Siege of the Crystal Empire

by Mystic Mind

Chapter 15: Lancer's Revenge

(15: Lancer's Revenge)

The wave of cold blasting in the face of the Lancers forced them away from their allies, enveloping them in a whiteout so thick that, everywhere they looked, all they could see was just more snow, with not a sign of life anywhere. With Emerald still supporting his Canterlot Guardsponies, a Crystal Pony by the name of Garnet Plateau took charge of the battalion. She was a stocky, heavily built mare, with a dark red coat, a short, scruffy brown mane, and a pointed, rocky shield for her cutie mark.

“Damn that Moonshadow,” Garnet cursed between chattering teeth. “How far away has he taken us?”

“I... I don't know, ma'am...” one of the Lancers stuttered in reply. He was a cobalt blue stallion with a frosty mane and a teardrop necklace for a cutie mark; a relative newcomer to the Crystal Empire's army. Just like the day he'd been recruited, Sapphire Drop was pushing his face into a forced smile, his right-hind hoof twitching rapidly as he paced through the storm.

“Was that a rhetorical question?” Garnet asked and sighed. It was obvious that something was biting at her cohort, despite his poor attempts to hide it. “What's gotten into you this time, Sapphire?”

“I-I don't know what you m-mean, officer-”

“Garnet. Just Garnet will do. Like I told you the last hundred times,” Garnet took a deep breath. She knew there was no reason to get worked up over petty annoyances, even if Sapphire wasn't making it easy to keep a cool head. “Listen, if it helps to clear your head, just say whatever is on your mind. Distractions will just hurt us in the long term.”

Any resemblance of self-control Sapphire was maintaining shattered as the cracks in his psyche broke under the pressure of their situation. “You really wanna know what's wrong, do ya?!” Sapphire screamed, frantically waving his hooves over his squad. “We are freakin' lost, Garnet! Trapped in a world-ending blizzard while the empire crumbles around us! I told everypony from the start that our empire was doomed, but nopony believed me! Emerald insisted I be drafted into this battle, and now look where we are! What in Tartarus do you expect us to do?! We're finished! Done and dusted! Dead as a-”

Sapphire's mad ramblings only ceased thanks to a swift hoof to the face, courtesy of Garnet to knock him off his hooves. “If you are quite finished, I suggest you get a grip on yourself, you foolish excuse for a stallion!”

Sapphire gave no coherent response, rocking back and forth in the snow as he babbled something incomprehensible under his breath. “You may have been too young to remember King Sombra's tyranny, but I wasn't. I grew up in it, watching the horrors of his dictatorship while breaking up diamonds with my own two bleeding hooves,” Garnet gestured her hoof from left to right over the Lancers. “Yet some of us resisted, and because of it, we survived until Princess Cadence returned with her Sister in Law to restore to the Crystal Heart! Now, are you going to sit around whinging like a foal, or are you going to fight like the Princesses' struggle actually meant something?!”

A hearty cheer spread through the ranks, the few who remained sceptical of Garnet's optimism keeping their mouths shut tight. Yet Sapphire continued to rant and rave, pointing his front hoof at Garnet.

“Save it,” she snapped, refusing to let her words be twisted into more incoherent excuses. “If Emerald were here, you would have been reprimanded long before my patience started wearing thin. Now get back in line, we have a war to win.” With those words, Garnet spun around, rearing up on her hind hooves to slam her kite shield into the head of a Phantom Stallion that attempted to ambush her. The phantom's helm was crushed under the force of the blow, rolling off its shoulders onto the ground beside it.

The rest of the phantoms charged from beyond the Cavalier's left flank, the echoes of the siege machines combining with the blizzard a perfect cover. At least, that was the intent. Garnet, however, had other methods of sensing an impending attack. Closing her eyes the moment her battalion voiced their loud approval towards her verbal smackdown, Garnet pricked up her ears and listened carefully, the sound of galloping hooves in the snow sticking out like a dragon's sore thumb to her highly trained senses. Rather than being taken by surprise, she had plenty of time to make a simple gesture and signal to her fellow Lancers to be on the defensive.

