Chapter 2: The Crystal Sabers
The Crystal Palace, Crystal Empire
1 hour before Canterlot Occupation
The Crystal Palace, the centrepiece of the Crystal Empire. A legacy formed by Princess Mi Amore thousands of years ago to channel hope throughout the lands. But now, it's the epicentre of an apocalypse in the most (un)likely form.
Princess Flurry Heart is sick and with an ill-timed magic surge, she overloaded her suppression spell. In the magic surge, Sunburst would need the help of both members of the Royal Couple to replace the suppression spell to make sure it sticks. The only reason why the Crystal Heart is still in one piece is because of the efforts of Shining Armor and Sunburst, the Crystal Prince and Royal Crystaller respectively. The entire palace has been vacated out of the interest of the overall life expectancy and the skyrocketed turnover rate of the faculty save for the few guards that are brave and/or foolish enough to stay and assist their leaders.
The entire room where Flurry Heart, now dubbed the "Princess of Apocalypse" by the local guards is practically unrecognisable from what is usually looks like. All four walls and the ceiling are scorched black and practically destroyed. Flurry Heart herself is having her sniffles in a crater the depth of a stallion. The crater is ringed with the most powerful physical and magical defensive suppression armaments complete with a ward that disables teleportation before being encircled by Shining Armor's most potent shields, maintained and manned by the guards. As the battered father of the year looked upon his little bundle of doom, he only has this to ask:
"How long is do we have to last again? Is it going to pass in due time?" Shining Armor implored.
"A few more hours and yes. As you know, Cadance managed to send the medicine needed over from Canterlot. Celestia estimates a few more days of recovery due to personal experience and Luna provided these suppression armaments as a substitute from Canterlot after The Crystalling stating that these prevented their childhood home from being reduced to a smoldering crater whenever one of the Alicorn babies got magic surges and to prevent the Crystal Heart from shattering a second time, which is why Cadance is planning on coming back to help the moment her presence is no longer needed at the Festival. The damage to the Palace itself is already terrifying." replied Sunburst.
Sunburst wasn't kidding about that. It's easier to describe which parts of the Palace that aren't destroyed. In just the span of 15 minutes from the first sneeze early morning shortly after Cadance reached Canterlot, what was meant to be a normal day became the next big crisis the Crystal Empire had to face. The entire palace is riddled with so many holes and is so scorched black with damage that one would mistake it for the Changeling Hive at first glance. It's a wonder that the entire place didn't come crashing down from the damage.
Flash Sentry, one of the few guards manning the suppression armaments just finished deflecting a lethal blast from Flurry Heart's sneezing. The blast is so strong that he is still sent flying back, crashing right into the royal duo.
"We need more help, at this rate all it takes is one more unhindered blast on the Palace and the whole place comes crashing down on the Empire into a pile of rubble. My Prince and Royal Crystaller, do you have anything else we can use?" begged the battered orange pegasus.
After some deliberation, Shining Armor answered his plea.
"During the Changeling invasion of the Crystal Empire, aside from lacing the borders with Changeling detection spells thanks to Zecora's knowledge, I've been looking through the old notes of Princess Mi Amore in her secret lab. She spent her life protecting the Empire brewing potions and commissioning the forging of weapons and armor in her secret lab. However, she didn't account for time. For when I passed her test and opened her lab, it is a total dump with only one working size-enlarging potion for Dragons. The notes on how to make it along with many other useful stuff have long since faded away with age. After it was over, I went back and tried to save as many of the notes and blueprints as I can and had them sent to Canterlot for restoration."
"So how much were you able to salvage?" Inquired Sunburst.
"A terrifying arsenal that wouldn't look out of place in an A-tier level twenty and above O&O character's inventory. Believe me, I PLAYED over fifty sessions like crazy when I was younger and that's not counting the times I had to be the DM. I even tried to have them with my family and Spike after my wedding during my off days with mixed results. So I know what I'm talking about regarding this comparison."
"First of all, let's just say if we get through this, you will have a B-tier Wizard joining your sessions from now on. Secondly, why didn't we have or even know about them until now?"
"Many of the materials required to forge the armaments and brew the potions are very, very, very rare in present day. What could have been enough for at least a platoon of Praetorian Guards as calculated in the original blueprints have to be reduced to around four or five due to lack of certain materials. Not to mention, I only commissioned their forging after our mass kidnapping, so there really isn't much time to have a finished product."
