Cronus is King

by fanficlover 1

The King returns, The Servant travels

The main chamber door flew open as I barged into it. The heavy bang reverberating across the entire room and causing those inside to jump from surprise before turning to see what had caused such a commotion. With all eyes on me, I could see a few flickering between both myself and the slightly slower Iron Spider who trailed behind before entering with a gasp in realization from what he saw. Figuring he finally understood what I meant from our conversation that was only a little while ago, I ignored both him and the silence of the room as my eyes focused solely on the throne and the pony who sat there.

Without saying a word, I drew closer and the many nobles scattered out of my way until I was at the base of the throne steps. So much to say, so little time, it was near impossible to think of a perfect way to explain what had happened. With no other choice, in the end, I went for the most basic of explanations I could think of.

"Displaced are free." The few nobles who'd come during the day scattered in an instant. With what happened to Celestia, many nobles had demanded explanations on the matter and much of Equestria's forgotten past had come to light, along with the horrifying truth of what could've happened without the elements to protect them. So with the day court now empty, a single Luna looked down on me with wide eyes that held back what looked to be inklings of her emotions before standing to descend from her throne.

"How did this happen?" Her voice was hollow, no emotion to be found, but I cared little as I saw her eyes focus solely on the poor guy who stood across the room in clear discomfort. Hoping to take her attention off of him, I followed beside her as she made her way towards the exit.

"I don't know. I only found out because I stumbled upon the portal to the room. I took away as much of a chance for them to find the portal out as I could but at least one of them has magic. The rest are powerful melee fighters and one has many guns. Considering what little I actually know, I do know that it'll take at least an army to properly fight them unless we do it ourselves. From the way they talked though, that's what they'd prefer." Not stopping in her concentrated strides, she had at least taken her eyes off of the iron spider wearing boy and exited the throne room before turning in the direction I had just come.

"Where are you going?" I asked after having stopped at the door's entrance while she continued on. With even turning her head to answer back, her voice boomed with intensity while her words traveled to my ears.

"To seal the displaced inside and hope we have enough time to prepare."

"What should we do then?" Surprised at how the boy who'd followed after me spoke up, I couldn't help jumping somewhat from the unexpected question, in such a serious situation, while Luna answered before getting ready to turn the next corner.

"Warn the guards. Have them evacuate the city as quickly as they can. If these displaced are as dangerous as Cronus believes then the civilians could be in danger as soon as they find a way out." Turning out of sight now, I was about to head and do what I had been told. No sooner did I attempt it though, I smacked body first into an armored guard which had us both backpedaling from the impact while Candace stood beside her escorts.

"What is going on Cronus?" She asked, no doubt hearing word from the previously fled nobles and Luna's own shouting. Not wishing to explain it all over again and waste time, I ignored her question and did what I was told.

"No time to explain, but you need to take your guards and let the others in the castle know that a city-wide evacuation needs to happen. Something big could be coming and we need to keep as many people safe."

(Luna POV)

“More displaced free, and from that man’s army no less? How could this have happened? So many questions and no answers to be found. I only hope that they don’t have to be answered too soon.” Having made my way at a steady pace, so as to not lose myself in the rush and possibly take a wrong turn, I found the magic circle just like I had before but there were clear marks of recent use like Cronus had said after explaining the situation. Not dwelling on that minor fact though. I instead focused on the magic circle intensely and created a large dome to cover over the top of it in its entirety and secured it as such to the best of my ability. For what I had planned, the effort would be needed.

When nothing seemed as though it were out of place, I began step two of such a difficult procedure. Unlike most other magic circles that would normally pose a threat in some way or another, this one was still active to a living being, one that I cared deeply for, and if I made one miss-step in deconstructing it, any number of events could happen but the most prominent would have been an explosion comparable to that of an alicorn blast spell, not something one would want going off inside such an enclosed space.

