The Lunar Chalice

by Spirals95

Chapter 26 - The Raid

Chapter 26

At the edge of the thermal barrier just outside of the empire, the golems rolled up with a large wooden cart with a prison cell built of Shadowsteel bars laced with a curse that prevented magic users from teleporting out. Twelve magical troopers with their minds set on their mission to serve the king, a mission to capture back some of his old “employees”.

Of course, getting inside the Crystal Empire was a monumental task for them. Being made out of dark magical components, the Crystal Heart would detect their presence the moment they tried to enter the shield, alerting the guard and foiling their covert operation at once. But they had come prepared, and one of the golems brought forward a huge plate of sheet metal taken from the scrapyard back home.

It walked up to the glowing bubble, and pushed its arms together, bending the giant plate of aluminum into an arc as big as it was. Getting the assistance of another golem, they set the arc into the bubble, sparks flying as it tried to cut through the impromptu breaching tunnel. Now the shield was wrapped around the outside of the metal, leaving a way through. The city lay before them, most of their organic targets would be asleep at such a late hour, and any patrolling guards could easily be seen to. With clanking footsteps and arms locked to their sides, the noisy machines split up and began to fan out in hunt of their pony quarry.

---

Of the many quiet stone houses in the city with a bright tile roof, one was home to a family of Crystal Ponies who had just recently adjusted to life in the modern day. Warm Brass, the local fudge shop owner, lived here with her husband Wisker, a mustachioed stallion with a bright smile and warm heart. Together, their family’s recipes from centuries ago still satisfied the sweet teeth of the present. They loved the happiness their treats brought to the Empire, but there was still one more void in their lives Wisker hoped to fill.

Promising his wife a big surprise after their late supper, he brought her upstairs, the earth pony covering his wife’s eyes with his hoof. When Warm Brass’s eyes were opened, she let out a joyful squeal. The upstairs room had been renovated into a nursery, with a crib in the center, carpeted floors, and a mobile with plush figures dangling from each rod… including a certain young dragon.

Warm hugged her husband, not expecting her pregnancy announcement would have led him to work so hard. She was yet to swell with life even, but the sight of the nursery made her think about the newborn inside of her, and the lovely future the family would have together.

“Oh… sweetie, you didn’t have to do all this yet,” she said softly, rubbing her head against his, “It hasn’t even been two weeks yet!”

“Aw you know me, if I didn’t do it now, it’d never get done!” he answered, blushing deeply.

CRASH

An unexpected visitor bashed through the window, taking half the wall out with it suddenly. Warm Brass screamed at the top of her lungs, Wisker quickly shielding her with his body without another thought. The crib was reduced to splinters instantly, with the mobile only lasting a moment more when a giant metal foot came down on it.

Wisker was taken aback, his eyes widening, “It’s… THEM!!!”

The golem, having succeeded in breaching the wall ‘undetected’, scanned over the two ponies. Warm Brass matched the description of one of the kinds of ponies Sombra was interested in, and the hulking construct stepped forward, having to crouch to avoid scraping its helmet on the ceiling clearly meant for pony height.

“Stay away from my wife!” shouted Wisker, stepping forward, “It’s me you want, isn’t it!?”

Ignoring him, the golem simply raised the crystal on its right wrist and fired a solid beam of pink energy into Wisker’s body, sending him flying across the room into the wall.

“NOOOO!” wailed Warm Brass, tears flying from her eyes, “SOMEPONY HELP US!”

Her barrel was snatched by the tight grasp of the machine, the interlocking limbs preventing the mare’s escape. A metal hand came across her muzzle and held it shut, her muffled screams being ignored by her captor. All she could do was cry as she watched the destroyed nursery and motionless husband disappear from sight.

Against the dark background of the night sky, Warm Brass felt terror strike her even deeper upon seeing that her neighbors had fared no better. The familiar machines had smashed into each of their houses, and each of the twelve intruders held in their grasp a screaming mare or stallion, dragging them away as trophies. Loud zapping echoed through the streets as the unicorns tried to fight back with what little offensive magic they knew about, but the Shadowsteel plating on the beasts manged to soak anything they were capable of dishing out.

Just like the first time.