"My liege!! Talk about your future O&O sessions later!! Anything we can use right now that can withstand blasts from a baby Alicorn going through a magic surge??" asked Flash Sentry. "By the way if you could allow it, you got yourself a new member to join your sessions."
"I have the shields of Praetorian Guards finished a few days ago. I can have them brought here now."
"Nice!!"
5 minutes later
A pair of crystal oval shields each the same height as a stallion and wide enough to cover the torso with the image of the Crystal Heart, hovered to the sides of Shining Armor thanks to his magic.
"These are the legendary shields of a Crystal Saber, Princess Mi Amore's Praetorian Guard? And the default positioning is meant to be like this?" inquired Sunburst.
"I'm sorry I couldn't get more of these finished in time. Only one set has just finished being forged. These shields are autonomous and would give the power of flight to the user when coupled together the other pieces of the armor set for the sake of convenience regardless of race and right now, I can't risk damaging the rest of the set. Now to put the money where mouth is..."
As Flurry Heart begins to sniffle, Shining Armor brought the two shields together in front of his baby. The two shields together started glowing, forming a second barrier that resembles a dome and a third barrier that is solidified crystal in front of it, both embalmed with an image of the Crystal Heart. As soon as it was finished, Flurry sneezed into the barriers' path, a massive beam of raw magical power hitting the triple-layered shield dead-on.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!" Shining Armor struggled against the overwhelming force. What seemed like an eternity later, smoke is rising up from the shields due to the raw heat but otherwise they are fairly undamaged. After that sneeze, Flurry Heart fell asleep. After breathing a sigh of relief, the room was vacated quickly with the suppressions still in place.
"Fascinating and incredible!!! The first and 3rd layers are physical in nature, while the second is magical. On impact, the shields would sandwich themselves together, cancelling out any advantages any anti-magic based weaponry that would have if it gone though an ordinary unicorn shield. Not to mention, that they can even recreate the same method on a smaller scale when used separately to cover two fronts at the cost of overall defensive power." Sunburst said in awe.
"These aren't the only functions aside from flight. Princess Mi Amore may have held the "idiot ball" when it came to handling Sombra, but this makes you think that it was designed by another person entirely. The entire armor set when combined has it's own magic supply that can be stored indefinitely when charged, meaning that you don't have to worry about levitating the shields without unicorn magic. The shields themselves is linked to your thoughts thanks to a conduit throughout the armor instead so that the Earth Ponies and Pegasus wouldn't have as much trouble wielding them. Even Princess Mi Amore commissioned a set for herself so that she doesn't have to constantly use self-levitation for flight. Sadly, they were all destroyed by Sombra after his coup or in the battle with Celestia and Luna." Shining Armor explained after placing the shields together with the rest of the set.
"There's also the matter of the swords used as well. The swords actually look normal at the first glance, but their handles are adapted for all three tribes so that it can be wielded in the mouths or hooves while at the same time hollow for it to be placed on horns. Not to mention, the blade seem to have this weird split down the center."
"I was getting to that. The swords have this enchantment to reinforce the existing blade at will with crystal that is sharp enough to cut through even dragon scales. During Mi Amore's reign, when the Crystal Ponies are in danger from the dragons since they are literally made from gems and the cold climate wasn't enough to deter all of them, the sword has the capability to split in half like the letter "T", materializing a massive crystal blade from the top that is the total length of FIFTEEN stallions stacked on top of one another that can sever limbs and wings off adult dragons. When massive energy blasts are needed, the shields can actually combine with the sword, change it's attribute to magical beams of destruction. When that is not powerful enough, all you need to do is to activate the "Dragonslayer mode" in the sword and THEN combine it with the shields and you get a magical blast that is ten times as powerful. That last function combined with the location of the Crystal Empire, is also the reason why nopony from Equestria during that time are foolish enough to build any towns near here. All this is possible because the entire armor set is self-powered by not just any ordinary magic supply, it's power supply comes from the Crystal Heart itself."
"What!!!" Exclaimed the other two ponies in the room. Sunburst was the first to snap out of his stupor.
"How could the Crystal Heart still be in use after such blatant usage?!?"