“Push forwards!” she called. “We cannot be far from the Canterlot Guard! Strike down our foes and end their blasphemous existence. For the Crystal Empire!”

Indeed, the snowstorm had done nothing to diminish the Crystal Lancers' status as elite soldiers, focusing on striking above and around their raised shields every time they blocked or parried an attack. Stepping over each phantom they destroyed, it didn't take long for the Cavaliers to gain more ground, with minimal casualties in the process. The Phantom Stallions retaliated with all their strength, wearing down their shields with rhythmic blows, though few lived long enough to do significant enough damage to undo the besieged. To the few that died, Garnet didn't even give much as glance, focusing all of her attention on the enemy in front of her. Those that break rank are doomed to foolish deaths, she thought to herself, the last gurgled splutters of Sapphire Drop's life drowned out by the background ambience several feet away from the main unit. They may be heroes to the empire, but they are a burden to the battle. Just like the traitors who willingly served Sombra, we are better off without them.

` As the minutes wore on, Garnet could hear from the heavy wheezing of soldiers close to her that they were beginning to tire. Their advances were slowing, their movements becoming sloppy and their attacks less frequent. Behind her, a number of ponies slumped to the ground from exhaustion, the fellow warriors who could still fight pulling them back to the rear of the formation. She didn't know how many phantoms there were, but even if this was but a portion of the overall army's numbers, they still had the advantage of being magical constructs; retaliating with no less force than they started with. Garnet thought hard about what to say next, knowing that if she could not inspire the Cavaliers to overcome their exhaustion, then they would all be dead.

A glimmer of light reflecting off a snow-covered object caught Garnet's eye as she slammed her mace down onto the back of a phantom's neck. Though Garnet couldn't immediately tell what it was, she was certain that this was her chance to end this skirmish in her favour. Taking a gamble, Garnet reared up onto her hind hooves and rammed her shield into the chest of a phantom, pushing it back just far enough for her to kick the snow off the mysterious buried item next to her.

The only time Garnet had ever had a wider smile than in this moment was the day Sombra was slain by Crystal Heart's power. It was a lance, its sharpened tip somehow reattached by a thick sheet of ice. Seizing the moment, Garnet dropped under the attack of a phantom, chucking her mace at its chest as she dived to grab it. In one swift motion, she slid her hoof around the grip and stabbed it into the gem of the monster above of her. By an incredible stroke of luck, there were countless lances strung across the battlefield. Stepping back into rank, Garnet held up her weapon and called to the battalion. “Our prized arms have been restored! What do you say to reclaiming our lances and putting them to good use?”

The sight of the repaired arms alone was enough to refresh their resolve, as even those who had collapsed from exhaustion just minutes prior now leapt to their feet once again; the miracle of the shaman's magic working to their benefit.

With a flare of magic twinkling in their eyes, the Crystal Ponies struck back against the enemy, with the five ponies closest to Garnet thrusting their lances with such speed and power that the Phantom Stallions died faster than they could reform formations. Within seconds, the Cavaliers had broken through them, giving room for their allies to charge through and destroy any semblance of organization and cohesion, isolating each phantom stallion to their mute death. Better still, the final phantom's demise was coupled with a bright flash of magic a short distance ahead. Garnet was the first recognise what was going on; incendiary arrows freeing the Canterlot Guard from the shaman's immobilising spells and destroying Phantom Stallions.

“The day is won, my friends!” Garnet announced. This was a half-truth, as they had not been completely exterminated just yet. However, if bending the truth was what it took to make it her statement a reality, then that was what she would do. “Charge forth and re-join commander Emerald! It's time to finish off the monsters that dare to threaten our home!”

As the final rank of phantoms fell, the Cavaliers galloped on, assaulting them from the flanks and trapping both trolls and phantoms between heavy maces and sharp lances, homing in on the shaman standing in the centre of his army; the one who would be the key to their victory.

Or so they thought.