With the screams and panicking attracting attention, three of the night guard entered the dark streets of the neighborhood, spears tucked under their armored wings. Their leader, a mare with a keen eye for detail, spotted the glowing eyes of the monsters and let out a startled choking noise.

“What!?” she shouted, “It can’t be! These guys don’t exist anymore!”

The green-eyed golem pointed at the three guards, three of his soldiers nodded and raised their wrists while stomping towards the pegasus ponies.

“They exist, Captain!” whimpered the stallion to her left, his legs shaking.

“Yeah well, we can take them!” resolved the mare, rushing forward and shouting while thrusting her spear.

The shaft of the weapon shattered the instant the tip impacted the breastplate of the first golem. Looking back and forth with its eye at its comrades, it gave a clunky shrug before all three of them let loose a hail of pink colored pulses from its wrist cannon. Each of the guards felt their armor get blasted away as they were tossed around like leaves in the wind from the force of the energy. When they finally got back up on their legs, the golems had vanished, taking all the innocent mares and stallions they had ponynapped with them into the cloak of night.

“We… we need to warn the princess,” said the captain through gritted teeth, nursing a nasty burn wound with her wing, “the king’s troops are back!”

---

“Oooh, Ignitus, honey, please!” giggled Faerie Tail as her husband showered her in warm kisses on her neck and ears.

The couple walked down the hallway of the Crystal Palace together, eager to get back to their room, and Limpwing even more eager to make witty commentary on the whole situation. Following around his cousin and his wife in hopes of keeping them out of trouble from Cadance’s “Casanova Curse” had been a tiring evening, and Arbiter hoped the spell would wear off soon.

“Arby, I think you’re being a little too rigid, just look how happy they are!” Limpwing said, “I’ll stop making jokes about Midnight getting new siblings if it’ll help ya feel better!”

“I’m only considering the backlash that will occur once the spell wears off,” he answered, “other than that, I’m fine with how things are turning out.”

They stopped in front of Arbiter’s assigned room in the palace, where Limpwing scooted herself just in front of the doorway to make sure he couldn’t duck in so quickly.

“So… um, thanks for the sugar, Arby!” the peagsus said nervously, “always fun spending time together. Can’t really think of another pegasus I’d rather stomp around the Empire with, actually.”

“Very kind words, Lieutenant.”

The mare groaned and rolled her eyes, “Seriously? Come on, Arbiter, I’m trying to...”

“SIR! SIR!!!”

A winded guard came galloping up to them, Ignitus and his wife turned around from down the hallway to talk to the frantic stallion.

“What’s wrong, soldier?”

“Golems!” he wheezed, “King Sombra’s golems have invaded the Empire again! We need to warn the royal couple and lock down the perimeter!”

Arbiter made eye contact with Limpwing, who grinned and drew one of her knives from underneath her wing. He smirked back in response, turning his attention back to the guard.

“You warn Cadance and Shining Armor, we’ll go take on the enemy,” he said, “just tell us where they are.”

“They were spotted in the southeastern sector,” he reported between breaths, “they’re taking ponies away! I’m not sure our reinforcements are going to hold them back with their thick armor.”

“Oooh, armor!” giggled Limpwing like a schoolgirl, “that’s a challenge right there!”

Ignitus overheard the conversation, and galloped into his room, returning with his trenchcoat and hat on again, crossbow locked and ready to go. Perhaps the spell was wearing off a bit?

“Ignitus, wait!” Faerie Tail protested, embracing him, “Don’t leave me!”

He stared into her eyes for a few long moments, before opening his mouth and saying something outrageous.

“Then come with me. We’ll do this together.”

Faerie Tail released her grasp and stepped back, “But you’d… never let me on your adventures before, and I’m not sure I can fight!”

“You can. You’ve got the spirit,” he answered, stepping closer, “we can do this together, my love.”

She wasn’t much of a type for combat, but Faerie’s heart sang in joy at just how inclusive her husband was being. It was just like the day they had met….

“Okay, I’ll come with you,” she answered, “but I guess I need a...”

“Weapon?!” interrupted Limpwing, sliding down the hallway with a devious look on her face, “I think I can help you there, Faerie Tail. Trust me, you’re going to have a lot of fun with your hubby tonight!”

Arbiter slapped his face with his hoof and groaned at her horrible joke, “Limpwing, let’s not waste any time, ok?!”