"You can thank the Crystalling for that, not to mention it's fueled and recharged by the Crystal Princess herself on a daily basis. The Crystal Heart's presence alone can stop blizzards that not even the hardiest of Pegasi can dispel unless you are an Alicorn. The suits have their own magic supply, but the magic supply comes directly from the Crystal Heart itself for charging. Think of it this way, the suits manifest the light and love of the Crystal Ponies into the Heart, and when it is enchanted into the armor set, their will to live materializes into what I said earlier. Not to mention, this requirement of usage of "love and light" also prevents Sombra from wielding it like an evil mockery of it's previous self, so either he destroyed them or used them at their lowest potential against the Royal Sisters."
"So what are you doing to do once the rest of the commissioned armaments are finished?"
"For starters, use them along with an elite team to try to actually save somepony for a change and actually be of help to Twily and her friends instead of getting constantly jobbed. After the kidnapping, in light my consecutive failures, the Royal Guard is reduced to the joke of the century. I have recruits in boot camp dropping out left and right out of shame and/or disgust while the already enlisted guards are occasionally undergoing mass resignations the size of platoons, all of them saying that they would rather go to clown school as at least people laugh with you when you are the punchline. As for the ultimate punchline aka me, ponies from all over Equestria are petitioning the Princesses for my complete total discharge from the Royal Guard and subsequently be banned from any military involvement as the Crystal Prince." said Shining Armor morosely. Achieving your dream and having it be reduced to a mockery of what you idolized, by your own hooves no less, is enough to bring even the brightest of ponies down.
"Obviously, they rejected the petitions right?" Flash Sentry inquired.
Shining's response have to wait. For a scroll bearing Canterlot's Seal appeared in front of Shining Armor.
"What's this? A Royal Proclamation from the Princesses? Did something happen at the Festival?"
The stallion trio's blood ran cold upon reading it.
My Little Ponies
This is a Royal Proclamation from Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadance.
Right now at approximately 1000hrs, an unidentified airship landed in Canterlot Plaza. Although we have yet to confirm any hostile intent, military intelligence from the foreign diplomats implies a possible invasion. Due to the entire local garrison being sent for training at our own decision due to poor track record, security is taken up by just the three of us. As of this writing, we will be the welcoming committee to confirm any hostile intent, for it could simply be a messenger.
All available armed forces, mobilize immediately and be on standby.
If there is no reply from Canterlot after 20 minutes as of this sending, ASSUME THE WORST CASE SCENARIO OF US GETTING CAPTURED AGAIN. PREPARE FOR BATTLE AND ADVANCE ON CANTERLOT!!
As the trio finished reading, Shining Armor only has this to say:
"Sunburst!! Grab as many of your books on magic as you can! There's a section in the train designated for the Crystaller. Send for a messenger to Yakyakistan!! Tell them we got something for them to smash!! I will mobilize every Guard and get the rest of the Crystal Saber armor sets!!! Flash Sentry, go get the ice arrows from the Equestrian Games and activate the Crystal Train's battle mode!! We will form up at the Crystal Empire train station!! I have a family to save...."
Flash Sentry only has one more question:
"What about Princess Flurry Heart? We can't just leave her here. One more sneeze or crying fit when she wakes up is all it takes to bring down the whole place. You aren't seriously thinking of bringing your infant daughter to a possible warzone!!"
"I will move her place to the Train Station Terminal and have the Crystal Ponies watch over her, complete with suppression armaments. I will monitor her 24/7 and talk to her using the "live telecast" spell Twily used on Svengallop to expose his behaviour to Countess Coloratura."
20 minutes later
The Crystal Guard. Three companies worth of troops. All are armed with standard arms of the Royal Guard and have occasional use of the jousting lance, a carryover from the Crystal Faire. The command center is the refitted Crystal Train named "Aurora" that is used by Princess Cadance. At Cadance's own request, in times of crisis, the train was to be refitted into a mobile base by combining the Royal Carriage and the locomotive into a command center while the carriages serve as makeshift military facilities for the Guards. It also has a powerful enchantment by the Princesses that cut out the middlepony by turning the entire train into an massive airship that can support the entire Crystal Guard.
The end result is a mobile base of operations with the ability to travel in both the sky as a transfigured airship and the land as a train that can make it's own tracks. The latter function is used more often due to the fact that it expends less overall effort to maintain the enchantment for the Princess(es) doing it.
