rot in the darkest depths of Tartarus with the rest of your kind, fiend!" Crimson choked his voice cracking almost as soon as he begun his sentence.

However Crimson proved strong and pulled down on the trigger with almost all the might his shaking hands could muster. Finally the revolver gave off a loud bang and the traitor keeled over in a red-pink mixture of his own blood and brain matter.

Screams were beginning to erupt from the massive crowd and, taking that as his cue to leave, Crimson stuffed the smoking revolver in his coat pocket and sprinted through the crowd, eventually merging with the massive sprawl of bodies, making it almost impossible for any Equestrian soldiers to find him.

At the end of his assassination and once his safety was secured, Crimson gave a very heavy sigh of relief...

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Steel Defiance awoke with a jolt. The cart had ran straight over on of the many potholes that littered the now unused road network that connected the Crystal Empire and Equestria. It had been abandoned in large part due to the appearance of the ever more reliable and useful railways.

Steel's thoughts were swimming in his head. He had never truly been worried by morals in the past, of course in the past he had never truly had any real moral decisions, but now here he was sending boys to commit murder. All it would be one small mishap for anyone of them to be imprisoned or even worse.

Steel Defiance, in an effort to clear his conscience, had chosen the hardest task for him and his small squad of men. Steel Defiance was to attack the train that was bringing the Equestrian guests for a ball to be held in the crystal palace. However Steel's column only truly cared about the fate of the newly coronated princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle was the perfect target for them, not only was she a member of the Equestrian royalty but she also was Princess Cadence's childhood friend and Shining Armour's brother. Steel Defiance had only ever seen Twilight Sparkle once before-it was at the sham of an Equestrian games that was held shortly after the Crystal Empire was pacified. He only saw her for a split second however but that was enough to forever carve her beautiful likeness forever in his memory.

Again he thought to himself that it would be a great waste that such beauty and knowledge would all be gone to waste however it was for the benefit of establishing a free, independent and strong Crystal Empire. Yet no matter how much he told himself this, he could never seem to truly quell the doubts forming in the darker recesses of his mind.

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The soldier lay there face down in the mud, his once proud Equestrian uniform now stained with a mixture of scarlet blood and large brown flecks of mud. His comrade was slouched against the wall, openly bawling. His sobs could be heard all the way across the street which lead to the formation of crowds lining the road, yet still giving the rebels a wide berth.

The rebel commander drew the dreg to his knees whilst the other rebels began to form a circle around him, all of them ready to commit what could be the most vile sin of all if it meant freeing their homeland from Equestria. The stallion looked up and locked eyes with the commander and shook his head weakly, wishing for this to be over as soon as possible.

The three rebels all drew their rifles to the kneeling stallion's face and proceeded to fire three times, riddling the poor stallion with bullets. After the grisly execution was done and the rebels stood there each one looking for answers in the other rebel's faces, they were cut short however when one rebel came to his senses and almost slapped his comrades hoping that they would pull out of their trance.

After their small bouts of shellshock were dispelled they all scattered into the many alleyways and small roads that littered the slums of the Crystal city

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The blades of grass swayed with the wind, autumn leaves danced through the air following the path the gently swaying blades of grass were showing. This was the strange harmony in nature, it was a shame much of it was now ignored by ponies, Steel Defiance had always loved to reminisce of a time when ponies of all creeds were at one with nature, but alas it was no longer.

Steel Defiance was lying prone, concealed by the many long blades of luscious green grass. Suddenly the familiar sound of an approaching train lept into the air, at this Steel adjusted the optics of his rifle and took a final large gulp from his canteen full of water.

Steel's hooves were trembling however but as the train approached ever closer he thought of his brother, strengthening his resolve he once again picked up his rifle and aimed it down at the train tracks.

"It won't be long now," a rebel next to him said in an attempt to calm his clearly troubled commander, Steel only gave a dour nod in response.

The train finally moved into the gulch that would become it's resting place, blissfully unaware of any trouble, it began to slow down in preparation for the set of railway lights up ahead. However the train rolled over the landmines and in one massive cataclysmic blast was derailed sending pieces of shrapnel flying everywhere ,making sure the rebels had to keep their heads down.

The rebels then began to open fire at the now upturned train, focusing on the final carriage, this train was a lot smaller than the trains that would normally bring settlers and supplies in from Equestria, however this would prove to be to it's detriment as sporadic bursts of rifle fire and the constant wailing of a machine gun that was positioned on a crag jutting out of the side of the gulch were all mowing down any Equestrian soldiers that were foolish enough to resist the will of the rebels.

Finally Steel Defiance and two other ponies made their way to the final carriage on the train, the carriage that contained their prey. As they prowled towards the carriage a group of Equestrian soldiers stumbled out of the carriages, bringing with them their wounded and dead.

"Lay down your arms and take three paces forward, keep your hooves in the air at all times," Emerald Impact yelled from behind the almost red hot machine gun, every weapon in the group tracking the sullen group of survivors.

Steel Defiance and his group pressed on, avoiding the soldiers and finally came to the carriage. It was an ornate on both the outside and the inside. As the dropped cautiously through one of the windows that had been shattered by small arms fire, they finally came across an unconscious wounded alicorn,who sat slouched against the ceiling turned wall of the carriage.

"There she is, lend us a hoof would 'ye," Steel Defiance said in a gruff tone to the ponies in his retinue. When they emerged out of the carriage they saw the new prisoners being herded off by a group of rebels.

When they loaded the unconscious alicorn onto the carriage, Steel turned back to Emerald Impact and said, "We have now just begun one of the biggest wars in Crystal history."

Author's Note:

Sorry this one took so long, I've been quite busy this week

But as always I hope you enjoy

Comments

[FoolRegnant]

I'm really not sure why previous commenters commended you on your grammar, because it's pretty shit. You need to take a good long look at The Elements of Style or baring that, at least the site writing guide. I mean, there are so many little issues I can't even start to point them out.

Secondly, what's with all the hands? Are these not ponies? If they have hands, this probably needs an Anthro tag.

While this point isn't really a gripe with the fic so much as it is an observation, I still have to get it out: you're not doing a very good job of creating compelling characters or compelling moral issues. You spend no time contemplating the horrors of violent uprising, you seem to, be necessity, have taken your AU tag to manipulate Shining Armor into a less moral character, thus weakening your plot. You really do have a decently interesting idea, its just executed very poorly. If you were to attempt to make this fic while still sitting within the bounds of canon, as well as with a bit of a better grasp of pacing and grammar, this could be a really great story.

[Stalins Moustache]

5683982 Thanks, I'll try and improve

[grievousrommel]

Uh, is this anthro?