“Heh, sorry Arbiter,” she answered, winking at the storyteller, “I’ll see ya out there!”

Ignitus watched his cousin gallop off with the mare, and gave his wife another tender kiss on the cheek.

“I know you don’t like any violence, honey.”

“There are mares like myself being stolen from their homes and their foals,” she answered bravely, “I want to do what I can.”

“I know I married you for a reason,” he laughed, the bright green flash appearing in his eyes again.

This time, Faerie Tail noticed the sparkle of energy in his eyes, and titled her head curiously. Was that some kind of new spell he had learned and she didn’t know about? And why were his most romantic comments coming just before each flash? Feeling his strong hooves again around her, she knew she didn’t have time to question it… she just had to trust her heart that her husband had truly changed, and whatever was wrong with his magic could wait!

---

“WHAT?!”

“I’m not lying your Highness!” cried the guard in front of Princess Cadance, “the Centurion Golems are back, and they’re taking away ponies! King Sombra has returned for revenge on the Empire!“

The alicorn princess felt her heart race, her nightmare starting to come true, “Sound the alarm.”

Bells rang throughout the palace as the doors to the Crystal Heart’s chamber started to open, bright light from the artifact flooding the outside world like searchlights seeking out danger. A loud siren echoed throughout the land, waking up the Crystal Ponies and making them scramble to lock their doors and take out whatever few pitiful weapons they had. Bright colored lines of energy descended from the Heart’s chamber, running down the legs of the spire and into the base, creating an intricate pattern around the palace of protected land.

“All defenses are engaged,” signaled the watchers from the Heart’s chamber, “Princess Cadance, what are our next orders?”

The voice came up from a narrow speaking tube system that connected the chamber to her own throne room, in case of emergencies like the one currently in progress.

The Princess stood up from her throne, and spread her wings before speaking back into the pipe on the wall,

“Get Shining. We’re going after those stolen ponies.”

---

Arbiter had expected a war-zone downtown, and was somewhat disappointed in the fact that the golems were ignoring dealing out property damage and physical pain in exchange for kidnapping more Crystal Ponies, often beautiful young mares or stallion professionals from the shops in the streets. Four of the magical constructs were attempting to kick down the door to a carpenter’s house in hopes of stealing the woodworking mare inside, and the gray colored unicorn screamed and pleaded for mercy while firing off her horn at the monsters. The weak, ineffective magical pellets were bouncing off of the dark plating on the golems, leaving them free to continue their brutal kicks against the wooden barricade in front of the house.

“There’s four of them now,” said Arbiter, pointing with his wing which swished his cape out of the way, “they’re trying to smash that house.”

“So how do we take them down?” asked Limpwing, readying some of her kunai, “I’ve got an idea, but you need to provide a distraction.”

Arbiter grumbled, “Me, a distraction? I’m going to scrap all four of them at once.”

“Tell you what, Arbiter, let’s keep score,” Limpwing offered, an idea forming in her head, “and whoever destroys the most golems wins and gets to take a prize from the loser.”

“Is now really the time to make things interesting, Miss Limpwing?” he urged, motioning at the rapidly failing barricade.

“I guess you’re scared, huh?” she teased.

Unable to watch the golems terrorize the carpenter any more, Arbiter shouted, “FINE! I accept! Now let’s deal with these piles of junk, got it?!“

He drew his sword, the mindstone glowing bright purple to levitate it in front of him, and then with a loud shout, Arbiter spread his wings and jumped valiantly into the middle of the four golems.

“Gotcha,” chuckled Limpwing.

Each of the enemies stopped smashing the barricade and glared at Arbiter with their purple, glowing eye spot. Following their arcane coding, they raised their weapons at the pony and his floating blade. Diving out of the way, the large pegasus swung his sword in a heavy, horizontal motion at the legs of the first golem. A massive flash of sparks flew through the night air, a pair of legs were severed spectacularly with the hiss of dying metal and magical conduits.

Not quite destroyed despite lack of locomotion, another one of the golems grabbed his disabled comrade and started to drag him off the battlefield, laying down some suppressing fire against Arbiter with his crystal bolt weapon. The sword danced back and forth as the pegasus led it with his mind, deflecting the shots thanks to the blade’s weave of metals and arcane properties granted to it in previous times.