The Crystal Prince stood before his troops, flanked beside Sunburst and Flash Sentry, decked in the armor of the Crystal Sabers. Barding that covered the entire body from head to toe complete with twin shields hovering at the side without the assistance of personal magic thanks to the magic of the armor itself, two normal swords to be wielded on the hooves and a "Dragonslayer" sword, now renamed to "Excaliburs" to avoid scaring/offending the Crystal Empire's hero Spike and Ember's dragons. The main colour is white with dashes of blue in the outer parts. Behind him is the modified Crystal Train, engines warming up for departure to Canterlot. He addressed his fellow ponies:
"Today, we stand before the precipice of the horrors of war. An unthinkable premise in the land of harmony. Now it's the time to prove to Equestria that the Friendship Council doesn't have to be alone in the fight against evil. I sincerely hope that just this once, this scenario is a complete misunderstanding and Canterlot is not invaded. Peace is always the better answer. If anything, we will all sigh a breath of relief knowing that Equestria is still at peace, preparing another party. But should the horrors of war come to pass, I only have one order: Do not throw your life away for the sake of blind glory. Live for tomorrow and return home to your families safe and sound. Now, Guards of the Crystal Empire. We advance to Canterlot!!!"
The guard is loaded on the train, the wives and children saying farewell and waving goodbye to their loved ones. Princess Flurry Heart was moved to be taken care of by her subjects.
"You are all are the best foalsitters I can find in the Crystal Empire. Use the suppression armaments to block her blasts. I trust you can keep her safe and happy." As he approached his baby daughter, he only has this to say:
"From the day you are born, you have been nothing but trouble. You nearly destroyed your own family and home on your Crystalling and casually put your family through Tatarus...but I couldn't expect anything less from an all-powerful Alicorn filly and you lighted up me and Cadance's lives the moment you are born and solved Sunburst's friendship problem with Starlight. Daddy's will be back soon with Mommy and B.A.E Twily. I love you. Take care."
As the last guard entered the train, the whistles blared and the train is off, speeding towards Canterlot. Everyone has one thought on their mind:
Please let this be a misunderstanding. We all want to smile happily in the end.
Arrival in plains 3 miles north of Canterlot Mountain after 55 minutes of travel
30 minutes after Canterlot Occupation
"Oh my Celestia...This isn't a misunderstanding...Flash Sentry, get me a pair of binoculars. We are scouting the situation in the city." Shining Armor looked at the invaded capital in despair while the guards who aren't reeling in shock due to the prospect of actual combat are parking the train to stationary mode in order to set up a forward base.
The entire mountain is covered in storm clouds. Unknown airships are docking in the city. As Shining Armor and Flash Sentry flew up the top northern side of the city thanks to an invisibility spell, a terrible sight beheld them.
"It's the Crystal Empire with Sombra all over again. Flash Sentry, can you confirm the status of the Princesses and Twily's friends?" Shining Armor is shaking in disgust at the sight.
"No, I'm afraid not. I don't see them in any of the cages outside. They must had been moved to inside of a building or escaped. Silver lining, I do have visual on Songbird Serenade. She's in a cage but no muzzle, singing her heart out. Poor mare thought it's going to be the best gig of her life..."
"Arggh!! If only our best teleportation range isn't so low. We could have just snuck in, found the Princesses while invisible, broke whatever restraint on them and we can all teleport away to safety away from the city or at least make it far enough for them to fly on their own. I'm sending a visual of these invaders to Sunburst to see if could make out what they are and what are their gimmicks that would let them defeat the Princesses and Twily's friends. Flash Sentry, I'm casting the X-ray spell on our binoculars. Try to find the Princesses in the Palace and the other buildings."
"Ok, resuming visuals now...Captain...You won't like this, I have confirmed visual on 3 Princesses. Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance are in the Throne Room, specifically around the power conduit, but there are no signs of movement."
"Considering the fact that they are standing up, my guess is that they are petrified and are statues. That's just great, based on their positioning my guess is that some guy just showed up and is now planning on taking Equestria's Alicorn magic. So much for originality...At least from the looks of it, Twily escaped with her friends. Until we can figure out what they are encased in and how to break them free, we can't just break in with a stealth team of pegasi and unicorns and bust them out. So that plan is a dud. We've seen enough. Let's return to base and plan our next course of action."
North Canterlot Plains, Crystal Train Aurora
As the Crystal Guard is preparing for battle, Shining Armor is alone in his Royal Carriage. He heard a knock on his door.
"This is Sunburst, may I come in?"
"Proceed."
As Sunburst entered, the Captain is in a sorry sight. He took of his Crystal Saber armor and is just lying down blankly staring at a wall.