Realizing my mind was wandering to such a foreboding topic, I quickly stepped away mentally from such thoughts as they would only hurt my chances. With a bit of remembering, the spell I required came to mind and the dome glowed as my magic took a section of its wall as my focal point before a beam sprung forth from it at high speed and aiming directly for a random etching in the floor that made up the circle. Panicking at the sight of this, I used as much strength as necessary to pull back on the beam and watched as it stopped, mid-extension, only a few scant inches from the etching that, now that I had a chance to read it, would have been the power focus amplifier. Giving a sigh of relief at my quick save, I slowly went to work in finding the right parts of the circle and slowly etching through them so as to nullify their power while not accidentally transforming them into new ones with different effects.

With luck and the blessing of an Alicorn’s memory, no explosion occurred and the circle was now defunct from use but the preparations needed having only just begun. With no idea on who was awake on the other side and all the studies, my sister had made over the centuries stuck on the other side, I could only go off what little knowledge Cronus seemed to possess on our opponents and prepare accordingly.

Hearing the sound of a sudden rustling of fabric, my breath hitches whilst I turn around before escaping in a heavy sigh of relief as two guards, both looking quite unsure of what they were now looking at, came into view. That relief turned into slight irritation though as I regarded them before speaking but not in my old royal voice.

“Why are you here, I did not send for guards to come to find me.” Obviously not expecting such a cold welcome, both of the poor ponies went stiff. Realizing it was because I was glaring, I forced my eyes to try and look less unwelcoming so I wouldn’t have the apparent green-horns faint from the pressure. Seeming to do the trick, one stepped forwards with a respectful bow.

“Yes, your majesty, but Sir Cronus instructed us specifically to find you. He says that he hasn’t explained who these adversaries we are expected to face to you and that knowledge could be gravely important.” While I somewhat doubted it was said in such an overtly respectful and oldish manner of speaking, I understood that some of my tendencies from such a long time ago left a bit of lasting impression on my return before I had grown accustomed to the modern slang of the new age.

With that not being important though, I focused back what the guard had explained to me and realized the Cronus must have been realizing the same worries I had just thought of such a short time ago and had these two find me and rectify the problem.

“Very well, lead me to him.” With the second one bowing no, both guards stood at attention and were respectful at keeping a hearty pace considering the circumstances without stumbling and tripping while in my presence. Appreciating this fact, I couldn’t help making a mental note to thank the current guards-pony instructor for creating such fine soldiers, no matter their experience with what was to come.

(Ed POV)

Ashen and barren wasteland as far as the eye could see, or rather as far as my eyes could see while I rode precariously on the back end of such an unsuspecting train-full of passengers. Not exactly knowing how many there were though, I still didn’t wish to push the idea that I could get away scot free and head inside. With no way of knowing if there were guards and with the possibility of overt alchemy causing a crash in my bid to escape, I instead kept to safely hiding from all sight in the one place barely anyone would look whilst out on the open land of Equestria. Speaking of which, I honestly couldn’t believe such a place was actually a part of it.

With how the majority of the map held brightly covered and well-forested regions all across its canvas, there were still large pockets that covered it that were simply black in color, much like a sickness but un-spreading. Even still, this left me happy for what my believed future destination to be. Considering I had been riding for a few hours now, it had been plenty of time for a quick nap before waking up well and active. I only then realized I could only play the guessing game on where my current transport was taking me while using the best guesses for landmarks that I could. So far, the abundance of trees weren’t much of a help but after the scenery took a sudden change for the worse and the current sun position, I had a good idea in the end on where I would end up.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though I wouldn’t be heading for the dragon lands or Ponyville any time soon like I’d thought I would.

“At least it can’t get any worse.”

Author's Note:

Hey everyone, how you doing?
Anyways, I'd just like to welcome you all back to my story for all of you who have been waiting for the next chapter and hope you can continue to wait while working on it. unfortunately for you old-timers, though, I won't be doing a new chapter every day but you can at least expect one every Sunday.

So with that out of the way, I'll see you all next time.

Comments

[Kye Belmont]

Its back!