Limpwing saw an opening with two of the other golems, who were attempting to attack Arbiter from behind thanks to his concentration on deflecting the shots incoming. Spreading her wings, she tossed a spray of knives at the closest golem’s back, only to watch them bounce away harmlessly.

“Huh, guess it won’t be that easy,” she muttered as the angry war machine turned around and took aim at her.

Meanwhile, Ignitus and Faerie Tail had flanked around back to try and rescue the mares and stallions being stolen away. They found the cart topped with the cage, some of the golems were loading their protesting “guests” into the back and sealing them in. The green eye of the captain spotted Ignitus just in time to see the captain’s crossbow fire a heavy arrow at him. Not even flinching, it stood defiant and allowed the piece of ammo to hit him center mass. Ignitus winced as the true-flying arrow smashed to pieces against the armor as if it were nothing, splinters danced around the captain golem for a sad moment.

“They’re… very tough,” said Faerie Tail, swallowing fear and anxiety, “what can we do?”

The golem leader saw a bright flash of light in the sky, and put a metal hand over his helmet to get a better look. He could sense the siren going off as well in the distance, gaining the understanding that their cover had finally been blown and that the rest of the Crystal Guard were on their way. Silently, and with no way of the ponies nearby knowing, he signaled via a magical communication device inside his body for the other golems to retreat. Although they were finished loading the ponies into the cart, the golems on the other side of the thermal barrier did not come back through to aid their captain despite sensing the order, standing by the cage. There were only six golems left in total within the boundary, including the captain, who let off a wild burst of energy at Ignitus and Faerie.

Each of the unicorns dodged out of the way behind nearby barrels in the shopping district, the shots blasting chunks off the barrel. Faerie felt like she was going to cry, but seeing her husband’s tough face, yet gentle eyes helped her to stay calm.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said, whimpering, “I shouldn’t have come!”

Ignitus looked at her, then back at the two golems trying to lay waste to their cover, “Yes, you should have. I know what to do. We’ll hit them with a ray spell, but I’m going to need your magic as well, honey.”

She stood there behind the barrel, just gazing into his eyes.

“Please… trust me!”

Faerie felt her soft eyes water, and nodded, “Ok!”

The two ponies walked out of cover, ignoring the bolts whizzing around them. Ignitus felt his wife’s love, and although he wasn’t himself, his real mind could feel it. It felt like how they walked up to each other to say their wedding vows, although there were far fewer military golems firing projectiles at them that day. Even so, the two machines stopped firing when they say the ponies had come out of cover quietly, and the captain looked at his companion quickly as if to ask why the unicorn couple was acting so bizarrely.

Closing their eyes, the two met and touched their horns together, an arc of power streaking across them. Then, they turned together, tails tightly wrapped together as they stared at the two machines.

Arbiter and Limpwing caught up, having driven back their adversaries. The two attacking Limpwing ran away, their armor scratched up from the repeated knockdowns the mare had delivered by landing on top of them repeatedly. Her weak wing made it very easy to fly erratically and strike during the most unexpected moments. Arbiter was determined to finish off the damaged golem being dragged by the other one, it running at a full pace with the legless enemy making sparks on the ground.

“Come back here!” demanded the captain, leaping up into the air one more time.

While in mid-jump, the golem turned around suddenly, having dropped his friend, and took aim in hopes of bringing down Arbiter. That’s when the captain realized that he had been going after the wrong target the whole time, and with a spread of his wings and an inversion of the sword he carried, the pony glided down into the other golem, narrowly dodging the blast of magic from its wrist. Arbiter’s sword entered the golem’s neck area and down into its breastplate, a bright flash of sparks and smoke sprayed from within.

Pulling out his weapon and jumping down, the impaled golem clutched its chest as a blast of fire and electricity consumed its torso. It dropped to the ground, smoke pouring out from underneath its head, and the single glowing eye faded out.

“Good,” Arbiter snarled, sheathing his blade.

The legless golem behind him propped himself up and prepared to smash Arbiter’s spine with its fist, having crawled into range. Just before it could, three kunai stuck into its neck area, and it crashed down face-first into the pavement, destroyed just as quickly as its friend.