"You know this isn't your fault..."
"HOW IS THIS NOT MY FAULT??? If I should have at least be present to help defend Canterlot. At the very least, there will be one less Princess captured..."
"I will be frank with you. All you do will just amount to you getting captured again alongside your fellow royals. Think about it, why do you think Princesses Celestia, Luna and even your wife decided to take up security themselves and send the entire local garrison for training in the first place even knowing the risks? They are sick and tired of the Royal Guard being the load in times of crisis. Hopefully, they also got Celestia's orders and are advancing back to Canterlot as we speak. If anything, Flurry Heart being sick and you having to stay behind in the Crystal Empire might actually have been the better choice. Instead of being reduced to a villain's stepping stone, you are instead leading a resistance against the invading army armed with powerful armaments from a lost age. Think about it, would you have the idea to use the Crystal Saber armor sets if it wasn't Flurry Heart nearly destroying the palace?"
"Yeah, given my track record, if I came with Cadance, I would be among the muzzled ponies in Canterlot."
"Besides, the reason I'm so sure you would be captured isn't simply because of your track record, although that is a big factor. I'm here to report my findings based on the visuals on the invaders you showed me, which would be the second factor."
"Explain."
"The armor the enemy is using, based off the notes I brought with me seems to be made of a metal that has the capability to cancel out or even reflect magic-based attacks. It's most common usage are found in magical prisons, most notably Tatarus. Secondly, I also scanned the statues the Princesses are encased in thanks to your X-ray spell giving me a good look at the them. Comparing with my notes, this seems to most likely be handiwork of glass orbs called "Obsidian Orbs", they work though a petrifying gas by exploiting the fact that even the most powerful magic constructed fields have to let air in otherwise the user would suffocate meaning that they would burn through even the most powerful of forcefields. So if you went to the Friendship Festival, you would have definitely went down like a chump futilely putting up a force field that the enemy would just go through like paper."
"Is there anyway to stop it?"
"Yes, there is. The gas itself actually lasts a short while, meaning that the correct course of action when it's thrown at you is to dodge, summon physical-based barriers like the shields on the Crystal Saber armor or just simply take cover behind a rock. The gas also seem to not affect non-living things, as I couldn't find any trace of it in the city nor the palace itself when you guys are scouting Canterlot. The armor they are wearing can be bypassed with physical-based weaponry if hit hard enough."
Shining Armor noticed that Sunburst had a worried look on his face as he listed out the enemy's weaponry.
"You are worried about Starlight, aren't you? Sorry that we could not find her, we could only scout the Festival Grounds based on the range of our binoculars. She may have escaped to some remote part of the city or even ran off with Twily's friends."
"I hope you're right..."
"I'm worried about Twily too. The fact that they did not have Spike take a letter to us means that they are probably on the run with no access to writing materials effectively making them MIA. I pray for their safety. We need to think up of our next course of action. Meet up at the Briefing Room at 1145 hours."
Crystal Train Aurora, Briefing Room
1 hour after Canterlot Occupation
The briefing room currently has a map of Equestria on it. Canterlot is marked with figures of the invading army while the ones signifying Shining Armor and the Crystal Guard is placed to the city's north. Shining Armor looked at his fellow guards and Sunburst he only has this to say:
"Now does anyone have a plan? I am open to suggestions. It's clear that due to the enemy's numerical and anti-magical advantage, we can't liberate Canterlot with our forces as of right now. Has there been any word from Cloudsdale and Yakyakistan?"
Suddenly, an unidentified scroll appeared with a bottle appeared right in front of Shining Armor. It says:
Use this spell bottle to communicate with our allies. They all received this note as well.
Signed, Pillar of Sorcery, Starswirl The Bearded
To be continued...
Stats
Page generated in 0.013 seconds
Total duration
1,039 users online
2,061,171 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Huh. A reference to Guardians of Harmony. Wasn't expecting that.
Those are some pretty nifty armor and swords. And a cool train as well. Not the sort of thing I expected to see in Equestria, honestly.
Nitpicks are the same as the last few chapters. Also, there's no need to have multiple exclamation points or question marks. A '?!' is one thing, but extra ! or ? looks weird.
Second time I've seen SRW OG references in a MLP fix, first was XCom cross over where two dragons where named form the battle ships and Beowulf and Wessritter where translated into Power armors.