Arbiter turned around and stared at it, knowing his flank had been saved by a certain pesky mare.

“That’s one apiece, Arby,” she said, walking forward, “looks like we’ll have to break the...”

Limpwing stopped, amazed at what she was seeing. Arbiter turned to see what she was staring at, and his mouth fell open slightly.

“Ignitus? Faerie Tail?”

The couple were aglow with magical energy, their eyes closed and their bodies side by side. Their enemies stood defiant, and shot away with their crystals, but the energy seemed to be absorbed by the field of light-blue colored magic around the couple. Shortly thereafter, without words, a calling out of their attack, or even a blink of their eyes, the two unicorns lowered their heads and unleashed two rays of energy that wrapped around each other to form one solid white beam.

Without a second to lose, the follower golem stepped in front of its leader and took the entire ray to the chest, being torn in half immediately by the powerful spell. The two ponies closed their eyes, and fell to the ground exhausted of all energy. With the ponies down for the count, the appointed leader of the golems could have attacked, but it took one good look at the torn pile of scrap metal in front of it and fled for the breaching tunnel.

Arbiter and Limpwing tried to chase, but as soon as the golem made it through the barrier, it kicked the sheet metal out of the way, sealing the barrier up again. While this wouldn’t normally stop the pegasus ponies, the other golems all pointed their weapons at where the tunnel was, making it a mistake to cross. They gritted their teeth in anger at the automatons as they backpedaled with their cart, the sad eyes of the imprisoned ponies begging for help they could not get.

“They’re going to get away,” said Arbiter angrily, “if Sombra really is back, I’ll be the one to take him down, I swear...”

“I’ve got a feeling Techorse and his buddies might be in even more trouble,” Limpwing sighed, “but we’ll get them all back, don’t worry!”

Arbiter didn't’ believe her, but he agreed to drop the topic and do what was necessary. The rest of the guard arrived too late, and over three dozen ponies had been kidnapped at the price of three easily-replaced golems. Ignitus and Faerie Tail woke up shortly after their massive strike, but joined in the sorry of Cadance and Shining Armor when they heard the report the rest of the enemy force had gotten away.

And the worst part of it all was that the Crystal Ponies were beginning to cry and panic about the possibility of King Sombra being back. Cadance and Shining Armor heard their conversations around them, and took a look at the still-sparking corpses of the golems. They each looked at each other, worry in their eyes, and hoped that the stallions who had left the previous day were alive and well. The golems and the kidnappings were proof Sombra was truly back… and they’d need all the help they could get.

---

With the loss of a fourth of their attacking force, the golems thought they had finally gotten safely away from the ponies who had engaged them within the city limits. The cart, full of ponies shivering in the cold outside their home and with eyes filled with fear, went ignored by them as they pushed it home for the castle. At the back of the formation was a golem walking slightly slower, making sure the rear of the pack was watched after. It suddenly heard a loud shout behind it.

“HEY!”

The golem spun around with its comrades, preparing to attack, only to find a freezing cold Lighthearted. Having seen the fight from a nearby street, she figured the attackers being magical constructs could only mean her dumb zebra acquaintance was behind them.

“You guys aren’t going anywhere without me!” she demanded of the golem, stomping her hoof in the deep snow, “Take me to your boss!”

Startled by the demand to be captured, which seemed against the will of the other organic creatures in the cell, the golem simply stood there, motionless. Its commander walked up to it, and put his metallic left hand on his shoulder, making him look back. The green-eyed captain nodded, and started to turn around to help the other troops drag the cart back. With his order having been given, the golem knelt down on its reverse jointed legs and offered an empty hand up.

“All right, that’s better,” said Lighthearted with a grouchy tone, climbing into the golem’s waiting arm.

It picked her up underneath its limb like it was carrying a small dog, her legs hanging over the front of the arm holding her. The golem couldn’t help himself but run his other hand gently through the pony’s mane as it carried her along.

“Hands off the merchandise, buddy!” she warned, getting a head shake of disbelief in response.

Lighthearted casually placed her attention on the other ponies inside the cage, and gave a concerned Warm Brass a wink. She was going to help settle that score one way or the other!

“Once I get there, you’re dead meat, Ross!”

Comments

[Grekoy]

Oh by. Ross is goanna get it!